It’s been a horrible, horrible week.

Last week was great. Really spot on. We went to Vegas last Thursday to hit the dual goals of attending an Ice Hockey tournament and meeting with Tyler’s new second cousin. Both went fantastically. Jessie’s team lost the games, but they played really well and Jess managed to take down a lot of offensive players. When you’re playing on defense, you tend to use metrics other than ‘goals scored’ for personal victories. Tyler even came to watch one of the games, more or less. He really seemed to like watching the hockey, and whenever he got bored I’d go out and walk around the Casino to distract him with bright lights. Oddly enough, you’re not allowed to stop at any of the gambling machines if you’re under 18, which includes if you’re under 1 and being carried by your dad. This means I was allowed to walk through the Casino, but not stop walking. Heh.

Also, Tyler’s little cousin is a big ol’ cutie-face. She isn’t as mobile as Tyler, but she’s nearly as interesting. She likes playing with toys and interacting with you, but she isn’t trying to run a baby marathon while she’s doing it. A nice change. She liked me a lot after she realized I would make raspberry sounds at her and nuzzle her neck with kisses. She was also really interested in Tyler, and spent a lot of time watching him get into messes, no doubt planning future devilish behavior of her own as soon as she could figure out the whole crawling thing.

Even Sunday morning was pretty good. Tyler did a good job sleeping through the night, except for the one time when all the smoke alarms in the house went off at 4:00 in the morning. We eventually got him back to sleep by playing gently with him on our bed. Very cute. Anyway, we took the extended family out for hamburgers and the cousin was very well behaved. The toys and the distraction of Tyler helped, and her family got to help themselves to delicious hamburgers and shakes.
Then things started to go downhill.

I got the call, then, that Dad was in the hospital getting treated for some severe stomach problems. I had to share the news but at least the prognosis was good. This does, however, mean that I’m now at risk for the same problems in the future. Less than fun.

The flight home was really rough for Tyler. He slept for a while, but then woke up at something like 10:00 his time and when he realized he wasn’t in his usual crib for sleeping he got really cranky. We kept him quiet…mostly…but we were definitely ‘that family’ on this flight. Harsh.

When we got back home, Tigger was looking haggard. So I took him to the Vet in the morning and they determined that he is in the early stages of kidney failure. There is no cure. There’s a treatment which can extend his ‘good life’, but eventually we’re looking at having to say goodbye to a family member of more than 13 years. It’s quite sad, but at least we have some warning and the treatment appears to be working pretty well. We’ll probably get a happy cat for at least a little while longer, and we can let him jump up on counters as much as he wants and eat all the bread and food he wants and generally get away with darn near anything because he’s such a great cat. But at some indeterminate point in the future, we’re going to have to put him down. Which is horrible.

Jess wasn’t immune either. She got in a little fender-scraper (even less damage than a fender-bender. I think I mostly fixed our car with a wet rag) a few days ago and then got a ticket yesterday on her way to derby. She was in a bad mood, quite understandably, but I was able to help out for a little bit.

And then I got the text that Las Vegas Grandma is in the hospital.

And there is a server down at work that means that I can’t work on anything until it gets fixed.

When this week is over, I’m crossing it out on the calendar with a SHARPIE.

-N

sports and culture fallout

I know there aren't that many Seattle sports fans on this blog, but I can't help pointing out the news about Cliff Lee, the star pitcher who will henceforth display his excellence in a Dallas Cowboys, er Texas Ranger uniform.

As many of you know, the Seattle Opera Association has been working for the last couple of years on commissioning a modern-day follow up to the Wagner Ring saga which had been such a huge hit for them over the years. The adaptation was going to focus on the sad history of Seattle sports, with characters based on Lauren Jackson, the Storm basketball star, as the Queen of the Valkeries, a Coach Mike Holmgren look-alike playing Wotan, and either Ken Griffey or Alex Rodriquez playing young Siegfried. There were other characters and roles involved, Gary Payton and Billie Jo Hobart, Nate Robinson etc.

But with the loss of Cliff Lee, apparently the sponsors decided the whole topic was just too sad, too tragic, and too depressing even for grand opera. Now the plan is to just do a version of Romeo and Juliet set in Rwanda.

It's supposed to be a lot more cheerful . . . .