Living forever

I recently read an article that caught my interest in Popular Science magazine about Aubrey de Grey and his theories about combating aging. His philosophy is not to look for one mechanism that causes aging, but rather to treat various aspects of it at the cellular level. A synopsis on de Grey can be found here.

The thought of living 5000 years really is not that appealing to me. Maybe several hundred, but thousands? Imagine the population explosion or the absolute devastation when a loved one dies of an accident. Instead of life getting cut short decades, it could be cut short in the thousands. It's hard for me to imagine such a world. Realistically, we are moving closer and closer to immortality. I guess that's why some people have their heads put on ice when they die.

Tsunami in Asia

As the death toll climbs well above 100,000, my mind is unable to grasp the horror. I see the pictures of mothers screaming for their lost children, body bags strewn across the beaches, hundreds of hands reaching for food and water and I desperately want to help these people. To ease some of their suffering. Disasters like this bring out the worst and the best in people. Millions across the world reaching out to help, a few bad seeds stealing from the destitute. No matter how humans treat other humans, it is a sober reminder that mother nature has the upper hand.

Thoughtful Christmas presents

I always try to put a lot of thought into the gifts I choose for people. This year was no exception. I found two really cool baseball books for my impossible to please uncle and he was obviously pleased. I made a scrapbook for my husband from the kid's perspective on why they love their daddy. I found a beautiful necklace for my mother. I also made my aunt a scrapbook of her surprise birthday party. She was moved to tears.

My husband came through this year with an incredibly thoughtful gift. It was an assortment of gifts, really. The first was a gift card to AMC theatres, with the stipulation that it could not be used for kid's movies. Next was a booklet of coupons for a hot date with the expiration date at the end of each month. The next was a gift certificate for a road trip, anywhere I want to go. And then a gift certificate to a plane trip anywhere I want to go. And last was a calendar and which he had filled out with trips he's planning. Tahoe in February, Lost Maples state part in March, and so on. It was so sweet and thoughtful. Of course we'd have to win the lottery soon for it all to materialize, but it was a very romantic gesture.

Maybe men are trainable :)

It Snowed!

For most parts of the country this would not be so surprising. It snows in Houston once every 10 - 15 years. And Christmas Eve was our night. We bundled up the kids and ran outside. A snowball fight started and soon we were running around, laughing hysterically and dodging snowballs. It was pure magic, no presents required.

My favorite day of the year

Christmas is my favorite day of the year. The anticipation Christmas Eve, knowing that in the morning my stocking would be filled and presents would fill under the tree. Gathering in the morning with my aunt and uncle and grandparents and cousins, eating homemade cinnamon rolls and drinking wassail. Tearing through the presents and playing all day until it was time to go to my grandparents house. The anticipation of opening stockings at my grandparents that evening. I love that I'm able to pass these traditions on to my own children and give them the same warm, loving memories I have of the holiday. And I can not wait until my son finds out that Santa is bringing him a trip to Disney World with his parents and both sets of grandparents.

Happy Holidays!

Totally Hilarious

Light entertainment.

Thanks to Mister Crunchy for the link.

What happens when people break?

4 nights of < 5 hours sleep. One sick baby. House guests all week. Still not ready for Christmas. Work stress. What happens when people lose it? Just trying to prepare.

Christmas Light

My son loves Christmas lights. He asked his Daddy for weeks when he was putting out our lights. One evening when we came back, he said 'I'm so appointed. Daddy STILL hasn't put out lights'. After several days of this, I told him he'd better get out there and just do it. I come home from work and the garland is around the door and there is one string of lights around one tree trunk. Some excuse about extension cords and being Jewish. When the boy sees this he asks if we can buy more lights and put more out next year. I reassured him we would.

A few nights later we go to hubby's parents for dinner. As we drive up to their house, we both start laughing. The yard has one small fiber optic lit snowman. The lone decoration. I guess it's genetic.

18 long days

Since I posted last. The sad part is it took my 5 minutes to guess every combination of user names and passwords to get back into my account. But I'm here. 5 more days until Christmas and I have it mostly under control. Work has finally slowed down to frantic. The kids are doing well and I'm able to stop and take a breath occasionally. Maybe even have a thought or two. But I may be pushing it with that.

Wonder where I've been?

Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway. Been busy! Seriously, hubby and I have been furthering our education to catapult our real estate investing into the realm of profitability. Several weeks ago, we attended a seminar for three entire days entitled "The Secrets of Closing the Deal" which was taught by Bill Twyford. His specializes in NLP, neural linguistic programming. Dry topic, but he made it interesting and fun to learn. As neither of us excel in sales, we felt this was important information to learn.

We have also discovered Robert Kiyosaki. He's most know for Rich Dad Poor Dad, but has many other books as well. Many of his philosophies are ones I believe in and have worked towards, but it helps when someone has already followed that path and can share their experience.

The problem with all of this knowledge is figuring out what to follow, who to believe, and how to not become paralyzed with too much information and put it all into action. We could spend the next 15 years attending seminars, listening to tapes, reading books and never accomplish a thing. Time to put our little bit of knowledge to use where it can really be dangerous.