July 27, 2025 - catching up, post London trip

Well, I did about two hours of work and 7 hours of work-relevant reading from July 14-24th while in London, so that was some nice and very real vacationing! Since returning, I've only worked about 3 hours, but that will change soon. I rented a bike while in London, so I managed to bike about the same number of hours that I spent doing work-related things over this timespan. Perfect! 

Also, as an aside, London is certainly much more civilized than anything I've experienced in the US. Everything is walkable. Transit is amazing. Biking is easy, there are separated bike routes in many places, but even where it's not like that, the speed limit in the city is 20 kmph (i.e, less than 15 mph), so you can just bike in the flow of traffic... easy as pie. Also, speaking of pie. The food in London is so good, so many options, so abundant, so much fusion (Brits have added spice to their own cuisine at this point). AND we definitely need to get rid of tipping culture in the US. The waitstaff in areas without tips are much friendlier, the pace of eating is more relaxed, the service is better. They are not reliant on shoving as many patrons through the restaurant as possible to make a living. Basically, everything there was better than daily life here, unless you want to drive fast, but who wants to spend their time driving anyway. TV programs were better too. More intelligent comedy. 

We missed Tori, Badger and Dallas immensely, but Sarah M. did a great job looking after them!

Unfortunately, we learned that the fine needle aspiration that Tori had (the week before we left) on a lump within the soft tissue of her left rear leg showed that the lump is a cancerous tumor. It might be a cancer that doesn't spread, that's the potential good news. The bad news is the type of cancer is one that is fibrous, i.e., it is hard to cleanly excise. So, it won't be very likely that Dr. B. will be able to get all of it, because he has to make sure he can close the wound on her leg. So even if it's a type of cancer that doesn't spread (benign), it will likely grow back with time. There is also the chance that the cancer is malignant, in which case she might need to have her leg removed later on. I really hope that is not the case. The good news is that she doesn't have any symptoms of being ill other than the lump. She is happy, running, and as naughty as ever. It will be hard to see her in pain going through the surgery and recovery, but we'll manage. 

Notable work updates since my previous post:

1. Officially joined IMW grant reviewer panel. 

2. Completed 2.5 hours of annual UVU training modules on FERPA, Title IX, cyber security, etc. 

3. Read the book Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan on the plane trip, got a couple of research/teaching ideas for incorporating multivariate regression analyses into my advanced GIS book that I am working on. 


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