oscars

I spoke to my grandma today. I asked her if she was going to watch the Oscars tonight. "Oh of course." she said. "I've got new pjs and I'm going to keep my earrings on. I sort of wish I had a frilly, sexy top for my pjs in honor of the event, but alas I'll settle for what I've got." Have you ever heard anything so wonderful!? Grandma Peg could be quite possibly the best, little angel in my life. I wish I could package her up into a little box and give her away as a present to people so all could experience her wisdom, gracious soul and unconditional support.

On a somewhat related note, I saw Babel this weekend and the soundtrack is absolutely great.

ugly fun

So the new macbooks come with a little, fantastic program called Photo Booth. Haley and I played around with it while they were in Seattle over Presidents' weekend. Boy can you make yourself look hilarious and ugly.

twelve

Here are some of the girls I'm coaching for the Cascade Volleyball Club here in Seattle. In the beginning, I was pretty nervous and disciplined. I wasn't sure how to keep the attention of the little, crazy gals and they were literally bouncing off the walls, bouncing balls everywhere, yelling, and making fun of each other non-stop. Was I like that at twelve? No.(yes) Now I'm learning to lead, teach and make it fun. If they're not having fun, they're not going to enjoy the sport. At our first tournament, the team took 18th place out of 19 teams. Yikes. BUT, at our most recent tournament they were undefeated! Its great to watch them get excited and care about the game and their performance. They were awarded navy blue socks with white polka dots for their efforts! Isn't it funny to think back to the time when small rewards meant the world. Someone was reminding me of the game, 'Heads up 7 up' and I remembered how much I loved that game! Sometimes I cheated and peeked.

the world

poke this link to generate a world map of the places your little feet have walked on:

http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries


here's mine = (except i'm noticing China and Japan are falling off...?)



create your own visited country map

snow and stem cell research

I've just spent Presidents' Day weekend at Whistler, B.C. with friends (see attached photos). I think skiing/snowboarding is one of my favorite things to do with friends. You're outside in awesome beauty all day long and then usually return to a cozy place to tip back a few cold ones, sit in a hot tub, eat and have quality time. The quality on this trip in particular was fantastic. Compelling topics ranged from organic food and what we put into our bodies, our parents and grandparents, and a wonderfully NOT heated discussion on stem cell research. My immediate and gut reaction was, "Absolutely I support it." After a few hours of deliberation I still feel that way, but it was a great exercise in seeing the other side of things and thinking about that other side in a way I hadn't before. I still have some concerns and some things to learn about the topic. If you'd like to join me in checking out more, see the following links:

http://stemcells.nih.gov/
National Bioethics Advisory Committee's reports on ethical issues in stem cell research (stolen from a friend):
http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/nbac/stemcell.pdf

ALSO! -Haley, Josh and myself took the Seattle Underground Tour and were taken on a wild goose chase as to the inventor of the western flush toilet -Thomas Crapper.

::::Thomas Crapper was a plumber who founded Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. in London.
Despite urban legend, Crapper did not invent the flush toilet (the myth being helped by the surname). However, Crapper put in effort to popularise it and did come up with some related inventions. He was noted for the quality of his products and received several Royal Warrants. The noun "crap" was in use long before he was born, but no longer in use in Victorian Britain.

Lastly, there was some debate as to the difference between a prawn and a shrimp. SOME of us were sure there was no difference. Let me just clear that up(wink, josh):

::::Prawns are edible, shrimp-like crustaceans, belonging to the sub-order Dendrobranchiata [1]. They are distinguished from the superficially similar shrimp by the gill structure which is branching in prawns (hence the name, dendro="tree"; branchia="gill"), but is lamellar in shrimp. The sister taxon to Dendrobranchiata is Pleocyemata, which contains all the true shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.

exploratory

I've got so many things swirling around in my brain and more often than not I either A.) don't share them with others. B.) don't go beyond the swirling or C.) Both. So this is my attempt at getting my thoughts, interests, opinions, discoveries, experiences and feelings out there for all to see. Please feel free to comment or add value to anything you read/see.