Laura's work is having impact

On Monday of this week Merck, the Rwanda Ministry of Health, and Qiagen announced an initiative within Rwanda to address the needs of women in Rwanda in terms of discovery and prevention of HPV, one of the major causes of cervical cancer.

As those that have been following our blog know, Laura's team had been to Kigali in Rwanda to teach the local staff how to operate the test, CareHPV, that her team has developed. The test has been operating in many countries throughout the world, including Nicaragua, Haiti, India and many others but Rwanda is the first to implement a broad scale to address not only testing but also prevention of HPV.

Of course I can not say how proud I am of Laura reaching this milestone. I know she has put her heart into this program and at times it is very frustrating ... but she has stayed with it and now we can see some of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Congratulations Sweetheart!

A wonderful Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend ... not perfect but it was one where a lot of good things happened.

On Saturday Laura took me to a great little wine bar in Bethesda called Grapeseed.. The wines were really great and they do wonderful appetizers and salads. The entrées were good but I think the next time I will make dinner out of appetizers and salad - and I am betting Laura would agree. I think we will go back and give it another try because the wines were really good.

Tika shared this with me ... and yes I like Angry Birds

On Sunday the girls came over - Tika was even in town - so we had everyone over and we grilled some things for lunch - some veggie kabobs, eggplant, real and vegan dogs, burgers and bratwurst. It sounds like a lot more than it really was. We all had Easter baskets and we had a lot of laughing the entire afternoon. We tried to go find Tika a dress but we quickly found it that most stores close for Easter - open on Christmas but closed on Easter - go figure.

Tika's ride back to Richmond disappeared so we were up early this AM and I took her to the train. I was very happy that Laura decided to wait for me to get home before I left as when I came upstairs here stood this absolutely stunning business professional gathering up her things - and looking professional and gorgeous - she definitely put a smile on my face this morning.

We hope you all had a great Easter weekend.

Wonderful signs of spring

Last year after Isabella was born we bought some potted tulips for the house to celebrate. I saved the bulbs and we planted them last spring - having some for each of the Bridger kids. This year the first bulb to bloom was Isabella's







A nice sign of spring for us :-)


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A long week .....

Wow .... this week has been a long one.

Work has been very busy for both Laura and I. On top of that Laura took a couple of days off this week since I had a couple of doctor appointments - the one yesterday being the bigger one. Given family history I decided it was time to go get a colonoscopy - so Thursday and most of Friday were days of liquid only dieting and prep. Everything went well but the lack of eating was hard.

This morning I woke up with a headache - probably related to a combination of the lack of food, some dehydration and the meds from yesterday. Laura had her challenges this morning when the microwave started to act up and one of her tires was low. I guess that is our three for the day. Of course on top of all of that it is a wet, cold and windy day. I guess that means just a day of doing things in the house - which I guess is not a bad thing if we can make sure it is just relaxing.

Hopefully this coming week, with a quick trip to Orlando, will be a bit easier.


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My wife the artist ...

Yes you can have fun and make meaningful art with glitter glue .....


and now you know why I smile all the time ....

Cherry Blossom 2011

After the race

It was an early morning and a brisk one. We were up at 5 so we could get to DC before 7. The early rise was so we could Metro to DC and then have time to find Laura a Starbucks :-)

Until the sun rose over the Capitol it was very cool - high 30s and then when the wind kicked up it was even colder as it was out of the northwest - but once we started to line up for the start it was much better. I guess anytime you put 16,000 people onto a city block it starts to get warmer, even if you are in shorts.

We kicked off at just after 7:40 with the first regular wave starting. I was in wave 3 with a plan to better my 88 minutes from 2009. The first few miles were painfully slow though. It appeared there were lots of people that were either saving themselves for the end of the race or seeded themselves in a faster category than they were as I was running almost a minute slower than I wanted to be. It was a nice morning for a casual run - sunny, clear skies, only occasional breezes - but this was supposed to be a race.

After the first two miles I got used to the crowd and did manage to snake my way to open ground occasionally. After mile 5 it opened up a bit more and infrequently did I find myself having to slow down. The last 3 miles were quite nice running through Hanes Point, past the blossoming cherry trees with the DC Marina across the river.

As I came up the last rise towards the monument I decided to pick up the pace as the street opened up and I crossed the line at 1:23:46 (unofficially), which was 4:23 better than the last time in 2009. That put me in the top 24% of all runners, up from the top 29%. Check out the running page link on the right - there is a video of me crossing the finish line :-) I felt great and had a good time, even though I wonder if I could have taken another couple of minutes off that if the field had opened up a bit earlier - oh well - there is always next year :-)

I wanted to thank Laura for all her support - in tolerating my morning runs and sweaty running clothes, and for getting out of bed at 5 on a Sunday to head down to a cool morning in DC. A hug at the finish line is something I will always look forward to :-)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Today Laura started her work day with a new title - Manager.

Of course Laura would probably not want me to say anything - but I will because I am very proud of all she has accomplished and I am happy that her company has recognized her capabilities and potential.

She has already shown what a leader she is by making sure that people on her team are recognized and promoted and that along with her dedication to her work show all the reasons why she deserved this step up in her career.

Congratulations Sweetheart

Prepping for the race

Today is a relaxation day .... tomorrow is supposed to be but packet pick up in DC is always an active day but I may luck into finding some new running shoes at the exhibit that they have there.

I did just find out that the weather forecast is for strong north-westerly winds which I guess is from this storm system that has been blowing through and hitting the Northeast with snow. Thankfully we will not have that. The winds will not be strong enough to postpone the race, though they will wreak havoc on the Cherry Blossoms themselves, but the race officials have stated that if the winds remain as they are projected that they will have you run the race backwards to make sure that the wind is not in your face the entire time.

I will keep all up to date on race day.

.... cu
IV-I