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Mom had her gall bladder taken out yesterday. Dad was very good and called me last night and again this morning to let me know how things were progressing. Thanks, Dad!
She went in yesterday morning and they were a bit late getting her into surgery. Unfortunately, they were unable to perform the surgery laproscopically, so she had to have the bigger incision. That, combined with the the scar tissue she has from previous operations, means that she's having more pain and discomfort than she would have, so they have decided to keep her in the hospital for another day or two. Dad said he was going back to the hospital this afternoon to see her, so he will call me with another update later.
[Poor Mom.]
I drove out to Bryn Mawr Hospital yesterday to get a look at Miss Ava - she is just gorgeous. No pointy head, no red, shriveled face, just a beautiful baby girl. I brought her a teddy bear - given that I have referred to her as "Teddy" for the past nine months, it was highly appropriate. I also brought a stuffed lion for big brother Ethan. Jennifer looks terrific and we chatted for a bit. Ethan came by the night the baby was born and wanted to give Baby Ava a kiss - Jen has the cutest picture and hopefully will send soon so I can post.
[Congrats to the whole family!]
We went to Comp USA last night and bought a new laptop. Gary's had some issues, plus it weighed about 20 pounds, so we bought a new Sony Vaio. It's small, but at a little over 4 pounds, it's easy to bring along. We looked at the Toshiba Tablet PC - with a large tablet screen that one can write on - but it just was too heavy and didn't seem to be that user friendly.
We decided to go out for dinner and drove to Sullivan's Steakhouse at the King of Prussia Mall since we were right next door. At 7:00 on a Thursday, there were people lining up for an hour's wait. We thought we'd try Champp's or Bahama Breeze - couldn't even find parking spots. We drove back towards Philly and went into Manayunk. Couldn't find parking. We finally gave up and went back to Philly and had Chinese at the Imperial Inn. Pretty sad that we had to abandon the suburbs for the City in order to find a) parking and b) a restaurant that could seat us.
[As Gary said as we drove around, "Don't you people have homes?"]
It sounds like the Pope's health is declining rapidly. Not being Catholic, I do not have particularly strong thoughts or memories about him as a pontiff - although he's been there for all of my adult life. Strangely, my thoughts about the beginning of his papacy involve my aunt and uncle's ranch in Montana and do not, really, involve him. My folks sent me out there for the summer in 1978 and I have a rather odd collection of memories:
- Driving out from Billings with my Cousin Patti to prepare for her wedding. She drove a Datson B210, and I recall that it kept trying to die as we drove out to the ranch. In the absolute middle of nowhere. At night.
- Meeting all the "neighbors" near the ranch - they were mostly relatives (on Clifford's side).
- Learning to drive. They were all floored that I didn't know how to drive yet. Never mind that I wasn't old enough. They took me out into the corn fields and let me at it. I was then given my own "rig" - a red and white Ford pickup truck. I remember driving dinner (lunch) out to the guys working in the fields.
- Patti's wedding in Miles City.
- Thunderstorms. We didn't have those in Southern California. The dog and I stayed in the basement.
- Velveeta grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum.
- Riding "Shorty", the little horse they kept around the ranch. Of course he wasn't short to me, and if I ever got off him I had to coax him up to a fence to get back on. He knew that, of course.
Wait, where was I going with this? Oh yes. I suppose that I confuse all of the papal memories I have into that summer. I remember seeing on television at the ranch that the Pope had died - that would have been Pope John VI in early August. The next Pope, John Paul I, was elected or named later that month, but he died only 33 days into his papacy - I do remember seeing this cover of Time Magazine:
I remember that cover and that a new pope was selected shortly thereafter. And that he was Polish. There was the attempt on his life in 1981, but it seems he has always been there. And now it seems he won't be much longer.
[New shoes to fill.]
Quote du jour:
"God has put within our lives meanings and possibilities that quite outrun the limits of mortality."
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 - 1969) US clergyman
Operation Uber-Moms
Countdown to Invasion: 11 May 2005 18:35:00 UTC-0500!
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