Antique Door

For a small cupboard in the kitchen, I found the perfect antique door. It was hanging at Mrytle Creek nursery and when I brought it home, it fit perfectly in the space and looks excellent with the beams. Richard instantly liked it, so I am happy. G & M cabinets will be doing our cabinet job and they are ready to start next week. As we will be gone, we have to delay until the following week, but I hope they will complete the job quickly. William the designer has already given us a few tips. He really knows what he is doing so I feel we will be in excellent hands.

Pictures attached show the door at the nursery and then sitting in it's spot in the kitchen.

Choosing the cabinet manufacturer was the last big choice we have to make so I am pretty well finished with decisions.

As we fired our plumber on Friday, we do have to choose a new one but the job will now consist only of installing things. No big jobs remain. We will never understand what was happening with the plumber or why he chose to work in such a wierd fashion. He never returned phone calls. Never.

Chris and Ashley

Chris and Ashley were married last night with a lovely ceremony outdoors in Riverside. The minister who performed the ceremony is a bike riding/marathon person Chris has trained with for a couple of years. Everyone looked wonderful - of course the bride was gorgeous and looked like she had a twenty inch waist. Despite the fact that he is now 25, Chris looks about 17. He was very calm and seems to have matured by leaps and bounds overnight.

Kim looked incredibly glamorous. She had a beautiful dress, her hair was colored a reddish brown and she had professional make-up done. Mark, her fiance, said he was seeing a Kim he'd never seen before. Once she got used to the idea, I think she liked herself. At first, when she looked in the mirror, she screamed.

We sat with Ron and Bette which was great - also Jimmy shared our table. He is recovering from shoulder surgery. Ross and Marie were also there; poor Marie is grieving the recent loss of her father.

Most fun of all was to be had watching the little kids. Beth was a flower girl and Brandon the ring bearer. They had such a good time dancing and just exploring around all the tables, acting like, well, kids. One not-quite-toddler was underneath the tables, rolling herself along, eating jelly beans that had fallen to the floor. She would roll and flop herself from spot to spot. Richard thought she looked like a schmoo as she had little hair and a pear shaped long dress. A funny little thing, she would look you in the face and hold your gaze for a long time, unblinking. What are they thinking?

Jennifer is pregnant again. This will be number 4. She is still home schooling the bunch of them. I don't know how she does it, but somehow she handles it all. The kids are always clean and well dressed. Overall they are well behaved and a pleasure to be around.

Five Spice French Toast

We were following on the food network the reality show, "Who will be the next Food Network star". A friend of our nieces was a contestant and made it to the final show, where he was aced out. A very creative cook, he posts notes and blogs on his Facebook site and the other day, discussed 5 spice French Toast. We tried it, adding about 1/2 teaspoon of the spice to two eggs with
some cream. He suggested dredging the toast in panko crumbs before frying and this added a wonderful crispness. Overall it was an excellent product. Jeffrey served it with caramelized peaches. We used plain maple syrup and found the combination pleasing. The picture posted is from Jeffrey's very interesting notes on his facebook page.

Today our front door is being refinished at last. It's been in terrible condition for a year or more and I've been putting off the expensive refinishing until the remodel is complete. But, we are going so slowly, we have time to do our maintenance work on 1022 at the same time.

An Old Trunk

Searching for an antique trunk has driven me into many of the used, recycled, antique furniture stores in Temecula and Fallbrook. In most cases, very creative people own these places. At the Red Rooster in Fallbrook, I met a woman who was doing antique painting on old tables. Learned a lot about the process from her. When I told her what I wanted in a trunk, she gave me a bunch of ideas about handles, finishes and sizes. It's not an easy item to find. Trunks are either expensive and custom, with beautiful inlays and hardware or cheap World Imports types or really beat up unusable pieces. I'm leaning towards a cheap World Imports that I finish myself.

I've almost finished antiquing the guest bathroom cabinets. They are still not distressed enough, so I will sand more today and apply another stain variation. I'm thinking of modifying the cabinet pulls as well.

Nothing much will be happening until we get back from Stanford. Today the concrete guys are supposed to be cleaning up the place and we will decide on the main concrete color for stamping. Gail will be hanging the entry way chandelier. After finishing the cabinets, I'm going to start the massive cleaning job, starting with the Avocado door.

Tile redux

Choosing tiles for the outdoor patios has become difficult. Finding 4 tiles in coordinating colors of dark blue is taking computer time viewing and reviewing the options. The decision seems important because tile is so permanent and we will be seeing it underfoot for the rest of our lives. One of the tiles, I love and everyone else loves. The remaining tiles get a lukewarm reaction from others and from me, but I've exhausted my resources and so must choose.

Manny the tile guy has been one our better contractors. He tells us a price, shows up when he says he will, works quietly and cleanly (no blaring radios, no coffee cups and lunch remains) and he does a good job. He's actually been a lot of help making tile decisions - little things but important for effect. Like light grout in the upstairs bathrooms. The contrast is very nice and without
it, the tile would all run together. He loves the tiled arch and told me he could create one of his own as soon as he can find a house.

While looking at the floor tile, I'm starting to think about granite for the kitchen and for the backsplash. I'm thinking of something simple because the kitchen is a rather busy place as the design now stands.

Forty years ago

Yesterday we spent some time reminiscing about 1969. The typhoon in Taiwan triggered the discussion. During that typhoon Richard lost everything he owned at the time (primarily a record collection) and broke a bone in his foot. The photos of the torrential rains and mud slides transported him back 50 years. His typhoon was in 1959.

Meanwhile, the media is featuring Woodstock memories, the walk on the moon and Nixon's election. Seems like yesterday that Linda was visiting and we watched the Neil Armstrong from the house trailer that Van de Kamps was using as a test kitchen. What a thrill. We saw the film "Moon" the other night and remembered those great moments. Even the Vietnam war seems like yesterday. When we visit Vietnam a whole generation of people barely remember it and refer to it as the American war. Spin, spin, spin - everybody sees events through their own prism and spins wittingly or more often innocently. The scribes among us get to preserve events for posterity written and seen through theirs eye. The non-scribes' point of view dissolves over time and space.

Our Concrete Takes Off!

The decorative bands were poured around the house and we had a disaster. The concrete "took off" which means it started to set up before the finishers could get the troweling done. About 1/3 had to be hammered out and we are arguing about the two bands that make up the front walk. There are crumbling spots on the sides...the result of having the concrete half set while troweling. We think the whole band should be removed and Ken is pushing back. Meanwhile the site is full of concrete chunks and Ken wants to move forward and pour before it's cleaned up. We know we would just have more mistakes and another disaster and so are pushing him to get everything cleaned up before we pour again. Looks like it will be put off until we return from Stanford.

Meanwhile I've met with Manny on the exterior tile and he is looking for a source. He is also finding us a travertine counter top and will be doing a back splash. I have to pick out the granite for bathrooms and kitchen.

I've been antiquing the guest bathroom cabinets. So far they look OK. I have to find some way to distress the doors a little more. I'm going to try a rub on wood stain to see what happens.

We have all our reservations ready for Stanford. I've been reading more info on line and have a pretty good grasp of what to expect both during the treatment and afterward. I'll be a happy person on the 22nd when I have this event behind me and when I can stop worrying about more growth. I believe the little sucker advanced a bit recently because I am more tottery and the eyesight is worse (wavy horizon).

Lina Story

As she was grousing about men - how much attention they need, how helpless they seem to be at times, Lina's grandmother concurring, told Lina that at one time, she thought her husband was just stupid. And she thought his typical male behavior was unique and didn't realize that much of the behavior she interpreted as stupid was simply male.

For instance, she told Lina that her husband would often forget to zip up his fly and she would do it for him if she noticed it. One Sunday in church, she was distributing communion and her husband entered her queue to get his wafer. As he approached her she saw that his fly was undone and when he got in front of her, instead of handing him his communion, she reached down and zipped up his fly.

For anyone, this move could have been embarassing. For a hispanic male, it was macho demolishing and he was furious with her humiliation of him in public. She told him that it was an automatic response...she'd done it so often over the course of their marriage, it was a built-in response.

Lina, my Guatemalan born friend, the story-teller, speaks English pretty well now. Ten years ago when I first met her, she was just beginning to acquire a vocabulary. Even so, she told me stories that had me falling down in laughter. She's very good and I wonder how fine a tale she can weave using her native tongue. She has a wonderful sense of humor and heartily enjoys making other laugh. Her friendship has been very enriching to my life.

Roadrunner attack

I heard a racket in the living room and walked over to the window in my office. A roadrunner had gotten into the house and was running repeatedly at full speed at the wall. He crashed into it and turned to see me at the same time. Luckily, he managed to get out the door and took off down the hillside in enormous leaps, disappearing quickly. As he wasn't wearing a helmet, it seemed risky at best. I wondered if he was the same bird who wandered into my office a few years ago. On that occasion, the cat was acting funny, slinking around pressing up against the walls and dropping into that leopard-like crouch cats assume when they are ready to pounce. As I could hear a scratching sound in the office, I walked in and saw an enormous roadrunner...he must be about 18 inches high - the tail extending back about a foot. This bird was in distress and panicky, running back and forth over my printer, banging into the windows. Between the cat and myself, we must have terrified the poor creature. I got the broom and used it to gently prod him toward the door. Once through it he did the acrobatic and astonishing leap thing and vanished in short order.

I'm calling this an attack with tongue in cheek. The poor bird obviously has little in the way of grey matter - but he/she survives and survival is everything. I doubt that once a bird has such a close call - a close brush with humans that he would come close to the house again.

Our concrete takes off

Finally we poured decorative concrete bands yesterday. The forms were all made and approved but the truck came up a little late. Everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly and I really like the color we selected. The group of people, about 5 in total got a rythm going and the bands were oozed into place. They got about 3/4 of it out of the truck when the driver reported that the concrete was "taking off" which means it's hardening up. It was hardening up in the truck!! Unfortunately aobut 1/4 of it set up before we could get it troweled which meant it had to be let dry and then hammered out. They will re-pour this stuff on Monday along with the stamped concrete. Ken didn't have enough finishers..we needed to have at least 5 or 6 and only had three. So we paid for that mistake. It was not a pleasant scene. Everyone was mad and depressed. It did give us time to go around and review where the stamped will be poured and we discovered a few things that were left undone. Drains that should have been fixed. Pool equipment that we don't know about. Arggghh. Also I made a mistake with the fountain space and didn't communicate what I wanted.

Funny that I had an uneasy feeling about the pour in the morning and got up and was out there at 7:00 pacing and anxious.
Guess I had an intuition.

What caused it? Too few finishers who couldn't keep up; Jeff didn't show up; concrete pumped slowly, truck arrived late - 9:45 and the sun was getting too high. Personally I think the color in the crete caused it to set up faster and the concrete company should have allowed for this.

Dinner at Shari's

Dinner for eight at Shari's last night was a great time. Kabobs, sour cream tortilla casserole, grilled zucchini, fresh veggies and
Laurie's lemon ice cream with fresh blueberry sauce. Everyone was lively and in good spirits. Shari's back yard has turned out beautifully...'specially at night with all the lights. She and Joe were excellent hosts.

The group is maturing and it's enjoyable to watch them fully middle-aged and becoming empty nesters. Feeling like I've aged a decade in the past year, the gap between us feels wider than ever.

What a fun evening. We didn't leave until almost midnight.

Getting comfortable.

Oddly, since my hearing change, more noises bother me. Last night we ate at Rosa's - a local Mexican joint and it was all I could do to sit there for 45 minutes. A car alarm kept going off, kids were shouting in the parking lot, a plane roared overhead, the radio was playing and people in conversation surrounded us. A fly kept hovering over the food and with shooting pains in the ear, the incessantly itching foot and a pulled back muscle, I can't get comfortable. The sounds all enter my one hearing ear at about the same level. Sorting them out - screening out one thing for another is almost impossible, so trying to hear a conversation even when sitting right beside someone is difficult and I strain.

Altogether an exhausting hour instead of a time to relax. We're starting to know as soon as we go into a building if it's going to be uncomfortable for me or not.

Pavers

The short wall at the side of the house is complete. Guats have been up to place gate poles. Chevo is setting the concrete forms and today the facia should be placed on the wall and the front of the house. I'm struggling with the pavers, trying to get the right mix of shapes and colors. Yesterday I spend four hours in the rock yards talking to paver guys about laying and figuring out what we need. After this is all done, I will probably miss these excursions because I learn a lot..more than necessary.

Already the outside of the place looks better...as dirt and debris disappeared. Richard removed every single scrap of it and the
concrete guys are looking at a clean slate.

There's a charming woman/clerk working at SouthWest boulder. I thought a woman owned it because she is always around and hosts the seminars they hold from time to time. I learned that she and her husband own the place - the clerk told me the woman owner is very nurturing of everyone. For instance, she said, "If she hears someone cough she'll ask if you need a cough drop." Apparently she carries everything in her purse, like June Pierre who could perform a tracheotomy in a restaurant if necessary with the various tools and gimcracks she toted around.

I love to wake up early on these summer mornings when the house is still cool, the yard is full of birds but not a peep from a human; not a slamming door, or a mowing machine or voices from a pool.
Marco, Polo. I hate that.

Speaking Chinese

Richard told me that when he was living in Taiwan, he'd taken up calligraphy and needed a special brush with a very fine hair. He went to a shop that sold such supplies and asked the young clerk for a "maibee". She turned red and ran to the back of the store. An older woman came out and asked him what he wanted. He repeated his request and she realized what had gone wrong. Due to misuse of tone, he was asking for a pubic hair...not a brush. Apparently it's the same word, different tone. One example of the many problems you can get into with a new language.

I've read of people doing such fracturing of a foreign language in a restaurant: ordering a hemmorhoid instead of an oyster. Usually people are amused by these language butcherings particularly in touristic areas.

Crispy Tacos

Last night we had crispy tacos for dinner. Until Eilleen died I'd never made these at home. While at Lawry's, I had some product development responsibilities at the taco plant and ate enough of those things to last me forever..also enough of the Lawry's taco seasoning mix. Being a food snob I sneered at these Americanized tacos and only ate the genuine Mexican variety, wrapped in a soft tortilla. Eilleen and Jimmy loved the crisp tacos and ate them often - I'd harangue her a bit - she would still say taco with a pronounced as in stack instead of like in paw. For some reason, after she died, I'd feel an urge to eat these things - another haunting by Eilleen.

Her mispronounciations were hard for me to understand because she had a such a good musical ear. Yet, she couldn't seem to hear the difference in words like "taco". There were many of these and the butchering was mostly of foreign words. Even French words, she would Anglicize to the death. I wonder now if she had a hearing anomaly - some small translation thingie either in the ear or brain that didn't work with language.

Sometimes I catch myself babbling to the Hispanic workers, going a mile a minute about a concept they couldn't possibly have in their English experience. That blank look starts to appear and I realize what I've done. I imagine what it would be like to be transported to a foreign country and to try to master the language. Getting by is one thing but to express a concept or describe a feeling would likely be impossible. Fluency is necessary to achieve nuance.

I sat next to a Korean woman once on a plane and she told me she couldn't speak English well enough to express her thoughts, dreams and feelings. Sadly, she said that due to lack of use and lack of keeping up with language changes, she was barely able to do so in her native language. While living in Korea she had been something of a wordsmith and this loss was very painful for her and she felt isolated. Interestingly, she expressed this feeling to me very vividly and I could understand quite well how lonely she was.

At last, outside

After what seems like months of agitation, tension and negotiation, we are finally going forward with the exterior patios and walkways. Stalled, our pool has been sitting with it's beautiful new bonnet - the three rivers coping - and inside, an ugly scraped out shell. Half a deck sits drunkenly at it's edge. Ditches for irrigation scar the ground everywhere make walking hazardous and we track dirt inside every day. The straw I placed around the house under the eaves has ground into the dirt making it even hard to sweep up. It has the look of a war zone which in a way, it was.

Richard finally cleaned up the whole site himself, weary of trying to get Ken to live up to his obligation to leave the property "broom clean". Ken is hopeless at clean up and we have to accept this as part of his very low prices. What a lot of work it took Richard...sawing up all the old crates, carting rocks to the dumpster, sawing retaining logs. He did it over a period of weeks squeezing the job in after putting in a full day in the grove. He's been exhausted.

He drove up to LA yesterday to have a timer repaired - dropped off in the wilderness of Riverside County - dried up groves and dirty unkempt farm properties. Battling terrible traffic including a funeral cortege for a deceased fire fighter which even had the freeway at a stop, he made it to Solheim for his quarterly meeting with the staff. Patty is failing now...on morphine and down to 98 pounds. The steel trap brain is slowing and her memory seems to be deteriorating. That brain has had a marvelous go...lasting in such good condition for so long. Most telling is that her acerbic personality is losing its edge - morphine will do that. From what I hear, morphine is a marvelous drug and makes you feel wonderful. I'm glad she is in that "floating" state (as was my mother at the end) and able to have pleasant feelings as her last on earth instead of the terrible pain she would be feeling otherwise.

Jenio the welder has taken out gates for welding, Chevo is building a decorative wall at the side of the house and if on schedule should have most of the front leveled out today. They are expecting to pour the concrete on Monday or Tuesday. Manny can do the tiling week after next, once the concrete is dried and cured.

Twins times two

Pat called today - a real treat - and told me about a visit she had with Sandra and her twin grandsons. I've been thinking all day about how utterly unique this situation is - two grandmothers each with a set of identical twins. Pat said the meeting was a first for all concerned - the twins had never met identicals before. She said they could all tell each other apart! And they had a good time together, bonding instantly. They met at McDonalds and visited the zoo - how much better could a day be for little boys.

Crappy weather in Winnipeg; not a good summer so far. Winnipegers earn good summer weather by enduring that awful winter. I cannot remember a bad summer - probably because as kids every summer day is good. The sound of lawn mowers and smell of cut grass transports me to 1251 and summer mornings. My memories are of roller skating, playing hide and seek on the never-ending front yard of Dominion Street - we used it all from Yarwood half way to Notre Dame. Swinging on the swings at Sargent park, catching tadpoles in the creek, playing with a yoyo. Slathering ourselves with baby oil and iodine at the pool or later at Bird's Hill. Mom would drop us off in the morning and pick us up baked like hot dogs on a grill. I can remember looking straight into the sun so the sun tan wouldn't be creasy from squinting. No wonder we have age spots and cataracts.

And those humid warm nights when it was light 'til almost 10:00. Sitting on the front steps with my Dad proclaiming as he did every year, "Here we are sitting on the stoop reading the Winnipeg Free Press at 9:00 p.m." Swatting mosquitos, scratching the bites ( ahhhhh). Picking warm tomatoes off the vine and sitting with a salt shaker gobbling them up with Mom and Eilleen. We didn't even wait to walk a few steps into the house. Rhubarb!! Mom would make a compote we'd eat with vanilla ice cream. The mint that grew in the side yard crushed between the fingers for a swoony sniff (we didn't eat it), the crab apples, crisp and sour.

Treats from the garden - fresh green beans, yellow wax beans, baby beets (before they became a gourmet treat), baby potatoes. One year we grew peanuts. Dad ordered the seeds (peanuts) from the Burpee catalog and they grew into scraggly struggling plants; we got to see the little peanuts tangled in the roots. Fresh crisp cucumbers transformed into Auntie Addies pickles - the crispest pickles without too much vinegar or dill. Her pickles were legendary and gobbled up as fast as she could make them.

The splendid long, long summers of our childhood memory - a week passed as slowly as a month does now - giving us a chance to store the sensations away and recall and enjoy them now.

A screen door banging shut...and we'd be back at school again.

Oddball

I have never written poetry but my sister did. Yesterday I came home, sat down and wrote this without prior thought, inspiration or inclination. Clearly Eilleen is at work. It must have been a haunting.

Walking straight.
A challenge? Who would guess?
The brilliance of our gyroscope -
Its praises unsung, is a quiet miracle.

I stagger now and list left-wise.
Loopily, my destinations reached.
But I see eyebrows raised…
My aura broadcasts “Oddball”

Aging brings gifts in its wrinkled basket.
Becoming invisible was an unexpected pleasure.
Different again - I’m sticking out.
Looking crazy, looking drunk.

What did you say? I can’t hear you either.
Whisper something in the good ear.
Something kind.

Sugar in the morning, Sugar in the evening......

Sweetness perception comes and goes from day to day and sometimes from morning until night. Typically I can't sense the sweet in the morning and it returns at night. A glass of wine is a challenge and I'm training myself to concentrate on the aroma and only note the tastes, trying to ignore the lack of balance. A new way of enjoying the wine...maybe I'll see something in it that I was over-looking.

Ants have invaded my computer space and they are emerging every once in a while from the keyboard in the vicinity of "u,i,o". Woe is me, I have to clean off the whole desk and spray in order to get rid of the beasties. Their original target was the wrapper from an energy bar with a tiny piece of chocolate exposed. Thinking the invasion to be minimal, I've just been slapping them down one at a time, but now I see they are on the floor in marching formation - it's a serious attack which I must rebuff using all of my anti-ant resources - primarily the can of RAID.

Chest Xray

An X-ray accompanied me on another significant part of my life. To emigrate from Canada to the US in 1964, the requirements were virtually nothing compared to what they are today. At 21 years old, I hardly had a history to investigate and Jack Rock's brother Alex, sponsored my immigration as I was single and a student when I made application. It took six months of gathering
documents completing paperwork and being interviewed. After we were married, Jack and I left for our honeymoon and our new life in California. First stop was at Pembina, North Dakota where clutching a large manila envelope full of stamped and approved documents and the vital chest X-ray, we stepped across the imaginary line separating Canada from the US.

Twenty five years later I became a citizen and took the oath in Seattle along with 67 other grateful people, many from South Africa and South Asia. That was a great day.

Vanished sweetness

A particularly beautiful day here - dawn was splendiferous, but we may have a hot afternoon. Yesterday was difficult in that I was awakened in the middle of the night with a terrible taste sensation in my mouth and it continued all day. The taste was so bad and so distorted that it made me nauseous - finally I bought various candies to keep sucking to mask it and the nausea subsided. Today, I tested myself and I have no ability to perceive sweetness. Salt, sour, bitter and umami come through loud and clear - only sweetness is gone. However, the taste in my mouth is tolerable and I'm no longer noticing it so much. Overall, the tinnitus is less, the mild depression I was suffering (likely steroid after-effect) has lifted and even my balance seems better. Yes!!!

Richard got somebody to come and remove the dirt pile from the front of the house...the heap of asphalt, concrete and mixed stuff that Ken scraped off the back. What a relief to be rid of that stuff!

We have half finished irrigation, a half finished deck, a half finished pool and half finished exterior hard scape. Sort of stuck in a hole looking over the edge.

Looking inside

A trip to Eaton's department store was high on the joy list when I was a kid. Opportunities for exploration abounded. I would dream of being locked in the store overnight - able to run around unsupervised, jumping on the mattresses, running down the up escalator, trying on the clothes and jewelry, nosing into all the books. A visit to the shoe department on the fifth floor where they had a shoe fitting machine/x-ray machine installed was the height of delight. All the kids found this device utterly fascinating...you could look in the viewfinder and actually see the bones in your feet. The machine was a marketing gimmick installed by many department stores during that time period. The picture of my feet and bones - watching my skeletal toes wiggling, watery white on black, was mesmerizing and we couldn't get enough of it. The shoe guy would admonish us with the usual "This is not a toy". But we would wait until his back was turned or he went into the stock room, then push and shove to have a turn. The machines were poorly built and leaked radiation all over the place, we found out later. In those days we were innocent of environmental hazards - we would run with glee behind the mosquito fogger which was spraying DDT all over the city. Who knows how really damaged our DNA is?

My father had bits of shrapnel in his body, left from WW1. Once in a while he'd get a bump somewhere and inside the bump would be a small piece of metal. I imagined that his foot x-ray would show little bits of metal like pepper all over his feet.
I would have liked the chance to see inside my Dad, clanging along full of metal.

Sandi

Sandi from Village Kitchen Designs came up to the house today to continue with the kitchen layout. She did the plans originally and I want her to redo and redraw the plan with the updated ideas that have accumulated as the house as unfolded and taken shape. She was very helpful and had many ideas. She listened and absorbed my ideas and fed them back with improvements. I enjoyed our short collaboration and hope the meeting will yield the results I'm after which is to capture the kitchen and add some style.

I felt almost normal today and it was quite a relief from the screaming meemies of the past few days. Warp speed is not easy to maintain for days on end. The onlly thing sad to see go is the endless stream of energy, nifty to have at your disposal.

Tonight is one of those perfect summer evenings where the valley is purply-blue in the shadows, a brisk breeze is blowing and everything looks almost shimmery. The sky is bright blue but the light is just starting to fade out. Cats are winding down, snuffling around for something to eat. Richard's cruising his snack shelf in the pantry.

We have to plan a trip because somebody is going to break out with itchy feet soon!!!

SPEED

On steroids for 14 days to see if some hearing can be saved in my AN ear. 10 days of a full dose and the past three days have been ratcheting down. Never having taken a drug like this before, I was surprised at the effect. Hearing almost immediately returned to the ear which is like a miracle. In fact the AN ear is now about like it was when first diagnosed. I can hear sound - still can't distinguish words, but hearing sound means stereo, so much safer than the monoaural world I was descending into. Most of the 10 days were just fine and then like a bucket of cold water in the face, the speed turned on. I was compelled to move fast and for some reason, organizing things appeals (not just too me, but this is typical) and eating everything in sight. Food doesn't "hit bottom" and no satiety value whatsoever..you can just keep tossing it down and it seemingly disappears. Eilleen told me that this was the sensation she had with alcohol...no amount could ever be enough -- never satisfying so there's always the drive to get more.

Because of a huge appliance sale at Lowe's I ventured out and bought a new washer/dryer and dishwasher for the house. In the big box stores my ears are clanging and ringing like a fire alarm and of course, this puts the whole body on alert. As the swelling decreases in the tumor tissue, I imagine that the pressure on the blood vessels constricting flow changes affecting the whole system. While the swelling is changing presumably from minute to minute, so does the alarm in my head. It can't be ignored and the result is tension exhaustion after a while. Interestingly (this never lacks for interest) with perseverance the brain adjusts - at first you want only to retreat and then you notice, OK, it's coping and with a little more time, coping more. Our CPU is a magnificent piece of work...astonishing.

Staggering around

Soon I will be a Post Toastie...the term used for the walking irradiated. This should be a new and most interesting experience. Today I visited the mall to look at some furniture and get exercise in the air conditioned comfort of the concrete palace. I saw myself in a shop window, disheveled, staggering and had to laugh at how bad I can get. I'm surprised anyone approaches me to ask what I'd like in the stores. With some luck, the staggering may be lessened post irradiation.

A memorial service for my ex-boss was held on Thursday. It was a wonderful opportunity to see many old friends and remember how truly special it was to work at Lawry's when I did. Now, the grey heads outnumber the "naturals" and much of the talk is about retirement plans, grandchildren and health issues. Time marches on.

Will the picking of stuff never end? Today, more plumbing picks and selection of bathroom mirrors and storage cabinets. All nextweek will be selecting things and playing "fetch" for the installers on the job.

Richard The Imposter in photo posing as an avocado picker.

Picked up the results of my MRI and discovered that my AN is growing at an incredible rate. The tumor is usually very slow growing but mine has doubled. I'm sure my neurologist will recommend treatment and I'm predicting that she will recommend the cyberknife or gammaknife - basically radiation. Tuesday I'll see her and get a plan together.

I feel extra urgency to get everything finished in both houses in case I'm incapacitated for a while. Although with radiation, it looks like the downtime would be minimal.

Ordering toilets through the mail has an odd feeling, but we were able to save a couple of hundred dollars by doing do. Certainly we saved an $80.00 delivery charge from Home Depot. After they get here, we'll still have to muscle them up to the house from the gate - not an easy job. We also ordered a bidet seat - Richard tried one at a friends house and liked it- so we thought we'd add one.

We should move forward with the irrigation bid we get from Bob Butler. Hopefully he will be able to do the work next week which means we could do our concrete by the next week, thereby finishing the pool by mid July. Cabinets should be arriving by 1st of August. If plumbing is installed shortly after that we can move in and get Stage Coach rented.

Our paint job is now complete and it is excellent. We're very pleased.

MRI

I had my second MRI yesterday and this time took 1 mg of lorazepam in advance. Boy does that stuff help. I think I actually fell asleep in the machine despite the clanging and banging. Time passed quickly and it was not unpleasant at all. I won't be dreading it so much next time.

After the procedure, we went to the Escondido Farmers Market and enjoyed seeing all the wonderful fruit and veggies coming out of small farms around here. One vendor was selling Reed avocados which look like Canadian bowling balls. We bought fresh picked strawberries, apricots and patty pan squash. An olive oil vendor had blood orange flavored, unfiltered olive oil which was very delicious. We couldn't resist a bottle. The seller came from Delphi in Greece and expresses a few interesting opinions about religion leaving us with the Socratic directive, "Know thyself". He was 86 and looked 46.

Although it was rather early for dinner, we stopped at the French Bakery and had a light meal....the picnic plate for me which consisted of brie, copious amounts of fresh bread, salami, pate and slice of ham and one of turkey served with black olives, cornichon and pickled onions. Richard ordered a chicken tart but got some kind of meat tart which they took back and gave him the chicken version. Sadly, it was nothing more than a pizza which was disappointing. The owner invited us to pick out a dessert for free because of the confusion - we declined - they insisted, so we brought home a slice of gooey chocolate cake.

A benefit of the window shopping was a find on Richard's part - a mirrored door which just might work for our huge picture frame. I'll go down and take another look at it to see.

An ordinary Sunday

A beautiful day in Fallbrook today. Bright sunny skies with an all day sea breeze - just cool enough for working hard. I carried a lot of wood to the dumpster and generally cleaned up. As I am having balance problems the challenge of walking and carrying seems to help - if nothing else it tires me out so I can sleep. All day, I felt grateful for the pleasure of being able to work hard and accomplish something. Very satisfying.

A good Chinese dinner preceded the movie, Taking of Pelham 123, which we really enjoyed. The movie did not get great ratings but we found it entertaining. By the end of the movie I was exhausted which happens after a full day. Effort involved with balance seems to be very tiring. Richard says I should try napping and perhaps I will.

A busy week ahead - medical things, more subs to see and perhaps our irrigation to start. I'm ready to see the end of the dirt piles which we have to climb over to get anywhere. At the moment we are buried in trash and need a day's clean-up to get ahead a bit. August is starting to seem too ambitious for completion so I'm hoping now to be in by Thanksgiving.

Tiling

Our new tiler, Manny did a great job finishing up the tile. Our master bathroom shower is called "100 bottles of beer" because the glass tiles are made of recycled beer bottles. Our guest shower, Richard calls the clown shower because of the colored glass.
It all worked out and we are happy with it. Manny will be doing the outdoor tile work on the patios also. Bottom picture is the outdoor tile and Mexican accent tiles which will be mixed in. Tile in the arch is Italian tile and is now surrounded by bright blue paint. Fireplace is now painted an earth brown color and the mosaic looks much better against this color. Painters are going to paint it black inside.

House PROGRESS

The exterior of the house seems to be just sitting still. Inside the new paint job is almost complete and looks so much
better. Now there is a cozy "casa" look to the place, like old Spanish haciendas which is what we wanted. Today the painters wrap up and we make a decision on irrigation redo. If this is underway next week, by next weekend they can start the hardscape. Meanwhile I can get the cabinets started and am starting to shop for plumbing stuff. Yesterday our electrician began installing lights and light switches. We found we need an 18" access panel from the closet upstairs to our tub. Another detail we overlooked.

Richard's Roof

With the new spark arrestors on the roof, it is finally finished. Richard worked hard to get the roof the way he envisioned it. It's
5 tile colors, some of them antiqued. The design on the roof is somewhat like a shopping center in town and something like roofs
we've seen in Italy and Spain. Richard actually piled the roof guys into the car and drove them around looking at roofs in the neighborhood before he finally got them on the same page as he was.

The spark arrestors also took us some time. We make our final choice with some trepidation thinking they might look a bit Moorish. Funny thing about these decisions. Once they are made, you hardly think of them again. Or even notice the item...overall I'd say we are pleased with the way it turned out.

Today we have another irrigation person up to the job. The sprinkler system is about 1/2 complete and has to be tied together and much has to be added to it. Domingo, Mr. Sunday will give his bid.

I will start wrapping the house in plastic to protect it during the concrete work which will be taking place soon. I'm also
picking glass off the hillside where the solar panels used to be located. When they were removed, many of the panels broke and the shards went everywhere. As we'd like to put some bedding plants on that slope, we have to get the dangerous glass out of the way.

Sharon and I picked out the front lights and post lights yesterday so I'll go over to Lamps Are Us later on and pick them up. Meanwhile, I'm ordering the sinks and faucets.

My mosaic fireplace treatment turned out better than I thought. One picture shows me composing the design and the other picture shows it actually installed on the fireplace. Now I want to do the stair risers going to the garden with the same "cracked
up" design.

Pool Face Lift

Although not in our immediate plans, it turned out we had to rush to redo the pool. The pipes run under where the patios are
going and so this all had to be installed. New coping and water line tiles had to be chosen. Once more I was given a big book with
100 options. We looked at a rock yard and liked the look of three rivers stone, very colorful and variegated. I thought it might
be too much but after looking at a neighbors pool created with the same stone, we decided to go ahead. Now that it's complete
I'm glad we chose it as it looks very good from the deck above.

Before photo show plain Jane coping...just white cement. The tile was pretty and we might have kept it, but when you remove
coping, the tile goes too.

The stone masons were excellent - clean and neat. They came in and did the work and left quickly and efficiently. Very pleasant young mormon men.

New Paint

I chose a light gold paint as the main color for the house - Laura Ashley pale gold and had it cut down 25%. The color was terrible and actually made my eyeballs jitter. The whole house felt like the inside of an egg yolk, plus the painter we hired was just awful. He smeared paint all over the place, didn't cover things properly and generally made a terrible mess. I hired an interior decorator who spent two hours with me, going from room to room and a new painter who is doing a wonderful job. Now the house is a light beige with a darker accent color. We have one bright blue wall and the master bedroom is a kind of terra cotta which looks good (see picture). The swatch on the wall kind of scared me because it is bold, but once the whole room was painted it resulted in a kind of glow and made the room feel cozy.

I'm trying to pick out the colors for the stamped concrete outside which is proving somewhat difficult. My neighbor Sharon is helping a lot - she has a good eye and enjoys giving her opinion and helping out. She has good, practical suggestions.

The final big decision is the cabinet color which I am still wrestling with. White or wood or BLUE stained wood which the interior designer recommended. I might be able to do a door or two in blue but not the whole kitchen. She likes the bottom cabinets one color and the top another. A "furniture" look is really the in thing now.

Kim getting married

People have good years and bad years. As a family, we're enjoying a good year. Two weeks ago, Ashley graduated with her B.S. in Nursing. Ashley is Chris' fiancee. Last Saturday, Kim graduated with her AA degree - a real accomplishment for such a busy person. This Saturday Chris gets his BS in Engineering. August 4th Chris and Ashley get married.

Kim called last night to tell me that Mark, her wonderful boyfriend, proposed to her after the graduation on Saturday. He presented her with a beautiful diamond that he had made specially with lowered prongs and a setting that won't "rip her rubber gloves" - so she can wear it while collecting evidence. She is in her own words, floating between Cloud 9 and a state of shock. They had never really discussed marriage, even after four years so it was a complete surprise to her. Mark's daughter gets married August 1st. Mark has one grandchild and his other daughter is expecting twins so Mark and Kim will have six grand-children between them. That should keep them busy.

So, it's a good year - if only Jim's eye would recover, everything would be good!!

Richard's 70th

We spent from April to May 13th in Singapore and Bali to celebrate Richard's birthday. Singapore does not look like it is suffering from the recession although people we talked with said they were. First and foremost, they were terrified that the swine flu would appear there and discourage tourism. They can't survive that - they absolutely live on tourism.

On our way in, we stayed at the Carlton Hotel which is centrally located. First morning, I left Richard lounging around and went to shop in the stalls around the corner. I ran into a long corridor of people doing demonstrations so I enjoyed watching the chopper/slicer/dicer guy, a demo of a device that saves cooking gas, a fabulous mop (i amost bought one), a great pen that
allows one to make fancy writing and designs. Business seemed to be good and people were buying. After Richard got moving we went to the big shopping center and visited Yes! eyewear with the idea of getting more glasses but prices seemed too high. We went to the food court and had one of the Indian pancakes that we like and admired the Vietnamese Food Stall which we hadn't see before. We ate at a pseudo fast food place in the mall where we had a version of Cereal Shrimp and potstickers. Food was good but we were very tired and jet lagged so went back to the hotel to bed. Next day, in a light rain, we visited the Botanical Gardens for the third time and once again really enjoyed the orchids. When it stopped raining later, we walked to Jumbo Seafood for the "real" Cereal Shrimp - delicious. Up early to catch our Garuda flight to Jakarta and on to Denpasar. Garuda had changed the way they operate these flights and we had to collect our luggage in Jakarta and re-check in for the second flight. Turned out to be good because we bought our visas at the airportand Jakarta is much more efficient and easier than Bali. Once in Denpasar, we caught a cab to Prime Villas which turned out to be lovely.

While in Seminyak we spent one day with Toya and visited furniture manufacturers and his uncles carving place. Designed a few items and Toya has sent us prices. Day two we spent with Ayu who ran us around to a few places..she was sort of helpful but mostly just nice company. Married to an Australian, she is very worldly for a Balinese. A fan of Gordon Brown's cooking - she's lived in many places and is quite sophisticated.

Ate well at Gado Gado for Richard's birthday. We had an oceanside seat and perfect weather. Just great food and even a great wine by the glass - a Hugel Gewurztraminer, something I've never seen served by the glass. Had a rather poor meal at Ku De Ta but the setting was glorious and it was interesting to see how many people were there for the sunset, a tradition. We ate two meals in Kuta at the cafe down from Matahari's and both meals were good and perfect for our mood.

On day four, we moved up to Ubud an dour cab driver had quite a time finding the villa. As it turns out, the Villa Sarna was just a bit closer to Ubud than Villa Uma, where we were married. The room was up a couple of flights of stairs, a bit difficult for me with my dizziness, especially in the rain, especially in the dark. I think the staff, who helped me up the stairs, thought I was drunk!! Our bedroom was a little small and the whole thing a bit of a letdown after Prime Villas but it was OK - the outdoor bale for reading was great. Staff was excellent and the overgrown, jungly grounds were fantastic. We saw some new villas built by the owner of one of the big design companies. Next time, we might stay there for a real splurge.

Ate well twice at Ira Burgis (whose cremation we attended), at Lamat (wonderful meal) and at Mosaic. All very fine eating. We shopped at the market as usual for cheap watches and earrings, always fun. Other than that, we did a lot of resting. Enjoyed breakfast at the villa with a view over the jungle. Banana pancakes were great.

Our ride home was easy - all Northwest flights were just fine; customs was empty and our luggage was out in about 15 minutes. Almost like Singapore!!

Back at home and work

Busy interviewing painters this week. The one we hired did not work out - he tried his best, but he was older and recovering from a stroke. He tried to return to work too soon and we paid the price. The whole house has to be re-painted and we will change the color in the living room to something less yellow. A designer is coming up on Friday to help with color picking...I've just run out of the ability to tell one from the other.

The pool was gutted on Monday in record time. A crew came up and jack hammered it in just a couple of hours. Tomorrow, the 21st they will begin the stone work on the coping and then place the tile. A plumber has been installing heaters, pumps etc. We will have a new pool once they are done.

I had a hearing test this week - a six month check. From what I could see it didn't look like it had changed much by the graphs. The tester told me the left ear was pretty bad but that my right ear was very good. We discussed hearing aids and there isn't anything that helps my kind of hearing loss..most promising is a device that picks up signals on the left and then sends them via a radio signal to the right ear. Eventually the brain learns that the squawky sound coming in is from noise on the left side and processes accordingly. Maybe I'll try it. Now I need to get the blood work so that they can schedule a MRI, probably next week.

Spinning head, dizziness, numbness on left side of face and full ear with pain behind the ear in an arc, wonky head. Those are the current symptoms and they are absolutely typical from what I read about An's of my size. The small ones cause the most symptoms. I'm hoping that some ofthese symptoms subside...apparently they often do.

Jorge Redux

Our tiler Jorge, with wife and young child, has gone to VeraCruz to live for a few months. I met his wife whle returning his tiling equipment to her. Jorge was dumped off in Mexico by the INS and they decided to make the most of it and go to VC where they own a couple of houses. They're going to fix them up and iin the interim, get Jorge's papers in order so that he can come back in the country with a better status. His wife is American.

The tile aspect of the house is surely cursed. First there was Jorge and his disaster. Ours too as 1000 dollars worth of tile disappeared. Then we started having problem after problem with UGMC. I've made at least 20 trips there picking up tiles in dribs and drabs. Each time it's been a hassle. I made 8 or 9 trips regarding one tile and when they finally got it in, it was the wrong stuff. I gave up and substituted something I could buy at HD.

Happily we have a good tile setter now who seems to be competent and is completing the job and doing it well.

We are terribly unhappy with our plumber too. He never returns phone calls. A nice enough guy but the lousiest business man I've ever seen. I'd never recommend him to anyone.

Enough carping.

Painting Glitch

The "bargain" painter we hired turned out to be anything but. He came recommended but did sloppy and incompetent work. He did manage to get a coat of paint on the walls but had thinned the paint down so much, it didn't cover much. When he pulled the masking tape off, he took the paint along with it. The place is a mess and it will require quite an effort to get it straightened out. I should know better having once before been shellacked (ha) by a painter.

We are also having problems with the outside sprinklers. Installation is not going as Richard had hoped.

So what are we doing about all of this? We're taking off on a trip. Last time we were overwhelmed, Richard insisted we take off and once again this is his rx. I'm reluctant to go as I'd like to get this whole ordeal over with, but I guess we'll drag it out another couple of months. Now, I'm looking at Christmas as a deadline for moving..but how do you rent a house that time of year??

The stucco job is complete and looks great. It's called cat's paw and was applied entirely by hand. About 8 people were working at any given time applying a total of three coats to the house. The look is very Spanish and we are pleased with both the cat's paw look and the bright white color.

Our floors have now been scraped and sanded and a coat of sticky goo has been applied which will provide moisture vapor barrier protection. Ken and Jerry applied the goo with trowels and killed their backs and their hands. Blisters erupted all over the hands, backs were aching from bending at the waist to do it and both of them have goo stuck on their skin - knees and hands. It wasn't an easy job. I worked just ahead of them cleaning the floors with brooms and a string mop. We had a long day on Saturday.

Today, I spread straw out under the eaves, under the drip line so that if we have rain, splashes don't bounce up and stain the stucco. I also applied the moisture protective paint to the unprotected fascia around the roof, on the deck and on spots round the house. We called a number of people to come out and give us landscaping bids and contacted the iron men to come and
and adjust our Bali railings so we can install them on the deck and on the stairs.

We decided to go ahead and use the "faux slate" tiles instead of the real thing. The faux slate does not require sealing, doesn't lake and cause other problems. The look is close to slate - in fact, I had to tell the tile man that it was porcelain..he thought it was slate.

Tomorrow will be busy with roof guys, painters and we are having the grove picked - a size pick which will keep Richard busy all day. I'll be handlin the construction stuff - Ken will be laying down more goo and working on the remainder of the finish carpentry...the base boards and trim.

JORGE LIVES

Our tiler is alive! We hired a young man to do the tilework and he turned out to be wonderful. Creative, a hard worker and a genuinely nice man. Last Thursday he was supposed to show up for work and didn't. His wife called on Saturday to ask if we had seen him and we were shocked to hear he was missing. Today we were relieved to find out that he had been arrested because of having an illegal in his car. That would be his assistant.

Many of the construction workers were/are illegals and we haven't been checking them. I think I have sympathy because of having been an alien myself, albeit a legal one. I sympathize with their eagerness to work hard and make a living. I have yet to meet an immigrant that wasn't interested in the freedom to work hard and succeed. Jorge - the tile man - included. All they really want is a chance and when I think of the attitudes of most of the young people in this country, who all want to be rock stars and fashion models and who are encouraged to follow this dream - I'd put my money on the illegals to be the ones who make the wheels turn, the crops grow and to build the future. From their children will come the great new ideas! Not from the dopes worrying about their eighty dollar haircuts, fancy cars and European spring breaks - all provided to them by stupid or unwitting parents too undisciplined themselves to take the time to teach their kids about work.

Maybe Jorge will be able to continue on the job after all.

Decorative accents were added to the exterior - imitation clay pipes, window trim, door trim, a band across the big blank side wall and bands around the deck supports. Everything was given it's brown coat and now sits, curing and waiting for the final coat which will likely have to wait now that we are having rain. 5 days of pretty steady rain, including one exciting hail storm, is a welcome wetting to the grove. The fresh rain washes out the alkali and other deposits that build up from using well water and the county water.

The dry wallers have completed hanging the sheets and are almost finished with taping and mud. The bullnose has been applied and while the walls look nice, the house is a total mess of goopy dry wall clumps on the floors, garbage everywhere. Our dumpster is sorely undersized for this part of the job and we have to fill it and then wait a week to have it emptied. Tomorrow our floors will be scraped to remove residual grout from the old tile. By the end of the week the dry wall will be done and the guys will start installing the finish carpentry.

Today at Trader Joe's I dropped a glass jar of enchilada sauce. I placed it in the cart but the child gizmo was up leaving big holes in the cart through which the jar slid, crashing on the floor. All I heard was a thud but when I looked around I saw that 5 or 6 people were looking at the floor and the spreading pool of red. The experience was telling about how much I'm really hearing.

After spending two hours with the kitchen designer at DixieLine I went on to the Mexican Tile Store where I discussed our quest for a particular design with the owner. He was helpful but tried to steer me to a matte finish tile which I didn't like but had to agree was an almost-match for the tile in the book I'm trying to copy. I brought home 3 samples which we are assessing.

Dry wall

This week we had the first coat of stucco applied to the house, the dry wall is going up fast and we picked out the baseboard, window and door casings and crown molding. A lot of time was eaten up picking out tiles and we found one for accents that we particularly like made out of re-cycled beer bottles. The tile is a beautiful goldish orange color and once you know it's beer bottles - the visual clicks into place. We also finished our exterior inspection which meant we could go ahead with dry wall. One tile setter has come up to give us a bid.

Watching the three guys hoisting up the 12 foot dry wall sheets for the ceiling is thrilling. They organize three ladders and each position themselves under a third. They climb up together and yell "turn", then they flip the sheet over so they can nail it to the ceiling.

We've come through three weeks of perfect weather. Warm sunny days, clear air. Rain started to fall on Thursday and the heat
spell is likely broken.

We're thinking about adding beams to our turret ceiling.

Our first cruise together was from Santiago to Rio on a Princess Cruise lines boat. 15 days in duration, it was too long for us and
we found ourselves a little cranky and beset with cabin fever after about 10 days. We did love sailing through the Straits of Magellan and the Beagle Channel and rounding Cape Horn. The glaciers were beautiful and it was thrilling to sit up in the highest lounge and feel ourselves slipping smoothly through the icy water. Of the ports en route, Ushuaia and Montevideo were the most interesting. Stanley on the Falkland Islands was a real dud unless you took a penguin expedition which really didn't interest us too much. 2400 passengers unleashed on a town with 2000 citizens is just too much.

We did like Santiago very much and are now interested in visiting more of Chile. Also Rio was wonderful with our guide Rafi who made the visit most interesting. He took us around to different neighborhoods in Rio, to the park, the lesser known beaches and to his home town of Niteroi , where we enjoyed the most gorgeous views looking back at Sugarloaf and the Cristo. Flying home on Christmas morning was great - flights were surprisingly full but the airports were empty and easy to navigate.

On board the ship we did meet a few interesting people. One was a physician from Napa, Italian born and educated who told us he worked for the movie studios as a financially strapped young medical student. He had the chance to make extra money as an extra on Quo Vadis by jumping from a bridge with his shirt on fire. Even though he was burning up he did not pass up the chance to look behind him as Gina Lollabrigida followed behind him reputedly wearing no panties. His wife obviously bored at hearing this story thousands of times, leaned over to me and whispered that after 30 years together and renting the movie many times, she'd never been able to stay awake long enough to see his "big" scene.

I met a man who was in the business of showing movies outdoors - like beaches and public parks. We met a woman who had assisted a physician do a tracheotomy with a ball point pen. Most of the people however were old hat cruisers and they shared a mentality that we didn't feel part of. Conversations invariably began with the question about how many cruises you'd been on. There was a wide range of ages on the boat but most were in 50's and up. There were about 5 children which most people were grateful for explaining that kids can be a huge nuisance on a boat, riding up the elevators constantly, running around in the dining rooms - generally a noisy, boisterous nuisance. Not so on this trip.

An Irish couple told me about a cruise in the same part of the world that they had taken a few years ago. When they came into the harbor at Montevideo, their captain drove through a bow line, overturning a freighter loaded with cars. The freighter sank in a couple of minutes and the harbor was closed for three days. All hell broke loose as people were missing trains, planes, important events. The Irish couple was already highly upgraded and just enjoyed being even further treated kindly by the cruise line. The captain was taken away almost in irons and the company had hell to pay to the passengers. Because of the delay and the increasingly bad weather (this was the last cruise of the season), they couldn't land in Stanley. One family had taken the cruise primarily so they could go to Stanley and pay their respects at their son's grave - he was a British soldier who died in the war with Argentina.

Our cruise was several hours late arriving in Rio. The Brazilian government took the opportunity to be uncooperative about finding a berth. We disembarked hours late after standing in line for hours. 2000 people were waiting to get on and 2000 people waiting to get off. Chaos ruled. We finally got a cab to our hotel and away from the mess at the port.

Eh? What?

People can be wonderful. Most everyone I have regular contact with is very understanding about the hearing problem and they circle around me so they can speak in the good ear. Casual contacts are another story. In stores, when you ask people to repeat themselves they are usually annoyed as would I be. In certain stores or restaurants, I can't hear people at all - because of the tinnitus and hyperacuity combination. The choice is between smiling and nodding or asking for a repeat. In social situations, I opt for the smiling and nodding sometimes with disastrous results. I'm learning to avoid loud places, "live" acoustics and things like cocktail parties or other gatherings where there are many voices at once. The book club is even becoming difficult to hear.
I'm looking into hearing aids that might work for AN.

Singapore and PhuQuoc

A two week break from the house in Singapore and PhuQuoc. In Singapore we did the usual things, mostly walked around and ate very well. We stayed at the Scarlet, in Chinatown which was very nice but we like the location of the Swiss Hotel better. On Tiger Airlines we flew to HCMC. Tiger uses the new budget terminal in Singapore which was very efficient although bare bones. In HCMC, we shopped and ate - had eyeglasses made, bought some fake watches and knick-knacks. Only managed one good meal because I was under the weather for much of the time - acute indigestion and my ear was really bothering me. Once we got to PhuQuoc, the ear calmed down immediately as the ocean sounds cancels out the tinnitus. Our resort, La Veranda was beautiful and the ocean was bath-water warm. Everyday we read, cavorted in the waves, ate lunch at the beach shack next door and slept a lot. A most restorative and relaxing time to forget about everything. It was interesting to be out of the country for the election results. Everyone we spoke to was happy about Barack, except the republicans. However most republicans know the party needs a shake-up and a redefinition. This four year period will give them a chance to regroup and rebuild the party back to its basics.

Today the news is breaking that Hillary will be taking the job as Sec of State. Disappointing to those who really expected big changes in the way this administration runs the country. Bill Clinton is now Husband of the Sec of State. Nice job.

Sprinkler system

Turns out that we do have to install a sprinkler system, even though we are under the square footage requirement and even though we are a remodel. Another $6500 expense. Last week we got the driveway jack-hammered out, Gail finished most of the wiring and the dry wall was delivered. The drywall delivery truck arrived at 3:00 and didn't get the load off until 6:00 - pitch black and they had to use the fork lift light to see what they were doing. After they left, the truck pitched off the fork lift on a turn and one of the men ended up with a broken leg. We didn't see this accident as it occured further down on Daily Road. Really unfortunate, but it was so dangerous to be working with this kind of equipment in the dark.

Our doors were all delivered and look very nice but many of them don't fit or have problems. DixieLine is coming up Tuesday to decide what to do with them. A couple have to be returned - one is badly warped.

I'm disappointed with the landscape designer. The plan for the front is very good but the back lacks imagination. We may not continue to the next phase with this group and instead just hire one of the other landscapers to finish it up.

Central vacuum system is installed. This was the easiest of all the subs - he came, he installed, he went home. No muss or fuss.

Recipes for the Girls

The Banar gals invited me to do two recipes for them. Poor Vicki is swamped. I'm doing a Coconut Panna Cotta and a Tropical Fruit Tart. Not too hard. I submitted the ideas to them for the concept. They will get back with approvals of one or the other

Meanwhile Shari is trying to sort out some requests of BB. One was for her to create recipes that will match two photos that the agency had shot. They are supposed to be simple and one of them - a spinach salad should be. The other is a taco that the agency has made very complicated by adding too many ingredients and now they want a simple recipe. Furthermore the photo contains a couple of unbelievable faux pas - a toothpick has been left sticking out of one tortilla and you can see a slice of bread sticking out from under the tortilla..they used it as a prop. Ouch.

I will help Shari with her photos next week for two days. This week she's on her own.

This week I will try to get the bathroom cabinets designed and finish up the kitchen with necessary modifications. I have been suffering with a cold and am just getting over it. Perhaps I'll feel a little more with it.

Ironing

We had to choose an ironing "center" today. A built-in unit for the master bathroom. We chose one with a swivel board and a timer and a spot light. The iron can be plugged in at all times and you only have to turn on a timer to get started. Once done, you put the iron in the rack provided and close the door. It will turn off at the designated time. This is supposed to eliminate the "left the iron on" anxiety that we have all suffered. We'll order the iron tomorrow along with the steam shower - a Thermasol. Once again we are having to learn more than we'd like about all the options. 10 years ago there was only one hide-an-iron called Hide a Board. Now there are about 10. It must be a lucrative business because there is not much to them and the price is high.

We cleaned the rancho today...drywall and crap everywhere. The workers are just throwing their empty food containers and bottles off the roof to wherever. I carried drywall and insulation and will probably get asbestosis now on top of my other problems. Richard worked on filling the dumpster. He picked flowers for me which were in the car when I left with Pinkie. Buster stayed at the rancho on the watch with a Kangaroo Rat, flushed out of one of the closets. He was mesmerized.

Beautiful day today..about as good as it gets. Are we lucky to be living in this marvelous climate. And the bail-out bill was restructured and should pass tomorrow. Does that mean happy times will be here again?

Note to myself: watch out for the ruskies. I think they are on the move again, big time.

Pork tenderloin, baby zucchini, baked potato and a nice salad with hand made croutons for dinner. Life is good.

Big Bail out

Today congress passed the big 700 billion dollar bail out. We have reached a disgraceful place in this country. What a mess. The government blames greedy lenders when the problems rooted in the congressional meddling in the whole process to make fair housing available to the poor and needy. Right.

House-wise, we are getting stucco bids. Lots of plumbing going on...laying pipes and running wires. The roof is stacked with tiles and the felt is on. The upper deck has been water proofed and tomorrow Ken and the boys will be over to hand the big slider and to build the roof ridges, the shower framing and lower the roof in the bedroom. I have a cold and am experiencing some anxiety over the tumor. I'll be happy to have my meeting with the neurologist over with so that I know what I have to deal with. Daily I think my buzzing is getting worse and hearing worse..but I don't know if it's my imagination.

I'm busy with cabinets, appliances and have to make tiles and counter choices. More shopping.

Sssstresss

Stress this week with the arrival of the big beams from Vintage. Instead of 400 pounds which they claimed the big beam was, we estimated closer to 800 pounds. Five guys could hardly budge it. We decided to cut it in half and use half of it on the underside of our arches when you walk in the house. Things are starting to look hunting lodge like but we like it. The massive fireplace and beams are a nice contrast to the La Cantina door. Once it was up, I wished we had bought another for upstairs.
The whole wall looks like glass.

Ken was very shocked at the size of the beams. He thought we meant small beams and got lost in my changing back and forth from fake to real. I only bought the beams because he assured me he could set them. If I ever did something like that again, I would make sure the contractor knew what I was talking about.

The sliding doors were set, the beams raised and the bathroom prepared for the new walk-in shower. We decided on a glass brick wall for the guest shower/steam shower and on the jacuzzi bath tub for upstairs. I have to decide on whether we will wax the beam or not. I know I have to get some stain to touch up a few spots on the wood which are just too stained to be really nice.

Today we have to cover the thresholds and the door edges so the "animals" don't wreck them - that would be the stucco, dry wall and roofers...everybody who comes stomping through.

My New Reality

In Lowe's today, looking at outdoor lights, a man walked past me and I heard, "mumble, mumble, grumble." I asked him, "Are you speaking to me?". He replied, "Mumble, mumble, mumble." I said, "I'm sorry could you repeat that?" and moved closer - again, a mumble. So I told him I couldn't hear in one ear. A look passed over his face and he said "I LIKE YOUR SANDALS!" in a big, loud voice. I laughed at the reaction because it's becoming familiar. Why wouldn't somebody be frustrated after repeating an innocent little compliment three times until it's importance is blown all out of proportion? People run out of patience very quickly. So do I when someone dares not to hear me!!!

I'm thinking of getting earrings that say on one side, good ear and on the other, bad ear.

Goodbye Jaime

Richard had a trying day. Jaime finally just stopped working. Oddly, he slashed his time sheet to ribbons and then went off to sleep in the grove. When Richard confronted him, Jaime cursed at him and flashed his knife. Richard calmly told Jaime he was fired and to leave. There was an outburst of profanity and name calling to Richard, who warily kept his distance and remained calm. Jaime left only to come back because he had left his cell phone behind.

Jaime was a good worker in that he did a job, any job, very well. He completed jobs including clean and putting tools away. he had become more trouble than he was worth - in summary, Richard's complaints:
Jaime at one point, virtually lived in the truck..he would do his laundry and hang it in the garage. The truck stank of Jaimes stinky clothes He never worked 8 hours. It was 7 1/2, then 7 then 6. He was arriving later and later and much of his time was unaccounted for; Richard found that he was coming to work, signing in and then taking off to collect cans around the neighborhood. Somehow, Jaime expected Richard to be benificent, bestowing money on Jaime just because he asked for it. He stole fruit from the grove a bit of a time and then became profligate about it taking as much as 50 pounds a day. We believe he was siphoning gas out of the truck - the tank emptied out awfully fast. He always had his own agenda. He preferred for example working with the construction guys and at one point was acting more like Ken's laborer than ours.

His parting shot was to slash up Richard's little tomato bush - we don't know everything he did - Richard will find out what was stolen and what ruined over the next few days. Richard believes Jaime to be insane or at least out of control. We are relieved to be done with him.

Equal and Cedar Rapids

Shari and I went to Cedar Rapids this week to do a presentation at Swank for Equal. We were not well prepared as neither of us were particularly into it. Our contact at Equal is gone, replaced by an unknown quantity and so our work there is probably over. I guess that's the reason we were so unenthusiastic. However, Shari and I enjoyed ourselves in first class both there and back which made the travel much easier.

Our little presentation went OK but I felt we were faking and dodging most of the questions. I particularly can't get behind the product at the moment because of my own anxiety about my AN. This may be distracting me in a bigger way than I acknowledge. I find if I keep really busy I don't notice the buzz so much. Coming down in the aircraft to Minneapolis, my buzz turned into applause for a while which was scary but it settled down in a little bit.

Shari and I shared a pork tenderloin sandwich and we also ordered cheese balls which were deep fried. Not exactly the most nutritious meals you could experience. Pork rules in Iowa.

Mid-September

This week marked the completion of the fireplace stoning and we picked up the mantle from Vintage Timer and appied the stain. It looks pretty good, full of character. The fireplace also turned out as expected. Now we are stuck waiting for the plumber to give us a price on jack hammering out the bathroom shower floor to replace it with the correct pitch for drain so that our shower can be a walk-in one. Gary is a nice guy but a lousy communicator - he simply does not return my calls and I have to ask Dan to intervene whenever I want him.

The roof is progressing and some of the paper is already on. They will load the tiles sometime during the week. We have one stucco bid but require a few more. I've decided against Cats Paw as I think it will be too busy with the wrought iron and our ultra fancy roof. Just too much going on. Now to convince Richard.

Our Anderson windows have been checked out by the Dixieline rep. He was surprised that some were as bad as they were. One has to be replaced completely. He repaired the latches that fell off immediately after coming out of the boxes.

In Bali they are working on our stair railings and should finish up this week. The whole order will then be shipped and will arrive within two months.

Gail continues to work on the electrical and has many questions..all good ones and all of which will help us get some really good lighting installed. Both Richard and I like well-lit houses so this part is fun.

Framing Finished

Ken and company have almost completed the framing. They have yet to do a few things and install the beams. Most of this should be completed next week. Jerry made a very nice arch for over the bedroom door and he added some bumps to the chimneys, finishing them off.

The foreman from Dan's roofing has been by and is planning to put the felt on next week. We have a lot of under belly stuff to do this week before we move forward again. Hot mop on the deck, before the sliders can be installed; shower pan to be resolved, before more plumbing can be done; a steam shower to purchase and a bathtub for upstairs.

Elbow gave us a reduced bid for the front wall. $7500.00. The partnership between him and Oscar has fallen apart and Elbow now wishes to pretend that we are paying him by the hour for future jobs to cut out his mordita to Oscar. Another construction politics - Ken fired Jeff off the job. Rob fired Dan. Are we bad luck or is this just the way it goes?

My left ear

My ear problem turns out to be more than expected. An MRI revealed an acoustic neuroma, a benign growth sitting on the vestibular nerve. These neuromas occur when a certain protein, effective against tumor growth and controlled by a gene on chromosome 22, ceases to be generated. It is a genetic mutation. Schwamma cells, a thin layer which sheaths the nerve start to grow. Eventually they form a mass...mine is the size of a BB at the moment. They are unpredictable..some grow slow, some fast. Some grow fast for a while and then slow down. Some grow fast and then slow and some disappear.

I've had a few days of gathering information to the point of overload so now I'll just leave it alone until I see the neurologist and get the info straight from the horse's mouth. For now I'll bet I get put into the W & W group - watch and wait. From my reading the treatment I'd select would be radiation knife. Risks abound no matter what path you choose.

Bottom line is the tinnitus is with me forever so I get used to it.