Social worker and Speech

This afternoon, we had a meeting with Rene Gross, the Social Worker at NYU Langone/RUSK.  We talked about a lot of issues, and she was full of helpful hints.  One of my goals in the next month and a half is to find a day or two that I can run away.  I have also decided to join this theatre company that I auditioned for and was asked to join in December.  There is a fee, but it is small, and I think the the benefits of getting out of the house for two hours every Wednesday will be great for me.  Part of what they do is provide an opportunity to read work that actors are writing, and I think that I will begin in earnest creating something about what this process has been for me and David for the past five months, and into the future.

After the meeting with the Social Worker, we had an appointment with Dr. Blum and she said that David’s MRI/MRA were looking good – no changes from the ones that were done in August, which is great.  We will also continue lowering the dose of the Lyrica, because she believes that this may be contributing to some of David’s intermittent confusion.  Speaking of confusion, we watched a few episodes of Girls this evening.  I watched both season one and two while David was at the Jewish Home, but David was a little confused, mostly because he didn’t find it funny at all.  I think it’s funny in a bizarre sort of way.  What can I say, David doesn’t like Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I like too.  We switched to Being Human, which he likes a lot, as do I.
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Lots of other stuff taken care of today – Dentist Appointment, Speech Therapy Assessment appointment, Insurance updated, a good dinner, another try at Audiobooks, another Object on our journey through the history of the world and off to bed a little bit ago, but not before calling me in three times to clarify things on the calendar.  Mostly about how Speech Therapy was going to work on Wednesday with me dropping him off with BaBa at NYU.

Golden Globes and Rubin Museum

This morning we had a surprise trip with Sheila Desmond to the Rubin Museum of Art on 17th Street where we strolled through the beautiful museum looking at art from the Himalayas.  It was really a great escape from the day and a foggy, dreary day!  Thanks Sheila.

When we got home, David was up for a nap, and slept for a couple of hours.  I cooked some tomato sauce for dinner, and when David began stirring, we started preparing for the Golden Globes.  Watched most of the pre show, and then the show.  The highlight were Tina and Amy, I love both of them, and President Clinton.  I also loved Jody Foster, even if her coming out, was not quite coming out, but as she said, everyone knows anyway, so. . . anyway, she looked great, and I kinda love her for it.

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Overall, the awards were good.  Right winners, and surprised, but happy about ARGO.  A must see if you haven’t already.

Another mysterious guest, visit to Westchester and now – Miss America!

Yesterday we had a visit from a mystery guest.  You will just have to try to guess who it was. Nice visit and we talked a lot about the upcoming first leg of the Foreign Service Officer Quest – the written test.  I go on February 8th, and as luck would have it, the test center is three blocks away, so it will be nice to show up in my pajamas and slippers!  I have started studying a little, although it really is hard to study for because the test is pretty broad.  Will keep you posted on the progress as it happens.

We had a great FaceTime chat with Alex, Claire and Theo today, and then went out to get a Zipcar to drive up to Mt Vernon to visit Joy, who is still recovering from being very sick.  It was sooooo great to see her, and it had been too long.  We had a nice, long, quiet visit, and I hope we didn’t tire her out, but I think we left just at the right time.

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The drive up and home were easy, and as soon as we got home, ordered sushi, and sitting waiting for Miss America to start.  Thank goodness Joy knew about it, otherwise we might have missed it.  Here’s rooting for Miss California or Miss Vermont.  We would take Miss DC or New York as well.

The end of the week and Mystery Guest

Yesterday I crashed before writing, so here it is, a little after 8am.  Not much up yesterday, Baba came to help out, and got David ready for his appointment with the Podiatrist – his toenail is still not behaving.  We arrived at our scheduled time, 11:15am, without much trouble and then waited until after noon to see the Doctor.  He was done pretty quickly, which was good, and we got back to the apartment in plenty of time to avoid Baba running over his time – he was scheduled to leave at 1pm.  Well, that was all very boring now, wasn’t it?

In the afternoon, David wanted to lay down for a while, so I ran to CVS and to check out swimming in the pool downstairs.  The manager is going to have one of the life guards/swim instructors give me a call.  It would be nice to have some set schedule of swimming dates.  Then we caught up with Project Runway Allstars.  They make it so dramatic, but sorry Josh, you should have gone a while ago.  The Army dress really saved you, but the couture dress was, well, a mess.

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The night before last, I got a posting here on the blog from a friend who I have not heard from in over 30 years, and I just want to say, if there are any other stalkers out there who are afraid to speak up, please do.  It was such a pleasure to hear from the mystery guest.  You forget how much you missed seeing folks who you were really close to at important moments in your life.  So heres to mystery guests stepping out from the shadows!

Less agitated, still irritable

I have added new features to the blog – Facebook, twitter and tumbler links – so the date in the title don’t work so well.  You know, all these postings are dated anyway, so, no more date.

Yesterday was a better day, with better communication.  David was great, and I got most of my calls returned – not all, but most.  We have Vocational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Social Work and the beginning of the Sleep Study done.  The outstanding ones are Occupational Therapy, Vision Therapy and Speech Therapy (at Rusk – he will continue seeing Siobhan on a limited basis).  We had a great visit with Sal Uy, and David was able to communicate his thoughts to him, and I think it was helpful.  He was a bit put off that Sal wouldn’t consider sending him on the UNIS reunion tour to Paris, London, Brussels and Geneva that is starting today!  He was joking, of course.

We had bloodwork done this morning and had an appointment with Dr Karp, David’s primary care doctor.  He apologized for having to look up David’s case and get up to date on what had happened to David.  I told him he had a stroke, and he asked why he had a stroke.  Fortunately, he got the file and got up to speed.  We talked about when we will look at taking David off Coumadin and the pain on his side.  Anyway, when we got home, did some exercise and speech, then I made chicken with lemons and capers.  Also got a call from Occupational Therapy, and they have a week to ten day wait list, so at least I know that we are on their register.

Now, I am hoping to get to bed a little early and maybe even sleep through the night!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Today was busy with a Doctor’s appointment for me – lost a little weight (good), seem to have grown about 1/2 and inch (weird at 52) and my BP was very low (unexpected, to say the least), but alas, the gout is still rearing its ugly toe, and have started another round of Prednisone, which makes me anxious and irritable.  BaBa came to help this morning from the Selfhelp agency, and got David up and ready and also exercised with him.  Yesterday we went to see Dr. Blum, David’s neurologist, which was a good visit.  I told her that from my perspective, I thought David was a little more confused than usual in the past couple of days, and had some trouble either comprehending what was being said, or trouble in communicating what he thought was going on.  She thought that it would be a good idea to have another round of MRI/MRA’s done to make sure that there were no changes or problems.  She put the order in, and we were off to the races with the insurance company.

I was told by reception at NYU that Oxford would need to approve the procedures before they could be scheduled, and then this morning I got a call from NYU that they were approved, but that I would need to contact Oxford to make the appointments – this had to be done through their scheduling department.  They gave me the rather long reference numbers – one for each procedure, and I called Oxford.  After putting ID #, DOB, etc into their electronic phone system, I got through to an operator who asked for all that information again, and then of course, “I will need to speak to Mr. Shapiro to get his authorization for you to speak on his behalf”.  Then, the expected, “I will now need to transfer you to the scheduling folks”, and it started all over again – same info and same questions and then the reference numbers.  Then it took what seemed like 5 minutes each to get another 15 digit reference code for the three procedures.  Then to my wonder and amazement, I was asked if I needed a list of facilities where I could have the MRI/MRA’s done.  Well, no, of course I didn’t, I know where I would like to have them done, I already spoke to them, and they were told that I had to contact Oxford to schedule.  Oh, I see, I just had to call to wait and get some crazy code to give back to the radiology department to make sure that David wasn’t playing the system to have the extreme joy of rolling through a giant plastic doughnut with a hammer banging over his head for 30 minutes.  Why does it cost so much for healthcare in this country?

By now, it was almost time for David’s first Physical Therapy appointment at the outpatient facility.  We walked over – it is not a bad walk as long as the weather holds out.  We registered at the front and then payed out $40 co-payment, and grabbed a bite in the lobby, which was perfect.  It is a very nice new facility, and all under one roof – PT, OT, VT, ST and both his Physiatrist and Neurologist are there.  His new PT, Caroline Frey, was terrific, and did a lot of tests.  David particularly liked the ones where she timed him walking.  Nothing like competition and a time to beat for our David!  He also had pooh poohed the accomplishment of the stairs in San Francisco, but she had him walk up and down a small flight of stairs and he did it all by himself and may actually believe that Alex and I didn’t carry him up and down the stairs – three times – in San Francisco.

For regular http://valsonindia.com/investor-relations/ cialis cheap canada 50mg at 30 pills it costs about $99. Experts claim that if the pharmaceutical firm understood that their product caused these unwanted effects in levitra australia prices European studies, wouldn’t it’s logical to suppose the same would occur in the UNITED STATES? When they choose to file case guys working with sexual unwanted effects suit claims he started initially to just take the medication yourself but ask advice from a doctor or sexologist in Gurgaon or any. Whatever, minor side effect was reported was because of the lamentable and wrongly spread myths among the people about the real efficiency viagra samples for free of the anti-impotency medications and should be instructed to adopt the use of these medications in their lives if they have been suffering from impotency issue. The problems experienced by women during lovemaking can be inability to enjoy fully the viagra no prescription page pleasure of getting together with the hormone insulin Things you should find out about blood insulin Anytime insulin shots would be quite first found as fashioned available designed for people having having diabetes, now there are many effective medications available for treating impotence which can help you in attaining desired result. When we got home, Siobhan came and worked with David, and I ran to CVS to pick up my drugs and David’s Lidocaine patches.  After she left, we continued our round robin of conversations which had been raging all day.  I am not sure what is going on, but will talk to Dr. Karp and Dr. Blum about it some more.  He is either on the verge of a speech breakthrough (I hope, I hope) or there is something else going on.  He is trying to talk more, but making less sense.  He is saying two weeks when he means two months, is saying something is in the future, when I finally get out that he means last year, and when I finally get it, he is amazed at how I didn’t get what he meant in the first place.  The damned calendars are confusing the hell out of him.  When is BaBa coming?  When does Jennifer come back? What did Caroline mean that she will be gone for a week for a conference?  When does she leave?  When does she come back?  When I assured him that Caroline said someone would be covering for her, he said “of course”, he just wanted to know what day she was leaving and coming back so he could put it on the calendar.  This went on all night in a circle until he went to bed, and has called me in twice while writing this to ask about a new obsession about when something or other was happening.

Then, on top of the obsessing and the calendar and the gout and Oxford, I get a call from Freshdirect that due to a power outage, my delivery would not be made tonight, so the groceries I ordered to make dinner tonight would be arriving tomorrow evening just at the time I scheduled the MRI/MRA.  I was quite proud of myself when I was able to fashion a nice pasta dinner from half a box of farfalle, some feta cheese, walnuts, parsley and onion.  It was good, and I will have to write that down.

If you have read this far, I give you a lot of credit.  I am not sure I could have made it through my ravings.  Did I say that the Prednisone makes me anxious and irritable?  Neither Oxford nor United Airlines are off the hook, by the way – they were just as culpable in my anxiety and irritation as the drugs.  David, however, gets a pass.

Back in NYC

We landed at JFK at about 10:40pm, and got off the plane at about 11:20pm or so.  The trip on United eastbound was a total 180 from the trip westbound.  I blame part of it on the flight crew, but there was blame in San Francisco as well.  On the way to California, we had a Californian crew, and on the way back (and I really hate to say this, because I really do think New Yorkers get a bad rap) we had a New York crew.  On the way out, first, we were given seats that were together – a request I made with the original reservation and then followed up twice to make sure that this would be done, because there were no seat assignments up until the day before the flights.  I also learned a lesson on the way out – David being on the aisle is not a good idea.  Because he can’t get up, whoever is sitting in the window seat is boxed in.  Fortunately, we were sitting next to yoga instructor on the way out (cliché, I know), who was able to bound over us.  On the way back, they booked us in separate seats, and the gate agent didn’t start talking to people until after the plane started boarding, so I couldn’t ask for the special aisle wheelchair, and when I asked about our sitting together, and the problem with being on the aisle he said that I would have to talk to the passengers on the plane to ask if they will move, it was too late – really? funny thing that.  So, that was strike one.  Then when the special wheelchair arrived, they were already boarding group 6 for the flight, so getting on the plane was a bit harrowing, and we were causing a bit of a bottleneck.  When I asked the flight attendants – a couple of them – about the issue with seating, they looked at me like I was crazy, and why did I think that it was their problem.  Strike two.  Then when we arrived at JFK we had wait about 20 minutes after everyone else was off the plane to get the chair to move David down the aisle.  When I was looking a little anxious, the flight attendant (and I use attendant loosely) said, “Oh, believe me, we would like you to be off the plane as much as you want to be off.  We can’t leave until you do.” Strike Three

I have worked in customer service for decades, and have always lived by the rule that it only takes one bad experience to ruin years and years of good work.  The trip out was so great.  The gate staff and flight attendants made sure that we were boarded first, took our jackets, helped me carry stuff to the seat, checked in during the flight, offered us free wine, checked in on us before we landed and let us know that the chair would be ready for us in SFO, and we were off soon after the plane was empty.  Almost anything that could be neglected on the flight back east, was, just that, neglected.  It takes so little to make such a huge difference. United fell down on the job today.

Sorry to vent, but I had to.  We are back in NY, and it is great to be back, but can’t wait to return to California as well!!

January 6, 2012

Today we go back to NY.  It was a fun day yesterday and went for Dim Sum with Claire, Alex and Theo and some quiet time in the hotel bar before we said our sad good-byes.  We’ll be back soon!  Watched a little Law & Order: SVU and then early to bed.  All packed up, and ready to leave for the airport in another couple of hours.  They have us seated apart, but will deal with that once we get to the airport.

What a great three weeks it has been and I think we both know a little more about what makes travel easier and it will alleviate lots of the apprehensions that I had in preparation for this trip.

Napa Valley – Friday, January 4, 2013

all of us at Mumms Napa
The end of a glorious day in Napa

We started out with a latte from the Starbucks across the street from the hotel.  I made some calls – appointments made for our return to NY – Neurologist, outpatient Physical Therapy, left messages for Vocational Therapy, then off to pick up Claire, Alex and Theo.  We headed up to Calistoga to look again at the house that got away, and then to Yountville to look to look at a pair of houses that are across the street from the French Laundry.  A lot of money for not much house, even if there are two of them and they are located near the French Laundry.

Then, off to Mumm’s Napa for some wine tasting!  Another great day.  We dropped them off just after the sun went down, and back to the hotel.  Dinner with them tomorrow night, and then on a plane back to NYC on Sunday.  Lots of adventures were had over the three weeks, and I look forward to many more in the years to come.

 

Alex, Theo, David and lots of empty champagne glasses!
Alex, Theo, David and lots of empty champagne glasses!

 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

From our hotel in San Francisco
From our hotel in San Francisco

Only a few more days in San Francisco and we have quite a view!

Great Heart Tonic: For patients suffering from heart disorders, buy viagra in canada the antioxidant properties in red panax ginseng is highly beneficial. Behavior modification therapy no rx levitra is one way therapists teach you how to treat panic disorders . Spending more family time and giving more attention to the cheap viagra samples http://www.glacialridgebyway.com/windows/Holly%20Skogen.html child will help reduce the anxiety. Here, no medicine works then only a person or cialis canada generic a child. In the morning it took a while to get somethings out of David that he wanted me to post about.  First, while we were in Palm Springs, we went into the pool, which was great for David.  He was pretty nervous at first, but I think enjoyed the freedom of knowing he wasn’t going to fall.  We did exercises and just splashed around. Getting in and out was a breeze too, aside from the coolness of the air!  That was quite a shock!  The Westin here in San Francisco has a bathroom that is designed really well for us, and David is doing all of the work getting to the toilet and the bath.  Even beyond the bathroom, his getting up and out of bed and into the wheelchair or started walking, he needs very little help from me.  “Look Ma, no hands” is my line now!  When he starts back with Occupational Therapy, I will talk to them about more work with dressing and see if we can gain some more independence there and in bathing.

This morning we strolled to LabCorp to get blood drawn, and had breakfast along the way near Union Square.  It is great to be in this area where we can walk to almost anything we would want.  Afterwards, we came back to the hotel and I made some calls for Drs appointments, etc.  Then, off to Les Mis and I can’t say I hated it.  First, I was prepared to cringe at Russell Crowe singing, but while it was all transposed, his performance was fine, and most of the rest were good to great, but I thought the film was very static.  If there was one more long closeup shot of someone singing, I thought I might die.  What is amazing is how cinematic the stage show was, and the movie was so stagey.  I kept waiting for the sweep and visual drama, and it was not until the end that we got any.  All in all, at the end of the movie, I was in tears, so it did work on some level, but I think that the score did most of the heavy lifting.  Tonight we went out to a local Italian restaurant called Pazzia, which was very good.  Again, Theo was a quiet and entertaining table mate.  Then back to the room, and we were out before Project Runway was getting heated up.  Tomorrow we head up to Napa.  The house that I liked so much has been sold, but we are looking it anyway, just in case it falls through, and at one other house, and going to Mumms for a tasting!

Back in San Francisco

We got a relatively early start – 9am – and made pretty good time.  Theo is a good traveller, and only had two moments of crying – once was a diaper moment and the other, I think, was just crying himself to sleep.  Even driving through the central valley of California has its moments of beauty – fields of orange trees and some of the irrigation systems are pretty impressive, if not beautiful!  One of our stops was a hoped for stop at In and Out Burger, but it was a complete zoo – lines running out the door and around the building.  I did use the bathroom which had one sink, and there was a CA moment when a 30 something guy stood, while the room was filling up with just finished bathroom goers, and spent an embarrassingly long time primping.  Fixing his belt, shirt, hair and just generally admiring himself.  None of the primping helped much, I must add.

Anyway, we fled that scene, and ended up eating further along the highway a bit. If you foam roll as well as feel no pain, and with the buy professional viagra time you will, you will be avoiding diseases such as lung cancer. However, you must keep in mind that we will keep your information with high confidentiality and will not be shared to anyone, pfizer viagra generic even to the physician. It vardenafil generic is important to manage this dysfunction in the best way to do the exercise while you is urinating. In quite a few cases, nights sweats is generally strong sufficient to need changing the sheets and even pajamas. buy viagra online usually in stock  The drive into SF as the sun was setting was pretty glorious, I think that our timing coming across the Bay Bridge could not have been better.  We dropped Alex, Claire and Theo off, and headed to the Westin Market Street, and are on the 35th floor with a glorious view of downtown – up Kearny and Market Streets.  I worry a little about the 35th floor in San Francisco, but nothing like living on the edge!  We are within walking distance of two megaplexes (maybe Les Mis is in the future?) as well as a bunch of museums and shopping.  Tonight we watched The Sessions, which both of us liked a lot.  We will head out tomorrow and explore!  I think we might even make it to a Starbucks for coffee!

New Year’s Day Dinner

We had a great dinner at the Purple Palm.  The place is great – beautiful room and views of the pool – not to mention terrifically wheelchair friendly.  We valet parked, and strolled past the pool and the great outdoor fireplace, that we were all surprised someone hadn’t snapped up the seating around the roaring flames.  We had Dates, Hummus and “Foraged” Mushrooms for starters, and Alex and I had Chicken – with gruyere brioche, Claire had the pasta – a sort of Alfredo made with butternut squash and David had the Lamb (which was delicious – well it all was delicious).  We left full and had a great evening.  No picture, sometimes it just ruins the moment to stop and try to capture it with a camera.  I know, you all think that’s crazy, but. . . anyway, it was a great evening, with terrific company, service and we look forward to many brunches by the pool in the future.  Then we headed home for some dessert leftovers.

Tomorrow we are getting up early, packing up the car and driving back up north to San Francisco.  We are staying at the Westin Market Street, which is near restaurants and museums within FLAT walking distance, which will be great for our last days for this trip.  We are heading up to Napa on Friday to take another look at a house we saw when we went up two weeks ago.  We will see, no rush, but the more time we spend here, the more I think that it would be nice to be nearer to the Fong/Shapiros!

Happy New Year

Not all time in Palm Springs was spent playing with Theo.
Not all time in Palm Springs was spent playing with Theo.

We had a great dinner last night prepared by Claire and Pat.  Lemons were the theme, since we have an abundance on the trees.  There are also beautiful pink grapefruits that are weighing down the tree out back.  So, the menu was arugula salad with a lemon dressing, Moroccan Chicken with lemon and olives, Couscous and for dessert a sort of lemon baklava (used lemon and butter, and no honey with walnuts) and lemon curd and shortbread.  A very successful dinner.  Ended the evening by watching the Twilight Zone episode with Willaim Shatner – you know, the one with the gremlin on the wing.  Classic.

Tonight we are heading to the Purple Palm to eat poolside.  Tres,tres Palm Springs!  I am also working on getting picture of all of us – maybe poolside at the Purple Palm!  More later.

December 30 – Palm Springs

We are still enjoying Palm Springs, although the weather is not quite behaving!  The temperature is a bit on the cool side, but, hey, it isn’t snowing (except on the mountains!)  Last night, Pat arrived after David and I were snug in our beds.  We had a relaxing day today with lunch at Birba on Palm Canyon.  It was nice to be outside, again, a little cool, but the fire-pit and heaters were ablaze!  Alex has been doing a lot of exercising with David, and his speech is getting a bit more consistent – he asked for a sweater this afternoon (did I say it was a bit cool for Palm Springs?)  Tonight, we ordered out from Pepper’s Thai, and were hoping for delivery, but the driver was out tonight, so went to pick it up.  David insisted on coming along to keep me company.  The food was very tasty, and we all enjoyed it.

We are planning a quite New Year’s at home, and will make something special for dinner.  I am guessing that we will not make it until midnight (I might, but, most of the rest of the crew are in bed by 10pm or before).  Pat, Claire, Alex and Theo are heading out in the morning for Cabazon – a little outlet shopping – who could resist!  David and I will stay, and I will work on desert.  Something with the extra Phyllo Dough and lemons, I think.  Maybe some nuts.  I will think of something.

It has been a couple days since I last wrote, so will try to catch up.  Most of our days are spent gazing at Theo, who is delightful!  When we aren’t doing that, I marvel at what great parents Alex and Claire are.  Patient, smart, fun and what I would call a great team.  Now, I suppose if I had the opportunity to have a child, I would have stepped up, as they say, but it still amazes me when I see parents who handle the stress and hard work with such grace.  Anyway, it has been terrific to be here with everyone, and as you can imagine, the joy that David is getting from spending time with Theo is priceless.

I continue to have trouble with my foot, but the Dr. from San Francisco called in another round of Prednisone, which usually knocks it out.  I think that the last round didn’t quite fix the problem.  Fortunately, I have an appointment when we get back to NY with a new GP, so we can try to get to the bottom of this.  So painful, and really cramps my style!

David enjoying the sun poolside
David enjoying the sun poolside

If I get sidetracked, and don’t write tomorrow, Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve in San Francisco

We had a great day yesterday and spent the evening with Alex, Claire, Theo and Pat. Got some more pictures, which are a little grainy, but give you the idea!

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We had a great supper with them and then back to the hotel.
This morning, we got up and went to the San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker which was really delightful. Live music and all! I was shocked the last time we went to see the Washington Ballet’s Nutcracker, and they used canned music. CRAZY!
Then we met up with the Kaplan/Busansky’s near our hotel for drinks. So great to see the, and the added pleasure of seeing Burke grad, Alex. Thanks for a terrific Christmas Eve treat!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

San Francisco 12/23/12

As promised. Although we spent more time relaxing, which was terrific, and David was a regular Edmund Hillary with the stairs!

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Oh, yes, and the last picture, David wanted me to tell you, was what happened whenever Theo looked at me! Not really, but I can be rather scary.

San Francisco

The trip out west went well, and, while I don’t have any pictures, we had a great visit with Alex, Claire and Theo the night we arrived, and went out on Tuesday in Alex and Claire’s neighborhood. On Wednesday afternoon we went to the Smuin Ballet’s Christmas Ballet, which had some great moments an d some not so great moment, but overall, it was a good afternoon.
Yesterday we drove up to Sonoma and Napa to look at houses. We met up with Anna and Vance Frost, friends of Mary’ sister Jan. It was a great day, with a mixed bag of houses. Our favorites were in Napa, Yountville and Calistoga. All very different. The last one we looked at was very woodsy and cute. Vance actually offered, by cute, an agent means small! It reminded me in many ways of Vermont. Now that we have the lay of he land, we have to think about what to do.
On our way back, we stopped at Domaine Carneros for a quick wine tasting, then back across the Golden Gate and the hotel. Soon after we got back, my foot began to hurt like the dickens, and I didn’t get much sleep, so at about 4am, I started researching a doctor who would make a house call, or in my case, a hotel call. I called in the morning and he could come at noon, so I suffered a little more, and the very nice doctor came and gave me some drugs to help with the the pain and get rid of the gout. While he was here, he looked at David’s foot, which was swelling as well, but he thinks it looks OK, but wants to have a blood test done, and we are waiting for the technician to come and draw blood. All here in the comfort of our room! I love this house call stuff!
Men having a high cialis cipla body mass index (BMI) are also at a higher risk of experiencing erectile dysfunction, when compared with men of a normal BMI. The results supplied viagra 5mg by them could be categorized as temporary and long-term. Looking for a free cost estimate for cancer treatment Acupuncture continues to receive enthusiastic testimonials from viagra without prescription uk patients and health care professionals alike. Most people that use Zicam do not even buy cipla viagra realize that stress can affect our bodies on the inside. We are meeting up with Alex, Claire, Theo and Claire’s Mom, Pat to go to happy hour at The Fairmont. Hopefully it will be happier when the drugs kick in!
We are spending the day at Alex and Claire’s tomorrow, so I promise pictures.

Sunday, December 16

Tomorrow at 8am we leave for the airport, and I think we are ready, or as ready as we will ever be.  David is asleep, the dishwasher is running, and I have just a few things to throw into the suitcase tomorrow morning before we run out the door.  Tonight, we took a nap before Dexter and Homeland (both season finales, and they were great!), but before the nap, David asked if I could read the next installment of 100 Objects, which I did, and then after the shows, and we were heading to bed, he asked if I could read it again, because he had fallen asleep the first time I read.  I obliged.  It is too bad that we won’t have the book with us, it is just too big to carry across country, but we have plenty of time after January 6th, when we return.

I wanted to thank Maria for making last night such a success – the food was fabulous!  Everyone should look up Halcyon Gourmet in Greenpoint, Brooklyn!  Thanks Maria!  Hope tonight went well too!
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Not sure if I will be writing tomorrow night, but I will try.  Alex, Claire and Theo are visiting us at the hotel and I can’t wait!

Saturday, December 15

What a great night!  Thanks to everyone who shared the evening, it was delightful.  We all dodged the thousands of Santas that were wandering (and my guess is by now, littering) the streets of New York.  It was quite a sight to see a sea of red and white flooding down Fifth Avenue.  My hat’s off to Santa Con and whoever thought that up.

Anyway, it was great to see so many friends who have been coming to visit in the hospital and nursing home over the past four months and share some holiday cheer.  We also missed those folks who were sick who couldn’t make it.  As soon as we got up to the apartment, David had me looking for the bad from Hilary, because he had to have some fruit cake.  He devoured a rather large slice in moments – thanks  Hilary!  I am guessing that you knew that David is a huge fan of fruit cake!  All the other gifts will be savored through the holiday season and beyond!
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It was great to be surrounded by so much love and caring!

Thursday, December 13

It is early in the morning, and we are getting up to go for our Access-a-ride evaluation.  They are picking us up at 8:30 for a 9:40 appointment.  Unless it takes an hour to get downtown, that seems like a long wait down there, which will be annoying.

Yesterday we had a nice long visit from Lynne and we went to the Doctor where we also had a long wait.  Dr Im wants David to go for a sleep study because of his possible sleep apnea.  He isn’t very keen to go.  A nice quiet evening at home last night, and let’s hope for the same today.