Chip: December 2008 Archives

Well, now, today is going to be a very busy Christmas day. So I’ll dash off a note wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. If you have to travel to see family, be safe and arrive secure. Enjoy the company of family and friends. And if you need a reminder about what this holiday means, perhaps I should let Linus remind you.

Sean also would like to pass on greetings to you. Daniel is actually the one that started doing it spontaneously one day, but he refuses to do it on camera. So Sean will substitute for the wishes.

Yes, it is Christmas Eve, and the kids are truly nestled all snug in their beds. The day has been a bit hectic, but it is now done. I’ve got a new splint on my hand (and got to see the scar as things were changed) and the pinkie is healing nicely. This afternoon, we had Faye and the Bolts over for gift exchanges and a quick bite to eat for lunch. Last minute wrapping was completed (okay, it was me that had to finish the wrapping), and finally the stockings were hung over the fireplace.

Now, we’re just waiting for Santa to arrive. Will has scattered a trail of reindeer food outside so that Santa’s reindeer can find our house. The milk and M&M cookies are out on a plate for Santa. Now, Mommy and Daddy need to get to sleep so that Santa can come to our house. Maybe he’ll have something good this year. He usually does.

Merry Christmas Eve to all.

We went and saw Legendary Santa this morning. Legendary Santa is a bit of a tradition in Richmond (since 1936), and we’ve tried to take the kids most years. This year has been a bit hectic, so we got ourselves a morning appointment (yes, it cost a few $$) to let the boys see Santa. We were curious about how Sean and Daniel, in particular, would react to Santa in person. They have a definite awareness of Santa now. Whenever they see an image of Santa, they know who he is and call out his name.

Santa largely has the same entrance that he always does. And the wait in line was fine — no apprehension from the boys, even as we walked up.

However, once we put Sean and Daniel on Santa’s lap and walked away (to allow a picture to be taken), the screaming started. Nope, they wanted nothing of Santa up close. We got an okay picture out of it, and Will got to tell Santa what he wanted. And when it was time to go, Sean and Daniel both actually waved and said good-bye to Santa. I guess being safely with Mommy and Daddy eases their fears and allows them to interact with Santa.

We also have a couple of pictures of the boys in their outfits from visiting Santa today. Christmas season almost is complete now. The shopping is done, the wrapping and baking is almost done, and Sean has already found one minor present and ripped the wrapping paper off. The celebrations can now begin.

I’ve been holding off on posting this for a little while, but now makes as good as sense as any. This is about juggling, something which I’m okay at (I can do 3 at a time in a couple of variations). However, the son of a co-worker is something of a prodigy. He’s still in high school, but he’s already competing on a national and international level. He’s competing this weekend in Las Vegas at an international convention, which follows on his performance this summer where he placed third, second and tied for first in three different disciplines.

I’ve never met his son before, but his father is cool. (He also writes science fiction.) But I’ve seen some of his videos on YouTube, and he is really impressive. Up to 9 balls and 10 rings in the air at a time, plus all sorts of different acrobatic moves and exchanges. So I hope he’s doing well in the competitions. I hope you can at least partially appreciate his talent.

This first video I share is from back in the spring this year, as he tries out different things in outdoors settings. (You can mute the music if you don’t like harder-sounding music, particularly the second video. You don’t need the music to appreciate the display.)

This video is his current video taken in support of his trip to the convention. This shows off some of his skills he’ll probably be competing for in Las Vegas. Good luck.

While many of us get ready to gorge on the college football bowl season that started today, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to my hometown Richmond Spiders football team. They won the Division 1-AA football championship last night, the first team sport championship in the history of the university.

(I do refuse to call 1-AA the FCS, as they are now officially designated. Just an awful attempt to justify the BCS mess.)

If you didn’t watch the game last night, you probably don’t know background on the coach, which is straight out of central casting. The former team MVP returns to coach his alma mater and wins championship in his first year there. But prior to all that, he started out as an undercover cop before becoming a coach. And he’s also given a bone marrow transplant to one of his own daughters.

Game summary clip is below. Congrats again to the Richmond football team on a well-earned championship.

Are the Wednesdays giving you the blues? Can you just not get excited for getting over hump day? Then just fire up this video for the inspiration you need to take on any challenges that stand before you.

The text can be found in this supporting blog entry.

You saw Will singing yesterday. Sean and Daniel also showed off their budding music skills yesterday. Actually, Sean showed talent in blowing a whistle that he’d never had before. It took about four tries before he got a random sound and got all excited. (Unfortunately, that’s not on video.) But he was able to repeat it fairly quickly, and after that, it was just a lot of whistling.

Daniel, on the other hand, got very frustrated with it. He started trying before Sean, but couldn’t get it. And when Sean could make sounds, but he couldn’t, that really got him upset. He did make the whistle sound a few times, but it was essentially random noise where he could repeat the blowing out to sound it again.

Keep at it, guys.

Sorry, this isn’t anything fancy. But Kellie did celebrate her birthday yesterday, though the cake had to wait for today. I think this one was at least a moderate success. We’re very lucky to have around her patience, love and understanding.

(Pictures of her are somewhat lacking, so this one from Central Park at Thanksgiving this year will have to do. She has successfully avoided getting a lot of photos taken. That, plus we lost 75% of the past year’s photos in the hard drive crash.)

She does get us to sing happy birthday again to her today. So, happy birthday again. It really doesn’t make you another year older just because we sing it on the next day.

I cannot come up with the right title for this. The emotions of yesterday are still too extreme — between what should have been the highs and ultimately what we faced.

First off — Sorry, Kellie, but a dedicated birthday posting for you is going to have to wait to another day. (You knew it was her birthday, right?) I would have tried to do it yesterday, but now it doesn’t seem right. It also should have been a happy day, as the Christmas tree (and lights) went up.

Kellie’s birthday dinner got an unexpected interruption, as Will started displaying the signs of a stomach bug. That nixed the birthday cake for the evening, though at least she got her presents.

No, as you might have guessed, we got some pretty bad news last night about Sweetie. Her blood tests came back indicating advanced kidney failure, with elevated liver levels also indicating trouble there. An ultrasound and biopsy would have been the next steps, but in a 7-year old cat, those are just not good signs. So, Kellie and I made the decision to ease Sweetie’s pain. We had said our “potential” goodbyes before taking her to the hospital, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

I’m still tearing up as I write this. She was a part of the family, even if she was a slightly off-kilter one. (Have you ever heard of an indoor cat that never wanted to go outside? Me neither.) She had the softest coat you could ever imagine, and she would purr in anticipation of being petted. You didn’t even have to touch her. She’d drive the vets bonkers, because her purring would drown out her heartbeat when they tried to listen to her heart. She was so lovable.

I’m glad we were able to rescue her almost 5-1/2 years ago. You never imagine a cat being gone this soon. I know I’m not ready for it. As I was cleaning up tonight, I know I’m going to miss her on those mornings I get up to workout. She’d race me down the stairs (once she was sure I was going downstairs and not checking on one of the kids instead), then make sure I fed her as soon as possible. A cat has to have her priorities. Those early morning wakeups (before even Kellie gets up — that’s pretty early) aren’t going to be the same without her.

I won’t miss changing the litter box, but the laundry room already seems a little more empty without it there. And I really wish it didn’t have to happen on this day. But she’s given us a full life of memories, and we know she’s in a much better place. She had to instinctively know what was up, as she refused even the food she enjoyed the most (like tuna). Animals can be amazing and wondrous creatures at times. It’s sad that it takes an event like this to make us realize it sometimes.

By now, I’m pretty sure she has gone to Cat Heaven. We’ll see how the boys take it. Will didn’t like the idea of Sweetie not coming back (before she went to the hospital), but when we broke it to him before bedtime, he didn’t seem quite as freaked out. I know he’s going to miss her. Sean and Daniel will probably ask where she is, but it shouldn’t be quite as bad. But there’s no getting around it, and there is never a good time for this.

Thank you, Sweetie, for the memories you gave us (and hopefully we gave you — if cats have memories).

Sweetie (our cat) is in the hospital right now. She’s stopped eating over the past couple of days and has gotten really lethargic and disoriented. She even turned her nose up at canned tuna (her favorite food). So it was off to the 24-hour hospital in Carytown at lunchtime.

As you can see, I’m back home. Sweetie had to stay. She was dehydrated and had a low temperature, so they’re working on that. Her kidneys also felt abnormal when the vet squeezed them. It could be a lot of things, so hopefully with the blood work today, we’ll know so more. She’s staying overnight.

I know everyone is a little concerned about Sweetie, so say a little prayer for her tonight.

Well, almost in my backyard. There is a 5k cross-country running course less than 2 miles from my house, in Pole Green Park, and tomorrow it is going to be hosting the 2008 USA Track & Field National Junior Olympics Cross Country Championships. Runners from ages 9 to 18 will be competing to be Cross Country All Americans. Almost 2500 runners are expected to participate in 10 different classifications.

I think it’s pretty cool that we’ve got a national-class cross-country course close by. I won’t be heading over there, but it looks like it will be a pretty big deal. It’s sponsored by USA Track and Field and an official national championship.

A video was put together of the actual course, if you’re actually interested. Kind of jarring, as it was taken from a four-wheel vehicle over the course, then sped up.

How else can we explain the following two situations. First, we’ve got an octopus shorting out lights and juggling his tank-mates. What does he need to be doing that kind of practice of aim and dexterity for?

Then, we’ve got shrimp running on treadmills. Yeah, it’s an old story, but it takes a while to build endurance.

So, be on the lookout. They may just be gunning for us.

Thanks for your prayers and concerns. Just want to let everyone know that the surgery is done and going as should be expected. I have some nice narcotics, though the pain is rather manageable. What is tougher is some numbness in the hand and first three fingers. I can move all fingers fine (except the pinkie, obviously), so I’m guessing the numbness is from a tight wrap as opposed to something else.

It’s not a full cast, but a splint that runs down the outside of my hand and arm. I’m going to have to wear it until Christmas Eve, so this is definitely going to challenge me.

And yes, I’m typing and mousing left-handed. Man, it’s slow and error-prone. No more touch typing here.

Sean has always enjoyed gazing at reflective surfaces, but today, he took it to a new level of self-awareness.

He was the one who initiated the self-gazing at first. We just didn’t catch it on video, with him holding his spoon, at first. So, yes, it was stages a little, but we didn’t feed him the answers.

I don’t remember saying that before the basketball game, but that’s exactly what happened. (If you don’t know, I play on a church league team and coach the team.) In the first couple of minutes of the game, I wound up jamming the pinkie on my right hand while tying up an opponent on a rebound. It hurt, but felt like a jammed finger that you might get playing basketball. So, I played on. I continued to grab rebounds (sometimes gingerly) and block shots, and we won comfortably. There was swelling, but not too bad.

I was a bit concerned before I went to bed, but decided to sleep on it and see how it looked in the morning. There was still swelling, but the soreness was manageable. Still, I went in for an x-ray, and the picture to the right shows what the x-ray tech (and I saw) — a couple of clear breaks. (Click on the picture to view a larger version. If you didn’t know it, most pictures on this site work that way.)

So, it was on to a hand surgeon this afternoon, and his diagnosis was more significant — multiple fractures (more than the two obvious ones), with some really small pieces in some areas. Until he can do the surgery and figure out how to get things back in place (whether by pins, screws, or plates), he won’t even know if the finger will be immobilized or not. But it will almost definitely never work quite the same. He said he hadn’t seen this type of break be this bad in over a year.

Monday is surgery day, and then I’ll find out what comes next. In the meantime, my pinkie is splinted and taped to the ring finger, making typing this (as a touch typist) a bit challenging and taking longer than normal to type. And I guess basketball is out for a while. Just another of life’s little wrinkles, I guess.