Cancer nutrition

I went to a talk [yesterday] at [Louisville's] Baptist Hospital East about cancer treatment and nutrition given by Alan C. Simon [pictured to the right), a pharmacist who specializes in natural medicine [largely to find out information that would be useful to my Mom]. Most of the talk was about what most of us already know [partly from Weight Watchers] but seldom really follow through with, i.e., eating lots of fiber, less meat, natural unprocessed foods, etc.

One of the things I found interesting was eating protein after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. He said that protein helps you heal and your body needs more of it at these times. He also upped the amount of fruits and vegetables per day from what I always heard of, "five a day." He said five to nine was better. The fruits and vegetables should be bright in color (yellow, red, green, blue) and you should vary your diet. He also talked about reducing the amount of pesticides that you eat. We all know this but, he suggested certain vegetables/fruits if you can't buy organic and also washing them in vinegar to reduce the pesticides.

Omega-3 was a big one he talked about a lot. It slows cancer growth and restores natural cell death, cancer being the out of control growth of cells. Omega-3 also will reduce inflammation from the cancer and the treatment. He had lots of studies quoted about omega-3, some even from the National Cancer Institute.

He talked about oxygenating the body. He says oxygen kills cancer. He said alkaline foods are better for you and help oxygenate your body. Activity also helps to detoxify your body, especially your lymphatic system.

Some of the big dietary supplements he talked about were milk thistle and the chemicals silymarin and silibin that are derivatives from milk thistle. He said they reduce the toxicity of the liver during chemotherapy. I'm not sure if [Mom's] doctor would want this [for her] since the cancer is in the liver and you want to have the chemo targeted there, or if the opposite is true and it would help the liver because it would help the chemo. He said this in particular you need to talk to your oncologist about but he was very careful with all supplements and clearing them with your oncologist.

Probiotics help the immune system and reduce diarrhea from radiation but he pooh-poohed the idea of the yogurt with probiotics, saying that the stomach acid would destroy most of the probiotics and you wouldn't be able to really tell how much/little you were getting and the quality. He did say they help to break down known carcinogens.

IP6 is another supplement. He said it is from whole grain. Glutathione also helps with detoxification and restores natural cell death. Selenium reduces cancer cells but too much causes hair to fall out! He said to talk to oncologist especially when doing chemotherapy. He said that you might be losing your hair from the selenium and not the chemo. DIM a derivative made from broccoli. He said it is the equivalent of eating two pounds of broccoli a day. DIM makes chemo more effective and inhibits HPV (dad wrote a whole book on HPV and what he says causes cancer). He said to ensure quality of supplements they should be manufactured by a FDA drug registered manufacturer. Said FDA food lets in too many impurities and the quality is affected.

His website is www.intergrativerxpharmacy.com
(502) 228-4161
9217 US Hwy 42
Prospect, KY 40059

I also received a flyer about tai chi for cancer patients. I'll look into going to the seminar. Again, it stresses activity to keep muscle mass during treatment and to help with circulation.

I know all this sounds kind of [New Age]-ish but some of it we already knew...eat healthy...not red meat...more fish (he stressed wild caught over farm raised because farm raised eat modified foods)...activity. But it was interesting to hear some of the studies he talked about and the specifics. He said he does one hour consultations with people after they have their blood work and treatments.

-- Stephanie

Rest in peace

Charles (Chuck) Tilly (who died yesterday) was one of the intellectual giants who towered over the New School for Social Research during my seven years as a grad student in residence there. I took several seminars with him and ultimately his then-wife – Louise Tilly – but not he – served (and in fact chaired) my dissertation committee. (He and Louise were two of several key leading scholars whose arrival at the New School soon before my arrival helped persuade donors to cough up the funds that paid my New School university fellowship and made the place a very exciting intellectual place at the time.) I learned a lot from his approach and ideas, dabbled in one of his datasets, and appreciated his drive (he worked from about 7 a.m. to about 10 p.m. with two meal breaks at the Center for the Studies of Social Change during the early 1990s while I was there – talking, teaching, writing, and especially reading) and his willingness to drop everything to talk with students and to attend to small things like making sure the coffee got made at the Center to keep that place going. I remember the nights I spent the night in the Center – either working or, ultimately, sleeping on the floor of my office – I worried because I rarely set the alarm – which might worry the Tillys when they came in – or because someone might walk in on my sleeping, as Louise once did. However, I occasionally butted heads with Chuck since I felt like a more cultural approach – which he tried to develop/embrace – was appropriate. But his unwillingness to put up with fuzzy concepts or false dichotomies and his determination to link grand theories with operationalizable concepts and empirical research are things I learned a lot from, and my own dissertation research started out as a (regional) three-way comparison much like one of his first grand projects, which he carried out with Louise and his brother.

(A turning point in my New School career came in my second year when the Tillys – directors of one of the two programs I was in but with whom I had had little contact because they were both on leave my first year – read an M.A. exam I wrote on proletarianization and the protoindustrialization hypothesis – which drew heavily on their work – and Chuck Tilly battled another intellectual giant in one of my departments, Andrew Arato, whose ideas are also throughout my dissertation but who I also found too intimidating (and perhaps doctrinaire) to ask to serve on my committee, defending what I had written against the charge that it (along with historical demography, one of the Tillys’ many subfields) was not “sociology.”) (Tilly also stood by his principles when – since much of work revolved around predicting revolutions – he consistently rebuffed CIA interest in his collaborating with him.) (Some of my most vivid memories of grad school – which I recount in my dissertation acknowledgments – are of watching the Soviet coup and Tiananmen Square events on the TV at the Center, along with that (bittersweet) 1992 Election night party when Tilly officially won the election pool (predicting who’d win what states) but everyone knew my friend Andrew had actually won (though disqualified because he was not part of the Center).)

Tilly was the only professor around who had a big grant-funded research project, which could get people jobs. He was also probably one of the few professors around who could get someone a teaching job with just a phone call. However, I liked working independently, I found him intimidating and questioned some of his approaches, and so I ultimately put together a dissertation committee of very smart people who I figured would give me guidance but leave me more on my own (and who didn’t intimidate me and whose ideas/approaches jibed more with mine). Louise chaired the committee, until health problems – health problems which worsened as Chuck left her – encouraged her to depart from the committee on the eve of my dissertation defense. (So Chuck Tilly never signed off on my dissertation research, and hesitated about making those calls for me – I asked once –without having done so.) I enjoyed my dissertation research, I met my immediate family, I’m proud of the research I’ve produced, but I spent a long time working on it (and amassed a big debt), I didn’t land the kind of academic job that would let me focus more on research, and I have ultimately (for now) gone into applied research. It’s hard to know whether many of those things would have changed had I clicked differently with Chuck (who if I remember right even took the time out to talk with me on the phone when I was a prospective New School grad student, mulling over going to that school or elsewhere).

While health problems encouraged Louise to retire (I visited her during my last full month in Illinois in 2004), Chuck has worked throughout tough bouts with cancer. I remember I got a post card from him around the time I saw Louise. I spent a few minutes watching/listening to a methodological presentation he gave at the sociology meetings in New York City this past summer (with hair loss no doubt due to cancer treatment), but I have not spoken with him for quite a while (of course, now I wish I'd taken the time to say hello and talk with him). A hard worker, a brilliant person, but a person who I found challenging to deal with (and whose decision to leave his wife made me wonder). Rest in peace, Chuck Tilly.

Strange night

On "Idol" tonight, Neil Diamond was the guest mentor. It was an odd night, because they rushed through some of the judges' comments to give all five leftover finalists time to sing two songs. Paula got confused, and all three judges panned the first round of songs (one Neil Diamond by each). In the second round, Syesha - probably on the bubble with the voters/audience - again had one of the best songs, and David Cook was back in form with. I thought Brooke's "I Am I Said" was also OK (as was David Archuletta's "America"). The judges didn't like either of Jason's songs, but I don't usually get him - even when they do like him - so who knows what's going on. Since Jason has almost never been in the bottom three, he's probably safe. Brooke and Syesha - both of whom I like, though they have off nights and neither has carved out a consistent identity - may be in trouble. I think David Cook will save me from me Idol finals nightmare: David Archuletta vs. Jason Castro.

Upcoming performances

Both my sister Penny and I have performances coming up. Penny has directed and choreographed "Tales of the City," a nine-person dance routine, to be dress rehearsed this Thursday, at the (Piedmont Virginia) community college (pictured) in Charlottesville. Full-blown shows are Friday and Saturday night. Penny also performs as the reporter - which will involve her narrating the whole piece extemporaneously - in "War Games," a piece only performed before in 1968, when it was about the Vietnam war (and the author's daughter [Katie Bull, pictured above and to the right], herself a performer, is slated to be there). At 9 a.m. Thursday my three "professional" colleagues interview me (just as they have on the phone the other two top candidates) for the internal-transfer position, within our office, that I've applied for. May Penny and I break a leg!

Vincent/Brown on TV

During stretches our morning news TV station (CBS affiliate WLKY) and anchorperson Abby Miller run reports about high schools called "high school cribs." For the seond time since Vincent has been at downtown Louisville's Brown School, the segment featured Brown. This time Vincent has been more involved and knows the kids. Instead of the principal welcoming and bidding adieu to viewers, the student body president - daughter of Vincent's French teacher who worked with us on the walkathon - did so, and a friend of Vincent's who helped me on the Math Walk talked about his senior project working with elementary school kids on science projects. But the big exciting part of the segment was, as Vincent had warned us, the middle part of the segment dealt with the Lazzi Fair 10-minute plays Vincent had performed in, and the play they showed was "Semantics," with a relatively long segment with Vincent talking about the word "play." We'll post some pictures from the station and a link to the station's Web site (where you could go to watch the broadcast segment and probably other video clips) as soon as the station posts them. (Abby Miller also interviewed the senior who directed the plays.)

Copy and paste the address below into your Internet Explorer and then click on the play logo two or three times to watch/hear "Semantics."

http://wlky.highschoolplaybook.com/media/ShowMedia.do?mid=2830a65af0d754f4081be07c6159c197

Another (late April) prayer request

My cousin, Dustin, is in the hospital in Orlando (pictured above)(ironically, in Celebration, that somewhat fake Disney version of Seaside, the new urbanism community - although apprently he'll move to a downtown Orlando hospital tomorrow) (ironically, just an hour plus from where my Mom was this weekend, in Daytona Beach -although Mom didn't get this news until arriving home in Tallahassee tonight) - on a Florida trip from Ohio with his mother and a friend of his - after another setback in his struggle with alcohol use and another attempt on his life. Pray for healing, wholeness, and discipline for this often creative, amiable young man tortured by psychological problems and addiction. After an incident late last year in which he threatened his mother and then injured himself, Dustin was out on his own, but rejoined his mother, my aunt June (and Aunt Barb, who now lives there also), in time for Christmas. I understand that Dustin struggles with alcohol, and, unable to drive, having lost his fast-food job, and with his mother facing serious health problems and his sister too afraid to put her kids and Dustin together (his brother and stepfather having died earlier), he may wonder about his future. Please pray also for my Aunt June and cousin Diana (and husband Jay) (a bright but strong-willed young woman who (along with Jay) introduced Stephanie and me (see the "An anniversary" blog entry)) and everyone who cares about Dustin.

Summer outing

When it's warmer, we're more likely to go to the gym - or, rather, to the modest fitness center and swimming pool(s) at Louisville's Breckinridge Inn, a hotel at the other end of St. Matthews (past the discount theater and the Watterson Expressway) that we've belonged to since moving to St. Matthews (our neighbors directed us there). Although it wasn't super warm today, while going through his Mom's pilates video with her, Vincent suggested we go after the baby shower (and boy did I need it after too much rich food). Vincent worked out in the fitness center for most of two hours while Stephanie and I eventually moved on to swimming laps in the pool. All three of us enjoyed the hot tub, and then we sat around for a while. We then combined this - as we sometimes do - with another summertime ritual. Frequently - as we have with guests and with people here for Vincent's (9th and 10th grade) parties - we walk with the dog through "downtown" St. Matthews and stop on the way back at Central Ohio-based Graeter's ice cream store. Today, we stopped on the drive home, and Vincent had just one scoop and Stephaine and I split a new smoothie with Graeter's low-fat, low-sugar sorbet. A perfect end to a relaxing few hours, after two busy church weekends and a busy week at work/school.

Baby shower

Today was a day at church to celebrate the ministry of our children's and youth ministries coordinators, Kate and Ian, and the upcoming birth of their child. Stephanie arrived early and helped make and set up food - some leftover from yesterday's tea - for the shower, and I had drawn up a 14-question multiple-choice Kate and Ian trivia quiz - to use as a kind of shower game. Some of the questions weren't that hard - like #1 - Who is currently the prime minster of the United Kingdom? but others - like #2 - In which presbytery has Kate's mother NOT served on the staff (Scioto Valley, West Virginia, or Transylvania) (Eva won the contest and the prize with 13 out of 14, while Christine also won a prize for coming in second and pointing out an error in my grading). All of Kate and Ian's parents were there (including Kate's father from Pickerington, Ohio; and Ian's parents from Cornwall, in England. There were about 50 people altogether, there in our fellowship hall. We enjoyed scones, sandwiches, punch, and cake, and Kate and Ian opened a bevy of baby shower gifts (including some frog-related items from Target from us) and acknowledged other children's items people had brought that they'll direct to other kids in the community, and we sold a few more plants from the plant sale. We really enjoy working with Kate and Ian (in Children's Fellowhip and through youth group), and Vincent has a good relationship with them (and other youth team folks), and wish them the best for Kate's labor and delivery and their life together as a newly enlarged family. Kate is due in June, and the church will give them six weeks off paid (essentially most of the summer).

Late April prayer requests

This weekend my Mother is at an event she's been with Stephanie and/or Vincent and me twice in the past few years: the Florida American Association of University Women (AAUW) state convention, an event that she has led twice. This year Mom finds both her knees and her back bothering her, and, without Stephanie there to help, awaiting knee surgery but also finding her back bothering her, and stuck in a very long hotel (same Daytona Beach hotel [pictured above] where I stayed for a meeting back in January) where she has to walk a lot, she's really struggling. Hopefully, knee surgery will improve things somewhat. But Friday morning as she tried to pack and load her car, she wondered if her traveling days are over.

The family of one of Stephanie's students, Ben, has been without food for the past week. Apparently, they either didn't know about food pantries or couldn't find anyone at a New Albany food shelf who spoke Spanish. So they've been eating lentils for a week. One of Stephanie's Spanish-speaking colleagues got on the phone to try to track something down for them Thursday. His father spent Thursday night in the emergency room after passing out at the dinner table. He works doing construction and has fiber glass in his lungs. And his mother is very pregnant.

If you pray, you might pray for healing, discernment, and patience of my Mom and for nourishment, determination, and support for Stephanie's student and his family. Also keep Stephanie's mom in your prayers for encouragement, strength, and healing.

UPSTARTS

Vincent and I managed to pack in Fat Friday on Frankfort Avenue and I the Cherokee Park Art Fair as we passed out flyers for our own church's plant sale, art sale, and traditional English cream tea. The youth mission fund-raising event, a successor to more conventional yard sales of past years, took place from 9-3 today - and Vincent and I were more heavily involved than we might be because most of the high school students in Vincent's youth group go to Manual High School (a rival school - see the Hillary Clinton entry) and Manual had its prom last night (so other youth dragged in around 1 p.m.). I had essentially served as publicity chair, getting notices in the paper and yard signs up. Other parents and our staff spent even more hours planning the menu (scones, tea, lemonade, and sandwiches). This morning Vincent was the main waiter for almost four hours (his nice suit is now too small, and so we tried to cobble together another outfit), and meanwhile I passed out the flyers and did various other tasks. We didn't get as many people as with the yard sales, and I fear our art and plant sales weren't that brisk, but it was still a good event and raised a decent amount of money (and we aren't stuck with zillions of books, junk, and old clothes). (Children's Fellowship kids had helped paint pots to sell at the plant sale, my manager had contributed lots of plants [and another manager showed up with her spouse]. And Stephanie showed up towards the end and we enjoyed a coupleof scones.) The English theme (masterminded by our British American co-coordinator of children's and youth ministries, Ian, who wore a kilt) seemed to go over well, and Vincent won lots of praise for his work as a waiter (something he's done at a few other church events also, but rarely also taking orders). (Funds generated will help subsidize Vincent's participation in the Presbyterian summer youth event at Montreat.) Nice going, Vince!

Shine a Light

I caught most of Martin Scorsese's excellent IMAX Rolling Stones documentary, "Shine a Light," which captures them performing in a relatively small venue, Manhattan's Beacon Theater, interspersed with interview footage mainly from the 1960s and early 1970s. The camera work and sound is fabulous, much better than the other two Stones documentaries I've seen: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones" and an IMAX film from about ten years ago. I've also got the "Four Flicks" DVDs at home and have watched them in person six times, plus Mick Jagger with the Hall and Oates band at Live Aid.) Whatever individual performer the film focused on, their sound was even turned up. In a show in Virginia (from the same tour as the Beacon show), the Stones sang "Sweet Virginia." At the Beacon, they sang - as I arrived - that anthem to living in NYC in the 1970s - "Shattered." (Although I walked by the Beacon - located near Washington Square Park and the NYU and New School campuses many times when I lived in NY, I've never seen a show there.) The set list favored songs from the two Stones albums that I consider two of the top five albums of the rock area ("Exile on Main Street" and "Some Girls"). The Stones played some interesting songs, then did some Keith Richards lead vocals and featured some songs with guest artists, and then played the songs they've usually ended with (with two hours of this plus interviews the film didn't show the whole concerts we saw at other locales). Of course, the band played somewhat different sets in different locales. Christina Aguilera - a modern-day diva I don't particularly like - was excellent in a duet with Mick Jagger of "Live with Me" (pictured above) - almost reminding me of the Live Aid "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" duet I saw between Mick and Tina Turner. The Stones' searing "Some Girls" was excellent. Live or on film, Mick is so magnetic, so energetic, so expressive (and amazingly fit, at age 65) - it's no wonder that I regarded him as a role model - along with Jimmy Carter, Bruce Lee, and Jim Rockford as played by James Garner - in my youth. The last interview the film shows is from the Dick Cavett show in the early 1970s, when Cavett asks Jagger if he can imagine performing and touring and making music when he's 60, and - without hesitating - Jagger says - Yes, sure. And so he is. (I considered watching the film not only a way to connect with friends with whom I've seen Stones concerts but also research for an upcoming event in which I may play Mick [though I should have been working out and re-losing some weight for that].)

Protest

Today several dozen people with brightly colored signs stood relatively silently outside the Presbyterian Center, supporting the minister on trial within the Center. Jane Spahr, a lesbian pastor who has admitted officiating at same-sex marraige ceremonies, was exonerated by her presbytery, which said nothing in the Presbyterian rules explicitly bans same-sex marriages. A church appellate court reversed this decision, but did not punish Reverend Spahr severely (partly since she has retired in the interim). Reverend Spahr has appealed to the Presbyterian version of the Supreme Court, and her supporters conducted silent vigils today (and the next day - and also entered the building to listen to the arguments. A few of my colleagues from around the building (but not me) were out there, along with Presbyterian gay rights activists and problem some local gay rights activists in general). A lot may be riding on this and how the church decides whether congregations and presbyteries may ordain gays and lesbians as ministers and elders - including, potentially, my job (if many more churches leave the denomination and this triggers many more layoffs), as well as the church's prophetic mission and commitment to openness. We'll see how the court rules (apparently by Monday). This is the same court that objected to - and blocked - us surveying leaders of congregations from helping evaluate the court's week. They arged that they can't function as an independent judiciary, implementing church law - if these surveys function as referenda on court decisions.

Good-bye, Detective Green

For many years of my TV addiction, we specialized in watching one-hour dramas directed or produced by people such as John Wells (“ER” and “West Wing”), David Kelley (“Picket Fences” and “Ally McBeal”), Steven Bocchio (“Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue”), and Dick Wolf (“Law and Order”), and then – belatedly – Top Gun producer (“CSI,” “Cold Case,” “Without a Trace”). One of our favorites was the 18-year-old Wednesday 10 p.m. NBC show “Law and Order” and its various spinoffs. I even used to mention “Law and Order” to my classes, when I talked about research about the New York City crime wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s (when I lived in New York City) and how some of the most popular TV dramas (at least a few years ago) – like “Blue” and “Law” – were born of that crime wave (and were filmed in New York). (Unlike "Blue," which focused on the detectives' complex personal levels, L&O focused more on investigating the crime and prosecuting the criminal. But the accounting for the crime was already complex and the legal battles typically pitted warring principles against each other in interesting ways - a thinking person's police show - with the lead characters rarely sounding like they were speechifying.) (L&O also featured several crossover episodes - before Detective Green's time - with another favorite show of ours, "Homicide: Life on the Street."0We’ve quit watching 10 p.m. TV stations so that (until blogging started) we could go to bed early (since I get up on weekday mornings at about 5:20 a.m.) and lately we’ve quit watching TV altogether (except for – as should be obvious from blog entries – for “Idol” and “Ghost Hunters” and occasionally “House” or “Bones” – Fox runs local news at 10 p.m. so we are allowed to watch all of their shows). For a while, I watched “Law and Order,” which – unlike its two spinoffs – was on Friday nights lately – when we were allowed to stay up later. But, now, it’s back on Wednesday nights at 10. While blogging, I stayed up and watched most of it lately. The task should be familiar to “Law and Order” viewers – how to exit a cast member – since the show has been a revolving door. The more recent changes – exiting more lawyers and police officers last summer – was a little too much for me. Still on the show is Sam Waterson, now in a reduced role, as now District Attorney McCoy (the actor who played his former boss, Fred Thompson, ran for president), I’m a fan of, having watched “I’ll Fly Away” and seen him in the title role as Lincoln in Illinois on Broadway. S. Epatha Merkerson, from “Terminator 2,” has also been on as a police captain for much of the show’s run (her predecessor is on “Special Victims Unit”). But Jesse L. Martin’s exit – who we watched in “Ally McBeal” but missed in “Rent” – represents an important departure. He was the last partner of Jerry Orbach, a long series mainstay as Detective Briscoe, before Orbach transferred to another L&O spinoff and shortly thereafter died. We’ve mourned Orbach’s departure and the departure of many other L&O regulars (Michael Moriarty, Jill Hennessy, Chris Noth, Carey Lowell), and we mourn Martin’s loss. His friendly demeanor and usually cool head (as Detective Ed Green, the show’s first African American police officer) was an antidote to Orbach’s wise-cracking and Waterson’s moralizing. His final episode saw him exit – somewhat voluntarily – after evidence (uncovered partly by a character played by Anthony Anderson, who will replace Martin on the show) that Green had been involved in gambling and a controversial shooting after Briscoe’s death. (Martin is currently filming a Marvin Gay biopic.) Wolf’s objective is for “Law and Order” (which started out in fall 1990) to beat the record “Gunsmoke” set for regular scripted series of 20 years. But who knows if the show will make it (since it’s a modestly rated show in the least watched of the four networks and has two years to go)? We’ll miss you, Jesse L. Martin, and – even if we’re not watching – we’ll miss you, “Law and Order,” after you’re gone (though some reruns will no doubt still proliferate).

There's no place like home

I’ve gotten to talk about Florida several times recently. The student pastor at our church is moving with his partner to Florida to serve as a chaplain at Eckerd College, a Presbyterian college right on Tampa Bay between Fort DeSoto (view of Tampa Bay from Fort DeSoto beach pictured above) and the Skyway Bridge. I talked with them about this Sunday and yesterday. Today at physical therapy I met a woman who lived in Naples for some ten years, where my friend Andrew lived for several years. We reminisced about Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Bradenton and about living through Hurricane Charley, which cut through Port Charlotte right between north Naples, where she and her family were, and Bradenton, where my family and I were (that weekend – I was visiting from Illinois). She talked about loving the environment, but having mixed feelings about the poor schools, the ultra-rich lifestyle in Naples, and missing family up north. (They also made a killing selling their house at the height of the real estate bubble, then couldn't find any houses they could afford, and so returned. The buyer of their house is a speculator who leveled the house, built a new mansion on a modest-sized lot, but now can't sell it.) Talking with both of these people I trotted out my story about driving across the Skyway Bridge in a rental truck, as Stephanie and Vincent and I left Florida (for good?) and looking out over the sun and blue water of Tampa Bay (with Eckerd College to my left) and saying to Stephanie: “Why is it again that we’re moving away from here?” Although we miss family and friends and the beach, sinkholes, and river, we do think Louisville is beautiful (all the more so in the spring – despite bad allergies, for me) and Stephanie and I do enjoy driving along and across the Ohio River (Stephanie – every work day), and we like the “river city” atmosphere, as we drive and walk through historic neighborhoods with interesting 100-year-old plus buildings (like the one I lived in my first year in Louisville). And we like many things about our jobs, our schools, our church, and people we’ve met. But we miss people, especially in Ohio and Florida, and we do miss Florida, in general (all the more so during the elongated through March winter). (Besides my Mom, we’ve recently also communicated with Stephanie’s former colleague, Marilyn, who was in the news with her students [one pictured above] when they went to help clean up an old, partly abandoned, black cemetery in Bradenton and discovered a grenade, and Andrew, about the March Madness pool and the death of our friend David’s father [see “Condolences”]. Our cousin on Stephanie’s side of the family recently moved from Fort Myers Shores to the Land of the Lakes in Tennessee [see the “Murray State” blog entry].)

Senator Obama at IUS and more

The morning after losing to Senator Clinton in Pennsylvania and speaking in Evansville, Senator Obama spoke at the Indiana University Southeast campus, where Chelsea Clinton spoke several weeks ago and which Stephanie and Vincent visited for an open house for prospective students several weeks ago (see "Another disappointment"). IUS is just half a mile from the school where Stephanie first taught in New Albany. This afternoon Jeffersonville, a neighboring Southern Indiana where I get my hair cut and where I volunteered for Baron Hill's Congressional campaign, shut down a street so that Senator Obama could shoot a TV commercial there. In other news, should have kept my mouth shut at a meeting with a top Presbyterian Center manager, with whom I've been friendly before. Instead, I argued against a contract he's essentially already made with a rival demographic services provider, and ended up going off on another project, something we should have done long before (something he asked about), but something it's not clear I have time to do (creating an information sheet about various free demographics services on the Web). I'm afraid I unnecessarily created animosity where there was friendship before. I mentioned at our church board meeting that I was undergoing some job transition - in this case, applying for an internal transfer, not losing my job like a few other church members. More mundanely, my office took the administrative assistants who work with us out to lunch for Administrative Professionals appreciation day (today), to the same place we went for a recently retired AA's retirement lunch a couple of months ago. Vincent conducted the second interview with the WW2 interview, built much of his mousetrap-powered car for his science class (including using flag stands we got for the mission event this Sunday for wheels - after drilling through them and hammering in screws). And Stephanie and Vincent went to the orientation meeting for the Denmark trip. Don't joke about blowing up planes, do your laundry and cook once a week if possible (?!), get your money using an ATM card, and bring gifts like peanut butter (they can't get it there) and hip hop CDs (like the double CD "History of Rap" collection that we created, Stephanie suggested), the trip advisor (and probably Vincent's favorite teacher - same teacher he decided with him not to go to the Kentucky United Nations Assembly - see "Difficult week"). The trip seems more like a real possibility now. I also got to talk with my sister, whose son suffered somewhat mysterious breathing difficulties this past weekend in the midst of a very busy weekend for them. My sister is preparing for some improvisational dance performances. Over the weekend, they called 911 and had a squad car take my nephew to the hospital when I couldn't breath. The oxygen in the squad car seemed to improve his condition a lot. My sister chalked it up to her stress and his asthma and allergies but it's a little unclear, which is a tad worrisome.

CAT Scan update

Before mom left the hospital from her surgery, two weeks ago, her doctor ran a CAT scan of her upper body to check for more cancer. From research on the internet we've learned that colon cancer in particular is likely to spread to other areas. Mom's cancer has already spread to some lymph nodes and her liver so we were very worried. Since coming home from the hospital she has had a lingering cough, which again, without anyone saying so, made us uncomfortable. Yesterday was her first appointment with the surgeon and her regular doctor. She doesn't see the oncologist until the 30th. With trepidation she went to her appointment. Both her surgeon and her regular doctor are in the same building, so to her surprise found them both there for her 9:45 am appointment. They saw her together since mom still has trouble bending over to get dressed. Her incisions seem to be healing well. Her heart is strong and the CAT scan came back clear. No lung cancer! The surgeon then gave her some very heartening news. The surgeon was scheduled that day to do hernia surgery on a man who had stage IV colon cancer that had spread to his liver twenty-one years ago. I always talk to mom on my way home from work. But I think I may have to find another time to call. It seems driving and crying with relief aren't very safe.
-- Stephanie

Earth Day update

Vincent has been taking KY's standardized No Child Left Behind test - which in KY is used more to assess the schools than individual students - the past two weeks. He's working on two big projects for school - interviewing a WW2 veteran who goes to our church, and building a car slightly out of a mousetrap, which if it travels far on the big day - could rescue his currently abysmal Integrated Science grade. Today Vincent - having finished the on-line version of Algebra 1, semester 1 - taking it again, on-line, for enrichment - and passed the final exam, half way through spring break - registered today for the second semester, which I hope he'll finish by the end of the school year. For free, his math teacher is doing three ACT/SAT review workshops the week in between the school year and Vincent's putative Denmark trip. (Historically, high school students at Vincent's school ace the basic standardized test everyone must take, but don't do quite so well on the harder college admissions tests like the ACT and SAT. We may have Vincent take the SAT for the first time in Denmark, at the Copenhagen International School [scene from Copenhagen above top].) (Tonight, instead of going to buy parts for the car, Vincent transcribed the rest of a short preliminary interview from Sunday and called his father to warn him that if he fails science and still goes to Denmark he won't have time to go to Ohio to do summer visitation with his father, because he'll have to take second semester science again, on-line.) Stephanie went this afternoon to a dual baby shower for her two colleagues who have been pregnant all year. Last night we went shopping for Stephanie's one other English as a New Language education faculty colleague, who is expecting this summer, for the music teacher at Stephanie's school (see earlier "101 Dalmations" blog entry about these two teachers, who directed that musical together) who had twins seven weeks early a couple of weeks ago (say a prayer for her and her twins, one still in the hospital), and for the coordinators of youth and children's ministries, Kate and Ian, at our church, also due to have a kid this summer. Stephanie said the music teacher was at the after-school event, without the kids. Stephanie also talked with her mother, as she has been daily. Nancy has gotten out of the house twice in the past couple of days, Monday to a Cancer Center in Columbus where she may be going for treatment, assuming that she stays in town for that. For the second morning in a row, my colleagues interviewed rivals of mine, two phone interviews with out-of-town applicants for the associate for survey research position, my manager's old position, for which I have also applied. I have mixed feelings about getting together a scholarly presentation and going through the interview gauntlet. We've been continuing to interview candidates for another administrative assistant position and for a research assistant position. Some of my colleagues and I thought today's candidate was OK, but it appears that we may look for more candidates to interview - These interminable interviews take up a lot of our time, including for our one manager who has been coordinating most of them. Of course, the last time I was involved in this we extended the search and wound up with the right candidate later (instead of the ones I had helped interview during a first round of interviews). Still, we all have a lot to do, and we need help quickly, so it's depressing for this to go on forever, plus it's unnerving for me to have potentially look forward to being judged more explicitly by all of my current colleagues (assuming for the moment that I make the top two or three and am granted an in-person interview). These job interviews and the whole process, in general, potentially connect with other issues in the office as bad feelings sometimes fester. (Some of this tension has spilled over into the larger office, where it turns out that some influential people have clashed with my managers, and a Stated Clerk candidate who I wrote about earlier has encountered his first opponent in the election. That election will take place at the national Presbyterian meetings in San Jose. I booked my travel today both to Florida to be with my mother during and right after her surgery and to San Jose, for those meetings and a little visiting with friends and relatives [my San Jose hotel pictured above bottom]. Some of that tension may have also spilled over into my health, where my recovery from renewal of my shoulder/neck/back injury faced a setback, as I woke up immediately after the earthquake with significant pain again, which I'm working on at physical therapy this week.) (Speaking of San Jose, the General Assembly orientation videotapes are now live on the General Assembly Web site - http://www.pcusa.org/ga218/commissioners/orientation.htm
The person who alerted me to this - indirectly - none other than my old pastor from Tallahassee's First Presbyterian Church, Brant Copeland, who will serve as a General Assembly commissioner from the Presbytery of Florida, and told my mother he had watched a video with me in it.)

Congratulations, Senator Clinton!

Speaking of voters: Congrats to Senator Clinton, winner of the PA primary. Senator Obama speaks tomorrow blocks away from where Stephanie teaches, in New Albany, IN. With the KY and IN primaries approaching, we're starting to see ads. The Congressman whose campaign I have volunteered for, Baron Hill, in Southern IN, has lent support to Obama, as has the Louisville Congressman whose staff helped me get my replacement passport last summer. Indiana is apparently very close, but KY - featuring lots of the older, blue-collar whites who are Clinton's base - is apparently Hillary country - at least until the general election, when some of those Reagan Democrats may defect to Senator McCain.

Broadway night

It was Broadway night on "American Idol," as Andrew Lloyd Webber was the guest mentor. Although we don't consider ourselves big Broadway fans, we're familiar with much of composer Webber's work. I've been a fan of "Jesus Christ Superstar," since it came out in the early 70s and we owned the album in Massachusetts and three of us went to see it in Boston. Stephanie owned a Webber compendium CD when I met her, we went to see "Phantom of the Opera" with Nancy in Columbus and Vincent then listened to the CD on the way to the school bus stop every weekday morning for weeks, Vincent performed some selections from "Cats" in Tallahassee (and Stephanie and I had also gone to see this in Columbus), and for New Year's Eve three years ago in Bradenton we went to see the movie version of "Phantom." (Stephanie had also seen the movie version of "Evita," with Madonna and Antonio Banderas, in Columbus.) So, perhaps it should have been no surprise that we recognized all but one of the songs. Strongest I thought was Syesha Mercado, who started things off with the one song we did not recognize. A collective favorite was Carlie Smithson's stirring if a little shouty version of the "Jesus Christ Superstar" theme song (one of three gender-bending songs from the night) and David Cook was solid with "Music of the Night" from "Phantom" (as was Brooke White with "You Must Love Me" from "Evita").

The Band's Visit

Today I watched all but the beginning of "The Band's Visit," which got ruled out of the Oscar best foreign film contest because so much of it was in English (a language many people knew). The film chronicles the afternoon, evening, and morning that an Egyptian army band spends in an out-of-the-way Israeli town, when their bus breaks down. The film is awfully slow and quiet, focusing on the relationships between three Egyptians and their hosts, including their middle-aged commander and his sultry bored restauranteur hostess - who originally comes up with the idea of them staying in Israel - a younger Egyptian band member who goes out to a rollar disco with several Israelis he met, and another group of Egyptians who stay with a fractious families. The joy is really in watching the evenings of this various groups play out, with lots of pauses, awkwardness, and intercultural exchange.

Presbytery meeting

I have spoken briefly to a Cincinnati Presbytery meeting for work, but I went to my first ever presbytery meeting as an "elder commissioner," which my manager let me off from work. All meetings of national and regional Presbyterian bodies are supposed to feature an equal number of Presbyterian ordained ministers and ordained non-ministers, and I was the elder (from our church) serving as a commissioner at this meeting. I tried to get there for lunch, but stayed late at work. During breaks at the meeting I was also negotiating with a sign company to make us promotional signs for our youth fund-raising plant/art sale/tea this coming Saturday. Our friend Sarah (see earlier blog), Pastor Jane, several other people from our church (pastoral associates Mary and Rick, plus Martha (see earlier blog entries), a number of different people from work, and other people from around the presbytery whom I've met (plus a few former work clients from around the presbytery). The former Louisville presbytery is now the mid-Kentucky presbytery, with an office a few blocks away from our office.

The Fourth Presbyterian Church sanctuary was initially packed but it thinned out heavily by the end (3 1/2 hours later). Two women who preached - Judy Hockenberry, a person from work whose husband is the presbytery Stated Clerk - and presbytery executive Betty Meadows - were good, and a high point was the introduction of new ministers, including a new "stated supply pastor" at a church in Lebanon, Kentucky, who talked about how in 2007 he was driving a garbage truck for Rumpke, until he got fired for backing into things three different times. (I also - surprise - got to speak, when I read the names of two Crescent Hill elders - recently deceased - who I'd never heard of. And I was there to support one of five people who will represent our presbytery at the General Assembly meeting (which I'll apparently be at two, the youth advisory delegate - Clara - who's from our church).) Two bits of controversy: There was a very close vote on an effort to join a General Assembly resolution proposed by the San Joaquim presbytery that recognized the denomination's numerical decline and called for a series of solemn assemblies across the country, which the presbytery council opposed as vague and redundant (and probably to critical of the denomination). I thought the "yes" and "no" votes were pretty even, but, with the resolution subtlely critical of the national denomiantion which I work for, but sponsored in part by the session at Sarah's church - I abstained. Afterwards, I also asked and found out that the church that started the Presbyterian Community Center (see an earlier blog), a historically black church in the Smoketown neighborhood, near where I used to live (whose elder commissioner I had just spoken to) - its pastor is being brought up on charges of financial improprieties. On the whole, there was a lot of energy at the meeting at the beginning, but then worship was not short and the meeting was a little heavy on bureaucracy. But it was still interesting to watch (Martha and Pastor Jane, with whom I sat, both had to take off after less than 45 minutes). I can see, since many ministers are there every quarter, but many elders rotate in and out as commissioners, ministers may have a proponderant voice (because they know more and know more people). A year or so ago our church hosted the meeting.

Big Vincent/church day

This morning a church event I'd helped work on for months, an Earth Day Celebration and Mission Partnership Conversation, a follow-up to an early January Epiphany party and mission partnership conversation, took place. After helping a little with a Habitat for Humanity house early Saturday, I got to church, late, Saturday at lunchtime and helped set up tables, chairs, plates, and serving bowls hardly at all. Last night Stephanie reminded me that the butterfly cookies for this morning and the cupcakes (yow - bad for Weight Watchers) I was supposed to get at our favorite Heitzman's bakery were still sitting there, because I had forgotten to get them. So, this morning, I got up at the usual weekday morning 5:20 a.m., walked the dog, blogged a little, stopped at Heitzman's, and got to church, 5 minutes late, but still the first one there. I had rooms for discussions to help set up, butterfly cookies to help set out, and then elaborate instructions from Andrea to start in motion. After a while a swirl of helpers -- Soni, Izzy, Lowell, Elaine, Gayle, Andrea and her daughters and husband, and then Kate and Ian and eventually Stephanie and Vincent - arrived--not before calling home multiple times for Stephanie to retrieve forgotten items. We put out fruit, cereal, milk, and orange juice, and warmed sticky rolls in the oven and then served them.

The last of our speakers arrived just in time, and then Rebecca helped us get started with a great warm-up/opening Earth Day prayer. After eating, a series of speakers - Elaine, Andrea, Marian, Barbara - reviewed what we had talked about in January - when a big part of the discussion how we could apply partnership principles not only in church mission activity but also at home, in personal relationships, and within our congregatoin - and updated on ways to think about how to connect all of that. Finally, we (after Jane - pictured above top - and I - gave instruction and perspective) broke into groups to discuss how we could imagine building and deepening mission relationships with: (1) Presbyterian mission workers; (2) farmers, farm workers, and food consumers; (3) people in Guatemala; (4) people in Appalachia/on environmental justice issues; and (5) people in Louisville/Kentuckiana. A church member had donated little flags to help direct people (U.N.; Florida; Guatemala; Kentucky and West Virginia; and metro Louisville and Indiana), and I helped facilitate the Guatemala discussion. Our group had a modest turnout - only three of the 19 people who went to Guatemala with us a year ago - but heard thoughtful comments from Marian, Carlos, Eugene, a visitor named John, and Soni, who helped take notes, along with additional comments from Luke, Ariana, and Elizabeth. We mulled over some ideas, including always hemming between projects versus relationships, discussed the real communications challenges but more we could do, and wondered about going to Tennessee for a discussion with others working with K'ekchi Guatemalans and to a mission network meeting in November and perhaps on to El Estor in November. I remain unsure if we've got the level of interest and commitment - what with the ten of us there, few others in our Spanish-language Bible class, and weak sales of our fund-raising cards. We've got a valuable resource with Pastor Carlos and his family, interest on the part of our pastor, and some excellent Spanish speakers who were on the trip but were not part of our discussion today - to go further with this. We will be praying about it. The largest group (and we did say that people would be somewhat voting with their feet), from what I can tell, was the imagine deepening relationships group with people in Louisville and Kentuckiana group, which ended up meeting outside. They apparently had 20 people or so and they thought big (or less focused), in that they lauded existing local mission projects, but thought instead about trying to partner with another congregation in a different part of town - maybe Prebyterian, maybe not. I heard mixed reports about other groups. There were official recorders in each group, and we'll be hearing from them to post reports on a Crescent Hill mission focus blog I helped construct. It may have turned out to be an error that we asked some of the people with the most expert knowledge about mission in this area to facilitate these discussions, but we'll see.

(After breakfast, Martha, Kate, and Stephanie took the elementary-school-aged children - the ones we usually have for Children's Fellowship, who I helped take off for the Epiphany Party - to the church main building. Stephanie said Martha had the kids carry jugs of water, because that's how much water people need each day. We talked about water in Guatemala, and the kids wanted to carry the jugs on their heads. She had brought a guitar, and had Stephanie and Kate and the kids sing a song about creation. Then she told a story about creation from a book with beautiful paintings. Two at a time, the kids (two pictured above) went out to paint terra cotta vases that we're going to sell at the youth mission art sale/plant sale fund-raiser. Stephanie and Kate helped supervise and painted.)

(Throughout the Earth Day activities, mission discussions, and worship that followed, Vincent and his youth group mates took pictures and videos of us, as part of footage that youth group mates will edit down for a video for a nationwide Presbyterian church video competition. Vincent mainly used a new digital video camrera, which he seemed to enjoy using. "I want one," he said.)

Birthday boy Vincent went on to try - only with limited success - to interview World War II veteran Bob Abrams, from our church, for a World War II oral history project for his World Civilization class. We went on to Panera with the Crescent Hill lunch bunch and talked with Phil, recovering from a stroke. After a quick visit home to walk the dog, I was back at church helping plan a youth mission fund-raiser/Up-scale Plant Sale, Tea, and Art Sale while Stephanie shopped for taco salad for supper for youth group/another Vincent birthday celebration.

I went home to get Vincent for a youth group effort to finish shooting video footage for a national church video competition. We prepared taco salad and related food items and the cupcakes for supper, with Claudia, Phil's wife and Natalie's mother. We joined the about ten kids (most of them Vincent's age), Claudia, Ian, and Kate for taco salad supper. Then, we rolled out the cupcakes (red velvet and Italian cream - yum - both with cream cheese icing) - shaped like a "17" - and Vincent (pictured above) blew out a single candle. Then, we watched/participated in a "highlights"/"lowlights" round robin, with the birthday boy starting. This is a youth group tradition, which essentially points out areas of thanksgiving and prayer concern. In weeks/years past, I've seen Vincent say simply "pass" (never seen anyone else do this). But, Vincent, having been in Murray and Ohio the previous two Sundays, and starting first and with some extra birthday attention, ended up trotting four or five or six highlights or lowlights each, starting out a 25-minute highlights/lowlights discussion, highlighted somewhat hilariously or indulgently by Rachel ribbing Gabe for about to be being driven by another youth group person (not there) to their prom, Gabe (whom Vincent and I ran into at a restaurant, with his mother, Friday night) breaking into an improvised rap, and - many, many minutes later - Elizabeth accusing Luis of calling her boy and chasing him across the parking lot, with his brother trailing behind for protection. What a chaotic but comfortable group! In the midst of this, Stephanie and I got to add our own highlights and lowlights. Some of it extended from church. I had missed some of the service, as I had cleaned the Fellowship hall where much of our Earth Day event was. But I got back to church in time for the rarely short explicit sharing of Thanksgivings and prayer concerns. Unusually, two of our church members talked about having just lost their jobs, and Ian talked about another church member who had cancer surgery this past Friday. I had written in a request for prayer for health and healing for Stephanie's mother, Nancy, two weeks ago, when our pastor wasn't there. Stephanie tried to speak about her mother, but started crying and couldn't say anything. She mouthed "my mom" to Pastor Jane, and Jane asked for prayers for Stephanie's mother. A few people had noticed my prayer request form request for prayer two weeks ago, and we'd told a few people about this (and it apparently got into a church e-mail of prayer requests). But, generally people had paid more attention last week at Washington Avenue United Methodist in Columbus South End, maybe because some of them have known Stephanie for longer and others remember Nancy (from when she worshiped there occasionally for several years around the time Stephanie was born). But Stephanie tearing up definitely caught more people's attention, as Mary came over to comfort Stephanie, our pastor called tonight, and a number of people asked about this. Hopefully their prayers will help.

After all of this, we hung around to clean up and then came home, where Vincent opened cards from us and Meemaw Nancy (he'd already gotten to one from Grandma Martha), and then modest presents from us - two Threadless T-shirts (including a brown "Miss Scarlet in the hall with the revolver" T-shirt - modeled after our favorite board game "Clue") and two AC/DC CDs (Vincent pictured above bottom opening the CDs), then we had Healthy Choice ice cream sandwiches (a tough Weight Watchers day today). Vincent then went back to writing a short story to the tunes of "Back in Black" and "Hells Beels," the songs of our youth (Vincent actually tried to buy one of these before, but we thought we had it - Vincent wears a black T-shirt, and I swear Luke from youth group wears his black AC/DC T-shirt every other Sunday morning and to Guatemala. Hopefully, Vincent wont' get the lyrics to some of these songs.)

First mowing

Stephanie mowed the front and back lawns for the first time this spring with our two-year-old reel mower. (Saturday Stephanie went on to take our relatively new battery-powered weed whacker and trim more grass and weeds in both yards - Looks great!) It's rained a lot lately and the grass was overdue for a mowing, so this was especially hard work. She had to go over most spots at least a couple of times. Although this winter we had the blade sharpened, the mower still doesn't cut as closely and as easily as a conventional gasoline- or electorical-powered mower. This is all supposed to be Vincent's job. He did go to martial arts classes twice this week for the first time in a long time. And, pushed by one of his teachers to be prepared in case he goes to Denmark, he asked us to show him (once again) how to do his own laundry, which she wants him to be able to do (instead of his host family) in Denmark. We have generally NOT pushed him to learn how to do this (partly because I/we are a little particular about how to do it), and in fact we did laundry for our two Danish exchange students, but it'd be a useful skill for Vincent to have (I've told him the story of my hallmate from our first year in college who spent the whole first semester buying new clothes at the mall and trying to get a girlfriend to avoid having to learn how to do laundry. Second semester he threw in the towel and got one of us to show him.) We'll see if he actually does his laundry, if only as a practice, on Sunday, his birthday.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Thursday night - while Vincent watched the mediocre "Jumper" - Stephanie and I watched "The Other Boleyn Girl," with Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman. Stephanie had read a book about Anne Boleyn and while living in Ohio we saw the opera "Anna Bolenina", and of course I remember the old PBS Henry IV miniseries, and we'd all seen the original "Elizabeth" movie. (The movie depicts Johnannson and Portman as two Boleyn sisters who are rivals for the love and favor of English King Henry VIII. We're not sure whether Johannson's character, Anne's younger sister, is an actual historical figure.) I missed a small part of the movie with Boleyn's descent from grace. But it was an interesting period piece, with some modern photography, depiction of family quarrels/intrigue/solidarity, and historical accounting. It was amazing to see how much power the men had - especially the king - but also fathers and uncles and husbands who were ready essentially to pimp out their women for favors and wealth and power (that was almost always very transitory). And yet the women were not portayed as just victims. We like both of these actresses. We've seen Johansson n "Match Point" and "Lost in Translation" and Portman in "Cold Mountain" and of course the Star Wars movies (plus I've seen her in "Closer" and "Garden State") (along with the actress who played their mother, Kristin Scott Thomas).

Mom's handiwork

Mom has been at it again. She has taken material I bought in Guatemala last summer and transformed it into a stunning jacket and matching belt. She even made nice black capris to go with it. I don't know how much my wardrobe is from her, but it must be great deal. There is nothing like your own seamstress to make sure that everything is perfect.

For an update, mom does seem to be doing better after the surgery. She has even been able to get shoes on and leave the house. Tuesday she is back in to see the surgeon and her regular doctor to see about her healing progress. She can't start chemotherapy until she is healed from all the incisions. This week she will probably have her port put in, in preparation for the chemotherapy. Please continue to keep her and all of us in your thoughts and prayers.

-- Stephanie

Birthday dinner

After an expensive, grandiose16th birthday party last year – opposite Thunder Over Louisville – with a bunch of his Brown School classmates at Lazer Blaze, this year we were going to take Vincent out to dinner tonight, on his birthday eve, and then celebrate his birthday partly with cupcakes at youth group tomorrow afternoon. Vincent and Stephanie had been out for sushi at a Japanese restaurant on Frankfort Avenue near our church several months ago. But instead of the three of us going there, we let Vincent also invite two friends (Sam and Aaron were the ones he could reach this afternoon) and, when the Frankfort Avenue restaurant had a long wait, we went to a rival restaurant down the street, Osaka. Stephanie and I had some Korean food, and Sam had calamari, but otherwise we had sushi (including some adventurous sushi that I didn’t love – Vincent mainly went for the very spicy). It still amazes us that our son won’t eat onions or tomatoes but loves sushi, hummus, and other international/exotic foods. It was actually fun watching/participating with Vincent and his friends over a round table and sushi for an hour and a half plus. At times we almost seemed like five adults. It was much quieter than last year! Vincent’s friends did kid him about some things, including some of his anime interests. They lost me some with they talked about video games. On the way home, Aaron did a dead-on voice of our October 2007 Danish exchange student. (There’s still a chance that Vincent may go to Denmark in June). After dinner, the boys headed to Lazer Blaze (some place he hasn’t been able to go for a couple of months with his sinking grades), but Vincent later came home saying it wasn’t fun because it was too crowded. (Stephanie said Vincent was kind of cute coming in to say good night after returning. "Is there anything you want to say to me while I'm still 16?" he asked.) Growing out of it? (Sam and Vincent were in the 10-minute plays together, and Aaron and Vincent and our families both hosted Danes this past October. Vincent has stayed at both of their houses over night.) He wasn’t able to reach other friends of his, including Cody and Matthew.

Last legs?

For the past nine months we’ve carried three cars. Stephanie’s 1993 green, four-door Ford Taurus (which Stephanie bought used from a Ford dealer while my family and I were in France in summer 1997), with more than 220,000 miles, I have been driving mainly. We don’t use the right rear door, I knocked off half of the back bumper at home, and the floor on the right rear side has started to fall through. More recently, the car stalls in the morning, when the weather is cold (and some other times when the engine is cold), and – as of this week – the passenger side front door is locked shut and won’t open and the trunk won’t stay closed. Our car with the fewest miles is a 1990 red, two-door Acura Legend, with 170,000 miles, which we bought used from Mo, the parent of a basketball teammate of Vincent, in Minnesota. It’s got Minnesota rust and a complicated switching system, but otherwise runs well. However, neither the Ford nor the Acura have working air-conditioning systems (both would cost $1,000-1,300 to fix assuming we could find the parts), and now the power windows in the three of the four Acura windows won’t work (I dislike power windows). That is, the last few times we lowered the front two windows, they felt like they weren’t going to go up. And so we don’t tempt fate by opening the windows, lest they stay open and we’re stuck if it gets cold, it’s raining, or we’re trying to park the car somewhere. The cool March and April so far has been good for this. But, as you can imagine, as the temperature have headed up even into the 70s, especially after we’ve had to park the Acura in the sun (with its black interior) have made it pretty uncomfortable in there pretty quickly. The Acura does have a sun roof, but in the middle of the day opening this only makes it hotter, because the hot sun steams in, along with a little breeze. One of the back windows works, and this saved us on the trip to and from Murray, when it got hot.

Amazingly, we’ve had since the end of last June a third car. Penny and Serge, facing maintenance problems with the 1993 brown, four-door Nissan Maxima, which my father and then I had turned over to them in December 2001 (with a great deal of family strife over this gift), and trying to find a car that gets even better gas mileage, them having moved way out to a rural town some 15-20 miles outside of Charlottesville, gave me back the Nissan, on a crazy 48 hours in which I flew to Baltimore, drove a rental car and got lost in Northern VA, spent a whole day – partly with my friend Chris – waiting to try to get an emergency passport, spent four hours in metro D.C. traffic, visited with Penny and Serge and Jacob in Charlottesville for a couple of hours, then drove all night with three hours rest in West Virginia back straight to work in Louisville, where I finished a very important project and got ready to get up at 3 a.m. the next morning to go on a mission trip to Guatemala with my family that I was helping lead. Since then we have not titled, tagged, or insured the Maxima, but I have started it up and moved it around the driveway once a week or so since then. This has not entirely worked, as I had to buy a new battery from AAA and they have had to replace it twice. Plus, at some point even with the new battery the car wouldn’t start, and so we got it towed down the block to Jim Hendrix Automotive and with some help we paid $1,300 for repairs – probably the repairs that Penny and Serge were trying to avoid doing. As we picked up the car originally, it smoked and leaked oil and wouldn’t start after it had rained. Plus the speedometer doesn’t work. This car has more than 200,000 miles – and whether we should have picked it up in the first place or gotten it fixed is an open question. It’s the one of our three cars that has working air-conditioning – although Penny herself said she wouldn’t trust driving it to Florida. Having spent all of that money to fix it, we may shortly take the Taurus out of service and start using the Nissan. The offices to do all the title transfer and license tagging are open late only on Wednesday, when we have Children’s Fellowship, and so I may wait until I can take a day off from that. This Wednesday Vincent and Stephanie or I have a Denmark exchange program meeting.

Pondering fixing the Acura is also a vexing problem. We’ve talked with a free-lance mechanic about using used power window regulators and motors to fix it, but have had no luck finding used parts. Having the Acura dealer fix the power windows with new parts will cost about $1,300 (meaning fixing BOTH the windows and the air-conditioning would cost about $2,600 (and of course the latter is way more than the car is worth).

In principle, I like keeping cars running until they really die, but now we have a surplus of poorly running cars. Mom has also flirted with the idea of buying a brand-new car and my sister isn’t enamored with her old car’s gas mileage and so we might be in line for that one. But we still would need a second car. But which one of these three? Presumably the Acura, but as the temperature rises it faces the most acute needs and a large bill to fix them.