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April 26, 2006
Little Things
My 22 year old sister, who is a student at the University of Kansas, has the mumps. (she was vaccinated as a child) She's not horribly ill, but she feels lousy and is a little swollen. She has been quarantined for 10 days right at the end of the semester.
T-ball season has started for Henry and Theo, which means my children will be plied with copious amounts of junk food and sugary drinks after every practice and game. I'm debating on whether or not I will be known as that mom and bring raisins and water when it is my turn to provide snacks.
Occassionally I try to burn down the house when preparing food. Tonight I "steamed" some broccoli but forgot to add water to the pan. I came back into the kitchen a few minutes later to find these on my stove top. The shiny trim on the bottom of my pan had melted off. I had actually ruined a kettle the same way a couple of months ago. The red enamel that had melted is actually now forever fused to one of the burners on my stove.
Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the McGuire Medical Spouses Group. (Spouses? Who are we kidding? It's all wives) We met over dinner at Sebastian's Schnitzelhaus, a restaurant decorated with someone's extremely large doll collection. We dined on fried, breaded meat, spaetzel, cabbage and potato soup. But alas, Sebastian never acquired a liquor license so no German beer was consumed.
Posted by Julee at 08:47 PM | Comments (2)
Wiki Wednesday
Courtesy of Karen
1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!
In mathematics, an abundant number or excessive number is a number n for which σ(n) > 2n. Here σ(n) is the divisor function: the sum of all positive divisors of n, including n itself. The value σ(n) − 2n is called the abundance of n. An equivalent definition is that the proper divisors of the number (the divisors except the number itself) sum to more than the number.
The first few abundant numbers (sequence A005101 in OEIS) are:
12, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 42, 48, 54, 56, 60, 66, 70, 72, 78, 80, 84, 88, 90, 96, 100, 102, …
As an example, consider the number 24. Its divisors are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24, whose sum is 60. Because 60 is more than 2 × 24, the number 24 is abundant. Its abundance is 60 − 2 × 24 = 12.
The smallest odd abundant number is 945. Marc Deléglise showed in 1998 that the natural density of abundant numbers is between 0.2474 and 0.2480.
Infinitely many even and odd abundant numbers exist. Every proper multiple of a perfect number, and every multiple of an abundant number is abundant. Also, every integer greater than 20161 can be written as the sum of two abundant numbers. An abundant number which is not a semiperfect number is called a weird number; an abundant number with abundance 1 is called a quasiperfect number.
Closely related to abundant numbers are perfect numbers with σ(n) = 2n, and deficient numbers with σ(n) < 2n. The natural numbers were first classified as either deficient, perfect or abundant by Nicomachus in his Introductio Arithmetica (circa 100).
I actually took the time to read through the article so I could understand the concept. Then I realized that the article fails to mention the uses of an abundant number. After googling a little I came across this on Intermath:
Abundant numbers are part of a branch of mathematics called number theory. It is generally agreed that Pythagoras (born around 572 B.C.) and his followers started this branch of mathematics. Abundant numbers, along with perfect, deficient, and amicable numbers, were thought to have mystical connections and played an important role in magic, sorcery, astrology, and horoscopes.
Posted by Julee at 08:23 PM
April 17, 2006
Day Trip to DC
We live reasonably close to Washington, DC so we decided to go for the day on Saturday. We lived there for a couple of years when we first were married and we hadn't been back in over 10 years. It took just a little under 3 hours to make the trip and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was definitely the best day trip we have made in a long time.
We started out by having lunch at Eastern Market. We used to live within walking distance and spent many a Saturday morning there.
After lunch we took the kids to the National Air and Space Museum. It was pretty crowded being a Saturday, but they loved it anyway. We then just hung out on the National Mall for a while.
After that we went to the Lincoln Memorial, but not without Eric being pulled over for making that left turn a little too late after the light change. (oops) He got off with a just a warning and the cop didn't even question the combination of his Massachusetts driver's license, our New Jersey car insurance and the Texas license plates.
We topped off the night with dinner at a lousy chain restaurant and made it home by 10:30. We were all ittle tired and sunburnt on Sunday but we are going back soon. And next time I'm going to meet Colleen, whether she likes it or not.
By the way, I got 5 cancellation stamps for my National Parks Passport!
Posted by Julee at 09:29 PM | Comments (4)
11 Years Later
Since we were coming into the District from the northeast approach the first thing we did was drive by our old apartment on Capitol Hill. The neighborhood had really not changed at all, but sadly our building was not as nice as it was when we lived there 11 years ago.
This picture is from 1995. We lived on the second floor. The front yard may look like just a jumble of plants but it was actually a beautiful garden created by the guys on the top floor, the apartment with the window boxes. The building was in beautiful shape as the owners, who had recently moved out, had lived there a while. Our apartment was gorgeous. Many of the walls were exposed brick and we had a fireplace.
This was taken Saturday. I sure wouldn't want to live on the second floor now with those trees blocking the windows. I don't know if the same couple own the building but it doesn't look like it has been owner occupied in the past 11 years. The paint on trim has really faded (it's not just the difference in lighting in the 2 photos) and there was no garden at all. Notice the bars on the window- par for the course for Washington, DC. That first floor apartment was actaully burglarized while we were loading our moving truck to leave.
Posted by Julee at 08:53 PM | Comments (2)
April 13, 2006
Ideally Proportioned Lips
The ADA and the NJDA must make a fortune selling the names of their member dentists. Nearly everyday Eric recieves at least one pamphlet or brochure for some sort of dental product or class. Yesterday he was invited to take a class to learn how to inject Botox around the mouth. The pamphlet included such enticing statements as:
Techniques to create the ideal lip design to complement the front teeth, gingiva and face.How to avoid creating "fish lips or duck lips."
Wow, I wonder if my lips look okay with my gingiva. I probably ought to go see someone about it just to make sure.
His squadron has a budget for continuing education, but I don't think his commander would approve the $1250 fee plus the $219 per syringe of botox.
Posted by Julee at 03:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 09, 2006
Crossing the Delaware
Shortly after we moved to New Jersey my sons, especially Theo, became quite fascinated with George Washington. I think it started with the President's Day unit at their school and increased when we visited Valley Forge back in February. Theo's birthday present request to my mother was a George Wasington action figure.
Last week at the libary Henry picked out When Washington Crossed the Delaware : A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots. It not only covers the crossing of the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton but also goes on to cover the Battle of Princeton which occurred 9 days later. At the back of my mind I kind of remembered some of the facts of this part of American History, but it was when reading this book I realized we were now very close to the locations of these events. So of course we just had to visit Washington Crossing State Park on the New Jersey side. We then crossed the Delaware ourselves and visited the Pennsylvania side. I'll let you know when we visit the battlefield sites.
Here is where Washington and his troops crossed the river.
As a post script, I was a little dismayed when I saw that the book was written by Lynne Cheney. We're not exactly fans of the Cheney family in this house. But I do have to say it was very well written. I thought it was interesting and the boys could easily understand it.
At least it was a library book; she'll get no royalty money out of us!
Posted by Julee at 09:02 PM | Comments (2)
April 05, 2006
Crazy Spring Weather
When I took Henry to school this morning the day held the promise of beautiful spring weather. It was sunny and only a little chilly so I put a light jacket on him. About ninety minutes later when I was on the treadmill and the room went dark. I looked out the window to see a blinding snowstorm. My first thought was, "Ugh, now I'm going to bring the snowboots down from the attic after having just put them up there 2 days ago."
Another hour and a half later the snow was gone and the sun was shining again. Go figure.
Taken at 9:50am
Taken at 11:26am
Posted by Julee at 11:40 AM | Comments (2)
Wiki Wednesday
Courtesy of Karen.
The Bolivian Navy does exist even though the country has been landlocked for almost 150 years. Bolivia has large rivers that are tributaries to the Amazon, these are patrolled to prevent smuggling and drug trafficking. There is also a Bolivian Naval presence on Lake Titicaca, the highest (altitude wise) navigable lake in the world.The Bolivian Navy takes part in many parades and government functions, but none more so than the Dia Del Mar (day of the sea) in which Bolivia, each year, asks for the coast taken from them by Chile in the War of the Pacific (fought between Peru, Bolivia and Chile), 1879 to 1884. This is still a sore point for Bolivia, influencing many modern day political actions and trade decisions.
As an aside, I find the "blockquote" function in Movable Type very annoying. If you notice, the 2 paragraphs have different font sizes. I'm sure this problem would be resolved if I would just upgrade to 3.2. But I'm too scared I will mess everything up.
Posted by Julee at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2006
Jasper's Day
Piece of advice: Before bringing home a children's storybook from the library you might want to read the inside of the jacket first. Or to even flip through the book a little more thoroughly than I did. You might end up with something like Jasper's Day, which happens to be a great book if you need to explain to your children why you have to put Spot or Whiskers to sleep and send them to animal heaven. But it's probably not the best choice if you don't even have a pet and you weren't really prepared to explain about one of life's harsh realities right before bedtime.
Posted by Julee at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)
Isn't Taxidermy Neat?
Taxidermy makes me gag.
Posted by Julee at 06:05 PM | Comments (1)