Uncle, Basta, Fins…
It all meant the same thing when we were kid’s rough housing.
It meant “Enough, stop, I can’t take it anymore”.
So hear me loud and hear me clear…
UNCLE!
Uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle!!!
TC and Dini have ports in their chest.
They have IV tubes putting medicine in their bodies,
And drainage tubes taking things out.
They are scanned, they are poked, they are prodded and they are X-rayed.
They are cut open and sewn shut.
They are chemically poisoned every week.
They wait for Doctors and they wait on line at the pharmacy.
They are on hold with the insurance company, just to be told they’re not eligible to have a test their Doctors say they absolutely need.
And all the while, they feel like crap.
Today, as an added bonus, TC got to have two teethe pulled.
TWO TEETHE PULLED!
UNCLE
BASTA
FINS
ENOUGH!!!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
A Little Help for Our Friend
Our Dini is very sick.
She’s in terrible pain.
Pain that I pray none of you ever have or even witness.
Dini has been in the hospital for over a week now.
She is so thin and weak; we don’t know when she can come home.
Her support team is tired too.
They are also scared.
I ask that you pray for them…Dini’s keepers.
They too need strength, courage, wisdom and love.
Just like Dini…they need us.
Please take a moment…right now,
And send your good wishes their way.
Thank you.
She’s in terrible pain.
Pain that I pray none of you ever have or even witness.
Dini has been in the hospital for over a week now.
She is so thin and weak; we don’t know when she can come home.
Her support team is tired too.
They are also scared.
I ask that you pray for them…Dini’s keepers.
They too need strength, courage, wisdom and love.
Just like Dini…they need us.
Please take a moment…right now,
And send your good wishes their way.
Thank you.
Hook, Line, Sinker and Pots
I’ve got an addiction.
It’s a Television show on the discovery channel.
“Deadliest Catch”.
It’s the ongoing saga of one of the world’s deadliest jobs…
Alaskan Crab fisherman.
Each year, 5 ships led by fearless captains converge on Dutch Harbor, Alaska for the start of the Alaskan king crab season.
They fish the unrelenting Bering Sea.
It’s man versus Mother Nature, with Mother Nature often coming out on top.
40 foot waves, bone chilling temperatures, nearly 100% injury rates, swinging 700 lb crab pots…
This is good TV folks.
The crews, who you quickly become very fond of and truly worry about their safety, are a diverse crowd.
They have a friendly camaraderie between them but are ultra competitive, often pulling nasty pranks on one another.
In the off season, they live in places like Seattle and Hawaii.
The crabbing season is very short and these men can make enough money to support their families for the entire year.
Yet the risk is often higher than the reward.
Last night I watched a 3 hour marathon of Deadliest Catch.
I couldn’t drag myself away!
It comes on Tuesday night on the Discovery channel, (and reruns all through the week).
Catch it!
It’s a Television show on the discovery channel.
“Deadliest Catch”.
It’s the ongoing saga of one of the world’s deadliest jobs…
Alaskan Crab fisherman.
Each year, 5 ships led by fearless captains converge on Dutch Harbor, Alaska for the start of the Alaskan king crab season.
They fish the unrelenting Bering Sea.
It’s man versus Mother Nature, with Mother Nature often coming out on top.
40 foot waves, bone chilling temperatures, nearly 100% injury rates, swinging 700 lb crab pots…
This is good TV folks.
The crews, who you quickly become very fond of and truly worry about their safety, are a diverse crowd.
They have a friendly camaraderie between them but are ultra competitive, often pulling nasty pranks on one another.
In the off season, they live in places like Seattle and Hawaii.
The crabbing season is very short and these men can make enough money to support their families for the entire year.
Yet the risk is often higher than the reward.
Last night I watched a 3 hour marathon of Deadliest Catch.
I couldn’t drag myself away!
It comes on Tuesday night on the Discovery channel, (and reruns all through the week).
Catch it!
Monday, June 12, 2006
Are We Having Fun Yet?
We leave on vacation Friday,
We’ll be gone for a week.
I’m flippin exhausted already!
Remember when you were a kid and went on vacation?
One day you were playing in the backyard with the neighbor kids,
The next you were 1000 miles away on a beach somewhere.
A week later…you’re back playing with the neighbor kids oblivious to the amount of work it took (someone) for you to have all that fun.
How DID that magic happen?
WHO made that magic happen?
I know, I know…
Mom did!!!
She figured out where we were going and when.
How we were getting there and more importantly how we were going to pay for it.
She also had the 4-1-1 on what there was to do and see on our vacation destination.
Mom would pack us.
Stop the mail and newspaper.
Board the dogs.
Get the neighbor kid to mow the grass and his mom to water the flowers.
The contents of the fridge were rationed out with great precision a few days prior to leaving.
The house was cleaned and the laundry done.
Upon our return…
She was the one who transitioned us back into everyday life.
No wonder Mom always had a supply of crisp 5 dollar bills for the plane trip!
“Red wine” I can still hear her say to the stewardess when she came by with the beverage cart..
Only then, with that first well deserved sip did her vacation actually begin.
Well I’m the Mom now…
And I’ve got three more days till then.
Someone, quick…lock up the booze!
And just so I’m clear here…
God help the first kid who says “I’m bored”!!!
God help them!!!
We’ll be gone for a week.
I’m flippin exhausted already!
Remember when you were a kid and went on vacation?
One day you were playing in the backyard with the neighbor kids,
The next you were 1000 miles away on a beach somewhere.
A week later…you’re back playing with the neighbor kids oblivious to the amount of work it took (someone) for you to have all that fun.
How DID that magic happen?
WHO made that magic happen?
I know, I know…
Mom did!!!
She figured out where we were going and when.
How we were getting there and more importantly how we were going to pay for it.
She also had the 4-1-1 on what there was to do and see on our vacation destination.
Mom would pack us.
Stop the mail and newspaper.
Board the dogs.
Get the neighbor kid to mow the grass and his mom to water the flowers.
The contents of the fridge were rationed out with great precision a few days prior to leaving.
The house was cleaned and the laundry done.
Upon our return…
She was the one who transitioned us back into everyday life.
No wonder Mom always had a supply of crisp 5 dollar bills for the plane trip!
“Red wine” I can still hear her say to the stewardess when she came by with the beverage cart..
Only then, with that first well deserved sip did her vacation actually begin.
Well I’m the Mom now…
And I’ve got three more days till then.
Someone, quick…lock up the booze!
And just so I’m clear here…
God help the first kid who says “I’m bored”!!!
God help them!!!
Thursday, June 8, 2006
Bible Study for Dummies
I was raised in the Catholic Church.
Up until my 5th grade year when we moved to Kansas, my sisters and I attended private schools.
Our parents took us to Church every Sunday.
Well let me clarify that.
Our parents “dropped us off” at church every Sunday!
As we prayed, confessed, communed, knelt, stood, and knelt again…
They were enjoying coffee and bagels and reading the Sunday paper.
When we moved to Switzerland there were only minor changes to this routine.
Our mass was in Latin and they munched on croissants!
Ironically, once settled in the Bible belt itself, they stopped sending us to Church all together.
Maybe they thought that the strong Christian values we were surrounded with in this small Midwestern town would be enough to sustain our good morals and virtues.
More likely though, it was the fact that not only was a good bagel nonexistent in this town, but the newspaper got delivered to their door.
There was no longer a compelling reason for them to leave the house on Sunday mornings!
After all… we three kids had all celebrated our First Holy Communions, been Confirmed and had a total of 37 years of catechism classes between us.
We’d indeed been churched!
Now ask me what I know about the Bible.
Stunned, awkward silence.
“Nada” would not be an over-exaggeration.
Oh I’ve tried.
I’ve got the King James Version, the New International Version, the 365 Day bible and the Bible for Women.
I have more books on Spirituality then I do Rachel Ray cookbooks.
Those, I can handle.
But the Bible…
It intimidates me, frustrates me, bores me and gives me an extreme headache from its tiny little font.
That said...it keeps drawing me back to it.
I want to know it, I want to understand it, I want to read it.
But I can’t do it alone.
I’ve failed too many times that way.
So bring in the cavalry...
AKA: Bible Study for Dummies.
This is a small group of friends we’ve put together who feel similar to the way I do.
Suffice it to say, we’re all Biblically challenged.
Our leader, who was not brought up in the church as a youngster is no dummy!
She has studied the Bible for the last 11 years.
She knows it, she understands it, and she lives it.
She too is presented with a big challenge…the rest of us!
Last night, at our first meeting, we learned that both the Old and New Testament were written over a period of 1500 years, with 400 years of silence between them.
Whew!
That alleviates some pressure.
If it took that long to write it, with so many authors…
It’s clearly not an easy read!
But maybe I can get through it with a little help from my friends.
So here I go.
But hey…if you’ve read it…don’t spoil the ending for me!
I want to find it out for myself.
(Come on…that was a joke!!!)
Up until my 5th grade year when we moved to Kansas, my sisters and I attended private schools.
Our parents took us to Church every Sunday.
Well let me clarify that.
Our parents “dropped us off” at church every Sunday!
As we prayed, confessed, communed, knelt, stood, and knelt again…
They were enjoying coffee and bagels and reading the Sunday paper.
When we moved to Switzerland there were only minor changes to this routine.
Our mass was in Latin and they munched on croissants!
Ironically, once settled in the Bible belt itself, they stopped sending us to Church all together.
Maybe they thought that the strong Christian values we were surrounded with in this small Midwestern town would be enough to sustain our good morals and virtues.
More likely though, it was the fact that not only was a good bagel nonexistent in this town, but the newspaper got delivered to their door.
There was no longer a compelling reason for them to leave the house on Sunday mornings!
After all… we three kids had all celebrated our First Holy Communions, been Confirmed and had a total of 37 years of catechism classes between us.
We’d indeed been churched!
Now ask me what I know about the Bible.
Stunned, awkward silence.
“Nada” would not be an over-exaggeration.
Oh I’ve tried.
I’ve got the King James Version, the New International Version, the 365 Day bible and the Bible for Women.
I have more books on Spirituality then I do Rachel Ray cookbooks.
Those, I can handle.
But the Bible…
It intimidates me, frustrates me, bores me and gives me an extreme headache from its tiny little font.
That said...it keeps drawing me back to it.
I want to know it, I want to understand it, I want to read it.
But I can’t do it alone.
I’ve failed too many times that way.
So bring in the cavalry...
AKA: Bible Study for Dummies.
This is a small group of friends we’ve put together who feel similar to the way I do.
Suffice it to say, we’re all Biblically challenged.
Our leader, who was not brought up in the church as a youngster is no dummy!
She has studied the Bible for the last 11 years.
She knows it, she understands it, and she lives it.
She too is presented with a big challenge…the rest of us!
Last night, at our first meeting, we learned that both the Old and New Testament were written over a period of 1500 years, with 400 years of silence between them.
Whew!
That alleviates some pressure.
If it took that long to write it, with so many authors…
It’s clearly not an easy read!
But maybe I can get through it with a little help from my friends.
So here I go.
But hey…if you’ve read it…don’t spoil the ending for me!
I want to find it out for myself.
(Come on…that was a joke!!!)
Thursday, June 1, 2006
So Long Indy…
We’re leaving you on a high note.
Mike took Nicky and I to the Indy 500 on Sunday.
It was everything I ever heard it was and probably even more.
I had trepidations about going.
It’s hot, it’s loud, it’s long, I don’t do public bathrooms and I hate to sweat.
I’m sure Mike was thrilled to have me as his date!
Nick was coming off of a violent stomach virus and we were none too sure he could go the distance.
But we both persevered!
Not knowing what the parking situation would be,
Mike drove us within a few blocks of the racetrack.
We parked in an elementary school for 20 bucks which was going directly to the PTO for the kids.
We were barely out of the parking lot when a young entrepreneur came by on a 4-wheeler with a makeshift flatbed trailer behind it offering us a ride to the entry gate for a mere tip.
Deal…on we climbed for what turned out to be one hell of a ride!
Fans along the way were high-fiving and raising their ice cold beers to us.
People were cheering for the kid and his entrepreneurial spirit.
I was happy for the lift on this hot and sunny day,
As for Nick…hell, this might as well have been the oval racetrack itself, it couldn’t possibly get any better than this!
And then it did.
Right before we started to ascend the grandstands to our seats, past Indy pace cars were parading celebrities at different stages of their careers around the oval track.
20 feet away from us was “Hurley” from “Lost”, the TV show.
Nick is a huge “Lost” fan and is particularly crazy about Hurley.
The kid was vibrating!
Next up was Gene Simmons from the band Kiss.
I swear our eyes met just as he stuck out his world famous tongue with the seemingly jointed curl at the end and I was the one vibrating.
Sad but true.
Next up was Pat O’Brien from “The Insider”…
Admittedly an anti-climactic moment for both Nick and myself!
What an odd threesome at a cocktail party I thought.
We climbed to our seats which were right past turn 4 and so we could see all of turn 3 and the straightaway to the start/finish line.
They were high enough up that the noise wasn’t too bad and the view spectacular.
We were welcomed by the “locals” with incredible enthusiasm.
Most of these people had been sitting in their same seats for the last 20 years.
One kid, Jessie was celebrating his 30th birthday by sharing his ice cold beers and passing around his beer bong.
Mike and I showed rare restraint.
Jesse told us that his Dad, who was sitting a few seats down from him, has been to every race since the early 60’s only missing 1969 when he was fighting in Nam.
That’s quite a legacy.
The common denominator with most everyone we befriended was family.
The Indianapolis 500 is a family tradition starting with the racers themselves.
Marco Andretti and his father Michael finished 2nd and 3rd in one of the most exciting finishes in Indy history.
San Hornish Jr. propelled passed Marco and beat him to the checkered flag by .0635 seconds.
That’s 12 inches over a course of 500 miles, truly and incredible ending even for a non-race fan.
I guess it’s only fitting that we leave this town on race weekend.
We happened to move here last June, the same weekend that NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 was taking place.
And now we buckle up for our own 500 mile race…
Indianapolis to Overland Park.
Racing around the oval track I’m sure is a rush.
But man…I’m looking forward to the straightaway we call I-70.
The one that’s taking us home.
Mike took Nicky and I to the Indy 500 on Sunday.
It was everything I ever heard it was and probably even more.
I had trepidations about going.
It’s hot, it’s loud, it’s long, I don’t do public bathrooms and I hate to sweat.
I’m sure Mike was thrilled to have me as his date!
Nick was coming off of a violent stomach virus and we were none too sure he could go the distance.
But we both persevered!
Not knowing what the parking situation would be,
Mike drove us within a few blocks of the racetrack.
We parked in an elementary school for 20 bucks which was going directly to the PTO for the kids.
We were barely out of the parking lot when a young entrepreneur came by on a 4-wheeler with a makeshift flatbed trailer behind it offering us a ride to the entry gate for a mere tip.
Deal…on we climbed for what turned out to be one hell of a ride!
Fans along the way were high-fiving and raising their ice cold beers to us.
People were cheering for the kid and his entrepreneurial spirit.
I was happy for the lift on this hot and sunny day,
As for Nick…hell, this might as well have been the oval racetrack itself, it couldn’t possibly get any better than this!
And then it did.
Right before we started to ascend the grandstands to our seats, past Indy pace cars were parading celebrities at different stages of their careers around the oval track.
20 feet away from us was “Hurley” from “Lost”, the TV show.
Nick is a huge “Lost” fan and is particularly crazy about Hurley.
The kid was vibrating!
Next up was Gene Simmons from the band Kiss.
I swear our eyes met just as he stuck out his world famous tongue with the seemingly jointed curl at the end and I was the one vibrating.
Sad but true.
Next up was Pat O’Brien from “The Insider”…
Admittedly an anti-climactic moment for both Nick and myself!
What an odd threesome at a cocktail party I thought.
We climbed to our seats which were right past turn 4 and so we could see all of turn 3 and the straightaway to the start/finish line.
They were high enough up that the noise wasn’t too bad and the view spectacular.
We were welcomed by the “locals” with incredible enthusiasm.
Most of these people had been sitting in their same seats for the last 20 years.
One kid, Jessie was celebrating his 30th birthday by sharing his ice cold beers and passing around his beer bong.
Mike and I showed rare restraint.
Jesse told us that his Dad, who was sitting a few seats down from him, has been to every race since the early 60’s only missing 1969 when he was fighting in Nam.
That’s quite a legacy.
The common denominator with most everyone we befriended was family.
The Indianapolis 500 is a family tradition starting with the racers themselves.
Marco Andretti and his father Michael finished 2nd and 3rd in one of the most exciting finishes in Indy history.
San Hornish Jr. propelled passed Marco and beat him to the checkered flag by .0635 seconds.
That’s 12 inches over a course of 500 miles, truly and incredible ending even for a non-race fan.
I guess it’s only fitting that we leave this town on race weekend.
We happened to move here last June, the same weekend that NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 was taking place.
And now we buckle up for our own 500 mile race…
Indianapolis to Overland Park.
Racing around the oval track I’m sure is a rush.
But man…I’m looking forward to the straightaway we call I-70.
The one that’s taking us home.
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