All in all, I’d say we had a pretty good year. I can’t recall what we did for Donna’s January birthday, but it was probably held at our favorite Sicilian restaurant, Mondello’s (www.mondelloristorante.com), where the daughter of the owners, a precocious six year old with a crush on the guys, elicits sniping comments like “Dad! She’s crazy! If we see her in there, we ain’t goin in!” When last we saw/heard her, she pulled a chair up to our table and “yakity-yak” she ate with us! She is actually quite nice, but boys will be boys. Shortly after this I headed to Taiwan for a week of workshops and lectures, then to Edinburgh for more of the same. I have a couple of computer scientists in the lab (http://goodlett.proteomics.washington.edu/) from Taiwan and was returning a favor to their boss. Excellent food from all over Asia could be found in Taipei, but even better, I got to use the Men’s room at the top – for now - of tallest building in the world, Taipei 101 (509 meters). About this time Donna started worrying that she was - for the first time ever - in charge of SHARE’s Fall homeless shelter auction.
For Mint’s 11th birthday in April, 10 boys camped in the back yard and watched Space Balls projected on the back of the house. T’was freezing cold, but still they slept in tents all night. Baseball season was in full swing and our team lost badly at next day’s 10 AM game. Of course half the team was up till midnight “yakity-yakin” like six year old girls. Unlike the 2006 season, where Mint struggled pitching with a too high release, he really did a great job this year. He was spot on in and around the strike zone all season hitting a batter only once when a not so mobile kid thought the pitch coming in very close at 50 mph was gonna hit him. So, Portly knocked it down with his hand. Oddly, what should have been a strike for interference resulted in the batter taking a base. Graham continued to moan about baseball, but improved greatly. However, almost like he willed the ball to hit him out of fear, a few stingers landed on his back while at the plate, and worse, on the soft underside of the thigh while he was catching. The latter can sting for hours,L. Both guys kept up the music lessons, but this year Graham made more significant progress on piano, than Mint on drums.
OnE dish Graham loves is lasagna, especially Mondello’s, but without any “yakity-yak” going down. Naturally, May found us again at Mondellos’s for my 47th birthday. And, exactly a week later, on our 20th wedding anniversary, Donna and I were there alone. At some point during the year, maybe it was that same night and after witnessing our lively after dinner “discussion” of religion and politics, the owner – concerned we might be about to brawl - brought over some grappa. This ended the debate and began a tradition of gratis after dinner grappa with the Sicilians. Soon thereafter, and right around the time of my Mom’s July birthday, we were relaxing on the beach in Alabama. The weather was mild for July, but warm enough that the water boats at the local amusement park seemed a good idea …… until, that is, we realized that they all came with water cannons! I think Graham fired first and soon we were all soaked through. Just prior to this beach trip I was in Dubrovnik, Croatia in July where the beaches are rocky and, without sand or sediment to muddy the water, the swimming magnificent. This visit came with a gift from Poseidon - sea urchin spines in my foot! A local black tar-like antiseptic took away the swelling and pain, but it was September when I was off to Edinburgh a 3rd time before all the spines came out. Donna, now fully engaged in auction plans and after a backyard garden party at our house for table captains, was finally more confident than concerned.
And so, in September for our 20th wedding anniversary trip Donna and I met up in Lisbon – me from Edinburgh and she Seattle. We ate wild boar and Oeufs a la Neige, drank Vino Verde and port, walked the streets, experienced Fado and slept for a few days in Sao Jorge Castle atop the city. After a long bus ride to the beaches of the Algarve we did more of the same for a few days. Then to Stockholm where I had a lecture at the European Respiratory Society meeting on our work to define the proteins found in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients. Formerly referred to as Da-Nang lung, because soldiers in Vietnam who survived concussive trauma on the battlefield were saved by being medivac’d to MASH units only to die later from this mysterious lung disorder characterized by leaky capillaries that no longer exchanged O2 properly and chest infections. Many thanks for the blessing of my Parents who stayed with the guys while we were away.
For most of the year my right rotator cuff troubled me. When in August an MRI showed it intact, but torn, I decided to practice what I preach – preventative medicine – and cancelled a trip to China to have arthroscopic surgery with general anesthesia. Now, at Christmas two months after a single stitch of the cuff and shaving off of a bone spur that was destroying it, I wonder about the benefits to consequences ratio. The consequences being that while general anesthesia is pretty common for everything from cosmetic to heart surgery, it has some substantial side affects. These include an immediate lack of concern for deadlines – nice one. I’ll take it!, but also a disconcerting feeling of detachment leaving words stuck on the tip of the tongue unable even to tumble out – less nice, but I was never a fast talker. So, maybe no one will notice. My boss, Sydney Nelson, School of Pharmacy Dean, says it can take 3-6 months for these affects to wear off, but for many older folks the damage can be permanent. Imagine all those people trading cognition for cosmetic “enhancements”. YIKES! Hopefully, whatever cognition I am now without is “temporary” or at the least was “excess”. Actually, when I sat down to write I found I had nothing to say which may explain why this sounds like inane “yakity-yak” to me. And the benefit? Playing catch with the boys, I hope.
One thing our boys love is killing Zombies. Gameworks down town offers the complete Zombie-killing, birthday cake eating, sugary high experience that growing boys need. So, for Graham’s 10th birthday in October we did just that and for 8 boys it was cheaper, for us, than the movies. Graham shines at computerized games of all sorts. For instance, he beat most of the play station games he got for Christmas before I headed to Taiwan in January. This skill his brother holds in disbelief convinced it is only from the game cheats Graham digs up and not because little brother is better than him! Now with the scheduled November auction less than a month away, Donna had all aspects under control. For the actual auction, I was in Edinburgh for the 4th and last time of the year, but even without me they raised ~ $30,000 for homeless shelters. The bigger news is that dear old Nona Jacobson, who belonged to our church (www.tumseattle.org) most of her adult life, left the church $300,000 for such charity efforts. This donation and recent approval of the church board to move forward means our church gymnasium is one step closer to housing folks at night. So, it is only a matter of time before Donna’s efforts to create a homeless shelter, now several years in the making, comes to fruition.
All of us wish you and your families a Happy Holiday and a very prosperous new year. By the time this letter hits the mail we will be at the Seattle Ballet Company’s Christmas Eve performance of the ……The NUTCRACKER
