It took exactly a month for my paperwhites to reach full bloom, reaching over two-and-a-half feet above their frisbee-shaped blue dish. The twelve bulbs cost me--on sale at half-price--$1.50.

The Kite Runner is not only an intimate journey into an Afghani childhood and Afghanistan before, during and after the Russian invasion, but the characters and setting tell a greater, universal story of the unamticipated price of violence and betrayal.

My creative efforts this week have been spent preparing for my friend Nancy's annual supper celebrating the birthday of poet Robert Burns. The dinner is black tie. Last year, never in my life having worn a full-length gown (although as I child I used to fantasize it), I wore a sequined number that Nancy lent me and made me feel like Marilyn Monroe.

I got so excited about my orange-man portrait--I loved it and so did my commissioner, who said, when she saw it, "That's HIM!"--that I decided to try another, this one to thank a couple of friends for a really big favor!

Although I fill in the content, my son built the "back end" of this website for me, using a Danish program called Typo3. He himself has an even fancier website on which he blogs his extreme adventures, including, among others, a 2,000-mile hike and a 13,700-mile bike trip!

Today I finished a portrait that took me months. I don't like doing commissions--what I see in my head does not seem to be what's in the head of my commissioner--but apparently, this time--although I took a big chance--I've squeaked by.

A good meditation exercise might be watching forced paperwhite bulbs grow. One could sit there for a day and observe the fat pod-like buds bursting like slo-mo fireworks.

I use Dr. Martin's liquid watercolors, trailing colors from the small dropper in each bottle, to express my feelings about my current medical challenge.

Looking for my Woods paintings so I can get going on that book again, I discover a sketchbook with two crude but nostalgia-inspiring watercolor sketches.

This is not to say that most medical professionals aren't competent. I believe that most of them are, most of the time. It's to say that in my short experience, I have had to be alert. One expects competence levels of B, even C, in ordinary life, but "mostly" doesn't cut it in the hospital or medical laboratories.