Pictures...

Today, Bailey would've been 3 months old. Ironically, we picked up the rest of the pictures from the photographer last night. Thought we'd share...

OUCH!!!

Throughout history women have been critical to the development of literature, medical advancements, governance, philosophy, science, and every other field that you can imagine. You would think that these brilliant women would've stopped their male counterparts from creating some of the more torturous devices that are used on today's women in the name of medicine.

The one that comes most to mind at the moment had several men involved in its development, but I haven't been able to nail down the one particular one responsible for the torture device that we see today. The first man on record is German surgeon Albert Solomon. He was the first to use X-ray to study breast cancer. Many, many years later and many, many sore breasts later we have the mammogram machines that presently exist.

This morning I had my first experience with this sadomasochistic ritual. And for those of you who are trying to speculate...no, I'm not quite old enough to "have" to have this done...but the good news for all of you is that the normal procedure isn't quite as bad as you've heard...merely awkward and uncomfortable. Imagine a vise-grip.

However, in the case where you have a lump...the more involved testing is agonizingly painful. And while it is misery, I do think I understand the premise behind the procedure. They first begin with a smaller platform (a smaller vise-grip) in order to localize the picture on the lump...or so they claim. But I think that's not quite it...I believe the purpose of this procedure is to squeeze the lump until it pops...kind of like a blemish...if it doesn't pop...then perhaps it's something to be concerned about.

I haven't been able to get the doctors to agree with me that this is the purpose...but I still think I'm onto something here. After all, if you have a clogged artery, what do they do? In essence, they send roto-rooter in there with some drano to unclog the artery. If you have an artery that's collapsing, they put a "stent" in there...kinda like an extra 2x4 in the structure to make sure the house doesn't collapse...so, wouldn't it make sense that they would apply the same type of logic to lumps? Just a thought.

Lessons learned

How many of you were unaware that if you leave a car running all night, at some point the battery will die and when you go to start that car...well, it won't start? If there were a few of you who were unaware of this phenomenon, hopefully Wil's experience of discovering this fact this morning will be helpful to you.

Father's Day

A River Runs Through It And Over Us...

There are many times that we hear stories of events and we think, "there's no way that really happened!" or "those people couldn't have been so stupid to do that!" Well, in our case...yes, it really happened and yes, we were that stupid.

We decided to get away from the oppressive heat by taking a leisurely ride on an inner tube down the Rappahanock River in Fredericksburg. This seems harmless enough. The adventurers included Wil's 10 year old son, Jon-Christian; my 16 year old niece, Nikki; my 14 year old nephew, Cameron; my 58 year old mother (who can't swim), Alice; my 72 year old father (who can't walk very well), Paul; Wil and myself. You should already be getting the idea that this was not one of our smartest ideas.

We started down the river just fine. At first we were all holding together and everything was going well.

The river was a bit rougher than normal due to recent rains, but all in all, we didn't think the rapids would be any problem. Now to set this up properly, you need to know that there are lots of rocks and boulders in the Rappahanock and that's what helps create the rapids. These rocks however are not very forgiving and can actually be quite brutal.

The problems started when we got separated. One person inadvertently lets go of the next person's inner tube and you have people going in all different directions. In theory, if you just relax and let the river take you where it will, you should be fine. However, when you try to guide yourself down the river in order to catch up or help others, that's really where the trouble begins.

I think Wil may have only spent 5 minutes on his inner tube the entire time. Instead he was swimming trying to keep everyone together and guiding their inner tubes, which explains how his ribs got bruised as he was quite often pushed into rocks and boulders by the current.

The kids and my dad somehow got ahead of us. My mom got stuck between some boulders in the river and I had to walk barefoot upstream in order to push her away from the rocks and get her moving again. For those of you who have walked in a rocky river you will know that rocks can be quite slippery and frankly they can really hurt barefeet.

Anyhow, I was able to get mom moving again, but then she got ahead of us when I subsequently got stuck in the rocks on my inner tube and then Wil and I got knocked off our tubes going through one of the rapids. At this point, we couldn't see anyone anymore and we had no idea where they were or if they knew where to get out of the river for our ride back to our car. As we rounded a bend, we saw my mom sitting on the side of the bank with some strangers. I sent Wil ahead to find the others while I went to see what was going on.

I found out that unfortunately, mom went over one of the rapid areas backwards and got knocked off her inner tube and trapped under it. Fortunately, the nice folks who were in the water at that area pulled her out, but she was in no condition to get back in the water, so we opted for walking to the road. This, however, was easier said than done. We discovered that we were actually on a little island in the river, which meant that we had to walk across a portion of the river and my mother wasn't so sure she was up to that. However, we made it across that part of the river and then began our journey through the poison ivy filled woods (note--remember the blog about my bad case of poison ivy) to try to make it to the road. After walking around for about 15 minutes on various paths, we finally walked across a dam and made it back to the road. One would think that this would be the end of the adventure, but no.

As we climbed out of the woods with the bottoms of my feet cut, bruised, and burned and my mother not feeling so well, we saw Wil's car go by. We found out later that he ran the couple of miles back to where the car was and was now out looking for us. As we began walking in the direction that Wil was driving, the van from the inner tube rental place saw us and picked us up to take us to the destination in order to catch up with Wil. When we got to the park, we were quite concerned because the park was filled with emergency vehicles and personnel. We were told that someone had gone under the water and there were rescue divers looking for this person. As we were running up and down the park trying to find the rest of the family and hoping that everyone was ok, I twisted my ankle.

We eventually found everyone and other than some bruises, cuts, scrapes, burns, twisted ankles, tears, and psychological trauma, we were all fine. I think we've learned many lessons coming out of this day...but what's most important is that we are thankful that we all came home from this misadventure with only the aforementioned injuries.

On a serious note, the river did claim a life that day though. A young man (17 years old) who was at the park with his church group did not make it out of the river. His body was found the next day.

An itch you can't scratch...

Do you ever get that itch that you just can't scratch? Sometimes that phrase might be more figurative. However in my case, it is quite literal. Unfortunately I have lots of itches I "can't" scratch right now...all over my legs. Poison ivy has struck again. The explanation as to how I came in contact with this cruel plant I will write about later, but needless to say I've been in utter misery for almost a week now...trying not to scratch...taking extra long showers to let the water "scratch" my legs for me. I did finally break down and get some 'roids from the doctor yesterday. Hopefully, I will be able to get rid of the dreaded ivy rash without looking like Ahhhnold by the time the treatment is done. And here's hoping that the ivy won't "be back."

A Florida Driver's License

There are many things that we think of when we think of Florida...sun, sand, beaches, Disney World, South Beach, alligators...but some may also think of retirees...older people from the North who decide that in their older years they want to enjoy the weather of Florida.

As people reach their "twighlight years" there is also a slowing of responses, and a decrease in vision...there are many jokes about the way older people drive, which makes me wonder...what are the standards for a Florida driver's license? Are they lower than other states? I now think I know.

Wil, who is still considered a resident of Florida has a Florida driver's license. Now, for those of you who have experienced riding with Wil...this may explain a lot...perhaps a driving test would be a good thing for him. Well, this past week he proved why there should be stricter standards for driver's licenses...and especially Florida driver's licenses.

While we were on vacation, storms came through Fredericksburg and we had a tree fall in our backyard. My parents were out for the Race for the Cure and worked with Wil to cut the tree and load it into their pickup truck. This seems easy enough....apparently, not. When I got home from work on Friday, the driver's side of my parent's truck was smashed and covered in what looked to be white paint...and then I noticed that there was siding missing from the side of the garage.

After some intensive interrogation, I discovered that while trying to drive from the backyard to the front with the cut tree...Wil "slid" into the side of the house. Now, I can understand not being able to miss a pothole that you don't see in the road...or maybe a tree limb...but how exactly do you not see a 2-story house? This makes me wonder...what are the requirements for a Florida driver's license?

Vacation

There are few things better than vacation. Getting away from normal life...putting all of your work and stress behind you...not thinking about cleaning or cooking or any of the normal things that keep us so busy. It always seems difficult to get away...but once you do...it's so very hard to come back. You can always go home, but you go home a little changed. Maybe a little poorer...a little more tan or burnt and hopefully a little more relaxed.

We just returned from one of those great vacations. The type that makes you wonder why you work until you realize that you work just so you can take vacations like that. It was our first cruise. And while some considered Wil crazy for getting back on a boat after spending the past 2 years on one, he assures me that this was an entirely different experience. First, we opted not to select a room with bunkbeds, so that was the first difference between a vacation cruise and a military ship. Apparently, the Navy doesn't create little towel animals and put them in each cabin either...shocking, I know.

And Wil swears that the food was better. All in all, it sounds like if you're interested in seeing the world by sea, a vacation cruise is a much better option than the military.

We saw many sights and enjoyed 8 wonderful days of adventures. We should've known that the trip would be exciting when our ship changed course on the first full day at sea. Unfortunately, another passenger became very ill and had to be evacuated from the ship via US Coast Guard, so we turned towards Tampa to meet up with a Coast Guard helicopter that would then take the passenger and his wife to the hospital for medical treatment.

This course change resulted in a change to our port visits. Instead of traveling to Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, and then Cozumel...we did the ports in reverse so our first port was Cozumel, Mexico.

In Cozumel, we decided to visit the ancient Mayan city of Tulum. Wil has decided that this wasn't actually an ancient city, but was instead the Mayan Spa and Resort. As you can see by the pictures...they couldn't have chosen a more beautiful location. I guess if I were going to be sacrificed, this is as good a place as any. We also learned that in the Mayan culture at Tulum, they would sacrifice the best and strongest. They would hold contests of athletic ability and the winner would be sacrificed to the gods. I guess this is one place where it really is best to come in second place.

After Cozumel we traveled to Belize. We again ventured to Mayan ruins, but this time we went to the Mayan Temple of Altun Ha. Fortunately, there were no known sacrifices at Altun Ha and instead it was kind of like a monastry for the Mayan priests until they believe the peasants revolted and took over the Temple grounds. Again, we're not so sure that the stories are accurate. After climbing to the top of one of the temples, we believed that this could possibly be an ancient stairclimber and we were in fact at the ancient Mayan Temple of Gold's Gym...or at least my legs felt that way for the next few days.

After we stumbled down the Temple, we made our way to a boat that would take us back to Belize City on the River Wallace. It was a great way to see the wild life in the area. We saw many, many iguanas...a crocodile, a manatee, some monkeys, bats, and various birds.

Our next stop was the absolutely charming island of Roatan, Honduras. We found out later that Roatan was actually where the opening scene of the television series Fantasy Island was taped. Some of our fellow guests took a trip to that particular beach and told us all about it. We however, decided that since we were still requiring assistance walking after Altun Ha, that we would take it easy and swim with the dolphins instead. We made our way to a wonderful little resort at Anthony's Key and took a boat out to where we would swim with the dolphins at a little island ironically named, Bailey's Key.

We had a wonderful time playing with the dolphins and this may have been my favorite part of the trip. After spending some time with the dolphins, we made our way to Tabyana Beach, where we encountered the infamous and dangerous Stalker Fish. Wil can attest to the danger of this fish as he was an unfortunate victim of a Stalker Fish bite.

The dangerous Stalker Fish

After leaving Honduras we encountered some rougher seas as a hurricane was coming across Nicaragua and Costa Rica making its way t0ward Honduras and Belize. Our next stop, however, was Grand Cayman. The day was a bit overcast, but turned out to be a lovely day as well. As anyone who has ever been to Grand Cayman will tell you, there are a few things that you must do if you go to Grand Cayman. One is that you must either get some Tourtuga Rum or Rum Cake and you must visit Stingray City. We did both.

We headed out to Stingray City and spent some time walking among the stingrays. I will admit that I had some serious reservations about this concept, so I allowed the others on the boat to get off before me...thinking if they survive...then surely I will too. Fortunately, we all survived.

We then took the boat over to the Coral Gardens for some snorkeling. The water was not as perfect for snorkeling as one would hope do to the overcast sky, but it was still beautiful and a lot of fun. We spent about 2 hours in the water until I was unfortunately, stung by a stray jellyfish tentacle that got my hand and lower lip.

As our day concluded, we headed back to the ship on our little tender (the boat that takes you from the ship to the pier and vice versa). However, we think our driver may have just received his boating license as he almost ran into a couple of other boats before we got off the pier and then did crash into the ship. Again, fortunately, we were all fine and the Carnival Cruise personnel quickly began grabbing ropes to pull the boat to the gangway and get the passengers off the boat.

Our last day on the ship was spent relaxing by the pool and making sure we were sufficiently burnt to show that we really had been on vacation. We got back to Miami and Wil's high school friend, Jason picked us up at the ship and we spent the day with Jason, his wife Lorena and son J.J. We saw some of Ft Lauderdale and heard tales Wil's high school adventures...it's amazing that Wil made it to 35.

Jason and Lorena and Wil at Jaxson's in Ft Lauderdale

Now, we're back home. And while it's always nice to head back home...I've already started looking to see where our next vacation will be.