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.