Butler 4

When I found out that Tom Wolfe was coming to the Union Square Barns and Noble I immediately wrote Brigham knowing that he would be highly interested in attending this event. You can always count on Brig for stuff like that. The problem of going with Brigham to see cool things like Tom Wolfe speak is that his blog report will be much better then anything you could write. This has held true in the current circumstance. Therefore, I have decided to link to his blog so you can read his encompassing review (the man takes notes) and I will focus my comments on items that were a particular interest to me not mentioned in his blog.
First... let's be honest folks... the white suit always worn by Tom Wolfe is amazing. He has many suits of various shades of white. I don't believe he ever makes a public appearance without his chosen uniform the white suit. Tonight he was wearing a rather creamy white. I wonder how often he gets his suits cleaned. I also wonder if he has ever lost a suit to a stain, and if so how many, and if there are multiple suit decommissioned due to staining when he gets a new stain does he say, "darn it... not again! I really liked this one." He's probably use to it and has dealt with it over many years.

Tom Wolfe is 77 from Richmond Virgina and has that nice southern demeanor about him complete with a slight southern accent. To be honest when I first saw him and heard him speak I thought of General Lee and a comment made by a northern woman upon seeing General Lee ride through her town she said, "I wish he were ours". Tonight Tom showed solidarity with the south by wearing a tie with the shape of Florida repeating in a diagonal stripe.

He wore a black with white pinstripes french cuff shirt with white cuff links. His shoes where two-tone white and black. It almost looked like he was wearing spats. Which is awesome. One of the best parts is when he stood up at the end I could see his waist band. It was around 4" tall.

I've never read any Tom Wolfe books. But I always knew that I would like them if I did and now that I've seen him speak I'm interested in getting around to reading some of his work.

Collin and I had a great game of scrabble. It was neck and neck the whole time. In the end my neck was slightly longer. Final score 234-232. I must also mention that earlier we played Ticket To Ride with Stephen and it was another close game but Collin was the victor.

My personal best move for the day was NOIR off the side of DOORS making in total four words: NOIR, NO, OR, IS. I know what many of you are thinking, "Jeff you can't use foreign lanuages in Scrabble". Do not worry folks, not only is NOIR french for black, but it is also a type of film genre. Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Films such as The Third Man (1949), Kiss Me Deadly (1950), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), Touch of Evil (1958) are good examples of film noir.

My personal favorite word Collin played came in one of his last three moves when he played GHOUL. When he laid that down I knew he meant business.

March is Teddy Roosevelt Month. It has started out great! The assigned reading this month is "The Rough Riders". It's a great book and Teddy is a wonderful writer. Teddy was asked if he wanted to command the Rough Riders. He turned down the offer because he didn't have any experience commanding and would have to spend time training. He couldn't wait to get into the fight so he offered to be second in command. The commanding officer was a army doctor named Leonard Wood. Speaking of him Roosevelt wrote, "He was by nature a soldier of the highest type, and, like most natural soldiers, he was, of course, born with a keen longing for adventure; and, though an excellent doctor, what he really desired was the chance to lead men in some kind of hazard".
So, Yes.... Welcome home Teddy.

So it's the end of February and I've finally downloaded my pictures. I think these two are my favorites.

Okay, I love, love, love my job but it is 10:46 and we haven't had a patient all night long! My goodness it's boring. I've been playing on the internet but you can really only do that for so long. So I guess we'll play catch-up with the Lundquist Family. We spent last night in the ER with an emergent ear ache. Argh! Hank has been sick all week but he needed to wait until 1 Am Sunday morning to let his mother and father know that he needed to see a physician. Good Times. They gave him liquid lortab. Good Gracious, that seemed a little over board but he was a happy camper after that. He woke Eric and I up this morning fully dressed and a smile on his face. He has a Dr. appt this week to see if we need to put tubes in his ears. I should have done it when he was a baby but I'm scared for him to have surgery. Nurses make the worst patients!

I have been really lucky until now with Hank. He's trouble but he's never been mischevious....until now. Within this last month he has taken scissors to my couch (he's seriously obsessed with cutting anything), written "H's" all over my bed sheets (while I was sleeping on the other side), and explored the fascinating sensation of Erics shaving cream while spraying it all over the wall of the bathroom. I'm such a bad blogger...I should have taken pictures! Anyway, when I have gone to scold him, he acts shocked that what he has done was naughty. I can't cut up the couch? "I'm sorry mom, I won't do it again."

I need to post a picture when I get home but Abe is officially a big bruiser. He got his first shiner last week. Eric was pulling him out of the car and smacked his head on the door. OUCH! Thanks dad! We bought him little squeaker shoes yesterday. They are cute becuase he isn't really walking yet. I'm sure they will lose their charm soon enough.

Okay, it's 11:00. Only 7 more hours to go. Happy Presidents Day everybody!

Berlin turned out to have amazing graffiti all over the place. I guess that's what you get when you put up a wall that no one cares what you do to it (well if you're not on the Russian side). Anyway I was really impressed with the quality of the graffiti. Please see the pictures below:

Everyone! I collaborated with Brig and we made another amazing Brussel Spout side dish. It was amazing and so was Brigham's write up about them on his blog. Go to this link and check it out.