Captain Doctor Uncle Bill

A few weeks ago, I attended a Limited Captain's License class. This means that I received sufficient training for me to be eligible to get a license from the state to carry passengers on a boat up to 5 miles from the coast of Catalina (thus the 'Limited' part of the title). The University suggested I take this class so that I will be able to take students in a boat, since undergrad students (since they pay tuition) are considered paying customers if we put them on a boat. At least that's my understanding of the situation, which may not be entirely correct.

Anyhoo, I passed the class with flying colors (93.3% on the final!) and I knew the knots (bowline, clove hitch, square knot, cleat tie). We learned to set off emergency flares and which life preservers needed to be aboard. In order to actually get the license, however, I need to have 60 days where I spend at least four hours in a position of responsibility on a boat. Now I don't know if you knew this, but I do bioinformatics. Not too much computer work needs to be done on a boat. So I'm now constantly looking for excuses to go on a boat.

Coincidentally, one arose yesterday. The island faculty (J, K and myself) went 'over town' for a non-existent faculty meeting (that's another story). I helped cast off, and acted as look-out on the way over, and Captain K let me drive the boat on the way back. Don't flinch, most of the trip was accomplished by an on-board navigation system, but I am happy to report that I did not collide with 1) the sailboat in the harbor, 2) Ship Rock, and 3) Bird Rock, and I did manage to hit the dock gently enough for it to be considered docking (barely). And I helped moor the boat afterwards.

I was very proud of myself (naturally), and thus I have decided that my nieces and nephews must now call me Captain Doctor Uncle Bill, instead of just Doctor Uncle Bill.

Speaking of nieces and nephews, congratulations to the Nokomis Boys Baskteball team for being runners-up in the Illinois Class 1A State Championship, and especially Coach Steve (my brother-in-law) and his son Wade, a senior and co-captain on the team.

P.S. Go Duke.

A visit from the king

This past weekend was the dedication ceremony for the George and MaryLou Boone Center for Science and Environmental Leadership. This was a Big Deal. A ferry was chartered to bring all the celebrants over from the mainland. University President Sample was there (which meant the event was handled by a special team from Events Planning), Dean Gillman was there. Out-going Wrigley Director Tony Michaels was there (as was incoming Director Donal Manahan). The Wrigley Board of Trustees were there. George and MaryLou were, of course, there. And Bob and Betty Plumleigh brought along their friend King Nebuchadnezzar.

Since this was a Big Deal, and since the Plumleighs and the Boones are old friends, and since Bob's business is importing very nice European wines and liquers, he had specially commissioned a Nebuchadnezzar of Drappier champagne. The Boone Center is itself a very impressive sight, looking very much like an Italian villa dropped in the middle of the Wrigley campus, but I've never seen anything like a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne. They served glasses of champagne to the ~250 guests and there was still about 1 1/2 gallons left in the bottle. After the ferry returned the VIPs to the mainland, the staff had a jolly time finishing off the champagne (pictures withheld by request of their families).

In all seriousness, though, the day could not have gone better. (Well, Duke could've beaten Carolina that evening, but that's totally unrelated.) The weather was beautiful, the channel was calm, the island was beautiful, the grounds were immaculate, everything happened on schedule, maybe not enough sunscreen was used, but really it was a wonderful event. We hope to fill the Boone Center for years to come with Science and Environmental Leaders.

I'll add some photos to this post soon.

Spring preview

I'm not trying to rub it in or anything, but as I said in my last post, the weather is turning nice, and with all the rain we got, there are many flowers in bloom on the island. This Sunday we took a walk down West End Rd to look at and photograph some of the flowers. Think of this as a bit of a spring preview for all of you still suffering through gray slush.

Click on the picture for a larger version. I scaled all the images down to about 800x600 for two reasons: 1) so they wouldn't take too much time to download (for those of you with slow internet connections), and 2) the photography really isn't worth a higher resolution.

Disclaimer: All botanical identifications have been made by a microbiologist, and are therefore incorrect. (Sweetie did help, so they are all now identified at least as "plants".)

Rosemary bushes outside our front door:


Some variety of wild geranium, also growing in front of our house:


Gazania:


Wild roses:


One 'ice plant' variety:


A larger variety of 'ice plant':


Oxalis (wood sorrel, only this variety is huge):


More geraniums:


Tiny poppies:


Indian paintbrush (for Grandmother Bloecker):


The tree on the side of our house always looks spare, but produces these lovely purple flowers:


When I see a picture like this, I can't believe we live here.


Hope Spring arrives for you all soon!