Much Needed Laugh

I love my book club! The members are great people, and the conversation is always stimulating. It is a tranquil sea of rationality in this crazy world.

Unfortunately and uncharacteristically I FORGOT we had a meeting this past Tuesday. I've been in the midst of very focused study all week. Typically if I cannot attend I let the leader know - in case others also cannot, and it needs to be canceled.

Oops.

After the meeting, which was rather poorly attended, the leader sent out a message to all of us proposing dates for our next meeting, the finale of the season - always great fun - first a trip to the Pub for dinner and conversation, followed by a movie. This time the movie will be "Stranger than Fiction" with Emma Thompson.

I felt bad having neither shown up nor having made contact, so I responded to his email with the following:

Hi all!

I'm sorry I didn't write in to say I could not come. My brain has been emptied of everything but Riemann Integrability and Cauchy Criterion and Convergence Tests. My final is Friday, but my brain should be functioning again after that - and eager for some fun and relaxation!

I agree with Leslie's recommendation - saw it in the theater when it first came out but would like to see it again - very thought provoking.

Both dates are entirely open for me! YEA! I'm fine with either one.

- looking forward to seeing everyone then!

A fellow member responded with the following:

Good grief, Heidi, do you have to get shots for those?

That provided a much needed laugh for me this week!

If you happen to read this Friday, May 25 before 11am Pacific Time (or between 11:00am and 1:15pm, which is when my exam is taking place), I'd sure appreciate prayers - for recall, creativity, inspiration, and perhaps divine intervention!

THANKS!

Tying up my Camel

If you're wondering where I am this week, you can find me tying up my camel.

Why do I need to tie up my camel?

Well, I'm in the final stretch for the semester. I've finished writing the book that was the project for my independent study, and I'm in the middle of exam week. In the midst of my study a friend saw me with books up to my eyeballs and flashcards everywhere and asked if I wouldn't rather just set that all aside and pray instead.

That sure sounds good! It would be a lot easier praying all week that God will help me do well on the exam than it is to go over and over my 83 flash cards and old homework assignments and my textbook and 244 pages of densely written mathematical notes - reworking problems and reproving theorems from scratch. As much as I believe in God and answered prayer, I do think the old sayings are true, "The Lord helps those who help themselves," and "Pray as if it all depends on God, but work as if it all depends on you." I just don't think God is going to hand me an A on the final if I pray INSTEAD OF studying.

I've heard that in parts of the Middle-east they say it this way:

"Trust God, but tie up your camel."

Bye! I'm heading out to tie up that camel nice and tight!

World's Most Attractive People

I believe the world's most attractive people are those who are comfortable in their own skin - people who are genuine - people who know who they are and are not afraid to be who they are - people who don't have anything to prove (and are therefore free to be truly kind) - people who are perhaps a bit eccentric or quirky - ORIGINALS!

Today I will be attending the wedding of two such people. I'm very much looking forward to it and am sure it will be a fun and joyous event to remember for all present!

Private to Juliana and Ross: You are beautiful people!
Best wishes to you in your life together!

Existence of God

Italian mathematician Guido Ubaldi (1671-1742)felt that the following was a proof for the existence of God, because "something has been created out of nothing."

0

= 0 + 0 + 0 + . . .

= (1 - 1) + (1 - 1) + (1 - 1) + . . .

= 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + . . .

= 1 + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + . . .

= 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + . . . .

= 1

So we have begun with zero and built one out of it. As he said: "something has been created out of nothing."

Regardless of what you think of the conclusion he came to, is there a problem with the "proof" mathematically? If so, where is the problem?

mi copa está rebosando

The subject line is nearly the only verse I remember from my Spanish studies, but it came to mind in thinking about Mother's Day:

"mi copa está rebosando"

"My cup runneth over!"

I could have a great Mother's Day just looking at my three boys, but I got presents too! Hugs, roses, handmade gifts and CHOCOLATE - and not just any chocolate either, See's Candy - the best there is - a hand-picked selection of the dark chocolate I like best - bordeaux and coconut - WOW!

So, although the only thing I need to celebrate Mother's Day is to have my boys around me, I sure won't turn down the gifts!

Thanks guys!!!

I am truly blessed, y mi copa está rebosando

In the Cards

One of my quirky goals in life is to create a deck of "found cards." This is my set so far. As you can see people must have a particular dislike for Kings of Hearts, Kings of Spades, Queens of Diamonds, and Sevens of Clubs.

I'm posting this today because my deck grew tonight as I walked through a parking lot and made a find. When I find a card, I always wonder how it ended up on the ground by itself. When I play cards I get the deck out, play, and then put the deck away . . .

Oh well. Other people must have a different "card philosophy," and it is because of that that I can pursue this quirky goal!

I wonder if over the course of my life I will be able to build a complete deck of "found cards."

(And . . . uh . . . no jokes in the comments about not playing with a full deck!)

Ubiquitous Bumper Sticker

I keep seeing the same bumper sticker over and over:

Well-behaved women rarely make history.

I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something?

Quote for Thought (2)

I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I do things.

— J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964)

Driven Crazy!

I sometimes wish I had a loudspeaker on my vehicle so I could "commicate" with other drivers.

Here are my top four driving pet-peeves:

1) NON-USE OF TURN SIGNALS

I hate trying to turn left and waiting for another driver to pass who then makes a right turn onto the street where I am waiting, which means that if they had used their turn signal I could have turned left and been on my way instead of purposelessly waiting for them. How hard is it to make a slight movement of the wrist and flip the turn signal on??

2) HOGGING OF THE CENTER OF A LANE

It is so discourteous when coming to an intersection to be in the middle of the lane, which means that people wanting to turn right cannot get past until the light changes or the person hogging the center is FINALLY able to make their left-hand turn onto a busy street. If a person is not turning right, they should be as far to the left side of the lane as they can be so people turning right can do so! It's just common sense and common courtesy.

3) CIGARETTE BUTT LITTER

Smokers who litter cigarette butts from their car window obviously don't want that garbage in their car. Why do they think I want it in my world if they don't even want it in their car??? Is the interior of their car more important than this world we all inhabit and would like to enjoy the beauty of? Is it that they think somebody will pick up after them even though they are unwilling to empty their own trash out of an ash tray? I wonder who they think that clean-up person is. (I've also heard of a still hot cigarette butt flung out a window coming into the open window of the driver behind them and burning that person. This is DANGEROUS as well as rude!)

4) DRIVING SLOWLY IN THE FAST LANE OF THE HIGHWAY

Why don't these drivers get it when people in the two lanes to the right of them, which are supposed to be the slow lanes, are going faster than they are? Don't they notice the line of 15 cars behind them bumper to bumper eventually pulling over, passing on the right, giving them dirty looks as they pass, and then pulling in right in front of them - car after car after car after car? HELLO! On major highways there are 3 lanes: slow, medium and fast. I wish these people would choose the appropriate lane. Why do they want to be in the fast lane anyway with angry drivers tailing them?



If I had a PA system, I guess I would say, "Are you really THAT clueless or do you just think you're more important than the rest of us or do you just not really comprehend that the rest of us even exist?" I'm sure it's a good thing I cannot do this or I probably wouldn't still be alive to be writing this given the high incidence of road rage out there and the possibility that these people may have more skill with a gun than they have with a car!

Limitless Possibility

I probably had the strangest reason any teen ever had for wanting to get a driver's license.

My mom didn't take me to the library as often as I would have liked, so I saw a driver's license as a ticket to the library. OK, OK, I'm a geek, but so is my brother, because once I got my license I used it to bribe him. I could get him to do almost anything by promising a trip to the library.

I've come across a couple of quotes lately that make me feel my brother and I are not alone. If you are a reader, you may appreciate them too:

"I think libraries are a wealth of possible experiences, and you can choose among them. At the library, you can choose, you can find personal experiences, but you should do the choosing yourself, rather than have choices dictated to you. The library offers thousands of opportunities, wonderful experiences, several forms of happiness; or unhappiness, perhpas. There are a milion possibilities."

(spoken by Jorges Luis Borges 1983, Morgan Lecture at Dickinson College)

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry --
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll --
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul

(Emily Dickinson c. 1873)

POST SCRIPT: If you have gone on a literary journey lately that you've enjoyed, I'd sure love to hear about it -- always more than open to recommendations! Please feel free to share in the comments section.

Time Passages

I don't typically go this long between posts.

I've just been reluctant to move Caleb's sunshiny picture down the page, but I either have to stop posting, or time must move on.

One reason I haven't wanted to change it is that I had a very challenging mid-term Friday that I spent the week studying feverishly for, and the post provided a pleasant image for me to look at during study breaks - a refreshing reminder of a simpler time.

I also kind of wanted to keep his happy picture up because there is so much sadness and strife in the world - the Iraq War, Darfur, Afghanistan, the shootings at Virginia Tech, difficulty nearer by in my former church home, and other issues large and small in many places nearby and far away - lots of hurt - lots of struggle. It was nice to open my blog and see a child's drawing of a spring day complete with waterfall, butterfly, bright sunshine, blue sky, a hill with a cave to explore, and the requisite hole in the tree as a home for some creature to live in.

As I've pondered "moving on," I received the latest issue of Time Magazine, and, as I looked at the cover of the new issue containing images of the Jamestown Colony in celebration of its 400th year and compared it with the cover of the issue from the week before containing faces of people killed in the Virginia Tech shootings, I wondered if it was hard for the people at Time to put out the new issue.
How is it possible to move on in just one week from something so profound. It almost seems publication should have stopped for a period of time, because that news was so weighty that it feels it deserved a "moment of silence" - perhaps a few weeks with no new publication - just to let us pause respectfully and soberly.

Getting a new issue gave me a feeling that VT was last week's news and now we move on.

We do move on, as we always must, and yet there are individuals and families who will never really move on and who will never really be the same because of this event. So, as I write this, I think of all who were personally impacted by that event, and I desire to remember and honor them with my thoughts and my words.

Spring by Caleb

More Know it All

Well, I just came across another Grook by Piet Hein that expresses the other half of my "Know it All" comment. I sure would have liked to meet him!

THOSE WHO KNOW

Those who always
know what’s best
are
a universal pest.

Know it All -- Follow Up

On April 5 I mused about having been omniscient as a teen but finding I no longer know everything - and the realizations that have followed - despair and then reality.

I happened across the following poem this week, another Grook by Piet Hein. To some degree he expresses what I was getting at but much more briefly and elegantly. See what you think.

OMNISCIENCE

Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.

Happiness is . . . (2)

Happiness is . . .

. . . rocks, water, boys, vacation:

On Vacation

Spring break has finally arrived.

My mother-in-law has also arrived from out of state, so we'll be maximizing some "grandma time" - visiting, playing games, hiking, bowling, gardening, scrapbooking, having family friends to dinner, and whatever else comes to mind - and letting Grandma enjoy the warm west after having experienced some light snow flurries back east on Easter (where people were jokingly wishing each other a Merry Christmas rather than a Happy Easter)!

Sadly there is no real break from grad work, so I will also be figuring out where to squeeze in research, study and writing time while yet being engaged with the rest of my family, all of whom are TRULY on vacation!

. . . SO, I'll be taking a blog break - be back in a week!

We Call This Friday Good

And with His stripes we are healed.

And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Know it All

I used to know and understand everything when I was a teenager.

REALLY, I did!

It's rather disappointing to realize that I no longer know everything.

Well, at least that's how I felt when it first hit me.

I just don't have all the answers anymore, and I really used to.

Then, as I thought about this loss of omniscience, I began to think a little more broadly, and I realized that the only adults I know that "know everything" are those that have not outgrown their adolescent years. Their black and white view of the world may make them comfortable, but it makes everyone else around them miserable as they wield their "truth" like a sword.

And, of course, they DON'T know everything, none of us do. They're just so insecure that they need the sword of "knowing it all" to give them the illusion of safety.

It is said that "Ignorance is bliss."

I don't know about that, but perhaps it is the case that "Recognition of ignorance is one element of maturity."

It seems a more genuine security is present in those who are able to be comfortable saying, "I don't know the answer."

None of us knows everything, and to pretend otherwise once one is past adolescence is just pathetic.

OK, OK, Fine.

I'd always been a bit proud that we were not into the cell phone thing. We had an old phone - ONE phone - (doesn't flip open or take pictures or do anything but send and receive calls), and we never turned it on. It was only for road emergencies, but most of the time we forgot to take it on trips anyway. No one had our number.

So many people are so attached to cell phones that I think their skin has bonded to the phone. My students walk into class talking on cells, then get immediately back on them at break, and then get immediately back on them after class (some use them to "text" during class and think I do not know what is going on!). That kind of dependency on constant connectedness is a bit . . . um . . . disturbing.

My family has been out playing frisbee at the park and had a person immersed in a cell phone conversation walk right into the path of the frisbee without being at all aware of their surroundings or the fact that they were in danger of being smacked in the head.

Last time I went to a movie in a theater, the person directly in front of me spent almost the entire time "texting." I wonder if she had any idea how incredibly bright a small cell phone screen is in a dark theater and how many people were annoyed at the distraction. I wonder if she cared. I also wonder why she paid the expensive cost of a movie ticket to see a movie and then "texted" for two hours instead of watching it.

(If you wonder why I didn't say anything it's because last time I was at a theater and someone's cell phone rang and someone asked them to turn it off a fight nearly broke out as the person with the cell phone began yelling obscenities at the person who asked them to turn off the ringer. I figured dealing with a little distracting brightness was better than dealing with a fight. It seems people get really feisty about their right to use their cell phone whenever and however they want.)

I realize cell phones can be useful, but I had only ever found them to be annoying.

The human race actually made it to the late 20th century without cell phones, and I've just been a bit put off by how dependent people have become on them and have not wanted to be part of that.

Well, as of today I am crying, "Uncle."

I will now be carrying a cell phone with me everywhere and insisting my husband do the same (although we still are not going to have them turned on).

This decision was triggered by two events. Earlier this year my husband had a mini-stroke. Thankfully it happened at home before he was in the car driving the kids to school, but it could just as easily have happened while he was on the road. Today my vehicle broke down as I was on my way home from class and heading to my son's school to pick him up. I was not in the nicest section of town (but thankfully had just gotten off the highway and was not stuck in the median - which in California is not a broad grassy area!). I needed to get help in the form of a tow truck. I needed to let family members know where I was, and I needed to arrange for my son to be picked up (thank you B for doing that!).

Given my resistance to cell phone culture, it is amazing I had mine with me and that it was charged up! I was very thankful when I reached into the pocket of my backpack where I thought it might be to discover it was, in fact, there!

OK, OK, fine. I will make sure to have a cell phone with me from now on, but don't worry, the ringer will be off at all times, and I won't be "texting" anyone while in a movie theater.

My Prayer

Fill Thou my life,
Oh Lord my God in every part with praise . . .

So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;

So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free
But all my life in every step
Be fellowship with Thee.


(Horatius Bonar, 1866)

Are You Plural?

My maiden name ended with an "s," but people always spelled it with a "z," which drove me crazy!

One year I wanted my name embossed on my high school yearbook, so I filled out the form and paid extra.

You've probably already guessed what happened. The exciting day came when yearbooks were handed out, and I recieved mine - beautiful black cover setting off the gold lettering of the embossing - but with a name that ended in "z." I didn't want a yearbook with somebody else's name on it, so I went to the office to exchange it for one with no name on it. The response of the secretary was that I couldn't have a different one and that I had probably spelled my name wrong on the form.

Huh?

I know God has a sense of humor, because since marrying I now have a last name that does not have an "s" on the end but that people want to pronounce and spell as if it does. My standard line has become that it is OK to pluralize my name when I'm pregnant - but not otherwise! It's the only thing I've found that sticks in their minds and causes them to remember.

I was married at 21, so I guess when I hit 42 I will have achieved balance with this issue - having spent half my life saying, "There's an 's' on the end" and another half my life saying, "There's no 's' on the end."

My brother-in-law had the following posted on his blog today, and in exploring it, I found out I actually am plural. Are you? (You're still not allowed to spell my name with an "s" on the end, though!)

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 63 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I just went back and checked my maiden name, there are only 6 of those in the US. I wonder if my clones have had the same problem I have?

Of a Certain Age

When one is 41 and receives a senior discount, there is a tug inside between joy and depression - joy at saving money and depression at being thought much older than one is.

If this happens once, it can be considered a fluke -- twice, not so much -- a third time -- well, as they say, the third time's the charm. At that point one realizes this is going to continue from here on out -- no -- no -- not for me -- certainly not for ME!! :-)

It's my husband I'm referring to. I get the sense he's found this experience only slightly demoralizing, since his characteristic frugality is stronger than his vanity -- he's actually quite a humble man -- so, for the most part he's at peace with this. (Right, hubby?)

From now on when we're out together we'll just always make sure he's the one paying!

Perhaps we should set aside the savings for our retirement -- which is yet many years in the future!

And while we wait he is looking more and more distinguished by the day! Ooh la la!!

By the way, I feel I can tease him a little bit since I've already poked fun at myself in my post "Practical Joke." Fair is fair, after all!

One Strike - You're OUT!!

If you've been reading my blog since the beginning, you know I have a love/hate relationship with the dental/orthodontal health profession. I really do appreciate good dental health, but . . .

Our newest lesson is to have found out that our orthodontist's office is intolerant of human fallibility. No, I'm not talking about being nagged to death about flossing.

Scheduling around here is pretty tight with 5 people all of whom have teeth - two of whom are in braces, which is my focus for today's rant. (Click here to see an ealier rant.)

The two family members in braces go to school in two different towns. An appointment in the middle of the day could possibly mean two hours of travel time as well as missed classes - possibly amounting to half a day of school with travel and appointment, so we try to schedule on Saturdays or afternoons, which is kind of tough because the afternoon appointments are booked 2 months out, and sometimes while we are there they want us back in a couple of days.

We realize it is a convenience they provide by being open on Saturdays for families in situations like ours.

My husband and I have ALSO been providers of appointments, he to home-schooling families he oversees and me to people I tutor. He sometimes makes home visits to families that live in other towns as a convenience to them - sometimes having put in round trips as long as an hour and a half.

We've been taking our children to this orthodontist for nearly 3 years now and never missed an appointment until last week. I'd say that's a pretty good record given the number of appointments we've had to keep and the forgetful nature of the human mind and the busy nature of life with 3 teen/preteen kids. The appointment we forgot happened to be on a Saturday. Because we blew it once, we can NEVER again have the privilege of scheduling an appointment on a Saturday. Their policy is "one strike, you're out!"

I do understand that they would prefer not to come in on Saturday if they do not have to and that if someone does not show up for an appointment it is really a pain. I get it. As I've said, my husband and I have been providers of appointments too. My husband has left his office and driven to a house visit before and had the family that scheduled an appointment with him not be there! That was a pain, but he didn't pull a "one strike" policy on them. People forget. None of us are perfect.

I can understand disallowing people special privileges who have a PATTERN of blowing off appointments, but to have no grace at all for one time forgetfulness strikes me as a bit harsh. What can we do about it? Nothing. We tried to reason with them and ask for grace, and it did not work. We blew it once, now we pay for it permanently.

My husband and I are the ones who blew it, but it's the kids who pay, as the next available afternoon appointment was two months out, so the kids are two months behind now on their orthodontal care and braces schedule. I wish they would just hit our pocket book and charge us a penalty for the missed appointment (which would punish us but not the kids) but still allow our kids to come in on a Saturday unless we were to blow it again.

This has left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths (wry pun somewhat intended). My husband and I have been inconvenienced too by the forgetfulness of others we have made appointments with, but I prefer the way we operate. Unless people make it a HABIT to blow off appointments with us, we extend grace. We'd rather be inconvenienced once in a while than to cause others to feel they've blown it with us permanently by ONE forgetful moment. I wish our orthodontist's office would extend us the same grace we would extend them.

I don't know how many years yet we will have to deal with braces and orthodontal appointments. Our oldest was told he would have his braces off in 2 years. It's now been nearly three, and there is no end in sight at this point and no comment. Our third child isn't old enough for braces yet. I sure hope he doesn't need them!! (Although it seems everybody "needs" braces these days.) I feel like an endentured servant to the orthodontist's office. I'm ready for my term of servitude to be over! While I'm very thankful for the good dental and orthodontal care available in our society, there are things about this "care" that I'm not so happy about.

Anxiety Conundrum

I have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry
as I needed it.

John Cage (1912-1992)


My main goal in my current studies is to relieve math anxiety and to make mathematics more accessible and enjoyable. Something I'm currently working on is a book relating mathematics and poetry. As I've been working on it, I've realized there are probably as many people with poetry anxiety as there are with math anxiety.

Hmm . . . now I have a conundrum. How do I reduce anxiety about BOTH mathematics and poetry as I connect them?

I love the John Cage poem above, because it illustrates the fact that poetry is FOR people. Math and poetry are not there to master us. They are there to be our slaves and to be used by us as we need them. I'm afraid that too often in school both topics are presented the other way around as mysterious and difficult topics that only those with special knowledge and gifts can understand. I really get bothered about that! Math and poetry are for everyone and can be enjoyed by everyone - if presented well.

My friend Bob is fond of saying that he wants to make calculus his slave. He's got the right idea!

Use poetry and math as YOU need them, and they can provide wonderful things.

You're the one in charge!

Have Dessert - on Me!

Not only is it a wonderful treat, but it's "NO-cal."

March 14 is Pi Day. CLICK HERE for your cost-free, calorie-free pi(e) for the celebration! Try some different varieties.

(Realize that you can choose your own notes as well as the scales listed as buttons, thus making your own "pi-tunes." If you select only two notes, such as C, G, C, G, C, G, C, G, C, G, you can hear the distribution of evens and odds in pi. I've named that the swirl - like a swirl ice-cream cone of vanilla and chocolate. I also favor the C major flavor of pi offered.)

Happy Pi Day!

With thanks to Forrest!

Forever Living and Dying

WILD SWANS

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.

And what did I see I had not seen before?

Only a question less or a question more;

Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.

Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,

House without air, I leave you and lock your door.

Wild swans, come over the town, come over

The town again, trailing your legs and crying!

(by Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950)

Weird Words

Have you ever experienced the effect of a word getting weird on you?

Tonight I was doing some writing in which I had to use the words "boy" and "girl" over and over again. After typing them about twenty times each they began to look really strange to me. What kind of word is GIRL anyway - with that weird i-r-l ending?

My favorite color is green, but I find if I think too long about that word it becomes weird too: g-r-r-r-r-r-r-e-e-e-e-n-n. Strange.

Speaking of weird, isn't it supposed to be "i before e except after c?" So why is e before i in "weird?" I guess it's just weird.

No Rocket to the Moon

When I was in kindergarten there was a bulletin board with a moon on it. Students who knew all their letters got a rocket to the moon with their name on it put up on the bulletin board. I guess I was a bit dyslexic in kindergarten. I knew all my letters, but I could never keep "m" and "w" straight. When the teacher would show the flashcards and one of those would come up I would always guess - must have been a poor guesser too!


I never got my rocket to the moon. :-(


I never had any dyslexia problems after that . . .

. . . until now.

Check out the symbols that are used daily in my math class. We use them so often I can now no longer write a three. I'm never sure which way it goes, and when I have to write an epsilon (the mirror image of 3), I end up writing a three instead!


Oh well, no rocket for the moon for me, I guess!

Birthday Problem

Don't stop reading when you see the word math - because this is really cool and you'll miss it. (Besides, you can make MONEY on it if anyone is willing to take the bet!)

There is an interesting problem in math: How many people do you need to gather before you get to the point where there is a 50% chance that two people in the group share a birthday?

Make a quick guess before reading on.

It may surprise you to find out that if you have a group of only twenty-three people you have a slightly better than 50% probability that 2 of them share a birthday. If there are 30 or more people in the room the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor if you bet that two share a birthday. Most people have a hard time believing this, so you should be able to find someone to bet against you.

(The "twist" is that you can't specify the date. It's just any two people sharing A birthday. If you specify the date, the probability drops astronomically. So if you want to win the bet, don't say, "I bet 2 people in this room have a birthday on April 20." You will lose unless you know twins who are there with that birthdate!)

SO, what are the chances that I personally know MORE than two people that have today,the SPECIFIC date March 2, as their birthday?

While you ponder that, let me send out birthday greetings to the March 2 birthday people I know:

Mom
Uncle David
Michelle V.
Michelle V.'s mom
Kevin E.
Florence M.
Florence M.'s grandson
John F
My cousins' grandma on the other side

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all of you!!!

And especially to Mom on a milestone!

Since it's not proper to share a woman's age, I won't say which. :-)

It must be that March 2 is a really good day to be born!

Can any of my readers beat my record of personally knowing 9 people with birthdays on the same day? You can't include celebrities or others outside your circle of friends and family - and no fair including multiple births.

Hope on the March

Winter has been particularly harsh and prolonged this year in parts of the US and other places in the world. I'm posting these pictures to bring you hope of spring soon to come.


(To view another spring image click here.)