What a Game

There were over 44,000 at today's game, the LA Dodgers vs. the St. Louis Cardinals. The stadium was a sea of red and blue but I think the Cardinal fans had the edge.

It was a 1:10pm game and we got there early so Andrew could see his heroes take batting practice. After batting practice several Cardinal players made themselves available for photo's and autographs. Andrew got his Cardinals jersey and his glove signed by David Eckstein and John Rodriguez. He was thrilled!

Great game and it went into extra innings. Most of the Dodger fans had left by then and I soon as the Card's pulled ahead in the top of the 11th the rest of the Dodger fans melted away and didn't even bother to stay for their last at bats. Guess they know their team to well ;)

Andrew had an awesome day, in his words "Incredible!". Oh and he's 15 now.

Big Improvement

Sam's doing great. Nothing like a couple of days of intravenious heavy duty antibiotics to put the sparkle back in your eyes!

They had to pull his TPN line and will insert a new line in a fresh vein on Monday. It's just a minor surgical procedure, knock him out and get it in. His lungs are clearing nicely and this mornings blood work came back with good numbers so I'll likely be able to bring him home Monday once he's come out of recovery.

He's grumpy and bored which is always a sure sign he's ready to come home :)

Even though Sam won't be able to join us were still going ahead with our plans to celebrate Andrew's 15th birthday tomorrow. Andrew is a big St. Louis Cardinals fan and when I realized they'd be in town on his birthday playing the Dodgers I managed to get really good tickets on the first base side. He's been looking forward to this for months and I don't want him to miss the chance to see his heroes play in person.

Sam told him he'd be watching the game and if we see any camera's near by we'll all make specticals of ourselves in an attempt to get to wave at him on TV and right after the game we'll stop by the hospital for a bit so he can hear all about it.

It's Been A Good Run

I suppose things have just been going too well lately to last. Unfortunately after five months of steady improvement I had to take Sam to the hospital early this evening. Poor guy I hated to leave him there again.

I knew something was wrong when Sam came home early yesterday. He was exhausted, had a really bad headache and went to bed. Usually I hear him getting ready for work but this morning I slept through and he was gone by the time I woke up at 7:30am.

Stephanie, Adam and I were just pulling out of the driveway to go shopping (Andrew's birthday is this Sunday) when Sam pulled in. He just wanted to go to bed so we went ahead and took off so the house would quiet and when we got back he was sound asleep but very flushed and hot to the touch.

He woke up two hours later and as soon as I took his temperature I called one of his doctors. It's funny that for the last, well almost two years now I guess, his body has been convinced that there is an infection present when there hasn't been. Through everything he has been through he's never run a fever. But the one thing that's been impressed on me over and over since he started taking immune suppresents is that if he's running a temperature of 100 or over get him to the hospital right away.

Dr. Rothman called and told the hospital we were coming but unfortunately we had to wait quite a while before they had a bed in a ward and Sam was miserable on the ER gurney. He's got puemonia and possibly something going on with his good kidney. When I left he was out cold with a nice bag of antibiotics steadily dripping away.

Poor Steph looked so scared when I bundled Sam into the car, but she's a trooper and got herself and the boys dinner and generally held down the fort. When I called her from the hospital I was able to reassure her and I could hear the smile in her voice before we said goodnight. Thankfully all three kids were asleep when I got home. I dread having to talk to them in the morning.

It's gonna be a long night.

Time's a Flying By

Can it really be that the kids go back to school five weeks from today? According to the calendar they do but it sure doesn't feel like we're at the half way point of summer break.

So far this week a lot of our time has been taken up with appointments. I always try to schedule the kids checkups, dental visits etc. during their summer break so they don't have to miss classes. This year Stephanie had to get a bunch of paperwork filled out by our local doctor for college and get booster shots. The boys lucked out and didn't need any boosters this year.

So most of Monday was taken up with checkups and yesterday was the dentist. Today Steph had to get her final orthodontic X-rays (she got her braces off last week!) and then a quick run back to the doctor to get the TB tests read. They still need to get their annual eye screenings and then everyone will be set for the new school year.

We still have quite a bit of shopping to do for Stephanie's dorm room but she won't get her roommate assignment until next week so we decided to wait until they've had a chance to talk before we get to much. A lot of what they'll need will be shared so I'm hoping maybe they can split the list and each get half of what's needed. We move her in to the dorm one month from today and I have a feeling that August is going to fly by.

We've all been so busy that we've yet to get to the beach yet this summer, usually we head down there at least once a week. But now that I've gotten the several of the articles due about the news from Shore Leave done and have caught up a bit on book reviews I won't feel guilty taking off to spend the day at the beach so it's time to break out the boogie boards and head for Malibu!

The Huntington

We had a really lovely day at the Huntington Library and Botanical Garden's today. It was a bit hot, but not too bad, and many of the paths through the various gardens were nice and shady. We worked up an appetite strolling around so that by the time of our reservation we were more than ready to eat. Tea was wonderful and we stuffed ourselves with all kinds of goodies.

Sam and the boys really weren't interested so it was ladies day out. Stephanie had invited seven her best friends so counting her that made eight young ladies. My friend Diane joined us to keep me company so we were ten in all. We went in two cars and once we got there we went our way and the girls went theirs and then we met up at the tea house at 2:30 pm.

There are twelve different gardens, a total of 150 acres so you can't really see all the various gardens in one day unless you want to race through them. Diane and I managed three: the Shakespeare Garden, the Japanese Garden and the Rose garden. My particular favorite is the Japanese Garden and we spent quite a bit of time there. They've expanded it since I was last there about four years ago, adding a Zen Garden and a Bonsai Garden.

After we ate we split up again and Diane and I headed for library to see the the beautiful books and manuscripts. Mr. Huntington had used a sizable portion of his fortune to collect rare books and among those on display is an original edition of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". Hand illuminated it's more than a book, it's a work of art. There's also a first edition Guttenberg Bible and many other treasures.

All in all a really wonderful day!

Andrew's Home

I left about 8:30am to drive up to the baseball camp and pick up Andrew. The camp was being run by ABC Baseball (a bunch of former pro players do these one or two week camps around the country each summer) and they had arranged to use a boarding school empty for the summer to hold the camp. It's 150 miles due north of here.

A place called The Dunn School which is a bit north of Santa Barbara, and wow, what a beautiful place. Right in wine country, surrounded by gorgeous vistas the place was pretty impressive. I visited some college campus's with Steph that weren't this nice, or had sports facilities this impressive. The campers were staying in the school dorms and eating at the cafeteria. The students weren't there, but some of the support staff was.

The drive up took two hours so I got there in time to catch the last half hour of their final game. Since it was the last day, and just a half day, they didn't do drills or clinics. Andrew saw me pull up, he was the runner at first at the time, but he was stranded and then he had to take first base but after that half of the inning he came out to say hi. I almost messed up and hugged him, but I remembered not to embarrass him at the last moment

It was a pretty intensive camp. It started last Sunday at 1pm with a five hour hitting clinic. They had to be up each day by 7am, and after breakfast, on the fields by 8am. Andrew said each morning they'd do throwing and catching drills, followed by two, 2 hour clinics. There were clinics to cover every aspect of the game; sliding, positional hitting, etc. The clinics changed each day.

After lunch and a 30 minute break (In which they apparently played catch anyway) they'd do running drills before dividing up into their various teams (there were six teams, 3 age divisions) to play a 5 inning game. Then they had a free hour before dinner, and Andrew usually hit the pool. After dinner they'd watch game tapes and discuss plays and stuff before having another free hour and then lights out by 10pm.

Something that hadn't occurred to me when he asked could he go to this camp was that for the past four days he's been cut off from TV (they were only allowed to watch ESPN, and then just for a half hour), the computer and his Playstation. And no soda. He admitted to being tired, and a little bit sore, but he had a blast and said he feels like he got a lot out of it.

We left there just after 1pm and about fifteen minutes into the drive I hear a gently snoring and he's out cold the rest of the way home. Got caught in a bit of the Friday 'get away' traffic so the drive back took 3 hours. From just north of Ventura it's a beautiful drive though, along the coast and I enjoyed that part of it.

He was greeted estatically by our dog, Dax. It took her a good ten minutes to calm down. Two of the cats also joined the welcome home committee, the other two were off sleeping somewhere. When I realized I wouldn't be home in time I asked Steph to take Adam to Karate so Andrew and I had everything unpacked and put away by the time they got back and Sam came in from work.

It's good to have him back.

Go Me!

I'm tired but feeling very happy and satisfied with myself right now.

Somehow today, in between orthodontist appointments and karate classes and the usual domestic responsibities, I managed to finish an article and transcribe 3000 words.

I'm taking tomorrow off :)

Name Origins

Many of my online friends know me as msferengi and I am often asked why that user name?

Well several years ago, when I first decided to explore the WWW, I was advised to assume a user name rather than use my real name. So when I signed up for a yahoo account and it came time to choose a user name I had one all picked out--booklover. Of course it was already in use and after many futile attempts to pick one I thought suited me, I asked Sam what he thought.

Sam suggested ferengi. He often teased me about my ability to make a few extra bucks doing this and that to help pay for things not within our budget at the time and said I reminded him of a ferengi. So I figured what the heck, that'll do.

Of course I typed ferengi in the box and it was taken. So was mrsferengi, but then I struck paydirt and it accepted msferengi. So for the past 8 years or so that's the name I've used for a variety of online activities, mostly email groups.

When I signed up here I remembered of my first choice all those years ago because I've recently noticed that someone who frequents the trekbbs literature forum uses that name. But at last, and it only took 8 years, I got to booklover first!

Missing Andrew

I has only been a few days but I miss Andrew.

He called this evening. He sounded tired but happy and was excited about what they had been doing. He'd just returned to the dorm after a two hour position clinic. Andrew plays first base and right field. He said he was going to go swimming after we talked.

I forgot to ask him if it was hot up there. It's been miserable here for the past few days, the last three hitting triple digits.

Can't wait to pick him up on Friday and hear more about his experience.

Scotty Beams Up

I received some very sad news early this morning. James Doohan who played Montgomery Scott (Scotty) passed away today. Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. He was 85.

Jimmy has been in very poor health for the last few years suffering from Parkinson's disease and then last year came the diagnosis of Alzheimer's. He was a wonderful man, giving and kind to his fans and he inspired many people to pursue a career in space sciences. He will be sorely missed--God's Speed Scotty.

Can It Be?

Stephanie turned 18 years old today. She is now legally an adult, which I can't quite wrap my brain around yet. When one of our birthday's falls on a weekday we usually celebrate it on a weekend. This year Sam and I wanted to have a big party but Steph said that what she really would like to do was to take a bunch of her girlfriends and have tea at the Huntington Gardens. The setting is gorgeous with the little tea house in the center of the rose garden and they put on the full traditional English afternoon tea. So this Sunday we have afternoon reservations and she's very excited about it.

Tomorrow she plans to buy a lottery ticket, "Just because I can," she says . She also can't wait to register to vote and donate blood. You can donate when you're 16 with parental permission but as of today she doesn't need me to give her permission to do stuff anymore.

But I couldn't let 18 go by without making today special somehow and when I asked Stephanie what she'd like to do she said she would like to go out for lunch. So she, Adam and I had lunch at Wood Ranch BBQ. Several of her friends called and her best buddie, Michelle, came by with a really sweet surprise a big picture montage of the two of them together through the years.

I had something else up my sleeve as well since she insisted on skating as usual, which knowing my daughter really didn't come as a shock. What she didn't know was that the regulars who skate at Pickwick on Tuesday evenings know her pretty well to and had a little surprise planned for her. We pulled it off ! She was definately surprised and really touched.

Some of the people who skate that evening session are former competive skaters who are now adults with families and thriving careers but they still skate to stay in shape and because, quite frankly, they love it. These adult skaters have watched her grow up on the ice since Steph began skating that session about 8 years ago so they all feel like she's 'theirs'. They've watched her grow and mature and develop into a great young woman. The younger skaters look up to her and follow her around, she calls them her little ducks. They are her second family in many ways.

In case you can't already tell, we all love her dearly and are very pround of our newly minted adult.

The LA Open

This past weekend was devoted to helping with the LA Open Championships which are hosted annually by the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club. LAFSC is the club Stephanie belongs to and represented while competing. Over the years Stephanie and I have volunteered to help out with one or two competitions each year, and Steph served as the Newsletter Editor for the past year and a half. Now that she's leaving for college and exciting new experiences Steph has handed over the Newsletter duties to someone else but she still plans to stay involved when and where she can. I'm still serving as the Ice Dance Test Chair and was just elected to the Board of Directors.

Thank god this years competition wasn't as large as last years when we had over 320 skaters, this year we aren't hosting a Nationals qualifying event so it was a much more managable 197 skaters entered. The competion started this past Friday, July 15th and ran Friday 5-9pm, Saturday 8am to 9pm and Sunday 8am to 4:30pm. I was serving as the registrar this year and Andrew came and worked the Registration desk for me on Friday. The first day is always the busiest and it takes two people to handle it.

Saturday and Sunday I had volunteers to help so although I had to be in the arena I could wander around, see some of the skating, generally help make sure everything ran smoothly, meeting and greeting on behalf of the the club but best of all catching up with lots of skating friends who train at other rinks than Steph, some of whom I hadn't seen since last years event as Steph isn'tt competing this season. Steph worked Friday and Sunday helping Joanne with the awards and photo's.

Before we left for the rink on Friday, Andrew and I had gotten him all packed for baseball camp and Sam drove him up to Santa Barbara and dropped him off on Sunday morning. Andrew called Sunday night to tell me about his first day (Sunday was a five hour hitting clinic) and it was obvious he was in baseball heaven and enjoying being with a couple of friends from his team. We forgot to pack an alarm clock so I hope he makes it up okay but he said he asked one of the coaches to bang on his door at 7am. I'll pick him up Friday afternoon.

Friday night I was in line at midnight with the kids waiting to get the new Harry Potter novel. Even though I had to be up by six to be at the rink to open registration at 7am I couldn't disappoint the kids. I'd promised some time ago before I realized what the release date fell in the middle of.

It was worth being a bit groggy for the first couple of hours on Saturday to share the memory of that evening with them though, it was a lot of fun to witness all the excitement the book generated among the kids and adults waiting to get their hands on it. All three of them stayed up all night reading and finished it at different times Saturday morning after which they promptly went to bed. Sam says it was nice and peaceful at the house and he could kick back and watch his precious golf :)

Getting Started

To be perfectly honest I'm not entirely sure how this blogging stuff works but I'll learn as I go. Please forgive a bit of experimentation as I learn what I'm doing.