This is My Forties

I am going to march with my fellow scientists on April 22nd, and for many great reasons. Here are a few. It was discovered in 1929 that lead was poisonous in paint ... however, lobbyists fought science on it until 1978 when it was finally banned. It killed thousands of people, mostly children. They blamed it on parents. They said science wasn't proving without a doubt that lead was bad. They wanted to force laws on science that are incredibly restrictive and unreasonable. They are doing this now with our food and our environment. Food corporations spend billions of dollars lobbying to keep themselves in business by encouraging the government to use old or unsound science (that was bought and paid for) instead of the hundreds of well-researched and articulated studies done by independent laboratories. They employ lawyers to whittle down scientific studies... lawyers. Not scientists. They argue over syntax, not content. Their main goal is economics, not health. It is...

Grandparents!! :D  HOORAY!!!  Anytime grandparents come out you know it's going to be a fun time.  A time full of hugs, doting, and spoiling grandkids and their poor battered-down parents ;)  We had such a great time with Gpa and Gma B! Did you know the National Zoo in DC is free?  I didn't.  It's just sitting there smack dab in the middle of town like a mall, but it's a ZOO.  Awesomesauce.  It was actually a nice warm-ish day!  We saw a butt-ton of animals and the kids were so enamored with the zoo that they completely skipped lunch and hardly complained.  We were able to provide a few granola bars and cookies, but I was still pretty impressed with them.  Tristan was an absolute angel .  He's been ultra super amazing lately.  It's like a switch suddenly flipped and he's a grown child now.  I promised them we'd be back again soon with our friends to explore even more, especially considering their stellar behavior....