It's Been a While

Ok, so I haven't posted in months. I guess it's high time to throw a few updates/general musings on this thing.

Lissa was in town this weekend and we had fun eating, shopping, bowling, and plying golf. Last night, I took her and Virginia out to Alfalfa's, a veggie-friendly restaurant in downtown Lexington that VA likes. I thought I would hate it, but it was actually pretty decent. Then we went on a search for stores that were still open so Virginia could get an iPod to surprise Jeremy with. We brought it back to my house to load some songs on it for him, but software issues made it more hassle than it would have been worth. Oh well. I burned him a copy of a Dave Matthews Band concert DVD (live at Fulsom Field) so I'm sure he'll enjoy that. I have some rarer Dave CD's I can get to him later. Oh yeah, and Virginia bravely took her life in her hands (people have died, she reminded us) and played with sparklers with me and Lissa in my backyard. It was all sorts of childhood reminiscent fun.

Lissa left this morning to be with family for a brunch and a party. Today (being Father's Day) might be a little rough for her, as her father recently passed away. She is coping very well, however, so just keep her and her fam in your thoughts or prayers.

Brief update on me (skip this section if you have no interest in neuro- or developmental psychology) - I'm doing research with pre-school children in Louisville this summer. We are looking at differences in evoked response potentials in their brain waves for different stimuli (mainly things designed to assess their phonological processing skills). We are comparing these findings with behavioral and achievement assessments on children who they've been following for a couple years now, along with questionnaire data like SES, home environment, parental expectences, smoking/drinking during pregnancy, etc. The hope is that, because behavioral changes (academic performance, intelligence, etc) seem to lag behind changes in brain waves, early predictions of later problems, especially in reading and language skills, can be caught very early on when intervention is most effective.

I will be going to U of L school of medicine starting in August. I am hoping to find a roommate to share a two-bedroom apartment in Phoenix Place (just two blocks East of the Health Sciences Campus).

That's all I got for now. I have to find a Father's Day present (I know, I'm horrible) and a present for my brother Dustin's birthday. He'll be 18 on Wednesday and will be leaving to join the army at the end of the month.