As previously posted, I am getting a crown put on my tooth. Today was the day, or so I thought. When I went in for my appointment, they asked me if I would like to go to a student instead to try and save some money. I knew about the student dental school but decided I didn’t want to risk having my teeth messed up more than they are, which is why I was seeing the faculty and not the students. So my first thought was “no” until she told me the price difference. It is $1,300 for my crown if I stayed with my great dentist. If I went to a not so great, not-yet dentist I would pay $400.

I gave in to the enormous price difference. Unfortunately, this means I have to wait another month until the student can see me and since she is still learning the appointment will take 3 hours instead of 1 1/2. She did an impression of my moth today to get things started, and let me say watching her do that seemingly simple task did not calm my fears. I must wait apprehensively to see if my attempt to save money is worth a potential disaster.

I have to go to the dentist for yet another root canal and crown. Grrrrr. This new one will make four crowns and five or six root canals. Unfreakinbelievable. When I was at the dentist, the lady gave me the third degree to make matters worse. She asked me why my teeth were so terrible for a 24 year old. Beats me lady! is what I thought. I wish I knew so I could stop the expensive bills from coming in. My mouth is worth a fortune.

I decided to go even shorter. I have to experiment a bit, but hopefully it won’t take me long to do it in the morning. I have some wicked cowlicks. I will have to let my hair grow out a bit to cover those bad boys up.

My teacher at Hollins told me I should I enter a paper I wrote for him into the IAFA (International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts) Conference 2009. I submitted thinking it would be good rejection practice. I knew my paper wouldn’t get accepted, so when I received the acceptance letter telling me to confirm my attendance I thought “Oh, crap! How I am I going to afford this?”  The conference is March 18-22 in Orlando Florida. It’s just far away enough to be annoying to drive, flying is super expensive, and the date is two days after Ryan’s spring break ends.

I searched around trying to decide if the conference was even credible. I couldn’t find definitive evidence either way. I thought that all presenters got published but found out only the graduate student paper that wins gets published. My chances for that are slim to none. I would go if it weren’t so expensive. It would be good expereince to present my paper at a conference. But I can’t pay hundreds of dollars for practice. I will go read my paper on a street corner for free if I need practice reading in front of people. All in all, it wasn’t meant to be I think

I took a children’s writing class while at BYU, and my teacher for that class started a society for all those who get rejected by publishers. It is called My Manuscript Stinks Society or the MMSS. Since practically every writer gets rejected by publishers, she thought it would be fun to award those of us students who inevitably got rejected. In addition to giving out awards in class for our rejection letters, she also started a blog to help us newby writers practice writing and get support from other writers.

Last month there was a contest on her blog, and I won! To check out the contest and my story, go to http://mmssociety.blogspot.com/

If you want to write more, go to her blog and use her writing exercises and post stories for her contests. It is a great way to keep up your writing and win free stuff! You can also become a part of the MMS Society; just check out the guidelines on the blog.

Long-zies

Short-zies. Good-bye blond

When we got to Kansas the skies were stormy, which we thought was cool…until a tornado warning was issued, and a tornado came through the middle of the state a few hours behind us. Note all the bug guts on the windshield.

We don’t have kids to talk about on our blog, so we are going to talk a little about what we have accomplished this semester. Ryan just presented his statistical research at BYU’s 22nd Annual Spring Conference.

Ryan has been working with the Gaussian process to compare treatments on healing cycles. It’s too complicated to explain, so you will have to trust me that it was very statistical and very good. I went and watched him give his presentation, and his was the only one I was able to understand. 

He did a great job explaining this very complicated process.This was Ryan’s first year working on campus with professors doing research. And I am sure this will be the first of many conferences where he will be presenting his research–such is the life of a statistician.I have been working on campus as well this year, except I work in the Humanities Publication Department. I am a secretary/editor. I have been given a few editing projects throughout the year, but often we editors are not given credit for the work we do. Alas, the anonymous life of an editor. But I was able to edit the articles in the last issue of BYU’s Humanities magazine,

and I even got credit on the back cover. 
    

Life out of obscurity is pretty much the same as before–the only thing getting credit is good for is my portfolio and my ego. Hooray for accomplishments; they keep us going back to work.

It is March, which is the best of times

and the worst of times at the McBride house.

The TV is always on in our household during this maddening season of endless basketball and brackets.

The question is how is a wife to cope with the glow of the TV replacing the newly found spring sunshine?Alas, there is hope. Girl’s Night! My sister is leaving for Hawaii in less than a month, and my sister-in-law just had a baby. What perfect reasons to go and watch a movie and eat out like ladies. 

There are other ways to cope: read many good books, possibly outside; catch up on homework, chores, projects, work, or whatever tends to be neglected; talk on the phone with long-distance relatives (you won’t be missing any conversation time with the spouse anyway); exercise; focus on a hobby.There are countless remedies for the madness that is March. Good luck like wives–I feel for you.

We finally started ripping up our old carpet and putting down new flooring. A huge thanks to all of our neighbors who put up with the banging and sawing all day and late at night.

Gross carpet begone!

We are just getting started

Ryan’s laying down the sound absorbing and moisture blocking material.

It looks like Ryan is doing all the work, but I put down a lot of those boards.

It’s 8:30 and we almost finished our main room. Whew, long day.

2-3 weeks later…

The floors are done thanks to some hired hands.

Now that the floors are done, it is time to paint. And we still have the cabinets to refinish.