The kids, Greta, and Vitamin D

I wasn't going to blog while visiting Michigan, but it's almost 1am, I am in the midst of writing a paper that is due on Monday, and writing in this blog provides a perfect distraction.

The kids are grand. We are staying with Flannery's parents who keep us well fed, live very close to a playground, and get me up to date on current events/entertainment/musicians/sports/etc. Flannery's father was surprised when I didn't recognize the voice of the man who sang all the songs for the "Curious George" movie. And although I can't remember who that man is now (perhaps his last name is Jackson?), and I'd never heard of him, I was enlightened for a few minutes there. The twins finished opening their birthday presents tonight (which makes the official birthday celebration 11 days long now) and are the proud owners of 2 brand new soccer balls. Luckily, nothing was broken in the house - they become outside toys tomorrow. They also received a tape dispenser and a few refill roles. They used up almost the entire first roll "taping" an unopened present, so hopefully some more refills will appear at Christmas. If I haven't said it yet, it's been wonderful staying with all our Michigan (and Pennsylvania) friends and family - something we would most definitely not had an opportunity to do had we not moved to Boston.

Greta ran away today. It was bound to happen. She sleeps about 23 hours a day and spends every waking minute doing her best to find something edible or some hole to squeeze through. And her timing is always impecible. She managed to slip out while I was in Ann Arbor, Flannery's dad was about to leave for a meeting, and Flannery's mom was arriving home sick from work. Anyway, to make a long story short, Flannery's Dad called me to tell me she had flown the coop and ask for advice as to where she might go. I had no advice and freaked out because we have yet to get new tags for Greta - our old phone number and Flannery's old work number would not be of much help and neither would the Ann Arbor dog license. I called Rosie who called the city of Ann Arbor who put a note in our file with my cell phone number (Thank you, thank you, thank you!). Apparently, someone called the city about 5 minutes later. They got my phone number, called me, and took Greta back to Flannery's parents' house. I also got a call from Flannery's old work friend (Thank you, thank you, thank you!), since Greta's benefactor had called Flannery's old work number. I know Chris has much better things to do than track me down. We're feeling pretty well cared for right now.

Vitamin D. So, I've been fielding a lot of questions about vitamin D since I came home. It's my own darn fault. I should never have posted a blog entry about it. The truth is I know little about it. It was only 1 dinner conversation. Ask Flannery, she knows. And I've warned her to study up. And I forgot one very important fact. Vitamin D's big job is bone density - so that's the biggest reason you should make sure you have enough (think Osteoporosis, I think . . . ). And interestingly enough, African-Americans have higher bone density than others (I don't know who the others are). So the fact that they get less sun may be made up for in their higher bone density (although I don't think the numbers even out). We've had many interesting dinner conversations about vitamins (A-K, including many Bs), protein (Americans get plenty -stop worrying), minerals (drink milk), fat (olive oil good, hydroginated bad), high fructose corn syrup (it is making us fat). . . ask Flannery (bug her) and maybe she'll tell you about it.