Nerd humor.

Jeremy came back from MIT with this shirt.  I love this shirt, but Vince grabbed it before I could and wore it to school today.

You guys get it, right?

E = mc2
i =
  -1  
PV=nRT
The last equation, the ideal gas law, is the most beautiful equation I have ever learned.  More beautiful than F=ma and a2+b2 = c2.   I think the most beautiful equations are the ones you learn first. Last night, I even remembered that the gas constant R is 8.314 after so many years of not thinking about it.  Of course, it is the ideal gas law meaning that gasses in real life don’t adhere to the equation perfectly because it assumes that there is no attraction between the gas particles.  I remember being a bit upset when I had to learn the modification to the equation to take into account the deviations from ideal-ness.  

Lady Hercules and/or Modern Lady Mover

I was really anxious this afternoon, especially around 3:30 PM.  I knew at that time, Mom supposed to be home with her 4 ordered windows from Home Depot loaded on our 2005 Ford CrowVic.

Sure enough, at 12:30 PM (3:30 PM my time), she called and everything was fine.  I was relief.  Before that, I tried to help her by asking assistance somewhere but wasn’t unsuccessful.

Glad she was safe at home with her windows.  I asked her not to unload the windows until framing workers show up. But, kind of doubt, she will wait that long.  Will see.

Was summer a dream?

I didn’t have a chance to take any photos today, so I’m posting some photos I took this summer.  It hardly seems possible that summer was just a few weeks ago and now we are knee deep into the beginning of the school year.  It’s been wonderful to see Vince, Edda and their friends start to look like the adults they are going to be in a few years.

MIT.

Jeremy is at MIT today for business.  This is the tip of building 66, the ChemE building where I spent a summer working on drug delivery polymers.  It was the first and last time I did any sort of animal experimentation.  A little hydrogel disk loaded with caffeine was implanted into a bunny rabbit (which I think a professional bunny surgeon did because I certainly did not do it) and then I was responsible for taking periodic blood samples from their ears which seems not so bad as animal experiments go.  The interesting thing (from our lab’s standpoint) was the hydrogel – how it time released its loaded drugs into the blood.  But I didn’t know how to draw blood from a rabbit and it was excruciating to keep poking the poor rabbit who was squashed in a tiny bunny jail/restraint.  The summer ended and I do not know anything about what happened to the data or the bunnies or if any of it got published anywhere, I just wanted to leave the lab and not think about it too much.

Jeremy looked for hotels for his business trip, he could not find ANY in Cambridge for less than $500 a night.  It was more expensive than Boston.  We couldn’t figure out what was going on in town to cause such a need for hotel rooms.

42.

Last night, Jeremy made me birthday porkchops with Dave’s famous Butt Rub.

******

This birthday morning, I got the most beautiful day ever for a gift and an opportunity to spend 1.5 hours of it outside with family, friends and their kids.

Vince ran around the soccer field wearing non-regulation BACON socks.

Sub-Floor Is Up for U Street Addition

Mom was pretty excited to watch the sub-floor of her addition gradually taking shape.  Beneath that, I have already made the sewage connections and placed the 6 mil plastic sheets for ground cover to channel the possible Radon gas emission and to keep the ground moisture out.  The plastic sheets are there but not completely fixed in place. I guess after plumbing work (DIY) and insulation (by others) I will put them in place properly with a staple gun.

This year, it seems that Mom can finish framing, roofing and siding parts.  The rest is for next year.  The first thing on the list for next year is new deck to connect the old one at the back.  This way, it will make in-and-out much easier through the back exterior door of the addition.

And the last thing for this year is to put the fence in front back to its original place.  I don’t think it is hard.

Clinical. Back to school night.

First clinical today.  We are a group of good looking nursing students.  I was nervous, but it was a fantastic first day.  My instructor is great, my classmates are smart.  The nurses on the floor seemed to like working with each other and with their patients and did not seem burned out.  And!  I did a head-to-toe assessment on my very first patient.  

******

Back to school night for Vince.  His science teacher has 70 snakes in his house.  Here I am with Dr. J, the school mascot.  I told Dr. J I was JW class of ’86 and he gave me a high five.