Family Party

Spend Halloween in MPLS.

Weekend of October 30, 2009

Costume optional.

Pictures of the 2009 Reunion

Here are some of the pictures. I did not have a good camera with me. I will send discs.

Me

Here are some of the highlights of the 2009 Reunion:

We all arrived at Mary and Jerry's on Saturday. (Or the rest of the family that was not there on Friday). Don showed up for a short time. We truly missed members of the Greg and David Okar familes.

The weather was a bit nippy, but we managed not to have rain.

We had a great dinner of chicken, venison, shrimp and veggie shis -k-bobs on the grill. We had all the go withs. We were all stuffed.

The little kids had a great time playing with each other and riding Thomas around the track. They all loved feeding the chickens. The adults just talked, as adults do.

We had the grab bag. I must say that it was not as involved as last years. We did have a few exchanges. It was simple. Kids just picked which ones they wanted. Adults had numbers, a corresponding number was then picked and they got to chose there grab bag. What was the memorable "gift".

We did tie dye shirts. How long before the dye comes off our hands??

Bart played with all his nieces and nephews, and of course his cousin Levi. He did "unders" on the swing set, he gave them airplane rides, and ran around with them. We did sit by the campfire. I did not get an updated picture of it.

We raised a few questions. What happens when you sit on a Hebrew National and also who is Bart's friend Bo? Perhaps someone could answer that for us.

Elisa cooked us a wonderful breakfast the next morning. It was right on time. 9:30. Elisa even manged to use the high tech stove.

All in all we had a good time. I would like to pass on the "blue" ball. Any takers. Katherine has come up with some ideas for the next one. It seems as though the month needs to change. October??

I will post the other pictures on the next blog.

What did I miss.

I am going to do it!!

I plan on putting pictures and my memories on here tomorrow. My world has been a bit crazy, plus my computer was acting up!!!

Reunion!

I have not seen any traffic on this site about the reunion. What was everyones favorite part. Not the weather I am sure. I know the attendence was small but I had a ton of fun. My favorite part was being able to use some of the skills I have learned in the real world to entertain my neices and nephews. At the bar everyone yells and orders at the same time all thinking they are the most important person in the room. Kind of like little kids. I was able to listen and understand most requests over the weekend using this skill. I also learned I need tighter fitting shorts when playing airplane with the kids. Finally the lesson that will stick with me the most, you must ease little kids into super-ultra underdogs. Karen and Matt hopefully you will not have problems getting Levi onto airplanes in the future.

What is the word on next year. I know people are busy with the start of the school year but the year also goes fast. I am down for having it later in the year, Labor day weekend. We could do winter time as well. Sledding, ice fishing, igloos all that stuff is fun. Does it snow in Turkey? If not I think I could probably get over not dealing with snow. Also, South Lyon crew what is your thinking. Do you guys want to host?

If no one minds I would like to take over the hosting of the grab bag. I can gather things I see through out the year. I have the least amount of responsibility and time consuming matters. Maybe it would help me to mature a little to take on a task of this type of importance. It also make my attendence mandatory every year.It makes it easier with the bosses if you can tell them attendence is mandatory. It may be a touch different but the fun and spirit will be the same.

I do not have many pictures of the re-union but I will try and post the ones I do have.

We're OK

You might hear some reports of a tornado touching down in South or Downtown Minneapolis, the reports are true. Very close to our house, based on the satellite maps I've been looking at, it went pretty much right over our place.

But, no worries. I'm at home now and everything is fine.

have fun at the reunion.

Final Reunion Plans

The summer is going very fast. It is almost time for our Third Annual Family Reunion. Plans have to be getting finalized.

First: Simply are you able to attend or not. Just a simply yes or no is good. No explanation necessary. Of course we would love to see everyone!!! Maybe in the future we should stick to about the same weekend, then we could always try and plan around it. I know for myself it seems like everything always happens at the same time.

Second: If you are coming. Will you spend the night at Mary and Jerry's. They do have the room. If not I believe Kathrine and Eric will be able to put someone up.

Third: Mary and Jerry are planning Shish- K-Bobs. We need go withs. Let them know what you are bringing. On second thought let us all know, so we can plan better.

Fourth: The Grab Bag. I am not as good as coming up with the list of rules my dear brother did. Here is my version.

1. We will have an adult grab bag and one for the children. Children are considered the fourth generation of the Okar family. Adults being the 2nd and 3rd generation. I am counting only from Mom and Dad.
2. If you want to participate, you are to bring one to two grabs gifts. The amount you bring will be the amount to get. Same with the children. Remember look around the house, do not spend money. If you do go to the dollar store.
3. The children will go first. It would be hard to do the oldest to the youngest, so we will just put the grab gifts out and let them pick.
4. Adult grab bag will be a bit different. Each person will pick a number. We will then go in number order. Details to come later about the numbers and so forth.

Based on a few of the comments from some of the previous blogs, how about thinking a taking an hour maybe and letting everyone know what you are up to these days. Trying to get to know each other a bit more.

How about a game of Bocce Ball? Someone has Mom and Dad's good set. Who is that?

Any other ideas, please jump in and suggest.

I will also copy this and e-mail. Again if you see that someone is not on the list, please let me know.

Liz

New Debate Topic

The following question is currently being asked by my linguistic professor. My class has an online portion that takes place on a discussion board and this is the newest topic. I thought that since the highest number of responses come from debated topics, this might be an interesting topic.

Who owns the English language? Since, English has become the number one global language, its foreign speakers overwhelming outnumber its native speakers. Who, then, should decide what is its standard and grammatical use?

I will post my response from the class here when I am done composing it.

This could be a sea change

I realize that our family covers a wide range of political perspectives. We may never agree. Or, maybe we do agree and our egos keep us from acknowledging such. Regardless, all who are interested in exploring a novel experiment in a form of direct democracy will find the following post intriguing.

A Web-based Tool for Bottom-up Self-organizing

Its long, I know. But ain't your life worth it? Imagine what might be able to happen if enough people were able to put aside their fears and actually attempt a political act that goes far beyond voting. I don't know where it might lead, but there are libraries full of history books detailing the evidence that complacency is the first hurdle. This tool combines social networking, polling, and something akin to a match-making site, except on the bases of real-life political out-looks rather than romance and such. There is alot of potential here, I think.

I'd like to emphasize that this democratizing tool will work for citizens of any political perspective. It is designed to match you with other citizens, at any level of civic organization (city, county, state, nation, etc.), that are over similar mind on particular policies, or issues. It will also provide polling data related to these issues, so that interested parties can build campaigns for the positions they share. The caveat is that one has to participate if one hopes to see such an endeavor bear the kind of fruit for which ones hankers.

If you are at all intrigued by this idea, take a look at this thread:

Excerpt and Discussion on Open Left

There is a lot to digest in these links. Enjoy. Empower.

REUNION PLANS

Hi family,

I guess somehow it is my job to pass the word about the family reunion.

Am really disappointed that David and Gulin will not be with us.

Excerpt from the family blog.

Mary Agnes has put aside the weekend of August 21 - 23, 2009.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Again, being a saint, she offered to host the reunion at her home.
Probably just an excuse to get Jerry working on the house.

Mary and Kathrine would like to know who is coming and who might be staying with them. I for one will once again ask Mary and Jerry to put me up. I will bring a mouse trap!! Kidding.

Mary and Jerry are planning shish- k- bobs for the main meal. Chicken, veggie, venison and beef. Make them how you wish. We need to have the go withs. As always being true Okars we always have plenty of food. Let Mary know what you will bring. I will bring plates, silverware and napkins. Will also make something to eat. Some sort of rice dish.

As for the grab bag. We will have two. An adult one and one for the kids. If you want to participate you are to bring two “grab bags” per person. The idea of course is to not spend money and find things laying around your house. I imagine for the kids if you do not have things around the house, the dollar store is a great place to find things. REMEMBER ONLY TWO PER PERSON.

I hope that I have everyone’s e-mail on this list. If you see someone missing please let me know. At one time I had them all, then my mother board went.

Tie Dye shirts. It has been requested that we do tie dye, but try and use natural dyes. Beets for red. Coffee, tea, onion skins and so forth.

Any other ideas would be great!!

Bart, in regards to smoking. Those who do, smoke outside and can do so discreetly. Is the place you work a non-smoking establishment?? It will be great to see you.

I sincerely hope to see the Greg and Mary Okar family. Sure did miss seeing Pat, Molly, Matt and Leanne at the last one.

I am going to attempt to try and cut and paste this on the blog.

Any other ideas and or comments, let me know.

Kathrine, I will e-mail you some pictures from the 4th of Levi and Charlie. Some of them came out really good.

All my love to all of you.
Liz (better known as Putt-Putt) as a child. That or Little Bit.

Reunion!

I think it seems as if everything is coming together. Today however, I was surprised. I saw Patrick after the Cubs game. I started talking about the reunion and his exact words were, "What family reunion?". Can someone please clue him in better than I could. He said he is moving the first weekend of August. Maybe he can make it also. I am going to bring tie dye. I think we should include the people who want to do it the old fashion way and not use markers. All are welcome to share. I would prefer if it was a no smoking event. I do not think it sets a good example for my nieces and nephews. Plus I am training for a marathon and would prefer not dealing with it. Uncle Dave looking forward to your grilled veggies. For people staying what about a quick canoe trip or golf round?

History

Haven't had a Family Lore post in quite some time. So let me try and get something rolling.

I was born in Chicago, but that's pretty much all I know about that period in the Okar Family history. Resurrection Hospital. Dr. Malarkey, or Mileski, or some such dude, was there.

There was a dog involved, Zip. He had some kind of "sixth sense" about when Dad was returning from a sales trip. When instructed by our mother to take me (an infant) for a walk, Liz and Greg used to pinch me so that they could claim I was crying to return home. This may be why I have an inexplicable dread of walking around the block, especially while being pushed in a stroller. Occasionally, they left me on the rail-road tracks, strapped tightly into the stroller. Apparently, I became inured to the pinches. As I have said, I have no direct memory of these events. These are lore, even to me.

Our Mother's family was disappointed and/or upset because she did not marry a Polish man, or because she had the gall to move all the way to Michigan. I suspect it was both. I've never understood the latter. These were people that had traveled across the ocean and, presumably, west from NYC (or wherever). Chicago/Detroit seems small potatoes. Oh well. In any case, turmoil ensued. At some point, my Busia was living in Huntington Woods with us and her husband was in Chicago. After she died, her room became the Blue Room.

Somewhere along the line MA got married, Greg joined the Army and Liz managed American Drugs in Berkley, MI. I mostly hung around at got into scrapes with the Hurley's and Longs, or into trouble with McMullen and the Crowe boys. I was a latchkey kid. Staying with Grandma Thuss at the Crowe's was alot of fun. Later, I'd go to work with Liz and count cartons of cigarettes. I remember being so surprised when the people around me began to smoke at how narrow of a range they consumed, given the many brands I routinely stocked in the store. One of the first times I can remember being acutely aware of how small my social circle was, despite how overwhelming it seemed at times. An early lesson in the importance of scale that I;m still actively working to fully comprehend. All because of cigarettes and manual labor. A lethal combination in so many ways. Thanks for that, Liz. It was a very good experience. I enjoyed it at the time, too.

Any more and I'll be getting into my autobiography rather than Lore. So, siblings, let's see where my interpretation of the piecemeal picture that are my earliest memories.

Back from Halifax

Quick note to let you all know we had a wonderful visit to Nova Scotia over the last 5 days. Got stranded in Boston last night, though, so we just arrived this morning and scrambled off to work.

Greg's new diary needs more digesting than I can manage at the moment.

Out of Exile

Self-imposed as it was. Its over. Back-to-back grant applications to two different government organizations, via two different sets of US government approved red tape networks. Not to mention collaborating with a colleague on another, and putting together a graphical depiction of our recent results concerning how human lung cancer cells cope with a loss of glucose as a cellular fuel. Good thing I lack ambition, or else I'd really be exhausted.

That poster, the last thing on the list, took me to New Orleans for a few days last week. What a town; I need to be about 15 years younger to truly appreciate it. Excellent food I was there for the Experimental Biology meeting, so it rocked both sides of my brain.

Last Monday, I tacked it up on a stand, roughly 1.5 m X 1 m, and stood around waiting for other scientists to stop by and talk with me about the information on the poster. I stood there for about 2 hrs and the meeting had roughly 11,000 registered participants. Only a fraction of the participants go to the poster session, and there are hundreds of other people doing exactly the same thing. Its a powerful display of the curiosity and commitment of my fellow human beings. I'm very pleased to be able to participate in such events.

Its even better than marching in the streets, but it lacks the immediate sense of freedom. Its less innovative than poetry and other artistic media, perhaps, but its more directly functional. The process of science in action.

Anyway, that's over. Now we wait. At least on the grant front.

Decisions are not made until late summer. The sad fact is that both are likely to be rejected. I knew this going in, but some people like to buy lottery tickets. Only one application can be resubmitted and this is my first of 3 shots. Rarely is one funded on the first attempt. I'll get some feed-back from my peers, incorporate their suggestions and answer their concerns, and try again.

The other is a one-off for the new money tossed our way by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Conservative calculations put the success rate at 0.014 to 0.02%. But, there was simply no way I could not take that chance. Minimally, we have overwhelmingly demonstrated how under-funded our field has become. No lack of ideas, only the means and the will.

But, apparently, my tax dollars are better spent on ill-conceived military adventures, bankster bonuses (which by the way, on average are roughly equivalent to the ENTIRE allocation for the NIH from ARRA), and the development of robotic soldiers and airplanes (which by the way got 25X the allocation of the NIH in ARRA). Anyway, that the way the budget is cut.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came last night

And left this little scoop.

Because you weren't too good this year,

You're getting Bunny Poop!

Joking aside, I hope that everyone is having a great Easter. Matt and I wish you all the best!

Love,

Molly and Matt

Dad

Here is something I found just a few days after Dad died. It says a lot for me

Grad School Drop-out

I have officially decided to become a grad school drop-out. I will finish the winter, spring and summer terms. I will then have 18 credit hours needed to apply for my professional teaching license. I have come to realize that reading is not my thing and I do not want to be a reading specialist (what my grad degree would allow me to be). I have also been too stressed out going to classes six hours a week with an additional 10-12 hours needed to complete the assignments. It felt that I was not able to put enough energy into my classroom and I feel that I owe more to my students than I am able to currently give them. I will eventually go back to school, but have not decided what I will study. If I could I would love to go to school for speech and language pathology, but that would require me to get whole new degree. What to do, what to do.....


A lighter note....2 weeks until the Home Opener! Matt and I will be enjoying our new season tickets while watching Mando (maybe?) pitch the way to a VICTORY!

Just an experiment

Come on, now

So far we have middleman and me brother that will engage here.

What up with you lurkers?

Ain't this a family? Where are my sisters?

Oh, and mr. chopper; mr. mike - cat got yer tongues?

What up Tom? John? Mr. Awesome? How has life been treating y'all? Happy, or what?

Molly, Karyn, Katie - are you so thrilled with your existence that you have become speechless? Let it out kids. What are you waiting for?

I mean, I'm pretty certain that you carry these genes. Is it possible that our Sisters have so dominated you that you feel as loathe to post as MA and Liz?

Me? I'm a loud-mouthed dickhead that makes no excuses for being a thorn. But you two are as mysterious as the Bible, what gives?

Detroit Basball Club Fantasy Baseball

I wanted to invite everyone to join our fantasy baseball league. It it through yahoo and the league id# is 156717 and the password is jourden. So come on and have some fun with us this summer!

Mistake Eraser

While I was shoveling snow earlier this evening...

...its one of those heavier, wetter snows that are so much a part of February. Thing is, we were not so attentive to the last layer of the slushy stuff. We let it go while we watched the TV weather folks predict 40 degrees and sun. I even had that certain civil guilt feeling when I looked up and down the street, you know, when you feel like you've let your neighbors down...

anyway, I noticed that underneath the new snow, the old had so melded into the fresh wetness and been blown so deftly into lock-step, that my mistake had been erased. Now, my nearly clear walk is cleaner than the neighbor's.

My mistake has been erased.

Funny, sad, or ridiculous pt.2!

I was jus wondering what has been the overall feeling of the goings on in Washington D.C.? Have people not been posting because they are happy about the way things are going?
What does everyone think about a cabinet that is still unfilled because of tax issues? I thought the new President signed into effect some type of bill that limited the roles of lobbyist in government. He then appointed a guy who was a lobbyist and then lied about that income on his taxes.
What about the role of Burris and Blago? Sorry to everyone for missing a great shoe throwing opportunity. I live on minutes from that idiot.
Is everyone happy with the stimulus package?
What about or troops having to go through Afganistan to get home?

Funny, Sad, or Ridiculous?

I came across this web-site while prowling around the other day.

While I don't agree with the views expressed, I do believe that one should make an effort to see and understand issues from a variety of perspectives.

Have at it:

Another Perspective

On my way to North Carolina

A short trip. Leaving this afternoon from MPLS and getting to Greensboro, NC late tonight. Meeting all day tomorrow about the project at TransTech Pharmaceuticals targeting the enzyme I've been studying for almost two decades as a potential for anti-obesity, anti-diabetes treatment. I'll be back in town late Monday night. This is how I earn my consulting money. I usually donate my fee to the Minnesota Medical Foundation and direct it to the Ann and Charles Okar Basic Medical Research Fund so that I can use it to help fund my own lab.

Other than that, life is the same as usual, writing grants that don't get funded and trying to do some research in between meetings and paperwork.

The snow is melting - slowly. But its only February, so any talk of "spring" is wishful thinking. Spring is not so great (in my opinion) because its mostly mud and rain.

Today is the Day

Out with the Old
In with the New

and all.

Based on all the excitment that was buzzing around here in November, I'm a bit surprised that I'm the one to point to Washington DC on this day.

The visuals tell alot of the story. The people. The momuments. The man. The family. The world.

What will it bring and how long can it last?

That's up to us.

For now, sit back or stand up, and embrace this moment.