Road Trip

Jim, Jacob, Nancy, Richie, and I hit the road last Friday. We left Ann Arbor around 5:45 p.m. and drove to Carrollton, Kentucky for the night. On Saturday morning we departed our Kentucky hotel and continued on to Tunica, Mississippi. There, we met up with Richie's parents, who had driven over from their home in Missouri to spend Saturday night with us. There are casinos in Tunica, and I managed to turn $10.00 into $31.00 before eventually losing it all. It was a fun place to spend my birthday, and Richie's mom even brought me a chocolate cake for the occasion. On Sunday, we woke up early and continued on towards our destination.

We passed through Arkansas and weren't surprised when we spotted a huge, ugly, brown spider in a rest area bathroom. Arkansas is "The Natural State," after all.

After twenty-some hours on the road, we finally arrived in Texas in the afternoon. Even in late September, the state is one hot and humid place. I cannot stress enough how humid it is here. We drip whenever we step outdoors.

Jim had to work at his Houston office today, so Jacob, Nancy, Richie, and I toured the NASA Johnson Space Center. It was awesome! We saw so many interesting things there, including this mock Space Shuttle where astronauts train for their jobs. My absolute favorite part of the day was seeing the actual Mission Control room where so many historic space flights have been coordinated. (Think "Houston, we have a problem.")

Tomorrow we are going to see what the northern Houston real estate market has to offer. As most of you know, Jim's position with his company has been relocated to Texas. After much thought, debate, and wishy-washy indecisiveness, we have decided to sell our current home in Michigan. With the money from that sale - and, fortunately, the company will buy our house if it does not sell - we plan to purchase a small condo in Michigan plus a house in Texas. Our intent is to spend the rest of this week on a whirlwind house hunting expedition. I'll post pictures of anything intriguing that we come across.

My Teeth

After tolerating an increasingly painful toothache for four days, I finally went in to the dentist yesterday afternoon. It ended up that I had a raging infection in a far-back molar. The tooth had an old root canal and crown on it, so I didn't feel any discomfort until it was seriously decayed. The dentist lamented that the tooth had to come out, and she made me an appointment with an oral surgeon for 7:15 a.m. today. (What is it about the medical field and such early hours, anyway?)

When I arrived at the oral surgeon's office this morning, he showed me an x-ray of my molar. The abscess was so close to my maxillary sinus that it had begun to spread into it. The extraction went smoothly and I had very little bleeding afterwards. I dutifully filled my prescriptions today and iced my cheek regularly to reduce swelling. The pain from the surgery has been minimal - so far, so good.

Besides my scheduled root canal next month on my broken tooth, I also have a new cavity in yet a different molar. It has just recently begun to hurt occasionally, so I hope that fixing that tooth can wait until we return from our upcoming trip to Texas. Please dental gods, give me a break!

Beatles Rock Band

Richie surprised everyone this weekend by purchasing an Xbox 360, plus the Beatles Rock Band game. He now owns the complete Rock Band set-up - drums, guitar, and microphone with stand - and it is so much fun! The best feature is the song list. It contains all familiar tunes that we older folks can easily sing along to because we actually recognize the lyrics. Even Jacob knows far more Beatles songs than I would have guessed. All in all, the new Rock Band game is a big hit, and I'm certain that Richie will enjoy seeing more of us at his house now. Whoever created Rock Band is a genius who cashed in on many people's hidden desires to start up garage bands with visions of making it big someday. I'm sure the inventor is very wealthy now! I wish I had thought of it first.

Birthday Girls

Today Nancy hosted our September family birthday party at her house. The weather cooperated nicely for the planned barbecue. We all had a wonderful time, and I, for one, ate way too much of the delicious food. Laura turned 27, Pattye is now 31, and I will be, um, another year older next week.

Nancy and I spent much of the afternoon trying to convince the newly-engaged Laura that she should get hitched in Hawaii. (Or how about Vegas? Or Mackinac Island? A cruise?) The rest of the family is all on board to travel somewhere for the nuptials. Now, if we can sell Laura & Rob on the idea, we will have ourselves a destination wedding to attend!

Birthday girls lined up with their cakes (and pie).

The Patient

I accompanied Jim to the hospital on Monday for his long-awaited knee surgery. He had a torn meniscus and has not been able to run all summer, which has driven him bonkers. Since his cartilage was "flapping" around inside his knee, he had to resort to walking or biking the past few months. The orthopedic surgeon was finally able to fit Jim into his apparently busy schedule this week.

On Monday morning, we got up at the ungodly time of 5:15 a.m. I know lots of folks regularly awaken at that hour - Jim included - but I could never get used to dragging myself out of bed so early. Jim's arthroscopic surgery was the first one on the day's docket and we were shuffled into pre-op as soon as we arrived at the medical center. I only wished that I had remembered my camera because it is not everyday that Jim is dressed in a hospital gown, baggy surgical shorts, and a funny cap. To make a long story short, the surgery went well and I met Jim in the recovery room where I expected him to be groggy, nauseous, and babbling incoherently, just as he had been after all of his previous procedures. Instead, he was awake, feeling fine, and speaking almost normally. General anesthesia has come a long way since his first knee surgery 20 years ago!

Jim spent the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday obediently sitting with his leg elevated. Today he drove himself to his post-op doctor appointment, where everything was determined to be proceeding as expected. His pain is minimal and he begins physical therapy next week. He intends to go back to work tomorrow, but will have to keep using his crutches for a week or so. By the way, the surgeon also told Jim that he will be able to start jogging again soon, but he shouldn't plan to run any more marathons on his tired, old, arthritic knees. I have been giving him that advice for years, but he never listened to me!

Jim, lounging on the couch. Jacob put the stuffed dog there to keep him company. Notice the trendy Spongebob sleep shorts.

Football Frenzy

On Saturday, Adam planned to come by the house to do laundry and clean out some junk from his old bedroom. He was up late on Friday night, so he intended to sleep until afternoon, then slip out of Ann Arbor after the Wolverines football game began at 3:30 p.m. Since his apartment is only a few blocks from the stadium, he assumed that traffic would be lighter once the game was underway. What he didn't count on was the die-hard enthusiasm of 100,000 tail-gaters many, many hours before kickoff. Adam says that when he peeked out his window at 10:30 a.m., his street was fairly quiet. At 12:30 p.m., the crowds were growing. At 2:00 p.m., when he finally dragged himself out of bed for the day, he saw throngs of people swarming outside. Fans were moseying right down the middle of the street, as it had apparently been closed to vehicles, which Adam's roommate discovered the hard way. Mike - who has probably not been at the apartment during too many football games because he used to be in the marching band and was most likely at the games in years past - had been at the store when the road closed down. He was forced to drive the wrong way down a one-way street in order to maneuver back into the apartment lot. I also found it amusing when Adam told me that cars were parked all over the front lawn of his building. He doesn't know if the apartment management company actually turned the grass into a paid parking area, or if some enterprising young resident just waved people onto the lawn, charged them $50 each, and smiled all the way to the bank. By the way, Adam did manage to sneak out of Ann Arbor around 4:00 p.m. without too much difficulty. He waited until long after the game was over to drive back to the apartment.

It has been a long time since I have attended a college football game, but it seems as if the whole rip-roaring, fun-loving atmosphere lives on. I hope to at least go tail-gating in Adam's parking lot some Saturday this season. I wonder if he'd lend me his parking pass?

New Cell Phone

Recently I ordered a snazzy new cell phone to replace my rather outdated flip phone. The new model has an awesome qwerty keyboard that slides out for quick and easy texting. I have been in possession of the phone since Friday and have sent and received one text so far. If I ever do decide to go text-crazy, though, I will be able to write the messages out much faster than I could on my cast-off Nokia.

Luckily for me, the new phone arrived just as Adam was joining us for our Labor Day weekend trip. He set everything up for me, switched my contact list from one phone to the other, and begrudgingly & impatiently answered all of my questions regarding the phone's features. I just hope that my new Motorola stays trendy long enough for me to become proficient at making calls and sending texts. Mark my words, though - flip phones will probably make a huge comeback now that I no longer use one.

Weekend with the Buckeyes

Jim, Adam, Jacob, and I spent Friday and Saturday nights in Cleveland with our friends, Tree and Emily. Tree has been working in Ohio recently and was able to get her hands on a complimentary room at an Embassy Suites hotel for the weekend. Our trips with Tree and Emily are always full of laughter and shenanigans, and this one was no exception.

When we arrived on Friday, we ate at a car-themed restaurant.

On Saturday, we got tickets to the Cleveland Indians game.

The Indians are Jim's favorite team. He was in awe the entire time.

I was in awe, too, because the Air Force Thunderbirds were in town for an air show.
The jets performed nearby and zipped right over our seats several times.

On Sunday morning, Tree, Emily, Jacob, and I took a scenic train ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Jacob relaxed during the 3-hour tour.

Brush and Floss

The other night as I was diligently brushing and flossing my teeth, I felt a good sized chunk of something swishing around in my mouth. I spit (Is there a nicer word for spit? Maybe spewed? Or expectorated?) into the sink and was dismayed to see a piece of tooth in the basin. A quick look in the mirror confirmed my dread. One of my teeth had broken almost completely in half. Vertically. Ick. I knew that the tooth had been developing some tiny chips in it, but assumed that nothing drastic would happen to it before I went in for a cleaning & check up. Wrong!

Jacob accompanied me to the dentist's office this morning. The verdict is that the tooth can be saved with a post, core build-up, and crown. And, a root canal. (It will be my 9th!) All to the tune of $1,865. Fortunately, our dental insurance will cover 80% of the root canal and 50% of everything else. While I was there, the dentist checked one of my other teeth that had lost an old crown recently. That crumbling molar will eventually need either a bridge or implant, which will set me back 50% of $2,500. So two innocent teeth will take around $2,000 out of my pocket. I am trying not to imagine what I might have otherwise been able to buy with that money.

I hope that Jacob is paying attention and learning what even a little neglect can do to your teeth. As I sat in the dentist's chair today, and Jacob relaxed in a seat nearby, I scoffed to him, "Do you know what the dentist sees when he looks into my mouth?" Jacob shrugged and asked, "What?" I answered, "$$ Dollar signs $$." Ugh.