Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

Well, we survived our adventurous Thursday with much less trauma than initially feared. Kara was able to get an appointment to have her PICC line replaced yesterday afternoon. It was one of those "we'll fit you in" kind of things. I worked during the morning, and then left around 11:30 to go meet Kara in Dallas. Her visiting teacher Kristin agreed to watch the girls after school, so I wrote up a couple of notes and took them to the schools. I made the mistake of addressing Anna's note to her, and her teacher told her to put it in her folder and take it home to her parents. Fortunately I had let Anna know it was likely (but not certain) that Kristin would be picking her up, and Kristin found her before she got on the bus. The hospital is across the street from the clinic, but since they are undergoing renovation parking is scarce, so I left the car at the clinic and drove Kara over in the truck. To help with the parking situation, they have free valet parking. That was...

I was awakened at 3:00 this morning by a wet bed. It's not what you think. I wish it was. Kara's PICC line has a crack. This is the line that she gets all of her IV nutrition through. A crack is not good. TPN leaking on the bed is not good. It smells. This has happened a couple of times before, and she has been able to get it replaced each time. We don't anticipate any problems getting it replaced this time either, with the possible exception of scheduling. Being a Thursday, we are praying she can get in before the weekend. I'll most likely go with her when she has it replaced. The girls are OK with this - they have a list of people they like to stay with. I'll post more when there is more to post. UPDATE: It is likely we will be able to get in this afternoon. More as this story develops. UPDATE 2: The doctor will work us in this afternoon. I need to be there at 1:00. Kara's visiting teacher will have the girls this afternoon. They will either go to a t-ball gam...

My sister Karralee sent me a text message last night asking if I remember Carlene Okimoto. I replied that I did, knowing that I was in for some bad news.This message came way too late to be of the "guess who I saw today" variety. Details are short, but apparently Carlene died of complications from childbirth on Sunday. I knew Carlene from high school, where she was a year ahead of me. We were both in the band, and I remember dancing with her at a church dance or two. I never met her husband, Vaughn Mossman, but I ran into her a couple of times at Wal-Mart while we still lived in Utah. She looked good and seemed happy. The passing of a friend is always a time of reflection and remembering. In trying to find a little more information about her death I came across the Kahuku Class of '85 website . It was fun looking through the pictures, and seeing more old friends. Good-bye, Carlene. I am glad to have known you. UPDATE: Here is a link to the official obituary. UPDATE 2: Thi...

I mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday. Actually, I mowed the front yard, because I only had an hour. Years ago I bought a Black and Decker CMM1000 cordless electric mower for our 1/3 acre lot. It was perfect - easy start, no emissions, relatively quiet - like a large box fan. I was concerned about the time it would take to use a push mower on an acre, but then I changed my thinking and decided to look at the job as exercise rather than a chore. Suddenly I have the perfect setup - Cardio because I need to hurry and get done; the steep rise in the lot makes for a perfect Stairmaster; Resistance from pushing a 75 lb mower up and down and all around. I wonder if my company's gym reimbursement program will cover part of my mortgage? I got the grass cut (correction: I got the weeds bent over and scratched up ) before the rains came about an hour later. There was some thunder and a little lightning, but mostly it was just a constant soaking rain that lasted until bed time. It was...

Q: Did you ever come up with a name for your dishwasher? A: Yes. We have decided on Pawelu . Q: Wow, that's not very flattering. Is it really that bad? A. Well, the top rack comes off track about every fourth job, and the insulated front panel falls off once in every ten times it's run. Also, if the bottom rack is pulled out all the way when it's full, then the whole thing tips out (although this is really an installation issue). Mostly it's just annoying. Q: OK, so if the dishwasher has that many problems, why not just replace it? A: Because at the moment there is no room in the garage. Q: I don't understand what the garage has to do with a dishwasher. Please explain. A: Well, about six months ago I bought a range, microwave, and refrigerator. As of today, only the range is in the kitchen. The other two are still in the garage, trying to offgas enough so that they can come in. The only reason the range made it early is because it has a self-clean cycle that was ru...

I got an email over the weekend from my longtime friend Nicole. She's been following my blog since the beginning, and has finally decided to cross over into the blogosphere herself. (Way to go, Nicole!) A little background: I've known Nicole since Kahuku High (or was that Laie Elementary?) and her husband Princeton picked pineapples with me on Lanai. Princeton is currently deployed with the military overseas, and Nicole is holding down the fort at home. I enjoyed reading Nicole's blog , and look forward to many more posts. While their situation is much different from ours, the significance of the challenge and the methods of coping seem to be very similar. Nicole is able to share her experiences in a refreshing "choosing to laugh instead of cry" style, and if you've managed to stick with my blog this far, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading hers.

We finally left the Dark Ages and rented High School Musical (WARNING: this link plays music) for our family movie night on Friday. It was, um, musical. This show was a Disney Channel Original movie that has managed to become popular beyond it's roots. The music was fun, the message was good, and the cast was easy on the eyes. Apparently that's what matters most to the target demographics for Disney Channel Original shows. There are a few bits of the story that resemble reality, but true to Disney Channel form, most of the situations are not remotely believable. I suppose that's appropriate, however, for a show where entire groups of people sing and dance instead of speak. This is a musical, after all. My favorite song was where the entire student body sings about keeping the status quo, which they are doing because they don't think the basketball team captain should be singing in a musical. Oh, the irony! In all, it was a pleasant show, good for the family. Just don...

Each day for the last week, I have had the following conversation with Alyssa: "Dad. Andrew party, today?" "No, Andrew's party is on Saturday." "Ohhh! Please?!?" Well, Saturday finally came, and as far as I could tell it was everything Alyssa had hoped for. Andrew's parents had a big Clifford bounce house and Elmo decorations all over the place. Alyssa was Andrew's little shadow, following him wherever he went and doing whatever he did. They had a great time.

Anna, aka Princess Persnickety , had worn out her shoes. Mere days away from duct-tape worn out. It was time to buy some more. My friends, shopping with Anna is not a task for the faint of heart. To prepare for this arduous journey, we began with a hearty meal at the Cracker Barrel. This dining selection was the result of the clever marketing campaign that sends coupons for free kids meals home with good report cards. Since fourth graders don't go out to eat alone, one $4 kids meal sucks in an entire family. Ingenious. I'll have to make sure my restaurant copies this program. Alyssa ate all her meal and half of mine. Our waitress got a tip bump for preventing Anna from pouring cider vinegar on her pancakes (thinking it was syrup). I was dismayed to find that Weatherford still allows restaurants with smoking sections. Once we were fully energized, we began the quest for shoes. I won't bore you with details, but it involved four stores, and at least a dozen pairs of shoes tr...

Here's the run-down: I resolved what is hopefully the final issue with an old driver for a product release that has been over a year in the making. Working on this project has been a lot like smacking roaches - for every issue I fixed, it seemed there were two more to take its place. The biggest problem was a nebulous product spec that seemed to keep changing (although the customer insists it never did). Mr. Reyes offered to pay cash for my truck. I don't know Mr. Reyes, but apparently he wants to take my truck to Mexico. He must just drive around looking for trucks. It was like email spam that came to my door. He was very persistent, too. I didn't ask how much, because the truck is the "safest" vehicle we have, so Kara uses it to go back and forth to Dallas. He finally left. I got to drive the truck for an hour tonight. I got gas and returned a video. I also tried to go to the storage unit to get some stuff to fill the garage back up, but the storage unit keys di...

I have come across information that needs to be shared with America, and you will only hear this in the blogosphere. You can be darn sure this won't be reported by the mainstream media. While I have known for a long time that Daylight Savings Time is not really about saving energy, I haven't fully understood the dynamics behind it until now. I had assumed, like many of you, that it was all about politics. Daylight Savings Time was a way for politicians to be able to claim they were helping with the energy situation in this country, while steering away from the difficult decisions that might really do something. Now, everyone knows that it takes much more energy to get kids ready for school when it's dark outside. And don't even get me started on how much energy it takes to put them to bed while it's still light! No, any energy saved on the bottom half of the clock is quickly used up on the top half. So clearly Daylight Savings Time is not about saving energy. And it...

Life is now back in full swing. The kids have started back to school, and I've started back on my diet. The salad thing didn't work. I mean I'm sure it helped, although I still gained two pounds on my trip. What would have happened without the salad thing? I was a little concerned about getting the girls ready for school yesterday, as it was the first time in over two weeks, and the first time since DST hit. Fortunately, both girls requested they be allowed to get school lunch, and I agreed. Not making lunches saves me about 20 minutes in the morning. Plus, I understand full well that even an extra helping of love mixed into a tuna sandwich can't compete with pizza.

We met in our new church building yesterday. It's finally finished. No, this isn't the replacement for the one that burned down. The church was already in the process of building a chapel in Azle, the town just north of us. I think it's a Phase 1 building, which means that it was designed for a small ward. The chapel has about 12 rows of pews. To accommodate our rather average size ward, all three overflows were opened. It's a nice little building. Standard early 21st century LDS. It looks just like so many other buildings I've been in, and after meeting at the Church of Christ for several weeks, it was a bit of a letdown. Not that it isn't a nice building - it's actually quite a bit nicer than the other church. It's just that it's so unoriginal. Now, I understand why the church has a little folder full of blueprints that they use over and over again. A s many buildings as they build, it would be prohibitive to come up with a new design for each one...

While cleaning the living room today, Kara found a piece of paper with a to do list written by one of our children dated 11-26-06. I am not making this up. Get boredgam from teacher/play at Familey Home eveing Have Familey Home evening. check e-mail worok on England broshur Ask Mom/Dad if the Crismas Fairy is coming tonight Dect for Cris. Preper lesson Throw a fit because of Cristmastree Decor

I managed to make lemonade from some of life's lemons today. It has been very frustrating not to be able to use the kitchen cabinets, especially after all of the time we spent sealing them. But they don't work, and that's that. So today I worked really hard and got most of them installed along the walls of the garage. I hung three cabinets on the wall, and put lower cabinets underneath them. There is now a lot of storage that I would have never paid for, but these were a sunk cost so I put them to use. Another failed project was the purchase of formaldehyde-free MDF to use under the bar in the kitchen. This was before I fully understood terpenes, and it turns out that the glue is OK, but the wood fibers themselves are a problem. I had two 8 foot sheets of 3/4 inch board, which I fashioned into counter tops. This was such a fun project! I was able to use all of my power tools - both drills, the circular saw, the jig saw, the router, and the shop vac. The only tool I didn...

Our St. Patrick's day has gotten off to a pretty good start. We've managed to dig up some green for everyone to wear. This is very important to the pre-teen crowd, so I'm glad (and a little relieved) we could pull it off. Alyssa gave me a nice surprise this morning. While I was in the shower, she had gone to my room and picked out some clothes for me to wear - a pink long sleeve dress shirt and khaki shorts. I thanked her profusely, but decided to stick with my green t-shirt and denim working shorts. The garage is on my hit list for today. I hope to get at least some cabinets up off the floor and onto the wall. We need the floor space to bring more stuff from the storage unit. The guy FINALLY came to fix the water heater yesterday - only about two weeks late. But it was worth it. The tank was full of mid-Cretaceous seabed, and that had caused one of the elements to short out. Hopefully our new water system will help reduce the sediment problem, but I foresee a number of tan...

We took a family road trip to Dallas on Thursday. Kara needed to meet with her doctor and wanted me to come along. With it being Spring Break, we thought it would be fun to make a day of it and bring the girls as well. When it was time for the appointment with the doctor, the girls and I waited in the waiting room instead of just going back to the exam room like we were supposed to do, so we almost missed the meeting. But I finally wondered where everyone was and managed to find them before it was completely finished. There is still a movement afoot to shut down Dr. Rae , and Kara was concerned about her TPN as she is still heavily reliant upon it. The current fear is that his license will not be renewed later this year. He assured her that even if his license is not renewed, there are other doctors in the clinic who can keep her TPN coming. Prayers on the doctor's behalf are always welcome. For lunch we picked up pizza and ate at a nearby park. The weather was great, although the ...

The other day, as the girls and I were out looking for fossils and I found my umpteenth petrified sea urchin , I decided that our homestead needed a name. That name, of course, is Sea Urchin Ranch . "Find your own fossils at Sea Urchin Ranch." It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I doubt I could charge admission, and I don't really want a bunch of strangers traipsing through our back yard scaring the bunny and tearing up the, um, wildflowers. But friends and family are always welcome. There are plenty of fossils for everyone. I've never been big on naming things that don't have a face. The one notable exception is Polu Manini , the little Ninja 250 I bought a few years ago to commute back and forth to work. That bike was a lot of fun, and she was really manini with the gas. I could ride in the carpool lane, which I thought would be a great help. But the lane didn't go all the way to my exit. Traffic usually moved well until the carpool lane ended, a...

Spring Break is now in full swing. Yesterday was a working day for me, though, so I invited one of Alyssa's friends to come over. McKenna is a little girl that Alyssa knows from both church and school, and Alyssa has been begging us to have her over to play. When they got here yesterday afternoon, Alyssa ran up and gave her a hug so big she almost knocked her down. I don't know that either Kara or I has ever gotten that big of a reception. All three girls played great together, and I even called McKenna's mom to ask for a time extension. They played trains and blocks and watched a video, and McKenna scored big time out at the "Find Your Own Fossil Farm." (More on that in a later post). It was a bear getting the girls down last night. Alyssa managed a nap in the afternoon, and neither one of them is adjusting very quickly to DST. (I almost used my own words for the acronym, but then I remembered that this is a family blog...) Alyssa ended up in my bed not once but ...

Remember that comment from yesterday about having extra time today? I lied. I made out a schedule, and somehow I started the day nearly two hours behind. I'll blame it on Daylight Savings for now. OK. The Weekend Roundup. Last Friday, I finally got to do the prints that I went all the way to Alabama to do - there were hardware issues before that. The computer and the printer were in different buildings, so I ran back and forth with the files on a little flash drive. I pushed my departure for the airport until the last minute, so I could try and get done what I needed to. Due to a fuel leak with my plane, I could have pushed it a little further. We got out an hour late, but trimmed that to half an hour, so I was able to make my connection in Houston. Even more surprising, my luggage also made the connection. Saturday was my birthday, and it got off to a good start. Kara made a breakfast pizza which went over very well. We got some work done, but not too much. Anna had been invited t...

Yes, my birthday was yesterday. I'm not forty yet, and I can still say that for another year. I had a good day, and a good weekend. There was no time to post - I was too busy celebrating. Yeah, that's what I was doing. But tomorrow I will have time to write more. It's spring break, which means the girls won't be getting up until a little later, and I can let them bum around in their night gowns and feed them "snackle pop" for breakfast and basically let them run amok while I work, and that makes my morning much less hectic. Afternoons are another story...

Forget the economy. Forget the environment. Forget foreign and domestic policy. Forget social and cultural and moral issues. From now on, I will vote for any candidate who promises to end Daylight Savings Time.

I went to Chili's tonight for dinner. I knew they'd have a good salad (I chose the Grilled Chicken Caribbean) and some good people watching. Plus, I always like to pick up ideas I can use in my casual dining restaurant chain. The one I plan to open with the proceeds from my ten-book Young Adult Science Fiction series. Yeah, that one. A couple of nights ago I picked up a Subway sandwich and ate it in my room, and last night I ate at the hotel next door. There were only four other people in the place, and that's counting the cook and the waitress. So tonight I was feeling the need for people. Not people to sit at my table and expect me to interact - I get to do that at lunch with everyone from the office here. And not little people who need me to cut things and take them tee-tee three times during the meal. No, just people I could watch and enjoy while hanging out in my own little world. I don't get to do that very often, and every once in a while it's kind of nice. ...

Here is a picture of my girls. No wonder I'm always so tired!

One of the few nice things about business trips is they give me the chance to do things I don’t normally get to do. Things like play my ukulele , get a full night’s sleep, and in tonight’s case, get a little exercise. That’s right, folks. I actually used the work-out clothes I brought with me this time. Not only did I walk both down and up the stairs, (hey – I’m on the fifth floor, OK) but I managed to slog my way through a mile and a quarter on the treadmill. I’m pretty proud of myself. With an historical perspective, however, that was really pretty lame. But it’s better than nothing. Several years ago I did quite a bit of running. I ran 2-3 days a week, and did OK in a handful of 5k and 10k runs around the valley. I was even delusional enough to try training for a marathon. Don’t laugh! I made it as far as the 14 mile run before I hyper extended my schedule and had to quit. But that was two years and twenty (!) pounds ago. I still consider myself a runner – I’m just waiting until I h...

My morning started out bright and early at 0400. Having successfully packed everything last night and still getting to bed at a reasonable hour, I was able to be on the road by 0430. My first stop was historic Dallas Love Field . Being the frugal traveler that I am, I parked in the B garage, which allowed me the chance to enjoy the Garage Pedestrian Concourse Artwork . As a worker in the digital printing field, the image-changing murals are of particular interest to me. I was counting on long lines at the Southwest ticket counter to give me the chance to get my paperwork in order, but there was no waiting so I had to quickly dig out my confirmation number. When I checked my bag through to Honolulu last December, the girl called her coworker over to see the tag - I guess HNL doesn't come up very often. My ticket to Birmingham today wasn't nearly as interesting. I remembered to stash my pocket knife in my suitcase before checking it, so I didn't have to throw this one away. I...

This weekend was the big school carnival at Aledo High School . The girls had a great time. Here's Anna throwing a roll of toilet paper into a toilet. It was a lot of mayhem and smelly little toy prizes. We went out into the foyer once to give Alyssa the chance to "decompress." She's gets overwhelmed with crowds pretty fast. I don't blame her. She wanted a cookie, but they didn't have cookies for sale at the concession booth. So she opted for on e of the big pickles. I cut her off a bite, which she chewed for about 5 seconds and then spit out like it was bee stinging her tongue. I kind of expected that. What surprised me was when she wanted a second bite. I gave it to her, and she had the same reaction. I took a couple of bites, but I don't really like pickles. I was only eating it because I didn't want to waste it. Why do we do things like that. I quickly realized that I didn't care about the fifty cents the thing cost me, and in fact I would have...

Alyssa seems to be doing better, but I've decided to keep her home again today. She made it through the night without coughing, but she still managed to make it into my bed sometime. It's usually about an hour or so before the alarm goes off, so I just snuggle her until it's time to get up. (Alyssa snuggles are very therapeutic - just ask any of her aunties or grandmas.) However, when I woke up stiff from laying in the same position for too long, I decided to check the time - 3:58. OK, that's enough snuggle therapy for one night. I got Alyssa back in her bed then dreamed of trying to get the girl's lunches ready in an office break room kitchen where someone had left a bunch of cheese fries on the stove burner. Fortunately, the alarm went off just as I started cleaning up the mess, so I didn't have to deal with it. I have enough problems without having to clean up someone else's cheese fries. I've decided to keep Alyssa home again today - her cough sounds...

Yesterday afternoon, my iTunes was playing Vangelis . Pre-"Chariots of Fire" Vangelis. The old stuff. In my younger days, Vangelis was one of my favorite musicians, along with Weird Al and Walter/Wendy Carlos and PDQ Bach . But those are artists for different stories. I became familiar with Vangelis through the soundtrack of Cosmos , which was a favorite television show from my geeky youth (not to be confused with my geeky mid-life). The soundtrack, which I received for Christmas one year, used several of his songs, and I nearly wore it out. I loved his music, and I wanted more. But, aside from Chariots of Fire, Vangelis wasn't available at Pay-n-Save. Or Sears, or Longs, or Holiday Mart, or any of the regular chain stores found on Windward Oahu. For something like Vangelis, I needed to go to Honolulu and the House of Music. There were probably other record stores on the island that carried Vangelis, but the House of Music was at Ala Moana , and that was important, beca...