Scenes from our garden, April 2006

Kitchen Remodeling Part 1

Pictures (top row: Mike; "Bubbles"; bottom row: before and after)


We needed to firm up the cabinets that would serve as the foundation for the 200 lb slab of Brazilian granite that we hoped to install in our kitchen. We spent the day Saturday attending to this endeavour. By "we", I mean Mike from M and L Home Services. I pretty much hung around and got in the way taking pictures, as well as asking questions like, "do you have names for all your tools?" (The level se llama "Bubbles"). According to Mike, I was actually of use to him. As he told his wife on his cell phone. "It's nice actually having someone around who will actually do stuff when I ask him to do it." Mike is a god... he is our handyman that attends to all the home repairs and upgrades that Lisa and I are clueless about. The best part is that he refrains from mocking us although we give him plenty of reasons to do this.

He did a miracle job securing the cabinets and creating a level plane that we hope will appease the granite guys when the come for measurements.

Vaccine Research Center 5th Anniversary

[Photos:
Vaccine Research Center, NIH
Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease; Beatrice Hahn, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Gary Nabel, head of the NIH Vaccine Research Center;
David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate, USC
Steve Harrison, Harvard Medical School]

A symposium was held of the campus of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD) celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC). The VRC was commissioned by President Clinton to develop and implement a vaccine against HIV infection. It opened in 2001 and its efforts soon expanded to vaccine research for other emerging or re-emerging pathogens such as West Nile, SARS, and influenza.

There has been notable progress towards developing an HIV vaccine, although this is difficult for many lay persons to see, as a true candidate vaccine still lies far in the distant future. How far, no one, including those speaking today at the symposium, is able to say.

Pikes Peek 10K

[Pics: Who keeps moving the finish line? Lisa wins award for biggest smile at finish; being congratulated by the gecko; metro ride back]

Lisa and I ran the Pike's Peek 10K in Rockville, Md. this morning. It was Lisa's 1st race since she started running in earnest. She was a bit nervous at the start only having run longer than 6 miles once before the race, as well as because her training had suffered over the last couple of weeks due to severe allergies. However, once the race started, she found the going was easy and finished quite comfortably in the goal time that she had projected for herself.

Although I didn't set the road on fire, I ran a respectable time.

Boston Marathon 2006

Last Monday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts and Maine. This holiday commemorates the first skirmishes between America and Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War. It also serves as the official date of the Boston Marathon. This race has been dominated by Kenyans over the last decade, and this year was no exception. Benjamin Maiyo set off at a suicidal pace, and at the half-way mark, was 2 minutes faster than Cosmas Ndeti's Boston Marathon Open Men's Record set in 1994 (2:07.15) [as an aside, I named my first cat, Cosmo, in honor of Ndeti (not Cosmo Kramer as most people thought). Ndeti also inspired me to train for and qualify for the 100th running of the Boston Marathon, that I can say I was a part of, in 1996]. Even more amazing was that he wasn't alone. Fellow Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot and naturalized American Meb Keflezighi trailed desperately not too far in his wake. Maiyo eventually faded to finish second to a charging Cheruiyot, who set the new men's record by one second in 2:07.14. Keflezighi ran his own personal best to finish 3rd, and lead a contingent of Americans who took the 4th and 5th positions as well. Having that many Americans in the top 5 was the first time that has happened since the early 1980's.

Say NO to Automated Flushing Technology

If you walk into a public restroom to find one of these bloodshot cyclops staring at you, don't turn your back; slowly back away and leave ASAP. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to use toilet.


Lisa told me about some huge renovations on the campus of George Washington University. The public restrooms in one of the buildings were closed for an extended period while they put in automated paper towel dispensers, soap dispensers, faucets, and toilets. Within a week after the grand re-opening, the custodians were leaving paper towel rolls on the sink after the automated dispenser had broken; liquid soap dripped like waterfalls from the countertop, and the toilets appeared to have evolved minds of their own. As you sat on them, they would randomly decide it was time to flush, whether you were ready for this experience or not. Lisa said as one sat in a stall, you would hear a symphony of coordinated toilets flushing in gurgling harmony. These were no ordinary flushes. They were tropical storm category flushes, where you had to cower in the corner of the stall to avoid the maelstrom.

The scariest thing about this to me was the fact that the exact same theatrics were occurring at the place where I work, where the newly renovated bathrooms were revolting against their human users. I suspect this terror is more widespread then we are letting on to. Is Al Qaeda behind this (no pun intended)? We need to talk about this publicly, people.

If you would like to help stop this unwanted intrusion, please visit the site: No to Automated Flushing Technology

NYC Marathon 2006: Yin vs Armstrong?

I started running again this year in an attempt to harness eternal youth. In this regard, I decided to apply to the NYC marathon to be held in November, 2006. This race is a massive circus with 30,000+ runners, essentially a 26.2 mile parade around the 5 boroughs of NYC. Like running the Boston marathon, its a pilgrammage many runners feel like they must try to do at some point. Unlike Boston, where there is a qualifying time that must be met before one can apply, Entry into the NYC marathon is a lottery with people all over the world trying to get one of the coveted race numbers. I was somewhat surprised when my on-line application automatically announced I had received one of these sought out spots. My initial plan was to run a marathon in October (Columbus?) and to run NYC for fun in November. However, I am considering delaying my entry (which you can do) til 2007, in order to run it with a couple of friends. Rick and Kara live and run in NYC where they are attempting to obtain guaranteed entrees for 2007 by running a minimum number of NY Road Runners Club sponsored races.

However, my ultimate decision may be influenced by Lance Armstrong's announcement that he would be running this year's NYC marathon. Said Armstrong: "I had initally planned to run Chicago, but when I heard Phil was running NYC, I decided to do it instead. I felt that I owed it to the sport of distance running to give them this match-up that they have always dreamed about. I feel racing against Phil in a marathon would be a rivalry equal to the one I had with Jan [Ullrich]." -www.SI.com

Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington DC

Lisa and I were able to see the cherry blossoms this year. I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and Lisa went for her longest run ever on the Mall. Afterwards, we met up to check out the blossoms which were in full bloom... a spring ritual in DC that heralds in the beginning of spring.