And Then There Were Two

One little, two little, three little sisters. Papa could sing that song all the way up to 10. And now there are two. Last Friday, Alfreda succumbed to Leukemia that had been diagnosed in January. That leaves Monique, who recently suffered a stroke and is recuperating with her daughter Merrielle, and Julia who had surgery this year for a cyst removal from her breast that was benign.

I could spit

The Fed Ex truck stopped at my house yesterday. They left a mail packet from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Many years ago I participated in a National Institute of Health Diet and Health Study. I remember thinking as I answered their questions "Hah, compute this."

Another time I volunteered to participate in a study of Post Menopausal Women who had never taken hormones. But when push came to shove, I was not willing to take the pills they provided without knowing whether they were placebos or hormones. So I bowed out.

It seems this Institute is now doing a study called Parkinson's, Genes and Environment Study (PAGE). I have been selected as a participant who does not have Parkinson's. The packet included 1) consent forms, 2) PAGE Study brochure 3) 2 Saliva collection kits 4) a Logo Pen and 5) a one dollar bill oh and a prepaid return envelope.

Although Adrienne had some misgivings about giving away your DNA, I have decided, in the interest of science to participate. The saliva collection kits consist of an inner vial with a screw top cap; an outer container (like a large pill bottle)with a snap on lid, a snug plastic bag with a sticky top closure that you put the outer container in. Then there is a Manila bio hazard bubble envelope that the two plastic bags go into. This envelope is stamped "Exempt Human Specimen" There are sticky-back labels for me to affix to each specimen with control numbers etc.

They want two specimens collected within 24 hours. So this morning I did my first one. The inner vial, although it is pretty small has a fill line on it. They ask that you collect the specimen within 15 minutes. Seriously, how much can you spit in 15 minutes.

So the first one is in the bag. Now I have all day to be conscious of my saliva glands and worry about how much I am wasting every time I swallow.

On The Payroll

Last Sunday, Easter, I merged my "in-town" family (Stephanie and Arn) with Rita's and we all went to dinner together and then back to her house for desert.

At her house we were treated to many old photographs and scrapbooks that Kelly had unearthed while cleaning his basement. The trunk that held these treasures had suffered water damage along the years and the items were musty and bordering on moldy. Rita is slowly going through all of it. She had to discard scrapbooks that she had compiled of all her school work and report cards. One from grade school and another from high school. The high school one had souvenirs from dances etc. But at least she got a chance to look through them first.

She has had to work intermittently, because the residue of musty makes her feel ill.

There were things in that trunk from many branches of the family and she is saving what she can for each of us.

Today she brought me something I thought I would never see again. It is a payroll record of mine dated October 18, 1952 from Johnnie's Sweet Shoppe. I worked 3 hours after school on Monday and Wednesday, 3 1/2 hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 6 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. My net pay, was $12.35. I was rich.

Guest Post -- Erika's Day From Hell

Today is Friday the 13th. I am not the least bit superstitious, but more than 10 people have said that to me today. Every year, as the research administrator on our campus, I put together a reception honoring those faculty that have published throughout the past year. I lovingly gather all of the publications together and put out a Publication Listing , then the publications themselves are all sent over to the library where they are lovingly displayed at the reception and then archived. This year I had the list ready in record time and on Tuesday the box full of publications was ready to go to the library. So I closed up the box and I wrote my contact person's name on it and her campus address and shipped it out by campus mail. Big mistake!! When the box had not arrived accross campus by Thursday we started to get a little worried. But when we called the mailroom they assured us that the box either was already delivered or would be very shortly. So we waited until this morning and still no box. After I left to gather supplies for the reception I got the call that someone in the mail room fessed up to having opened the box and redistributing all of the publications back to the authors. WHY? I have no idea. A quick call to Lyle, who was working in his office, confirmed that he had indeed just received his own publication back through campus mail to him. Aaaaargh. Now we were having a publication reception with no publications. Bad enough.

Now, given our quick change to nice weather I had to wait until just before the reception to pick up the fruit and cheese platters. Two large fruit and cheese platters were ordered more than a week ago. Guess how many were ready when I got there an hour before the reception? None! That's right now we had no publications and no food. I am ready to call it a day and go home. But they quickly threw one platter together and I grabbed boxes of cookies to supplement. When I got off of the elevator at the reception site in the library I had exactly 6 minutes to put everything together.

Luckily, my contact at the library had called all of the department secretaries and gathered about 1/4 of the publications to display at the reception. So it looked pathetic but at least there was something to look at. And the good thing about not getting all of the food that I ordered was that I had absolutely no leftovers to cart home. I am so glad this day is over.

Hello Xavier

I just caught the end of The Price is Right and the kid that won the showcase showdown did a shout out to all the musketeers from Xavier, Cincinnati.

No Game Show for Me

My cable bill went up. It was only $3.00 and even though it made me mad that they could just brazenly tack on $3.00 without any notification or anything, I just paid it and decided it wasn't worth the time and effort to spend half a day on hold just to complain.

Two days later, last Wednesday, I was working through my regular TV routine and Channel 15 didn't come in. That was the Game Show Channel. The was my refuge channel when all there was available on regular channels were talk shows and soap operas.

This was important enough to call. The girl didn't know why I was having trouble put me on hold several times and finally said someone would be out that same day.

Of course, they weren't. So when it still didn't come in the next day, I called back. This girl put me on hold several times and finally told me that the channel number had changed. Channel 15 was now channel 112. No longer available to me on my plan but if I would like to upgrade..... I was very angry.

I am a "go to sleep with the TV on" person and my late-night refuge is ESPN Classic. They play reruns of the World Series of Poker late into the night. That night as I turned on channel 35, all I got was fuzz..... I am very angry.

No Diet for Me

I can no longer stand the stress of being on a diet. When I decided a couple of weeks ago to be on a diet I forgot how weak-willed I was. Luckily I caught that mistake after gaining only 3 pounds. I got off the diet and the scale is back where it was.

Here's how it goes. I bought a couple bags of easter kisses when they were on sale, just to have around the house. Not on a diet - I would eat 3 or 4 or 10 every once in a while. On a diet - I ate the whole bag in one day because tomorrow I would have to start dieting for real. Of course, I wasn't any better the next day and the cycle started all over again with a little extra comfort food to make myself feel better about the discomfort that was about to start the next day (for real).

Since I'm not on a diet, there is no necessity of eating something right now, I can always have it later or tomorrow or the next day. I am at an age and a stage where I get along just fine letting my eating habits be governed more by indigestion than weight loss.