I can't say this episode is anything special, but I had to get back on the horse, you know. At least there's some new ambient sounds.
]]>I'm posting all new content over at Posterous (hellofrommichigan.posterous.com). That way, I don't have to monkey about with all the fiddly bits I do now to post a podcast update or a photo.
This site is now officially going into stasis. It's all free hosting space from work / school, so there's no reason to get rid of it; it's just that I can't run any sort of ads on this space, and I'm interested in seeing if I can make a buck off of this stuff. An ad or two can't hurt, right? :)
]]>My father-in-law has Parkinson's. He also has various other health problems related to age and a multiple bypass he had 20 or so years ago. He lives 110 miles away with his second wife, who is having surgery next week on her digestive system. She will be hospitalized for recovery for five to ten days. After that, she has been forbidden from doing any major work for six weeks.
There is no medical assistance available for my father-in-law, since he is "well enough to care for himself". If there were a problem to arise, and he was unable to care for himself, his wife would not be able to help either. Since there is no other family available to assist them, my wife will be taking two weeks off of work and heading up to stay with her father. After that, it is very likely that she will be returning home to us with her father, where she will care for him after she comes back home from her first shift job. It is also likely that he will be here until Christmas.
Things will be challenging while she is gone, as I will be taking on the tasks she usually performs, including laundry and cooking. (Hopefully I will be able to get the dishwasher fixed soon, or there may be a lot of takeout on the menu while she's gone.) I will have to take time off of work to take care of the kids, as their schedule is being altered for conferences and holiday time, and they will be off several days. That's what vacation and sick time are for, though.
As I have been writing this out and thinking it over, the situation doesn't really seem too terribly bad. He is, after all, "well enough", so things shouldn't be too hard on my wife while she's there, or too hard on any of us when he's here... other than expecting the kids to behave and the dog to be quiet, since his nerves are easily rattled by noise. I'm just concerned about him having problems while he's here, and a two hour drive away from his doctors and therapists. (I've also been feeling less than well myself lately, and my hypochondria's kicking in, adding to general health worries.)
I'm also concerned (albeit selfishly) about the disruption this will bring to our lives. I'm a obsessive compulsive Cancer, after all, and we really don't like having our routines interrupted. This is going to be a huge change for all of us, and I'm not sure how well things will go. I'm just worried about how things might turn out in a worst case. Sure, we can have him down here for a month or so until his wife recovers, but if she takes a turn for the worse, or if he does, we're not prepared for that here. Not in this house, in this environment, in this economy. He's going to be in our son's bed as it is, since we don't have a spare room in the house. My son's either going to be on the couch, or on the futon in the basement... probably the couch, unless he thinks he can game all night if he's in the basement. (I'll have to talk to him about that.)
My wife's already said she's worried I think she's a bad wife for doing this. After getting over the shock of how involved all this could become, I thought about it, and decided she isn't a bad wife. If she were a bad wife, she'd have already packed a bag and left, or been going up to visit him every weekend before this happened. The fact that she's worried about it means she isn't. (Much like worrying if you've gone crazy, in my opinion - if you can question if you're crazy, then you're not.) If anything, I'm worried that I'm being a bad husband by not backing this plan whole-heartedly.
I know he's still very important to her, and she'll do anything for him. And it's not like there's never anybody else there to help - my step-mother-in-law's side of the family will stop by and help out with yardwork or maintenance when it's needed. They're just tied up in their own family situations at the moment, and can't be as available as my wife. It's not even like we didn't know this was going to happen; it's just happened at a more extreme level than we anticipated.
I suppose I typed all this up to try and get things sorted out in my head... and titled this post appropriately before I knew it. This is about family. Sometimes, things don't go as you had planned. But family's there to take care of each other and support each other when it's needed. It's going to be a challenge, but no less of a challenge than when her mom needed someone to take care of her after her stroke. I stooped by on Saturday mornings to make her breakfast and play board games with her while my new wife caught up on sleep, or later on, took care of our first newborn. That went on for years, and we survived. It made us stronger, actually. We understood what family meant to each other, and we supported each other. This shouldn't be any different.
]]>I can't say this episode is anything special, but I had to get back on the horse, you know. At least there's some new ambient sounds.
]]>The four of us were out at the mall window shopping Saturday afternoon. As we walked by a store, we saw the following dress on display:
Pam said it looked nice, and without a moment's hesitation, I said "You're going in to try it on." To my surprise, she didn't reject that notion out of hand, but instead insisted it be in another color if she were to try it on, dismissing the peach one out of hand.
After a few moment's searching, we found the dress, in sort of a chocolate pudding brown as well as grey. She grabbed the brown one and we went off to the dressing rooms. While Pam and Katey went in, I stayed outside. After a moment, Katey came out to get me.
When I went in, Pam was in the brown dress, standing there self-consciously, asking what I thought. I still thought it was a really cute dress, but the color wasn't quite right, and the fit was a bit off. I asked her to try on the grey one, and again, she surprised me by agreeing. Katey ran off to get one, and quickly returned with it.
Pam popped back in the room and came back out a moment later in the new dress. The grey definitely suited her better, but it still wasn't quite right. She said she liked how it covered up her "trouble spots", but that was what made it look not right; too loose, and somewhat unflattering. At that moment, a woman's voice chimed in from over my shoulder, saying that she should try a smaller size. It wasn't a salesperson, but another mom who was shopping for clothes for her daughter. She was smartly dressed, but not overdone - not trying to out-dress her daughter, but certainly not rocking the "mom jeans". They had a quick discussion of the merits of sizes and fit and the demands of modern mom's fashions, and Pam agreed to try the smaller size.
Katey ran off again to get the smaller outfit, and the three of us had a quick chat about styles and fits. Again, Katey returned, handed off the dress, and Pam disappeared to try it on. When she stepped back out again, it was clear that was the right way to go. The dress was much more flattering, with no loose spots or sags. The other mom took one look and said "Woo woo! You're hot!" Pam's face instantly broke out in the biggest grin I've seen in a long time, and her face flushed a bit. A brief discussion about accessories later, and we had agreed that was the dress for her, and we were getting it.
I almost bought her a few other outfits on our way to the register, but she couldn't find them in her size. She did find one other dress, a white cotton outfit with a bright flower print that was very cute, and very much her style. She bought that one without even trying it on! So, after going in just to try on something that was in a display, we walked out with two very cute dresses for her, which looked like this after we got home:
(Yes, faces blurred to protect her modesty.)
Personally, I think she looks damned good for her current position in life, with two kids and no time / energy / money to put into a serious exercise program. She's not model skinny; she's got a few extra curves. That's great, because I don't want model skinny - I want the mother of my kids, and I love those curves :) I am very proud of her for agreeing to get that grey dress; I don't think it would have happened were it not for the ego boost from that other mom at the store. Now I have yet another reason to get my own self back into shape, so I can earn the right to have this lovely lady on my arm :)
]]>I'm gonna see what I can do about getting the old podcast back into action, and get on top of other thinks geek-related. I'm also going to get seriously serious about losing weight. To that end, I've signed up with MyFitnessPal.com to keep track of what I eat and how much I exercise. This should keep me honest, since I can track what I eat from anywhere I can get online, with laptop or iPod.
Onward and upward...
]]>As it stands, we ordered some official Disney-shot family photos yesterday. There's this in-park product called "Photo Pass" that is really cool. You get a laminated card with a barcode and a serial number, and every time you see an official Disney photographer, they'll take your picture, and then scan the card, and your picture is added to an online database of photos. They had these photographers all over at every park, either at especially iconic locations (on Main Street, in front of the castle, etc.) or at character meet and greet locations.
So, we ordered a few pictures from there that we weren't able to get ourselves. That just leaves the 1,000 or so photos that we took ourselves to put together into an Apple iPhoto album and order. With any luck, the album will be cheaper than the handful of prints we ordered from Disney.
Meanwhile, I put a handful of photos up in my MobileMe webspace. As of this writing, it's still rough, as there's a few pics to swap out, and the pics aren't captioned. I've still got to figure out what to do with the two hours+ of digital video I shot, and then there's all the podcast audio to deal with... should be some fun memories when I dig into it, though. I'll keep you all posted when things start moving again.
]]>(Sorry, we finally rented Dark Knight this weekend, and the line came to mind.)
Still... here we are, the first podcast of the new year. Hope my myriad half dozen listeners enjoy it. Maybe I'll shift to Sunday for releases - it'll give me a chance to record on the weekend and make is still feel fresh.
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Podcast #63