A fragment of tonight’s bedtime conversation:
Daughter: Where is Mommy?
Me: Mommy is at the hospital taking care of the sick people. Mommy is a doctor and knows how to help them.
Daughter: What do you know how to do?
Me (hesitating): Well, I can calculate quantum transition amplitudes, and I can solve Einstein’s equations in certain special geometries…
Daughter: I think you can do better things than that.
October 8, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Well, I’ve helped people get well, but I’ve never done that thing you can do.
AMDG
October 9, 2012 at 2:25 am
Ha ha! Yes, I think you can do much better things than that! Like make macaroni and cheese!
October 9, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Yes, in her eyes the macaroni and cheese is a far greater achievement. This is good to keep in mind when the annual performance review comes around at work…
October 9, 2012 at 5:07 pm
“I could, in principle, calculate interactions between different medicines using Schroedinger’s equation of many-particle systems. Some people need to take different kinds of medicine and it’s important to understand how they interact with each other.”
October 9, 2012 at 7:39 pm
I didn’t think of that.
October 10, 2012 at 10:34 pm
If it makes you feel better, B and I had conversation this week that went approximately:
Me ‘What are you doing this morning?’
B ‘Going to a meeting about pink rainbows.’
Me ‘Very Nice, and this afternoon?’
B ‘Firing you Daddy, right in the fireplace!’
October 10, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Ouch! What a sweetie.
October 11, 2012 at 10:09 am
I’m sure Iona will change her tune next time you encounter a black hole and you are able to come up with the Kerr-Newman metric in a pinch.
October 11, 2012 at 11:19 am
I am waiting for that day, Adam. Waiting and waiting.