morrowlife

Here’s a big digger. A really big digger. It used to dig for iron. Now it digs for tourists. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the Frontier Homestead State Park, and part of my famous Machinery and Vacation series.

I felt like [amazon text=Mike Mulligan&asin=0395169615] while I was exploring that thing. It’s electric, not steam, but the effect was the same.  Fun.

Pretty good couple of days. LRN4, LRN2, and I went to Los Angeles on Monday. Because LRN4 needed some transfusions in the afternoon, we weren’t able to leave there until after 8:00 PM, so it was a little bit longer than a 16-hour day, but it was a good one anyway. LRN4’s white cell count is down to 1.1, which is good. Everything else is looking pretty good blood-wise too. We’re just hanging out until they can finish the second round of chemo (starts next Monday!) and get us into the DLI transplant. We still don’t know when that’ll happen, but it may start in December.

I walked LRN2 all around the City of Hope campus while LRN4 was getting her transfusion. We saw pretty much everything. We were a bit surprised to learned that they have gotten rid of almost all their koi and turtles in the Japanese garden. On one hand, almost all the fish were black, which is a bit less attractive than most koi, so nobody really misses them. On the other hand, the feeding frenzies are now quite subdued. So there’s good and bad. But it’s still pretty in there.

We saw our old neighbor in the Village, which was nice. Unfortunately, his wife hasn’t been released. On a positive note, they hope to be going home in December. So we may not see them when we get back. I hope so, anyway, for their sake.

Not much work progress. I spent some time on the phone with my associate John last night and got a bit more education on writing tests. I hope to put some of it to use Real Soon Now.

Speaking of travel, LRN4 and I are going with Ken and Melanie to Salt Lake City for the weekend. We leave Friday morning and come home Sunday morning. LRN4 and Melanie (why isn’t she a Loyal Reader yet?) have both been feeling like they want to visit their father, who is now 92-ish. Friday is a holiday here in Nevada, so the in-laws both have the day off. We’re looking forward to the trip and the visit with family. I’m hoping LRN4 can handle all the travel.

My new computer (well, it’s actually four months old now and already obsolete) doesn’t have an Ethernet port. I’ve been living with wifi only up until now, but I just bought a [amazon text=Thunderbolt adapter&asin=B008ALA6DW] for it. It got here on Tuesday. I’m not sure I see a whole lot of speed difference, but the hardwired connection is a bit more reliable, I believe. In any case, I love my new adapter.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: Jolly Rancher football injury!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN4 at Kolob Canyons. You can tell it’s Kolob Canyons because that sign there says Kolob Canyons. So I guess that’s what it is. Pretty place, like all the other pretty places we saw during our recent trip to Southern Utah. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at Kolob Canyons in Zion National Park a few weeks ago before the National Parks Service people became all evil, and part of my famous Vacation series.

Wonders of WordPress again. It’s not that I can’t write every day. It’s just that I don’t. But my Loyal Readers must stay informed and entertained, so we soldier on.

LRN4’s doing quite well. She reports that the nasty effects of the Nexavar seem to be easing somewhat. She’s been taking a quarter of the dose her doctor prescribed because her body just wasn’t tolerating it. She’s now toying with upping it to a half dose. We’ll see if she is able to do that.

No other real news on the LRN4 front. She continues to feel a little better and do a little more every day. She’s even been working a bit on the back yard – she had wanted to tie a few plants up to the back wall to make a bit of a green wall effect – and she’s been working on a new post for her blog. She recently had to back off a bit on the frequency of blog posts, but she’s not giving it up entirely.

Not a lot of work got done today. Maybe tomorrow. I have a couple of things I’m working actively on for the medical application and I’ve started updates on my Morse Trainer iOS app, so there’s plenty to do. I only got one response to my question about the school tech conference (thanks, LRN16!) and it was a positive one, so I’ve decided to at least contact the school people and find out what my $350 gets me.

I’m very reluctant to spend marketing dollars because of my inexperience in that area and my desire to not learn the hard way, but I’m quite sure that if I do nothing to try to bring people to my work, they’ll never find it. I just have to convince myself that my work is worth buying and overcome my reluctance to ask people for their money. I was speaking on this subject with my non-Loyal-Reader brother-in-law Ken, who is an outstanding marketer/salesman, and he pointed out that he doesn’t look at it as asking people for money. He says I should merely present it to people as a possible way to solve a problem they’re facing. When I think of it that way, I can see his point. I made the app because LRN31 had a real problem and I believe the app helps address that problem for her. I also believe there must be many other people with the same problem and I believe my app addresses that problem in a meaningful way. So I just need to do a bit better job to put it out there to more people as a possible solution.

But I’m still worried that I’ll spend a whole lot of marketing dollars without seeing a meaningful return. Why do I see my own work as having less value than that of others? Does everybody have this problem?

Anyway. Nothing else to report today. So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting food-related Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: turtleburger!

See you on Monday.

Here’s autumn in Utah. The colors may not be extensive, but they’re there. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken from my parked car near Duck Creek, Utah a few weeks ago during our vacation there, and part of my famous Vacation series.

Honest – the car was parked and I was standing next to it. It just kind of looks like it was taken while I was driving. If you look carefully, you’ll see the vantage point is too far above the hood to be otherwise.

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted. One or two Loyal Readers have started asking where we’ve gone, or even if something bad is happening. I’m delighted to report that the news is quite opposite – it’s all good. LRN4 is feeling pretty well and her numbers are going in a good direction. We visited our doctor this morning and he reported that her white cell count is down to 1.9 today and he expects them to drop to about zero within a day or two. Her red cells are hanging in there (no transfusion needed this weekend) and her platelets are doing okay but she’ll need a quick transfusion on those babies on Saturday.  She’s scheduled for 9:30.

This will be the third weekend in a row that LRN4 has gone to the hospital for a transfusion. They have a couple of outpatient transfusion beds available on weekend days and she’s become something of a regular. It routinely takes several hours – on the order of eight – to get done, but they’re very good to her there and it’s generally a good experience. Since she’ll only be getting platelets this time, it should go much more quickly. We’ll see, won’t we?

So why haven’t I been posting? Laziness. Plus, the universal excuse – I forgot. Sorry about that Loyal Readers. You deserve better.

Work is coming along slowly. I hadn’t touched the medical program for a few months, and I’m having all kinds of problems getting it working again. I’m once again able to compile and to generate installers. Today, however, I tried running the automated tests and discovered that they’re not working for me. I have an email in to non-Loyal-Reader John to see if he can help me figure out what’s going on. Also, what’s not going on. That’s the important part, I think. I have a bunch of testing work I’m planning on doing.

And here’s a tough decision I have to make. There’s a technology conference coming up at the beginning of November in the Clark County school district. They have vendor tickets available for $350. At that rate, I’d have to sell 175 copies of my latest iOS app just to break even. They expect 400-500 people to participate in the conference. Here’s the question for my Loyal Readers – do you think I should pay the money and attend? Your thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

LRN4 ordered herself a new [amazon text=bundt pan&asin=B00004RFQ4] the other day. It arrived yesterday. Looks really nice and I can’t wait to eat some bundt cake. Here’s the thing, though: she told me it was one of her Christmas presents. But she plans to use it for the first time at Thanksgiving. So I told her it’s no longer a Christmas present and she can have a new pan whenever she darn well wants one without waiting until Christmas. So another question for my Loyal Readers: should I call it a Christmas present anyway? We’re getting close to the time of year when we save everything we buy ourselves for Christmas, but I think that only applies to things we don’t need to use before Christmas. What do you say, Loyal Readers?

And that’s about it for today. Lots of stuff going on. Lots of little jobs around the house happening. I’m feeling good, LRN4’s feeling about as good as can be expected right now, and LRN2’s doing pretty well too. All systems are go.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: double pizza assault!

See you tomorrow.

Here are a bunch of hoodoos at Bryce National Park. Love them hoodoos. Actually, I think I just like to say the word. Hoodoo, hoodoo. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken a couple weeks ago at Bryce Canyon National Park, and part of my famous Vacation series. Hoodoo.

Wonders of WordPress. We’ve been busy, busy, busy. LRN16 and LRN17 got here on Wednesday morning and left this evening. We had a great visit! LRN4 made a long list of things she wanted them to work on with her, and they got here and got to work. They cooked for us (lots of really great food!), they cleaned a little bit, LRN17 rearranged our spice cabinets and pantries, LRN17 did a bit of touch-up painting in the dining room and laundry room, they helped work on a new valance for the kitchen window, and they generally worked like demons. It was great!

More than two months later – I just discovered this was never published. So I’m publishing it now without further comment. Enjoy!

Here’s a natural arch somewhere at Bryce Canyon National Park. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at Bryce Canyon National Park a couple weeks ago, and part of my famous Vacation series.

Been a good couple of days.  We went to the doctor yesterday and were delighted to learn that LRN4’s white cell count has started going down. On Thursday, it was at about 50,000 cells/microliter. Monday, it was 32,000. Thats a huge relief and we’re feeling much more optimistic.

LRN16 and LRN17 get here tomorrow! They’ll be visiting us for two days, during which time they plan to cook us a bunch of food and do whatever other work LRN4 asks them to do. I suggested they work on my transmission, but LRN16 seemed a little too anxious to give it a try, so I withdrew the request. I’m really looking forward to their visit.

Fortunately for them, they won’t be needing to clean the house. I hired the cleaners on Saturday and they came for the first time on Monday. They’ll be here every other week for the foreseeable future. They did a beautiful job. As LRN9 said on the phone today, hiring a cleaning company may turn out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Got the slide scanner and neck pillow I mentioned on Friday. LRN4 reports the neck pillow is working great, and I’ve already scanned about 125 slides. I’m not happy with the quality of the scans quite yet – very contrasty, very fuzzy, and generally of very low quality. I need to check the settings I’ve been using and see if there’s anything I can do to bring the quality up. Even so, it’s been really fun to see some of our old pictures again. Can’t wait to get all of them scanned. There are many hundreds.

And it’s late already, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: shark-like attack otter!

See you tomorrow.