TheGoodDoctorJ's Xanga

Ever Been to a Morton's Steakhouse

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:00:04 GMT

Last week, I was at the annual mathematics conference known as MathFest. This year, the conference was held in Portland, OR. A group of nine of us went out to dinner together (organized by me) on Thursday night. On Thursday morning, I went to the staff of the Marriott Waterfront Hotel where I was staying and asked for restaurant suggestions. Of course, I had to mention that I did NOT want anything exotic - in fact, Italian food or steaks would be my choices. The young lady at the counter suggested Morton's Steakhouse. It was only two blocks from the hotel - very nice - and she would be happy to make reservations for us. (Excellent service!) I said, "Sure!"

That night we went, and it was EXCELLENT! OK, a bit pricy, but man was it good! And the portions were huge. Here's a link to a picture of me with a HUGE potato which could be made in six different ways for our meal - baked potato, garlic mashed potato, steak fries, etc. (I stopped listening after our server, Amanda, said "steak fries"!) Needless to say, I was lauded for my choice of restaurant by all my colleagues!

So here are two questions for you:

1) Ever been to a Morton's Steakhouse? If so, where? (It's a semi-national chain.)

2) What is your favorite restaurant memory?

Transitioning to Father of a College Student!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:26:33 GMT

Wow, here I am. I am sitting in the Penn State HUB Auditorium waiting for the FTCAP orientation day to begin. Yes, this is my day to spend with Hunter to welcome him to Penn State University as an incoming freshman. I never thought I would feel too emotional about this day, but it really has struck me. What a transition! I truly enjoyed being Hunter's dad, as well as the dad of my other four kids, but to actually be sitting here today, helping him get his computer account activated, etc., is really cool!

It's also cool to me that we know so much "inside information" here. Now that I think of it, it must be really "scary" to those parents and students who go to colleges and universities which are completely *new* to them. We don't have to worry about housing and food questions (since Hunter will live at home), and I know a few things about the academic side of PSU. So I can enjoy this day in a very different way than most of the parents with whom I am sitting.

Of course, by the end of the day today, we'll probably have our first PSU bill to pay! Oh, well, that just comes with the territory!

We Are!!!

Thanks to Loeschdogg, I am enjoying NHL playoffs again!

Thu, 14 May 2009 22:18:07 GMT

A few weeks ago, Loeschdogg and his beautiful family spent a weekend at our home. It was great fun! Part of the treat was enjoying a televised NHL game on that Saturday afternoon with him. We watched his favorite team, the Washington Capitals. It brought back great memories of when I was in graduate school (20 years ago!) and I enjoyed watching the Pittsburgh Penguins on TV. Those were very enjoyable days.

Without the recent afternoon with Loeschdogg, I doubt that I would be watching this year's Stanley Cup playoffs. But I am really into it now. So imagine how ironic I thought it was when his team, the Washington Capitals, played the Penguins this year in the playoffs. It was an amazing series - it went seven games, many going into overtime. The two biggest "superstars" in the NHL - Ovechkin and Crosby - were matched against one another. It was great. (Side question: Can you have superstars in the NHL?) And listening to Mike Lange call the Penguins games always brings a huge smile to my face. Every time he shares one of his famous quotes after a Penguins goal, I can't help but laugh out loud.

The Capitals/Penguins series ended last night with a Pittsburgh win. I am saddened for Loeschdogg, but I can't wait to watch another Penguins series in the coming days!

Have you watched any of this year's Stanley Cup games? If not, what has brought you a true sense of enjoyment lately?

P.S. Thanks, Loeschdogg, for getting me back into it!!

What motivates you?

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:12:50 GMT

I have a really big job in front of me right now (in fact, I have had several big jobs in front of me in the past month, all of which have been completed but this one). I cannot find the motivation to get this one done, let alone get it started. Honestly, I am at a loss. This task has to get done!

So my question this morning is: What motivates you to work? I am not necessarily looking for an answer for me, I am just curious what your motivator(s) is/are.

Some Semi-Recent Professional Highlights

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:31:38 GMT

I CANNOT believe how long it has been since I posted my last entry. So tonight I feel "shamed into" posting this entry. Let me share a number of professional accomplishments from the last few months.

* Back in January/February sometime I was officially promoted to "full professor" at Penn State. Cool! I was amazed at how difficult this was, but it is truly satisfying now that it is done. It was clear to me that going to England (with a small jaunt in Norway while there) was extremely helpful in getting over the full professor hump. Anyway, very exciting giving that it is so NOT automatic.

* This past weekend I was given a regional award for mentoring undergraduate mathematics students in research. This is also very exciting. More information can be found here:

http://www.math.psu.edu/sellersj/alleghenymtn/mentoraward.htm

* Last week, I was privileged to serve on a 5-person external review panel for the United States Naval Academy Mathematics Department. The team was great, the site visit was very enjoyable, the USNA faculty were truly welcoming, and the experience was something I will not soon forget. I would love to do this sort of thing more often!

That's enough for now. At least I don't have to feel like such a bum for not updating my Xanga site for so long.

Have you experienced any cool accomplishments or events lately?

Episode 2 of the New Marlin Perkins...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:08:19 GMT

OK, so it's not as exciting as my previous blog entry, but I had to laugh at my latest animal rescue.

A couple days ago, I was working at my computer in the living room when out of the corner of my eye I noticed that our cat Max seemed a bit agitated out in our "gray room" (it's our screened-in back porch which is just off of our living room - it is named the "gray room" because it has gray carpet... long story). Anyway, I turned to look at what was going on when I realized that a sparrow had flown into the gray room and was frantically bouncing off of the windows trying to fly out!

I lept from my comfortable office chair and yelled "Max, Max!!" (and I mean yelled - all of the kids immediately came running to see what I was doing). I don't think I have ever yelled that loudly at the cat in my life. When I entered the room, Max was hovering over the terrified little brown bird. I got Max out of the way - gently but firmly - to find that the little bird's feathers at the top of its back were ruffled, but otherwise he looked to be in good shape. I locked Max out of the room and left the bird, hoping it would rebound after coming out of the shocked state in which it found itself. I went back to my computer for a while. (Of course, if it had been Marlin himself, he probably would have had Max continue with his "natural ways" and film the poor bird being mauled and gnawed... "Jim is watching the lion's domesticated cousin use the sparrow to practice its hunting ways. This is all part of the natural activity of our Wild Kingdom!" (up comes the music, the credits, and the conclusion of the show).)

Anyway, about 20 minutes later, I found the sparrow had moved. It was now perched on an interior window sill in the gray room. I took a towel and gently grabbed the bird. It did not even try to fly away. I think we had bonded by now, a man and his bird. I walked to the open door and released the bird in the air. It immediately began to fly and took off like a rocket. I could actually hear, faintly in the distance, the theme song from "Born Free". OK, maybe not.

In other news, we are hosting about 40 people for a July 4th picnic/dinner later today. Then we will enjoy hanging out in the backyard, maybe in or by the pool, while one of our neighbors sets off what I believe is one of the best "home purchased" fireworks shows I have seen in a long time.

Do you have any wild plans for the 4th?

Move Over, Marlin Perkins

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:49:55 GMT

How many of you remember "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom"? I used to love watching that as a kid in the 1970s. Seriously, Marlin Perkins was cool, even with the monotone voice he would use to deliver his dialogue. And what about those great scenes with his assistant Jim:

Marlin (in that monotone voice): "While Jim goes into that pride of lions to look at that injured cub while its mother is standing five feet away and its father looks ready to eat Jim for dinner, I will go over to the savannah grass lands to see if those new seeds we brought are beginning to sprout."

Jim (screaming): "Help me!!! "

Marlin: "It looks like Jim's arm fits right into the lion's mouth. I hope he is able to stop playing with those lions long enough to help me make sure that these harmless gazelles are OK."

Jim: "Tell my wife and children Goodbye for me!"

Marlin (again in that monotone voice): "Jim is such a kidder."

Anyway, I have not one but two stories of the Marlin Perkins variety that just happened to me in the last two days.

First, we were in Teacherperson's hometown of Curwensville on Thursday enjoying a relaxing day. Her mother shared with us that she had found a dead black snake tangled up in some netting around her garden. As LibbyK and I were looking at the snake, I realized that it was flicking its tongue at me. It did it a second time and so I announced that the dead snake was not dead!!! After twenty minutes of very gently cutting away this net (in which this snake had impressively wrapped itself), we were able to extract the snake. I then walked it in Jeff Corwin-type-fashion to the woods and released it there. This was no ordinary snake; it was at least three feet long and quite feisty. You can imagine that she (the snake) did not quite understand what we were doing!!! But it felt good to help her nevertheless.

Then last night, as I was walking across the street to get Little Miss, I noticed that several neighbors were watching a cat in the distance. I thought the cat was playing with something like a paper plate. (Remember - my eyesight is not the best.) At that point, one of the neighbors noted that the poor cat had an instant tea mix can **stuck** on its head, and I mean stuck!! So armed with a fishing net, a fleece (blanket), and various and sundry other items, we all tried to catch this cat (which could not see because it had a can on its head!) while it ran around the neighborhood, banging into trees, houses, everything. After 15-20 minutes of trying to quietly catch it, one of the people successfully threw the fleece on the cat and three of us, including the brave yours truly, pounced on the cat like a crocodile-hunting team helping Steve Irwin. We carefully freed the cat's head from under the blanket, and one of the neighbors (the one who supplied the fishing net) was extremely wise and brought a small pair of shears. He very carefully cut away a piece of the can and then tore the rest from the cat (those cans are mostly made of cardboard with just a bit of metal for the rim). Thankfully, no death rolls occurred during the extraction - the cat stayed still for the most part. Then, on the count of three, we jumped up in unison (again, my Croc Hunter TV watching paid off here!) and the cat took off.

So I successfully took part in two excellent animal releases over the past two days. I think Marlin Perkins (and Jim if he wasn't too distracted by man-eating lions) would be extremely proud!

Have you had any animal-related adventures lately?

Home Sweet Home

Thu, 29 May 2008 16:06:30 GMT

We made it! Last night around 9:00pm local time, we arrived at our home. What a wonderful feeling. It was a fabulous travel day. Every one of the kids did a great job on the lengthy flight (8 hours including the delay on the ground at Heathrow), and the five-hour drive home from Washington Dulles went nicely as well (thanks especially to Peep and Poppy for serving as our long haul taxi drivers yesterday!). All in all, I am so glad to have had our Cambridge experience, but I am also thrilled to be home.

Now we have tons of unpacking and "settling in" to do, but it is clear to me that the hardest part is over.

I am sure Teacherperson will have more to say at her blog, so I will stop here.

As Dorothy would say, "There's no place like home..."

My football glory days ...

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:54:10 GMT

What, two Xanga posts in three days?!?! Yep. I guess I am just feeling the Xanga vibes right now!

Today, Natethehunter and I played in our last Isaac Newton Institute (INI) Combinatorics and Statistical Mechanics Programme football match. Let me elaborate.

Each week, a number of us (usually 8-10) from the Newton Institute go across the street to the Churchill College pitch (field) to play football (soccer). I am NOT good at football, to be honest, but it is great fun and only a few of the guys are experts (and they are very nice to us rookies!). I often play goalkeeper, which I do pretty well at thanks to my many years as a catcher in baseball. But I often make a few runs down the pitch with the hope of scoring a goal. Today I did! And Natethehunter scored at least twice. I was so proud of both of us! Our team won, but that is not the point. It's just great fun and exercise for all of us, whether one is 40 years old or 50 years old or ....

You can see a photo of some of my football companions at this link. That photo was taken after our *first* match - we have come a long way since then (at least I have). I am the bearded guy in the back row.

My sincerest thanks to my INI colleague Bill Jackson (who is in the front row of the picture mentioned above) for organizing these weekly matches and being such an encouragement to me and Natethehunter!

Cheers!

I Love British Thrift Stores!

Sun, 18 May 2008 17:23:37 GMT

Seriously, I love going into British thrift stores (or charity shops as they are sometimes called). They are tons of them in Cambridge (and I imagine in every other city in England - we have certainly seen them elsewhere). For our American friends, they are like going to Goodwill stores, but there are gobs of them here - Oxfam, UK Cancer Research Society, and lots, lots more. There seems to be one for every charity imaginable here in the UK.

Yesterday, Teacherperson and I were doing some shopping and we visited a street near the Cambridge shopping mall, the Grafton Centre, which has about eight of these shops on it. Very cool! Nice second-hand clothes, shoes, books, games, music, glassware, you name it. One of these shops, an Oxfam, was huge. While we were perusing, I ran across a pair of black men's dress shoes which I loved at first sight. They were exactly my size, were made of amazingly soft leather, showed almost no signs of wear (even the soles look almost brand new) and they had those cool square toes that are so popular right now (at least here in the UK). They are made by Clarks and cost around $100 retail. I got them at something like 85% off!!! I love them! I wore them to church today and was tickled. If you would like to see a photo that is close to what they look like, click on the link below:

http://www.charlesager.co.uk/Products/Flex-Time-by-Clarks-3439.aspx

So, have you run across any great deals lately?