Dinner At The Wells Street Cafe

Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, April 05, 2017; 5:45-8:15 pm

I had not been here for a couple of months and so it was nice to come back.  I arrived to see the usual busy activity in the kitchen, though Marianne was missing today.  As I went inside, Chef Dan’s wife said that he had just mentioned to her how I had been missing and he confirmed that.  It was very lively tonight and I saw a lot of familiar faces.  The main highlight of tonight’s menu was “Cincinnati Style Chili”, meaning a huge amount of meat being cooked on the grill.

Tonight's Menu
There were a lot of cans to be opened, beans as well as some containing carrots, peas and corn.  I was paired with a volunteer and we got down to it, with me on the big can opener, while she drained the fluid from the cans.  We were doing well initially, but then the opener started giving me trouble and not only was I making a mess of the lid, I was spraying the fluid inside all over myself and some on my fellow volunteer!  But we got everything out of the can and then it was off to the steamers for a short time.  We stirred after 5 minutes- and yes it was hot – and then added melted butter and put it in the warmer.

The dining hall was filling up and since we had a lot of volunteers, I had some time to chat with the Chef.  I asked him what “Cincinnati Style Chili” meant, and he said that it included “Mediterranean Spices”.  I guess it must be because of the thriving trade that Cincinnati has with Italy and Greece!  The Chef mentioned that he was getting tattoos of his knives on his forearms and we spent some time discussing that and how I would get a tattoo if it wasn’t so permanent.  The Chef said that he probably has to worry about it for a maximum of 20 more years and so wasn’t too concerned.  “Yeah, better than getting a girl’s name tattooed on when you are in your early 20’s”, I said!

We assigned duties and I was on plating.  We went outside and started by distributing the salad bowls – individual sized – and then took our place in the assembly line.  I got the plate at the end with the Chili already on a bed of pasta and beans and my task was to sprinkle chopped onions on it and put a slice of homemade bread on the plate.  The bread had been made by one of our volunteer’s mother and it was really good.  We had handed out most of the plates when I realized something.  We had forgotten to take the vegetables out of the warmer. 

The volunteer with whom I had worked on it came up with a brilliant idea of putting the container on a cart and taking it to each table and serving them.  “Tableside service”, I said.  We went to each person and many of them rejected the vegetables, after learning that it was corn, carrot and peas.  I was pointing out that we had put in a lot of butter in it and so it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be.  We made sure that we visited everyone and I pointed out to my fellow volunteer that perhaps it was appropriate that it was the two of us doing this, since we had started off with the cans earlier in the evening.  I took over the counting duties for the seconds and then clean-up at the front with stacking of the chairs and rolling them inside.  All of us worked well together and we were done by 8:15 pm, joking and laughing all the way through.  It had been great to come after a few months and see everyone, even if I had missed Marianne.

Dinner At The Wells Street Cafe

Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, January 04, 2017; 5:45-8:15 pm

For once I was on time, because despite the bone chilling cold weather I did not wait for ‘Uber’ but instead took the train for one stop and then walked.  I arrived to see that Marianne was talking to a new volunteer who was probably here as a “New Year’s Resolution”.  I was also happy to see that little Hannah was here since I hadn’t seen her in a long time.  We had a full house of volunteers today with all the regulars, plus some that I had not seen before.  Everyone was busy and my first task was opening some cartons of Orange juice and adding to pans of chicken as a marinade.  The menu was distinctly “Mexican”, having “Clear Chicken Soup with Lime”, “Refried Beans”, “Corn Rice”, some Chicken dish with salad and finally “Chocolate Chip Muffin with Chipotle Caramel”; something that I was interested in seeing.  Inspired by this, Marianne was doing Mexican themed jokes…really bad ones.

Tonight's plate
Next task was draining some corn cans and adding corn to the rice trays along with some salt, cumin, butter and tomatoes – after which it went inside the steamer.  Chef Dan was observing a volunteer as he boiled sugar in water and we discussed different stages of candy making.  I suggested that for next week he put “cotton candy” on the menu!  The liquid in the pot was getting quite hot and we were watching it closely.  As soon as the first traces of Carmel were visible, I added 2 whole sticks of butter and then chef added some hot sauce, since there were no “chipotle peppers” or “chipotle sauce”.  He finished off the caramel with milk, though it curdled as soon as it hit the hot sauce.  But chef strained it and it was ready to go.  I said that we should put the sauce in a squeeze bottle and drizzle on top of the muffins, an idea that the Chef actually liked.

Marianne was looking sad because one of our guests had passed and its personal for her, having taken the time to get to know everyone. We did a quick huddle and after praying were ready to go.  However the chicken wasn’t ready, and so we waited by the plating station.  Music was on in the meanwhile with some enthusiastic singers.  We served the soups but even then the chicken wasn’t ready, and the people were getting a bit antsy.  I suggested that we sent out the muffins first and so that’s what we did.  Hey, after all there’s something about life being too short and eating dessert first!  Chicken was finally done and we got going fast.  I was on the salad and sprinkling cheese on top of it.  Even though the dinner was late, the chicken looked and smelt amazing.  The Chef had really outdone himself. 

We got the first servings out and then as is my practice, I started tallying the seconds.  After the long line of people for seconds, I finalized the count and then helped stack chairs. I was extremely tired and so left early after saying bye to Marianne.  I asked if we were having the “Valentine’s Day” event and she said that they were doing some construction in the dining hall and so it wasn’t certain.  There would however be a “Karaoke Night” soon!  Can’t imagine how that would go.

Dinner At The Wells Street Cafe

Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, December 07, 2016; 6:00-8:15 pm

We had a lot of cookies
I had a bad experience with ‘Uber’, waiting for over 30 minutes and so desperately caught a cab, arriving late.  I saw that we had cookies today, the ones with the holiday frosting. Apparently we have received over a 1000 of those, meaning that we would be serving these for weeks.  Marianne asked me how I had lost so much weight, so that she could do the same and I said “Diet and Exercise”, at which she seemed disappointed, expecting something more along the lines of “magic pills”!  There were a lot of volunteers in today and so I didn’t have anything to do for a while.  Chef Dan was missing and one of the regular volunteers, Doug, was handling the cooking duties – and was quite excited to do so.  There was some pork dish with vegetables and some “Asian sauce”.  Doug is also known for his creative salad dressings and Marianne liked it so much that she was ready to drink it like it were juice.

We also had croissants on the menu and Marianne asked us to lay the frozen croissant dough on a sheet pan and then place them inside the oven to bake.  I put some trays in and then accompanied a volunteer to put the rest inside the huge refrigerator.  She mentioned about how it would be to have the door shut when inside, and I said that at least this wasn’t as nasty as the walk-in freezer next to it, which is where people find dead bodies in most of the scary movies.  We had very light attendance in terms of guests this evening and since only one of the volunteers was new, Marianne gave an abbreviated version of her speech.  In terms of assignments, people have realized that juice serving isn’t quite glamorous, but someone still has to do it; though I was on plating as usual.  Since everyone was busy getting the food ready, she just said, “And pray for us”, without the actual circle.  “Speed Praying” indeed!

The croissants came out and they smelled amazing.  Marianne took one and I said, “That’s how I lose weight - By avoiding stuff like this!”  We had rice, on which went the pork – generous portions of that – followed by the croissant and 2 "Fortune Cookies”“A Chinese-French fusion”, I mentioned to Doug.  I also said that there shouldn’t be 2 cookies since there shouldn’t be 2 fortunes.  I said that I would pick one for myself and it said “You will benefit from a relative soon”.  Yeah, sure.  As we stood there for the plating to start, Doug mentioned that Phil, who usually plays piano, was earlier singing “I’ll make love to you”, a very interesting choice for this place. 

We started plating and there really wasn’t the need for as many plates as some of the other times that I have been here.  I took over the counting duties as the volunteers ate and then was joined by a volunteer who wanted to plate seconds, since she loved “take out containers”.  Even with takeout, there wasn’t much demand today and once the crowd had dwindled, I went over for stacking and moving the chairs.  It didn’t take long and before leaving I asked Marianne if there was a special event for Christmas.  She said that the Wednesday prior to Christmas they would hand out some small “party favors” and maybe a special meal.  But there would be the regularly scheduled volunteers and so no need for any extras.  I told her that if she required anyone to come in a suit and look good, I could do that!

Make-A-Wish Children’s Hospital Festival Of Thanksgiving

Location: UIC Student Center
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2016; 10:30 am-2:00 pm

Another "Thanksgiving" at 'UIC'
After attending 3 years in a row, I had missed the event last year owing to my travels, but I was on the lookout for this and signed up as soon as it opened up.  I was looking forward to seeing everyone again, not least Olivia.  We got an email with the project description and the only thing that we were making was a “Thanksgiving Wreath”.  As usual it was cold – it always is when I’m going for this one – and as usual, I got lost after getting off the “Pink Line”.  I arrived at the hall and it was busy with people setting up for the event.  I found the MAW table and saw that another volunteer was already there, a young man named Jake.  He showed me the bag that MAW had dropped off and all it had was the “Giveaway’s” for the kids.  I said that there should be another bag with the activity supplies, as well as a tablecloth – there is always a tablecloth.  I asked one of the organizers and after looking around for a bit, we located the bag, just as 2 of our fellow volunteers – Kristin and Marissa – arrived.

What we were making
As we set up the table, I told Jake and Kristin about the project – Marissa had done it last year – and how I look forward to it every year.  Just as I was telling them that, Dr. Schmidt stopped by to say hello and I mentioned to her how I was hoping to see Olivia.  We were cutting out the leaves on the paper templates that had been provided, and some of them were quite complex.  It would take the kids a long time to trim; in fact it was taking me a long time as well, especially maple leaves.  Kids had started coming in and we got Brodie, who I had seen before and his brother.  Brodie is a nice kid who is very respectful, and he was coloring his leaves thoughtfully. He had blue color on his lips, as did his brother, and after some investigating I learnt that ‘Dunkin Donuts’ was here, inviting kids to decorate donuts and eat them.  It seems like all the kids were choosing blue coloring.

Finally I saw Olivia, who is now 5 years old.  She is in Kindergarten and has 2 of her front teeth missing.  I showed her a picture of herself from 4years ago and talked to her mom about how she has grown up.  I also saw several other kids that I know, including Evelyn and Stephen – the most well-dressed gentleman at this event each year.  Everyone was either coloring leaves for a wreath or coloring a Turkey, which was our other activity.  There was a dance troupe from “Joffrey” and they performed a routine, following which they asked all the parents and kids to join them on the floor.  Everyone did so – including Dr. Schmidt – and for the next several minutes there was a lot of fun as they were taught steps and eventually led into a dance. 

It was a party
The lunch was being served and so a huge line formed, also meaning that we were less busy.  It allowed us to chat, cut more leaves or in my case, walk around to see other groups.  I saw the usual suspects and most were doing similar activities as previous years.  We took turns to get lunch, since kids were still coming over.  One kid in particular bonded with Jake since the kid was wearing a “Batman” shirt and Jake was asking him questions on “Superheroes”.  We were trying to give away the gift packs, but there were a lot of them.  Finally, I told Jake to just take the box and leave it at the entrance for people to pick up on their way out.  We cleaned up quite fast and left at 2 pm, another successful year in the books.  I was already looking forward to next year and seeing Olivia again.

Adler After Dark

Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2016; 5:30-10:00 pm

I had not done this for a few months and was a bit unsure about going.  The theme for today was “Weird Science” and we received a brief write-up on the activities a couple of days prior.  The main focus of the evening was something called “Weird Science Lab” and experiments dealing with “Van Der Graaf Generator”.  It was surprisingly warm and with the new “Riverwalk” open, I thought that it would be nice to walk to Adler.  While the walk was good, it took me an hour to cover the 3.5 miles and I arrived just as Adriana was about to take the volunteers for the tour.  I immediately joined that prior to checking-in.

I got my schedule and saw that we had a lot of volunteers in attendance today.  This meant that everyone had something called “FUN!” scheduled for an hour and mine was at 8 pm.  First stop was the “PXP Classroom” where the “Egg Drop” demonstration was being staged.  This is the same experiment that I have done previously with kids at “Astro Overnight”.  It would be interesting with Adults though, as they designed apparatus to protect their “Egg Astronaut” when dropped from 12 feet; plus they would be drunk.  Thankfully I wasn’t on this one.  We had the usual “Scavenger Hunt” where people would go around and find stickers for places that they had visited during the evening and there was a table for them to come and check-in.  There was also the usual “Photo Booth” and Adriana mentioned that some people had complained that their photos were “out-of-focus” in the past.  Tough crowd!

"Van Der Graaf Generator"
Next we went to the “Community Classroom” and on way there I noticed that there were other tables with activities that were manned by non-Adler staff.  In the classroom the “Weird Science Lab” was being staged and there was “Vacuum Chamber”, “Dry Ice Station” with experiments to make bubbles and the “Crystal Ball” with soap solution.  Also present was the main attraction of the evening – “Van Der Graaf Generator” and some other “Plasma” ball and disc devices.  The idea was to get someone to stand on the stool and touch the collector of the generator.  Then the volunteer would turn it on and everyone would watch as the hair of the guest would stand up like Einstein.  There were a few safety precautions, like no metals touching the collector, no cell phones – for liability in case they stopped working – and no “pace makers” of course.  One of the volunteers tried it and her hair stood up all right.  This would definitely be a popular activity.  The big catch was that the volunteer would have to “discharge” the plate each time by touching it, meaning there would be a slight static shock.  Oh well.  The things we do for science.

My first shift was on “UV/IR” with another volunteer Collin, who was here for the first time.  I told him that I would be back after checking- in and returned to see that Adriana had already set up the cart with him.  There were the usual things like the beads, sunglasses – including groovy star shaped one – different grades of “SPF sun screen” in plastic bags, the rocks, the creepy bug in a glass block, and the normal and UV lights.  I went over the pitch with Collin and Adriana mentioned how we should let the guests do everything and just pose questions.  Our cart looked like we were Street-side vendors selling sunglasses, more than a science experiment.

People started coming and I asked a couple to stop by.  I asked the lady to shine normal light on the beads for 10 seconds and nothing happened.  Then I asked her to do the same with UV light and the beads changed color.  I then asked her to do the same with normal glasses and sunglasses and while the normal glasses still caused discoloration, the sunglasses did not.  Finally, we tried with the sunscreen and that was protecting the beads as well.  I then went into the explanation of how the “High Energy UV rays” cause changes in molecular composition of the materials, thus leading to the change in color.  Then I asked them to shine light on the rocks and the bug, which glowed as well, thus allowing me to make a point that it also occurs naturally.  I concluded by saying that this is why one should wear sunscreen and sunglasses when under the bright sun.  They thanked me and left.  I told Collin that this was the most science anyone would do this evening and asked him to pitch to the next guests.  He did a decent job, with occasional help from me.  The lady this time was very meticulous and insisted on doing every experiment with the “control” of white light.  We also tried with “SPF 15”, “SPF 30” and “SPF 100” and realized that all of them were blocking the UV light.  I joked that we just saved them money, but was sure that given enough time 15 would fail faster than 100.  A few more people came during our hour here and Collin and I rotated.  They were also interested in the “IR camera” nearby and Collin was helping with that, handing out ice cubes to see change in the image color from yellow heat to blue cold.

At 7 pm I went to my next stop at the “Weird Science Laboratory” and took over the “Van Der Graaf” station.  There was a line waiting to touch the collector plate – which worked on the principle of accumulated charge owing to the rotating belt – and get their hair raised.  The volunteer who I relieved explained the process to me and I was ready to go.  I would ask the person to come forward and examine their hands to ensure there were no rings on, asking them to remove if they did.  If they had a long necklace, I would ask them to remove that as well.  I would also ask them to ensure that no piece of their clothing touched the plate and many took off their sweaters and jackets.  Finally, I would ask if they had "pacemakers" and also to keep their phones aside – though there wasn’t much risk of that being affected.

After checking everything I would ask them to stand on a stool and touch the cylinder – many were a bit apprehensive at first, but it had already been discharged.  I would then instruct them not to let go till I told them, and once everything was in order, I would turn the motor on.  The “on switch” wasn’t the easiest to reach and I had to stretch, else I was too close to the cylinder and the guest and I would both get zapped.  Once the motor was on, their hair would stand up and then after people had a chance to take pictures, I would switch the motor off, ask them to take hands off and not touch their hair before climbing down.  If they touched their hair without grounding or released the cylinder while motor was running, they could get a static shock.  Once they were down, I would discharge by touching the cylinder with my palm and getting a small tingle.

Women were totally into this, as were some men.  People could look inside this room and would come in, fascinated by what was going on.  Some women had a lot of success with their hair and I would often say that that was the best one of the evening.  Some would not follow instructions and get a zap.  I got one too when I got close, and touched the end of someone’s dress.  One lady was about to get on, when she said is it ok if she has an “insulin pump” on.  I said what about the power source – knowing a bit owing to my thesis – and her male friend said just disconnect it.  Way to show concern.  In the end we both agreed that she should not do it.  One lady had the most interesting skirt that I had seen, with “LED” lights that lit up like constellations.  With her as well, my recommendation was not to do this activity.  I had a lot of fun seeing the reaction of people, especially those looking at the person doing it.  I said that we should probably put a mirror in front of the people on the stool, so that they could see themselves.  One lady had the best hair spread and asked me if we could touch while she was up there.  I said that that would lead to a spark between us and she said, “Exactly”.  Now now!  She later asked if I had heard of the “Violet Wand”.  I said no and she mentioned that it was some sort of a …kinky tool to zap each other.  Ok then.

This was a lot of fun till my free hour at 8 pm, when I was planning to attend the “Neuroscience Lecture” in “Johnson Theater”.  However, when I got there, I saw that it was full and they were turning a lot of people away.  I was disappointed, but I then went to “Grainger” to attend a show I had not seen - “Planet Nine”.  It was a nice show on the theoretical prediction of the mysterious 9th planet and its search.  It got over at 9 pm, just in time for my last shift.  I was back in the “Weird Science Lab” and now it was full.  Adriana asked me to take over the dry ice and I said I hadn’t done that in a while and was not sure.  She then said what about vacuum and I had never done that either.  So she said, “you can watch me do it”.  Collin was there as well. 

Adriana was good with the crowd and making them do everything, including turning the pump on and off.  She would ask people what would happen if we put marshmallows inside or balloons or shaving cream or marshmallows in balloons or shaving cream in balloons etc.  Then we would do the experiment to find out.  As vacuum brought the air out of all of these, they would inflate and then fizzle out. She was encouraging people to draw faces on marshmallows and they would expand and then shrivel.  The shaving cream formed a huge bubble and even came out of the balloon like toothpaste.  We stopped at 9:30 pm and then there was the cleanup, which was quite fast.  As I was going to check-out, I heard one of my fellow volunteers say that the lecture that was full had been a great one.  Looks like I should have been there early.  But despite that, it had been a fun evening.

Dinner At The Wells Street Cafe

Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, October 05, 2016; 5:45-8:15 pm

I arrived and saw that the printed menu had a “Jack-o-lantern” picture, it being October and all, though nothing on the menu looked “Fall related”.  Marianne was back from her vacation in France and in similar good spirits as last month.  After I had washed up, she assigned me to opening cans of corn.  While some of them needed the big industrial can opener, many had a tab that you could just pull open.  Marianne was helping me drain the corn and took this opportunity to tell me about some of her meals while in France and also threw in a joke – “Why did a snail have a ‘S’ pained on the side of his car – Because he wanted people to see a (e)’s’cargo(t)”.  Ugh

Marianne's "present"
As I finished opening the cans, Chef Dan came and asked me to separate the corn that we had collected into 3 pans and then insert in  the steamer for 10 minutes.  As the corn was steaming, Chef told me to sauté some onions, tomatoes and peppers, till translucent, and then add them to a pot having "creamed corn".  Once the corn was steamed, I put it in 2 “4 inch pans” and added ladles of the "creamed corn" on them.  Chef Dan then came and added his spices and after I had mixed them in, he asked me to have a taste.  “Needs a bit of salt”, I said and he agreed.  We added some more, I mixed and then put them in the warmers outside.  Chef called all the volunteers together and presented Marianne with a chocolate block that was shaped like a man wearing swimming trunks.  Hold on.  What have I missed over the last month?

I saw the guest who I knew and went and chatted with him for a bit, discussing the menu for the evening.  Tonight’s we were serving salad with “French dressing”, “Sloppy Joe’s” – a large amount of meat was being cooked on the grill – with Corn, Roasted potatoes and topped off by pickle slices.  Also, I had seen bacon being cooked, as well as apples being caramelized, and learned that for dessert, there was vanilla ice cream topped with apples and bacon.  What!  I helped another volunteer scoop out the ice cream from the big tubs into individual cups and then we put them inside the freezer.  As we went in, I mentioned to her that we wouldn’t last too long if the door to the freezer were to lock behind us.  She said that she would!  We had 4 new people today and so Marianne gave her speech.  She talked about the past 14 years and how sometimes people would leave for a few years and come back.  She said it was pleasing to see them return to the “family”.  I am not too sure about that.  Wouldn’t we want them to leave and hope that their circumstances had improved enough for them to stay away? 

I took the assignment of plating, though many were interested in that and Marianne over allocated that task.  She also requested that I refill the juice as the servers brought back empty jugs.  We had a few bottles of grape juice and a bottle of cranberry concentrate.  We lined up and because there were a lot of people plating, I wasn’t required to do much besides just top off the plate with 2 pickle slices, besides the juice refilling.  We had a big crowd in today and were busy. Once the firsts were done, I took over the tallying duty for the seconds as well as the volunteer meals.  We had lot of demand for seconds and eventually ran out of food, having to turn away a few.  At one stage a woman wanted to add salad to her takeout container and I was too quick to put it in, causing her to glare at me since I had mixed the salad with the “sloppy joe”.  Totally my fault!  I helped stack all the chairs and wheel them inside, being pretty tired at the end.  I said goodbye to Marianne and mentioned that I would try and stop by for the "volunteer breakfast" this Saturday where they thank us for our service.

Boston Marathon – Jimmy Fund Walk

Location: Wellesley High School To Copley Plaza, Boston
Date: Sunday, September 25, 2016; 8:30 am-12:30 pm

In the beginning...
After last year’s walk, I had decided never to do this again…similar to what I had said the year before that.  But then as the event came closer, I changed my mind and called my buddy Som to give it one more go.  He said that we should do a half marathon this time, and I agreed.  I wanted to be lighter than I was the previous year and so started a diet, losing a lot of weight and feeling good enough to wish that I was doing the full marathon instead!  But my buddy insisted on half marathon and so that was it.  I visited him in Connecticut a week prior and we did a 6 mile hike on a trail.  I also did a 3 mile trek the day before the walk in a park in Massachusetts.  I was ready as can be.

The start for us was at 8:30 am from "Wellesley High School" and we arrived there to see that festivities were underway.  It was a bit chilly in the morning, but nowhere as chilly as last couple of years when I started at 6:30 am.  We put on our “walk shirts” and affixed a sticker “I walk for” and this year we were doing it for my buddy’s brother and our friend, both of whom were undergoing treatment and are cancer “survivors”.  Besides that, I also added “All the kids of MAW”

...and the end
After taking some pictures we got underway, joining the walk on “Washington Street”.  Because we had started right around the scheduled start time, people were grouped together and with narrow lanes to walk, we had to find ways around some of them if we wanted to maintain our pace.  We had decided to not stop if we didn’t need to; and so skipped the lunch area from last year without pausing.  As we went past various stops, we were greeted by the volunteers, who were as enthusiastic as previous years.  The mile markers were passing by and we were maintaining a good pace.  We saw that most of the walkers were in teams, and had special t-shirts.  One such group had a shirt to honor a young woman who had been born on June 11, 1992 and passed June 13, 2016 – just 2 days after her 24th birthday.  As we went past them, I mentioned to the group that my birthday was on June 11th as well.  It wasn’t much, but a small connection. 

We arrived at “Heartbreak Hill” and going up it was tough, but not as much as it would have been if we had done a full marathon.  Each mile marker board had a story and at one of them, the boy whose story was on the marker board, was sitting right next to it; giving “high-5s” to everyone.  We entered “Beacon Street” and the crowds grew bigger and there was more traffic on the sidewalk.  We passed “Fenway Park” and then were on the home stretch, where we spent most of the time wondering where to go for lunch.  It seemed like a breeze and before we knew it, we were in “Copley Plaza”.  We had completed the walk in less than 4 hours and weren’t even that tired.  We made a promise to do at least a half marathon every year for as long as we are able.