The Horse Doctor

Beth has for years written a Christmas letter that documents the ups and downs of the Weldon household. The mailing list has become quite large due to it's popularity so this year I thought I would post it for those that might think it was worth the read. It's a bit long but pretty funny. The Christmas Letter Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! All are well. Mom turned 75 and she and dad went on the QE2 for 16 days to celebrate. Dad still practices part-time and plays tennis on Monday nights occasionally. Both have some health issues but are still quite active. Alan’s family is doing well but his parents also have health issues. All 4 kids are at Episcopal and though the monthly tuition check is painful it is nice having them at the same school with many cousins and an aunt, as well as each other to keep me apprised of “relevant” (like Polly, who hates peas, donating every can of peas in the house to the food drive) developments. My boss of 16 years sold th...

We really don't get to do this very often but squeezed it in this year. When the kids finished their exams ( I should say I finished their exams, didn't think I would be doing Chemistry, History, Physics and Biology at this stage in my life) we bugged out for North Carolina . It's a 7 hour drive to Cataloochie and while not the best skiing it was great for the kids. All of their cousins went as well, Katie,Anna, Sally, Tucker and Meg as well as the Stiefels. We had 17 in all. What I learned. 1. Sarah is cautious 2. Murphy likes to get air 3. Polly hates wearing a helmet and 4. Mac is fearless and goes real fast. We got to ski 10-11 hours on Wednesday and nobody got hurt. we only did a 2 day trip and made it back for work on Friday. The bad thing is that since I'm such a last minute shopper it really cut into my Christmas shopping time......but it was worth it.

I didn't believe it when i saw this, but.......seeing is believing. A group of South Korean scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. The plan is to be able to manipulate the genome so that certain genetic diseases can be eliminated. I suspect the fluorescent protein gene was added from fish that possess a similar gene but it didn't say in the report. "This technology can be applied to clone animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," the leading scientist, Kong, told AFP. "It will also help develop stemcell treatments," he said, noting that cats have some 250 kinds of genetic diseases that affect humans, too. The South Koreans were discredited several years ago when one of their scientists was found cheating on his cloning studies, he is now standing trial. The North Koreans tried to...