We got a phone call yesterday from the fertility clinic in Lebanon. The news was not good.

As previously reported, Cindy was undertaking the Clomid Challenge test, which measures her ability to create viable eggs. They said that her “level” was too high. They require that the “level” (level of what, I don’t know, I didn’t talk to the doctor) be no more than 14. Hers was 16.

So, the upshot is that we cannot use her eggs for in vitro fertilization. However, all is not lost. Our next step is to set up a meeting with the doctor and look into the possibility of using eggs from an anonymous donor. We are still determined to have a baby, so this is only a minor set-back.

I had to link to this because its such an interesting discussion.

Over at The T Stop, there is an interesting discussion under How Much is your Ass Worth

Go visit and throw in an opinion!

A wondrous form of writing is that of writing with constraints. If it is difficult to form an original post on any topic, it is singularly difficult to form a post that is with constraints. What do I imply by “constraints”? To show what I am talking about, I will display an illustration of this kind of writing:

mary had a tiny lamb
its wool was pallid as snow
and any spot that mary did walk
this lamb would always go
this lamb did follow mary to school
although against a law
how girls and boys did laugh and play
that lamb in class all saw

You can look at this, and instantly know a glaring omission from this illustration. It is obvious that a particular symbol is not on display in this writing. This form of writing with constraints is known as a Lipogram. Although it is fairly difficult to join words to form paragraphs, and omit a common symbol, it is also satisfying and fun to do. All of you who blog as I do, should try it in your own blog.

A long lipogram, was a lipogram by an author, Wright, who did publish Gadsby: A Book of 50,000 plus Words Without Using a particular symbol. This book did not contain any word that had a particular, common, symbol in it. A symbol that is not in this post, also.

If you look, you will find out which symbol is not in this post. It is obvious if you intuit it, but it is hard to spot if you do not know what to look for. For you who cannot grasp it right away, I will say that yon symbols A, I, O, U, do show up without constraint.

And that is all.

You will note in my header that there is a chemical structure labeled “chocolate”. This is actually a misnomer of the displayed molecule. Chocolate is a complex organic compound that comprises hundreds (probably thousands) of different chemicals. What is actually dispalyed in my banner above the label of “chocolate” is Theobromine. Theobromine is the component of chocolate that gives you that “chocolate high”, and makes you feel really good.

For those who are especially observant, you will note that the display image for caffeine is nearly identical to that of theobromine (chocolate). In fact, the compounds are closely related. Theobromine (found in chocolate), Theophylline (found in tea), and Caffeine (found in coffee and tea) are part of a class of chemicals known as Xanthines, or methylxanthines, and they all have very similar chemical structures. However, they are different chemicals and they behave differently in the body. For example, while Theobromine gives a mild, long-lasting, relaxing stimulation, Caffeine gives a sharper, more jittery stimulation, that is intense and of shorter duration.

Theophylline, which is found naturally in green and black tea, has also been synthisized by the pharmaceutical industry, and is widely used as an anti-asthma mediacation. Theobromine is poisonous to dogs and cats, as well as some other animals. It can cause aryythmia and heart palpatations, which are often lethal to the animal. Don’t feed chocolate to your pets. A couple of oreo’s won’t hurt, but a pound of chocolate can cause some real damage.

During the past couple of weeks, i’ve been planning a Carribian cruise for the family for February 2007. As I start to solidify and finalize our plans, I start seeing an alarming number of these news reports:

One Dead in Carribian Cruise Ship Fire

Tour bus plummets into canyon, kills 12

Salem Student Stabbed during spring break in Bahamas

Now i’m not the panicky type, but I sure hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

On Wednesday nights, I go out with some friends to have a cuppa joe at Brewbakers in downtown Keene. Since we are all adults now, we have to plan this time away from our families and our lives so that we can hook up and chat.

The conversation usually meanders from politics, to television, to religion, to movies, to science. . . the usual small-talk stuff.

This time, I was relaying my amusing story about destroying my pipe to Ray, Micah, and Jaime, when Micah mentioned a brewhouse in Bennington Vermont that had a selection of 500 types of beer from all over the world, plus a selection of pipes and pipe tobaccos. That sounded really good to all of us, so we planned a road trip.

“Not this weekend. We’ve been busy every weekend this year and we are taking this weekend off.”

“Next weekend I have to work.”

“No, the weekend after that, I have my daughter. I can’t take her to a bar.”

After much debate (you can see why we hardly ever get together), we made a plan for one month from this coming Saturday to travel to Bennington, and check out this ale-house / tobacco shop.