Visitors coming

Mikele and Bob are arriving tonight! We're looking forward to their company, and to dinner at The Melting Pot on Tuesday night!

Gorgeous Day

Woke up to a gorgeous sunny day! Of course, it was 5°F outside, but the few inches of snow on the driveway were pretty light and easy to shovel away.

I tried to take Mandy for a walk this morning. Knowing it was too cold for her little Chihuahua feet, I tried for the 2nd time, to get her to wear the little booties we got her over a year ago. Once again, they turned into anti-gravity boots, as she refused to keep them on the ground. We only got about 20 feet, before I had to take them off her and stuff them in my pocket. And sure enough, we only got another few hundred feet, before she was lifting her paws off the ground again, because they stung from the cold.

Wishing everyone the Merriest of Christmases tomorrow!

Snow Continues

It was snowing and 17 degrees F when I picked K up from dialysis this evening. The snow's been accumulating on the roads and it's very slippery. Kinda fun, when I only have a few miles to go, mostly on side streets, and not in a hurry. And it's *so* nice to have the CR-V, in these conditions. :-D

K's foot wound from the surgery is healing nicely, according to the nurse that came to the house today, to change the wound vac.

Snow Starting

Slept in late, on the last day of my pre-Christmas vacation. Walked Mandy down to Blueberry's for lunch, and met several very nice people, hurrying into the postal annex for those last minute mailings, who stopped by to say hi to Mandy. K and I went in for our annual eye exams this afternoon, and closed them down. I decided to try testing some of the iPhone ad hype, and searched the Map application for "indian food". The search produced two nearby restaurants. I asked it to find the route to the nearest one, India's Clay Oven, and we found ourselves sitting down to a very pleasant dinner in just a few minutes. I tellya, I'm sold on this cool phone. The snow started while we were having dinner, and we came out to a delightful scene of snowflakes lightly falling. Overall, a very pleasant day...

Fluffy Forecast

I just heard the weather forecast for the rest of the week: snow, snow, and snow... it sounds like we're heading for a white Christmas!

A Little Warmer

It's been a bit warmer this week, up into the 40s and 50s most days. K's been having difficulty with nausea and gurgly stomach lately. She couldn't imagine being trapped in the dialysis chair for four hours on Friday, so she skipped that session, hoping to make it up Saturday morning, but didn't feel much better then, so she skipped Saturday too. The plan is to try for her regular Monday evening slot. Mandy and I went for a nice walk around Johnson reservoir with our neighbors Ken and Freddie, then us humans drove over to nearby Hops for lunch. I brought K home some french onion soup, which she seemed to like quite a bit. Then Freddie did K a favor, and unpacked our garlands from some boxes in the basement, and decorated our staircase, which now looks wonderfully festive.

D-346 Launched!

We successfully launched D-346, a Delta IV rocket carrying the WGS-3 payload this morning.

AV-024 launched!

We successfully launched AV-024, an Atlas V rocket carrying the Intelsat-14 payload, today.

Launch scrubbed

We scrubbed our first attempt at launching IntelSat-14 early this morning. Something wrong with an electrical component. See SpaceFlightNow for info. This was a late night countdown, so my sleep cycle for the weekend is turned a little bit upside-down.

Fire Grill

We had dinner at Fire Grill, in the "Streets of SouthGlenn". I had a very tasty sweet and sour chicken dish, over fried rice. Mandy enjoyed exploring the North side of Streets. We'd go back here, too!

Tasty food at Saj

Had dinner with K at Saj, a Mediterranean restaurant in the new Streets of SouthGlenn. I really liked the Shawarma dish!

After dinner we sat at our table and played with our new iPhones for too long. I wonder if "there's an App" to remind us to get up and go home! ;-)

Broken Toe

Took K to urgent care on Sunday night. Her toe and foot were swollen and red, and we feared the worst - another infection - but it turned out to be yet another twist: somehow the remaining 2nd toe has gotten broken. That put a bit of a damper on our supposed-to-be-fun visit to the Apple store that night.

She went to see the Ortho doc today. They think maybe the redistributed load (from the great toe being missing) was a factor in why it fractured - basically, it got overloaded. Still not ruling out the possibility that an infection in the bone might've weakened it. Still considering additional amputation options. Apparently thinking those remaining toes are just in the way. Heavy sigh...

Chilly Walk

Went on a chilly 4 mile walk in the dark with Ken and Mandy Friday night, in search of dinner with outdoor seating. We were disappointed to find Abe's was closed for a private party, Merle's didn't have their patio door open, and BB O'Reilly's has closed permanently. So we went home, and drove to good ol' Marie Callendar's. I warmed up with a piping hot broccoli chicken Alfredo entrée, and a hot cherry pie. Yum!

Halloween

Fun day, Halloween, although a bit more action-packed than I'm used to. Shoveled what was left of that foot of snow off the front walk. Went and got the shared snowblower from our neighbor, and used it on the driveway, then knocked down the snowbanks in the road in front of our house and a few others. Walked the dog around the neighborhoods. Had breakfast with Ken at IHOP. Went hunting for Halloween candy, and had a bit of an adventure, trying to find everything on K's grocery list in a Super Target I rarely visit. Brought the Halloween decorations out of the back of the crawl space, and got everything setup by sunset. Walked Mandy down through the icy path in Lee Gulch. Cooked up a couple of pizzas, and enjoyed handing out treats to 30+ kids. Wound down with a cup of tea, then packed up the all decorations, and stashed them back in the crawl space. Now, what to do with that friggin' dragon?!

Snow day

It snowed most of the day today, but hardly any of it stuck, at least around our neighborhood. It was a fun atmosphere.

Recovering

K was in good spirits today, all things considered. They haven't unwrapped her foot yet, maybe tomorrow. Her brother visited in the morning, before heading off on I-70 for parts West. We watched a VCR movie this evening - "Lovely and Amazing" - and slept through part of it. Mandy waited patiently outside in the car, all snuggled up under her blanket in the back seat.

Out of Surgery

K got out of surgery late this morning. She's minus her big toe. The Ortho doc says he had to take quite a bit around the toe as well.

K at St Jo

John and I took K to a doc appt at noon. He looked at her foot, and admitted her to St Joseph hospital for IV antibiotics, and set the Ortho guys loose on her. Some kind of foot surgery looks likely. She got her Friday dialysis in the late afternoon, then they sent her back to her room. She's pretty much wiped out. They gave her antibiotics during dialysis, but they also started IV antibiotics in her room, as I was leaving tonight. They took X-Rays of her foot for the Ortho doc to review before tomorrow's 7am surgery. =(

Not Good

I just saw K's left foot for the first time in awhile, as she was changing the bandage tonight. The wound has grown a frightening amount, wrapping up around the side of her foot, her foot is swollen and hot, and her temperature is up. I tried to convince her to let me take her to the ER tonight, but she balked. She didn't want to go until after the shift change later in the morning.

STSSdemo Launched!

We launched (actually I was sleeping, while my delegate provided support) MV-344, a Delta II rocket carrying the STSS-Demo payload, this morning.

Cooling off

K's feeling a little better, after her low glucose of 37 this morning. Mandy and I walked with our neighbors down to Blueberry's for breakfast. It's getting a bit cooler out there, these days.

PAN Launched!

We launched AV-018, an Atlas V carrying the PAN satellite, from Cape Canaveral this afternoon. Check SpaceFlightNow for more details!

Delightful View

I caught this sweet view of the mountains behind the water, while traipsing along the Platte River trail with the dog just now.

Nice Evening

Gorgeous sunset tonight, as seen when coming out of Buck Center, and then walking with Mandy to Dinner -- I'm sitting here enjoying a tasty French Dip sandwich and chicken lemon soup at Abe's, with Baklava for dessert. A little slice of heaven!

K Improving

K started feeling a little better last night - enough to keep some food down. She seemed better still this morning, albeit very groggy, as we left for our walk.

Mandy and I walked with Ken and Freddie again this morning, down to the Post Office to mail back "The Replacements" DVD, and then went hunting for breakfast. We found a new place to try - "The Old Mill" on Rapp St, not far from the college. I had the french toast combo which was excellent. Mandy wasn't allowed inside, even to go through to the deck, so I tied her to the railing near our table on the deck outside, and she had to wait for us where she could see us a few feet away, but not mooch any food. It was excruciating for her, but she/we survived it. ;-)

Another Bad Day

K's still miserable with nausea. Can't hardly move, without getting the dry heaves. She's decided to skip today's dialysis makeup appointment, and push on to the regular appointment on Monday. I'm very concerned about her missing this many days between dialysis. This will be the longest she's gone without. We managed to get her high blood glucose back to the normal range yesterday, and it's been holiding there, which is a really good thing. Now I just have to focus on keeping her from getting too dehydrated.

Mandy and I took an early walk with Ken and Freddie, down to Blueberrys for breakfast. Mandy made some more young friends as we passed through Sterne Park, and even more among those sitting outside on the patio at breakfast. She's really quite the life of the party.

Bad Day for K

K's having a bad day today. She spent last night feeling very nauseas, wandering the house, falling asleep in the strangest places, like standing up in the pantry. This morning she's still very nauseas, and hasn't been able to keep anything down. We canceled her afternoon doctor's appointment, then realized she wasn't going to be able to make it to dialysis either. Luckily they have a slot open tomorrow at noon.

Simple pleasures: Our painter Robert took a shot this morning, at finding the water shutoff valve for our new refrigerator's ice maker. It got buried in the ceiling last year, when the basement was drywalled. I'd been hesitant to cut holes looking for it, for fear of ruining our nice new basement ceiling. He found it behind the first exploratory hole he cut. Genius! Good thing *he* did it, since I would've been looking at least 3 feet away. So now our new filtered water and crushed ice dispenser finally works! First one we've ever had, and we only had to wait a year, to begin using it. We must be grown-ups - we can handle delayed gratification! OK, sometimes we can...

Summer's back, with sunny days and temperatures in the mid-90s. Mandy and I walked down to Blueberry's for lunch on my Friday off. She made quite a few friends of the folks wandering by. I let her off leash, for a lot of the way home. I'm amazed every day, at how well she's staying by my side during our walks. It feels very rewarding, since we've been working on it for quite awhile.

I just happened to pull out this dish towel... and noticed the pattern was more than just an abstract design... which got me thinking about Paris... which got me wondering how Tyler and his friends are doing...

GPS Launched!

We launched D-343, a Delta II carrying the GPS-IIR-21 GPS navigation satellite. This is the "end of an era", since it's the last GPS satellite of this series.

WWW

We had a much nicer breakfast walk today, just downtown and back. We left earlier, on a cooler day, and we avoided the miles-long side trips! We did take a little extra time, to enjoy the downtown activities related to Western Welcome Week. Lots of booths and people everywhere. Mandy liked meeting all the other dogs too.

...still milking the "birthday month" concept, for all it's worth, we had a delightful BD dinner with the Comstocks, at a sidewalk table at Abe's. I took a chance with Mandy, and let her off leash. She was the ultimate in good behavior, and stayed within 5 feet of our table the whole evening. I'm so proud of that little dog, it's just plain silly.

Hot Walk

Mandy and I went walking with Ken late this morning - ostensibly just to Blueberry's for breakfast, and back home. But then we headed out on a mission, to find a replacement thermometer battery. The first three places we looked didn't have any, but we finally found one at Walgreens, after walking several extra miles in 95+ heat. Oh well, that gave us an excuse to stop at DQ for ice cream, and then later at Romancing the Bean for smoothies. We did finally get home alive, hours late! We realized early on we'd blown it, and fell back to plan B, take care of ourselves first. For Mandy that meant stopping at every shady grassy spot, and rolling around to cool off. She was pretty wiped out by the time we got to the light rail station. Here she is, resting on the bench beside me, as we enjoy our smoothies.

Wound Vac Done

Dad and Adele were here just overnight, on their way to an appointment in NY. They made it all the way to Topeka today, and are now safely ensconced at their motel for the night.

K saw the doc today, and they discontinued the wound vacuum. She is SO glad to be rid of that awkward contraption, always tied to her foot with a long tube. It was too much like lugging a ball and chain. The good news is, the left foot is still looking really good. The right foot wound is small enough that the vac isn't helping much any more. But it's big enough that it's still a serious concern.

I ran across a rattlesnake in front of the building, on the way out of work today. After that, as I was driving home, I kept feeling crawly sensations on my legs, and was wondering what the odds are, of a rattler finding its way up into my car in the parking lot, while I'm working away at my desk... That would be a big surprise, to have one come slithering out from under the seat, as I'm driving down a crowded highway!

Hangover

We just got back from seeing Hangover. Funny! And having my free birthday burger at Red Robin. Yum! Mandy was so happy to see us come home. We've hardly gone anywhere without her, over the past two years, but it was too hot today. We asked our nice neighbor Freddie to take her out once, while we were gone. Must be what "parents night out" feels like... complete with the sitter.

I've been wondering about this lump in my throat that makes it hard to swallow, that showed up a few days ago. Coincidentally, it's also tender and slightly swollen under my jaw, where the lymph nodes are. I talked to the nurse at Kaiser this afternoon. Not even close to mumps symptoms. She said lots of bugs are going around, that could cause these symptoms. She said to wait awhile, and see if any other symptoms develop. The good news, is my throat feels quite a bit better tonight. It'll be interesting to see how it is Sunday morning.

DKA

Something we noticed in the hospital discharge instructions: there was another factor we thought was a symptom, but might have caused, or at least exacerbated, everything. She was in Diabetic Keto Acidosis (DKA). The hospital lab said her blood glucose (BG) was around 900 when she was admitted. It had been off scale high since the previous day. We'd been trying to get it down by injecting her with unusually large amounts of Humulog, a powerful short-acting insulin, but with apparently little success, since the number hadn't gotten down enough to register on her little meter, which only reads as high as 600. Symptoms of DKA include most of what she was experiencing, except for the fluid they saw on the lungs in the X-Ray and the CAT scan. We couldn't figure out how her BG got so high in the first place, and had to assume her body was stressed, which we know will drive BG up.

Coming Home Today!

Kristan will be coming home today! She feels much better. The St Joseph and Kaiser docs and nurses will be meeting at 1:30 to formulate her discharge instructions. We already have plans to stop at her favorite sandwich place (Fisher Clark Deli in Bonnie Brae) on the way home.

Dad and Adele are on their way to Green River. They left an hour or so late. It's fun to watch them getting ready to go - Dad packing the car, Adele telling him where her things need to be. They have quite a routine going there.

Power was out at our house for many hours last night. Our neighbors across the street still had power. Seems like we're always the ones to lose power during storms. Must be those darned overgrown trees in the surrounding neighborhoods. One of them must've dropped another branch on a power line, during the most severe part of last night's big storm. We got a lot of rain and hail and wind, in a very short time. That was the most violent storm we've experienced at the house, in the 14 years we've been here. There was even a tornado warning in effect for our area, before, during, and after the time it passed through here. Just a bit unnerving. Even Mandy was a little nervous, and I've never seen her worried about storms or fireworks in the past. She was probably picking up on my elevated level of concern, as I was briefing Dad and Adele on where to take cover, if they heard the sound of a freight train (i.e., a tornado) approaching the house.

Looking Up

We just got back from visiting K at St Joseph hospital. She was doing well, and itchy to start talking discharge with her doctors. Even her nurses were asking if the docs had mentioned it. So we're hoping she may be out of there as soon as tomorrow. I took Dad and Adele to dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange - Denver's original steakhouse - on the way home. They loved it. They'll be "on the road again" tomorrow morning.

Monday Afternoon

K's pain and nausea are both up, but no more than the usual, considering that her med schedule is all jumbled around, while she's in the hospital. We're leaving now to go visit her.

Monday Morning

K called at 7:30 to say she'd be going into dialysis soon. The nausea is much reduced, thank goodness. We're hopeful the worst is over. Thanks to *everyone* who's sending good thoughts - they must be helping! :-)

Sunday Evening

We left K resting semi-comfortably in her half of the room, on the 4th floor of St Joseph hospital. Her roommate seems nice enough, but is a short-timer, heading out soon. Her nausea seems reduced, but still very much a factor. Will check on her in the morning around 9.

K Transferred to St Joseph

We left K in the capable hands of the EMS techs, as they wheeled her out of Littleton Hospital on a gurney, destined for St. Joseph hospital near downtown Denver. She's still very nauseas, still showing some signs of pneumonia, still on antibiotics. We stopped at the house to pick up her fully charged wound vac, and are heading out to St Jo, to make sure she's settling in ok.

Sunday Morning

K's still at Littleton hospital. She's still very nauseas. Had a low blood sugar this morning. The nurse says they'll probably transfer her to a Kaiser hospital today. Don't know where or when. We're heading in to visit now, just to let her know we're around, since she's mostly sleeping.

Saturday Morning

K's nurse says she's doing well. She had a low glucose this morning, which means they've potentially got the glucose under control, so she's off the insulin drip, and back to the usual sliding scale. Her BP was back to a more normal reading. They're still considering the possibility of heart issues being a factor, so they sent her down this morning for an echocardiogram, and later a stress test. She's supposed to get a dialysis treatment this afternoon. The nurse says K is still a little nauseas, and is worried about them transferring her out of ICU too soon. But according to the nurse, nausea isn't reason enough to keep her in ICU, so they'll probably transfer her to the telemetry floor later today.

K Improving

Glad to say, K felt much better, when we went back to see her this afternoon. They'd found signs of pneumonia. Hydration, antibiotics, insulin, all seem to be helping. She's been admitted to ICU, at least for the night. She'll get her Friday dialysis on Saturday morning in ICU. We really like Littleton hospital. She's got a beautiful view from her private room, and the medical staff have been great. Too bad it's only available for emergencies, since Kaiser doesn't have an agreement with them for non-emergency treatment. If she stabilizes, but still needs more time in hospital, they'll probably have to transfer her to St Joseph.

K in Littleton Hospital

Kristan's been intensely sick all last night and this morning. She had high blood pressure and low temperature this morning. Dad and Adele and I took her to Littleton Hospital ER around noon today, which is very conveniently close - about 5 minutes from the house. They're trying to figure out what's going on. Heart and lungs seem healthy. They suspect an infection somewhere, but haven't found it on the outside, so they'll be looking on the inside next, with X-Rays and an MRI.

Visitors

Dad and Adele arrived on the 7th. I'm taking some vacation while they're here. We're not quite as active as previous years. Maybe something about Dad just celebrating his 90th birthday...? :-) Nonetheless, we've been out for a nice 1 mile walk yesterday, and heading out for lunch and a short walk now. K was nauseas this morning, and feeling a little better now.

Wound Vac

In the seemingly never ending quest to get K's foot wounds to heal, she asked Kaiser about using a Wound Vac on her left foot, and they've set her up with one, about a week ago. It's a gadget that creates a low pressure area over the wound, directs drainage into an external canister, and physically pulls the tissues around the wound closer together, which should help the wound to heal.

LCROSS/NRO Launched!

We launched AV-020, an Atlas V carrying the NASA LCROSS/LRO payloads, this evening! This is an amazing mission, looking for water on the Moon in a smashing way! The LRO vehicle will be at the moon in about 4 days, and LCROSS will meet up with it in 5 days, and then again several months later, as the mission culminates in a very dynamic way. The ULA mission brochure is very informative. Also see more pics at SpaceFlightNow's AV-020 page. The NASA website has some good pics and a launch video on their home page, but you may have to search for them, after a few days go by.

Home again

Sigh. I got home from the graduation trip on Sunday evening, after an "interesting" (as in the curse, "May your life be interesting...") travel day. We had a nice quiet dinner and evening with our neighbors Ken and Freddie. Doesn't it figure, on Monday I was so nauseaus I had to stay home from work, just crashed in bed the whole day. No fever, just felt awful. I felt somewhat better Tuesday, so I'm back into the work routine...

Tyler Graduated!

Back to back graduations! Tyler graduated from Cal Poly on Saturday with an MSEE. We are all so proud of him. There were two ceremonies, one big one for the whole college at the stadium, and a much smaller one just for Electrical Engineering on the lawn by the Engineering West building. Both were delightful. Pictures are here.

D Graduated!

Dorothy graduated from high school on Thursday! Woo hoo! Our Miracle Girl! It was a most beautiful day, just a little breezy, and the ceremony went off really well. We were all just bursting with pride. Sumner's pictures are here... Tom's are here... Brighton's are here...

Generally better

K went in to see the Doc and nurse on Tuesday. It looks from the X-Ray that the infection didn't make it into the bone. These days, I don't trust those conclusions very much, but still it's good news. So, she has both feet on wound watch again, but at least we can hope that the left one is on the mend. She was free of nausea for several weeks, but it appears to be back again, although not quite so intense as it was earlier. We must've had a monster power surge earlier this week. Several circuit breakers tripped, outside and inside the house, but after resetting them, all seems well so far.

Mandy and I continue to get out on weekend and evening walks. Here's a pic of the field across from the light rail station, and an overhead showing where I shot it, just for fun. With the onset of Spring, it sprouted a carpet of lush green weeks. Mandy seems to really appreciate the freedom she gets, when I let her off leash here, although I do worry about coyotes, so I'm always scanning the area. We're still occasionally seeing the young foxes playing around their den in the evenings, as we drive by, on the way back from K's dialysis sessions.

Setback

K's left foot, which had been doing fine, and was off "wound status", developed a wound recently, and it's now turned quite serious. K saw the doc on Tuesday, and he did a lot of cutting to remove infected tissue, including scraping the bone. They're waiting for the results of the foot X-Ray, to determine if the infection has gotten into the bone, in which case I assume that additional and more serious surgery will be required. K's right foot wounds are continuing to look better, although they're still serious.

Happy Memorial Holiday!

Going through emails this morning. This link, forwarded from a long time friend, really caught me off guard. I'm still recovering from that tightness in my chest, and yes, I'm pretty sure it's not just a heart attack. Felt like I had to share it...

Walk

Walked to Panera Bread for lunch, with neighbors and their visiting family. Stopped at See's for a snack - Mmmm! Got rained on just a little, while walking back. Saw two gopher snakes, a young one sunbathing on a tiny ledge in a slate wall, who hid in a crevice when we approached, and a mostly grown one sunning in the middle of the concrete path by the creek, who slithered frantically into the creek.

Now the real storm has hit - thunder, lightning, downpour, flickering lights, the whole bit. Got soaked while rummaging around in the yard, looking for a missing downspout, but finally found it in a clever hiding place.

K's been doing better in general over the long term, although she's having a tough time today. She was going to meet us for lunch, but called it off due to intense nausea. We were hoping to get out for a movie this afternoon, maybe go see Transformers with our neighbors and their visitors, but it doesn't seem likely now.

Snake Hunter

What an awesome warm day! I walked Mandy along the Platte River, through the nature preserve. She stalked two snakes in the high grass, a quick squirmy little 3 foot Garter snake, and a bit larger and slower 5-6 foot gopher snake. She was doing the jump-hop thing that we see the foxes doing, when they're after a mouse or other small critter. She's a fearless wonder! I was especially proud, when she was really good about obeying my command to leave the snakes alone, after she'd had her moment of stalking fun.

K's feet continue to improve, but they're not healed. I'm amazed at how long it's taking. I would so love to see nice healthy skin where the open wounds have been for the past 18 months. Lately it's looking like a probability (more than a possibility!) that they will heal up, after all. Having the scooter, and getting her off her feet by having a helper here several times a week, both seem to be helping. Not to mention the nurse visits every day, to re-bandage the wounds. Whatever. It's working.

STSS Launched!

We successfully launched MV-341, a Delta II rocket carrying the STSS payload, this afternoon.

K had her worst low glucose in a long time, this morning - down to 35. It figures, it would happen the morning she had a medical appointment, but with Freddie's help, she pulled it together to make the appointment. Her feet are doing well enough, that they've got her down to just one appointment every two weeks. She saw the doc today, and he's very pleased with the progress of all the wounds. 

K and I had dinner at OSF with Freddie and Ken. On the way home, we stopped by the fox den that Ken and I discovered recently on one of our weekend walks. We spent a few minutes watching the 3 very young fox pups playing around their den, a few blocks from our house. They were having the time of their lives, pouncing around on each other. Two brown and one charcoal. Very fun to watch!

More White Stuff!

We went to bed last night, with a little rain spritzer going on outside, and woke up to a 2 inch thick wet layer of snow this morning. Most of it had melted off before I got home from work. Mandy and I went for a walk down Lee Gulch this afternoon, and it felt so comfortable that I was thinking about how Summer's just around the corner.

Day at the Zoo

Weird Spring weather! It rained on us at the Zoo this afternoon, after a half day of beautiful sunny weather. We had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the lions, hyenas, leopards, the new baby Giraffes, and the polar bears. K rented one of their scooters, and it sure was a zippy little thing! The harbor seal and sea lion show seemed like the event of the day, partially because waiting for it gave us the opportunity to have a nice hot lunch!

Sun Melts Snow!

It's sunny out there! What a beautiful day! Mandy went out on the deck to enjoy the sun. She seemed pretty happy, lying there with the sound of melting and dripping snow on all sides. In just a few hours, all the deck furniture was bone dry. Now, if it would only melt that 3-inch layer of heavy wet stuff out there on the driveway, I'd have it made...

Hey! It did! How cool is that? I *like* these Spring snows! The sun's been out all day, and the temperature got up into short sleeve comfort zone. Mandy and I took advantage of the nice afternoon, grabbed Ken, and went for a walk through the neighborhoods. 

Lots O'Snow!

We've been hunkered down in front of the fireplace and TV, as a Spring snowstorm moves through. The forecast is calling for an accumulation of 6-18 inches today and tomorrow. I heard one weathercaster say there's enough moisture in these clouds that if it were just a bit colder, we'd be getting around 4 feet like we did in the Spring of 2003. I'm happy to settle for a foot or so. This stuff is very wet, and quite a challenge to shovel. Mandy's not very excited about going out any farther than the side yard. I keep shoveling her a little spot on the lawn, but it keeps getting covered up. 

K's foot wounds have been continuing to heal over the past few weeks. It's a very slow process, but we're very encouraged to see them looking better each time they're uncovered. I'm a little concerned about how this snowstorm is interfering with the regular routine. The nurses have missed both morning and evening visits today. Hopefully someone will be back tomorrow morning. They'll have to come later than usual, since K was feeling awful today with stomach pain, and skipped today's dialysis, so we have to get her to a make up dialysis tomorrow morning at 5:30am. Not the most fun thing to do on a Saturday morning. 

Happy Easter!

We had a quiet Easter weekend. I took Friday off, courtesy of some overtime worked earlier in the week. The paramedics arrived at K's dialysis center the same time we did. It's always scary to wonder what's going on when that happens. Mandy and I went for a few walks. There were some scattered rain showers, nothing like the snow that was forecast. I came down with something on Saturday that gave me major nausea and a gurgly stomach. Luckily it came and went quickly, and it didn't slow me down for a great dinner with Ken and Freddie at the White Chocolate Grill this evening. We had ice cream cake for dessert. Quite the extravaganza, in our own quiet way.

WGS Launched!

We launched AV-016, an Atlas V carrying the WGS communications satellite, last night.

K's had a nasty cough since last week. She's wracked with convulsions when a bout of coughing hits, which has been happening every time she tries to talk. She skipped dialysis because she couldn't face being stuck in the chair for 4 hours while having those intense coughing fits. Her doc diagnosed her with pneumonia early this week, and she's been taking a daily antibiotic, which seems to be helping.

Walk on the Platte

I took Mandy for a walk in the snow, while K was in her special Saturday evening dialysis session. We started at Aspen Grove at the Starbucks, and got a hot chocolate "for the road", then wandered along the Platte River for aways. We ended up at the Apple store for a half hour, ogling the 24 inch iMac and 17 inch MacBook, and learning about the clever 3-finger touchpad swipe.

K's home nurses, who are coming morning and evening to change her bandages, all seem to be in agreement that her foot wounds are looking better than they were.

Snow!

We got a pretty decent dump of Spring snow today. They closed the plant at 1pm. Thinking I'd beat the traffic, I jumped in my car at 12:30 and headed down the hill. I got about 100 feet, then sat in my car for a hour, not moving an inch, as the entire plant (apparently) spilled out of the parking lots into the main road, and slowly made their way over the slippery roads, and out the gate. I should've just stayed and worked late! K's dialysis center called to say they were canceling all Friday sessions, because there's more snow forecast, and she should expect to come in on Saturday at 5pm.

Scooter Outing

We got K out on a scooter outing around Littleton on Sunday! Our intended goal was the Old Littleton Deli, but they were closed on Sunday. We didn't have to settle much, by having a Mediterranean lunch at Damascus Grill. Mandy lounged around in the sun, peering in the glass doors from her perch just outside the front door. The scooter put forth an awesome performance (especially considering that we didn't think to charge the batteries the night before), covering the 4.5 miles over hill and dale with no difficulty. K was enthusiastic about getting out and feeling the wind on her face. The pic is on the trail around the Littleton Natural History Museum.

Week of 3/13

I spent much of St Paddy's Day trying to get AV-016 launched, without success. We're supposed to try again late next week. In the meantime, we have a Delta II launch scheduled for Monday night / Tuesday morning.

Dad told me on Saturday, that he'd taken a spill on the tennis court, and suffered a badly torn up left arm. He was going to see the doc on Monday, but I haven't heard how that went.

We had Sunday breakfast at IHOP with our friends Ken and Freddie. The adjacent pet store was closing, so after breakfast, we loaded up on a bunch of things for Mandy, like food and a reflective leash for night walks. Then we went up to Bel Mar for some shopping at Whole Foods. Ken and I took Mandy for a walk around the Bel Mar Mall, and I ended up getting some long overdue replacement walking shoes and boots at DSW. K picked up some great corned beef, and has been making me tasty sandwiches for lunch all week!

Kepler Launched!

We successfully launched the Kepler planet-finder satellite on a Delta II rocket tonight! Its mission is to search a nearby region of our galaxy for Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zone surrounding stars like our Sun. The habitable zone is the region around a star where the temperature permits water to be liquid on a planet’s surface. Liquid water is considered essential for the existence of life.

K's had major stomach problems this week, worse than ever. Could be a virus, or maybe a reaction to all the antibiotics she's been taking for her foot wounds over the past few months. Regardless of the reason, she's been really miserable. The good news is that her foot wounds, which are still quite serious, are continuing to heal.

Nice day

It's BEAUTIFUL here today! Went for a nice walk down to Blueberry's with Ken and Mandy this morning. Mandy had a tooth exam yesterday, and they pulled one, and she's still recovering from the anesthesia and trauma. We hurried home so I could take K to Dialysis - she was too nauseous all day yesterday, to go last night. On the way home from dropping her off, I stopped to check out the big empty building our local police dept is considering moving to. It's the Southbridge building, the same place the ground software folks were located back in the 1997 time frame. I remember going to a few meetings there. Judging from the looks of their telcom closet on the 1st floor, their existing Internet connection is awful, but hopefully they'll get something better, if they do move in there.

Clean Garage!

OMG... I can't believe the garage is cleared out and rearranged enough to accommodate K's car!

Thanks to Ken and Freddie -- it couldn't have been done without their help! Here are the before and after pictures. Actually, the before pile was even higher than the picture shows, since that one was taken many months ago.

TGIF

We got another half inch of snow last night, and it's been coming down very lightly all day. K seems quite a bit better today. She says several people at dialysis have been complaining about feeling particularly poorly the past few weeks. Maybe she picked up something and has been fighting it off over the past week. Mandy seems to have tuned into it, since she's perked up a bit in the past day or so.

Not the greatest day

K had a bad day today. She's severely nauseous for days on end. She didn't have the energy, or a stable enough stomach, to go to dialysis Monday night, so she called and found a slot available this morning. I dropped her off at just before 7, and picked up a latte and coffee cake on the way to work. It was weird not having Mandy in the car when leaving the dialysis center. Everything felt off kilter. When I got home after work, K was having a monster low blood sugar, down to 44 and feeling like she was dying. I got her some OJ, which she doesn't particularly like, but was the only juice available. We started watching that John Cusak movie, "1408" but the visiting nurse arrived to change her bandage, so I put the movie on hold for awhile, and finally just flipped to a regular channel when I started fixing dinner, chicken tiki masala and naan. Then here we are, hours later, just waking up on the couch, and realizing we're way late for bed. I was going to take Mandy out and head for bed, but realized we have an inch of snow, so first I went out to shovel the driveway, and uncover her special area on the neighbor's lawn. After I took her out, we had a cute moment, when I was trying to get all the blankets on the couch folded and put away, and she settled down on each one after I'd folded it, thinking I was setting up a soft spot just for her. I'd shoo her off, and pick up the next one, fold it and put it down, and then plop, there she was on top of the pile again.

Snow Coming

We had a really nice weekend, relatively warm and sunny. The last piece of ice at the bottom of the driveway disappeared today. Mandy and I got out for "destination" walks (to lunch) every day. The latest forecast calls for the possibility of snow today and the next few days. It was cooler and overcast today, but we didn't see any precipitation.

K's new scooter appears to be helping a lot with the wounds on the bottom of her feet. Unfortunately, there's a wound on the top of her right foot that's almost quadrupled in size over the past few weeks, so they're watching that one carefully. It seems like the new custom boot caused it, and probably exacerbates the problem every time she wears it, but it really helps with the bottom of her foot, so she's still trying to figure out how to make it work.

Successful launch!

We just finished launching MV338, a Delta II rocket carrying an NOAA weather satellite. See the writeup on spaceflightnow.com for details. We struggled to get this one launched, and finally got it off the ground on the third attempt. Since it was a 3:30am Mountain Time launch, the multiple retries made for an interesting week. I'm looking forward to sleeping in this morning! After I take out the trash, that is...

Candy Apple Red

And in this corner... a candy apple red electric scooter! We have a new sense of freedom for K, while attempting to move about the house. We've been struggling for so long, trying to find a way for her to move around, without putting any weight on her foot. We finally took a deep breath, and went out looking for an electric scooter. There were so many choices, we were somewhat overwhelmed at first, but this one has a very slow "turtle" speed, which we think will help her to avoid all the corners and other obstacles around the house. It's a big commitment, and it brings a whole new set of challenges with it (note the oxygen tube in the picture), but we're hoping this new gadget will help her foot to heal. Mandy seems fine around it, which is both a good and scary thing. K will have to stay on the lookout, to avoid running her over!

Shopping for a Scooter

We've been talking about getting K one of those little motorized scooters, so she can get around the house without the huge temptation to use her wounded foot. She test drove one model last year, while looking at other handicap paraphernalia, and thought it could be pretty handy. Tonight we had a visit from a salesman who demonstrated one low end model. He didn't have any units immediately available, so we're heading out tomorrow, to visit a distributor up in Arvada that has some in stock.

Walk

We really enjoyed our beautiful 70 degree warm spell this week, sitting out on the deck and soaking up the experience. It didn't last very long, though. We had another little poof of snow last night, that started just as we were heading out to take K to the dialysis center. It ended almost as quickly as it started, before it was time to pick her up, and only deposited a fraction of an inch, mostly on the grassy areas, and pretty much nothing on the streets.

Ken and I took Mandy for a walk down to Abe's Cafe for lunch. We were glad to have our jackets, as it was just a bit chilly at 31 degrees. We stopped to marvel at the large equipment they're using to repair the light rail track, after the freight train derailing last week. They have a little self-sufficient train with its own digging shovel, and several cars to receive or dispense dirt. The shovel moves on tracks at the top of the cars, so the operator can select which car the shovel is accessing. They're digging pretty deep, but it's understandable, after looking at the pictures of the wrecked cars all dominoed up - they took out a long section of the retaining wall below the light rail track.

As we passed Sterne Park, we noticed the geese on the Lake looking pretty cool, casually lounging around on the ice. With the surface ice partially melted into puddles, some of the ones standing appeared to be walking on water.

K has a new wound on her right foot, on top of the arch, caused by pressure from the new boot. This is very disappointing, especially since the boot is supposed to protect her foot, and it seemed to be helping the original wound on the bottom of her foot to heal. The good news is that wounds on the top of her feet tend to heal fairly quickly.

Successful Launch!

After a few false starts during the week, we successfully launched DV337, a Delta IV Heavy carrying an NRO payload, last night. So much for my Saturday! They're not saying much about it, but SpaceFlightNow seems to have some good information. It was the longest mission I can remember supporting, with a 9 hour countdown and a pretty long flight too. I went home after the rocket was safely on its way, and handed off the support of the flight to my very capable coworker. I'm not positive whether or not the entire mission was completely successful, since they invoked a news blackout immediately after liftoff, and I don't want to bother my coworker, who was at work into the wee hours of this morning. But the liftoff sure looked good, and when I left several hours later, everything was going fine.

The wound on the middle of K's right foot appears to be responding to the new treatment approach. Not so sure about the heel wound, which isn't necessarily getting any worse, either. The new boot arrived last week, and she's trying to be careful using it, to avoid having it cause problems instead of helping. There does appear to be a bruise on the top of her foot that was probably caused by the pressure from it, and she's watching that closely. She's still experiencing severe nausea pretty much daily, and is looking at alternative medication that might help, with no success yet.

Miles & Monk

Ken and I took a chilly walk with Mandy, down to Blueberry's for an egg croissant, then to Savers looking for gloves to replace the nice knitted ones I've worn out, then stopped at the library and checked out some music CDs, before heading home. The snow promised for today never really arrived, except for a few flurries that never stuck to anything.

While K was at dialysis, I dedicated this evening to learning how to use the new turntable we bought last Spring during the remodel. It has a USB output, so supposedly we should be able to play one of our many records, and capture the output into the computer, convert each track to an MP3 file, and then be able to play the album with our new Sonos player in any room of the house. If that all works, then we should also be able to burn the music files to a CD and play it in the car. So goes the theory anyway. Naturally, my first stumbling block was that I couldn't find the user manual for the turntable, and for awhile it went downhill from there. As soon as I plugged in the turntable USB cable, my computer speakers went dead. Then I couldn't capture anything until I discovered the neat freeware audio editing application named Audacity. Then I could only record mono sound, left channel only. Then I could only generate one huge MP3 file with the entire album on it, until I learned how to label the quiet spaces between songs and export to multiple MP3 files. Sheesh. Eventually, I learned how to do everything I needed, and as I write this, I've just finished capturing the "Miles & Monk at Newport" album and have been listening to it through the computer speakers for the past few minutes. Nothing like success to cheer me up a little, before heading to bed!

Eagle Eye

We woke up to a gorgeous 25 degree morning, with the sun shining, and a medium thick layer of white frosting on everything, including the local foothills. Later in the morning, the deck furniture looked like someone had scattered a thick layer of diamonds on it, as the snow melted and the sun caught the beaded water drops. The temp never left the 25 degree mark all day, until night fell. Now it's a nice chilly 12 degrees out there. We watched Eagle Eye tonight with K&F - a thrill a minute! K says her foot wounds look about the same - no miraculous healing (at least yet) from the new treatment.

New Foot Regime

The two wounds on K's right foot are still serious, and have kept her off the Kidney/Pancreas transplant list throughout 2008. This week we visited the vascular surgeon who performed her Fistula surgery last year, this time to hear him report on the ultrasound scan that was taken recently on her feet. We hoped he might be able to surgically augment the arteries in her legs to improve the foot circulation. The good news is that there's still healthy circulation in the large vessels, and the not so good news is that the problem must therefore be in the smaller vessels, which means there's not much he can do to help with it. However, he did have some new ideas about how to treat her wounds, and she's now onto his new program. Wish her luck!

My cold symptoms are doing their usual drag-on thing, mostly just a runny nose, and an occasional sinus headache, but they're not keeping me from doing anything important.

Mandy feels so soft and fuzzy after her bath yesterday, very pettable. On our walk today, I was always on the lookout for her to lunge for the grass, and try to grab a quick roll. I'm hoping we'll get through a month without any more of that.

The weather's been just awesome the past several days, sunny and in the 50-60 range. I see the forecast calling for much colder tomorrow, and maybe even a couple of inches of snow.

Happy New Year!

We're wishing everyone a really different and wonderful year in 2009! We had an awesome New Year's Eve dinner at The Melting Pot, with our neighbors Ken and Freddie. K had her regular evening dialysis at 5:15 (no special schedule for New Year's), so we went to the 2:30pm dinner. Mmm! A beer-cheddar fondue with bread and veggies to dip, followed by a bubbling broth fondue with Filet Mignon, Teriyaki steak, Chicken, Shrimp, and Salmon, followed by a decadently delightful Cherries Jubilee chocolate fondue with strawberries, marshmallows, and various cakes. We used the convenient handicap parking and lower entrance, so K didn't have to climb any stairs. It was dark enough inside, to need a flashlight to order, and coincidentally I had brought my LED key chain light, a handy contraption I got for Christmas. We finished just in time to get K to her dialysis. We reconvened after dialysis, to watch the Dog Whisperer and the New Year's Eve countdown, and exchange Christmas gifts.

I slept in late enough this morning, that I only caught the last half of the Rose Parade, but I did see the Cal Poly float, which was a very cool little amusement park this year, complete with a roller coaster. Ken and I took Mandy for a late morning walk, in search of brunch, but everything was closed except Starbucks, so they got our business. Mandy took advantage of an off-leash exercise, to roll in some fresh goose poop, yet another first in our lives, and only a week after her first bath in practically forever. (Coincidence? I wonder...) Ugh. She's been such a wonder, I was hoping we could skip that little doggie trait. Of course that called for a bath after we got home, and it was nice to get through it smoothly, after our initial home bath experience that didn't go so well. After all that excitement, I went down and relaxed for awhile in our new basement steam shower.