Author: Doris

I’m a bit overextended these days.  Lots of stuff going on (nothing bad, all good) – but I just have to keep it from overwhelming me.  I have to remember to take care of myself first.  You know, oxygen mask on yourself and then the people around you. Which, for me, means to get more sleep.  Hopefully starting tonight.

Dave, our good pal from grad school, came all the way from San Diego to visit us.  He was in town for a conference on Wed-Friday and spent a good part of the weekend with us.  Dave is not only the smartest guy I know (although I did see him struggle to figure out the tip on the dinner bill.  no matter.  he’s still the smartest guy ever.), but he’s also one of the funniest.  We dug up 20 year old jokes and laughed and laughed.

Dave went with us on our first date (this was wayyy before anyone had cell phones).  Our class at Caltech had a tradition of going out to cheap second-run movies on Thursday nights.  We had a friend who was trying to set Jeremy and me up, so he sent word around that on this one particular Thursday night, no one was to show up at the meeting place – in that way, Jeremy and I would head to the movie alone.  Everyone got the message – except Dave.  So he was there on our first date.

It was a beautful weekend for ice cream and a walk.

And a neighborly fire pit.

Complete with sparklers.

The next morning, Dave showed us his famous Grandma Devine’s pancake recipe.  Vince modified it by pouring it over a strip of bacon.

Mom had surgery on her broken elbow today.  Mom broke her arm less than 48 hours into their vacation to Turkey.  She also managed to knock loose her two front teeth.  After a stop in the ER in Istanbul, Mom and Dad both headed back to DC.

So now there are screws or plates or braces in her elbow.  I brought some flowers, ice cream and a SpongeBob balloon.  Everything is better with a little ice cream.

My advisor from Caltech, Frances Arnold, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame last night at the USPTO.  When she first posted about the honor on Facebook a few months ago, I promptly said that I would go because the ceremony was in the lobby of my office building.  I thought it was going to be an afternoon ceremony with cookies.  I haven’t been to the physical office in over eight months.  I could go in, go to the ceremony and pick up a ream of paper and a few boxes of toner.  Then three weeks ago, I found out that it was going to be a black tie affair.  Yipes.  Engineers and black tie events are not really suppose to overlap.

Jeremy rented a tux from Men’s Wearhouse.  I rented a dress from Rent the Runway.  It was a lot of fun – we rode the Metro, showed off a little at Jeremy’s office (where we told everyone we were going to prom) and posed for pictures in Farragut Square.

We look pretty good, huh?

I enjoyed the ceremony more than I thought I would.  I met a number of Frances’s family and friends and they were an interesting bunch.  It turns out that France’s older brother was working at AMD when Jeremy joined in 1997 and was Jeremy’s boss’s boss for a few months.

I sat next to Edith Flanigen – she invented the field of zeolites at Union Carbide.  She started working there in 1950s.  Doesn’t the name Union Carbide just conjure up a company full of white, male scientists?  I asked her if it was hard being a woman chemist at Union Carbide in the 50s and she simply said, no that she didn’t think it was that hard.    She said that once she was asked to make coffee and she just looked at the man and said, “I don’t do that.” and that was it.  Go, Edith.

Next to Edith at our table was Helen Free.  She invented this little thing called glucose test strips.  She also had six children.

At the end of the evening, they introduced all the past inductees.  They included the people who invented the MRI, Post-It notes and implantable defibrillator.  I know it’s a little dorky, but it was like being at the nerd prom, the Oscars of engineering.  I was swooning a little bit.  Who knew all these people could be in one room at the same time!  With me!

Finally, a tricky trick – some of these photos are taken with the fancy camera, some are taken with a phone.  Can you tell which one is which?

Vince’s school orchestra performance of the Pink Panther.  He’s the forehead right to the left of the conductor.  He put a lot of gel in his hair, if that helps.

And the most popular song of the year:

Not only was Vince gone camping this weekend, Jeremy was too!  He went with his friend, Ben.  Jeremy ate a lot better than Vince – listen to this:  for dinner, Jeremy had rockfish coated with blue corn meal fried in bacon fat, cous cous and a green salad and for breakfast the next day, he had a salmon and asapargus omlet.  Jeremy certainly ate better while camping than I did at home.

Vince has a funny way of packing for a camping trip.

So many people are part of Edda’s day.  Many of them, I don’t even know their names.   These folks are Edda’s afternoon bus driver and aide.  Thursday was the last day for them to drive Edda home.  The powers that be assigned them to another route (strangely 3-4 weeks before the end of the school year).  Thank you for driving Edda home everyday!

Vince is “grubmaster” for his scout campout this weekend.  Means he’s in charge of procuring the food for about 5 boys: two breakfasts, one lunch and one dinner.

Here’s the list.  Do you see the bacon?  Oh yes, and the Oreos!!!

Be still my organic, whole wheat, free-range, cage-free, artisanal and quinoa loving heart.  We have: Wonder bread, instant ramen cup-o-noodles, Campbell’s double noodle chicken soup, and the crazy peanut butter with the jelly in one striped jar.  Buried underneath all this classic processed food goodness are the unforgettable Kraft American cheese slices.  It’s going to be a great culinary weekend.

Catching up with the things I’ve put off all term.  I hand sewed Vince’s merit badges on his scout sash.  I find hand sewing a form of meditation.  If I had more time, I’d pick up needlework as a hobby.  I also spent some time looking for a marriage equality merit badge online – no luck.  Vince is going to advance in rank tonight, to Tenderfoot.  Which means that I’ll have to rip off a patch I just sewed on to put the new one on.  That’s how much I like sewing patches onto cloth.

Jeremy bought a new back up hard drive for the household IT infrastructure.  He was a sweetie and bought the DeskStar which is the descendant of the hard drive I used to make at IBM in the late 90s. Ah, the fond memories of a well-running manufacturing line.  I hope to someday make something again.