Cold Spaghetti

I’ve noticed that when other folks talk about doing a project “themselves” it is really code for: “I hired a contractor, who hired other folks.” When we say that we “did it ourselves,” we really, really mean it. We are the first to point out when someone other than the two of us did something: mostly because no one (barring a few select family and friends) does a better job than we do and we are quick to notice the differences.

As of this morning, Paul announced the plan to “hit the ground running” with our renovations to the back of the house upon returning from Lima in February:

– Demo the entire back to the slab.
– Frame out new walls (hooray — insulation on about 200 square feet!)
– Frame them out a “normal” ceiling height, 8 feet
– Build a second story on top with a peaked roof line that mimics our current roof
– Install windows and door
– New siding on new portion of house
– Move the interior doors to match up on where they need to go in the new plan
– Install a spiral staircase in our bedroom that will lead into the new section over the back of our house
– Slowly start to assemble the backrooms (master bath, his/her closets, walk-through laundry room with utility sink)
– Build the upstairs study

Considering how long it takes us to do “easy” things like paint a room, how long do you think it will take us to complete this monster? Granted, we’re not trying to finish fast (unless we win the lottery, we have to take it slow in order to save enough month-to-month to buy materials) but even with a load of cash — a year? two years? I would love to get this thing started, but I admit that it is a little overwhelming to think about all at once.

Our bums are freezing here in the Big Easy.

Now, now. Before y’all get up in arms over the fact that it is at least 20 or more degrees warmer here than where you are (it’s the mid-50s today), let me remind you of this:

With no insulation in the walls or floors, heating and cooling our house is like heating and cooling a tent. The house does not get cool when it is hot outside. Likewise, the house does not get warm when it is cold outside. We can control humidity (within reason) in the summertime, and in the winter, we can do enough to keep pipes and things from freezing. And there are some temperate spots. The hall bath, with no exterior walls and being super tiny right off the hallway (where the temperature gauge rests) is always perfect in all seasons. But as for comfort in the remaining big, open rooms with 12-foot ceilings… well, bundle up. (Plus, 50 degrees with high humidity is one heck of a lot colder than 50 degrees with low humidity… and we live just blocks from the river.)

Our options? Well, we are trying to get a crew out to put a sealant coat under the house. (We can see daylight through a bunch of floor cracks.) One day (like when we hit the lottery?) we will look into replacing all the siding on the house and putting in insulation at that time. We dream of that day. Until then, 50 degrees will feel like the North Pole.

So last night was another gross out. A night of searing pain in my chest was somewhat relieved when I turned my insides outside around 2am. (Was it heartburn? Ulcer? A pin from a voodoo doll? I have no idea. I can only say it was terrible and continues to be annoying.) It came on so fast and so violently that I did not make it to the lavatory.

As if that wasn’t bad enough…. it was at this time that I discovered someone else was having a rough night. Scout had another, much worse, performance of illness (both ends). Every room, both beds, and more. Thank goodness for my penchant for having washable linens. Scout and Paul took at shower and we were done cleaning up by about 3:30am. Will did us the favor of staying asleep.

After checking in with the midwife this morning, I’ve been in bed most of the day. Weak, tired, achy. Attention bugs: no more. We are done with you here. Leave us alone!

Aunt Fran’s neice is Fear Factor Champion!!!

She managed to: collect a bunch of flags hanging from a helicopter going 90 mph hanging 40 feet in the air; crawl through a ventilation unit through sewage, spiders, spider webs, rats, flames, and darkness; and get heat from her competitors as not strong enough to hack it. After winning through all of that, she and her partner got to the finals, where they had to swim into a submerged armored car, open it with one of several keys, get inside, and open up boxes (again with the keys) containing gold bars and coins. They did an incredible job, beating out a sister and brother body builder team (they were really scary) to collect over $225,000! How impressive is that?!

This Tuesday, December 6th, at 8pm EST on NBC, a member of my extended family is going to be on Fear Factor!

The family member is Angela — she is the niece of my Aunt Frances, the long-time girlfriend of my Uncle Gus (Uncle Gus is Grandma Betty’s brother). For those who know me, you know that I come from a very fun and loving extended family and Fran is a great example of the wonderful people who help round it out. (You can see pictures of Gus and Frannie’s visit to New Orleans in the blog archives from July.)

So tune in and cheer Angela on! (And, for Aunt Fran’s sake, keep your fingers crossed that Angela won’t be eating any bugs!)

We (finally!) ventured over to the University/Carrolton neighborhood to try Lebanon’s Cafe. It was *excellent!!!* It is my new favorite place to eat in the city: awesome food, great menu, tons of veggie dishes, fun atmostphere, very kid friendly, and totally affordable. The one upside to Paul being sick is that I get to have all of last night’s leftovers!!

Paul is sick. He was acting lethargic and funny this morning, but still got his work clothes on to continue working on the outside plumbing (he repaired the back faucet yesterday and today, was going to tap into the main line to install a faucet to the side of the house to make it easier to wind/unwind the hose for watering the front yard.) Finally, he gave in and went to bed. He has a temp (100.9 at last check) and I gave him Tylenol to bring it down.

Will is currently napping. He seems fine. He was very “helpful” (read: into *everything*) as I started to tackle projects this morning. These projects include:

– Cleaning out back bathroom/laundry room.
– Organizing cleaning supplies.
– Organizing supplies in laundry/bathroom.
– Doing laundry
– Moving storage shelves to our bathroom
– Organizing and moving Paul’s tools to proper locations
– Going through clothes in guest room closet. Packing to store what stays, gathering other for donation.
– Packing up Will’s closet.
– Organizing our back bathroom with storage shelves for tools and Paul’s housework supplies.

It’s really a several person job over several days. I’m doing pretty well so far (back bathroom/laundry is looking so much better, etc.) but I need some help! I hate that Paul is sick and hope he feels back to normal ASAP!

I’ve had a day to decompress and reflect. These are the lingering things in my head regarding the comprehensives — I’m unloading them and moving on!

Day One:
– Was challenging in that I had to use my skills/knowledge in applied ways not tested before. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do them, but I had to think carefully through them and do my best based on what I knew. In this way, the questions were very cleverly written.
– I was lamenting to Paul that I didn’t get a chance to talk at all about experimental design (something that I know well from coursework at Michigan) — I had been looking forward to pulling this out as a strength. Then, yesterday, I realized that I *did* have an opportunity to use it, but between being tired and the openness of the question, my mind didn’t go there. The question was one part of a three-part question where it asked, within the context of a sampling frame I has been asked to design for a Roll Back Malaria program, if I would make any changes to the baseline. I was so caught up in sampling that I connected the question to survey measures and discussed anthropometric/biomarker/health survey data within the context of evaluation. I didn’t think at all about experimental survey design! Had the question asked if I would make any changes to the design, or survey, or study, I would have totally launched into a discuss of experimental design. Maybe, assuming the read the practice exam I sent them weeks ago, they’ll give me benefit of the doubt since I discussed experimental design at length with citations in the practice exam. I’m hoping I can still pull some partial credit on this one.
– With the extra time, I took a short lie-down in the afternoon to recover from the long night with Will. In retrospect, the lack of sleep really hurt; I wasn’t at my full game. I think I still did well, but I could have rocked it a little more.

Some examples (paraphrased — they are actually long questions!) of Day One:
– You are designing a study with three treatments. Randomly assigning ten men and ten women to each treatment. Write the ANOVA model.
– The actual sizes of the villages differ greatly from the estimated sizes. Using your chosen sampling method, explain how to mitigate this problem and restore an epsem design without increasing workload/decision making in the field.
– Suppose y is a discrete outcome. What method would you use to estimate the above equation and why? Explain what is meant by the method of maximum likelihood. What are the drawbacks of other estimation methods in this case?


Day Two
– The shortest 9 hours of my life! I sat down and started the exam at 8:01am. With the exception of bathroom breaks (lest we forget the growing child applying more and more pressure to my bladder), I did not leave the chair until 4:50pm, when I emailed out the exam and printed it to deliver the hardcopy to Penny. Paul went on two coffee runs for me (once in the morning with Will — for a splurge on a cappucino from CCs– and then for a regular from PJs in the afternoon.) He also made great lunch (veggie pot pie leftovers) and supplied snacks (apples and peanut butter). I was so caught up in the work that I didn’t even ask for these… he predicted the need, made the goods, and set it in front of me. It was exactly what I needed.
– The questions were basically what I thought they would be. They were very challenging in that they were the type of questions one could spend months writing about. It was difficult to properly gage how much time to give each question, how to narrow the scope of what could be said/cited, and how to do it all somewhat eloquently!

A sample of some (paraphrased) questions from Day Two:
– Imagine you’re designing an ethnographic study of access and use of RH services in Lima. How would reading Burawoy impact this study? First, discuss a conventional approach that explores topics and approaches common in public health. Next, discuss Burawoy’s globalization framework. Then discuss how this framework would modify your study.
– How have ‘development theories’ (broadly envisioned) been an influence in reproductive health technologies, programs, and research agendas in the developing world since the 1950s? Should this change? Why/why not and how? Discuss this theme in general, and also explore these ideas through a specific contemporary reproductive health debate/issue/reasearch question of your choice.

I still can’t believe it, but I finished, I’m done. I survived comprehensive examinations.

Now I *completely* understand what those before me mean when they say that the experience really isn’t over until you hear the word “pass.” It does not feel real. Now that the exam is out of my hands, it feels scary. It’s out there… I just have to wait and see if what I did was good enough.

All in all, I feel good about it. There weren’t any surprises, although I was certainly challenged. I’m terrified of stupid mistakes or things I’ve overlooked. I’ve been told that the results should be in after about two weeks. Yikes… how do I keep myself from dwelling on the exam until then?

Please please please… let this be the last time I have to do this! I’m ready to move on the really hard stuff… prospectus and disseration!

…and that’s about all I can say about that right now. Some interesting things that have happened in the last 24 hours:

– 12:22am this morning. Will wakes up and vomits all over himself and Paul. Will is terrified, requires great clean-up, comfort, and all three of us had to change.
– 4:12am. Repeat performance from Will. Bottom line: we did not get much sleep last night!
– 8:05am. Get home, look over questions, realize that Penny only gave me questions for 2 of the 3 sections; I’m missing econometrics.
– 10:30am. Questions arrive directly from Paul, after phone calls and emails. Penny gives extra time to account for not having the questions.

Some issues…
– Turning interacted odds ratios into logistic regression coefficients (usually we do this the other way around!)
– Being way tired!
– Paul made a fantastic dinner (veggie pot pie) and was amazing at helping with Will. He supplied me with snacks (apples, bagel, peanut butter) and lunch (rice and chili) which helped so much. Two thumbs up for a wonderful spouse today!

And *thank you* —
— to everyone who sent emails, cards, phoned, posted to the blog and on and on… I even got flowers from my in-laws tonight! The encouragement means a lot! I just hope I actually manage to pass to live up to all the great support!