House concert @our house and the sights of Bishop, CA

Bishop, CA, welcomes Disasteradio and A Low Hum! Bless Simon Ward for capturing the fun and making us look like nonscary freaks.

Oooh, could have used a massive spring tidying of the yard! Yes, the Schoberlews, putting the trash in "white trash" since 2000!

Not given lightly

Chris Knox, a "godfather" of New Zealand pop, had a stroke last week. He's a manic genius, and all thoughts are for a strong recovery.

In addition to "Midget" I may no longer call Babbo

"Skidmark." By request.

Matty and the demin 3 piece he found on the street

We interrupt this incessant moaning for a bit of good news

Went on two WEE hikes* over the weekend en famille and am happy to report that the $100K of surgimitating on the left hip worked (praise be for insurance)! Glad I don't live in the bad old days when they would have just put the old girl (me) down.

We'll eat our first tomatoes tonight - Black Cherry. All two of them.

*Pine Creek - up to Pratt's Crack and Tyee Lakes Trail - about twice the distance from the Falls. Babbo really did well. Matty and I shared an Alaska IPA traveler on the trail. Everybody happy.

Monsoons!

We have had over a week of afternoon monsoons. Hardly anybody is complaining about it - it's so very exotic for 'round these parts. Rain in the afternoon. Rain in the evening. Rain meaning a very big drop or two of something wet from the sky - so big and so wet that you are sure it's a bird dropping and check. Cycling in it has been wonderful.

We are still getting an appearance of that hot yellow orb in the sky and a large enough dose that many of us are plenty nut brown enough for the season.

Some of the tomato plants are taller than me.

The Bitch runneth over

Tricia to Zach P. after he said "thanks" for hosting card night: I seem to have turned into a caustic bitch. I must apologize to Konrad. Glad you like Tricia v. 2.0 even if nobody else does.

I called Konrad a "pussy" at cards the other night. Folks thought it was funny because I want people to like me so badly that I tend not to say things like that. The sad thing is that my personality has changed a lot over the last half year. Chalk it up to the chain of events - the subpoena on Christmas Eve to testify against the beater next door, the 3+ months of sleeplessness from switching over to the insulin pump, the household bouts of gastroenteritis, the coming down from a great trip to New Zealand....I reckon stuff happens to most everyone. Why the hell can't I grow thicker skin and just get on with it?

Chatted w/ Matt about it, asked for a bit of help, but allowed myself to acknowledge the absolute rage I sometimes feel. I'm feeling better already.

There's no going back to the relentlessly cheerful and unrealistic Tricia v. 1.0. It is probably for the best.

summer is here

Pimientos de Padron. Calvin Trillin and Peter Keen were right. These are pretty damned good.

Day five post op

and only the sutures hurt a wee bit now.
Wow. There are benefits to being a bit younger and a bit fitter going into surgery!
There is a hummingbird nest building outside the bay window. I am honored and thrilled.
Matty and I are going to eat the first wave of Padron peppers. They set a bit early this year. I am honored and thrilled.

Mental holiday

That will be me enjoying the blissed out, if only slightly barfy, morphine induced sleep tonight. Going into Mammoth Hospital to have young, intrepid, ready-for-tv Dr. Perry remove the two drywall screws that I feel when I sit on the loo and the angle plate embedded in my upper femur that aches when the weather turns cold.

All this to get the legs ready for my second femoral osteotomy, hopefully this fall.

Not that I want to think about Babbo's sex life - other than hope he has a happy one

but poor fella will also never really get to experience the pleasure of falling into post-coital sleep.
Diabetics on insulin pumps who disconnect their pumps for intercourse often give themselves terrible overnight highs by falling asleep without plugging back in.

Oh, the things we take for granted!

Earliest year for fruitset that I can remember

The Padron peppers and the tomatoes I set in walls o water over a month ago are setting fruit reliably. We are going to have weather in the high eighties for the next few days. Long hot summer ahead, Kids?

I felt sad for Babbo tonight

He's had a stomach flu (yes, yes, was worried a bit there that it was H1N1, but the stomach flu is what's going around town and his symptoms fill the slots). He's been all over the map blood glucosewise. His energy levels are so low that I barely recognize him. We haven't done much other than to be close by to check his urine ketones (also all over the map), check his blood glucose, push water, push food, and push or withhold insulin.

Good thing for the Internet. I sit here and surf and post until something else needs doing.

At any rate, today, I was reminded that even with all our interventions, his numbers do sometimes go haywire. As an adult, he'll have to work at not being alone on days like this because his judgment can become impaired and his impairment can kill him. Man, as if the pressure of finding a nice partner, nice friends, etc. isn't hard enough.

Sobering thoughts for the mother of a little kid with this lifelong disease.

It is late, though, and it is close enough to 2 am to see if the mega correction of insulin and the catheter site change I gave him an hour ago worked....

Before this becomes habit

Matt and I are getting so close to dialing in those insulin doses. It's not going to be a moment too soon, either. I fear that this insomnia will become a longterm habit (I've been warned it can from a girlfriend who has been there and is still doing that).

Counting the excitement of going to New Zealand, I haven't slept more than a few hours uninterrupted since mid-February.

Did a bomber run down to Childrens for a gastro appointment Monday/Tuesday. Was a bit concerned about the swine flu, but in the end, we just had to go. Wyatt can stay on the Prevacid (proton pump inhibitor) for as long as it takes for him to outgrow this GERD (acid reflux).

Three cheeers!

Group hug, Kiwi-style

I have found my calling and it is plying pork products on Kiwi musos.

Disasteradio's show was so much fun. It was hot and sweaty with heaps of enthusiasm, on his part and ours. Black Sheep baristi Elliot and Reed did a great job interpretive dancing with Karen through the set. I danced my ass off, even with a splinter in my bare foot. My unoperated hip hurt like hell for days, but it was worth it.

It was another stone soup production with folks rallying around to help and donate time, gear, gifts, and muscle. Karen, Janet, and I turned the room from living room to dancehall in less than half an hour.

I got a bit nervous as the potluck had already started, and the Disasteradio crew were nowhere in sight. Blink, is a man good to his word, though, and he got everybody to Bishop with plenty of time to spare. They were coming from Vegas and stopped to experience the hottest weather they'd ever experienced. It was all of 100.4 degrees [Note to self, try not to book Kiwi bands in the dead of summer. They will die.].

Luke aka Disasteradio had just married his girlfriend Christina the night before in Vegas. They were giddy. Blink brought his beloved Sally on this tour. Yay! They all brought Simon Ward, a lovely and talented videographer and videomaker (see above). The show was very high energy and was particularly mesmerizing for me because the music meshed with the wee films so very well. Luke is a multitasker and can sing, twiddle with the knobs and dials, run a laptop, and control the disco ball we had with his foot.

The potluck was a hit. The next night, we had carnitas tacos for dinner, and the next morning, we had the local mahogany smoked thick sliced bacon (aka "crack bacon"). I made sure to cook the bacon slowly and not too crisp, like folks outside of the States like it. I was touched that they gave us bottles of Hawkes Bay wine and music pressies when they left. A few days have passed, and I'm still feeling the group hug.

Brainstorming now with friends on how to get Humphreys and Keen over to the States....

Easter, LA, and beyond

What a beautiful, fun, Easter at Macey's again this year. "The girls" and Marshall came and my dad drove up from Olancha for the day.

Monday, we spent a long, intense day at Childrens Hospital. We learned heaps. For all the high blood glucoses we've been having, we had the lowest A1C of 7.4 ever! The nurses explained that even with the high readings, our quick actions resulted in better overall averages.
Yay!
Our eventual goal is to get an A1C of between 6 and 7.

Got outskied by a 4 year old today

Babbo didn't throw one hissy fit and skied until the Discovery Chair closed.
I only threw one minor hissy fit (about driving around the Mammoth Mountain lot) and skied until the Discovery Chair closed.
Babbo skis the fall line and can stop.
I can't ski the fall line and can stop (because I ski so slowly).

Babbo 1 Mommy Nil.

Oh, he can also do the near splits AND plow the snow with his helmeted head while skiing! Amazing.

I now know that Matty drinks mainly from the well of infinite patience. I, on the otherhand, drink from the well of impending crabbiness. Shit.

When the wind comes 'round

It's still for the moment. Huzzah! Spring winds have a habit of making everybody crabby and sniffly and sneezy.

Getting some sleep, thanks to Matty taking Babbo's 3 am blood glucose readings, but life with pump still a bit too full of ups and downs. Apparently, this is very normal in the early days.

Santogold is hot.


The Cold War Kids are not.
The concert demographic was mostly comprised of well to do, dumb, Orange County college kids on spring break. What was I thinking?
A pod of Asian kids went by, called out "Look, Asian!" and highfived me. That was cool.
Had a fun time with girlfriends and Marshall Minobe, drinking wine and eating desert nonetheless!

My kingdom for a full night's sleep

Wyatt's numbers still all over the place, but we are getting to within striking range now. The nurses at Children's are now letting us skip ahead an increment on overnight insulin dosage, saving us a wasted night each time they do so.

We got ketones (bad) for the first time the other night. Luckily they were small and dealt with with water and insulin.

I am so sleepy that I had no will to go to the Banff Film Fest tonight. It is the alternative mountain crowd event of the year. I just couldn't bear the small talk and the long sad ethnographic film before the intermission.

Matty got a night out.

I hope to see Santogold and the Cold War Kids in Mammoth tomorrow night. Free gig at the Village.

The pump is installed

We are having ups and downs in the process of trying to fine tune Babbo's insulin pump to administer the right doses throughout the day and night.

Matty and I are splitting the night shift. One of us takes the 12 am and the other, the 3 am blood glucose reading.

Three cheers for technology, though. We can dose the boy while he's running and playing and just being a kid. No more waving needles and vials in very public places. It's not like he or we were self-conscious about the needles and vials, but the discretion will allow him some degree of not being so "special" in the future. He looks like a wee baby doctor because the unit looks like a pager on his waistband. He digs the look.