I'm not dead
...just been busy. It's pretty bad when your mom gripes at you for not updating your blog :D
I'm in Charlotte right now, and 4 hours to the Rush concert. I really wanted to fly Stefan out here - he's an old friend and a huge Rush fan. I was willing to burn airline miles but he couldn't get the time off work. The new Rush album is *okay* - I'm not going to be a fanboi and say OMFG teh new album is teh R0X0Rx! - cause I'm not impressed. I thought Roll the Bones, Counterparts, and Test for Echo were all fantastic. I couldn't even listen to all of Vapor Trails, and Snakes and Arrows is okay. But they always put on a good show so it's worth the drive.
C is pregnant, due at the end of October. We found out a couple weeks ago that it's a boy - which I am ecstatic about. We already have boy clothes, and boy toys, and we know how to deal with boys. I'd be scared shitless to raise a girl in today's world. So far everything is going fine. That time of year will always be busy for us - my birthday in October, #2's birthday in October, R's birthday in November...
Natasha had a rough spring but she's really bounced back. She was diagnosed with lupoid onychodystrophy in January - basically all her claws sloughed off, in a bloody and sometimes infected mess. Imagine that a dog's claw is a cone of hard fingernail stuff surrounding a central core of quick or nail-bed material. Her immune system was attacking and destroying the tissue connecting her claws to her skin. The claws got loose and dug into her quicks - sometimes they would rotate 180 degrees on the quicks. Her right forepaw got infected and she had to have semi-emergency surgery to pull the infected nails and drain the infection. The doctor said that they rate anesthesia on a scale of 1 - 5 : where 1 is slightly doped and 5 means you're on Mars somewhere. They usually use 3 for abdominal surgery. She was whimpering and struggling so much at that level that they had to knock her out to 4.5 - so the pain must have been unimaginable. The good news is that with a hypoallergenic diet change and some dietary supplements, she's really bounced back, and as of April was doing great.
The wedding for Jim's daughter was amazing. It was held at a resort hotel in Yosemite Valley. I don't think I have ever seen such a beautiful place on earth and I really don't have the words to describe it. The day we got there it was cold and rainy, but it blew out overnight, and all the clouds burned off in time for the wedding. So it was a clear blue sky, maybe 60 degrees, and the falls were on full blast because of the rain and meltwater. The hotel was the height of 1920's luxury lodge style - it had a huge great room with fireplaces so big you could stand in them. After the wedding, I went with Jim's daughter and her husband and scattered some of his ashes here and there around the valley, at places we thought he might have liked.
My garage is nearing completion. I put a two-part epoxy on the floor - as a sealant, protectant, and just for some color. I went with a deep red color, as opposed to the usual brown or gray. I also primed the walls and ceiling, and put up a cream-colored paint on the walls. This is for half the garage, mind, because the other half is taken up with stuff. The end goal is to build some cabinets to keep all that stuff in so C can park her van in the garage. A car in a garage in suburban America - go figure!
I'm in Charlotte right now, and 4 hours to the Rush concert. I really wanted to fly Stefan out here - he's an old friend and a huge Rush fan. I was willing to burn airline miles but he couldn't get the time off work. The new Rush album is *okay* - I'm not going to be a fanboi and say OMFG teh new album is teh R0X0Rx! - cause I'm not impressed. I thought Roll the Bones, Counterparts, and Test for Echo were all fantastic. I couldn't even listen to all of Vapor Trails, and Snakes and Arrows is okay. But they always put on a good show so it's worth the drive.
C is pregnant, due at the end of October. We found out a couple weeks ago that it's a boy - which I am ecstatic about. We already have boy clothes, and boy toys, and we know how to deal with boys. I'd be scared shitless to raise a girl in today's world. So far everything is going fine. That time of year will always be busy for us - my birthday in October, #2's birthday in October, R's birthday in November...
Natasha had a rough spring but she's really bounced back. She was diagnosed with lupoid onychodystrophy in January - basically all her claws sloughed off, in a bloody and sometimes infected mess. Imagine that a dog's claw is a cone of hard fingernail stuff surrounding a central core of quick or nail-bed material. Her immune system was attacking and destroying the tissue connecting her claws to her skin. The claws got loose and dug into her quicks - sometimes they would rotate 180 degrees on the quicks. Her right forepaw got infected and she had to have semi-emergency surgery to pull the infected nails and drain the infection. The doctor said that they rate anesthesia on a scale of 1 - 5 : where 1 is slightly doped and 5 means you're on Mars somewhere. They usually use 3 for abdominal surgery. She was whimpering and struggling so much at that level that they had to knock her out to 4.5 - so the pain must have been unimaginable. The good news is that with a hypoallergenic diet change and some dietary supplements, she's really bounced back, and as of April was doing great.
The wedding for Jim's daughter was amazing. It was held at a resort hotel in Yosemite Valley. I don't think I have ever seen such a beautiful place on earth and I really don't have the words to describe it. The day we got there it was cold and rainy, but it blew out overnight, and all the clouds burned off in time for the wedding. So it was a clear blue sky, maybe 60 degrees, and the falls were on full blast because of the rain and meltwater. The hotel was the height of 1920's luxury lodge style - it had a huge great room with fireplaces so big you could stand in them. After the wedding, I went with Jim's daughter and her husband and scattered some of his ashes here and there around the valley, at places we thought he might have liked.
My garage is nearing completion. I put a two-part epoxy on the floor - as a sealant, protectant, and just for some color. I went with a deep red color, as opposed to the usual brown or gray. I also primed the walls and ceiling, and put up a cream-colored paint on the walls. This is for half the garage, mind, because the other half is taken up with stuff. The end goal is to build some cabinets to keep all that stuff in so C can park her van in the garage. A car in a garage in suburban America - go figure!