Preparation

Robert's room is finished. Green walls and the white trim and door are dry, a new doorknob that locks, a new bed. My desk stays in the room, and he'll add some bedroom furnishings. He has most of his stuff advertised for sale on Craigslist. Moving day will be in a couple of weeks. He still has a lot of stuff...guitars, amplifier, all his stuff he's collected over the last six years away from home. The furniture is all sold, and he's saving kitchen stuff for when David moves out.

David is using our bathroom for a while. His bathroom is the same, no vanity or sink, and lots of work ahead. Mark plans to pull up the old tile today or tomorrow night. He's busy...beach week starts this Saturday and I won't be home to organize packing for a week at the beach. I have a list. I return from Washington late on Tuesday, then Wednesday morning I have my final doctor's appointment and MUGA heart scan at 9:30 AM in Daytona Beach (an hour north of Apopka) for the medical research thing I did for rheumatoid arthritis. After that appointment, I have to turn around and drive to south Orlando to my hand doctor's office at 2:00 PM in Celebration, FL(1 1/2 hours south of Daytona) for a pre-op appointment. I can't believe I'll have my fingers fixed in a couple of weeks! After that, I drive to Cocoa Beach (an hour east of Orlando) and hope to arrive there by dinner for relaxation until Sunday.

Today I have to work for my friend Bonnie at her travel agency. She has a group going to Alaska and I do all the final details. Then I have to drive to south Orlando to pick up my package of stuff for the tour group I will meet on Saturday morning. They're a performing high school band from Missouri. I leave tomorrow morning for Washington, DC. I wish I was leaving later in the day, but that's what my office booked me for. It will be a lonely day, but maybe this is what I need after such a hectic week. Did I mention that Mark has a cold? My throat is scratchy...

Home Renovations

Mark and I have been to Home Depot and Lowe's alot lately. We are renovating the boys' bathroom from the floor up. The wall tile around the tub, tub, sink and toilet are all a creamy beige color, very popular 20 years ago. The floor tile is old and ugly and we will replace the small floor tiles with 12"x12" Texas Beige tiles. David peeled off the ancient blue striped and lighthouses wall paper in anticipation of painting the walls, probably creamy beige to match the wall tiles around the tub. We hope to have the bathtub refinished in white to match the new toilet. We decided to get a white vanity. We like this one a lot, but we don't have to make a final decision until the floor is tiled. Not sure yet about what sort of vanity top and sink will go in. I think I'll take off the glass shower enclosure and hang up a shower curtain instead. I may make one with a window valance to match. So far we have the walls nearly ready to paint, the old vanity removed, and tiles to lay, and the rest are all plans we need to complete. We might get paint and paint tonight, then tile tomorrow night. The picture shows boxes sitting where the vanity used to be. They contain what used to be held in the vanity.

iGoogle, do you?

Do you have iGoogle? I like having it as my homepage when I open Explorer. In my iGoogle I have the weather for my city as well as some cities where family lives, a To Do list, a clock and calendar, and just for the fun of it, something called Today's Reason To Drink. I am totally in love with Google Talk, where I can talk to my sons, their girlfriends, and occasionally my mother. I wish the rest of the family would join in. You can add a wide variety of stuff to your page, but my most favorite part of my iGoogle page is the weekly New York Times Crossword Puzzle. I just love how it offers the hint by just clicking in the spot where the word will go, and I really like the check your answer feature. I have completed and cleared the puzzle daily and am waiting for Monday, when the new puzzle will appear. Monday seems like a million puzzles away! I wish for a new puzzle each day.

Hand Surgery

I saw my hand surgeon a few weeks ago and the outlook is grim. Because of rheumatoid arthritis, I have had six artificial joints in my hands, along with a handful (haha) of other finger and hand operations. Dr. Rubin will fix my right hand first, on June 3rd to be exact. Currently I have an artificial joint in the second joint of both my long finger and my ring finger. Those will be removed and instead, my fingers will be fused (not together). The bones in those two fingers are too fragile to handle another artificial joint. The second joint in my thumb will also be fused. Thumbs don't hold artificial joints well. There are three great things about this surgery, 1) God blessed me with really long fingers, so if they are shortened a little, it won't be too strange looking, 2) fused joints don't require occupational therapy afterwards as there are no joints to bend, and 3) I won't have pain after they're healed.

Probably at the end of summer, once I'm recovered from the right hand surgery and I'm out of splints and capable, I will schedule left hand surgery. Pinkie fusion in the tip and middle joints, and my thumb's second joint. Like thumbs, the smallest finger doesn't hold an artificial joint well. The two original artificial joints at the base of my pointer and longest fingers are both aged and ruptured, so they will be replaced with new ones, as well as the same joint in my ring finger. I've never had surgery on that finger, and I'm a little sad to see this happen, but x-rays show it clearly, my cartilage is completely gone and the bone is disintegrating. No wonder it hurts! After this surgery, I'll have weeks and weeks of occupational therapy, and this is the part I dislike the most.

Both surgeries will be done in Dr. Rubin's new outpatient clinic, just upstairs from his office located next door to the hospital in Celebration, FL. Have you ever seen the way-too-perfect neighborhood in Celebration? Something about this strikes me as really creepy, like the Stepford Wives will appear with a platter of cookies from around each corner. Disney built as a planned idyllic community and to me it seems as plastic and fake as The Truman Show. BUT the doctors and hospital are great there, and that's what's important.

New Clothesline

It is a warm, breezy day and our backyard is so nice, I look for things to wash, just so I can enjoy time outdoors. Squirrels barked at me the whole time I was outside, but they couldn't outchatter the birds! I washed the quilt I made for Mark's birthday in 2005. After a few baby quilts, this was the first big quilt I made and he loves it. When it is not drying on our new clothesline, it hangs from the back of Mark's favorite chair. This quilt is appropriately named Picnic In The Recliner.