Friday, October 24, 2008

A good day!

Okay, this worked out to be a good week. So great that I had to stop and think "why". This is what I thought of
  • Lugh did really well in dog training! Of course, there was only one other dog there so he wasn't as completely distracted as normal. Normally, we spend the whole hour walking around in circles and trying to get him to actually notice me (much less do what I say). On those days, I could be wearing meat and peanut butter and he still wouldn't notice me in the room. But yesterday - he and Ellie spent the whole day sitting down, laying down, getting up, following, not picking up something that wasn't his, and coming when calling (even off leash!). Wow. And no "argh argh argh" foot biting (almost, but he snapped out of it as quickly as he started). The only down side was Lugh's extraordinary gastrointestinal prowess. Stinky butt.
  • My Design class was super fun (that sounds so Californian). Each student researched something that was personally interested and presented it to class. It was impressive the way everything fit together. For me, I got to dig into some things I missed about design and see it through new eyes. Because the students were in charge of class (and my other class was cancelled due to a conference), I actually got some extra sleep. Boy, that makes a difference.

  • Shawn has narrowed down his dissertation topic into something that really seems to speak to him - and is heading off to a conference that will help him work out the details of his proposal. So fun to see the excitement!

  • Shanna found a really cool way to take many many pages of results and put them into a short format for a journal article.

  • Tiago and I are moving on the XD study, and I did some deep synthesis based on Tiago's work that's making me see some strong progress.

  • Our research group got into a very cool discussion on "what is engineering" and played around in some really provocative places (big E, little e engineering) that really got me thinking. It was so much fun I rushed home to take Lugh for a long walk in Happy Hollow Park where we got to chase chipmunks and squirrels, play with dogs (even a dinky rat terrier puppy), and see the leaves turn. I'll have to take Mom here when she comes out next week :)

The big question - how to sustain the "happy".... Play play play play play


No comments: