Update- How did it get to be July 2011?

Hello- Somehow, it got to be Dec. from my last post. Well, I made the switch in January from stay-at-home to full time working mom. I am working full time now in the financial department of Penn Medicine. Penn Medicine encompasses three hospitals, a series of satellite facilities and provider networks. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is one of the best hospitals in the country, and from this vantage point I'm learning tons about the healthcare business.

Ger is now a third year resident - one year to go for him! We have settled into a new routine and Matt is now in day care - he really ramped up his talking after the first week, so it's been good for him to play with and be exposed to other kids.

Throughout this transition work on projects slowed, but that will turn around a bit since with my salary we'll be able to tackle some longer projects. We've been back in Philly 2 years and it feels good to be back in a city. I am a city girl born and bred and am grateful that I can take the train to work, walk to Matt's day care, stop at the grocery store on the way home and then walk home all without using gas or having to share the street with cars (i.e. there are sidewalks, although granted not always in the best of repair). We are hoping to enjoy a bit more amenities that being in a major city offers.

Self-improvement and projects continue.

Thanks Gwyneth! (Also: Abstract Painting is Hard!)

So as you know, I have a girl crush on Ms. Paltrow. I don't normally watch television, but I made an exception for my girl Gwyneth on her guest appearance on glee. That's when I saw it in the background:

There it is! Behind Gwyneth's head is the perfect painting for our hallway! Thanks Gwyn!

So, out came the oil pastels. However, anyone who says abstract painting is easy never tried it. I liked the simple cleaness of the painting, but it also has a bit of shimmer. I didn't quite get there:

Of course, I have to stop at the art store to get a bit more supplies and varnish to finish it, but making something look professionally abstract is actually quite difficult!

Matt now has a "boy" room...

When we bought our house, there was a little girl in Matt's room, and they had set it up like this:

Which is perfectly sweet for a little girl, but now that it's been a year and Matt is a full fledged toddler we decided to go ahead and change it. So with the help of my in-laws, Ger painted it blue...

I had a hard time picking the color, but since I knew Ger only had one coat in him, I decided to go with a darker blue.

We were finally able to roll out his rug, that we bought during our honeymoon in India. Ger remarked at the time, that it would be a good rug for a kid's room. I agreed, and we bought it and saved it.

It feels good to finally get the go-ahead to start doing some beautification projects, as I have so many ideas. So much of our work up to this point has been functional and not visual impact. With the recent painting spruce up Ger and his dad did, we are hoping to change that!

We weren't doing anything...

Okay Mom's not looking...

Women Don't Ask

... I just finished reading a book called "Women Don't Ask" researched and written by two women who were involved in running a PhD program. When confronted by female PhD students about why the guys were given more classes to teach, they looked into it and found that the guys had ASKED to teach class and even suggested new classes to teach, while the women basically waited to be assigned classes to teach.

This was pretty eye opening, and I agreed with everything in the book. Some stats:

When looking at starting salaries for Master Degrees, the men negotiated themselves 4K more on average than women. Only 7% of women attempted to negotiate, but 57% of the men did.

NOT negotiating salaries can cost up to 568K over the course of a career.

Women, when asked to work on a task "till they feel they've earned their pay" will work up to 22% (on average) longer than a male and with 32% higher accuracy. If they are observed, they will work up to 50% longer. Being observed makes no difference in the length of time the men worked.

When asked to do a simple task and told to "pay yourself what you think it is worth" the men paid themselves up to 63% more, on average.

Women are in a catch-22 because if they do ask, then they run the risk of being perceived as "unlikeable". Being perceived as "unlikeable" had more implications for the women in the study. Asking for things did not change the men's "likeability".

Women on average find negotiating very stressful.

Blast from the Past - Wedding Table Quotes

As our parents continue to send us their basement holdings, Ger and I are faced with some hard decisions about what stays and what goes.

One of those things is the table markers from our wedding. Normally, people have "Table 1" and "Table 2" but we had literary quotes to identify each table. It made people walk around a bit to find their table, but I really liked sharing some of my favorite quotes.

Here they are, so I can come and read them from time to time, while not having the actual table markers take up space in our basement. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

The Robert Bridges Table:
"Love can tell and love alone,
Whence the million stars are strewn,
Why each atom knows it own,
How, in spite of woe and death
Gay is life and sweet is breath."

The Victor Hugo Table:
"And remember, as it was written... to love another person is to see the face of God."

The Christopher Marlowe Table:
"The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love."

The Elizabeth Barrett Browning Table:
"I love thee with the breath, smiles and tears of all my life!
and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."

The William Shakespeare Table:
"For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings"

The William Butler Yeats Table:
"O hurry to the ragged wood, for there
I will drive all those lovers out and cry
O, my share of the world, O auburn hair!
No one has ever loved but you and I."

The Charles Dickens Table:
"So, she leaning on her husband's arm, they turned homeward by a rosy path which the gracious sun struck out for them in its setting. And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death. And O what a bright old song it is, that O 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love that makes the world fo round!"

The Lord Alfred Tennyson Table:
"Heart, are you great enough
For a love that never tires?
O'heart are you great enough for love?"

The James Joyce Table:
"O hurry over the dark lands
And run upon the sea
For seas and land shall not divide us
My love and me."

The Christopher Brennan Table:
"Then seek not, sweet, the "If" and "Why"
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
and life in me is what you give."

The Ralph Waldo Emersen Table:
"The sense of the world is short,
Long and Various the report,
To love ane be loved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it,
and how oft soe'er they've turned it,
'Tis not to be improved."

Madelines - Fall Baking Underway!

It feels good to be back home... where I know everything in the kitchen is! Ha ha! I'm trying to make up for some lost baking time. For some reason, Fall is my favorite time to fire up the gas stove and make some buttery treats. I keep going till New Year's, then switch to yeast breads. I guess it's all about the holidays. :-)