House Guest, Sore Shoulder and New Car

From the title of this post you can probably imagine that it has been a very exciting last week in our house. Our good friend arrived last Friday from Germany for a multiple week stay with us in Los Angeles. She is a friend of Claudia’s from her days at the University of Goettingen and has become a friend of mine over the course of the years. She worked with us in Egypt and is currently also attempting to finish up her dissertation in Egyptology.

At some point over the course of that week, I aggrevated a shoulder sprain that I had gotten working at the UC Academic Advising Conference a few weeks ago. So, long story short, lot of pain in the shoulder this past week. Getting older really sucks, let me tell you. However, I am pleased to report that my shoulder is feeling alot better today and may be on the road to recovery! I am a bit disappointed that I will not be able to ride in the LA River ride this sunday from Griffith Park to Long Beach. I will have to make it next year.

This past few months our beloved car, a 1995 Saturn SL1 has been showing nmerous signs of getting a little bit longer in the tooth. In the past year we have had to replace a $700 piece of the exhaust system, the $400 alternator and one tire. With the prospect of needing to replace the other 3 tires, the front brakes and rotors, the rear brakes and assembly, we thought that it might be time to consider buying a new car. So we are now the proud new owners of a 2006 Saturn Ion Sedan. It is silver and has power steering and an automatic transmission, which makes it much easier to drive in LA traffic than our previous manual transmission, no power steering Saturn SL1. We will really miss our old car. It was almost a member of the family. But we know that it was the correct choice for us to make at this time.

2006 UC Academic Advising Conference

This past week was very eventful. UCLA hosted the annual UC Academic Advising Conference in Marina del Rey. This conference is hosted by a different campus every year and this year was our year to host the conference. We have been working on this thing for well over a year and it feels really good to get it over with! I was the chair of the registration committee, which means that I set up the registration system and organized all the registration and check-in at the conference. I was also also in charge of all our audio-visual equipment for the workshops that were held on Thursday and Friday of last week. I had invaluable help from two of my collegues and two of my counseling assistants in setting up and breaking down all of the audio-visual equipment. It was very gratifying to pull off this conference after such long period of planning and preparation. However, after the conference ended on Friday afternoon I was beat!

On Saturday, Claudia and I were able to visit a friend of ours in the Intensive Care Unit at UCLA. Our friend developed a mysterious case of liver failure (even the doctor’s are unsure of the reason) and was awaiting a liver transplant at UCLA. See was not in very good shape when we went to see her but was doing better than I had expected. I am very happy to report that she received a liver transplant yesterday and is in stable condition today in the Intensive Care Unit at UCLA. Please say a prayer for her! We are all wishing her the best and really pulling for her!

The Tour of Angels

Yesterday, I took part in a GREAT event. I rode in the Volvo Tour of Angels, a fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. It is a bicycle ride through the streets of Los Angeles. The event included a rolling roadblock by the LAPD which meant that we didn’t have to stop for any stopsigns or traffic lights! Have you ever run a red light right in front of a police officer and had them do nothing at all? What is more, they even told us to do so! What a great experience.

There was an Advanced Ride and a Recreational Ride. I rode in the recreational ride that was about 35 miles and only had about 2000 feet of elevation gain, while the advanced ride was about 45 miles and included quite a large set of climbs in Griffith Park. It was really great to ride with over 1000 riders that were out there to have a great time riding their bicycles. There were road bikes, mountain bikes, tandems, parents towing children in bike trailers and sidecars, and kids on bicycles of their own. Cycling can be a very isolating sport and these group rides really put you back into the community of cyclists in Los Angeles.

Next up, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition 6th Annual River Ride on Sunday, May 21, 2006. Maybe I will see you there.