Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in carolynpaul's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
1:52 pm	I'm back for another update. I finally have the dates for radiation--I'll go on this coming Monday for a "dry run", which I think means that they'll be sure everything is all lined up. Then on Tuesday, I'll start radiation for real. I'll be going at 11:00 every day for six weeks. I could have had an earlier time slot, but since I go to the VA first on four days of the week, this will be easier. I'm not dreading it, I just want to get it over with. On Friday of this past week, we went to a dinner-dance/fundraiser that a friend of Chuck's had invited us to, at a fancy place in North Haven. I didn't expect it to be very big, but there were probably over 200 people there. It was to raise funds for a local animal shelter, the one where Karen got her cats. To help raise money, they had a lot of donated items. Some were put in a silent auction, where there was a piece of paper and a pen by each item, and bidders were to write down how much they bid. Someone else could come along and write down a bigger bid. When time was called, the person at the end of the list was the winner. I bid on one item for Karen--an autographed picture of the "Desperate Housewives" cast, and the first two seasons. I wasn't the last bidder. The other items were placed in a "Chinese raffle", a term I wasn't familiar with. People could buy tickets, anywhere from a single ticket, to many strings of tickets. Each item was numbered, and by each item, there was a box. Bidders could place one to any number of tickets in the boxes by the items they were interested in. I put tickets in four different boxes. During a break in the dancing, the deejay (or someone else?) drew one ticket from each box. I actually won something! I got a large breadmaking machine! It makes loaves up to two pounds. We decided to put it away, and give it to ourselves for Christmas. Since Chuck plans to retire in the spring, I'm sure he could make bread, too. It will be nice to wake up to warm fresh bread. He just doesn't want that to replace my making bread by hand. Saturday morning, Chuck got a call to fill in at a tennis tournament in New Haven, and I went to the gym. In the evening, we played bridge with Miriam and Jerry. My weird hand of the evening was one where I had all red cards--seven hearts, and six diamonds! Someone can have fun figuring out the odds of getting all red cards. It rained Sunday morning, and then cleared in the afternoon. We went out for a walk in the afternoon. I haven't had much luck getting candidates for the study at work recently, but I have done better just in the last couple of days. No firm candidates yet, but a few potential ones. The weather has been pretty chilly here recently, getting close to freezing at night a few times. We haven't been using the heat, but the woodstove has been in use a lot. It's gotten down to the mid-fifties indoors. Today it's probably warmer out than in, but I've had a fire going since before 8:00. There was still some warmth in the woodstove when I started. This evening, we'll be going to someone's house to check out various scripts, to help us decide on a play for next spring. It sort of snowballed, so there will be about eight or nine of us, and Mary offered to serve soup and bread. I offered to make bread for the gathering, so there is Anadama bread in the oven as I write this. It's one of our favorites. I made the dough earlier, and went out for a few errands while it was rising the first time. There's nothing like the smell of homemade bread baking. This coming weekend will be homecoming weekend for Karen, Rebecca, and Amitai (Rebecca's tenth reunion), so they'll be coming up. We get to babysit for Jonah Friday evening--yay! Time to get the bread out of the oven. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
5:09 pm	Yes, I have been remiss in posting on here recently. Last Tuesday, Chuck and I went to my appointment, where we met the oncologist for the first time. He (the oncologist) and the radiologist came to the same conclusion independently, that I would decrease my odds of recurrence if I have both medication and radiation. So on Monday of this week, I went to the radiology department and got my little tattoos, marking where they'll line up the radiation machine to dose me. They'll let me know either later this week or early next week about when I'll actually start the six weeks of radiation, five days a week. And I have been on the medication for just over a week now. Last Wednesday I met an old friend for lunch in East Haven. We hadn't seen each other in about a year, so that was nice. I had choir practice that evening. Thursday there were liver clinics at Yale and the VA. Friday, Chuck went to a going-away party in the afternoon, and we played bridge in the evening. Saturday morning, it was raining, so we reinstated our memberships at the gym. I had some sore muscles for a while after that. Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet day. Sunday was church and bell rehearsal, and Karen was around for much of the afternoon. After supper, Chuck and I went for a walk. The previous Monday, after the research meeting, I had tried to organize a cookout here at the house, combining "just for fun" with a going-away party for a visiting fellow who has been here for six months, but will be going back to Italy this coming weekend. People sort of figured Monday evening would be a good time, because they are usually around on Mondays, anyway. After deciding on this past Monday, and sending out invitations, I got three emails back from people who couldn't come then. Of the other invitations, many did not reply at all, or several said they would come. So we were expecting about 15 or so people. On Monday, the day of the party, one person said she was too far behind on work, one person (plus family) had a paper due that night, one person wasn't feeling well, one person (plus family) had been on call that weekend, and had fallen asleep, and one person called about 6:30, too tired. So It ended up being the woman going back to Italy, a woman from India who shared an office with her for a while and drove her here, Karen, Chuck, and myself. But they were very gracious, and said they thought it was nice, because we could have one conversation, rather than several smaller ones. But it was a little frustrating. Tuesday, after work, we went to the gym. Today was my day off, and I went out for errands this morning. I got a new pair of khaki pants for Chuck (because we haven't seen his old ones since Cape Cod), a new shade for one of our bedroom windows (because the old one fell off and broke the spring and also got torn), and a few other mundane things. This afternoon, I waited around for the chimney cleaner to come. A small piece from the inside top of the woodstove had fallen into the burning chamber, and we weren't sure what we should do about it. It's a lightweight piece of non-burnable material that fits at an angle, to reflect the heat out toward the front of the woodstove. But the stovepipe needed cleaning, anyway. Chuck got home from work and went out soon afterwards to play tennis, and I may walk over to High Lane Club to watch for a while. Then we'll have a quick supper (leftovers from Monday), and I'll go to choir practice. Nothing terribly exciting is going on, but that isn't inherently bad, either. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
10:32 pm	We are now home after a wonderful vacation on Cape Cod. To finish up our activities of the rest of the week, Thursday morning, we drove to the Mansbachs’ house, also in South Yarmouth. They inherited it from an aunt, and it’s a very nice house. After a few minutes there, the Mansbachs led and we followed them to the restaurant, called Jack’s Out Back. There is no way we would have found it on our own—it didn’t even show up on the GPS list of restaurants! We all had pancakes, with various beverages, and had a great conversation with them. They were going to be leaving again the next day to go to a wedding in New Jersey. We went back to the timeshare and played ping pong for a while. Later, we went to a beach in Dennis. It was quite windy, but at one point, we sprawled out on the beach in a sunny but sheltered spot. It was a nice place to relax. We had dinner in the condo that evening. On Friday, we played ping pong again, and hung out in the timeshare. After lunch, Kay and Ed arrived as expected. They were there for about two hours, and we hung out in the condo. They had offered to meet us at a beach or elsewhere, but it was cooler that day, so we stayed in. After they left, Chuck and I drove east, looking for a nice beach to visit. We were either in Hyannis or Barnstable, at Keyes Beach. Again, it was a little cool and windy, but pleasant. We walked down the road for a while, also. Then, on our way back to the timeshare, we stopped for dinner at an Italian restaurant, called DiParma’s, which was very nice. We had a quiet evening. Saturday morning, we drove back to Connecticut, getting home a little after 1:00, greeted by Karen. She stayed around for supper, and into the evening, which was nice. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
9:49 pm	This is a two-part post, since I haven't been on here in a few weeks. A lot happened during those weeks! After a questionable mammogram in January, and another one in July, a biopsy in August showed something that shouldn't be there. On August 29, I had surgery, as an outpatient. I always have trouble after anesthesia, but after some Dramamine in my IV, they sent me home. Karen and Chuck were with me the whole time except for when I was in surgery, which was a big help. I was at the hospital by 8:50 in the morning for a preliminary procedure, but didn't go in for surgery until 1:40. Our car had been hit a couple of weeks before that, and of course, it was ready around noon that day, so Chuck picked it up. Recovery was pretty smooth, and was helped by so many cards, flowers, a couple of dinners from friends, and good wishes from so many people. Almost three weeks later, I'm still sore by the incisions, and still feel bruised, but the prognosis is excellent. I went back to work a little over a week later. I also went to my college reunion eight days after surgery, and really enjoyed going back to see the college and people again. Part two--Chuck and I are on vacation at Cape Cod this week. We are staying at a timeshare in South Yarmouth, and arrived on Saturday in the rain. After we settled in, we went down the road a short way for dinner, at a restaurant called Christopher's. They had pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw, which I really like. Chuck had fish. On Sunday morning we got some groceries, and then went to lunch at Yarmouth House, a restaurant down the road the other way. We had arranged to meet Betsy and Glenn. Betsy was one of my college roommates, and we hadn't seen each other in over 35 years. After lunch, we all went out for ice cream at the Cape Cod Creamery, and then the rain started to clear, so we went to the mini-golf place right across the street from our timeshare. That was a lot of fun, and then we came back here to the condo for a little while. On Monday, we drove out to the tip of Cape Cod. Along the way, in Truro, Chuck saw a sign for a golf course that someone had recommended to him, so he turned off to see that. He had "forgotten(?)" to take his clubs out of the car, so he ended up playing a nine-hole round, which he really enjoyed. I walked with him. There were nice ocean views from several places on the course. We then went to Provincetown, and with a little looking around, found a nice place for lunch, Betsy's Bayside, on the water. The most eventful thing at lunch was when the waiter dropped several plates and glasses and bowls. The cole slaw on the rug made a particularly messy spot. We then went to some beach areas in Provincetown, and rested for a while. We also drove along the National Seashore, and then headed back. Along the way back, we turned down Longnook Road in Truro. When I was little, our family used to go to Longnook Beach, so we wanted to see what it is like now. The cabins where we stayed are long gone, but the beach looks pretty much the same--huge sand dune cliffs, and a relatively flat beach. When we were little, we used to jump down a lower part of the cliff, by the slanted walkway down to the beach level. I thought about doing that yesterday, but resisted the urge. Yesterday, we drove to Harwich Port, and took a two-hour boat ride to Monomoy Island. It's now a Wildlife Refuge, and is only inhabited by lots of species of birds, and lots of seals. We saw a number of seals, but they were all swimming around in the water, so we only saw their heads most of the time. Occasionally, they would flip over and float on their backs. We then went to Chatham, and watched some fishing boats come in. More seals hang around there, waiting for handouts. Today Chuck and I played ping pong here at the resort, and then after an early lunch, I dropped him off at a golf course, and I went to a laundromat. I picked him up around 5:00, and we went to Christopher's foir dinner again. Tomorrow, we'll have breakfast with Bob and Mary Mansbach. Bob officiated at our wedding over 35 years ago. On Friday, we'll meet up with Kay and Ed. Kay is an old friend of Chuck's from childhood. In fact, her mother and Chuck's parents were childhood friends. My biggest disappointment this trip has been our camera. We bought it in February, it died in July, and was sent back for repairs. On Sunday, it started acting up again, and died yesterday on the boatride. I called Nikon this morning, and they're sending a shipping label to our house. That pretty much gets me back to current events! (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
5:41 pm	Denver trip I know it's been a few weeks since I got on here, but since it would be hard to reconstruct everything, I'll just write about the last week or so. Last Saturday morning, Chuck took me to the New Haven train station, and I went down to Grand Central Station. Then I took the subway shuttle to Port Authority, and then got the NJ Transit bus to Dumont. I was getting on the first bus available, a local, and confirmed that it would go to Dumont, and the driver told me that it would be faster for me to go to another gate for the express, about 20 minutes after the original bus. I went there, and after a while, someone came in and said that the bus had broken down on the NJ Turnpike. The next bus in would be a local, also, and was a little late, so I ended up waiting a lot longer than I should have. Rebecca called, and said I should get off the bus at the armory, instead. I did, and it was pouring out, and I had no umbrella, so I got drenched. They met me, and we went to a store to return something she had bought, and then we went to a Chili's Restaurant for a late lunch. From there, Amitai dropped us off at the Newark Airport. The flight was originally scheduled for 4:45, but Rebecca had gotten an update that it would be at 5:15. Then, they announced that the flight crew was coming in from Orlando, due in at 6. The airport was busy, so they didn't get to the gate for another 20 minutes or so. We boarded around 6:30, and then pulled away from the gate. We sat there for three hours more, because there were storms in the midwest, and we couldn't fly out that way. Finally, when storms had cleared, we were the 17th plane in line for takeoff. It was 9:40 when we finally left. Jonah was very patient, and fell asleep around that time. We landed in Denver about 11:15, and had to take a little shuttle to the baggage area, and get the suitcases, and get the Super Shuttle into Denver, which is 20-some miles from the airport. We got to the hotel, checked in, and went right to bed, turning out the light around 1 AM their time, or 3 AM by body time. I woke up Sunday morning at 6:45 (Mountain time), and soon after that, got dressed and went out for a walk to see what was nearby. We had continental breakfast at the hotel every day. Later on Sunday, a cousin of Amitai's rode her bike over, and we had brunch at Gomez's Restaurant, right next door. A little after Emily left, Rebecca took the RTD (Denver bus) to the convention center for the first of the meetings of JSM, Joint Statistical Meetings. She stopped in with various vendors, talks, and poster sessions, and then went to a couple of receptions to schmooze. She made dinner of those receptions, and got back to the hotel by taxi between 10:30 and 11 PM. I had taken Jonah out for a walk in his stroller for a while, and it sprinkled a little. We went over to the Domino's Pizza place nearby and just got cheesy breadsticks for a light supper. He had trouble getting to sleep without Rebecca, but eventually settled in. He was happy to see her when she got back, though. I had fallen asleep before then. On Monday, she left after breakfast and chaired a session that day, taking the bus to the convention center. Jonah wasn't too happy, but managed. After some TV, we took the bus to downtown Denver, and hung out at the 16th Street Mall. It's a regular street with lots of stores, but has been closed to all vehicular traffic except free hybrid shuttle buses. We rode them some, and also ended up at the convention center, meeting up with Rebecca. She had an event to go to a little later, so Jonah and I left, to his disappointment. But he liked the huge blue bear that stares in the window of the convention center. It was a hot, sunny, dry day, and we covered a lot of ground, including the state capitol. At lunchtime, I found a Jamba Juice place, and ordered a Berry Fulfilling drink. He loved it! We later went back to the hotel on a bus, and he had a good nap. He wasn't happy to wake up to no Rebecca, but recovered from that. She walked all the way back, and picked up our baseball tickets at Coors Field. We then went to a local McDonald's Express (not a full-sized one) for something substantial, and then walked the four or five blocks to the stadium, where we saw the Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-4. There was a section where JSM people sat, on the first-base side, fairly close to the field. I think Jonah had fun at the game. Afterwards, we walked back. Tuesday morning, Rebecca left, and a while later, Jonah and I took the bus to downtown Denver, and I eventually got quite lost, trying to find the Denver Children's Museum. It was supposed to be fairly near the convention center, but I ended up walking about four miles, pushing Jonah in the stroller. I had gotten conflicting information from various people along the way. At one point I found a Natural Foods store, where I bought a couple of bananas for a snack. After I finally got to the museum (with Jonah's legs getting sunburned), he wasn't interested in food, just playing. We checked out all the rooms, including one for babies and toddlers with a little slide, a reading room, a tree cottage with a pretend kitchen, stars that he could step on to make sounds, and a boat where he could "go fishing" with a dowel, a string, and a magnet, with four stuffed fish with metal on their faces. We were also at a small basketball court, a pretend grocery store, an art room where he painted and colored, a train room, and a cave for wild animals. But his favorite was a "construction site" with large Lego blocks, a conveyor belt, wheelbarrows, hard hats, vests, electrical toys, and pipes to fit together. He loved putting the blocks on the sloped conveyor belt, where they dropped down about eight feet away. Some bigger kids were building with the blocks, and he was amused by the collapse of some of the structures. I got him a puzzle there, and then we went back to the hotel. He fell asleep right after we got on the bus. We went to Gomez's that evening. Wednesday, he didn't complain as much about Rebecca's leaving. After an Elmo video, we took the bus to downtown, and connected with another one, to the Denver Zoo. We saw the elephants, and then went to a show there, which he really liked. After the show, which was mostly with birds, we saw some monkeys, and then got something to eat. From there, we rode on a small train, which was about a five minute loop. He loves trains, so was very happy. We saw more monkeys, and then we headed to other parts of the zoo, but he fell asleep in his stroller. I took pictures of various other animals there, like rhinos, zebras, a leopard, a polar bear, penguins, giraffes, etc. I went over to the sea lion show, but parked ourselves in the shade where he slept, so I didn't see the show too well. He slept about 75 minutes there, and it was hot and dry. When we were leaving, we had to wait for the bus, and we talked to a small boy and his mother, also waiting for the bus. His father was also at JSM, from Illinois. After another Elmo video, I asked Jonah if he wanted to go into the pool, and he did, I got both of us ready, and headed out, but it was pouring, with thunder. I checked several times, but it rained the rest of the evening. We went over to a Quizno's, next door to Domino's, and got some subs for supper. We got back to the hotel about a minute before Rebecca got back. Thursday morning, Rebecca left a little early, because she was presenting a paper a little after 8:30. Later, Jonah and I rode into downtown Denver, and we rode the 16th Street Mall bus for a while. We got off by the state capitol again, and I walked a little further. A block or two later, I found the Denver Public Library, so we headed there. There was a story hour for little kids that started about ten minutes later, so we went to that. The woman read three books about dragons, they sang a few songs, and then we went to another room for an art project, making dragon headbands. I sat him on a little chair at the low table, and he was very happy to color with markers. I don't think he was even looking to see if I was there. I cut the things out and made the headband and attached things for him. When he was done, we wandered around the library for a little while, and then headed to a restroom. About that time, Rebecca called, to say she was done with the JSM. She had printed out a coupon for a restaurant on the 16th Street Mall, so we met there. He fell asleep before the food arrived. Later, he woke up, and we went to Jamba Juice for more drinks, including another Berry Fulfilling. He was drinking that, and occasionally I'd ask if it was my turn. His response was "Nnnnoooope!" We sat on benches in the middle of the street, and watched busses and light-rail trains go by, and then went back to the hotel, where we had checked out, but left our luggage there. Rebecca changed out of her professional clothes, and then the Super Shuttle picked us up and took us to the airport. The grass along the way was quite brown and dry, and at one place, I saw prairie dogs. We could also see a rainstorm off in the distance, toward the mountains. We checked in, got some early supper, and flew home, pretty much on time. We had to wait for a gate at the Newark airport for a while, and then Amitai picked us up. We got back to their house close to 1 AM. Jonah slept on the plane for a while, and was ready to play when he got home. I slept until 9 Friday morning, and then got the bus back to Port Authority at 11:15. I found my way back to Grand Central Station, and then got the train back to New Haven. Chuck picked me up there, and Karen was waiting at our house. Chuck and I were planning to play tennis late that afternoon, but we had a big rainstorm, so we didn't. I made a casserole for the three of us, for supper. Karen left later to pack, as she is now at camp for a week as a counselor, working with kids the age that she taught this past year. She called last night, to say that she had heard a mouse squeaking in her house. She and her cats herded it into an empty soda case, and she put it outside. She was grossed out. On Thursday, Karen and Noelle went to Six Flags of New England, in Massachusetts. They couldn't ride too many rides, because of local thunderstorms. But they were happy they rode the Superman ride. As they were getting ready to come back home, Karen noticed that her debit card and her car key were missing from her shorts pockets. They had flown out of her pockets on the Superman ride, and eventually found out that a woman a few seats back caught the debit card as it flew by, and turned it in at Guest Relations. Karen didn't have any ID, but rattled off the whole number, so she got it back. She didn't find the key, but she had had ignition problems in her car the previous week, and when it got fixed, the dealership gave her two new keys, and she had given one to Noelle, so they could get home. Saturday morning, I went to shower, and stubbed my toe badly on the toilet. It really hurt. Later, Karen came up to our house to finish packing and to visit with us. I went out for errands, including getting copies of the car key made. After getting some groceries, I got home. She tried all the keys, and they worked. Then I had her try my old Saturn key, and that worked, too. Oh, well. We had lunch, and then she drove to camp. Chuck and I went to High Lane Club for an exhibition tennis tournament between the two pros, husband and wife. He won, two sets to one. We watched from the deck, along with a bunch of other people. We considered hitting some tennis balls, but my toe was turning purple by then, so we didn't. In the evening, we went to a very informal dinner party at the Applebys' house. We had a great time there, and my toe was even more purple by then. This morning, my toe and part of my foot near the toe are purple. We went to church after Chuck played tennis. Dress shoes were a little uncomfortable. We were supposed to have bell rehearsal after church, but we didn't have a quorum of ringers present, so we'll rehearse on Wednesday. On Monday, Chuck will have his last Men's Round Robin tennis, and they'll have pizza afterwards. (Women's will be on Tuesday.) I'll try to get our Prius to the body shop Monday--while I was away, someone backed into the Prius, and dented two panels, near the gas cap. At least the person left his name, number, and insurance information, so it won't cost us anything except time. It's still driveable, but messy. Enough for now! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 21st, 2008
10:04 pm	Yes, I know I probably should have added to my journal over the weekend, but I just didn't get to it. Not that I was too terribly busy--I spent a large part of the daytime indoors, because of this awful heat and humidity! And yes, I'm back to typing on our regular computer, even though it takes its sweet time changing from one window to another. But at least it connects to the internet again. Amitai walked Chuck through the repair--Microsoft and Spybot or something like that were busy duking it out inside the computer. Saturday evening, we went to Cafe Nine in New Haven, to see/hear the Mold Monkies. They didn't start until well after 10:00 PM, and we didn't stay to close the place. On Sunday, Karen's friends, Noelle and Chloe, and the four parents, were here for a cookout. We sat out on the porch chatting for most of the time, but wandered around through the yard for some of the time, also. The weather was pretty good for that. After dinner, we went into the living room and had a family vs. family vs. family game of Cranium. We had a lot of fun with that, and our team won. Monday night, Chuck played tennis, and Tuesday evening, I went to High Lane for the women's tennis, but there was a group of four women who made their own foursome, and eventually two other women for the main event. One had pulled a muscle earlier in the week, and figured she would be better off not playing. So I ended up playing two sets of singles against Jennifer, a woman we know from church. She's much better than I am (who isn't?), but I won a few games over all. From there, I went home, and Chuck and I drove down to New Jersey. Wednesday morning, Amitai dropped Rebecca and Chuck off at the bus station, and they went to NYU to a baseball statistics conference, which they both enjoyed. Jonah woke up about a minute after they left, and I wasn't the fist person he wanted to see, but he adjusted pretty quickly. Of course, we had to watch Elmo for a while. Later in the morning, I took him to a local library to a little kids' story hour. He was reluctant at first, but then ended up happy to play with some toys. He had a nap a little while after we got back, but it wasn't a long one. We played some more, and watched more Elmo, and then I had him take another nap later. He objected, but slept for more than an hour. Amitai got home about 6:30, and I had ordered Chinese food, which Jonah also likes. Rebecca and Chuck got home after 7:00, and then we left to come home. We played tennis Friday evening, and it was really hot and humid. At least we took towels with us, to dry the sweat off our faces between games. Yuck. There were ten of us who stayed for beer and pizza. Saturday, I went out for errands, including to get a new toaster oven, because ours was dying. Chuck worked in the yard for part of the day. That evening, we went to New Haven for what was billed as a party with Jonny Rodgers and his band. The opening act was two men, one on keyboard and singing, the other on violin. They were phenomenal--Bipolar Jukebox. Jonny's band played about ten songs. It was in what used to be a storefront which is now the front of an apartment at an artists' community. There were over 40 people there, and no air-conditioning. I suffer under those conditions--it must have been over 90 degrees and humid in the room. We had gotten there early, and had seats on a sofa, but a lot of people were sitting on a concrete floor. We were definitely in the older half. The music was great, though. Sunday morning, Chuck played tennis, and Karen came up. She stayed after church, which was also quite hot, and stayed through dinner. There had been rumors of my making a lime chiffon pie at some point, so that afternoon was the point. She and I had a Cribbage Tournament of sorts. She beat me three out of five games. I looked at our garden this evening, after I walked home from High Lane Club. The deer have really destroyed it. We only had three kinds of things planted. The pepper plants are little more than spikes, the tomato plants are all nibbled off at the top, and the deer have (so far) left the basil plants alone. Our camera, that we bought in Florida to replace the one that got lost, seems to have died. We've had it less than six months. I was in touch with Nikon, and sent it off to them today. I hope to get it back soon, but it's frustrating. Work has been rolling along pretty peacefully for the last two weeks. I didn't have an LVP patient last week, and don't have any scheduled for this week or next, at this point. It probably won't happen, because I'm having trouble getting everyone's schedules, including the APU's (Ambulatory Procedure Unit). I have some patients already consented, though. And I've been getting a few more inpatients consented for the patient registry recently, too. I plan to play tennis tomorrow evening, and Chuck plans to play golf tomorrow, and Thursday afternoon. We'll play tennis Friday after work, and then the Pilot Pen's married couples tournament on Saturday. I hope we can get in one practice session on courts with a similar surface. I think it's a hard surface, instead of the Har-Tru kind that we are used to. Saturday evening, a group of eleven of us will carpool to Essex, CT, to go to a restaurant for dinner, and then watch "Moon Over Buffalo" at the Ivoryton Playhouse. We saw that play almost two years ago in Pennsylvania, and really liked it, so I organized a field trip for some of the church theatre group who were interested. I'm looking forward to that. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
7:59 pm	Happy birthday, Phyllis! I'm typing on Chuck's laptop computer from work, because our desktop computer seems to be out of commission. He thinks it might be a modem problem, but it affects both of our computers. That's a drag. First of all, the big announcement this week was that Chuck plans to retire the end of April of this next year. He'll stay on and do some casual work, so it isn't a clean break. But you can't buy free time, and that is one thing that he wants. Word traveled fast around Yale. Last Saturday, as planned, we played bridge here with Miriam and Jerry. We didn't get very good cards, but it's still fun to play and visit with friends. Sunday was a relatively quiet day. Chuck played tennis on Monday, and I played on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were fairly quiet, but we went for a walk on one of those nights. Friday we played mixed doubles tennis, and then played bridge here afterwards. We had better cards. The last two hands, I had really good cards, and played a whole rubber in just those two hands. This morning, I didn't go any further than a walk down to our old neighborhood, where someone was allegedly having an estate sale, but all I saw was a place where there was some furniture on the driveway for sale. Chuck worked in the yard. Garfunkel didn't seem to be feeling well earlier, having upper and lower GI problems, but he seems happy to chase a ribbon on the bed I'm sitting on now. This afternoon, I had a good nap. Later, we went to the Yale golf course so that Chuck could play and I could walk it. It was pretty crowded, and he ended up playing only seven holes. But I found 24 golf balls during that time. We went to SBP Restaurant for dinner. Tonight, we'll go to a bar in New Haven called Cafe 9, where we'll see the Mold Monkies play, along with another singer that Chuck really enjoys hearing. They aren't scheduled to start until after 10:00, so it will be a late night. Tomorrow, Karen's friends Chloe and Noelle, and their parents, will be here for a cookout. That should be a lot of fun. This has been a pretty hot and humid week, but the air changed on Thursday, and we had a beautiful day. It's a little more humid now, but not too bad. Things have been somewhat busy at work this past week. I had a patient scheduled to come in on Tuesday for the LVP procedure, and confirmed it with him, at the liver fellow's request. Then the fellow called back and said that there were no beds available in the procedure area, so we had to cancel. But on Monday, I picked up a patient for a follow-up, and on Tuesday, I picked up another one for a follow-up. That was over 300 miles this week. I consented another one, who is scheduled to come in in a little over a week, but I don't know if we can get him into the study on that particular date. If we can't, we'll try to get him in the next time he needs an LVP. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
2:36 pm	I hope everyone had a good Independence Day yesterday! Last week was the last of our softball games for the season. We barely had ten people, six men and four women. We lost, 5-2. But it was a fun game. Unless we do an excursion without a game before it, that was the last Aunt Chilada's visit for a while. Monday evening, Chuck played tennis, and Tuesday, I went to a reception for the new GI Fellows at Yale, where I met all six of them. I'll be in touch with most of them over the next few months for work. Then I played tennis (two of the three sets, because we had an extra person). I then drove down to New Jersey, getting there about 8:45, to take care of Jonah the next day. He didn't wake up until after his parents left for work, but he didn't seem upset for very long, as long as he got a chance to see Elmo on TV. Then we played outside for a while, and he then slept for three hours or so, while I folded laundry. After his nap and lunch, we played outside some more, and then I didn't figure out their TV system (Fios, On Demand, etc.). So I put some YouTube videos of Elmo on Rebecca's computer, which kept him happy. Then Rebecca called, so we went to pick her up at the bus stop/grocery store. Jonah was happy to see her. I distinctly heard a "Mommy" from Jonah along the way. When we left the store, there was a long slow train crossing between there are their house, so we went a couple miles out of our way to get back. I drove back to Connecticut after getting gas, at about 26 cents per gallon cheaper than the best price in our area! Thursday was a quiet evening at home, except for a walk around the neighborhood together. Yesterday was a warm but very muggy day. It was a lethargic day for us, which we spent baking cookies, cutting Chuck's hair, napping, and reading. We were planning to play tennis at 5:30, but it started raining about 4:30. We gave up and I made dinner. Just as we were about to eat, one of the other tennis couples called, saying it wasn't raining there, and the courts were playable. We ate quickly and then went over to play. It wasn't my best night of playing, but I got some lucky shots in, and had fun. We didn't stay for beer and pizza. This morning was a day for running errands, but two of my four errands were thwarted by places not being open. I wanted to pick up more pills for Garfunkel, and get maps of Denver, but the vet's and AAA were closed for the holiday weekend. But I got groceries while Chuck straightened up the attic. Tonight we will play bridge with our friends Miriam and Jerry, here at our house. We haven't played with them for a while. Work has kept me busy this past week. On Monday, I racked up another 225 miles or so, bringing in a patient for a follow-up, and taking him back home. On Tuesday, another patient drove himself to the VA for the study. I was away Wednesday, and Thursday, I was at Yale for a fair amount of time. Otherwise, it was dead at the VA that day. One of the people I had tried to get into the study recently didn't make it. This coming Monday, after my eye doctor appointment, I'll pick up this past Tuesday's patient for a follow-up. Then there will be a research meeting. On Tuesday, I'll pick up a new patient for the study procedure, then take him home, and pick up the patient from the week before for another follow-up. And as of now, I am back to working part-time, averaging 30 hours a week. If I can't get to Yale on Monday or Tuesday, I'll work other hours. In general, I plan to take Wednesdays off. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
2:11 pm	It's hard to write on here more than once a week! Last Sunday we ended up playing softball after all, with ten on our team and nine on theirs. It was a pretty lopsided game, with our team winning, something like 20 to 4. But we all had a good time, and we went to Aunt Chilada's after the game. Monday evening, Chuck played tennis, and I played on Tuesday, while he played golf. Wednesday and Thursday were fairly quiet evenings at home. On Friday, we played mixed doubles, and I think that was probably my second-best time of playing tennis, not that I didn't make any mistakes, but fewer than usual. We only played against two other couples, but they were competitive, and we ended up winning more games than the opponents did. We left, came home and showered, and then went to the Hamden fireworks. It was a very nice display, over near the middle school. Karen and her friend Chloe went salsa dancing before that, and watched the fireworks from a parking lot about a half mile from where we were, and then met up with us here at our house afterwards. We had Sierra Mist and sherbet floats, and played some Catchword on Chloe's new device that Karen had given her for her birthday, which was the day before. The Pilot Pen tennis tournament (for the pros) will be here in New Haven late next month. They have been in touch with clubs around New England, sponsoring husband-wife, father-child, and mother-child doubles tournaments at the clubs. High Lane had the tournament yesterday, and Chuck and I had signed up for that. There were only five couples, and we all played each other. I didn't do as well as I had the night before, but didn't totally stink the place out. The top three teams from each club will play at the Pilot Pen tournament in late July. We came in fourth, but the third-place couple will be away then, so Chuck and I will play! What a fluke! We'll do our best, but won't get very far. But it should be fun. I had the weird shot of the day yesterday--I had an errant shot that went toward the water cooler between courts, which is tied down by a wire cable. My shot plopped right down onto the crossed cable and stayed there! The club pro and his wife were watching, and were amused, also. I was tired after the tennis yesterday, and after lunch, I went up to Karen's old room and slept for an hour. Chuck had a shorter nap down here. After the nap, we installed the air conditioner in the back of the living room. He then worked in the yard, and I baked cookies. That evening we played bridge here. We had pretty good cards at first, and then the slacked off. The weather has been pretty hot and humid for the last few days. Friday night, we were both pretty drenched from sweat, and yesterday morning wasn't much better. I think it's supposed to break in another day or two. Of course, our softball game for this evening will probably get rained out--the weather channel says we have a 50% chance of showers. Things have been pretty busy at work recently--we've had LVP patients three weeks in a row, with a fourth one coming in this coming Tuesday! This past Tuesday morning, I left the house before 6:00 to pick up the patient and bring him in, and then I took him home afterwards. I piled up 225 miles that day! I also got my last Twin-Rix (Hepatitis A and B) shot that afternoon. I ended up not going to the phlebotomy class, because Dr. G changed my mind for me. Tomorrow I'll leave home earlier than usual to bring the most recent patient in for a follow-up. Tuesday's patient says he can drive himself in. This will be a difficult week for the GI Fellows, because the recent third-year fellows have left, and the incoming first-year fellows are just arriving, and need to do all their HIPAA training and get up to speed. Sakib, the fellow I work with most closely, said we couldn't schedule any for this week because the current fellows have double-duty, but he was the one who scheduled Tuesday's patient. On Tuesday afternoon, there will be a reception at the medical school for the new ones. There are six new ones each year, and I will need to be in touch with some of them by next week. Sometime in the next week or two, I will be going to New Jersey to take a turn at staying with Jonah for the day. I just don't know yet which day that will be. We have Friday off for the holiday, and then I'll be cutting back to four days a week of work, unless things get busy there. I can be flexible. But that was my choice to cut back. I look forward to that. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
3:23 pm	A little late, but here I am. Things have been pretty busy this past week, largely work-related. Sunday was softball day, and we ended up with nine players and two teams' worth of opponents, because the commissioner of the league told another team we were supposed to play a make-up game against them, instead of the one we thought we were playing. In the end, we joined forces with one of the other teams and played a game against the third team. It was an unofficial game, but we had a good time. Only four of us went to Aunt Chilada's afterwards. On Monday, I was supposed to bring in a patient for a follow-up, but he was still hospitalized, so that didn't happen. Chuck played tennis that evening, until the thunderstorm hit. On Tuesday, we had a patient come in, but his sister brought him. He's supposed to come in tomorrow for a follow-up, but when I just talked to his sister, it sounded as though he doesn't want to come in tomorrow. Not much I can do about that. That evening, I went to a nice dinner at the New Haven Lawn Club, for the six liver fellows who are finishing up now. I know all of them to some extent, some more than others. I enjoyed seeing them in a somewhat different context, and hearing more about them. Wednesday, we were going to walk to the church and Walgreen's after dinner, but we had another thunderstorm. We've had about six of them in the last few weeks. Thursday was a fairly quiet evening at home. Friday was average at work until the afternoon, until a patient who missed coming in to the liver clinic the day before was there. I and Dr. G had talked to him while he was hospitalized recently, and there was no way he was going to be in our study. On Friday, he consented, and will be in this coming week. There were a lot of calls and other contacts made to get this lined up, but he plans to be there. I will be taking a phlebotomy class that day, so I can't bring him him. That evening, Chuck and I played a little mixed doubles tennis before the thunderstorm. We didn't end up staying for pizza, though. Saturday morning, I went out for errands while Chuck did yardwork around here. We were supposed to go to a party for a while at Dr. G's house at 5:30, but on Friday, the time got changed to 6:30. We had another party, a "Game Night" at the home of Eric, one of the people who was in our play, that started at 6:00, so we didn't go to Dr. G's. But we played some neat games, like TransAmerica, Rummikub, and 6 Nimmt, which we played with ten people. Eric has a HUGE collection of board games--one large cabinet that is full of them, as well as others. We are supposed to have another softball game today, but the weather forecast is for 60% chance of scattered thundershowers again today. It's getting windier now, so I think it's coming. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 14th, 2008
10:32 pm	We are now back from New Jersey. This morning, someone who had treework for us in the past, from the fire department (moonlighting), came over to check out some tree removal work here, including a big one that fell down Tuesday night in a big windstorm. He'll also take down some branches of big trees that are overhanging our house. I later took Karen to Hopkins for a faculty meeting, the day after their graduation, because we planned to pick her up on our way down to New Jersey. But her meeting didn't last as long as we thought it might, so she was done in about an hour, before Chuck and I were ready to go. When I got home, I made a fruit salad to take along. I picked her up, and we had a light lunch here, picked up Nadav, and the four of us went to NJ. It was nice to have his company, and made sense, since Rita had been there for a couple of days, so we didn't have three cars there from this area. Jonah was asleep when we got there, but woke up about a half hour later. We stayed around and played with him for a while, and then got ready to go out. I had gotten some more clothes for him from Freecycle, including two pairs of water shoes. The smaller pair has pictures of his favorite character, Elmo, so he was quite happy to wear them. We went to a Red Lobster Restaurant, I think in Paramus. There was lots of good food and good company, and I think we all had a good time. This was an early Fathers' Day celebration. Nadav and Rita and the two of us went back to Rebecca and Amitai's house while they and Karen and Jonah stopped for an errand. The weather was looking very dark and rainy, so Nadav and Rita left soon after the others got back there. We stayed around for a little while, playing with Jonah, and then left to come back. Karen is staying for a couple of days. On the stretch of Interstate 287 between the Tappan Zee Bridge and where we get off for the Hutchinson Parkway, traffic came to a halt. I got out and walked up a way. We had had very heavy thunderstorms from soon after we put gas in the car after leaving their house, and there was a flood on the highway. After a delay of about a half hour or more, cars started to go through, only in the far left lane, and even at the edge, the water was about 8 inches deep, but was the full width of the highway, deeper in the lanes more to the right. Some cars had gone through before us, and had gotten flooded. The other direction of the highway was like that, too, but cars started to go through earlier on that side. After we got through, the rest of the ride was a little slow, because it was raining hard for some of the time, and we never went more than a couple minutes the whole trip without seeing lightning, sometimes really bright ones, or really long streaks. But we got home safely. The retirement party last Saturday in Clinton was very nice, and it felt good to be sitting outside near the water. The people are all very welcoming. Last Sunday's softball game got rained out because of a big thunderstorm. But about eight of us got together at Aunt Chilada's, anyway. The weather from last weekend through Tuesday night was awful--it was quite hot and humid, with the temperature on our car's thermometer saying it was over 100 degrees out. Fortunately, we put the air conditioner in our bedroom weekend, so sleeping wasn't as bad. From Wednesday through some of today, it's been beautiful, with low humidity and lots of sun, but not too hot. Chuck played tennis Monday evening, and I played Tuesday evening, in that awful weather. On Tuesday, I drove 257 miles for work, picking up a patient and taking him to the VA, and taking him home afterwards. He wasn't ready to go when I got there, so I was about an hour late getting him to the VA. It was a long day, but he was pleasant company. I saw him Friday when he was at his appointment at Yale, and found out he had been admitted. I talked to a family member of his this evening, and he is doing all right. I have another patient scheduled for this coming Tuesday. And I recruited and consented another one for the not too-distant future. Last evening, we played mixed doubles tennis, but not very much of it. It was a beautiful evening for tennis, but two of the six courts were out of commission for repairs, so people had to wait their turns to play. After that, we went to a place in New Haven called Firehouse 12, which is a bar and separate studio/performance place. One of the Mighty Purple group's brothers did a show of mostly his own music. He's very talented, and seven other musicians sang and/or played on many songs. His music is a little different, but it was enjoyable. This coming week, I'll miss tennis on Tuesday because of a fancy dinner for the GI/Liver Fellows. That should be very nice. Chuck will play golf. On Saturday, there will be a gathering at the boss's house, which the three of us will attend for a short time, before going to a "Game Night" party at the home of one of the people who was in our recent play. It's too bad they are on the same evening. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
2:27 pm	There certainly has been a change in the weather in the last week! Today it is quite warm and very muggy. It's supposed to be in the 90s for the next few days, before we get back to decent temperatures. The sooner, the better, as far as I'm concerned. I just got a bunch of fans out of the attic, and the air conditioners won't be too far behind. Last Sunday afternoon, while Chuck was changing his clothes, I noticed a funny-looking rash on his chest, almost under his arm. It looked sort of like the rash he had two years ago when at first his doctor thought he had shingles, but eventually it turned out to be Lyme disease. Chuck went to the Health Plan on Tuesday, but the doctor didn't think it was Lyme disease, but the doctor drew around the perimeter of the rash. By Thursday, it was noticeably bigger, so rather than doing a blood test, the doctor is now treating him for Lyme disease, with antibiotics. We had our softball game last Sunday, against a team that has never beaten us in the 17 or so years of the league's existence. We were ahead, 10-6, going into the bottom of the last inning, and they scored four runs. At the end of that inning, we decided to call it a tie. Of course, we went to Aunt Chilada's afterwards, for beer and nachos. Monday evening, Chuck played tennis at High Lane Club, in an organized men's doubles group. Tuesday evening, I played there in an organized women's doubles group. My right hip has been bothering me for a few months now, and I really felt sore that night and the next day. Chuck played mixed singles tennis on Thursday, and we played mixed doubles on Friday. Last night was the best I've played for quite a while, at least in the beginning. We didn't do very well together in the last set. But it was fun, and we stayed afterwards for pizza. My hip is sore again today. On our way to tennis yesterday, we stopped to pick up some toddler-sized clothes for Jonah, that someone was offering on Freecycle (where you can give or receive things, with no exchange of money). After all my problem on the previous Thursday about consenting the patient and faxing the consent form, when I got in Monday morning, I found out that Michele hadn't been at the VA that Friday, so she hadn't faxed the forms to the research pharmacist. I tried again, with the same change of number on the fax machine, then from another fax machine that was being very slow, and then I made a copy and took it down to the pharmacist. Turns out that by then, she had five copies of it! The sister of the patient called me as I was driving in (earlier than I would have gone in, otherwise), so they were late getting there. Then, when I tried to find the doctor I work with on this, he told me that he had talked to the patient on Friday, and he wasn't going to be a part of the study that day, because Martha, the nurse I work with, wasn't available. No one told me that! But I have him scheduled for the week after this coming one, and I have a different patient scheduled for this coming Tuesday. I'll pick him up, but he lives about 72 miles from our house, and further than that from the VA. I need to leave the house about 5:30 in the morning. But at least I've got a couple people scheduled! On Thursday, I signed up ten people for the patient registry. And with Elvin, the new person, his wife is due in a couple of weeks with their second baby, but she was having problems recently, and was hospitalized. He's missed some time at work, which hasn't set well with the prof I work for. It will be interesting to see what happens between Elvin and her. This afternoon, we'll be going to a retirement party for someone who worked with Chuck. The party will be out in Clinton, along the shore. I don't know that many of the people, but they all seem quite nice, so I'm sure we'll have a good time. In fact, I should get going soon, to make a dip that we plan to take along! (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
4:31 pm	As mentioned in my last post on here, Chuck and I went out for dinner after work on Tuesday. We went to an Italian restaurant in Hamden, called Luce. We started with wine, then some mozzarella baked in a pastry, with tomato sauce on it, then salads, and he had blackened salmon and rice, I had penne con pollo, which is penne pasta, chicken, asparagus, cheese, tomatoes, in a creamy tomato sauce. It was good. We had some chocolate cake left from the party on Monday, for dessert. It was a nice way to celebrate our thirty-fifth anniversary. Wednesday was a fairly quiet evening. Thursday, I drove down to New Jersey, getting a later start than I wanted to, around 5:30 or so. Soon after I got to Rebecca and family's house, we went out to a local Applebee's Restaurant. I had an apple walnut chicken salad, which was quite good, and just the right size for me. When we got back, Rebecca gave Jonah a bath and I got him into his jammies. Friday morning, Rebecca and Amitai left for work about 7:15, and Jonah was awake by then. He put up a fuss about their leaving. I read a few books to him, and then got him dressed. He ate some breakfast, and then we ended up playing, then watching Elmo on On Demand TV. He is totally engrossed by the TV when Elmo is on. After about an hour or more of that, I put him in for a nap. He flailed and fussed for a couple of minutes, and tried to sit up, but I calmly laid him down again, and the fusses got to be fewer and further apart. He slept for 2.5 hours. In the afternoon, he had some lunch, then we went outside to play for a while. We also went for a little walk, but after a couple of blocks, he wanted me to carry him. Rebecca called later, and we met her at the bus stop. He was glad to see her. I drove back home after that, hitting a little bad traffic, but making much better time than I was expecting. Friday evening, we went to Nick's house for a viewing of the video of "You Can't Take It With You" that we did. Most of the cast members were there, and there was lots to eat and drink and talk about. The play actually came out quite well, and it was fun to see thing we didn't see during the play, such as when we were off-stage, waiting to enter. This morning, I went out for errands, while Chuck did yard work around here. I went to the bank, the vet's (for special diet cat food), Kohl's for some clothes for me, the library, and Bob's, for two pairs of shoes for me. After lunch, it started to rain a little, but it has since gotten warmer and sunny again. Karen tutored this morning, and has been hanging out here for a while. She plans to cook dinner for us here, for our anniversary. This evening, we'll walk over to play bridge with Doug and Susie. Tomorrow morning will be our last handbell performance in church for the season, unless we do a pick-up performance during the summer. Things were a little busy at work, since it was a short work-week for me. Elvin, the new person, had two days of orientation, on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was around for a while on Thursday, but I was busy elsewhere. Earlier in the week, I sorted through some papers that I had moved out, and made my daily trips to Yale-New Haven Hospital. I also continued with some pictures this week on our camera of Ahmad, a 30-year-old liver doctor who will be leaving Yale and the VA. He's been very pleasant to have around, and he wanted pictures to help him remember Yale and the VA and the people, so some the previous week, and more this week, I took pictures of him with lots of people and in various settings. I'll miss him. On Thursday, I worked the liver clinic, and knew that someone we wanted to get into our study would be there. When he arrived, I found out that his next tap would be on Monday, instead of Tuesday, as it had been scheduled. With much discussion, and intervention from Sakib, the doctor I work with on the study, we got arrangements into place. When I got the signed consent form, I tried to fax it to the research pharmacist, and the fax tried to send it to a different number. I finally left it for Michele to fax the next morning. That was why I was late leaving on Thursday. Tomorrow we are supposed to have our next softball game at Brooksvale Park in Hamden. It's been three weeks, because of a rain-out and Memorial Day. I imagine we'll go out for beer and nachos afterwards. Too bad we didn't go to Yale's graduation on Monday--one of the eight people to get an honorary degree was Sir Paul McCartney! (Comment on this)
Monday, May 26th, 2008
2:47 pm	Back again, a little over a week from the last time. Things have been pretty busy this week. As predicted, last week's softball game got rained out. We didn't have a lot of rain, but it was enough to soak the field and make it slippery. We'll make up that game on Father's Day. Karen's friends Chloe and Noelle came over, instead. We played a game of Cranium (which I had never played before), and also some Catch Phrase. We also ordered pizza, Caesar Salad, and garlic bread, which Chuck picked up. Wednesday early evening, our friend, Nick, joined us, and the three of us went to the Branford Library for a reception for Connecticut authors of children's books. Another friend, Jennifer, who was also in our play, won first place for pre-school books. It's in the text-only category, and she read it to the audience. It was cute. The winners in two other categories each read the first chapters of their books. An award-winning illustrator of kids' books was also there. Barnes and Noble had copies of some of the previous award-winning books for sale. One of the books was illustrated by this person, so I bought one, and he autographed it and drew a nice picture in it for Jonah. He'll have to wait a couple of years to get that book. If you want to see what the illustrator's works are like, go to www.rolandasart.com. Friday afternoon, things were dead at the VA, and somewhat so at Yale, so I left early and picked Chuck up about 2:30. We came home, and then I went out on errands for a while. We then played mixed doubles tennis at High Lane Club. I think I played a little bit better than the previous time, but there was a LOT of room for improvement. We stayed for pizza afterwards. Saturday morning, we spent much of the time preparing foods and cleaning things up around the house. Karen's dance recital was this weekend, broken up into three sessions. She and Chloe and Noelle were in all three for their Salsa dance. She left after they were done with their dance from the midday Saturday recital, and came over here to see Rebecca, Amitai, and Jonah. They were only here a short time, but Amitai installed Skype with a webcam here. If anyone out there has Skype with webcam capabilities, please get in touch! The final recital was at 5:30 on Saturday, so Chuck and I went to that, and stayed through the whole thing, except for the finale (and vocals before the finale). Noelle and Chloe left when we did, and we all went to a Friendly's Restaurant in East Haven. It was fun. Sunday morning was choir rehearsal, church, coffee hour, and bell rehearsal. Then we got everything else ready for our annual Memorial Day weekend party. People started arriving around 2:00, and left around 7:00 or so. There were 45 people here, including us. Amitai cooked squash and chicken on the grill, and people brought other things. There was a four-couple croquet game going on, as well as ping pong, and a big wiffle ball game with about 15 to 20 people. Of course, there were also people sitting around or standing around, talking a lot. The weather was perfect, as it was, today. Jonah started a nap before the party, but didn't sleep a long time. He seemed to have a good time running around and kicking a beach ball. I think other people had fun, too. This morning, I actually slept until almost 8:00! That hasn't happened for quite a while. We have been doing little things around the house, and Chuck walked over to High Lane Club to play tennis with Jennifer, the author. I walked over a while later to watch, and then we walked back together. We had some party leftovers for lunch. Tomorrow after work, Chuck and I will go out to dinner somewhere to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. We haven't yet figured out where. Thursday, after work, I'll be going down to New Jersey to spend much of the day with Jonah. Then I'll drive back and we'll go to a party at Nick's to view the video of the play we did last month. That should be fun. I may be late getting back because of weekend traffic, but I'll do my best. It will be back to work tomorrow, with my moving out of the office I have been using for the past five months or so, because a new person will be starting tomorrow, named Elvin. I'm back to sharing an office with Michele, and using a VA thin-client computer that doesn't do a whole lot, otherwise. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 18th, 2008
2:50 pm	Six days later, I am back again. Tuesday was a quiet evening at home, with just the two of us. Chuck had played golf that afternoon, and I went out for a walk in the area for some exercise. I walked about two miles, maybe a little more. Wednesday was choir practice, the last one for the season. I don't really mind that. Thursday was another quiet evening at home, as was Friday, since it rained, so we didn't play our mixed-doubles tennis. Yesterday was a pretty busy day. I had made cookie dough Friday evening for Chuck's all-time favorite cookies, and it has to chill overnight. In the morning, I got up and rolled and cut out the cookies and baked them. While they cooled, I went out for a couple of errands. During that time, we washed all the curtains from the living room and dining room, including door panels. When I got home, I made frosting for the cookies, and Chuck frosted them while I ironed the curtains. We brought down the free-standing quilt rack from our room, and I draped the panels over that, so that Chuck could finish with the frosting, and I had a place to put them in the meantime. They look much better. After lunch, I helped him put up the fence around the garden. After a nap for each of us, Chuck and I went to the Yale golf course so he could play, and I could walk it. He had about a half-hour delay before he could start, but didn't get much delay after that. I probably found about thirty balls of varying quality. He finished about 7:40, and then we went to SBC Restaurant in Hamden for dinner. I haven't been doing too well at getting patients for the specific study I work on, recently. We have a couple of potential patients, but one was back in the hospital, one is still in the hospital, and a third one probably won't be tapped because he's too fragile. Another, who had declined, died this past week. I got six people into the patient registry on Thursday, and two of them seem to be potential patients. But this is DDW (Digestive Diseases Week), a big international convention in San Diego, so staff is a little sparse around here this week, including Dr. G's absence. This coming week, we'll go to a reception for award-winning authors of new books for kids, one of whom was in our play. That will be in Branford. Later this month, we'll have a video-watching party for the play, and next weekend will be our annual Memorial Day picnic here at our house. I hope we'll have lots of people. Today we are supposed to have a church softball game, but we are supposed to get rain, starting soon. That doesn't bode well. We may or may not go to Aunt Chilada's anyway. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
10:01 pm	So it's a little over a week since I last posted. At least I'm here. Last Saturday we had a quiet evening at home for a change. Sunday morning was church but no bell rehearsal, and a softball game in the evening. We played our last game in Cheshire, against the Methodist team. They're a good bunch of people to play against, but they had a lot of young, strong players, more than we had, and we lost, 15-14. It was a good game, anyway, and of course, we went to Aunt Chilada's after the game. Chuck had a meeting on Monday evening, and we were home Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, I had choir practice, and Thursday evening, Chuck and I went over to High Lane Club to hit some tennis balls. I had a fairly good serve going in practice. Friday, we didn't play tennis, because it was rainy. That worked out all right, since we had a date for as many of the cast as possible to help take down the set from the play from April. After we were done, about ten of us went to the local Chili's for drinks and snacks. It was a fun gathering there, too. Saturday morning, I made a dessert, and then went grocery-shopping. I also got a hanging plant (a fuschia) to hang where the bird feeder had been, outside our kitchen window. Chuck has gotten very annoyed by the squirrels, who raid that. The plant looks very nice there. In the afternoon, Rebecca, Amitai, and Jonah, and also Rita but not Nadav, were here for a pre-Mother's Day cookout. Nadav had a cold. Amitai grilled corn on the cob, zucchini, and steaks on the grill. We also had salad and French bread. It was a little cool, but we ate on the porch. Jonah had a good time running around outside with various relatives. He seems to learn a new word each day. They all left, and the three of them drove back to New Jersey that evening. I think we all really enjoyed the gathering, the food, and the company. Karen was here, and ended up spending the night here. Sunday morning was choir practice, church, and bell rehearsal. After lunch, the three of us got together with friends, Roger and Mary, so they could get in some softball practice, hitting, catching, and fielding. We played at Bassett Park, very near here. Roger hasn't played softball in many years, so I think that helped him. Roger will be in a Honda commercial that will be out in a couple of weeks--he's the skydiver who lands without a helmet or shoes, in a desert. He and Mary are both professional skydivers. After a little rest, we went to High Lane Club to play tennis against friends Jan and Nyle. We lost all three sets. My serve just wasn't there for a fairly large part of the time. But, again, we all had fun. When we got home, we called Karen, who was cooking another Mother's Day dinner for us. We went down to her house, and had a nice dinner of garlic parmesan chicken, basmati rice, a zucchini and corn medley, and pears and cookies for dessert. She always comes up with nice new recipes, and does a good job cooking, too. We stuck around for a while afterwards, and I helped her clean up the kitchen, while Chuck worked on some living room clutter, too. Her cats hung around for some of the time. Karen has less than two weeks of classes to go. Chuck is at a meeting now. After work today, I made a casserole for dinner, applesauce, and a batch of cookies. It feels good to sit here at the computer. Work is having its ups and downs. I was supposed to have a patient for last Tuesday, but he was admitted to the VA, and is still there. On Thursday, I brought in a patient for a follow-up of sorts. He and I have good conversations in the car, and he loaned us five CDs. I gave him a few recipes. He should be coming back in a couple of weeks. A patient I was going to bring in today and tomorrow is still a patient at Yale-New Haven Hospital, so he won't be there for this week's slot. I'm still getting patients for the Patient Registry, including in-patients at Yale-New Haven. I also have been helping with entering date into the registry. It takes me longer there now, and I walk a lot more. My legs have been getting tired. Dr. G was out sick today. This coming Thursday, I'll have a dental appointment for a check-up. Chuck will have a stress test at the hospital on Wednesday morning, sort of a follow-up for him. I think he plans to play golf at least one day this week. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
3:35 pm	This has been another fairly busy week, but not as much at work as after work. Sunday morning was choir rehearsal, church, and bell rehearsal. We'll play one more time before the summer, in church. In the afternoon, it was cool and damp, but we had our softball game in Cheshire. We were struggling a little for enough players, but then two more showed up near game-time, so we were happy about that. We had a good defensive team, but not a great hitting team. I actually made a defensive play, getting a ball that was hit back to me, and throwing it to third to get the lead runner out. We were tied well into the game, and then we got two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. They had one runner on in the seventh, but didn't score, so we won the game, I think 8-6. Of course, we went to Aunt Chilada's afterwards. Tomorrow's game may be rained out, but we'll know more about that tomorrow. Chuck had a meeting on Monday night, and I went to the gym for the last time for a few months, on Tuesday. I hope to get more exercise on my own in the warmer months, and can rejoin at any time. Wednesday night was the dinner for those of us hitting 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 years at Yale. Chuck and I both hit 35 this year. They had an open bar and appetizers, then dinner was salad, rolls, beef, which was very tender, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. They also served coffee and a chocolate torte for dessert. All the officers of the university were there, and they showed a narrated video of the honorees. The 40, 45, and 50-year honorees had a bio read by various officers, and for the rest of us, there was about a five-second showing of two different poses. I saw some people there I had not seen in a long time. We also got long-service certificates, and DVDs of the video that was shown. Before the long-service dinner, Dr. G's group at Yale had an open house at their Liver Clinic, which was very nice. She didn't attend the dinner. Thursday evening, I had a Nominating Committee meeting at the church. I still need to recruit a few more people. As the meeting was just breaking up, Karen called on my cell phone. She came over to our house, and I met up with her there. The Math Team at her school had qualified for the New England Regional Competition (I don't think there's a national one), and that was to be on Friday in eastern Massachusetts. She and another teacher are co-coaches of the math team, but the other teacher was not available to go, because of a surprise party for someone at Hopkins who will be retiring, and is not in good health. He's also a good friend of the other math teacher. They have several small buses at Hopkins, but she isn't licensed to drive them. So she borrowed our van, and drove the six kids to Massachusetts for the competition. The schools were divided into small, medium, and large, by overall student population. Hers was in the small category, and her team won! Choate, which isn't far from here, competed with them during the regular competitions, and they won the medium-sized school division, tying the score with Hopkins. They stopped at a restaurant on the way back, for supper, and she got back here last night after 10:00. She was really tired. Last night, Chuck and I played mixed doubles at High Lane Club, even though the weather wasn't very pleasant. It was cool and misty, but we had a good time with the other three couples. We didn't stay for beer and pizza, though, but went to New Haven, next door to his office, to a coffee house to hear "Mighty Purple." We heard them last Saturday at the Daffodil Festival in Meriden. Last night we talked to them for a little while. This morning, we went out for several errands on one trip. Earlier, he picked up Karen's collection of soda bottles and cans, and then we added ours, and dropped them off at an elementary school in North Haven that collects them for the nickel deposits. We then went to Bell Nurseries for four flats of plants for the veggie and flower gardens. Next stop was at the bank, and then the grocery store. One of the new Steve Winwood songs came on the radio as we parked, so as we got there, Chuck decided he'd go over to the music store for that and the new REM CD, while I got the groceries. I had the same thought just as he suggested that. This afternoon is a damp, cool, quiet one, and we have both taken naps. But before the naps, he vacuumed, and I made Honey Oat Bread dough. It is probably almost ready to bake now, so I'll go check on that soon. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
10:15 pm	As promised (at least for a little while), I'm back again already! We've had gorgeous weather this past week or two, with no rain, and temperatures in the mid to upper seventies. Chuck didn't know what was wrong at Karen's house last week with the electricity, but a day or two later, Karen remembered bumping an outlet as she was moving something. She put in a new outlet, and now she's back with power in the upstairs. That's my daughter! Things were much better than I had expected at the meeting on Monday at work. Dr. G seemed to be in a pretty good mood, and no one got into trouble. I even made my offer of our house for a party/barbecue/picnic sometime in the next month or two, but Dr G said that she always does a summer picnic, and thanked me for the offer, and was happy to get things into motion for that. The third-year Fellows will be going on to other jobs soon, including one Fellow I have gotten to be good friends with. He'll be in another state, but not too far away. It will probably be a combined going-away party. On Tuesday I brought in a patient for the study, but he didn't seem to have enough fluid, so I took him back home after they did a diagnostic tap. After I got him back home and I got back to the hospital, I found out there was a problem with the fluid, and the patient had to get to his hospital right away because he had a serious infection. Another patient left a hospital earlier this week, and was supposed to come in to the VA this Monday, but he also got an infection and was hospitalized again. His wife called me, mainly because she had my number and had met me before. I tried to help her as much as a could, but some of what she needed for her husband really needed to be done by a doctor. So that's two of our best candidates in the hospital at the same time. I'll check on both of them on Monday. Monday I went to the gym after work, and then we were home for the evening. On Tuesday, we were home right after work, and Karen came up for dinner, too. That was nice. Wednesday, I had choir practice, but Chuck and I hit tennis balls for a while before that. Thursday was another quiet night for the two of us! Last night was the first night of the season for mixed doubles tennis at High Lane Club, and there were only three other couples, so we all played against each other. I didn't play very well. My right hip has been bothering me for a month or more, and I know I was favoring it some. It's been sorer than usual today. We stayed for pizza and beer after tennis. This morning, I hit a couple of estate sales near here, getting only a few things. I got two cookbooks, a casserole dish that's a smaller version of one I have, and a couple of free garden items. I then went to the gym, and then to Xpect Discounts in North Haven for some odds and ends. This afternoon, after a nap and a shower, we went to Meriden, for the thirtieth annual Daffodil Festival (only our second one, though). Eric Burdon (of The Animals) was supposed to perform and one of the bandstands, but he hadn't arrived at the park by the time he was supposed to start, so they put the next group on before him. We didn't stick around for that, but went to see and hear Mighty Purple at a smaller bandstand. They are two brothers from Hamden. We have two of their CDs, and had seem them a couple of other times, too. They're very good. We then got back to our car--they had us park a couple miles away, and they ran shuttles. When we wanted to go to Hubbard Park, where the festival was, there was a line of people waiting for the bus. A bus came along and dropped off people returning from Hubbard Park, and then started loading people, but from the other end of the line, which was the most recent arrivals waiting to go over! They kept filling up the bus and left, but we got on the next one. After we left Meriden, we came back to Hamden and went to a restaurant called Taste. We had been there a couple of times before. It was a nice dinner for the two of us, but I'm feeling rather full, even now. I had made cookie dough earlier this afternoon, and baked them tonight. I didn't even sample them. Tomorrow will be choir rehearsal, church, and bell rehearsal. Karen will be here in the morning before rehearsal, to have a Coffee Smoothie with me. I haven't had one of those in a few months. It's one of my favorite drinks--no fat, sweet, rich, and creamy-tasting, like a milkshake, but very few calories. Let me know if you want the recipe--it's very easy. We'll have a softball game in the afternoon, if the weather hold off long enough. Of course, we'll go to Aunt Chilada's after the game, win or lose. On Wednesday, we'll go to the annual dinner for those at Yale hitting 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 years. Each honoree gets a supervisor and a guest to bring to the dinner. We're both hitting 35 years, and Karen's friend Noelle's father will hit 30, so her mother will go as his guest, and one of us will take Noelle, the other will take Karen as our guests. That should be fun having them there, also. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
9:57 pm	Less than a week later, here I am! It's been a busy week, anyway, despite the end of the play. Monday evening, I went to the gym. It's a lot harder to do now, since Chuck suspended his membership for the summer months, into the fall. He had a meeting that evening at the church. Tuesday evening, we actually had a quiet evening by ourselves at home! Wednesday after work, we went out for a nice walk before dinner. I had choir practice that evening, after I got a few groceries. Thursday evening, I went to the gym, and then had a meeting at the church; and Friday evening, we walked over to some friends' house and we played bridge. Yesterday morning, I went to the gym again, and did some food preparation at home. Chuck worked out in the yard. After a light lunch, we drove down to New Jersey to see Jonah and family (including his other grandparents), as well as a friend of Rebecca's, named KT. We were there for a Seder. I lost count how many courses there were, but there was a ton of food, and dinner lasted several hours. I had made a cake with a fruit compote. Of course, the cake was made in our kitchen which isn't kosher, but I don't think I killed anybody with it. I couldn't find all the ingredients for a cake recipe Rebecca had sent to me, so I ended up using a cake mix, and improvising. It came out all right. We got home just a minute or two before 11:00 last night. A couple of times, we passed or were passed by Nadav, Amitai's father, on Rt. 15 in Connecticut. This morning, I had to be at church by 8:45, because we played two different versions of a song, "Wayfaring Stranger" as prelude and postlude. On the postlude version, I accidentally turned two pages at once, which messed up me and the person I share music with. Fortunately, I discovered it after a measure or two. We also rehearsed after church. I had a nap this afternoon, and then we had softball practice at 5, and a game at 6:00 in Cheshire. I pitched the whole game. We called the game after seven innings (the regulation number), because the sun had already gone down. We were tied at six runs each. Afterwards, 13 of us went to Aunt Chilada's for beer and nachos and buffalo wings. It was fun. Chuck went down to Karen's house for a while this afternoon, because she is having an electrical problem at her house. She has no electricity upstairs, and doesn't know why not. They tried to flip the circuit breaker switch, but it would spark and then flip back off again. She'll probably have to have the electrician come back again. Things may be messy at our research meeting tomorrow at work. The doctor I work for was attending all of the last two weeks, and has a pet patient for the project I work on, and I think she wants to bump the other patient who is scheduled to come in on Tuesday. She also seems to think I've been losing patients because I haven't been calling for one of the liver fellows I work with to talk to the patients to consent them. By HIPAA law, we can't twist any arms, but I don't think she always remembers that. But the real holdup is that we are limited on how much we can use the procedure room, and I already have four people lined up to come in. We'll see what happens. I hope this next week will not be as busy in the evenings for us. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
8:15 pm	I know, this is the first time I've added to my LiveJournal since last month. I will now have a little more time in my life, so I'll try to get on here more often now. The big event from our lives has been the play we did at church this last week, You Can't Take It With You. We had rehearsals every day from Sunday until Wednesday, and then performances the next three days. Overall, the play went VERY well. Monday was tech rehearsal with newly-installed lights, and the control box didn't work right, so it had to be fixed, so rehearsal was delayed. We didn't do a full rehearsal, but picked up in the middle of scenes to test for lighting. I had a bad rehearsal on Tuesday, but did much better on Wednesday. On Thursday, there was one time in the first act where I knew it was supposed to be my line, but I completely blanked on it. It seemed like an eternity, but it was only two short sentences, and then a doorbell. The person coming in just rang the doorbell when he figured out that I had no idea what to say. Friday's performance wen very well, and I don't think I messed up any lines. There was one place in the third act when I knew it was supposed to be my line, reacting to a car honking. The sound effect was not there, partly due to the death of a battery in a headset for a crew person. I covered it, and then the car honked. Saturday night, I didn't think I blew any lines, but found out afterwards that I had. I played Penny Sycamore, the mother of two daughters, Essie and Alice; and Penny is married to Paul. In the first act, my line was supposed to be "Isn't it exciting? You know, I'm so nervous, you'd think it was me he's engaged to, instead of Alice." Unfortunately, I said "Isn't it exciting? You know, I'm so nervous, you'd think it was me he's engaged to, instead of Paul." Karen (Essie) had the next line, and had trouble saying it, because she was trying not to laugh. I didn't know I had done that, and Chuck made sure no one told me about it until the play was done. Oh, well. Nadav, Rita, Rebecca, Jonah, and Amitai were all there on Saturday, and Jonah was taken out fairly early, I think. He was at our house earlier in the day, too, and we have some nice pictures. The cast party after the play was at our house, so Jonah and family were here for some of that, too. He seemed to have a good time. There was lots of food and drink and fun here, and the last guests left here about 2:45 AM. We cleaned up pretty much, and then got to bed around 3:20. I didn't sleep very well, and had to get up at 8:00 for choir rehearsal at 9:00. I was quite sleepy, but still on a high. Then I had bell rehearsal after church, because we'll be playing in church next week. I had a nap that afternoon, and had allotted until 3:00 for that, but was awake by 2:30. It wasn't especially satisfying. We then had softball practice at 4:30. I pitched a while, and batted on two different rounds. I didn't do well at first, but was better in the second round. We came home, had a quick dinner, and a quiet evening at home. Tonight, Chuck is at a meeting at the church, and this is my first time to be home without him in weeks. Earlier today, I picked up a patient about 30 miles away, and brought him in to the VA for an evaluation. He isn't ready for the study tomorrow, but I'll bring him in next Tuesday. He seems like a nice person. I should wrap this up, and get going on baking the Snickerdoodles that I made dough for earlier this evening. Current Mood: relieved (2 Comments |Comment on this)