morrowlife

Here’s an . . . interesting little delicacy: fermented mudfish. In rice! Looks like somebody grabbed one of the jars already. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam taken at the very nifty Filipino grocery store very close to our house, and part of my famous Food and Las Vegas series.

Actually, I’m sure fermented mudfish is very . . . umm . . . relatively . . . umm . . . sort of good. Although the Wikipedia article on the stuff doesn’t really sound all that encouraging either. Best to leave it on the list of things not to try anytime soon.

Pretty good day. LRN4 was feeling reasonably chipper, although I think she maybe overdid things a bit. She’s pretty exhausted by tonight. I’ll try to make sure she gets plenty of rest tomorrow. Not that she really wants it, but she really needs it.

I’m feeling pretty optimistic for the future. I think we have a pretty fair chance of getting LRN4 into a remission that will last for a while. Of course, the odds aren’t really on our side right now, but they’re actually very good for a cancer patient and LRN4 has the strength and endurance to make it, and I think that’s half the battle. When you give up, you’re done.

I upgraded both my iPhone and my iPad to iOS 7 today. It still hasn’t been released, so I’ll refrain from giving a review here, but I will say that it’s a significant change. Just like everybody says. When I first got an iPad, I spent the first couple of days thinking I had just wasted $500, but I gradually started using it more and more often and it fairly quickly became a beloved constant companion. I think iOS 7 will do the same. Except for one built-in app. I hate that one and think it’s a horrible step backwards from the original. I’ll let you know later which one that is. For now, I just hate it. But I’m starting to like everything else.

Started working on the medical app today. I put together a website for it late yesterday evening. Have a look and tell me what I can improve. I humbly ask because I sincerely wish to improve. After a Google Plus chat with my partner John, we got it to compile again on my machine. I’ll start wringing it out as much as I can tomorrow. We have documentation to write, testing to do, conference participation to reserve, how to take payment to figure out, and probably a thousand other things to think about. I think it’ll be a serious full-time job from now until its release date on February.

I got a new thumb drive yesterday – the [amazon asin=B003DTLWHU&text=Tuff ‘N Tiny 16 GB] model. I love it so far. Highly recommended. The occasion was that we thought we had lost the USB drive in LRN4’s car, so I gave her one of mine and ordered a replacement. She found her old one today. Oh well, you can’t have too many thumb drives, I always say.

Today was 9/11. Like a lot of people, I thought today about what I was doing that day twelve years ago. I was at work outside the beltway in Washington, DC. We didn’t leave early that day, but when I finally went home, it was eerie. We were apparently the only company idiotic enough to stay at work that day (thanks, Phil, you idiot!) and the roads were deserted. I traveled south on the beltway from work and got on I-95 south. I was driving my Miata with the top down, so I had a pretty good 180 degree view of the sky. Shortly after getting on I-95, I saw Air Force One with an F16 on each wing flying over at just a couple thousand feet. I don’t know if President Bush wanted to view the damage to the Pentagon from above or what, because Andrews Air Force Base is nowhere near where that plane was, but there it was. The only passenger airplane in American airspace that afternoon.

I didn’t know anybody killed at the Pentagon that day, but I did know people who lost friends. That was a grim day. I hope we’ll honor the memory of the people who were killed that day by doing everything we can to make sure it never happens again, but also by remaining proudly, defiantly free. Personally, I think the pendulum has swung too far in the security direction. We need to correct that.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: french fry-related tomahawk/crossbow standoff!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the top of LRN4’s dresser, featuring pictures of the kids when they were a bit younger. Some younger than others. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken on August 1st, and part of my famous Las Vegas series.

No post yesterday. I stayed up late working on the app again. I am so close to releasing it. I have about seven more open bugs that I have to fix before it goes to Apple. Then I get the screenshots done, write some advertising text, put in whatever graphics are missing, and submit it.  Then a few days go by, it gets released, and the big bucks start rolling in.

At least I assume that’s how it will end up. Probably.

LRN4 is doing pretty well today. She got her third chemo treatment of five this morning. Her strength is reasonably good and her energy level is reasonably high. She tried a bottle of [amazon asin=B00BKNWGQ2&text=chocolate Ensure] this morning and actually found it palatable. Her doctors have been recommending it for quite some time to pump up her calories and protein and she’s been resisting it because of very negative experiences with the stuff and her terminally ill grandfather many years ago. I don’t know whether the Ensure has changed or LRN4 is having a Green Eggs and Ham moment, but I do know that she needs the stuff and she’s getting it.  I’d really like her weight to stabilize and start going back up to a healthy level. Yes, I know ending the chemo will also probably do that naturally, but I don’t think we can wait for that anymore.

I’ve started giving her micafungin every day.  A home healthcare nurse came over yesterday with an [amazon asin=B009UFR9XM&text=IV pole], some IV tubing, a bunch of flushes and other supplies, and several bags of micafungin.  She showed me how to infuse it and now I’m on my own. I don’t know whether LRN4 should be nervous or not, of course, but I’m now both a certified PICC line flusher and a highly-trained IV giver. Not to mention a prolific pill hander-outer. Three times a day since the end of May!

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

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN4’s partially-eaten Labor Day 2013 breakfast. I think that was the best waffle recipe I’ve ever tried. They were light, fluffy, and delicious. On the downside, they were made with yeast and required an hour to rise. But it was worth it. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken on Monday morning, and part of my famous Food and Las Vegas series.

Oh, and check out that nice little pile of pills there hiding behind the [amazon asin=B00CHUK8IA&text=Cool Whip]. She’s taking them by the handful these days.

No posts for a few days. I hope my Loyal Readers haven’t been too worried about us. I’ve just been working on my app. LRN4 is doing fairly well. She appears to have stopped losing weight since she stopped taking all the chemo drugs. For a few days, anyway.

Let’s see, the last post was on Wednesday. On Thursday, we went to the City of Hope for LRN4’s bone marrow biopsy and to see our doctor there. The visit went well and the biopsy was less painful than the last couple have been. We got the news on Friday that while the leukemic cells have been greatly reduced, they’re not completely gone yet, so we’re moving forward with another round of chemo this week. LRN4 had the first dose this morning. She went off the Nexavar on Thursday as well, but is back on it today, albeit at half the previous dosage. It’s kind of doing brutal things to her, but it just might save her life, so we’re sticking with it. Don’t know when she can quit that one again. The good news about this week’s chemo is that the leukemia is sufficiently weakened that the California doc decided to shorten the course from ten down to five days. We’ll take any break we can get.

The extreme weight loss has made LRN4 pretty weak, a bit unsteady on her feet, and kind of shaky. We’re exploring opportunities to help her gain the weight back, including the dreaded Ensure and/or Boost products. She’s been very reluctant to take those because she hates how they taste, but we’re kind of running out of options. She really needs to get as much strength back as she can. So we got three different samples today and she’ll start trying them out tomorrow.

Otherwise, all systems are go, our spirits are relatively high, and we’re pressing forward regardless.

LRN2 is home! He hitched a ride with LRN4’s brother and his wife, who came to visit us on Friday. They stayed until Sunday morning, along with LRN29 and her husband. So all four siblings were here. It was a fun visit.

But my favorite part of all that is that LRN2 is here. He’s looking really good and sounding really good. We’re working on some medical care for him and hoping to improve his employment prospects again. There’s something out there for him – I’m sure of that. Welcome home, LRN2!

I’m really making progress on the app. There are still several bugs and a couple of features I need to add before it ships, but it’s getting really close. I’d say it’s definitely beta quality now and rapidly approaching releasability. LRN31 has provided extremely helpful feedback and is evangelizing the app among her teaching friends. Thanks, LRN31! You’re definitely getting a free copy when it’s released.

And it’s quite late yet again, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: lock-picking cockatoo!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a picture of the dashboard on our car at 4:33 this afternoon, August 28, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Notice anything unusual, Loyal Readers? That’s right, it’s zero degrees Fahrenheit. Kind of cold for August in Vegas, huh? This Great Art was taken at a stoplight on our way home from LRN4’s medical appointment and grocery store run. Immediately after the shot, I rebooted the car, at which time the thermometer read 101. I think we may have a bit of a warranty issue. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Machinery and Las Vegas series.

I can’t help noticing the Microsoft logo there on the dash. Is this the moral equivalent of a bluescreen?

I also can’t help noticing the song that was playing. That’s right, I’m cool.

LRN4 is doing pretty well today. She continues to feel weak and look very thin. I checked out the Nexavar website today and noticed the warning that the drug may cause fatigue and weight loss – even anorexia in some cases. Fortunately, LRN4’s appetite is still there, but we may have a smoking gun to explain her current weakened, thin state. The good news is that she’ll probably start gaining the weight back and otherwise getting back to normal after she’s finished taking the drug. And if it helps her get into remission and stay there, it’ll definitely be worth it.

Made a little bit of progress on the app today. I feel like I keep going down rabbit holes, but I’m making slow progress. I spent some time working on making the report generation much more generic but kept running into reasons why I couldn’t do it. I think maybe I need to either refocus those efforts into smaller bits of the puzzle or just abandon them entirely and recognize that report-generating code is hard to make generic. There’s still more work to do on the emails, by the way. I need to figure out how to capture the recipient’s email address so it can be saved. I can do it the easy way or the clever way. Not quite sure how to do it the clever way, so easy may end up winning out tomorrow.

I don’t think I’ll get much more done tonight. I need to sleep so I’m safe to spend eight hours (or possibly much more) driving back and forth to Los Angeles.

That’s right, we’re going for a visit to the City of Hope tomorrow. We’ll see our doctor for a regular visit and LRN4 will get another bone marrow biopsy. We won’t know whether she’s in remission for at least a couple of days after that, so we’ll be anxious.

We also need to pick up a couple of prescriptions at Walgreen’s near the hospital and check our post office box. We don’t expect to be back on the road before about 5:00 PM, which is just about the worst possible time to be on the freeway leaving Los Angeles on the Thursday before a holiday weekend. So we might be moving extremely slowly. Or maybe we’ll be surprised and just sail home. But I’m not counting on that.

LRN2 is coming home on Friday! I can’t wait to see him again. I’m sure we’ll have a really nice time together. I don’t think he’s too excited about moving back in with us, but I’m hoping for the best and feeling good about it. He’s driving his car home and his stuff is hitching a ride with LRN4’s brother, who is coming with his wife to visit us for the holiday weekend. LRN29 and her husband are also coming, so all the brothers and sisters will be together. It ought to be a nice weekend.

And that’s about it for tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: violent cupcake fight!

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.