The Good — working from home, seeing more of my family on a daily basis, not losing 2 hours a day on the road
The Bad — Not being able to socialize. I missed being with people. Zoom get togethers were OK at first, but the novelty wore off and people stopped coming.
We had a good holiday with family and friends. My daughter came in from MSU and brought her boyfriend along. They spent most of the week before xmas with us. They're relatively serious, he's going to spend January with her while on break from school (Oberlin does this Winter Semester thing where they go off and do something interesting for January). She spent most of the time baking and he spent most of the time on the computer. In between we hung out a bit (but I did have to work) and played some games.
Xmas eve I made dinner for the family, which included Laura's uncle and aunt, her two cousins and their kids. I made a 10lb rib roast, which was fantastic, mashed potatoes, and green beans. We had lots of other sides and desserts as well. XMas day was spent at my mom's with my sister and her husband Marc, my cousin Cheryl and her husband as well her her two adult sons. Also a large number of Marc's family came along. It was a nice gathering with the bonus of forcing us to clean up my mom's basement so we could get that many people into the house.
Good news for Laura. Her colonoscopy revealed nothing singificant. She goes back for another check in 3 years. More regular checks for cancer in general though.
Finally, began planning to add a full bathroom in the basement. We've wanted to do it for a long time, but there were other priorities. I'm in the process of moving a support column so that it's out of the walk path at the end of the stairs. I poured the footing a few weeks ago and today I jacked up the main support beam and moved the column out. I have a temporary jack in place where the new column will go to be sure the footing will support the weight. There are two other jacks in place and lightly loaded next to it to be sure everything is fine. Tomorrow I'll order the column from the nearby steel fabricators.
So, it turns out the LJ only shows the past two weeks of entries from friends on the friends page. Anything beyond that requires looking directly at the friend's journal.
Short version: It's been rough and good all at the same time.
Long version:
Laura's cancer was in a bad spot. They ended up having to remove most of her colon leaving her with a big hole in her belly. Overall she's doing very well with this major change in life plans. Most days she says it's better than the alternative. She goes in for a 1 year colonoscopy checkup this week. Expectation is that they won't find anything.
Laura's daughter is no longer the A student she was. She's slipped a lot over the past year. Not sure if this is related to her having a long term boyfriend, but it probably is.
Natasha is doing great. She got accepted to the graduate forensic science program at Michigan State U and just completed her first semester with a 4.0. She also has been living in her own apartment for the first time. It's nice and quiet and very grown up. She's also in a LTR with the guy she started seeing at Oberlin. They are planning to move in together next summer after he graduates.
Alex is doing great in school. He's still playing bass for orchestra, jazz bad, and pit. He applied for and got accepted to Wayne State University along with a nice scholarship. He's planning on astronomy, but time will tell if he sticks with it.
I'm doing fine. No health issues to speak of, just the usual rounds of watching what I eat, keeping up with exercise and trying to lose 20 lbs. I'll check in next year and see how I'm doing with that. I'm not very happy with my job, but I'll stick with it for now since the benefits are good. The commute is killing me, but it should get better next year when Alex is in a dorm and I'm not driving all the way to Grosse Pointe from here. I'm looking for something closer to home, but so far nothing.
I've been keeping myself really busy with a kitchen remodel that I started in February. It's pretty much done with the exception of some under cabinet lights and a small amount of trim. Next up will be a full bathroom in the basement.
Ravengirl reminded me that this thing exists. Still find it weird that I only see 20 entries in my feed. I tried changing it to more but that didn't help. Must be something about my account level. I may look into that more. Hope all is well with you.
Still working on the house. Replaced the doors to the two upstairs bedrooms this weekend. The old ones were just those slab style ones from the 70s. We got some inexpensive 6 panel style to replace them. Of course the size was very odd and I had to work some magic to make them fit, but they do and they look great. Painting them is next on the list. Then I need to finish up the entry door and the rear door. Just need weatherstripping on both and then use some Formby's on the front door to freshen it up. Hope to get to working on the electrical in the basement this weekend as well. So much to do...
Next week I'll be next to O'Hare for a couple of days for a meeting. Stayed there last year at the Aloft hotel. Pretty nice place.
Laura is doing OK, feeling a bit more like her old self. Only a few weeks left until surgery so we're taking advantage of the feeling good as much as possible without exhausting her. Oh, I've been down with a cold for the past week and a bit, so that totally sucked. Hope I'm 100% tomorrow, but it seems like it might hang in a bit longer.
Kids are all doing well. Natasha is in her senior year of college, did well on the GRE and so she's looking for a master's program. Alex is doing well in school, but not stellar. All A's and B's, but he keep slipping up in his Chem class. Rebecca is doing great, all A's as usual. Makes me worry sometimes though that she's pushing herself too hard. She studies every night for hours and hours.
So, regarding my post the other day...Laura said she was a bit upset initially, but admitted that she is partly to blame since she had all the information. She says I'm the best husband ever and that this was really very minor and that she's already past it.
