Tis the season ... sorta

Hi everyone-

Well it has been a very interesting year. Christmas is upon us and while I know that Christ is with us all of the time - this time of year you are reminded about the birth. Well this year I am very mindful about Jesus' birth and what that means but this year the birth of my son and death of my son way heavy on my heart...

So for this I pray that with a new year (the church year starts at the beginning of Advent) the weight on my heart is lessoned.

Peace.

Winter is here

Hi everyone-

Well after the "white" Thanksgiving that we had - today was another snowy day. Maybe this week we will have our first nor'easter...and then maybe not.

Just watching the Mummy Returns -- one of the favorite movies and hanging out.

I have stopped taking the anti-seizure meds -- in conjunction with my doctor's approval. So far so good. My SVT's appear to be more frequent - so now trying to work with the cardiologist some more. We shall see what happens.

Other than that we had a wonderful time this weekend just laying low. This week I need to get working on my Christmas shopping.

Have fun

Being Thankful

Hi everyone --

Well my family has a bunch of things to be thankful for -- my health, my marriage, my family health, my relationship with my God.

Today's grace:

"We are thankful for our family and friends near and far...we are thankful for things which we are provided and things that will be provided for us in the future."

With 2005 coming to an end we hope that 2006 will be much better.

Halloween

Hi everyone-

Three years ago my wife and I moved into a wonderful neighborhood - the first Halloween we had 92 children come buy saying "Trick-or-Treat". This year we are happy to report that while not at 92 the number is 79. But that is up from last years dismal 38. The difference between this year and last year was the weather. It was a lovely evening in New England - not a cloud in the night sky but temperatures hover around 65 degrees. Last year conversly it was misting and 40ish...not so good.

As far as costumes - someone came as a book - but the problem with the book costume while unique the boy's arms where not outside the book. Therefore limiting the ability to choose and gather ones candy. A corpse bride - our neighbor's child very nice costume. And a few medival costumes which where very nice.

All in all a very nice Halloween around our house.

Now if you want a scary event check this out.

The Holter Monitor Test

Hi everyone-



The Holter Monitor test came and went. The last two days I have not been able to take a shower and had to carry around a device the size of a pager to record my heart beats. It was very interesting. I am including a link about the Holter Monitor. But the very interesting this was that they said that there is no pain - sure no pain with the test but when you go to remove the pads for the leads - very painful for a human man with a hairy chest.....can you say ouch.

Should know the results of this test in a couple of days.

Then I have an MRI coming up next week. But Halloween is next bit of fun...can't wait to see how people dressed up this year.

First Frost

Hi everyone-

Well today we had our first frost -- winter 2005/2006 is coming. Soon the mornings will be filled with people plowing their driveways and wondering when all of this "white stuff will ever go away".

Also this year we will be wondering if our bank accounts will be emptied due to the cost of heating our homes.

Comment Spam

Ugh-

I was hit or have been hit for a few weeks now with Comment SPAM. What a pain. So sorry for people placing comments on the blog - they are still anonymous but now you have to play with word verification. So if you need help on how to turn on word verification I have included this with this post.

Blogger Help : What is the word verification option?

Interesting iPod website

Came this along looking for iTunes 6:

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/itunes/index.php

Interesting site.

Update

Hi everyone-

Well we have certainly been doing just fine lately. It is almost like nothing ever happened to me just a month and a day ago. Just in case you haven't been reading the blog for a while I had two grand mal seizures...not the best day I have ever had but certainly not the worst.

Since then I have become the medical mystery of the neurologist that I am seeing - but fun things more tests to come. Heart related tests - nothing big.

Anyway I started to gather all of the hospital information -- MRI and CAT scans have arrived. It was really interesting to look at all of the scans to see what is inside my head - no I can honestly report that it is not a black hole.

But more to the topic at hand. This week has been rather depressing from a weather perspective. Rain. Can I say Rain....wait more Rain.

But last weekend was fun! Saturday is when all of this rain actually started to fall - so Aline and I had a slow day - watching movies and baking a Carrot cake. The carrot cake is for Karla (sister-in-law) which has her birthday party on Sunday in CT. When we go down to CT we took down a bench we got from Wallpole woodworkers for Aline's Mom. The Jeep was filled with people and stuff....it was fun.

Garden Update and Doctors Visits

Hi everyone-

Haven't blogged in a while and some things have happened.

Ryan's Garden is slowly coming to a halt for the winter months. We planted the Kousa dogwood and Con-Colored Fir this weekend. More plants will be coming in from a nursery probably until the end of October but once we get the first ground freezing happening - then we are done. This should happen around the middle of November.

Two more doctors visits have come and gone by without any indication that there is something that could have caused the seizures (my guess is still stress).

Still on the docet is a visit with the vascular neurosurgeon, a holter monitor, a tilt table test, and and an EEG.

So stay tuned.

Kevin

Seizure Disorder - Non Specified

Well that is what they call the diagnosis....people have been asking what they consider my seizures - I consider them a pain in the but. Anyway I seemed to find a website that is very helpful:

http://www.epilepsy.com/

While I have not been diagnosed with epilepsy it has a bunch of helpful information to talk to my doctor about.

Wikipedia Information on Seizure Disorders

Here is the Wikipedia information reguarding seizure disorders....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seizure_disorder

and yes I am not driving for 6 months.....yeah......

Back Home

Hi everyone-

What a rough week. I would like to make sure everyone knows that I am okay. I know that it was a tough week for me and Aline - it was very scary but we made it through it. So after 2 MRI's and 2 CAT scans and a bunch of blood tests nothing was found. Now I can't drive for 6 months ugh!

Well onto the next challenge in life -- actually lets not - lets just lay low.

In the hospital

Well at work yesterday I had seizure -- they rushed me to the hospital only to have another seizure there. So far a bunch have test have not shown much of anything. Stayed tuned.

Thanks a bunch...

....to people who have given flowers to Ryan's Garden. I wanted to make sure I publically thanked everyone who has given so far or will be giving.

The iPods are comming....

....the iPods are comming!

Aline and I have finally made the leap - we are getting a digital music player. After waiting far too long to get one - we are making the leap. Looked at a bunch of different players and decided on the iPod Nano....

Can't wait to play.

Garden Details

Hi everyone-

Well I finally got the slideshow to work -- what a pain. For some reason uploading at the house is not working correctly....strange.

Details:

32' diamter circle -- 16' radius for the wall portion and the stone portion.
240 sq ft of wall
265 sq ft of patio

~700 blocks in the wall
The larger block weighs ~65 lbs
The medium block weighs ~50 lbs
The smaller block weighs ~30 lbs
The cap block weighs in at 72lbs

The bottom coarse that you see which might be half burried on the picture is not the bottom coarse - there is a truely burried coarse.

The bench is facing the direction Ryan is burried.

The patio is a "circle pack". Basically it is all of the neccessary stones needed to make a full circle - in our case we got a single pack and made a half circle. I have no clue how many stones are in the patio....I think I can figure that part out in a few days.

So no onto another project - the garden. Flowers are arriving from many different people. Aline and I would like to thank people for sending parts of their gardens to our garden.

The Garden is done...

Hi everyone-

Ryan's Garden is done. Here is a 360 degree picture of the garden if you stood on the center. I haven't figured out how to piece all of the JPEG images together to get an automated show....can get a still picture but what fun is that.




Here is the before:

Here is the after:

Well Ryan - don't be a stranger - Mommy and Daddy put a lot of effort (and will continue to put effort) into your space. Keep those dragon flys and birds visiting.

Ryan's Garden - Can it be done....

....almost!!!

Yesterday on my Friday off I rented a wet patio brick saw and finished cutting all of the patio block. Returned the patio brick saw. What a day. There was probably only 50 block to cut - not many. I could imagine a more complicated design which would require more cutting. But using the tool was super easy.

Upon return this piece of equipment I had a conversation with the rental guy about cutting through the cap block for the wall. Luckly I brought along with me so he could understand how big and heavy the block is. The block measures 12x16x4 inches and is made out of 5000psi concrete. Doesn't sound like a lot - but weighs 70lbs. There are 42 cap block and all but 2 required cutting. So we ended up buying a blade for this (diamond blade 12") and used this saw:

It is a great saw for cutting through the block. It could have been a little more powerful but all in all it was a great tool - would use it again.

All in all a great two days of work. And I still have all ten fingers.

Aline meanwhile was a real trooper. She has been working on the topsoil, the sand edging, the rock edging and basically all around great person. So what is left. Well sandlock for the patio and some tamping - then truely everything is done. That will happen tomorrow after church.

It has been very hard physically and emotionally - still good therapy. But now with the project ending I need to find something else to do...I wanted this project to go on - yeah I know the gardens and the cleanup will go on - but it is not the same. I'm sure I'll find something.

Google Talk has arrived!!!

The otherwise rumored and talked about feature has arrive from Google -- Google Talk. It is a XMPP protocol compliant chat client. You can download their own client. You must have a gmail account to access this. If you don't have one - they are easy to come by now days.

Works with Trillian Pro -- yeah! It also works with a bunch of other clients -- check this out.