Visiting

We danced to Joe Saltel this morning. Judy and Hardy made a special exception and joined us in the hot hash tip, along with Jim and Jane and Bob and Pat. We stayed after the dance and ate our lunch, along with Jim and Jane and Jean Ballinger.

Then we headed to Victoria Palms to see Tom and Donna Clapham and tour their new rig. It's another Excel, of course, but a bit more compact, a 33RSO Limited with beautiful hickory woodwork. We loved the custom touches that Tom has installed and the decor that makes it personal to them. A pillow on the couch caught our attention, with the saying "May our home always be too small to hold all our friends."

One of the topics of conversation was the Socrates Cafe, an activity Donna is looking forward to at Victoria Palms. She was a facilitator of a group somewhere else. We had never heard of Socrates Cafe, but it sounds like an interesting and stimulating program to encourage deeper conversations.

We had an altogether enjoyable visit and agreed to get together again soon.

While we were at Tom and Donna's I got a call from Julie. She had just come from her 34 week checkup and had some worrisome news. She has been experiencing some itching, starting in the soles of her feet. Her obstetrician diagnosed cholestasis of pregnancy, which results when the normal flow of bile is disrupted by pregnancy hormones. This can be dangerous to the baby, so she'll be checked weekly. The OB still plans to induce delivery at 39 weeks, but if there are signs of fetal distress, they may need to hurry the birth. We're hoping that this conservative approach means that the doctor thinks Julie has a less severe case.

We watched a NOVA special tonight called "What Darwin Never Knew." It's been 150 years since the publication of The Origin of Species. It's amazing what people are able to investigate now by working with individual genes and segments of DNA. One researcher has discovered an area of DNA called a switch that controls the development of hind limbs and may account for the first fish developing legs to pull themselves out of the sea--and for whales and dolphins losing their legs and moving back into the sea.