morrowlife

Here’s LRN4 with a simulated Native American friend.  That’s LRN4 there on the left.  I’m trying to decide whether this type of thing is offensive.  I’m part Native American and I’m not offended.  Wikipedia can’t decide.  How about you, Loyal Readers?  Should I censor this Great Art?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken during our 2012 East Coast cruise, and part of my famous Statue and Vacation series.

Happy first day of summer!  One of my favorite days of the year!  Of course, it’s also the longest day of the year, which is also one of my favorite things.  Unfortunately, that means it’s all downhill from here for the next six months.  Still, we won’t let that ruin our celebration, will we?  LRN4 and I celebrated the long, beautiful day by taking a long, beautiful walk right before sunset.  Couldn’t have been nicer.

No post yesterday and today’s post is courtesy of the Wonders of WordPress.  I was extremely busy and unable to write.  I got a new computer!  It’s another [amazon asin=B007474DSM&text=MacBook Pro] – this time a fifteen-incher with the Retina display, a 2.7 GHz quad-core i7 chip, 16 GB of memory, 1 GB of video memory, and a 512 GB solid state hard drive.  It’s beautiful and unbelievably fast.  I love it.  I got the bigger screen to make it easier to program on while still remaining small and light enough to easily carry around.  Mission accomplished.

There were a few challenges moving my user account over to the new machine – everything transferred, but the email didn’t want to be upgraded to the latest version of mail.app.  It took several tries until I finally figured out that I just needed to transfer the mail folder over from the old machine again.  Lots of people have had this problem and they came up with all kinds of ways to resolve it, but this one was the easiest-looking and it worked for me.  So I’m good.

I also had lots of trouble getting Boot Camp installed.  For some reason, the Windows bootup couldn’t recognize the boot disk I had created on a thumb drive.  I tried all kinds of ways to fix that and discovered that I needed to start it with the Option key held down and select the thumb drive itself as the boot drive.  Then it was smooth sailing.

Speaking of booting, does this machine boot fast or what?  Answer: it boots fast.  Incredibly fast.  The solid-state drive has a lot to do with that, of course – it’s amazing.  Applications start effectively immediately and the thing boots in just a few seconds.  Everyone should have one of these.

I also got a new [amazon asin=B009W9AEOM&text=iPad] on Thursday.  My old first-gen iPad was having problems.  It’s still working perfectly, but I had constant app crashes when I tried to view complex web pages.  It had become practically unusable to me.  I handed it down to LRN4, though, and it’s working great for her.  I got the 4G iPad with Retina display and 32 GB of memory.  Also got the [amazon asin=B0060GEWFC&text=leather cover].  It’s all beautiful, fast, and sleek.  Ought to last me another few years.  Also, they’re both used for business, so they’re deductible on my income taxes.  Hooray for owning a business!

Of course, I still need to make some income from which to write off.  Working on that now.

Anyway.  LRN4’s doing well.  She’s a little discouraged at the slow pace of improvement.  In fact, her taste buds even appear to be getting a little worse.  That’s not encouraging.  Still, I continue to see steady progress.  She’s gotten past the quick, devastating, difficult part and done amazingly well.  Now she’s up against the slow recovery.  She’s doing fine with that too, but it’s a very different thing.

On Thursday, LRN4’s white cell count was up to 8.9!  That neupogen stuff works great!  Most other numbers were great too.  Interestingly, her platelet count was also up substantially over the post-transfusion numbers from Monday.  Hopefully, that means her new stem cells are really up to speed in that area too.

No new numbers until Monday.  We’re going to the clinic, eating, sleeping, resting, walking, reading, writing, and goofing around.  Pretty good life.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting toilet news: the world’s first toilet-themed amusement park!  Be sure to check out that sculpture garden.

See you on Monday.

Here’s LRN1 preparing for a college game of Capture the Flag or something.  He took it very seriously indeed.  I don’t think he lost.  Note the attire of his competitors there in the background.  They weren’t taking it nearly seriously enough.  Great Art courtesy of an unnamed friend of LRN1, taken in June of 2012, and part of my famous Event series.

By the way, I can just barely see LRN1 in that picture.  How about you?

Okay day today.  We spent most of it at the clinic.  In the morning, they took LRN4’s blood and gave her her daily dose of Micafungin.  By the time that was done, they had the blood test results back and decided she needed some platelets to prepare for the afternoon’s treatment.  They gave her the cells and took more blood to find out if her level was high enough.  It wasn’t quite there, so they ordered some more platelets.  We waited, they came, they infused them, they took more blood, and they wanted us to wait another half hour for the results.  Sadly, we were about 50 minutes away from our afternoon appointment, so we told them we needed to grab some lunch and promised to come back for the results.

Oh, in the meantime, the blood test results also told them LRN4’s white cells were below the safe level, so they gave her some neupogen.  That’s the same stuff they gave her sister to prepare for the transplant.  Not a problem – the doctor predicted she’d need it and says it’s completely normal for the white cell count to go way up post-transplant and then drop again.  Neupogen is the way they treat that condition.

We got our quick lunch and headed back to the clinic.  They still didn’t have the blood results, but they told us to go down to Radiology and promised the results would follow us shortly.  They did.  We were in Radiology for LRN4’s second spinal tap and chemo treatment.  It went very quickly and appears to have gone very well.  She spent about three hours flat on her back preventing a nasty post-spinal-tap headache.  Then we went home.

Not a difficult day, but a long one.

LRN4 was pretty drowsy when it was all over because they gave her something to prevent anxiety during the spinal tap.  She didn’t need help with anxiety, being a cool, calm, collected patient, but they gave it to her anyway.  Afterward, they told us she didn’t have to have taken it, so I suspect she’ll refuse it next time.

Anyway, she was drowsy, so I made dinner.  Scary, huh?  We had Polish sausage, potatoes, and carrots with a little cottage cheese and applesauce salad on the side.  Delicious.  And not difficult at all.  Thanks for choosing an incredibly easy one today, LRN4!

LRN8 called and left me a message yesterday.  Hoped to call her back this morning after clinic, but that plan evaporated.  Would have called her back this afternoon, but ditto that plan.  There was zero phone reception where we were.  So I’ll try tomorrow.  Sorry, LRN8!  Can’t wait to chat.

Got a tiny bit of work done today, but nothing really significant because of the aforementioned clinic visits.  Tomorrow, hopefully.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: cheese smuggling!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN4 spinning.  I have no idea why she was smiling and not throwing up.  Great Art taken at Dorney Park, PA last September, courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, and part of my famous Machinery series.

Good day today.  LRN29 spent the morning with us, as usual.  And we had a nice visit, also as usual.  She and LRN4 went to the clinic this morning and took a walk around the gardens afterwards, something LRN29 hadn’t done before.  They reported it was enjoyable and that we’re living in a beautiful place.

Later in the day, LRN4 needed to head out to the store.  I was working on my educational app (progress so far: small), so she decided to go by herself.  That’s kind of a big step as far as I’m concerned.  Everything went well, of course.  I’m sure she enjoyed a few minutes of alone time, which she hasn’t gotten much any of since February.  Also, it’s yet another sign of how well things are going.

Spent a lot of the day working on my educational app, as mentioned above.  I got some basic structure done after working on it for a couple of days.  Then I Google-Plus’d with LRN1 and discovered a much easier way to make it work better, look better, and include the basic database structure, just by changing the type of project.  Sigh.  I scrapped everything I’d done so far and have started over. This was a good time for that, since I really had made very little progress.  I’m getting back into the groove with iOS programming, though, so it wasn’t completely wasted time.  In fact, I’ll venture that it wasn’t even mostly wasted.  Many software development gurus (maybe I should just skip directly from developer to guru – what do you think?) say software projects are most successful if you throw away your first draft anyway.  This wasn’t exactly a first draft, but maybe I can call my throwaway done on this project.

Anyway.  Spent another hour or so this evening talking with LRN23 about business decisions I need to make on my medical software project.  We didn’t really reach any conclusions, but he gave me lots of good advice and good things to think about.  I really have a lot of work to do on that one too.

It’s great to have more work than I can handle!  Nobody is paying me to do any of it right now, but I have high hopes for a very good payout from both of my major projects in the not-too-distant future.  No guarantees, but no limits either.

And I spent my blogging time talking with my brother, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news:  thrown black pudding incident!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s my beloved pickup loaded for LRN1’s trip to Utah a year ago.  At least I think it was LRN1.  Was it LRN2?  That’s LRN2’s bike on top of the pile.  Help me, Loyal Readers!  Slightly crooked Great Art possibly taken by LRN1, situated in my lamented three-car garage in Lardville, and part of my famous Machinery series.

Wonders of WordPress.  I forgot to post Monday night.  Had plenty of time.  Remembered right after I went to bed.  Decided to wait until Tuesday morning.  So I’ll try to confine myself to things that happened on the weekend and Monday.  Tuesday’s doings will be reported tonight.

So what happened?  All the Loyal Readers have come and gone.  We had a great time during our visit.  Overate, overshared, over everything.  Good weekend.

LRN4’s health continues to improve.  I still see improvement every single day.  She has more stamina, she’s stronger, she’s more capable.  The changes are definitely incremental, but they’re visible.  Our Monday visit with the doctor went well.  Her sore toe has a blister under the toenail.  The doctor said it will probably pop soon, followed by immediate pain relief.  Looks nasty, but she apparently isn’t going to lose the nail.  Blisters under toenails – yikes.  Cancer is a strange thing.

Her white cell count was lower again, but her platelets are up.  The white count is fine – he says it’s completely normal and will go back up when it’s ready.  If it gets too low, he’ll give her the same drug they gave Melanie to force cells to grow.  Now that she’s in remission, it’s safe to do that.

The platelet count is a great sign – they’re apparently the last thing to come back.  He told us the other day that her genetic structure is 99% that of her sister and that the cells have definitely engrafted.  So everything’s normal and going exactly as expected.  We just never know what to expect next.

Had a nice Father’s Day.  All the kids called, although LRN5 and I were never able to connect.  We did have nice conversations with each other’s voice mail, though.  We’ll talk Real Soon Now.  I opened my new [amazon asin=B00068EXQ8&text=beard trimmer] and tried it out.  Works great!  The hair is finally out of my mouth.  And the beard is definitely looking good.  Kind of like Colonel Sanders, I think, although I’ve been unfortunately compared to Sam the Snowman.  Have a holly jolly Christmas, everybody!

Tried to go to the “gentle yoga” class in the afternoon.  Turns out you need to pre-register.  To do that, you need your doctor’s okay.  There’s no doubt LRN4 can get that, but I don’t know if she’ll bother.  They let us observe the class.  I can vouch for the fact that it’s “gentle.”  I fell asleep.  So did LRN4.  I think actually doing the yoga would keep you awake, but I can’t guarantee anything.

That’s it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: hot sauce tantrum!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s our back yard in Las Vegas.  I’ve been thinking about the house a lot and wishing we could be there.  It’ll happen soon enough, but it’s encouraging to have a look at some pictures every once in a while.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken shortly after the back yard was completed, and part of my famous Garden and Las Vegas series.

Desert landscaping can still be a garden.

Quick note.  All the Loyal Readers were here today, plus my mom.  Mom and LRN9 arrived Wednesday night and we got together Thursday morning.  LRN23 and spouse arrived yesterday evening.  We spent the day today visiting, with LRN23 and Sara leaving in the early evening (to drive all the way directly to Tucson – long trip!).  It’s now about 10:30 in the evening and LRN9 and Mom just left after a delightful day.  I loved it all.

They’re here again all day tomorrow and are flying to Orlando Sunday morning.  We may have to think of someplace to go or something to do.  My mom’s not comfortable walking long distances right now, so the day might have to be adjusted accordingly.  Or maybe we’ll just hang around the Village.  Time will tell.

LRN4 is doing very well.  Her white cell count was down some on Thursday, but her doctor seems to think that’s just how these things go.  He’s watching everything very carefully, so I feel like he’ll be on top of anything bad that might happen before it becomes a disaster.  Otherwise, we’re just moving forward and trying not to worry about day-to-day variations in the numbers.  Progress continues.

LRN4 and I have been walking up and down a fairly long staircase in the hospital building every morning after our clinic visit and again sometimes in the evening.  This morning, she graduated from three times up and down to four, so there’s good progress there.  In addition, she’s getting up there faster and with less exhaustion.  I see strengthening every day.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the exact same for myself.  I want to eat Atkins-approved foods, but I’m not, so I’m not getting back down to my starting weight before this mess all started.  Things will continue to normalize and I’ll get there.  Just not as quickly as I probably could.

Haven’t worked the past two days.  I’ll start up again after company leaves.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this extremely rare toilet news: toilet scam!

See you on Monday.