letter Feb 2

Dear everyone,

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Hinsdale branch of the Brown family, as it always is this time in January. As I am sure I mentioned in my last letter, Nicola just turned 16. I was forbidden entry to my own home 1-5:30 pm on Monday the 19th, because she was having a gathering with her friends, and I was not allowed to meet or interact with them in any way. I am ready for the restraining order now. For a special birthday treat en famille we ordered out from Uncle Bub’s in Westmont.

Last weekend we took the kids downtown to the Auditorium to see Spamalot. Gail, Andy, Joey, Cindy and I had been to opening night of this show about two years ago, before it went to New York for a successful run on Broadway (it’s a musical remake of Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Although parts of it are pretty funny, I don’t think it was worth seeing twice. The producers also shortened the show quite a bit, cutting out the bit with the French vache that I had liked. I also thought that Tim Curry was better in the part of King Arthur than Richard Chamberlain, who played it too straight. The kids, who have seen the movie several times, liked it a lot. Jasper, especially, enjoys repeating the lines of the taunting French knights.

This weekend was Lucas’ 14th birthday. He celebrated the day by going to Whirlyball (http://www.whirlyball.com/home/index.php ) with 12 similar-aged boys. Cindy tells me they had a good time. Then this Sunday was the big game. Of course, the Steelers won, but I was surprised by how much a game the Cardinals made of it. In fact, if they had been penalized less, they may have won. The kids thought the best ad was the Doritos one with the crystal ball (http://www.nbc.com/super-bowl/commercials/video/clips/doritos-crystal-ball/981800/) Cindy’s personal favorite (of course) was the Coke Zero ad with Troy Polamalu. We watched the game at Roger and Barbara’s, on their giant TV, and we were joined by Howard and Betsy, the Tuchlers, and The remaining Lincoln Ave S. Browns. We had more Uncle Bub’s chicken wings, vegetarian chili, cherry pie, chips, dip, beer, etc. I forced Andy to have a shot of Malort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal%C3%B6rt ), my unopened birthday present to him last year, which he made me take back to Hinsdale. I am sure that there will be plenty left for anyone who wants to brave a taste. Andy thought that artichoke liquor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal%C3%B6rt ) was worse. Certainly my memory of Malort had made it a lot more disgusting than it actually is. On a related thread, a week ago I had a recruitment dinner with a candidate for a dermatopathology position, and we had a long discussion about Campari and Malort, that ended up with some Campari being brought to our table. Some of the other people at dinner tried Campari, and made the “I tried Campari for the first time” face [ maybe something like this (http://justbeer.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/bitter-beer-face.jpg) - - isn’t the internet great?).

Of course, the biggest news was the delivery of Blaise S R Brown last week. Congratulations to everyone in Minnesota.

Love H.