Hi from Baltimore

Hi Cahooters!

Since we are saving the planet millions at a time, I realized that I could probably take a break and update you all! (We’ll get back to work and do our second million this afternoon.)

My favorite new ad is one that I see in the metro and lightrail in Baltimore. Camille may have seen this one: a picture of an African American man in a wifebeater looking down at a little baby girl resting on his chest. On the bottom it says, “You made life. Be a part of it.”

Although this was probably more DOJ or Council on Family values, I think strong families are a huge part of sustaining a healthy population.

As for the field experience – things are going well! I’ve still got 3 weeks left, but I can’t help but feel a little trunky with all the stories of wrapping up projects, going home and Pete’s talk of boating. This week I started feeling nostalgic for our little home on the Payson prairie. Sure, ivy-covered trees and Maryland blue crabs are great, but—and I never thought I’d say these words—I’m also pretty excited to move back to Utah!

Update on my field experience doings: I just participated in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Summer Internship Poster Session, where I presented my analysis of some preliminary data from Barbados. By the way, preliminary here means 150 subjects in the past 8 years. Apparently, and Brea can back me up here, they have all kinds of holidays, (Whit Monday, Hero’s day, Cricket day, Kadooment, etc.) which makes research go pretty slow there. I compared change in lung function over time in asthmatics vs. controls in Barbados and created a model of some of the predictors of lung function change. The research is unique in that the subjects are of exclusively African descent. Blood samples will be analyzed later for predictive SNPs. For the past couple of weeks I was in SAS heaven (!); I consulted John (propers to John) along with a few of the biostatisticians here, without whom I guarantee I would have chosen the wrong tests.

Sara’s mom is visiting, so we finally had an evening away from the baby and attended the DC temple, where you can hold hands during the session! Today I’m leaving work early so we can hit up Ocean City, MD, the closest beach (which is 3 hours away). That second million will have to wait.... =)