<Monday, June 22nd, 2009> [Vincent]
Tori said so
When news came that Amy's mom had cancer, the future was, how to say, a bit blurry.
After the pathetic medical response received in Oklahoma, and with the option of The Mayo Clinic near her sister, Amy's mom decided to move to Florida. She received word yesterday that her house in Norman sold, closing in mid July. So, it's all but permanent.
Amy had been planning to spend the summer with her mom and the girls in Colorado. That obviously didn't happen, but Florida's cool, too. Beaches, pools, manatee, alligators, and lots of kids. Amy could be there to help her mom through chemo, and the girls could spend their summer in water and sand, as they are wont to do.
Then came another bit of news -- chemo would be switched with radiation, and would go until Christmas. So, with that news, a decision had to be made.
Tori is the one we would expect to have a problem transitioning to anything new. We wouldn't do anything without not only her blessing, but her enthusiasm. As we laid out our options to her -- either move to Florida or stay in Oklahoma with dad for a few months, she wasn't particular interested in either option. She wanted things to stay the way they have been. She wanted to stay at her school, stay in her house, stay in Oklahoma, and she wanted her mom.
Then she started getting into Florida. Beach. Pool. Critters. Leaving the beach the other day she exclaimed "I LOVE Florida"!
So, Tori said so. We're all in.
Amy signed a lease on a house near her mom this afternoon, just a few houses away from her aunt, and about a mile from her mom. The girls approve.
I've started unloading possessions here and fixing the Norman house up (our houses always look best right before we leave). I'm packing our stuff that's worth keeping into a truck on July 3rd and driving it down there. I'll be back in Norman a week later. I will stay in Oklahoma through my birthday, fixing up the house and using it as a rehearsal space for our 2nd annual RiskMetrics Battle of the Bands! Rock!
We toured the school when we got there, and it's nicer than the school here. Tori will be in a classroom with a regular teacher and a special ed teacher. In New York they call this "Collaborative Team Teaching". The schools are much like where my sister lives -- a very rich tax base, providing good funding to the schools, and a bunch of private schools for the rich kids. Tori liked the school. It has an art room, after all.
I'm still figuring out how it's going to work with my employer, but I'm confident we'll figure something out. I'll spend a fair amount of time traveling, at least for awhile, which doesn't sound that bad to me, and probably makes sense for my job, since I have coworkers and "customers" all over the world. Time away from the office is time to get some serious coding done. Time in the office is time to design and review.
Onward!
.:.
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<Tuesday, May 19th, 2009> [Amy]
Once more, with feeling
On my last trip to FL, I lost my wedding ring somewhere in the hotel room. Our wedding rings were a gift from my mother, purchased on a pre-wedding trip the three of us took to Scotland. It's only fitting that I lost mine on yet another trip with my mom. She and I tore the hotel room apart, but to no avail.
In the spirit of "making lemonade out of lemons", I suggested to V that we take this opportunity to get married again--this time, the way we wanted to originally. Which is to say, run off to some tropical island and exchange our vows barefoot in the surf. We're going to be in Ponte Vedra Beach the first week of June, anyway. And we just celebrated our tenth anniversary last November.
So we ordered new wedding rings--the titanium bands we coveted way back when. They're a LOT cheaper now--it never pays to be early adopters. We even had them engraved with our names and wedding date. I found a simple white cotton sundress at Target. With the aid of a tripod, the groom will double as photographer. And the girls will serve as our ring-bearers, of course.
.:.
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<Tuesday, May 19th, 2009> [Amy]
Summer at the shore
The girls and I are going to spend the summer with my mom in Ponte Vedra Beach. She misses us, and I can't imagine her going through chemotherapy alone. So as soon as school here lets out, we'll all drive to FL in my car. V will spend a week there with us and then fly back to OK. He'll return for another week's vacation sometime in July. Then, in August, he'll fly to Jacksonville once more and we'll drive back to OK in time for the start of school.
The girls haven't seen the ocean since our trip to Wrightsville Beach two years ago. I'm excited about reintroducing them to the joys of the seashore. My aunt Cathy's got boogie boards waiting for the them. Sawgrass is a wonderland of loggerhead turtles, wood storks and osprey. The neighborhood pool is at the end of mom's street. The playground is at the end of Cathy's. Mom and Cathy live a mile and a half apart, and there's a bike path connecting them. Cathy has five grandkids, and they all live within a ten minute drive.
As part of a clinical trial at Mayo, my mom has been selected for a new type of radiation therapy. It takes only a week instead of six, and is administered BEFORE the chemo. She'll start it next week and be nearly done by the time we arrive. She's been told that, unlike traditional radiation, it has no unpleasant side effects. She'll have two weeks to rest and recover before she starts the chemo. We'll be sure to pack those weeks as full of fun and memories as we can.
.:.
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<Tuesday, April 28th, 2009> [Vincent]
Official White House Photostream
I love this.
.:.
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<Tuesday, April 28th, 2009> [Vincent]
Well, yeah it's genetic...
...but they still don't know squat
.:.
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<Monday, April 27th, 2009> [Vincent]
Investment?
Amy's mom is headed to Florida. If our situation was different, we might follow, but with my job going so well, our house under constant construction, and the girl's attachment to their school, it's just not practical.
So, we'll go to Florida as much as we can to get time with Gran-D and time at the beach. We've been wishing for a beach to take the girls to, anyway. The problem is, where do we stay?
Hotels are pricey. Apartments are pricey. But, with all of the repossessed properties, condos are cheap. We're going to look into getting a condo as a place to stay, an investment, and a place to retire. It might not be a nice place for half of the neighbor's value, but we're handy, and we enjoy fixing places up.
It would probably be a half mile from Amy's Mom, Amy's Aunt, and the beach. Amy also has cousins and her cousins have kids Tori and Nev's age. This is all fairly appealing.
If this happens, we obviously won't be there all the time, and while we're not interested in renting it to strangers, we'll happily loan it out to family!
.:.
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<Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009> [Amy]
My mom has breast cancer
I'm in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL with my mom this week. Back in February, my mom had a routine mammogram that showed something suspicious. A follow-up ultrasound in March confirmed a 1.5 cm lesion in her right breast.
At that point, she opted to come here, to the Mayo clinic, for diagnosis and treatment. In the last three days, she's had a mammogram, ultrasound, needle biopsy, bloodwork, EKG, chest x-ray, and MRI. This morning she got her diagnosis: invasive ductile carcinoma, stage one.
She'll return in three weeks for a lumpectomy, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. She's rented a townhome in the same neighborhood as my aunt Cathy. She's going to put her house in Norman on the market next week. My aunt will fly up to OK in two weeks, and they will drive my mom's car (and her dog) back to FL.
My mom is in good spirits. It's not the best news, but it's not the worst case scenario, either. They caught the cancer early, she's being treated at one of the best facilities in the country, her insurance will cover the treatment, and she gets to live in a tropical seaside paradise, to boot.
Thanks to all who expressed concern, who shared their stories, and who prayed for a good outcome for my mom. Just as Tori's autism diagnosis was a blessing in disguise for me, so too this diagnosis of cancer will have its silver lining for her. This will end up being a positive change because she will MAKE it one. Or, as we've grown fond of telling each other, we will take these lemons and make lemonade.
I love you, mom.
.:.
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<Friday, April 3rd, 2009> [Vincent]
Just an idea...
There are a lot of people out of work. How much does Uncle Sam pay out in unemployment benefits to each person who is out of work?
There is a much smaller but not insignificant number of people that don't want to work, either because they're ready to retire or they have a kid or they hate their job or whatever, but keep working solely for the medical benefits. How much does that unwilling employee's medical insurance cost?
See what I'm getting at here?
I propose a trade. How about we let those people that don't want to work retire, and Uncle Sam can pay for their medical insurance, and let the people that want to work have their jobs?
I know it ain't that simple, but wouldn't it be grand?
.:.
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<Tuesday, March 31st, 2009> [Vincent]
Got my baby back
We have given up on the medication for now.
There were some good things about the medicine.
She did more of her schoolwork.
She could concentrate longer.
She was possibly better related.
The teachers were happier, or at least surprised.
The side effects were unpleasant, though.
She ate less and was pickier about what she ate.
She got more angry more easily.
She cried herself to sleep each night.
She was more obsessive about things that bothered her.
So, the meds have worn off and she's back to the way she was before.
Distracted.
Flighty.
A joy.
.:.
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<Saturday, March 7th, 2009> [Vincent]
New site for code bits
I've been writing bits of code for years that others might find useful, so I thought I'd put them up somewhere. I've had this URL laying around, so I'll use it for something.
.:.
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More rambling...
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