morrowlife

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 Samuel Cunard, the guy who started the Cunard Line all those years ago.  That ship in the background . . . isn’t our ship.  We were docked behind that one.  Oh, well.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in Halifax, Nova Scotia during last year’s east coast cruise, and part of my famous Statue, Cruise, and Vacation series.

Nice bow tie, too.  Not to mention some pretty awesome sideburns.

Good day today.  We had LRN4’s Thursday doctor visit today.  She’s in pretty good shape, although her blood levels had finally gotten low enough that she needed a shot of neupogen and a unit of hemoglobin.  But that’s okay – the doctor looked it up and it had been three weeks since she was last pumped up.  Not bad at all.

And speaking of three weeks, that’s how far away we are from our departure date!  Assuming everything goes well!  Which we hope it does, of course.  We’re really getting excited to leave.

Let’s see – what are LRN4’s new, exciting symptoms these days?  Well, the numbness in her feet seems to be moving around a bit.  It started out pretty much in her toes.  Then it gradually made its way to her heels and then up past her ankles over a period of several weeks.  Now it seems to have retreated back to her toes a lot of the time, although this evening it was back to her heels.  Her feet have continued to swell up a lot and it appears that the swelling is at least correlated with the moving around of the numbness, if not the cause.  She also reports in the last few days that there’s a strange feeling in her legs that is associated with weakness and possible difficulty balancing.  But it’s kind of vague.  I don’t think the doctor quite knows what to do about that one.  He thought her low red cell count might be at least a contributing factor, which I believe was a strong motivator for today’s transfusion.  LRN4 doesn’t seem to think it did the trick, though.

Conclusion: cancer is weird.

Made some real progress on the iOS app today.  I really need to finish this thing up so I can get back to the medical forensics business, and soon!  We’re swiftly running out of time to work on that one, just as I’m swiftly running out of time to get the iOS app on the market.  Work, self, work!

Anyway, I got a key feature working, mostly.  Just have a couple of bugs to chase down and I think I’m there.  There are still several key features remaining to be added, but things are becoming easier.

There lots of buzz today on the internets about the [amazon asin=B00DR0PDNE&text=Google Chromecast].  I must say I was pretty impressed with what I read as well (although I did just read a much less flattering review here), and Google announced an SDK is or will shortly be available for developers to pile on.  It could turn into a very attractive device for a very attractive price.  In fact, at that price point, I can imagine people buying it just to play around with it.  I can also imagine hardware/software hackers taking a very close look at the device and coming up with some interesting things.  There ought to be some fun to be had there.

How I wish Apple would release an SDK for the [amazon asin=B007I5JT4S&text=Apple TV]!  My more astute Loyal Readers will recall their original plans for the iPhone, which pointedly did not include independent developer access to the device.  What a mistake that was and would have remained if they had left things that way.  I’m pretty positive iPhone sales would have been only a small fraction of what they ended up being, and I even have my doubts that Android would have come along.  So why can’t Apple figure that out and unleash the Apple TV on developers?  I think a large percentage of the apps would have ended up being games, but think of the gaming possibilities!  In fact, Apple seems to have finally figured out they have an opportunity there.  They’ve just begun to allow game developers to push iPhone game screens to the Apple TV, but without allowing those games to run natively on the device.  Big lost opportunity as far as I’m concerned.  Granted, I don’t think it would ever be as big as the iPhone and iPad have been, but I think it could have been much bigger than it is currently.  I think a lot of people would buy what would essentially be a $100 Apple gaming console.  And if game prices were held down to the levels we see on the iPhone, I think it would be a huge hit.

And it’s late, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: chicken wing theft!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a statue of a lion.  As I recall, it’s an ancient Egyptian lion.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken last May at Bryn Athyn in Pennsylvania, and part of my famous Statue series.

I really like statues.

No post yesterday – forgot again.  I think it would be a good idea if I forgot less.  On a positive note, I’ve been remembering to post here way more frequently since LRN4 got out of the hospital and I invited my Loyal Readers to check here for her progress updates.  So there’s that.

And speaking of LRN4, let’s update her status, shall we?  She’s doing well.  We had a very good weekend.  Nothing much is new.  We spent the weekend without any clinic visits – nice! – and pretty much just relaxed.  Our Monday visit with the doctor was also good.  LRN4’s blood counts were still above the minimums, so that makes about a week and a half since her last infusion!  That’s unprecedented.  We think the string will be broken this coming Friday, though.  LRN4 has another lumbar puncture and chemo treatment that day, and they won’t puncture you if you’re platelet count is below 100.  As of Monday, it was above the minimum of 25, but way below 100.  The likelihood of it going up to 100 on its own is non-zero, of course, but I don’t think it’s very high yet.  I hope to be very pleasantly surprised when she gets her next blood test on Thursday, but I’m not counting on it.  Doesn’t matter, though.  Transfusions are part of the deal here.

We had a nice day today.  LRN29 and my cousin Betsy were here, LRN29 making her customary Tuesday morning visit and Betsy coming to go to the Gamble house in Pasadena with us.  We had a very pleasant time there.  The Gamble house was built in 1908 in the Craftsman style, but it doesn’t look like any other Craftsman bungalow I’ve ever seen.  For one thing, all the other ones are tiny little cute houses in tiny little cute neighborhoods.  This one is 7,000 square feet on a huge lot with extremely luxurious design, construction, and appointments.  It really is beautiful and was definitely worth touring, even if our docent was a grouchy old lady who acted like she would have been much happier if we hadn’t intruded on her reverie.

Why do grouchy old ladies become docents anyway?  It’s obvious they resent their customers, so why do they bother?  Maybe it gives them the feeling of owning whatever it is they’re docenting on or maybe it just makes them feel needed or something.  Whatever the cause, it certainly makes visits to their pride and joy much less pleasant.  Let this be a lesson for all of us.  Repeat after me: if we decide to be docents when we get old, we promise to be gracious, pleasant, and welcoming to all who honor us with their visits.  Now doesn’t that make you feel better?

Before the tour, we were invited to sit on the house’s beautiful wood deck to eat our picnic lunch, which we enjoyed.  We got there a little later than we had hoped, so we didn’t have time for dessert before the tour started.  Accordingly, we went back out to the patio for dessert afterwards.  Had a very nice chat and a thoroughly pleasant early afternoon.

By the way, the Gambles who lived in the Gamble house were good friends with the Proctors.  So they could afford a 7,000 square foot summer house in Pasadena.

When we got back to the Village, LRN29 left.  Betsy hung around a little while to get help with some technical stuff and then took her leave as well.  I goofed around for the rest of the day – accomplished no work.  Tomorrow is another day and I’m pretty sure it will be a productive one.  I have lots to do on my iOS app and I’m not quite sure how to do it yet, so I think I was procrastinating today.

Speaking of the app, LRN2 did a bunch of work for me today in support of the app, which I needed for this next phase I’m starting on tomorrow.  Thanks, LRN2!  So things continue to come together for the app.  Slowly.

And it’s very late, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: chip and dip assault!

See you tomorrow.

power up and down for the blu-ray player

Here’s the big fountain out in front of the Main Medical building here at the City of Hope.  Check out that fleet of wheelchairs there in the background.  They mean business around here.  Great art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope in Duarte, California, and part of my famous Statue and Garden series.

Yes, I realize this particular fountain has been featured here before.  That was totally different, though.  That was night, this is day.  They’re as different as … umm … night and day.  Har!

Pretty view, night OR day.  But I still think those parents are taking way too many chances with that poor little kid.  Also, that woman has one leg that’s way shorter than the other.  But it’s still no excuse for child abuse.

Good day today.  I made substantial progress on my app.  Of course, nowhere near enough progress, but it’s moving forward.  I think I have the database architecture figured out and I’ve started implementing it.  I also put in a quick placeholder for the Settings/About view.  Good (but not great) progress.

LRN4 is feeling pretty well today.  We’ve increased the daily quantity of the medication that is supposed to reduce the pain in her feet.  That drug is also pretty famous for making you sleepy.  So she’s sleepy today.  And her feet hurt.  But otherwise, she’s doing great!

We watched one of our favorite movies tonight: [amazon asin=B0001WTWS8&text=My Favorite Wife].  It has Cary Grant, LRN4’s favorite actor of all time, and Irene Dunne, umm . . . an actress I like.  Not to mention Randolph Scott.  [amazon asin=B0001Z4OXS&text=Raaandooolph Scooott]!  Highly recommended.

And there’s nothing else to add today.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: burrito assault!

See you on Monday.

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.