Mom and Dad's Wedding Announcement

In going through Nana's momentos, I found this. I am always amazing by what she still kept. She and I sat together while she ruthlessly parsed out old photos, giving them to children and nieces or nephews, or just straight to the bin. Before she moved to Bothell, she was feeling particularly unsentimental about objects, but this gem she kept. Or at least, she allowed me to "hold on to it for her" at my house.

Preecs-Warner Wed

Buried in other albums are choice photos from the wedding itself, including the remarkable pink tuxedo. I just think it's lovely that this treasured clipping still exists. Especially given Nana's fondness for newspaper clippings.

I had my kidney out- Hospital Edition

It's been three weeks since our big transplant surgery. In the lead up to that, Matt, Kelsey, GW, Nana, Shaoshu and I had one of the best Christmases on record. Everyone was very mellow, we ate a lot of egg dishes and candy, got to sit around the fire, sleep, laugh and enjoy eachother's company. I think everyone was trying not to be nervous about their respective roles, and it was just really nice to reconnect a little before the surgery. I had plenty of time to get in my final work outs (no missed days in December!). A couple days before surgery, Kelsey and GW and GW's parents moved into an apartment closer to the hospital. This was obviously a good choice long term, but my house felt really empty without them.

The day before surgery, I was on a liquid diet, so Matt and I had a quiet day at home. During the day, I felt quite brave, and was getting intermittent check ins from all corners. Thanks to everyone who called and texted. But as the day started to fade, and I tried to pack a bag, and think about sleeping before my 4am wake up call... well, sleep didn't come easily. Packing a bag was hard. Will I be able to wear clothes? (Answer, nah, a hospital gown is fine, but my baggiest PJs helped me get home). What will I need to sleep? (eye mask and ear plugs) Books? TV? What will I feel like watching and doing? What will Matt need to keep him busy while I am healing? Will he spend the night? In the end, we each packed basically an overnight bag, which seemed disconcertingly light. Weeks before I had assured Matt that if everything went as planned, he could go home to sleep at night, but the day before hand, I just wasn't so confident that I would feel brave in an empty hospital room at night. He readily agreed to come prepared to stay for a while.

As the evening wore on, Matt went to fix something in the garage (read: he was anxious), and GW sent me a great short video of Niel DeGrasse Tyson, which reminded me I should watch Cosmos. I've been reading Death by Blackhole, which has the right amount of funny and technical for reading until I am quite sleepy, and Cosmos has a similar tone of optimistic wonderment that helped take my mind off of what was coming.

I should probably mention here that I assumed I would be pretty much obliterated by this surgery. I was hoping I would be too drugged to remember how much pain I was in, and I was very afraid that I would be making a slow crawl back to self sufficiency. I was told recovery takes 2-6 weeks, which I was taking to mean I might be able to walk, feed myself, and possibly sit at a computer for a few hours after a month. All this kinda made me think that the start point was going to be pretty bad. I was resigned to all of this, I figured it was a trade for a fraction of the suffering GW had to deal with, I would just get it in one big dose. I had just made up my mind to go through with it, even when I wasn't feeling especially brave, like at midnight the night before surgery.

Somehow we slept, albeit briefly, because check-in was at 5:30am. No traffic at that time. I decided to look forward to seeing Kelsey and GW and his parents, and try not to think about... you know... We got settled into a room on the transplant floor, that was a couple doors down from GW. I got hugs from everyone, which was so good. You know how frail you feel after eating nothing but juice for 24 hours? Yeah, not like a brave person, so the hugs really helped. And the hospital room was just too bright, too foreign, not to get a little antsy. When they came to put my IV, the nurse asked if I wanted lidocaine to numb the spot. I started to say no, and then thought 'I'm having a hard enough time holding it together, why not just let this lady be nice to me?' I decided right then I would take anything I was offered that seemed like it would help, even if it might make me seem super wimpy. I didn't want to be tearing up over an IV, or anything else. It's courageous enough just to be the donor, without trying to be a tough guy the whole time too.

I poked my head in to GW's room, where he was cacooned under heated blankets, also trying not to be nervous. The were supposed to take me down an hour before him, so we said our goodbyes, and I waited in my bed for someone to wheel me away. Both Matt and I were feeling at little giddy with anxiety by this point. Being there, I really knew I was here to Do Some Good, everyone was being terrifically kind, but... OMG, they were about to cut my guts out! I was wheeled into the pre-op room, which was full of nervous middle age people in gowns, some of them shuffling into the restroom, most of them lying in their own hospital beds with a loved one looking on. Matt and I were trying to feel youthful and brave, when another bed rolled in- for whatever crazy reason, they brought GW down an hour early. I know that must have been torture for him, but I was SO happy to see him. He got parked next to me, so I got extra hugs from Kelsey, and we could keep joking and chatting up to the last minute. He made my nurse bring me a Bair Hug- the inflating, warm air circulating, blanket. The nurse told him that he could wear his beanie, which made us realize we should have got Renal Riot hats for the big day. My anesthesiologist stopped by to chat, and was just amazed to see us carrying on like this right before surgery. All the nursing staff and surgeons were loving it. This is where we took the high five picture that got a couple hundred FB likes (not to mention instagram). The nurse offered to set our families up in a family waiting room, where they could get updates from surgery. It felt like we were getting VIP treatment.

And then they wheeled me in. I got one last hug and kiss from Matt and Kels, and a high five from GW. With no one holding my hand or encouraging me, I suddenly felt very alone, very tiny, and not especially brave. I think the hallways to the OR might be one of the longest hallways in all of Seattle. I was told that when we got in the room, the anesthesiologist would give me something to "calm down" prior to starting surgery, so I figured I just had to get in there, and things would take their course. The OR nurse introduced herself on the way (really, we had that much time rolling down this hallway), and she told me to expect some of the other people in the room (I have no idea who now, but I was glad she mentioned that). The asked me to move myself onto the operating table. By now I almost forgot that I was still able bodied for a few minutes, and happily did the sideways scoot. They hooked up my IV, told me they were going to do some... other stuff, who knows... and I had a last minute sense of calm...

...The next thing I remember, was the recover room. A nurse had come to chat with me, and I was amazed that my mouth seemed to be able to make words. This is probably because my nearest experience with surgery was having my wisdom teeth out, when my mouth was packed with cotton. I remember thinking I felt more lucid than I expected, and wasn't in pain yet, although I don't remember having my eyes open. Someone a few beds down was crying for their mother, and the nurse told me not to worry, that person was confused. to which I said, "I understand that. I'm feeling pretty confused myself..." But I knew, I knew, my mom was nearby and was going to give me a hug really soon.

In my memory, I was magically transported to my hospital room, where people (I assume Matt, and Kelsey and my parents where there) told me I was looking pretty good. I remember thinking I felt pretty good considering. I was allowed to eat ice chips which seemed nice, I felt thirsty and my throat was a bit sore. The nurse wanted to look at my incisions. I was a little afraid to see, but there was a big pressure bandage over my hips, so the big cut was a mystery for now. The little cuts had bloody gauze under clear plastic sticker things. I would later learn that under that were steristrips, basically the sticker versions of stitches. Overall, it looked worse than I hoped, but much better than expected. I got a button to administer my own pain meds, and like I said, I had determined I didn't really need to tough out feeling discomfort. Everyone else already had heard the good news, but at some point I was told (and remembered) that GW's new kidney was working. And working really well. Hooray!

A weird thing that the night shift nurse explained to me was that some of these drugs don't necessarily make a person sleepy. By the evening, I had been up and chatting with visitors most of the day. Matt has asked for a cot to be brought in to sleep next to me. I had barely slept the night before, and I just... didn't feel sleepy. My throat was hurting more now, from the intubation, and my (wonderful) nurse brought me nasal spray for my itchy nose, and lidocaine lozenges for my throat. I sat up and watched Star Trek: Next Generation and Kung Fu Panda cartoons with a few cat naps for most of the night. When the nurse would come in and wake Matt up (I was usually awake), he would hold my hand across the gap in the beds. I tell you, there is something really comforting and encouraging about having someone hold your hand while we are in a hospital bed.

Later that night, GW called me from down the hall. He wanted to know I was doing ok. His first question on waking up was about me, but he wanted to check on me himself. And then he told me he was doing really well. The kidney was working so well, he was dropping 30mL of fluid a minute for most of the day. And he said he felt pretty good. And I gotta tell you- that was the moment that I felt like it was worth it.

The next couple days were punctuated by a number of firsts. The drugs I was on made it terribly hard for me to focus on anything, so time seemed to move shockingly slowly. By the night of surgery I stood beside my bed for the first time. The next day I was allowed to eat Jello, my first food since Saturday. I took a few steps out of bed. The surgeons came to check on me, and told me I could eat my first solid food that afternoon. I took my first pain pills by mouth. Shaoshu came to visit, Kelsey went home to sleep. I walked down the hall to see GW. He came down the hall to see me. I went to the bathroom myself. I got to use body wipes to "bathe." A resident came by to take off the big bandages, revealing a few bloody steristrips hiding tiny cuts. I learned how to cough with a pillow pressed on my stomach. I put on underwear. I started walking laps of the hallway, gingerly holding my stomach in place.

The day after surgery, the surgeons, giddy from seeing GW's success, popped into to brag about my kidney and told me I could probably go home the next day. This sounded crazy to me, but the next day, we had found a painkiller that I could tolerate, I was walking short distances confidently and could eat food. Although it seemed comfortable to have a nurse prepared to answer at the push of a button, I knew both Matt and I would sleep better at home, so we left the hospital around 2:30 that afternoon. A pre-med volunteer wheeled me down to the car. I was wearing my biggest PJs, had a pillow between my stomach at the seat belt, and we timed our exit to shortly after my dose of painkiller.

I'll give more updates on the rest of recovery later soon, but for now, I'm back to job hunting and working, and about to head over to Nana's for tea.

Remembering Uncle Bob

Today we went to the memorial service for Uncle Bob. I can't say that Bob and I were close, but my personal feeling is that grief is easier when shared, so I wanted to be there to support the members of his (and my) family who were grieving. And you know what? You always learn about the deceased at a funeral, and chances are you see people you ought to see more often. If it weren't so dang sad, funerals would be really cool.

Here are some things I learned about Uncle Bob today:

• Uncle Bob was a union carpenter. 
• He worked on the Kingdome and Seattle Center.
• He built rigging to support shipments sent for the drilling efforts on the North slope.
• He loved Lifetime movies.
• He was a swimmer.
• He ate a lot of icecream. Like, a whole lot. Every day, by the sounds of it.

Because I had the privileged of going to the service with Nana (and Mom and Dad), we also go to swing by the address where she grew up- 510 9th Ave SE. (She says it surprising which things stick in your memory.) The house is gone, but the address is just a few blocks from Meridian, the main drag of Puyallup, and parking for the State Fairgrounds. She told us there used to be a Japanese internment camp on the corner there. That's a bit of local history that I've never really recognized so directly.

We got to see (and hug, and share memories with) some of the farther flung cousins, which was great. It made me really glad I was able to go. Maybe we shouldn't wait until the next funeral to do that again.

Farmers Market Problems

Mom and Dad are here!  And they have a new house!  Since I am their closest child, it is clearly my responsibility to be sure that they have as much fun as possible so that they remember to move down here quickly.  I started their social calender with dinner at cousin Lisa's wine and cheese bar/restaurant super yumminess.  It's right down the street from Nana, which is handy.  It is crazy delicious, fresh source locavore food, which is stellar.  The social highlight of dinner was Lisa running out of the restaurant when her daughter's contractions progressed to "Having A Baby Time." (The food highlight was the fresh corn chowder, obviously.)  How exciting!

Since Mom and Dad are actually waiting for their stuff to arrive Monday, they've been not too busy running errands and getting to know their way around.  So I insisted they join us at the Redmond Farmer's Market for lunch and grocery shopping.  Lunch was a brilliant idea- how can you pick between tamales and crepes? And by then we were all sensitized to the fresh looking foods of the market.  Mom really wanted some heritage apples (Macintosh, Gravenstein etc.), so we had to peruse all the apple options.  And obviously, at farmer's market in Washington  EVERYONE has apples.  I ended up picking up some Italian plums and honeycrips and carrots and beans before Mom picked her apples.  The tipping point for our trip probably came when I was eyeing a basket of tiny-cute, sweet, homeless strawberries, and the guy (hoping to go home early), gave me a deal on a flat of the poor little orphan berries.  The little dears were within hours of peak juiciness, and would need to be used quick. We were supposed to join Nana for dinner, and in the back of my mind I thought 'I'll just bring dessert, no big.'  But then we bought a lump of fresh mozzerella (soft and sweet!), which we clearly had to pair with some of those beautiful Heirloom tomatoes we'd seen.  And of course, we found a pair of giant sunset hued tomatoes that were in the magical hour of peak perfection.  These magical fruits were not going to survive to be eaten another day... could I bring a salad to Nana's too?

Now that we had stocked up on WAY too much food that wouldn't survive the weekend, I insisted we have everyone over for dinner to help me eat my way through this produce.  Nana came to join us, and we talked about Jamie Oliver was plowing our way through roasted farm fresh veggies and didn't stop until we polished off half the flat of berries.

Mom and Dad visit!

Like a good retired person, Mom had gotten right to the business of visiting her family.  Mom and Dad came down this weekend for a "retirement kickoff/house hunting vacation."  I'll let them comment more on the second part of the trip (spoiler alert: they haven't bought a house yet), but we had a nice time having them around.  They had Nana with them almost every minute, so it was great to see her even more (we were hardly around in July, so I was missing her!). 

We ate out a lot- which was as much an indulgence as in deference to my new "diet" prescribed to deal with major tummy pain.  Basically, I can only eat sweets and salty food (not fatty, spicy or tart food)(or coffee or chocolate or Italian food or mojitos, so I am basically losing my mind), and given Mom's limitations on salt, it was a LOT easier to just let someone else handle the cooking.  Or I guess we could have all eaten bananas and rock candy all weekend.  Anyway, this served as a nice excuse to see cousin Lisa at her restaurant.  (See what happens when you live in WA? you just run into family, all the time!)  And I never had to do dishes.  Come back and visit anytime, Mom and Dad!

AND Matt and I celebrated our wedding anniversary (6 years!) on Sunday by going to play frisbee golf in the beautifully hot weather and wading in some river.  I was thinking that thanks to a Juneau wedding, we ALWAYS have better weather on our anniversary than we did for our wedding day.  It was nice to have some time together just playing in the woods, since we've been oppositely busy a lot lately.  Once those ironpants house shoppers were done with their marathon visitations, we all got to enjoy a sunset dinner on the bay. Even though I am supposed to be very strict with this stupid diet, Matt heroically ordered a cheesecake that I shared a forbidden (few) bites to remember our wedding day. How romantic!

And then I'm back to work.  I supposed if I had planned my time better, I would have been contracting while the parent were house hunting (over the weekend), and not working when they were free to dink around.  After this last trip, I'm having a hard time keeping my focus up, and the prospect of alternate scheduling seemed like a bad idea all around.  This is the weird thing I've found about contracting.  Sure, I can work anytime or anywhere I feel like, but I mostly want to work about 8 hours straight from my own office during the middle of the week.  Yes, I could take an afternoon off and finish my work after dinner- but who wants to be working before going to bed?  And isn't it a joy to string two (mostly) non-work days together?  For all that flexibility, the main way I take advantage is by working the first half the day in my PJs and showering at lunch time. 

Dad was here!

Living in WA is great.  Other people want to come here too, so you get to see them sometimes.  It's ideal.

Dad came down for some CEUs, and although we didn't get to hang around a lot (something about work still to do at the house- who is excited for THAT to be done??), we grabbed some extra hugs and had the fanciest steak house dinner I've ever had.  I enjoyed the pants off my salmon, and all the sides where amazing.  Lobster Mashed potatoes?  Those big roasty mushrooms? Creamed Spinach, that really should have been called creamed bacon with some leaves in it? Oh yeah- we were living large.  WE had so much food that we actually got a box for the SPARE bread pudding.  Yes, you read that correctly, Dad couldn't finish his bread pudding, so now I will.  Sometimes I worry my family must think I am starving/sub-par in the kitchen.  I will work on dissuading you all of this when I feel at leisure to commit myself to some time in there.  In the meantime, yes, I will eat ALL the leftovers.

And that was really nice, because otherwise it was a kinda bad week.  I got a parking ticket at my internship, and we had a legal issue at work that required me to stay late.  Ahem.  And work Saturday.  And I still didn't get a job offer for my dream job.  So it was really nice to see my Dad and talk to him about MRI data and hear about the updates to his retirement schedule (just another year or 2, people!) and get some extra hugs.

Home for the Holidays!

In the time interceding my visit to Austin, very little has changed, but I feel like a lot has happened.  Still job hunting, still searching for something to do that makes me feel like the days don't slip away into an eternity of unemployment.  But it's been great to have friends around.  We had a glamorous evening of ballet at the Nutcracker with Italian food with Shaoshu to celebrate "Kirkland Christmas." We got to see of Matt's bestie and his family before they head to more southerly climes for a holiday adventure, which involved us stopping my a taco truck, and everyone being really glad to see us.  It's great.

And now we are home.  I think I haven't been home in more than 2 years, so it's exciting to see the work that has happened at the house (I grew up here?) and run in to people I know but have seen since forever.  The main objectives today are to MAKE LOTS OF FOOD, and then get hungry enough to eat it.  In the background, presents are being wrapped, and decorations are being assembled.  We are all cheering Noel's efforts to convert the next week of breakfasts to yeast based delights (cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, munlies and who knows what else).  I'm waiting my turn for the oven to convert some sugar cookie dough into lemon cookies, possibly thumbprints, maybe some other stuff.  And there is the potential for meringues.  And who knows what else.  Ha, Mom was worried we wouldn't have enough food.  Turns out we just won't have enough butter- and that is the mark of a good holiday.

And there is a baby!  He warmed up to all the extended family quite quick, especially if Mom or Dad is not far off.  We can all take turns plying him with such fancy toys as empty wrapping paper tubes (which are great as drum sticks, wands or megaphones), wooden spoons (which carry the tasty memories of recipes past), and the menagerie of percussion instruments that have always been a staple of the house.  Tyler took great joy from the washboard sounds of Mom's wicker chest/coffee table, driving remote controls along the top to bring out the music. 

Oh, and he LOVES Grandpa's mustache.  He seems deeply tempted to try and taste it off of Dad's face.  His Nana gave him his first ever haircut, so he is looking quite well put together.  Nana also found him a new type of solid food, called Mum-mums, which are like quick melting zwiebacks.  With his serious Winston face, he latches on to the big cracker with both hands and then "crunch-crunch-crunch" with those two little teeth.  And speaking of baby advances, he is also very happy to climb the stairs to the apartment.  I think we've got a climber in the making.

Merry Christmas to those of you not lucky enough to be here at the house with us.  Maybe next year we'll amass all the readership in Austin TX for a Christmas Blowout Redeaux.

Father's Day Thoughts

The material, mundane component of my present to Dad will have to wait for while before it arrives and it deposited in Dad's hands. (Is he 'grandad' now? Do we all just have to shift up by one generation?) But I wanted to take a moment to muse upon the aspects of fatherhood which are the most important but, for some reason, the least often discussed.
Being a parent is not a responsibility, it is the responsibility. It's the thing that everyone points to when you talk about being a grown-up. Are you ready to be in charge of another human being that can't feed, dress, change, or even fall asleep on it's own? All the time? Well then you're responsible now. High fives all around.

And as a task it's really hard to quantify. Being a dad is easy in the same way that knitting is easy. There's really only a few maneuvers you have to know. Few key differences, though, obviously. Primarily, it's okay if you're not very good at knitting. No one wants to be a bad father. Everyone wants to be great at it, it's demanded of us by these little bundles of needs and crying we are presented with every moment of the day. But you can't be great, because you're being measured against your own dad. And he was a full fledged dad. You're just you. For every new generation the task is impossible.

The only secret, as it turns out, is that you fake it. You go with your gut or book-learning, or try to adapt some half-remembered scrap from your own childhood. If you can keep up the facade up long enough, eventually they move out of the house, none the wiser that you never really had any idea what you were doing. Until, of course they have kids of their own, at which point it's too late to go back.

And the sacrifices. Let me tell you, it seems endless. Even just standing on the tip of the iceberg I have to eventually melt, I get a size of the vastness and weight of the things I won't be doing now that I'm a dad. Endless sleepings-in and fast cars sacrificed just so that someone else can have food and diapers so that they will grow past a point of their life that they won't even remember in a few years. And they'll never appreciate everything Dad could be doing with his time and money instead because hey, I didn't. Dad's are expected to toss those things away stoically and without second thoughts because after all, your dad did. Didn't he?

Oh.

So thanks for everything, dad. The more I understand about what you've already given me, the more glad I am to have had it so well.

-N

Boohoo! We're all alone!

Sadly, the fam just left Pittsburgh. Speaking only for myself, I had a fantastic week. I never cooked, except for apple butter and apple sauce. We indulged in great food from ALL my favorite ethnicity (Mediterranean, Thai, Indian, Italian, Ethiopian...) and I got to show off some of my favorite places in Pittsburgh. But mostly I just got to enjoy being with my family. Nana hemmed some pants for me, we drank some hot tea and laughed at the cat. It just felt like normal time with my family.

Nana's photos got posted to Snapfish, and at some point I'll create an album of the pictures I took too. Then maybe we can talk about all the fantastically fun stuff we did all week. In the meantime, I need to mope around a bit more since I have to go back to cooking AND working next week and no one is hanging out at my house anymore.

Sigh. I leave you with this one happy memory, of dinner at the Church Brewworks.

Masterbath Remodel

We spent another Saturday tiling the bathroom floor and are nearly finished. So we thought we should post some pictures. This shows the bamboo flooring in the dressing room just off the master closet.

Here is a picture of our tile pattern. It is most forgiving since it is on a diagonal with an small black tile offset although the black squares are supposed to be 2 by 2 inches there have been a few that were "custom" fitted. We have not grouted yet so you can still see the morter. The grout will be a dark gray so everything will kind of blend together and the pattern will be harder to discern in photos. You can't tell but there is floor warming under the tile. Though it is not really a heater it will keep bare toes nicely comfortable. The room's heat will be supplied by a towel warmer/space heater that will be on the wall on the right side of this picture. We will have it connected to our baseboard heater by our plumber. This photo on the left is the toilet room. You can see the tiny corner sink we installed. We plan to put a shelf next to the sink for essentials and a towel rack but the main sinks are outside of this room so all our other supplies will be in the cabinetry that goes with the double sinks.


I did not expect this project to take so long and to be such a time consuming process. But it really is satisfying to see the progress we have made and know that the plans we had in our head look pretty good. We still have quite a bit to do; we haven't begun the shower tiling yet or the tub surround. So we continue to have something to do on weekends for quite a while yet. We will try to keep you updated as we make more progress. Hope you are all having great weekends.

Home for the Holidays!

Matt and I arrived on Sunday, with only minor revisions to our flight plan. Although we missed the storm that crippled the eastern seaboard by about 5 more inches of snow, our Saturday night flight was delayed - so we spent the night in MSP instead of SEA. And then we jumped straight in to the holiday excitement- stocked up on holiday foods and got paint clothes to help in the bathroom. Since the parents have jobs to get to, we got up Monday to see the Sunrise- and then sat in place until it set again. Perfect way to spend the shortest day of the year! We watched some amazing wildlife from the picture windows- whales, sea lions and so many birds!

I've started to make an impact on the Christmas cookies requirements of the household. Noel better show up quick, because both the peanut blossoms and ginger cookies are in danger of not making it until Wednesday- I'm sure we'll have something else good by the time he shows up.

Last night we went out to NOT celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary, just Mom's last day of work before the break. The rest of the week, we've got big ambitions in the kitchen as well as the Master Bathroom (Painting!). And today, Kelsey is babysitting a toddler with the best babycheeks to grace the house in years. What we need now is to pull out the Christmas music, toss up a tree, and really get this holiday started.

Relaxing, mostly.

The parents finished off their little visit with us earlier this week. We saw some of the neat shops on South Congress, which I believe pretty much all of my family has seen at this point, and then on a couple of days when Jess and I had to work, we gave the Parents a car and a GPS and told them to have a blast.  Evidently they did, checking out the LBJ museum, Neiman Marcus (I think) and a few other stops before punching the 'take me home' button and coming back for DELICIOUS NOEL PIZZA. If this sounds familiar to anyone, it's because we pretty much do the same thing every time someone comes to visit. We're still checking out the city for ourselves. The Capitol building was definitely worth checking out, though. Old and beautiful.

Yesterday I went to a local Independent Game Developer meetup at a bar downtown. Jess wasn't feeling well, so I just went on my own. It was pretty nice. I recognized only some of the developers, and I wasn't interested in too many of the games, but it was still nice to see some local gaming companies come together. Plus it was free, and they had a guy doing a performance of some chiptunes (music made on old nintendo audio chips) music on stage. It always gets me right in the nostalga center of my brain.

Also playing some video games for relaxing, and getting ready to go to England. They've had us buy the tickets: Nov 1 - 8. I'll have to remember to buy a power converter this time.

-N

Visiting Parents

We picked up the Parents yesterday and have been hammering them with Austin Ever since. We went to a championship Roller Derby game where Jess was doing stats. Dad described it as a 'once in a lifetime event'. We went to dinner late after that, then came home and slept.

Today we checked out the capital building, which is really pretty and very historical, and even got a tour around our house and senate, which is out of session at the moment. Then we got some delicious mexican food at Chuy's and wandered around the massive Whole Foods building downtown. Now we're hanging out and resting. Jess and mom are on nap duty, dad is relaxing with his newspaper and the tv.

-N