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.