Gosh what's new? Well on the tunes end of town, I have been listening to "Hercules and Love Affair" quite a bit lately. Please check them (him and his helpers) out on You Tube.  The songs "Blind,"  "Time Will," "You Belong to Me" just have a nice feel to them.

As fate would have it, there are some really enjoyable jazz vocalists in town. I am waiting to get some tunes listed on the blog.

Have a Great Thanksgiving, Christmas and whatever family traditions that go with those holidays for you.

I am doing a lot more on facebook, feel free to stay up to date with friends on there.

Happy 40

A quick moment to say thank you to Tom Ernst, his lovely wife Michelle and sons Basil and Max. For what? For inviting Kelly and myself and 30 other folks who had a connection to either being at Kennedy High School or married to someone who went there.

No talk about the economic bail-out, etc. Just time for ourselves.

Great times great friends and what a great home. The catering was awesome and to be honest with you, I have gone to big events put together by big company budgets and they were never this good. The home on Summit Ave was incredible. Tom makes everyone feel very important and special.

And the attendees were old friends who reminded me that I had it really good. I am truly grateful for the great friends who I was fortunate enough to have been with during my all to brief time at school. These folks were truly great.

I only wish we could do more. I still have a hard time believing that time has left us so quickly. It waits for no one. No not even you (or certainly, not me).

Please enjoy life. You never know where and when it will be tomorrow-

Personalized Medicine

Diagnostics in the medical field is all about determining disease. There are related aspects which help with determining the best course of action (immuno-histo-chemistry for instance).

In the last two weeks I have seen the rise of companies who are focusing on issues like determining the biodiversity issues of individuals. I have an uncle in Creighton, who is the head of Pharmacy there. He had interestingly enough, discussed at length with me the topic of Cytochrome P450 metabolism. The various pathways, why different folks are not affected by the same drugs.

It lead to the issue of so many drug companies who are in trouble because they hid evidence that their drugs can hurt and even kill people. Not every one, just a few specific folks. Who are these people? They die and screw up the results of the next miracle drug testing.

Interestingly enough, these diagnostic companies that make tests to help determine who the folks likely to die from these drugs are small fish. The pharmaceutical companies are on the other hand huge.

Why do they not support the diagnostics companies who could help prevent adverse drug reactions? Well, that would mean that not everyone would be on anti-cholesterol meds, proton pump inhibitors (Prilosec), antihistamines, blood pressure meds, arthritis and diabetes meds while they take aspirin to lower the risk of heart attacks.

A cigarette anyone? American roulette, stake your life upon it....

The Decemberists are releasing three 12" vinyl double sided singles. The first is called Valerie Plame. Out mid October. The next in November and it wraps up in December. You can of course listen in digital download and cd formats if being groovy is not your thing.

A whole new album without these singles will be available next year. they are in the studio now. The Crane Wife is and will always be one of my favorite albums. Colin Meloy is a genius. There, I said it.

Check it out at: http://www.decemberistsshop.com/zencart/


Last few things of greatness: Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice still is quite awesome. Deathcab's new album is awesome on long rides. The new Coldplay is full of a few good ones and a whole bunch of forgettable stuff, but still worth it. Viva la Vida (not Livin the Vida Loca) is full of awesome song writing and is great ear candy.

Hard Fi deserves some time. Stars of CCTV. The whole thing is awesome. From Cash Machine and stand-outs like Tied up Too Tight and Hard to Beat (that song is pure music addiction), you will be hammering anything in sight like a cool quick, relentless beat.

If Crosby Stills and Nash is more your style, but you want to take baby steps to coolness... check out Fleet Foxes new one (self titled). Oh yeah, the single, Mykonos, is on the preceding EP. i assumed it would be on the full length. Not true, boo-hoo. I am going to grab that later, because that song is rather incredible.

Kelly and I saw Emo Phillips a few weeks back. If you go to see him live be warned. You may literally die laughing. I have to say thank you to Acme, for consistently great headliners. You guys are saints. This ties us full circle.

If the economy is the disease that leads us to feeling sick... live humor is the medicine. I will make sure AutoGenomics has a test to verify my theory. Until that day comes, drop a few bucks and enjoy.

Thanks for reading my blather.

Goodbye to a Good Friend

In not too long, I will turn 40 as will two of my closeset friends who are twins, born on the same day as I am. Now 40 looks old to you when you are 20 or so, but young when you are in your 60's. What really makes me feel old is some ad about an anti-wrinkle cream where the host is a gal who is asking you to look a little closer because she is 43. But she looks so young. Hey what's going on? I expect you to look young without the cream. Just smile a lot. People will think you are young.

Why am I ranting (if you knew me, you would obviously expect this). I have felt old from about my 30th birthday or before. My brother is 136 months younger than I am. his youthfulness and his friends always remind me, hey I might be old. I am not in denial.

The reason I touch on age, also is the inevitability of when life stops being of the flesh and reaches into the next world. If anyone passes away before they reach their 90's I just feel like they died young. If I knew and loved them, I am rather tormented about their loss.

One of the friends Kelly and I had from as far back as Oak Grove Jr. High just passed away. He was a brilliant guy who always felt most comfortable making everyone else laugh. He was not a class clown kind of guy. He suffered from a disabling disorder that is called Friedrich's Ataxia. It is a disorder that started by making his arms and legs work similar to Woody from Toy Story. The creator of Woody, Peter Doctor, was a friend of David Lewis. The friend who passed away.

Dave Lewis was just happy to make everyone smile and laugh. His writings and thoughts were filled with the dualities of every day life. His perspectives significantly more pervasive. Eventually, Dave became wheel-chair ridden. This after the years of braces and scoliosis and loss of muscle functions. Eventually, he became harder to speak with because Ataxia also goes after muscles that allow us to speak.

I made an entry in his obituary. If you can read the entries, please do so. Below is mine.

I had known Dave as had my wife Kelly from Junior High. We did not stay in touch with Dave as often as we wanted to for most of the last two decades. Something happened last year. Jeff, one of his very good buddies whom we would get occasional emails and updates from, asked us to hook up for a holiday get-together. It was a moment everyone there that cold December Evening will remember and cherish. Dave made us all laugh and smile and remember great moments in life. His humor was somewhat more difficult to understand since I had not spoke with him in a while. Kari, Jeff, Jerome Kristen all helped us with the occasional moment of not understanding. Having had this moment with him, I like the rest of us planned on having many more. The happiness derived at that event was enormous. It helps balance the tears of missing Dave, a truly incredible friend whom we all wish would be on earth with us for just several more decades. I will remember being with Dave at the hospital the day before he died. All the photos I took of him with those who love him there with him. It is amazing he could not speak. We were all filled with tears. But he secretly reached into all of our hearts and made us share stories about him that made us all laugh. I look forward to his 40th birthday. I will think of you often. I will always miss you. Smiles trying to swim above all the tears.

What Happened In Nebraska?

I am in Omaha and Lincoln right now, with a fellow rep, Chris. Today the two of us hit the streets hard. We had so many accounts to hit and were nailing really big stuff, new accounts, new equipment and impressing so many folks...we were on fire.

Everything was going great. We were so busy we could not get lunch until 3.15 pm and that was a to-go. We are headed up Dodge and Chris says his truck just died, the momentum fading as we go up just past 42nd. He tries to re-crank it.

We have a big account to hit, with big equipment!

Truck will not turn! Trucks behind us and traffic is buzzing (on both sides). Hey let's push up a few feet and turn... we cannot do it. Chris is pretty healthy, but my flab is showing it's ugly side. You know the side that looks like Archie Bunker leaning on a car, more ready to sleep than be useful.

Chris being respectful and seeing myself in a suit and dress shoes, says, let's just let the hill do it's thing. Steer into the parking lot (a McDonald's no less).

I swing it as I avoid hitting any oncomming traffic, Chris pushing the truck while I steer.

The best laid plans. We sat forever in a Mc Donald's lot. Practically blocking the driveway. eating jambalaya and chicken we picked up at another restaurant.

We may not have been able to make it to our last account, but we were dressed well. The Bruegger's next door had enough signal so we could send emails.

77 degrees and sunny. The day could be good or bad. But that moment is one that makes memories.

Have a good one yourself.

Can You Eat A Healthy Meal....and Make it Quick?

Sure you can. I am going to give you some tips. In fact, I will give you some guidelines that will allow you to change the items and you can make several dishes along the week.

As a few of you have found out, when you control the ingredients, you control your health. The recipe below is based on a chicken or turkey dish. I will tell you about variations down the road.

First, you will need a pressure cooker. Second, the ingredients. Chicken breast, cut into 3/4 inch wide julienne slices no more than 3/8 inch thick. I reccomend no longer than 4 inches in length. One lb feeds three people. Set this aside.

Cut potatoes, cut into one inch cubes, clean the skin and leave it on. You will want 1.25 lbs potatoes. Rinse the starchiness under cool water in a colander. Set aside.

Next cutAdd 1/2 lb onions minced. Crush 7 cloves garlic. Put these and 1 lb carrots aside.

Put your burner on med hi heat and put 1.5 tblspns peanut oil. Add the chicken after the oil swirls easily, and is quite hot, not a second before. Two minutes into it, turn or mix the chicken around. If the skin is slightly golden, reduce heat slightly and potatoes, do the same for a two-three minutes. Now add Tony Chacheres Cajun mix (2.5 tspns-1 tblspns, depending on your nerves), 1/2 tspn parsly, two tspn basil, 1 spn oregano, 1/4 tspn ginger.

Pour in onions and garlic and turn up heat to high, while mixing for two minutes. Add three cups water and carrots. Once its all boiling aggressively, add the lid and tighten. Once the pressure is rocking, turn heat to a medium, so only light puffs are coming out. Sert a timer to 10 minutes. At the end of the timer, turn off heat and let it cool gradually.

In 3 minutes, let the jigler valve release steam by going up to slight release (do not take off!).

Dinner is done.

Want more let me know. As far as I can figure no one reads this stuff anyway. Cheers.

Life During Wartime

I hope all of you had a great New Years. I know we have all been fortunate this year. I had the good fortune of seeing some old friends who have done a great job of keeping up with each other. A friend named Kari asked me to send an email to someone I had not seen since high school.

This brave soul is in Kuwait right now and shipping off to Iraq soon. Please check out his blog at http://jeff.jls2.com/ and send him comments feed back and support.

An uncle of mine helped in the first Iraq (Army Medical) war during dessert storm and vowed to never go through that again. He retired when it was official Bush 2 was the new President elect. He was 2 years shy of 25 years service.

All politics aside, how has the war affected us directly? I do not believe we as Americans are in touch with the day-to-day events in the lives of these soldiers. Both set-backs and triumphs. I have not been involved at any length to do very much about the soldiers. I am not pointing fingers.

Congress will be giving themselves yet another raise. Our soldiers had their pay package increase (.5-3.% range) vetoed. Let your congressfolk know, we can help in a small way, right?

Peace-
Thanks to Jeff and the thousands of others soldiers out there doing what I and most the rest of us have been avoiding.