Pleurisy?

It has been suggested to us that Sheela's chest pain is ideopathic pleurisy. That is to say, fluid build up around her lungs that comes and goes rapidly with no identifiable cause and hurts like the dickens. I'll talk it over with Liz at work tomorrow, she is an RN and see if its worth calling the doctor over.

Sheela was sent home from school on Tuesday, she was having chest pain again so I took her to the doctor. Once again they were unable to identify a cause. It was not as severe as before.

Del Frisco's

After a soccer-filled, Saturday morning (the Hot Wheels finally won a game, or would have if we kept score) we took the kids to Farhana's for the night and went out on the town. We caught an early movie (V for Vendetta) and then went out to one of the two nicest restaurants in Dallas, Del Frisco's. I really love a good steak and this was probably the best one ever. We split a 34-ounce, long bone, Kobe steak and an incredible bottle of Henry Estates White Reisling. We finished the weekend with another pair of soccer games and a bonus Kindermusic class.

Underground Railroad

The second graders are escaping from slavery today via the underground railroad. They are dressed in hand-me-down clothes and carrying all of their wordly possessions (read as "a snack"). They will sneak off in groups traveling all the way from one end of the school to the other, guided by singing, where they are searching for the Canadian flag while trying to avoid the marshals. The marshals catch them by making eye contact, as long as the kids hide their eyes behind a banana leaf they should escape in time for a picnic lunch. They could hardly ask for a prettier day for their picnic, we should have brilliant sun and clear skies today. Unfortunately, it isn't actually warm.

Happy Birthday Grandpa-John!

We remembered to call John last night to wish him a very happy birthday. He got to talk to both kids (Sunil with a ton of detail on ALL of his latest advntures).

Kindergarten Roundup

It is official, Sunil has been registered for Kindergarten starting on August 7, 2006 at Anderson Elementary. Say it with me now "One drop off, one pick up". The world is a wonderful place.

Spring pictures are in

Ms DeWaters is on the right, Ms Holacka and Ms Streitmatter are on the left next to Sheela.

Loan Consultant

Yup, that's me. I'm an official Loan Consultant for Chardi Financial. That is the Mortgage Brokerage that Sid is buying. My function will be to pass along potential borrowers to someone licensed to help them..... but I can't wait to pass a card to my boss. Every few months he asks me about the rental protperties and how close I am to retirement. I like to keep him just a little bit nervous.

Pediatric Cardiologist

The official appointment was today. Sheela does, in fact, have a heart murmur and there is, in fact, no reason for concern. It did not even rate "keep-an-eye-on-it" status. They repeated the EKG and did a sonogram. The sonogram was pretty cool.

Happy Birthday Opa!

I did remember to call Dad last night for his birthday. Actually it was a Skype call which should have been even better but neither of us could get our cameras to work. Still, it was nice to get caught up.

Chalk Plantation

The kids planted a garden yesterday. The sign labeling it as a "Chalk Plantation" blew away during the night however I snapped a picture on my way by this morning. These are sticks of sidewalk chalk that were left out to soak in the rain over the weekend and are no longer good. This was as good a use as any for them I guess. I can't wait to see what grows.

The campers lived

Sid and the kids had a great time in Arkansas. Sunil and Sheela both earned their Junior Ranger badges. They managed hiking, boating and fishing before the rain started. They also went to one of the Hot Springs and took the duck tour. Here is a picture of Sunil standing under his bed in the camper, and another of the camper in our driveway. Luckily the camper didn't leak until the last night, and then it leaked only in the kitchen area over the linoleum floor and not in the beds. Hopefully the rain will let up today and we will be able to set it up one more time so that we can clean it out really well before we take it back to Brenda and Jeremy.

Justice

Ms. DeWaters' class lead the morning spirit rally at school today. The topic of this week's rally was: Justice. In the picture, Sheela is the blue blob holding up the "S" (third letter from the left - trust me.)

19 Years

Sudhir and I started dating 19 years ago today. That should seem like a long time.... but it doesn't. I wouldn't change a thing.

Rainy Days

The rain held off until late last night but we've been getting a very thorough soaking ever since. My niece Seema is playing in the State basketball tournament here this weekend. They won their first game this morning so we went out catch the next game. They won in the last 0.9 seconds of the game on a rebound from a missed free-throw. It was very dramatic. Unfortunately the other team contested the match based on a screw up on the time clock at two minutes to go in the fourth period. So instead of being done for the day Seema had to drive back up there to re play the last two minutes of the game. If they won (again) they will play two games tomorrow. If they lost then they played another game already today and have one more tomorrow. They haven't called yet to tell us how it went.

I talked to Brain and Tracy over Skype today. Both the audio and the video worked this time! It sounds like they could get some rain today too but they might get to enjoy the day a little bit first.

I need to go get ready, it's girl's night out. Beckie, Brenda, Cindy and Amy are meeting me up at Joe's Crab Shack for seafood and drinks. Maria couldn't get her babysitter lined up so we are running one short. We may catch a movie later or we may just sit and talk. Traditionally, we get together once a month for our birthday's from April-August. This is a bonus night since the kids are out of town.

Hot Springs National Park

Sid and the kids have gone off on their spring break camping trip. They drove up to Hot Springs this morning. They called to tell me that they've arrived safely and some how its my fault that they are one bathing suit short. Ha! He's an adult, he'll work it out. The camp site is over looking the lake and they've already purchased their fishing license.

I've planned some nights out with the girls and some general housekeeping to keep me busy. What I didn't plan on was the work backlash from Lynn's death. So I'm working late (and much harder than normal). Our ISO 14385:2000 training expires at the end of May and we have to upgrade to ISO 14385:2003. Lynn has been working on this for quite sometime but she didn't disseminate the information. We need to complete one year of work in two months. I've also promised my boss that I would pick up a few other larger projects to free him up. I think that this is the third night I've worked late in the last two years. It's been nice but now I guess I have to make up for it.

Memorial Service Today

We are having a memorial service at work today for Lynn Stimpson and Linda Sawyer. Both women worked here in the Quality for over 15 years and will be sorely missed. After the service we will be planting trees outside in their honor.



This is picture of Lynn was taken on an Alaskan cruise a few years back and the other is Lynn and Andrea from our company Holiday party this past November. I haven't found any pictures of Linda.

Ides of March

Trivia based on my "word of the day email". Julius Caesar was assassinated 2050 years ago today (if you ignore changes to the calendar).

The ides are the 15th day of March, May, July and October but the 13th day of all of the other months.

Norbert.....

Here is a picture of the kitten that we called Monster. He and Jojo are very close to each other in size and their paws are still huge compared to their bodies. These are going to be very large cats. When he went to live with Nancy he was the size of the remote control.

Shaving cream

Sunil's friend Travis spent the night on Saturday. They amused themselves by shaving, again and again.

Fondue weekend.....

After Sheela's game today we came home and made a three course fondue dinner. It took us nearly three hours to eat but it was worth every minute. We tried veggie eggrolls for the first time. They worked out very well.

Sheela's game was pretty good. They lost 4-2, but the opponents were a year older (we'll get a lot of that this year) and the wind scored one of their goals. I like the games a lot more when they are close.

We borrowed a pop-trailer from some friends. Sid is going to use it when he takes the kids camping next week. The weather is still unpredictable around here. It was at least 80 degrees today and gorgeous. I hope it stays this nice all week.
While we were picking up the trailer, we got to visit with Jojo (the kitten we called Belle). It turns out Belle was a boy and not a girl, oooppps. The point is now moot but I'm sure I'll hear about it for years to come.

and we got to watch Brenda and Sprite practice their Frisbee routine for their next competition.

They had to work extra hard to because it was very windy and they aren't used to the heat.

Spring

What a beautiful morning, well actually it was cool and overcast for the soccer games this morning which was even better. But it is beautiful now. I went out and trimmed the hedges around the front of the house. I'm using the manual trimmers because the electric ones freak me out when they get dull... they start catching and jerking. I just know I'm going to flay open my shin. The problem is that the manual clippers are dull too. So my hands are shaking and I can hardly type or drink my Coke. Also I ran out of steam halfway through the redtip. The redtips were the huge overgrown bushes at the corners of the house. Sid whacked one of them down to size last year but there were birds nesting in the other and I wouldn't let him touch it. Now we have one overgrown redtip on one side and half an overgrown redtip on the other.... when Sid gets home I'm going to try to talk him into whacking them both down to size.

BTW - The girls won their game this morning (but it was actually close), and the boys played their best ever (but still didn't score a goal). Honestly, the boys came very close more than once but their aim just wasn't true.

Another tragic day

My friend Lynn passed away yesterday. She fought lung cancer for two years. She woke up coughing, ruptured her lung and bleed out before EMS arrived. She'd just been in to work the day before leading a "Meet and Greet" with the regional FDA office. She was one of the most interesting people I've ever known and I'm really going to miss her.

Open House

Last night Sheela took us up to the school to tour her classroom, the computer lab, the gym, music room, etc. We actually went late (after soccer) so we didn't get to see everything that she wanted to show to us. For the most part we've seen it all before but we did go through all of her work from this year, take a run through the lost and found, and a quick trip through the book fair. I bought her a new dictionary, her old one was better but its been gone for at least six months and I've given up.

"Big A** TV Day"

Sid brought home the TV today. Sunil is watching Shrek 2. Right now it is in front of the entertainment center, but something has to go.

Process Validation

I just completed a three day long training class on the FDA's new approach to process validation. We sent 25 people from our company to the class, actually I guess we brought the class to us. In either case the class was excellent. We came out bursting with new ideas and a strong desire to revamp our whole system. As soon as we got back to the office, my boss had me unload most of my current projects in an effort to dive in completely. Unfortunately, there were at least three things going on that I don't want to get rid or that I'm too tied into to pass off. I'll work them in somewhere.

Jewel of the Seas

We have officially booked a Royal Caribbean cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. We will go in November along with the kids, Dad and Eileen, Karl and Luke and their families. I'm pretty excited about it. We will leave from Ft. Lauderdale go on to Key West, Cozumel, Costa Maya, George Town and then back to Ft. Lauderdale. The kids will both miss one week of school but it wont kill them (Sheela is convinced that it might).

We started to go for a cheap inside (no view) cabin, but for only a little bit more we could get one with a tiny balcony and an extra 40 feet of floor space. We looked a little farther and found out for just a few more dollars we could get two inside rooms with no view and a lot more floor space. So that's what we are doing. I'm sure the kids aren't supposed to have their own room but they are right next door and I'm thinking they can handle it.

Of course the day we decided to go ahead and book the tickets was the day that Dr. Sharma decided he should take us all on a cruise this year for a family reunion with Sid's siblings. Sid wont let us do two cruises in the same year. Bummer. I though it was a good plan.

Spring Season

Well we kicked off the Spring soccer season on Saturday and it looks like we are picking up where we left off last Fall. The boys got trounced soundly and the girls did a fair amount of trouncing of their own. Sheela scored at least five goals of her own and set Claire up for at least three more. They were not the only ones scoring for us.

Sunday we went for a family bike ride up to Celebration and then to go get haircuts. Poor Sunil still has a bike with 10" tires so he has to work awfully hard to ride very far. He will get a new bike for his birthday and we will pass then one on along to another friend with a small boy. The weather was pretty dreary while we were out. It did end up being a beautiful day but by then Sunil had fallen asleep on the lunch table and Sheela had gone to play with friends. I spent some time reading in the hammock instead of going back out to ride.

The second graders came alive as statues today.

Each one dressed up as a famous American (except for Darius who dressed up as King Darius) and arranged themselves on the school lawn. The kindergarteners, first graders and parents walked around and brought them to life by pushing their buttons. The living statue would then explain who they were and what they'd done to make them famous. Sheela was in the Mia Hamm section with the other Mia Hamms. It was a very strange collection of fame.

Bowling Tournament

I went bowling after work last night with the IS department from work. There are just enough real bowlers around here to make it respectable, the rest of us just had a really good time. I did manage two decent games including a new personal best (still only a 133). I did manage to get a turkey. For those of you that don't bowl that would be three strikes in a row. I've actually done that before but I usually balance it out with gutter balls.

Skype

Well we reinstalled Skype last night. Its a new version since I loaded it last. While I was still trying to find my way around I called Brian. He answered so fast that I hadn't even figured out what I was doing yet. I knew I couldn't actually talk to him, we broke the microphone and haven't installed the camera. I wasn't actually expecting him to answer. Hew was a good sport about it though and eventually Sid and Brian got to do some instant messaging (I went back to my book).

Keep an eye on your kids while you shop....

X-rays

I love X-rays. They look cool and the skeleton is very pretty. I never had any desire to study medicine or surgery but I certainly appreciate the complexity and interactions that make us work.

Sheela and I went for a nice long walk last night and we were talking about many things including x-rays. She did not get to see her chest x-ray. So I'm trying to find a way to get her back to the Dr's office so we can look at it. It might be as simple as stopping by and asking to take a look.

Eclectic Day

I love days like today. I started my work day by reviewing old X-rays, CT scans and MRIs looking for a viable pool of patients with intact intact distal radii. This was harder than normal as most of the patients were in the hospital with upper extremity fractures. Out of 60 I ended up with 25 candidates. If we are lucky the hospitals will still have the electronic files of the MRIs and CT scans and will be willing to part with them (or copies of them). With the changes to the HIPPA laws that may not happen. But if it does then I can try to find a company that will use their software to convert the data to CAD models of the bones which our R&D department can then use for some design modifications that they have in mind.

Shortly after I finished that I spent an hour with a woman with very small feet validating a foot pump that is made by one of our sister companies. For reasons that escaped me they sent us the smallest size unit to test. I'm hoping that we get to take over the manufacturing of the unit later this year.

From there I went back in to the warehouse to set up a plan for charging our PDAs while they are still on the shelf. It seems if we leave them back there too long with out charging the custom program gets dumped. Oops!

Then I did the paperwork to release a product line expansion to our new bone substitute product line and had a meeting to discuss the changes needed to the shelf life. The product was made with only a one year shelf life and that doesn't give us enough time to turn it. We are going to need to bring it back and have it reprocessed.

Then I worked on gathering examples of our quality records. We are partnering with a software company to look at a unified quality system for our internal records. But first we have to put together a pretty strong business case for why its worth the money. Its going to be a lot of money.

I even managed lunch with a friend from the R&D side of the house. This always gives me some more insight in to what is going on around me (I don't always notice the big picture). We went to a faux 50's diner called "Bel Aires and Burgers". The burger was excellent and the drive pleasant. Its back in the 80s today and beautiful again.