Author: Doris

Being a grown up means that you have to spend money on things that you can’t see. Dental surgery, for one. House repairs for two. This weekend we had our gutters cleaned because rain was just pouring straight down the side of the house. Today we had the plumber, the appliance repair guy for the stove and the HVAC guy come to do work or maintenance on the house. The HVAC guy just came to do the summer check up which gave Jeremy another opportunity to talk about a geothermal system. The plumber came to look at a leak in our ceiling coming from an upstairs bathroom (not the best picture ever, but the leak in the ceiling is at least 4 feet long).

After I scheduled all these appointments to miraculously happen on one day, thus maximizing the use of time, I discovered during a recent wet car ride, that my car’s roof is also leaking somehow. Sigh.

Several weeks ago, Rena & I saw a coyote in the park lot. Yesterday, after drove home with Mom, I came back to office to retrieve my personal computer and brief case, I saw another coyote crossing the road.

Today, during our regular noon time walking, Rena and I encountered a rattlesnake on a semi-paved space for parking trailers & power plant equipment. The snake wasn’t in the coiled position and, therefore, not ready to strike. No danger at all. Mom just walked away and walking back. I walked forward a litter and studied the snake more and the snake turned his head and headed back to brown grassy areas slowly.

People working in the plant told me that we may encounter mountain lions. Therefore, there are a lot of wild land animals around our office (ie., Diablo Canyon Power Station.) beside the ones in the sea. Some of them are pretty innocent and doing no harm. Some of them, will cause a lot of trouble if one let down one’s vigilance while doing their daily routines here.

Both Jeremy and I were on different Red Line trains when the accident occurred, but we were going in the opposite direction from the collision – ironically, I had been stuck on the Metro for over 2 hours for a completely separate reason (a train broke down in my direction) when over the loudspeaker, our train operator said that there was now an emergency in both directions. Just so shocking that people died in the accident – my thoughts are with their family and friends.

We started our Father’s day celebration last night, Jeremy opened his gift after dinner – what did we get him?

The $10 waffle iron from Target (I was willing to buy the pricier model, but he specifically asked for the cheapest model).

This morning, I went to the Joy of Cooking and almost fainted after I read how much butter to use for the most delicious waffles (2 whole sticks!).

Happy Father’s Day!

Vince and Edda being silly at breakfast today.

My dad is a scientist. He needs to read and write notes to people and use a calculator. He convinces people to not waste fuel.

(Photo has nothing to do with the post. I just think every post needs a photo and I haven’t been photographing lately. Jeremy is practicing his soldering in the kitchen. Why not in the garage? I dunno.)

Jeremy’s been busy all week at work, as I mentioned before, Jeremy’s work has really been exciting and interesting for him, lots of people to see, lots of work to do. At my own work, I’m reviewed quarterly, and today is the end of the quarter and I’m preparing for my certification exam next week and so there is also a little bit of scrambling involved. Also, the kids are out of school, so we are condensing or juggling our work schedules a little so Eliana doesn’t have to watch the kids for 11 hours straight. Just little things, no real complaints, happy to be employed and healthy and busy.

I got the insurance straightened out, I made the insurance company bend to my will! No, I just called the next day and got a different person and explained it in a new way and he put me on hold for a few minutes and voila! the anesthesia bill will be “readjusted”. Thank goodness.

Here’s Edda at Vince’s end of the year picnic, she’s not really thrilled to be there, but she did eat a hot dog. She’s wearing a lovely dress from Micronesia sent across the ocean by her grandmother Kiki who is galavanting across Asia this summer. This is one of the few pictures of Jeremy sitting on the ground. He is so inflexible that sitting on the ground cuts of circulation to his legs.

Remember Edda’s dental surgery? Well, we are slowly getting the bills from the hospital. Apparently, insurance will cover 90% the hospital charges (total was about $10,000, so we are out $1000 – can you believe it? She was there about 5 hours), but the anesthesiologist – (otherwise known as the whole point of going to the hospital rather than strapping Edda down in a dental chair with tie-downs from Home Depot) apparently not covered (approx $1300 $1900). You know, I’m coming to terms (painfully) that our health insurance won’t cover a stair lift, a conversion seat for the van and/or a communication device – but this action confuses me. Yeah, come to the hospital, enjoy the jello! But hey, no anesthesia for your oral surgery. Makes perfect sense, who are these weird insurance people? Woo hoo!

Hello blog readers – please spend 5 seconds and vote to help raise awareness to find a cure for Rett Syndrome. (The link is at the bottom of this post!)

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We have entered Girl Power 2 Cure in this AMAZING contest! Please vote for Girl Power 2 Cure by clicking this link: VOTE

Today, Vince’s school had their end-of-the-year picnic. They had pizza, ice cream and a DJ. Vince loved it, Edda did not.

YMCA:

Hanging upside down, shirt inside out:

Crossing the jungle gym.