Jaywalking

Above are our overnight guests with Oliver enrapt with the iPad.

The term jaywalking came from the land of the Jayhawks. Apparently, in the Midwest during the early 20th century, to do something 'jay' was to do something stupid though it was first applied to jaydriving. Presumably they are cracking down on jaywalking in NYC. We shall see as we will be there next week. In Ann Arbor, it is legal and very common. Within the last year, the city has tried to make the place more pedestrian friendly by requiring drivers to stop if it looks like a pedestrian is any where near a crosswalk. This caused many accidents especially on busy roads in which a driver thought a ped was trying to cross but the driver behind him didn't think so. This has been since amended to say the ped must actually be in the crosswalk. And near schools or on busy streets, they have flashing yellow lights indicating the driver better stop. But in what universe does flashing yellow mean stop? Only in Ann Arbor. One of these flashing yellow lights isn't far from my window. When it is warm, I could hear "caution, drivers might not stop" all day. They now have special patrols to enforce the yellow lights. There is about 50% compliance at the one near my window as the drivers think they are on an entrance ramp to a nearby freeway.

Yesterday started at 2 degrees and ended up at 42..almost tropical. The snow mountains are gradually melting but pot holes are expanding and multiplying. It was even warmer where Josh lives where we were watching Ms. Allie, precious as ever, for the day. I did get a nice run in on the nearby Huron Valley trail.

The boys came shortly after we came home so that their parents could have a date night. As they have an early bedtime (the boys), I left to go to  a marathon House of Cards session. Is there anyone who isn't evil on that show? Darker and darker.

 

Ruby Slippers

What little girl doesn't want ruby slippers? These are not so orange as the photo makes them

Maya would have preferred the purple sparkly ones but they only had them in big sizes. They should match her X-mas dress.

Baby sitting today: first Allie as her daycare is closed yet again. This time because it is a day off for the local school district. IMHO they should look elsewhere. Later Shanna and Ramy have a date night so we will have the boys and the other grandma will have Tessa.

Triple workout yesterday. Run, weights, and an hour of yoga: all at the Y. I wish this yoga instructor taught the class at the other place. I haven't gone back.

And I finally straightened out the insurance issue. Yay.

They keep scaling back our warming trend. Still it just might go above freezing this afternoon. Maybe I can get a short run in while Allie naps. (Steve will be with me)

Minitorts

Today would have been my mom's 87th birthday

Minitorts are not some misspelled sweet little things but a provision in Michigan law to recover the deductible in accidents that were not one's fault. An elderly man plowed into Naomi 7 weeks ago. It has been a long road. The car fixed; the repair shop paid but we are waiting on a $1000 check. Our insurance company claimed to have filed one on our behalf, just wait for the check. After a long wait, I called to see what's up. The other company never heard of the claim. At best, our company faxed the paperwork to a random number. I have since provided her with the correct number and could she please send the info to this number and this person? No reply and she doesn't work again until Monday. I had wanted to sort this out before we left but now see that as impossible. I was on the phone for more than an hour yesterday. I see I have my work cut out for me after my Y class.

We obviously need a better company. The plaintiff's insurance company will match the premium only if we agreed to put spy cameras on board. Two of our cars actually have these as part of an UM research project but the info presumably will not be used against us .

It will actually be almost the average temperature tomorrow. Such warmth!! Above freezing!!!

The Broad Museum

There are two very similar Broad museums (rhymes with 'road'): one in LA and this one on the MSU campus in East Lansing. In general, the most impressive thing about MSU's campus is its size. The original part of the campus is comprised of dark brick gothic style buildings whereas its outskirts are utilitarian orange brick boxes and even farther out, barns. Not too interesting until this museum opened at the end of 2012, designed by Zaha Hadid (google her buildings..very interesting). Offhand, I can't name any famous female architects. She is an Iraqi whose business is in London but has designed buildings and accessories all over the world.

As interesting as the building was, no straight lines, the exhibits themselves were sparse and dull. They are in the midst of a remodeling project. But we did enjoy the building itself.
And on the way back, Grandparent's day at the Outlet mall. Woo-hoo!

Triple Negative Day..a year and a day later

Masked grandsons

TNBC day started 3-03-13 by the TNBC foundation to focus attention on this disease that represents 15-20% of breast cancer but a much higher percentage of breast cancer deaths. Unfortunately, it is not a single entity but a catchall phrase to describe breast cancers that lack receptors for estrogen, progestin, and  her2 limiting options severely for its treatment. When I was diagnosed with it in Sept 2008, it was not mentioned at all in the then current edition of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book and the term had been only been used in the literature for about 2 years. My initial computer searches filled me with despair: deadly, untreatable, lethal, aggressive: all of this from the scientific literature. But as it turns out, all of these negative terms are relative: most people do survive early TNBC (defined as having not spread..mine was defined as locally advanced due to the tumor size and that it had quickly developed a 2nd tumor).

Still the term TNBC will not survive for long as certainly they will focus on a fourth receptor that can be targeted. Various candidates are in the works.

Have I mentioned how much I hate winter and this one in particular? Sub zero temps yesterday and today: ice storms in the East that caused my Stage 4 neighbor to delay his probably last chance to bask in the Caribbean sun. I ran on top of bumpy ice. It is a miracle I haven't fallen yet. Almost all of my friends have fallen so far and they haven't been running.

I visited yesterday Shanna and her children, so cute. It is special to be able to watch 5 babies progress through various stages of development at once. (born 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). Yesterday I was trying to teach Tess to catch a football. She was doing well. Despite not being 2, she can identify all the letters of the alphabet.

 

Dyssymmetry

My unsymmetrical IKEA clock. The tiles can be arranged in many ways but the end result is very fragile. I had to put it together too many frustrating times

Still I am forced to use IE for this blog as I can't use Chrome to open my posts.

As I have whined before, cancer has left me with one  tiny  hard-as-a-rock breast up there and a huge floppy breast down there. A nude of me would be Picasso-esque. However I was under the delusion that my underwire bras concealed all sorts of cosmetic ills. Recently I looked at some photos of myself, something I really avoid doing, and was horrified to learn that I present myself to the world so crookedly. Some of the bras do work but many times, they have not. No one has pointed this out to me so either they are polite or truly did not notice. I suppose I could get this fixed but so many things are on the list above it.

Our 2-4 inches of snow yesterday turned out be 6.
And today we have wind chills of 12 below, on my long run day.

Oscar night was fun dissing the unusually ugly, bland dresses this year. Ellen started off well but then lost me while she spent too much time feeding the front rows pizza and then collecting money for it. I would leave all that out and show more of the movies.

The world out my window

 

French macarons

This is how mine looked

What they are supposed to look like

Google can be so frustrating. You'd think that since Chrome and Blogger are both Google products that they would be compatible but no..Blogger won't open  with Chrome. I sent messages to them to no avail. I can see my blog but I can't post or edit. I did notice that all is fine with it on my iPad but I hate posting with that plus my photos are on my computer. So I gave IE a shot..and voila (or should I say .viola!) I can at least open up the posting screen. Whether this will publish, we will see.

So for the Moms group, I am the dessert lady. As everyone seems to be on diets, I went for a light dessert..French macarons or in English..macaroons. Preparation for the batter is easy(following a Martha Stewart recipe) but piping them into a neat shape, not so much. Need to buy new supplies, I guess. I put the dough in a baggie but it burst. So back to hand shaping them with the rough result on top. It would be nice to have a variety of flavors. I was going to put cocoa powder in some of them but was out. I could melt chocolate but instead ground up chocolate covered espresso beans. So I had two colors. I filled some with that chocolate spread containing bits of toffee and some with the cookie spread containing ginger snaps.

Winter continues. It was a minus 16 Friday morning but with no wind. There is a band of dry pavement in our neighborhood now for the first time in 2 months so I can run on that. Sidewalks and driveways are full of ice as are dirt roads. The host mom lives on a dirt road in the country. More than a mile of bumpy glare ice though at least it is flat and straight. The main dish: coconut ginger cod soup which was very tasty. I am so blessed to have these moms as friends..our babies are turning 35 this summer unbelievable as that is.lots of sharing and laughter. A bright spot in my life.

Earlier that day, a visit with Maya. She (late bloomer as she is) is becoming more imaginative in her play. She asked Papa to sit on the stairs and buckle his seat belt as they were playing driving in a car. She is now asking more consistently to use the bathroom too.

Yesterday was very low key. I am tired. I ran and hiked way more than usual during the past week and my insomnia continues (melantonin is no help). I did a lot of reading. In a week or so, weather permitting, we will venture to the East Coast. It snowed again..when will it stop? Meanwhile 80 degrees where Josh and Julie are.

As you can see, baby weight gone. Either Josh bought a shirt too small or it is too hot there