Monday, December 29, 2008

Year-End Mirth

We have been busy, busy, busy the past four days or so. On Friday, we had a fun afternoon of bowling. Seventeen friends and family members showed up at Garden Lanes. Eric scored the best, rolling two games in the 190s! Julia and Muffin bowled for the first time and did fairly well with the aid of bumpers. I have cute pictures of the young ones that I will post as soon as my computer returns from the fix-it shop. (I'm still using Adam's laptop and I'm not sure how to download pictures onto it!) On Saturday, which was Jacob's actual birthday, we were able to use Jim's company suite at Joe Louis Arena to watch the Great Lakes Invitational College Hockey Tournament. U of M ended up winning the competition. The temperature on Saturday reached a record 62 degrees, and, had it not been raining the whole day, it would have been pretty awesome. It is now cold again, and I am ready for some more snow.

Bev was released from the hospital Friday night, no closer than she was last week to discovering why her stomach hurt so badly that one day. She had test after test, including a stress test, and passed all of them. The electricity went out at the assisted living place yesterday, and Jim got a call that the residents were being evacuated. Bev ended up hanging out at Debbie's house for a few hours until power was restored.

Jim, Adam, and Jacob attended the Plymouth Whalers hockey game this afternoon. Richie is taking Jacob to a movie tomorrow, then we have the New Year's Eve party on Wednesday. I guess now is also the time to think about making some New Year's resolutions for 2009. I'll let you know if I come up with anything interesting.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day is winding down here, but the partying will go on for another week. We had a great time last night and today, with lots of food, fun, and frolic with the extended family. We made several trips to visit Bev at the hospital in between our travels to and fro. She is set to be released in the morning, and tomorrow cannot come soon enough for her. Santa brought a new X-Box360 for Jacob and the Rockband game for Adam. We have had a blast being rock stars - we all fight over who gets to be the singer in the band.

Our busy week continues tomorrow with a bowling outing to celebrate Jacob's birthday. Saturday is his actual birthday, then there will be a huge New Year's Eve party at Wayne's house on Wednesday. The fun just goes on and on. By the way, Santa did not bring me a new computer, but I do intend to scan the after-Christmas ads in hopes of finding some sort of hot deal. Eventually, Adam will tire of me hogging his laptop.

Well, I am off to sing with the band! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Bah Humbug!

I am posting this using Adam's laptop, as my computer seems to have developed a virus of some sort. I ran a complete system scan with Norton, and discovered a high-level risk problem that "requires manual removal." But when I follow the directions to manually remove the virus, it indicates that it is "not safe to remove manually." Huh? Norton's next recommended course of action is to "review risk details on Norton's Website." Which brings me back to the "requires manual removal" page. Santa, help me! Please bring me a new computer for Christmas!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

ER Adventure

Last evening, beginning around 8:30 p.m., Bev began to phone us every 10 minutes or so. For over an hour. She claimed that something was horribly wrong with her because she had excruciating pains in her stomach. She told us that earlier in the day she had developed a terrible cold – yes, this cold suddenly appeared out of nowhere – and she could not stop coughing. We spoke several times to the night nurse at the assisted living place, and she finally recommended that we send Bev to the hospital to be checked out. I think she was tired of listening to her whining.

Now, before you think I am being callous, let me remind you that Bev has cried wolf over and over again in the past. I cannot even remember how many times Jim rushed to her house only to realize that she was just overreacting and wanting attention. Jim’s sister had been to visit Bev Friday afternoon, and insisted that she looked and acted completely normal when she was there. (And I use the term “normal” very loosely!) I suspected that perhaps she was simply lonely last night, so at first I suggested that Jim or Debbie go sit with her for a while to see if that helped her to feel better. To make a long story short, neither Jim nor his sister had any desire to go assist their mother. In fact, they were bickering over the phone about who would have to tend to the ailing woman. Finally, Jim agreed, very begrudgingly, to do the hospital run with Bev. As soon as the two got settled in at the emergency room, Bev’s stomach felt instantly better. Jim stayed with her until the wee hours of the morning – well past his 10:00 p.m. bedtime.

The doctors at the hospital ran numerous tests, cat scans, etc. Probably a redundancy of many of the exams Bev had during her gastroenterologist appointments recently. So, her primary physician found nothing wrong with her, the gastro guy found nothing wrong with her, and now the hospital has found nothing wrong with her. I believe that my mother-in-law’s episodes of pain could quite possibly be psychological in nature, but no one in the family agrees with me. If a doctor does find a problem with her, I would gladly admit that I was wrong, and then, hopefully, they can make her well. But if there is no physical cause for all of this, then we should figure out a way to get her anxiety under control. Either way, the sooner we discover exactly what the issue is, the more sleep we will get around here!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Winter Wonderland - in Autumn

We ended up rescheduling our ski trip to Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We left home yesterday morning and had smooth sailing up I-75 until we were north of West Branch. It was a very windy day all across the state, but when it started snowing, the drive became quite exciting. The blowing snow caused white-out conditions, and occasionally we had to slow to less than 10 mph. We realized exactly how bad the travel weather had become when the Mackinac Bridge closed down for a time due to 50 mph sustained winds and reduced visibility. Needless to say, we arrived at the ski resort a bit later than anticipated.

Not surprisingly, the ski conditions up here are simply awesome. The slopes are almost empty, there are no lift lines, and all of the new snow has created fluffy powder. We had an issue with Jacob's ski bindings and had to rent him some skis. He was not too heartbroken, though and he, in fact, likes the rental skis better than his own. (Jacob's big news of the day: He did not fall down once!) The temperature was a tad brisk today, but we all bundled up so much that we began to sweat! Hopefully, we will remember to take the movie camera out on Wednesday and shoot some fun, new videos for your viewing pleasure. I will at least post some photos soon, as I did take the regular camera out today.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Skiing in the Rain

Jim, Adam, Jacob, and I thought that we would be clever this year, so we scheduled a ski trip up north during the less expensive “early season.” A few weeks ago, we reserved a room at the ski lodge for this Sunday through Tuesday. We were excited to hear about the unusually heavy amounts of snow that have been falling in northern Michigan. They have had more snow in the first ten days of December this year than they did the entire month last year. We looked forward to enjoying fresh powder on uncrowded runs. We dusted off our skis, dug out our thermal gloves, and even bought Adam a new snowboard for his birthday. Then we checked the weather forecast.

Rain. It is supposed to become warm and rain up there on Sunday! Normally, temperatures in the upper 30s or lower 40s are uncommonly wonderful for skiing. But, combined with precipitation, the rare, warm day on the slopes turns disastrous. And very slushy. Then, icy when everything eventually refreezes. Geez, it snows almost every single day of the month until we choose to venture to the ski resort, then it decides to rain. And, if a downpour does materialize, the ski area will actually just close, although they have informed us that we may reschedule to Monday through Wednesday if necessary. Rain – way to put a damper on a ski trip!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Future Beckons

My niece and nephew each recently became proud owners of new fangled iPhones. From what I’ve seen, these contraptions are indeed quite amazing. They can be used to listen to music, take pictures & videos, surf the internet, update your blog, get directions, and much more. Oh, you can make phone calls, too. I always hoped and dreamed that someday an invention would come along that would enable the internet to be accessed easily from almost anywhere. I know, I know, the technology to do that has been around for a while, but it has really blossomed over the past year or two. Case in point - my own outdated cell phone can snap pictures and log onto the internet, but not nearly as effortlessly or quickly as the iPhone. Plus, I can barely see my miniscule little phone screen, much less read anything that is actually displayed. And, yes, I am often ridiculed by the under-30 crowd for still using an old-fashioned flip phone, which was actually very popular not that long ago. I'll probably always be one step behind! I have been told that these new, revolutionary cell phones are known as “smart” phones. I suppose I will just be stuck with my old, dumb phone until the iPhone becomes obsolete. Then, I can possibly afford one, and the newer generation, “genius” phones or something, will be out. I can only imagine what tasks the next innovative phones will be able to perform.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Supersized

For the past month or two, the perpetually gaunt Bev has been fussing that her “pants have been feeling tight” and that she has had “a bloated sensation” after every meal. I suggested to her that perhaps she was at long last gaining weight and was just not used to the extra padding in her midsection. She adamantly disagreed with me and babbled on and on about how she has worn the same few pairs of pants for the past twenty years - um, eewww! She was very obstinate that, although she tries, she simply CANNOT GAIN WEIGHT. Never. Ever. I explained to her that since she has been at the assisted living place, she has eaten three meals every day, and she never, ever did that before. And she gobbles down bags of candy and cookies on a weekly basis, and she never, ever did that before, either. I implied that she was merely getting chubby, but she insisted that something hideous was obviously wrong with her because her stomach never used to bulge out like it currently does. Bear in mind that when she lived at her house, meals consisted of coffee for breakfast, soup broth for lunch, and a cookie or two for dinner. If that.

Well, Bev grumbled to the on-staff physician at the assisted living place so much that he finally told her to go ahead and see a gastrointestinal specialist. Jim made Bev an appointment and took her to the gastro guy last week. One of Bev’s numerous Alzheimer’s gaffes for that day occurred when she wrote the year as “1988” on the forms she was filling out at the doctor’s office. Jim’s gaffe for that day occurred when he actually let her fill out her own paperwork. Anyway, when Bev first entered the hospital back in July, she weighed 79 pounds, and proceeded to lose weight while she was a patient there. She looked skeletal, and, trust me; skeletal is not a good look. Miraculously, she weighed in at 98 last week! So, my previously scrawny, emaciated mother-in-law is finally getting some meat on her bones, yet she is still baffled as to why her size extra-small sweats seem tight. I will just have to purchase some larger pants for her (a size small this time, perhaps?), and humor her that she simply needed a few new pairs of sweats to replace her decades-old ones. Then she can continue complaining how she simply never, ever gains weight, but, gee, at least her pants don’t feel tight anymore and that bloated sensation is gone. Maybe she will even give up the idea that her fleshy tummy is the result of some horrid disease. Hey, lady, welcome to the world of the flabby.