A hurricane? Really?

So, I've been getting multiple calls from my parents about a supposed hurricane that is supposed to hit Denver later this week. I wasn't aware that hurricanes could happen inland...

Has anyone heard about the metro crash in D.C.? It was the red line to Shady Grove. You can read about it here:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/18473/

Camille, be careful when you ride the Metro!

Cupcakes with Camille, A work in progress... my internet is HORRIBLE!

This picture is for MaryAnne, we were walking by and saw an advertisement for the musical 9 to 5, and guess who is in it! Look closely at the picture I took it just for you. 

Cupcakes! Yes I know I look creepy in this picture, kinda like an evil simpsons character but this is the best you are going to get
Cupcakes with Camille! Let's just say I can make better cupcakes than they can. 

The cupcakes at Crumbs. 
The Apple Store on 5th avenue... Pete you would have been in heaven. 
Washington Square Park arch... does anyone recognize this from friends? if you dont then you need to watch more tv. 

Camille (and  Aaron) came to visit us in NYC this weekend… yes we are lucky. They took the bus from Baltimore to NYC… which sounds… well it sounds like a TON (or not) of fun, they came in a little late- I guess they got a late start (bus delay) and we met them around 11pm in Chinatown, we still aren’t sure the Chinatown at night idea was our best yet but anyway. So we picked them and dropped them off at Wall Street, nothing too thrilling there. The next day (Saturday) we met up for a fun filled day of NYC adventures… sadly it was raining and muggy and well really not the most pleasant weather. We started out our day by going to a little French restaurant in Greenwich Village , the place was extra cute, and the food looked good but there… wasn’t a lot of it. Sadly we did not take a picture of our food but we decided if that is what Pete and Mark have been surviving on all summer we are so sorry! We got little sandwiches- like sandwich’s on a biscuit for $9! No wonder Europeans are skinny. Anyway so after our breakfast of champions we headed off to see the sights. We stopped at Washington Square park (the arch used on friends) and took a few pictures, then headed off to 5^th Avenue to see the Abercrombie models- really you just have to see it to believe it since it is so ridiculous. After a quick stop into FAO Swartz (Aaron and Camille played on the BIG piano) and a peek into the Apple store- for Pete and Alisha, we headed to Times Square for some lunch and theater tickets. We ate some lunch at Carmines… which I would higly recommend. It is a family style Italian resturant- the portions are insanely huge- Camille can confirm- we had 6 people and it was painful to finish two entrees with no appetizers or salads- we tried to take a picture for you pete but at the last minute forgot, it was good though, anyone coming to NYC should make a pit stop there. Okay then what? Well then we wondered around Times Square and headed to Crumbs bake shop for you guessed it…. Cupcakes with Camille. Crumbs is supposed to be famous in New York and to be fair the cupcakes look amazing, they were good but not that good. Anyway I think I can make better cupcakes so it looks like I will be experimenting in the fall, Camille has graciously offered to help out and I am sure we can use some testers but we are thinking something along the chocolate raspberry lines. Anyway we went to a nearby park to eat out cupcakes and landed in the middle of Pride week here in NYC. It was…. A little different than provo. After the cupcakes we were stuffed so we decided to search for theater tickets to burn off some calories, we looked in both times square and the south street sea port and didn’t find any tickets for a student budget so we opted to stand in line for the wicked lottery… we didn’t win… which was sad but expected. After all that walking and standing we decided we needed a break… and a popsicle so we headed to little Korea for a melon popsicle- Camille will have to add more info about those since I had never had them, and a place to rest. We headed to Macy’s on 34^th street- you know like Miracle on 34^th street- and then up to the couches section where we found a lovely plush place to rest… we stayed for about an hour and then went searching for Camille’s falafel. We ended up skipping the falafel but heading to an all night Halal food stand… which like most Halal food in the city was delicious. We decided they need to put one in provo right by the RB- Pete even you would be converted. After eating our food in the rain we decided it was time to call it quits and head home.

Sunday was less adventurous. We headed to church, then to get some falafels, and then to Central Park. We ended the adventure with a  quick trip to Shack Shake- a local hamburger place that claims to be better than In-N-Out. Thanks Camille and Aaron for making the trip it was fun to see you guys!*

No worries Camille will add more details of the trip- I just cant remember what else we did. 

This is Public Health

Ok, so we all remember the "This is Public Health" campaign. Well as I walked into the women's bathroom in the PAHO office, I really wished I had some stickers.


Yes, sitting on the counter in a nice basket are a bunch of condoms. I noticed it the first day and realized the stock pile was low. Well coming into work today (Monday), I was happy to see that the baskets in both bathrooms had been refilled. I know some people might have issues with this, but as this is a public health building and the Caribbean has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world outside of Sub Saharan Africa, I thought it was appropriate. I hope all you who worked on the STD/STI projects this past year will appreciate it as well. ;)

My blog

For some reason I don't think I've given my blog to you all, which is probably okay considering there is a grand total of three posts and two are from yesterday. But just in case you want to check it out, it's bradandmaryanne.blogspot.com.

Crunch time

Hello to all...Pete, I hope you survive! Doesn't sound too fun.

I just finally wrote a huge post on my personal blog, so if anyone wants to see pictures, etc. you can check that one out. This one is of me and Loly Guzman as we drove through the mountains to get to the coast.

So...

I was told last week that I don't know anything about research. Don't let Dr. Thackeray hear that! I was pretty angry, actually, but tried to take Owen's advice (for all of you who remember that wonderful experience at the Dept. of Health) and just shut my mouth and thanked her for her comments. I then went and wrote a rebuttal which answered all of her questions and addressed all of her criticisms (since she hadn't read the proposal and didn't get why I was using a theory to base my questionnaire on) but when I went to discuss it with her she didn't want to hear it. Hmm... she says it's an entirely academic exercise and won't benefit the organization or the country in any way, shape, or form.

The ironic part is that everyone else gets it...just not the research specialist within the PAHO organization. I think she just doesn't listen to try to understand, but to try and find errors and faults. Don't get me wrong, details are important, but you've got to understand the base before you try to understand everything else.

So, we're now working AROUND her. Luckily, Dr. Suriel is really supportive and gets the point of the study, and I had to laugh when he started talking about how she'd said so much about problems with biases since it's a quasiexperimental study with cluster sampling- but she's now so biased against it that there's no way we can change her mind.

I'm finishing up some focus group analyses now so I can write the last few survey questions and then get going with the backtranslation and content, etc. validity processes. We talked about all that and I understand the theory, but I don't remember ever really getting any guidelines for how to do it, so I'm relying heavily on the internet to explain how to really check validity and reliability. Then the pretest group, and I'm set! Hopefully it all gets done before they all get out on summer break...

It's been interesting getting researchers here to back the "new" techniques I'm using. They don't use theory, EVER, so that's been the first hurdle. I think we're mostly past that now, except with Dr. Merino. The second concern for them is the use of an internet based instrument (which is the obvious time saver for me) since they don't know of anyone ever having done that before. I also did some key informant interviews over the phone to get some salient beliefs to go along with my focus group data, which they also said wouldn't work. They only do in person paper and pencil studies, and it took awhile to convince them that our generation (especially students in medical school) are going to be technoligically literate enough to do it...

Yay for different cultures! Hopefuly this turns out well and they realize that they have a lot more tools available than they ever thought before.

Well, take care!

What a Great Father's Day!

Well, I woke up early this morning and was in blinding pain...always a wonderful surprise. After about 30 minutes I ended up on the floor outside of our bathroom, as this gave me easy access to vomit every few minutes from the pain. Mark woke up shortly after that and asked me if I was okay...I told him I didn't think I was??? I finally decided to call my dad, which was a nice Father's day present to him (a few middle of the night phone calls), and tell him what was going on. Well, my suspicions were confirmed as he told me that I most likely had kidney stones. Mark went and woke up our neighbor to ask if he could take us to the hospital...luckily, our neighbor was very nice and took us in. When we got to the hospital, I laid down on the floor (this was the coldest and most comfortable position I could find), while Mark went and found some help. For being in an emergency room, the help actually came much quicker than I thought it would and it was nice and efficient as well. Although, they did tell me that I would have to pay for any and all services myself and then take it up with my insurance later...I told them I didn't really care how much it cost, but to please just stop the *$!% pain! (I was very nice about it though) Once they got me in a bed and took some blood the most wonderful thing happened...very powerful pain killer shots! They worked so fast and so nicely too. After an hour or two, they confirmed that it was kidney stones and that the worst of it should be over by now (music to my ears). 

Here is the confusing part. I am in Switzerland, I don't drink soda anymore, I drink a crap load of water every day, I run 3+ times/week, I eat a whole lot more healthy than I should be, and then this happens??? Why didn't it happen at home when I don't drink water, I don't exercise, I drink my body weight in Dr. Pepper on a daily basis etc...I think the moral of the story is that all this healthy living garbage / protective behaviors I hear about all the time is exactly that, "garbage." I really think my body just needs to get home and get back to how life is supposed to be lived!  

Oh, the doctor told me too that many people say that the whole kidney stone thing is as painful as labor??? I don' t understand the beginning of labor, but if they are anywhere near correct about the pain thing...What in the hell are you women thinking when you decide you what to get pregnant and have a baby? I mean seriously...I would not make a good woman. I would definitely just say no to having kids...or just do what Frank and Alice did and have Phoebe carry my children. 

This is me after a little of the pain medicine

This is me after a lot of the pain medicine!

blog music

Not to take away from John's amazing announcement, congratulations again, but I just have to say pete added the music not me... so thank him for that.