Under the weather.

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Vince was sick last week and gave it to me over Thanksgiving.  Then, I gave it to Donald who took it back with him to the west coast.  I still feel a little crappy – but not crappy enough to stop all the regular things.  I gave part of the service at UUCR on Sunday, I tried to avoid touching anyone but it’s hard to do when pals haven’t seen you in two years and want to give you a hug.  I haven’t been to church in about 2 years, but maybe it’s time to go back.  Keyla is on vacation this week, so we are child-care-free for five working days.  Always a challenge, but we are up for it.

Storage Decks in the Garage

Today, I installed the handrail for the stairs going to our storage decks in the garage.  This handrail is made of oak. Pretty nice.  I also installed a new light facing the garage wall (in between and handrail and stairs in picture 1).  A new light is needed because the storage main deck blocks all ceiling light.

The auxiliary deck (just 36″ wide) was completed several days ago.  And the main deck is now about 1/3 done. Tomorrow, I believe I can finish the main deck also.  After that, cut out dry wall needs to be repaired.

Renwick & Ramen

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On Saturday, we went to the Renwick Gallery.  At the Thanksgiving feast, a few out-of-towners raved about the new installation exhibit “Wonder”.  I had never been to this gallery, the installations were interesting (although after seeing the whole exhibit on someone’s cell phone less than 48 hours prior led to a few fewer surprises going through the gallery).

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It was a beautiful day.  A little too warm for November.

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Then we went to a hip ramen place in Adams Morgan.  The neighborhood known for bars and nightclubs.  But if you show up at 11:30 am at any hip place, there is no waiting for lunch.  Everyone declared it super spicy and delicious.  Precarious for Jeremy and Donald’s backs  as they lifted Edda’s wheelchair up and down about 5 steps to get to the restaurant located below street level.

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iPhone & Storage Space in Our Garage

Doris and Donald, especially Donald, have spent a lot of their time to teach us (Rena & I) how to use iPhone.

Ironically, in my working life which ended only 7 months ago (may work again if job becomes available), I was an IT manager for many years.  One time, I had 7 different kinds of communication gears with me and was reached 24/7/365 all the time.

May be, these days, managers of all kinds, don’t actually know anything 🙂 – but just claiming to know personnel, schedules, budgeting, trends and big-picture stuff. Who knows?  Better BS, better manager?

Since iPhne is very similar to iPAD, I guess, Rena is the better iPhone user than me.  I, too, have an iPAD, which is a gift from Doris & Donald also, I seldom use it.  Rena uses a lot.

Tonight, for learning purpose, we together had a field trip to McDonald’s for ice cream cone using “Apple Pay”.  It was cool. Before going, Mom would like Donald to make sure that the setup “Apple Pay” charges to our joint account, not only charging to her own account 🙂

And, Rena, tonight, even hand-made a iPhone bag, with nice cushion inside, for me.  It is nice looking and very practical.  She is quick and, surprisingly, possesses a lot of different kind of expertise.

Oh, now, I am working on our garage storage space.  Will be completed soon.  Stay tune.

Friday.

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Is is only Saturday?  The weekend is going on forever.  Donald switched the parents over to their first smart phones.  It’s 55% amusing and 45% frustrating.  Turns out my mom is an expert texter.  Within 6 hours of acquiring texting capabilities, she’s sent emojis, photo texts, group texts and texts in Chinese.  We are impressed.

On Friday, we went to my parents’ farm in PA.  Vince did not want to go.  I need to bribe him with all-you-can-eat-sushi-conveyor-belt lunch.  He was a good sport.  I also found out he knows what “Netflix and chill” means.

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Donald drove. Nothing is more SF hipster-y than manning a minivan with the license plate “MINIVAN”.

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I was a beautiful day.

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iPhone 6Plus

Yesterday (Thanksgiving Day), Doris & Donald gave Rena and I an iPhone 6Plus each as our birthday gifts. Today, Donald took us to a local Verizon Store to put SIM cards in and activated the phone.  Almost, all afternoon, we received crash courses offered by Doris and Donald on iPhone 101.  Donald said we are at least two years behind everyone, kids?

But, at least, I just did three mobile deposits to my bank account.  And, I also texted a lot.  Sounds pretty advance to me 🙂

Together, all Lees went to our PA farm to look for the boundary markers – iron pins, pile of rocks, paint, etc.  The weather was nice.  On its way, for lunch, Vincent had all-you-can-eat sushi for $15.00 which, according to him, was okay but less tasty than the other night’s sushi which is 8 for ~$25.00+.  I guess, in general, price can tell the difference 🙂

Happiest of thanksgiving to you.

 Yesterday I took Mom and Dad to Edda’s school for the annual Thanksgiving feast.  Edda’s school has seven special needs classes and every year the kids put together an early Thanksgiving feast for themselves and their teachers and para educators.  I think although parents aren’t really invited, we managed to score some seats.  I don’t often go to Edda’s school, so when I have a chance to hang out, I try to go and chat with all the people Edda works with every day.

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As other special needs parents know, it’s a crap shoot whether you are going to feel miserable or eternally grateful/happy when you go to these things.  I ended up being more on the grateful / happy side yesterday.  My parents enjoyed themselves, which made me happy.  Edda ate a lot and promptly fell asleep.

I met and spoke with Edda’s OT. She spends time with Edda in art, getting her to grab things or do art things.  I told her she has a very difficult job as OT is Edda’s worse subject.  But, special needs teachers are an optimistic bunch, and she said that she was impressed with Edda’ progress.

After lunch, my mom grabbed a little girl’s hand (a classmate of Edda’s) and they walked out of the cafeteria, presumably headed back to the classroom and I kind of laughed because I thought neither of them knew the way back to the room.  But they both managed to work their way back to the right room.

The happiest of thanksgiving to all of you, my loyal readers.

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Home sick

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Vince stayed home from school today – he was not feeling well.  I think it’s one of those illnesses that if it was Saturday, he would have found some way to power through the fun.  But faced with American history, he wilts.  This was a photo of him yesterday – runny nose plugged by a tissue.  We are doing work in the photo, he just got my phone and started taking selfies.

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Sunday night dinner – a quiet one pre-thanksgiving.  Revving up (or quieting down depending on your frame of reference) for the 35 people coming to the Lee-Martin household.

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Birthday dinner.

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We celebrated Mom’s 74th birthday (I mean her 29th birthday!) last night at the Hamilton in DC.  Dinner lasted an unprecedented 2.5 hours which may be a record for the Lee family as we can usually have dinner in 7 minutes.

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I got my mother to drink a mixed cocktail.  I told the server to ask the bartender to light on the vodka – I think he ended up putting just a thimble-ful in the rather large drink.  Edda had a sip – she seemed to enjoy it.

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