Friday, October 30, 2009
Happy Halloween!...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday round up...
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Baltimore, my Baltimore...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
What is the one most important thing our society needs? ...
Monday, October 26, 2009
Best. weekend. ever...
So this past weekend (starting Friday) I was in Long Island for my college roommate's wedding. This is one I've been looking forward to since I heard they got engaged.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Girl power...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Well, would you look at that...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A whole lotta learning going on...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday morning round up...
Friday, October 16, 2009
Examining the soul of a warrior...
Working in behavioral health, I've become much more aware of the psychological issues that face soldiers who return home damaged in ways surgeons cannot fix. So I was really pleased to find the following story on www.dvidshub.net about Operation Proper Exit. The story focuses on Ret. 1st Lt. Edwin Salau, who lost part of his left leg in a rocket propelled grenade attack in 2004. He returned to Iraq on Oct. 13 as part of Operation Proper Exit and met with some of the soldiers stationed at Forward Operating Base Falcon. Founded by Laurel, Md.-based Troops First, the program is designed to bring wounded service members back to Iraq in hopes of gaining some psychological closure. Salau embodies the program's hopes best: "The North Carolina National Guard is like a big family, and I hated that I was not able to return to Iraq with my brothers this time. I also hated that I left them in Iraq in 2004. So, I felt a very selfish need to show them that I could walk off the battlefield on my terms. This time when I left them, the enemy did not have a vote."
This past Tuesday, Oct. 13, the USS New York set sail for its namesake city from its Northrop Grumman shipyard in Louisiana. Although the ship was already on the drawing board before the Sept. 11 attacks that sparked the war which changed Ret. 1st Lt. Salau's life, the US Defense Department decided to honor the city and its citizens with the ship's name in September 2002. In addition, the DoD decreed 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center should compose the bow of the USS New York. The ship, which cost $1 billion, is 684 feet long and can carry up to 800 Marines. Its flight deck can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey.
The helicopters and Ospreys on the deck of the USS New York are leaps and bounds ahead of the aircraft featured in today's story from the Daily Mail. Joy Lofthouse, 86, and Yvonne MacDonald, 88, the only two sisters to fly Spitfires in World War II, reunited this past Tuesday at a memorial air show. Part of the Air Transport Auxiliary, the two women were an intregal part of the Battle of Britain - flying 18 different types of aircraft to the front lines. Often the Attagirls, as that unit became known, had only a half hour to read a manual before flying off in an unfamiliar plane. Lofthouse and MacDonald joined the ATA in 1943 after reading an advertisement in a magazine; they were two of only 164 women allowed in the unit.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
World's best kids...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Celebrating National Share Your Positivity Week...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
A little more sweetness in my life...
While in Munich I had the very, ahem, tough job of sampling all sorts of cakes, pastries, cookies, and chocolate with the intention of writing about it for the very wonderful Jessie Oleson of www.cakespy.com and her "Cakewalks" feature.
Here is the link to my very first guest post on a blog. : ) Sweet, indeed!
(Image from www.cakespy.com)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Bizarro world...
Friday, October 9, 2009
Irony on the intergalactic scale...
(Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
What's your anniversary?...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Putting the student back into student-athlete...
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Signs of the seasons...
Without me realizing it, Boston has abruptly down-shifted into autumn. We've had some very weird weather over the year, so I'm not sure why suddenly tripping into fall (sorry, I had to) has me surprised. Yesterday after work I found myself scuffing my feet through the leaves, and apple and pumpkin picking trips are just around the corner.