Aunt Kaye

Wanted to give a quick shout out to my aunt Kaye. She is a founding member of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and also the founder of the Lowe Syndrome Association. There is now a Leland McSpadden Memorial Fund for Lowe Syndrome.

Kaye just spoke at Manchester College in Northern Indiana: "A student panel will serve up questions to pro-life advocate Mary Meehan, whose opinion pieces have appeared in such national media as The New York Times and The Washington Post, and Kaye McSpadden, president of Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice."

I wish I had been in town for the debate.

Furniture Moving Trip: Things I Learned About My Grandpa

I knew my mother's father got his phd in physics from Ohio State, and I roughly knew the year, but on my whirlwind trip to the Midwest I spent some time with grandpa during which he showed me his masters and phd thesis. His phd thesis was an extension of his masters, and they were both titled something along the lines of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer ... And both were funded by the Navy. (This brought-up a question of a Brethren Minister doing research for the Navy, but I didn't ask him about that.) The masters thesis was published around 1957 and the phd thesis around 1958, with a final research paper to the Navy in 1960. This team of Midwestern physicists were working on identifying biological weapons (this was the Cold War) in air/water/other mediums with the help of what is now MRI technology. My grandfather quoted another researcher who said, The magnet " weighs as much as one Buick, and costs as much as two Buicks."

NOTE: This Buick pictured weighed about 4000 pounds and cost about $2700 in 1958.

Furniture Moving Trip: The Chicago Chapter, AKA How I Remembered What 22 Felt Like

• Flew to Chicago on a 6 AM flight
• Arrived and took train to red line Addison stop
• Picked-up Penske 16' truck, drove to Evanston
• Watched two twenty-something boys load truck with furniture. Especially watched part where twenty-something military-pressed the windsurfer while shirtless.
• Took short nap
• Had fun dinner with Tom, Tracy, Cynthia, Alex, and Julie
• Went to Burlington with A and J
• Closed the bar
• Said good-bye to A and J, followed Jim K to the Continental, stayed way too late
• Back in Evanston at 7AM
• Tried to sleep only to be woken-up at 8:45 by Tom's 9 AM therapy appt as I was sleeping in his office
• Brunch at Lucky Platter with A & J
• Possibly unsafe drive to New Paris, IN in 16' Penske truck
• Asleep by 8 PM

When you are as sleep deprived as I was, and still am, memories really are only bullet points.

Brick Kiln

Last night around 10 pm Rick and I drove to Colonial Williamsburg to watch the firing of the brick kiln. Every year CW has a working brickyard, and then before the first frost they fire the bricks. The bricks are then used for building and repair within CW.

A brick kiln is entirely made of the bricks to be fired, then coated with mud. For 2 days the tunnels within the kiln are filled with wood fire and coals, and then throughout 2 - 4 days the bricks cook at a temperature around 2000 degrees. The kiln must be manned 24 hours a day. When finished the entire structure is dismantled, which provides the new bricks.

All day and night it was drizzling rain, so the ground was giving off that earthy, rotting , sweet smell. The kiln smell reminded me of a camp fire and apple cider. I wish I new what wood they were burning, I would put braziers in my yard and light them every night with that stuff.

We also had dinner at a neighbors home with 2 neighborhood couples. We are starting to create our life here in Williamsburg.

Chicago in 3 Days

I am headed to Chicago in three days, and I am really looking forward to the trip. Nevermind that I need to wake-up at 3:45 AM for a 6 AM flight. Nevermind that I only get to spend 30ish hours in the city before driving a moving truck to Northern Indiana. Nevermind that my closest Chicago friends have all moved away. I am still thrilled to ride the L, to see the lake, and take a taxi ride at the end of a late Friday night. Woo hoo!

Just got over my cold yesterday. Living back at sea level has certainly improved my health. A simple cold would have lasted 14 days minimum in Colorado. Only 6 days here. Unfortunately, being healthy means I have to finish a landscaping project, and refinishing another hard-wood floor.

Mc's Birthday Weekend In ACK

Just got back from a much needed long weekend. You may know it was my birthday on Saturday, and that neatly corresponded to Stephanie Miness and Kevin Begnal's wedding in Nantucket, MA. Kevin B grew-up with Rick in Kent, CT, and went to Kent school. Rick and Kevin were best friends and learned to rock climb, camp, party, talk to girls, etc etc together. While they haven't stayed best friends, Kevin and Stephanie were at our wedding, and now Rick and I got to have the pleasure of being at theirs.

First we flew to Boston and spent Thursday night with Rick's sister at her new, gorgeous apartment. AND we got to meet the newest member of the Todd clan, Auggie Todd, a 10 week old Jack Russel. Kate treated us to a birthday dinner at a fabulous downtown Boston restaurant, Sibling Rivalry. Two chef brothers started the restaurant and they each cook a menu with common ingredients, and you get to choose between the two. They also gave me special birthday cookies. I highly recommend if you are in Boston.

Friday morning we flew on the tiniest plane to Nantucket. Cape Air airline is well run, professional, but they fly 8 passenger Cessna 402 planes. No restroom for the 45 minute flight, and just two propellers taking you over the sound. Somehow I survived. Rick, of course, took photos and he actually got to sit in the co-pilot's seat on the flight back to Boston on Sunday.

Nantucket is beautiful. Overly manicured, not a speck of dirt, or dust anywhere, and thus very beautiful. Actually it reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg. The immaculate landscaping and building requirements make for a museum-like island.

The wedding was beautiful. It was at the Wauwinet, which is a spectacular location. The Wauwinet only ever allow 2 weddings a year, but somehow Stephanie managed to convince them to do a third for the first time. Sunday morning Rick and I returned to the Wauwinet area and drove our rented Jeep Wrangler on the beach. We watched seals play in the waves and ran around on the beach.

Made it home last night, but I have brought a virus home with me. Currently I am dealing with a sore throat and nasal congestion. Argh.

Photo Gallery from Rick will be available later this week ...

Our First Virginia "bar" Experience

First, you should know there are no bars in Virginia. None. Virginia is one of those commonwealths that decree that all places serving alcohol must serve a certain percentage of food, and that percentage is somewhere over 50%. Thus, all places are restaurants, but what this really means is that all the bars serve decent food.

Rick and I went to our first fauz-bar last weekend. It was near the William and Mary campus, and full of college undergrads and grad students. Maybe even a few of the younger, hipper professors. The Green Leafe Cafe was full of dark wood paneling, and serves over 150 different bottled beers.

The strange thing about this faux bar, or let me re-state, the strange thing about the William and Mary crowd is how they dress. Almost every woman was in a cocktail dress - at a bar. At a bar where they have a big screen tv with the football game on. These woman had real honest to god up-do hair-dos. They looked ready for a wedding - even as maids of honor. The men were also in their finest. I actually saw a sweater casually hung around a man's neck. Like this was Caddyshack! As a college student I would never go drinking in anything that wouldn't recover from vomit.

My readers from Virginia Tech - is this normal?

The Magic of the Trachea

Did you know that if your lung collapses due to trauma you may not have specific signs or symptoms for up to 30 minutes? And then, the first sign can be your trachea actually shifting in your neck towards the side with the good lung. And, then after the collapsed lung heals the trachea will shift back to midline. The shift is an element of something called the "mediastinal shift".

$400 Laser Hair Removal

So, I just won $400 (UPDATE: Okay, just found out, everyone wins $300 if they enter the contest - I got an extra $100 because the clinic I am going to is new, and is trying to get new business, hmm...) of laser hair removal, or skin rejuvenation, or cellulite reduction therapy from American Laser Centers. This is very strange, and I have no idea whether I want to use this, or even what I would use the prize on. I have a consultation tomorrow to go over my options. I have this horrible fantasy that I go in and they have a fun-house style mirror that makes me look like I have deep wrinkles around my eyes, furrows on my forehead, and cellulite everywhere. All the treatments they offer, except the laser hair removal, seem like utter hokum to me, but $400 doesn't get you much laser hair removal.