So Much Going On...

It has been a few busy weeks around here lately. Not that you could tell by the massive number of posts...

For those of you kind enough to read these pages, I thank you for your forbearance. I promise to try to come up with things worthy of your time and attention.

THe "Magic of Science" show has come and gone, as has the related SciencePalooza science recruiting day. Both were successful from my POV.

The show was a lot of fun. I have at least one good pic to show (a five gallon water cooler bottle full of flames), and hopefully more, once I get them off my camera(s) and into iPhoto to look at. My friends Kevin and Katie took pics for me (although I made Kevin leave early...more on that in a sec), and I have not taken the time to download. I also have at least part of the show on DVD, thanks to one of my performer's parental units.

One glitch on the show was the accidental injury to one of my performers. S had practiced her demo dozens of times, flawlessly. THe night of the show, she kept her hand in the way a split second too long and suffered some burns. I pulled Kevin out of the audience and he was kind enough to take her to the hospital (we don't take any chances with something like that). S was back at the end of the show, swathed in gauze, a bit in pain, and loving the attention she was getting.

Other than that, we had one "dud" demo (another that worked flawlessly in practice). We also had the biggest crowd ever for the show, estimated at over 600 people.

I promise to get pics up soon.

The show was Thursday night, 10/18. SciencePalooza was Saturday. We did an abbreviated version of the show, and I did a session in the morning on electrochemistry and nanotechnology with a couple of interested prospective students and two student assistants. Again, a good day.

Katie and I headed out for a retail therapy session that Sunday, to get out of town and to pick up some badly needed headcover for my poor bald pate. I am not overly fond of the boring stocking cap (and, when freshly shaven, the caps have nothing to hold them down and they tend to contract off my noggin). I found a couple of wool caps, and some new pants, and a bottle of cologne, and... I narrowly escaped the purchase of a $675 Polo leather jacket that fit me like it was tailored for me.

I have been working really hard over the last few months to change my eating and exercise habits and lose weight. It is working, and pretty well. I am down two sizes in the shirt department (losing two X's off the too many that are to the left of the L (as in large)) and have to date lost six inches in the waist. This has necessitated the purchase of some new clothes, but very few, since I still have a way to go. My aim is to be in better shape at age 40 (19 months = 7/13/06) than I was at age 30, and hopefully better than age 20. Right now I am well pleased, and having fun buying new clothes, and feelign better than I have in quite some time.

The Thanksgiving holiday was just what was needed to decompress the rest of the way. Three days after SciencePalooza, I headed up to the cabin to visit the parents and meet up with my brother and nephew. A ggod time was had by all. A trip to the casino (won $27), some great food, lots of card playing with the fam, a couple of hours of cleaning and fixing Mom's PC, a couple of walks in the woods, some snow and slush, and some Christmas shopping was accomplished.

I am back at home and getting ready for the last two weeks of the Fall Semester, then some more break before the New Year.

Lots of good is going on in my life, and I had/have a lot to be thankful for.