Yes, Wii are total dorks

Camping, family migration, houseguests, the DNC, and the latest crazies

The last month or so has been a wild ride at our house. Dan’s mom (Nana to Joe) moved out here about the third week of July in the midst of a crazy hot and long heat wave. At the end of the month, we took Joe to the Dragon Boat races on a blistering hot Sunday and ate snowcones while hovering under a lone sparse tree on the opposite side of the lake. (Can you tell it wasn’t my favorite day?) Then, in the middle of August, Dan and I flew with Joe to Reno, rented a car, and drove to Twin Lakes (just outside of Bridgeport) to go camping with my family, where the heat continued unabated. (Global warming sucks.)

In between these adventures, we’ve been working (frantically) on the basement because Dan’s stepmom (Grammie Lo to Joe) was planning to come out for a visit shortly after we returned from our camping trip. Well, the good news is that the guest room was livable by the time she arrived (it had a floor, baseboards, and a bed).

Laura’s visit was nice. She was such a trooper and dragged Joe all around town, to the park, the zoo, and the local deli around the corner. (Rumor has it that Al Gore was spotted in front of the flower shop around the corner from our house while she and Joe were across the street at the park. Unfortunately, they missed him! If that was him… It could have been. There are some muckety-mucks in our ‘hood — well, the nicer part, a few blocks away — including the mayor and an ambassador, maybe? I see those international limos with all the flags every now and then.)

Laura even jumped on the bus to downtown with Joe and ran the gauntlet of security at the Pepsi Center so that she could get a photo of them in front of the “08 DNC” signs (with her local paper). Grammie Lo also taught Joe that the half-dozen stuffed elephants he acquired when he was born (because mommy went on a random elephant hunt — it’s over now) are called “Republicans.” She also threatened to buy him a donkey! He he he. We still can’t understand him, so it will be interesting to see what he calls elephants when he does talk. I can only imagine the looks of bewildered strangers at the zoo when he does make sense!

The last few weeks have been spent helping Nana get situated in her new condo, helping Noni P sell her two houses in California (so far, both are under contract — woo hoo!), and continuing to work on our house. (In addition to finishing the basement, we’ve had a historic window restoration guy tuning up our disfunctional-but-in-good-condition-windows and building new storms, so hopefully we won’t freeze this winter!) Dan had to go to Indianapolis for a few days for a conference a couple of weeks ago. And today, his new boss started at the office! He’s got several more conferences (most local) in the next couple of months. Joe and I will probably accompany him to Breckenridge in early October to see the fall trees. We’re looking forward to that!

Here’s to your health!

My 36-year-old brother has recently been discharged after a two-week visit in the hospital due to congestive heart failure (one of several organ failures he’s experienced since being vaguely diagnosed with “Gulf War Syndrome”). He wasn’t able to alert the VA Hospital staff of his medical history, let alone family history, and the medical staff was not able to take these factors into consideration as they began his diagnosis and…well, let’s call it “treatment.” Had all of his information been together in one place, things may have gone a bit smoother. This has underscored, for me, the importance of compiling all of our medical records into one place, for us and any kiddos coming down the pike (ok, and maybe I need to eat better too).

So I started looking into tools to help track and record this type of information, in a format that perhaps would be available to doctors (or others) in case of an emergency. These tools may be useful for others, so I thought I’d pass them on: