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Organizing things and watching monster trucks

Thursday, Mar 20th, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

A few weeks ago I began a home organization project whose goals were:

  1. To make me feel better about our home, rather than “argh, it’s always a mess!”
  2. To make it easier for me to complete tasks, less “where is that form for school?” and “where is that 9 inch baking pan?”

And with the overarching goal of bringing back a bit of control to my life and feel less overwhelmed, which I’ve been struggling with lately.

I’m happy to say that I’ve been largely successful so far. I came up with a system for the kids so their school stuff isn’t just all over the place, and it’s easy to stay disciplined about putting away their papers and returning things on time. I also did some under counter organization, which has been incredibly useful so far, and we’ve kept it up for a few weeks!

I joked that it’s funny that I’m “so old” that under counter organization excites me, but honestly, I’ve always been like this.

In other house news, the TV in our au pair’s room died recently. MJ was feeling industrious, so he bought a set of boards for that model online and did a project with Adam to replace them. Success! I feel a little bad that my first inclination was to buy a new TV because they’re so inexpensive, but replacing the board in them was even less expensive in terms of cash, they had fun doing it, and it kept one more TV out of a landfill.

As life continues to chug along, it’s noteworthy that eggs are very expensive right now. Bird flu has decimated chicken flocks for months and no end in sight. With federal efforts that would help that come to a conclusion being dismantled by a fiercely pro-business, anti-health federal government I’m concerned it won’t get better any time soon. Our local grocery store got to $15.99 for 18 eggs before I finally decided to haul myself over to Costco one morning (before they sell out for the day) to grab two dozen for $8.99. It’s still on the expensive side (California always is) but even for here the situation was getting a bit out of hand.

I’ve continued taking Tuesday evenings for myself. In early January I went to San Francisco to see Nosferatu at the AMC Metreon. I pre-gamed by watching the original Nosferatu from 1922, and I’m very glad I did. It is the same story, but the new one has some really great nods to the original and some beautiful scene recreations. The movie was beautiful and well-acted, and I didn’t find it too gory. It also doesn’t have the cheap jump-scares that are so popular in horror now, and which I don’t like. I want my horror to be beautiful and nightmare inducing, but I don’t want to feel anxious about it while I’m sitting there watching it. This movie really hit the mark. I also saw Flow at our local theater, and finally saw Wicked! Another Tuesday evening I decided to go swimming at nearby Hayward Plunge, which has a $5 drop-in rate. That was a lot of fun, I love to swim and I’ve been looking for an outlet. Other evening activities for myself have included going to the library and reading, which satisfies my desire to have a calm evening to recharge. I have some San Francisco dinners with friends queued up after our spring break trip to Philly, which I’m looking forward to as well.

We observed Purim recently, which sadly got interrupted by Aaron having a cold that came with a side order of fever. That meant we had to avoid the event at the synagogue we’ve been hoping to go to more, but we did make Hamantashen! It was a smaller batch than previous years and we only did cherry filling, but everyone seemed happy with it and the boys had fun making it.

Since we were home for the sick kiddo weekend, we spent some time finally putting some more paintings up around the house. It’s nice seeing things come together, and finally starting to free up some space in the garage.

And then I promptly put a car in the garage. It wasn’t planned, but MJ’s 2000 Alero hasn’t been doing great lately. We had to recondition the battery recently after I neglected to take it out for a drive for a few weeks (oops). Once the battery was healthy again, I took it out for a jaunt to the car wash and grocery store, and didn’t make it past the entrance to the car wash. I put down the window to pay for the car wash, and heard a clunk. The window had fallen into the door. Unfortunately, it’s a relatively expensive fix, and with the overall condition of the car and usefulness to us, we made the sad decision that it was time to say goodbye. It’ll be a few weeks until we can actually part ways, so it’s basically taking up all the free space in the garage until then. It’s been amusingly weird having a car in the garage.

The following weekend everyone was feeling much better just in time for Monster Jam in Oakland. I’ve never had any interest in monster trucks, but Aaron really likes them and I thought it might be a fun thing to do with the boys. We weren’t sure how they’d react to how loud it was, but we came prepared with noise dampening headphones. And indeed they did have fun! I could have passed on it honestly, which is funny because so far my own interests have been quite aligned with the boys, and this was definitely a departure. It was nice to be able to take BART there though and not have to worry about parking.

Tomorrow we’re off to Philadelphia for spring break. Our house sitter gets to try her hand at keeping our new house tree alive while we’re gone, but I think she’s up to the task. In fact, given my track record with house plants, it may even be healthier once we return.

Filed under: family, food, kids, life

A rainy February

Wednesday, Feb 26th, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

We’ve had a pretty chill February. Part of it is that I’ve just been a bit tired and it’s easier to stay close to home, another is that we’ve wanted to spend the weekends catching up with some stuff around the house instead of grand adventures. It’s also rained a lot and been quite chilly, and I’m really not enjoying it.

Our big house thing was replacement of the garage door opener. It broke just before we left for Philadelphia for the summer, and then MJ had his shoulder injury shortly upon our return. This month he was finally feeling better enough to tackle it! It took several weekends, and there are a few final things to complete, but the door now works beautifully, and Adam really enjoyed helping us fix it.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the old one, which includes a very long track that’s far too big to be put in our trash can. I’m not sure it’ll fit in the car either.

MJ and I went out for Valentine’s Day, on one of the rare weeks when no one was sick lately. We ended up on a very slow BART train that got us into San Francisco a little late for our reservation at The Cavalier, but fortunately it was raining so we didn’t have much competition for tables. The unfortunate part about the rain is we didn’t fully prepare for it, so when the sky opened up during our walk from the station to the restaurant, we both got rather drenched. My coat helped me a lot, MJ’s didn’t.

Sogginess aside, the food was excellent. It had been years since I’ve had caviar, and the scallops I got were delicious. The company was top-notch too, and we mostly avoided talking about the kids. It was a lovely evening.

Last week Adam was off from school, so I took a half day on Friday and we all went out to the Meta campus for a tour. The boys were very excited to finally see where dad works, and it’s a really beautiful campus, complete with outdoor activities, lots of good food, and a tram that takes you to the other campus that features a stunning garden on the roof. The boys also enjoyed the gift shop, and so did I!

In keeping with our chill weekends, we ran errands, went to hardware stores, and one day while the boys were getting tired of Dad’s visits to the hardware stores, I took them to a nearby mall where I picked up my Build-A-Bear Mothman. I kept missing the releases, so they sold out at least twice before I finally got one. I picked it up at the store unstuffed so the boys could help me with it, which they had a lot of fun with. The only problem now is that Aaron fell in love with Mothman and has been sleeping with it every night every since, hah! He has even gone as far as getting mad when I say that it’s actually mine, and will likely now go to his grave saying it’s his. That’s OK though, our house has enough stuffies for everyone to do a bit of sharing.

Last weekend we also did some bike riding in the BART parking lot. Ever since learning how to ride his bike, Adam has been asking to actually go somewhere on his bike, instead of just riding up and down our cul-de-sac. I finally granted his request by taking them to the farmer’s market, and on our way back we went over to the mostly empty permit parking area and spent about 20 minutes just riding around. Aaron is still practicing without pedals, but he’s making progress! I’m hopeful that he’ll be pedaling with two wheels in the next few weeks.

Looking to March, I’m hopeful. I’ve been addressing the causes of my sluggishness, and I am hoping that some organizational improvements around the house that I’ve been working on will reduce my day to day stress as well. I’m also hoping that my household helper can return in the coming weeks, as I’ve really missed having her help with day to day tasks.

Filed under: family, kids, life

Hunt for the Olde English Selectric Typewriter Ball

Friday, Feb 21st, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

A while back I was on a typewriter forum (Facebook group? Reddit? I don’t remember!) and someone was showing off a typewriter they had that had an “Olde English” font. It was stunning! The suspicion was that it was owned by a church or similar that wanted to type that kind of style. In the comment, someone happened to mention that it wasn’t as cool, but that they had a typewriter ball for their Selectric. Oooh. I want one.

The hunt was on for an Olde English Selectric II typewriter ball!

I scoured eBay and found one, for the Selectric III. I wasn’t paying enough attention, and discovered only after it arrived in the mail that the Selectric III and Selectric I/II balls are not the same. I was pretty mopey about this because it turns out that it’s actually tricky to find the Olde English type ball for the Selectric I/II.

But how could I be sure it was the right one at a glance on a listing? Thanks to this reddit post I learned that the Selectric III balls tend to have yellow lettering, whereas the I/II balls have white. Indeed, that was the case for mine!

Upon seeing my disappointment, MJ suggested getting a whole Selectric III typewriter, which I briefly considered, but decided against, though I definitely appreciate the spousal support in my space-consuming hobby! Instead, I set up an eBay alert for Olde English Selectric to see if I could snag one.

It took a couple weeks, but I found one! It was sold as a set of five balls, some of which I already have, but for $80 I could have it delivered. Sold.


And so, it was the moment of truth! How beautiful will this type be?

So beautiful. I went with a quote from Nosferatu.

But I wasn’t done! While searching for this type ball, I discovered this paperweight: a Selectric ball in Lucite from 1961 that says “Advocate”. Well, that had to come home to me. And so it did.

Now keep me away from eBay for a while.

Filed under: typewriter

The adventures of 2024

Tuesday, Feb 18th, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

2024 was a strange year, and it took me a while to write this post because I wasn’t sure how to approach it. As with all years, there were high points, like getting back to traveling to conferences, our first real family vacations, visits with my family, spending all summer in Philadelphia, and watching both kids mature in leaps and bounds. But there were some big challenges too. MJ lost his aunt in the spring, we contracted COVID over the summer and had to cancel a major vacation, and then MJ had an accident in July that caused major damage to his right shoulder that required months of physical therapy. During the late summer I went through a major depressive episode, and concluded the year with emergency surgery for appendicitis. It was a lot.

I’d say connecting with family was a big theme of the year though. Spending all summer in Philadelphia meant we could get comfortable with casual family visits and we deepened our closeness with our family there.

My sister and nephew spent just over a week with us in California and we had a ton of fun with them. We went swimming! We saw trains! We had adventures in San Francisco! And best of all, the cousins had some great bonding time.

In November we rescheduled our canceled July trip to Florida. We saw most of the folks who we had originally planned to see, and our itinerary ended up being better. Plus, we got to have some solid family time with just the four of us playing in the pool and beach, which was really nice.

Professionally, getting back to conferences was very important to me. I really enjoy the work I’m doing, and sharing that with the broader open source community. The following is a rundown of what I got up to conference-wise.

In 2025 I want to get more control over intentional progress in all parts of my life, rather than feeling swept up by it like I’ve often felt these past few years when the boys were really young. They’re growing into independent little kiddos, and I’m so proud of them!

Filed under: EOY

Lions and more Lego

Thursday, Feb 13th, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

Beyond birthday parties and wish granting, our January was pretty normal. We were all fighting off the ever-present runny noses that stalk our household this time of year, we had some small adventures. On the weekend we visited Aaron’s cave on the west side of San Francisco, we made the trek up to the bay side of the city the next day for brunch at Fogo De Chão and to load up an old desk into the Hyundai that I wanted to use as Aaron’s Duplo station. It was a bit of work to extract the desk from storage, but it did give me a good opportunity to refresh my memory about what’s there and brainstorm how we might be able to re-organize things to move more stuff out of our garage.

The boys and I then took the MUNI Metro and then a street car to get to The Exploratorium. I mention the transit methods, because the journey was half the fun for the boys. We have a membership at the museum so it was a nice opportunity to spend 90 or so minutes there just seeing a few exhibits. Still, the boys wanted to stay longer and were quite grumpy when I explained we had to go home. It’s also tricky for one parent to take both boys there, as they tend to get excited and want to try everything, and so they run off in opposite directions.


The following weekend we went over to our local library to enjoy a Lion Dance for the Lunar New Year. It’s a nice event, and thankfully quite short, so the boys get some excitement but don’t end up getting too fidgety. Afterwards we explored the library, did some themed coloring, and met a nice family who were in town visiting.


On Sunday we went over to a local park that has a few rides because Adam wanted to ride the train there. Wish granted! MJ and Adam then ran off to the playground while Aaron and I went on the carousel, which was fun, and the tea cup ride, which was not fun. Aaron likes to make himself dizzy so he spun us a bunch, and I learned long ago that the spinning tea cups rides are not for me. Fortunately, the ride wasn’t long and it was a cool day, so I could just pause and sit through the nausea once we disembarked. No more tea cups!

MJ had to go out of town for work, so the following Sunday I had the boys solo, and with my continued bronchitis recovery I didn’t want to overdo it, but also knew being cooped up indoors in the rain wouldn’t be good for any of us. So we drove over to the McDonald’s in town for lunch and that’s when we all discovered the new McDonald’s Play Place. They’re really impressive. It was a two-story indoor playground with slides and climbing areas and bouncing areas. I realize it’s kind of funny that I didn’t know this, but I am not a big McDonald’s person and I lived in the city for years, where they don’t have the Play Places. The boys spent close to an hour there, and it was a bit of a challenge to get them to leave!

From there I wanted to check out a local toy store, Brick by Brick Toys, that specializes in new and used Lego. I suspected I’d like it and that the boys would enjoy some free-building in some of their Lego bins, but I didn’t expect that I’d love it as much as I did. We spent a full 90 minutes building Lego at the giant mixed bins, each of the boys came away with their own Lego car creations, and for $25 we added them to a big ziplock bag filled with other assorted Lego, instantly doubling our free-play Lego collection in one stop. It turns out that it’s in the same shopping plaza as Harbor Freight, so I let the boys go there too and pick out some new flashlights.

The rainy weather has continued, and hasn’t done any favors for my mood, and I’m definitely struggling. I’m grateful for the support I have though, and right now most of the challenges that life is throwing at us are pretty typical things. Bills need to be paid, a kiddo suddenly needs glasses, a half dozen things going wrong during a minor home improvement project. We’re just keeping going and doing our best.

Filed under: family, kids, life

Birthday wishes: Caves and Ice

Saturday, Feb 8th, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

Some time last year Aaron started asking to go visit a cave. I don’t know where he learned about caves, or what drove this request, but he was quite insistent upon it, for months. Finally, just prior to his birthday in December, I did some online spelunking to see if there were any we could visit nearby that we could visit as a birthday gift. Voila! I discovered that there’s a man-made “cave” near the ruins of the Sutro Baths in San Francisco.

Adam, on the other hand, wanted to see a baseball game for his birthday. Unfortunately, his birthday is in January, and that’s about as far as you can get from anything baseball. How about a hockey game? Yes! We penciled one in for January and got to planning.

But first we had to go see Aaron’s cave. Both of these events landed in January, since I was in no shape to go to a cave right after my surgery in December. Our cave day began with a trip to the farmer’s market in town, then the boys and I took a bus to our favorite cafe in town where we met MJ for breakfast (why did we take a bus and MJ take the car? Because the boys love buses, of course). After breakfast we drove directly to San Francisco, and encountered the usual amount of traffic along the way which reminded us why going to the beach side of San Francisco is such a time investment these days.

There was a lot of parking at the park that houses the Sutro Baths ruins, which was a relief.

To get to the cave, you first walk down some trails and past the baths, the cave is pretty easy to spot, and it’s actually more like a tunnel. It was enough for Aaron though! They got their shoes all coated in sand and ran through the cave, and tried to jump in puddles. The cave has little openings here and there where you could see the waves crashing in, which was pretty cool. Reading about it, the cave is actually a rock quarry, and they used the rock to build the now ruined Sutro Baths.

I’m glad Aaron was satisfied, but I think the rest of us preferred the rest of our adventure, traipsing through the national park that’s there, seeing windswept trees and taking in the magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. It’s such a beautiful place. The very California gift shop was nice too.

Afterwards, we made our way down to the Beach Chalet. MJ and I went there regularly when we lived in the city, so it was nice to be back, even if the boys were finicky about their food. After lunch, we took a little walk in the western-most part of Golden Gate park to see Queen Wilhelmina’s windmill and the gardens surrounding it.

It was a good day.

Adam’s birthday adventure was on the following weekend, a San Jose Sharks game! During his party, we made plans with his current and former au pairs, so all eight of us ended up going together.

I definitely had my apprehensions, there wasn’t a daytime game until March, so going in January meant we were taking them to a 7PM game, and their bedtime is usually 7:30. They were definitely a little tired, but Adam eventually got into the excitement of the game and really enjoyed spending time with his au pairs. I bought Aaron a Shark hand puppet to keep him entertained, and the boys kept eating my food.

I forgot how much I like SAP Center, even if it’s a driving journey to get there from the east bay (no useful trains like on the peninsula). It’s bright and clean and there are TONS of screens, so when I left my seat to grab some more food I was still able to see the game, and didn’t have to deal with the between-period crowds.

And a success for Adam’s birthday? Yep! I think hockey is nice because of how fast-based it is and even between periods they have entertainment to keep the crowds happy. We were lucky enough to attend on the evening they were observing the Lunar New Year, so we were entranced by lions and dragons, which was quite a lot of fun.

As for me, it was a bit of a stressful evening. I’m still bringing a diaper bag and snacks, and I do have to entertain them, so it’s not a lazy night at a game like it used to be, but it is starting to get a bit less stressful. The boys listen a bit more, run off less, and with careful planning I can make sure no one ends up too hungry/thirsty/bored. And it was worth it, I did still have pockets of fun, and I always enjoy having new experiences with the boys.

Filed under: events, family, kids, life

A very Lego 6th birthday

Friday, Feb 7th, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

On January 6th Adam turned six years old. He’s blossomed into a hilarious, fun kid and I’m so proud of his thoughtfulness and kindness. Plus, he’s always been interested in figuring things out, so this past year that’s morphed into doing Lego kits with me, and one of his birthday requests was going to the Lego store wall and building something, so that’s what we did!

We got back home from Philadelphia a couple days before his birthday, and his birthday landed on a Monday, so we piled on to BART after work and went to the Stoneridge Mall to make his Lego dreams come true.

And pick up his birthday Build-a-Bear!

We even got some Lego-shaped gummies before going over to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.

His birthday party was on the following Saturday and we had his former au pairs over to visit and do cake!

And gifts!

We did a little gift coordination too, with a big red Lego box joining our home just in time for me to pull out a box of vehicle-related free build Lego blocks. Truly, the free-build Lego sets have ended up being for both the boys, and Aaron was thrilled to start playing with them.

Happy 6th Birthday Adam!

Filed under: family, kids, life

Hanukkah 5785 in Philadelphia

Friday, Jan 31st, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

This year was the first time with the kids that Hanukkah ended up being observed all in Philadelphia.

Because of how it moves around on the Gregorian calendar, there is always a chance that we’ll be spending part or all of Hanukkah in Philadelphia over the winter school break. It presented an interesting challenge, how do we give the big gifts like their new bikes if the bikes are in California during Hanukkah? And for smaller things, do we just plan on bringing a bunch of gifts home instead of keeping them at our vacation home? We got creative, and brought along an extra suitcase just in case we ended up bringing things home (we did!).

Now, one of the things about winter break is that the kids are home from school, so we revisited our summer strategies of keeping them occupied. During this two and a half week trip, our au pair also decided to take some much deserved vacation over New Years and so that left us with most of Hanukkah just the four of us, and nearby family. This year it began on the evening of Christmas, and with most things closed the boys and I got to work on making a bunch of sugar cookies from my family recipe. We quickly discovered that we don’t own a rolling pin (our supplies are rather limited there) so we used a water bottle. The cookies came out great, I forgot how much I like them. I ate a bunch.


For dinner MJ and I got Wawa hoagies and I tried my hand at making latkes. We purchased a food processor a few days before so I wouldn’t have to manually shred potatoes and onions like I did last time when I made them in California. What I didn’t think about much was oil, so I just used what I had: vegetable oil. I came to regret that decision. Turns out, using vegetable oil for latkes makes them cook much too quickly and I ended up with burned latkes, only a few of them were even edible. It also filled the house with an oil smell that lasted for hours. Thankfully, my second attempt at the tail end of Hanukkah was much more successful with Canola oil and lots of ventilation.


Also, we discovered that Aaron loves latkes.

We did some Hanukkah crafts, including a table runner that the boys enjoyed coloring and putting up some small lights around the house.

The boys fell in love with sparklers over the summer, so I joked about and then produced “Hanukkah sparklers” which we played with in the snow on the second night, which is also the night they were treated by grandpa coming over and doing gifts with them. This year we also gave Adam the opportunity to help with candles, which he was really excited about.


Of course the Hanukkah train came out too! The boys are treated with year-around trains in Philly now that we have a Lego train that we put together over the summer, so we temporarily put that one away so we could enjoy the more traditional model train.

Next year there’s a good chance we’ll be splitting Hanukkah between coasts, so that will be an interesting one!

Filed under: family, food, kids, life, philadelphia

A castle, dinosaurs, and snow in Philly

Wednesday, Jan 22nd, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

I wouldn’t recommend flying across the country 12 days after an appendectomy, it’s painful, but we had holiday plans in Philadelphia and our flights wouldn’t wait! On December 18th, with a lot of luggage help from our au pair, we made our way out to Philadelphia for two and a half weeks.

We were greeted with snow! The boys had seen flurries before, but they’d never actually had the opportunity to play in the snow, and that was remedied with this visit. They shoved a little, tried to ride their bikes in it, and delighted in throwing snowballs at me. I made the mistake of shoveling the driveway because I was worried about ice, and that set back my recovery by a couple days, but it didn’t tear anything, which I’m grateful for. It did end up being bitterly cold for several days though, and I’m glad we had recently bought some winter coats for them both.


I took the last week of the year off to enjoy Hanukkah, which I’ll write about later, and go on some adventures with the kids. The first was to Fonthill Castle in Doylestown. First we stopped for brunch at nearby Cross Keys Diner and it was absolutely perfect, it was everything I love about little Pennsylvania diners. Then it was off to the castle! I had been to the sister museum, Mercer Museum, a couple of times, including with the boys two years ago. The castle was a whole new experience. The museum is a winding path of all kinds of collected items from the early 20th century, including a lot of every day things, offering a real snapshot into life back then. The castle is where Henry Mercer actually lived, building what was a farmhouse into a castle of concrete. It’s just as strange and whimsical as the museum, which unexpected discoveries at every turn. We happened to pick up a children’s book about the castle when we were at the museum the last time, so we had some idea what to expect, and it was fun to match up the photos and drawings in the book with what we were seeing in person.

The whole place was absolutely fascinating. I loved how natural light was so effectively used in places like the library and map room, since electricity was still rather new and most rooms would have been lit by a single light bulb. In one room he had real cuneiform tablets built into the columns from thousands of years ago that he picked up on his adventures around the world. We also did a little hunt ourselves after MJ read a Hanukkah display that mentioned he had a menorah tile somewhere in the house – we found it, on the ceiling!

Aaron got a picture of his stuffed dog, also a purchase we made the last time we visited the museum, by Rollo’s Stairs, a series of stairs that the dog had run through and left his footprints in while the concrete was still drying.

Upon completion of our indoor exploration, we took some time to explore the grounds. One of the photos from the book had the tree-lined driveway pictured, so we took a nice stroll down the driveway to experience it.

It was probably the warmest day of our trip, so the boys also enjoyed running outside in the grass around the castle, which also allowed me to get a few more photos of the whole castle in all its glory.

Since both MJ and I had off on New Years’ Eve, we took the opportunity to hop on the regional train down to Philadelphia, an adventure the boys constantly ask for. Our first stop was to see the Ice Dinosaurs exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences. We love this museum and Aaron really loves dinosaurs, so we knew it was a must on our visit downtown. It was a hit with all of us!

From there, we took a bus over toward City Hall for lunch at Iron Hill Brewery, and then walked up Market street to visit The SEPTA store to pick up a bunch of transit goodies, and also look at their exhibits. They have a full size PCC trolley in the downstairs lobby, and also various small exhibits scattered around. In front of the store itself there are a couple of model train displays to enjoy. From there, we walked up to City Hall, which I’d never actually walked through before, and then visited the outdoor Holiday Market still going on. I am certain it has shrunk since Christmas, but there were still several booths still set up and the boys got to watch people ice skating. Now they really want to go ice skating. Plus, MJ found a cannoli with vegan filling, so he could eat it! Turns out, you can do just about anything with enough oil and sugar.

We filled the rest of the week with activities like free building with Lego, which it turns out Aaron really, really enjoys, and Adam and I finished our first Light My Bricks build, which was a lot of fun. We started with a small car we knew we could finish on our trip and took the other kits (R2-D2 and Tantive IV) home with us to California to work on them here.

The boys are also enamored with science kits, so they received a few of them from their grandpa for Hanukkah. One of them was a volcano experiment that had you first make the volcano and let it dry for a few days, and then use it for exciting eruptions!

And the Friday before we left was an exciting day: The release of “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” on Netflix in the US! The boys and I have been so excited about this, and watched all the other movies leading up to it in preparation. So first thing on Friday morning we all snuggled up on the couch and watched. I even paused for a little while to write about it on my fan site!

Our evening on Friday concluded with a final dusting of snow and dinner at our favorite Italian place in town, a beautiful conclusion to the trip and a nice distraction from all the house close up tasks we had the following morning.

For the trip home, I was four weeks post-op and thankfully had the ability to handle suitcases to a limited degree. The pain was definitely still there, but the flight didn’t add to it, and we all got home safely and on time.

Filed under: family, food, kids, life, philadelphia

Goodbye, appendix!

Wednesday, Jan 1st, 2025 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

We got home from Florida very late on Saturday night, and Sunday was spent resting and getting back into our California routine. On Monday, I had a stomach ache. I figured it was some vague “travel stomach” and it would go away. On Tuesday the pain continued, but I had a babysitter that night and took myself out to see Moana 2 and get some sushi, thinking that a walk around town would help sort out whatever cramps I was experiencing. It didn’t.

On Wednesday I decided to hang the Hanukkah lights outside, which has me precariously standing on a tall ladder while the kids play out front.

But this was also when the pain started to get really annoying. MJ insisted I make a doctor appointment. In the course of booking the appointment, the questionnaire had me get more specific about the pain. That’s when I began feeling around and realized it was in my lower right abdomen. Uh oh. You know what’s in your lower right abdomen? Your appendix!

On Thursday morning I took one rather important call at work that wrapped up shortly after 10AM (“let’s make this quick, I don’t feel well” I told our VP during the call, hah!) and then I drove myself over to the local hospital Urgent Care. Upon reviewing my symptoms, they walked me straight over to the ER for a more comprehensive evaluation.

The ER is rather chaotic there right now because they’re doing renovations, but the upside is that the temporary ER waiting room is in their beautifully well-lit main lobby, giving me a good spot to wait in, in spite of the circumstances. They are clearly crushed for space though, I spent 5 hours in that lobby, being shuttled to blood work, a CT scan, and a basic evaluation by an ER doctor (“does this hurt? how about when I push here?”). Around 3:30 I finally had my diagnosis: the CT confirmed my appendix was inflamed, the recommendation was surgery to get it removed.

This began the second phase of my hospital visit, five hours on gurney in an ER hallway! While there, I texted a woman I know who had just started a job at the hospital, and she stopped by for a visit and to make sure I was being treated well (yep!). Still, at this point I was extra grateful that I had the presence of mind to bring a couple books with me to the ER, since the battery life on my phone was waning and it had been a long day of waiting. I got more reading done that I have in a while! While I was in that hallway, MJ was able to come by after work and his own physical therapy (aren’t we a pair!) to visit and bring me my tablet, a charger, and an external battery. Unfortunately, he had to get home to the kids so I was solo again. A trauma surgeon came by during my wait to explain that I’d have a surgery in the morning and they’d admit me overnight while I waited. He also broke the bad news that I couldn’t eat until after the surgery, which was a real bummer because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast!

I finally got a room at the hospital around 9:30PM, which is good, because I had begun feeling nauseous my abdominal discomfort had finally gone from annoying to actual pain. By midnight I accepted their offer for pain medicine so I could get a little sleep. And “a little” sleep is all I got, with interruptions throughout the night. It was also a nice room, the hospital has undergone several renovations and my experiences there have always been positive.

The next morning was a lot of waiting. I met with the trauma surgeon who would be doing my surgery and she warned me of all the possible outcomes. I also asked about recovery because 1) Aaron had is birthday party the next day! and 2) we were planning on flying across the country 12 days post op. I don’t think she was entirely thrilled with any of this news recovery-wise, but told me that she would discharge me as early as she could on Saturday, and the flight should be OK if I’m careful. It was a Friday, so our au pair was on her usual schedule and MJ took the day off from work so he could be with me at the hospital for the surgery. Around 10:30 I was brought up to pre-op where they re-did my IV and asked a thousand questions before general anesthesia and the laparoscopic appendectomy!

Surgery sucks, even in the best case, which this was. Everything went well, but it still hurt a lot. Still, when offered to be discharged that evening instead of the next morning I took them up on the offer. While it might have been nice to get intravenous pain medication for another chunk of time, going home where I could actually get some rest in my own bed was probably best for my recovery, and would make Saturday less chaotic if I was already home.

Recovery. The first three days were really hard. We had Aaron’s little birthday party on Saturday afternoon, which thankfully was just having his current and former au pairs over to visit to do cake and presents. One of the things they tell you is that laying around isn’t a good way to recover because they pump your abdomen full of gas during the procedure and it needs to work its way out, and movement is important for that. So getting up and about for his party was a good thing, but I did have to lie down again after.

Since it was abdominal surgery and they cut into my muscles, changing positions was the hardest thing, with getting out of bed being the worst. I’d say it was on day 4 that things started looking up, with the pain not making me yelp and see stars anymore. Unfortunately, they only gave me enough pain medication for 2 days and I went without all day Monday because they didn’t call anything in until Tuesday. And on Tuesday I had to ask my neighbor for a ride to the pharmacy because I wasn’t in any condition to drive yet. She then brought over home made chicken soup for me, I’m really grateful to have such kind neighbors here.

I also have great support at work, with my boss sending flowers and assuring me that I should take whatever time I need.

We also lucked out with childcare. We had an existing babysitter who was in our rotation who was able to come by in the evenings, and recommended another woman who ended up being really great with the boys for the evenings our existing babysitter wasn’t available. They were able to do all the cooking and cleanup and playing with the boys that I couldn’t do, or had to rest during.

Speaking of whom, it’s been a little tricky explaining it all to the boys. I think the concept that we have internal organs is rather new, and the idea that they can go wrong and you need to be cut open is a bit unsettling, especially since it all happened so suddenly. So in a fit of retail therapy and desire to explain it to them, I bought a toy appendix to replace the one that was removed.

On Friday, one week post-op, I went out on my first adventure, to see my doctor! She was pleased with my recovery, and noted that everything was progressing normally and that I was healing nicely. MJ and I went out to lunch after as my first meal out since the surgery. Feeling very motivated, we also made a stop to check on our family car at the dealership to get some warranty repairs done. I ended up driving it home because it was as ready as it was going to be, and we needed it back before out trip to Philadelphia. It was definitely too much, but I was grateful that my recovery was going so well. That’s the day we also stopped with the evening babysitters, it was time to get back to normal!

But it wasn’t normal. Indeed, the long tail of recovery from an appendectomy truly does seem to extend 4-6 weeks. That first weekend with no babysitter was definitely a challenge. Since I couldn’t lift the kids, we put a step ladder next to the changing table so they could climb up themselves, which has worked out well. I probably pushed too hard though, I didn’t feel great after the weekend.

I returned to work part-time on Monday, but found that I had to lie down after a couple hours. And then 12 days post-op we had that flight to Philadelphia for the holidays as planned. I was cleared by my doctor to do it, but we really relied on our au pair a lot to help us with luggage, and MJ gave his good shoulder quite the workout too. Still, the flight and all the related walking and unpacking took a lot out of me, and I was quite tender for the next few days.

I’d say I turned a corner around Christmas, where there was still pain so I had to be careful, but it wasn’t constantly top of mind or taking as many breaks. Last night I found I could mostly sleep on my sides again without pain, which had been a real challenge as a side sleeper.

I’m approaching the four week mark, and I’m just hoping the recovery continues to chug along on schedule. Fingers crossed for an easy journey back to California on Saturday, this time we won’t have our au pair to help us out.

Filed under: health
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