Under the weather

Jill had her most recent operation on Jan. 16. While I was passing the time in the waiting room, I began to get a bit of scratchiness in my throat. I had developed a runny nose by that evening, and the whole mess quickly moved to my chest within two days. Or so I thought. I had what I thought was bronchitis. Most bronchitis is viral, so I waited it out for a few weeks. These weeks, spent largely at work or at the hospital (Jill came home too soon and had to go back for a few more days), were filled with the sound of my rattly lungs and very productive cough. Three weeks after contracting this "ick", I saw a doctor. She said that my lungs were clear, and diagnosed me with rhinovirus, the common cold. She said that it would gradually get better over the next two weeks on its own.

Three weeks later, I had had it (along with my coworkers and friends). The cough had gotten only marginally better, and I was spiking 100-102F fevers on consecutive nights. I went back in and was diagnosed with rhinosinusitis. Basically, my nasal passages were so swollen that everything was going down the back side, causing me to cough. I got high dose amoxicillin, an inhaler, and was advised to take Sudafed. That was Wednesday. I stayed home most of Wednesday and all of Thursday. I went to work Friday, but stayed mostly off my feet. There was somewhat less coughing yesterday, but today feels like a week ago. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken E to the zoo this morning.

Anyway, blah. This has sapped a lot of my energy. I hope that the RN who saw me gambled correctly on amoxicillin. I'm going to be pissed if I have to go back in for a Z-Pak, which is what I expected.

And now....Pictures!!!

The ubiquitous "Uh oh!"


Right before heading out to the zoo



No caption necessary

Nerding it up in nerd town

Yes, this is part 2 of my graphic novel thingy, in which I talk about The Sandman.

Death. Destruction. Despair. Destiny. Delight. Delirium.

Dream.

Neil Gaiman was tapped to write a series of stories in this graphic format based on an old DC character, The Sandman. He came up with an epic tale of a far more powerful creature: Morpheus, Oneiros, Dream of the Endless. The Endless predate the fleeting gods and myths of humanity. They are family, with all of the love, support, and betrayal of any family, but their extremely long view of things make some of their actions seem strange.

This is a series of ten graphic novels, plus some non-canonical material. The set of ten tells an ultimately cohesive story, but seems quite fractured as you’re reading it. Each book has it’s own identity; partly due to the necessities of the book form, and partly because of the changing artists involved in the project. While a few of the books tell a relatively linear story from start to finish, others tell a series of seemingly unrelated stories. I found it to be frustrating early in the series (Dream Country), as Gaiman would introduce you to a group of characters who were having some sort of conflict, only to have it resolved by the deus ex machina appearance of the Sandman. As it turns out, most of those little stories are quite relevant to the final epic scene, which resolves over the course of the last 3 books.

The central conflict is an existential one for the main character, Dream. An Endless being is many things, but humble is not one of them. Dream is vain, petulant, haughty, and distant, but also compassionate, responsible, and loyal. You can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps, and Dream is surrounded by many fantastic characters who provide a warmth to temper his cold demeanor. Over the course of the story, we see Dream at different points in human history, coming to grips with his relationship with humans. He depends upon us to help him travel and to build his kingdom, but he has the attitude of a benevolent despot. Over time, he develops relationships with some humans, and he begins to recognize that he is changing. This is a problem, since Dream is the ultimate idealist. He has set his own rules since the stars were born. He fights this change, and that’s when all the trouble starts…

The entire series is stunningly well done. As Peter Straub gushes in the liner notes of one of the volumes, “If this isn’t literature, I don’t know what is”. As for the artwork…the art is equal to the story. These are beautiful books, and I look forward to revisiting them often.

One final note: read these near a computer, because you’ll be needing to access Wikipedia to brush up on your Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse mythology, as well as your Shakespeare and Chaucer. And perhaps a little on the faerie folk.

Morpheus needs a hug

Light reading

Back in November and December, Rachel hooked me up with a number of graphic novels from her collection. This is an incomplete list of what I read:

Watchmen by Alan Moore
Coming soon to theaters near you, this tale of "costumed vigilantes" is a dark mirror to the arc of history taken by the Western world since WWII. These heroes, variously employing gadgetry, acrobatic agility, above-average intelligence, and excellent hand-to-hand fighting skills, gained world-wide popularity and notoriety in the 40s and 50s. This story, set in the 80s, tells of the decline of this group from their glory days, as they went from heroes to pariahs, although the main action is about how they are being methodically being picked off by an unknown foe. It's a fascinating story with compelling (if mostly unlikeable) characters. The ending was very satisfying.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
Drawing heavily on the dystopic vision of George Orwell, this is set in England in the years following a fairly widespread nuclear exchange in Europe. England escaped relatively intact, but a fascist regime of necessity took control, restoring order to a society in flux. After enjoying several years of unimpeded security, the regime finds itself under attack by a very clever and destructive foe. Much of this superbly drawn novel is told through the eyes of a young woman who is taken in by "V", and who experiences quite a wild ride as she gets to know him. This book, more than any of the others in this post, made me see the real value of this medium. "V" wears a frozen mask throughout the novel, but the artist was nonetheless able to show a variety of emotions with a simple cock of the head or other change of angle. You couldn't tell that visual story in a standard novel, and you don't often have time to pause and reflect on an image in a movie. This was extremely cool, and you should read it.

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
Rachel is really into Batman comics. These three stories provide compelling reasons. Year One is a reimagining of the origins of Batman, and the movie Batman Begins draws heavily from it. The artwork is a muddle of contrasts, with very little in the way of bright colors. Bruce Wayne is driven by a vision of rescuing his city from corruption and fear, and he joins forces with an even braver soul on the police force. The Long Halloween follows Batman over the course of a year in which the main mob family in Gotham experiences some high level assassinations, which ratchet up the tension in the city. There is a breakout at Arkham Asylum, where several classic Batman foes are released to wreak havoc on the city. I was a bit disappointed with that aspect, as Batman didn't seem to really struggle with these characters. I think that there may have been too much going on for me to get the main point, so I should probably re-read this one. The best one, however, was The Dark Knight Returns. This is essential reading. Batman has been retired for 10 years, and he's in his 40s. Circumstances force him to squeeze back into his costume again, perhaps for his swan song. This is a harsh, brutal story. There are so many great elements that interlock beautifully: the yin/yang relationship between Batman and the Joker, the unlikely showdown with a very surprising foe, and the very creepy relationship between Batman and a young protege who styles himself after Robin. Frank Miller gets this character.

I also read the 10-volume Sandman series, but that will have to comprise its own post.

Lest I forget

Seeing as some of my favorite people are Edinburgh residents, who are undoubtedly enjoying that most sublime of winter fare, the noble haggis, I steal this bit of doggerel from Wikipedia, for you, my clause-ridden reader:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae the Lord be thankit.

Despite all of my bitching over the past few months, I'm a really lucky guy. I hope you all have a good day (hell, have a good COUPLE of days). Lords notwithstanding.

A fondly-remembered tale of a certain visitor to Scotland and his kilty adventures at a barn dance reminds me to announce, with no little glee, that Mustafa and Kathy from Ann Arbor are planning to stop by our soggy abode for a few days en route to Hawaii. Now I can show all of my gaming buddies here what a true manipulator is like at the table. We're really excited about this.

Is it ten fingers, or eight and two thumbs?

Here I sit in the O.R. waiting room with a bunch of other worried people. Jill went on a clear liquid diet beginning yesterday morning, and did a bowel prep last night. This is not a glamorous sequence of events. She was told that she would be the first surgery of the day today. However, while this was technically correct, it turns out that her surgeon had a previous engagement at a different hospital. This engagement turned into an emergency, which pushed back Jill's operation. And so and thus it was that Jill was finally wheeled back for preoperative preparations at 2 PM today. Jill, needless to say, was pretty freaking hungry at this point. We've been here since 9:30 AM.

There's not really a point to this post. I'm just really bored, and want to complain about something. Now, here's a picture of Jill with a pink, fuzzy hat on her head. Please enjoy.



UPDATE: 20 minutes after posting this, the nurse called the waiting room and told me that Jill had just begun her surgery, and that I could expect to wait 2-4 hours before hearing anything else. She was initially taken back about 1.5 hours ago. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

UPDATE: Aaaaand, she's done. Not bad--it took them 3 hours to finish up. She had no evidence of gross disease, and they were able to resect her colon at the previous site of repair. All in all, the best case scenario. I am tired and hungry, but also delighted. She's waking up now, and I'll get to see her in an hour...

Christmas 2008 in Pictures

Man, I need to clean up around here. The same tired songs have been on that list for months, the same molding picture has been occupying the prime spot up there since October, and I don’t even go to many of those “links” I’ve posted anymore. I would call it a resolution, but my resolution has been to be more productive at work, which is why this is being posted from my desk at work.

Anyhoo, I do have some planned “articles” for the near future, but let’s just keep it simple for now: pictures from Christmas and from my super-sweet 40th galaganza.

Elaine moves up on the totem pole


I prepare to get blurry on my birthday


Sweeeeet!


Ripping paper=fun

Christmas 2008 in the passive voice

We experienced a casual morning of hanging around, prior to the arrival of Jill's dad from Iowa City. Early dinner preparations were undertaken, courtesy of Jill and Gwen. Soon, the present-opening ritual was initiated. In time, the present-opening had concluded. Children were made happy, as were grownups. I received one (1) fleece, one (1) ID/card/money holder that is intended for front-pocket use, one (1) copy of Galaxy Trucker (joint gift), one (1) copy of Zooloretto (joint gift), and one (1) set of graphic novels -- the complete Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. I was made happy. Dinner was served, and (I believed) was enjoyed by all. Reminiscences and a reading from some Johnsen family Civil War letters transpired in the small moments between chewing and sighs. A bottle of Conundrum and another bottle of Festive Ale were consumed. The dishwashing was accomplished by a crew of two sturdy men, helmed by yours truly. Sleep happened to us all, almost without warning.

Holiday = Holly Day

Happy Christmas, Hannukah, or non-specified Happy Family Day! I know which one I'm celebrating...

OK, to conclude:

It snowed, it rained, it snowed again.
The roads remained crappy, but games made me happy.

On to other things.

I've had an awesome week of gaming, although I've just been playing the same 3 games over and over. I picked up Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries a few weeks ago, and it is a really quick and fun 2-3 player version. Yspahan is still getting heavy play. The biggest winner has to be Dominion, the new It game for the cognoscenti.

In Dominion, you essentially build a deck of cards as you play. You start with a mix of 10 Treasure cards and Victory cards, worth 1 each. On the table, there are Treasure and Victory cards of different denominations, as well as Action cards. These may be bought on your turn. You simply deal yourself five cards out of your deck, play an Action card (if you have one), and then purchase any available card that you can afford with the Treasure you have in your hand. Then, your entire hand (including all of the Treasure you just spent) and your newly purchased card go into your discard pile. When your deck is depleted, you shuffle your discard pile (now containing new cards), and deal from that deck. Thus, you don't lose the Treasure that you spend, and your deck gets larger and larger throughout the game.

You don't want to start buying Victory cards too early, since they are worthless until the end of the game. Since you get only five cards in any hand, you want mostly Treasure and Action cards in any given deal. Some cards let you draw more cards into your hand, give you additional Treasure to spend, or add to the number of action cards you can play, or otherwise allow you to alter the hand that you're dealt. It's incredibly addictive, and plays well with 2, 3 or 4.

Anyway, play it if you get a chance. It's the real deal. There's also a Zombie re-theme available on Boardgamegeek. I gotta go, as the whole Bradley family has appeared at the table here, and I'm being rude. Christmas rude. It's the worst kind.\

It's a very special Christmas photo with E, Stephen, and Christine


Be nice to each other. We miss you.

OMG, Look Outside, You Guys, It's SNOWING!!!

Insert angry face here. More later.

Later...
It's 7:00 PM. Still snowing. I'm starting to be less angry, but only because it's probably healthy. More later.

Later...
9:51 PM. Still snowing. I'm coming to a sort of peace with the whole thing, since it's clear that it's not going anywhere for a long time. Jill's dad and his Debbie got stuck in Denver, and it's not clear if they're going to make it at all. They're planning to go back to Iowa City if they can't get a flight in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm not looking forward to the trip to and from work tomorrow. Blasted bloody buses. Why can't we have a nice, integrated rail system?

Daddy's little soldier

Much like the first steps and the first cuss word, the first trip to the ER ranks among the milestones of parenting. Fortunately, our trip was relatively quick (in and out in 150 minutes), and we knew that she was OK.

For posterity...we were at a brunch that was hosted by my new boss, Larry. Elaine was playing contentedly with a toy on the floor, seemingly oblivious to all of the people milling about and the food that, quite honestly, was in easy nabbing distance for her little grappling hooks. I was standing nearby with a plate of food, and Jill was on the other side of the room, filling her plate. Abruptly, Elaine stood up and dashed forward, beginning to babble about something. I moved to put my plate down, keeping an eye on which way she went. She didn't get far. I guess she planned on just blowing past a group of three people standing to my right, but she ran into the back of someone's hand. I think that he was swinging it, as if to gesture, as she ran into it. He says that he was holding a plate.

He bent down and took Elaine by the shoulders, and then looked up at me and said, "I wounded her." I made him repeat himself, because I didn't see a plate or anything; I just saw her stop cold. He turned her around and then I saw the blood. She had a vertical gash in the middle of her forehead, about 1.5 cm long. By this time, her internal clock that gauges the appropriate interval between the instance of pain and the explosion of tears had expired, and we all heard her side of the story. By this time, Jill had arrived at the scene. We zipped her off to the bathroom, and Jill cleaned up the wound. Jill said that she saw subcutaneous fat, which meant that Elaine probably needed stitches. I knew that she was going to be fine, but we were worried about scarring.

Checking in


We disappeared pretty quickly for the UW Medical Center. Elaine had long since forgotten about the incident by the time we got registered in the ER waiting room. Once we finally saw a doctor, and confirmed that she did require a couple of stitches, both Jill and I started to get anxious. Suddenly! Two nurses came in and swaddled Elaine, pinning her arms. The doctor applied a topical anesthetic, waited a few minutes, and then injected a local anesthetic. Then he deftly sewed two stitches, applied some antiseptic, and slapped a bandage on. Through all of this, Elaine made a horrible, gutteral crying sound, her eyes bulging and darting between the unfamiliar faces that were hovering overhead. Tears ran out of her eyes, snot came out her nose, and she drooled so much, she was choking. When they finally released her, she practically peeled off of the bed, she was so soaked in sweat. Needless to say, it took a while to calm her down, and she pretty much just passed out for awhile. Jill and I? Yeah, basically traumatized.

When Elaine woke up, she was just fine. We went to Josh and Megan's place, and Elaine played with Madeleine and the other kids that were there. No problems. We changed her bandage this morning, and she just sat there in my lap, totally unconcerned. I wonder what, if anything, she remembers of the incident.

Random -vs- Chaos

An observation

When playing boardgames, I often run up against the rough side of luck. Perhaps the person to my left is taking all my s#!t, perhaps the dice are unfriendly, perhaps I only pick the bad cards...in any case, I am clearly the victim of circumstance. Obviously, the opposite is true when I do well at a boardgame. In this instance, bad luck has failed to impede my brilliant plans. I gain respect, and rise in the minds of my competitors. I smell different, and the ladies want my number. Too bad, ladies.

An emotional reaction

Hey, unexploded cluster bomblets of the world's wars, lying dormant but deadly in the countryside of Europe and Asia...you suck. Hey USA and Russia, nice going on NOT SIGNING THE STUPID TREATY TO STOP MAKING GOSHDARNED CLUSTER BOMBS.

I'm shaking my head in disbelief...

...at this editorial in the NYT. I mean, seriously, we haven't shared the most basic medical knowledge with these people? "This is sa-aa-alt with magical no-swollen-neck, no-retarded powder. Boogah woogah!"


(Zed)
Cluster bombs can GO SUCK AN EGG.

Torn from yesterday's headlines...

"German Freezer Baby Mother Guilty"

First of all, I think that they could have afforded a few prepositions and perhaps a verb to make that actually work as a coherent phrase. Second, that's just not an image that I want in my mind at 7AM. I mean, it's an isolated incident, they caught her, case closed. Had there been a rash of baby freezer mother incidents, perhaps that would qualify as breaking through the filter to join the ranks of news items dealing with global recession, major political restructuring, genocide, anything to do with Michael Jackson, and skateboarding guinea pigs.

I'm sure that I'm leaving a few things out.