The Dynamic Duo

This Was My Weekend

UltraMom — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:59:01 +0900

Saturday, Oct 17th. All in all, today was a good day. I slept in a little, showered, breakfasted and took the ‘boys’ on a little walk preparatory to leaving them home alone for the better part of the day. Then I donned shorts, pink-tie-dyed shirt and red shoes and set out for the City Park in Elko, the site of the Susan G. Komen ‘for the cure’ breast cancer walk. I joined up with 6 fellow first-year nursing students: Bri, Steph, Janice, Janene, Kathleen and Chuck (also his adorable wife, Carrie.) Somewhere Janene obtained a can of spray paint with the result that all of us but Chuck ended up with pink tie-dyed hair to match our shirts. When I spied the three second-years, each leashing a large canine (one was a large, gray mottled Great Dane!) wished I’d brought Rowdy and Murphy along. Carrie and Chuck did run home to fetch Barley, their beautiful and well-behaved Golden Retriever. The park was a sea of pink with all manner of unique costumes and running/walking gear. I wore an “In Memory of” safety pinned to the back of my shirt with Mommy’s name on it, and Bri wore a “Survivor” as a tribute to her recently diagnosed Grandmother. We also had the opportunity to write their names on helium balloons that we later released en masse; a spectacular site. There were bands, singing and several moving mini-speeches from Breast Cancer survivors. After group photos, we were off, following a pre-designated route through town. We were encouraged by a group of young cheerleaders, hydrated by volunteers handing out water and refreshed as we crossed through the balloon arches after our 5 K jaunt by offerings of water and fresh fruit. Afterwards, the first-years agreed to meet for lunch at a local restaurant, where I had a bowl of delicious corn chowder.

Back Row: UltraMom, Janice, Steph, Chuck, Kathleen, Carrie, and Ashley (a second-year)
Front Row: Two second years with dogs (I don’t know their names), Janene, and Bri, who tie-dyed my shirt for me.

Meanwhile, I had further plans for the afternoon. A couple of days ago, I had heard a radio advertisement for a local theater production of The Wizard of Oz. I called my friend, Debbie A. to see if she wanted to attend the matinee performance with me. She did on one condition; due to pain meds taken for a painful tooth removal she wouldn’t be doing any driving. So after lunch, I flew back to Carlin, let the dogs out and picked up my friend. We arrived at the Elko Convention Center, bought our $5 tickets and were in our seats (pretty good ones about 10 rows back, towards the left side) 2 minutes before curtain time. The play was fantastic with some amazing local talent. Dorothy was great, as was Oz, Glenda, the guard at the Emerald Palace, Scarecrow and Tin Man. The Munchkins were adorable and creatively costumed children. But as far as I was concerned, the showstoppers were the Cowardly Lion (later someone told me that the actor is a Presbyterian minister), the wicked witch/Miss Gulch (the program notes on her said something to the effect that ‘this role was a far cry from her previous role as sister (nun) so and so, but closer to her true nature, as her husband can attest!) and Toto, played by ‘Moose,’ a smart, good-natured and loveable Miniature Schnauzer. Most of the play followed the beloved movie line for line, but there were a few additions and variations. We were treated to the scene that was cut from the movie, the dance of the Jitterbugs, who caused our heroes to dance themselves in to a state of exhaustion so Dorothy and Toto could easily be scooped up by the Flying Monkeys (aka Acrobatic Apes, aka Simian Minions) and taken to her Evil Majesty. (aka ‘My Beautiful Wickedness.) Unfortunately, after the 3-hour play, as we were getting a bit to eat, my friend got some bad news about her 81-year-old mother in law who had surgery last week and is now in Intensive Care dealing with Respiratory Failure. Hope it turns out okay.
Today after church, one of my favorite sister in laws helped save me $60 by giving Murphy and Rowdy a haircut. They look (and feel, I’m sure) sooooo much better! And I finally heard from UltraDad, the hunter, who had been tent camping all week with Jimbo and Jessica. They had fun, but no deer. Jessica got to try out a couple of Dutch Oven Campfire meals, but was glad to get back to the land of showers!
I’m nodding off as I write this, but am determined to get it posted tonight. No pithy clever ending, just UltraMom and This Was My Weekend. Until next time…..

UltraCast 847: We’ve Come a Long Way Baby

UltraBob — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:28:01 +0900

We just give and give and give. Here we are with yet another installment of the UltraCast. No music this time. After all we’ve done quite enough for you people.

Tomoko and I discuss what has been the center of our existences for the last couple of years. Go forth and listen, and don’t forget to subscribe in itunes and get all new episodes slapped conveniently and automatically right into your ipod or iphone. You’ll almost certainly regret it.

Linc does Nagano

UltraGirl — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:34:00 +0900

We had 5 days off last week here in Japan, and we and my parents and little brother took Linc on his first trip to Nagano. This was actually UltraBob’s idea; He thought it’d be nice to visit and spend time in his most favorite area in Japan. We wanted to avoid traffic jams as much as possible, so we left about 5 in the morning, heading down to Yatsugatake area in Yamanashi prefecture first.

Linc enjoyed seeing cows and sheep on a farm (Japanese) there, walked all over, and had some licks of a really tasty soft cream cone.

In the afternoon, we visited a café in the same area called Yatsugatake Club (Japanese) which is owned by a famous Japanese TV personality. He was the MC for a quiz show that my brother and I used to watch. This cafe (or should I call it a restaurant) serves great fruit tea which I’d definitely recommend anyone who’s in Japan and has a chance to come down near by. The restaurant is surrounded by a huge garden which the owner created with his friends taking a few years. There are lots of trees and flowers all over, and you can see he takes good care of it now as well. Also he has an art gallery right next to the café part, so you can enjoy some art at the same time. I just loved the fruit tea. UB had a glass of sangria (editor’s note: meh.), and others shared the tea and some cakes.

We stayed at a pension located in front of Shirakaba lake in Nagano that night. Linc was worn out and slept pretty good.

Next morning we had a very nice long walk around the lake. It was a peaceful morning by the lake.

Before heading down to a hotel (Japanese) for the second night, we stopped by the Maruyama coffee shop (Japanese) which was one of the main things UB and I wanted to do in this trip. If you are a coffee lover in Japan, you might have heard of this pretty good coffee roaster. We tasted the coffee and brought some beans home. The hotel room was interesting; it had two stories: the upstairs had futons and tables, and downstairs there was a private bath with a garden attached and a massage chair. We also rode a mountain cable car that leads to a public hot spring located up on the hill next to the hotel. This was quite exciting.

Next day we walked around the streets of Karuizawa and drove to an American styled diner (japanese) in Nagano city just to try their hamburger that UB had seen in a magazine and wanted to try. The burger was pretty alright, but the service was really good. The manager was passionate about American culture and talked with UB and me for a while. Already it was time to go back home, we got into a terrible traffic jam and it took us about 7 hours to get back (usually it is about a 3 hour drive). Linc was again very cooperative. Where to next?

Happy Birthdays

UltraMom — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:08:00 +0900

Wishing today a VERY happy birthday to one Jessica McDonald, my beautiful new daughter in law. I believe she is a whopping 21 today...perhaps 22?
Anyway, I hope it was a day of being spoiled, which is MY favorite way to spend a birthday!

Also, hoping a very happy birthday was had by Heath Christensen, soon to by my handsome son in law on Sept 22nd. September is getting to be a month to remember!

Johnny & the Bar and assorted other stuff

UltraMom — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:51:00 +0900

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Johnny has passed the Idaho Bar! He only had to wait about 2 months to find out, a piece of cake, right? The funny thing is, he said the night before he was due to find out that he slept very poorly and kept waking up after dreaming he had passed. He told me he almost wished he had been dreaming he failed, so he could have been relieved when he woke up! Wait, I just had a thought; maybe THIS whole thing is a dream…..NAH! Congrats, Johnny. I always knew you could do it, and as always, I was right☺

Ultra fans, what can I say? So much going on, so little time to write! Even now I should be doing so many other things: studying for my current test, cleaning up the kitchen, getting some sleep, but instead I’m using my precious time to catch you up…you’re welcome!
Let me back up to two weekends ago, Labor Day weekend. As you all know, in America we celebrate this day by decidedly NOT working. Lucky us, UltraDad and I got to celebrate by going on an overnight camping trip with the recent-weds Jimbo and Jessica. We loaded our gear in the kids’ new Scion SD and headed for Great Basin National Park, and, more specifically, for the legendary Lehman Caves. We were snug, what with all the gear, but we all fit. On Friday night we pitched a group tent, built a campfire and roasted bratwurst and marshmallows. UltraDad stumbled across a huge, but well disguised hornet’s nest while gathering firewood and got stung on the face, but it didn’t affect him much. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I slept like a rock. The next morning, we had another fire and attempted to roast poptarts before packing up camp and heading off for our pre-booked Lehman Caves tour. The cave was amazing; stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, flowstone, popcorn, and clam-shell shield formations, which, we were told, are pretty rare. Our park ranger guide was pleasant and informative. Well worth the effort and fee. We next took a walking trail to a bristle-cone pine grove, and then to a small glacier; according to our guide Jimbo, the hike was over 6 miles long. This was encouraging to me as I was planning quite a long hike in a week’s time, but more about that later. We had a quick picnic with what was left of the lunchmeat and made the long, long drive back to Carlin. Jimbo and Jessica spent much of the next day working on my flowerbeds/yard, and they got a pile of work done. It looks amazing! Jessica weeded and transplanted scores of Irises, while Jimbo shored and leveled up the broken down flower/retaining bed outside the back door. Instead of a mass of unruly weeks, it now sports transplanted raspberry bushes and iris. Thanks, kids!
Now, you may remember that UltraMom has been getting up really early nearly every weekday morning to walk with some friends. A month or so ago, Tonya, one of those friends had an idea: “We should do Race to the Angel this year!” She passed out downloaded applications forms, and when the time came, booked us a motel room in Wells, where the race would begin. Your $30 gets you a T-shirt and the opportunity to walk, run, or bike the 13 miles to Angel Lake, gaining 2800 vertical feet as you go. Sponsored by the Wells Chamber of Commerce, there are water and fruit stations along the way, as well as a roving ambulance and police car to pick up the quitters. Tonya, Rachel and I made the walk in just under 5 hours. We were outpaced by the other walkers, and passed by runners and bikers, but unlike some of the participants, we were NOT quitters. Tonya tried to keep it fun and motivating. Our daily walk is usually just a little over 3 miles, so when we passed the 3.5 mile mark she informed us that ‘Monday’s walk was done and we were starting on Tuesday.” Tuesday wasn’t too bad and soon we were on Wednesday. The road got steeper and steeper as we got nearer the end. Finally Tonya informed us we were starting on Thursday. The good news was that we were taking Friday off. “Thursday,” said Rachel with feeling, “is a bitch!” As we had planned, we linked arms and crossed the finish line together; what a great feeling! We were very glad that we had a ride back down. Soon we were joining the others at the post-race picnic.
In between all of this, UltraMom has been busy with the first few ‘fun-packed’ weeks of Nursing school, as well as working. VERY reluctantly, notice has been given at the job, but I get to keep working a couple of days a week until my replacement has been interviewed and hired, which is probably a couple more weeks. School is every day, and is intense. One of my classmates is Kim, who attended high school in Carlin and learned Calculus from my smart sister-in-law, Pat. After attending college in Reno, Kim is again living at home a few miles outside of Carlin so she can attend nursing school at Great Basin College, and we have been doing some carpooling, which has been very nice. Today, all 22 of us first-year nursing students loaded up in cars and vans and headed to Twin Falls, ID for some team building activities. At the CSI Challenge Course, we were led in activities by a young man and a young woman, whose names I have forgotten, or perhaps never knew. We took turns being blindfolded and trusting a partner to walk us around. We played partner-tag. We planned our best strategy to quickly complete a number challenge; we lined up on a log and sorted ourselves from shortest to tallest without stepping off the log. But the most fun was the ‘flying squirrel’, where we strapped into a harness and got to fly into the air with the aid of our teammates pulling on a rope. I was nervous about that one, but ended up loving it. Next week it’s back to crazy, can’t get it all done, but for this one day, school was really quite fun! See you next time I come up for air.

UltraMom, still not sure about all this, but determined to do the thing!

How ya doin’ tonight Zushi?

UltraBob — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:16:00 +0900

Heather and Heath Sittin’ in a Tree….

UltraMom — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:07:01 +0900

Its official! My little girl is getting married next July 10th, place yet to be determined. She has only known Heath for about 8 years, so I hope these kids know what they are doing! Actually, we are all more or less inwardly thinking “It’s about time!” aren’t we? Here are the details as related to me: Heath took Heather on a long hike, at the end of which he pretended to hurt his ankle. As we was bent down on one knee, she concernedly asking “Are you all right?” his answer was “Will you marry me?”
I am VERY happy and VERY excited. Finally I will get that 4th son!

UltraMom the professional mother in law and long distance grandma extraordinaire

Photo taken at Jim and Jessica’s wedding

Round round baby right round

UltraBob — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:35:01 +0900

Let’s see how many different video services we can test out shall we?

UltraMom Receives a Sponsorship

UltraMom — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:32:00 +0900

In case you have not been following the UltraMom career/job/life saga, here is an update. In two weeks I will jump with both feet into the very challenging Nursing Program at Great Basin College in Elko. The toughest thing is that I will have to quit my job at the prison to make this work, though I will get to flex my hours and keep on working through September. Besides loving the job, it contributes 1/3 of our income plus my discounted health insurance, all of which will soon be going away in hopes of a better future.
I submitted several scholarship applications, including one for $250 from a local women’s philanthropic organization called the P.E.O. I met the one qualification for applying: I am a woman. I got a phone call from them as UltraDad and I were attempting to leave Portland sans help from my flaky GPS. It took a few minutes for me to put it all together, but the gist of it was that they wanted to meet me. We set up a time to get together for coffee at a local coffee shop in a couple of weeks. Yes! I must be in the running!
I arrived at the cafe ten minutes early, scanning the crowd for possible PEO members. I struck gold within minutes; soon I was munching fresh fruit and sipping iced tea while chatting with six very nice, interesting women. An hour and a half passed quickly as we talked about my goals and qualifications, and numerous other subjects. I soon learned that this was not a scholarship but a sponsorship. This would be the first time the PEO had helped a student in their own backyard, and they wanted input as to who would be the lucky recipient, as well as an ongoing relationship and some accountability. Apparently, donating a scholarship at the college precluded many of these conditions. As we parted they promised to let me know in a couple of weeks. They called back hours later to let me know that I was their designated sponsoree! I was thrilled.
Several weeks later, I met four of these women at the local newspaper office; they wanted a picture of me receiving my check. We posed outside, me in the middle flanked by my benefactors. I held a corner of the check as Nancy, the sponsorship committee chair presented it to me. Afterward the photographer asked for names and titles so she could correctly label the photo. When it was my turn, I said “I am Kathy McDonald, the one receiving the scholarship.” I heard Nancy give a little gasp. “I think it is important that we call this a sponsorship,” she said, “and what is your name again?” She was staring down at the check, so I did too. It was made out to “Kathy Crawford.” I tried to bring humor into the situation. “I really am Kathy McDonald; I have picture I.D...or if it’s easier, I can just change my name.” I couldn’t help but wonder if they may have confused me with someone else, say the woman whom they had really selected to sponsor. After some confusion and apologies, Nancy lined through ‘Crawford’ and inserted ‘McDonald’ initializing her change. I had no trouble depositing my check.
I am invited to come early to the next meeting to meet more members and report on my progress. Ah well, if my progress isn’t up to snuff, I can always blame it on Kathy Crawford.

UltraMom

The Ultras in Oregon

UltraMom — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:28:00 +0900

Written on July 9
I won’t be able to post this tonight, cause I’m not paying for the motel WiFi, but I’m going to try to keep you posted on current events. Most currently, UltraDad, UltraHeather and I are, at long last, established in our motel room in the Portland Downtown Waterfront Marriot.
We made the drive from Emmett to spend time with the Ultras who arrived from Japan yesterday morning. At the onset, all was well. I programmed our destination into my GPS portable navigation system and we took turns driving as she directed us to follow the Interstate for seemingly endless stretches before turning off onto another interminable Interstate, but at least we were making progress. That is we were making progress until we stopped for lunch in The Dalles. When we went in, we had just over 100 miles to go and our arrival time was slated for 4 PM ish. When we came out, we had over 300 miles to go and now we would be arriving 2 hours later.

And now it’s July 29th, a mere 20 days later☺
As per usual, my good posting intentions didn’t pan out, but for old time’s sake, let’s just pick up the story where we left off! When we last saw our heroes, they were experiencing some sort of strange geographical/time warp in The Dalles. I mean the very name of this 2-word city conjures up images of a Bermuda Trianglish kind of mystery. Or, wait just a doggone minute…could there be some sort of problem with my GPS? There could be and there was, almost the entire time we were in Portland. Personally, I still think The Dalles had something to do with it. It would take us more than a stress-filled hour to find our motel room, by which time we paid the outlandish valet parking fee for the night rather than spend more time finding alternative parking. It would take us nearly another hour (and a little more getting lost) to navigate on foot to the Ultra’s luxury motel, The Nines, in another part of town. After eating at a locally famous deli, we spent a little time in The Nine’s Library/Billiard Room. UltraDad and I were quite disappointed to learn that in the 5-6 months since we had seen him last, Linc had become quite the Daddy’s boy. On the whole trip, we never did get to hold him more than a couple of minutes before he was crying and looking for his old dad. But he would tolerate my presence as long as I kept a respectful distance, so we played a fun game of pull-books-off-the shelf-grandma-puts-them-back while UltraBob and UltraDad played some pool.

Three very cute smiles

Just chillin’ at The Nines

And now it’s August 7th!
Lots has happened between July 29th and now, so I’ll try to be brief(er) than usual. We had one full day in Portland, (Friday, July 10th)and spent much of it shopping in the Pearl District of Portland. UltraGirl, who had thoroughly researched Portland before the visit, had some interesting and locally famous shops and eateries she wanted to check out. She also helped us figure out public transportation, which was very helpful, as there was no way I was going to drive a car around this crazy city with nowhere to park. I think we ended up having dinner that day at a steakhouse/bar (can’t remember the name of it); I remember there was a play area for kids upstairs where we were seated, and I supervised Linc as he watched some little girls play with cars, ponies and dinosaurs. One of the funniest things about watching Linc eat was that he hadn’t quite figured out yet that he could use his hands to feed himself. He sucked on a pickle held by his Dad without making any attempt to grab it or even touch it. When his Mom put some food in front of him to encourage some hand/food interaction, he stared at it for a minute or two before diving into it headlong as if he were a dog, hands still at his sides. The really funny thing was that he used his hands and fingers often to pick up minutiae off the floor to explore by means of his lips and tongue.

Yummy pickle! Too bad I can’t use my own hands to hold it.

Very cute UltraGirl and UltraLinc!

Okay, so UltraDad got to hold Linc a couple of times. Notice Dad isn’t very far away.

Linc graciously allows Heather to transport him in his carrier; can’t remember how long this lasted!

UltraMom holding Linc; he was amused as long as he was crashing beads into my face and I was acting like it hurt me.

July 11th was my birthday, and as per my request, we would be heading out for the coast that day. I had selected Newport as our destination, and booked motel rooms at a Best Western reported to be quite near a nice beach. We couldn’t all fit in my car, so the Ultras rented a van; it ended up that I went in the van with them, while UltraDad and Heather followed in my Accord. I even got to drive the van most of the way as fussy Linc wanted his Dad, not his unfamiliar grandma sitting next to him in the back seat. If I had realized how long this drive would take, I would have chosen a closer coastal destination. Apparently Heather and Dad quickly found the motel; it would take us rather longer, and per usual, GPS girl was no help. We had to request a room change for the Ultras, as their first room smelled as if a starfish had been hidden and allowed to slightly decompose somewhere within. Fortunately there was another room available and just down the hall from our room. We had a nice walk on the beach, which wasn’t TOO far way. Heather and I had to get our feet wet in the ocean, and she found a perfect sand dollar, not yet ravished by the ever-hungry shore birds. For dinner, we ended up ordering pizza, which UltraDad and I picked up, and ate it in the Ultra’s room while we chatted. If I remember correctly, we ordered a thin crust veggie-artichoke pizza (dynamite!) and a Hawaiian (not too bad.) It was a good birthday. The Ultras gave me a long-sleeved T with their personalized silk-screening reading “BLT” (You know: Bob, Linc, Tomoko) and picturing a sandwich. Also, my favorite pigeon cookies from Kamakura.

BLT shirts; I think Linc loves MO; he must have liked the clam chowder better than I did.

Striking a pose on the beach in Newport

Another beach pic, this time with UltraDad

Heather holds the perfect, unbroken sand dollar

Cool Shadows
The next morning, UltraDad and I took a long walk on the beach as the others got going. I felt kinda bad that we didn’t check more with Heather, who really wanted a long walk on the beach herself. She did get a short one in before we hit the restaurant for the breakfast special, which would soon be ending.
Then on the road again heading towards Lincoln City and the Outlet Mall. We had lunch at Mo’s, which serves, as does every other diner I’ve been to on the coast, Award Winning Clam Chowder. Clam Chowder competitions must be really popular in this area. When we arrived at Mo’s it was evident that here was a popular place to eat. The line outside the place was about 15 hungry customers long. I soon learned that you had to stay in line if you wanted to eat; none of this taking of names or giving out beeping pagers. Wisely, the outside line manager handed out menus to speed up the ordering process once diners were finally seated. I held our place in line and listened to diners on all sides of me extol the wonders of each dish on the menu. Once inside, the line wound through the gift shop. Again, a great strategy, as the longer I waited, the more the thought of owning a stuffed crab or whale appealed to me. I don’t remember what anyone else ordered, but I got the clam chowder in a bread bowl and it WAS good. Not great, perhaps not even award winning (by my standards), but still good.
Once at the Outlet Mall, the Ultras began shopping in earnest. They had a comprehensive list: clothes and shoes for Ultrabob, since his size is not easily attainable in Japan; items requested by friends and coworkers……I was able to wheel Linc around the shoe store in his stroller once he fell asleep. Not as good as being able to hold him, but better than nuthin’!
It was evening when we arrived back in Portland at the Marriott where UltraDad, Heather and I had previously stayed, and where we all would be staying for our final night. The Ultra declared it every bit as nice as The Nines. This may sound kind of silly, but this is the main thing I remember about this motel, and I really liked it! In the lobby, there was always some type of flavored water: it was in a glass dispenser and filled with ice and strawberries, or limes, or cucumbers and mint or oranges…you get the picture. Delightful and so pretty!
The next day (Monday) it was time for UltraDad and me to hit the long trail back to Boise in anticipation of a wedding the following Saturday. Heather would be flying back to Pocatello to make the drive with Heath, who had managed to finagle a couple of days off. The Ultras would also be flying, but to Boise. Of course we got lost trying to get out of Portland; missed our off-ramp and had to ask for directions, no thanks to GPS girl who apparently was still sulking. By the time we arrived at Johnny’s place in Boise, the Ultras had been picked up at the airport and were ready to get a bite to eat. I had contracted UltraDad’s horrible cold by this time, and elected to stay in the apartment while the rest ventured out on, I think it was, a Mexican fast food adventure. I really like Johnny’s place, especially the creek side view. It was late when all of the Ultras arrived at Debi and John’s place in Emmett, but our rooms were all ready for us and we soon went to bed in surroundings far more comfortable and appealing than any accommodations seen for the past 4 days.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we will actually get to the wedding, though we stil have nearly 5 days to get through here……TO BE CONTINUED……………

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

UltraMom — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:37:01 +0900

Hi Ultrafans. I am sitting out on my front porch about 7 o’clockish writing this post. This is one of those moments when I can really appreciate the portability of my mac laptop. Now just a couple of days ago, I could not have envisioned being able to even step outside without hordes of mosquitoes descending on me, looking for a likely place to land on my exposed ( or even unexposed) skin and feast upon my delicious type A-Negative blood, let alone actually sit and enjoy this lovely summer eveing. I have, of course, used the obligatory insect repellent, but since I have only been bitten about 5 times in the space of ½ hour, I must conclude that the city must have made good on their promise to pest-control spray for these potential West-Nile disease carriers in my several day absence. At least I fervently hope so, for as anyone who has ever been here in the summertime can attest, there is no more mosquito-ridden place on earth than Carlin, NV.
Last weekend was a good one; our recent Law School graduate, Johnny made a quick visit, mostly, as it turned out, to provide the mosquitoes with an exotic feast and to beat me at each and every game we attempted to play. Maybe, also, to get a small break from his daily schedule of daily spending 6 hours or so studying for the Idaho Bar Exam. Anyway, whatever the reason, it was a very fun weekend, though I spent a portion of it making pizza and taco salad. I was happy Johnny could see how much I am enjoying the beautiful waterfall that he and Jimbo created for me several summers ago.

My Beautiful Waterfall

This weekend was the all-American excuse for barbecues and playing with matches: The 4th of July. Oh, and I believe we also celebrate the founding of our great nation. Last year, a bunch of us picnicked and camped out in Cherry Creek near the Lear Ranch; this year would be a repeat, minus the camping part and, come to think of it, minus the family members from Idaho. I drove to Ruby Valley on Friday afternoon to spend a little time with UltraDad and to be closer to the next day’s festivities.
On Saturday, I prepared and packed up my food contributions and we caravanned with Pat to the Lear Ranch, and eventually to the Barbecue site where we found several tables set up, a barbecue grill ready to go and some family and Lear friends and neighbors socializing. In addition to Murphy and Rowdy, there were also approximately 15-20 dogs. In the center of the shady area near the creek where we assembled was a large pile of semi-fresh cow manure, which several of the dogs, most notably Piper and Annie (the 2 Great Pyrenees) and Murphy managed to come in close contact with. Murphy had it all over his collar, neck and chest. Rowdy’s was limited to most of one front paw. Baby Wynn enjoyed pounding the huge mound with a stick.

Poopy dog. I think this one is Annie

The food was varied and delicious. In addition to grilled hot dogs and burgers, Kathy Lear’s neighbor Diane has some BBQ chicken, and there was all manner of chips, salads and desserts, notably Courtney’s berry pie. The only (literal) damper on the occasion were the frequent thunderstorms and accompanying rain, which sent several of us (the sissies like me anyway) scurrying to vehicles for shelter and jacket retrieval.
I felt sorry for Bill Lear’s young wife Courtney, who was in the middle of a horrid, cough-producing cold, but was glad she came in spite of it, as I hadn’t seen her for a while and really enjoy talking to her. Her 2 ½ year old son, Wynn was adorable and talking a blue streak, and his Grandma Kathy Lear decided to give Courtney a break and take Wynn along on rock-hunting expedition she and UltraDad were planning. I say expedition, because it kept growing and ended up including me, Diane, and her friend from CA, Vern before it was done; also, about 8 dogs. I think everyone found some sort of rock/obsidian that showed definite evidence of manipulation. Everyone, that is but Wynn and me. I presented several possibilities to Kathy as we walked along, but always got the same answer, “It’s a very nice rock, but it’s just a rock.” Wynn and I stopped to rest on a rock outcropping, and he was delighted by our pinecone throwing game, especially laughing when he hit me with a cone and I pretended it hurt. When we finally got back to the pickup, however, we were missing Diane and two dogs; Vern’s little black dog, Buck and one of Kathy Lear’s minpins: Holly. We drove back to the camp to find Diane and Buck had walked back, unable to locate the pickup, but Holly was nowhere to be found. Later UltraDad and Kathy drove back and found her after tramping the mountain. When all was said and done, it was after 11 PM when Ultradad, and I got back to his place in Ruby Valley. Murphy and Rowdy STILL had to have baths, since they sleep with me!
Anyway, all in all, a very fun time. Now, looking forward to vacationing with the Ultra’s in Portland and a wedding in Boise! No promises, but perhaps I’ll keep you posted☺

UltraMom

Hiking up the mountain; Grandma, Wynn and Piper

A Nice Variety of Dogs

Wynn, trying to get his point across

A lovely view

Different colored blooms on the same cactus?

Lincoln Park (Arrrrggghhh)

UltraBob — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:17:01 +0900

Young man walking

UltraGirl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:33:01 +0900

UltraMom is Back! (with a little help)

UltraMom — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:57:01 +0900

Long-time-no-see UltraMom here. Sorry I’ve been away so long; its not because I haven’t been thinking of you, really it isn’t. But since we’ve been down this road many times before, lets just cut the excuses and get on with the errant posting, shall we?
Lot’s of stuff is happening in world-UltraMom, or rather will be happening soon. Here’s a brief rundown on coming events: vacationing with UltraBob, UltraGirl, UltraLinc, (along with Ultra Dad and Heather) in Portland, Oregon, including a night in Newport (on the coast!) for UltraMom’s birthday. Immediately after that is the much anticipated event of the year; the wedding of Jimbo and Jessica in Boise, Idaho. And then, in late August, UltraMom begins her new school year in the AAS Nursing Program at Great Basin College! That’s right, kids, I made it into the program and have two ‘fun-filled’, ‘action-packed’ years ahead of me as I head towards a new career, and hopefully, increased earning power.
I have been working on some scholarship applications, and when I got to the section on “Personal Statement”, I naturally asked for help from the two scholarship whizzes in the family. Jimbo sent me some samples of his, which were meaty and well-written, extolling the wonders and benefits to the workplace in specific and to society as a whole of assisting him in becoming a certified Industrial Hygienist. The essays, along with a perfect GPA and sometime required photo submission has netted him over $10,000 in scholarship monies for next year. Good job, kiddo!
Johnny’s personal statement, which helped net him a very nice partial scholarship through three years of Vanderbilt Law School, was very entertaining and, to me, utterly charming. I think it’s only fair that since Johnny is the one who encouraged/shamed me into posting again, that he help me write the dang thing. And so, for your entertainment enlightenment, and general edification I hereby present Johnny’s great work of literature, titled (by me) “Why I want to go to Law School”. (Critique and comments to follow)

“Because I said so!” was the common response to my youthful inquiries regarding the rationale behind the seemingly arbitrary mandates imposed upon me by my parents. To my credit, I both frequently and vociferously argued against this blanket justification and petitioned for my rights with all the tools at my youthful command. But my early attempts at judicial persuasion seemed doomed to failure. Attempts to introduce favorable decisions from alternate jurisdictions ("But Billy’s parents let HIM stay up until 10!") were habitually barred from consideration, with the issued reminder that such holdings lacked precedence in my home ("I don’t care what Billy’s mother and father let him do, he’s not living under my roof!"). Even plain and credible instances of jurisdictional stare decisis ("Well you let Bob watch Rambo, so why can’t I?") were summarily dismissed on supposedly key but plainly irrelevant factors such as comparative chronological advancement ("Because he is older than you!"). Having exhausted all available legal avenues of recourse in my quest for justice (there being no court of appeals), I occasionally felt compelled to practice acts of civil disobedience as extolled by John Locke. Regrettably, these demonstrations were ineffective as catalysts of social change, and notable only for their brevity. It seemed that no sooner had I commenced a daring raid on the family room, in direct defiance of the “bed time” ordinance, and I was already in custody and being sentenced to either banishment ("Go to your room!"), or worse, a humiliating public-shaming ("Go stand in the corner!"). Despite repeated failure I never ceased in my youthful struggles against injustice, and this has plainly crafted me into the ideal law school candidate.
All levity aside, I was not interested in law at an early age. In fact, I believe that the only careers I ever even considered as a child were Movie Star/Astronaut and Rockstar/Doctor, but for unknown reasons neither of these has panned out. When I began college I had only two criteria for my future vocation: 1) It had to interest and challenge me; and 2) It had to provide me with the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to society. My journey toward law school didn’t begin until the first semester of my sophomore year of college when I enrolled in Criminal Justice 101 and was introduced to the ethical dilemmas inherent in the application of law, via the assigned course-text The Brothel Boy. This fictional book was written from the perspective of a relatively inexperienced British constabulary officer in colonial India charged with the responsibility of enacting and enforcing law within his allotted province, with only extremely belated and infrequent correspondence from his superiors. Until I attempted to formulate my solutions to the suppositious dilemmas presented within that book, I had never given any serious consideration to the intrinsic difficulty in attempting to balance case-specific justice with the necessity to create the sound judicial principles necessary to inform future interpretation of law. Though difficult, I found these challenges exhilarating, and by the end of the semester I had declared Criminal Justice as my major.
In subsequent courses, both within and outside my major, I continued to learn about law and the diverse areas of its impact. In my Corrections Law class, I read Supreme Court decisions for cases concerning gross violations of human rights, such as Madrid v. Gomez, and learned the key roles that attorneys and judges played in remedying these abuses. In Constitutional Law, I learned about such cases as Brown v. Board of Education in which the courts rectified injustice when the legislative branch of the government was either unable or unwilling to do so. For my Senior Tutorial paper, I researched the in rem practice of civil asset forfeiture and found myself not only astounded at the concept of executing civil proceedings again property rather than the property owner, but also enthralled by the complex legal history of this practice. Finally, in my course on The Legal Regulations of American Democracy, I was given a glimpse of the crucial and complex law involved in such areas as campaign finance and electoral districting. I left this course with not only the absolute conviction that I never wanted to practice election law but also with a newfound respect for the role the legal profession has in protecting the integrity of the most vital process of American democracy- the vote. I don’t mean to suggest that these courses provided me with a thorough knowledge of the law, but they did instill my desire to obtain one.
I realize that reading Supreme Court decisions and actually practicing law are two very different things, and with this in mind, I decided to get some real-world legal experience before making the serious commitment of enrolling in law school. In the half-year since I secured a Project Assistant’s position at the firm of Holland & Hart LLP, I have had the opportunity to interact with practicing attorneys on a daily basis, and observe genres of legal practice that academia had not exposed me to. Through these observations, I have come to appreciate the law’s indispensability to all aspects of commercial business operations, and ways in which civil advocacy can remedy injustice when the criminal system cannot (such as medical malpractice).
I am confident that I have found a career that meets both of the goals I established for myself when entering college, and eagerly await beginning my legal career. I may, however, have to resign myself to the fact that even a superb legal education won’t enable me to win an argument against my parents.

The last statement is totally untrue; this kid can talk his way out of anything, and in lieu of sound argument and sound logic, can nearly always defeat me through repetition, circular reasoning and references to my faulty memory. I too eagerly await the beginning of his legal career, and I’m sure that by sometime in August, we will hear good news concerning his passage of the Idaho Bar. Thanks for helping me write my first post back. I’ll try to be around more, at least til I come up with a fresh batch of excuses.

初めての一歩

UltraBob — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:58:01 +0900

I don’t want to name any names and ~~I don’t have any photos yet to provide~~; but yesterday somebody took their first few tentative solo steps, and today did a repeat performance for me.

Linc’ first birthday and children’s day: a photo essay

UltraGirl — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:34:00 +0900

Hi folks, your friend UltraGirl here with a quick visual update on the progress of everybody’s favorite 1 year old, Lincoln Arthur McDonald the 1 year old extraordinaire who turned one and became a 1 year old on April 26th of this year, his 1st birthday.

His first birthday cake is shaped like the number one. I love this cake. We also had a different kind of cake to share with everyone. Too bad Linc couldn’t try very much.

Did you know lots of babies who turned one year old have to try to carry a mochi (rice cake) that weighs about 1.8 kg in Japan? Sounds horrible huh? Well, this is a tradition to wish his or her life be fulfilling and they have no trouble getting food. Linc doesn’t know yet in this photo how heavy the mochi will be. Actually had no clue what was going on…

This is “After”. Most babies aren’t able to carry that much on their back at the age, and actually it is even better if your baby falls down in some areas since that means your child will get so much food and wealth that he can’t carry it all.

This is the mochi he had on his little back. Wow that was heavy.

Dinner Time … and the living’s easy

We had special kind of sushi, pizza, my mother’s salad, and fruits. Linc had his own style of food.

Kampai (cheers)!

Yey! Thank you everyone. I’m a very happy boy. Oh, and he claps now. He claps a lot.

Three of us went out for dinner on Linc’s actual birthday. The party was held the day before.

On my (ultragirl) birthday, we all visited Saitama where Motoji (my dad) is from. His brother maintains his yard really neatly.

Another photo of Linc in the yard with his J-grandma.

In the same yard, but he wanted to stand up.

Family photo in front of the Kabuto (samurai helmet)

May 5th is Japanese Children’s day. Display Kabuto if you have a boy to wish for him to be strong. This is such a nice one, don’t you think?

Just a photo I took in a restaurant the other day. These guys are so cute.

Johnny conquers Law School

UltraMom — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:29:00 +0900

UltraDad and I just returned home from a whirwind 5-6 days, which included some 6 hour drives to and from Boise, some flights of varying length to and from Nashville and a very exciting graduation from the prestigious and picturesque Vanderbilt School of Law. If I wasn’t buried in homework that I didn’t complete in Nashville, despite good intentions, I would write at length, and plan to do just that in a week or so. What I will tell you now was that all travel plans and sleeping arrangements worked out, more or less. Johnny’s Law School graduation, occurred at the odd (anyway, it seemed to me an odd time to schedule a college graduation) hour of 10:30 A.M. on a Friday. Attending from (way) out of state were Aunt Debi (Panther) Ryder from Emmett, Idaho; James P. McDonald from Salt Lake City, Utah; Ultramom from Carlin, Nevada, and UltraDad from Ruby Valley, Nevada. The girls had a motel room downtown, while the guys slept on various blow-up beds and the recliner (Jim) in Johnny’s appartment. Besides the headliner graduation, events included a tour of Vanderbilt Law Building and grounds, a trip to the bookstore so UltraMom could obtain her own Vanderbilt sweatshirt and bumper sticker and replacement Vanderbilt frisbee (cause Rowdy broke her other one; just ask Jim), bowling, and 45 holes of miniature golf. We spent a good half day at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and several hours at The Hermitage, former home of former president Andrew Jackson. We took a lovely drive on the Natchez Trace and had some fantastic BBQ and some not too bad Cajun Pepperoni Pizza. Oh, and of course we saw the Parthenon.
I know I had a great time, though Jim maintained that trying to keep track of me, Panther and UltraDad was like trying to herd 300 cats. I must admit, I did try to follow the wrong group of people on the way to the graduation, but only once or twice. On the whole, I think the cat analogy a faulty one.
After the ‘herdable cats’ left, Jim and his soon-to-be-attorney brother loaded up a pull-behind-Johnny’s-Taurus trailor with the motorcycle and the rest of Johnny’s earthly belongings. Tomorrow Jim flies home and Johnny starts his long drive back to Boise where he will begin his 2-year stint of working for an Idaho Supreme Court Judge. Tomorrow UltraDad heads back to work, and UltraMom heads back to work and school.
But today, Johnny, you should take a few minutes to bask in the pride of your great accomplishment. That’s what I’m doing, anyway. I’m so proud of you, honey. Drive safely.

UltraMom

Ready to get that law school diploma. As the graduates walked by, I heard a little girl give voice to what all of us were secretly thinking: “Their hats look like mushrooms.”

Johnny with two of his friends and fellow graduates:Mark Webster, his housemate, and Chris Jaeger (sp?). Johnny had already ditched his hot, uncomfortable graduation regalia.

The family. Don’t the guys look spiffy?

Johnny with one of his very favorite aunts, and his very favorite mom.

The bombastic Moot Court team of John McDonald and Scott Goldman. Also pictured is Scott’s wife (name escapes me), who graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School on the same day her husband graduated with a law degree, and from what I hear was the star member of the group’s trivia team. The team had a cool name, but it too is no longer in memory cell retrieval range.

The proof is in the pudding....er the diploma.

Happy Birthday Linc!

UltraMom — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 06:05:01 +0900

Today in Japan tomorrow in America.
Wishing a very happy birthday to the cutest, smartest, most kissable baby in the world.
Happy Birthday, Linc.

Love you very much,
UltraGrandma and UltraGrandpa

泳ぎベラ：Hot Spring Deja Vu all over again!

UltraGirl — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:04:01 +0900

It has taken a while to get around to posting it, but recently Linc tried out a hot spring for the first time. My mom gave us free admission tickets for the same hot spring that UltraMom and Heather went to with us during their visit. At the shop there UltraBob bought a cartoon-print inner tube for Linc. He had a great time there, splashing water, floating in the inner tube, and flirting with all the cute girls he could find. He was like the white whale we saw in the aquarium, he got all the applause. Here are a few pictures we took during our adventures:

Gone for the summer, no Huarachi sandals

UltraBob — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:55:00 +0900

Arriving in Portland on the 8th of July and Departing from San Francisco on the 24th of the same month. Is it July 8th yet?

Spring Break, where art thou?

UltraMom — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:52:00 +0900

How can one week go by so fast? I am referring, of course, to my Spring Break, and tomorrow, it’s back to the grindstone, as I fondly refer to Nutrition, Microbiology and Anatomy and Physiology. Also, back to work after a couple of days off.
Jimbo and Jessica had their break a week earlier than mine, and I was thrilled when they decided to spend part of it here with UltraDad and me. Unfortunately, Jimbo was sick through about half of it, but he graciously let me and Jessica fetch him medicines, ice packs and delicacies, though he would not usually let us win a game of Canasta, Gin Rummy, Rummikub or Cribbage. Jessica had to leave after a few days, but Jimbo ended up staying all week. On Friday, while I was at work, he got my pond and waterfall up and running for the season, as well as patching up one of the holes in the fence where Rowdy has been escaping.I LOVE my pond and waterfall! UltraMom had several big tests and a big lab report due that week, but Jimbo spent a lot of time studying himself. Really, it was nice just to have the kid around. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my almost new-daughter-in-law also.
I have just, today, returned from a little spring break outing, combined with a birthday celebration spent with my favorite daughter, Heather, her favorite guy, Heath and their rather idiosyncric cats Callie, Nimbus and Rocky.
I left last Thursday on the actual day of the birthday. I won’t say how many, lets just say its more than 30 and less than, oh, say 32. My Honda Accord had an appointment with her favorite mechanic for a little oil and lube job, so that got me going much earlier in the AM than is my wont. I walked around town til she was ready, and we were on the road before 11 AM. It is always a challenge to get through Twin Falls without stopping to shop at favorite, seldom seen stores, but my browsings through Shopko and TJ Maxx only set me back an hour or so. I arrived in Pocatello, accurately guided by my GPS (this was a pleasant surprise, since she does not have a great track record; trying to get to Jim’s apartment in SLC, she sent me on an endless loop of U-turns before I gave up and called Jim) to Heather and Heath’s in ample time for a little walk through the neighborhood before going out for a birthday dinner at Chili’s. I, (uncharacteristically I know), indulged in a celebratory strawberry/raspberry margarita with Heather while we waited for out chicken tacos (we each ordered a different kind); Heath had steak and a coke, our designated driver. After a while, mine and Heath’s dinners arrived, but Heather’s dinner, we were informed had suffered an accident of gravity. Far from being upset, Heather ‘made some lemonade’, so to speak, and had a free cup of the baked potato soup she had been debating about, though in the end it made her too full to eat much of her dinner. We also had to get the chocolate birthday dessert in a to-go box, but Heather and I really enjoyed it several days later. We had to save it, cause that night we were obliged to have a piece of the birthday ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery.
I really like the way Heather and Heath have their place fixed up. I slept on a very comfortable futon, convenient to the bathroom. The cats really have it made with cat trees, scratching posts, toys, food and litter boxes readily available, as well as a slight stream left running in the tub to cater to their penchant of drinking fresh, running water. Callie, a beautiful gray tabby Main Coon Cat, (and not demonic, as Johnny will claim) actually takes a bit of a shower under the running water, and loves to curl up in the bathroom sink for a little nap.
Anyway, after the birthday dinner, we had a great Skype chat with UltraBob and, later on, with Johnny. There was a post a while back about a diary Heather used to keep when she was a kid. The greatest entry was this one: “I feel okay today. I am pretending my cabbage patch doll is real and I’m getting tired of her crying.” Anyway, we laughed a lot, and UltraMom was NOT drunk, contrary to what UltraBob and Johnny seemed to think. NO ill effects whatsoever the next day!
This was Heath’s only day off while I was there, so he missed out on the Spring Fair at the Idaho State University Holt Arena the next day. Translation? Lots of people selling and advertising lots of stuff. Heather and I took our time wandering through the exhibits and signing up for free drawings. In the end, we indulged in soup-in-a-breadbowl, and bought some hand-made pottery mugs, some award-winning Russian honey mustard (REALLY good) as well as a large bag of kettle corn. That evening, UltraMom spent over an hour working out on Wii Fitness, where she found out that she and Jessica share a common challenge: neither of us can hula hoop worth a darn, though I about threw my hip out trying. I was a little better at some of the balance games and yoga, though not great. Still, it was a lot of fun, and, contrary to Heather’s prediction, I wasn’t even sore the next day.
In the night, I had to use the facilities and was puzzled to see what looked like ground leaves or dirt in the tub, sink and floor.The mystery was solved the next morning when I followed the trail to the chewed open baggie on the kitchen table, surrounded by even more ground up leaves. It seems the cats had been having a party with the bag of catnip Heather had given me, and which I had left on the table in my bag of stuff. The funny thing was that we made sure the kettle corn bag was put up so they woudn’t get into it; we didn’t even consider they might chew open the bag of cat drugs. Anyway, the cats were all pretty mellow that morning, and had shreds of catnip clinging to their fur.
Heather and I had debated on how to spend our Saturday, my last full day there. In Heather’s bank, a poster advertising the Titanic Exhibit in the Idaho Falls Museum helped us make our decision. We would go bowling!
Just kidding! You really fell for it didn’t you? We went to the museum of course.
When we first arrived in Idaho Falls, Heather asked to see the house where UltraMom used to live. “No problem,” said UltraMom, “I know right where it is.” Twenty minutes later…UltraMom again, “Where the heck are we? Heather, just turn that GPS on and see if you can put Scorpius Drive in, won’t you?” Again, GPS lady saved the day, and for some reason, after that Heather became twitchy and nervous when UltraMom claimed to know exactly where she was. Go figure.
The Titanic exhibit was interesting, and featured many actual artifacts from the Titanic recovered from the ocean floor. After purchasing an exhibit ticket, we were given a card with the name and information about an actual Titanic passenger. At the end of the exhibit all of the passengers were listed, divided into categories of First Class, Second Class, Third Class and Crew, and each of those were further divided: those who survived, and those who didn’t. My card listed Captain John Weir, age 60, a Scottish merchant, who was traveling First Class, and was on his way to Salt Lake City on a regular business run. He did not survive.
The whole story of Titanic was told as we moved through the exhibit. In one area, a stateroom from a First Class cabin was recreated. I was astonished to learn that in today’s money, luxurious first class accommodations, complete with private bath, bedroom and parlor would have run over $70,000. We also saw a Third Class cabin, with 4 bunkbeds. Some cabins had 8 beds, and were shared only by those of the same sex, who might not even know each other or speak the same language. This was comparable, however, with 2nd Class rooms on most other ships. It was interesting to read the stories of several individual passengers: Mr. Ismay, whom I believe was the director of the White Star Line, survived by entering a lifeboat, and was pretty much scorned the rest of his life. One adventurer, who had booked passage on the Titanic to return home after traveling around the world for several years, was shanghaied the night before, so missed the voyage. He escaped his captors in Egypt a year or more later.
We really have Jimbo to thank for this very nice day; he funded our Titanic adventure as well as the following dinner at Johnny Carinos where I introduced Heather to my favorite Italian Nachos. After dinner, we indulged in a little mall shopping, including Bath and Body Works, before heading back to Pocatello.
We were just in time for a fun little skype chat with Linc, UltraBob and UltraGirl. Linc sure did want to do some programming on his daddy’s computer. He is growing so fast, and continues to get more adorable, though I did not think that was possible.
That evening, for some reason, Heather and I were in the mood to watch the movie “Titanic”, and after waxing enthusiastic about the exhibit, we convinced Heath that he wanted to watch it too. I don’t think any of us made it clear through, but the hour or so I did see was made more interesting in light of new information I had gained. The next morning, Heath wanted to know if anyone else had dreamed something about the Titanic. I think I did, though my dream remembering is usually pretty fuzzy.
After fairly nice weather over the past several days, today was snowy and windy. This, of course, was the day I had to drive back to Nevada. But I made it in fine shape, and only encountered a very few patches of really bad visibility. The trip was made more enjoyable by the snacks and delicious sandwich supplied by Heather. Thanks, Honey.
Anyway, its more than time I was in bed. See you tomorrow, Microbiology. For some of you lucky ducks Spring Break Week is only beginning. This means YOU, Pat. Hope yours is as good as mine was. .

Updates updates!

UltraGirl — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:43:00 +0900

It’s been a while since I posted last. I realized Linc is now 10 months old(!) and I thought I should share some updates with you all.

Last week Linc and I visited his pediatrician to get his immunizations done. He cried quite a bit, but that was kinda inevitable since he got a shot in each arm. He got his third time DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus) on his left arm and the Hib vaccine for the second time on his right arm.

I had small struggles with this Hib vaccine, and let me talk about it. This vaccine has already been in routine use in the U.S. and most developed countries except Japan. Finally after a long injustifiable waiting time, the Hib vaccine got licensed in Japan last year, and is supposed to have been in markets since the middle of last December. I didn’t know about this until one of my friends, Tomoko, who is Raku’s mother (you may rememer him from the video where Linc’s meeting a younger baby) told me about it. She read about this news somewhere in November and recommended I make a reservation for the vaccine though it might be too early. She noted this is a newly licensed free-will vaccine and doctors/hospitals can’t tell how many they can receive from their pharmacies. However it is certain there won’t be enough to give all babies in Japan. I consulted my pediatrician right away. He seemed to be a little surprised that I had asked about the vaccine before it was even released. In fact, I was the first one who came and asked for a reservation there. He told me it’s recommended that Linc get the Hib along with his DPT to improve effectiveness, but asked me to come back later as he didn’t know if he could even get any of the vaccine and also he was figuring the best way to manage the demands of this new vaccine. As I was told, I waited until the beginning of this year and called to see if I can make a reservation. A nurse told me over the phone I had to come over and talk to the doctor again but we might not make it to get the Hib along with DPT anyway. By the way, DPT vaccine is to be received three times in a row and Linc had already started his first one in December when I consulted the doctor about the Hib for the first time. I was really upset but what else can I do? I just headed down to see the doctor. To my surprise and contrary to what I was told by the nurse, the doctor was all ready to give Linc the Hib along with his second DPT!! He said he reserved the Hib vaccine for Linc without my declaration or confirmation when his pharmacist came for placement of vaccine orders. And as I said at the top, Linc finished off the second Hib vaccine and will get the final next year.

Linc crawls now and is almost ready to stand without support. He sleeps on his belly sometimes, loves bath time, and enjoys meals. He likes fruit very much and I think his favorites are bananas and strawberries. I can’t believe he is going to be one year old in a few months! We so much appreciate that Linc has been so healthy and great. UltraBob and I are now planning investment for Linc’s education, and improving our life insurance coverage. We are also working on Baby signs and thinking of giving him some musical experience starting by having him listen to my piano playing. What’s new with you?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Linc had his first haircut (Well almost his first, but lets not get into that) a few weeks ago. Also, Linc was in the newspaper a few months ago.

Haircut: before
Haircut: after
Fame comes early to some.

It’s the Care Bears!

UltraMom — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:37:00 +0900

Well, I just finished spending 2 hours or so on a Nutrition assignment, evaluating my diet. I may have slightly underestimated my nibbles, bites and tastes, but it’s not like they count, right? As a reward (to me, and hopefully to you), I’m allowing myself the luxury of writing a short post, though it is nearly midnight. I was kinda hoping for a short video chat with that rascally grandson, but his keepers don’t appear to be around.
School is going okay, but requires me to physically go there 4 evenings and 1 morning a week, which can be a little wearing. I don’t know what I’d do without sis-in-law Pat, who allows Murphy and Rowdy to come over 3-4 days a week. Anatomy and Physiology is going okay; though the instructor has changed his testing format, I still feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. Nutrition is going to be fine, I think. I got a 49/50 on my first test and the assignments are kind of interesting. The one that’s got me worried is Microbiology. Same instructor as A & P, but unfamiliar subject matter. Now this teacher knows his microbes and is great at focusing and identifying organisms and parts of organisms under a microscope, but his teaching is a little, how shall we say, frenetic? We did a lab experiment last week, about which we are required to write a lab report. By the time he finished explaining, and reexplaining what we were going to do, the whole class was thoroughly confused. First test is this Wednesday, so I guess we shall see!
It was quite a nice day (has been mostly a nice week) so Murphy, Rowdy and I took a nice long walk. We had an exciting moment when a large pitbull looking dog, (but with very long legs) ran out of a yard, exhibiting great interest in my two small poodles, but his owners finally corralled him back to where he belonged.
Last weekend was very nice, at least for me. We had Jimbo home for a few days. We went into Elko, played a lot of cribbage and walked down to the park to throw the old Vanderbilt frisbee around for an hour or so. To put it delicatley, Jimbo could us a little more frisbee throwing practice. He claimed he was trying to get me more exercise (he definitely did that!) Then he claimed the wind was interfering with his throw. Anyway, you get the idea. My throws, on the other hand, were typically beautiful arcs of perfection as they hovered in the air before settling in Jim’s outstretched hand.
This weekend, Jim is in northern Idaho with his lovely fiance. Did you all get your ‘save the date’ cards for the July 18 wedding? If not, forget I mentioned it; guess they couldn’t invite everyone.
Anyway I finally figured out how to use my scanner, so I will end this post by treating you to the promised photo of the groom to be in his younger days. That’s right, it’s the Care Bear Tea Party! Enjoy.

“From an early age, Jim (or “James” as he called in those days) showed a great affinity for nature and especially for woodland creatures. He had a special bond with bears, particularly the wild and unpredicable Care Bears. Many a summer afternoon would find him hosting a tea party for his special ursine friends.”

Linc and Elliot Rendezvous at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

UltraBob — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:35:00 +0900

It was wet, it was cold, a great time was had by all!

Things change rapidly for a young man

UltraBob — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:55:01 +0900

Yesterday morning I was commenting to UltraMom and UltraDad over videochat that it appeared that Linc was going to skip crawling all together and go straight to walking.

Last night, Linc crawled across the floor to get a favorite toy, then tried and failed to do it again. After a while the desire to get over that toy overrode his need to think about how to crawl and he accomplished the task again.

Today Linc is crawling all over the place, and you can’t get him to stay down for a diaper change or anything. For the last two nights we’ve heard noises on the baby monitor to go upstairs and find him in a crawling position trying to get to a standing position.

It was a long time coming, but when he figured it out it was like flipping a light switch. Pictures and/or video when/if UltraGirl can capture some.