Goals for 2010

When I was working in the corporate world I followed the rule that goals needed to be specific, measurable and have dates associated with them. Now that I am working for myself my goals are much more general and vague and I am good with that! So this year I want to…..

  • Spend more time with friends and family – This is number one and is self explanatory.
  • Blog more – December is usually a bad blogging month for me. This past month I just put up 2 posts. I guess there was too much other stuff going on.  I posted 80 times in 2009. I think I can do better that that in 2010. I was recently invited to cross post at ThisisReno.com which is exciting and inspiring.
  • Hiking / snowshoeing more – I haven't been out hiking in several weeks or out snowshoeing either. I need to get going!

Sierra Canyon snowshoeing Donner Pass 1-12-2009 013 076

  • Podcast more – I think I averaged about one podcast a month last year.  I also want to submit my podcast to iTunes this year.
  • Improve my Spanish – I've been studying Spanish with Duke's help for a while now.  If I work on it every day I will get better. I'm listening to Podcasts like Show Time Spanish, using Mango languages from the library website, working my way through a grammar text book, trying to read Spanish books and magazines, talking to Duke (he is fluent in Spanish), and anything else I can think of. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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  • Family History – Keep digging into my family history. Start my family history blog, Contact distant relatives, Find primary sources.

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  • Travel – I'm planning a trip with friend to the area around St George, Utah. Duke and I plan to do more exploring on the back roads of Nevada, We'll make lots of shorter trips and for anything beyond that we shall see. The goal though is to travel frequently.
  • Read – I'll keep reading presidential biographies. The next one is John Tyler – The Accidental President. I think I'll keep a list of books read on this blog again this year. I kept a list for the first time last year and it is fun to look back and see what the 35 books were that I read last year.

And then there are the maybes. Things I think I might do next year.

  • I keep thinking I'd like to start a distributed History Book Club. In other words a group of us would get together via Skype or using something like Webex and discuss history and a book we have read. Right now this is just a germ of an idea but I'd be interested in any thoughts people might have about the idea.
  • Start playing the piano again – This will require me to get a piano.
  • Learn more about the geology of Nevada and the rocks I find when we are exploring. Nevada is a wonderful place to be a rock hound. Knowing nothing about geology Duke and I have still collected some great rocks in our exploring.

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  • Become a better Amateur Historian – maybe join the historical society, go to the historical places I am studying about, write about what I am learning. Do some history podcast interviews.
  • Write more about history. My friend Beverley Bryant tells her grandson stories form History. I like the idea.
  • Seize opportunities to do new and interesting things.

My Genealogy Interest and Lostcousins.com

I have been a genealogist off and on since 1969 when my grandfather's cousin, Opal Hanson published the civil war diaries and letters of Oliver S Robinson a great great grand uncle of mine who was killed at Vicksburg during the American civil war. Opal included what she knew about  the genealogy of our family when she published the book. I began corresponding with her  and I even helped a little in the research for her subsequent book The Family History and Genealogy of Sarah and Munson Robinson.

Genealogy research has changed a lot since 1969. For instance when I used to search for my family in the census records I would request the microfilm from the library and then when it came in I would sit at a microfilm reader and search. When I found the family of interest I would copy down what I found. For instance when I searched for and found the Joseph Erb family (my great great grandfather) in the 1880 census in Story County Iowa I created the following extract.

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Today when I searching for the family I can just go to the 1880 census on line, search, and there the family is.

Erb-Family

I have recently been listening  to genealogy podcasts like Family History – Genealogy Made Easy by Lisa Louise Cooke. In a recent podcast she recommended a site called Lost Cousins. Lost Cousins is so cool. The premise is that if you can specifically identify your ancestors then you can find distant cousins who have also done the same. If you think about it, it is difficult to specifically identify ancestors. What Lost Cousins does is use the exact census page number and the exact census spelling of the name to specify allow you to claim an ancestor.

So I registered that Joseph Erb is on page 343  of the 1880 census and I identified him as a my ancestor. Lost cousins then tells me if anyone else has claimed Joseph as an ancestor. In the case of Joseph no one has. But in the case of another ancestor, Joseph Armitage, I did find a distant cousin who is also researching the family.

Finding all my ancestors in the 1880 U.S. census and in the 1881 Canadian census was really fun. Maybe it is the history geek in me but I love doing historical research and the fact that I was able to find 1880 census entries for 26 ancestors including all but 3 of my Great Great Grandparents was really exciting.

Lost Cousins is a British company. Their web site is http://lostcousins.com. Usually registering your ancestors is free but connecting with your cousins requires pay an annual fee of less than $20. But between Christmas and New Years Lost cousins is completely free!!

As I start getting back into family history research I think I am going to create a new blog that you will be able to access
from the bar across the top of the page. It will include bios of my
ancestors that people can find if they do a Google search for one of my
ancestor's names (something genealogists do a lot). My current thinking
is to not include these family history posts as a part of this blog
because family history may be very interesting to the person whose
family it is but it is almost always supremely uninteresting to
everyone else.

My Dental Implant

When I went to the dentist a month or so ago for a regular check up he said that because of infection I was losing bone around one of my teeth and I really needed to see a periodontist. He recommended  Dr Lang.   a periodontist and dental implant specialist nearby. I had a horrible experience with gum surgery many years ago and I was dreading going to see him.

After meeting with and talking to Dr Lang about my options I felt much better. He very clearly explained my options and answered all my questions. His passion and excitement about what he does and in particular about how the implant procedure has improved in the last few years was contagious. Coincidentally Dr Lang's father  was a pharmacist in Wisconsin near where my Uncle was a pharmacist and Dr Lang received a pharmacy degree before going to dental school a the University of Washington where my sister went to Dental school.

The bottom line on my options was that I could have gum surgery around the tooth but it might or might not work depending on what was causing the infection. That didn't appeal to me so I decided to have to the tooth pulled and have a dental implant installed instead.

Last Tuesday Dr. Lang pulled my tooth and installed the implant. The procedure was not too bad at all and I am so impressed with the whole technology. Bear with me. I am a technology geek. I think this is really cool.

First Dr Lang drew some blood and used a centrifuge in the corner of the room to make some platelet rich plasma (PRP) which is supposed to speed up the healing process. Then he pulled the tooth. There was a lot of infection around the tooth so pulling it was probably the right decision. Dr Lang then drilled a hole in the bone of my jaw and installed the implant which is basically a screw. Here is a picture of it.

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Dr Lang used the platelet rich plasma to reconstitute some powdered human bone and then packed the area around the implant with the reconstituted bone PRP mixture, which I think of as glue. He then used a Teflon membrane to cover up the extracted tooth area. He covered the whole thing with more PRP and sewed it all up. In a few months when the bone has grown in around the implant and everything has healed I will go to my dentist and have a crown attached to the implanted screw. Here is an x-ray of my jaw with the implant in place.

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I  slept most of the afternoon after having the procedure. I've taken a couple of Motrin but the pain hasn't been bad at all. 

The tooth I had pulled has a large gold top. Now I want to figure out how to recover the gold. Apparently some people use the gold from teeth they have had extracted to to make jewelery but I think I will just sell it.

Tooth

Beverley Bryant – Former Professor, College Dean and Politician, Media Relations Expert, Sailor, Tri-athlete – Episode 8 Marion Vermazen Podcast

In episode 8 of the Marion Vermazen Podcast I talk with my friend
Beverley Bryant.

Beverley has had a long and varied career. She was a university
professor and was the first woman dean at Old Dominion University. She has held various senior positions in industry doing
community and media relations and public affairs. She served as an elected
member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and has been active in
political campaigns. Beverley has been an avid sailor her whole life and sails
regularly whenever she gets the chance. She is a competitive swimmer and tri-athlete.

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Beverley3

I know you will enjoy listening to our conversation.

To listen to the interview run your mouse over the bar below. You will see a play button that you can click on.

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You can subscribe to the Marion Vermazen Podcast by clicking on the
link at
the top of the column to the right.

To subscribe in iTunes,
from the iTunes Advanced menu select Subscribe to Podcast and copy the
feed URL.

"  http://marionvermazen.blogs.com/mv-podcast/rss.xml  "

I love feedback so let me know what you think of the show and leave a comment below.

19th Birthday Party for 100.1 The X – Stones for Bones

Reno has a great local FM radio station KTHX branded as 100.1 The X.
The X has been in Reno for 19 years. Last night they celebrated their
birthday  by having a concert for charity. Stones For Bones featured 19
local bands, one for each year The X has been in business. Each band
played a different Rolling Stones song.The concert benefited The Nevada
Opera, The Reno Chamber Orchestra, and The Washoe County School
District's "Music In Schools" program.

Blue Haven at Stones for Bones 

It was a great concert. You would think that with 19 bands it would
drag but you really have to give credit to the people who organized the
show. It moved quickly and was fun! In addition to the bands there were
also a couple of Rolling Stones songs performed by people from The Reno
Chamber Orchestra and The Nevada Opera. There was even a performance
of  You Can't Always Get What You Want by a choir from a local
elementary school with the opera singers and the chamber orchestra. 
They all seemed to be having a great time and the audience loved it. To
hear kids, opera singers, and violins playing The Rollings Stones was
funny and great!

Not only was the music great but the whole event
was just plain fun. Reno has always had a great music culture. It
started back when every casino had an orchestra and it continues today.
All 19 bands in this concert were good and some of them were great. It
sounded like what was happening back stage was amazing too with the musicians connecting,
talking, and generally having a good time. The audience of 500 filled
the Nugget show room and we had great time too.

Guitar Woody & The Boilers