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Father’s Day

david — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:55:09 +0000

Me & my dad at dinner today.

We had a very busy Father’s Day. We went to Outback at 11.10am for lunch with Eliz’s father, mother, her sister Margaret, and our niece Meghan. Yes, I said 11.10am. More like brunch, I guess. I have to say that is by far the earliest I have ever eaten a Bloomin’ Onion. It is also the only time I’ve seen Outback less then 90% full.

After an enjoyable meal, we came home to make peanut brittle. That is our gift of choice to both our dads. They both like it and it isn’t too difficult to make. Eliz does the majority of the work, measuring, watching the temp, etc. I pretty much am the designated stirrer. I stir it frequently from 225 degrees up to 280. At 280, the peanuts go in and it’s got to be stirred constantly until it hits 305. Once the peanuts go in, it is a nice workout. At 305, it comes off the heat and vanilla and baking soda are added. I stir it vigorously for a minute or two and then Eliz dumps it on the table (onto parchment paper and towels) and spreads it out. The whole process takes about an hour and a half.

My biggest contribution comes when I sample the product. It takes about 40 minutes to cool enough to break into smaller pieces. I usually start sampling about 10 minutes after it’s been spread onto the table and every five to 10 minutes there after… Today, we were heading to my parents between 3.30pm and 4.00pm, so we had to “make sure” it wasn’t too warm to break up and stack it in a corning ware for the journey. We don’t want it to stick together… I also sample it along the way, just to make sure everything is good. Today, Jane helped sample.

When we arrived at my parents, they invited us to dinner. It is unusual for them to want to go out to eat. Well, it’s unusual for my dad. They like to go to Ruby’s Diner since it is across the street and fairly quick (as long as it’s not busy.) I wasn’t too hungry today after the big lunch at Outback and all the sampling I had to do. Eliz and the kids weren’t too hungry either, but my dad was okay with going out, so we went.

I had the Asian Chicken Salad. It had grilled chicken breast, lettuce, bell pepper, and wonton strips. The dressing was awful, the wonton strips seemed like stale tortillas, and ended up wearing honey mustard sauce and Oreo Fantasy milk shake that I tasted from Jane’s dinner. Even that couldn’t stop me from enjoying the meal.

I am 46 and my dad is 93. Eliz’s father will be 84 in October. We are both so fortunate that we can enjoy time with our fathers. It doesn’t matter what the food tastes like or how the service is.

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Post tags: baking soda, bloomin onion, caption, corning ware, dad, parchment paper, sister margaret, table, Today, wonton

Sometimes Things Look Different to Me

david — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:03:27 +0000

Every morning I weigh myself twice, once before I get in the shower and once after I dry off after the shower. Getting on the scale is also an eye test of sorts. Our scale’s readout is an LCD with two inch tall numbers. The weight only displays for five to ten seconds after it is calculated, so I have to be fast when trying to read it. Today, I was able to read it the first time before the shower. I was 154.8 pounds. Some days it takes me two or three times if my eye is dry or has a bunch of stuff in it. After the shower, and after a moisturizing eye drop, it took me two times to read it. I was 154.6, by the way. (It’s funny how most days I weigh less after the shower…) My goal is to stay around 155, which I’ve been since last summer. As previously mentioned, that is about 80 pounds less than I weighed when I changed my eating habits ever so slightly.

I get frustrated when I have to get on the scale multiple times. What is worse is when I think I see one number, then the next day the number is two pounds higher and I wonder if I actually read the number correctly the day before. Similar things happen when I read things on my computer screen. The word email looks an awful lot like small to me when both are all lower case. Lower case t’s and f’s, v’s and y’s, i’s and l’s are the worst. Sometimes it’s letter combinations that throw me, like rn looking like an m or ri looking like an n.

Today, when I was reading some tweets, I read down to one I posted last night. I tweeted: Tired of Safari quitting on me multiple times per day. Well, 10 minutes ago when I read it, it said this: Tired of Satan quitting on me multiple times per day. Hmm… Don’t give up on me Lu! (Of course I’m kidding, I don’t believe in satan like I don’t believe in god…) I did have to zoom in on the the word to make sure I typed Safari. Once I verified that I did, I smiled at what It looked like I had typed.

The same sort of things happen when watching TV or simply looking at objects. More times than not it is frustrating to me. (Last week, I left one Bang-Bang Shrimp on my plate at Bonefish Grill that Eliz had to tell me was there.) Today though, I smiled at what I thought I saw.

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Post tags: eye drop, eye test, inch, letter combinations, Satan, scale, test, Tired, tweets, two pounds

My Eye, My Dad and Our Day

david — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 07:26:05 +0000

I’d been looking forward to today for the past dozen days. Back on 10 Dec, I went to my retina doc, who, as previously mentioned, noticed three things that he thought were causing my vision to be worse than it had been. Two of three “issues” were cornea related, while one was retina related (and not correctable.) Today, I had an appointment with my cornea doc, Dr. Ayres.

As I was getting out of the shower, I heard the phone ring. Jacob answered it downstairs. Since he didn’t come up to mention the call, I figured it wasn’t for me. Minutes later, after taking my morning eye drop, Jake came in and told me my mom called. He went on to tell me that my mom said my dad was having shortness of breath and chest discomfort and they were going to the hospital. I sat back on the bed and thought about canceling my appointment. Since my mom didn’t ask to get me on the phone, I assumed it was a precautionary trip to the hospital (I later found out my dad didn’t want to go to the hospital, but since he mentioned chest pain, the Maris Grove staff wouldn’t take no for an answer.) I tried to reach my mom on her mobile, but didn’t get an answer. I felt selfish, but I decided I’d keep my doctor’s appointment.

We arrived early for my 9.45 appointment (seven minutes is early for us…) After we checked in, Eliz tried to call my mom. She got the voicemail (and knowing my mom can barely make and receive calls, didn’t leave a message. A minute or two later, Eliz’s phone rang and she handed the phone to me since she needed some insurance info for the receptionist. It was my mom. I spoke to her and then my dad. My mom told me what was going on. My dad told me, “Don’t count the money yet.” At that point, I felt I made the right decision to go to my appointment.

A few minutes later, I went back into (Eye) Pod 1. I was able to read the L (but not the S) on the SL line (which is the 20/200 line.) Dr. Ayres came in a few minutes later. He asked how things were going and I told him about my appointment 12 days earlier with Dr. Garg. He seemed to get defensive when I told him what Dr. Garg said. Dr. Ayres then had a look at both eyes. He started on the right one and quickly moved on to the left after saying, “That one is trash.” This I already knew. I haven’t seen anything but light with that eye since the last century… After he looked at the left eye he told me that it looked pretty similar as previous visits.

He said the transplant looked good, though was less than perfect. (It’s from a 69 year old donor and I’ve had it for two years.) He didn’t see signs of rejection. He said he could do another transplant if I wanted, but he didn’t think it could be too much better. The downside was too steep for me, so we’ll revisit that at a later date. Dr. Ayres also noticed a bit of haze behind the lens implanted in the cataract extraction in April of this year. It’s called posterior capsule opacity. It can be dealt with doing a procedure called YAG laser capsulotomy. He said there is very little downside to this, so I am scheduled to have this done on 20 January. I’m not sure if this counts as my 16th surgery or not…

Once we finished up with my appointment, we headed down Route 1 to Riddle Hospital to see my dad. We spent about three hours with him. The cardiologist met with all of us and said he didn’t think the problem was a heart issue. After running Jane to a friends for a birthday party and a trip to Newark DE to pick up a small order, we returned to Riddle at 5.15. We visited with my dad for about 45 minutes and then took my mom home, stopping for dinner on the way (she treated us to Ruby’s Diner.) My dad was tired and seemed to want us to go. Hopefully he gets some rest and is able to go home tomorrow.

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Post tags: answer, chest, chest discomfort, eye, eye drop, line, maris grove, phone, shortness of breadth, trip to the hospital

My iPhone

david — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:02:06 +0000

It was time to upgrade our mobiles, so I’d been looking around to see what is the best option for me. I’ve felt left out by not being able to text (not an issue with my phone of course, an issue with me…) For the last few months I’ve looked at a couple of the Droids and the iPhone. I always came back to the iPhone because of the reviews from blind or visually impaired users. I got my phone about two weeks ago. I’m now wondering if I’ve made the correct choice.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of having it. The ability to tweet, send and receive texts, shoot and upload images and videos is truly awesome. Oh, and the ability to listen to Absolute Radio is well beyond that. The learning curve for me has been huge. I’m trying to be patient with it, but it has been frustrating.

I’ve been using the VoiceOver feature for the last week. This feature reads the screen to me. The feature works pretty well, but there are some issues (probably me not the device) that drive me a little crazy. Today, for example, I wanted to tweet. It wasn’t anything exciting, but I was sitting at Martin Main Line Honda and wanted to “practice.” Since there was a little noise, I had trouble entering in the letters. I could enter them, but there were times that I couldn’t hear what letter I had selected. When using VoiceOver, to enter text, you’ve got to tap three times. Once to hear the letter, then twice when you’re sure it is what you want. If I was unsure of a letter, I would lose track of the word and if it was spelled correctly.

I probably should have tried the VoiceOver before I tried the large text and zoom feature. When using the large text (which doesn’t work on menu items, by the way,) you use the iPhone just like normal people would, by tapping on an item once. After trying the zoom feature for a few days, I ended up changing some settings because I couldn’t see what I had actually touched while trying to maneuver around the screen (while being zoomed in.) You can’t use both the zoom feature and the VoiceOver feature at the same time. I’m not sure why.

I know that I’ll get the hang of it sooner or later, but like anything else I do, I want to do it NOW. It doesn’t help that I’ve been trying implement things I’ve learned at Affiliate Summit East, go live with a couple of affiliate marketing sites I’ve been working on, learn to use WordPress so that I don’t have to ask anyone for assistance to launch those sites and others, keep running ForYourSalon.com (since that is where most of our revenue comes from,) process orders we receive through Amazon.com (we sell beauty stuff there too,) and move Jake into his dorm at Westtown. Not to mention local beauty deliveries with Eliz and some Digital Graphics Design work. I’ve been averaging about five and a half hours of sleep and I don’t see an end to that.

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Post tags: com, correct choice, crazy today, iPhone, learning curve, letter, martin main line honda, phone, screen, text

My Inglourious Sight

david — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:24:31 +0000

For the past four or five days, my vision has sucked more than normal. I don’t know why. It’s almost like interference on a television screen. The picture is still there, but it’s hard to see through the static. I’ve been a little nervous about my vision because Eliz and I are heading to New York tomorrow for an internet marketing conference — Affiliate Summit East. Just walking around a crowded event will be challenging.

When my vision doesn’t cooperate, like over the past few days, I spend less time at the computer and the time that I do spend there I get less done since it takes me longer to read. It gets pretty frustrating. It seems I need help from Eliz or the kids to get even the simplest of tasks done. Tonight, Jane and I looked through some inventory to pick out some specials for ForYourSalon.com (we ended up adding the 1189 flat iron from Hot Tools, the Turbo Silverado hair dryer, the One ‘n Only Acid Extra Body perm, and Hair Rescue Intense Clarifying Treatment from Zotos to our specials.) I have to tell you that I get pleasure when I can accomplish something on my own.

Tonight I realized how poor my vision was. While flipping through the channels, I saw that Ingloourious Basterds was on. Eliz and I watched that movie in late April, just after my surgery. I absolutely loved it. The best part of it then was I was actually able to read most of the subtitles on my own. That wasn’t the case tonight, so I didn’t watch it.

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Post tags: Basterds, body perm, hair rescue, internet marketing conference, screen, sight, summit east, television, tomorrow, vision

Play Ball!

david — Fri, 21 May 2010 05:18:06 +0000

For the first time in a very long time, I got a chance to hit in a softball game. I’ve been looking forward to it since the middle of April, after my surgery. A few weeks ago, when my vision was heading in the wrong direction, I didn’t think I’d even try. After my visit to Dr. Garg a couple of days ago and starting the drop regimen, my vision seemed to improve a little, so I was back in.

After some stretching (okay, very little stretching on the parents’ part,) we grabbed a ball and warmed up. We threw the ball around like we do here: Jane to Eliz, then Eliz flips me the ball to me (I like to pretend I’m the second baseman and I’m turning a double play,) then I “fire” it to Jane. Jane will sometimes just give me grounders that I field (without a glove, I don’t want someone to think I can actually play and throw me the ball) and throw to her. After about 10 minutes of that the girls took the field and the parents went to the bench.

The batting order was determined by who went over and grabbed a bat first. I hit fourth. We went through the order all at once. After three outs though, if there were any runners on base, they came in and the next batter started a “new inning.” Wasn’t too different than t-ball for Jane about eight years ago. Two of the first three parents struck out, while the other grounded out. I felt no pressure stepping into the batters box, since I wasn’t going to be the first one to strike out. I so wanted to make contact. First pitch was a ball high. Second one was over the inside part of the plate, strike one. Third pitch was in the exact same spot, strike two. The fourth pitch bounced on the front of the plate, ball two. I probably saw that one the best and had the bounce been higher, I probably could have hit it — like in mush ball. The fifth pitch looked good, but I swung and missed, strike three. There were at least six strikeouts on our team, including Jane’s K of Eliz.

I noticed when I was batting that I couldn’t see as well if I looked straight at the pitcher, I had to glance toward first base to see the ball better. That concerned me, because that is what seemed to be going on over the last couple of weeks. My central vision wasn’t good. I went out with Eliz to stand in rightfield. As we were talking, I told her my vision wasn’t right. Since I started the drops, I had noticed an improvement. I even commented to Eliz on the ride to school that I’m glad I took the eye drop just before we left home and that I was seeing pretty well as I watched the cars on the road in front of us. How could my vision have changed so quickly? Was it the running around while we were throwing the ball around? Was it bright sun? I don’t know what the answer is, but my vision seems like it has gone back to how it was before I went to Dr. Garg on Tuesday. Once I finish with this entry, I will investigate macular edema a little further.

After two more drops today, my vision is bad. I had trouble reading most of the graphics on TV tonight and the text on the computer is fuzzy. Fortunately, I have an appointment tomorrow with Dr. Ayres, the surgeon and cornea specialist. Maybe he’ll have an idea about the macular edema and the quick change in my vision. Most likely, I’ll have to wait until I go back to Dr. Garg on 15 June. It’s funny, I think if I had hit the ball, I don’t think I would have noticed or been bothered by the decrease in vision. I’m already looking forward to next years game…

Couple other short items… I spoke to Dr. Rist, my gp, today. She was calling to give me the results from a blood test I had yesterday after my appointment with her. They were all very good and well within the normal range. They were dramatically better than a year ago. My blood pressure yesterday was also pretty good, 104/68. All in all, the 1500 calories per day has been a good thing. I will be increasing my caloric intake to about 1700 next week, since I’m within a few pounds of my goal. The doctor calculated my metabolism and came up with that number. I asked the doctor if the results were back from the throat swab she had done yesterday (I’ve had a sore throat since early last week, along with chills the first day or two,) but they haven’t as of today. She prescribed Amoxicillin yesterday since she had noticed some things in my throat.

Also, we’ve been getting more calls to our design company (Digital Graphics Design) as of late. I had to cancel a meeting with a prospective client earlier in the week since I wasn’t feeling well. Today we got a call from a professional looking for a small website. I am going to attempt this one on my own. Let’s see how that goes. When I took the call in the morning, I was seeing okay and was confident I could do it. Now I’m not so sure.

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Post tags: ball, batters box, double play, Dr. Ayres, Dr. Garg, Dr. Rist, Eliz, Jane, jane jane, pitch, second baseman, softball game, Today, vision

Eight Hours from Now…

david — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:41:11 +0000

It is hard not getting excited about the surgery. I dream of all the good things I may be able to do, while knowing the risks that could dash my hopes either temporarily or longer. I have never had eye surgery that improved my sight significantly. I am really hoping that the only thing done is the cataract extraction. While I will take any improvement over my current vision, I am hoping for 20/80 – 20/100. I don’t know if my eye could even get to 20/80 — that is probably a best-case, the planets are aligned scenario. 20/100 is the third row down on the chart, the OPLB line on all the charts I read (not that I’ve read that one since early this millennium.)

I received many well wishes and good lucks today from my friends. They are all greatly appreciated. My involvement in this whole thing is easy. I just have to lay there. Eliz is the one that has the difficult job. Beside all she does normally, which is just about everything, she’ll now have even more tasks — put eye drops in (as often as the Dunkin Donuts guy makes the donuts,) read everything to me (including email, orders from ForYourSalon.com, business/news/political/sports sites, and who knows what else,) lead me around everywhere, and do just about all my tasks running the business (which aren’t many, but it is more stuff to do.) Her father once told me, after I mentioned a small problem Eliz was having, “Sorry, no refunds.” Who’s looking for the refund now…

At this point, in my mind there were no other solutions to my eye trouble. I won’t second guess my decision. I wonder how it will turn out. I’m hoping the planets are aligned.

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Post tags: business, cataract extraction, current vision, dunkin donuts, everything, eye, eye trouble, good lucks, surgery, thing

One Week to Go

david — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:37:28 +0000

At some point next Thursday morning, I will be in surgery hopefully only having a cataract removed. There is the chance that I will also receive another corneal endothelial transplant (DSAEK, partial-thickness corneal transplant, endothelial keratoplasty, or whatever you want to call it.) It is what I had done on 4 Dec 2008.

From what I gather, recovery time on the cataract extraction is about half that of the DSAEK (which is about four months.) Seems like I won’t have to wear that awful eye shield as long with only the cataract coming out. After the last surgery, I had to wear it for over a month. Lets not forget the misery on the day after my last surgery. My IOP went from seven to about 30. I puked my guts up all day long from the dramatic change in pressure. Showering was difficult too since I had to make sure I didn’t get any soap or water in my eye. That was only for a few months. Eliz will be shaving my head this weekend so that I only need to use a washcloth to wash my head.

I am very excited about the prospects of seeing more than I see now. Maybe I’ll see well enough to go to the movies again. I’d love to go and see a few Phils games, or even go see an Eagles game (you know, I’ve never been to the Link.) If things go really well, maybe I’ll be able to throw a softball around with Jane, a lacrosse ball with Jake, or even read the mail instead of having someone read it to me.

Of course, there are risks and I do worry about something going dreadfully wrong. I see only light out of my other eye, so any failure would dispose of the fantasies I’ve listed in the previous paragraph and make life a bit more challenging. I have no idea what I would do then. Lets just hope for the best.

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Post tags: cataract, cataract extraction, endothelial, endothelial keratoplasty, eye, eye shield, Jake, Jane, lacrosse ball, partial thickness, surgery, transplant

Trade Show Update

david — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:20:48 +0000

As you can see, I haven’t posted in awhile. Eliz and I went to a trade show this past weekend up at the Sheraton Meadowlands. We missed last years show because we were both sick, so I was looking forward to going this year. I always enjoy listening to the sales pitches on why we should be carrying the company’s product or line of products. I was especially looking forward to speaking to companies about getting their products on ForYourSalon.com – Professional Beauty Supplies and Salon Equipment For Your Salon.

Many of the companies we met with are ones that we’ve done business with in the past and have currently on ForYourSalon.com, like Zotos, Marianna, and Satin. For them, we just needed to order their new products and get artwork so that we can put the new stuff on the site. Other companies we met with were those that we have some inventory, but haven’t gotten the products up on the site. China Glaze, Fromm, and Mona Lisa Hair Accessories come to mind. Then there are companies like Wm. Marvy Company. We may have sold some of their items in the past, but we don’t have an inventory, but they have a product line that they will drop ship for us. I love companies like that. Their product line that I’m adding to ForYourSalon.com is barber poles. It is a quality product that I don’t have to inventory.

It is nice talking business with manufacturers reps and other distributors, most of whom have been in the beauty biz for a substantial amount of time. I always seem to learn something from these people. Even the gung-ho, there-is-no-escaping-our-booth-without-learning-about-our-products sales peeps have tidbits of very useful information. My favorite booth is always the Mona Lisa Clips booth. The sales guy, who’s name I can’t recall at the moment, should be doing infomercials. This year, he shared some ideas on selling his products and other similar products online. He talked of calling the category Hair Management. Hmmm, I thought. HairManagement.com is just way too long, but HairMgmt.com isn’t. It was a lightbulb moment.

We went back to our room and fired up a PC Margaret lent us and tried to get online. One minute we were on, the next minute the page wouldn’t load. We had enough time on to download FireFox, since the only web browser was the dreaded Internet Explorer 6. It is not friendly to people like me with vision issues. When we tried to run FireFox, we couldn’t get online at all. After dinner, we called tech support to try and resolve our problems. After an hour and a half, they told us there was nothing more they could do. Turns out, it could have been the weather that night, but I’m not 100% on that. The hotel refunded our money for the “high-speed” internet connection. We then tried to use the complimentary computers the hotel has in the lobby. It was like being back in the mid-80′s and on CompuServe with my 300 baud modem and my 8088 IBM-compatible computer built by Jim Conallen! Each page load took between two and three minutes. Eliz got as far as adding the domain to our cart and inputting the GoDaddy coupon code OYH7 to get the domain for $7.67 before the service went down. (The next morning, I called Margaret — who stayed at our house with Meghan and our kids — and she completed the transaction.)

The only bad part about the show was my sight. Eliz would tell me what booths we were passing and the items they had (if I didn’t know.) She would also tell me if a person we knew was coming over to talk to us. I can’t tell you how many times she had to tell me to shake a person’s hand because I didn’t see it extended. That was the worst. A close second was being in the hotel room. Without a computer I could see (I don’t know why I just don’t say Mac) and the internet, I couldn’t research the items we saw on the show floor. I couldn’t see what sites sold what products for what price. It was like flying, uh, blind. Eliz would go through the brochures and read me some of the things she felt was important. I was so miserable, I’m surprised she didn’t throw me out of our eighth floor hotel window (with the wind that night, I would have had greater hang time than a Sean Landetta punt across the street at what was Giants Stadium.)

My sight continues to worsen. By the end of the day, it is so bad I hate to write emails to customers for fear of embarrassing mistakes (forgive any typos here for 24 hours, please.) I have also hesitated adding products to ForYourSalon.com. I don’t want to sell one of those new Marvy barber poles for $4.99 instead of $499… Surgery is only 27 days away, but I wish it was tomorrow. I’ve always been told to be careful what you wish for, but I’ll take my chances on this one.

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Post tags: China, china glaze, com, Eliz, ForYourSalon, Giants Stadium, hotel, Jim Conallen, Mac, Margaret, Meghan, mona lisa, Mona Lisa Clips, Mona Lisa Hair, PC Margaret, product, professional beauty supplies, sales pitches, Sean Landetta, sheraton meadowlands

This and That

david — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:11:54 +0000

I’ve been waiting for this week since the end of January, because I’m going to see the retina specialist on Friday. I’m hoping he can do a PAM test on me. No, it’s not part of the Aunt Jemima treatment, it stands for potential acuity meter. It will let me, and, more importantly, my team of eye specialists know how much of the “current” vision loss is due to the cataract in my left eye. I would hope it would come back 20/200 or better. If not, it might be time to rent a gun and buy a bullet. (Relax, I’m only joking. I’m worth far too much dead to take my own life.) Even without a PAM test, I’m hoping that Dr. Garg (retina) will give the okay for me to have Dr. Ayers (cornea) takeout the cataract. As much as I’ve loved the snow this winter, I don’t want it to foul up my 8:45am appointment in Bala on Friday. I see Dr. Ayers on 3 March and I’d like to schedule the cataract surgery then. I’ve gotta do something, it seems like my vision is getting worse by the day. My frustration level is extremely high.

On Wednesday, I’ve got an appointment with my GP. It was postponed from 10 Feb due to the little bit of snow we had (not to mention the lack of power and heat too.) When I saw Dr. Rist on 9 Dec, she told me to lose weight. Since then I’ve eaten only about 1500 calories per day. On days that I did some physical work like shovel snow, move our store inventory, etc., I would eat more calories as a reward. As of this morning, I am down 41 pounds. I’m interested to see what she says.

Jake is spending the week living at school, something he will have to do for his junior and senior years at Westtown. We dropped him off on Sunday and will pick him up this Sunday. He was really looking forward to it. Then, when we got there, he noticed a Super Nintendo game system (circa 1991.) The seniors whose room he and his friend are staying in left them a note saying that they could play with the system. We have a couple of games from the video store that Jake has always wanted to play, but we never had the system (well, we had it, but upgraded to something else before he was born.) I’m worried that school work might not be first on his mind this week. Eliz picked him up some candy from BJ’s the other day. You know, BJ’s doesn’t sell anything in small amounts. She got him a variety bag of candy bars (not the fun size, the normal size) and a bag with god know how many packages of Skittles in it. He posted today on Facebook that he was selling the candy. Prices were $.50 for candy available in the school store and $1.00 for candy not carried in the school store. I’m interested to see what he does with the funds, though his intentions could be philanthropic.

Jane found her letters from Tabitha tonight. Tabitha was conjured up when Jake literally lost his first tooth. It either fell out onto the ground or he swallowed it with his lunch that day at Granite Run Mall. He was disappointed because he was so looking forward to putting it under his pillow for the toothfairy. That night, after he went to bed, I wrote a letter from Tabitha, a toothfair from the North American office. I expected it to be a one and done sort of thing, but when he lost his next tooth, we was just as excited to get another letter as he was to get the money. And of course, if you do it for one, the other has to have it too… Jane actually got a letter or two before she even lost a tooth. She would sometimes leave notes for Tabitha under her pillow. Jane laughs at the letters now, but she had fun reading them tonight. She said each one had a little education, like Sesame Street. I also would include things that I thought would boost their confidence and nudges on nutrition. One day I’ll post them or publish them.

It is amazing how easy 700 words comes off my fingertips these days… So much for a short update. More later this week on the retina appointment.

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Post tags: aunt jemima treatment, candy, day, Dr. Ayers, Dr. Garg, Dr. Rist, Jake, Jane, Jemima, nintendo game system, North American, PAM, retina specialist, school, Sesame Street, shovel snow, store, super nintendo game system, Tabitha, week