success!

have you ever had one of those days at work where things just come together? i had one of those today. i had one of my labmates be a subject for me today so i could pilot my data collection protocol. last week when i had my undergrad do this for me, the computer wouldn't let me collect data as it normally would. after trying everything i gave up for the day. well today, it happened again. so i got on the phone and called my friend alberto who works for the company that makes the software i use. fortunately for me, alberto happened to be stuck in an airport and he was more than happy for the distraction and helped me solve the problem in less than 5 minutes. i then got to collect a trial for each of the conditions i will be looking at in this particular study. more specifically, i will be examining how one's stability changes when one walks with "cautious" gait characteristics, such as with shorter or wider steps. i won't actually be tripping anyone in this study, so if you'd like to participate, let me know. you will be paid!

i also had to present in lab meeting today and had decided to share some of the data i recently finished analyzing with the group. the results appear to be the first indicating that you can actually change a certain measure of stability by physically perturbing someone, which is important because up to this point, we thought these measures of stability only indicated something inherent to the body system. my advisor told me to run the stats and then start writing the paper. yeah! its nice to be moving to the next step in the process.

i spent a good chunk of time this past weekend driving all over and checking out venues for our wedding. eric was out of town for a conference so i was on my own to ask questions. we're going to go back and visit one of the places i saw this past weekend later this week so he can see it, and then we'll also check out one other place that's a little farther south. its amazing how after you start looking at bunch of places you can tell pretty quickly what you like and what you don't like...and how you can tell someone might not be telling the truth when they say they are "kid friendly"!