Grandpa, again

Sounds like grandpa has taken a turn for the worse. My mom didn't get all the details because my aunt seemed quite frazzled with a lot of different things going on in her life right now. But it sounds like he has some sort of infection (or the one he had has gotten worse....). He had been moved into a private room and was getting a blood transfusion because his hemoglobin was low. That sounds like what they did for Jason last fall when he was in the hospital with his bad infection. It also sounds like they have inserted a permanent catheter because he just can't go on his own anymore. Not sure exactly how he is doing at this point. He could hold on for a while yet....but it just sounds like we are getting closer and closer to the end. I would appreciate your prayers, for him, for comfort and peace. As well as for my mom's sister. A good friend of hers just suddenly passed away, and his wife just had a heart attack and is in the hospital down the hall from grandpa. She is feeling pretty overwhelmed with trying to look after grandpa's bills and stuff, as well as her own and cope with this other loss.

Know what I hate about cleaning bathrooms?

Hair :P My hair isn't even that long really, and Jay's is well, almost non existent. However it seems like whenever I clean the bathroom I always end up with wet hairs wrapped around my fingers, and stuck in my cleaning cloths and I can't get them off!

Oh well, at least it's good to finally get a little house cleaning done. I feel that I have been seriously slacking off in my house cleaning duties, but it's done for another week.

Old Woman

Jay and I are sitting at home bored this Saturday night. I thought I would try to alleviate our boredom with looking at movie listings. I saw that the new Indiana Jones movie plays at 7 or 10pm. Since it is already 7:15pm, 10pm would be the only option. I thought, wow, who would go to a movie at 10pm!? Then I thought, wow, I am getting old! I remember back in the day we used to go to MIDNIGHT movies. Not that I ever really enjoyed staying up that late, especially when I needed to get up and go to church in the morning.... I feel pretty old for a 27 year old!

Samurai Restaurant, here we come!

Three years ago, when we bought my car, the dealership offered us an extended warranty program through a different company. They said if we gave them said amount of money that IF we did not use the warranty in three years (or a certain number of kms) they would send us a cheque back for all but a couple hundred dollars that we paid for the warranty. April 1st was three years since we bought my car. We haven't had any major problems with it, so we sent away the paper work and yesterday we got a SWEET cheque in the mail. I think we should go out for a celebratory supper....or maybe we could use it to pay for a few feet of our driveway....

I will start off by saying that I am not a scientist. That being said I just read a frustrating article. Every couple of months Jay gets a magazine from the Canadian Paraplegic Association. There was an article that caught my attention that said they were starting human trials later this year of stem cell transplants for those with spinal cord injuries. I think there could be some great potential with stem cells, however this particular company deals with embryonic stem cells. For me, that is an ethical issue. It is trading one life for the possibility of improving another. One of my main concerns, even with stem cells from other sources, are the long term effects of these therapies. One of the major complications is the development of tumours. According to the article I read it said the company "has shown that rats injected with their stem cells have remained free of tumours or other significant health problems for nine months to a one year." In my opinion nine months to a year is not an adequate long term assessment of risk. The other part of the article that really bothered me was this, "It is fair to say that the scientific community widely considers President Bush to be the most anti-science president ever. Many think his policies have done incredible damage to science and have slowed advancements down by many years. But, his term is finally over soon, and all three presidential candidates, at the time of writing: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain, strongly support lifting his restrictions on government funding of embryonic stem cells." I am not a very political person, but I would say I am not a huge supporter of President Bush. However, I do not think that sticking to your morals makes you 'anti-science'. There are other sources of stem cells. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a treatment for spinal cord injuries. I would love to see Jason regain some level of function, but at what cost?

Prince Caspian

I would say all in all it was a great movie. I have loved the books for years and am glad that they have decided to make these movies in an age where they have the computer technology to make it look as un-cheesy as possible. There were a couple of scenes that were added that were completely original, and they were good scenes, but not entirely necessary, in my opinion. I would say my only complaint would be that Reepicheep's voice was not squeaky enough. I think of all of the Chronicles of Narnia books, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Silver Chair are my two favorites and I look forward to seeing their interpretations of those books. After doing a bit of research I see that Voyage of the Dawn Treader is due out in 2010.

Tan Lines

I am not one to sit out in the sun to get a tan. I tend to burn more than tan to begin with, and I have seen some older women and men who have been sun worshipers in their younger days and their skin now looks like wrinkly leather. I like my fair skin, maybe someday whiteness will be admired as it was back in the old days, when the rich people were fair and white because they didn't have to toil in the sun. Anyway, I noticed today in the van on the way to church that I have tan lines across the backs of both of my hands. I was a little confused at first, but then I realized that that is where my jacket sleeves hit my hands and I have spent a lot more time outdoors this spring than I usually do with all the walks I have taken the dog for. Hopefully before these lines become too obvious, jacket weather will be a thing of the past, and I can start working on my farmer tan ;)

Oh and by the way, I got my new phone yesterday! I got the Samsung m510, in green, ooh la la.

After trading cell phones with Jason today because I gave the vet that number to call when Kiwi was done her surgery (she was spayed today), he determined that I need a new cell phone. My phone does still work, but it is HUGE. Maybe not by the standards of those who remember the giant brick sized phones, but by today's standards, my phone has to be at least two to three times as big as the average phone. I have been thinking about getting a new one in the last few months, or looking into another used one. I got mine used about three and a half years ago. I think it has paid it's dues. I did a bit of looking on the Sasktel website and I did not realize that there were phones that were so affordable to just buy. I thought usually they were free or maybe $50 if you sign up for a three year contract. Well, for a pretty basic phone, I looked and found out there are a couple of options that are $100 or a little more. That's about how much we paid for my phone on consignment. Since I keep my phone as more of an emergency phone, or so work can get a hold of me when I am out and about, I don't need to pay for a monthly plan. I think the cheapest plan is $20/month for 150 anytime minutes. I don't think I would use that many in a month, however that adds up to about $240 per year (probably plus taxes and whatnot). I do not typically buy more than two or three $50 prepaid cards per year. I guess I am still further ahead to go prepaid. I am not sure if that gives me the ability to text message or whatnot, but I am pretty illiterate when it comes to phone features and I have never sent a text message in my life. I thought it was neat that the phones I was looking at also have built in cameras. I think we might stop by the Sasktel store tomorrow to check them out further. Maybe my shoulder won't hurt so much from carrying around a teeny tiny little phone in my purse anymore.....

Grandpa

Grandpa is in the hospital, again. He has been in and out of the hospital a few times in the last year. It sounds like this time he won't be going home. He is quite weak and confused. I don't know that he is on his death bed right now, but he has really taken a turn for the worse overall. Up until a few months ago his mind was quite clear, and he was fairly able to look after himself. He is 90 after all, you probably would come to expect his wouldn't be doing as well physically or mentally. Mom was just out in Calgary visiting and that is when he ended up going to the hospital because he was so weak he couldn't get up on his own and he had a stomach flu. Mom said he was assessed by a geriatric psychiatrist the other day and was found to be incompetent. I don't know exactly what that means, but I know that if grandpa gets some crazy notion about going home, it would allow mom and my aunt to keep him from doing that. I don't know if he will live out the rest of his days in the hospital, or will get moved into a private care home, or a nursing home. He could still live for a while yet, who knows.... Honestly at this point in time I would almost rather see him let go. I would hate to see a bunch of anger and animosity between his daughters and him. And I think for someone whose mind has been so clear for so long it would probably be hard to have it slip away. But then if he is confused, maybe he doesn't realize it's slipping away.....

I have been to far too many funerals in the last three years, but I suppose as I get older there will just be more and more. *sigh*

Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle and Juno

First I would like to say that I made an awesome chocolate peanut butter trifle for dessert for the weekend and it was so good! I modified the dessert from the original recipe I found, but not too much. I love that cake and pudding all mashed together texture and flavor. If you like peanut butter and chocolate you would love it, unless you have problems with those textures :)

Secondly, I just watched the movie Juno. What a great movie! I had heard that it was good, and had wanted to see it, just didn't get a chance until this afternoon. It made me laugh, and cry (like every good girl movie should!). The only thing that distracted me from the movie was the actor who played her dad. He is the same actor that plays the guy who runs the newspaper on the Spiderman movies. I think he did an alright job in this movie, just kept thinking of him from Spiderman when I heard him talk.

I had a great supper out with my two dearest and longest known girlfriends last night. One of them just got engaged (yay!) and the other is due to have her first baby in less than a month (woohoo!). So many exciting changes. It is so good to be able to keep connected. I don't get out with them as much as I would like to, but I completely appreciate getting together and talking and catching up with them. What a blessing to have girlfriends I have known through the highs and lows of my life. What amazing women they have become :)

The Phantom of the Opera

We finally got to go see it last night. We bought the tickets back in November as a Christmas present and attended the show last night. It is the first big Broadway show I have ever been to. I was impressed. I think the only disappointment was how quickly the show went by, and I think we missed a couple of things being near the front on the side of the auditorium.

I was quite impressed with the sets. The set changes were amazing! I don't know if all Broadway plays have so many set changes, but there were a lot in this show and they were super cool. I think my favorite set was the Phantom's lair with the boat and the mist. The costumes were gorgeous! I was thinking as the show went on, I can't imagine them just coming to perform a couple of shows because they must have a whole convoy of trucks to haul all the sets, costumes and props. I appreciated the live orchestra, the singing and the music. As I tried to get to sleep I had the phantom's music stuck in my head. The actress who played Christine had the most incredible voice, wow! I also thoroughly enjoyed the pyrotechnics! The explosion at the beginning when they lit and raised the chandelier gave me goosebumps. And one explosion near the end, I could feel the heat coming off of it!

I don't think that will be the last Broadway show I attend. Such a great experience :)

Glad I Don't do Shift Work

They are doing the scratch coat on the house right behind us now that it's finally warm enough to work with cement. It's all well and good, but the guys doing it have a radio turned up SOOO loud I can hear it in the house with all the doors and windows closed. I know they started it yesterday and Jason's afternoon rest was not very restful, and they are back at it again this morning :P Hopefully they will be done before Jason's rest this afternoon.