One More Box

Mom and Dad moved the last of their stuff into the Monroe house recently.  While I haven't seen how that is going on their end, the fall-out has been some mid-day deliveries of chairs (the green Papa chair) and rugs at my house.  So I picture it's going great.

Before they left town for Adventure Round 2, we celebrated Seattle's Restaurant week- Price Fixe at restaurants we normally don't have occasion to frequent.  It was a nice chance to catch up before they are gone for a month or something, and to trade a few things.  They brought Nana (to spend the night and convert my garden to a thing of weedless beauty), and "another box of things. Maybe from Nana's?" Now, I am happy to be the only one not downsizing a house, but there has been no small number of boxes of tchotckes that were never worth the effort to ship, and I really thought we had weeded all those out.

Nana and I sat down for a cup of tea last night to see if either of us could figure out if there was anything of value in the box.  Turns out- Bonanza!

This was the box with the last few missing things.  Nana's recipe box has been AWOL since the move.  It was in the box.(!!)  Papa's nearly exotic fleece barret.  In the box.  Classic children's books, a 1950s cookbook and some VHS labeled 1989 Preecs Children.  Papa's Right of Way Association Plaques. His Boy Scout (leader) award. Awesome.

But most of the box was pictures.  All manner of pictures.  Pictures from the last few decades of domestic and foreign travel.  Nana's high school graduation photo.  Her Kiwanis Award (for service). Grammie Jean's baby book (not aging as well as she did). Papa's 65th high school reunion photo.  There is no shortage of cool stuff and rainy afternoons in that box. Next time I make noise about "nothing to blog about" remind me to pull some stuff from the box and start collecting stories.

Before I really get started on it though, I wanted to share this little gem of a newspaper clipping. (Transcript follows for future search ability.) I would love if someone could fill in the ~30 year time gap between the estimated date of the clipping and the postmark.

[ To Talk of Many Things . . . . --By D.H.P.
I have been deeply moved by an act of innate honesty of my fellow man . . . . at all times of course, most of us are careful with out money for the needs it must supply . . . but at Christmas time with this business of gift exchanging, it becomes of particular importance . . . last week a lad of small fry age was entrusted with a sum of money . . . . and somehow lost a bill of large denomination from his pocket . . . . it was a tragic occurrence, so much so that he was plunged into deepest despair because he felt he had ruined Christmas for his family . . . the following evening a little ad appeared in the daily newspaper that "folding money" had been found . . . . On inquiry it was determined that from the spot it was found and being in the amount of the sum lost, it could be no other than the small fry's bill . . . every offer of recompense was refused . . . . the finder of the bill was glad it could be returned to its owner . . . . I think that is a wonderful thing . . . . that a man would find a piece of paper money in the snow and advertise to locate the rightful owner. . . . and at the holiday season time too, when everyone can use a little extra coin of the realm . . . . and truly Mr. William B. Preecs of Pacific Northern Airlines, who must be possessed of the pure meaning of the Christmas Spirit may enjoy his holiday knowing he has lightened a heavy burden from a little boy at Christmas time.]

[Enveloped post marked Baltimore MD 212 12 Nov 1986 from the Thunder Hill Rd House to the Everett House] 

Things to do while waiting for a party to start

Well, today we are celebrating Matt's birthday. We started with hefty breakfast at Pamela's (famous for their fried in butter pancakes- ooooo :), and then I surprised Matt with tickets to the Steel City Big Pour, an amazing event that benefits Construction Junction, and features breweries from all over the country. We chatted with some people, had great food and beer and headed home to prepare the house.

Right now, we sit with munchies in place, a sextel of Dogfishhead's 60 min IPA in the kitchen and a happy Matt on the couch. Should be a good night.

I am sharing a photo below from Papa's birthday party (lovely!), and also and album of pictures of Raoul. Betty make him a brand new kitty bed for his birthday, which, you can see, he enjoys a lot. The position on top of my dresser is where he has been settled in this summer- the new bed makes him really happy.

A backlog of photos

I have promised on many occasions to post some photos- overwhelming though it may be, I am going to post them ALL. Starting with our trip to Cleveland over Easter weekend. It was nice to get out of town for a couple days, and see some new sights. I've posted the album here.

Moving right along, we also had a visit from Shaoshu, which coincided with a Rockband party. Righteous beats were dropped, and a good time was had by all. A couple pictures are collected and posted here.

Another major event is the wedding of my ceramics partner. This was a long anticipated event- Sarah and Alex have been together since the were in high school here in Pittsburgh, so you can imagine their big supportive families were restless with happiness. The wedding included some Pittsburgh traditions (like watching hockey during the reception), some Jewish traditions (like breaking the glass and being carried on chairs- as seen in photos), but was mostly a simple Catholic ceremony. It was a lot of fun to go and celebrate with my co-workers and friends, and to dance with Matt a little. This album includes our Award Winning Toilet Paper Wedding party from the bridal shower.

In other news- The Penguins are in the Stanley Cup Finals! Can you believe people are still playing Hockey? It is hot out! We are facing Detroit, like last year and they are still a better team. Hoping to see some amazing turn around after a 2 game loss in this series, but not holding out for it. Matt is making steady progress at being a rockband drummer, so I have to do my best to keep up with him on the guitar stuff.

Part 2: Sunrise in Cancun- and other joys of travel

Next round of pictures!

After we'd completely mellowed out on the Isla, we headed back to the mainland to rent a car and begin our adventures seeing ruins. When we arrived at Hertz, they told us they only had a PT cruiser left, and Matt said that just wouldn't do. Too big. Also, he hates them. He finally got avis to rent us a VW Pointer- a cute car you don't see in the states- and he hit the road to Valladolid. We took the main toll road out of cancun, it has one real exit, but there are still vendors along the road- so you could get lunch and a beer. We also had to go through a couple of military checkpoints. Nothing makes you cling to your dictionary like 18 year olds with semi automatics, but they waved us white folk through every time.

Valladolid is an old colonial town, even number streets are NS, odd are EW- so it was unbeleivable easy to navigate. Valladolid has a much better middle class then the Isla, none of the tar paper shacks we saw on the Isla, at least in town. We stayed right in the central plaza, which was busy with tour bus visits, vendors and people heading to and from the church. That afternoon we went to see the Cenote Zaci. The Cenote is a geological formation, a sink hole made in the limestone- often full of stalactites and stalagmites and always with an azure pool. Cenote Zaci is not the most dramatic, but easily the most accessible- it is right in Valladolid. People swim in the pools, and the formations were said to be sacred to the Mayans. After indulging in a nap- interrupted only slightly by the arrival of a thousand screeching lunatic Melodious Blackbirds- we enjoyed the BEST MAYAN FOOD ever to grace a fiesta colored table cloth, next door to our hotel. We had pollo pibil, quesadillas and guacamole and Mayan drinking chocolate. Ooo... the drinking chocolate is more like a complexly spice hot cocoa- with chipotle, and orange and cinnamon. Thank goodness for the Maya.

The next day we had the ambitious plan to see the ruin of Chichen Itza in the morning and Ek'Balam in the afternoon. Chichen Itza is an incredibly important site, there are maybe dozens of structures there, very well preserved and extensively studied. This includes Mexico's largest ball court, the Sacred Cenote, and alter of skulls, the thousand pillars, several bath houses.... it went on and on. Chichen Itza taught us a lot about ancient Mayans, so to respect the site, a lot of the REALLY fabulous stuff is closed to the public. Don't get me wrong, it still took us hours to see everything (and buy our souvenirs), but there is something awesome about being able to climb to the top of the pyramid, and look out at the mostly unmarked jungle.

At Ek'Balam, we could do this. This site has only been excavated since the 1990s, and they aren't don't yet. In some photos there are rocks filling door ways, tarps and palapas cover stucco glyphs that are still being studied. Ek'Balam is Mexico's tallest pyramid. Although it isn't clear on 4 side yet, when you summit this pyramid you can see vast Yucatan jungle laid out in front of you. There are fewer structures at Ek'Balam, a ball court and a second tower, but it is so much fun to be able to walk around all these things. Something you should know before you start scaling pyramids though, is that Mayans were small people. Little feet and stature mean sometimes tiny stairs and low roofs.

Our final ruin was the ruin at Coba, this site is very spread out- over several kilometers- and boasts Mexico's second highest pyramid, as well as an ideal spot for watching birds. Many of the trees are still growing around and in the ruins, which provide nice shelter for jungle birds. Driving out to this site, we got a full taste of Mexico's roads. There are decently marked majorish seeming highways that connect through the middle of villages (or the villages grew up to meet them). To help drivers appropriately adjust their speed on arrival to such a place, the highway is littered with topes, or any manner of speed bump. Some are just little lumps, others are large pedestrian crosswalks your car has to traverse, some are abruptly steep apparent paving errors. This makes your time of travel over a distance hard to predict, but we made it to Coba with loads of time to enjoy and still get Betty to the airport in time.

For our last night in Mexico, Matt and I check in to a Resort Spa in the Zona Hotelera of Cancun, Le Meridian. They had all the silly accoutrement like cascading pools, lawn chairs on the beach, an over the top restaurants (where they didn't serve Mexican food). Getting to see the Mexico that everyone else saw- this is like Vegas with less gambling and more tequila- would leave you to believe that Mexico is an opulently rich country with a penchant for bad guacamole. It was a very nice place to stay- relaxing, everything is in English so no stress, and I can see this as a poor-man's Saint Tropez. We got up early to catch our plane, and ducked outside to see a violently beautiful sunrise. If only every aspect of our vacation had been so rosy.

I'd go back to Mexico in a heartbeat- there was a lot to see, and it was easy to get around and everyone was very accommodating. However, we'll probably go elsewhere for our next trip...

Part 1: Christmas in the Yucatan

As you may have heard, from my endless bragging or copious rubbing it in, I got to spend my Christmas break in Mexico with Matt and his mom. We are home now, and I've posted the first album of photos here. We flew in to Cancun late Christmas Eve and immediately caught a ferry to the Isla Mujeres (Island of Women), a photogenic Caribbean Island to immediately get to the business of relaxing.

We stayed in the cozy Casa Kubena, a casita with the water reservoir on the roof, gas for the stove in a 3 foot tank outside and wifi. The screens didn't seal well, but we had regular gecko and anole visits that seemed to keep the bugs in check. There is a picture of a 5 gal jug of water- this is how we got our drinking water- Matt carrying these jugs from the tienda 2 doors down.

On Christmas day, we took a walk to the beach on the Caribbean side. We ate a picnic, collected shells and watched Frigate Birds. Can you feel the stress of the semester melting away?? The next day we caught the bus into Centro- the downtown area of the Isla. This is where the tourist shops are, the main hotels and restaurants, and all the businesses wanting to take you diving, snorkeling, fishing. Our hosts (ex-pats), recommended we go to the fisherman's Co-operative to take a trip to the Bird Sanctuary on Contoy with their friend Raul. We got that set up for the next day, and enjoyed taking in the beaches, shops, markets and ice cream that Centro has to offer. Back at the Casita, we also found the Loncheria Condor- these nice folks took care of most of our cooking for the rest of the trip. Why? at 7 pesos (50 cents) a taco- we could eat like kings within a block of our house. And the carne asada was great! This is the neighborhood diner as it were- no one here spoke English but they were terrifically patient with us every time we came by.

The trip to Contoy was dreamy- although if you weren't into the 'speeding across the ocean in a small fiberglass boat' thing, I guess the transit might undo the tranquility of the island. The jungle there was full of wildlife- birds especially, but also hermit crabs and lizards of all shapes and sizes. The reef in the cove also hid dozens of exotic 'only in the aquarium, and never that big/ many' specimens. The Magnificent Frigatebirds were a sight to behold too- they filled the mangrove trees, weighting down the branches into the lagoon, and making a deep cooing noise that slowed down pigeons. Our host, Captain Raul, was really wonderful too- he cooked up great food, showed us all the great things to do on the island and piloted us safely back and forth. Once back to Isla Mujeres, we decided to try the Fresh, cold Coconuts being sold on the street. Ah, tropical refreshment.

We ended up 'taking the cure' on the beach the next couple days- reading paperbacks, eating well, enjoying the company and sleeping a lot. With all that white sand beach and the island mentality, it was hard not to let the tension just sweep away. Ahh... The photo album shows a sunset we enjoyed a palapa bar on the dock over fish tacos. Four beers and guacamole for US$7? Life is good.

Let me know what you think of the pictures, I'll be posting one of our visit to 3 separate Mayan Ruins soon.

Fall Ceramics!

I've put together an album of my latest Pottery creations. You'll all be seeing some of these again in some form, so don't look to close if you like surprises under the Xmas tree. Overall I am much happier with what I produced this semester, form and function and color. Not sure that these images will do the glazes justice, but take a look and let me know what you think. As I keep hinting, lots of these (as many as possible, so I can justify the next semester) are going to be gifted. If anything looks remotely appealing, just dibs it.

Noel Got Married!

And he was pretty darn good at it too. While the newlyweds are off enjoying the adventures of a fabulous trip to Costa Rica (!) I thought I'd start posting a few photos that we took home for everyone to enjoy.

I especially like this picture, because it shows how bursting-out-of-his-skin happy Noel was. I've put together a first pass, small scale collection of the photos off our camera and posted them here. I expect there will be more posting and sharing of photos as everyone else gets home and settled.

Dress Help!

Noel's wedding is just DAYS away, and I am sure we are all wondering the same thing. What am I going to wear? Well, perhaps I am the only one who waited this long. Go check out my album of the few candidates. And Kelso- the brown shoes are at the end.

Album is here.

Please help!

More ceramics!

I've updated the album with the final set of things from my ceramics class over the summer.

Find those here!

Take a look around, and tell me what you think. I'll be sending off small 'sturdy' bowls to anyone with any remote interest. In fact you might not even have to ask- but if anything catches your eye please let me know.

Also, if anyone has any modest requests (condiment bowls, mugs), I'd be glad to entertain them. My goal for this semester is to make more things on purpose, which means I need purposes.

Ceramics- First Fire

After a long wait, pictures of some of my ceramics pieces are up! Here they are all together for scale- the peaches are small, and the butter enormous. Except for the plates, everything is pretty much ideal for beer nuts or similar scale. An online album is here, and I'll update it as I get a few more things this week.

And doesn't this blog need more photos?

Pictures from Skagway!

Pictures of our day trip to Skagway, AK include breathtaking views from the flight over the icefields are here.


Thursday, we had tickets from Wings to fly to Skagway. Matt and I honeymooned here. We had fun then, and thought we might like something mid-week to break up the Juneau of the trip. Turns out it was an inspired idea. Our flight over was a small turbo prop that seated 10 + pilots. We flew out over the Juneau icefields. Since the weather was, again, perfect we got some great pictures of the stunning views up there. We grabbed breakfast and, declining a ride out to the Chilkoot Trailhead, hiked up to Lower Dewey Lake. It was early, calm and clear- how restful. We lunched at the Red Onion Saloon- a former brothel that gives tours (thus the chorus girls). We did some shopping, and eventually wandered out to Yakutania Point, a point coarsely carved from granite. Both the wind and views were spectacular. We grabbed a pint at the Skagway Brew Co (yum!) before heading back home. The flight with Wings was overbooked, so an extra plane was sent from Juneau for the 4 of us. What they sent was a LITTLE 6 seater, that once again flew back over the icefields. Jessi was the co-pilot, and our pilot did his best to show off the sights on our trip home. We we got out of the plane, we hugged him, it was so amazingly beautiful (and slightly terrifying).

Still battling with one more online album, which includes pictures of Kelsey being a dork right here in America. Stay tuned!

Partial Alaska Update

Forgive me, I am having trouble integrating iPhoto, Picasa and Blogger. Since this was going to be an enormous post anyway, I'll post what is working tonight and get the rest out soon, I promise
Pictures from around town, including the Mount Roberts' Tram, our boat trip with Dennis and an insane beach landing are here. http://picasaweb.google.com/sandlin.preecs/Days4578Juneau
Watch for Orange Gumbi suits and a pod of orcas.

On Tuesday, Dad loaned us the Hospital's Tram passes, so we started the day up there. Unfortunately, record snows from the winter were hanging around so we couldn't hike. But Matt did get to demonstrate his glicading technique (these are pictures of him slipping down a snowy slope, and later a snowy bum). After buying stuff at Kelsey's work, we swung out to the Alaskan Brewing Co. for samples and a tour.

Our boat trip with Dennis probably merits an entire post of it's own, but I'll just cover the highlights. These include a beach landing at Sentinal Island to Explore the lighthouse. The belching Sea Lions of Benjamen Island were next, then another beach landing for a picnic lunch. We explored the tide pools here, before Dennis whisked us off to the Northern Passage. Since we had to stop the boat for a whale anyway(?!), Dennis taught us how to get into survival suits (yeah- orange) and put us in the water with nothing but a frosty Alaskan. As we floated out for a picture, a sea lion popped up a few yards off just to say hi. We floated out in the open water for about an hour before piling back into the boat. The rest of the way back was punctuated by innummerable Humpback Whale sightings- Dennis has a 6th sense or something- amazing displays, if not photos.

Friday was pretty mellow- we made it as far as the State Museum before heading out to visit Dennis with pizza and beer. Saturday, Dad took us on a Hospital Fundraiser Whale Watching cruise. Although I didn't think we could be impressed by wildlife after ur day with Dennis (just 9 sea lions? Please, they were hardly belching) I was floored when we found a pod of Killer Whale- 15-20 or them taking lots of air breaks for the little ones and keeping a steady pace that our tour boat followed for 45 min? Really incredible. Really the drama was supposed to end there, but while we were sitting at home procrastinating packing, a barge pulled up on to the break to off load several dumptrucks of gravel and some heavy equipment to our next door neighbor's yard. Wow!

If this isn't enough- you can find an additional 500 or so images on Jessi's site: http://jessibo.shutterfly.com/action/

Clearly, an incredible trip. We'll have to find more friends to take home and show off for soon.

Some of these photos were incorporated into the slide show- so keep and eye out. Regarding the slide show- it is currently linked from an album on my Picasa site. Anyone could either switch the album, to say, one of their own creation, or email please me images that I can drop in there.

Kelsey's First Photo Release...

This is a link to Kelsey's first cut of photos from her trip. Please enjoy...Gordie and Connie

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=chqm4cf.bo206tgz&Uy=oyk4r3&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=33240087075_397000931603&localeid=en_US

Preview- Trip to Alaska

I wanted to douse any rumors that we were eaten by bears, as well as provide a quick post to say what an AWESOME time we are having in AK. Weather could not possibly have been better if we planned it, and so we've squeezed in a lot of adventure. Stay tuned for a real run down of the adventure, including links to online albums (when they get made, Dad).

Such awesomeness!!

I do have pictures of Kelsey!

I completely forgot about these- when I went to visit Kels last Spring, she spent some time playing with my computer and taking pictures of herself in photobooth. I'll incorporate some of these into the slideshow, and post a couple because they make me smile.


Browsing these images makes me really excited to be on vacation (and not at work)- esp since I'll get to see the Boo in the Flesh!


Seriously- how Booface are these?

If she wants these off- she'll have to submit something to fill them up with. I expect after SAS she may have one or two photos that would be worth sharing.

In some ways it is good

Still messing around with settings today. I've manage a few non-upgrades, that were quickly retrofitted to functional. I am searching now for a sweet cover picture, ideally one with all three siblings, but perhaps one that didn't have Kelsey mid-sneeze would be ok too. It is a shame that this sort of stuff doesn't get archived, but I don't want New Worldly Kelso to beat the snot out of me, so maybe it is for the best. Imagine the title bar shows nothing but a zoom in on her face.

Today I am supposed to make some reservations for our trip home, which I am super excited about! Looking through these picture form the wedding makes me weirdly excited about rain. We thought we should by plane tickets before Wings of Alaska decides that the price of diesel has been artificially inflated in Juneau, and these things get super expensive.

Another test

I am not nearly as Glib as Mr. Tech with the H T M Ls, so I'll bury the "messing around with blogger stuff" in this early, soon-to-be-archieved post. I wanted to give a shot at linking to my Picasa albums. Here are my collection of future award winning photos, featuring just some of the star players of my memoir "Home is not so far." Please direct comments toward the casting of the screen play. I haven't decided if I should be played by Angelina Jolie of Penelope Cruz.

http://picasaweb.google.com/sandlin.preecs

Since this is also an obvious distraction from the task at hand- Defend my Comprehensive Exam, I'll also include a little update on what I am doing. I hope this helps to explain why I sometimes forget about things like groceries, and lunch.

My abstract:

Although understanding of programmed cell death has advanced greatly since the initial studies by Kerr et al (1), continued study suggests that there may be yet more intracellular communication regulating various cell stresses. Specifically, the evidence that the ER and lysosome can regulate cell death (2) suggests that other organelles may also be able to sense stress. The recent discovery of a Golgi protein that regulates cell death, Golgi Associated Anti-Apoptotic Protein (GAAP) (3) may confirm the link between the Golgi and cell death. GAAP is also a virulence factor expressed by Vaccinia Virus, but very little is known about its specific role in cell death. The goal of this proposal is to characterize the role of GAAP in cell death. In Aim 1, the role of the viral encoded GAAP and the cellular targeting of the viral and endogenous protein are explored using immunofluorescence and knockdown to determine the importance of localization to function. In Aim 2, the specific role that GAAP plays in regulating cell death will be explored by knockdown and overexpression of GAAP. In Aim 3, interaction partners will be described through a split-ubiquitin yeast two hybrid screen. Verification of these interactions by co-immunoprecipitation and characterization of a functional role by simultaneous knockdown will provide future targets for the study of GAAP’s pro-survival activity.

Yeah, I know, really fascinating stuff. If you want the other 21 pages of page turning delight, I'd be happy to distribute, provided I get a cut of any grants funded via my inspiration.

Still gonna have to work through the dashboard I think....
S