A Matter of the Heart

The last week or so has been somewhat eventful. Just when we were finally coming to terms with Adam's Hodgkins and dealing with everything that goes with that, I began having some issues. First I started having some pressure in m chest, then my heart began having strange palpitations. Then this continued to all out chest pain. not the heart attack, rush me to the hospital kind of pain, but just "twinges". So a call to the doctor was inevitable.

At the doctor they decided to do an EKG. This showed some abnormalities so a stress test was ordered, which then lended the doctor to advise more tests. Another EKG along with more tests. The doctor said that there is some problem with how i am "wired" and I may need a pacemaker.

Fortunately, a pacemaker was not needed and it looks as though i will be ingesting more medicines, and I guess I am going to have to cut back on the caffeine. I'd say it was mostly stress related, but then I am not a doctor. I feel it just boiled down to a matter of the heart...

Happy Anniversary! And So Much More!

On March 23rd DJ and I celebrated our 8th anniversary of our commitment ceremony. In September will be our 9th year together, but the 23rd was the day that we committed ourselves to one another in front of all our friends and family. I was going on 41 and he had just turned 21!! Wow he was young...

Anyway, 8 years later and so much has transpired since then. 8 different living locations, one hospital visit, diagnosed with diabetes, three grandkids, 4 jobs for myself, 6 for DJ, death of a grandparent, living with his mother, and now Adam's battle with Hodgkins. But through it all we have had each other. Yes, there were a few times we had some disagreements, and it has not always been a bed of roses, but over-all I think our relationship has been a very strong one from the beginning. Our mutual respect, love and passion for one another has survived all of those things, and the mis-steps... we have been able to work through them. So on to the next 8 and then the next 8 and so on.

Happy Anniversary DJ, I love you and thank you for loving me!

Another March Madness

Check out my blog posting regarding March Madness in 2007. Well, it is that time again, and much like the 2007 version, this one is very much the same. However, this year I did play the "brackets". I picked the city in each division that I like or would like to live in and chose them. So in the final four I have Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Memphis, which I narrowed down to Duke and Wake Forest with Wake Forest going all the way. I've been laughed at now for two days, but who cares, it was only 5$.

I hate March Madness for many of the same reasons I hated it in 2007, but another reason is DJ works double shifts throughout this entire fiasco. So for the next three weekends I will not see him at all. Yes, the money is good, and being a bartender during March Madness at a very well-known national sports bar chain, is financially profitable, but I miss my own private bartender!!

Another March will soon be over, and so too will the madness of it all.

40 Toys ~ Spirograph

OMG!! Have you seen this yet? The online SPIROGRAPH!!

This toy filled hours of my young life. I was the Spirograph artist of my family. Mom would even post them on the fridge for all the world to see.

I had no idea however that I was playing with this:


Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced with the drawing equipment (so in this sense it may be regarded as a synonym of hypotrochoid). The name is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.

Spirograph was quite simple, it worked with a set of plastic gears and other shapes such as rings, triangles, or straight bars. There were several sizes of gears and shapes, and all edges had teeth to engage any other piece. For instance, smaller gears fit inside the larger rings, but also can engage the outside of the rings so that they rotate around the inside or along the outside edge of the rings.

To use it, a sheet of paper is placed on a heavy cardboard backing, and one of the plastic pieces is pinned to the paper and cardboard. Another plastic piece is placed so that its teeth engage with those of the pinned piece. For example, a ring may be pinned to the paper and a small gear placed inside the ring – the actual number of arrangements possible by combining different gears was, as a kid infinite. The point of a pen is placed in one of the holes in the moving piece. As the moving part is moved the pen traces out a curve.

The pen is used both to draw and provide locomotive force; some practice is required before Spirograph can be operated without disengaging the fixed and moving pieces. (That took me while...) More intricate and unusual-shaped patterns may be made through the use of both hands, one to draw and one to guide the pieces.

By playing this game as a kid I learned that math didn't suck. I always hated math, it was by far my worst subject. Yet, the gorgeous patterns you created were based on good old math. The fact fact that you could vary the size of your drawings by using different holes on the geared wheel was an almost transcendental bit of knowledge. You walked away realizing that math could be applied in ways that were pretty cool.

I started out with just the simple Spirograph game, but soon advanced to the SUPER-Spirograph in no time!

I wonder if Spirograph is still for sale, if not I can just play the online game.

Cleaning House

It is almost 70 degrees outside today and it has me in the mood for cleaning! Spring cleaning! I hear you now..."You are kidding right?"

But no I am not kidding, I NEED to clean house. Even though we have only lived here about 4 months (Oh, yeah we moved again, didn't I tell you? Sorry. A bigger place, two bedrooms, same complex) I really need to clean. Even though neither DJ or myself seem to be spending as much time at home, it is a MESS! So most of the morning I have spent cleaning.

I have also been cleaning the blog up a little. I was reading my blog list (that list of blogs to your right) and I am finding out that some of my favorite bloggers have disappeared from the blogoshere. Lost them to facebook or Twitter I guess. So I cleaned house over there, deleting some blogs that have disappeared and added some new ones and brought back some ones that I used to read. I also added (or should I say updated) my picture links. I am focusing the picture links to my grand kids.

Well as I am sure DJ is happy I cleaned house, i hope you are also happy I cleaned up my Blog-House.

March Already!?

It is really hard to believe that it is already March 2009! It could be the fact that it is still cold as December outside. Or it could be with everything going on with Adam and everything else it just seems like it should still be December.

DJ's little sister is expecting her first child in August. This was news that we heard on her birthday, January 2nd, but everyone was keeping it quiet. I never understood that, though. How can you keep a pregnancy quiet? It is going to be obvious sooner of later. Maybe it was because she is 18 and just graduated High School. It may be they wanted it quiet because she is un-married. That no longer seems to be the taboo it was back in the 1950's, so why all the "hush hush". Who knows, but it drama seems to be prevalent in his family, so maybe they just wanted it for the "drama". Anyway her baby will be here in August, then talk about drama!!

Not much happening really, Adam is moving along pretty well. There has been some bumps, but nothing that he can not get over. Other than that it looks as though March is going to be another uneventful month that just passes us by too quickly and we will soon hear me saying...December, Already!?