Where am I at with Mormonism?

The title of this blog is a question I ask myself almost daily. The answer is - I don't know. I don't fit into any Mormon "box" you could think of yet I still do consider myself a Mormon.

I haven't been to church since stake conferenace about a month ago. Before stake conferenace I had been out of town so I hadn't attendanted church for nearly a month but I was still in contact with my visiting home teachers and my RS president.

I was having heavy issues with returning to church mainly due to all the Prop 8 nonesense. It was painful to go to church and hear all the same-sex slurs at every turn. It was so hard to keep a positive outlook and I usually bolted out the door early, dragging my children behind me, my stomach heaving, my hands shaking, my blood boiling.

After attending Sunstone Symposium I felt a sense of peace with Mormonism that I hadn't previously been able to find. Sunstone became my "ward" and I didn't feel the need for another one. I may only get to meet with my "ward" once a year but it will just have to be enough - I simply can stand the thought of returning to my ward - at least not until after the election and then still, I just don't know.

My faith however is as strong as ever. Having come to Mormonism from a liberal viewpoint and open interpretation of the Gospel I have found absolutely no challenge in the daily application of my faith and my Mormon experiences both with my summer baptism and Suntone symposium. I really feel like a great gift was given to me through baptism, both the lineage of Jospeh Smith - the greatest prophet in my eyes - but also the gift of Sophia, the Holy Spirit, who's near tangible presence is now forever with me. My soul is uplifted, my life Divinely guided.

One part of my Mormonism has failed - crashed and burned in a most remarkable way, the Temple. I tried very had to smoosh my faith into the narrowly diffined box set out by the LDS church so that I could be Temple worthy but in the end ....I just can't meet those standards and I'm afraid unless the church makes a few key changes, I never will.

I've been reading Ogden Kraut however and there was something that he points out John Taylor said about Temple sealings; "I was asked if certain ordinances could be preformed in different places. I told them, yes, under certian circumstances. 'Where', I was asked. 'Anywhere besides in temples?' Yes. Anywhere besides the Endowment House?' Yes. 'Where, in some other house?' In another house or out of doors, as the circumstances might be. Why did I say that?...It is the authority of the Priesthood, not the place that validates and sanctifies the ordinace. I was asked if people could be sealed outside. Yes! I could have told them I was sealed outside and lots of others..."

President Woodruff said in a letter on June 8, 1887 that the pattern laid out for the temple Endowments by Brighma Young should always be followed because he knew them best, he was with Joseph from the beginning. "Follow that pattern that President Young has set to us, and not deviate one iota." However the garments, wording of ceremonies, the ordinations, the ceremony itself and the marriage laws all have been changes since that time.

I don't think that I wouldn't benefit from a visit to the Temple, on the contray I'm sure it would be an amazing exeperince, one that I would like to have, however is it anymore "correct" as far as what the Lord and Lady want from us here on earth than say a full moon circle with my deaest friends? I say, no. It is the intent we show our Lord and Lady - not the place.

So that's the update for those interested in my ever evolving path.

"Come, Come ye Saints, no toil or labor fear...All is well, all is well."

Blessed Be!

Where am I at with Mormonism?

The title of this blog is a question I ask myself almost daily. The answer is - I don't know. I don't fit into any Mormon "box" you could think of yet I still do consider myself a Mormon.

I haven't been to church since stake conferenace about a month ago. Before stake conferenace I had been out of town so I hadn't attendanted church for nearly a month but I was still in contact with my visiting home teachers and my RS president.

I was having heavy issues with returning to church mainly due to all the Prop 8 nonesense. It was painful to go to church and hear all the same-sex slurs at every turn. It was so hard to keep a positive outlook and I usually bolted out the door early, dragging my children behind me, my stomach heaving, my hands shaking, my blood boiling.

After attending Sunstone Symposium I felt a sense of peace with Mormonism that I hadn't previously been able to find. Sunstone became my "ward" and I didn't feel the need for another one. I may only get to meet with my "ward" once a year but it will just have to be enough - I simply can stand the thought of returning to my ward - at least not until after the election and then still, I just don't know.

My faith however is as strong as ever. Having come to Mormonism from a liberal viewpoint and open interpretation of the Gospel I have found absolutely no challenge in the daily application of my faith and my Mormon experiences both with my summer baptism and Suntone symposium. I really feel like a great gift was given to me through baptism, both the lineage of Jospeh Smith - the greatest prophet in my eyes - but also the gift of Sophia, the Holy Spirit, who's near tangible presence is now forever with me. My soul is uplifted, my life Divinely guided.

One part of my Mormonism has failed - crashed and burned in a most remarkable way, the Temple. I tried very had to smoosh my faith into the narrowly diffined box set out by the LDS church so that I could be Temple worthy but in the end ....I just can't meet those standards and I'm afraid unless the church makes a few key changes, I never will.

I've been reading Ogden Kraut however and there was something that he points out John Taylor said about Temple sealings; "I was asked if certain ordinances could be preformed in different places. I told them, yes, under certian circumstances. 'Where', I was asked. 'Anywhere besides in temples?' Yes. Anywhere besides the Endowment House?' Yes. 'Where, in some other house?' In another house or out of doors, as the circumstances might be. Why did I say that?...It is the authority of the Priesthood, not the place that validates and sanctifies the ordinace. I was asked if people could be sealed outside. Yes! I could have told them I was sealed outside and lots of others..."

President Woodruff said in a letter on June 8, 1887 that the pattern laid out for the temple Endowments by Brighma Young should always be followed because he knew them best, he was with Joseph from the beginning. "Follow that pattern that President Young has set to us, and not deviate one iota." However the garments, wording of ceremonies, the ordinations, the ceremony itself and the marriage laws all have been changes since that time.

I don't think that I wouldn't benefit from a visit to the Temple, on the contray I'm sure it would be an amazing exeperince, one that I would like to have, however is it anymore "correct" as far as what the Lord and Lady want from us here on earth than say a full moon circle with my deaest friends? I say, no. It is the intent we show our Lord and Lady - not the place.

So that's the update for those interested in my ever evolving path.

"Come, Come ye Saints, no toil or labor fear...All is well, all is well."

Blessed Be!

September 30, 2008 - A Surgeon's Perspective on "Watchful Waiting"

Flying back from Utah the other day, I finished reading Pauline W. Chen’s insightful memoir, Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality (Knopf, 2007). Pauline is a liver-transplant surgeon, which means she’s spent her professional life at the edge of high-tech innovation. Sometimes she’s part of the surgical team that helicopters in to harvest organs from the body of a dying accident victim, pops them into an ice-filled cooler and flies them to a distant city. Other times, she’s on the receiving end of those precious deliveries, implanting the harvested liver into an otherwise-dying patient.

This work has given her a unique perspective on life and death. From the brain-dead body of a patient who’s breathing with the aid of machines, she salvages living tissue that just may save another’s life. It’s hard to imagine a more heroic occupation.

Far from celebrating transplant surgery’s technical razzle-dazzle, Pauline appeals for heightened awareness of the emotional side of medicine. She reminds her colleagues that, when the risks of surgery are too great and a patient cannot be saved, the doctor has a continuing responsibility to care for the patient’s emotional needs - rather than abandoning the person to others, out of fear of medical failure.

I was intrigued by this lengthy passage, in which she reflects on how the “watchful waiting” approach to treatment troubles many of her surgical colleagues:

“There is no mistaking the heady exhilaration you feel when you walk into the cool and ordered operating room, pull out all the technical gadgetry and wizardry of the moment, and within a few hours solve the essential problem. Surgery is a specialty defined by action. As a student of mine once said, ‘Surgeons do something about a problem, not just sit around and think about it.’

But surgeons are not alone in this doer’s paradise. While surgery, particularly liver transplantation, represents an extreme, even physicians in specialties with little or no ‘invasive’ procedures feel compelled to do. A patient visits with a problem, and the appointment is incomplete without a prescription for medications or tests or some tangible diagnosis.

Even medicine’s essential framework for approaching clinical problems – the treatment algorithm – presumes physician action. Frequently diagrammed in textbooks and medical journals, these algorithms outline step-by-step therapeutic plans for different diseases. For every point along the algorithm there are several possible outcomes that in turn may have several of their own possible therapeutic options. On no branch of the decision tree, however, is there a box reserved for Do nothing or Hold tight or Sit on your hands. Instead, if no treatment is required, we describe the waiting as an active, not a passive, period. Treat with intravenous antibiotics for six weeks and then reassess may be part of the algorithm. Or we may decide on a course of what is euphemistically termed expectant management or watchful waiting, as if our therapeutic intervention is just being held temporarily at bay. Even in deciding to wait or do nothing, we imbue these periods with action. It is as if we are dynamically managing time and at the end of that time there may be more treatment for us to initiate.

We can confuse these interventions with hope, particularly at the end of life, and equate more treatment with more love. Any decision to hold or even withdraw treatment becomes near impossible, and not treating a patient the moral equivalent of giving up. Moreover, once treatments have started, there is an obligation to the interventions themselves. Having done so much already, doctors – and many patients and families – find it nearly impossible to let all their efforts simply drop.

In an attempt to display competency or undying love, we lose sight of the double-edged nature of our cutting-edge wizardry. We battle away until the last precious hours of life, believing that cure is the only goal. We inflict misguided treatments on not just others but also ourselves. During these final, tortured moments it is as if the promise of the nineteenth century has become the curse of the twenty-first.” (Pp. 147-148)

Quite naturally, I’ve been inclined to view the soul-numbing tedium of watchful waiting from my own perspective as a patient. Pauline’s book has helped me glimpse it from the viewpoint of my doctors as well. Turns out, we both wish we could do more.

The contemplatives have long taught that intentionally doing nothing – doing it with our whole being – is one of the most difficult of spiritual tasks. This is the point Martin Luther was getting at when he observed how his puppy jumped up on the table, then waited expectantly for a morsel of food dangled from the hand of his master. “Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat!” Luther reflected. “All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.”

Fully engaged and mindful waiting is my own spiritual challenge these days. There’s something in me that wants to reach relentlessly into the future, fretting about what treatment may await me down the road. Ultimately, this is an abdication of the present discipline of waiting that has been given me.

“Let us then labour for an inward stillness –
An inward stillness and an inward healing;
That perfect silence where the lips and heart
Are still, and we no longer entertain
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,
But God alone speaks in us, and we wait
In singleness of heart, that we may know
His will, and in the silence of our spirits,
That we may do His will, and do that only.”

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Christus: A Mystery,” in The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, vol. 5 (Houghton Mifflin, 1851), pp. 313-314.

New Camera!

(Yes my hair is red again BTW)







Homeschooling - learning about seeds. Oak Meadow Lesson 4 Science

New Camera!

(Yes my hair is red again BTW)







Homeschooling - learning about seeds. Oak Meadow Lesson 4 Science

Worlds Coolest House

This website was sent to me today by a friend. It's my dream house!!! I'm going to show this site to Seth when he wakes up this morning and tell him this is what I want.



What's your dream house?

Worlds Coolest House

This website was sent to me today by a friend. It's my dream house!!! I'm going to show this site to Seth when he wakes up this morning and tell him this is what I want.



What's your dream house?

Halloween Costumes Have Been Choosen!

Ok so here are the finale (absolutely finale, no last minute changes) picks for our Halloween costumes

Ayla - A Hobbit

Nykki - Darth Vader

Ronan - A Kombuca Squash

All homemade of course, I'll post my progress and designs as they come together over the next month! Ohhhhh! It's my favorite time of the year!!!

Halloween Costumes Have Been Choosen!

Ok so here are the finale (absolutely finale, no last minute changes) picks for our Halloween costumes

Ayla - A Hobbit

Nykki - Darth Vader

Ronan - A Kombuca Squash

All homemade of course, I'll post my progress and designs as they come together over the next month! Ohhhhh! It's my favorite time of the year!!!

September 26, 2008 - Altitude

I've been living, for the past several days, at over 8,000 feet above sea level.

In my capacity as Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of Monmouth (a position I hold in addition to my pastoral responsibilities at Point Pleasant Presbyterian), I've been attending the Fall Polity Conference of our denomination. The conference is being held at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah: a very pleasant place to be, amidst some breathtaking mountain scenery. Most church conferences I attend aren't at such a luxurious place, but the church got a deal on the accommodations because it's still the off-season.

As with other times I've been at this altitude, I'm really noticing the effect of the lower oxygen levels on how I feel. Walking up a set of steps I'd ordinarily think nothing of, I find myself having to pause at the top to catch my breath.

I suppose this is what being elderly feels like - or, perhaps, what being anemic feels like. The quantity of oxygen circulating in our blood is so crucial to health and well-being. If I were here for a longer period of time, I'd acclimate to the higher altitude and would eventually return to feeling normal. I fly back home tomorrow, though, so the only thing that's going to end my low-level feelings of fatigue will be stepping off the plane at close to sea level.

Back during my chemo treatments, the doctors were closely watching my hemoglobin levels. I was fortunate in that my red blood-cell levels never dropped below normal, which would have made it necessary to take drugs like Aranesp or Procrit to build them back up again. I felt plenty weak, though, even with my blood cells at normal levels.

The persistent feeling of shortness of breath brings back my memories of cancer fatigue - how, during my final weeks of treatment, I found it difficult even to walk around the block.

It's all in the blood - and, as long as I've got a blood cancer, I'm going to find myself wondering, from time to time, whether I'll ever experience such feelings again.


"In God's hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of every human being."
- Job 12:10

The World is Spinning

Somewhere in my backyard a worm diggs down through the earth quietly munching on old rotten leaves. A ladybug chomps down on another buggy and the winter squash grows big and strong. Nykki is learning his alphabet and Ronan pieces together sounds to make new words everyday.

All of them are completely unaware of the stockmarket crash, the theater that we call the "November Presidential Elections" or the collapse of our public school system. None of them know or care that the governemnt is trying to bail out the top countries elite who screwed and screwed and screwed all the money out of the American people until this system we call "the system" just had nothing more to give - worn, broke and beaten it is falling to it's knees. They just act according to their nature, flowing effortlessly in a reality I envy.

We've pulled all our money (yeah all like $200 LOL) out of Washington Mutual and have placed in our local credit union. I'm suddenly glad that we haven't earned enough to pay taxes in 3 years - I wouldn't want to know that that money is going to pay off Wallstreet's mistakes/karma. My grandfather is struggling to pay his mortage and my mom is moving back in with him to help out so he can keep his small home. My friends father-in-law ran to the bank a few days ago and pulled all his money out. In Lakeport, CA people are literally begging for jobs....it's scary.

Who cares about Obama, McBush - I mean McCain, Palin etc. I'm still voting for Cynthia. But in the end I'm really "voting" for food localization and safe public water for all - with the few votes I have left, my US dollars.

I'm off to visit a mama/client who had her baby two weeks ago, happy I still have gas to do that, then I'm stopping by the co-op and buying some local food, also happy I still have money to do that too. Counting my blessings.....reminds me of one of my favorite hymns.

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

When upon life's billows
You are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged
Thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

Are you ever burdened
With a load of care
Does the cross seem heavy
You are called to bear
Count your many blessings
Every doubt will fly
And you will be singing
As the days go by

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

When you look at others
With their lands and gold
Think that Christ has promised
You His wealth untold
Count your many blessings
Money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven
Nor your home on high

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

So, amid the conflict
Whether great or small
Do not be discouraged
God is over all
Count your many blessings
Angels will attend
Help and comfort give you
To your journey's end

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

- Words by Johnson Oatman, 1897

The World is Spinning

Somewhere in my backyard a worm diggs down through the earth quietly munching on old rotten leaves. A ladybug chomps down on another buggy and the winter squash grows big and strong. Nykki is learning his alphabet and Ronan pieces together sounds to make new words everyday.

All of them are completely unaware of the stockmarket crash, the theater that we call the "November Presidential Elections" or the collapse of our public school system. None of them know or care that the governemnt is trying to bail out the top countries elite who screwed and screwed and screwed all the money out of the American people until this system we call "the system" just had nothing more to give - worn, broke and beaten it is falling to it's knees. They just act according to their nature, flowing effortlessly in a reality I envy.

We've pulled all our money (yeah all like $200 LOL) out of Washington Mutual and have placed in our local credit union. I'm suddenly glad that we haven't earned enough to pay taxes in 3 years - I wouldn't want to know that that money is going to pay off Wallstreet's mistakes/karma. My grandfather is struggling to pay his mortage and my mom is moving back in with him to help out so he can keep his small home. My friends father-in-law ran to the bank a few days ago and pulled all his money out. In Lakeport, CA people are literally begging for jobs....it's scary.

Who cares about Obama, McBush - I mean McCain, Palin etc. I'm still voting for Cynthia. But in the end I'm really "voting" for food localization and safe public water for all - with the few votes I have left, my US dollars.

I'm off to visit a mama/client who had her baby two weeks ago, happy I still have gas to do that, then I'm stopping by the co-op and buying some local food, also happy I still have money to do that too. Counting my blessings.....reminds me of one of my favorite hymns.

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

When upon life's billows
You are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged
Thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

Are you ever burdened
With a load of care
Does the cross seem heavy
You are called to bear
Count your many blessings
Every doubt will fly
And you will be singing
As the days go by

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

When you look at others
With their lands and gold
Think that Christ has promised
You His wealth untold
Count your many blessings
Money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven
Nor your home on high

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

So, amid the conflict
Whether great or small
Do not be discouraged
God is over all
Count your many blessings
Angels will attend
Help and comfort give you
To your journey's end

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done

- Words by Johnson Oatman, 1897

(09.24.08) Recommends:

Thoughts Ahead of President Bush's Address to the Nation Regarding Our Current Financial Crisis.

Okay, so we just heard that the President is going to address the country tonight. Obviously he's not known as the most articulate and/or thoughtful president that our nation has ever produced. So who knows what he'll say. But for some reason we now have a particular section from the Andrew Bird song Tables and Chairs stuck in our heads. Can't you just picture an episode of the Simpsons where an animated President Bush addresses a weary nation with the following:

I know we're going to meet some day
In the crumbled financial institutions of this land
There will be tables and chairs
There'll be pony rides and dancing bears
There'll even be a band
Cause listen, after the fall there will be no more countries
No currencies at all, we're gonna live on our wits
We're gonna throw away survival kits,
Trade butterfly-knives for Adderall
And that's not all
Oh, there will be snacks there will
there will be snacks, there will be snacks.

Maybe tonight, when the president begins to speak, we should turn down the volume on him and listen to this song instead.

PENTAX booth @ Photokina

Very busy day at our booth today. This low res iPhone image is all I could take time to shoot.

(Photo and blog post from my iPhone)

K-m (K2000) Body Comparisons

I realize that sites like dpreview have already posted a few comparison photos showing the K-m body size vs the K200D. However, I thought a few more photos showing these two bodies, as well as comparisons with the K100D and *ist-D might be of interest to some of you.

AF160FC Macro Flash Kit

I thought some Pentaxians would like to see what's in the new AF160FC Macro Flash Kit. When viewing the opened kit, on the upper left is the macro adapter for D-FA macro lenses. The four slots in the upper middle section hold the threaded lens adapter rings for 49mm, 52mm, 58mm and 67mm.

Other key features include:
Guide No 16 at ISO 100/m providing ample lighting for small and medium size close focus subjects.
Modeling light with 4 white LED's which help preview flash exposure, while assisting autofocus operation.
Compatible with P-TTL and manual systems.
Manual flash operation at Full, 1/4 and 1/16 power.
The ring flash also can be rotated to allow control of light top-to-bottom and left-to-right.
Price in the US has been set at $499, and we expect to start shipping in Mid-to-late November.

(09.23.08) Recommends:

Remembering David Foster Wallace.

I didn't know Dave Wallace. I never attended a reading of his. I still haven't even gotten through Infinite Jest. But hearing about his death 11 days ago was like a punch in the gut. I've never before really experienced the sadness that I felt when I heard about his death, from somebody that I did not know. But for a few days the world seemed very heavy. I think Peter Sagal, the NPR personality, touched on why I felt such sadness, when he wrote:

one of the things DFW wrote about, pretty constantly, especially in his more informal commentary, was the experience of us all being alone in our heads, and desperately trying to break out of it. I remember reading one comment he made (wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for it) that the whole point of fiction, maybe writing in general, was to send a message from one isolated head to another, with the meaning: you are not as alone as it seems.

I spent those first few nights after hearing the news going through my bookshelves, reading short stories he had written, and interviews he had given, and lamenting that I once loaned away for life a book that included an introduction by a well-respected writer that was essentially just a comment on an interview he had once given (such was DFW's ability that other well-regarded writers were eager to get to write simply about his interviews).

Like I said, it's been 11 days now. And a sense of normalcy has returned, at least for me. But I won't soon stop reading, and responding to, his writing. So I thought today would be a good time to put up some of his work in this space, for my resource, and hopefully for yours, too.


The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub. (abridged version that he read on This American Life here)

Consider The Lobster.

Federer As Religious Experience.

September 22, 2008 - Scanner Doubleheader

Today I go for a scanner doubleheader: a PET scan and a CT scan at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.

I’m using Jersey Shore this time (a Meridian Health hospital), rather than the for-profit Atlantic Medical Imaging (where I had my last PET scan, a PET/CT fusion) because my insurance situation has changed. Because Claire’s now working full-time for Meridian (as director of the Bereavement Program of Meridian Hospice), I’ve now got secondary medical insurance through QualCare (Meridian’s employee health-insurance provider). They reimburse at a higher rate for services performed at Meridian facilities, so it makes sense to switch providers.

I checked with Dr. Lerner about this first, of course. The message came back, through one of his office staff: if it would save me money, a PET scan at Jersey Shore, followed by a CT scan, would be fine.

I’m just as glad. I had a good experience at Atlantic Medical Imaging, but I’m aware of how much of a financial threat these physician-owned, freestanding diagnostic and surgical facilities are to hospitals. They skim off many of the most profitable portions of the hospitals’ trade, leaving them to handle less lucrative procedures – not to mention the charity-care patients who cannot pay. I went to Atlantic initially because they were the only facility in the area offering the PET/CT fusion scan, but since Dr. Lerner wants me to have a regular CT scan along with the PET scan anyway, it seemed like the right time to go back to patronizing the hospital.

Things go well, all in all. The PET scan technician tries and fails twice to get my IV line in properly, then has to call a nurse – but that’s a small matter. The PET scanner itself is located on the back of a tractor-trailer truck, that pulls up to a special access bay at the side of the hospital. The truck shuttles this expensive machine between several hospitals on a regular basis. Once you step aboard, though, it feels no different than any other room – a little smaller, that’s all.

It’s not pleasant to lie on my back, absolutely still, with arms extended over my head, for the 30 minutes or so the PET scan takes, but I get through it. Fortunately, the tech guides my hands to a mesh strap that some thoughtful designer included at back of the headrest. By hooking my thumbs through the strap, I’m able to take some of the pressure off my upper-arm muscles. Ah, the little things – they make such a difference. After the protracted PET scan, the CT scan is a piece of cake.

I’m not sure to what extent these scans are routine, for me. Last time I met with Dr. Lerner, he said he wanted me to go for another CT scan before our next 3-month appointment, but he was going to wait to decide about a PET scan until he’d seen the results of my detailed blood work. I guess there must have been something in those results that makes him want to err on the side of caution – though his office staff provided no details when they told me the doctor’s written instructions indicated a PET scan as well as a CT.

Maybe this is cause for concern, or maybe it’s not. I’ve been feeling a little anxious about it. I’ll find out for sure at my next appointment with him on October 1st – or maybe sooner, if I get a phone call reporting on my test results.

In the meantime, I’m in that medical-test limbo that’s so familiar to anyone who’s gone for a radiological scan: nobody can tell me anything until after the radiologist has examined the signs from the oracle.

(In case you're wondering about the picture to the right, it's the Oracle at Delphi - obscure mythological reference.)

New LBA Case (?)

Arrived in Frankfurt and boarding train to Koln for Photokina. Bringing a new polycarbonate "trolley" type suitcase on it's first trip. The LBA sticker made it easy spotting the suitcase at baggage claim. Had to go with a bigger case for all the Pentaxian gear that I will need for my meetings.

(Photo and blog post from my iPhone)

Our Nature Table

I thought I would share a pic of our late summer table before we redo a fall one :)

Our Nature Table

I thought I would share a pic of our late summer table before we redo a fall one :)

Bathtub Crayons

Continuing on the crayon theme....

We made bathtub crayons recently. We kept a set and gave a set to a friend for his birthday.




We grated a bar of white soap. Placed it into 4 or 5 cups. Added a few drops of food coloring to each and stired until well coated.



Then we put them in an ice cube tray and froze them. (We coated the tray in oil first for easier extraction)

So fun!

Bathtub Crayons

Continuing on the crayon theme....

We made bathtub crayons recently. We kept a set and gave a set to a friend for his birthday.




We grated a bar of white soap. Placed it into 4 or 5 cups. Added a few drops of food coloring to each and stired until well coated.



Then we put them in an ice cube tray and froze them. (We coated the tray in oil first for easier extraction)

So fun!

Crayons

I bought Nykki some new crayons today. Using our old set at the playgroup ate them up rather quickly - still the Stockmar crayons last sooooo much longer than the Crayolas. After most of the old Stockmar crayons were consumed (literally) in playgroup I decided that 22 dollars was too much to pay for crayons, natural or not, and I bought Nyk a huge set of Crayolas, 96 to be exact. And guess what? They practically dissolved after a few uses. They broke, they crumbled, they wore down so quickly. I finally realized that a well guarded set of Stockmar were much cheaper. As long as they aren't eaten or lost they last SOOOOO much longer than the Crayolas - by my count they last 5-6 times longer. They are just sturdier, better made crayons.

That's my observation for what it's worth.

Happy coloring!

Crayons

I bought Nykki some new crayons today. Using our old set at the playgroup ate them up rather quickly - still the Stockmar crayons last sooooo much longer than the Crayolas. After most of the old Stockmar crayons were consumed (literally) in playgroup I decided that 22 dollars was too much to pay for crayons, natural or not, and I bought Nyk a huge set of Crayolas, 96 to be exact. And guess what? They practically dissolved after a few uses. They broke, they crumbled, they wore down so quickly. I finally realized that a well guarded set of Stockmar were much cheaper. As long as they aren't eaten or lost they last SOOOOO much longer than the Crayolas - by my count they last 5-6 times longer. They are just sturdier, better made crayons.

That's my observation for what it's worth.

Happy coloring!