Elsie's Notes from New England - THEMission edition

This is an old family story, but what are blogs for, if not for posting old family stories, right? Sorry, Dan. The others will get their turns, too, I promise! In 1993, Dan was in fourth grade and signed up for geography club after school. Whether it was to hang out with his friends or if snacks were served, I don’t know, but he signed up and stayed after school once a week. One day he arrived home from his club meeting about the same time John (dad) got home from work. Getting a polysyllabic answer from Dan in regards to anything that had to do with school was a remarkable feat, and we tried all kinds of different ways to get a full sentence response out of him. The conversation went something like this: “So, Dan! What did you learn in school today?” “Aah-n-no” (with its traditionally accompanying shrug, this translates to: I don’t know) “So, what kept you late after school?” “Geography club” (the fact that this is four syllables and two words doesn’t really count, since it’s tech...

For those of you who have not discovered the sillier side of science, I share this link. Not actually being a scientist myself, I am thoroughly impressed with the methodologies, high-tech equipment and attention to detail of these brilliant researchers in setting up and documenting this groundbreaking exploration. While their work on the effects of smoking seems a little "been there/done that," they manage to put a compelling twist on it. The separation of conjoined quintuplets (photo above) was very enlightening! http://www.peepresearch.org/ Mostly, this just goes to show that there's an awful lot of down time in college labs across the country, and people with enough imagination and spare time can come up with some pretty serious stuff . . .

I've been 'searching' for years for the source of a quote that has been stuck to my fridge for just as many years. I use quotes around 'searching' because, once I actually went online and really did it, I found the source within three minutes. Yeah. Sometimes I'm just lame. Anyway, it's a wonderful quote that my visiting teacher wrote down on a little sheet of paper, adding a colorful little border to make it attractive enough to post on a fridge or at least enough to make me feel too guilty to throw away immediately. Packrat that I am, there wasn't much danger in the latter, because I found the quote encouraging and inspiring during a time in my life when somedays I needed a little inspiration to keep moving forward. Raising kids is an incredible journey, but sometimes I got tired and found it easy to lose perspective. The quote might actually have been from a lesson in Relief Society, or from some Stake Leadership meeting, come to think of it. My memo...

I'm not a big Michael Jackson fan . . . not for many years, anyway. When I was young, I thought he and his music were very cool. Then he got weird, even while his music got cooler and more original. His unexpected passing, at the VERY young age of 50 (a particularly tender age for me), while of little personal consequence to me, has made me think, especially as I listen to the praise and panning he is receiving in the media (both commercial and informal). We devote entire college courses and volumes and volumes of literature to the discussion and study of Greek tragedy. We marvel at Shakespeare's gift for creating tragic characters, and exposing in his plays their flaws and downfalls. However, we don't need to look past 'The Man in the Mirror' to see a perfectly tragic example in our own generation. His was a tragic end to the tragic life of a great talent, who changed modern music with his unique gifts as much as the Beatles did. Do we admire Tchaikovsky...

So, here I am, at the top of the mountain, seeking wisdom from the Dali Ariane, keeper of all blogging wisdom. We'll see how my humble seeking goes . . . This photo, however, is not of my delightful evening learning at the feet of the wise Ariane. Instead, it is the only photo I had on my computer of my blog-guru-mistress (that just sounds so wrong, but it is the feminine of master, isn't it?). The photo is from Thanksgiving day, and is of Ariane, Amber, and Kristie, three of my 'blogging buddies.' Updated photos to come, I promise!