The Number Field

Sometimes people ask me why I started this blog with Wordpress, instead of Blogspot or one of the other services. I sometimes say that it's because of the \( \LaTeX \) support, in case I want to start a new blog devoted to math. TeX is a professional typesetting program originally designed by Donald Knuth, and LaTeX is one particularly useful and common extension thereof. It is professional in the sense that it obeys all the rules of beautiful typesetting, which is especially important in mathematics, where subscripts, superscripts, and strange symbols are all commonplace. For instance, the formula \( \sum_{n=0}^N \phi_n = 0\) looks exactly like it should, and I didn't have to fiddle around with some equation editor to make it like that.

Someday, hopefully before too long, I'll have enough material to write a thesis, and I'm counting on my LaTeX skills to help me out then. In the meantime, I prioritize my research. I've given a couple of talks recently on topics close to my research. I gave one of them last week for the Undergraduate Math Club , and the other one at the Williams College/SMALL reunion and mini-conference this past summer. I think that the slides do a good job of summarizing the talks, so here they are:

• All About Wronskians
• The ABC Theorem and the ABC Conjecture

(Apologies for the large amount of redundancy. I compiled it so that each overlay would be a different slide. For best results, save and view page-by-page, instead of by scrolling.)

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At church, we usually sit near a family that reminds me of my own. They have six children, three boys and three girls. Their father is in the bishopric, like mine was for several years, so he sits up on the podium. Jenny pointed out that since they sit close to the front of the congregation, the father can keep an eye on the kids, and she regularly notices him signaling to them through facial expressions. I don't particularly remember behaving well during church; I don't know what our parents did to keep us occupied and quiet. I do remember lots of people commenting on it--almost as if the defining quality of our family was that we stayed quiet. At least in part because of our good manners in church, people came to think that we were well-behaved in general.

For one reason or another, I was thinking about this topic on Sunday, and had a chance to ask the father of this family about how he and his wife managed to keep their children in order during church. He didn't even have to think before launching into a detailed and enthusiastic description. Overall, I think that I would describe their plan long-term strategic management. First, he said that they know what their kids like, and what occupies their attention and keeps them quiet; they use those things during church. They also use some disciplinary methods--for instance, he had noticed that they didn't have any notepads that particular day, so he guessed that they must have done something to lose that privilege. More than that, he said that they practice; e.g. when the kids are young, they sometimes practice sitting quietly for an age-appropriate amount of time. That brief conversation serves as a window to their overall parenting technique. Having been the recipients of a dinner invitation from them, we know that on a regular basis they invite people over. In preparation for and during such social interactions, they also practice appropriate behavior, manners, conversation topics, and so forth.

I have interacted with their boys in Cub Scouts, so I know that they have as much energy and rambunctiousness as anyone, so I think that we can attribute their good behavior to training more than temperament. Jenny and I still have plenty of time before we'll be in the thick of that kind of parenting, but I'm trying to stay ahead of the game. My one takeaway from observing this family has been that we should make long-term plans, and remain actively engaged. Please leave a comment with your thoughts! Mom and Dad, what did you do to keep us quiet during church? Brothers and sisters, do you remember anything else?

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My posts seem to be running about a week behind; in this one I'm writing about what we did last weekend. We paid our friends Matt and Carrie a visit, just a week after they came to visit us. We watched Baby Mama , which I think was more funny because it's topical to us. We enjoyed seeing Danny interact with his parents. I'm impressed by his post-bath towel/robe--If I had one of those as a kid, I probably would have taken twice as many baths. Danny's childhood has had a distinct dinosaur theme from the very beginning; as evidenced by the accompanying picture, he has taken his dinosaur heritage to heart. I don't think that we have such a single minded theme picked out for Sunflower, but I would like to know the other varieties and characters that are bath cowl options.

We occupied a good portion of Saturday with shopping. When driving in on Friday night, we noticed signs advertising a neighborhood yard sale in the neighborhood, so we decided to check it out. We hit the jackpot at one house: cute maternity clothes in Jenny's size. Between that and borrowing some of Carrie's maternity clothes, we bolstered Jenny's wardrobe and prepared for the next few months. Then, we loaded up and headed to a shopping center that they call "Venice." Jenny used some of her birthday money to buy cute new shoes.

After lunch, while Matt and I watched some Longhorn football, Jenny and Carrie went to the nail salon to have their feet pampered. This made me a little bit sad, because I had painted Jenny's toenails a couple of weeks ago, and they had to remove my painstaking work before applying a new coat of polish. I know that the pedicurist did a much better job than me, seeing as she is a professional. Later Saturday evening, we played a heated game of Settlers of Catan . Well, maybe it wasn't so heated. Sadly, I made a crucial lapse at the very end of the game: I had the cards in my hand to win on my next turn, and I foolishly traded something to Matt, without realizing that the very card I was trading him would give him the win. Although my disappointment was bitter, I still slept well.

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Yesterday, I arrived home to find a note on my desk from Sunflower. I suspect that her mother helped, because it had good grammar, spelling, and wasn't covered in amniotic fluid. (After writing that sentence, I looked up "lolbabies" on Google and was not disappointed.) In the note, Sunflower said that she was sad that I hadn't posted anything to her blog recently, and wondered if it was because I didn't love her. Or something like that. Truth is, I've been busy--I gave a talk to the Undergraduate Math Club yesterday, and spent a lot of time preparing it. In addition, three straight weekends away from home have left my desk a mess, to say nothing of blog posts. Finally, I've been working on our Christmas plans, both travel and gifts.

To make up for it, I have a series of posts to make over the next day or two. For now, here's a current picture of Jenny and Sunflower, taken last night. (We also had a shoot for Jewel's Christmas photo.)

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Last Friday we had our regular appointment. We planned to be there for at least an hour, so that Jenny could do her glucola test. For those unfamiliar with the procedure, I'll describe it. When we got there, she drank a glass of fluorescent orange beverage that the lab manager described as "super strong TANG," and that Jenny said was way too sugary. Then we had our visit with Doctor Cherry; she answered our questions and checked Sunflower's heartbeat--everything appears to be going well. By that time, an hour had passed, and we went back to the lab where they took a blood sample from Jenny.
They said that they would contact us only if there was a problem, and we haven't heard anything, except for getting a note reminding us that Jenny needs to keep taking iron supplements. For some reason, the needle stick caused her to bruise; it's still showing today as much as it did the day after. At our next visit, we'll have to get a note saying that Jenny is okay to travel on airplanes. And after that one, we have to visit more often--every two weeks, instead of every four--since we're getting close.

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I haven't posted anything in a few days, much less anything pregnancy related. Although I could blame this on my travels and trying to get back into the swing of things, there may be another reason. On the November pregnancy calendar (linked to the right), check out the 18th. Also, I was reading in What to Expect When You're Expecting , and I remember a similar sentiment. We are in the baby doldrum zone. We have another doctor's visit on Friday, so maybe I'll have something more exciting to post then.

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I'm visiting my brother Luke, who suggested the name Sunflower, at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana .  He's a freshman here, and seems to be adapting well to the new environment.  He lives in Roskie Hall, in a room shaped like a piece of pie.  Like most dorm rooms, it doesn't have much room.  He let me sleep in his bed the first night, but I convinced him to sleep in the bed last night, while I took the pad on the floor.

Yesterday, we went on a hike up to Lava Lake, a new destination for Luke. He says that he's been making the most of his time in this beautifully wild place, by going on hikes every weekend and getting outdoors as much as possible. He chose Lava Lake not just because it was new, but also because the guidebook said that there would be a lower danger of being hit by a hunter's stray bullet. We got donuts for breakfast at Granny's Donuts, across the street from the dorm. The man behind the counter asked about our plans for the day, and when we said that we were going up to Lava Lake, he replied that it was a great hike: not too steep, and on the way down, you almost want to run. I don't know what he was talking about--especially since he looked like he had eaten more donuts than hiked on trails recently--because the hike was plenty steep.

The trail was covered in a few inches of snow that was pristine except for a few animal prints, that got a little bit deeper as we went up. We were both glad for our sturdy and Gore-Tex lined boots. Luke started quickly, but eventually tired, and I didn't have to try to keep up with him so much; we took a more measured pace. When we got to the top, we found the Lava Lake. Unfortunately, we didn't get a view down the valley, since we had entered the low-hanging cloud cover. Luke told me that it's a typical mountain pass, so there are supposed to be peaks on two sides, and views down the valley in the other directions. We did go pretty fast on the way down, but never got to the point of running.

Later on, we played racquetball. Luke had only played once before, so I tried to take it easy on him. He had some good shots, but needs more practice to be able to anticipate the ball, and then plan his shots on a consistent basis. After racquetball, we spent a couple of minutes on the rowing machines. I gave Luke some pointers, but we also saw a sign for a clinic on rowing machine technique, so maybe he'll attend that on Monday afternoon. On Thursday as I was waiting to depart for this trip, I felt pretty nervous. Jenny attributed my nerves to the fact that I hadn't been on an adventure trip in a long time. She thought I was worried that I would be out of practice. I think she's right. We have an ongoing joke about our different leisure-time interests, and what will happen when Sunflower is older. For instance, Jenny says that if I want to go on a camping trip, I can, but we'll have to let Sunflower choose what to do--go on the camping trip with me, or go to the spa with her. We'll have to wait until she grows up at least a little bit before we find out, but I hope to have an adventurous daughter. A few more pictures from this trip are posted here .

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Our friends Matt and Carrie visited this week, with their little boy Danny.  Matt expressed sentiments similar to the ones left by Carrie in her comment on the previous post .  They're wise words for me to remember.

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A week ago today, Jenny and I went to Babies-R-Us to start our registry, assisted by our sister-in-law Karina.  I am finally ready to write about it.  After we were done, Jenny tried to quell my dissatisfaction by saying "Don't you remember registering for our wedding?  Did you expect that it would be any different?"  I didn't say this to her because it didn't come to mind at the time, but on further reflection, I remembered that I didn't much enjoy certain parts of the wedding registration process either!

If you ask Jenny, she might say that I was a wet blanket for the whole thing.  However, I can now say that most of what we did was pretty painless, and even enjoyable.  I enjoyed looking at and helping to pickout many of the smaller items--bath towels, blankets, a few small toys, and so forth, although I'm afraid that my tiredness prevented any show of positive emotions.  I woke up at five that morning to go to a rare early morning rowing practice, and had a hard day beyond that.

I struggled with the big ticket items, starting with the stroller in particular.  I couldn't get behind any of the choices, and disagreed with Jenny on what kind of stroller we need or want.  For the record, I'm a proponent of getting a basic stroller frame for the car seat, then reevaluating our needs after a couple of months of actual usage, once Sunflower arrives.  Jenny would like to pick out and register for a travel system that would last longer.  I won't discuss the pros and cons of each approach here, but encourage any suggestions and thoughts in the comments!

More than that, I am worried that by only registering at Babies-R-Us, we are artificially limiting our options with regards to the big ticket items.  For example, what if Babies-R-Us doesn't sell the stroller that we want?  Jenny argues that most people who want to buy us a gift (even an expensive one) will, by default, look up our registry at a common store like Babies-R-Us and let that guide their decision.  They won't find anything we don't register for there.  (I hope I don't sound greedy--let me make it clear that we don't expect to get everything on our registry, much less the more expensive things.  Jenny and I share the opinion that people like giving gifts, and they like to have lots of options, so that they can pick something they like, and know that we'll like it too.  We don't have any expectations or demands.)  I think that if someone plans to give our baby a larger gift, it's likely to be a very close friend or family member, and they'll ask us beforehand about our preferences, especially if there isn't anything on our registry.

I would like to make a supplementary, online-only registry, for items in which Babies-R-Us is deficient.  I've found a website that claims to allow multi-store registries, with all the items listed on one page.  It's called The Things I Want.com , and while I haven't used it yet, I think it looks promising.  I haven't explained the details of this to Jenny yet, but she thinks that most people don't like shopping on the internet; that they want to try things out before buying them.  I think that people enjoy the convenience of internet shopping, and would give it a try.  I can anticipate Jenny's other question: how will people find a registry on an obscure website?  But I think I have an answer for that--for one thing, they might read the blog and find the link.  If they don't do that, we can include a message on our registry at Babies-R-Us.  I haven't tried this, so it might be prohibited, but I think I will be able to say that we're also registered at another website, and give the address.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts about TheThingsIWant.com.  What do you think about shopping for gifts on the internet?  And, since you made it all the way to the end of this post, here's our Babies-R-Us Registry .  Be aware that it's in a state of flux, and we will be removing some things and adding others over the next few weeks and months.

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This weekend I travelled to Chattanooga with the rowing team for our last regatta of the fall season.  Jenny and I were both sad to be apart.  We're about to get on the bus that will take us to the airport, and then we have a direct flight home, so we'll be home pretty early.

Yesterday, I rented a bike to ride along the race course and cheer our rowers on.  To get to the bike rental shop, I crossed a long pedestrian bridge over the river, then walked a couple of blocks.  It's beautiful--the bridge is painted blue, and there are parks on both sides.  It appeared that lots of families with young people make the area a Saturday destination for family fun.  Some of them were watching the regatta, but many were just out to enjoy a beautiful fall day.  I spent quite a bit of time looking at the little kids and thinking about our future.

I also tried to get a good look at all the different strollers.  I haven't put up my post about our experience at Babies-Я-Us last Tuesday, but because of it I realized that I don't understand our stroller needs.  With so many people around the race venue this weekend, I took the opportunity to look at the many different styles of strollers on display and think about our baby locomotion needs.

Time to go.  More later.

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