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Archive for September, 2009

Unca Joe critically stable! Aunt Gay getting rest!

23 Sep

Once again, pretty much just copy-paste from Aunt Gay (and also sending her love and hugs):

Wednesday, Sept. 23, noon. Joe’s still “critically stable,” still in the ICU, still on the respirator. I just talked to the surgeon, whom I like very much. He says Joe’s where he should be, all things considered.

I don’t remember whether I was specific or not, so forgive me if I’m repeating myself. They operated on him Saturday night for a twisted bowel. When they went in, they found severe pancreatitis that had not shown up on the scans.

The surgeon just told me that Joe’s blood count was coming down and the pancreatic enzymes were better than yesterday. Lab stuff looks better. He’s still running a fever of about 102 that doesn’t want to come down. He’ll probably be on the respirator for a few more days to rest and recover. His bowel has begun working, one of the serious hurdles for this kind of surgery. He’s getting IV nutrition and they’re keeping him sedated (yay).

I’m shook but okay. It’s one day at a time. Right now I even hesitate to let him know I’m here because I don’t want to wake him up with all the tubes and stuff down his throat. Please sleep through it all, Joe.

I went out to dinner with good friends Steve Leigh, Rusty, and Becca Levin and Guy Allen last night. Then collapsed early and let myself sleep late. I’ll continue to do that until he’s conscious again. I think he’ll need me around more, then.

And just to make you smile, here’s a photo of the three of us (and my grandfather, dad and Uncle Joe’s father) back in the day:
On the porch

 
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Posted in My Random Life

 

Poll of the Week

23 Sep
 
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Posted in Poll of the Week

 

Linen Crest

23 Sep

Linen Crest

Yarn: Louet Euroflax Originals, which Jag and Antony gifted to me long enough ago as to be embarrassing that I haven’t used the yarn yet! (Clearly it was just waiting for the right project…)

Pattern: Based on a sock pattern I’ve done a couple of times, Crest of the Wave.

Notes: Surprise, mom! It’s the second in the series and coming your way soon!

 
1 Comment

Posted in For the home

 

Your daily Unca Joe update

22 Sep

Basically just quoting an email Aunt Gay sent out a little bit ago -

As many of you already know, Joe had emergency abdominal surgery Saturday night, Sept. 19. It’s now Tuesday and he’s recovering slowly. He’s still in Intensive Care.

They scared me pretty badly this morning when they called to tell me they had to put in a breathing tube. I just talked to the respiratory physician and the surgeon and they both reassure me that it’s only to let him rest and heal. There’s some expected fluid buildup around his lungs that was making it hard for him to breath. All his vital signs are normal now, the pancreatitis appears to be getting better from the lab tests, and the surgeon tells me he hasn’t lost any ground at all.

This is all taking place in Cincinnati. Our friends are taking excellent care of us here. One has loaned me an apartment for the duration, others work at the hospital and keep tabs on things, others are feeding us. It’s as good a situation as it can possibly be away from home.

Gay

And I really want to thank you, deeply, for all your comments. I truly believe our friends in this life keep us afloat in times of trouble.

Edited to add the following from Jag -

If anyone wants to subscribe to the Haldeman-announce mailing list, send them to http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/haldeman-announce – anyone can subscribe.

 
8 Comments

Posted in My Random Life

 

Linkdump

22 Sep

Here’s one for Betharoopie – The Best Muppet Show Beatles Covers.

The surprising links between anger and time perception.

Rotting Stench From Mysterious Apartment Not a Dead Person, for Once.

Here’s one for Sharon – How to saber open a bottle of champagne.

Jonathan Coulton as Fall TV series oracle.

Here’s another one for Sharon – Zombie shooting range targets!

It’s all fun and games until the Park Ranger breaks her arm.

Tesco has been accused of religious discrimination after the company ordered the founder of a Jedi religion to remove his hood or leave a branch of the supermarket.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

 
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Posted in linkdump

 

Boston Sunset

22 Sep
IMG_5218

Fiber: I believe it’s a wool/silk blend, though I forget the particulars

Colorway: Boston Sunset

Yardage/Weight: 160 y/85 g

Notes: picked up at Mind’s Eye Yarns the last time I was in Boston

 
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Posted in Off the Wheel 2009

 

He’s OK, but Unca Joe is in the hospital

21 Sep

My apologies if you’re one of the people I didn’t have time to call or email yesterday; let me preface this with Uncle Joe is Strongy McStrongypants and between his own natural inclination to not be ill and everyone’s thoughts, he’ll pull through this just fine.

Uncle Joe is in the hospital in Cincinnati.

He was having some pain, so went in; they found a twisted intestine and did emergency surgery. While they were in there they found some issues with his pancreas, so now he has two different things going on. But he is already cracking jokes, and Rusty is there to take care of Aunt Gay, and they are surrounded by fans and friends who are doing everything they can to make this as easy as possible for my aunt and uncle.

Aunt Gay will post when she has time on the above linked daily journal, and of course I will keep everyone posted here as I can.

Edited to add that I don’t know what room he’s in, but the address of the Hospital should you want to send a card, is:
Bethesda North Hospital

http://www.trihealth.com/

10500 Montgomery Rd
Cincinnati, OH 45242-4415

 
14 Comments

Posted in My Random Life

 

2004 Photo-of-the-Day recap

21 Sep

Speaking of recaps… here are some somewhat daily photos from 2004…

(Odd; I could have sworn I took one every day that year, but even in admitting to a 10% slackitude, and maybe another 10% that were utter crap and so I didn’t upload them… there’s only 58…?)

 
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Posted in PotD Yearly Recap

 

QOTW – 2009/09/21

21 Sep

And the Question of the Week is… when you go to a restaraunt that you go to a lot, do you order the same thing every time? Or something different?

My answer is after the cut…

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted in Habits

 

The one where Aunt Gay and Uncle Joe save the day

20 Sep

Did you know I’m going to be 40 in a few weeks? I KNOW! How come I still have acne? What’s up with that?

In no particular order, some things that I wanted to do were… go to Walt Disney World and stay in the Animal Kingdom Lodge where I can wake up, throw open balcony doors, and watch giraffes as I’m drinking my morning coffee… or I wanted to… wait, I’m thinking…. no; that was pretty much what I wanted. I’ve been dreaming of doing that for about the last six or seven years. But I knew for certain about six months ago that this wasn’t going to be in the cards. Even before Tim got laid off we couldn’t afford to do this.

So; being realistic, I started thinking… what can we afford to do? And it pretty much boiled down to having a pot luck dinner wherein I try my hardest not to act like a complete cuntbag because there are no giraffes.

But here’s the thing– I don’t really want to have a party. And it’s not some sort of “oh my god my life is over I’m turning forty wahhhhhhhhugh!” thing. I’m really OK with turning 40. All this gray hair is a reward for not dying in some stupid teenage prank. I don’t have a problem with getting older. It’s just that I feel like being quiet; being still; being with just a few people. At one point Tim and I were talking about all the cheap fun things we could do with lots of people (party at our house, party at a park, some sort of bar meetup) and I whined to him “I know it sounds like I’m saying I don’t want to have fun, I just want to be with you but… I really just want to be with you! With family!”. And I know, I know– my stepmother lives here in town (she’s family) and my mother just lives a couple hours south (she’s family) and even Tim’s sister is just a quick car ride away (she’s family). But I just… I don’t know how to describe it. I just want to be near people I don’t have to put on a show for, people I can easily be quiet around if I choose to, people I can trust and let my guard down around.

And a month or two ago I was whining to my ever-patient, ever-fabulous aunt and uncle. Aunt Gay – and by the way, have I mentioned that she and I share our birthday? We’re both October 11th! – asked me was there anything I really, really wanted to happen for my birthday, and my answer was that there’s something I want to *not* happen – I don’t want to do what my dad did and drive somebody’s car into a bank on my 40th birthday. Thanks for the great stories, dad!

She called me the next day with a serious question, and to make a long story short, Tim and I are going to Boston for our birthday! They also brought me to Boston for my sixteenth birthday (holy crap, really? TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO? ADLJA;DFJA;SLDFJ!!! And ooo – I just realized, in doing the math, that my 16th must have also been Aunt Gay’s 40th! Did I know that at the time…?) and again for my eighteenth, although I can’t easily lay my fingers on that photo.

So at 6 in the morning on Wednesday, October 7th, Tim and I will board a big silver bird and fly off into the sunrise for a relaxing, lobster-filled week in Boston. With my loving, wonderful, generous, fabulous family and a few close friends. And my friend Lucy’s yarn shop. Did I mention there will be much relaxing? Also some lobster. AND A ZOO. I am hoping to get near a giraffe.

 
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Posted in My Random Life, Rants

 
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