morrowlife

Here’s an atomic missile. I want one. Although I have no idea what I’d do with it. Or even where I would keep it. All I know is I want it. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in downtown Boulder City this past weekend, and part of my famous Machinery series.

That thing is awesome.

Check out the list of Loyal Readers over there on the right. I have four new Loyal Readers! They haven’t technically applied for Loyal Reader status, but they’ve all admitted to reading the blog. And that makes them Loyal Readers. Welcome aboard, Bob, Don, Nan, and Melanie. Thanks for reading. Loyally.

Of course, I know they’re all just reading to find out how Shannon is doing. So let’s bow to the pressure and examine the record. She’s doing pretty well. Quite well, in fact. She’s feeling well for the most part. She’s able to shower now and … duh-duh-duh-duh! … she’s able to go for a walk! They brought us a portable oxygen tank and turned us loose in the hallways of the hospital. It was the first time she had been outside of a hospital room in nineteen days (other than when being transferred somewhere by hospital personnel, of course). It was a huge deal, if you ask me, even though it was only a brief walk. Congratulations, Shannon! That’s one small step for a woman, one giant leap for Shannon.

Not much work got done today. I spent a lot of the time on emails, reviewing trouble tickets, and other odds and ends. Just a little bit of documentation. That manual is so overwhelming to me that I’m really struggling with it. There is a ton more work to do. Better get down to it.

Shannon found us a potentially good place to buy the golf shirts John and I plan to wear at the conference in February. Thanks, Shannon! She mentioned that her boss at the interior design studio said she was a great sourcer. And she was right! Now we have to decide whether to have the PhotoDoc or the Business Casual logo put on there. There are good reasons for both. Or maybe we should put both on.

The cleaning ladies come early tomorrow morning, so I’d better end. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: gangster pig!

See you tomorrow.

Behold the Staplex. The biggest, toughest, meanest stapler out there. Wouldn’t want to get my finger caught in that thing. Great Art courtesy of LRN1, taken in May 2012 at LRN1’s former office in Utah, and part of my famous Machinery series. Or was that LRN2’s desk? Apparently, he inherited it from LRN1 when LRN1 moved on to a new job.

Biggest, toughest, and meanest? Well, there’s this. But you won’t find that thing on somebody’s desk.

Very good day for LRN4. She’s feeling very well, her fever has gone away again, her lungs are sounding very good to the stethoscope-wielding medical practitioners, she’s able to stand up and walk around her room, and everything is pretty good. Her internal disease guy says if things continue to go so well, she may be able to go home early next week, which would be great. But we’re not counting on it. If there’s one thing we’ve learned this past year, it’s not to count on things.

On the downside, her white count has doubled yet again, and the cancerous cells are up from 3% to 8% of the total. They started her next round of chemo this evening, right after they finished giving her two units of red cells and two units of platelets. I’m hoping the chemo starts doing its job quickly before her numbers go too high for comfort.

Did no work today, although I should have. Instead, LRN2 and I went to the DMV and got his car titled and registered in Nevada. It took three hours, but it all worked out. LRN2 still needs to get his driver’s license updated. Maybe next week.

The [amazon text=new monitors&asin=B008A3KFB8] I ordered yesterday are scheduled to get here tomorrow. I can’t wait! I’ll of course need to do some extensive testing before the conference. So I expect they’ll be unpacked and in use by tomorrow afternoon.

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

See you on Monday

Here’s a picture of a much younger me in Kazakhstan, standing in front of two of our team’s Ford Transit vans. They were our sole transportation there, other than the golf cart our spacecraft team typically brought with them. Those other two guys were our Loyal Drivers. Great Art courtesy of … umm … somebody’s camera, taken in June 2001 during the Astra 2C launch campaign, and part of my famous Machinery series.

Pretty good days yesterday and today. LRN4 is doing much better, thank you very much. She’s breathing well, she’s getting a full 99% blood oxygen, her lungs sound nearly clear via a stethoscope, she’s able to stand up and do a little walking in place, and she’s generally feeling much better.

On the negative side, she’s running a very slight fever this evening: 99-point-something. Let’s hope we’re not looking at another setback. Please.

We moved from the heart (second) floor up to the cancer (third) floor late tonight. I think that’s a good sign.  We’re now in room 0x177. Drop by, Loyal Readers!

Quite a bit of progress on the work front. I’ve done a tiny bit more work on the PhotoDoc manual. But today I got a bunch of work done on the February conference. I selected and paid for the furnishings for the booth (table, chairs, carpet), bought a couple of monitors to show off our stuff, and made flight, motel, and rental car reservations. I’m starting to get excited! Also nervous. There’s so much more to get done and so little time remaining.

Fortunately, I’m delegating. The Loyal Son-in-law has started editing videos and a Loyal Nephew-in-law is working on the new logo, LRN4 having been taken out of the logo sweepstakes due to unforeseen hospitalization. I got a first cut at the logo tonight and love it. It’s just what I had hoped for. It’s basically a simplified, flattened, cleaned up version of the original logo. Very nice.

Progress!

And I’ll let that be it for tonight. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: cole slaw disaster!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s The Button. The Button that launched the first person into space. Yuri Gagarin, that is. That’s a younger version of me about to push The Button. Great Art courtesy of some old camera, taken at the Baikonur museum on June 2, 2001 during the Astra 2C launch campaign, and part of my famous Machinery and Electronics series.

Yes, I now have a famous Electronics series, after the great outcry of a few days ago. Well, at least LRN16 thought I ought to do it. By the standards of this blog, that counts as an outcry.

Pretty good weekend. LRN4 has had a pretty bad-looking rash for a few days and she’s been running a fever. That makes us worry a bit about an infection, doesn’t it, Loyal Readers? Well, we discussed it with our doctor today and . . . she has an infection! Not a good thing, but the doc doesn’t seem all that concerned about it, so we’re deciding not to worry too much about it either. She got a whole lot of new antibiotics and they sent us on our way. We’re hopeful. But infections are not a good thing for her. Not at all. Could land us back in the hospital if she doesn’t start getting better real quick.

Today’s good news: LRN4’s white cell count is still down at 0.2 and her red cells and platelets are fine. So we’re doing okay.

Nothing else new. I’ve been spending my few working hours on the app for my brother and the medical app. Making a bit of progress. Not fast enough, though. We’ll get there. Did I mention I’ve paid the exorbitant price for a booth at the big conference in February? Well, I did. Now I need to get the software done, finish the documentation, develop promotional materials, get everything needed for a professional-appearing booth, get airline, car and hotel reservations, and do all the stuff I haven’t thought of yet. Sounds easy.

Great news! Another season of [amazon text=White Collar&asin=B00B58948U] has found its way onto Netflix. We’ve been watching it tonight. Well, LRN4 saw the first episode, anyway. Now she’s napping while I watch a few more. Enjoying it. Recommended.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: itchy power-killing cow!

See you tomorow.

Here’s the spacecraft for my second ILS launch arriving at Baikonur in October, 2000. I was already there for my first launch, which took place a few days after this spacecraft arrived. It was summertime when we got to Baikonur – very hot and dry – and winter by the time we left – very, very cold. This picture was taken sometime in between. Great Art courtesy of my junky old first digital camera and part of my famous Machinery series.

Pretty good couple of days. We stopped giving LRN4 her Micafungin today. I still need to flush her lines daily, of course, but we’re saving a bunch of time now by giving her anti-fungal pills. Fortunately, I had saved our previous prescription, so we just dug it out of the Island of Lost Prescriptions and started using it again. LRN4’s feeling pretty good and doing very well. Her fever is gone now. She bought a really cool, really effective [amazon text=thermometer&asin=B004T6G550] today. I played with it for a while and like it a lot, including taking her temperature a few times. So I’m quite sure she’s back to normal. Thermometer: recommended.

Also took my own temperature several times. No fever. Thanks for asking.

By the way, I’m sure my Loyal Readers know that if they click through to Amazon from my blog and buy all their Christmas presents, I get a small kickback. Not that I’m encouraging anybody to do anything, of course. Not at all. Nope. I don’t even like money.

Got my app for LRN23 done tonight except for two things: the icons and testing the algorithms. Hopefully, that’ll get done in the next day or two and we can submit the app. Then I’m back to the medical app’s documentation, which needs to have its first draft completed by the end of this month. I also need to look at promotional materials for the February conference sometime this month. Plenty to do.

I really enjoy iOS programming. It just makes me feel good to develop an app and then see it work. And it’s even better when people actually download it, use it, and like it.

Speaking of which, my Common Core Classroom app has now been downloaded 87 times. That’s not a lot yet, but it’s a start. The great thing about iOS apps is that they just keep selling on their own. Of course, I’m working on doing some marketing, but it’s making a tiny bit of progress all on its own. Cool.

I’ve started listening to Christmas music! I love this time of year. We’re decorating the house tomorrow. Can’t wait.

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

See you on Monday.