Relgious Issues - Scholastically Speaking

We send Killian to a Christian preschool voluntarily.  I understand that.  I have no issues with doing so.  For the most part, I have no issues with many of the Christian moral teachings and will likely utilize several of them throughout his upbringing.  We send him there because it is the more affordable option for us and it comes with the bonus of educational components.

As a result of his attendance there, I make certain concessions and have certain expectations.  For example, I expect that religious practices will occur throughout the day - probably start of day prayer, grace before snack time, etc.  I make no bones about them presenting a mini sermon to us before the events such as his Christmas pageant and the like.  These are things that I deal with because it is their practice and turf.  In his time there, I do, however, have beef with two particular things that I am aware of that have occurred/been taught:

1. The first one that I noticed was when was at home one day with me and we saw an American flag and he proceeded to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  I thought that was pretty cool and cute because I didn't know that he had learned it.  However, he then followed it up with the pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag.  Apparently this is something that happens outside of just his school, I have since learned.  I don't so much have issue with the fact that there is a pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag that exists or even to the fact that they teach it at the school for the children to say.  I do, however, have extreme opposition to it following the exact pattern of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.  I believe that this takes away from the purity of the latter as well as the former.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not Captain Super Patriotic that is going to go into a tirade here about the American flag and the pledge and all that.  I just think it is wrong to muddy the waters and confuse the 4 year old children by copying the exact pacing and rhythm of the American flag Pledge of Allegiance.
2. The more recent event was the one that I posted about on the Killian and Me blog.  In his Christmas pageant yesterday, the class sang Jesus Jingle (Bells), which is outright Jingle Bells plagiarized to death with Jesus related lyrics plugged in throughout.  Again, I have no issue with them teaching him a religious song (pick your favorite hymn, for example).  What I do have issue with is teaching the kids a bastardized version of a holiday classic such as Jingle Bells.  So now when I kick into a verse of Jingle Bells along with the radio, he can't sing along with me until I go through the effort to teach him the "correct" way that the song goes.  Fortunately, he wants to sing it "daddy's way", but it sucks that I have to make an effort to change what he has learned about such a simple and common thing.

These are probably completely acceptable things to those of more religious ilk than I, and as I voluntarily choose to send him into the midst of this education environment, I have not a lot of room to talk.  So, I don't.  That is to say that I don't in the form of parent to teacher feedback, but that is primarily because I know that it is public school for him come next year and kindergarten so I don't really have to worry about it long term.  However, even with him not exposed to it come that time, my opposition to the concept will still stand.  If you want to teach songs and pledges that communicate your chosen ideals, feel free to do so.  I have no problem with that.  However, make them your own.  Make them original.  Don't tread on favorites and classics to weasel your ideals in.

On a side note, I'm all for parody.  Keep 'em coming, Weird Al!

Bobbie Update - December 1, 2008

I've been meaning to get an update out since before Thanksgiving, but just haven't taken the time to do it.  We had a minor milestone today, though, so it seems like as good a time as any.  Today was her first follow-up visit with neurosurgery at UNC Hospital.

Last time on "The Bold and the Tumorless", Bobbie had just had her sutures removed, was weaning off of her steroids (her sleeping patterns were improving as a result) and she had managed to free herself from Percocet.  Since then, she has remained Percocet and suture free and had managed to stop needing Ambien, but when she was finally completely off the steroids, she started having some headaches and began to get really sleepy throughout the day.  A call to the docs ended with her being bumped back up to her full regimen of steroids which helped with both the headaches as well as the exceptional fatigue.  Sleep patterns, however, were back to minimal and Ambien was back in the mix.  Otherwise, her recovery has continued to carry along very well.

As of today's visit to the neurosurgeon, it was pretty much all good news.  He introduced another step-down plan for the steroids, so she should be back off of them in 12 days.  He reminded us that she had brain surgery less than a month ago and that even though her recovery is moving along nicely, some sleepiness/napping is to be expected, but that by the time these steroids are weaned, she'll be another 3 weeks down recovery road from where she was last time and he doesn't expect that she will experience quite as much fatigue at that time.  In addition, she was given the green light to drive again as long as she & I felt comfortable that she was good to do so.  No legal restrictions were in place since she had not experienced a seizure that had resulted in loss of consciousness (or any seizure for that matter).  Much celebration was had by Bobbie that she is good to go again with driving.  Funny how you miss the little things, but I guess it would be frustrating to have to rely on others to get you where you need to go and she has been doing so for well over a month now as she couldn't drive for almost 3 weeks before surgery as well.  Other than that, he said that the incision looked great.  Her vision and motor skills checked out as well.

From here, the next step is that she will have an MRI on January 5 followed by an MRI every 2 months for awhile, then every 4 months, then every 6 months and I think eventually annually.  She will be on her anti-seizure medication until that Jan 5 appointment, but will probably discontinue it at that time.

As mentioned before, Bobbie is open for contact by phone, visit or email, so this is likely the last update I will send out until her next MRI barring any significant news.  I thank you all again for your interest and words of comfort and inspiration along the way. It has been therapeutic for me to be able to communicate to you all in this fashion and has saved me from having to tell the same stories over many times - both good news and bad.

Significant Detour

Some of you may be wondering where I disappeared to (watch me pretend that there are even "some" people that read this). It has been a rough road for the past several weeks. No doubt there are still several related challenges ahead, but we've made some progress. About 4 weeks ago, my wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor spread from her previous bouts with melanoma. Below is a collection of status emails that were sent to friends and family throughout the event thus far to help catch you up as much as to document for myself. There may be some time gaps in there, but I think I captured most of everything.

• Oct 27, 2008

To most of you, the following will be new news. Heck, it's actually still new news to us. Not good news, just new news. I was waiting until today to pass this along because we just didn't have enough details until our appointments today to make much sense of anything. You will have to forgive me if I ramble a bit or seem at all incoherent as it has been a long week and a very long day. Also, I apologize to anyone I might have missed with this news (if you heard it from the grapevine). Please feel free to pass along to anyone that you feel may be interested.

On Wednesday of last week, Bobbie woke up feeling that her equilibrium was askew. She had difficulty walking and couldn't judge distance with any degree of accuracy. It was difficult for her to walk 2 steps without having to grab something for support. At first, we though not much of it as she felt ok while sitting or lying down. There were plenty of colds and such going around that we thought perhaps that an ear infection or something was likely to blame. We went to see our (very soon to be former) family doctor who diagnosed it as an episode of vertigo (previously never experienced by Bobbie) and prescribed Valium. When we contacted her oncologist (cancer doc) to verify that it was alright to take Valium in conjunction with the multitude of medications that she is taking to treat her melanoma, he questioned the symptoms and brought Bobbie in for an MRI of her head. As most of you probably suspect by this point, the findings were unfortunate. Her oncologist informed us that the MRI showed a tumor in her brain that is very likely melanoma that has metastasised (sp?) in her brain. So, it went from a normal day to an utter nightmare in the span of about 8 hours.

He scheduled us to meet with a radiology therapist and a neurosurgeon the next day at Rex Hospital. While meeting with the radiology therapist, the neurosurgeon called him to let him know that he was unwilling to do the surgery because he did not think he could do it with success. The radiology therapist communicated the information and referred us to a neurosurgeon and radiation therapist at UNC Hospital. This was even scarier to hear, as this, in my mind, classified the tumor as potentially "inoperable". What's scarier than a brain tumor? An inoperable brain tumor. Another MRI at UNC was scheduled at that point for yesterday, Sunday, followed by meetings with the neurosurgeon and radiation therapist today.

So, after four days of entertaining some of the most terrifying news in our lives, we met with the aforementioned doctors today. The neurosurgeon at UNC immediately put my mind at some ease when he both spoke of how he would do the surgery and that it would likely have no adverse affects. Of course, with any surgery, there are always potential complications. More so with brain surgery. In Bobbie's case, the tumor/lesion (they used both terms and said that they mean the same thing when describing Bobbie's issue) is located near the rear left/center of her brain. As described by both doctors, it is seemingly behind, but close to the motor function portion. I'll refrain from some of the details he gave us about how the operation works, but the primary take away is that the most likely of the unlikely complications involve the loss of some strength in the right side of her body (arms, legs) or a potential blurred portion of her peripheral vision on her right side. Obviously small worries compared to the benefits of removing the tumor, but of concern in any case. The radiation therapist - we were sent to him because apparently, in the area, only UNC Hospital has some of the tools they use for radio-surgery - gave us some input as to what they could do both from a purely radiation side (no cutting surgery) as well as how radiation could be used in conjunction with surgery to treat her condition. To make a long story shorter there, he suggested that if it were him, he would go the surgery route with radiation treatment to follow as the most likely success in the long term. This was in concurrence with what the surgeon had told us in the earlier meeting.

So, based on our consultations with those two doctors and their consultations with each other, Bobbie will be contacting the surgeon's office tomorrow to schedule brain surgery. It will most likely be as early as next week. Assuming no complications, they speculate about a week long hospital stay followed by recovery at home and radiation treatments. They will also do a PET scan to determine if there are any other occurrences of the cancer elsewhere in her body (please, please let there not be), but they will treat the brain tumor before that.

So, that's about as much as we know at this point. Heading into today, I had never been as worried/freaked out/concerned/panicked/InsertNonPleasantEmotionOfYourChoiceHere in my life. Even though it is still a very frightening endeavour, I can go to bed tonight with at least the knowledge that we have some options and are moving forward with treatment hopes. Needless to say, Bobbie is wrestling with emotions and concerns that we can only guess at, but she is holding up remarkably well under the circumstances. There are few women that I have encountered in life that can hold a candle to the mental and emotional strength of the woman that I am fortunate enough to call my wife and I admire her indescribably for it.

Many of you have offered your assistance in the past with the challenges we have faced in her cancer battles thus far. I am certain that those offers still stand and will readily call upon you in the coming times should the need arise and thank you in advance for your help. I ask that you continue your positive thoughts, vibes, and prayers along with your kind and supportive words as we get through this.

• Nov 4, 2008

Just an update on where we stand as of today.

We met with the neurosurgeon at UNC again on Thursday, Oct 30 to discuss the details of the surgery. This meeting made me (and hopefully Bobbie - at least I believe so) much more comfortable that we are facing a surgery with a high expectation for success with minimal to no side effects/complications. I will spare most of the details, but there is an option that they may be able to go between the two halves of the brain to get to the tumor without having to penetrate healthy brain tissue to get there. The tumor rests in the parietal lobe and if they do have to penetrate healthy tissue to get there, they will attempt to penetrate only the parietal lobe tissue. As explained by the neurosurgeon, the functions that will most likely be affected if so will be the ability to determine right and left (might have to think for a few seconds when putting on her shoes, for example) and "calculation" (not completely sure what this might mean, but we were processing so much at the time that we failed to get clarification - I'm guessing mathematics). The previously mentioned risks to her vision and motor skills remain a factor, but lesser so now, we think.

She is also participating in a test study at the suggestion of the surgeon for placing chemotherapy wafers in the tumor cavity once it is removed. This will allow for chemotherapy to be delivered directly to the affected area since the brain is apparently not treatable by chemotherapy via normal means due to the body's design to protect it. The most probable side effect of this test study is a minor increase in the probability of seizures (estimated 2% increase). Otherwise, they anticipate no additional complications related to the study and the surgeon suggests that the potential benefits outweigh the risks. So, she went in yesterday to finalize her qualification for the study. Basically, I think she just had to not be pregnant in addition to having the tumor. They also did some "before" tests on dexterity and short and long term memory recall.

At this point, she is scheduled for surgery this Friday at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill. It is called a "Craniotomy left palieto-occipital". The exact time is unknown and won't be given to us until the day before (to accommodate emergency procedures that may be scheduled in the meantime). The surgeon expects it to be around 1-3pm for a start time and that from the time she leaves us until she is in recovery to be perhaps 8 hours, though he anticipates that the actual surgical portion should take only 3-4 hours. So, I'll start worrying around minute 7, but I won't start panicking until the 9th hour. At least that's my plan.

She has to go in for a specialized MRI on Thursday night to do a final mapping of the brain before the surgery. They have had her on steroids to help shrink the tumor for the past almost 2 weeks. The side effects of that are that she has very interrupted sleep (taking Ambien to help counter that some), difficulty in concentration/easily distracted and she stays hot most of the time. Otherwise, she is still dealing with the dizziness most of the time, but the headaches have subsided some. Overall she is somewhat normal Bobbie though - at least in personality. She is in very good spirits. Well, her temper is much shorter than usual, but they say that the steroids are likely the cause of that as well. :)

As for recovery from the surgery, the expectation is still that she will have an estimated week long hospital stay (I'll get the address, room and visitation info out once we have it for flowers, visitors, etc). After that, we plan to go to Newport News to stay for a bit so that my family can watch over her and Killian while I work out of my company HQ there. Treatment thereafter will have to wait until they evaluate the success of the surgery.

So, all told, still not a fun time ahead, but at least we are looking at a positive prognosis. Gotta keep the mind on the silver linings.

• Nov 8, 2008

Bobbie had a good night, though with very little sleep. The steroids they are giving her (for swelling) make sleep spotty and they didn't want to give her any sleep aid last night. I'm guessing that is related to brain surgery on the whole, but that is total speculation on my behalf. When I arrived this morning (they don't let you stay over in neuro ICU) she was downing a blueberry muffin and joking with the nurse tending to her. Her spirits are great and she looks well - good color, etc. She ate 2 full dinners last night before I left, so at least her appetite is in check (accelerated actually, thanks to the steroids). We were able to visit with her for about 4 hours before they kicked us out last night, so that was nice. She has a plethora of attachments including IVs for medications as well as monitoring equipment for blood pressure, pulse, respiration & heart rate. The blood pressure monitor is in an artery on her wrist and it goes crazy anytime she bends her arm but not to medical concern. It's just the way the method works. Also, she has a fancy bandage hat that looks like bad comedy hospital head bandaging. It's pretty funny. Wish I had remembered my camera before heading out this morning - not allowed to have your cell phone even powered on in ICU so I can't use its mediocre camera.

They took her down for an MRI to check things out just now, so I took the chance to toss an update out. They should be issuing a request to get her moved out of ICU today and into a normal room where she can receive visitors, call and flowers and the like. I'll pass that info along when I have it and am able.

Her surgeon is actually out of town this weekend (I just learned) and she will see his assistant during her recovery at the hospital this weekend. I imagine that the surgeon will probably swing by to see her on Monday as well, but that is another guess from me. The nursing staff has been very pleasant and nice thus far, I am happy to report.

Nothing else really to update. The big news is that she is doing well. And to those that I haven't had an opportunity to respond to directly, thank you for all of the encouraging commentary as well as your thoughts and prayers.

• Nov 9, 2008

Hello all. Bobbie was moved to a regular room last night around 11pm. They took her head bandage off today. I haven't seen her yet, but will be leaving for the hospital as soon as I click send on this message.

She saw a doctor this morning who said that her recovery is moving along very well and that it is possible that she will be discharged as early as tomorrow. I'm a little uncomfortable with that considering that the farthest she has stood up and walked thus far is to the restroom and even that requires assistance from others. I'd really like to see her be able to take an accompanied stroll up and down the hallway and have a conversation with one of the surgeons that actually performed the operation (both out of the office until tomorrow) before they give her the boot. So, I'll be seeking council with doc on staff that mentioned tomorrow's potential discharge while I am there today to discuss.

I can't remember if I mentioned this in any of the updates yesterday, so I'll toss it in here even if it's a repeat. Bobbie was having some issues with her blood sugar being high yesterday. They say that the steroids can be a contributor to it, but they are giving her insulin to control it. That is also something that I want to talk to the doctor about because I'd like to see that in check or understand what we need to do before she is discharged as well.

In any case, the fact that they are even considering discharging her tomorrow is a testament to how well her recovery is going. Her actual room info is below, but please call one of the following numbers if you plan to drop by for a visit so we can help control traffic and timing. Since she's sharing a room (not to mention recovering from brain surgery), we don't want to end up with a too big of a crowd in there or visitors while she's snoozing (which she is still not doing much of, thanks to the steroids). If you want to send flowers or anything, you might want to hold off until we find out about discharge tomorrow. That way, if you still want to send something and she has been discharged, it can just be sent to the home address or my parents' address while she we are staying there. I will get the pertinent info out as soon as it makes sense.

[Contact and details removed for internet publication]

• Nov 10, 2008

Well, looks like Bobbie will likely be discharged today. We spoke with the a surgeon at about 8:30am and it seems highly probable that they will issue a discharge for her early this afternoon. Very surprising to me, but I feel comfortable with it after having spoken with the doc. She's doing great and her blood sugar check this morning was even within the normal range. Bonus. I think at this point, the things she is looking most forward to when getting out of here, in order, are:

1. 1 - seeing Killian
2. 2 - washing her hair (which they are saying OK to using only baby shampoo)

So, at this point, assuming that she does get discharged today, the plan is for us to go home tonight and then leave for VA in the morning. So, if you want to send a get well card or flowers are anything to her, it would probably be best to send it to my mom's house where we will be staying for a couple of weeks:

[Contact and details removed for internet publication]

I will be sure to let you guys know as soon as a final answer comes down. Bobbie is well awake and available for calls she says if you want to take that route. On another note, her laptop fried when I was trying to get it setup for her at the hospital yesterday, so she may be out of email communication for awhile.

An odd side note - the helicopter that airlifts people into the hospital lands just about on top of Bobbie's room, so it actually makes for pretty interesting viewing because you can see (and hear) it coming in really close from her window.

• Nov 10, 2008

Pretty little to say here. Bobbie is officially back at home for the night. We will be leaving for VA in the morning, but she has been freed from the hospital. Barring any unfortunate happenings like seizures, her next visit to the docs will be in about 10 days for staple removal and then in early December for a follow-up with the surgeon. Woohoo!

• Nov 13, 2008

We have been in VA for almost 2 full days now. Bobbie is doing pretty well overall, with the exception of recurring serious headaches and a nice case of what we have lovingly called "juicy eye" for years. Most recently, she had a headache that kicked in at about 9pm last night and ran until about 8am today even with 3 doses of percocet in the meantime. I called the hospital at 7am to ask the neurosurgeon on call about it and was given instructions to take her to a family doc or an urgent care facility since we were out of town to have her checked out for sinus issues since she is prone to sinus infections. Other than that, they weren't really worried about the headaches since she wasn't showing signs of any other neurological symptoms such as one side weakness, difficulty rousing from sleep, slurred speech and other general signs of stroke. Basically, we were instructed that she should just take the percocet regularly to get ahead of the headaches rather than taking it retroactively. The only cause that we can tie to the onset of the headaches most recently is when she used my laptop for a bit to get addicted to facebook. After doing so, it seemed that the worst of the headaches hit, so it is likely that she won't be online again for a couple of weeks, but I will keep her abreast of any communications sent through me and will now likely have to serve as a proxy user for her and facebook. I think I'll be playing the part of mouse, eyes & fingers and she facebooks her way through the next couple of weeks. I know I'm going to regret having helped set her up for that... ;)

My parents got her to our family doc (who, coincidentally, runs an urgent care facility) this morning and she does, indeed, have a sinus infection along with a nice case of conjunctivitis (pink eye). So, she now has a couple of additional medications to add to her repertoire, but at least we know what the issue is and hopefully that will help to ease some of her headaches.

Speaking of medications, today marks her first "step down" day for the steroids. That is to say that she goes from 12mg/day (4mg 3x/day) to 8mg/day (4mg 2x/day). It tapers down every so many days from here until she is off of them (over a total of 15 days after leaving the hospital). Two positive effects there are (hopefully) improved ability to sleep more regularly and a reduction in overall body swelling, which is something that she has been complaining about for the last few days. Apparently, as told by the surgeon, the surgery along with some of her medications, particularly the steriods, will cause water retention and associated weight gain that will dissipate as she comes off of the steroids.

All said, she is still doing great and learning her way through recovery. She has received a few bouquets of flowers at my parents' house and I am sure there will be appropriate thank you cards en route to the sending parties as soon as she is feeling up to writing them. In the meantime, let me throw a personal thank you out there to everyone who has contributed anything supportive from thoughts to words to flowers to babysitting to patience over the course of this. It has been inspirational and helpful to both Bobbie (to whom I read many of your responses) and myself.

• Nov 19, 2008

A few people have pinged out to me for an update, so here we go. Not many changes since last I threw an update out there. Bobbie's recovery continues to go particularly well. I don't quite remember where I left off in the last update, but I think it was that we had been in VA for 2 days and Bobbie had a sinus infection and conjunctivitis.

Since then, they have both moved on and she has been doing great. Ridding herself of those and sticking with the Percocet regimen and beginning her weaning from that today seems to have staved off the vast majority and severity of the headaches that she was experiencing. She's even back to using the computer some each day and able to do her facebooking and emailing.

She actually got her sutures out today and the doc said that the incision was healing "remarkably well" and that it looked great. She still won't be allowed to drive until we meet with her surgeon in early December for her follow-up and he gives her the ok. I believe this is where we will begin to discuss treatment and monitoring going forward. She also continues to step down the steroids dosage and that is helping her to sleep a little better. She's still averaging only 5-6 fairly solid hours/night, but it's better than the 3-4 interrupted hours she was getting.I think that she has been in touch with many of you over the past several days by either phone and/or email. As mentioned in previous messages and indicated here, she is open for phone calls or able to respond to emails if you want to contact her directly, so feel free to do so.

Until next time...

Testing an iGoogle Module

Let's you blog directly from your iGoogle page. Pretty handy.

Posting Frequency

So my lack of posting recently is not due to mere oversight on my end, but rather the increased usage of Brightkite, Twitter and Facebook. In fact, thanks to help from Gee, I have configured it such that an update to Brightkite trickles down to Twitter and, in turn, to Facebook as a status update. I can do all of this quite easily from my iPhone (another new distracting toy). Now if I can just figure out how to tie that all to the blog, I think I'll be set. I can post remotely to the blog, but I fail to take time to do it. That part I can take some blame for. In any case, if you use any of those services, you should see a reasonable amount of activity from me there. Otherwise, I'll be working on a way to tie it all into this blog.

He's no Macaulay Culkin

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

That Boardgaming Thing Wrap-up

As you can see from the myriad of pictures that I tossed seemingly randomly up to the blog over last weekend, two things happened:

• I got a new mobile phone to play with and


• That Boardgaming Thing 2008 came and went

The new phone was fairly decent, though the pictures were somewhat crappy. Note my clever use of the word "was" there as it died 10 days into my ownership. I took it back to the local Verizon store today and traded it out for a new new mobile phone. I'll keep you posted on its functionality, usefulness, lifespan.

That Boargaming Thing went a combination of very well and painfully poorly. Let's start with the very well, because it is both short and simple and pleasant to mention.

The attendees were plentiful. It was our largest group yet, and all fun folks to be in the company of. The mid-event group puzzle effort came off very well with a couple of our attendees putting the whole thing together. It was as clever as ever and resulted in some nice sculptured scenes of Mt. Fuji (wish I had pictures to show). And, speaking of pictures, this year's cake was spectacular! The facility in which we hosted the event had split-level gaming space, so we were unsure how that was going to work out, but it actually ended up as a very accommodating layout. So much so, that many guests commented that they would like something similar next year if at all possible. And finally, I got to play quite a few games with many friends. That always turns out well.

And now for the painfully poor pieces.

The facility. It sucked. It sucked big time. Other than the actual space working out surprisingly well, few things could not have gone much worse.

First and foremost, at least in my mind, was that the air conditioner was broken. Keeping in mind that we were occupying four banquet spaces, it was not just broken in one of them, but in all four *plus* the lobby. And it wasn't broken for a few hours, it was broken for all four days. They managed to fix one of four units (lots of 4's in there) on the second day which, in turn, partially cooled about 1/2 of one room. Their effort to remedy? They gave us three suites to split of some of our group among. We were basically able to squeeze 1 table each into two of the suites and 4 tables into the larger 3rd suite. While this did assist in keeping some of our folks a little cooler, it significantly impacted the large group dynamic by forcing it into multiple smaller cells. All said, we would have preferred to have had one or two large properly cooled rooms.

Second, the public restrooms on the first floor gave out due to plumbing issues on the morning of day three. With the foul condition (speaking at least in terms of the men's option) of the only alternate restroom on the second floor, this made for minimal options to that end. At least in this case, the facilities in the three suites came in handy. Fortunately for many, they were staying at the hotel and could simply go back to their own rooms when the need struck.

Finally, and I am sure that I have either forgotten something or am leaving out difficulties from guests that I did not even hear about, the leftovers of hurricane Hannah hit on Friday night and managed to flood the parking lot in the back of the hotel to the point that they were calling guests at 4:30am to move their vehicles and, in some cases, their rooms. I know of at least three of our attendees that had their cars flooded above floorboard level. So your hotel's parking lot is in a flood zone and you've known a hurricane was headed your way for at least 4 days now and you couldn't bother to warn your guests ahead of time against parking in that lot?!? Ridiculous. I don't have the complete details, but fortunately 2 of our flooded 3 didn't seem to have any related mechanical problems with their vehicle, though they will need a thorough cleansing. The 3rd wasn't so lucky and is currently fighting the hotel on repair costs.

Again, with all of those negatives, it still turned out to be quite the grand event. It made me even more amped up for boardgaming and I can't wait to see many of my annual friends next time around.

TBGT Japanese Themed Cake

Game 2 Day 3

Fearsome Floors

Day 3 Game 1

Cutthroat Caverns

TBGT 5 Day One Recap

Played:

Vinci - 5 players - I lost massively
Pandemic - 4 players - we lost to outbreaks
Race for the Galaxy - 4 players - a distant 2nd place for me

Why only 3 games? Because the rest of the day was spent trying to negotiate with the hotel to get the AC fixed. Boo. I plan to make a much more impressive day of today.

The Hottest Room in the World

So the hotel where we are holding this year's That Boardgaming Thing is having one really big issue. The air conditioning cooling our gaming room is broken. Big time broken. Meaning it is literally 85 degrees of still air in the room. Waaaaay sucky. Their current remediation attempt was to give us 3 suites to use in the meantime, but that kind of ruins the big room full of people playing boardgames affect. There is hope, albeit little, that maintenance can repair the unit today. Fingers crossed. About 65-70% of our attendees have arrived and we are pretty much at capacity in the temporary location. Yeesh.

The Prize 'Table' Day 1

Here's a shot of the prize "table" after the first 50% or so of attendees have arrived. It should be a healthy chunk o' nice choices this year.

All Fun & Games at TBGT 2008

A shot of our store's offerings at this year's event. Lots of stuff for sale. I'm just hoping that the busted AC doesn't impact our buyers too much.

TBGT #5 Begins!

My first game of this one... Vinci.

test blog entry from new phone

got a new Verizon SMT5800. testing blogging from it.

ʎzɐɹɔ ,uıddıןɟ

˙noʎ ɹoɟ ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ sdıןɟ ʇɐɥʇ ǝʇıs ǝןʇʇıן ɹǝʌǝןɔ ɐ uodnpǝןqɯnʇs ı

Bobbie Update

Yet another Bobbie update, but this will be a quick one.

She's on to the shots at home. To update my previous update, the insurance assumptions there were somewhat wrong. We're screwed no matter what. The cheapest method of getting the medication is the 90 day supply for $400. Getting the shots at the hospital turned out to be, not surprisingly, more expensive (regardless of fuel costs). She's actually had a decent couple of weeks. Good days and bad, no doubt, but definitely overall better than the hospital weekends. The nausea continues, but at least she's able to deal with Killian during the days and go to work some on the weekends.

Short and sweet. We'll keep on truckin' (even though we aren't actually truckin', per se).

Newport News Ramping Up

Always good to see something like this happening in the hometown that saw the bulk of my skateboarding years.

Google Lively - Not So Much

Google Lively has been officially uninstalled from my computer. I was duly unimpressed.

Bobbie Update

Ok, she made it through one tough segment - the 5 days/week 2-3 hours/day intravenous Interferon treatment. Now for round 2, the "at home" portion of the treatment. I put "at home" in quotes because our insurance has changed since we went through this back in 2006 and now they are telling us that it will cost us $200/month (wait, I take that back, it's buy 2 months, get one free, so $400/3 months) to have the shots delivered to our house. To that end, it counts nothing against our out of pocket maximum, so we would have to pay that in full. On the contrary, to our understanding (should be fully verified on Monday), if she drives to the hospital 3 times/week for a 5 minute pop in to have them give her the quick needle poke, it will basically cost us nothing other than the gas to make the trip (about $35/month at $4/gallon). So, it looks like her 11 months of "at home" treatment will actually be "at hospital" treatment. Very frustrating, but not the end of the world. Go Cigna. Way to suck.

She is doing alright all told, but suffering some. The weekends have been rough on her through the IV treatment - heavy nausea generally kicking in on Saturdays and running through Mondays. Her emotions are starting to fluctuate a little more wildly - quicker to snap at you and quicker to cry. I remember this from last time and, to me, it was the suckiest part because it is difficult to have to watch your loved one have to deal with that lack of control. I think it is to her as well. She starts on Ritalin Monday to help counter the fatigue. That didn't work out so well last time, so here's hoping for more success this time around since they're starting it right at the beginning. She is slated to start back to work next weekend. Here's hoping the first week of the injections goes smoothly and that getting back to work proves to be a positive experience for her.

No news on her lip/nerve damage. It's hard to tell if there has been any change. She meets with the surgeon on Tuesday, but I don't know what, if any, information that will bring. It will mark one month since he saw her last if nothing else.

Fortunately, Killian seems to be taking it all fairly well in stride. Between helpful family and me, we have done a pretty good job of keeping him distracted so far. Next week is the first week back to just him and mommy, so here's hoping that goes smoothly as well. I'll be making a point of coming home for lunches, so maybe that will interject a bit of a break for both of them if she's having a tough time. Just have to wait and see on that end. He has been spectacularly well behaved over the past several weeks though. That should help. He's a really good kid.

Anyway, the big takeaway here is that we're done with part 2 of approaching this thing (part 1 = surgery). Only part 3, the longest, to go. Wish us luck...

Google Lively

I have no idea how much, if any, use this will see, but I've added my Google Lively room to the bottom of the blog.

Bobbie Update

Today completes week 2 of Bobbie's treatment (apparently even cancer treatments get a holiday). The first weekend was pretty rough. Starting on Friday, she had severe nausea throughout the weekend. So much so, that we had to put a call into the doc late Saturday night and he called in 2 replacement nausea prescriptions to a 24-hour pharmacy. They seemed to help, or at least knocked her out cold for a good 10 hours. However, she was really nauseous again throughout Sunday. On Monday (her birthday), he switched up the medications she is receiving during treatment for nausea, pumped a bunch of extra fluid into her and halved the interferon dosage for the week. That seems to have helped as she had a pretty good week all of this week except for some nausea beginning yesterday. They gave her a new nausea medication today that is supposed to last 3-5 days, so here's hoping that gets her through the weekend. Definitely don't want a repeat of last weekend.

The food from both work and neighbors has been flowing in and we have been eating like kings during her treatment thus far. Unfortunately, due to her nausea, she hasn't been able to delve into everything that has been through our kitchen, but she has had the opportunity to get a taste of just about all of it. One of our neighbors made a ridiculously delicious chocolate cake from scratch for her birthday. It was frickin' awesome! I told her that we will do a just celebration of her birthday sometime after she completes the hospital part of the treatment when she is feeling more active.

So, basically 2 weeks down, 2 weeks to go on the roughest part.

Good Netflix!... Good!

Looks like they actually pay attention to their customer feedback at Netflix and have apparently decided to overturn their foolish decision to dump their profiles option. Woohoo! I am now proud to be a customer again. Even without it, they're a fine service. That just makes them all the more fine.

Tainted Love - No!

For some reason that I cannot completely nail down, I can no longer read or hear the word "tainted" without associating it to having had someones taint applied to the object being referenced. Thus, tainted food takes on a whole new meaning. So, as a result, "tainting" anything is outside the boundaries of propriety in my view.

Bobbie Update

Today is day 2 of her interferon treatment. Day 1 went pretty much as expected. IV dosage during the morning, slept from 10:30am - 8pm, up for about 1.5 hour for dinner and then back to bed until 7am today. Her fever cranked up to 101 degrees and she was covered with 2 comforters, a sheet and another blanket and still had the chills. The Benadryll did a good job alleviating that effect. They have her alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 3 hours to help with the fever.

We also met with her surgeon (finally) yesterday afternoon. He does not believe that he actually severed the nerve and is fairly confident that functionality should return to her lip over time as the nerve is likely just injured or traumatized. If the damage is permanent, which remains a possibility, then he will refer her to a speech therapist (to help train other muscles to take up the slack) and/or a plastic surgeon to evaluate repair (a nerve graft may be an option). She will meet with him, the surgeon, again in a month to re-evaluate. He gave us an 8-10 week range after which he would decide on the speech therapist/plastic surgeon route if no improvement was shown. So, though that was not fantastic news across the board, it was nice to at least be able to put some time frames on it so we can grasp the idea a little better.

Killian went back to Newport News with his grandparents for the first couple of weeks of Bobbie's treatment, so that should be helpful in making the transition smoother. No doubt we will miss him during that time (already do), but it is nice to have family to assist there. Today is his official 4th birthday! Hard to believe that he's already 4. Yeah, I know people say that all of the time, but it really is crazy how much faster time goes when there is a kid involved. I think it is because they change so quickly in the growth stages that it either makes you realize that time is flying by or just makes it seem so with all of the changes. In any case, he's a fun kid. See the Killian & Me blog for a picture from the party.

Bad Netflix... Bad!

I have a scream of "not fair, not fair" to offer Netflix in reference to their decision to eliminate profiles. What this means is that subscribers can no longer divvy up their rentals among family members. In our case, we currently have it setup where we subscribe to the 3 movies out at a time plan where 2 slots are allocated to me and one to Bobbie. This means we can have separate queues, so when I send back one of my movies, they send back the next one in my queue or if Bobbie sends back her movie, they send out her next queued item rather than forcing us to share and manage a queue. Additionally, we are able to maintain independent ratings lists which offer us personalized suggestions that match our preferences. Netflix is taking this option away from subscribers which is obviously very frustrating to users like ourselves. Is it an effort to trick us into subscribing to two separate accounts? If so, it won't work for those of us watching every penny. It will only push us to other services that may implement similar features. In any case, "Arrrgh!" and "BOO!". It's a bummer to see this from a service that I have been touting the beauty of for years now.

Lesser Things

On a lighter note, I finished Penny Arcade... Episode 1 last week. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to Episode 2 when it comes along. I was happy that the final boss battle only took one attempt, but it was a doozy and took about 15 minutes, I'd guess. Next up is to make a decision between starting Assassin's Creed or GTA IV. I also borrowed a friend's Nintendo DS for my waiting room time during Bobbie's hospital stay and played some of Professor Layton and the Curious Village which provided an entertaining distraction.

Oh, I also finally finished reading The Golden Compass and enjoyed it very much as well. I am eager to see the movie and begin reading The Subtle Knife (book 2 of the trilogy).

Part One Down

Sorry it has taken me so long to get a status out, but it has been a little bit of a hectic weekend. Bobbie had her surgery on Friday at 3pm. The estimated 2 hours and 20 minutes for the surgery, but were done in just under 2 hours. They removed a tumor from just under her jaw line on the right side of her neck. The surgeon felt comfortable that they pretty much got all of it, but she will still need to follow-up with systemic therapy with Interferon, as we already expected. They kept her overnight at the hospital and I stayed with her.

The incision was very clean, unlike the garbled mess from last time - in terms of how it looked immediately following the surgery and for a few days after, and she looked great when I first saw her. The only negative is that during the surgery there was apparently some nerve damage to a nerve that runs along your jaw line (can't remember the name of it). The impact is that the muscles in the right half of her bottom lip don't work. So, it makes it hard for her to eat and such at the moment, but her speech appears to be unaffected. We have no idea on the permanence of this condition. She will need to contact the surgeon on Monday to setup an appointment to discuss the condition and her options. My guess is that they will be A) tough luck, that happens sometimes, B) she will need physical therapy to help the nerve repair itself or C) she will need an additional surgery to attempt to repair the nerve. The surgeon that assisted in the surgery that met with us at the hospital the next day said that it is possible that it will repair itself if it was just injured or that if it were severed that her primary surgeon would need to decide the course of action. She is obviously bothered by this quite a bit since it affects her ability to eat, smile, etc. So, hopefully it will be a relatively easy fix. It doesn't bother me in the slightest other than the fact that she is bothered by it.

She is in a little pain today at the incision, but her primary complaint is a sore throat from the breathing tube that was in place during the surgery. It hurts for her to swallow. She chose not to take any narcotic medication and is making do with a mix of Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen every three hours. She's been sleeping quite a bit at the house, but that is expected after regularly interrupted hospital sleep along with the body recovering from the surgery.

Of course, the big takeaway here is that the tumor was seemingly successfully removed and Bobbie is out of surgery safely. We certainly have plenty of challenges ahead with her preventative treatment and who knows what with the nerve damage, but if it all means that she will be around for years to come, it is certainly worth it. I think Killian would agree.

Bad news, good news and "bad" news

Those that have been reading for awhile will remember back in 2006 when my wife was diagnosed with melanoma cancer and went through a significant surgery followed by almost a year of preventative treatment. That was a horrible and frightening time.

Bad news: Well, the scare returned on Monday this week when we were told that it appeared that the cancer has returned.

Good news: On Friday, she had a PET scan and we got the results today. Fortunately, the tests indicate that the cancer is contained to the same area as before so surgery and preventative treatment should take care of it.

"Bad news": The preventative treatment will be the same Interferon treatment that she had to endure before include a month worth of daily hospital visits for intravenous treatments.

Bobbie is mostly concerned about the Inteferon treatment as it is definitely rough on the body, but the depression side effect bothers her most. Though I am certainly concerned about that as well, I am *far* more relieved that one direct effect is that she gets to be around for years to come.

So, we have a tough several weeks ahead of us, but we'll have to take it one step at a time. We have a couple of advantages this time around that we didn't have the first time around: 1) we've been through it once 2) Killian is almost 4, so he's easier to deal with than last time 3) we have several neighbors with kids that are willing to help us through and 2 of them are stay at home moms. It doesn't mean that it's going to be easy, but it does offer some comfort.

Elevated Aromatics

So, I fell into a cousin of the Dangers of Association from an earlier post. It is the dreaded travelling stink box. I was leaving work the other day and happened to arrive at the elevators on the 3rd floor just as someone was exiting. As I stepped into the elevator car, I immediately took note that someone, assumed to be the guy who just exited, had managed to populate the place with gaseous fecal spray. I had little choice but to endure the frightful odor for my whopping two-story ride down only to have someone waiting to enter the car as I fled for fresh air. As the door closed behind me, it occurred to me that "Oh great, now that guy thinks that I am the culprit of the fartisserie chicken in there." So, of course I had to question my own assumption that the guy exiting when I entered was the bomber. It is now a mystery to us all, but I have no doubt that the guy in after me isn't questioning the flatulence as closely as I am. Thus, I suffer the consequence and unjustified shame of silent blame.

Not Built for Pitching

At the completion of Mass Effect, I picked up playing two lighter games as mentioned; Penny Arcade Presents... and Burnout Paradise. I am enjoying both. Penny Arcade's game is entertaining and light RPG pretty much. Burnout Paradise is a drive the way you wish you could (well, all except for the outlandish wrecks) free-for-all. I played some of the multi-player mode online and completed all of the 2-player challenges. That really adds a lot to the game and is a blast to have others around to witness when you do the impossible.

Rich picked up Boom Blox for the Wii. We played on Sunday and my arm is still in pain (sad reflection of my state of fitness). That could be because we played for about 8 hours! It's really addictive and really fun. If you have a Wii, I consider it a must buy. Basically there are 2 game types. One is more or less giant Jenga and the other is throwing balls (baseball or bowling ball) at giant Jenga stacks. There are variants of both of these, but that pretty much covers the bulk of the game. 8 hours in one day - did I mention that? Check it out if you can.

New sub-blog

Not that I exactly blog like a champion, but I've decided to create an additional/sister blog to Paulblog dedicated specifically to my chatter about Killian. I have two reasons behind this.

1. To offload kid banter from this blog (which is oh so active otherwise).
2. To inspire myself to write more frequently and openly about my feelings and experiences with my son. I always feel a little reserved on this blog because I don't want to bore folk with incessant "Isn't it cute when your kid does this..." type comments.

In any case, no promises that it will be any more active than this blog, but here's hoping since it focuses on a far more energetic and perpetually moving topic.

That said, here is the URL for the new blog: http://killianandme.blogspot.com/ Too late to ramp up any posting tonight other than the quick intro I tossed on there.

Mass Effect... Check!

36+ playing hours later, I am happy to report that I have completed an initial run through of Mass Effect for Xbox 360. I will say that I enjoyed it throughout and will probably give it a second play through as a different character at some point in the near future. I did every little mission possible. I think I could probably complete just the main storyline in 20-ish hours so it won't take quite as long. In any case, two thumbs-up from me. Give it a try if you are interested.

Following that, I kicked off playing some Burnout Paradise for Xbox 360. I wanted something with a little lighter fare before diving into the next two long games on my list: Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV. Of course, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is itching to be played as well.

Audiosurf

If any of you are Steam users out there, I setup my Steam ID page today. I picked up Audiosurf, having heard much praise for it on the PC Gamer Magazine podcast, and am very pleased. It's quite simple and a fun way to interact with my MP3 files when playing them.

Yet More Linkage

Safe for the workplace:

• The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time <-- I don't know about that claim, but there are some great ones in there. #10 is one of my all time favorites that nobody ever remembers when I'm talking about it.
• Ten Thousand Cents <-- a minorly interesting art project
• Top 5 Funny Dog Videos... <-- Again, the "top 5" claim is questionable, but #5 & #2 alone make it worthwhile.
• WholesomeWear <-- Finally, Amish women have a place to go for swimsuits.
• Sleeveface <-- album covers completed in photos - some pretty clever ones.
• Letters to Serial Killers <-- Interesting idea, freaky and interesting responses.
• YoungMe - NowMe <-- I like it. Very cool idea. Would make for a great Mother's/Father's Day present, I think.
  

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!:

• Fanboy Supercuts <-- Ever wanted to hear words snatched out of film & TV that were repeated over and over? Here's your chance.
  

Links or Patties

It has been said by many on multiple occasions, but breakfast sometimes makes for an excellent dinner. That said, here are some entertaining links gathered:

With a tall glass of work safe:

• Painful Microsoft promotional video for Vista (need sound)
• Crazy Motorcycle Monkey
• Compulse - an entertaining online game
• Maxim magazine list of video game to U.S. dollar value
• A fun waste of a few minutes
• A photo lens that makes everything look like a miniature <-- very, very cool
• OK, the Microsoft Vista promo video just got a little less painful
• Interesting, fun & difficult flash game - Nanotube
  

With a short stack of not-so-work-safe:

• A representation of drug use via animated interface
• Not just not work safe, not human eye safe
  

Realizations

A few realizations from the past few months:

• I traveled to Washington DC earlier this week and had to walk 5 blocks to and from a training class. Each leg of the journey resulted in perspiration, muscle burn and heavy breath. I am incredibly out of shape. Not just weight, which really isn't all that terribly bad, but overall fitness. I desperately need to get an exercise regimen going.
• I am unfit for big city life.
• Washington DC is only about a 4 hour drive from my current home - unless there is rain and/or traffic.
• Public bathroom floors often utilize highly reflective tile. This was a bad realization from the inside of a stall. Time to dull it down, builders.
• I am annoyed when given only the following two options by electronic prompts: "Yes" and "No thanks" or "No thank you". "Yes" is fine, but who's to say that I am going to thank you for a rejected offer? It could be a horrific choice, such as "Would you like to have your kneecap mutilated by a rotating electronic fork?". If so, I'm certainly not going to respond with a "No thanks". It's far more likely to be a "Heeeeell no" or a "F*ck that!".
• Following a drought, it will apparently rain every weekend.
• The television in my house means more to me than it should. This won't change and I won't make an effort for it to. Just a realization.
• I have no idea how to clean a mattress. A 3-year old has taught me this.
• I do not support baby showers after the 2nd child. There should be plenty of hand me downs floating around a household by that point.
• The Power Rangers are still some kind of terrible. A 3-year old opposes this viewpoint.
• I gots no lawn care skillz. Sure, I can cut grass and trim weeds, but that about sums up my talents in the area of lawn care.
• Playing a drum set well is difficult. Video games helping to make the world a better place with reality checks.

Bitstrips

Thanks to BoingBoing for pointing me to Bitstrips.  Frickin' fun.  That's all I can say.

My first effort.  Weak, yes, and completely an inside joke, but fun to make.

Memories...

I was sorting through some of the books from my grandparents' attic and I came up with a few treasures. Here are a couple blasts from the past.

Killian Earns His "Tractor"

So, I've broadcast my excitement over the event and now here are some pics of Killian relishing in the spoils. With the completion of his potty training, he earned himself a battery powered Yamaha Rhino - deemed by him, his "tractor" because the next door neighbor's kid has a John Deer similar vehicle. He was quite thrilled and managed to deplete the battery twice on his first day. The pictures are of relatively low quality taken by a cell phone. Beware as he buzzes around the cul de sac at a speed of 5 mph! That's right, we took off the speed restrictor. Madness!

Goodreads

I was introduced to a pretty cool site today, Goodreads. The link to my page on the site is here. Pop on, join up and add me to your friends list there. Basically it is a site to track books that you've read, books you plan to read and share ratings and recommendations with friends.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On

Ok, this will be of interest to only those who are parents or grandparents, but Killian pulled off his first full day of no diaper (not counting overnight pull-ups) and clean "big boy underwear" for the entire day with no bathroom prompting by a parent on Saturday. Every time he went, it was his decision that he needed to go. It was awesome! I didn't have to change a single diaper or a set of clothing! I think he's actually got the plan down now... finally! So, happy times here. As a bonus, if he keeps it up, he'll likely get the tractor or truck (battery powered and kid size) that he missed out on at Christmas this week. Woohoo!

Week 7 & 8 Weigh-Ins

Ok, I have a few things to talk about in this post.

First, my weigh-ins for the past two weeks. On 1/23, I weighed in at 191.5, a nice 3.5 pound drop from the previous weigh-in. In celebration, I managed to gain a pound over the next week, weighing in at 192.5 on 1/30. Boo. Still, 11 pounds down overall thus far, 12.5 to go.

Next on the agenda is a sad note. As I walked into the restroom in our office building the other day, I saw the following note laminated and secured to the wall: "Please Flush After Using". Seriously? I work in an office building of 200+ people. A headquarters of professionals and that note needs to exist? The saddest part is that it probably does. I have, on occassion, walked up to a urinal that remained in a "used" state upon my approach. I'm baffled. My 3-year-old knows to flush the toilet when he is done. In fact, it's probably the part of the whole event that he looks most forward to.

Which brings me to my next point. I don't want to talk too soon, but I think we are well on our way to potty trained. Killian has spent the past few days in underwear instead of pull-ups. A few accidents have ensued, but it has been a success for the most part. I can't *wait* to say goodbye to diaper changing. Come on kiddo...

Now onto surgery recovery. All goes fairly well. I got the stitches out last Monday, 1/21. I had to go in to have the incision drained yesterday, but that should be the end of it. It was doubtful that I would have even had to go in for that. The remaining discomforts are pain directly around where the incision was when pressure is applied, of course. General tightness of muscle around the area as healing progresses. Again, of course. The unexpected pain is that which feels like sunburn several inches out from the inscision. My shoulder blades are super sensitive to touch. It hurts when my shirt drags across them. It feels exactly like my skin is raw from a burn but no visual cues. The doc explained that it is radiating pain from nerves that they had to cut and cut around and that it should heal over time. It's kind of like a ghost limb. There's no way to alleviate the discomfort, which is the part that sucks. However, it's not so bad and I can pretty much ignore it. It's more freaky than anything. The best news is that my back definitely feels improved overall and the discomfort of having the mass there is definitely relieved.

I have picked up playing City of Heroes again on the PC. I'm playing with a group of guys that meet every night and our cooperatively working our characters up to level 50. It's tough to meet every night, but it's a fun time and a good group of guys, so I'm having fun with it. I've also been playing Rock Band on Xbox 360 with Rich & Scott whenever I can. It is much to the fun. I'm playing drums, Rich is playing lead guitar and Scott is bouncing between vocals and bass. I can play drums on medium through almost all of the songs we've hit so far, but can only step up to hard on the simplest songs. In any case, it is a blast! I would highly suggest checking it out if you have the means.My step-dad came down a couple of week's ago (the day of my surgery, actually) and helped us (ok, helped Bobbie) clear out a ton of dead trees and brush. We bought a small 8-inch battery operated Black & Decker chainsaw last night with a giftcard from my dad and step-mom (thanks, guys) at Lowe's to cut up the remainders into tiny enough bundles for the city to pick-up.

Week 5 & 6 Weigh-Ins

I meant to post after the Week 5 weigh-in, but obviously failed to do so. Apparently heavily cheating on the NutriSystem diet over several days will, in fact, punish you. I managed to gain a pound back in week 5, taking me up to 195.5. In week 6, even with a some cheating (who can say no to free lunch from vendors?), I still managed to drop 1/2 pound bringing me back to 195 as of last night. Bobbie signed up for NutriSystem last night as well, so it should help quite a bit with both of us on to remove some of the temptation food from the house.

On another note, I had surgery last Friday to remove a lipoma (think fat tumor) from my back that had been there growing slowly for at least 6 years. It was finally getting to the point of causing discomfort. Sucky thing about insurance: when I first noticed it back when it was very small and could have been readily removed at any doctor or dermatologist's office in a simple procedure I couldn't have it removed because it would have been considered elective cosmetic surgery. Instead, I had to wait until it grew big enough to cause me pain and require hospital outpatient surgery to have a 3-inch wide, 1 inch deep thing removed that was just shy of actually touching my spine. Yeah, go health care system. Anyway, the surgery went well, but I now have the luxury of a drainage tube hanging out of the middle of my back for the last 6 days in addition to the not so pleasant feeling of recovering from a 3-inch incision in my upper back. I'm hoping to get the drainage tube out tomorrow which would make things much better. With the tube in there, I can't really sit back in chairs and can't sleep on my back or roll over across it in bed. As a result, I have been getting very interrupted sleep since the surgery and it's really starting to wear on me. Hopefully not after tomorrow though (fingers crossed).

After the surgery, I found out that my dad had to have some removed when he was about my age, though they don't appear to be hereditary according to the medical materials that I have read. As a bonus, I am now also likely to basically have a permanent dent in my back where they removed the soft tissue. Not really a big deal, but lucky me, huh? Well, if nothing else, here's hoping they aren't hereditary and that Killian doesn't ever have to deal with one. Of course, this could explain my 1/2 pound loss this week. Heheh.

Lamb and that Biff guy

I just finished reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore at the suggestion of a friend. Those who know me know that I am not a religious fanatic by any means. That said, read this book. Read it and enjoy it, no matter what your stance on Christianity. I would be as amazed to see it offend as I would be to hear that it was found to be not entertaining. I really, really loved this story from cover to cover. It's not goofy and stupid. It's not preachy or sappy. It is simply a well written piece of literature. That said, it is primarily comic in nature. I can't really say much more other than offering mad props to Christopher Moore on a job well done.

My next endeavour is The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (and then the rest of the trilogy assuming that I enjoy book 1).

Burning a hole in daylight

That's what my grandmother used to say when we would turn/leave a light on in a room that was already well lit by natural sunlight. The one full on adult/parental activity that I constantly catch myself doing is turning off a myriad of electrical devices behind my family. It's a combination of financial concern (keeping the electric bill down) and environmental awareness that makes me hyper-aware of it, I think, and every time that I do, especially when it makes sense mid-day, I think of her phrase. Funny how things like that follow you through life.

Week 4 Weigh-In

As I get slower to post, the week 4 weigh-in brought surprisingly good news considering how much I cheated on New Year's Eve. Weighed in at 194.5, another 2.5 pounds down for a total of 9 pounds now. I'm averaging 2.25 pounds per week at that rate, so I'm content. Here's hoping that continues for the next 14.5 pounds.