I LOVE MY IPOD

I have had my iPod about 3 months now and just love it. I believe it is the single most effective electronic item I have ever had.

Mine is a 60gb version with video. On it I have playlists for everyone in the immediate family, and several playlists for myself, including "Maggie in the Mood," "Maggie Upbeat," "Maggie Working Out," "Maggie On the Road," and more. In addition, I subscribe to several regular podcasts, including a great meditation one, 2 workout ones, NPR's "Driveway Moments," Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac," and National Geographic Nature. For our recent vacation, I experimented with loading a movie, choosing the free "30 Days" feature made by the guy who did the movie, "Supersize Me," which btw is a great movie. I have it if any friends want to watch it, but you have to watch it here as it is a Google download. The video i put on my iPod was an hour long and worked great. With all the music, podcasts, and the movie, I have used only about 3 gb of my 60, and I tend to delete the podcasts after hearing them once or twice -- in fact -- that's one of the beauties of the thing -- it's fluid. What I have on it now doesn't even resemble what I had on it at first, when I got it. It changes and evolves with your tastes and mood.

To me the beauty of the iPod is you can put your own personal favorites on it and it's your own customized music machine. Happy? Play your upbeat songs. Passing time? Tune in to the educational stories. Some are half an hour, some are 5 minutes. Pick the one that fits your timeframe and your mood. Riding on the subway last week, it occurred to me how perfectly private an iPod is. You can look at someone who is listening and you have no clue -- they might be listening to rap, classical, or How to Speak French, which btw is another set I have on mine and forgot to mention.

I say all this having experienced the perfect iPod moment today. Bright and early I was scheduled for a root canal with our dear old dentist who attends the same church as we. He is delightful, white-haired, gentle, and amazingly savvy with technology. He's been practicing for 46 years. After about an hour of root-canaling me, he announced I would have to go to the endodontist as he had accidentally broken off the head of an instrument and it was down in my canal. He printed off the x-ray, wrote a note to the endo, and sent me on my way. BTW, he did not charge me for his hour-plus. Please note I have no hard feelings. I really love this guy.

Not feeling the best, I came home to rest and called DH with the news. He was quite concerned for me and offered to call the endo for me. He called back to say they would have me at 12:30 and they said I really needed to have it settled today.

So at 12:30 I went back for the SECOND root canal of the day -- on the same tooth. This time I remembered my iPod.

"Are you still numb?" she asked. "Not at all," I replied. So she shot me up and left me for 15 minutes or so for Sir Novacaine to do his job. Whipped my iPod out of my bag and turned to a 10-minute Meditation podcast. My muscles relaxed. I felt my body slipping into the meditative state. By the time she returned to work on me, I was relaxed and had moved on to Barry White, Lionel Ritchie, Joe Cocker, and Van Morrison. Having my own personal sounds actually "in" my head helped me not to notice the 3 hands and 4 instruments crammed into my mouth, the annoying sound of the drill, and the discomfort. With the iPod lying on my belly and the aforementioned hands between my head and the iPod, it could've been difficult to adjust volume, or skip a song, if the iPod were not so amazingly intuitive, which it definitely is. I can do those functions and more by touch without looking at it at all.

I LOVE MY IPOD.

Last Day of Vacation

Well, the last day of vacation was, in my book, the best. Having no tour appointments, we slept in, then puttered around the apt, packing for the trip home. Before noon we set out on bicycles for uptown, where we toured the Supreme Court bldg and had lunch.

Leisurely biked around the Mall, remembering our experiences at all the buildings -- the Capitol, National Gallery, Archives, Museum of Natural History, American History, White House, Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Holocaust Museum, the Smith Castle, and Air & Space.

Then we biked over to the Jefferson Memorial, where we enjoyed some time just sitting on the steps and enjoying the breeze across the water. The bike ride home to the apt was long but not too terrible, and we had an hour or so before setting out for Union Station.

The train ride was our best ever with conductors who actually gave a care and definitely idiosyncratic fellow passengers..

We arrived at SmallTown about 2am and were greeted by our friend's smiling face. He had kindly driven us to our depot in the wee hours and then picked us back up so we did not have to leave our car in the parking lot for several days.

All of us were pretty wide awake when we got to HSH (that's Home, Sweet Home), and it took us a couple hours to settle down. The pets were beside themselves to see us, except for old Francie, who we could not find anywhere. Finally, about 3:45 we all settled down and got some Z's.

At 7am the phone rang. It was DS1 announcing the New Baby is on the way. So now I am in Nearby Larger City with DGD4 while DS1 and DDIL have labor and delivery. LO has her first day of school tomorrow and DH is at home planning how to pack her lunch, where to put all the suitcase stuff. lol. Wish I were a fly on the wall. No. Wait. Correction. Glad I'm not there to see it.

Big picture, great vacation, good trip, glad to be here, and DGD4 seems pretty happy to have me here. Will announce DGS4 soon.

More Adventures in DC

Today we had a pretty off day so I will focus on yesterday!!

Our little tour guide at the Capitol was delightful. She’s a rising senior in Virginia at boarding school, working for Senator Dole for the month of August. She had plenty of crib cards to help her through our tour, but it went fine and she had a good bank of knowledge. We walked through the tunnels from the Dirksen Senate Building to the Russell Senate Building, then took the Senate trolley through the tunnel from the Russell under the street over to the Capitol.

I had not at all expected the Capitol to be so beautiful. I had expected lots of marble, and businesslike offices, which were centainly there, but the breathtaking mosaics and handpainted walls and ceilings took me by total surprise. The frieze around the Capitol dome in the rotunda was wonderful….it begins with pioneers hacking down trees and finishes with scenes from the Civil War. The "whisper spot" in the rotunda really works and all in all we had a delightful time.

From the Capitol we went over to the Library of Congress, Jefferson Building. Missing the 11:30 tour by only 2 minutes, we hopped into another tour nearby that had just gotten started. Boy was that our lucky day. Our docent was a man who clearly loves the place and had stories galore as to how and why each component of the building came to be. DH and I have been to the LOC before, but did not have the underlying reason as to why this or that is included in the ornament, and boy is there plenty of that. LO seemed to enjoy it, too, and even though 2/3 of the folks in the tour group ebbed away, probably due to his long stories, we stuck it out and learned more than we ever dreamed.

As we left, we asked a couple of security guards where they recommended for a good lunch, and they suggested the LOC cafeteria on the 6th floor of the Madison bldg. I guess this place is mostly for employees, but it was great and we all got exactly what we wanted. I lucked up on some soup! I rarely eat soup publicly as it usually has a chicken or beef base, but DC is sososo veggie-friendly and this soup’s ingredients were posted in case you were vegan. Vegetable broth, shitake mushrooms, spinach and tofu, and boy was it yummy. I paired that with a salad with balsamic vinegar and an apple for dessert.

Every day so far we have spent $36 for lunch for the 3 of us – not much more, not much less -- $36 – and boy does that suck. We haven’t been eating a lot, or elaborate stuff, sandwiches and wraps and the like – but $36 seemed to be the magic number. Yesterday at the LOC cafeteria we came in just under $25 and were thrilled. (Today we ate lunch for $26 but only b/c I got pbj and plain water in a glass. If I had gotten real food we would’ve been at $36 again!!)

After that yummy lunch we ventured out to Air and Space. Everyone was happy there as we looked and looked to our hearts’ delight. LO and DH rode an F18 Hornet simulator and the three of us went to the Albert Einstein planetarium, which I heartily recommend. Many times we really felt as if we were in the images. Learned a lot, too. The Wright Brothers’ exhibit was quite rich and I guess that’s where I spent most of my time.

Walking home from the subway, we stopped at the neighborhood Safeway, where we have shopped every night since arriving. I got a little Gouda cheese, some fresh cherries, and some sourdough bread. A little Perrier and I was set. LO hit the salad bar and DH picked up some HOT wings at the neighborhood deli to take home.

I won’t go into today, but will give one clue: a block away from the Holocaust Museum, I was still sobbing. DH was hapless. On the train home tonight, I asked LO what part of it meant the most to her. " I can’t talk about it for a few days, Nana," she said. "It’s too sad."

Who'da Thought

Most American families, in visiting our Nation's Capital, plan way too much into a few short days. As a result, they become tired, crabby, and unfit for pleasant companionship. We are no different.
On Saturday, we visited the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and Museum of Natural History.
Yesterday, we visited the Museum of American History, National Gallery, and the National Archives.
The Museum of American History (and Technology -- they seem to have augmented their name!) seemed promising for holding the attention of a fickle eleven-year old. She is "into" computers now and we had read that it had quite a display tracking all the computers and how they developed. Unbeknownst to us, it is closing in two short weeks for a three year renovation. And, apparently, they begin shutting down this display and that one as they prepare to close the museum altogether. All told, less than half this venerable museum was open for display and turned out to be a bitter disappointment At one point, Little One was racing through an exhibit searching for anything computer, with her poor old harried gparents madly chasing her so no one would grab her in our absence. By the time we caught up to her and had quite a loud chat about running away from us, NOBODY was happy. Ruby slippers did not help. Nor did Kermit the Frog, the famous old dollhouse, or the Star Spangled Banner. We all were disappointed.
A short trip to the National Gallery was just that – short, as her attention was short to match. As we were leaving, DH turned to me and said, "Next time we come here, we’ll send her to camp first."
In an effort to please somebody in the group, I suggested we go to the National Archives next, as it was the one place DH had expressed a desire to visit. LO perked up at this suggestion as she really wanted to see the Declaration of Independence.

I've been to Washington several times and had never visited the National Archives before. It seemed to me to be a dusty collection of boring old papers. We stayed over three hours and left only because they were closing the building down. It was by far the best experience we’ve had, -- and we have really had many, yesterday notwithstanding – and LO was thrilled to actually see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The security guards were downright personable as they described to us the $5million vaults housing the documents.
The remainder of the Archives was fascinating as well, with the telephone-like devices we used narrating the stories behind each display. Each of us had one and moved independently throughout the exhibits, although always within sight of each other.
In the shop, LO especially wanted her very own copy of the Declaration of Independence, and bought one for her GF as well. Dollhouses, schmollhouses. Ruby Slippers – bah. Declaration of Independence. That’s the real stuff. Who’da thought???
As we left last night, I remarked to a guard that it was the best museum we’ve seen yet.
Now we are getting ready to take the subway downtown for our tour of the Capitol.

Traveling Light

Our first experience with "traveling light" is, predictably, not too light. Lol. While we all did cooperate with the 2 outfits per person, the accoutrements seem to take up an incredible space. Blow dryer. Flat iron. Shampoo & conditioner. Camera. Laptop. Ipod. Phones. Chargers for camera, laptop, Ipod and phones. Tour books. Maps. Our trip notebook with index tabs for days of the week and pages within for activities on each day and printouts of which subway to take + directions to the appropriate subway station. Nintendo DS and 6 Tamagachis, plus charger for the DS. Magazines and cosmetics. Vitamins + Rx. All told, it took us one rolling suitcase, one cosmetic bag and 4 backpacks to travel light. Each of us has a personal backpack plus the laptop got its own padded laptop. As we traveled, each of was responsible for his own backpack and one other bag. Traveling light! This seems to be about as light as we can go.
Turned out to be a good thing that we had the entertainment along as our train was 4 hours late in arriving. Train ride was 6 hrs or so to DC. Each of us nestled down with his electronic babysitter of choice and bore out the ride.
The train itself was quite comfy. Nobody provides legroom like Amtrak (although I hear British Airways does, I have never tried em) and our traveling companions were, well, companionable. LO noticed a woman sitting alone on the dining car when we ate breakfast this morning and said, "Oh, don’t sit alone. Please join us. We’d be happy to have you." So the lady came over and we all chatted over breakfast.
The apartment exceeds our expectations in every way. It’s roomy and provides every comfort. LO and DH are watching Spiderman on the TV as I type this, and the DVD collection and music collection they have provided for us are spookily to our taste. Because I had mentioned that LO wanted to visit the Holocaust Museum, the LL thoughtfully left out guides to the Holocaust Museum.
This afternoon we walked about 1.5 miles to the Market area where a centuries-old building houses poultry vendors – bakers – flower peddlers, fishmongers and produce farmers. Everything fresh you might need can be found there : organic milk, cheese, fresh eggs, fruits and veggies of every sort.
We asked a local about where we might find granola and she directed us to an organic store just around the corner. We filled one backpack with the essentials and walked the 1.5 miles back home, where we all stretched out for a nap. DH, Mr. "I Never Take A Nap," snored til 8:10 when we finally awoke him. He had said he wanted to go out for dinner tonight, but, we felt it was a little late to start out on a quest for unknown restaurants. It would be 10pm before we ate. So, we ventured out again, this time for the local Safeway, about a mile each way. Hunted down a little sushi, a beer and headed home.
Now our bellies are full, mindless entertainment is on the TV, and we are taking our turns at the shower. Tomorrow we have passes for the Washington Monument in the morning and we explore the Mall the remainder of the day. Unfortunately, I failed to remember this laptop does not have a port for the MD card used by the digicam so I will have to post pics after our return home.
Well, my turn for the shower. Good night for now.

How Much does a Yale Degree Cost?

"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing
about him is that I read three—three or four books about him last year. Isn't
that interesting? "

--George W. Bush Washington, DC 05/05/2006

If you're thinking, 'oh, that isn't so bad. she just looks for these things...' think again. There are a zillion of them. Or a Brazilian. Heard that one? Another great W story...

How bout just one more? Let's see... so hard to choose...

"Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better. "

--George w. Bush 09/24/2001
in a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien

Little One's Outdoor Challenge

Little One preparing to take off in her kayak..

















The Middle School Youth Leader. Check out her beautiful muscles. She is Fitness Director at our local Y.

















Little One and a friend outside the camp store.













The gang on the New River. Little One is 2nd from right end.

















All the advisors from our church. The guy with his shirt off was also in Mexico with DH. He is a very cool guy -- but all these folks are cool.













Another kayak shot.







Little One forgot her camera when they went caving and rock climbing / rapelling. She had several more shots but most were pics of the camp itself and scenery for her Papaw to understand how beautiful it all was. :)

If you think YOU've got it rough...

Hi, folks, I just had a reality check here and thought it might be worth sharing.

We have a family here in the neighborhood: a mom and dad and 2 daughters. The mom is my sometimes-editor when I write for Smalltown News, a truly nice person to the bone, not like me at all, I may seem nice sometimes, but it's just because I'm trying hard. :) The dad is a middle school guidance counselor in a nearby small town; the older sister just qualified to go to our state's prestigious school of science and math. The school is a residential school for high school juniors and seniors near our state's capital. Competition is fierce for entry to this school, and graduation from it qualifies students for a total "free ride" at any of our state's fine universities. This older sister is Little One's favorite-est babysitter. She truly talks with Little One, teaches her new pieces on the piano, gives her true attention. Little One asks us to go out so she can have time with this older girl.

The younger sister is 14 years old and has been battling a brain tumor since she was 9. The courage, brightness and faith of this girl is phenomenal.

In years past, she has undergone surgeries and chemotherapy. Last year with all that traditional medicine had to offer, the tumor showed more growth so the family tried some unorthodox methods as well, altering their diets to exclude the common trace elements that are beneficial to us but are thought to feed tumors; and subscribing to other fringe ideas. This spring, the tumor again showed growth and the family, after all their hard work, was devestated.

They were fortunate to find a surgeon at Columbia who said he could radically remove much of the growth in her brain by way of two brain surgeries this summer. The family went to NY and settled in for the process. While the first surgery was considered successful, our friend developed a very painful case of shingles immediately afterward, so the family trekked back to the South to wait them out before the 2nd surgery could be scheduled.

Finally the shingles are gone and the 2nd surgery was effected earlier this week. Our friend has been in quite a bit of pain with her eye swollen shut and severe pain in her jaw. Today, they have diagnosed her with diabetes insipidus, which is a side-effect they were concerned might develop, but had hoped would not occur. Apparently it has the potential to be quite dangerous.

The older sister is scheduled to head for her premier boarding school within a few weeks.

We all love this family and cannot imagine how this is draining them financially, emotionally, and physically. Not a one of them, however, would complain. They all have their game faces and keep on keeping on.

I have to think back to the summer when I was fourteen. I learned tennis that summer -- I have never played well, but I really enjoyed hitting the ball and spent countless hours hitting the ball at nearby courts, against our carport wall, and back & forth with neighbors, in the street. Every now and then someone would yell, "Car!" and we would retreat to the side for a moment and then play again. Girlfriends and I would take their tandem and ride around town, miles from home, and return to lay in front of the new color TV and drink sodas.

It was a carefree and liberating summer, and such a contrast to the summer our young friend has had.

The old saying is trite but so true: When you think you have problems, just look around. There are folks 'way worse off than you.

If you'd like to say a prayer for our friend, her name is Quinn.

Long Weekend

America has come to use the term "long weekend" for the 3 days that occur when we irrevently move a holiday to the nearest Monday, forming a 3-day holiday for workers. I have already informed my family that, after my demise, if my birthday becomes a national holiday, it is *not* to be moved to the nearest Monday, but is to give workers a delightful holiday right there in the middle of the week, wherever it falls.

All that aside, we are having a true "long weekend."Meaning, Little One is gone away for a whole weekend. She has only been gone this long once before, and that is not the best story to share.

The Middle School Youth Group at church has the Outdoor Challenge every year at this time. It's three days at an outdoor camp in VA with a whirlwind of activity. Yesterday they went caving; today they will kayak and tomorrow they will rock climb and rappel. It's sort of a kickoff of the new year for the Youth Group, and is meant to create bonding among the youth, including the new members, rising 6th graders. Little One is one.

The Youth Director mailed her a list of what to pack. Funny, all the other kids seemed able to lift their own duffles, but Little One's was so heavy even I could not lift it.

We gathered at the church parking lot yesterday morning to see them off. As is always the case, this took forever, as various parents remembered they had forgotten this or that and zoomed back home to grab it and bring it back: a pillow, a spoon. We stood in the church parking lot, making small talk and wishing they could just get on with it.

Little One did not feel her best yesterday and was unusually clingy to me. She did not know anyone in the group and felt worried. DH and I tried to be exceptionally chipper, despite our hearts being heavy at her going away from us.

Finally the group took off. DH and I headed to the Middle School to paint the teachers' bathrooms, the PTA project for the summer. While there, we got FIVE im's from Little One, --(DH loaned her his cell phone) -- telling us where they were on the road, and, finally, "we got here." That was the last one we received.

Last night we went to a nearby Larger City for sushi and a little shopping. I sent her a pic of DH's sushi salad, but she did not reply. I'm going to say she has gotten into the spirit of the thing and is having a ball.

We sent her with two disposable cameras, one flash, one waterproof. We'll have pics developed on the way home from picking her up, and will scan and post here soon.

"Hardware Removal"

DH had a small surgery today to remove the plate and 4 screws placed in his hand almost a year ago (after clicking on hyperlink you'll have to scroll down to the accident entry) when he lost his pinkie and shattered his ring finger.

The x-ray at right is the "before" image, when this plate was in his finger.

The hardware in his ring finger has presented problems to him in two ways: his grip is very compromised, which hinders him at work, and his stretch and curl have been compromised, which affects his guitar.

His surgeon, who specializes in hands, typically does not remove these plates, but leaves them virtually forever. DH began asking for removal not long after healing from the original accident. Finally, in late winter or early spring, he took his guitar to the doctor's office and played for him. His music was so moving that the Dr. said, "Now I understand. I will remove it."

DH's trip to Mexico interfered a tad as the Dr did not want to risk infection setting in down in Mexico, so the surgery was scheduled for this week, after DH's return.

Seeing what came out, I am amazed at how large it is. The plate measures at 1.5" or 3.75 cm. It does not look at all as we had imagined. It is brass and resembles a chain, although it is a rigid plate. It is comprised of a series of tiny round brass doughnuts, all forming the one solid piece.

We had imagined a stainless steel rectangle.

DH is resting well, thirsty and woozy and feeling some discomfort in his finger from today's invasion.

The Surgeon anticipates a full recovery and is quite optimistic as to the range of motion following the hardware removal. He was able to manipulate the finger fully following removal and can't wait to see if DH can do so after the swelling is down.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and well-wishes.