Since Christmas...

In the month after Christmas, Madison's basketball team had their league championship. Despite having had a bit of rocky season, their team, the Sharks, advanced to the final playoffs. They played really well during the championship, with Maddie coming out her shell and playing more aggressive defense and taking and making some shots. They didn't win their last game, but we were all very proud of the team. Madison got the coach's award for most improved player at the awards ceremony. For the team outing, we got court seats to watch the Lady Tigers play at the FedEx forum. Fun times!

For Madison's birthday party this year, she decided to forego the typical hoopla in lieu of an old-fashioned, at-home party. We had several friends over to Vicki's and played bunches of games, from charades and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey to a piñata and "gummy worm hide-and-seek". I hit the Dollar Tree for tons of prizes, and we played lots of rounds of each game so all the kiddos got lots of prizes. We had Maddie's favorite dinner, Andrew's lasagna, and a horse-shaped birthday cake of Andrew's creation. Then we went to our house for movies, and some friends spent the night and the others left. The next morning, I made a bunch of cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves, and several of them said that it was the best birthday party they'd ever attended. That's quite some praise from 10 and 11 year-olds!

The North Mississippi All-Stars played in February at the New Daisy down on Beale Street. I had a tentative plan to meet up with a friend's sister at the show but didn't hear from her before heading in. After a great opening set by Alvin Youngblood Hart, I was standing in the crowd when Jennifer found me. That was cool! We rocked out to a great hometown set of the All-Stars, who always entertain, and that night was no exception. And, yes, Cody played the electric washboard (just for me?)!

The day after the show, I was on a plane with Sam, headed back to New Orleans to meet up with Dr. Yamamoto, Fumiko, and Yukihero. The gang was back together, staying out at the LSU Forestry Field Camp in Bogalusa, driving around the back roads along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and exploring the swamps and bayous in search of mixed stands of bald cypress and water tupelos that had been specifically damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

We found a spot where we sampled tree cores near Laplace, by the junction of Interstates 55 and 10 over on the south-west shore side. On a side note, there's an excellent drive-thru daiquiri place in Laplace, if you ever get over that way… man, I love Louisiana. We sampled as teams, with me, Sam, and Fumiko working together, and Dr. Yamamoto and Yukihero working together. We had water tupelo (easier), and they had the cypress. It took two solid day of work in the mucky swamps, but we got all the cores they said they needed, like 40 of each species. The work was great, with no problems with weather, equipment, or any of the millions of other things that can go wrong with fieldwork. Although it was late February, spring was already beginning, with many trees budding out. One day we saw a little alligator in a bayou a bit down from where we were working, and another day a bald eagle flew over our sampling site.

Dr. Yamamoto's birthday happened mid-way through our visit, and we had an excellent celebration at the field station. On our way back from the field, Sam proved his worth as a Mississippi farm boy by demanding that we needed to find a backwoods gas station and buy 20 pounds of boiled crawfish. I thought that sounded like a recipe for food poisoning but, fortunately, I trusted him. It was awesome. We had a perfect Louisiana celebration for Dr. Yamamoto, with lots of Abita, 20 pounds of crawfish, all the fixin's, and even a supermarket sheet cake.

Our last two nights in Louisiana, we spent at a chain hotel (forget which one, but nice enough) just adjacent to the French Quarter over in the Central Business District where the rates were a little better – there was some oil company convention in town or something that weekend that was affecting hotel prices. Anyway, it was a good location, just off Canal Street.

We hooked up with Brandy and her entourage for dinner at Ralph and Kacoos. It was really, really great to see her. We had a pre-dinner walk along the river and then enjoyed a bunch of fresh oysters and fried alligator. They make a good Manhattan, too. Next, we trekked off to MRB, a great bar on St. Philip Street with chillest patio I can imagine. More of Brandy's friends met us here, our party now totaling like 12. We chilled and had a few beers, unbeknownst to us that Brandy was going to talk this entire crew to going over to the Whirling Dervish for, you guessed it, 80's dance night. I guess it's like a tradition now. It was awesome fun, and Brandy's friends were lots of fun. The Japanese chose only to observe the spectacle from the sidelines, and eventually they headed back to the hotel. Somehow, Brandy talked us all into going over to her place and hanging out and spending the night. It was all great fun, but just not at all what I expected to be doing that night.

The next morning, we parted with Brandy when she took us back to our hotel and set out to spend the day being tourists with Dr. Yamamoto and Fumiko (Yukihero had already left for Japan). We took the trolley down to the river and went to the aquarium. That was great fun. I've never been before and can't compare it to pre-Katrina impressiveness, but I thought it was great. Then we took the trolley to the majestic City Park to visit New Orleans Museum of Art. We stopped by (my favorite) the Besthoff Sculpture Garden adjacent to the museum. Everyone really seemed to think it was really cool too. The art museum was very grand, and there was a cool Rodrigue retrospective exhibit while we were there. I actually like some of his stuff that didn't have blue dogs in it. Unfortunately, the folks at the museum were having some event and had to scoot us out a bit sooner than we had expected, which left me a little miffed, but I got over it.

Instead of waiting for the return trolley to pick us up at the museum stop and take us back to the hotel, which supposedly came every 30 minutes or so, I had the brilliant idea of walking in the direction of our destination along the trolley route. This seemed like a winner: burn off some of that Cajun cuisine and feel like we're going somewhere. Along the way, we decided to rest and have a snack a Mediterranean place on the route. This was a great idea, because we were going to need the fuel, as it turned out.

We followed the trolley route for almost an hour, including watching for it during our snack stop. Nothing. Why not just walk the whole way? We were all up for it and set out. We walked the 5 miles back to the Quarter and got to see some of New Orleans' neighborhoods up close. This apparently tuckered everyone out, so we ate an early dinner and returned to the hotel for a quiet last night in Louisiana.

We flew back to Memphis, and I helped get Dr. Yamamoto and Fumiko situated in their hotel. That night we went out for barbeque with Dr. Pezeshki at Central. Andrew had been planning to come with us, but he was suffering from a terrible stomach ailment/virus thing that had us going to the hospital the next day for testing to be sure he was alright.

Dr. Yamamoto headed back to Japan after a few days, and Fumiko stayed over at Sam's for the rest of the week before going back also.

So, Andrew recovered from his intestinal problems, and, soon after, I managed to majorly pull a muscle in my back when improperly lifting a 40 lb bag of kitty litter at the Petco. This action seemed rather inconsequential for about a week, but I began feeling worse and worse and had to go to the doctor.

Fortunately, the doctor, Kit, is a family friend and renowned for his contribution to the practice of pain management. Unfortunately, this injury occurred 2 weeks before we were leaving for Disneyworld. Kit had me take it easy to allow my back to heal, gave me some lidocaine patches to put on my back, and had the nurse give me a cortisone shot in my butt. I was taking 800 mg of ibuprofen every 4 hours around the clock and having trouble sitting for my classes that were 2 hours or longer. Kit had made it clear that I really needed to be careful at Disneyworld, otherwise the chance for re-injury was pretty high.

Still sore and slow, Andrew, Madison, Vicki, Kate, and I set out for Orlando. We were meeting Aunt Suzi, Uncle Danny, Daniel, Meghan, Thomas, Aunt Sally, Uncle Anthony, Christina, and, our benefactor, Grandma Marie. Grandma had recently sold her house and down-sized and decided to treat everyone to a trip to Disneyworld. Although it was the middle of the semester for both Madison and me, this simply was not an opportunity to be missed, and, of course, everything worked out great. We had an awesome vacation as our little family unit, and we had a great time hanging out with the whole family.

My back progressively improved while we were there, and I was unable to resist riding a few of the thrill rides when I was feeling up to it. Space Mountain was as cool as I had always imagined it would be. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was also an exceedingly awesome ride. Also, we had the amazing fortune of getting to use a "magic fastpass", an endless fastpass for up to 6 people. This pass was the coolest and allowed us to get more out of our trip that otherwise would have happened.

In a "News of the Weird" sort of twist, on our first day of arriving at Disneyworld, I said to Andrew that it wouldn't surprise me if I saw someone I knew there. On our last day, the cashier at the resort cafeteria where we were getting lunch was a dude from Hodgenville that Carter had played baseball with as little kids and who's sister gave Madison swimming lessons at the Hodgenville pool. It's a small world, after all.

When we got back to Memphis from Disneyworld, even I was swept up in March Madness. The Tigers were in the Sweet Sixteen, then the Elite Eight, then the Final Four, and finally the National Championship. I really thought I was immune to basketball fanaticism since I lived in Kentucky for 15 years without becoming infected – no small feat for an alum of the University of Louisville. But there was something about the Tigers and the hope they gave to the city of Memphis to finally be proud of something. It was something in the air; I can't explain it. But sure enough, I was rooting and carrying on with the best of 'em. And, of course, that championship was one for the history books. Oh! the ecstasy of victory apparent! But then… oh! the agony of defeat when victory seemed so assured! So, I guess I've gotten a bit of the basketball bug after all.

In between all this traveling and excitement, I did have an intense semester as a grad student. I took Soil Ecology with Drs. Pezeshki and Biernacki, Stats II with the sainted Dr. Bunty Ethington, a discussion class on experimental design with Dr. Franklin, and some research hours. I also audited Plant Systematics and Evolution with the department chair, Dr. Randy Bayer. Classes went really well. Soil Ecology was interesting and pertinent, usually. Thanks to Dr. Ethington, I made a complete turnaround in Stats. The experimental design class was helpful as well, since I was writing my research proposal and trying to figure all that stuff out this semester too. Auditing Plant Systematics was a great choice, despite the chaos doing so caused me at the beginning of the semester. I had to petition (denied) and appeal (granted) to overload my hours, a sticky bit of red tape that really had stressed me for the first few weeks of the semester.

I only taught 2 sections this semester. It was generally unexceptional, except for when I discovered a student had cheated on a quiz and was automatically failed from the class. I made 2 forms for each quiz, with the same questions in a different order. They even say Form A and Form B at the top. But this girl copied Form A's answers from the guy next to her onto her Form B and turned it in. Then I found it when I was grading them. I had to report her to my supervisor, the lab coordinator, and he had to notify the registrar and the chair, and she was kicked out pretty lickety-split. What a mess! Sadly, I had even given out a review over what material would be on the quiz, so there really was no possible reason to cheat. At the time, it was rather morally-wrenching, but thankfully it wasn't my call though, because I felt pretty bad for the girl who would always have this on her record. But really, I think the consequences, while harsh, were entirely appropriate.

Just before Disneyworld, we learned that Andrew was going to be promoted from Sous Chef/ Supervisor to Executive Chef/ Manager. The transition is still occurring, as they train a new person for the supervisor position. Currently, Andrew is doing both jobs and working around 70 hours a week, 6 days a week. They actually hired a supervisor a month or so ago, but after about 3 days, she was scared off and no-call/ no-showed. Now he's got a new one in that seems more prepared to handle the position. It's really tricky to find the right person with the funky schedule that they work, the extremely stringent screening procedures associated with working at the airport, and the layers of bureaucracy that are just how it goes in a company with worldwide distribution, unions, etc. On the bright side, so far, he's gotten a raise, some profit sharing action, improved benefits, and a company phone. But the best part will be once he has the supervisor trained and then will work from 6am to 4pm, rather than the 12am to 1pm or so he's been working lately. We're all really the most excited about this aspect of his promotion, as it will make our family life quite a bit easier to coordinate and enjoy.

The Memphis in May MusicFest happened a few weekends ago. Andrew had to work, so I, being irrepressible, went down solo for 3 days to enjoy some really excellent music. Unfortunately, the first night was subjected to some pretty nasty weather and some of the music was cancelled.

I came down around 7pm or so and checked out Charlie Musselwhite in the Blues tent for a while. Then it was around the time Ben Folds was scheduled to be finishing up, and I wanted to get over there to get a good spot for The Roots, who were coming ... Once I got over there, though, Ben Folds hadn't even started because the weather was being too nasty to risk all the instruments and equipment. I stood bravely in the rain and the mud, by myself convinced it would let up and at least The Roots would be able to play, even if Ben Folds couldn't. After a spell, they finally started dismantling the Ben Folds equipment and hauling it off stage. The drunken, disappointed crowd let their displeasure known by chanting homophobic slurs, I think in an effort to charm him into playing after all. To no avail. Then, after standing in the rain and mud for over 3 hours, the guys from The Roots crew made the definitive slashing-across-the-throat motion, and guys started hustling equipment off the stage. Bummer. I headed back to my car and to my home, looking forward to the next day.

The following day was gorgeous. I arrived at the festival at the beginning of Buddy Guy's set, but, by the time I'd walked to the other end of the park, it was more like the middle of Buddy Guy's set, but man, was that set smokin'!! I danced and grinned like no one's business to some awesome guitar licks. He played with his teeth, behind his back, and burned down some signature licks from Hendrix and Clapton Buddy Guy-style. After his set, I made my way back to the other end of the park to catch a little of the John Butler Trio. It was jammy and pleasant. I boogied for awhile there before heading back to the other end of the park where Lou Reed was now playing. I rocked out to some of his rock songs and chatted with this guy from Bowling Green, Ky that was hanging out there too. It was a really great set, and, to add to the fun, up at one of the super-nice houses situated above the park on the bluffs, four shapely ladies were dancing in these floor-to-ceiling windows, enhancing the rock effect. Next Santana came out on the same stage to break out with some "Jingo ba ba!" Excellent! It was rocking until this singer guy came out and was singing some pretty cheesy 80's stuff. I took that as my cue to go check out Hasidic Jewish reggae phenomenon Matisyahu at the other end of the park. He was really impressive and delivered an energetic performance that included him pulling kids from out of the audience up onto the stage and dancing and jumping around with them. It was great fun, and, after the show was over, I heard many people using the word "awesome" to describe the set. Good stuff.

The final day started for me with Jerry Lee Lewis. I did walk kinda slow past Michael Franti & Spearhead on my way down to the other stage, but I knew I'd better hurry up and see the Killer while I still could. Given his age and lifestyle, he still played a mean piano, and I loved boogie-woogie-ing to some way classic tunes. Next was Her Majesty, The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin! Wow! She's still got it, y'all. Her voice was great, and I was loving every minute of it. When Aretha finished, I headed down to the stage the Black Crowes were playing on in a bit, to get a good spot. This was the first show with Luther Dickinson (of the North Mississippi All-Stars) played with the Crowes, and they really let him shine bright that night. It was an awesome show with a good mix of old favorites and stuff from the new album. It was the perfect end to another great Memphis in May.

Setting up our field experiment in Jonesboro, Arkansas at the Arkansas State University Ag-Research Center was another major event. We had collected a bunch of our experimental plant, rice cutgrass, from a site where Ole Miss had some research happening near Oxford, Mississippi. We had potted individual plants into pepper pots and had been letting the get established at our greenhouse over on the roof of the Life Sciences building. The time had come to take our little plants and some big empty pots and move it all up to Jonesboro. We had to fill the buckets with soil, then move them into place in the greenhouse, then transplant a little plant into each one, then top-off the soil levels in the buckets. Since we transplanted about 400 plants and each soil-filled bucket weighed about 60 – 80 lbs each, this was quite a taxing day of labor. We had the good fortune of getting a guy with a Bobcat to load about a ton of soil onto our truck for us to take back to Memphis, so we could use it in future experiments.

After a rainy day passed, we unloaded the soil from the truck. This was in no way a simple feat. First, the truck tailgate did not lower. Second, there was no working wheelbarrow to use to transport the soil. Third, there was no freight elevator for use. Fourth, once we got up to the greenhouse on the roof, we had to carry everything through the door to unload it because of a huge metal lip at the door jamb that our borrowed carts couldn't/shouldn't handle. But we managed. Since there were 3 of us and two carts, we were able to get a bit of system going where Sam was always filling buckets and Melissa and I were always unloading them.

The next day, it was back to Jonesboro to move our pots into the experimental ditches. This required one person (me) to use a dolly to pick up the pots out of the greenhouse and bring them down to the truck. The next person (Sam) lifted the pot off the dolly onto the tailgate and the next person (Melissa) scooted the pot from the tailgate to the back of the truck. Once we loaded 30 pots, then we drove down to the ditch. Melissa scooted the pots to the end of the tailgate, I lifted the pot off the tailgate and passed it to Sam, who was standing in the ditch and then set the pot in place. 244 pots and about 8 laborious hours later, we had 28 pots in all 8 ditches. Then next day, a major storm, a supercell even, swept through Jonesboro. We are going to check out the effects on the ditches tomorrow.

With the field experiment set up, our lab went to the annual meeting of the Mid-South Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists (SETAC). The meeting was held at the US Army Corps Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi, a huge research facility employing over 1,000 scientists and engineers. Sam and Mizuki from Dr. Parris' lab each did presentations and won first and second place, respectively, for their talks. It was a great meeting and a very strong showing for our small UofM contingent. We got to see Lili, a recent graduate from Dr. Pezeshki's lab who is now employed as a research scientist in Vicksburg. She gave a tour of the part of facility that she works in, the Wetlands and Coastal Ecology branch of the Ecosystem Evaluation and Engineering Division. It was great to see what Lili was up to down there and see her doing well after graduation.

After the conference, we headed back to Memphis by way of the Vicksburg National Military Park, where we did a driving tour, saw a salvaged ironclad warship, visited the Vicksburg National Cemetery on the river, went through a tunnel made by Union forces, and saw a gigantic Gingko tree and lots of pretty songbirds. From there, we decided to ride back to Memphis on Highway 61 to see the Delta a little more up close and personal. We went through the town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi where Muddy Waters was born, but there wasn't any sort of acknowledgment of him that I could find. Still cool though.

On the weekend before Madison last week of elementary school, the neighborhood association had the annual the Normal Station Neighborhood Picnic. It was the prettiest spring day you can imagine. Madison helped with the supervision of kiddos on the moon bounce while I circulated, chatting with folks I knew and meeting a few new ones. Sam, Katie, and Iris came down and hung for awhile. They had tons of food and a pretty big turn-out. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. Little did I know then, but my life was about to change dramatically in the next couple of days after that.

More to follow soon...


Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 06/04/08.