- I booked our hotels for Rome and Florence in April. WE ARE GOING TO ITALY! I can hardly believe it, I'm so excited. I hope to write another update about my planning soon.
- We've turned our cat into an indoor/outdoor cat. I have a great story about how he fell into the drainage sewer.
- My dishwasher broke again a couple of weeks ago, and we just got it repaired yesterday. We definitely got a lemon when we bought it a year ago, but it's pretty much been rebuilt now. Going a few weeks without a dishwasher over the past few months really makes me appreciate technology. What an amazing, wonderful world we live in!
- Our six-month-old coffee maker hadn't been working right for months and I finally got around to calling Bed, Bath, and Beyond about it. It was still under warranty, but they exchanged it with no questions asked. I figured I'd have to send it to the manufacturer myself or something. That was a wonderful surprise.
- Adam has grown a beard. He had one when I met him, but I asked him to shave it off. He looks good in a beard, but I'm not a big fan of them, generally. However, I kind of like it this time around. Change can be kind of sexy.
- We paid off our second mortgage and refinanced our house. We actually started off with three loans because Adam's parents lent us the money for the down payment. But after paying off two of the loans and the refinance, our monthly payment is reduced by just around $1000. We have an extra grand every month. Wow!
- I signed up for a creative writing class at the local community college which starts next week.
- We completed our 2010 Adventure Box. 2010 was not a great year for us. I guess the best part was that Adam got tenure. OCON was also a big highlight.
- When we took down the Christmas decorations, Sam was so disappointed (and so were Adam and I!) that we decided that we're going to start a new tradition of putting up snowmen decorations for the rest of the winter after Christmas. January and February are really the most drab months of the year, and the Christmas let-down doesn't help. Let's keep the cheer going until spring, when nature will provide the delight.
- We saw a nice performance of The Nutcracker (but it wasn't a ballet - more like a fancy puppet show with singing and dancing). Sam seems to really love live performances.
- Speaking of live performances, we'll be seeing Mary Poppins during our trip to Manhattan in a couple of weeks. It will be only my second Broadway show, and Sam's first. I'm really looking forward to it.
- We tried to take Sam to an elaborate ice-sculpture exhibit (so elaborate that they charged $25 each for tickets!) but she got so scared she wouldn't go in. I know another mother who physically forced her sobbing, scared three-year-old to go in and I got all judgmental about what a bad mother she was, but then I realized that she has more than one child, and that makes things not quite so clear-cut. The other child might have missed out if they hadn't all gone in. Maybe I'll have to deal with those issues someday.
- My slacker-mom tendencies have resulted in Sam getting a staph infection on her bottom. And I had to suffer the embarrassment of the doctor telling us we should bathe her more often. Okay, so I wasn't really embarrassed. I actually found the whole thing quite funny, except for the infection part.
- Adam and I had a nice adult night out at a party just after Christmas.
- I sent my spit into a company who will analyze my DNA. I'll get the results in a couple of months. Fun!
That's all I can think of for now. It's been a very busy time, but mostly good. I have high hopes for 2011.
I'm interested in your experience with 23andMe. I'm very familiar with the process and the science behind it. It's very difficult to make predictions for the common illnesses everyone is interested in (eg diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's) and complex diseases like cancers. The genetics behind these diseases is still very poorly understood and the analysis methods these companies utilize can result in dramatically different disease predictions. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH and a famous human geneticist, did three direct-to-consumer genome tests including 23andMe and wrote about how he had different interpretations for most the results. This article includes some very accurate explanations of the dangers of these products, namely that if scientists can't interpret this data, physicians and certainly the consumers at which they're targeted won't be able to. http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/111210/genetics1.html
ReplyDeleteReading that it looks like I am totally spoiling your fun. I promise you I don't mean to--I just worry about people stressing out over possible "bad news" from these tests that don't mean what the company says it means. That's all. :)
Hi Melissa! I'm not familiar with the process or science behind 23andme or Navigenics. My understanding is that there are a few disease markers that can be identified, so I figure that's what these companies will tell you. I actually have no idea what to expect from the results, except that 23andme seems to give you more raw data, and Navigenics gives you interpreted data of some sort. My doctor actually told me to do the test and I thought he was nuts for exactly the reasons you describe. I refused to do it when it cost $1000, but since 23andme had a sale for $100, I figured the cost was low enough. I have no concern about the biggie diseases. My doctor is looking for something in particular to explain my "fragility" - my tendency to suffer from tendonitis through normal, daily activity. Apparently, there is some kind of genetic marker at least associated with this problem. He seems to think there is something in particular he is looking for. But that's all I know. I'll do more research when I get the results and after talking to my doctor, and I'm sure I'll keep writing updates here on the blog!
ReplyDelete