"Love"

Hi again from Ljubljana

I have been catching up with the publications that have accumulated in my absence and just finished reading the article below in the Feb. NGM. I found it very interesting (as also amusing) and thought to share it with you.
Love from ata.

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0602/feature2/... Vega. Scientists say that the brain chemistry of infatuation is akin to mental illness—which gives new meaning to "madly in love.". ... www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0602/feature2/ - 20k - 2006-01-30 - Cached

Saturday in Seattle

Peter, I wasn't able to open okorn.com -- but I'm looking forward to seeing your new car! Speaking of cars: Ian and I have officially become white trash - it's very exciting. Yes, the car I bought from mom, her old '92 Mercury Sable, is currently dead in front of our house. Ian thinks it's just a battery; I'm hoping it's nothing more.
Ata, I've read both of those books and thought they were fascinating, especially Atlas Shrugged. The ideas in that book are so powerful and timeless; I'd strongly recommend it to anyone.
So we played soccer on Thursday night, our first game of the spring season. It was a beautiful and relatively warm night; plus we played on turf (instead of sand) under the lights of a big highschool field -- so much fun! I'm definitely getting more aggressive (and I have the abrasions and bruises to prove it!) and I really enjoy the midfield position. I like fullback as well; less enthralled with the forward position because I don't have the boot to make shots on goal. Ian likes playing forward and midfield (and he's good at both). I'm just glad that spring is finally here!
Greg, what are your plans for your birthday??
Today we're going to a local nursery to take a bonsai class; we'll get to pick our own little bonsai tree, learn how to train it along wires, and hopefully learn how to keep it alive (Ian got me a bonsai tree for Christmas and I've already managed to kill it -- I think with too much love (Ian thinks with not enough water)). Who has watched Karate Kid and hasn't wanted their own bonsai tree???
toodles!

Ayn Rand

Hi!
Last night I viewed on TV a special on the life of Ayn Rand, a Russian Jewish emigrant to the USA, born in 1905. Did any of you read any of her writings?
She was a writer and philosopher whose main and most important works were "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" both of which I read years ago. I liked her ideas and agreed with much of her philosophy of Libertarianism, as of course also her opposition to Communism.
Ata.

You need to meet Ms. ...

Myrtle Okorn.... www.okorn.com/peter/mb

Tuesday...

Ata, no, I didn't know that doctor. Apparently he retired a while ago; Ian said that there was an e-mail going around UW about him, though. We hear that he moved to Botswana and was taking a group canoe trip down a river when a big croc lept out of the water, grabbed him and that was it! Scary!
Jaki, thanks for the photos! What a little superstar your daughter is! A soccer playing, president-meeting (oh, yes, I heard all about it), fashion model -- what's next?? Just no trips down Botswana'n rivers!
I just signed up for a beginning French class at the local community college. I love taking night classes there! I've taken several cooking classes; Ian and I took a swing dancing class as well as a course on playing bridge (did I mention before that we're hoping to receive our AARP cards soon? :) ) And now I'm tired of not knowing how to pronounce all of the common french words in our language; like, which letters are silent? which aren't? it's all very confusing. I promise to sort it all out and get back to you. The class starts 4/19 and runs for 8 weeks.

dobrina

From ata

Dobrina and Ian, I just read the article below - did you know this doctor?

Top UW doctor killed by crocodile in Africa

By TOM PAULSON
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
Mar. 21
Dr. Richard K. Root, a gifted clinical teacher at the University of Washington Medical School and former chief of medicine at Harborview Medical Center, moved to Botswana earlier this month to help alleviate Africa's desperate shortage of doctors and nurses.

The article is much longer of course, if you want to look it up.

Hi all from ata

I finally figured this thin out, I think - Dobrina, at first I just added a comment to your first blog, did you read it?

Nothing much happening here right now. The snow is finally melting and a warm front is bringing rain.

Saw the "Narnia" film last night (forgot the exact title) and am scheduled to attend a couple of lectures this week - looking forward to some intellectual activities again. Till now I had been lazy and just watched TV and caught up some with the reading material that had accumulated in my absence.

This morning we had a birthday party at the coffee clutch in Ljubljana (Joseph, the oldest, made it to 93 years yesterday and is still going strong (he has no major health problems other than weakness in the legs which made him get a walking cane last month) - I wonder if I will make it anywhere close to his age.

I had to call the Slov. AAA service to get my car started and it's running good now. To fill the battery, I took Marjeta on an outing Saturday - it was a beautiful sunny day.

Jaki, let me know if you received the tapes I sent.

Till next time much love from ata.

Hi all,

Sophia and I had a full weekend. Saturday morning Sophia was invited to be part of the local Nordstrom Kid's fashion show. Yes it was nice but it meant getting up at 6:30am on a weekend. Oh well, Sophia, Stacey and I went and it was fun. I took some video and some pictures. (I'll post them here if I can.) The fashion show ended at 9:30 and then we had to head immediately to Sophia's soccer game at 10:00. I had to coach the team as the regular coach was off on vacation. We won the game 10-5. I was very nervous but it turned out great. Today we had our second game and unfortunately we lost 5-6, which was not that bad because we were down 2-6 at one point and just about tied the game when we ran out of time. Well, that is a quick run down of our weekend. I'll write more later.

Jack

Mom's first posting

Hi wonderful children - I'm enjoying reading your blogs. I've heard about blogs, and there is a guy a work that blogs all the time (even during work!!). Makes me mad (oh well!)

Let's see - hmmm. Okay.
Friday and Saturday I was up in Portland at "market". This is where all the shop owners buy their fabric and notions stock. It is a distributor called E.E. Schenck Co. They have a trade show 2 times a year, and it is a blast. Anyway, Mary and I went up and spent much money and saw old friends from the past 2 years that we had attended. So now, I have to rearrange my sewing room to accommodate my stock. Fun, Fun, Fun!

Update on Dick McKinnis - he is doing "okay"...not great, but okay. He sees another doctor in Medford on Thursday for a second opinion. (Tina & Mike - Dick has a blood disorder that is making him very tired. He makes too many white blood cells and not enough red ones.) Hopefully, with the right medication, they can stabilize him, so that he doesn't have to have too many transfusions.

Pete and Greg - your birthday cards will be in the mail tomorrow. Can't hardly believe that my children are getting older. Now everyone will be 30 and older. Oh well, it will be 61 for me. Hopefully, just 2 more years and I can retire - or at least go to part time.

Ok kiddies - I'm going to close for now. This is fun! Love to you all,
Mom

Hi All.

All is well here. Glad to hear you were at least in paradise Dobrina, even if the weather was raining and uncooperative. Thanks for the blogg space, this is cool.

I'm good these days. Had a blast on St. Patty's day in Georgetown. Had a friend 'do her best' to get me drunk, I suppose she succeeded. And, today I'm going out to play a little disc golf and then meet back up with Virginia so we can watch our Sunday shows. Flavor of Love, Number 1 Single ?? Anyone watch those?

Other than watching tv, working and playing some golf now and then I make music with some friends on Saturday nights and am trying to get my Maserati on the road. More about that later. For now I think I'm done writing today. Hope you are all ok and Mason I haven't forgotten your Birtday. Miss you all. P

Brina's saturday doings

howdy folks! we went to a neighborhood St. Patty's party last night -- is corned beef always so salty? pretty tasty, though! and someone was going along with the green theme and brought two grasshopper pies (the kind with the chocolate cookie crust and choc chip mint ice cream). The ice cream started to melt pretty quickly on the counter, so I just stood next to it with a spoon. :)
Today I'll do a little quilting -- when I was home checking in on Dick last month, Mom and I picked out some new fabric for me to work on and I'd like to have a little something to show to her when I see her next month for her birthday (by the way, mom, I priceline'd us a fancy hotel in Portland called The Benson Hotel -- totally cheap!)
Ian and I are also going to go to the soccer clinic at 11am -- it's essentially a few drills then a scrimmage. I need all the help I can get. Maybe Sophie can give us a few pointers?

Howdy from Texas

Hey everyone. Thought I'd put a quick entry on here this morning to let everyone know we're still alive down here in TX.

Mason had a good birthday yesterday, he's been out of school all week on spring break, so it's like he gets the whole week off for his birthday every year... can't beat that. We went out to dinner last night to celebrate. Today (Saturday) he's inviting a bunch of friends to go to a rollerskating rink for a small birthday party, then a few of them are going to sleep over tonight and watch movies, etc. He's really getting to be too old for a "party" but he just mainly wants to hang out with his friends.

Other than that, we're all doing fine here. Work continues to be the daily grind that it always is for both Tina and I. She's working on a team that's implementing a brand new HR information system which means constant meetings and late nights. She just got back from a week in Vegas at an SAP convention to learn more about the software. She had a good time and it was a nice break for her.

Not much else going on here. Supposed to get some rain this weekend which would be nice, we're in a severe drought. Too bad my Seahawks didn't win the super bowl, but there's always next year.

Take care, we love you all.

Mike

Kaua'i -- and they call this paradise???

Ian and I are currently in a coffee shop, he's reading a book and I'm supposed to be reviewing the conference material that I skipped this morning. Guess what? It's raining!! Not surprising, considering kaua'i is known for its rain, but it sucks because it's been raining here every day -- and not just a little. It's pouring buckets. More than they've seen in a long time. In fact, the hotel we were supposed to stay at flooded. Yes, that's right. And the roads are flooded; in fact, several people have died when their homes washed away in the middle of the night. And seven people so far have been washed out to sea while surfing or whatever! Needless to say, all of the activities we'd planned have been cancelled: taking a helicopter tour (how cool would THAT have been?), kayaking the Wailua river and then hiking to a waterfall, scubadiving; heck, even snorkeling and sitting on the beach have been cancelled! And then today was the final straw: I couldn't even get to the hotel conference center to go to my morning lectures. Ian's already bored silly; he'd been planning to spend the mornings trying to surf or play a little golf - all cancelled. We found the local dives for local food, and you'll be pleased to know that we found a "Fun Factory" in a strip mall that had air hockey. We saw the movie 16 Blocks -- really liked it. But we're actually flying home early. The forecast is for continued rain and there is nothing more we can do here. We'd rather be home where at least I have my studio/craft room and he has his garden! So we fly out tonight. Totally sucks = I was really looking forward to that helicopter ride. :) C'est la vie!
Love to all!!
Dobrina