Washington D.C. has a special place in my heart. I have visited this city 4 times in my life. The first was in 1992. I was 11. My grandpa paid for my plane ticket and I accompanied my mom on a business trip. He thought it was important for me to see the nation’s capitol. […]
At the start of the year, I choose one word to focus on for the entire year. Well, I don’t choose the word so much as it chooses me. This isn’t a New Year’s resolution. This isn’t my pledge to exercise more, eat right, and read those 10 books everyone said I need to read […]
She started as a foster kitten. My boyfriend’s foster kitten three years before he was my boyfriend. Rather than being adopted by another family, he kept her, loved her, made her part of his. He was happy to turn his apartment into a kitty play place for her, for all of the kittens he fostered. […]
I have seen more than a few conspiracy theories cropping up lately, one of which claimed that the coronavirus vaccine will alter our DNA to the extent that we will no longer be human. There are entertaining and interesting videos on the subject on YouTube, all containing false information and spreading dangerous ideas. I don’t […]
Christmas 2020 was different for most everyone. I typically travel home to Missouri to visit my family. We used to gather at my uncle’s for dinner before or after Christmas Eve mass. He loved to make New England Clam Chowder and play Christmas music on his stereo during the holiday celebrations. We would enjoy a […]
There was an old farm-house that once sat on Fort Avenue in Springfield, Missouri. It didn’t fit the structural style of the nearby ranch homes constructed around it in the 1970s and 80s, so it was likely the home of the family who previously farmed the land before the area was developed. It was a […]
The band-aid was invented by Earle Dickson in 1920 to provide ready-made bandages for his wife, Josephine, to use when she injured herself in the kitchen. He told his boss at Johnson & Johnson about what he created and the company soon began producing their BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages. Because BAND-AID® Brand was the first band-aid […]
It is a few weeks before Christmas and I am cat-sitting for my boyfriend. He has a beautiful 3-year old female black, grey, brown, and white feline named Piney. She is a skittish cat. She doesn’t like to be picked up or carried. She isn’t a lap cat by any means; however, she is incredibly […]
I teach chemistry. One of the first things I teach my students is about the scientific method, the systematic process by which scientists learn about the world. I wrote the following back in April near the start of the pandemic. I wanted to share it here for your consideration. Science is the systematic process by […]
I have been following the data on the spread of the coronavirus updated daily by the New York Times since I was made aware of this resource sometime in late March/early April 2020. On April 9, near the first peak observed, 34,699 new cases were recorded and the 7-day average was 31,544 cases (obtained from […]