i just found out my dad needs brain surgery. if you could keep him in your thoughts and prayers, that would be great. we're not sure when the surgery will be (it has to be in iowa city, no neurosurgeon in dubuque!), but i'll keep you all updated.
strangely, this is dad's second brain surgery. while mom was pregnant with me, he was knocked out at work while chasing someone through backyards. the jury's still out whether he was hit on the head or whether he ran into a clothesline. :) but he had persistent headaches and eventually they found a large blood clot.
now, he has an arachnoid cyst. you don't know what that is? me either. i'm beginning to think i should have gone to medical instead of law school just to understand what's going on with everyone in my family! from what i do know, strangely, from watching little people, big world, is that it is a cyst full of some stuff in his brain. they need to install a shunt to move the stuff from his brain to his stomach. the midget kid in little people, big world had to have his redone because if the stuff doesn't end up in the right place, it makes you feel yucky. apparently, my dad's problem is very common in midgets.
i think it's named arachnoid because it looks like a spider? the doctors would probably laugh at me for saying that.
the cyst is putting pressure on his brain (which i think explains a lot about my father!) and has been giving him headaches. they thought they could just ignore it, but he had an MRI today and turns out they can't. it's pretty big. i have no idea what that means either.
so, iowa city is going to call him in about a week (it's not an emergency). then they go for the consultation, and then i'm sure we'll all treck to iowa city for another fun wait in the hospital while my mom or dad or other family member has some surgery.
hopefully it won't be a big deal (as small of a deal as brain surgery can be), but it would still be great if you could all put in a few extra prayers!
Friday, October 20, 2006
Sunday, October 15, 2006
suggestions please
jeep and geocaching have teamed up and created a fun game. they have put into circulation a bunch of "green jeeps" (they're like little matchbox cars). you find them and track them online and move them to a new cache. finding one of these is no easy task, there are a lot of people constantaly monitoring the jeeps and they find them pretty quickly. tonight i got an email saying a jeep had been placed within reasonable driving distance, so despite the darkness, we loaded up the puppies and were off to find it. this jeep was probably about the 10th we've frantically gone looking for, so imagine our surprise when it was actually there!
part of the contest is submitting a picture of the jeep showing a certain theme. this month's theme is adventure. so, this is where i need help. i need ideas of what sort of photo i should take of a green jeep portraying "adventure". suggestions please!!!
part of the contest is submitting a picture of the jeep showing a certain theme. this month's theme is adventure. so, this is where i need help. i need ideas of what sort of photo i should take of a green jeep portraying "adventure". suggestions please!!!
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Irresponsible business owners suck
turns out, when brides and bridesmaids went to Blushing Bride Bridal Shop here in Milwaukee on Tuesday, the shop was closed and there was a sign posted on the door saying that the owner was filing for bankruptcy and the bank was seizing the store's inventory. Turns out the store is behind in taxes (state taxes, so it's not my problem!) by about $75,000+.
For those of you that have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing buying a dress (the shopping is fun, the buying is ridiculous), here is how it goes. you find the dress of your dreams, you think. you can only guess because the dress is a size 10 and you are not, so you stood in front of the mirror with either the dress falling off or some sort of bungee cord holding the thing on you, with your undergarments displayed for the whole store. but you decide this is the dress, so you order it. you pay in full and wait 6 to 8 weeks for the dress to arrive. and that's optimistic. then you have to have the dress altered because the bridal store measurements for what size you are are about 2 sizes too big, and you don't know any better because the only one you've seen is a size 10. you have to have the dress altered at that shop because other alterations people are hesitant to alter other stores dresses. with any luck you'll end up with the dress you want and it will fit and not fall down.
so these poor girls that ordered their dresses are SOL. there is no way they can get a dress in time for their wedding. some have weddings as close as this weekend. the only store that sells dresses off the rack (you don't have to order them) is david's bridal, and even then, they need to be altered, which can take awhile. not to mention, they have probably already dropped at least $500 (and that's really optimistic) on their dream dress and now have to pay another couple hundred for a dress that will just serve its purpose.
the good news is that several local vendors are coming together to help these poor brides out. they are offering dresses at cost or donating discontinued styles. one DJ is even offering $50 to any girl that got screwed. past brides are donating their used dresses. with any luck, no one will have to get married naked.
i can't believe these brides have not come together, found this woman, and beat her up. but then again, i suspect they're all probably busy trying to find new dresses.
here's a link to the story - http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=508317
For those of you that have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing buying a dress (the shopping is fun, the buying is ridiculous), here is how it goes. you find the dress of your dreams, you think. you can only guess because the dress is a size 10 and you are not, so you stood in front of the mirror with either the dress falling off or some sort of bungee cord holding the thing on you, with your undergarments displayed for the whole store. but you decide this is the dress, so you order it. you pay in full and wait 6 to 8 weeks for the dress to arrive. and that's optimistic. then you have to have the dress altered because the bridal store measurements for what size you are are about 2 sizes too big, and you don't know any better because the only one you've seen is a size 10. you have to have the dress altered at that shop because other alterations people are hesitant to alter other stores dresses. with any luck you'll end up with the dress you want and it will fit and not fall down.
so these poor girls that ordered their dresses are SOL. there is no way they can get a dress in time for their wedding. some have weddings as close as this weekend. the only store that sells dresses off the rack (you don't have to order them) is david's bridal, and even then, they need to be altered, which can take awhile. not to mention, they have probably already dropped at least $500 (and that's really optimistic) on their dream dress and now have to pay another couple hundred for a dress that will just serve its purpose.
the good news is that several local vendors are coming together to help these poor brides out. they are offering dresses at cost or donating discontinued styles. one DJ is even offering $50 to any girl that got screwed. past brides are donating their used dresses. with any luck, no one will have to get married naked.
i can't believe these brides have not come together, found this woman, and beat her up. but then again, i suspect they're all probably busy trying to find new dresses.
here's a link to the story - http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=508317
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
On a happier, less soapboxy note...
I'm going to be an aunt again! Erin and Nate will be giving me a new niece or nephew sometime in mid-March. Yea!
And just for the record, I think it's going to be a girl!
And just for the record, I think it's going to be a girl!
Bumhunting?!
i was watching 60 minutes on sunday (the football game was late, so 60 minutes was late, so the amazing race was late and i was waiting for the amazing race to come on) and they did a special on bum hunting. apparently it is the new "activity" sweeping high schools.
the main goal of bum hunting is to kick the crap out of a homeless person, generally using either a metal pipe or a baseball bat. if you can't find one of those things, just plain kicking the bum is good enough.
apparently this "activity" was originally devised by a bunch of buys producing a series of movies call "bumfights". this series of movies has sold over 300,000 copies. in the movies, guys offer homeless men alcohol or a few dollars to do Jackass like stunts, which look terribly painful and dangerous. in a few "skits" (as the producer likes to call them), the guys sneak up on a sleeping homeless person (who has no idea he's part of this movie), bounds and gags him with duct tape, and beats him. "skit"? how about assault?
the story focused on 4 teenage boys who had been arrested and put in jail for most of their adult lives for killing a homeless man who had the misfortune of stumbling on them smoking pot in the woods. they beat him with a metal pipe, a piece of wood with a nail in it, and their bare hands. the poor guy died. when asked by the host why they did it, the kid responded "for fun". the boys' favorite activity was to watch the "bumfight" movies. the kid wanted to let other kids know that even though they might be beating homeless men for fun, they shouldn't cause they'd go to jail. not because it's wrong, but because they'd get in trouble.
i think this is one of the most disturbing things i have heard in a long long time. movies about beating homeless people and feeding on their addictions and situations. kids beating anyone, "for fun". and the worst part, these stupid movies have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. and we wonder why the world is in the state it is.
the main goal of bum hunting is to kick the crap out of a homeless person, generally using either a metal pipe or a baseball bat. if you can't find one of those things, just plain kicking the bum is good enough.
apparently this "activity" was originally devised by a bunch of buys producing a series of movies call "bumfights". this series of movies has sold over 300,000 copies. in the movies, guys offer homeless men alcohol or a few dollars to do Jackass like stunts, which look terribly painful and dangerous. in a few "skits" (as the producer likes to call them), the guys sneak up on a sleeping homeless person (who has no idea he's part of this movie), bounds and gags him with duct tape, and beats him. "skit"? how about assault?
the story focused on 4 teenage boys who had been arrested and put in jail for most of their adult lives for killing a homeless man who had the misfortune of stumbling on them smoking pot in the woods. they beat him with a metal pipe, a piece of wood with a nail in it, and their bare hands. the poor guy died. when asked by the host why they did it, the kid responded "for fun". the boys' favorite activity was to watch the "bumfight" movies. the kid wanted to let other kids know that even though they might be beating homeless men for fun, they shouldn't cause they'd go to jail. not because it's wrong, but because they'd get in trouble.
i think this is one of the most disturbing things i have heard in a long long time. movies about beating homeless people and feeding on their addictions and situations. kids beating anyone, "for fun". and the worst part, these stupid movies have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. and we wonder why the world is in the state it is.
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