So – Christina – is it safe to mention the book yet? Have you finished? Chris .. ditto?
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OK, this finally tripped my ‘cool and must send to everyone I know’ meter.
Combining all sorts of resources, as it says, “without official consent” – but still. I think it’s pretty cool stuff.
Origin of punctuation marks
Aleah is now one year old
Aleah was born at exactly 12:30 as called by the doctor. He was actually suprised that it was exactly 12:30. Guess it doesn’t happen that often.
Don’t really have any major plans for today, birthday wise. We have a few things for her though, so she will get actual birthday presents on her birthday. Of course, at one year old, the whole birthday concept does not mean much.
The real ‘party’ for her is going to be this weekend. Both sets of grandparents are coming down and, weather permitting, we will be doing cooking on the grill and gifting of Aleah.
Personally I’m looking forward to some early bedtimes, as I’m sure Aleah will be skipping her daytime nap with so many people around.
Review – Darwin and the Barnacle
All these serious topics lately! I feel downright frivolous posting a book review.
But, maybe for normalacy’s sake, I’m going to go ahead with it.
Just finished Darwin and the Barnacle. Good book. Talks about all the classification work Darwin did before publishing Origin of the Species.
Continue reading
Fred
Luke’s sister, Andrea is married to Fred. Recently Fred went to a doctor… not sure why… headaches maybe… it turned out to be serious… a tumor.
He is a vet so he went to the veterans hospital where here they removed all they could and tested it. It is cancer…. the most difficult kind to treat. They give him a year….
They are seeking treatment. Some alternative methods offer some hope, but… well… thought you should know….
Luke’s shoulder
Luke, in his stately pose, with the “sling” he is to wear for the next 3 weeks or so and the cooling wrap that hopefully he will be out if in a few days, came thru his shoulder surgery well. He is in no pain right now and they have him supplied with so much pain killer that i will be surprised if he ever hurts too much. The most interesting pain killer is one that feeds directly into the nerve bundle that takes care of his shoulder. It is a pump that actually leads into his skin (which i am to pull out in 3 days). I like the idea of putting the pain killer right where it is needed instead of doping up the whole body… only they dope up the whole body too.
The main repair they had to do was to the tissue where the tendon for his bicep connects at the shoulder. The doctor said it was torn and pulling away when he used the muscle and would have eventually torn loose completely. They put a metal clip into the bone (where it will stay). The clip will hold the tissue in place while it heals and he should be able to use his muscle normally. The second repair was to a bone that had broken on the tip and the little piece that broken had healed crooked so it had a rough edge that irritated the tissue around it. That he sanded down smooth.
The rotator cuff, which we thought had a small tear, was fine, with only minor wear around the edges. No repair was needed there.
There were also some bone spurs which the doctor was to take care of and hopefully did, though i cannot remember him mentioning them when he talked to me. Luke will ask when he goes in for his check-up in a few days.
He had the surgery done at a small surgical clinic/hospital. They seem to only have a dozen or so beds for in-patient – a very small unit. I liked it. They seem to be set up only for certain surgeries and that is all they do. As usual, when a place specializes, the do what they do well.
Travels
OK, so .. here I am. Back at last. Have been on travel for almost an entire month.
Left CO on June 9th to support Kevin in the Assault on Mitchell, which was on June 11 (a Monday). He rode strong, but they pulled time on him just as he entered the park gates (1-2 miles left in a 100+ mile ride). I went rock climbing at Chimney Rock, much fun.
Spent time with Kevin’s aunt and then his cousin; Kevin returned to CO on Wednesday. I spent the rest of the week in SC visiting with friend Beth. Thus ends the first week.
The second week I spent working in the Raleigh office. It was much fun, picked up lots of work and ate at lots of restaurants I missed. Thus ends the second week.
Next was a yearly IT conference, which I attended for the first time. Very useful, very good stuff happened there. Was in Rochester, NY; the hotel had problems (bedbugs, mice, that sort of thing) but the conference was wonderful. On Thursday, we had a field trip to Niagara Falls (Canadian side – I’ve now been outside of the country). Flew back to CO late Friday. Thus ends the third week.
Was back in CO for four days. Did laundry, cleaned house as I could, worked Monday & Tuesday, we flew out Wednesday for Kevin’s family’s annual 4th get together. There were about 50 people in attendance this year. Kevin & I spent some time at an area state park, had the family picnic on Saturday, flew back Sunday. Thus ends the fourth week and the travel, for a time anyway.
That is the totally abbreviated version. Some unlabeled pictures are at http://ramona.4101.org. If anyone wants any further details about any of those trips, let me know. I’m always willing to talk more …
Something
I have to post something so i can stop looking at “Earth vs the Spider” every time i check the board.
It is the 4th… it has been a pleasant day… rainy but pleasant. We birthday shopped for Aleah and ran several other shopping errands, including buying me another pair of thongs, black ones. I am so tired of the blue ones. I never intended to wear them and almost only them for so long. I wish i could find a pair of slip-on shoes (not thongs) that were comefortable… though not enough to go to every store or buy what i find in catalogs. I want it to be easy. 🙂
So… Ramona, post about your trip!!! I know you have had loads of free time since you got back… i mean it has been what… almost a whole week now? 🙂
Well… my goal was to have something besides the spider movie on top, so this should do it.
Happy 4th to all…..
Earth vs. the Spider
I just watched Earth vs. the Spider (1958). It was a terrifying movie about a giant tarantula holed up in a cave just outside of town. What i found most interesting was the way the spider changed size. When it was dead and waiting in the high school for the people at the university to come pick it up to study, it was about twice as tall as a man (they had carried it thru a set of double doors to get it inside) but when it came to life (it had only been stunned!) it broke out and went walking down the street. Then it was taller than 2 story buildings.
The best acting or the best written role has to be the mother of the teenage heroine. Our heroine’s father was killed by the spider and his sucked-dry corpse was recovered. Our heroine is feeling guilty because he had been killed on his way home from buying her a present which she found and then carried into the spider’s lair where she lost it. She was weeping when her calm mother found her and sympathetically agreed that it was a shame that she had lost the bracelet, but told her that she should not feel guilty and should forget the bracelet. Then she reminded her that she did have homework due at school tomorrow. This is the same day their husband and father was killed by a giant spider. Later when her daughter is saved (just barely) from the spider, mom gives her a quick hug and then pullls her handkerchief out of her pocket and cleans the smudge from her daughter’s cheek.
Anyway, it was not “the” spider movie i remember from my childhood. I didn’t think it was, but it was worth a look.