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Archive for March, 2010

Beach bums (and fronts, ears, eyes, etc.)

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2010| 3 Comments »

Today was the first day of beach season for us. So begins a summer of sand-filled crevices.

In honor of the water-loving that is beginning everywhere, I’m sharing this sign I’ve been saving (thank you, Carrie):

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Love is in the air

Posted in Random, tagged , , , on March 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Arranged marriages are not an American thing, but Eddie and I are considering it for our boys. We have a coterie of long-time friends who all have pretty little girls: Patrick and Petra have Mia, Billy and Miwa have Niina and Mana, and Eggy and Sophia have Ava. Gideon has already chosen Mana with no nudging from us.

Gideon and Mana, his future wife

Dominic informed us that he was going to marry Niina. But now I think he is exploring his options. He seems to be smitten by Baby Ava.

Dominic and Baby Ava

Interesting. Very interesting.

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Mandolin range

Posted in Random, tagged , on March 25, 2010| 3 Comments »

In the midst of Eddie’s hospital drama, my niece sent me this photo:

Lt. Mark Greenlief, the executive officer for Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, takes a break from his duties in Marjah, Afghanistan, on Saturday, March 20, 2010, to play a mandolin sent to him by his in-laws in the United States. From http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/kabul/2010/03/scenes-from-marjah-madness.html#ixzz0jCO4p262

It totally made my day, because I am the in-law who sent it! Well, I sent it, and my dad donated it.

My dad met Mark at Thanksgiving, and they bonded over a shared love of music. So when Eddie and I started asking around about a ukulele, maybe, to send Mark in Afghanistan, my dad offered the mandolin that had been in my family forever. He played it, my mom played it, I played it, etc. A great idea!

I was worried about sending an antique instrument into combat, but I must have packed it up well enough for it to make it in one piece. YAY!

So that’s why I was so thrilled to see that photo. It made everything better this week.

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“Heart procedures” for $200

Posted in Random, tagged , on March 23, 2010| 1 Comment »

Being a “frequent flier” in Memorial’s heart wing has its perks. I was able to be in the room with Eddie while they prepped him for his ablation, and even take pictures.

Here he is in what he refers to as “The Matrix Room” with his new buddies, Robb and Cynthia.

Robb and Cynthia shooed me out right before the procedure began, and I hung out in the special waiting area. In a couple of hours, his doctor appeared to let me know the ablation was over, and was a success. They found the rogue spot quickly and zapped it. Then he said he poked around in there to see if he could get something else going. He did, and took care of that spot too. This should be it. Operative word: “should.”

Eddie is now resting comfortably to the sounds of the Braves vs. the Mets. You can see he doesn’t want anyone to take away his remote:

He might even get to go home by the time the game is over.

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I’ll take “heart procedures” for $100, Alex

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , on March 23, 2010| 1 Comment »

Memorial Health University Medical Center has Wi-Fi, which is quite nice. You would think all hospitals would have it, but you’d be wrong. Because of my mom, dad and Eddie, I’ve sampled many hospitals.

Anyway, thanks to Memorial’s Wi-Fi, I’m able to write and upload this post. Eddie is having his third, and last (I hope), cardiac ablation today.

What’s that? Well, it is a procedure where a cardiologist (as opposed to a dermatologist, or someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn) threads a catheter into the heart and burns the crap out of the part of the heart that is causing it to beat irregularly. Read this for a more technical overview.

Eddie has had this procedure twice already, so I don’t know how much non-scarred tissue there is left. After each ablation, the doctor has said, “That should do it.” And it hasn’t. Yes, we got a second opinion. The second doctor just wanted to keep shocking Eddie’s heart back into rhythm, all “ER” style.

Anyway, here we are, at Memorial again, and hoping for the best.

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Otherwise known as armor

Posted in Random, tagged , , on March 22, 2010| 2 Comments »

I present Dominic’s latest essay. Please ignore the pronoun mangling. He’s learning.

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Can’t we all just get along?: The Batman and Robin version

Posted in Random, tagged , , , on March 20, 2010| 4 Comments »

Dominic may look like Eddie, but he is totally my son on the inside. He asks a billion questions, likes to talk, gets obsessed with an idea and can’t let it rest, etc.

He is also a budding writer.

One of his favorite lessons at school is to tell a story to his teacher, who writes it down, then he illustrates the story.

It is a Montessori school, so his stories have a very polite angle. One could even say “anticlimactic.” See for yourself:

These are very different from the soap operas I wrote in high school (Kelly, you’ll remember those), but I love that he is a storyteller too.

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Nearly out to pasture

Posted in Random, tagged , , on March 19, 2010| 5 Comments »

Eddie looks like the picture of health: a tall, brawny, handsome rascal.

The truth is that he is a wreck. In the past five years, he’s had surgery on both his knees, his left shoulder, has endured bouts of plantar fasciitis, and had his nose fixed twice.

Then there’s his heart. Two years ago, he felt short of breath and went to the hospital. The doctor said, “atrial flutter,” got his heart back in rhythm and sent him on his merry way. Little did we know that was the beginning of a long road. Atrial fibrillation, then a couple of cardiac ablations, yada yada yada, and he’s back in the hospital.

Yep, I just “yadayada’d” over a couple of years of a lovely relationship with Dr. Jenkins, the cardiologist. Let’s put it this way: After each ablation, the doctor said Eddie wouldn’t have any more problems.

Last night, after basketball at open gym, Eddie was back at Memorial. And his third ablation is scheduled for Tuesday. Fun.

He’s going to be discharged soon. In the meantime, he’s having a fabulous time with his favorite adjudicator, Judge Mathis.

Here is my theory:

While he doesn’t experience atrial extravaganzas every time he plays basketball, every time the atrial business happens, it is after basketball. And all his ailments detailed above are basketball-related. So, I’m thinking he needs to limit his basketball intake to watching March Madness. Anyone with me?


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Web writing deserves copy editing too

Posted in Grammar, etc., tagged , , , , , on March 17, 2010| 4 Comments »

I know I just wrote a new post, but then Caila, SCAD Radio‘s general manager, shared this with me:

Full link here.

Forget that the writer clearly doesn’t know AP Style. She has bigger issues. Evidence: the very first sentence. I’m guessing she meant “descend” not “decent.”

But wait, there’s more. Gaze upon this section:

So let’s help her out on the big ones:

  • “dies” should be “dyes”
  • “chanel” should be “channel”
  • “affect” should be “effect”

I love the “rumor vs. reality” theme, and I like her voice. What I don’t like, of course, is that it is riddled with mistakes she should have caught. And I’m guessing Savannah Morning News writers post directly to the Web without benefit of a copy editor’s glance.

SIGH.

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A new cast member?

Posted in Random, tagged , , on March 17, 2010| 7 Comments »

We went to visit my niece at Camp Lejeune last weekend, and came home with this:

"Mocha"

When my niece got pregnant, she found a new home for Mocha. But last week, the dog was back at her house thanks to the microchip. The new owners, who never changed the chip info, apparently let her get pregnant, took the puppies, and left Mocha on the side of the road.

Because my niece is about to give birth and already has a toddler — all while her marine husband is in Afghanistan — we decided to take the dog home with us and try to find a good home for her.

It is looking like that home may be ours. Someone stop me before I adopt again …

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