I shaved today.
Well…okay, I plan to shave today–and I’m pretty good with commitments. I will shave today.
UPDATE: Mission accomplished. The power of positive thinking works once again.
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Ds1 got an award at work this week, which included a check. He put his plaque next to his other work prized possession: the paper certificate he received last year for getting second place in his department’s March Madness bracket. 
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Last week at S2’s place of employment, 10% of the workforce was let go. He retained his job.
Today he got a 4% raise.
Phew.
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What an incredibly cool opportunity this has been to have gotten to know and spend private time with Jimmy Webb and his wife, Laura. They are absolutely delightful, and it has been an incredible experience to learn the behind-the-scenes stories about his singing and songwriting and hear fabulous stories about his antics with many other well-known singers. Wouldn’t trade this for anything. it’s been incredible. They are also joining us again for dinner tonight. Cannot wait.
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D1 was voted outstanding doctor of the quarter in her medical group. She was cited for excellence in leadership, clear communications and medical knowledge by the nurses at her hospital.
D1 said because she has never worked with any of the day shift nurses, it means every single nurse on the night shift voted for her.
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D2 was interviewed again on local TV about her medical specialty. Instead of a 50 second pre-recorded blurb that was aired during the local news last time, she was a guest on the local morning talk show and got a 10 minute segment to talk about her unique specialty practice with high risk women.
D2 is a specialist consultant for her multi-state healthcare system and consults with physicians and patients in 4 states.
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And one about me…
I signed the paperwork to endow a scholarship for first gen physics undergrads at the state flagship U at my former home state. The paperwork has to be run past a phalanx of university lawyers to make sure that everything is legal & proper. Once that’s done, I will transfer the funding to the university so the scholarship can be awarded to an eligible student or students for the fall,
The scholarship will supplement the state’s generous academic scholarship program and can be used for anything that the state scholarship doesn’t cover. Like housing, meals, health insurance, a laptop, books…
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It’s a bit early but…there’s a new movie coming out later this week, Opus, with John Malkovich, not getting very good press, but…D designed at least one of his stage outfits that appears, I believe, in the big concert sequence at the end. She had a lot of fun with this.
And, Gaga came back (we’re counting this as them coming back 4x), this time for 10 dancers for SNL this coming Saturday - this has been a task as there were last minute changes, and then 2 dancers added to the mix on Friday, these all need to ship out for Tuesday delivery. D was hoping Gaga would have her design another something for her…but hey, we take what we get!
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I was so lucky this year - we were in Hawaii for 2 weeks around my birthday. On the day we had our Mama’s Fish House dinner, which I consider my “birthday dinner” we saw maybe 30 sea turtles near the restaurant, and I can’t remember for sure, but maybe saw a whale breaching that day too. Plus it was the best meal I remember at Mama’s, and there were more turtles(which I unknowingly got too close to) right on the restaurant beach. On my actual birthday, we were snorkeling and got to swim with not one but 2 different sea turtles right off the beach in Kauai. We also had a nice dinner at the restaurant in Kauai voted the best sunset (which just happens to be literally next door to where we stay in Kauai - the sunsets are part of why we like to stay there).
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Wow! Mary J. Blige came back for more!
D designed the coat & trimmed the hat to match - concert gear.
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That is a lot of gold!!
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I was an academic early in my career and wrote a couple of influential books early in the development of my field. But, I left for Wall Street and then set up a consulting firm. I still have a title at the same Ivy where I taught. I attend some events at my old haunt, but don’t often attend academic conferences. I recently attended a conference on the intersection of AI and my field. About 230 people attended. Half AI and half closer to me. All weekend, people were coming up to me to tell me how important my work was to their careers, that one of the books was the thing they cited most, and a couple of people told me they felt like they were meeting a rock star. I feel like I have a lot of impact in my advisory and pro bono work, but it was very gratifying to get such unsolicited positive feedback for my academic contributions.
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LEO son has added TacMed to his resume:
-Tactical Emergency Casualty Care(TECC)
- TECC Instructor
- Tactical Emergency Medical Support(TEMS)
Many times TacMed is staffed by Fire/Rescue personnel, but they are generally unarmed and only allowed to provide care in the Warm Zone(potential for danger but no immediate threat), or Cold Zone(safest area). Because LEO son is a sworn officer he would go in fully armed(rifle and pistol) to provide medical support in the Hot Zone(care under fire), which should theoretically lead to a better outcome for the patient.
Next up for TacMed training is a Counter Narcotics And Terrorism Operational Medical Support(CONTOMS) class.
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Fabulous! Congratulations to him!
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My D found out today that she will be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa on the day before she graduates in May (from the original school that created Phi Beta Kappa in 1776, no less!) She has always worked hard, ever since she was a diligent third grader who did her homework every day before I had to ask her to 
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D2 had yet another TV interview air about her special services program and clinic. Her 4th TV appearance . She has really become the public “face” for this women’s health program.
The program is entering its second year of existence and has expanded from the one original physical site in one county to a second physical site in another county, with plans to hopefully expand to 2 mores sites by the end of 2025.
She sent me to link to the interview with the comment, “Not bad for putting words together post call”. (Meaning: she’s doing the interview after being awake for the prior 30 straight hours working at the hospital.)
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I would like to brag on ds1, whose MIL was bragging on him to me.
Last week, he and his wife went to check out AL facilities for her grandmother (everyone is moving to their city in a couple of months from OOS). When he called to talk about other things tonight, I mentioned how complimentary his MIL had been about his work on this and some other family issues. He said, “She is an only child, and her mother is an only child from a screwed-up family. They don’t know what it’s like when family comes together to help each other, how that’s a normal thing.” I love that he thinks this is the default. 
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Congratulations to her!!
Thank you!!! When I first stumbled onto this forum when she was still in middle school I knew she was a good student but I never could have predicted how great it all would turn out!
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D knew she was getting a promotion ( they told her). But she ended up getting moved up
2 levels instead of one!
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