People tend to get stir crazy, when they are sick and it is too cold spend any sort of quality time out doors. We do, anyway. Saturday, it was barely in the double digits outside, and it felt even colder because of the wind. Reagan had an appt on the UWS early in the afternoon. I decided to pick her up afterward, so that I could say I had been out of the house, hahaha. When we were trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the evening, I came up with this kind of corny idea about making some miniature ppl and photographing them. There were a few things that I have seen recently that gave me the idea. There was this thing that I saw on Boing Boing. There was also a thing that I saw on a blog kept by some of our acquaintances from Harlem. Finally, let’s not forget this Seth Green-esque weirdness.

So, we stopped by the Michael’s on the UWS and picked up some FIMO, then picked up some burritos at Ch#$%$, and headed home. Kelly, I would like you to know that per your fine fine suggestion, I have now added a burrito tag and category.

We made various little models, so that we could have a few options of scenarios, to shoot.

By the time that we finished building all of the little guys, and baking them in the oven, we were kind of running out of energy to get really fancy with the photos. But, we did have a lot of fun with the underwater scenario (shot in the fish tank). Reagan suspended a little scuba diver and mermaid from some of her hair. Yes, she tied one of her hairs around them (her idea [an awesome one]). Hahahaha. The baby convicts and the gold fish were the funniest part about it. They were so incredibly curious about what was going on, that they are in just about every shot. Look how curious the little convicts are in the shot below, when Reagan first dropped in the mermaid.

Ok, so here is the real ripoff. Our friend Zach always puts together these awesome time-lapse videos of stuff that they do. I have been super curious to try my hand at making one, for a while. I didn’t get very fancy, like he does, with the music and everything. But, if you want to see my first crack at a time-lapse video, click play below, to watch Reagan and I building little Fimo guys.

If you want to check out a few more photos of the Fimo ppl and some other randomness, click through here.

We were able to see Piper in real life, this morning, for the first time in over a week. She definitely looked like she is doing better. It was tough for us to get a real sense of how she is feeling though, since she slept during the entire time that we were there. Her nurse said that she thinks Piper has her days and nights mixed up. I don’t blame you, lil’ Pip. If I had been drugged into a coma like they had you, I probably would have a lot more than my days and nights mixed up. Even though we were kind of bummed that we couldn’t see her awake, it was really really nice to see her, at all.

Reagan and I still aren’t feeling 100% better. But we just threw on some face masks and called it “good enough.” Although, Reagan wouldn’t wear her’s over her nose– hahaha.

Piper’s A-line is now out. So, the only remaining inter venous line is her center line. She is still getting a pretty stiff cocktail of meds through it, but in each case the dose is much smaller. Her nurse also told us that they are going to try to get her completely off of the nitric this week, as well as the morphine. She didn’t say anything about the NG tube (the one going into her nose), but hopefully that will be coming out soon, too. I’m sure that it drives Piper completely crazy. Such a tough little girl.

Today marks three years of marriage for Reagan and myself. In these short three years, it has already been a pretty crazy ride. I don’t mean that in a negative way, at all. When I say crazy, I’m referring mostly to the things that have come our way that have been out of our control. It has also been a crazy-good three years. I’m so glad that we tied the knot. Happy anniversary, Reag!!

I thought about just putting in a stock photo of Piper, for this post. But, Reagan and I are still just having to use our imaginations to guess what she looks like, right now. So, I guess everyone else will too.

Yes, Reagan and I have still been too sick to be allowed into the ICU. We are both starting to feel a lot better, though. What is more important, is that, apparently so is Piper.

From what we have been told, she has still been back and forth on her vent settings. But, there has been a general trend in the right direction. The doctors have also been coming down on the nitric, as well as most of her other (non-daily) meds. Apparently Piper was pretty rowdy last night. Her doctors interpreted this to be most likely caused by withdrawals from the morphine. As a result, they are giving her a bit of extra methadone to help her cope.

She still has her A-line and C-line, but that didn’t stop her nurse from ordering some physical and occupational therapy for Piper. That makes me super, super happy. If Piper is well enough to goof off with therapists, and possibly start getting back to practicing sitting/standing, then she is definitely making strides.

We also learned today that she has already successfully been referred back to Blythedale, and will be going back there when she has recovered enough to safely move. As for lining up new long term care, it is all still in the works. I’m finding it to be a bit like how I would imagine herding cats while trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. I mean, I know that social workers are busy people. But, then, so are we.

To be completely honest, I don’t have any complaints, right now– Only gratitude. Our little family has been so incredibly blessed, throughout this entire ordeal, in both tangible and metaphysical ways. All I can say is: Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of those who have been kind enough to keep Piper in their thoughts and prayers over the past several weeks. As she has done so many times in the past, Piper has made it pretty apparent to me, that there is someone out there listening to those thoughts and prayers.

After the blizzard from this morning blew over, it ended up being kind of a beautiful sunny day. I loved the way that the sunset was lighting up the clouds, and decided to get a couple of shots, since I had my cam with me. I decided to take a stroll down to the promenade and get some shots from water-level, since the last few sunset pics that I have taken, have been through dirty windows. I thought that it would be a good chance to get some sharp images. But, since wind was blowing about 1 million miles per hour, sea spray was blowing up all over the front of the lens. Oh well, I was pretty happy about the way these shots came out.

Since Piper has been back at Columbia, I have been back to the old car moving routine. I have not enjoyed it. I normally get up at 6, so that I can get it done before there is any real traffic. The sweet spot is between 6 and 7. After 7, there is a garbage truck and a school bus blocking every single street in our neighborhood.

This morning, Reagan woke me up, while she was stirring around. I had one of those sudden moments of panic, like I knew I shouldn’t still be asleep. I had forgotten to take my phone off of silent, and the type of alarm that I had set for moving the car, doesn’t make any noise, when my phone is on silent. It was already 7. I got down stairs just in time for the blizzard to start, and in time to get stuck behind every school bus and garbage truck in our neighborhood, at least once. Hahahaha. I’m ok with that though, because the snow was very pretty and entertaining to watch, while taking breaks from watching the dudes toss garbage into the truck.

At long last, I did find a parking spot in time to make it down to work w/o being late, where I took the above photos of the storm. I know they are kind of boring. I liked these ones much more.

To add a little bit of contrast to the gray photos above, I thought I would post the image below. It has made its way around the internet by now, but I thought it was cool enough to share again anyway.

The image comes from artist Steven Worley’s blog. In his post, he outlines the history of Crayola’s color spectrum, and how the palette has expanded over the years, saying:

Crayola’s crayon chronology tracks their standard box, from its humble eight color beginnings in 1903 to the present day’s 120-count lineup.  According to Crayola, of the precious crayons of my childhood – the seventy-two colors from the official 1975 set – sixty-one survive.

So cool.

YAPFMDC=”yet another photo from my desk chair.” Yes, that was the best I could come up with, tonight. Apple drops an iPad, I serve up this. I haven’t been feeling particularly creative or motivated for the last couple of days. So, there it is.

Reagan and I are both still too sick to see Piper, which is a total bummer. Of course she is comatose for days, when we are at her bedside the entire time. Then as soon as she starts to make some progress, we are both out of commission. I know it sounds like I’m complaining. But I promise, I’m not. From my discussions with Piper’s nurse, she did have some problems during the night with her saturation, but was doing better again in the morning. She is now conscious for extended periods of time, and apparently not getting too upset about it. They have given her enough slack in her restraints, so that she can poke her own face, which I’m sure she is pleased with. I’m really really really hoping that at least one of us is over this bug convincingly enough , that we can pay a personal visit Thursday.

In other news– there are some very important dates coming up. First of all: Sunday is the third anniversary of Reagan and I making nuptials. Hehehe, is there really any nerdier way to write that? Doubt it. Thennnnnaaaahhhhh: Next Thursday is Reagan’s B-day!!!!!

Although Reagan and I have both been too sick for the past couple of days to see Piper in person, we received a pretty optimistic report from her nurse today. She told us that Piper has been able to come down a bit more on her vent settings, despite the fact that she is no longer on the paralytic. In addition to the improvement of the vent settings, Piper’s nurse reported that the X-ray appears to be looking better. This was pretty huge news for us. We are hoping like crazy to be well enough tomorrow to pay a visit.

One day when I was about 10 years old or so, I asked my older brother, who had a pretty extensive collection of music, if I could borrow a couple CDs. I was looking for something besides my usual suspects: symphonic rock, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Chipmunks.

One of the CDs he gave me was The Specials: Specials.

The Specials original line-up had actually broken up the year before I was born, and to this date have not played together in their entirety, although many of the original members have formed and re-formed many times in many combinations over the last 30 years to put out an occasional album or play on tour here and there. I remember a concert for the Special Beat being advertised by KJQ. According to the house rules, I wasn’t old enough to go.

That is pretty much where it all started. Since the first time, The Specials have always been music that I could get down to. In San Diego, some of the local radio stations play “A Message to You, Rudy” a couple times a day. It is my all time favorite “on the way home from a 10 hour day in the work truck and stuck in traffic because it took us too long to get the job done” song. Sometimes during my shifts at Starbucks, I get to listen to some of my old time favorites: “Monkey Man,” “Nelson Mandela,” “Ghost Town,” and even their version of “Pressure Drop,” as they have made it onto official “hear music” play list.

However, none of the aforementioned songs were ones that I would listen to on repeat in my room for hours at a time while reading or playing videos games or whatever. “Doesn’t Make It Alright” was.

To my brother, I say: thanks for sharing.

To everybody else, I say: enjoy.

Click to Play———–> “Doesn’t Make It Alright”

In spite of high hopes coming into the weekend, it turned out to be kind of a bust. Reagan and I weren’t feeling super well on Saturday morning, so we scrapped the plan to pick up Piper’s stuff in Jersey, and instead, headed straight to the hospital. By Saturday evening it was pretty apparent that we were both coming down with some sort of ailment.

I spent the entire day, Sunday laid up in bed. Reagan toughed it out and made the trip to church. For her reward, she is feeling even worse today. Neither of us went into work today. I have been logged in from home, trying to get some stuff done. But it has been slow going, since my head is still so cloudy.

Staying home wasn’t a hard decision to make, when we woke up to sideways rain pelting against the window. As nasty as the weather was today, it certainly did make for a cozy sick day. Late in the afternoon, the clouds broke for a minute and I ventured out to move the car (which is when I shot the image above). Hopefully those clouds will take our illness along with them, on their way out of town.

The worst part of this ordeal, of course, is not being able to see Piper. From the nurse’s report, this morning, it seems as though she may have made some progress during the night. They were able to come down on her ventilator settings a bit. Last time she was totally paralyzed they were able to make the same progress. The real test will be, if she can maintain those settings when they back off the sedatives. Fingers crossed. We miss you Piper!