A2 Brute?!?

Earliest reference to Ann Arbor? by Julius Caesar.
Not an original joke. It was in this month's Observer.

Naomi is still without power. They said it should be restored by tonight by 11 pm but they said that yesterday. Meanwhile it is going to be real cold here.

I guess I didn't make it clear yesterday  who would be supplying my new grandchild. That would be Josh (with some help by Julie).

I went with my friend earlier this morning for a consultation concerning a procedure she is having tomorrow. An additional pair of ears can always be useful. They were listing some of the possible side effects..including a possible loss of smell. I then asked since the procedure is being done close to the optic nerve, would loss of vision be a possibility?

Yes it would...didn't we tell you that?

No they did not. I think we would have remembered that. Scary. They mentioned the most likely outcome is that they would come up empty handed but her problem is too important to be ignored.

They actually gave her a scratch and sniff test to document any changes in her odor detection capabilities. Eau de lighter fluid and grass...yum.

A Baby in All Seasons

Grandbaby Number Five is not much to look at but s/he looks just fine to the OB. S/he is just slightly larger than an olive. Due date: Sept 27. So we will have had a baby in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and now 2013. We have had two summer babies though Danny should have been born in the fall also, a winter baby and a spring baby.
I got a text a bit more than a month ago showing a positive pregnancy test (Happy Birthday Steve!. The baby is now at 9.5 weeks so it can now be announced.

White and orange(s)

The river valley here before the snow taken by Steve. He likes to walk along the paths down there. I will run there occasionally

 View from my window early this morning.The slight glow in the middle  is from Naomi's condos. Must have been right before their power outage

White:

Our street

We are surrounded with white. Maybe 6 inches of heavy snow fell. The neighbor's arborvitae are drooped over our patio from the weight. Lots of power outages including Naomi's condo. Surprisingly we do have power. We lost it the other day on a calm sunny day for about an hour but Naomi must be powered from a different system.

I called Josh to see if he was OK. He was on the freeway which is clear.

Oranges:
New orange fact I learned this week. Bergamot is a type of orange. Its oil is used to flavor Earl Grey tea.
My new favorite orange: Cara-Caras, a cross between an orange and a grapefruit. They are sweet and pink inside. When I was on the Red Devil, I craved Sweeties which were in season. With my acid stomach, I tended to avoid acidic food, coffee was way too harsh, but I wanted those tangerines. Most disappointing orange: the Seville orange aka bitter orange. These are large, beautiful oranges. The streets of Seville were lined with trees bearing them. Goody! Free food! But yuck! They are used for British marmalade.

Since when are flesh colored lips in?

Maya likes her big shoes

The boys

Shanna's house this weekend. It now has a second floor

My own white lip look back in 9th grade

Cutest Tess. Even without lipstick, her lips are more colorful than the actresses'

I love watching award shows especially seeing the dresses. Loved Jennifer Hudson's especially. But so many of the actresses' faces looked washed out. They all (except Jessica Chastain who had very red lips) had beige lips. I am not sure how long this trend has been going on but to me, it does not look attractive.
Ha! Who am I to say?

I saw only one movie this year in the theater and it was the winner, Argo.

We are in the midst of an ice storm that is turning into a snow storm. Fortunately, the promised 8 inches has been scaled back somewhat. Still the roads are hazardous. All my kids are accounted for though. No driving tonight.  February has been a poor month for running especially with this lingering cold I had most of the month. I've been trying to make up for lost miles this week. But tomorrow, it will be impossible so I skipped my LiveStrong (weight training and other stuff) today so I could get a run in. Maybe I will use my own weights tomorrow. Later I took Maya to story hour where my other grandchildren were and we all came back here. I love having them all together.

Since Julie's mom and I were in different years, we didn't know many of the same people. She did know 2 though; a boy on my street, TV,  that was my enemy most of the time. Later he had a hot affair with a friend of mine. Even later he was a co-worker. The other, the home coming princess of that year. She was elected not because she was some great beauty but she had an extremely sunny personality with a smile for everyone, even me. Julie's mother told me that she is dead. We had one teacher in common. This lady had given Julie's mom detention for some minor crime. She taught World Religions, a class I was very disappointed with. We ended up memorizing the dates of each religion's major holidays..not very interesting. At one point we learned about Catholicism. She was Catholic. I asked How often do you go to confession? meaning the plural you, not her personally. (this is where Italian would have come in handy. If I used the voi form, there would have been no problem). But she jumped all over me saying what an incredibly personal question that was. Argh!

She knew a teacher I never had had but I knew him.  She had said he was the most boring teacher ever. I said, Oh, he was my dad's friend. And she got all apologetic  I assured her that my dad had very strange friends. Boring would be the nicest thing you could say about some of them.

All in all the meeting had gone well. I said only a few things that made Josh cringe. Julie and her mom seem very close so I assume she will become a big part of Josh's life too.

What is a dependent anyway?

This is the raging question at our household. Naomi has been inexplicably been cut off from Medicaid. She incurred some medical bills last March while she was told she was on it but then, when it came time to be billed, they said Ha Just kidding!!!! The hospital has its own insurance program for those without means but it needs a statement from our insurance company saying that they WOULD NOT insure her. We assumed easy-peasy as she can not be our dependent, given that she is married (though she may or may not be filed for divorce right now). Our former company's written policy is that they do provide insurance for dependents under 26. But do they define 'dependent'? If you assumed they used the IRS definition, you and I would be  wrong wrong WRONG!!!

By the new Health Care law, if parents are provided with insurance, their children if they are not provided insurance through their jobs, as long as they are under 26. It does not matter one whit if they are married!!!!!

We are battling our former company's HR department. They do admit they are misleading when they use the word DEPENDENT. They say they define the word as INSURANCE DEPENDENT which is nothing remotely similar to what anyone off the street would interpret it.  nor do they state this anywhere in their literature. They are also refusing to state in writing that they would not insure her. I believe they know what they are doing is misleading and ILLEGAL.

A separate issue is this: even if we knew she could be covered, which we didn't no thanks to their misleading brochures, to insure her would cost money, admittedly much less than on the open market, but still a good hunk of change. Are we legally obligated to pay this!??! Because we possibly could? We are retirees with no earned income. Does that matter?

English can be hard

I guess I don't know English as well as I thought as I believe that 'row' in example 12 is pronounced the same in each case

The Meaning of (Almost) Everything

Is something nothing or is nothing something?

I've never been treated to such pretentious BS in my life. Two actors shouting at each other about the meaning of Perhaps and sniffing an audience member's shoe insides. And yet critics have given this play favorable reviews. I bet they didn't enjoy it..they just thought they should as it was written by local sacred cow Jeff Daniels. I lost attention after about 2 minutes. Fortunately the play was short.

Last night Josh treated us, Julie and her mother to dinner and this play in Chelsea. The dinner was great! Tasty scallops. It was fun meeting Julie's mom though Josh keep sending me visual daggers when he thought I was being 'too much" myself.

Naomi's ex- girl scout leader was the theater usher. I hadn't seen her in more than ten years since she moved away. Coincidentally (see I didn't use the word Ironically as some do..irony is too over used) I saw the other ex-leader just the other night somberly dealing with an elderly person at the entrance to the ER (I took my friend through that door to an appointment). At the time, I did not find it appropriate to go up to her and ask How was she doing? Obviously not well at that moment.

Under the category No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, these sincere ladies were accused by the organization of abuse due to the absurd allegations of a neurotic mom (who should be shot!!!). It turns out that her little darling, spoiled to the hilt, was told not to interrupt another girl who was speaking. She went home to report to Ms. Neurotic that the leaders were mean to her. Instead of asking the leaders what happened, she went right to the organization to complain. When word trickled down to the leaders, they suggested that the girl quit the troop as they were not comfortable of being accused of abuse when they were just trying to curb this spoiled brat's behavior. Of course the girl didn't want to quit; her friends were there. And somehow Ms. Neurotic found some on her side on how mean the leaders must be to exclude a little girl just for the mom's behavior. I had my own experience with Ms. Neurotic when her darling was on my soccer team. She was forever hovering in the background afraid our activities would lead to injury. I did suggest that since she was so worried, that perhaps she should take her kid off the team. but no, the girl wanted to be there.

I think our troop (the one I led for Shanna) was much more fun. Fortunately I didn't have anyone as such as Ms. Neurotic to contend with though I did have others: Ms. Forget to Pay, Ms Forget to pick her Kid up, Ms Can you watch my son too?Ms. When Are you Going to teach them Manners? when her kid was the most out of control ever, Ms. Cookie Mom who marked down cartons when she meant boxes and we were stuck with a zillion Lemon Pastry Cremes forever (the absolutely least favorite flavor).

I did go on one field trip with Naomi's troop: Lodge camping. At one point, the now usher had the girls scrubbing eggs. I had admitted that I  always leave out this step. She was aghast that I was flirting with salmonella.

But we did enjoy our rare night out, even with the most boring, stupid play ever. At one point, when we had our wine glasses (or water glasses), it was proposed that we toast. The mom toasted us for raising such a wonderful son. Ah but is he so wonderful because of us? They are what they are.

BOSU balls

A BOSU ball is a half ball-half disc about 30 inches in diameter used for balance exercises. It is quite spongy. Just standing upright on it requires some balance and strong core muscles. Advanced exercisers can stand on the flat part but I am not up to that point.
It is amazing how many of my fellow students in my post cancer class have balance issues. I am much better now. Right after treatment, I couldn't stand on one foot for more than a few seconds and now I can for a minute. As they say, I am a work in progress.

Yesterday a woman came up to me and asked if I was that person who lasts forever on the track swinging her arms around. I reluctantly said yes afraid for the lecture that might follow about my bad form and all the problems it will cause (some lady chased me up and down the Monterey peninsula lecturing me as I ran). But no, she just had to say how much she admired me.

Stupid, stupid snow. No safe running for me today but maybe the rest will give me some time to recover from this everlasting cold I have.

 Tonight we go out to dinner and a play with Josh and Julie and her mom. I had gone to high school with her (small world) but our school was so big and she was a year ahead of me (though I usually took classes with them) I don't think I knew her. I guess we will have lots to talk about.

Baby Girl Hair

Maya's wild hair

After I put it back in a ponytail

Miss Tess has about 6 more months before she'll have enough hair to play with. At this age,  Maya just had scalp

What to do with Maya's hair? She is biracial or multiracial depending on how you figure-a mix of African-American, Native-American, Jewish and various Northern European combos. The front of her hair is soft reddish brown curls; the back dark frizz. Finally she has enough to put in a little top-knot.

Miss Tess has soft straight hair like her mama does.

One fun aspect of having baby girls beside dressing them in cute clothes is playing with their hair.

Steve and Naomi went to the courthouse today to straighten out the divorce papers. Maybe our family should get a discount for repeat business. Divorce with a child is much more complicated than divorce without a child and takes much longer.

What yoga can and can not do

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with yoga except that it is my happy place: the green marble cliffs of Bonassola Italy

I am taking breast cancer yoga to deal with stiffness due to my cancer  treatment, inflexibility, and my poor balance. I m also using it as an exercise in relaxation.  This class is free thanks to Komen, at the Cancer Support Center. I also enjoy my classmates.

What I have problems with are the visualization exercises in which we are to find our golden center. We are to fill ourselves with the light of the universe, etc. The other day, our instructor was extolling the benefits of finding our balance. Without it, we could become PHYSICALLY ILL. This I did not appreciate. She is telling a group of breast cancer survivors that by being poor yogis, we set ourselves up for this awful disease.

Maybe BC was my fault. Bad health habits; bad karma. Who knows but I don't think it happened because I suck at yoga. And it didn't stop cancer from striking again for Momma Sunflower, our previous instructor. This gentle soul so devoted to yoga and to teaching it now has Stage 4 BC.

My former daughter-in-law has since become a certified yoga instructor and taught her first class the other day.

Last night my good friend who is dealing with numerous, horrific health issues called to say that they are adding yet another concern to her long list; a bad mammogram. She asked;  what did I do to deserve all this? Yes she knows better but sometimes things are just so overwhelming.. This person is the purest, most compassionate generous person I know yet she is in so much pain and has so many health worries. It is SO unfair.

How long will winter last.. I am hoping at worst 4 weeks. I waited impatiently for the windchill to be in the positive range for my run. At least some of the streets were cleared off.

This morning we met up with a lawyer to set up a trust. A pain but  it needs to be done in case we are both hit by a bus at the same time to make things easier for the kids. We did learn a few things about the law. Also I liked our lawyer. But we still are left with lots of decisions. What is the fair way to divide assets..according to need? Disregarding need?

The Canoe Test

How will a potential spouse be in a crisis? One never would know by just going on carefully controlled dates in which everyone is on their best behavior.

I read recently that couples should go on a 2 day canoe trip. Something is bound to go wrong and there will be ample opportunity to blame the other. You then would see what your potential spouse would truly be like.

Steve and I actually did go on a 2 day trip down the Pere Marquette River before we were married. It is a difficult river with rapids, strong current and many twists. The strong current pushes one right into log jams. I did most of the steering and we happily survived with no blaming the other. A few years later,, though, we went down a calmer river in Ohio (Miami or Little Miami) for a 2 hour trip. The Rule of the River: the stronger the current; the more you have to paddle to maintain control. Steve didn't understand this. He thought, the stronger the current, the less work you have to do. He was in back this time in charge of steering. Losing control meant that I got branches in my face. With increasing irritation, I explained the Rule of the River to him to no avail. That was our last  canoe trip together. I found other people to canoe with such as my son.

Our one day of spring has quickly reverted to crappy winter again. Fortunately it is my Y day. I returned to my yoga lass last night. The instructor fortunately has toned down the class somewhat but has an annoying habit of singling me out for correction.  What I am trying to do is to totally relax. I often find my muscles all tense even in the middle of the night.

After my yoga class, I took a good friend to the hospital at night for some tests. This particular lab is open to 11 pm. It is so eerily walking the halls so late at night.

Please turn down your frog!!!

I love Passive/Aggressive notes. This note was written to a neighbor who assumed she had control over a frog that lived in her backyard.

It was too cold to run yesterday. Instead we went out to lunch with Josh. He certainly has a lot on his plate!
Then a visit from Maya and Naomi. A lazy weekend though I did make some inroads into the clutter.

Confetti

Confetti are the colored almonds that Italians use for celebrations. We visited Sulmona, confetti capital of the world.

Condensation of a life

The photo on the right is my father who I assume is 12 or so. The statue looked familiar. Yes I took a picture of it myself last March In Concord

 How to spend  a cold Saturday afternoon? Continue to pare down my belongings. I am going through bags and bags of stuff; most is going into the trash. I tackled my letters. Most were sent to me during my first year of college. From the looks of it, I must have received at least 10 a week. Old boyfriends telling me how wonderful I am; girlfriends going on and on about their boyfriends. Do I need this? I am keeping the ones from my brother and from my friend Soulmate. The rest are in the trash bag. I also have bags and bags of school papers; mine and the kids. Most of this is gone now too. Still to be decided: all these silly diaries I kept from age 12 to age 19. Volumes and volumes of self pity. I haven't looked at them since I wrote them. I kept a few of my essays written over the years. Also have school transcripts: not sure I will be needing those anymore. Below is my first semester's bill from UM.

 By the time Shanna went there, the price had gone up 10 fold.

Ironies

Nothing ironic here. Found more pictures while cleaning out my closet

Me at 5. Not too much fading after 55 years. My mom never knew what to do with my hair

I am the bullet in the chamber
My body is my weapon, this is how I fight
Above our quotes from Pistorius's Nike commercial. But now he is accused of putting a bullet in his girlfriend.
But my favorites are the Carnival commercials showing what can go wrong if you do something other than take their cruises for a vacation. A camping trip results in a family huddling in their car terrified that the grizzly and the bison will soon break in and eat them. A trip to a theme park results in them being stuck upside down in a stalled roller coaster. One of the family members while upside down, gets a phone call. While rooting in the purse for the phone, everything falls to the ground. But I bet those doomed families on the Gulf cruise wish they went camping or did the theme park trip rather than endure what they did last week.

For Valentine's, I went to the dentist, romantic fool as I am. I was treated to 22 separate x-rays. Fortunately they didn't uncover much; just an ancient filling that is breaking down and will need a crown in the near future.

The Blood Brain Barrier

The brain is protected by allowing only some substances to enter it. Unfortunately, this barrier (BBB) does not stop cancer from spreading to it.
Herceptin has been a life saver to those with breast cancer with the gene that makes multiple copies of the oncogene Her2 (around 20-25%). In the past, this cancer was especially aggressive but early treatment with Herceptin has stopped it in its tracks. Herceptin does not prevent brain mets however. I believe there is an analog now used to treat brain mets.

Unfortunately most anticancer drugs do not go into the brain. It is possible to disrupt the BBB by introducing a reservoir that contains the treatment. Single tumors can now be cut out with the CyberKnife which focuses radiation on the tumor itself sparing the area around it. Traditional surgery is not so focused sometimes doing more damage than it solved.  CyberKnife would have saved my former boss who died from a benign brain tumor. (What is wrong with that statement? Medically benign is not the same as the traditional use of benign. Although benign tumors do not spread, they do grow causing damage).

In my Cooking for Survivors class last fall, there was a woman with a stage 4 cancer on her last resort experimental  drug to treat her. The side effects were intolerable and as it turns out, this drug did not stop brain mets. That day she had made the difficult decision to abandon treatment, which would mean death soon by her cancer. Then there was no back-up drug she could take. She seemed doomed and I didn't see her again until yesterday. A new experimental drug emerged since then. She is one of the first humans on it. So far her mets have not grown and there are no unpleasant side effects. Furthermore, it has kept her brain mets in check. She has enough energy for exercise classes. The drug is made by a very small American company. Should we invest in this company?An orally active drug that crosses the BBB is so rare in cancer treatment. I have to figure out how large the market is. I am not so familiar with her particular sub-type of lung cancer. Lung cancer kills more people than breast cancer but it does not seem to have its own month and ribbon color (that I am aware of) Maybe people just blame the victim.

The days are quickly getting longer and longer. Spring seems closer. I was able to run in relative warmth and sunshine yesterday. We had a visit from Josh yesterday as he needed help in dealing with negotiations for his new home. And Maya and Naomi were here too.

Bizarre spam

I had bought 3 small water-colored paintings from the artist on the steps leading up to Corniglia  on our Cinque Terre hike. Should have bought 5 little paintings instead of 3. Now I can't find the third but here are Monterosso and Vernazza

We are used to offers to make our penises longer, photos of lonely, horny married women and great discounts on drugs but lately spam has become more troubling. The latest: Your arrest record is now public; A criminal background check was run on you. Look what they found!  Also: shipping updates from various delivery services along with the usual bank phishing scams. How could all this be legal?
Somehow, several of my acquaintances contact lists have been hijacked to send me pleas for money as my friend is stranded in some foreign country.

My resolution is to try each day to make our house less cluttered. I find it very easy to get rid of stuff that Steve has squirreled away but I have to start on my stuff. Today's project: boxes and boxes of T-shirts I got from running races in the 80s and 90s. They don't fit and smell funky due to the plastic iron-ons .

During our IKEA run of a few days ago, I bought a few more frames for my hang-up project. Also bought in the kids' section: a $5 wind-up flashlight. This is the predicted big hit among the grandchildren. Will have to buy more.

A chain of events

Due to illnesses and appointments, this was the first library hour in a while

Someone jumping rope snags it on a sprinkler. The entire system is set off for the building quickly filling it with water. Only the fire department can turn it off but the personnel sent can't figure out for a whole hour how to do it. Most of the water pours into the elevator shaft. The next day, there is no elevator. Some of the people in my LiveStrong class are dependent on the elevator so no class for them.

When I was leaving, out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman that used to be in a different class I took. She learned she was stage 4 BC on the 10th anniversary and given 2 years to live. Her expiration date (as she calls it) came up about 2 years ago. I haven't seen her for a year so I was thinking...uh oh but there she was on a treadmill.

We worked on dynamic balance again today in class. Not my favorite but probably it is what I need most.
It has been a while since I had my yoga class too. Either there are snow days, holidays or I am coughing too much to go to class.

I had Maya bright and early as Steve was helping Naomi with some issues which I hope are settled. As now the 4 kids are in a rare state of health, we took them to the library story hour.

While I was shoveling last week, I saw the postman retrace his steps back and forth a few times across our yard. Did you drop something? He hoped not. Now I find a piece of undelivered junk mail in our yard. Could our missing check have been dropped too? And so often I end up returning misdelivered mail to its rightful owner. I hope the same would happen in return. but if he gave it to those good-for-nothing tenants next door, we'd be out of luck.

Running with a cold

I think that as long as one does not have a fever or malaise, one should be able to safely exercise. However I think I overdid it last week with my long run along the river. I should have stopped as soon as I felt worn out. It took me a few days to recover.

But I am back out there again even in the gale force winds. But aside from at times being up against a wall of wind, I felt fine. I still sound awful though.

Poor Steve. Friday he had a 2 hour long dental surgery involving a bone graft. They were not able to do set a post for his implant though as his jaw was too severely destroyed. He has to wait 12 weeks to continue the surgery. Since they couldn't do it in one shot, we have to pay an extra $1000 on top of a big bill that is only partially reimbursable.The anti-inflams he is taking hurt his stomach and now he has my cold on top of that. Not happy.

The last few days have been filled with minor annoyances..a missing check that I bet my mailman delivered to someone else. Need to arrange for direct deposit in the future. We rely on this check for our daily expenses. And then my 'accident' in California (rental car window broke all by itself) finally has been billed to me. After 3 months I thought I was safe but no....Theoretically my credit card company will cover it though they refuse to say whether they will. I have to keep sending them papers.

My house hunter convinced the builder to add a bunch of upgrades as Josh did not come with a realtor saving the builder 3% or so. If you remember my post about 8 mile, we live on the level of zero mile. Josh works at the level of minus one mile. Shanna will live at minus one mile. This new house is about the level of 13 mile but is further east than where he lives now.

Saw all my children at one time or another over the weekend. I love having them close but soon we will live in 3 different counties.

Readers, what is your idea of a small wedding?
I would say less than 30 but apparently some believe it would be around 100.

At least I don't have to plan it...

Real Life House Hunters

Above is the house that Josh and Julie put a deposit on today. It is about 6 weeks out from being finished yet most of the decisions have been made already as to fixtures, etc. There is little left to choose. It is about 2400 sq ft with 4 bedrooms, a second floor laundry. We went out there to look at it with them along with another house that needs another 3 months to finish. Last weekend, he was mad that he missed out on the opportunity to get the more expensive house and refused to look at this one. This weekend, the first deal had fallen through and he could now get the house he thought he wanted....but he changed his mind. To me, I don't think he has looked around enough. The other house is slightly bigger and more deluxe with a 3 car garage but is closer to a major road. It had a 2 story tall living room that looked cool but would that be worth $30K?

The house he has in Dexter was actually on House Hunters TV show (a favorite here too, Holly) about 6 years ago as the house that the family had to move out of.

Would he have guessed a year ago that he would be buying a house with another woman? Things change so fast.

It would have made it easier for me at least if he moved to where Shanna will be living plus it would be a shorter commute for him (though not for Julie). He would  have to slog through many miles of slow moving surface roads though to get to a highway. It will not be a problem for Ramy as his 9 mile commute goes through a sparsely populated area in the opposite direction. Josh has a colleague who lives near this potential home and says work is 25 minutes away by x-pressway. Josh should be able to get on the x-press way in 5 minutes.

We then went to a bar to watch the UM vs Wisconsin bball game...Steve and I left after Wisconsin made a half-court long basket at the last second to tie it (and ultimately win).

Last night for the Moms (I am the dessert lady) I made  cream puffs filled with maple custard and covered with a praline frosting. We had fish tacos and margaritas along with some tasty appetizers and salad. A fun night.
Tonight Shanna is taking a break from the boys (can't escape Tessa as she is still breast feeding) and spending the night with us. Dealing with them being sick at the same time has worn her out.I am looking forward to our evening with her.

The Lost Late 90s

While cleaning out a closet, I found a box of photos I hadn't seen in years. Most of our photos are in another closet. Yep I do need to get organized. These are from 1996-1998 or so. Naomi was in kindergarten or first grade and the older kids in high school.

Steve has dental surgery this morning. As he will be sedated, I am going with him. Hope the roads are OK as there was some sort of ice storm overnight.

A miracle. I haven't coughed in a few hours. As my cold started Saturday, I really don't think I am contagious nearly a week out but my presence might make some nervous.We were having a mom's group tonight but that might be on hold.

My clematis looked so much better back then

In Disney World

Naomi and her cousin. She is 2 years older than Naomi and born in Michigan. I was at her birth. She is now working on a doctorate in NJ.

Homemade costume

With Grandma

Homecoming dance

I liked the lighting in this picture

Josh holding  our nephew who now is 17

My brother and his daughters. The twins will be 28 in 2 months

spider

Spud the pug pup eyeing Sasha

Spud would have been 17

Moonlight beach

why couldn't she stay small

The Never Ending cough

All is relative

This is truly the cold from hell. I go into these coughing jags that make me feel that I will cough up a lung. Still I felt better yesterday and took advantage of the sun ( 30 degrees!!!! Almost tropical) to run more than an hour along the river valley. I felt fine for the first half hour but then I started to sag. By night time, I felt awful again. On the positive side, I am getting a lot of reading done in the middle of the night.

After our river bank experience, we went for a drive to investigate where Josh thinks he will build a house. Not impressed plus if he wants me to help on a daily basis, the drive from here is not easy. I will have to persuade him to build closer to Shanna even if it is more expensive.

I had Steve run into a local coffee shop (I looked like hell). They automatically gave him the senior discount . He was taken back. When I had my gray hair, I was always offered these silly things but this was a first for him.

Right now he is consulting with a dental surgeon about the many things needed to be done in his mouth, implants, crown replacements etc.This will cost a lot as falling apart teeth is considered 'cosmetic'.
When he was growing up, his parents would throw various pop bottles on the table for beverages (although in NYC, the term used is 'soda'. Pop is only here in the Midwest) This was not good for his teeth. When I met him, he was in the process of getting all his molars capped. He was in his early twenties!!! Parents avoid this stuff. If it was up to me, I would never have let my kids drink this (they got their soda at the grandparents') And now, what was underneath the caps has decayed. One dental problem after another. And he spends lots of time on dental hygiene. Too late to undo his childhood though.

Right now I should be at my class but I don't feel well. This day of rest better make me better.