Everyone, please travel safe during the holiday festivities! In Michigan the roads are awful but be careful no matter how the roads are (especially if you’re drinking while celebrating).
Be thankful that you get to spend time with your family and friends. It’s a time to be nice (so don’t fight with your family about stupid things)!
And if you’re in a place that has snow, don’t forget to go for a ride and look at the Christmas lights!
I swear that I eat more candy and desserts more the last two weeks of December than I do the rest of the year. Plus it’s usually mixed with a few drinks. Not a good mix for my stomach any time of the year let alone the holidays.
On the other hand it’s really nice to see friends and family!!!
So we had a whole crew at Piece Pizza again (we were there two years ago), thirteen people I’m thinking. Mostly people I’d met and a few wonderful new people! Our first photo is a little blurry (but that’s because we were drinking) but it’s got the most people in it. Starting on the left is Kevin and Katie, Suzanne, Mrs. RW and Tori in front. Tori I hadn’t met before but since she brought brownies she was quickly treated like family! Suzanne was another new person and even though she was a non-blogger she was really fun too!
This is Robin and Leah at our third location for the evening (we got around). I’ve met Robin before and was thinking I didn’t know who Leah was on-line but I just didn’t remember that I did know, because when I got back to the hotel and turned my computer on, the first thing I saw was her tweeting about being pulled over by the police during her cab ride home.
As usual Dave made us cool badges to wear and these had a “Piece” theme. Get it? (Guess whose site I stole this badge picture from?) And not only did we have cool buttons too, Piece Pizza gave us some of theirs!
Speaking of Dave is it a coincidence that he’s wearing his “Zombies Ate My Brain Shirt” in this zombish looking picture (you really need to click for the full effect). That’s RW sneaking up behind him.
That’s Jenny and Mocha Momma whom I’ve both met before but I don’t have a photo of Lynne and Kosh.
We just ate and drank and chatted and after we ran around to a few other places The Velvet Hour and the Tequila bar where we went a few years ago (name anyone?). It was just a bunch of old and new friends getting together, it seems much simpler than when I have to tell people who I’m going to go see in Chicago. Some of the people didn’t get to stay the whole evening and coincidentally (sadly) some of those were the ones I talked to the least earlier in the evening (I’ll talk to them first next time!).
Argh, that’s a lot more cutting and pasting than usual. But I think I got everyone and all the names right…
I didn’t have as many photos as I thought, so maybe I didn’t get all of them recovered (or maybe they were more blurry ones than I thought).
So a bunch of bloggers are getting together tomorrow and I’m going. It’s officially DaveCago 3 which means Dave from Blogography is in town and organizes a get together. So tomorrow evening we’re getting together to have drinks and dinner and drinks and just generally have a great time. I’ve gotten together with some permutation of this group the last two years and I wanted to do it again. I’m not even sure who’s coming, I only know of a few for sure but I’m assuming the group is more like 10-15+ people.
What else? I’m not sure if anything’s up for Sunday but if not, I’ll have my roller blades because down by the water in Chicago is one of the best places to go blading. I going to try to hit Standing Room Only for my ribs one of the days (it’s not too far from my hotel).
I’ll be taking the train, because I love the train!! I get too tired if I drive in on the same day to do stuff, the train lets me go in the morning and be awake the rest of the day (and also lets me be semi-productive for those five hours). If only I could take my bicycle on this stretch of the train, I really like having my bike in Chicago (you can really cover some ground).
This is my Mother and I, it’s not the best picture but it is the most recent one, just a few months old (I was showing her my QuikPod more than we were posing); you can tell we were just goofing around since she didn’t make me fix my hair. Maybe we’ll take a better one later today.
She’s a been a great Mom and she had to work hard at it, she had to drop out of High School to have me and that can’t have been easy in her very Catholic family. I do remember her going back to High School when I was in the first grade; she actually went back to school during the day, she didn’t just get her GED she completed the Diploma. I don’t really remember a commencement ceremony or anything like that (although I’ll ask today if I can get it to come up) she must have just gotten the paper.
I’m sure having me changed her plans for life in many many ways. I don’t know if she ever even got a chance to think about life after high school or if al of a sudden it was all over…
Thanks Mom! You brought me up pretty good and I came out mostly okay. Statistically, I’m doing pretty great – I’m gainfully employed, educated, not in debt (other than my home) and my only complaint is that I’m single with no kids (but I’ve still got some time for that). Thank you again and I Love You!!
Have a great a happy holiday and / or vacation!
Just smile and be nice to everyone as much as you can for the next few weeks…
I’m SO far behind for the holidays. All my family get togethers start this Friday and I’m just not ready. I guess I’ll have to worry about it for another few days and I’ll either be caught up or I won’t!
I think a vacation day on Thursday will help me get the job done…
Drive Safe! Eat Lots! And don’t forget to Be Thankful!
I know life can get crappy at times, but be thankful for the little things. I know if you’re reading this you’ve got access to a computer with Internet access, so that’s soemthing 
I know even when I get down about the things I don’t have (which are not material things), I know I have family, friends, a home, a car that runs and a job (even if it is making me insane right now). I do have a million other things (mostly things I probably don’t need), but those material things really aren’t what matters at the end of the day.
“There’s a reason for everything”, I’ve heard this a lot lately but I don’t know if I believe this. I like to think the universe and everything in it is in some kind of strange harmony but it’s times like this when it doesn’t make any sense that makes me think there is no rhyme nor reason.
In case you don’t know, I’m in charge of a very small department at work, there’s only four of us (including myself). Two of us meticulously manipulate lots of data & records, the genius ‘computer guy’ works on all 1000 computers and the network, I do the audio/video, paperwork, meetings, and a little of the computer stuff. Last month was really busy, it was the start of the school year so it’s always cRaZy but the only part that’s important to this story is that the computer guy was off for a few weeks since they were having their second baby his wife works elsewhere in the district so we all know her. I probably mentioned to you how insane it was at that time (plus that’s when I was sick which made it even more insane). I don’t know how we made it without him for those few weeks, it seemed like everything that went wrong were all in the areas that I had the least expertise, the few weeks he was back were wonderful!
If you haven’t figured it out by now this story isn’t about me, it’s about the ‘computer guy’ and to move this story along we unfortunately just have to rip off the band-aid to get to the next part -
Early this Monday morning, completely and utterly out of the blue he just died. He was unconscious, they don’t know why and they couldn’t revive him and I don’t know if they’ll ever even figure out what happened. I’d have said he was a pretty healthy guy, he was 37 and he could have easily passed for thirty, so it’s just bizarre…
To me, this makes no sense. There is no reason. Everyone keeps talking about it different ways. I know I’ll hear it all again and they’ll probably say something like that at the funeral. But it just makes no sense to me. He had a wife he was in love with and two babies; to me, there is nothing more important than that. It’s just hard for me to be convinced there is some reason, some higher purpose that I don’t understand that’s suppose to make it all make sense in the end.
It seems like a pretty simple process to me – if the universe needs someone for ’some other purpose’ you leave the happy couple with the newborn babies alone and you grab someone else. Unfortunately, if I were creating the formula it would weigh heavily against me – the single people who hadn’t managed to get married and didn’t have any kids should go before the couple with the babies. It just seems like a pretty simple concept to me and if we all understood the formula we could all be fruitful and multiply and live happily ever after…In case you haven’t figured it out yet I’m a pretty emotional guy. And this has been so very difficult for me probably mostly because of the surprise and shock of it all. Most other people that I’ve known who died it wasn’t a surprise, they’d been sick or old or something was going on so you kinda knew it was coming. Or it was someone I hadn’t really known well or seen for a while. It certainly wasn’t someone I was expecting to see in the next few hours. Somehow those things make it easier to take, at least it has for me in the past.
Plus, I haven’t even seen the baby yet. I don’t know what difference it makes if I see him later or if I had already, but it sure makes me feel bad. I know he knows I love kids and he won’t get to see me get excited over that. It’s just a stupid thing I can’t shake, but it’s bothering me a lot.
This isn’t the last I’ll be talking about life and the universe and actually living/experincing life, I’ve been thinking about these things a lot lately but I was feeling some were a little morbid and strange to talk about but maybe now I will.
Obviously, this is the short version of the story, the long version requires more details (which I’m not going to post here) and of course that even gets sadder than what is (bluntly) told here. I’ve rewritten parts of this a dozen times, but I can’t get it to feel how I want, I guess that’s why I’m a tech guy and not a novelist. And some of this isn’t written in the correct person/tense since I’ve been mulling it over and editing it the last few days.
So I got some of the photos from Mom’s Surprise party up. This first one is from in front of the house, my cousin and uncle decorated it during the night. The rest of the photos are from the party.
I posted about 18 and hope some of the others with cameras will send me some. I you missed the post, the surprise party was yesterday.
These are really old school photos of my grandparents kids, my mom is in the lower-right.
So today my Mom turned sixty today. She thought I was taking her our to dinner tonight but when we got to the restaurant she was surprised that I had about thirty people there! I couldn’t mention it before today, because I don’t know if she reads my blog at all, I know she knows it exists so I didn’t want to take the chance. I made a lot of phone calls, my aunt called a bunch and my cousin took care of the cake so it was all pretty easy to set up.
The people who were got there first put up all the balloons I had dropped off and put some streamers around the outside railing. We had the timing down perfectly, I think just about everyone was already there when we got there. And they were all waiting outside in front so she saw them as we pulled up. It took her a minute to process all the people that were there…
We had lots of family and friends show up. Some drove a ways to get here so that’s always nice. Lots of cards with gift cards and lottery tickets. She’ll get to do some shopping this weekend. A few showed up later and a few had to leave early and it was a great time. She really had a perfect day and she just called me up again a few minutes ago to say that and to thank me again.
My Mom is awesome, she did a pretty great job bringing me up mostly on her own. She had a lot of help from her parents the first six years and baby-sitting help from the other relatives but most of the rest of the time it was her and she did a great job making everything work out.In case you were wondering, we went to Woody’s in Royal Oak, Michigan (they’ve got two inside floors and a large rooftop area). Very casual place great service, everyone seemed happy with the food and drinks. Elizabeth was our beautiful (and efficient) waitress and did a great job. Personally, I was happy with the bill, I thought it was a good value before I even realized they had already tacked the tip on. I’d definitely recommend there for a gathering in the future.
On a completely unrelated note, while I was at the party someone bid last minute on eBay for the bike rack that I was trying to get; it was almost identical to the one that was damaged last week (and barely used). I had just upped the maximum today in case anyone else had bid on it (no one had yet). They must have used some software to bid on it (or they were sitting right there) since it was bid at the last minute 
So the bloggers met in Chicago again for DaveCago2, about half of us met early June 2006 and we had a bunch of new people too (but we were down a few too). Here’s the “blog roll call” that I’m pleasec to be a part of – Dave, Kevin, Jenny, RW and Mrs. RW, Ariana, Ajooja, Birdcolor, Diane, Kilax (who hand codes her blog!!!) and me. Several brought spouses (or spouses-to-be), it easier to not mention who than to remember who blogs (or doesn’t blog) their private life. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out, it was so hard to keep track of everyone…
Dave made us lanyards and had buttons and shirts and it made me feel like it was Christmas, I’m just happy with meeting new people. We ate at Pizano’s Pizza on The Loop (near Millennium Park) and we got a bunch of different pizza and lots of (different) drinks. Then we wandered around and found another place for more drinks (Congress Plaza Hotel, the Gazebo Ba I thinkr), that too a while since most places didn’t have space for all of us. It was great to put a face and voice to some of the bloggers and just chat and get more info on stories we’ve heard and stuff like that.Neither restaurant or bar had drinks like Mike’s Hard Lemonade or Smirnoff Ice and I was way above my daily caffine limit, so I hard to drink Long Island Iced Tea, it was my only option (really).
I do have photos, but I’ll have to get them up later. I’ve been running around all day and I’m too tired to take a chance at accidentally deleting photos.
So I’ve certainly been catching up on sleep the last few days, I think I’ve had about 23 hours since Friday evening. This is excellent since I really haven’t been sleeping all that well these days. I haven’t gotten much accomplished this weekend but that’s okay…
What I did get accomplished was that I went out to the cemetery where my grandparents and great-grandparents (Mom’s side) are buried today. I usually get out there a few times a year (sprint/fall) just to clean up and edge where the grass is growing over the stones, but it’s been so crazy lately (life and the weather) I’m getting out much later than usual. It’s been raining/drizzling all day but it pretty much stopped when I got out there so that worked out nice.
I need to take Mom with me some time because I always come up with questions about dates, middle initials or something else about family history that I don’t know the answer to…
On Mother’s Day (May 13) you can make unlimited free Calls (from US/Canada Skype) to anywhere in the world!!! Check out the Skype page for more details. Actually, it’s not really unlimited it’s only 200 minutes free, but that’s still a pretty good deal.
Post edited to not incorrectly refer to “today” as Mother’s Day…
Offer valid from May 13th 2007, 5:00 am (Eastern Time GMT-5.00) to May 14th 2007 4:59 am (Eastern Time GMT-5.00)
So miraculously my mother is now on-line. I had it on my list of things to do but I had finally given up, she just didn’t seem that interested the last few times I talked to her about. About a week ago she decided she wanted to and I jumped on it; she came over we got a new laptop for her: HP 15.4 inch Dual Core, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, Dual-Layer DVD burner w/LightScribe, SD chip reader (maybe reads more than that, with the media center “stuff” and a remote for that (which slides nicely into the laptop). BTW, that was $699 after rebate at Circuit City this week. A bit more machine than she needs right now but she won’t need anything else more than that for a while and it’s small enough she can bring it over when she has questions/problems instead of me having to always go over there.
We went over to get a book for her and ended up with Easy Microsoft Windows Vista. Lots of pictures and very clear to read. We looked at some other ones even the seniors ones, and while they were very well written, the images were black & while and not every high resolution, very difficult to see. Mom’s pretty young, not 60 yet, but very low tech considering I’m her kid and I turned my step-dad into a geek before he passed away a few years ago.
So I set her all up, it’s Vista so I’m not very familiar with it but I figured it out. Then I set up an easy to use home page for her to use with with Internet Explorer. I set her up a page at http://GaryLaPointe.com/mom/ and I can modify it whenever I want for her. But I stuck a bunch of stuff on it like local news, weather, on-line shopping and stuff. This includes some of my photos and links to trips she’s never seen and her musician granddaughter’s page. At some point she’ll have to learn favorites/bookmarkss, but for now it’s perfect for her. Take a peek and if you have any suggestions (either for the page or just some good introductory web sites.
She just called and the cable guy left and she’s on-line!!! I had her get the $42 a month service which is 384 up + 5,000 down, the next service down was only $6 less but it was only 500 down, I wanted her to have a more pleasurable experience. In a few months she can try the lower speeds…
I’ll go over next week and hook up the wireless for her and she can set up in the corner of the dining room where she wants it. Right now she in my old attic bedroom.
I think she’s going over to sign up for a 4 week (2 hours a night) computer class that starts next week at the community education center.
So Mom seems pretty happy with the gifts that I got her for Christmas. In particular she likes the book Before You Leap: A Frog’s Eye View of Life’s Greatest Lessons by Kermit T. Frog. It’s very cute but seems like it really might have some interesting thoughts on it. I just spotted it at Borders, I hadn’t heard anything about it but it looked like something Mom might like.
The other item was one she specifically asked for: a new vacuum. Her last vacuum was 34 years old, so it was about time. I settled on the Eureka Altima Bagless Vacuum and it was a good choice, she’s been playing around with it today. It’s got a great extendable duster thing that is self cleaning (I don’t even know how to describe it). It was a breeze to put together, three (3) screws and we were done (they could print the manual a little larger though!). It’s nice and light too. I had spotted it at Target and the line was horribly long so I figured I’d check out some other models and maybe come back. Later, Kelly mentioned it was the same one she just bought to replace hers and then it was on sale the next day so I took those two things as a sign and picked it up.
She seems very happy with that and all the other items that Santa and I brought her!!!
So I’m very excited about the holidays!!! Tomorrow my house will be packed with people. I’ve never had this many people in my condo so it’s going to be a tight fit. Twenty-eight people, I think about 10 will be kids and while I’ve generally got stuff for kids to do things, I don’t have much space for them to do it in, that’ll be the trick!
Saturday (the 23rd) will also be the closest to Christmas that my extended family (on my Mom’s side) has celebrated Christmas since 1997, I think every year before that we got that group together on Christmas Eve. That’s why I’m having it this year, I wanted it closer to Christmas and this way, I get my way
Well, I’m off. I’ve got a bunch of little things that need to be done, but enough of everything is done so I don’t have to worry about it. I think I’m done with all the kids except one (and I think that will require a call to his parents since I’m clueless).
So my last post wasn’t to make you believe that life isn’t good, it was just pointing out the blah things and not being in the mood for blogging (or even much blog reading). Life has been good and even today in general has been great.
Other good things coming up: We’re celebrating Christmas at my place for the extended family in a few weeks and I’m way excited about that. I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to put 25 people in my condo but I’ll make it work. For the last few years my (Mom’s) extended family hasn’t celebrated Christmas anywhere near the 25th (we used to do it on the 24th every year) which is why I volunteered to have it on the 23rd. I actually sent out invites in April to make sure this would happen. And on top of that, next month I get to go on a warm sunny vacation to Costa Rica!
In addition, many of the things in this post and the previous post gets a bunch of items off my 101 in 1001 list. I’ve completed 24 of 101 things done and I have 637 of 1001 days left to do them so I need to catch up a bit (23.76% of tasks done but 36.36% of the time had passed). The Costa Rica trip crosses off two (maybe three items), family Christmas knocks off two and the eye appointment is another. I might get a few more but those are guaranteed to be done in the next 60 days.
So a few weeks ago I mentioned we were trying to get a domain name for Melissa. Well we finally settled on YourMelissa.com as the address. Once we got her set up on-line she then immediately titled the site “A Musing Melissa”! Where the hell was that idea when we were picking out a name?!?
So she’s been talking about life, her kids, being single and figuring out who she is as her kids become adults and she gets used to handling life on her own. She’s been posting and I keep forgetting to send some traffic her way. So go on over to A Musing Melissa and say hello. I’m sure she’d love to get some comments and find some other blogs to read.
I think I’ve got her all set up to handle gravatars so if you’ve got one she’ll think that’s especially cool to see your icons, which then might motivate her to post comments on other sites (I think she’s just been lurking so far) she still thinks of this as a “parallel universe”.
So we’re trying to set up a domain name for Melissa so she can start blogging. I went looking for a domain name for her to buy and of course Melissa.com was taken (but I had to check) and they offered suggestions for us. Suggestions like BestMelissa.com and SuperMelissa.com (my first choice) and then I noticed an odd one, so I’m “Hey, Melissa, They’ve got RayLovesMelissa.com, it’s the only one I see with ”love“ in it, how weird is that?!?” Harry was Melissa’s husband that died last year and Ray was what everyone his family called him. So that was pretty bizarre (but wait!), “Oh Melissa, I was wrong here’s another one DannyLovesMelissa.com so it’s not so strange”. But it turns out that was the name of her first husband! We looked harder and that was the only one with “love” in it, how strange is that?
I always like the idea of having your own domain name. Then you can switch hosts and take your name with you. We’re hosting her at BlogSpot and just frame the page in it (or maybe we’ll redirect). I can’t believe that they’re not set up to use your own name and charge you for it (or make you buy it from them).
So we didn’t pick SuperMelissa so it’s still available if you want it. I’ll tell you her address once she gets settled in.
This is Bekah (and brother Darren) right after graduation. She graduated from Sexton High in Lansing, Michigan. It was at Breslin Center at MSU.
So yesterday I knew Mark was on a train home from Battle Creek and gave him a ring just to see if he was home yet. He was still in Jackson. Turns out they hit a dump truck crossing the tracks on a private drive (the driver was likely killed instantly). He said a few of them got thrown to the ground as they stopped (which took about a 1/2 mile). They were in the car directly behind the engine (remember that if you watch the videos) and he said the windows turned black with smoke. Fifteen people had minor injuries and went to the hospital. They were then emergency bussed to the train station (city and school busses) and waited for hours to get another bus back home (I think he was supposed to get back around 2 and got back around 6:30…
He’s fine (mostly fine, today he’s complaining about his back) so that’s a good thing. This WLNS news report has 3 different videos (all with a little more info) if you’re interested. I don’t know how long they’ll keep the story/videos (which I never did get to play on my Mac, does yours play it).
I could be wrong but I don’t think they gave any of these people a free train trip or anywhere to call if they had problems after or anything. He did say the Red Croos showed up at the train station to hand out water and check on people.
So my Mom doesn’t read my blog since she doesn’t compute at all so she won’t care that I used this 4 year old picture of her. Although it’s probably better than what I used last year…
I’m off to take her to dinner somewhere, probably somewhere with a short line since it is Mother’s Day and we’re still not connecting for a few more hours (we’re not organized nor fussy enough to make reservations in advance). She just got back from vacation last night so I had already dropped some loot off at her house in case I didn’t see her today (as of yesterday noon, we still didn’t know).
She did the single Mom thing in raising me, which had to be rough, and she did a great job!! Thanks Mom!
I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but my buddy who smashed his car decided not to replace it at this time and the other day we were talking about a scooter-type thing. Moments after having one of these discussions someone drove by in a Velux Diamo so we chased him down to get some info. So we went to look at one yesterday, and hours later walked out with one! It’s an electric start convertible 150cc motorcycle with CD/MP3 player (the things that look like armrests are speakers) a “trunk” and it gets 75-80 MPG and goes 65 MPH. There’s an optional LCD GPS/DVD you can get too! More photos of scooters here. I’ll get some photos of him on it later!
So I came home and took a nap after all my errands (I feel great now). Since then I’ve watched a bit of TV and now I’m thinking of funerals. This wasn’t weird dreams, it was what was on the TV show (didn’t you hear, someone was going to die on Smallville).
I still remember being freaked out at my first funeral. Here’s why:
It wasn’t why you think, of course I was sad and upset at the idea that Grandma had passed away and all the normal funeral things to get upset about. We did the normal stuff: did the funeral home for one or two days, did mass at the church, drove way the heck out to the cemetery, did a little service in chapel at the cemetery and then we left. That last part was what freaked me out, that we left. I’ve seen this a million times on TV and at the movies the next part is that you go to the grave site and put lower the casket into the ground and throw some dirt and/or flowers on the casket. Come on, everyone knows this stuff that’s just what you do. Needless to say, they thought I was nuts when I asked about it.
I was fifteen or sixteen at the time and to this day this still haunts me. I think about it almost every time I see this happen on a television show or movie. To this day I’ve never experienced a funeral like this. So I think I’ve come to a decision: If it’s possible to still have funerals like that, then this is how I want my funeral to be. That might seem a little weird, but I am (a little weird).
So it’s been a relatively bad week. I’m still sick (two weeks now) and they can’t figure out what’s up. I haven’t been sleeping well (got about 3-4 hours last night). I’ve had numerous overlapping appointments and meetings that made the week pretty goofy. I got a phone call from a buddy in the emergency room who wrapped his car around a pole (literally). Spent lots of time in the hospital and checking on things. I’ve been driving around with tin cans in my car since Monday and haven’t had time to take them back.
All I wanted to do after work was get some Thai food, go home, watch some TV and crash. So I get home and realize the cable is out and so is the Internet. (It’s SciFi Friday! How am I supposed to watch Galactica?!?)
So why did I decide I’m halfway to hell? The cable went out at 3:33…
Updates:
This post it Dean’s doing, he asked what’s up?!? That’s not exactly true, I probably would have whined about it anyways…
So the other night I saw they were running The Long Kiss Goodnight so I TiVo’d it. This is an excellent action film with Geena Davis (yes, I said Geena Davis and action film in the same sentence). She’s the school teacher that “private eye” (use that term loosely) Samuel Jackson refers to as “amnesia chick”. Turns out they found her on the beach eight years ago with no memory. A car crash, some strange dreams and a little bit of info dug up by the private eye and we on our way.
It’s a good chase from there to figure out who’s bad and who’s good and who’s really bad. It’s definitely a different movie for Geena so check it out on the late night movies, NetFlix it or (gasp) physically leave the couch and go to the video store. The picture on the cover of the DVD does nothing to promote the film, maybe it’s supposed to look like Lethal Weapon or something.
So this movie makes me think of an old friend from high school, Ken Christensen, I’m not sure if it’s the plot, Geena Davis or both. But this came out after the last time I’ve seen him so I know we never talked about it or saw it, but I can’t get that thought out of my head…
Merry Christmas!! I was going to try and sleep a little more but my mother is visiting and is downstairs trying to use the remote control to turn the lights on down there. But she keeps blinking lights (and relays) on and off in my room. Scared the crap out of me! I guess I should get up so we can eat and do the present thing. Yea!!!
Everyone have fun today and don’t forget to be nice to your family
I’ll have a report on some of my loot later…
I’ve been out doing a little more shopping today, I didn’t think the stores were bad at all. Some stores had long queues but lots of registers open, so I didn’t wait much more than an average day. Plus, I cashed in one of my gift certificates and bought Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Their Backyard, Basement or Garage while at Borders (thanks!).
Everyone please drive safe and take care today. Be nice to your family even if they are making you cRaZy!
So I remember having to come home from college one week when my Grandfather was really sick. I was really close to him, my Mom and I lived with him and Grandma until I was six or seven. I don’t even remember what it was for but I know it was a really big deal. I had to get a professor to let me have an extension on a big exam (maybe it was a final) for a “family emergency”. I really liked the Prof but he was a pain in many ways and he asked for a note. I remember saying that “if everything went well there wouldn’t be anything to get a note for”, he said no problem and told me to reschedule the exam later.
We were there for hours, I don’t remember much of the day, I remember reading that damn calculus book but not much else about the day. What I really remember is going into see him after the operation. Someone, maybe my Mom, said he was in bad shape but the operation went well. I went in the room and he had a ventilator tube down his throat and about a dozen IVs in him and a bunch of beeping charting machinery. I had no idea, I had to get out of there and go out in the hall, it was too much for me. I was probably twenty-two or twenty-three at the time and someone followed me out of the room to check on me, one of my uncles maybe, I think they were afraid I was going pass out or something. I don’t remember what they said, something like ‘we knew it was going to be bad’ and I wanted to scream “I’m just a kid. I’ve never seen anyone like that before. How am I supposed to know what’s bad!?!” Before then I probably hadn’t seen anyone with more than an IV or two. Nobody had been really sick since I was younger and they had kept me out of the hospital those times, so I was pretty clueless. I did go back in the room, but was a bit more prepared when I went back in, as I said I had no clue.
It’s funny because I probably never would have referred to myself as a kid at the time but I certainly felt it. But I didn’t have any other frame of reference to put that in. He did fine afterward the surgery, he lived about another decade afterwards…
That whole scene’s been popping into my head a lot lately, not sure why. No one’s in the hospital, no one’s sick. My other grandfather died just about a year ago so I know that’s been in my head. It just keeps coming up. Plus, I always get a little morbid around the holidays from missing “the way it used to be”. Tonight there was a hospital scene on TV that looked too familiar and made me start thinking about it, so here I am…
FYI – the comment about ‘we knew it was going to be bad’ was re-written several times, it was very caring and not condescending. But I can’t get it written the way I want so you get this little disclaimer.
So Thanksgiving was great, really really cold, but it was great. We were at my cousin’s house, which used to be my grandparents, which is where I grew up until I was about seven. She had family from her in-law’s side there and some relatives from our side. There wasn’t many from my side of the family but they only live a few blocks from my Mom (we’re the only single people left around here so we always tag along with their events). We probably had about a half-dozen kids too so they were fun, I haven’t seen them much at all lately so it was great to see all of them.
My extra bonus for the day was that my cousin’s sister-in-law was there and she had her eleven week-old baby and he was great. I got to feed him and hold him for a long time (and a little bit later on too). He was great, I haven’t had many babies around lately, the next youngest ones (who weren’t there) are about two-and-a-half now, still fun but too heavy to carry around for that long.
So my cousin Scott and Katie showed up for dessert and so did his dad and girlfriend so it got to be a full house at the end of the evening. . He had a new iPod nano that I was checking out.
So the Jones Soda company has released their Thanksgiving Dinner in a bottle. The soda flavors included are: Brussels Sprout with Prosciutto, Cranberry Sauce, Turkey & Gravy, Wild Herb Stuffing, and Pumpkin Pie (Also included: Serving spoon, moistened towelette, and wine list). how cool is that?!? I’m armed with some to take with me to Thanksgiving Dinner. We’ll see who I can dare to try it.
They also released a pack with Broccoli Casserole, Smoked Salmon Paté, Turkey & Gravy, Corn on the Cob, and Pecan Pie. I’d really like to try the Corn on the Cob but I guess that packaging was just regionally distributed.
Around Halloween I tried the Caramel Apple, it was interesting. It tasted like apples and then the aftertaste was the caramel. Definitely different…
So it finally happened, after being there for days (and days) my buddy’s brain finally misfired. This is a good thing, the whole purpose of him being there is for this to happen and them to observer/record/monitor it so they can “fix him”.
They still want to keep him for a bit more (they want more data). The doctor had noticed some (very) slight activity on the left side of his head earlier in the week and I guess this all centered in that general area (data good!). Not sure how long they’ll keep him, I guess they generally like 3-5 occurrences of the problem before they let you go and he’s nowhere near that. Usually, if it’s a bad one (and I guess this was a kinda bad one) he can feel some after effects (aftershocks) and not so much with this. So we’ll just have to see…
So my buddy is in the hospital for the week (or maybe two). He’s under observation for some concerns revolving around his brain misfiring. I’m not going to get into the specifics of the “brain issues” but it involves some memory lapses (so if I ever murder anyone, I’m going to pin the whole thing on him). The thing is he’s wired up (see photo) 24/7 on a 20-30 foot connection and under video surveillance. And to top it off, he has no internet access
So he’s probably bored out of his skull, they’ve weaned him off his medication, have sleep deprived him and he hasn’t had any problems. No problems mean nothing to measure, which means nothing to solve. And to top it off the other five people under observation have all had occurrences of whatever problems they are “in” for…
He’s got a DVD/VCR but the remote is missing and without the remote you can’t pause it or skip/fast-forward. So this means he’s got to watch a show straight through or if a Doctor or Nurse comes in he has to ignore it and start it over later (ignoring the parts he’s already seen).
No complaints about the food but everyone brings him food/snacks/cookies/pie/etc…
I’d be going crazy but he seems to be doing okay so far. It’s another sleep deprived night for him
So this week I’ve had a few weird dreams. I generally don’t recall a lot of dreams but I think with the extra sleep and the trying to get back to sleep (and the medicine) has increased the dreams and/or the recollection.
I didn’t have any dreams about the weird, but excellent, movie I saw last week, I’ll review that later (really!) but since it’s all surreal and dream-like I’m surprised.
I never really gave any followup on the birthday, even after all the great comments, here’s a little more info: So last weekend a group of us went to play WhirlyBall, picture a playing catch with a whiffle ball and scoops, but you’re shooting for a target at the end of the court and you’re driving bumper cars (no, I’m not kidding). It’s hysterical, we had a blast, friends, relatives and people I work (and worked) with. They have a bar there and we had pizzia, munchies and (of course) cake.
Lot’ of funny cards, gift cards and books. I’m always pretty had to buy for so there were actually lots of gift cards. I’m not good at the whole getting the gifts thing, I was just be pretty happy to have lots of people there. Afterwards some of us, (I’ll define “us” as the ‘kids’ without any aunts/uncles or parents there), went out for some drinks and more conversation. I went out with friend’s and family at other various times: this means meals, drinks and presents
I’ll be mentioning books and music and other things as I read and listen to them. I really need to get a better digital camera for low light (FYI, that’s my Mom in front), maybe I’ll consolidate some of my gift cards and take the plunge. We should have done a posed picture out on the court.
My cousin Scott was there, who I just found out blogs and he’s already mentioned playing in his blog. Katie was the rebound queen and one of the high scorers and also has a blog. We only had one little kid there, Thomas, but they wouldn’t even let us take him for a spin while oone else was on the court…
Speaking of blogs, Dave (from eMusings at Chez Goodman) mentioned it was my birthday so I had a few new visitors from his place…
Thanks again for all the nice wishes!
I’m off to East Lansing to get Chinese Food, Ice Cream, see the beautiful campus, get happy hour (Wings, Nachos, Long Island Iced Teas) and more Ice Cream. If you’re around we’ll be in P.T. O’Malleys at 4:30 for Happy Hour (Grand River and Abott) feel free to come by and I’ll buy you a drink (or two).
I forgot to mention this the other day: After the London bombing I realized that Andi and Neil had moverd over there for the summer so I hopped on over to Finella’s Muse (Andi’s blog) and sure enough she had made a post earlier titled “We are okay!”. What a strange way to check on someone’s safety…
She’s been posting interesting updates with photos, be sure to scroll down to July 7th and work your way back up…
The death toll of the bombings seem to have stayed at 49 but there are still 31 people missing. After this amount of time I’d have to unfortunately assume the worst…
And I just wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms and Mother’s to be! There seem to be a be quite a few of you blogging about it.
These photos are (obviously) of my Mom! The one she’s about 10 (I’d guess) and the other (well I won’t say how old she is, but the photo is three years old) is a photo of her in Florida (St. Pete Beach?).
So I went over to Mount Olivet Cemetery this weekend. It’s a huge cemetery in Detroit. Part of it’s on the other side of Outer Drive and there’s a little tunnel that connects the two sides. It’s where my grandparents (from my mother’s side) were buried and my grandfather’s sister and his parents are also buried there. I took out my garden tools (which are limited since I only use them for days like today) and dug out around the stones and got rid of the grass that was covering the stones. I cleaned it all up and used some water to clean off the stones when I was done. I had never met my great-grandparents and I had never noticed that my great-grandfather died before my mother was born, some how I never realized this before… That’s been slightly disturbing to me the past few days.
I also dug around and cleaned up the two O’Neil tombstones that are practically right on top of ours. They are so close I actually went into the office once to see if they were somehow related. They were just so neglected, I think it’s because the stones have sunk so far it’s easy for the dirt and grass to get on them. My great-grandfather’s is almost as bad and his is lower then the other family members so I’m guessing that’s why. The writing on his is pretty faded, does anyone know if you can get tombstones re-engraved?
The game is called WhirlyBall. Picture it as Jai Alai (with the the scoops with a whiffle ball) but you ride around in bumper cars and your trying to score by making shots in a flat basket on the wall. I really wish I had taken photos so I could illustrate this. This was hysterical to play, we had about twenty people and we played in shifts (8-10 minute games are more than long enough) and you play in teams. It was great! It was easy for all us to learn and lots of laughter! Thanks to Jenny and Susan for inviting me!!!
What else can I tell you: It was a little pricy, I’m guessing it was about $300 for the court for two hours (but that’s why you bring a bunch of people). The official site is http://whirlyball.com/ but they don’t list all the locations, I’m only listing it since it has some visuals. The scoops and the wiffleball is available as a kids game on it’s own (you basically just play catch) but none of us could think of the name of the game, we found it as a toy called Jai Alai but we thought the sport used much longer scoops (can anyone help me with the name of this kids game?!?)…
Harry loved the Harrison Roadhouse so after the funeral (see my earlier post) we went to the Roadhouse to eat and drink (and be merry) and they had changed the sign out in front of the restaurant to read “We Luv Ya Harry”.
The funeral was at the MSU Alumni Chapel and it was packed to capacity (standing room only). Harry seemed to know everyone and everyone seemded to really care about him. The service was great and Darren gave an excellent speech on Harry meeting Melissa (Mom) and becoming part of their family and Harry becoming his and Rebekah’s Dad. A few others had things to say up on the podium but we weren’t really sure if we should applaud but when Darren was done we knew we should…
Harry Carswell passed away last week… I’ve restarted this a few times and I guess I don’t really know what to put here… I’ll start with a story: About three or four years ago I was visiting Harry in the hospital, I don’t remember exactly what he said the doctors told him, something like “six months to live” and I laughed and then he joined in so I felt a little better about it because I knew he knew why I laughed. We laughed because ten or fifteen years before that after some major heat surgery they had given him three to five years (or some other deadline he was way past). I’m sure a few other times (not even related to those issues) they had given him some other timelines and they all passed but then he’d have some other problems every so often. He knew it was time this time and moved back into his home last month because that’s where he wanted to be.
Harry worked at Michigan State University with Student Services, the Homecomming Committee, Student Life and I’m not sure what else; it seemed like he knew everyone there. It’s funny, I never had any direct connection to him when I went there or (kinda) worked there. I met him through one of my best friends and he eventually married her (and her kids). They got married at the president’s house at the university (I told you he knew everyone) and remember videotaping the wedding. He was only forty-nine and in addition to squeezing a hospital visits into his time he sure managed to squeeze a lot of life into it too.
So I’m in the hospital today. Mom’s getting some surgery on her shoulder. We had to be here by 6:15 am, did you know it’s still dark out then?!? She’s done already and the Doc said everything went perfect and she’ll be out of recover in a few hours. Yeah!!
I’m posting this from the hospital via their free WiFi! Actually it’s more likely it’s an accidentally open access point, but I can’t be sure, there’s free coffee and kleenex, why not WiFi?
Merry Christmas! We’ll ignore the whole spirit and joy thing for now and just talk about the important stuff: What did I get!!!
I got the Cartographica Extraordinaire: The Historical Map Transformed which is a huge book about maps and the evolution of them. I like maps* and I saw these guys on the The Screen Savers talking about maps and the book and they way they superimpose images and scan and do stuff to make old maps better…
I got shirts and ties and gift certificates and something from my amazon wishlist that didn’t arrive yet (but I don’t know what it is) and candy and wine and a 512MB(!) thumb drive and that’s all I can think of for now.
* I’ve always liked maps. Maps and luggage. Digital maps, fold-up maps, road maops, etc. Always on the quest for the perfect map! For the luggage thing, I’m always looking for travel bags, backpacks, laptop cases, anything with lots of pockets to store all my junk and gizmos and stuff.
Mexican style food and appetizers for dinner were fun! The kids sure seemed to love it. To clarify these are kids that I bought gifts for last weekend’s holiday get together, so we’re just there to hang out and eat and watch the kids play (this is fine with me they’re hysterical to watch). So now the adults have wrapped up gift cards from the kids for me as a thanks (this isn’t normal). Which is great, I love gift cards, Target and Best Buy (like I’m not in those stores 3 times a week), I’m even conscientious about how I spend them; I won’t use them to fill my prescriptions, I’ll use them when I get music, movie or some accessory for my computer or iPod (then I can tell them what I got).
Okay so I digressed, again, but I buy the presents for the kids ’cause I want to. I find stuff I like and I’ll know they like and it makes me happy. I figure out what I wanted for one the girls and spent too much time/money on it, but it’s what I wanted, so it’s what I got. What I want (at most) is for the kids to make me something as a gift or thank you. Or to make sure you invite me to the birthdays, I don’t eat much and I bring good presents, what’s the problem…
Two of the points made me laugh since they apply to me:
It’ll probably be a little different when I have kids, whenever that will be. Maybe that’s all they need to do for me, secure a date with a single friend, that the exchange dynamic gets different and I (we) eventually end up with a kid or two (isn’t that the better conclusion)…
We’ve now hit the effect of being alone at Christmas and the Ambien sleeping pill is starting to kick in…
I wonder how all this stuff will read back tomorrow…
So it’s Chirstmas Eve (day) and I’m trying to finish stuff up. All I’ve got to get together is Mom’s loot and some clothes for tomorrow (and I’ve got to wrap Mom’s stuff still). I think everyone else that I’m seeing in the next 36 hours I’ve already exchanged gifts with (at least I hope so).
Tonight, Mom & I will go over my Aunt’s (or is it my cousin’s? they’re only three houses apart) and watch the kids go crazy, I think they’ll only be four of them (unless it’s at my cousin’s, where there might be kids-in-law). We’ll head to my Mom’s (eight or nine blocks away) and do presents and stuff in the morning. Then dinner with her boyfriend and then I’ll head home and let them do gifts, etc. Now that I’m thinking of it, he might be there tonight if he’s not working.
Every drive safe and have a great holiday!!!
So my grandfather passed away last week, just days after I commented on not seeing him and my grandmother enough. We’ll work out the guilt on that later (and we will). I’ve never done a funeral before with that side (my father’s) of the family. I had volunteered to do a reading at the church, I’m glad I did especially since no one else had volunteered to do any readings I got to do all three reading…
So it was pretty much the same as most funerals but a little more boring. Same church as usual, same place for food after (as usual), but less fun, I know it’s a funeral but I usually feel a little more like it’s a celebration. Nothing super different, just a few more jokes and stories and such afterwards (or even during). I was really ready for a drink by the time we got the restaurant, but they did the no smoking no drinking option; I’m not really sure why I’m mentioning the drink part but it’s days later and it’s stuck in my head so it’s out on this virtual “piece of paper”.
My cousin’s 11 month-old there and I got to play with her (once she warmed up to me) so that was great, she loved playing with the christmas ornaments on the wall and looking in the mirror. And I got to see all sorts of people that I hadn’t seen in a while and that was nice, I just wish we could do it more often than funerals and other obligatory days.
So since I’ve moved back to the Detroit area I don’t don’t see some of my family as much. Here’s why: I’m now about 30-35 minutes away from most of them compared to 90 minutes. That might not make sense since I’m closer to them, but when I was 90 minutes away (East Lansing area) I came and spent the day or maybe the day and part of the next day and while I was there I’d visit others, heck if it was nice I’d rollerblade or bicycle around town and visit others. Now I’ll just head in, have dinner (or do whatever the mission is) and head home; voila 3 hours later and I’m home and visited for 2 hours where before that was just the the travel time.
End result: I’ve probably seen Mom as many hours as I normally do (partially since she’ll come my way more often) and I’ve gotten to a few more birthday’s (cousin’s kids) that I might have missed but where I’m lacking (and I’ve been very aware of it) is seeing my Grandparents on my father’s side. I don’t really see that side of the family much but I did used to visit my grandparents a lot more often (at least every other visit into town). Communication wasn’t always good, I’d generally hear about illnesses or operations after the fact.
So the point is (you knew I’d get to it eventually) is that my Grandfather is in the hospital and so I spent a few hours at the hospital with him and that side of the family last night. I’m under the impression it’s really not good. He seemed pretty conscious but they had this high velocity oxygen mask (I’m not kidding, his eyelids and cheeks flutter when it blows, I’m pretty sure it’s to help him breathe but to avoid something more invasive like intubating him) so it was pretty had for him to talk or the hear him or for him to hear us. I’ll know more later but I’m thinking it’s not really good.
And the darn phone keeps ringing, I guess I should answer it or at least play the messages…
I hope everyone has time today to think about the things we are all thankful for. Of course I’m thankful for my family, friends, health and all that stuff but there are so many extras that we take for granted.
I’m thinking if you’re reading this over the holiday weekend there are some assumptions I can make about readers (bloogees?) and what they we may take for granted: a computer, Internet access (high speed?) and the skills to do all this. Assuming you have all that, it probably means you’ve got food, shelter, heat and necessities that others may not have.
This (Internet stuff) is what some of us do for fun and if you’re like me you go into withdrawal if you don’t have access for a while, but it’s really a privilege and most of us don’t think of it that way any more. These days it seems like some of these things are necessities of life but we need to remember and be thankful for them…
That’s it, I’m done with my sermon. Just be thankful for everything and don’t take too much for granted. Have a Happy Holiday and drive careful.
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