Ouch.

My mom broke her arm yesterday morning on her walk. She and her neighbor (who's a nurse) go almost every morning, from their houses on top of the hill down to the bottom and then around their street's loop a couple of times. Here's the email I got:

Well, 2009 is getting off to a somewhat "disarming" start.

Penny and our neighbor went for their morning walk at 6:30 this morning......It was very icy.

Everything went well til about 6:45 when Penny elected to become an Olympic gymnast/figure skater....without skates.

She did a beautiful half-gainer and landed on her left side and shoulder. The neighbor called to tell me she was taking
Penny to the ER in Redmond.

I met them in the ER where Penny was being X-rayed. She was in a great deal of pain. The doc prescribed some pain killers and suggested we meet with another Doc in Bend to determine the best course of action..... We were lucky that the Bend doc could fit us in at 1:00 PM.

The Bend Doc showed us the X-rays and the upper bone that connects to the shoulder joint was definitely fractured and separated. He said it would be best to schedule her for surgery and have a metal plate installed.

We're currently waiting for a call from the scheduling nurse with a date and time.

It is very painful for her to make any movements and she is currently taking a bit of a nap.


Will let you know what happens.

Poor Mom. :(

Happy New Year!

When the clock struck midnight, Cory and I had our new year's kiss and as I looked at him I got a little misty: I realized I'm so excited for this new year. I'm hoping to work more on my crocheting, getting more submissions in to more magazines and books, and making more money at it hopefully (though that was never really the ultimate goal of crochet - the process is so much more fun than the process of depositing a check). We're also at a crossroads in our professional lives, both trying to find new jobs, which means we could move anywhere we want (which we've narrowed down to three areas, all of which are near family). And I'm crossing my fingers that babies are in our '09 plans, once we've got the professional stuff out of the way.

I'm glad that the continuing downturn at work hasn't made my outlook for the future turn down as well. I know my time there is short, but it also puts us into a good situation: one where we're not tied down to any one city. I remember when things were going well and I was worried that I'd have to leave my awesome job to follow Cory once he graduated and found a job. That decision might be made for me, now, and I'm actually happy about it.

Now all there is to do is let that excited momentum carry us forward into actually doing all the things I thought about when I got misty last night. Whee!

Happy New Year, guys.

Party

Cory's graduation party just wrapped up. It was nice - everybody spaced themselves out pretty well, so we were able to entertain everybody relatively easily and I felt like we gave equal attention to everyone. I do wish that people could have stayed a little longer, and that some other people were able to get here and not be sick or get stuck on the other side of the very snowy mountains. He got six bottles of wine! We were left with an empty house by 5, so now we're watching Holiday Inn and relaxing a little.

It still hasn't really set in for both of us that we've now passed over the cusp of a new part of our lives. I think for me it's difficult because I've been so focused on my situation at work (the company is on shady ground at the moment and I could be laid off any day) that I haven't really thought about what the new part of our lives means. There are so many possibilities - from the silly little things like being able to go on vacation without worrying about homework, to finding a new job and a new house in a new city, and starting a family - which is what I'm most excited about.

But first thing's first - finishing crochet projects for Christmas, and getting through another week of choir practice and a bank audit at work. Well, that's second - first is to finish watching Holiday Inn.

Strategic Management

My last final for my life as an undergrad happens in about two hours. The class is Strategic Management, and I really need to focus on Michael Porter's Three Tests for Firm Diversification. But I also know that I need a 52% on this final in order to get a passing grade in the class, so the cost-benefit analysis has me writing a blog post instead. This is one of those classes where I just go through the motions and forget everything as soon as I walk out of the room. Strategic Management, heh. What the deuce does that even mean? Shouldn't I know after studying it for 3 months? Okay, I guess I picked up a couple of tidbits along the way. Writing a few papers and giving a few presentations in class has forced me to gobble up and regurgitate a few items of note. I know about the five forces. I know about support structures and about low-cost versus differentiation. But mostly I know about objectives and goals. I know more about mission statements and vision statements. I know the difference, I suppose, between posturing and what is gut-wrenchingly real.

This is my last term as an undergraduate. It's taken me longer than the average bear to get here. Part of me is still in high school, wondering what the point of college really is. It's just a piece of paper produced by a system that was invented by the man, man: It don't mean nothin. Part of me is still in the future: I have kids and a wife and a house and a job and a fairly happy disposition. College is the glue, in my mind, that holds these two positions together. It is the bridge, the door, the other cliches, that gets me from that cynical kid to the happy adult. So it's taken more than a decade to get there. It's a long bridge, it's a heavy door. Whatever. The point is that I'm done, and I couldn't be happier. Well, that's not true.

Business-speak is funny stuff. "Strategic Management." What is that anyhow? Who talks like that other than pretentious actors in pretentious television shows written by pretentious writers trying to sound less pretentious? I guess my classmates and future colleagues talk like that. I guess I talk like that now. At least, now I have a piece of paper allowing me to talk like that. But what "Strategic Management" really means is something I wish I knew more about a decade ago. It really is just a very weird, publishable way of saying "Watch your step." It is a quasi-academic way of forcing you to sit down and ask, "How long is that bridge? How stable is it? How heavy is that door? When is the right time to open it?" You ask the question today, and again tomorrow, and again next week. You wake up at 2 in the morning on some still night and ask it again with sweat dropping off your brow and your wife breathing slowly next to you. You ask it again when you're feeling stressed at a pumpkin patch on a beautiful October day and you're confused about how best to spend your time. You ask it again when you're putting peppermint sticks on your Christmas tree and putting off studying for your finals. You ask it again when you're studying for your last final of your undergraduate career.

So while I'm studying about Michael Porter and his highly publishable thoughts and considerations, I'm asking myself about this bridge I've crossed. Did I cross it quickly enough? Did I cross it boldly enough? Did I open this door with enough flamboyant gusto? Have I made my entrance into this bold new world with enough zest? I know Megan says Yes, and I know she says it with all her heart. I'm not sure what I think about it yet. Here is where Strategic Management comes in, though: The bridge continues on and the portal is guarded by a revolving door. The process continues, and it must, because I don't have the kids and the house and the dog that I want yet. What I have is a piece of paper and an ability to more accurately judge my position in my life, and my placement in this world, and the dreams and goals I have, and the methods I have to retrieve them.

My last final for my life as an undergrad happens in about two hours, and I am finally ready.

Thanksgiving

Megan and I are now enjoying a relaxing evening at Curt and Bonnie's pad. Curt and Meg are making pumpkin pie and egg nog, respectively. Earlier, I helped Curt get some shampoo. Meg is supposed to cut away some of his Gumby-like hairdo. That should be fun.

Just a couple more weeks of classes and then I will have a degree, a wall to put it on, and hopefully, some money to pay for the wall. Gotta get me a job. Frankly, the job would be better than the degree. Wait, why am I in school? Oh yeah. The circle of life.

I'm working on a project for programming. I'm working on a project for government accounting. I'm working on a project for strategic management. All these things are due next week. Sheesh. Not much room for loving turkeys and all that. But priorities aside, I hope to watch the Seahawks play Dallas tomorrow. And by "play" I mean "lose horribly to." Man oh man, not a good season this year.

Let's see. What am I thankful for? I'm thankful for my family, of course. Mostly the wife who puts up with my fingers in her nose. But also for my sister who needs to get cured, and her family who supports her. Also for Mom who's put up with all sorts of kids' fingers in kids' noses for years. Also, I'm thankful for the other one. What's his name? Oh yeah. Joel. Joel, who should come up to Oregon to celebrate the fascinating occurrence we call "weather." I'm also thankful for accounting, as strange as that sounds. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and I wanna be sure to classify it as a current asset. Or a long-term liability. We'll see where that goes. Speaking of which, I'm thankful for my dad who had a pretty swinging Thanksgiving last year. In fact, it was a year ago that we saw Taj Mahal at a swinging bar in Seattle. That was a pretty cool Thanksgiving.

But back to this year. Blast it, I got no more words. The house smells of cinnamon and nog. I hope your turkey is warm and your hearts warmer.

Pumpkining

Last weekend we took advantage of the nice weather as well as the promise of a couple of free pumpkins and went down to our Community Sponsored Agriculture farm for an hour or two. Gathering Together Farm is just south of Philomath, which is just southwest of where we live. It's super close to downtown Philomath but still feels like you're out in the country somewhere. GTF has a very nice little stand and restaurant area which is out underneath a covered porch. We have yet to eat there and I believe their offered meals are winding down for the season, so maybe next year.



We had the option to take the hayride out to the patch, but we opted to walk down the dirt path instead. We met goats and chickens on our way, and peeked into greenhouses and saw tomatoes and peppers growing. The trees hadn't quite gotten to their peak in terms of color, but they were awfully pretty anyway, especially the large stand of birches at the alpaca farm across the street.



We left the stand for the patch at the same time that the hayride did, so by the time we got to the pumpkins the hayriders were in the midst of choosing their gourds. I loved the look of this little patch - it was like a tiny clearing in the trees, and looked almost wild. In some patches the farmhands clear away most of the vines and cut the pumpkins off so that all you have to do is pick it up and tote it home, but here they provided clippers to us and we walked on the huge leaves to keep from getting our shoes too muddy. We ended up using our keys to saw through the vines of our pumpkins.



We walked back again, and said hello to the pigs in the pigpen by the stand. (In their newsletter two days later they said they slaughtered one of them a few hours after we were there - poor piggy!) Back up on the porch, we each had a glass of apple cider and a cinnamon-sugar potato doughnut, and then headed for home.

Tuesdays with Brokaw

The only thing I like more than presidential debates on Tuesday evenings is FactCheck.org on Wednesday mornings.

[Pause to remember HTML and insert hrefs.]

You know, now that I've had some time to think about it, I really like quite a few things more than either of those. I like rivers and I like a full moon. I like chocolate syrup on a spoon. I like a fairly funny cartoon. Speaking of cartoons, my new favorite is Order of the Stick. I'm no DnD (that's nerdspeak for Dungeons and Dragons, a game nerds play) nerd, but I get most of the jokes in this simple comic about a guild making its way through a dungeon. It's pretty good storytelling, with a touch of self-reference which I almost always enjoy.

But that's neither here nor there when the economy is in the toilet and we're electing the next guy to wave a lit match and say "I didn't do it." Ok, that's a cynical point of view. Thankfully, we have the presidential debates to let us forget about this country's problems and focus on petty differences between candidates who espouse mistruths in order to make the other guy look bad in order to make the accuser look good in order to prop him up as an example of American integrity. Bah. More cynicism.

I really enjoyed the VP debates last week. I was partly waiting for an infamous gaffe by either of the number twos. It was going to be my "Where were you when...?" moment of 2008. Now I guess I'll wait for something else. Snow on Mars? Meh. How about GnR releasing Chinese Democracy? Heh. Anyhow, I thought Biden was bland and Palin was a bit too winky. Seriously, if she winks at the camera one more time I'm going to vote for Obama. Really, I'm voting for Obama no matter what she does, but don't tell her that. Just, no more winking, kay?

So tonight I'm going to watch the next debate and have a good time. Oh yeah, when I was waiting for the veep debate to begin, and CNN told me that there was 15 minutes until they showed up on stage, I got a little flutter in my stomach. That's sick.