Mary had a little lamb

At Hembree Springs Elementary, each fourth grader plays in a school band or in a school orchestra. Children get to choose an instrument. They have to stick with their choice for the next two years.

Greg chose to play the violin. He was very determined about his choice. He is not using a bow yet, but he's plucking the strings using his fingers. Here's Greg playing "Mary had a little lamb".

Sirona Cerec 3

I received my second crown today. My first one was installed three years ago. At that time, it took two visits. On the first visit, my tooth was prepared, an impression was taken, and a temporary restoration was placed on my tooth. I had to wait a couple of weeks for the permanent crown to be produced in a far away facility. On the second visit, I had the temporary pried off and had the permanent restoration put on.

Today, I received my custom made permanent crown within an hour, using the Sirona Cerec 3 wonder machine. First, my dentist took an optical impression of the prepared tooth. Instead of filling a tray with impression goop that you must bite into and hold in your mouth until it hardens, my dentist used a camera to take a digital picture of my tooth.



Next, the CEREC machine helped create the restoration for my tooth. The digital picture was converted into a 3-dimensional virtual model on the computer screen. I found a movie clip on YouTube that pretty accurately reflects the steps my dentist went through. After a few minutes, my dentist clicked a button, and the restoration design data is sent to a separate milling machine in the office. A ceramic block that matched my tooth shade was placed in the milling machine. About 10 - 20 minutes later, my all-ceramic, tooth-colored restoration was finished, and my dentist bonded the crown in my mouth to ensure proper fit and bite.

Some more artwork

Greg's drawing of Sammy

Sammy's self portrait

Trick or treat

Since I am in California this week, I missed my favorite holiday: Halloween. The subdivision is filled with hundreds of children all dressed up in scary costumes. Greg and Sammy get very excited to go trick or treating. They collect lots of candy. Since they don't eat a lot of candy it easily lasts to next year's Halloween.

Here's a picture I took over the weekend. Greg and Sammy try to look scary and get ready to bang in the door with golf clubs.

The world's busiest airport

Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson calls itself the world's busiest airport. Being the main hub for Delta Airlines and for UPS causes Atlanta to have the largest number of arrivals and departures annually. The title is contested by a good number of other airports. Wikipedia keeps a list.

Yesterday I traveled to California. It's never great to travel on a Monday morning, but yesterday Atlanta really felt like the world's busiest airport. The security line started outside the main terminal, and even Starbucks ran out of coffee.

My favorite spot in the airport is the tunnel connecting the T-Gates with Concourse A. There is a permanent Zimbabwean sculpture exhibition: Zimbabwe - a tradition in stone. Mbira music plays softly in the background. I usually walk through the exhibition. It calms me down and it helps me cope with the world's busiest airport.