I'm back!

I'm sorry I've been so silent of late--my only excuse is supersitition, as it seemed like every time I told someone I was getting better, I got much worse, so I couldn't come here and write that I was getting better, and I didn't want to when I was getting worse...anyway, I am now officially much, much better, and our trip to Sydney was very therapeutic (we got to walk on, and near, the beach), and I had my check-up at the pnuemonia clinic just before we went, and the child doctor (he may have been a med student--or a resident, which they call "registrar" here) said "it's nice to do a physical on someone who is relatively healthy"--which made me feel very good. I guess they see a lot of very decrepit people. But I am feeling ecstatically healthy right now, able to climb whole staircases without a second thought.

And it is spring--we planted some tomatoes yesterday, and carrot seeds, and the strawberries we planted a few weeks ago are blooming very promisingly. Yesterday we went to Hamilton Gardens--very pretty park--and saw several batches of very cute ducklings, some swimming perilously close to some menacing-looking eels, but no tragedy transpired. Good thing, because Emily was very emotionally involved with those ducklings.

And now I had better get back to too many student papers...I was excited and inspired by the conference in Sydney (on perinatal mental health) and hope to get some more research started soon, and maybe go back next year to Melbourne, when the conference is jointly between perinatal mental health and infant mental health societies--not to mention Pittsburgh, in 2010. Could 2010 be nearly here?

Carrie