FINISHED!!!

HI! I finished my very first novel ever today! well tonight! it was for the National Novel Writing Month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/. It was good times but hard times. I have a great sense of accomplishment to finish it though. They do the novel writing in a month for quantity not quality. Cause alot of the time, people dont write novels because they are not driven enough, so I writing a novel in a month will make most people pretty driven. Now i will edit it and have others edit it and fix it up. I started it for fun and to just write but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if my novel was good enough, I would like to get it published. It is the first in a series too. =D I left it open for a sequel.


But yeah good times!!!
now I will be more faithful at updating my own blog as well as posting on here. hoorah. I love you all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH AND AM GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PARENTING, FRIENDSHIP, AND LOVE! I WOULD NOT BE WHO I AM TODAY WITH OUT YOUR EXAMPLE, HELP, AND ENCOURAGEMENT! I love you!!! XDXD

Happy Birthday Lewis!

I too have a gift for you, though not an original one. Your gift to Tracy was my inspiration and I remember that imitation is the best sort of flattery. So... for your gift I give you A Few Childhood Memories. I searched through my scrapbooks and this is what I found.

Unfortunately, all of this may be blackmail material, but since Tracy testified to your wisdom, hopefully you will be able to protect yourself.

I give you our Barrett Street House.

All of the memories - the shag green carpet, playing Hurrican Holler in that upstairs bedroom on the right, the scary basement and long-lost pets. Do you see that lovely green grass gently sloping to the top of the 5 foot rockery wall that falls steeply to the sidewalk below? I distinctly remember playing with you on that lovely grass - tag, hide and seek, and many more, such as (shall we call it Reckless Twirling) when you would twirl me around by one leg and one arm and then let me go to fly as far as I could only to gently land on the soft grass and hopefully roll to a slow stop without rolling over the rockery crashing to the sidewalk below. I never remember thinking I didn't want to play this game so it must have worked out as often as not. See that old Ford Station wagon. We went on so many trips in that car and never a one of us in a carseat or even buckled in.

I give you our front porch.

Here we are safely sitting with our loving parents close by as we dangle 12 feet above the soft grass below! Lewis, I love the bangs! Aren't we all so cute. Dad! Love those glasses! Don't let go of Layne. (This wasn't how he broke his leg!) Sorry, Rebec and Stef. You just haven't arrived yet! I remember precariously balancing on this wall and walking along it to jump down into the alcove of the front door. Did you do that? I'm sure it was you and Rick who showed me how to do that!

I give you Mary Murray! Do you remember her? I feel like I heard her name for years though I only remember her vaguely. I believe this picture is standing in front of our church building on Magnolia Hill. What was the ward name?

Actually, my favorite memory of Mary Murray has nothing to do with her at all. It was her mother's fuchsia plant that overgrew the sidewalk and called to me to pinch those beautiful blossoms and hear the soft popping sound! Mom's favorite memory of Mrs. Murray is when she came over to our house to tell Mom that she didn't need a little boy telling her she shouldn't be smoking. Oh, you started young at making friends and influencing people.

I give you the Summer of 1975. This was a great summer! Not only did we "do" the family vacation at Disneyland, we also headed to Utah and Fairview with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Gary, Aunt Joann and the cousins, Cheryl, Kristine and Keith. I love the matching Mickey Mouse shirts and the hat totally works for you. Do you still have your poka dot hat? And Leslee could win a Taryn look-a-like contest!

From the top down, left to right, here we go:Lewis - the oldest cousin, Cheryl and Shelley, Leslee, Martissa, Keith, Kristine and Layne with Mom. This was a fun trip!

I give you a college moving day! At least I think that's what this is. Again, your hair awes and inspires us. Do you remember your large pink comb tucked in your back pocket? This is a great picture of Grandma and Grandpa!

I give you Father's Day in Pleasant Grove, UT.

On my picture I estimated the year either 1984 or 1985 based on Stefanie's age. Can you figure out when this would have been? I want to say before your mission, but now I think Stef was born while you were gone on your mission. She was born in 1982. Were you gone then?

Well, those were all really great memories. I wish I had pictures of water balloon fights in the house or the move from Seattle to Pleasant Grove with you and Rick. But those I just keep in my head. I love you. I hope you have a wonderful Birthday tomorrow.

Martissa

Thank you!!

I returned home from Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving day and have been busy with work and tieing up lose ends from the race. I had to take a minute to thank Shelley, Kendall, Jan and Carleton as well as all of my family for all their HARD work, long hours and LOST sleep. I could NOT have done it without any of you and am overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessings each of you is in my life.

Happy Birthday Lewis

Happy Birthday Beloved!

You always give such wonderful birthday gifts to the family, so I had to at least make an attempt to give you something as original and inspired. In putting it together, it sounded more anniversary than birthday, so consider this your anniversary and birthday gifts combined (at least as far as the internet goes) .

I give you Jane Austens house




. Through her novels, I have seen the gentle and romantic side of you.

I give you the Nobel Prize for being the best husband!







They say that wine improves as it ages (not that we know that of our own experience) and the same is true of you, with age comes wisdom and a softening to things spiritual and intimate. You truly are a better man today than you were on the day we wed. How lucky am I?

I give you my heart:




I actually gave it to you on our wedding day and I guess more than anything I leave it in your care. I have come to know that you will watch over it as if it was your own and guard it and protect it from heartache and sorrow when ever it is within your capability to do so. It’s in good hands.

Lastly, I give you time.




My time. Time to listen to you, do things that you enjoy, time to just be together. Hopefully, if we live right in our remaining time we will be rewarded with all time….together.

I hope your birthday is as special as you are.

Love, your wife.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know that we each have trials of one nature or another that we are dealing with, and there are times when life isn't much fun, but we are all greatly blessed and we need to take time to remember that - especially when we are feeling down. I am personally so thankful to be the mother of such exceptionally wonderful people as each of you, and the grandmother of your children.

Let's all dwell on our blessings and the trials won't seem so hard.

I love you all more than words can say.

Remember Lewis's birthday on Monday!!
Mom :)
























t

Cruise

So there hasn't been nearly enough chat on the blog about the cruise!!  I want cruise updates from those going every hour on the hour ;)  Jen and I have prepared most of the stuff we need to pack but we haven't started packing yet.  We are getting really excited though.  Jen has the entire day off on Friday so that will be nice for her.  I have to work for three or four hours Friday morning but then the party begins.  I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving (that goes to those of you not going on the cruise also) and don't eat to much! ;)

News

Got a call this morning from Mark, my Dad has had a big heart attack during the night last night and is going to be undergoing a cardiac catheritization this afternoon. He has a history of strokes and so they have to overcome the coumadin to do the catheritization and hope that while they fix the blockage in the heart it doesn't move when they open it up and cause a massive stroke.

Needless to say I am feeling overwhelmed. I can't really do anything or go out there until after the race. Prayers that what ever happens I can deal with it. Prayers that if its his time, he can go without any real pain or discomfort.

Cruise Time

All people going on a cruise, get ready to start packing! I am sorry to admit, but I still don't know what to wear. Especially for the formal nights!! Yeah, also I will have more free time, because we are off the whole week before the cruise, so we can get our Independent study all done! I am ready to head to the buffet

Love ya all,
Athletic_Taryn

Happy Birthday, Tracy!!

Hi Tracy!

I have searched near and far for the perfect birthday gift (other than the perfect iPhone) and I could find nothing that would suit.  Sorry.

Instead, I'm going to give you one of my favorite memories that included you and our kids on the big adventure of August, 1996, when we went to Oregon, Washing, Idaho and Utah.  One of my favorite places on our trip was the day we spent at Crater Lake in Oregon.

On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first European American to see what he named "Deep Blue Lake" in Oregon. The lake was renamed at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake.

The lake is five miles wide by 6 miles long and averages 1,148 feet deep.  The deepest sounding is 1,949 feet, but such numbers are always in dispute in fresh water lakes because of snow and rain run off.  Anyway, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the 3rd deepest in the world.  There are other deep lakes, but their depths are in question because of the difficulty of measuring them due to their remoteness.  (The deepest lake in the world, Lake Vostok, lies beneath 13,000 feet of ice in Antarctica. -  I don't get it either.)

The Crater Lake we know and love is actually Mount Mazama, one of many mountains in the Cascade Range volcanic arc (can you say Mt. St. Helens?)  In 5700 BC, the mountain erupted and blew out 12 cubic miles of dust, dirt and ashes, creating a caldera, which is the name of the bottom of a crater in a volcano.  Other eruptions occurred, but only on the inside the caldera.  You see Wizard Island.  It is the result of one of those.  There is also substantial cinder cone, Merriam Cone. but it is mostly submerged.

If you look in the center of the picture, the high prominence is a remnant of Mount Mazama.

Because Crater Lake has no inlets or outlets, it contains some of the purest water to be found anywhere.  After the Caldera cooled, the thick forests began to grow on the desolate, blasted ground and water and snow did not evaporate.  It took an estimated 792 years to fill the lake.  To what I am sure will be the great joy of visitors there, there is hydrothermal activity on the lake floor and another eruption is possible.

This is a bathymetric survey of the lake, indicating variations in the lake bed.  The walls of the lake as they disappear into the water appear to be shear cliffs, but below the water, there are indications of rock slides that form the gradual increasing depth below the lake surface.  

The Klamath tribe of Native Americans, who may have witnessed the collapse of Mount Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake, have long regarded the lake as a sacred site. Their legends tell of a battle between the sky god Skell and Llao, the god of the underworld. Mount Mazama was destroyed in the battle, creating Crater Lake. The Klamath people used Crater Lake in vision quests, which often involved climbing the caldera walls and other dangerous tasks. Those who were successful in such quests were often regarded as having more spiritual powers. The tribe still holds Crater Lake in high regard as a spiritual site.

I remember the steep trail and numerous switchbacks we hiked with the kids when we went down to the lake and took the boat.  That was such a fun time.  Such clear sky and blue water and deeply green trees.  The little kids were real troopers hiking most of the way under their own power.

Thanx for a life time of wonderful memories.

I love you, Tracy, and happy birthday!

Lewis

Birthday Booty!!

This was one of the most bounteous (sp?) birthdays ever. I haven't gotten this many gifts since I was ummmmm younger. Alot younger. It was so fun, not because of the gifts, though they were sure a fun surprise. I asked family and friends to email me with a shared memory and I am so enjoying reliving the memories that they have written to me about. I am overwhelmed with gratitude with the good people in my life. That said, the pictures are of the generous bounty I received today. The first picture is of the flowers and little balloon I received from Carolin and Jerry (co-workers), they also gave me a gift card to WalMart to buy books. Along with that was a card (see the other picture with the gift bag). The card was handmade and it had a flower on it which actuall is a bookmark!! How creative is that!! The second picture is of the goodies my visiting teacher gave me (along with running down the 20 coolers I am borrowing from ward members for the race). The last picture is of the other gift bag I got from the rest of my co-workers. Oh wait, I forget the order I took the pictures in, the second one is of the balloon bouquet that Jan and Carleton gave me (in-laws). The third one is of the visiting teacher stuff, then last comes the coworker bag with an Olive Garden gift card, lotion,perfume and powder and a ghiradellli chocolate sampler. Patrice sent me some botannical fragrance oil. When I was there last, every time we entered her house, Lauren and I commented it smelled like she was cooking apple cider. It was so wonderful. I finally asked her what it was and it was the stuff she sent me. I wanted Lauren to buy me some and lo and behold, Patrice supplied me with a bottle. Yay!! Lewis took me to Black Angus tonight and will be supplying me with an iphone after the race. Now its time for bed. What a great day!!

HI!

So Garrett me and Jolie are watching a movie this saturday night. We are watching Bucket List. Thomas and Kendell went to the dance so the rest of us are chillin here and thought we would drop a hello to you all!

So! hello from Lauren Garrett and Jolie!!! We love you all!!!
Garrett says Hi to Brad.
and we love you all!
and Garrett says to Grandma, keep on texting him. =)

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!

Hi Nathan,

I hear that you'll be starting school soon.  I am sure you are very excited about that.  For your birthday, I am giving you the history of teddy bears.

A long time ago, before even when grandma and grandpa were born, even longer than that, there was a President of the United States named  Theodore Roosevelt.  His nickname was Teddy, and he had an interesting experience hunting bears:

A man who drew cartoons for papers made pictures of the President with little bears looking over his shoulders or around his feet teasing the people in Mississipi and Louisiana.

Many people were excited about them, so a very creative decided that all kids should have a chance to have their very own bear:

This colorful teddy bear belongs to your cousin Jonathan.  It was a present from his Nana right after he was born.  I looked at the teddy bear to find out what his name was, and there was a tag on his ear.  The first thing I read on the tag was "To Wash:".   Since that time, this bear has been known as To Wash.

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Love, Uncle Lew

Nathan's Birthday

Today is Nathan's 3rd birthday.
Nathan, we hope you had a great day
and had fun learning how to ride your new bike.
We love you!!

Cutie Paisley

A few facts about Paisley:

She LOVES her babies. She takes very good care of them and insists that they are always covered with blankets because they are cold.

Her favorite song as of late is " The Yucky, Yucky Spider" It's cute what her little ears think the words to that song are.

She is loving fall because she loves to play in the leaves. Luckily for her we have some massive trees in our yard that are quickly dropping all their leaves so there are plenty for her to play in. And nice daddy doesn't mind her making a mess of his piles as he rakes.

We sure love Paisley being a part of our family. She makes every day FUN!

9 months

Today is my husband and my 9 month anniversary!!!  I can hardly imagine that we have already been married for 9 months.  But it also seems like we have been married for a long time.  Time is weird like that.  So, let me tell you of some of the things I have learned in our 9 months of marriage.

- MARRIAGE IS GREAT!  I like to tell people that I would have done it years ago if I realized how great it was.  Not that I knew my husband or was ready to marry him years ago, but it is true that marriage is wonderful!!

- My husband would never do anything to intentionally hurt my feelings (and I wouldn't hurt his).  So, if either of our feelings get hurt by the other it wasn't on purpose.  That helps out A LOT.  Little things that don't matter sometimes come up and bother one of us.  But as we realize how much the other loves us we do a lot better at getting over it and just loving each other.

- Little things matter - some days I come home from work and my husband is rushing around vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen, making dinner.  It may have only taken 15 minutes but WOW what a difference it makes to my day.  As we both try to do little things to make each other happy or to make the other's day easier we grow closer together and fall more in love each day.

- Compliments make a difference.  My husband is wonderful at complimenting me.  Like most women I go through phases when I feel ugly or fat or whatever.  But it is hard to feel that way long when I have a husband telling me that I am beautiful or smart or funny.  It is great to know that I have a husband that adores me and that always will.

- Apologize - At our wedding the sealer talked about apologizing and it is VERY TRUE.  He said that you should always apologize first.  It doesn't matter if you were right or wrong.  He said it much more eloquently, but that was the gist of it.  I know that I LOVE it when my husband apologizes.  I think that he likes it when I apologize as well.  Plus we are more quickly able to get over things when we are both trying to be the first to apologize.

So, those are my thoughts after 9 months of marriage.  It probably isn't anything that you pros don't already know but I figured you could alway use a reminder and that you would enjoy knowing that my husband and I are learning and growing and LOVING BEING MARRIED.  

Love,

Jen!

Almost Race Day

I can't believe its almost here. I have been very busy, ask my kids. They are looking forward to November 23rd. Then they have a whole year until the next one. LOL. Seriously, about my only real concern at this point is having enough warm bodies to staff my aid stations. Overton/Logandale has one high school between the two towns and every year their high school goes to the football state finals and every year when is it held? Yep, on my race day. So I lose a whole lot of warm bodies (read teens and their families here) because they want to attend the state finals game. Which is after all understandable. I am working with my ham radio guys now and the rotary club and the senior center to see if we can drum up some more warm bodies. Once I lock in at least 50 of them I will be a happy camper.

Some statistics:

I have 29 states (including Alaska and Hawaii) represented as well as three countries (Canada, Japan and Germany).

My oldest participant so far is 73 who is running the full marathon and my youngest is 12 who is running the 10k with her Dad.

Runners will consume approximately 133 gallons of liquid and 945 bananas and 709 oranges.

I also want to thank the Haralsons, Grandma and Grandpa, Shelley and of course my family who are all helping.

I think this might just succeed.

Happy Birthday Steven Lambert!

Happy birthday!  I understand that you're on a 'business trip' to Hawaii, but that won't stop the rest of us from having a party.

For your birthday, I am giving the two things you most wanted in the world as a boy (but your parents didn't get for you.)

I give you:

The biggest truck in the world!

This truck can carry 400 tons, or 800,000 pounds.  That is the same weight as ten fully loaded 18-wheeler tractor/trailers as they cruise down the highway.  Fully loaded, the gross weight is 1.2 million pounds.   It is 24 feet tall, and 47 feet long.  The world market for trucks that carry over 300 tons is 50-75/ year, which makes sense at the "drive off" price of $3 million.  They are used for mining and are deployed in Nevada, Wyoming, Australia, Chile and South Africa.

It is powered by a huge diesel engine that produces 3,650 horsepower.  The engine produces electricity for two electric motors on the rear axle.  It compares more closely to a diesel locomotive than a car.  Oh, it can go 40 mph when fully loaded. It is made by a company called Liebherr, and it is model T 282 B  (Did somebody say 'Model T?').

The fastest fire truck in the world!

It is a rebuilt 1940 Ford truck powered by two Rolls Royce Viper engines that put out about 6,000 HP per engine when the afterburner is engaged.  All this adds up to a blazing top speed of 407 miles per hour which set the record for the world's fastest fire truck in 1998 and still stands today.

Happy birthday,

Lewis

(Please play nice with your toys, though I agree about the not sharing part.)

If I ever get a speeding ticket...

...it should be this police car that does it!  It's not a Bentley, it's a Lamborghini and will pull over anything traveling less than 203 mph.  It is the 3rd in the new fleet in Italy.  It has a gun rack, surveillance camera, organ donation chest and a defibrillator.  This one will be deployed in the south of Italy.  Apparently the other two cars have quite a lot of mileage on them, calling into question the number of traffic stops actually made versus miles driven at high speeds.  (Hard to blame them!)

National Sponsors for the Human Rights Campaign

From their website:

"The support from corporate America to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is directly tied to HRC's overall success."

American Airlines  (the oldest sponsor)

CITI

IBM

Deloitte

Ernst & Young

Mitchel Gold + Bob Williams  (furniture retailer)

Prudential Financial

XM Satellite

AT&T

BP (British Petroleum)

Chase (bank)

Chevron

Harrah's Entertainment

MGM-Mirage

Nike

Showtime

Volvo of North America

Cox Enterprises

DELL

Merrill Lynch

Shell

UPS

Washington Mutual

Now...go shopping!

(Don't forget the protest at Temple Sqaure tomorrow night!)

Prop 8

You know I don't claim to be eloquent in speaking or in writing. I don't claim to be a college graduate or even "intelligent". What I do claim to be is logical and sensible. I am sick to death of reading all the articles about prop 8 and the gays and lesbians who are tired of being discrimated against. Forget equality lets take it down to simple right and wrong.

Right is protecting children from pedophiles. Right is marriage to one spounse only (man's law). Right is protecting the general public from psychopaths. If you asked the general public about any of those issues 98% would agree with you. Yes, children need protecting from sexual predators, the public need to be protected against people intent upon doing us bodily harm (sometimes this can be physical sometimes emotional and/or mental). The law of the land even states that we can't have more than one spouse. These are all areas of simple logic and right versus wrong. What has happened to us then that we all of a sudden think its ok for gays and lesbians to marry? Why have we accepted what is not natural behavior. What can be natural about a pairing of two individuals unable to procreate their own species? Spare me the mri scans showing its rooted in their brains, because for everyone of those, another psychiatrist can show you that psychotics and pedophiles etc brains are different too. What they are expected to do is to respect the law (sometimes God's law and sometimes man's). Just because one has an impulse doesn't mean one has to act upon it. Don't we as parents teach our children self control, restraint etc? Isn't that our job? What is next, polygamists asking to be granted the right to marry more than one spouse? Pedophiles asking for the right to molest children? Why is that any different than what the gay community is asking? Why then are the gay/lesbian crowd able to convince a growing majority of people that what was once abhorrent is now accetable behavior? What does that say about us as a people? As a society?

Congratulations!

I would like to say Congratulations to California, Arizona and Florida for successfully banning gay marriage! Good job family members that had their vote count towards this incredible win. The fight isn't over I am sure, but for now we have won and marriage is safe for the time being!!

The elections

Congratulations Leslee! The relief and release of tension has got to be great right now. You very extensive work and time paid off. We love you.

I got a new car!! It's a Bentley!

Actually, it's not a Bentley, but it has been known as 'the Bentley' for about 10 years now.  It belonged to my boss who quit and moved across the country and didn't want to drive it to Illinois.  It's a 1990 VW Rabbit with 176,000 on it.  It's my second favorite car of all time.  I got it last Tuesday.  Caitlin and Jonathan are more recent than this car.  :)

Happy Birthday, Martissa!!

(Wow, I'm ahead of the game this time.)

It will come as no surprise to you that many of life's adventures, or mis-adventures, take place because the enormity of a situation is not known ahead of time, and that all we see is a small tableau of what quickly becomes the larger picture.

For your birthday, I give you The Tip of the Iceberg.

Because the density of pure ice is about 920 kg/m³, and that of sea water about 1025 kg/m³, typically only one-tenth of the volume of an iceberg is above water.

Icebergs can be very small, and are called 'growlers,' or they can be very big.  The official name classification for the biggest of icebergs is "very big."  (Science at it's best)  The largest iceberg ever recorded 'calved,' or broke off, from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where 93% of the world's icebergs live.  The name of this iceberg is B-15.   When discovered in 2000, it was 183 miles long and 23 miles wide, weighing 3 billion metric tons, or 6,618,000,000,000 pounds (I'm not sure how to pronounce that.).  It broke apart in 2005, but the part called B-15A was still the world's largest.  A couple years ago, due to a water swell resulting from an Arctic storm, the rest of it broke into more than a dozen pieces.  Each one is designated, by size, as B-15C, B-15D, etc.

This picture is an illustration of how nefarious the tip of the iceberg truly is.  You can see the actual iceberg "above" the waterline, and the part "below" the water.  The true shape and size of the part of an iceberg that is unseen cannot be determined from the shape of the exposed portion.

Life is a time of preparation.  The portion of an iceberg that is visible - 10% - is just a warning of what lies beneath - the other 90%.

As my last party favor, I give you the Most Famous Iceberg of All Time.  It lived near Greenland, part of the 7% of icebergs that don't live down under. It really crashed the party back in 1912.

Happy Birthday!

Love, Lewis

Daniel, Happy Birthday (belated)

Daniel, while October 31st is technically your birthday, because you were born so late at night, around 11:45 pm, we begged and pleaded with the doctor to date your birth on Nov 1st so we could have a November baby.  That didn't work.

I've been up half the night thinking aboutwhat would be appropriate for your birthday and I decided to give you something I give you regularly:  headache medicine.  Though I usually stick to tylenol or ibuprofen, I now give you aspirin.

Someday you'll be taking 2nd year chemistry.  The class will be affectionately known as O-Chem, or Organic Chemistry, and during that class you will have a lab assignment to make aspirin.  The first thing you will learn is the chemical symbol:

Or, 

C₉H₈O₄

Aspirin has several names:

2-acetoxybenzoic acid 

2-(acetyloxy)benzoic acid

salicylic acid acetate

acetylsalicylic acid 

aspirin

Aspirin has a molecular weight of 180.15.  By comparison, the molecular weight of water is 18.0. That means many things, such as the aspirin molecule is much heavier than the water molecule. It also means that aspirin won't float.

The origins of the aspirin date back to about 400 BC, when Hippocrates prescribed an extract from the bark of the willow tree as a remedy for fever and pain. The extract contained salicylic acid, and today we know that many derivatives of this compound relieve pain and reduce fever. Acetylsalicylic acid was apparently first prepared by C. von Gerhardt in 1853, but it sat on the shelf unused and untested for almost 50 years.

Felix Hoffmann, a young chemist working for the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG, was looking for a new painkiller to treat his father's rheumatism. He prepared acetylsalicylic acid in 1897, and according to the literature, Henrich Dreser, head of Bayer laboratories, started its clinical use shortly thereafter. Bayer registered Aspirin trademark and began selling it in 1899.

Aspirin (like other nonstereoidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen and acetamidophen) relieves pain and soothes aching joints and muscles, but can also eat away the stomach lining and damage the kidneys. The beneficial effect of aspirin comes from its ability to irreversibly block an enzyme, called cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) that promotes inflammation, pain and fever. Unfortunately, it also inhibits COX-1, a related enzyme essential for the health of the stomach and kidneys.

Chemically, that means it works like this:

The Prostaglandins are good things.

Aspirin trivia:  In 1950, aspirin was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the best-selling pain reliever in history.  Aspirin is one of tthe most frequently used drugs of all times. The current annual production is equivalent to 100,000,000,000 500 gram tablets.

Happy birthday, Daniel.

Love, DAD