George of the Jungle

I think Vincent and perhaps Stephanie have seen "George of the Jungle," a pretty silly modern version (or even spoof?) of the Tarzan story, with ever versatile Brendan Frasier. While I answered work e-mail and blogged and Facebooked this afternoon, I couldn't help but peek as mission trip teammate Luke, 17, had found a TV and VCR in the computer room at the seminary lodge here in Guatemala City and also found a VHS copy of "George of the Jungle," which he played. It ended just in time for our debriefing and next steps conversation.

-- Perry

Coraline

Yesterday, Vincent and I, after dropping Perry off at the Cincinnati airport and exploring the Florence Ya'll mall, went to see the movie Coraline at the discount movie theater here in Louisville. Vincent was happy to get out of the house for something not errand related. I was happy to relax temporarily before tackling the rest of the windows and curtains in the house.

We didn't have the normal Perry amount of popcorn but we did have hot dogs for dinner at the theater (a splurge we thought we could afford since the tickets were cheap). We noticed that it wasn't very full but did have some children in the audience. I think Vincent felt a little odd going to see a children's movie with his mom and no kids. But, once the movie started all was fine.

Vincent has always loved the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. He even has a patch on his favorite winter jacket (that is covering a hole in the arm he got from dragging his sleeve across a fence during a Mardi Gras parade on Frankfort Ave) that is of Jack-Skelington. I bought him an alarm clock with the Nightmare Before Christmas design when I went to a conference two years ago in Orlando. So he wasn't too put out to be watching a movie in the same child's horror/ tongue in cheek style.

Coraline is filmed in the same style as Nightmare Before Christmas and has a lot of the same feel. A little girl is unhappy in her new home with busy parents (hmm...can Vincent relate?). She explores her new home to find a mysterious door. Soon she is in an adventure behind the door and has to compare the two worlds, behind the door and reality, and decide where she would rather be. Let's hope all of us make the right choice between reality and fiction.

After the movie Vincent tried to analyze it and decided the movie wasn't really for children. It was more a commentary on having your eyes opened to what the real world is like and what you truely want and love. This seemed rather ironic coming from a almost adult who has had problems with the real world. Either way Vincent liked the movie and it was a fun outing.

Of course Vincent came home and read some of It by Stephen King. Around mid-night he came down and was rather chatty. I realized he had read enough to scare himself and didn't necessarily go back to bed by himself (remember he is 17). We talked for a little bit (I have to admit I was trying to read my book for book club) before I sent him back upstairs. When he saw the It movie when he was much younger he refused to take showers. Let's see what happens with this latest horror movie/book combination.

---Stephanie

New home

Yesterday after meeting Perry and Jamie for lunch at Mai's Thai (a great little restaurant in Jeffersonville) Vincent and I ran some errands. First we took his old plastic mailbox/bookcase to my room. He no longer needs to keep hot wheels in the plastic tubs. We then returned a pillow I had originally bought for Perry for his trip. We then were off to Pet's Palace. Pet's Palace was nice enough to not only order but also hold back for us a new aquarium for our turtles (who experienced temporary homelessness...living in a cardboard box like hobos...due to a much too vigorous door opening).




Once we were home I set up our new aquarium, that is actually an inch shorter than the original. I spread the reptile bark and the spaughum moss. Once the turtles were placed in the new aquarium. They looked happy! It is just a little hard to tell when a turtle is smiling. Either way they basked in the heat lamp light, climbed on their log, and got to eat worms and fruit.




It was amazing how empty the turtle corner was without them. It is nice to have a little normalcy back in the living room.

--- Stephanie

Layoff safety

Perry called from the Houston airport this evening to say he had talked with his boss. It seems he is safe from the latest round of layoffs. Of course there are already rumors of another round of layoffs in September, but we're grateful for this latest reprieve.

--- Stephanie

Update

We are investigating news of possible disturbances in Guatemala that we heard from one of Amanda Cross's PC(USA) mission co-worker colleagues in Guatemala.

To keep up with news about the Guatemala mission trip, look over at the vertical column to the right of the blog entries proper and scroll down to "Important Web Sites and Blogs." Crescent Hill Guatemala is one of the first sites listed. Click on this.

-- Perry

Original mission trip itinerary

Friday, March 27th
- 11:00: Leave Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church for Cincinnati
- 2:40: Flight leaves
- 9:00: Flight arrives in Guatemala City
Stay at the Mennonite seminary with Soila

Saturday, March 28th
- Exchange $$
- 10:00: Leave on bus for Rio Dulce
- 4:00: Arrive in Rio Dulce
- 4:00: Meet our Estoreño comrades and travel to El Estor
- Evening: Eat together and settle in with our host families!!
- Buenos noches! Que tenga un buen sueno!!!

Sunday, March 29th
- Eat breakfast with our host families
- Worship together in El Estor
- 12:00ish Eat Lunch together
- Afternoon: BUILD RELATIONSHIPS!!!! Visit with different church leaders and possibly visit different congregations.
- Dinner together as a group
- Evening: Worship

Monday: March 30th
- Meet with Presbytery leaders and work on covenant and continue building relationships.
- PM travel to Rio Dulce and settle into Hotel Bruno

Tuesday: March 31st
- Take the bus back to Guatemala City and spend the evening with Soila and Jeff. Debrief and prayer time together.

Wednesday: April 1st
- Visit cultural sites and learn more about Guatemala.
- Visit with Soila, Jeff, and Amanda

Thursday: April 2nd
- 4:45 a.m. Arrive at airport
- 6:00 a.m. Flight departure
- 2:00 p.m. Arrive in Cincinnati
- 4:00ish Arrive in Louisville

For more information about the trip, see http://crescenthillguatemala.blogspot.com

-- Perry

Preparing for the worst

Mom lost some sleep over the weekend worrying about Vincent’s arraignment Monday (turns out that we should have been more worried than we were). When I talked with her Sunday, I managed – inadvertently – to make her even more worried about my Guatemala mission trip which starts this Friday (in two days), more concerns about security (robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, arrest, etc.) than malaria, or what Stephanie faced: blood clots. I’ve done something to try to prevent malaria – since we’ll spend three days in the malaria risk zone – taking anti-malaria medication, spraying most of my clothes, bags, and sheets with a substance called Permetrin (pictured above and below doing this this past weekend), and bring strong 30% DEET insecticide to apply to my skin. Of course, it turns out that I might have been (and still could be?) at risk of having to flown back to the United States for dental surgery.

Now, it is true that all of the guide books say to avoid flying into Guatemala City after about 2 p.m. and don’t linger at all in the capital city. And we’re flying in at 9 p.m. Friday and spending three days in the city! Still, we’ll be picked up and will be staying on the campus of a Mennonite seminary a little outside of town, run by a woman who served as a missionary (then from Honduras) among those in my church in 2004 (Soila). We’ll also be with a woman (Ellen) who was a Presbyterian mission worker in Guatemala for 11 years. And pastors local to the remote area we’ll spend half our time in will be shepherding us through that area (even though buses do get attacked in that area and North American tourists were killed while on Lake Izabal about a year ago). One of the people traveling with us has led dozens of mission trips to another Latin American country (the Dominican Republic).

I told Mom that the three main things I’m worried about the trip: staying individually with a family and negotiating a draft written partnership agreement with presbytery leaders – that both of those things go well. And I’m worried about SCABIES – tiny microscopic insects that are worse than bed bugs because they can survive for months and are very hard to get rid of (I got them twice before, originally from someone who had been traveling in GUATEMALA). To get rid of them, you have to ruin most of your clothes and you have to pour tons of toxic chemicals on yourself and you frequently while working on this pass them on to others. Pray that I don’t get scabies.

Another worry: Mass layoffs are expected at the Presbyterian Center this Friday – while I’m en route from Cincinnati to Houston on the way to Guatemala. And although I am reasonably hopeful I will not be among those laid off, you never know (recall I came oh so close to getting laid off three years ago), and certainly lots of people I know – people with whom I’ve worked, people from my church or in my Toastmasters club – will get laid off. Already there’s a pretty poisonous atmosphere at the Center. Latest rumors: the Center will soon close at 7 p.m., instead of 8 p.m. and will be closed all weekend (instead of open Saturday morning – recall that I stopped by there last Saturday morning), and more mass layoffs will probably be in store for this September.

These layoffs will no doubt put further strain on our local church budget, since we have so many members that work there (5 of the 12 people at our church session meeting tonight), and people who get laid off will have trouble making their pledges.

I’ll be calling my manager before liftoff in Cincinnati and then at home in Houston, to find out if he or I still have our jobs (and who else might have gotten cut). Three years ago I had a window over looking the Washington Street entrance and could watch laid off people heading out the door with the boxes of their stuff all day. This time no one will find out until the afternoon, and so there may be a lot of exits with boxes at the end of the day.

Pray for my colleagues and me.

-- Perry

Second thoughts?

When I called Dr. Burton’s office before deciding for sure on the root canal, I thought I heard her over the phone talking with Libby raising questions about the root canal. But Libby assured me everything was OK. Dr. Burton, before I left, said she wanted to send me to endodontist – just in case – before I went to Guatemala. But she thought that if I brushed with Sensodyne toothpaste, flossed, and applied peroxide to the tooth and gums, my tooth would recover. She thought Dr. Norton might give me antibiotics for my trip in lieu of any immediate root canal. She also thought the her gum destruction was helping cause the problem.

But – once I got there – Dr. Norton was emphatic that the gums were not the problem and that this pulpitis was non-reversible and I was persuaded to go ahead with the root canal.

It was not because I couldn’t take the discomfort for the trip, and not just that Dr. Norton or I were nervous about what might happen in Guatemala. It’s that Dr. Norton sounded so sure and he was so persuausive.

Now, I don’t know if it’s true what I’ve quipped – that Dr. Norton never met a tooth that he didn’t want to root canal. In this particular case, I actually side with Dr. Norton – that my tooth was so sensitive (something Dr. Burton really may not have appreciated) that it was never going to recover – Thanks to be reduced again for the veneer and then due to stress from the multiple surgeries – reducing it, adding the temporary cover, taking this off and adding the ceramic veneer. It was just too much for the tooth.

Dr. Burton may have been feeling sub-consciously defensive, because she may have picked up that I was never that gung-ho about this – especially if it was going to kill my remaining live front tooth – if it was going to force another root canal. I knew all along that this was a risk, but maybe it was more likely than Dr. Burton calculated.

Still, it was odd to hear that this dental surgery that I was really trying to avoid was indeed avoid-able and that it happened only because of a bad decision I made on the spot. (Only today did Dr. Burton say that other endodontists are more conservative but that I really like Dr. Norton) – This is too extreme. Last time I first went to two endodontists, incliding a woman with a Dixie Highway office whose office is really far away. Perhaps I should have done this this time. But I was starting to run out of time.

Still, I would have liked Dr. Burton to have said today – Look, I know you really didn’t want to have another root canal and perhaps in hind sight I underestimated how likely it was that all of this surgery would have triggered the need for another root canal. I miscalculated, and I’m sorry. But – as nice and as skilled as she is – I never heard those words or anything like them today.

-- Perry

Catastrophe

I took David’s old box turtle, Greenville, with me up to Minnesota. While I was there, I discovered Twin Cities Reptiles, a great pet store just a mile from where I lived. After Stephanie, Vincent, and Frisco arrived, we bought from Twin Cities a specialty reptile “Critter Cage” – wider and flatter and shorter – and a stand for this and our conventional 30-gallon aquarium terrarium.

Eventually, we got a second (and – for six months – a third – Speedy) turtle, Speckles. For a while, Speckles was in the 30-gallon aquarium terrarium. But Greenville and Speckles seemed to get along (sometimes too well), and gradually they both stayed in the critter cage, on the upper level of the stand. Eventually I broke the old 30-gallon aquarium (which had been home to Sawyer, before he ran away in Tallahassee). Sawyer’s original 10-gallon aquarium has variously played host to our frog , snails, and fish (in Ohio) and here in Kentucky to Speedy and waves of Speckles’ eggs (see “Babies”).

Almost all of the rooms in our current rented house are small, including the family room. Our predecessor here had her TV in a little corner of the living room. But we put a TV on another side of the room and tucked the turtle stand and terrarium in that corner, near the front door and under the window, even though this means they don’t get great natural light and they’re a little bit out of the way.

Sunday night Vincent surprised us by coming home early from his girlfriend’s (last visit in at least a month it turns out) (see “House arrest”) while we were watching a movie. Apparently he swung the front door open really hard, and the door knob cleared the edge of the stand and slammed into the side of the critter cage, breaking and shattering the glass. Vincent apparently cleaned up some of the broken glass. The glass critter cage itself was beyond repair, as the turtles might get out and fall to the ground and the remaining glass shards might cut them.

We were happy that Vincent called us and tried to clean up but unhappy that he was so careless about opening the door. We figured it would cost us $200 plus to replace the critter cage (if we could even find one), on top of the $1,500 we already had to cough up the next day for Vincent’s lawyer. We also recalled ordering the original critter cage from a supplier of Twin Cities reptiles, and we weren’t prepared to drive up to St. Paul.

That night on the Web and after church the next day on the phone and in the car, we found that several local pet stores carry critter cage. We initially could not find one with a short enough top. But over at Pet’s Palace, we found one just like what we had (actually – on order) for $90. The salesperson actually tried to talk us into the more popular one several inches taller, arguing that putting the turtles’ heat lamp/ultraviolet/spectrum lamp so close to them wasn’t good, that the turtles would get too hot. But our turtles just stay under their big piece of tree bark or burrow a lot of the time. They just come out to bask near the lamp, eat, take a bath, or walk around sometimes. They don’t stupidly just sit right under the lamp for hours, frying/baking.

We listened to his arguments, but opted to end up waiting for the shorter cage. We like the shorter cage – the turtles can’t get out even of the shorter cage – because it’s easier to see and handle the turtles with the shorter cage. If we can’t see them and are less likely to pick them up, we’re less likely to stop and say hello and feed them regularly and to take them out for their weekly baths in our bath tub and then their 24 hours walking around the house. We like being able to interact with the turtle, and the shorter cage facilitates that. Stephanie and Vincent will probably go back to Pet’s Palace Thursday when the shorter cage is to arrive to get it. Last night Stephanie and I threw out the old cypress chips and pulled out the tree bark and heat/spectrum light lamp for temporary storage and the water and food receptacles for washing. That’s one good thing about the disaster – We’re de fact cleaning the turtles’ cage, which we haven’t done for a couple of years.

Speckles, the female who’s from further up north (North Carolina near the Virginia line) tries harder to mini-hibernate in the winter. Greenville is more active and eats more in the winter. In the summer, the roles are reversed. Greenville is a more picky eater in general (we think his eyesight is bad), and Speckles eats more and a more varied diet in the summer. In the summer, Speckles is more aggressive with the food, but Greenville, the male, is more aggressive some other ways.

They’ve been in a cardboard box since Tuesday – we hope they’ll adapt to the new habitat OK. At the pet stores we bought some more expensive and for-reptile-companion-animal-designed cypress chips and peet moss for the “bedding” for the habitat.

Happy new home, Greenville and Speckles!

-- Perry

Root canal

For several years my Louisville dentist has been pushing me to get “veneers” – essentially a new crown and a cover to an existing tooth. This year we appeared to have enough health care flexible spending money to do it. During the past couple of years I had to get 2 ½ root canals with crowns. The problems with my two front teeth go back to that Tokyo playground accident 35 years ago, somewhat botched dental surgery in Gainesville a year later, and then two more occasions in the past 20 years in which I’ve chipped one of those teeth.

But since I had the two veneers affixed last week, the tooth which mostly remains has been very sensitive to hot and cold and essentially hasn’t been able to touch tooth (let alone actually bite down). Today I went in to my dentist to ask about this, and also about this veneer jutting out somewhat. The dentist suggested I brush and floss more and use Sensodyne toothpaste and let it sink more. She identified two steps she had taken – other than shave back the existing tooth a little and disturb the tooth twice – shaving it and placing a temporary cover on it and then rmoving the temporary cover and affixing the permanent veneer – One was to laser the gum back a little to match the gum line on the all-crown front tooth. The other step was to coat the tooth with a substance with opened the pores to help the veneer stick. Both might make the tooth more sensitive.

But – because I am to go out of the country Friday – Dr. Burton went ahead and sent me right back to the endodontist I’ve seen two or three times, mainly for these root canals, for a “pulp vitality test,” which mainly involves applying cold substances and judging my reaction. Dr. Norton also took a second digital X-ray. No surprise to me – he said my reactions to the cold were off the chart – and a mark on his X-ray and my reaction to a little hammer-type pressure to the tooth suggested that deterioration was reaching the end of the nerve and the bone.

Then the question was whether I would get a root canal – which involves killing the tooth by taking the nerve out and filling it in with another substance – today, later in the week, or perhaps even after my trip. Dr Burton had thought Dr. Norton would give me antibiotic and let me wait until after the trip. But he was pushing me to go ahead, and when I found that Dr. Burton could get me in Wednesday morning to finish the job – by putting a permanent filling in part of the tooth that Dr Norton would drill out and called in to a client who had been set to met this afternoon trying to postpone the meeting a day or two – I said I would go ahead in 30-60 minutes after he had done someone else’s root canal.

Something else that swayed me – despite not wanting to have to be flown back from Guatemala to the United States – in the middle of our mission trip – was this: I thought that Dr. Norton would have to drill out the existing veneer cover and we’d have to do it all over again (maybe with both veneers – since they were designed to match). But Dr. Norton and Dr. Burton insisted that he could just drill a small hole through the tooth and preferably not touch the veneer.

After some more phone calls, I was back in the chair and Dr. Norton and his colleagues were relatively quickly doing the root canal – something that is apparently easier with front teeth, then the two molars I’d had root canaled easier. Last time the teeth were also apparently quite infected, and Dr. Norton had to just pump me full of novacaine so that the root canal wouldn’t hurt so much. This time that was not the case. Again, the whole thing is unpleasant – and I’ll have to get more painful novacaine shots at Dr. Burton’s tomorrow morning – and I feel bad killing this tooth – especially as a result of questionable actions I’d taken in the past (including perhaps this elective cosmetic dental surgery that I thought we could afford).

The root canal is done. I didn’t get back to work until 4:30 p.m. I had to postpone my important client meeting until Wednesday morning, after my dentist appointment. I went ahead and ate Chinese food at church, even though I had to be very careful because with the anesthesia still lingering I can easily bite myself, etc. I will also be taking pain killer and antibiotic through the start of the mission trip. We’ll see how my teeth and mouth behave by the time we travel from El Estor back to Guatemala City.

Pictured above is me and my two front teeth at the office of Dr. Norton, the endodontist, in between the pulp vitality test and the root canal.

-- Perry

House arrest

After some confusion about how to spell Vincent’s last name, when our appointment was (it was supposed to be at the Jefferson County (KY) Hall of Justice [pictured above] at 1 p.m. today), and where Vincent’s lawyer was when they called Vincent name, Vincent, Mr. Mazzoli (pictured below), and the two of us went into a hearing room with a judge and a few other court personnel (after waiting for just about half an hour). Because this is a juvenile case, it is not public, and so there are not a bunch of people in there and one case is heard at a time. Judge Prather (sp?) wanted Vincent to be “detained” pending a real hearing date – perhaps Tuesday, April 21. Mr. Mazzoli objected, citing Vincent’s lack of previous record, having made arrangements with the school, etc., and so the judge agreed to “house arrest.”

This is more than Mr. Mazzoli was expecting, but he laid low to fight another day. He said he will speak with his partner to see whether it’s worth trying to work with the county attorney’s office to get that lessened. He did also say if Vincent did fine with that, it would be another feather in his cap – a la Wellstone – for when the case came up for real. In a way, Vincent already seemed prepared for this, in that he talked about getting a job in part so that he would be able to go back and forth from a job. However, now, Vincent is supposed to stay at home except when going to school or work (or church or doctor’s or counseling – we have to ask about that)? Vincent is not supposed to see friends anywhere – not at his home, their home, or anywhere else – even if we are there (no supervised visitation with his girlfriend). Vincent is not really even supposed to go out for a walk without us, it seems. We’ll see how this works out. We essentially get stuck enforcing this. In fact, to an extent this supposedly gives us the authority we wish we had in that Vincent can’t really go most places without us (since his school is at home anyway). We’ll see how this goes with Vincent’s state of mind. As you know, he can be rather volatile and he wasn’t in a particularly good mood about this afterwards. Unlike Wellstone, he will at least be able to talk with his girlfriend, Samantha, and other friends – and the lawyer suggested even Web cam-ing/Skype-ing with her so they could “see” each other.

Vincent also said his English portfolio has supposedly been sent to one of the alternative schools he was going to sent to, and so we have to try to track this down and retrieve so he and Jefferson County High School can get it.

We probably need to find out if Vincent is allowed to go to counseling down the street without us (probably), go with us to look for a job (Odd Lots – he said) and go there on his own without us if he gets one (probably – but this is a terrible job market and so he can’t count on getting a job applying to just one or two places), go to church youth group without us (probably), or go out to walk our dog without us (probably not). We’ll see what happens. Perhaps Vincent will even get some school work done.

-- Perry

Campaign mode

The media wondered what President Obama’s campaign apparatus would do with the huge list of e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers they had from the two-year fall campaign. During the past couple of months the president’s poll numbers have slowly started to decline, and public support for some of his policy proposals and other government policies have shrunken. This past week the campaign e-mailed folks and tried to recruit us to canvass in support of some of the president’s long-term budget proposals, including health care, energy independence, and education initiatives. Even though I’m busy, I signed up for this in part because I feared that Obama’s incredible campaign volunteer base – perplexed by the shift from campaign to governance, by bailouts and projected deficits, and by Obama’s rightward, then leftward shift – would not show up for this event – and at least in Louisville I was largely right. I was only the third person to sign up for one of the three events on the Web site for Organizing for America, the campaign-type organization that is now run by the Democratic Party. When I got to the coffee shop between downtown and my old neighborhood, between work a little late, I believe I was the first person to arrive who was going to go out.

I essentially asked people to sign a petition in support of President Obama’s long-term budget proposal – including his education, energy independence, and health care initiatives – that allow us to capture – if provided their address, phone number, and e-mail address. I eventually focused on the budget/health care initiatives. My little spiel to people after they started filling out the form was I’m particularly excited about the budget’s health care initiatives, including the effort to cut health care costs by expanding coverage, so that people don’t so sick at the start. (I also handed everyone I talked with who would take it - even those who didn't sign the petition - a flyer.) I started out by asking people: Would you be willing to sign a petition in favor of President Obama’s budget, including his health care initiatives?

I started out near the Waterfront, talking with people at the end of running race. I stopped in at work to go to the bathroom. Then I headed in a long rectangle, ending up at the far end outside of the Hall of Justice, where we’ll meet Vincent and his lawyer Monday at 1 p.m. for his arraignment. There I got four people on a smoke break from traffic school to sign. On the way, I stopped at several bus stops – the campaign trainer/volunteers had suggested bus stops and got signers. Eventually, I had to resist the temptation just to ask African Americans and white young people to sign (because these were the most likely people to say Yes). Survey research suggests that Republicans (and we’re talking mainly Anglo Republicans) have soured on Obama lately, and this was evident in my approaching people. I also stopped outside Fourth Street, the downtown entertainment district where Vincent has sometimes hung out. There I even got two tourists from Missouri – who were doing a tour across the country of all the “Hard Rock Café” sites – including the one at Fourth Street Live – to sign. The “campaign” asked me to get at least 20 people to sign, and I got 30 people.

I probably approached about 60 people, and so half said Yes. Lots of people did not give their regular mail addresses, but I was surprised how many people gave not only e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers but also signed up to receive weekly text messages from Organizing for America (even those these can cost money), like Stephanie receives occasionally after she signed up to receive a text message with the vice presidential running mate announcement (that we ended up getting at about 3 a.m.) back in August.

Issues people mainly who said No asked/complained about: AIG bailout, earmarks, not concentrating on the banking crisis, and – probably high on the list of Louisville – picking the North Carolina Tar Heels – not the Louisville Cardinals (who both advanced to next weekend’s Sweet 16 with tough victories over – respectively – Louisiana State and Siena this weekend) to win March Madness.

What I learned: President Obama (who was very good – if unspectacular – on “60 Minutes” Sunday night) still has a reservoir of good will but whites are more leery of him. And Obama’s vaunted campaign base has to be re-grown and re-energized since they were largely absent (I bet across the country). Governing may be tougher than campaigning, and mobilizing support for policy proposals may be much tougher than mobilizing support for a primary election. Still – interesting talking with people – even briefly – about policy and politics this Saturday (including the half a dozen volunteers I did meet).

Next time – Join us!

-- Perry

Tea for two

Perry and I really enjoyed the chrysanthemum tea we had at a Chinese restaurant we had lately. We even bought some of the tea to make some at home (with the hostess reminding us to use lots of honey). I brought the tea home and then pondered how to make it. Did I really want to put the loose chrysanthemum tea into my large tea kettle that sits on the stove all the time? or even putting it in the silver plated tea pot my Dad gave me earlier (yes, it now shines but how clean is it really)? So in the back of my mind a want of a tea set was brewing.

At our school each month a lady (officially the Book Lady) comes in and sets up books, trinkets, photo collages, and the like that teachers may be interested in. It is in the teachers workroom and if we are interested we just sign a little paper with our interest and voila a week or two later our merchandise is delivered. Nothing is ever too expensive. I even have bought a few Christmas gifts from the Book Lady, but usually things are geared toward young children or kind of what I call "dust collectors", but others might call nick knacks.

This past month the Book Lady had a small tea set. It was one that you paint any way you want. It was a small porcelain tea pot, a sugar bowl, four cups, and four saucers. For the price it couldn't be beat and I thought it might be fun to decorate. Then I got home. How should I paint it? I'm not artistic! What was I thinking?

Then inspiration hit (or more like March Madness and Perry's incessant TV watching). Who should be in the playoffs? Florida State University, my Alma mater! So I finished painting my Florida inspired tea set yesterday while Vincent was off with his girlfriend and Perry was off volunteering for Obama. I have yet to bake it (the paint has to be dry for 24 hours), but it was a fun little project, even if the tea set is MUCH smaller than I thought it would be.

--- Stephanie

PS. The above painting is NOT a giraffe, even if both Perry and Vincent thought it was supposed to be. It is supposed to be Renegade!

Spring is coming

After all the strange weather events we have had in Louisville this past year when we finally had a nice sunny, if cool day, Perry and I walked the dog together. We marveled at the blooms on the trees that have just opened up in the past day or two. We kept hoping that spring is finally coming and no more cold weather (or odd weather events) kill of the beautiful blooms.

Frisco had renewed vigor in smelling every little thing. The walk that usually takes 45 minutes stretched into over an hour. Perry and I stopped to snap photos of some of the more amazing trees. This tree (pictured above and below) is in front of a wellness/natural healing center much like Penny and Serge have in Virginia.

One sure sign that this is spring in Louisville and in no other city is the signs for Derby preparation. The newspaper has had articles now for several months, but the hat shows, dress shows, and fashion shows are starting to really gear up. This sign just a block from our house shows just how full swing the Derby preparation is.

This is a photo we took walking past some of the boutiques in our neighborhood. While there may be a recession in the rest of the country women all over the world are picking out their Derby hats. Derby may be in May, but the season starts early here. Hmm, I wonder where I'll get my hat this year?

--- Stephanie

Tears and prayers in the classroom

This past February my students had to take the state mandated standardized test, ISTEP. Every state I've taught in has their own version of a standardized test, part of the outcome of No Child Left Behind. In Florida it was the FCAT and in Minnesota it was MCA. In all the states besides Indiana that I have taught the test was given in the spring after almost a years worth of instruction. I thought it was odd that Indiana usually tested in the autumn. This year the Indiana Department of Education decided to switch from the fall to the spring, but in order to keep No Child Left Behind results they would test BOTH in the fall and in the spring for 2008-2009 school year. The following school year 2009-2010 we would only test in the spring. This is logical in theory but obviously not thought out by someone who has been in a classroom.

Fall started with us gearing up for ISTEP practice. Teaching how to fill in bubbles for answers for students just arriving to this country, test taking strategies (eliminating possibilities on multiple choice questions), and reading and vocabulary review were all the focus for August and September.

The state of Indiana gave us a window of two weeks to take ISTEP. Normally this is fine. We take one section of the test each day and don't fatigue the students and also get some instruction done (not testing all day). Then there came a storm called Ike. The first week of ISTEP we had no school. Our students, teachers, and schools didn't have electricity. Now the spread out, non-fatiguing test taking strategy was thrown out the window. All students must complete the test in one week. My students in particular had a hard time with this. One of the accommodations for ESL and special education students is they get extended time to take the test (as long as they are working productively). I also can read the math and science portion of the test to them (essentially anything that isn't testing their reading ability). How do you fit in extended time when there isn't any time to extend it to? We did our best and crossed our fingers and hoped.

Next in February ESL students had to take the annual LAS test to assess their English language improvement. This is not a pass fail test, but rather a test of their level. I always stress to my students if you are a level one (the lowest) on the next test you take I expect you to be a two and so forth. It doesn't always happen (just look up any ESL theorist Krashen, Chomsky, VanPatten, Snow, Skinner et. al to see that it takes 7-9 years to become fluent...some even say up to 12, but I'm not going to argue with the DOE that supposedly bases their decisions on scientific research and best practices).

Again we had a two week window. The fist week of testing I was ready to go. I had made a schedule and had been helping the kids understand the importance of testing but also I only wanted improvement not to completely pass. The kids were looking forward to the challenge and we had two weeks to take the test without stressing anyone out. Hello ice storm! We lost a week of school from the worst ice storm in Kentuckiana history in at least 50 years. It became a repeat of ISTEP. We rushed to get it finished and students were stressed.

Two weeks after we finished LAS testing we slipped back into ISTEP mode. Remember when I said Indiana was switching from fall to spring testing. This is the year for BOTH. My kiddos now had to take the ISTEP again. This time it was a "new and improved" ISTEP with more writing and little did we know, multiple forms.

Remember I can read non-reading questions to them. Now I had a room of multiple test forms with different problems. I'm trying to read the problems and instructions to my students and keep them on the same page (functionally if not actually) so that I can make sure they are doing the right problem (some of them couldn't figure out the different questions being read weren't theirs and were doing the other forms problem that I had just read). A structural nightmare ensued.

Then we started math. I read one problem and thought "How in the hell are they going to do this?" I even called my mom, a seamstress who makes lots of my clothes, how to do it. This was on the 5th grade test and makes me wonder if I'm not smarter than a fifth grader.

You have a piece of material 2 1/6 yards long by 1 yard wide. You want to cut it into thirds to make table cloths for a school picnic keeping them 1 yard long. What is the perimeter of the all three table cloths? Explain your answer.

The seamstress, Mom, said you fold it equally into thirds, cut it, and then measure the perimeter. Makes sense to me.

What my students were actually supposed to do was convert yards to inches (most of my students have a hard time with this since they are from the rest of the words that uses metric), do division to divide the inches into thirds (my kids CAN do this if they new what inches to use), find the measurement for the tablecloth, and then find the perimeter (they know the formula and can do this). Explaining what they did is a different matter. Now they are using English (my girl who came in January from Mexico wrote in Spanish even though that is counted wrong) to describe a process that they didn't understand fully to begin with, but also in words that they may or may not know in English.

I think you can imagine the frustration level just from this one problem that my students were facing. This went on for a week. I had two really good students actually cry. One student who has made great gains in his English and reading ability got to one of the writing prompts. He had already finished one writing prompt. This prompt he was to read a portion of a story (infer the problem) and finish the story as the writing prompt. He read the story to me several times (so I could tell he actually could read it), but when he got to the finish the story part of the problem he became blocked. He made several attempts before erasing everything, putting his head down and crying, and then writing an apology to the scorers of ISTEP because he couldn't do the prompt. Reading over his shoulder made me want to cry also. I told him to stop, gave him a hug, and told him he did the best he could. He said he might be able to finish tomorrow, but of course we can't do that (and I think the powers that be in Indianapolis need to see exactly what our kids are feeling when they take a test that is this mismatched to our standards).

After all the testing is over (we take another multiple-choice portion in April) and taking into account all the school missed for weather anomalies we will have missed SIX WEEKS of teaching. That is a grading period in our school district. How well are students supposed to do on any test if they are missing that much instruction time?

One of the powers that be in Indianapolis, Tony Bennett, also a former school district superintendent from a neighboring school district (the one that canceled school because it was too hot) is part of who we have to lobby to change ISTEP or at least take into consideration all of the odd happenings of the year.

Excitement and disappointment

After the Louisville Cardinal men's basketball team put Morehead State (KY) away in the second half of their early evening first round NCAA March Madness game in Dayton, two of my teams (Florida State Seminoles and Ohio State Buckeyes) played in thrilling and simultaneous overtime games which unfortunately ended with last-second defeats for both of them. The Seminoles lost their game in Boise (ID) with 2 seconds to go in overtime, with the Wisconsin Badgers hitting a 2-point shot to turn the Seminoles' 1-point lead into a 1-point Badger lead, then made a free throw. The Seminoles got the ball to the other end of the court, but couldn't get a shot off in time (and the shot they got off missed anyway). (From the Albany (NY) area) the Siena Saints took the Bucks - playing an hour from Columbus in Dayton - to two overtime periods and hit a 3-point shot with 4 seconds to go to pull away. I watched most of these last two games at a local sports restaurant with a dozen folks from the KY Seminole Club - a group that usually watches football games together and does service projects - but in this case had a good 'Nole basketball team to cheer on too (seeing each other in March - not just in the summer and fall). Siena should be tired when they face the Cardinals Sunday, after this late-night double-overtime game - one of two games for the ages that my teams ultimately lost tonight. (Oddly enough, I'm familiar with a bunch of these small-time schools in the tournament: not only Siena but also Portland State, Morehead State, and even Cleveland State (which routed Wake Forest tonight),)

-- Perry

Dental saga

Dental professionals have been working on three different teeth of mine over the last few months. I think back in January the crown over one of the two teeth I had root canaled a couple of years ago – the same crown that came out once before – came out half a dozen times. Finally, my dentist sent me straight to the endodontist (office pictured above) who had done the root canals and he did a mini-root canal, where he went back into the tooth, pulled out some of the stuff, and put in a pin that would keep the crown from coming out. My dentist then put in a temporary crown, ordered a new one, and a couple of weeks later put in the new crown – this was seven or eight visits to my dentist – at no cost to me, our dental insurance, or health care flexible spending (including for the new crown).

Also in December and January my dentist – who like many modern dentists also specialized in cosmetic dentistry – made her annual pitch to get two front teeth veneered – my crown replaced and my one good tooth covered over with a thin matching veneer. I smiled as usual – figuring we wouldn’t have the time or money (and I wasn’t dying to have more dental surgery and haven’t been terribly dissatisfied with my metal-based crown (even with the dark edge around the gum) and the real tooth chipped and filled in three different times). But then I recalled that we actually had almost $3,000 left in health care flexible spending (tax-free) (use it or lose it) money for 2008 that we had to spend by March. At the beginning this was before I went to the hospital in Florida (and early one even before Stephanie went to the hospital for the blood clots?) – and before we sent Vincent to the hospital after he got suspended from school (all of which cost some health-care-flexible spending money). Partly not predicting all of that, I would ahead and signed up for getting the veneers.

I also started committing to this before I realized how many times I’d have to go to the dentist for the other crown.

My front teeth had gotten crowned and chipped as a result of a playground accident in Japan. A Japanese dentist who subsequently retired had done the root canal and crown. The crown was metal based and covered in porcelain. But the veneers would be ceramic. A risk with the reshaping the good tooth for the veneer was that it would damage the tooth enough that a root canal would be required.

Pictured below is my face and teeth through various phases of the four-hour process that day – from my old teeth to the temporary crown, etc. (including some ugly in-between photos - that harken back to that day when I came home from the playground - as it turns out - on the way to the dentist - and smiled for my Mom - and freaked her out since much of my one front tooth was gone - a gap.)

During the four-hour visit several weeks ago, the dentist – a woman who works 3 ½ days a week and takes spring break and Christmas break off to be with her kids – with her assistant out sick – drilled out my crown and shaved my good tooth some – and burned my gum on one side back – after pumping me full of anesthetic. She then fashioned two temporary crown/covers that didn’t look bad. Next, I went to a Korean American lab tech (pictured below) in New Albany – across the street from Stephanie’s old school – who confessed when he learned that I have a metal pin protruding from the root-canaled tooth that it would be challenge to make the veneers look their best – so the light shines through them like real teeth. He looked at the molds the dentist had made and looked at the color of my teeth (that I had been bleaching for almost a month – which makes them sensitive) and also told me some about the secular part of the local Kentuckiana Korean American community.

When I showed up at the dentist this week – two weeks later – Mr. Young was in fact there – but delivering someone else’s fake teeth. For two hours I was in there again – as the dentist shaved off the teeth again and replaced them with the brand-new custom-made teeth. The dentist encouraged me to goo over them – but with the anesthetic and tired it was hard for me to evaluate them on the spot. I have a feeling that they look much better than my old teeth. But with all of the work I’ve missed with all of these dental activities – when I’m behind on projects and missing work due to Vincent goings on and we’re all worried about my job and we’ve spent more of the health care flexible spending in other ways even without this and these teeth – more fragile that my old tooth – may end up feeling a little funny in comparison – it’s hard to know if I would have done all of this if I had to do it all over again. At least I’ll never wonder how I’d look with better-looking teeth – since I’ve already got them. Pictured below is me through phases of this shorter process – with the last two photos with my new (permanent) teeth.

Thanks much to Dr. Burton and her staff. One of many reasons why I went ahead with the switch was that she did all of that free work for me – with the crown that she felt bad kept falling off – that I thought I should have her do some paid work – and – even tax-free – it was paid. Back in February I did a $1,700 charge on my health care flexible spending card – certainly one of the biggest charges of any sort I’ve done. Good work , Dr. Burton, Dr. Norton (the endodontist), Mr. Young, Brittany, Libby, and colleagues!

-- Perry

Skiing accident

Hard to believe 45-year-old British actress turned New Yorker Natasha Richardson is dead in a NYC hospital from a freak skiing accident on a Canadian beginners' slope. We missed her in "The Handmaid's Tale," saw with husband Liam Neeson in "Nell," and loved her in the 10-year-old "Parent Trap" re-make with Dennis Quaid and a pre-teen Lindsay Lohan and her presumably early CGI-ed double. Pictured above is Richardson and Lohan during the filming.

-- Perry

Good work

Tuesday night on TV Kentucky’s two collegiate men’s basketball teams – the University of Kentucky’s Wildcats in the National Invitational Tournament – playing in their old on-campus gym in Lexington – and the Morehead State Eagles – playing in the NCAA “March Madness” play-in game vs. Alabama State – up the road in Dayton – both won. (KY fans, however, aren’t much impressed with their team being in the NIT, and the Eagles face the misfortune of facing cross-state rival and #1 seed Louisville Friday night – a team that beat them by 20 plus points earlier in the season.

And – improving greatly on last week’s uneven Michael Jackson night – "American Idol"’s remaining Top 11 contestants generally acquitted themselves well on country night, a theme that has produced some atrocious performances in past years. I thought every single performance I watched – most of them – was solid, and some people – like last week’s mediocre Anoop Desai (pictured above with Tuesday’s song, Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind”) – were much improved. Most memorable again was Adam Lambert, with a wild version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” that was too out ther for some of the judges. Not an easy choice, trying to decide who to boot (and boot off the summer "Idol" tour, which only includes 10 performers.)

-- Perry

Choices

Vincent came into town this afternoon to meet Stephanie and me and two different lawyers (Stephanie and Vincent pictured above waiting for the first lawyer). First off was Mr. M., the most recent lawyer who I talked on the phone with (one of three lawyers recommended by another church lawyer friend who called Monday). He was no-nonsense and quickly got us talking about the sequence of events behind the incident that got Vincent suspended and to be charged. He did a good job of engaging Vincent and – like the lawyer we’ve got an appointment with Friday but whose appointment we may now cancel – seemed pretty well versed/ experienced in criminal law and some in juvenile. He had tried to get us to see his legal partner too, who he said was even more familiar with juvenile issues, but this other lawyer must have been busy. It was a beautiful day and a nice walk down Main Street to the law firm office, next to the Louisville Bar Association. Mr. M. – who’d been more direct and being willing to talk with us for free one on one – also copied some paperwork related to the case and seemed prepared to take it on. The price tag, however ($1,500), is not at all small.

We then drove two blocks down the street, got out next to the Hall of Justice where we were 2 1/2 weeks ago to get Vincent’s mental health inquest warrant and where all three of us will be again this coming Monday for Vincent’s arraignment. We walked through the square and then took an elevator up to the 14th floor, where – after a while – another church lawyer friend greeted us and introduced us to one of her partners. We met with Mr. L. in a beautiful conference room with windows looking out on the south end of downtown and beyond. He was obviously exhausted from preparing a civil trial that had started and ended earlier in the day – and so he had ended up having to wait for us – where McDonald’s (?!) was his client. Mr. L. was obviously smart and creative, but less well versed in criminal and especially juvenile law. Having just come from the other guy, we were pretty up front about being shopping, which may have set a different tone. He was fine to talk with, but talked more with us than Vincent, doing less to engage Vincent. He had looked up some interesting case law connected with the case. He and our friend had obviously talked about a more favorable financial arrangement for us – flat fee or hourly rate, which ever ends up being lower. A smart, nice guy, but maybe not the perfect fit for Vincent and this charge. Vincent had already left the first office saying he wanted that guy (though he acknowledged that our second friend had helped us out). The third guy I picked off the Internet. He talked a lot with me on the phone and clearly knows a lot about juvenile and criminal court – even the exact charge Vincent will get (and he charges half as much as the first guy).

Afterwards, we walked to Fourth Street Live (pictured far below) and had -after listening briefly to a man play a bagpipe - a St. Patrick’s Day dinner at J. Gumbo’s, the Cajun chain. It felt like Derby week, with lots of people out in the 70 degree weather. Later Vincent stopped at his girlfriend’s and Stephanie and I returned the rental car and picked up the Camry and Vincent and I began sniping a little at each other.

As I’ve mentioned before, all of the lawyers have stressed the importance of Stephanie having put Vincent in Wellstone and him following up on behavioral health treatment. Some of them also stressed that Vincent’s demeanor in court will be key. Will he be able to smile politely and look respectful as judges and prosecutors lecture him? We’ll see. Mr. M. joined us in urging Vincent not to hang around near school – since, ultimately, the school may have to sign off on any plea deal whoever Vincent’s lawyer is tries to arrange, and if he’s irritated them by not staying far away from school, that could doom him. The lawyers talked about Vincent trying to avoid even a third degree misdemeanor charge, and this taking up probably three court appearances (plus later efforts to expunge the records). Apparently because Vincent is almost 18 any plea deal may involve Vincent essentially being on probation for a year, during which he must continue with treatment, etc. (and probably school) and not get into trouble in any other way. I hate disappointing people and hate having to make choices, but we’ll probably go with Mr. M., high price tag and all.

Up next: key dental work for me Wednesday, a Toastmasters meeting, a dentist visit for Vincent, parent-teacher conferences for Stephanie Thursday, and probably some calls back to these lawyers from me.

-- Perry

St. Ann's

Last week my step-brother, Bobby, who has been undergoing chemotherapy at the James Center in Columbus, Ohio for brain cancer, was rushed to St. Ann's hospital in Westerville (pictured above) when he came home from chemotherapy and was unable to breathe. Since he lives in Gahanna they ordinarily would have taken him to Mount Carmel East but the ambulance was diverted to St. Ann's where Perry's grandmother and grandfather both spent time.

Once he was admitted into the hospital (and rushed to ICU) and the nurses and doctors attending him received his medical history they diagnosed him with a blood clot in one of his lungs and one in his leg. They wanted to put him on a "clot buster" drug that would break up the blood clot but were afraid that any new or relatively new wounds would bleed. Relatively new wounds would include his brain from his brain surgery this past fall. If they did not put him on the drug, even with being put on oxygen, they gave him 24 hours to live.

After a long discussion with the doctors at St. Ann's and his neurologist, who actually performed the brain surgery, Bobby and Terree (his wife) decided that they would try the blood clot medicine. He would stay in ICU to be watched for adverse effects and signs of bleeding on the brain. As of yesterday when I last talked to my mother he was still in ICU but has had no sign of bleeding (other than a nick on his lip from trying to shave).

The next step is taking him off of Avastin, the only drug that seems to have done anything to his fast growing tumor. Avastin is supposedly known for blood clots as a side effect. Radiation and other chemotherapy drugs have not worked on reducing or even slowing his tumor. Now without the Avastin the next step may be hospice. This is a devastating blow since the Avastin has actually shrunk the tumor enough that he regained some movement on his left side. Avastin is also one of the drugs that Mom is taking for her chemotherapy. Now we have one more side effect to watch for with her.

Please keep Bobby and Terree in your prayers. Tough decisions need to be made about next steps, if there are any.

---Stephanie

It's done!

After a week in the shop (and two days with a rental car), Mom's old Camry - now one of just two cars we own - is ready - for $1,500 less than we thought ($520 for a new water pump and timing belt instead of $2,000 for a (2nd) new engine) (old water pump only lasted for 3 1/2 years). Plus we probably saved $100 or so due to returning the rental car five days early. Yes - our back-up mechanic (when Phoenix Hill's Firestone service center can't handle something too complex) really is Jim Hendrix Automotive. I met Mr. Hendrix (Sr.) today - he had trouble running my credit card through. He said he started the business in 1964 and has since passed it on to his son, also Jim (not Jimi) Hendrix.

I paid but haven't actually picked up the car (it's maybe a block from our house and next door to our counselor). We'll pick it up tonight after returning the rental car (pictured below, early Monday morning, on our first full day with it).

-- Perry

Fed interview

It was interesting to watch and hear last night’s “60 Minutes” interview with Fed chair Ben Bernanke (one year in the making), who – it turns out – grew up as a child in one of the few Jewish (shop-keeping) families in Dillon, North Carolina. This is the man who – along with new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner – the Obama administration and the country are counting on to rescue and reform the financial system and the economy – and, with Defense Secretary Gates and General Petraus – is one of the few holdovers from the Bush Administration. An expert on the 1920s/30s’ Great Depression, he seems very aware that massive government intervention may be needed to stave off a (and also prevent) depression, something his predecessor – Alan Greenspan, favorite of my libertarian friends – as well Clinton Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin – were slow to see.

-- Perry

Great news

Jim (aka Jimi) Hendrix Automotive (picture from their Web site above) called today to tell us that it's the water pump - not the engine - that's ailing the car - and that they could fix it today (meaning we could return the rental car today or tomorrow). They called to find out when the timing belt had been fixed last, and Mom helped me find records to show the water pump and timing belt were last fixed three years ago - in December 2005. Fixing all of that will cost $500, instead of $2,000 for finding and installing a re-built engine. Plus renting a car for a day or two will probably cost $100 instead of $250. Now - if we can just raise the $750-1,500 for a lawyer for Vincent (plus making Stephanie's student loan payment for March)!

-- Perry

Bus crash

A morning run of the bus Vincent used to take home from school (#19) mysteriously crashed into some cars - and a house! - barely missing the occupants - in my old neighborhood (Phoenix Hill) - just a couple of blocks from my old apartment (on Madison). Five bus passengers were taken to the hospital. The driver was apparently not drunk. Click on the video section from the "Courier Journal" Web site to see video: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090315/NEWS01/903150424

-- Perry