USA

Vivian and I had thanksgiving at our place this year. The day before Jeanette called to say she was ill and couldn't come, so Nick brought Mike's wife, Tiara up with him. Mike got to the condo a couple minutes before Nick, Amanda and Tiara came in, then Mike's other Mom, Ann came and finally our friend Tommie. We had a lovely dinner, minus the pumpkin pies Mom was going to bring. Actually, Melody had used the pumpkin pie filling Mom had gotten for pie the week before to feed the mobs of us at Jeanette's.

Vivian baked a beef briskett 24 hours, adding an apple butter glaze during the last part of the baking process. It was tender and tasty. She also cooked a turkey breast and two drumsticks for the traditionalists amongst us. Que did an experiment that turned out well, baked squash with quince. In addition, I cooked my usual twice baked potatoes and green beans with mushrooms and onions. Nick and Ann both brought apple pies and Michael (via Ann) brought the rolls, white, whole grain and the ever popular Hawaiian ones.

We all ate too much, took home a lot of leftovers and talked and talked. Later in the evening, some of us played the games Munchkins and Scategories. Tommie left to go home to her kitties and the rest of us went to bed for a good night's sleep.

So there was a conference that I wanted to attend in Stowe, Vermont. Neither Vivian nor I had ever been to Vermont so we decided to go. The conference was held at the Inn at the Mountain about 6 miles uphill from the Village of Stowe. Everyone was saying that the leaves in the Stowe area were more colorful than they had been for several years. The trees in Burlington where we stayed the first night were about as colorful as the trees here in Seattle, a few just turning. We took the scenic route to Stowe, around Mt Mannering, the highest mountain in Vermont at about 4400 feet high. (Don't laugh, it did snow at the top Friday.) After leaving Jeffersonville where we had lunch at an odd little cafe where the French toast was on sour dough raisin bread and very good, but the Maple French toast was on baguettes sliced so thick they had to be deep fried, (I had the plain French on the recommendation of the waitress. She said the corned beef hash was from a can! Not to worry, we didn't have that either.) we drove toward Stowe. We did take a side road where there were some lovely trees and an enticing path which I followed for a little ways. We found some horses in a pasture by the road and stopped to take pix, of course. As we approached the pass, we entered a magical area with bare craggy black cliffs above and huge boulders laying all around under the trees. It's an area called Smuggler's Notch and in among the piles of stones if a hollow in the rocks where old time smugglers hid their booty from the revenuers.

We finally made it to the Inn at the Mountain, 5 hours from the time we left Burlington. We were still on Seattle time and we forgot to set the alarm clock the first night. Fortunately I had checked into the conference after we checked into the Inn so I didn't need to do it the next day. Although breakfast opened at 7 it lasted till 9 so I was able to eat before settling down at the session. It was a great conference. A couple of my old classmates were speakers and it was good to see them as they both moved East as soon as they graduated and I rarely get to see them. Some of us were talking afterwards one night and a Doc from Puerto Rico asked me when I was going to talk. At first I asked him when he would as he seems pretty knowlegable, but then I realised I did have a topic and actually told the guy who puts the conference on that I wanted to talk about cholesterol, the myths and the reality. He said it sounded great so I need to get an outline into the WTS people soonish. Oh boy!

The Saturday after the conference, we drove north to withi9n a mile of the Canadian border and turned left, toward Lake Champlain. We drove south through the islands in the north of the lake, eating lunch at the only place we could find food, a very nice deli called Hero's welcome on the south end of North hero Island, of course. We ate on a deck overlooking the water with a nice view of Vermont, including the "mountains". We made it back to Burlington by 3:30 Sat afternoon, tried to go out to dinner later, only to be told it was "parents weekend" and all the restaurants had at least a 45 minute wait. there wasn't even room to sit and eat at the bars! We ended up eating at Henry's diner, a small place with good diner food and way overworked wait staff because of the crowd that couldn't find anywhere else to go. We got up at 4 am sunday morning for our 6:30 am flight, flew 6 hours total and crashed when we got back. now its more or less back to as normal as we ever are...

9/11/08 Robert & Kathy live very close to the project path of the eye, maybe will be on the 'dirty north side'. Per Madeline, the evacuated this morning to beat the rush. They will be staying with family in Arkansas, then maybe also visit James in Tennessee. They have a brick home, so wind damage may be somewhat limited (lots of tree's however). Flooding could be serious however, they live in a very low lying area close to the coast.

Becky & Family live in San Antonio, which is farther inland and is forecasted to get maybe 60 mph winds. Bad, but more tropical storm then hurricane. Becky says her hospital has taken in some of the patients evacuated from Galvaston and she's been instructed to keep an overnight bag at the hospital. Danny & Connie are now living in Austin, so are out of the direct path of the storm, but may still have kids in Corpus Christi. Becky thinks they have all evacuated to Austin.

This is all I know so far, hopefully others can post updates or more accurate info as it develops.

I am at the annual AANP (American Association of Naturopathic Physicians) convention in Pheonix this week. Yes, its very hot, and, did I say muggy? Last night I went out with my nephew, Becky's son, Raul Jr and his wife, Lynette. We went to a the Skeptical Chemist, one of her brother's 2 Irish Pubs. The Shepherd's Pie was quite good. We had a good talk and a great time. Raul said that although it usally rains in August, it hadn't in the past few years. It is rainng now. There were some amazing thunderheads earlier today. I have been quite busy with sessions, school reunions, which I am going to in about an hour, lunches, dinners, dances, visiting the exhibitors, etc. I am getting together with a lot of my colleagues I rarely get to see and meeting a lot of new ones. I spoke with one this morning who told me I was the first Naturopathic doc she had ever met, and I had let her hang around in my office for a day. Now she's in practice in Minneapolis. I really like to know that I am spreading the energy like that. Its great getting back to my roots like this. The talks have been informative and inspiring. I'm at my professional family reunion and I am dealing with the heat for it. It feels good.

Sunday afternoon, Vivian and I went to Discovery Park for the Pow Wow. It actually runs from Friday to Sunday. Many of the participants camp there or stay in RVs. It is held at the Daybreak Star center in Discovery Park, overlooking the Sound. There is a large grass circle above the center for Pow Wows. There were Indians from all over at the pow wow, and many styles of dancing and drumming. We ran into several friends there, ate Indian food, bought from Indian craftmakers and watched the dancing. There was dancing all day long, many ages and styles. I noticed that some of the outfits were pretty traditional, with intricate beading, fur,feathers and leather details, and traditional colors. Others were almost blindingly neon and bright. They also tended to have more fabric than leather.
Some of the beading was in bright colors, but not the neon stlye. Some of the neon costumes were very intricately sown.

I did find out what to do with my bison jawbones. There were several decorated bison jawbones for sale. They were painted and wound with leather for hanging as decorations. One woman I have met at various events told me her people have always boiled the bones in sea salt water to get the meat off and bleach them. Insects ate the meat off my bones, but I will see about getting a large old pot to boil them in, maybe when Vivian isn't home so she isn't bothered by any smell that may happen. Another guy told me he used peroxide to bleach the bones. I think I will try sea salt water first.

Vivian got a lovely print from an artist. She signed it. We are getting it matted and framed. I got a tile of a northwest style whale, a copper coin pendant of a spindle whorle. Spindles were used to prepare yarn, mainly mountain goat wool. The whorles (selseltel) were joined with spindles. I also got a hoodie with the picture of a dancing bear. It has bear paw prints up the sleeves. We also got gifts for various people.

I will try to download some pix soon