avablog

Arthritis; back, bone, leg, or arm pain; breast pain; constipation; cough; diarrhea; dizziness; headache; hot flashes; flu-like symptoms; flushing; increased sweating; indigestion; infection; joint or muscle pain; loss of appetite; nausea; night sweats; pain; sleeplessness; stomach pain; tiredness; urinary tract infection; vaginal dryness; vomiting; weakness; weight gain or loss.

Well, well, well . . . here’s to the first official month of our fabulous encounter with Femara (generically known as Letrozole). I’ve taken one pill so far and have four more to go in this cycle. I can’t believe I’m actually taking a medication that is not FDA approved for use with fertility (its intended purpose is to treat breast cancer, but it’s been used to treat infertility for about 10 years). Let the infertility madness begin!

It is called avablog, after all.

We’ve taken to calling her “Curly Sue” recently.

We also went to City Park for a picnic and to ride the rides last weekend. My mom snapped this shot of Ava on the carousel:

It occurs to me as I write this that those of you who subscribe to this blog via RSS might not visit when I have consecutive posts with the same title. Unless, I guess, your reader provides the first line of the post. To which I say, “That’s too bad.” Maybe it doesn’t work that way.

It was a great weekend for breaking out the sprinkler and having (all) the neighborhood kids over for a good dousing.

Ava is pictured here in her SPF gear. I don’t know where Leah got this sprinkler; she always manages to come back from her shopping trips with at least a couple things she didn’t plan on getting when she left the house. Judging by the fun had by all with this new gizmo, it was a sage buy.

Well, the week’s ending as it started. Thank goodness it was a short one.

RIP, Harvey. If you never saw him in anything but Blazing Saddles, you still saw more comedic talent than you can find in any film made in the last 10 years. Gosh, this guy was good.

Hedley Lamarr: My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention.
Taggart: Ditto.
Hedley Lamarr: “Ditto?” “Ditto,” you provincial putz?

UPDATE: KCRG coverage
From our facilities manager just now, via e-mail:

Not sure of the facts … but it has been reported a bear has been seen in the Brown Deer Golf course area. Wickham School is in lock down. Will keep you posted as information is shared.

Be careful out there….

You know I can’t let Cindy get away with all the cuteness around here (here = WWW)! GAME ON!

As always, click on the image for a larger version. This kid loves the fountain!

Those wacky Brits:

Miss Langton, 50, had asked a ranger where the steepest cliffs were and was told that there was a vertical drop to the west. After choosing a location she left her daughter, Olivia, 30ft away before jumping.

Moments earlier Ivan Lissin, 22, who was climbing without a helmet, fell 30ft and banged his head before landing in the sea.
….
Sheriff Payne, the coroner for Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset, recorded a verdict of misadventure in the case of Mr Lissin and suicide for Miss Langton.

From Slate.com:

The raw numbers indicate that 50 percent of teenagers aged 15 to 19 have had vaginal sex. Fifty-five percent have had heterosexual oral sex. Are kids substituting oral for vaginal? Nope. Among technical virgins—teens who have never had vaginal sex—23 percent have had oral sex. That number sounds high until you notice that among nonvirgins, the oral-sex figure is 87 percent. If your teenager has had “basic” sex without somebody’s mouth being involved, congratulations. You’re probably the only such household on your block.

I can tell right now — knowing me like I do — that I’m going to have a really difficult time with all this sexual development stuff. See, Greg, this is why I don’t want Ava to be a cheerleader! I can only hope that Leah didn’t pass on her boycrazy gene.

Subtitle: “See you in the emergency room!”
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We had a really nice weekend, culminating in a cookout at the house with friends last evening. I’m on a mission to try to get more pictures of Ava, and I’ve found that a sure way to get her to pose for me is to put her in an outfit she likes. For example:

She doesn’t stand still for long, but I’m getting pretty good at catching her in her rare moments of repose.

Maybe not weird. But a mishmash, at least.

We drove to Burlington yesterday to visit our friends Bob and Judy and to take in the Snake Alley Criterium. What a great race. I have all sorts of pictures here. The vast majority of the pictures are of people riding bikes, but there are a couple of Ava that I really like, too. Por ejemplo:

That’s my girl.

In other news, I was thinking this afternoon about the best movie parents of all time. It’s a great role. One of my favorite pairs is Sarah and Steve Richman from Valley Girl. I also like Katie and Tom Bueller. Oh, and Wendy and Jack Torrance? Too dark? Lester and Carolyn Burnham? Clark and Ellen Griswold? Who do you like? I know I’m missing some good ones.

Leah and I finally got around to watching There Will Be Blood last night. It got me thinking.
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…often appear in public places (pg. 13). WARNING: Link loads 2.53MB PDF (it’s worth it)!

I spent a fair amount of time as a youte lying on the couch in my mother’s basement in front of the TV. The best times were the weekends when Ted Turner was rocking out with The Guns of Navarone or The Quiet Man or Big Jake or The Greatest Show on Earth or Sargeant York. Man. What a great way to kill a couple hours.
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What better way to brighten the mood than to bring Hitler into the mix?

If you haven’t seen Downfall, do yourself a favor. Bruno Ganz is mesmerizing, and I don’t mean that in the usual People-Magazine-movie-review sense, either. More like the Elizabeth-Berkley-in-Showgirls* sense. You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

*Or, if you prefer, the episode of Saved By The Bell when Jessie Myrtle Spano gets hooked on caffeine pills in her quest for academic perfection, the acting in which rivals not only Ganz’s portrayal of the crazed, cornered German dictator, but also Burt Reynolds’ turn in Woody Allen’s Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex.

I’ve been pretty dismayed by some of the interviews with Hillary supporters that’ve made it onto the evening news. I know it’s good modern journalism practice to head into the backwaters of Kentucky to interview some poor woman at a lunch counter about her uneasiness with Obama being a Muslim, and I’d probably dismiss it as sad sensationalism were it not for figures like these, reported today in the Wall Street Journal:

In Kentucky, seven in 10 whites said they voted for Sen. Clinton Tuesday, and just four in 10 said they would vote for Sen. Obama in November if he is the nominee against Sen. McCain.

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…you make chili verde! I put four pork shoulder roasts in the fridge to thaw early last week in preparation for smoking them on the weekend. As luck would have it, there was a vendor selling salsa verde at the farmer’s market Saturday morning, so I grabbed a couple containers and commenced salivating at the thought of it drenching smoked pork as the concoction simmered away in my slow cooker. You should’ve smelled my kitchen last evening. I’m not even joking.
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Leah and I tried a new restaurant on the advice of a friend this past Saturday evening (coincidentally, we ran into said friend when we arrived at the restaurant).
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