conventioneering

Here I am getting inebriated with my sisters and mom at the Eastern Star convention. *Giggle* Kind of like female Shriners. We have gossiped about just about everybody we can think of and now the conversation has turned to Rosilyn Cathedral and the cemetary at Friday Harbor with the Masonic monument. Little sis is reading "The Darling", a story with Masonic implications. "Born in Blood" and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" come up. Then the whole thing disintegrates into a discussion of little sister's kids.
The whole thing disintegrates into a recollection of drinking contests...

Conventioneering, Day 2

Just got back from the informal opening. Lots of introductions of muck a mucks. But it is one of the best nights because we give out the charity money. We in Oregon give lots of money -- more than most. $4000 for Heart research. $9000 to youth groups. $4000 to the Shrine Hospital. Then, our major project. Cancer Research. We give to a single lab at OHSU, and have been giving to them for 30 years. Their first purchase back then was an ultracentrifuge that helped them developed a method to determine if breast tumors have estrogen receptors. That test has since saved some 5 million women from unnecessary surgery to remove ovaries.

This year we gave $57,000, and we have given them some $1.5 million over the last thirty years. This is one of the reasons I do this. This is Oregon money given to Oregon researchers with no strings. Cool.