Bionic Mizzle

I fully admit that Franny beat me to the bionic thing blogwise, but I'm not sure who thought of it first. (Full disclosure: she has some disagreement with this. She accuses me of being drunk.) Mizz got his ear tubes today, and we both thought bionic was a good description. I thought the image was enhanced by the pulse oximeter probe that was taped to his finger but not attached to a machine when we got him back and by the ecg probe that was still attached to his side when we got home. Despite anesthesia and lack of food all morning, he seems to have recovered quite well. If anything, he was screeching at least as loud as before. It was sort of fun to watch the after-effects of the anesthesia and sedative. For a few hours, he was acting pretty drunk. Sometimes he was mad that he couldn't do things that should have been easy, but mostly he was unaware of how comically inept he was. I managed to keep him from hurting himself, but it wasn't for lack of his trying. By the time he went to bed though, he seemed to be in pretty good shape. I expect him to be quoting Shakespeare by Monday.

Some More Travel Notes

We eventually got back to my folks' house before we left. We had to return the minivan. That's actually a pretty good vehicle, despite it minivan-ness. Does that make me old or just boring? I got to dig through a bunch of old stuff with Mom and Dad to help with the sorting and packing and such before they move. Over the years I've grabbed or gotten rid of most of my stuff, but I still had a few things there, mostly toys.

Mom and I went through my old Adventure People, our old-school Fisher Price Little People stuff, and my Matchbox Cars. (Incidentally, I've always called them that. Some people use Hot Wheels. I know both are brand names, but are they regionally preferred?) Looking through this stuff, I wonder if we didn't chew on stuff as much or if our parents just didn't like us. Lots of small parts and breakable things, most of which were broken.

Dad and I looked through what was left of our camping gear. Again, I've already taken most of what I wanted, but there were a few things left. It really brought me back to my old Boy Scout days. Some of that stuff seemed cool at the time, but from what I've seen of Firefly's Appalachian Trail gear, camping technology has improved quite a bit. Dad was able to give what we didn't want to some current Boy Scouts, who were apparently very appreciative. I remember using a bunch of stuff that was older than me and now it's my turn to continue the trend. Back to my previous question, I guess I'm old.

Travelling home turned out to be quite an adventure. Due to ice falling off trucks causing accidents, we were much too late to catch our flight out of BWI last Friday. And due to the ice earlier in the week, the best we could do was a three-legged trip the next day. (THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY STORM! Seriously. That's what the papers called it. Slow news cycle I guess. It was pretty bad further in the Northeast, but it wasn't THAT bad around DC. Wimps.) Our second flight out of Detroit (where it was actually snowing) was delayed about 45 minutes for deicing. This meant that after taking 3 different trams to get from one end of Seatac to the other, we missed the hop to Portland. And again due to the ice storm of the friggin' century, the flights were full for several more hours (which wasn't apparently normal). So instead, we decided to eat a few more dollars and rent a car for the rest of the trip. Even with a stop for dinner on the way, we still got home a little faster than if we had sat around the airport trying to entertain the Mizz for hours after he was supposed to be asleep. He slept in that car instead, and we got some quiet time. In the end, we got to claim planes, trains, and automobiles for the trip home, and we've decided that we definitely want to drive to the Family Reunion this summer.

The only good thing about renting the car was that we found we didn't really want a Subaru Forrester after all. That was one of the cars we had been looking at last summer, but after driving one, it's not as cool as we thought. It's pretty noisy, and although it hugs the road like a sports car, you feel the road like a sports car. It also didn't seem to have enough legroom, and neither Franny nor I really need much in that department. Franny was cramped in the front passenger seat and neither of us would have been comfortable in the back seat. It's a fine performing car, but it's not for us.

Travel notes

Travelling with the Mizz didn't turn out to be the horror that we had imagined. He was actually pretty good. The only real trouble was that his feet are now just long enough to reach the seat in front of him and push it. Oh, joy. Delta was late on both flights as usual, but otherwise better than expected. We also had a guy claiming to be a Redskin riding behind us. I have no way to know if it was true or not, but if he was, he wasn't one of the important ones, since he was sitting in the back of the steerage section with us. Nice guy though.

Mom and Dad picked us up and we got to their place about 11:30 pm. What they didn't know (but we of course did) was that my sisters and their families were there waiting for us. Happy 40th anniversary Mom and Dad. The surprise worked out great, and despite Jana's concern, neither one of them had a heart attack from the surprise. I'm not sure just how old she thinks they are.

We've also gotten a chance to see Franny's family in Maryland again. Her folks came down from Pennsylvania and we're staying with her grandmother and uncle and such. I'm sitting here listening to Franny and her grandmother reminisce about tons of old stories. It's a cool time to be a fly on the wall. Just last night, Lillie was saying that she just listened to her friends because she doesn't have any stories to tell. I respectfully disagree. I love hearing stories of family histories and the outside history that they often bring to light.

The Mizz has been phenomenal on this trip. He seems to be feeling pretty good and is acting just as smiley and happy as ever. He's leaving a great impression on these people who don't get to see him much. He's also bonding very well with everyone, especially his cousins. It was exceptionally cute seeing him sitting quietly on the couch in a pile of cousins just soaking up the scene.

Enough for now.

Not Pink Eye!

Maybe not pink eye anyway. When Mizz woke up the next day, his eyes looked fine. We still took him to the doctor to make sure and the best he could say was that he might have had a mild case, but the antibiotics he was already on helped him fight it off quick. Whatever. What a pain in the butt to deal with something that probably didn't ever exist.

Pink Eye!

Not me. The boy brought it home from daycare. I really hope I don't get it, although I usually manage to pick up whatever he drags in the door. Cross your fingers for me. I don't really know much about pink eye. I don't remember ever getting it, although I can't be sure. I know it's crazy contagious and makes you look perpetually sad or allergic. I know you're not supposed to go to school or work with it -- probably not planes either. This is already going to mess up tomorrow, which was pretty tight already since vacation starts Friday. At least Franny and I will be able to split the day so we're each only partly screwed. Hopefully, with lots of hand washing and extra no-touching care, I might sit this one out. We'll just have to plan on chasing Mizz around the airport with hand sanitizer and anti-microbial wipes. Joy.

Random Reviews

Things I've done lately worth sharing:

Sophie's World: Franny was reading this book, but thought it was too dense to finish. It was too dense, but I finished it anyway. It was a pretty good overview of western philosophical thought for the last few thousand years. Unfortunately, it was contained in a very stupid story. The main character, Sophie, starts receiving philosophical essays from an unknown sender and then ends up in an increasingly absurd mystery. This part of the book was fairly pointless and just served as a reason to expound on philosophy. The philosophy part I found interesting. I've always liked the idea of philosophy, but I'm very uneducated about it. This was a cool primer in the various ideas people have had through the ages about the nature of the world and people. I would hardly consider myself an expert after this book, but at least now I understand some of the references I see elsewhere. It also made me think about what I think about things. Which I guess was the point.

The Bookseller of Kabul: This was another Franny-Book-Club recommendation. It was a pretty quick read and totally worth it. It is a slightly-fictionalized story about the Afghan family that the author lived with for a while in 2002, after the removal of the Taliban, but before Iraq was a huge issue. It is a very interesting and detailed account of the lives of women in Afghanistan living under a system that is even more repressive than I had imagined. It gets into other aspects of life there, but it is mainly focused on the lives and treatment of women. I would definitely recommend this one.

All the King's Men: The new version of the movie with Sean Penn. Franny and I watched this last night and it sucked. The reviews I read that liked it suck. If you liked it, then you suck too. (No offense. I think I'm safe since I can currently count my entire readership on one finger. Thanks F.) This movie was badly written, badly directed, badly acted, and badly scored. It did have some beautiful scenes, but they were mainly cut shots of natural places that didn't have anything to do with the story. There were some atrocious lines. ("It stunk like a cat buried in the back yard.") There were far too many overly symbolic images and moments. Good movies will include subtle symbolism that is interesting if you catch it and understand it. This movies puts it in the middle of a scene and then beats you over the head with it. Was this piece of crap directed by a high schooler? And the acting. Good lord. Penn was a ridiculous parody of Huey Long, who was ridiculous to begin with. Judd Law seemed pretty bored most of the time. The bodyguard was written with exactly one dimension. (He liked his gun. That's it.) Even though the mistress was part of the political story, her main point was apparently to give sarcastic looks that somehow cleared up everything in a scene. The fact that Kate Winslet got naked didn't make her useful either. Tony Soprano was in it too, although I think he was supposed to be someone else. It was hard to tell. The music was pretty bad too, although maybe appropriate for the rest of the badness. To paraphrase Franny, Batman music was great for Gotham, but not for Louisiana. (Mad props, F.) There are just so many things wrong with this movie. I just don't understand how you can base a movie on Huey Long and make it so bad. The man gave material to work with every time he opened his mouth. I also don't understand how I could write a four-line review of a movie I liked and then have this much to say about one that I didn't enjoy at all. I guess I want to save everyone else in the world two hours each.

Back Home

[Some of this was written in the San Francisco airport, but I wasn't connected at the time, so if it sounds disjointed, it was. I don't care. I was just bored and needed a way to pass the time.]

Just sitting here stuck in the San Francisco airport. The flight from Honolulu was a little bumpy but ended up getting in a half hour early. Then I learned that my connection to Portland is 2 hours late. Nice. Franny and Mizz were going to pick me up, but not anymore. Too bad. I was looking forward to that. Now I have to wait until tomorrow morning to see the little guy, and that's going to be awfully early for someone on Hawaii Standard Time (3:30-4:00 am to be specific). Worth getting up for though, but maybe not staying up. :) -- (written 3:20 pm, February 2nd)

Still waiting. The flight has been delayed further. We are now at about a 2 1/2 hour delay. that means 4 1/2 hours sitting in the airport and getting home at maybe 9:30 pm or later. This all for a 1 1/2 hour flight. It looks like I can blame Washington, DC. It's their plane we're waiting for. On another note, an announcement keeps playing telling us that the Homeland Security threat level has been raised to Orange. I don't know why. It doesn't include any further instructions or restrictions, so what's the point? Am I supposed to be extra frightened for this leg of the flight? What's my job in responding to this threat? Especially since as far as I know, we are usually at Orange anyway. Ports and industries and such do different things for different threat levels, but not us regular people as far as I know. -- (written 6:10 pm, February 2nd)

Well, I made it back home finally. We got loaded up a little before 7:00 pm and left at 7:10, a full 5 minutes before the next flight to Portland. We win. It was late and I was tired, hence the delay getting these notes on-line.

It's good to be home, although, as expected, yesterday morning was pretty early and involved a lot of coffee. I did manage to stay up though. Go me.

Franny set up a babysitter for this afternoon, so we got to go out for a little while and see what it's like. We need to do that more often. Lebanese dinner followed by Cold Stone Creamery. Not a bad afternoon. We also checked out vintage shops for a cheap-but-not-too-ugly hanging lamp for our living room. Mizz managed to learn to crawl under the coffee table so he could knock over the pole lamp we had. It didn't survive. Now we'll escalate and put in a hanging one. We didn't find anything good today, but soon I'm sure. If that doesn't work, we go nuclear (nucular?).

One of these days, I'll have to learn how to add pictures and put up something from Hawaii. Franny does it all the time, so it probably isn't terribly difficult (no offense F). If I have trouble, I'll have to turn in my Geek Club membership card. It would help to at least give it a shot though. Maybe tomorrow. I guess I can be lazy and still be a geek.

Disturbing Movie (but good)

I just saw The Last King of Scotland. It was an excellent movie, but not for the squeamish. Idi Amin was not exactly a nice guy and this movie tells his story very graphically. I usually don't care one way or the other for Forrest Whitaker, but he is very convincing as a murderous psychopath dictator. The story and many of the characters are fictional, but the backdrop is all too real.