catch up

My head has a lot going on in it so I'm having hard time focusing. I need to finish writing my proposal so I can defend it and be officially cleared for the dissertation. Even though I've collected some data and published what will be part of my dissertation I still haven't been officially approved! (yikes!) I have stalled writing for that because of the paper I got out recently and the paper I'm writing up now. Plus now that I'm actually collecting data with our new equipment I have stuff to do for that everyday and I need to figure out how to sort and analyze all of that data. If I have enough similar trial types I can use ANOVAs or I can use nonparametric's for smaller sets. I also still need to figure out how sort the data as it can be done many different ways. I'm trying to find papers that used similar tasks and techniques to me so I have some idea of how to do it. I know how to sort part of the data and it takes me about 6 hours to do one smaller set. I have about 13 sets to sort through for just one day of collection. At the same time I need to finish up that other paper but it is work I did a long time ago. I have a lot of reading to do for that literature so I can actually write a more complete discussion. I forced myself to sort a complete file earlier today and started chunking out the smaller pieces I need from it. I also read a paper and wrote down what they did for analysis so I can try and copy their way. I'm the only one here this afternoon and this has been true for the last couple of days. While I enjoy the quiet, I want to go have fun too! But I also need to graduate so I need to stay to get more done. I'm having the bargaining with myself talks this afternoon. Stay and finish this and then you can do x later for fun.

Other news:
Last weekend E and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary! I can't believe how fast it all went. (although we have been together 9 years now in all)
He took me to a zoo where you can feed giraffes. I've always wanted to do that. I know it seems strange. I work with animals every day and feed them, and in my time off I want to go feed more? Sometimes I think I should have majored in zoology and actually worked for a zoo or other animal type place. oh well I'm too far along now to worry about that! We also ate at this amazing Italian place and ate our cake. Our baker made a new top layer for us so we didn't have to freeze our original cake, yum! I'm glad E made the plans, I just had to get in the car and he took me away. I like to take little trips but I'm not much on planning out everything. I prefer to wander and do things on the fly. E has to have a plan, Day 1: activity 1, activity 2, directions, parking info, food options etc. Which worked well for this little mini trip :)