Category Archives: family

Another flipping hour

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Lost again tonight. This will make tge third time zone change in six nights. Add to that the three hours I lost somewhere over the US on my way to Tampa and yiu start to see the extent of my confusion. Not helped by this particular ship’s captain who seens to like pushing ahead in the middle of the night. Personally, I like east bound changes in the middle of tge day. 1200 becomes instantly 1300. When wvening comes, the night is the same length. Getting shorted an hour of activities to me is better than losing one of my rare hours of sleep.

The house in California is still standing as reported by family there. Others teaveling seem to be doing ok. All four legged members are ok and Dani’s two seem to be adjusting to their new (renovated) digs.

They might be moving

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downstairs yet this month.

a few things moved into the living room

 

The kids are working diligently on sorting out their stuff and figuring out what needs to be stored (seasonal), what needs to get relocated downstairs and what just might go the way of the recycling.

and a few more into the bedroom

 

Their furniture is mostly in, there is stuff on the wall.

Is it evil of me to say that I am looking forward to them, and most especially the dogs, having their own space?

Errands

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Not managing to crawl out of bed for the first “family taxi” run of the day I picked up the slack from there on out.

I will just give you the summary:
George to BART, San Pablo Ave (personal trip), Acme Bakery, Berkeley lighting for the last fixture, pick up Dani & Gwen, drop off Alex, pick up & drop off George, pick up Dani & go to Costco, drop off stuff to Shana, drop off rest at home, stop at Sprouts, drive back to Shana’s, drive home.

By this time it was close to 2030 and the last load was ready to toss in the laundry.

So that only left packing.

Believe it or not, there still was fuel in the car!

Presents

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Haven’t you noticed that as we get older it gets harder and harder to figure out presents. Birthday presents, holiday presents, anniversary or whatever.

Admittedly, I think a lot of people prefer gift cards or cash but that still feels like a copout to me.

This past year, I did the cross stitch of Gwen as a present for Alex.

Searching around – I discovered this cute guy on the DMC site for free. It took less than an afternoon. Now all I need to do is frame it.

one quick budgie

And that will be my excuse for visiting JoAnns tomorrow….

Rutaximab

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Is not exactly my favorite medication in the whole world, but if it puts off a recurrence of my NHL, I am more than willing to deal with an infusion every couple of months. Obviously that means that this was my Wednesday to land at the SFVA bright and churly.

Unlike my last couple of trips, there weren’t any issues with my port this time and I sailed through everything in more than enough time to catch the 1440 shuttle back to BART.

Unlike the last few times I wound up with serious nausea and am still wondering what is up with that. Meanwhile, Dani managed to get herself home from work, Alex is still in NY and George is at JP Morgan most of the week.

My best bet for me is more sleep…

Survived another one

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Well, considering this past year I am more than pleased to report that I have made it to another birthday.

I planned nothing fancy today, just “doing stuff” on the theory that how you start the year is how you will continue. Considering that we are barely past Yom Kippur (but at least not having to fast today is good) I am not one for any kind of resolutions.

So – I dropped off Dani and Gwen at her job just after 0500 this morning and took a bit of a nap upon return. Then I cleaned up my side of the bedroom putting away clean clothes that have been languishing and figuring out what I am taking on the NCL Sun (departure on the 5th). The studio also received a bit of organization both before and after a grocery run.

The spaghetti sauce is simmering on the stove, the bread and bread sticks are baked, the salad came out of a bag and the noodles are about to go in the pot.

Shana baked the cake. As soon as one the four other people currently residing in this house figures out that someone (read – not me) needs to set the table we might even be able to eat!

Freaking hot

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and a day of no guilt.

Upfront – I am at the ballpark. George is in Germany. Today marks our 39th anniversary.

There were many years in our marriage where deployments and/or jobs interfered with celebration of our anniversary or either of our birthdays. Seven years in fact where we missed all three and not a broken mirror to blame. This year I was a bit concerned.  His birthday, which falls in July was hampered a bit by the house construction. I haven’t yet come up with an excuse to duck out on my birthday in October. Which leaves our anniversary today; a day which just happens to have an A’s home game.

It isn’t that I don’t want to be in the same place with my husband. It is rather that a good friend of ours, perhaps George’s closest friend in Germany died unexpectedly last week. It is why he rerouted to Heidelberg while I came home. Anniversaries roll around every year; not so with funerals.

Meanwhile, the As managed to win the fourth of four games in the series with 41 runs scored over the four games.

 

 

Citi Field

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What would a weekend be without a baseball game?

In this case, it was take the 7 from Manhattan almost all the way to Flushing.

I actually don’t mind some of the design of Citi Field. Certainly it is a lot newer than either the Coliseum or A T&T park. Some of the design features I do find issue with. The stairways are hard to find and ADA access? Absolutely no signage – you have to know where to go and how to find it. And we will not bother with discussing subway lack of easy accessibility…. not worth going there. The do have the sense of just wanding everyone which eliminated all the metal detectors. Actually quicker and easier!

The design of the stadium, however, does lead to decent right and left field bleacher ares.

FYI – the Mets – like too many other teams outlaws noise makers. The fans today lacked what I would call ongoing team spirit, perhaps fueled by what is now the Mets Sunday 2-7 record at home. According to Angel (Pratt grad along with the Maus) there is a solid bleacher group which primarily comes to home evening games and does a lot of supporting cheering.

But still? No banners? No flags? No drums or cow bells? It is part of the experience at home for the As.

Daniel Gossett managed to pull off five good innings before starting to lose it in the sixth. The relief pitchers held it together. Casilla after pulling his usual idiocy managed to get the three outs in the bottom of the 9th thanks in no small part do to excellent fielding on the part of Brugman in the outfield. A win is good, especially after pitchers gave away more than comfortable leads to lose the last two games.

We are off to Connecticut in the morning. My chance to see where Noah is working for the summer and ride the trains on the East Coast…

(photos not yet downloaded….

Absolutely nothing

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Seriously, this is one of those dry spells where days run into each other separated only by the presence or absence of an Athletic’s home game. The dogs are doing well and adore taking turns being a warehouse dog at Dani’s job. Gwen (the Golden Retriever)

Dog, reporting for duty

and helping with orders

and exactly why can’t I do the orders?

while the other pup (different day), just needed a nap after her hike to work (only 7 km…)

just give me a minute…

She has a lot more energy and it didn’t take her all that long to recover. A solid game of ball fetch over lunch let her keep it together for the rest of the day.

House construction is proceeding apace. The new foundation will be poured sometime next week.

And we head to NYC in the morning.

Thread

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Isacord – 40w poly. 423 colors

Let me take you back in history: a long, long time ago when I lived in Germany I bought a Pffaf sewing machine and brought it back with me the first time I lived in the DC area circa 1984. Carmen and her husband picked us up at the airport (me, Shana, a ton of luggage which included the sewing machine) and dropped us off at our new but empty house in Kensington. There was a small embroidery attachment and I had great dreams about “doing stuff.”

Over the years I added machines which included increased machine embroidery capability but never quite got the hang of it. I did accumulate a bit of thread (Sulky, Isacord, Maderia, plus a couple of other brands) which meant that I never quite had the colors or combinations that I needed and continued to add thread one spool at a time.

This past Dec I had to change sewing machine manufactures. Pfaff is no longer made in Germany but China and all the attachments weren’t going to fit anymore. I bought a Viking (which is European made) and went for the relatively high end. It can do all sorts of things including embroider. I had a variety of stabilizers, I had the software. What I didn’t have was a thread set. When I did this for Alex

On the back of a jacket

I had to pull from five different thread lines to come up with the colors. It is not that it wasn’t appreciated –

the kids, the dog, the jacket

But I really wanted to avoid the hunt and color substitution agony that was involved.

Poly is not quite as shiny as rayon, but it is very washable and color fast which is why I bought what I did. I sorted through and found I already had about 20 colors. Even so, buying the set saved a chunk over individual spools, especially since the storage boxes were included.

FYI – Casilla managed to lose a winning game in the 9th by giving up two runs to Tampa Bay

Maybe gray hair

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But what would you expect of a handsome man turning 69 today?

George

He certainly isn’t the shaggy haired guy that I married in 1978

10 Sept 1978

But then, I don’t exactly look the same either!

Last year we spent a weekend white water rafting and wine tasting. This year things are a bit tamer. Lunch with those in the family who are local (minus the dogs) and dinner for the two of us on Thurs. He is someone who actually appreciates both big bashes and birthday acknowledgements. But with the house under construction, a large shindig is going to have to be next year (and besides, 70 is something more fun to celebrate).

I’ll be happy to pass along greetings or you can contact him directly (georgeDOTRehmATicloud.com)

 

Dinner with Daughters

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Two of my three are relatively local to me. Well, one is really local, living across the hall. The other lives just down the road in Richmond. Last week we got together for dinner. No fool, I buy the groceries and let them cook.

Dani picked the menu this week with an Asian flavor – there was spicy Thai beef salad –

on a bed of romaine

 

a lovely mushroom soup with Udon noodles

sprouts and a bit of tofu for protein

 

and quick grilled peppers because I thought they looked pretty in the bag and brought them along –

which turned out to be mild and nice

we made it an early evening. The As had already managed to loose to the Marlins..

Defeat from

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the jaws of potential victory.

It seems like the As pitchers just can’t stand to have a winning streak. After the previous two good games, the As pitching left a bit to be desired. Of course, the starting pitcher didn’t get hung with the loss because he was not the idiot who proceeded to deliver balls that turned into Blue Jay home runs.

I didn’t see the end of the game. For Oakland it was cold and the wind was blowing. For once common sense applied and I left after 8 innings when the score was tied. I didn’t have to watch the As lose and I didn’t spend money on another sweatshirt or jacket since I had stupidly left mine at home.

Had a lovely evening spent with The Eldest and Ms Runner where they tried out three recipes from a new cookbook and I had a chance to haul the Spiral Fractal from where it was languishing and add a few stitches.

Not fit for civiliazation

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It is not that I have fallen off the face of the earth exactly. It is more that the bounce after steroids this time was slightly beyond belief. I won’t tell you that I am ever the most even tempered individual, but but being totally and completely evil is not what I want to think of as my normal mode.

Especially once the temper gets out of control and doesn’t easily want to be reined in.

What really doesn’t help (ok, lets just be honest here and say that it makes things even that much worse) is if the individual with whom I started a discussion starts to argue with me.

Hello? I am the mom. Even if I could be wrong (which of course never comes into consideration), I am still the MOM and therefore right.

I think it is time to go and hole up once more…

27 May 2017

The House – part 1

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Ok, this is the last time I am going to be answering the question of what we are doing with the house, It is not like I haven’t explained before (yes really, but I don’t expect anyone to remember what doesn’t personally involve them.

To backtrack – we bought the house here in Berkeley in 2009. Well, actually George bought the house and I just went along with it. Thought he knew what he was doing. Claimed it was just what we always wanted. Husband’s don’t exactly lie, but they are really capable of deceiving themselves when they find what they really want.  My criteria were access to public transport, near a synagogue and accessible.

The house is on a freaking hill and there are stairs all over the place. The other two factors are satisfied. Provided you only want the bus before 2000 at night and don’t mind hiking up the aforementioned hill from the shul.

We took the house back from tenants in fall of 2014 when Shana came out here to go to grad school and Noah decided to make a serious stab at University. They oversaw the third floor and bathroom renovations. George and I moved in Dec 2015.

Since the beginning, I have maintained this house is not mobility or age friendly. Trust me, this past six months have more than proved both of the above to me. In concession, a couple of years ago we started the process to finish the lower floor into a one level accessible unit. The permit process wound up being insane and took us almost two years from start to finish.

We are trading in dirt floor crawl space, totally disorganized utilities with vents going everywhere and a laundry room that doesn’t connect to the rest of the house. What we will gain is a self contained 1 bedroom unit with bath, great room and pullman kitchen. Did I mention the sunroom?

When I am old and grey I will move downstairs, sit in the sun and have meals delivered…

(Ok, I am already older and have a fair amount of grey…

actual construction pictures tomorrow…20

No parades for me

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Yes, it is the first of May. A day for worker celebration. A day with a significant number of demonstrations.

To tell you the truth, even if I wasn’t immune compromised at this point, I would not be out there marching, protesting or demonstrating. I don’t like crowds, I don’t like stressing police and I don’t see what any of it accomplishes (other than feed the press who seem to be able to manage frenzies without much assistance).

So instead I ran a few errands, appreciated that Saul’s was closed again today in order for its people (huge number immigrants) to be out and involved.

More importantly, we sprung my SIL from UCSF and got him home. Not sure if Gwen (one each Golden Retriever) was more relieved or Alex was. He didn’t have a huge fun time in the hospital. Duh

Back in the Lounge Chair

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Since I had essentially been up all night, I was more than glad to see that the coffee stand at the VA had both coffee and muffins. Driving over from UCSF wasn’t all that challenging. Not even given the stupid directions that Google Maps was trying to give me. It was just easier to back track to Stanyan, cross the panhandle of the park and drive up Geary to 42nd. Would have been much, much easier if the fog had not decided to be a cold, wet blanket over everything.

As soon as the infusion center opened, I crawled into a chair with a pillow and two blankets. I stayed awake long enough to get blood drawn; then had to be woken to see my doc. After a nice discussion, two of my chemo meds are being reduced, my echo is ok. My anemia is a huge pain and I can get a scan next week if I really want one.

I crawled back in my chair and dozed off and on for the next couple of hours. That turned out to be good because the dipping Google/Siri voice wanted to send me through downtown on the way home. Or to the Golden Gate Bridge. Me? Geary to 36th to Fulton to Stanyan to Oak and away we go. Only took 20 minutes to get those last couple of blocks to the freeway and forever after that. I gave up and bailed @ Ashby. Meanwhile – there is a faster route available… you can save two minutes….

Right. Not.

Saturday, at the park

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and it was most than lovely.

The food was good, the friends fine and the As managed to win their game by getting three runs in the first inning and managing not to blow either the fielding or pitching too badly after that. The final score was OAK 4 – SEA 3. Please note, the Mariners actually had 9 hits to the As 4. Go figure.

The RF149 section count today was four flags, three drums, three cowbells, triangles, jingles and a lot of yelling. Oh, yes, and banners across the entire front. Several of the fans are die hards, planning to drive to Stockton after the game for the evening game there (Asparagus Day with Sonny Gray pitching). Seems to me a long drive.

I caught the first BART out, then waited at Lake Merritt. As I was standing there, a guy came running past with a backpack. Behind him an elderly gentleman was screaming “stop thief.” Me? I can’t run right now without going on my face and I was too slow to stick out a foot. But another fan, complete with yellow jersey took off after him and captured the dude by 2/3 of the way down the platform. The train, which had been about to leave, waited. The dude, having tossed the pack right as he was caught was arguing to leave. The security guy who apparently saw the whole thing on camera came down to hold him till the police came. Meanwhile, the rest of us picked up all the scattered belongings. The older guy just wanted his stuff and headed back to the train (he also had a suitcase…).

We all congratulated the Good Samaritan; mentioning that he was a whole lot faster than Billy Butler (well on second thought, I am faster than Billy Butler with zero cardiac reserve at the moment). Probably faster than Khris Davis who can hit but doesn’t seem to throw or run. In any case, a good citizen was much appreciated by all.

I ran out of steam by the end of the afternoon and an early supper at the Eldest turned into me crashing for the evening. Since she was home, the cats pretty much let me sleep….

And in NYC

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the birthday box arrived in plenty of time with clear instructions not to open till today

special for the 6th

 

Miriam actually waited until her birthday to open it.

#24

I figured the birthday girl needed a tiara, and every young woman needs a unicorn headband. Both together?  She is living & working in NYC and having a good time. According to her note, I think a few of the items wound up at work providing entertainment all around.

unicorn horn taking a break

 

Otherwise, the eldest provided these for memory time –

~ 10 years ago + Dec

My day at sea was relaxing as always. Tomorrow, since all the family birthdays are past till July, it will be back to the regular cruising natter….