I have to agree that this was one of the best books of the year. I listened to the audio version and the artists brought this story to life for me. The author dealt with the Lacks’ story in a thought provoking and respectful way.
Author: fkbowman
GGGB: Rachael Ray Has Changed our Lives
Another post from our company web site. This one details my finicky-eating family’s infatuation with Rachael Ray’s recipes.
GGGB: Making Science a School-wide Event
Here’s a post I wrote for our blog at work.
Remembering my Dad’s words.
My Dad was a long time member of the Susquehanna Hose Co., the volunteer fire company in Havre de Grace. He left the house for fire calls at all hours of the day and night. We were trained from an early age to never talk when dispatchers were talking on the “monitor” (scanner), even if the call was for another company. Car accidents and fires were the subjects dinner table conversation. Once I was married, I had Steve trained to donate to the Perryville Fire Company whenever they solicited donations. I guess being the child of a firefighter is in my blood.
This morning as I read an account of a fire last week in Perryville, I was reminded of something my Dad said when Steve and I were house hunting in 1991-1992. Up until that point, I had spent my whole life in Havre de Grace and I considered moving to Perryville, one whole town to the east across the Susquehanna River, a move to a foreign locale. As we were weighing our options, my Dad, who didn’t often offer much unsolicited advice, said that he was glad that we would still be close enough to Havre de Grace for the SHCO to respond in an emergency.
From the story of last week’s fire, I’m glad Susquehanna Hose Co. still makes good time across that bridge.
There’s one other bit of fire-related advice that Dad gave me–never put anything near the front of your clothes dryer. I think of him often when I walk into our laundry room and glance to make sure that space is clear.
Not so much of a NASCAR mom
Fourteen years ago, I became a proud member of NASCAR nation. Even though I knew nothing about cars and couldn’t even drive a stick shift, I faithfully watched each week’s Sunday race and usually watched the Saturday race too. If I had to be away from a TV, I was sure to listen to it on radio. I planned my weekend around it. I convinced my husband to name our second born son after Dale Jarrett. I was no fair weather fan.
As a teenager in the 80’s, I was an avid spectator; indoor soccer, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, tennis–I watched a ton of events. I listened to Baltimore Orioles games on the radio and scored them at home. If Mike Boddicker or Storm Davis were pitching, it was a great day for me, no matter the outcome. And then sports changed. It became all about the money and I lost interest.
When I found NASCAR, I couldn’t picture a day when I wouldn’t follow the sport. Boy, was I wrong.
I’ve officially lost interest in NASCAR. We’re three races into the season and Jimmy Johnson has already won two races. I’ve only watched one of the three races (Daytona), because I don’t like the large flat tracks NASCAR relies on. Fontana and Las Vegas are snore-fests for me. I suppose I should be excited that this week’s race didn’t end in a green, white, checker because it seems that’s the way every other winner is determined. Nothing like investing an entire afternoon to have only the last 5 or 10 laps count for anything. Or to have Jimmy Johnson or Jeff Gordon win yet again.
Maybe my zeal will return when they return to Richmond, Bristol, & Dover. I felt a stirring when Dale Jr. made an appearance at the tail end of Daytona and I was excited with his second place finish. But it’s back to the Johnson & Gordon show and I’m going to search for something better on TV.
Peanut flour offers instant powder beverage innovations
Important and easy scrapbook page idea
With the demise of so many scrapbook magazines, I’ve been at a loss for the positive energy I got from reading them. Even if I didn’t have time to create a page, I dog eared favorite articles and saved them for later.Lately, I’ve started following blogs from the scrappers who appeared in the magazines. This post from Heidi Swapp is a great idea for kicking off 2010.
We’ll see when I get around to creating this page! 
No patience for web sites that don’t work–especially from big companies
My son dropped a bottle of Boost that exploded all over the kitchen floor. For the high price of the product, I would think that the bottle would be strong enough to withstand a drop of 4 ft. max. Wrong.
So I just tried to submit a comment to Boost.com about the packaging failure only to experience a website failure when I clicked the submit button on the form! I am a website-nazi, I admit that; I expect a site to function as promised, especially when the site is run by a huge company that must have an army of programmers.
Ok, I’ve vented. I feel better now.
Off to soccer practice.
Our first Youtube video! Golfer stung by bee
C got stung by a bee while practicing his golf swing last week. Luckily, he’d bugged me to record his swing so I was able to capture the moment. I took some of the sting out of the attack by posting the video on Youtube.
We love the Fuji Finepix Z33 WP!
I’ve owned 3 digital cameras from Fuji and I loved each of them enough to upgrade to the next. My current camera is a FinePix S8000FD.
When my husband decided he wanted a smaller camera for our vacation to Disney last month, choosing a Fuji was no brainer. We bought the new Finepix Z33 WP at Best Buy at an unbelievably good price.
What a great camera! It’s easy to use and takes beautiful photos. It’s waterproof to 10 ft so we used it in the hotel pool and at the water parks to take photos on
the slides and while snorkeling
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the slides and while snorkeling
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