Excuses, excuses!!!

Look what I found, this was supposed to be published on September 20th 2012.  Better late than never.



On January 11, I made a promise to update the blog on a regular basis.  Well here it is nine months later.  At my age being "regular" has a different meaning, but here we go on another catch up post.
We cruised again out of Galveston with our good friends, The Calonico's, Huckins', & Kennedy's.  All of our rooms were on the same deck with the exception of Debbie and Richard Huckins, who because of HIS cheapness were on Deck one.  This is just below the waterline so they were entertained by various aquatic life while the rest of us had to tough it out drinking cocktails on our balconies.  Unfortunately there were very few "good" stories to share but one comes to mind.  We were on one of the Islands and "The Madge" was exiting one of the thirty jewelry shops she visited, she then asked me to join her in a perfume shop.  While watching her buy things she insisted that I purchase some men's cologne, $190 later I had two scents that she liked.  After arriving back home I, out of curiosity, looked up the prices on Amazon, price of the two bottles were $42.00.  So much for the duty free, good deal Caribbean purchases.

 Beers is Mexico, with Joe Kennedy wearing his favorite hat

 

 It's a good thing Joe doesn't nap during the day.  According to Joe!!!

 It's hard to tell whether Richard is sleeping, engrossed in the music or just his normal look

 

 Mr. Cheapo himself with his wife Debbie, besides having bunk beds, below the waterline, next to the engine room, he makes her share the Ipod

 

 Semi dress up dinner, notice the absence of the Huckins, Richard didn't bring a sport coat because he couldn't fit it in his room.

 

  Kathy Calonico & Joe Kennedy.  I think Joe just noticed that Dave Calonico is drinking from The Kennedy" wine bottle.

"The Madge"

Some pictures of  friends and family who visited us or in the case of Erin & Brad it was our trip to Frisco Texas.

 Caden enjoying his Easter Bloody Mary at the Starwood Hotel in Frisco.

 Erin, Brad & Caden at the Starwood.  Instead of Erin having Easter dinner at her house she decided to have it at the Starwood Resort.  Good choice and a lot cheaper for her, not me.

Maeve - her first trip to Texas

"The Madge" and my sister Pat on her second trip to Texas since 1974

Sean and Maeve back in CT.  Do you think they would rather be in our pool?

Caden visiting us over the Fourth of July

All our girls getting together to donate their hair for cancer patients, except Erin of course.

The Cousins Sean and Caden

Vicki Hopper & "The Madge"

Steve Pankey and Vicki Hopper

Maeve and Colleen's son Dexter share the cage

The American Way

A few days ago "The Madge" asked me to go online and get her a Continental Airline credit card, it costs $95 per year BUT she wouldn't be charged for her luggage. After several attempts to apply online with the special promotional code I was locked out of the website. She then asked me to call the special number. The person on the other end of the phone was extremely nice and told me that the person who is applying must be on the phone. This made perfect sense to me so I handed her over to "The Madge". After answering several obvious questions like name, date of birth, social security number, etc. etc. the fun was about to start. "You want my income?". I made believe I didn't hear her. "Source of income? Well I get about $900 per month from Social Security". "Occupation? I'm a Retired Homemaker." Doesn't she still have that job? I kept my mouth shut and within five minutes she was approved and established a line of credit. I couldn't believe it and when she left the room I went online to get the free credit rating reports for myself and "The Madge". Her rating was 36 points higher than mine, my report said I didn't have sufficient revolving accounts. Sufficient? I don't have any revolving credit cards, all I have is Amex which is paid off each month. I thought having zero debt, numerous assets and a decent source of income was the way it should be, I guess being a "retired" homemaker making $10,800 per year is the answer.

Bye Bye Coagulation

Because of this recent discovery of the Pulmonary Embolism the doctors prescribed a Venous Doppler scan or in human talk - look for other clots using ultrasound. They found two clots in my right leg and suggested I go to the Lymphedema Clinic, what they do there is push excess liquid out of your extremities and perform MLD. Off I go to the clinic, they scheduled daily visits for three weeks, each visit to last 3 to 4 hours. No problem, I can do this, besides getting an occasional haircut I have all the time in the world. The first thing that I notice is that the staff is all black, not a big deal but we aren't talking about professional looking people. Lots of funny hairdos, strange colored nail polish with decals on the nails, interesting visible body piercings and enough jewelry, that if real a holdup would put the thief on easy street for life. Again, I can live with this, but here is where it ends. Their language is not English but dems, dats, dos and Eyes axed him fur dat. I am constantly saying "Excuse me" or "Pardon me", it's really difficult to have a normal dialogue with the staff.
I previously mentioned MLD or Manual Lymph Drainage, this is a "slow rhythmical massage technique which opens alternate lymph vessels and prepares them to accept addititonal lymph fluid from the affected limb". See the diagram below to show you the locations of your lymph glands Please pay particular close attention to the Inguinal nodes. It went something like this "Ken ya take ya pants off?" I answered no. "Well tomorrow eyes like ya to wear shorts so eyes can get to da nodes mo easier" I replied "You have to be kidding me, it was 29 degrees this morning and you want me to wear shorts?". We did manage to compromise on this subject and she now "duz on top of da pants massage but day gotta be thin material". During one of our conversations I asked what training is necessary to qualify as a "MLD specialist", she replied "skoolin". "How long did you attend school?" She said "a week at da tech skool and now its on the job training". I felt so much better knowing that I am in the hands of an experienced professional.

Let's Try This Again

After hearing numerous complaints about not updating this blog, I will attempt to get everyone up to speed on what's happening with myself and "The Madge".

Since my last posting a few things have happened. The both of us have lost three good friends, words can not express the sadness we felt with their passing however we are blessed with the memories of friendship and love that these friends have given us;

Matt Warren -


Marina Kenney -

Cooper -

On to the Children

Allison - Allison and husband Henry are living in Eastchester, NY. Henry is working at Fordham University and attending classes in pursuit of his Doctorate, which should be competed within the next two years. He recently became a member of Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, which gives him a slight edge over his father in law who was a member of Tapa New Keg. Allison recently lost her job and was unemployed for less than a day. She is now working in "The Big Apple" and has to put up with commuting by train. It's amazing that people complain that they can not find work and subsequently collect unemployment for a few years, get off your lazy butts and get a job. Found an old picture of the two of them, see if you can see any changes.

Meaghan - Meg still resides in Trumbull, CT and presented us with a new grandchild, Maeve Elizabeth. Meg insists that Maeve looks different from brother Sean but take a look at the following. Sean's on the left or is it the right?

I think the only difference is behind the diaper. Here's a few pictures of Maeve.

Erin - 100% cured of breast cancer, and has gotten very involved with the Susan G Komen organization. She and Colleen flew to Chicago to participate in a three day 60 mile walk plus Erin volunteers for other events in the Dallas area. She also presented us with a new family member, no not a grandchild but a grandpuppy. They still have Riley, the golden doodle, who is as obedient as a rattlesnake and now they have a poop eating, non housebroken, parasite infested mutt named Buddy.

Colleen - Still with Shell and remains in New Jersey, we are detecting a change in her accent but she hasn't surprised us with dropping an "F" bomb yet. A few more years on the east coast then it's off to greener pastures. She too has presented us with a new addition, another grandpuppy. They named him "Dexter", this name is after the TV character Dexter, who is a forensics expert that moonlights as a serial killer. Nice, real nice.
Not too much excitement here with the exception Christmas. The plans were; Allison and Henry fly into Houston and the four of us drive to Frisco where we would meet up with Meaghan, and Colleen. This should work out fine, well the day before we were to leave I told "The Madge" that I didn't feel that well and would she mind if I skipped going. Okay I DID get some flack but in the end she agreed. So Cooper and myself stayed home to celebrate Christmas. The next day I really felt bad and ached all over to the point that I slept in a chair at the kitchen table with three pillows to make it more comfortable. "The Madge" insisted that I go to the Doctor however due to the holidays I could not get in to see him until the 27th. The morning of the 27th I was REALLY bad, besides the aches and pains it was very very very hard to breath. They took blood and did a CAT scan. Now the fun part, he walks in my room and says I have some bad news and worse news. You have pneumonia. I asked "Then what's the bad news?". He responded "No that's the bad news and the worse news is you have a pulmonary embolism in your lung". Now I had no idea what that meant so I asked what do I take for it. He said "If it was anyone else but you I would have EMS over here and take you to the hospital but because it's you I want you to go right over to the emergency room and check yourself in". Still not knowing the severity of this I asked if I could go home first and feed Cooper, the poor dog is three hours overdue for his lunch. The Doc told me to get my butt over to the hospital. When I got in my car I called Dallas and told "The Madge" the news and asked her to call a neighbor to feed Cooper. Cooper was fed by our good friend Kathy Calonico, "The Madge" got the first flight out of Dallas and before I was in my hospital room both she and Kathy were by my side. Fast forward - Allison and Henry drove back to Houston and two and a half days later I was discharged. I found out while in the hospital that this was serious, heck I might not have seen 2012. No matter how serious this was, it didn't prevent "The Madge" from asking if we could go out to dinner, and that was the day I got home from the hospital. Yes it was a good meal.

Now pictures from last year:

Brad, Erin and Caden in New York City

Caden and Erin ready to travel to the North Pole from Frisco Texas

Nephew Chris, bald Erin and niece Cathy

Laplander Sean

Little Maeve and her Mickey Mouse looking hat

Caden kicking a soccer ball, he really gets into it and does display excellent form

Cooper watching after Caden

Newborn Maeve

Sean getting ready for trick and treating in CT

Caden trying out his new putter

Erin resting in her pink tent at the Susan G Komen Chicago walk

Maeve

Caden and Pops

Caden and Grandpa David fishing

Mimi (The Madge) teaching Caden how to sing. This is the blind leading the blind.

Caden, Maeve and Sean our three Grandchildren

Maeve's Halloween costume

Some of the family at Colleen and Mark's crawfish boil party IN NEW JERSEY, Huh??

"The Madge's" much older sisters Eileen and Mary

Maeve and Aunt Erin(with short curly hair)

Sean, Maeve and Caden

Caden and "The Madge"

My sister Pat (older than me), husband Dick and son Richard

All the Murphy girls and their husbands

My niece Cathy with two of her children Ryan and Casey

Sean, Caden and Santa

Our friend Pat Orsini paid us a visit and is showing me how to handle the illegals from entering.

Caden looks so grown up