Random happenings and pics

I was walking down Capitol Hill and took this picture of the Capitol Building in winter.

I was walking to the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars to listen to some of the Einstein Fellows that were on a panel discussing how much it benefits teachers, students, and scientists when they form partnerships and scientists come to the classroom.  

Went to a holiday get together at a friends house and Memphis Gold was there with his guitar.  He is a blues musician and he entertained us with his music, stories, and humor.  

Wanted to see the model train display at the botanic garden, but it was rather disappointing.   Because it is almost Christmas, I took a picture of this plant from which frankincense is made.  I think is comes from the sap.

I drove my car today determined to find the Mormon Temple.  It is a little hard to get to, but I made it.  I spent a couple of hours at the visitor center.  It is a very beautiful building.  Now that I know I can get there, I will return more often.

Weekend in West Virginia

Saturday, Geraldine rented a car and three of us drove to West Virginia to visit with an Leigh, an Einstein fellow from last year, and Bob.  It was nice to be with friends and get out of the city, even though I did not get a lot of sleep (smile).  A dusting of snow made it even more beautiful.

Lots of good food.

Lighting the Hanukah candles.

Bob, Leigh, Me, and Dave.  Geraldine is taking the picture.

They live in a barn that has been remodeled into a home.  It is beautiful inside and wonderfully rustic on the outside.

National Institutes of Health

We visited the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The NIH invests over $31.2 billion annually in medical research for the American people and gets almost all of its financing directly from Congress.  The NIH campus is over 300 acres and is located in Bethesda, Maryland.  The clinical research facilities are often the last hope for those that come.  In the children's hospital is a wall of tiles of children's art.  They express the range of emotions experienced by these young patients as they go through, often years, of treatment in the hopes of finding somethings that will prolong their lives.

We also visited the zebra fish lab where they do genetic research.

And the pathology laboratory.  We got a micro-course on how they isolate cells from a tissue sample with very high tech machinery that uses the "glue" material used in glue guns and high power lasers to cut out cells and attach to disks to view without disturbing the delicate cell structures.

Party, Tubas, Science, and the US Army

Lots of activities this week.  Wednesday was the Holiday Party for my Division at NSF.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone brought food.  then they played Pictionary until they could figure out to hook up the Lets Dance on the Wii.  The next two hours were spent taking turns "dancing".  Great calorie burner after all the good eating.

Einstein Fellows, Ann Drobnis, Erik Russell, and Me

After the party, my sponsor and I went to the Millennium  Stage at the Kennedy Center to hear the Tuba Christmas Chorus.  It is an annual event where people bring their tubas, rehearse for an hour, and then perform.  there were 350 tubas.  They played familiar carols and we sang along.  It was great fun.

Thursday evening I volunteered to be a judge at a local middle school science fair.  I judged 6th grade projects.  It was a little different because all of the students used a powerpoint presentation to show what they did for their science experiment.  They all did a great job and had pictures, data and graphs  It was a lot of fun and I am going to volunteer for another school's science fair judging in January.

Tonight I attended the U.S. Army Band Holiday Concert in Constitution Hall.  It was really good.  Went with a friend and we stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home.  The walk home was pleasant with a temperature of 50 degrees.

There is always something to do in Washington, DC. Wish you were here to share it with me.

A weekend with Marcus and family in NY

Last Friday I took a day off from work and road the train to see Marcus and Heidi and girls.  I was on the train at 6:30 am and I got to the Albany, NY station about 1:00 pm.  I changed trains at Penn station in NYC.  Most of the trip is along the Hudson River.  These are some pictures I took from the train window.

It has been awhile since I have seen Marc's family.  I had not seen their home since they moved to NY.  We did a lot of hiking.  It is beautiful where they live with lots of lakes and hiking trails close by.  The girls made sure that I a big serving of hugs and lots of laughter.

When we hiked to a waterfall near Lake George, there was this tree trying to grow on solid rock.  It was an example of determination and tenacity. 

On Sunday morning, Marcus and I left the rest of the family to sleep in and we hiked around this wonderful lake that is about five miles from their home.  It took us about an hour and was a great start to the day.  The weather was crisp, but not cold.