LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

heart

Meh. Not as good as I’d hoped.

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Those dumb cookies are done, and they are not what I had hoped.

Sometime in elementary school we did an ‘art’ project where we took half a heart, cut off a strip around the edge, glued that down; cut another strip, glued that down on the opposite side; back and forth etc. It looked something like this:

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I wondered if you made red-and-white pinwheel cookie dough (but more an oval shape than a wheel shape), cut it on a severe diagonal, flipped it and reassembled, would the cut cookies look like those hearts?

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Would it?

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Dang. That cut is lopsided. Rats.

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Avert your eyes! Cookie guts! (This dough was too warm. Should have let it chill longer.)

Anyway, the lopsided heart-shaped dough log chilled for days, then I did the ol’ slice-n-bake on ‘seasoned’ -not dirty – ‘seasoned’ cookie sheets.

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Changes should be made, but I’m too tired to revamp these.

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After baking, the pointy part wasn’t very pointy, so they kind of look like mutant mittens.

Next year, cookies. Next year.

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Super geeky

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When I was growing up I had two Star Wars action figures: R2-D2 and a stormtrooper. That’s it. Personally, I find it hard to believe that that was it, but I’m pretty sure it was. Boys of my generation and particular mental bent spent a considerable amount of time thinking of Star Wars and how everything fit together. Thus it was with considerable interest and later considerable disappointment that I saw the last (first) three star wars films. It bothered me a bit that they didn’t make sense.

I didn't even know they had these guys

A few months ago I stumbled upon this little essay that links the two sets of movies together in a rather clever manner. It made me not hate the second (first) movies 3% less. Warning, it’s super geeky.

Heart Update:
I talked to a nurse at my cardiologist’s office (I thought it might be a few decades before I had to day that) and she talked to a nurse practitioner who reviewed my file (I’m resigned to the fact that it is only on TV that regular people get to talk to doctors) and said that it would be fine to go back to work on Monday, but I shouldn’t do anything to raise my heart-rate (only moderate walking and no more than 5 parenthetical comments per post). This is good news, because it is a pain in the butt to make a DVD of/for a lesson. It would be fun to do if I had a staff or, say, a week for each lesson. As it is, it takes about 5 hours to put a 20 minute lesson together. And they are not necessarily very good. They are certainly not the type of work that I would give a student in my Video Editing class an “A” for. But they are pretty good for 5 hours of work.

In other News:
I went with Lauren today to Omaha. She needed to pickup a few homeless ukuleles for unsuspecting teachers to use at her conference presentation on Saturday, and she said I could sit around in the car just as well as I could sit around on the couch. It was an uneventful trip except that I found out that my favorite sandwich from Subway is the highest in sodium that they sell.

Desperate for material.

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As we’ve joked the past couple of days, “We’ll do anything for a good post!”  No pictures today, but many more to follow!

Where to start? First of all, Lloyd’s ok. (Sounds ominous, eh?)  Let’s begin with what we’ve told countless nurses, aides, physicians’ assistants and a doctor. 

As you know, Lloyd’s been sick with a cold for a couple of weeks, and he had a fever last… Tuesday?  Anyway, Thursday night he had some mild chest pain around midnight, but it went away by 2:00.  (He didn’t wake me up.)  Friday morning his chest started to hurt as he was driving in to school.  He didn’t have his cell phone, so he was trying to figure out the safest way to drive off the road should something happen.  At school, he wondered if it might be gas, so some co-workers offered some Tums and soda.  It went away by 9:00, so that was that  (He told me about it after school.)

Friday night I awoke at 2:15 to Lloyd sitting by the bed and saying, “Lauren, you need to come downstairs and sit with me.”  (Now THAT’S a shot of adrenline.)  We sat in the dining room while he drank some pop – I offered baking soda water, since I’ve watched lots and lots of medical shows.  Finally he put his head on the table, and we decided to go to the emergency room.  “Better safe than sorry” and all that.

We went, and they were very kind and helpful.  Lloyd got hooked up for an EKG, had an i.v. port put in, had oxygen pumped into his nose, had a chest x-ray, and got some blood drawn.  (Lloyd did not pass out!  Usually he’s kind of a woozy guy with that.)  We kept thinking, “It’s probably just gas.”  Well, they said that some heart enzyemes were pretty high, so they were going to send us to Lincoln.  We thought we’d just drive ourselves in, but the P.A. shook her head and said, “No. You’re really sick. I’m surprised you don’t feel a lot worse.”  They said it was probably pericarditis, and inflamation of the sac around his heart, probably caused by his cold virus.  Lloyd had to take an ambulance.  By they way, it arrived around 5 a.m., and by this time he was feeling fine.  These episodes just last about two hours.

I went home to get the car that had enough gas to get to Lincoln, Lloyd’s toothbrush and some extra clothes, and – of course – the camera.  (Don’t think we’re morbid, but we’ve joked that if anything super-serious should happen to one of us, the other one has to make a post about it.)  Unfortunately we can’t load pictures yet, but perhaps this evening or tomorrow we can.)

Lloyd rode in, I followed, we arrived at St. Elizabeth around 6 a.m.- a very nice facility!  He had all the same tests over again, minus the x-ray, and waited to hear from the doctor.  We had to wait quite a long time, because it was Saturday and there was only one cardioloist on duty.  He was probably helping people who were in big trouble, so it wasn’t too hard to be patient.  We sat around, had people come in and do the same tests, and around 4 p.m. we met with the doctor briefly  A bit later, Lloyd had his first dose of actual medicine – the experimental wonder drug….. Motrin!  We joked with the nurse that we weren’t sure about Lloyd taking such strong medication.  Whatever.

We were pretty tired all day and tried to nap, but people kept wanting to take Lloyd’s blood away.  Annette and her family were coming into Lincoln and we asked if she could bring Lloyd’s keys and his papers to grade.  I got his laptop from school and we had a pretty nice setup  When Lloyd took a shower he had to pull 23 sticky tabs off his chest, and 2 from his ankles. He ate the hospital food without complaint, and we went to sleep around 10:30.

An hour later I woke up to him calling the nurse because the pain was back, but not as severe.  It took a while for them to come in.  Anyway, someone came to draw some blood and the nurse said they needed to run ‘a complete set of tests – he hasn’t had the three blah blah blah test since he’s been here!’.  Then they gave him morphine – just like on M.A.S.H.!

We actually got some sleep after that, though they stole his blood again in the night.  It’s been fascinating watching his heart rate and blood pressure change throughout the day and night.  So, a nutshell, he’s just fine 93% of the time, and a mess 7%.  We’re hoping to leave today, but we’ll have to talk with the doctor today.  We’ll keep you “posted”!

A sweet side note – they play a snippet of a lullaby over the intercom whenever a baby is born, and seven babies have been born while we’ve been here!

So, Brad, I guess this trumps Amsterdam, huh?