It has been a very busy couple of weeks for some reason!First off, congratulations to my Babble-Friends, Featherbee and kristinc, who both had their bundles of joy delivered safely in the last few weeks. Two more bouncing babies added to our happy Babble Family.
Let’s see… my last post was on the 8th… a lot has happened in the almost two weeks since!
The children were at YMCA camp on the Kitsap Peninsula that first week. Tom and I were enjoying a few days’ R&R; at home, no pressures. A few small projects intended, only a couple of which were realized. We watched several movies: Little Miss Sunshine was amusing but definitely not for prudes, and appropriately rated R; a very very bad (does anyone remember So Bad It’s Good Theater?) Sci-Fi flick with Patrick Stewart in a relatively minor role, Lifeforce is worthy of cult status but basically trampy and trashy (not unlike the Rocky Horror Picture Show), rated R but I think it was at the extreme edge of R (lots of nudity); and Mixed Nuts with Steve Martin and many other very funny people, rated PG-13; and finally, Hanky Panky, a PG-rated film from 1982 starring Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, though not technically a comedy the impeccable timing of the stars lent the movie an edge that overcame what could otherwise have been just another Hitchcock knock-off.
Other memorable things from that week:
- One Stidkid’s suitcase was lost for three days after his arrival at camp. Finally, when I learned on Wednesday it was not found and insisted on talking with him by phone… we were just about to hang up when they found the suitcase! Coincidence? I think it was the Mama Magic!
- We ate one evening at the Sushi House restaurant on the west side of Olympia. I recommend it. A bit on the expensive side (for us, at least) but the food was excellent and in good quantities, the ambiance is great, and the service was prompt and friendly.
- I was the first official interviewee for BAbblecast in Episode 11
- Tom and I spent a nice hour at the Tacoma Art Museum looking at the Japanese Woodblock prints on display… and the photos by William B Post…
- then I went to the dentist for the first time in over a year. My previous dentist, whom I had known for over a quarter century died this year and I hadn’t been able to bring myself to see anyone since he stopped working. Tom insisted, so we found a new dentist (different office entirely) close to where he works. I think this young(ish) dentist will do nicely. I was really nervous. You know, I had the other one trained already… (insert laugh track here) but this fellow, Steve Russell, in Tumwater Washington had the same gentle touch and voice and was willing to work around my many allergies. He explained things clearly, too. And his staff is wonderful. His father, whom I didn’t meet is retiring soon, but I suspect there is a family resemblance. Do you need a dentist? I recommend this one!
All too soon the children were home. We stopped to get a new laptop computer for me (I like to be able to work from any comfortable perch in the house, and the elder stidkid needed something he could take to high school with him… he gets the old one); then got a bird for the younger stidkid who had earned it by getting his room reorganized and CLEAN! His name is “Bleu”… (as in bleu cheese)
Last week was the 17th International Bacteriophage Meeting at The Evergreen State College. And I was sick nearly the whole time. A bad allergy attack the Friday before triggered all sorts of sensitivities, so I didn’t go to the informal dinner at our friend’s house before the meeting, nor to the official opening picnic, nor to the big feast… I didn’t even get to hear a single lecture, which disappointed me greatly. I just wanted to rest and sleep most of that week. But Stidkid#1 DID attend, in part to help our friend with little errands and tasks, and mostly to just be there. He rubbed elbows with friends old and new, and by the end of the first day, everyone knew his name! I was able to see my friend in the photo below only briefly, very late on her last day in Olympia. I hope that I will be healthy for the next meeting!
Here he is with our dear friend Dr. Zemphira Alavidze, and new friends Dr. Irina Chkonia and Grace Filby. He has known Zemphira all his life — and is penpals with her grandson in Georgia!
Here he is with one of his heroes, Dr. Revaz Adamia, of the Eliava Institute in Tbilisi.
Once again, with Dr. Hubert Mazure, the great-grandson of Felix d’Herelle who was the first (along with George Eliava) to really develop bacteriophages as a medical treatment.
Here he is, with his grandmother “Stidg’mere” showing her the posters at the meeting.
And last but not least, here he is with two of the Evergreen students he has worked with a little bit… (I am sorry I don’t remember their names). They made one of the posters behind them.
I would love to talk on and on about phage and their history, and the Eliava institute, but it has been done so well by Dr. Elizabeth Kutter and her students and other scientists at Evergreen that I will simply direct you to their website.
And since then… well a nice, wet weekend. We went to “Camlann” — but that is a post for tomorrow.