June

I'm going to break with tradition, and not start with my boys because the month was punctuated with memorable events involving others. At the beginning of the month, we celebrated Igor's birthday: the boys made cards, and I made plov. In the middle of the month, Galina had to have an emergency surgery for a blood blot in her leg. Thankfully, the surgery was successful, and her leg was saved. We learned at the end of the month that Igor's dad was not as successful with a similar blood clot: he lost a leg.

Now for the boys. Nikita played well, not perfectly, at his piano recital. He's also making much more progress with his violin because he's more willing to play a piece more than once during a practice session, and concentrate on troublesome sections (the "Little Bets" approach). I'm still sure, however, that helping him practice the violin will make my hair go gray.

Nikita's major event of the month was a multi-day chess tournament in NY. Although he played in the 8 and under group, the field was super strong. Coming in, he was 3rd from the bottom; he ended being 5th from the bottom. He also may have been the victim of cheating. One kid resigned the game, but the next day, the kid's coach showed Igor an extra four moves in the game, giving the kid a win. On the plus side, Nikita enjoyed camping with Igor, but missed his Legos terribly.

Ivan and I bonded while Nikita was in NY: we often went to the park after dinner for biking and playing ball. We also spent a day in Newburyport with Galina, enjoying the harbor and shops:

The biggest news, however, was to discover that Ivan has three cavities! Which means we'll be spending a lot of time at the dentist's this month.

For me, I had a couple of events related to teaching (FEE grading, a lecture at BBRI), but a good part the month of June was spent in conferences. First was the National Centers of Systems Biology meeting at Duke University. The packed schedule meant that I didn't get to see much of the area, but I had a good time hanging out with the other administrators, and witnessed some histrionics during the closed door session. The week after Duke was CDP's retreat followed by the International Systems Biology of Human Disease conference. Both were successful, and I actually facilitated a session in each.

My last conference was TEDx Boston, and it was a blast because of the high-quality presentations. My favorite presentation was about the Dhamma Brothers. I was astounded to see how learning Vipassana meditation (briefly, 100 hours of meditation in 10 days) became brute-force therapy for hardened prisoners in Alabama. Many of these prisoners were in for life, but I wish that could be changed because the prisoners were so transformed by the Buddhist technique. I highly recommend watching the documentary:


At home, I cooked a lot. Some meals included roast chicken with white chocolate chip cookies, meatloaf with ice cream. I also made lemon squares because I missed baking from last month, but nothing with Nutella despite this article published at the beginning of the month. I also got some projects done around the house: getting rid of holiday decorations (Easter window gels, Christmas gingerbread house) and cleaning out the medicine cabinet. Finally, I heard some great music this month. There was the Women of the World at TEDx Boston, and the Voices of Renaissance Choir at Gospel Night at the Pops. For me, the kids in the latter group outshone the Boston Pops Gospel Choir. I could actually hear what they were singing because their enunciation was great.

Finally, like last month, I'll end this post with something Glee-related. Sure, I've been watching The Glee Project, but I wish Ryan Murphy would give this kid a chance as well: