February 01 W-2
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February 01 W-2
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Monday February 5, 2001Christy has two appointments today, one for an ultrasound to check out some stuff she is fine, and another , at 20:30 tonight for an MRI on her brain, it's a follow-up to the dizzy spells she had last year... I didn't do much today... picked up kids... dropped off kids... took kids this way and then I took them that way... I need to see a good movie... I did my walk today... I will see if I can do it every day this week...(saying things like that is usually the kiss of death) Talked to Rob (Christy's oldest boy) he flew down from Seattle, he is with his boss/buddy in Corona getting ready to "do a meeting" at Moon Crescent a High tech movie studio... This is Rob's company... (go to the "FLASH SITE") "http://www.visualelementsusa.com/" I sure hope it works out for him... Mike went to his friend's house, Yesidro (sp) He lives at a ranch... his family works there... they take care of about 150 horses, Paso Fino and Arabian... looks like some Quarter-horse's there too. I got there and the gate was locked... huge dogs... Yesidro lives about an 1/8th of a mile back... I was not happy... I am too old to be leaping over 5' fences and making friends with guard dogs... damn... luckily they were just noisemakers and not real guard dogs... Sue sent me the Recipe for my grandmothers chocolate cake... I guarantee it... it's a light brown, not too rich, not too anything just right chocolate cake... Grandma's Chocolate Cake 4 eggs, separated 2 c sugar 1/2 c butter (melted) 1 c milk 2 c flour 1 t cream of tartar 1/2 t soda 2 squares unsweetened chocolate (melted with butter) 1 t vanilla (mom never specified an amount but I use 1 t) 1/2 t salt ( ditto) I beat the whites first and set them aside while I put everything else together. Mom always thought I should wait till the end to beat them, but I always have good luck this way. Cream the egg yolks and sugar. Add the flour alternately with milk. Add the melted chocolate and butter. Fold in egg whites. Bake at 350 for 3/4 of an hour. Note: Mom always baked this in a pan smaller than 9 X 13. I bake it in a glass pan at 325 for 50 minutes. Mom put nuts on the top. Her mother (Mama) apparently made this cake with cake flour in round cake pans and it had a much different texture, ie "personality". I figure, why mess with success. ENJOY! Sue (Thanks Sue) Tuesday February 6, 2001 I took Autumn to Therapy... it's not the right day but the girls (therapists) have a meeting tomorrow... Autumn did well, I went to McD's and also picked up Monica's medicine... Monica has her skin infection again... damn... poor little kid, she itches all the time and scratches herself till she bleeds, She won't tell us when she is itchy because she doesn't like the taste of her medicine... stubborn little imp. We have a huge pile of medicine for her... lotions, salves, liquids, pills, ointments...the only thing that really worked was two different types of medicated ointments one for her body one for her face and then covering that up with Vaseline every night...Her skin is beautiful when it is cleared up but there are parts of her that are just scar-tissue from her scratching. I got Autumn to school a little early and we walked to the play yard... I took her in and left her in her walker... I walked over to put her bag away and heard her start to laugh and heard the rattle of her walker being pushed lickity split... I threw her bag and took off after her... she was laughing so hard and running so fast she was out the gate before I could catch her... I went to the supplemental IEP for Autumn at 14:30, it was just to cover her Adaptive Physical Education plan... she is doing well... much more independent and mobile than she was at the beginning of the year... she is really walking well, she is negotiating obstacles without falling, she can get up off the floor, she can bend over and pick things up, she can jump if you hold her hand, she can throw a ten inch ball two handed over her head consistently... Wednesday February 7, 2001 Today is not panning out so hot... literally... it was 84 degrees here on Monday and it is now 26... with snow... crazy weather. Coldest day of the year and, yup, you guessed it... We ran out of propane ... Then, Christy came home and tried to heat something in the microwave and it just sort of groaned and quit. I tried it again and nothing... I went out to the circuit breaker and the breaker was tripped I reset it and went in the house and the microwave was still off... a little further investigating showed that the whole back side of the house wad dead... I checked the breakers... they looked OK... I called a couple local electricians and left messages... they never called back... I called a number in Palmdale and reached an outfit in Valencia... she said it sounded like I had lost a Phase... I called Edison and they told me to flip off all the circuit breakers then to shut off the main circuit... I shutdown all the PC's and the satellite receivers and did all that ... nada. I called them back... they said that they would have someone out here in the morning. I called an electrician just in case. The propane guy came and filled us up but it doesn't matter, there is no power to the furnace... damn. Christy has a job as Antelope Valley College Community - Foster Care Liaison for the Antelope Valley... she's going to have to staple about three business cards together to fit that title. Thursday February 8, 2001 Edison guy came out about 0900, he was a real nice fella but he couldn't help... the power was coming to the house just fine.... I called an electrician and he got to the house about 13:00 we played around and the power came back... before it did he discovered that the neutral wire had gone open... we don't know what we did to close the circuit back up so he suggested we pay him $325 to wire around the two leads that may have been bad... I said sure... about that time we made the discovery that the furnace wasn't working. We called Sears... the Sears truck got up here about 15:30 he found that both transformers were blown... when the neutral lead went open it put 220 volts on the transformers and fried them... the furnace was under warrantee so that was cool. I don't like being in situations I have no control over... the electricity and the furnace were outside my realm of expertise... About this time it dawned on me it was ROF night, I was tired because I hadn't slept very good last night and wasn't real thrilled about going... but I really needed to get out even for just a couple hours... I had a good time at the ROF... only seven of us but it's nice to just sit and talk about something besides the day to day insanity of my little world. Friday February 9, 2001 The electricians arrived about 0945, I was in Lancaster with Autumn... Jean had called with the news she was on Jury Duty so all Autumn got today was a half hour with Myra... the electricians were finishing up when I got back home with Autumn, I had to change her cloths because she had messed them up with her breakfast... Christy took her to school and went to run errands. I stayed home and played with the computer till I got a call from Lumpy... his Asthma was giving him trouble so I took him his inhaler.. I got the mail and since it was about time to pick up the kids I just went over to Meadowlark School and waited... Picking up Autumn is one of the bright spots of my day... She sees me and smiles real big and runs to me in her walker... She is really special... she had a pretty good day... she was chastised for laughing in speech therapy... sometimes when she get to laughing she just gets silly... We are told there is a storm coming in... it could get interesting... it is really cold up here so if it's a serious storm we will get some snow... I took Mike over to his buddy Austin's house... they'll play video games all night... I watched "The Art of War" with Wesley Snipes... it was OK... Wesley needs a better choreographer for his Kung Fu sequences but other than that it was a pretty good movie. Saturday February 10, 2001 We got a little snow today, not nearly "One of the years major storms" that was advertised yesterday... they want the weather to be NEWS so bad... if there is a storm the first thing they want to know is; "Was anybody killed?" if someone dies then it's a "KILLER STORM" if there is only minor damage and no one is injured then chances are it won't make it to the evening news.I have another tooth going bad... hurts like the blazes...I believe I'm going to lose it... Going to look like a Hockey Player... of all the things I regret in my life, not taking better care of my teeth is right up there with my first marriage... damn...I watched an XFL Football game... I actually enjoyed the game... I like the rules... it's an exciting game... finesse isn't as big a deal... I really could do with out all the Pro-Wrestling type hype... it's silly... it demeans what those kids are doing on the field...it was a pretty good game...Sunday February 11, 2001
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My Grandson Keagan's Party was in Simi Valley... it was a cool and rainy day... 
the kids had a lot of fun. Debbie and the lady that owned the house where the party was held put in a lot of work... I felt a bit out of place... it's my problem, I just have a hard time relating to that bunch, it is Young, Suburban, they have different priorities and motivations... they were just folks but on a different wavelength than I... a different plane, I forgot how image conscious and shallow young people can be 
