Month: August 2009

Jeremy got featured on Nebraska public radio today.
Link: here.

I have been battling seasonal allergies this month, everywhere I go, I’m a little sniffy and itchy – I’ve been a little off kilter either because I’m taking allergy medication or I’m not taking allergy medication.

This morning, I sat for my three-hour certification exam – a hurdle I need to get over in order to start working from home.

And, to top off this blog post of no interesting information about Doris, I got a new boss, aka the Director of the USPTO. This photo was taken at his swearing in today outside the patent office. He’s the guy with the shaved head and the blue blazer. He’s an old IBMer, just like me. Go Big Blue!

My life is pretty uninteresting, but everyone else is having a great time, even though I consider August to be the dullest month ever. It’s hot, no one is in school or camp. Jeremy’s been taking some time off and working from home some. The kids have been at the pool, library, zoo, you name it, they’ve done it. But since it’s a pain to lug around my big camera and it’s the only camera that the family owns – there are no photos of fun things. You only get the photo of the back of my new boss’s head. And photos after I come home.

If you haven’t seen 500 Days of Summer, I’d highly recommend it. It’s funny, charming, if not painful at times. You’re right Yi-ling, I enjoyed it. Oh, I should also mention that I’m bitter towards Ronnie. After promising to see the movie with me when it first came out, he proceed to watch not once, but twice, without me. While members of the opposite sex were involved, and could be blamed, I still put the brunt of it on Ronnie. pssshaw!

My work pal, Vickey, just got a new puppy. Charlotte is a Cavachon, half King Charles Spaniel and half Bichon Frise.

Charlotte and Vickey came by on Sunday – mainly so Vickey and I could go out to lunch, but also so we could play Charlotte. Charlotte is not yet 100% housebroken, so when we left the house, we crated Charlotte in one of Ruby’s old crates. I think Ruby thought it was strange that she was on the outside and someone else was on the inside.

“On the eve of his receiving the nation’s highest civilian honor, poll results released this afternoon show that a majority of Americans have a favorable view of Senator Edward M. Kennedy”, Boston Globe reported.

No wonder, all these big city newspapers are all in deep trouble, financially 🙂

We were driving down the freeway the other day and saw a glimpse of our future – a fully loaded Toyota Sienna with bikes packed on top…

While Vince was in NY and Edda and I were camping out at Johns Hopkins eating mac ‘n cheese, Jeremy had a chance to be a bachelor for a few nights. He told me that it was pretty weird to be in a house which was completely silent all the time. He spent some time in the evening fixing our many bicycles which always seem to need fixing. The garage no longer houses any cars – only 6 bicycles…

EKG:

pH probe:

Ahhh, asleep:

My small moment of triumph, after many years of inconsistent potty training (which is still ongoing), Edda managed to pee into the collector bucket that I put in the toilet for a urine sample. Hooray for us! You have to celebrate the little things in life.

On Sunday (8/2), Jeremy, Edda, Ruby and I got into the car without the Vince-meister and headed to Baltimore where Jeremy dropped me and Edda off at the Ronald McDonald house.

It’s a very nice place, they gave us all a tour – (including Ruby who the director of the house decided was going on the tour as a service dog so she didn’t have to stay in the hot car). People stay in the house for as long as three months at a time while undergoing treatments at Johns Hopkins. Thankfully, we were only staying 1 night. There were volunteers who served us pizza and we went to bed watching Legally Blonde. Jeremy left right before the pizza to head home and get back to work the next day.

The next day, we checked into the hospital for three days to do the 2nd half (we did the first half two years ago) of a Rett study (Pathonegenisis of Rett Syndrome with Dr. Naidu). Look it’s just like House – doctors all taking about Very Important Things.

Here’s our bed (I slept here too. Sigh.)

He made it home OK! Thank you Kiki, Kappa and Emy!