Truck Sighting: The tagline on a truck today said "Our reputation exceeds your expectations." Am I the only person that finds this odd? Should it say "We exceed your expectations" or "Our work exceeds your expectations"??? What if they don't meet their reputation?

Crazy Upcoming Weeks: I got home LATE last night from the Girl Scout of the USA National Convention in Atlanta (radar was down in New Hampshire so I got in way late) and am now on a whirlwind for the next couple of weeks. Wanta know the plan???
Tonight: Ladies Movie Night (Proof) with dinner at Cambridge 1 prior
Wednesday: Yom Kippur with Kev and Brent
Thursday: Yom Kippur
Friday: Arrive at work at 7:00 a.m. for Family Weekend
Saturday: Family Weekend
Sunday: Apple picking and Patriots
Monday: MIT Club of speaker (may not go because I should go to Curves)
Tuesday: NOTHING!
Wednesday: Drinks and/or dinner with former colleague
Thursday: SpeakEasy Stage Company "Theater District" with the guy from NYPD Blue (first of 5 plays in our subscription) Also my birthday.
Friday: Hopefully see Marshall!
Saturday: Lesbian comic with Em (she is a lesbian and that is the premise of her show but its funny to list her that way)
Sunday: Birthday brunch at the Blue Room with the ladies
Monday: Lunch with Macalester alumni person
Tuesday: Girl Scout major event "Leading Women"
Wednesday- Tuesday: Trip for work to Denver, San Fran and Sacramento. I get to see Shelby in Sacramento.
That puts me at November 2!

Become a Republican???: A very funny, and unfortunately true, satiracal video clip from Lauren. Enjoy!

Off to the Peach: I am leaving tomorrow for the National Convention of the Girls Scouts of the USA in Atlanta. (I have been doing some volunteer work for them on fund raising and other committee stuff...I may join the Board some time.) I have never been to Atlanta, and although I may not be able to see too much of it, I hope to have a chance to look around. As for the Convention itself...well, if nothing else it will be a good sociological study. I have my Girl Scout pins, and all my other GS stuff. I am SURE there will be lots of stories to share when I return.

L'Shana Tov: Happy New Year! Wishing all of you, Jews and genitiles, a year filled with sweetness, happiness, peace and health.

Weekend Review: Friday night I started the evening at Em and Nat's, from where we went to Blue Ribbon BBQ for a super yummy pulled chicken sandwich, mashed potatoes and collard greens. We then went to Robbins Farm Park, right up the street from their house, to watch the Red Sox-Yankees game on the big screen! It was really fun (lots of kids, people screaming and clapping as if we were at the game, and even some illegal fireworks when the first run scored) but very cold. We bundled up (including hats, fleece blankets and layers) and stayed until the seventh inning. We then went back to Em and Nat's house to watch the conclusion of the game. Saturday I went with Em, Nat, Eve and Brenda to the Topsfield Fair, the oldest fair in the country. Junk food, live stock, the largest pumpkin in MA, and tons of fun! Not to mention, it was a perfect day to be outside...upper sixties and sunny. I went to babysit on Saturday night, and kinda lay low on Sunday. (Of course, that included watching the Partiots lose and the Red Sox WIN!!!!) Watched some other tv, went on a walk, ran a few errands, and now here I am back at work.

Combining Business with Pleasure: The cousin of my dear college friend Eva has been promoted to Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Assistant to the Chancellor of MIT. Karl Reid has been seen as a super star since I arrived at MIT (and also a great partner with the speaker program I run) and it is so nice that he has been further recognized for this contributions to MIT.

See, Obsessive Baseball Watching Cures: Researchers at Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School here found that ER visits citywide rose and fell in direct proportion to fortunes of the Red Sox in last season's (successful) road to the World Series. "The public health finding here is people use discretion in deciding when to show up in the emergency department." I love it!

Heart Warming: Charlie Weis, former offensive coordiantor for the New England Patriot (who won a heart wrenching game yesterday) made a heart warming visit to a Notre Dame fan recently. With all the meanness and selfishness in the world, I love to read about people who are truly good people.

ALC: Today begins ALC, the Alumni Leadership Conference. (Alumni begain to arrive yesterday.) Once I get through this weekend, I will try to be back to my verbose self. Wish me luck with my big meeting and three workshops over the weekend.

Wow!: A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians. School policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship."

More In Character Posting: An article in the Boston Globe with the headline "Teens should abstain from sex, not sex ed". Duh! Ya think? Opening paragraph..."This summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics, a group of 60,000 pediatricians, revised its guidelines on sex education, emphasizing that it is crucial to teach teens to use contraception, and saying that the abstinence-only programs touted by the Bush administration are unproven and risky." It is actually an excellent article.

An Odd Re-entry into Blogging: First of all, sorry for my absence. I had a wonderful vacation (WONDERFUL!) and came back to the last week and a half of preparation for MIT's Alumni Leadership Conference, at which I am presenting at three workshops and hosting a planning meeting for my big spring Conference. Anyhow!! I found this listing of the ten most dangerous jobs. Not only are the jobs interesting, but they are paid PITIFULLY! I wonder what the danger is for accountants?

Bye Ya'll: In case I get busy (or more likely, distracted with anticipation) this afternoon, I wanted to say "bye" to you all before I leave on my trip to LA and Palm Desert. I'll report back later...

More from An Article About Timken:
Joanne Hinton, whose 16-year-old daughter, Raechel Hinton, is eight months pregnant, said she believes the school's abstinence-based sex education program isn't enough.
"It's time to take the blinders off and realize that these kids are having sex," she said. "Obviously, abstinence is not working. If we have to, just give them condoms."
Abstinence-based programs have been growing nationwide at schools over the past few years. In Ohio, the Bush's administration and the state's health department have awarded $32 million in grants to Ohio agencies for abstinence education since 2001.

I Will Never Be Without A Job: Thirteen percent of the female students at Timken Senior High School in Ohio are pregnant. That's 64 of Timken's 490 female students - 13 percent - are pregnant!!! Um yeah, dear President Bush and your ignorant regime, just tell em to keep it in their pants, that sex is a wonderful sacred pleasurable thing but wait until you are married, you don't need to worry your pretty little head about STD's and birth control since I *know* you wouldn't have sex, and other such empowering, realistic and knowledgeable messages...I am sure that will solve all of our problems! (Thanks Marshall for sending me this uplifting information.)

5-4-3-2-1-California: Not that I'm counting, or at all excited, but its five days until I leave for my NINE day trip to California...Los Angeles and Palm Desert! (We won't discuss the fact that it is in the 100's in Palm Desert.) Vacation, here I come!

Now We're Talkin': Finally, MIT students work for the real common good...a new way to make ice cream! Yes!

The Right Wing Get Caught Doing Wrong: The federal government suspended funding to a nationwide program that promotes teenage premarital abstinence through skits and music videos, because the group did not adequately separate religious components from its abstinence message. I am particularly fond of the seemingly unbiased language in the last sentence, stating "The Silver Ring Thing has said that more than 30,000 young people have committed themselves to premarital purity after attending the program's three-hour multimedia presentations." Um, yeah.

Good Spinal News: I went to my five week follow up appointment at the Spine Center this morning. The good news is that my MRI was basically ok, and just showed some minor swelling between two of my cervical vertebrae (neck). She said many people have this type of swelling, and that mainly what I have is soft tissue problems. She asked about my physical therapy (which, I must say, I have been kicking ass at!) and which exercises they are having me do etc. She asked what size weights I have been using for them. I told her 2 lb, and that even that was often very hard for some of the exercises. She said it sounded like I was doing well, but she would like to see me work up to 6 lb!!!! Admittedly, over time, but that seems incomprehensible right now. I am very proud of myself with how consciencious I can been in doing my exercises every day (maybe even too much...I made my arms/shoulders very sore over the weekend.) I think that, unlike the chiropractic care I have been doing for the last year (with good stretching at home) where I felt like I was passive to the treatment, I am working REALLY hard at the PT with the mindset that if I work hard enough, I will stop hurting. I am having trouble being patient, and want to feel better NOW. Anyhow, I was glad to get a good assessment from the Spine Doc and be on the right path with PT. 6lb....eee gad!