morrowlife

Here’s LRN4 turning her back on our little Village apartment for the last time on Monday of this week.  Well, for the last time this month, anyway.  We expect to be back there in October, possibly for another extended stay.  Maybe even much longer than our previous one.  Although it’s almost certain we won’t be back in good old Number 141.  For all its (numerous) flaws, it was a good temporary home to us.  We were happy there, and that’s what matters.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken Monday morning of this week at the Parsons Village on the City of Hope campus, and part of my famous Architecture and Garden series.

Yeah, I know I play kind of fast and loose with my famous series.  There’s a building and some plants in that Great Art.  That’s architecture and a garden, as far as this blog is concerned.

Pretty good day, in some respects.  Pretty trying in others.  The good – LRN4 is feeling better this evening than she was this morning.  The trying – she spent 11 hours in the emergency room getting a couple of blood transfusions.  Our doctor couldn’t get her scheduled into the outpatient clinic, so that’s where he told us to go.  It was no fun.  After a couple hours, she convinced me to go home and work on my iOS app.  I reluctantly did.  Things worked out for her and I made some real progress.  Lots more to do, but I think I have a good start on tomorrow’s work.  Might even get a report or two generated tomorrow.  As usual, the iPad version is giving me troubles – that stupid split-view controller is really hard to do right.

Anyway, LRN4’s also feeling pretty good tonight because she slept very well last night and then had time for a couple naps while she was hooked up to the blood machine.  That’s apparently the ticket – frequent naps.  I’ll have to look into that myself as well.

We had a very late dinner tonight, since we didn’t get home until after 9:00.  We were both very ready to eat.  After dinner, LRN4 suggested we have some [amazon asin=B003KYSLMW&text=ice cream] out on the deck.  It was really pleasant.  The hospital is on the far east side of town, and we noticed that a weather front had just come through when we got outside.  The front hadn’t arrived at our house yet when we got home, and it passed through while we were outside.  The temperature dropped by probably ten degrees (all the way down to 90 or so!) and there was a nice breeze.  So we enjoyed our ice cream even more.

There’s a bit of work to do on the deck, by the way.  A couple of plants are dead – although the overwhelming majority are extremely health and have grown very nicely while we were away – and most of the beautiful, dramatic [amazon asin=B001RTG8U4&text=lighting] is burned out.  Also, we’ve decided the [amazon asin=B005J0FYHU&text=lemon tree] is in a very bad place and we want to swap it with the fencepost cactus.  So I sent an email to our landscaping guy this evening and we hope to see him in the next week or so.

And it’s late already, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: polluting monkey!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a hot pink rose.  Great Art taken last Saturday at the City of Hope rose garden, courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, and part of my exclusive Garden series.

Is that color hot pink, Loyal Readers?  I’m guessing here.

No post yesterday.  I remember right after I went to bed, and by then it was too late.  Sorry about that, Loyal Readers.

Had a good couple of days.  I got both of the dead cars started and drove each one for about half an hour.  The Mini’s doing fine.  My beloved pickup, sadly, was unwilling to start again after I shut it down.  After jumping it a couple more times with no more restarting luck, I decided it was time for a new battery.  Went to the dreaded Walmart to get a new one this morning.  After I picked one and started walking away with it, LRN4 noticed where it says “Free Installation.”  So I put it back on the shelf, went home, jump-started the truck one more time, and drove it over there for a new battery.  There were no other cars in the shop, so they got me right in and had the new battery installed within 20 minutes.  And the engine started when I turned the key!  Amazing.

Anyway.  LRN4 continues to feel pretty good.  She’s still getting tired fairly easily, but she’s keeping busy organizing the house and just enjoying being home.  So am I.  She was delighted to report this morning that she’s starting to gain some of her lost weight back.  Hopefully, that’s a trend that will continue for a while.  We visited our Las Vegas doctor this afternoon – hadn’t seen him since late March, but he’s been following LRN4’s progress while we’ve been away.  It was great to see him again.  I think things are going to go just fine while we’re here, although it will be just a little less convenient doing things like transfusions.  They don’t do those in the office, so we’ll have to go to a hospital way across town every time.  So we’ll be busy.

And that’s about it for today.  A little bit of progress on the iOS app last night, none whatsoever today.  It’s going to be a real challenge getting it done.  But I’ll get it done.  Going to start taking my trusty laptop with me to appointments.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: attack giraffe!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s our new pet.  Well, it’s a volunteer pet, anyway.  It flew up to us shortly after we got here this afternoon and refused to leave.  It’s very tame and a pretty little bird.  We can’t have it, though.  LRN4’s condition won’t permit it.  Besides, it belongs to someone, presumably.  But it sure didn’t want to go back.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in our front yard this afternoon, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Bird series.

That’s right, we’re back in Las Vegas!  And glad of it, I can assure you, Loyal Readers.  The house was in great shape when we got here, thanks to Melanie.  Our car was quite full, so not everything is put away yet.  But we’ll get there tomorrow.

LRN4 is doing very well today.  I can tell she’s getting tired fairly easily, but she’s otherwise doing great.  We visited with the doctor this morning, who pronounced LRN4 fit to travel.  After getting platelets and micafungin, that is.  I went back to the Village after she got called in for the infusion and packed like the wind.  Everything was done and we were ready to go at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Traffic was fairly light for most of the trip, other than the one time it came to a complete stop.  Fortunately, we were stopped right by an exit.  Lots of people, including a bunch of truckers, were jumping off there and I decided to follow them.  If you can’t trust a trucker to know the back roads, you can’t trust anybody.  And it worked!  We followed a roughly parallel road for five miles or so and then checked out the freeway, which was clear.  So we bypassed whatever the problem was and went on our way.  And everything was fine after that.  Great trip!

My dad got here right after we did (I had phoned him and told him when to expect me, so it wasn’t that great of a miracle) and helped us unload the car.  We gave him a tour around the place, he said some nice things about it, he went and got us a pizza (thanks!), and then we left.  He flies out very early tomorrow morning.  It was a nice visit and we truly appreciate it.

And let’s see what else is going on.  Both of the cars are dead.  Well, their batteries are dead, anyway.  I have my poor little trickle charger hooked up to the pickup and am hoping I can maybe get it to start tomorrow morning.  If not, there are always Ken’s jumper cables.  But I’m hoping it won’t come to that.

Also, there’s lots to put away.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: cornflake-caused arson!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a head above a doorway.  Kind of creepy, huh?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at Bryn Athyn in Pennsylvania last May, and part of my famous Statue and Architecture series.

Because statues attached to walls are architecture, right?

Very good day today.  My dad is here and we had a great visit today.  Didn’t do too much – we mostly hung around in the Village.  He and I did go out to the post office to pick up the mail, to the pharmacy to pick up a couple of prescriptions for LRN4, and to the car wash to clean up my filthy, disgusting car.  Now it’s a clean, beautiful car.  But in a day or two, it’ll be filthy and disgusting again.  Such is the way of cars.

We all went on a nice long walk around the hospital grounds, including up to the sixth floor of the hospital to have a look at the view from the lobby.  Enjoyable walk and a beautiful view.

We had lots of excellent conversation, a couple of outstanding meals made with loving care by LRN4, and a thoroughly pleasant day.  There’s one more to come tomorrow, and then he goes back to Las Vegas tomorrow night or on Sunday – I’m not sure which.  In either case, our plan is to get together one more time at our house on Monday afternoon/evening, after which he’ll go home on Tuesday.  We’ll be very sorry to see him leave.

LRN4 continues to feel pretty well.  She’s definitely not as strong as usual, but she’s hanging in there.  No new problems, no new issues, no muss, no fuss.  That’s a very good status, if you ask me.

No work on the app today.  We had company!  No work is likely tomorrow either.  I stayed up until 11:30 last night finishing up the security feature, so I’m giving myself a couple days off.  I think we can all agree it’s for the best.  I’m still working like to dog to release on schedule at the end of the month.

And that’s about it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: watermelon heist!

See you on Monday.

Here’s one more rose whose name I know – the beautiful Candelabra.  Can any of my Loyal Readers guess how I figured that one out?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope’s rose garden, and part of my famous Garden series.

Pretty good day today.  We visited LRN4’s doctor and we’re still on track for departure from California on Monday.  She’s feeling pretty good, although she continues to lose weight at a fairly alarming rate.  We really need to pump her back up.  Right away.  So our imminent departure is the good news.  The less-good news is that the doctor says we may need to be here in the Village for four weeks after each of the upcoming DLI transplants.  The even less less-good news is that the transplants will be four weeks apart from each other.  The even less less less-good news is that there will be about four of them.  And the even LESS less less less-good news is that this whole process will encompass Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, our 35th anniversary, and New Year’s Day.  Sigh.  Also all the days in between.  Plus a bunch before and after.

Our greatest hope is that LRN4’s graft-versus-host disease will be extremely mild or even non-existent, so maybe we can limit the stays to two weeks or so each.  Cross your fingers for us, Loyal Readers!

But it’s nothing we can’t handle in any case, as long as we’re working on that shot at LRN4’s long-term remission.  We’ll do it.  There are worse places to be.

Made some more progress on the app.  LRN31 has been running it and has made some excellent suggestions, all of which I plan to incorporate.  I’m working on the password protection feature right now.  I have the iPhone version working just fine, but the iPad version with its fancy-schmancy split view controller is being a major pain.  I’ve tried several things, none of which have worked right.  I’m sure the right thing is out there, though.  I have another consultation phone call scheduled with LRN1 tomorrow morning at 8:00.  It’s so great to have supergeniuses for children.

LRN4 spent a lot of time working on her blog today.  She’s trying to get the cover pictures taken for a couple of books she borrowed from the library here, before she has to return them over the weekend.  In order to get the cover pictures taken, she has to have finished all the projects for each of the books.  So she made a whole lot of really cute little things and a couple loaves of delicious lime pound cake, which I have been helping to eat.  It’s the least I can do.  I think she got everything done that needed doing, which is more than I can say for myself.

She was in such a hurry because my dad is coming to town tomorrow for a two-day visit.  He flew in to Las Vegas today and will return there on Saturday evening.  He doesn’t fly out until Tuesday morning, so we expect to get a chance to show him our new house on Monday afternoon.  We’re certainly looking forward to that, and to the weekend visit here.  It’s really kind of him to come out and visit us.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: macaroni and cheese-related stabbing!

See you tomorrow.