Today is the seventh anniversary of my father’s passing in 2005.
His ashes are ashes, from dusk to dusk.
After spending more time in Burlington than I wanted, I walked across Clairemont Square with my mom to sit outside of Starbucks while enjoying some of their delicious coffee. We also picked up some still-warm, used ground coffee for her garden.
Nice way to spend a relaxing, people-watching half hour.
Spent some time over at a Burlington Coat Factory this morning looking for a present for Randy and Michaelle’s one year-old son birthday on Saturday. I almost always find something there that’s priced pretty well, but I usually have to do some searching since it’s a bit unorganized. The 12-24 month boys section had both boys as well as girls clothes in sizes from 3 months to size 4.
Still, it’s conveniently close and most things are inexpensive, so I was able to pick up two shirts, a pair of shorts and some space monkey pajamas.
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- At Clairemont Square
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- Aisle of Misfits
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- Items I picked
Took my mom for her yearly CT scan of the aortic aneurism that was discovered a few years ago and which the doctors have been keeping a very close eye on for any changes. While we won’t get these test results for a couple of days yet, so far it has stayed stable which, other than it getting smaller, is the best news we can hope for.
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- Thornton Hospital
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- Radiology Department
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- Scanner room
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- Ready for scanning
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- Waiting outside the room
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- Scanning in progress
My older brother, Ozzie, and my sister, Beata, along with her husband, Bill, came over for dinner this evening to celebrate my mom’s 81st birthday. Beata had come over a bit earlier to help with the decorating and the making of the crepes (palacsinta, to be more precise).
Dinner was one of my all-time favorite meals, which we affectionately call “barf” because of its appearance. It’s a kind of soup/stew that my mom makes every once in a while with a wide variety of chopped and cooked vegetables, with chunks of beef. I always add mustard (usually over-add) for extra flavor and authentic barf coloring.
Dessert was a decadent carrot cake with a square-rooted nine candles, compliments of Beata and Bill, which unfortunately everyone was too full to get to enjoy.
Even though the whole family couldn’t be here, it was a pleasant way for my mom to cap off her day of birthday celebrations.
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- Decorated dining
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- Table decor
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- Food prep
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- Crepe making
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- Stack of crepes
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- The gathering
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- Barf
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- Carrot cake
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- Cake presentation
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- Wishing
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- Stack of beads
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- Birthday necklaces
My niece, Kimi, came over this morning to have breakfast with my mom for her 81st birthday. She brought some flowers and a few blueberry Eggos (which my mom always likes) and I had some cream of wheat (which I really like) because of my residual dental issues from a few day ago.
It was a nice way for my mom to begin her 82nd year.
After making an appointment for an emergency dental appointment and just trying to survive with pain for the day, I arrived for my late night appointment with Dr. Pantangco at On Demand Dentist. Thank the maker for such a 24/7 business of emergency toothache relief. His office was very modern and high-tech with me filling out forms on both an Asus notebook with a touch screen as well as on an iPad. He even had Foursquare check-in for discounts and accepted Google Wallet payments.
His stand-up X-ray machine was much more convenient than the older methods of clamping your teeth down on uncomfortable pads. He also had a giant high-def 3D TV on the wall above the exam chair, which unfortunately was static the whole time with a promo shot of the Green Lantern movie.
That Dr. Pantangco was available on this same day was the good news. The bad news, which I wouldn’t learn until the procedure started, was that it was one of the most excruciatingly painful events of my life, none of which were Dr. Pantangco’s fault. I would have enjoyed the distraction of even watching Green Lantern.
I had three major factors going against me during the procedure: 1) the tooth in question was what remained of an old root canal and crown that had broken off years ago and had left half of the metal post still lodged in my tooth and jaw which helped fuse the tooth to my jaw, 2) that there was a large infection at the root of the tooth that unfortunately could not be anesthetized because of an acidic PH factor ineffectiveness between the infection and the lidocaine, and 3) that he noticed right away from the X-rays that I clench my teeth a lot, which sets my teeth even further into my jaw.
After an hour of me sweating, shaking, panting and writhing, and him injecting, digging, scraping, cutting, drilling, pulling, burrowing, carving, wrenching, torquing, cleaning, plowing, plumbing, grade-checking, jack-hammering, mining and silently cursing, it was over. My shivering and astronomically high blood pressure lasted another ten minutes.
Not the kind of experience I was hoping for but it had to get done. I just wish it would have been on someone else.
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- The infected tooth in question
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- Not so ominous looking during the day
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- Reception
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- The Asus I filled out information on
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- The stand-up X-ray machine and porn viewer
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- My choppers with the scoundrel highlighted
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- Me before the procedure
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- The Green Lantern image I tried to focus on
Both of the Phoebe chicks that have been tweeting away in a nest on the north side of our house for a few weeks, finally flew the coop today. One of them landed in the pine tree outside our front door. I cracked open the door long enough to take a few shots of it and one of its parents before it flew away, with a whole new world to discover and poop in.
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- Hero shot
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- Feed me
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- Stretching
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- With mom or dad
Took my mom for a follow up visit with her doctor. Even though they have a few examination rooms, we ended up in the exact same one as the last one from five days ago. All test results show that she’s doing fine. Back pains she was suffering from was probably just muscular, not unlike the Hulk. One more (non-gamma) CT scan next week, just to be safe.
No perianal space photo this time. Wasn’t in the right mood.
Found this Monarch larva in the backyard hanging from a metal stand as it was searching for a solid spot from which to start the process of transforming into a chrysalis. I was lucky I shot it when I did because later it was gone.
Got some decent shots with a damaged telephoto lens of the Super Moon tonight. I’m just glad it wasn’t overcast or cloudy like it always seems to be whenever we have a meteor shower.
Full Moon at perigee: approximately 221,800 miles at 8:34 pm PT. 14% larger, 30% brighter, and 22% more Lycan.
Went to see The Avengers today (opening day) with Sylvia and Rodrigo. Came away convinced that this was absolutely, hands down, the best superhero movie ever made. Joss Whedon has proven his big-budget movie-making genius. Action, drama, dialogue, humor, pathos…this movie had it correct in spades. Wonder Woman, schmunder woman. He should be extremely proud of this achievement. I know I will still be thinking about this movie for the next few days.
After the movie we walked over to an El Torito for lunch and the three of us spent the entire time talking about our favorite scenes.
This is a film I would definitely like to see a few times.
Came across this beautiful, juvenile skink by the garage back door mat. It was pretty skittish so I slowly sat down and patiently waited until it came back out from underneath the mat. I think it was worth the wait.
Took my mom to see Dr. Boluw (temporarily filling in for Dr. Romero) this afternoon after a few days of suffering from mysterious and intermittent back pains. Dr. Boluw was very patient (oxymoron?), friendly and thorough with her questions. She even ordered a couple of x-rays, which we took care of right afterwards. Hopefully it can be taken care of quickly and easily, once all the test results come back.
In the examination room we were greeted with a plethora of physiology wall charts, none of which had anything to do with my mom’s condition. Below is a photo of one such descriptive chart.
External rectal venous plexus in perianal space?
Created a “Pin It For Tigers” pinboard on Pinterest for a chance to win a behind-the-scenes close-up encounter with large “cats” at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park for the park’s 40th anniversary. Right away went looking for and found some amazing images of tigers to pin from around the world.
Wish me luck.
