06.30.08
Posted in Family at 1:00 pm by Todd
I have a cousin who is crazy. Not certifiable or someone you would commit to an institution. But definitely crazy. He is a storm chaser. He enjoys following storms, taking photographs and video, and writing stories about the chase. His name is Jake Wallentine and he is an amazing young man.
He grew up in Wichita, KS – what I consider to be the tornado capital of the world. And I think because of that, he got interested in meterology. He recently completed his first year in college (or what people in Oklahoma call a college) at the University of Oklahoma. He is working towards a degree in Meterology.
And in his free-time he does things like this. I will be living vicariously through him since I am a big storm-nut as well. I just never thought about pursuing it as a career.
It sounds like he will be starting up his own website to help show his pictures and tell his stories. I have had the privilege of assisting him in getting started. So far, I have just provided some advice and feedback but it is still early in the process so I might get to help more. I will be sure to point to it once it is up and running so my friends and family can also share in the fun.
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06.13.08
Posted in About Me, Family, KSU at 1:00 pm by Todd
The Spring of 2008 has been a very busy time for me. It ranged from fantastic (graduation and vacation) to sad (funeral). Here are some highlights:
- Kari successfully defended her thesis to get one step closer to completing her Master of Science in Animal Science degree (4/21/08).
- My grandmother, Arlene Mullin, passed away unexpectedly (4/16/08). We celebrated her life and our family in Ames, IA (4/23/08). I will really miss her and I know the rest of the family will as well.
- Submitted a paper to Sensys 2008 about our work with Cadena and sensor networks (4/28/08). I did almost no writing (at least none that made it into the paper) but drove many of the ideas that were explained in the paper. I was also charged with doing a lot of the experimentation and investigation (so I learned a lot about nesC, TinyOS, feature modeling, and the Feature Modeling Plugin). It would certainly be an accomplishment to have a second publication but I have a hard time taking credit since I did very little writing.
- Hosted my cousins (Cherie and Ashley Swanson) for a visit to the Little Apple (5/1 through 5/4/08). We set it up on a weekend where Ashley could attend the Taste of Home Cooking show, visit K-State to investigate possible majors, and shadow Noah at della Voce. I think this gave Ash a great view of Manhattan, K-State, and a career in the restaurant business. And I am so glad she got to chat with Jackie McClaskey – she sold the College of Agriculture better than anyone else I have met.
- Kari completed her Master of Science degree in Animal Science and walked in the Graduate Schools graduation ceremony at Bramlage Coliseum (5/16/08).
- I surprised Kari with a vacation that was meant to celebrate her graduation and our anniversary as well as give us a time to unwind and get some much needed perspective on life (5/23 through 5/27/08). We spent 5 days (4 nights) in the Turks and Caicos Islands. And I surprised her even more by having our good friends (and neighbors) the Wallaces meet us there and vacation with us. What a fun surprise and what a fantastic vacation.
And it looks like the summer will also be full of fun and adventures. Births, vacations, wedding, job search, and much more are on the agenda for the summer. So it should be interesting – wish me luck.
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03.19.08
Posted in About Me, Family at 1:00 pm by Todd
This past weekend I had fun helping my father-in-law at their new house in Hope, KS. My in-laws recently purchased a house for the land and are planning on tearing down the house (and barns). Once the house is gone they plan on building a brand new house so they needed help with the destruction. Fun!
This is the first time I have ever had a chance to tear down a house. Over the last year I have helped 3 friends do construction on their house. So I have to say that destruction is so much more fun.
This past weekend we spent time cleaning up dead limbs, tearing down walls, and collecting lumber to be recycled. Saturday we spent most of the time getting rid of limbs that were broken off during the December ice storm. We hauled out several large loads from the house out to the city “dump”. Sunday was spent tearing down the plaster and lath walls and removing some usable lumber. Sunday was more fun because I got to take out all my anger, frustration, and angst on the walls without worry. I highly suggest this type of work. And I now understand why Ty loves demo-day so much. It is just total fun! I am still looking forward to breaking the windows and trying to run through a door! A kid has to dream right.
I hope to help out more as the spring rolls on and maybe I will post more pictures of what I get to destroy. And if you need assistance in tearing down your house, give me a hollar – I might be able to find time in my schedule to help out.
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03.08.08
Posted in Family at 1:00 pm by Todd
This past Christmas Kari and I changed our gift giving habit a little bit. Instead of buying things for (some) people we decided to make donations in their name to places that might be meaningful to them.
My dad really has a great heart and loves his family. Because of that, we found a place to donate that relates to our family. A few years ago a member of my extended family was diagnosed with
Lupus. And just recently, another member of my extended family got the same diagnosis. Because Lupus has effected our family, we thought supporting the
Lupus Foundation of America would be appropriate. So we donated to them in honor of Virg Wallentine. We hope the money will be used wisely.
My sister loves kids. I mean really loves kids. She already has 3 rug-rats running around at home with a fourth on the way. And if that isn’t enough to make a sane person pull out their hair, she also runs a (fantastic) day-care out of her home. Which means more rug-rats running around. Because of her love of kids, and her past donations to them, we decided to donate to the
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in honor of Jen Coslett. We hope the money will be used wisely.
And since we liked this so much, we are going to get into a habit of donating. Some places that will likely receive money will be (in addition to those mentioned above):
Note: I still need to research these charities before we give. But they look good so far.
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08.20.07
Posted in Family at 9:57 am by Todd
I was chatting with my dad recently and remembered a funny story that I thought I would share with the world (or the 3 people that read this blog). When Kari and I were still dating we made a trip up to Minnesota to visit my friend Matt and his girlfriend (now wife) Sara. On the way back we decided to stop and stay with my aunt and uncle, Bob and Ann Wallentine, in Fort Dodge, IA.
Now up until this point Kari had not met much of my family. But of the family that she met she was kind of put-off by them. The reason for this was that she was not what I would describe as a “huggie” person (meaning she wasn’t much for physical affection of the hugging kind) when it comes to relatives.
So as we are driving up to their house Kari was acting a little funny so I asked what was wrong. She said she was a little nervous about meeting them and them wanting hugs. I chuckled a little bit and re-assured her that of all my family, I couldn’t imagine Bob and Ann hugging her.
When we went to the door it opened and they welcomed us to their house … and gave Kari two big hugs.
I think back on that and it just makes me laugh. Poor Kari and her trials in meeting my family. Can’t believe she stuck with me, married me, and is still married to me after 7 years. What’s more, she actually likes me family now … who-wooda-thunk!
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08.09.07
Posted in Family at 4:13 pm by Todd
Kari and I recently returned from the 2007 Wallentine Family reunion. This year it was held in Colorado Springs, CO with a great deal of the family attending. During the reunion, we also got to celebrate a couple of great anniversaries:
- Bob and Ann Wallentine marked their 50th anniversary
- Phylis and Loren Wibben marked their 40th anniversary
During the long weekend we had a great meal at the Flying W Ranch, a golf outing, a white water rafting adventure, some hiking and biking around the Garden of the Gods, and some exploring of the local area (downtown and the Air Force Academy). But the most fun was spent just hanging out and catching up with family.
Over the coming months I will be creating the wallentine.com site (right now it is just a silly placeholder page). I hope to include a lot of the photos that were taken as well as gather suggestions on what else should go there.
I should also mention that several family members seem to be part of Facebook (Jake and Josh Wallentine as well as myself). So if your are family, feel free to add me as your friend. And I will certainly point you to the other family members on there.
And a final note about another website. I little while back I setup an account on Geni to see what it was all about. It turns out that it is quite the neat site for keeping track of geneology as well as some nice social networking features. So if you are interested, feel free to contact me about it and I will help you get setup. I will say a good portion of my family history is out there and it is slowly expanding as I invite family members to join.
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08.06.07
Posted in Family at 3:06 pm by Todd
Earlier this summer Kari and I had another fun vacation with her family (mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law). For the 2nd year in a row, we spent a few days at Kendall and Patty’s (brother and sister-in-law) lake house located on the shores of the Lake of the Ozarks near Camdenton, MO (Google Map location). This was a fantastic vacation filled with eating, drinking (soda), reading, relaxing, and some fun on the lake. Mostly just a good relaxing few days spent with family at a great location.
Thanks to Kendall and Patty for inviting us to their lake house and thanks to her parents (Gene and Deanna) for spending their hard-earned money so we can have such a great getaway.
There are more images stored in the wallentine.com image gallery.
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07.13.07
Posted in Family, KSU at 8:38 pm by Todd
I
blogged earlier about a clinical Trial that Kari is starting and wanted to provide a quick set of updates.
- She is getting a really good response from all the posters she put up and the ads that she put into the Manhattan Mercury.
- Dr. Carder, of Stone House Animal Hospital, has been a great guy and very helpful in getting this trial started (I will probably provide more details about his generosity later).
- She currently has two dozen dogs started and is in contact with a couple of dozen that are in the process of qualification for the study.
- K-State recently posted a news release about thunderstorm phobia and mentions the clinical trial.
- The Topeka Capital Journal published an article based upon the information in the news release.
- 49ABC News in Topeka, KMAN radio in Manhattan, and the K-State Collegian have seen the news release and contacted her about getting more information.
With all that good news it looks like the clinical trial is starting off really well. But she is still looking for more people to participate. So if you, or anyone you know, has a dog that might be afraid of thunderstorms please call her at 532-1089 or email her.
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06.18.07
Posted in About Me, Family, KSU, Programming at 4:20 pm by Todd
I found out some sad news this morning, Joseph Campbell passed away. He had been struggling for quite some time and finally succumbed to it this morning at 5am. And while it is always sad when death comes, it sounds like it was his time.
I have two great memories of Joe. First, a little background. My dad has been the head of the Computing and Information Sciences department as long as I can remember (I think he is going on 25 years). And for as long as I can remember, Joe was an instructor and advisor for the department. So Joe has known me for most of my life.
Anyway, I decided to follow in my dad’s footsteps and get a Bachelors degree in Computer Science. This meant that I had Joe as my advisor. And he was my advisor for all 4.5 years of my undergraduate degree. And every time I came in to prepare to enroll for the next semester he would ask the same question, “Should we enroll you in CIS 200?” For those of you not familiar with the numbering scheme at K-State, the first part of the course name is the department, in this case CIS meant Computing and Information Sciences department. The second part of the course name is the id of the course. This id puts the course into a category where the lower the number, the more “introductory” the material. So, to translate this, he was asking me if I was ready to take the intro course to computer programming every semester … even my last semester when I was taking 500 and 600 level courses! And to this day, I don’t know if he was being funny, or just an “absent-minded professor“.
The 2nd story is related. Joe was in the Navy, and very proud of that fact. So every chance he got, he tried to recruit me into the Navy. Every semester when we sat down to fill out my schedule, he would ask “Are you ready to enroll in the Navy’s nuclear submarine program?” And every semester I would say “Joe, I am just not interested in that, even if they pay my way through school. I just don’t belong in the Navy much less on a submarine.” He never let it go until the day I finished my Master of Science degree. He was a persistent son-of-a-gun.
Joseph Campbell was a wonderful, helpful, caring, funny, fun, entertaining, amusing guy. And I will miss having him around. My prayers go out to Joe’s family, friends, and colleagues. I know you will be missed by many.
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06.15.07
Posted in Family, KSU at 12:33 pm by Todd
My wife, the DVM and now household renowed researcher, is starting her first clinical trial. Because she needs to recruit subjects I decided to use my only public face to advertise for her (if I will do it for my friend and his political ambitions, I should do it for my wife). So here is her announcement:
We would like to make you aware of a clinical study on a new treatment for canine thunderstorm phobia that is being performed at Kansas State University. This study will determine the efficacy of a product with the potential for treating affected dogs. We are currently in the recruitment phase of the trial and are looking for dogs with thunderstorm phobia to participate in the study.
The study is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study in which dogs will either be administered the product or a placebo as one of two treatment groups. Neither the researchers nor the owners of dogs in the trial will know whether they have been given the product or the placebo.
To be included, dogs need to be fearful of thunderstorms, indoor dogs, and in good health. If you are interested or know of someone who might be interested, please contact Dr. Kari Wallentine at 785/532-1089. We will obtain a behavioral and medical history over the telephone, and if your dog meets the necessary criteria, you will be invited to set up an appointment for a physical examination of your dog. Upon enrollment in the study, dogs will be assigned randomly to one of two treatment groups.
You will be asked to complete a behavioral assessment questionnaire prior to the start of the study to get a baseline of your dog’s behavior during storms. Then you will be asked to keep a diary of thunderstorm events during the eight week study as well as complete an additional behavioral assessment questionnaire every two weeks. This project has been approved by both K-State’s Institutional Review Board and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 785/532-1089 or kari@wallentine.com.
Thank you for your consideration.
Kari D. Wallentine, DVM
Janice C. Swanson, PhD
Thomas Schermerhorn, VMD, DACVIM
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