I'm feeling better today. Don't you love that? You don't know what I'm feeling better from, whether it was serious or not. Many years ago, probably 40, I was in Israel and received the daily letter from my mother: "My leg is better now." This was long before computers, email, cell phones. In fact, calling overseas, or calling anywhere in Israel at that time, was an incredible chore. I didn't know what to do. I had visions of having to cut the trip short. Finally an earlier letter showed up with an explanation: nothing serious.

So, I was sick with what seemed like a terrible cold. I was fine on Thursday, getting through a very long day. Pitt Osher presented a series of lectures about medical issues. I went to a lecture about the brain at 10 am, a lecture about the drug creation process at 1 pm, my pre-Columbian art class at 2:30, hung out in the library for 2 hours, then met my Chinese ESL students at 5:45 for a two hour session. Robin picked me up and drove me home afterward and I was fine the entire time.

I woke up Friday morning feeling not so great; by the end of the day I felt awful. Yesterday was even worse; I spent much of the day in bed, but got up and went for a walk in the afternoon. It was an unusually beautiful day for January and I didn't want to miss it entirely. Today I feel much better but the weather isn't very nice. I'm thinking about how I could go for another walk.

On Monday I went for a long walk with my neighbor and her dog. We drove over to the south side where there is a bike/walking trail created from unused railroad property. Here is a picture of Leo announcing he wants to go into the icy Monongehela River.

The river wasn't frozen over. The ice was moving downstream from wherever the Mon comes from.

Here are some other pictures I never got around to posting:

Looking at some of the Carnegie Mellon campus with the Pitt Cathedral of Learning in the background.

This is the courtroom where Abdul was sworn in as a citizen. I was thrilled he finally achieved his goal.

Abdul is holding the certificate of naturalization (and the shopping bag), the Somali woman next to him also became a citizen, next to her is Abdul's wife, holding Abdul's baby is a young woman who has been tutoring the other two children.