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Paul Kwinn's LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 4:39 pm |
I have turned 50
I got an awful lot of nice birthday wishes in LJ this year. Thank you all very much. Makes a person feel appreciated. I, being the introverted game nerd I am, wanted to have a little time to play some of the many games I've got lying around that somehow don't seem to get played. On the other hand, it's a natural event to spend some time with the family, especially given the fact that it falls on a family- and celebration-friendly holiday: Independence Day. What to do, what to do? I know: give myself a bonus day! Ergo, with the gracious cooperation of my fine, fine spouse Beckett, my birthday celebrations ended up being a two-day affair. Friday the 3rd was a solo game extravaganza for myself. ( Supreme Commander... )( C & C: Red Alert 3... )Then I switched over to good ol' World of Warcraft, which I'd been deliberately avoiding up til then (it seems to be about my only gaming outlet lately, so I wanted to try something different). Just for maybe an hour and a half. Finally, finished up the day with several levels of Plants Vs. Zombies. This is a casual game that I heard about during my job interviews at a few places, and decided to go over to Popcap.com and try it out. Awesome. Cutest zombie game you'll ever see. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cadhla, if you're not playing this, the World just may fall out of its orbit into the sun; please don't let that happen. Zombies want to... (can you guess?)... eat your brains. To get into your house to do that, though, they need to get past your lawn. And therein lies your salvation. You can plant many fascinating varieties of flora, starting with the Pea Shooter, to destroy the zombies before they get to your house. After each level, you get some new plant or other tool to fight the undead hordes: cherry bombs, cabbage-pults, and the obligatory giant Venus Fly-trap. Unfortunately, the zombies gradually gain different varieties too, able to get past some of your defenses: pole-vaulting zombies, bucket-head zombies, dolphin-riding zombies. Mini-games include zombie bowling (with Wall-nuts, of course), Whack-a-Zombie, and of course, playing the zombies trying to get to those tasty brains (Mmmmm!). Even goofier than Red Alert, as you can probably tell. And before you know it: Oops, 4 AM. Time for bed. Saturday, after I slept in a little, our friend Marc joined us. We had a nice lunch, chatted with Marc about our respective lives, then I wanted Beck to try Plants V Zombies. (I should probably mention that the boys have been glued to the game for the past week, so she was familiar with the premise.) She did enjoy it, although she said she didn't have time to like any games. Ah well, she got an hour's worth anyway. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in a game of Robo Rally, a great board game wherein you attempt to program robots in a race across a very busy (and dangerous) factory floor. Around 6:00, Marc left, and we started pulling things together for our trip to the fireworks in Milpitas (the nearest spot for fireworks). I was born on the 4th of July, man. I gotta have firewoks. We got there in time to get a decent patch of grass to sit on, ate our dinner while listening to the band, Riley and I played a little Frisbee, then the lights came down and the show began. I'm impressed, in recent years, how they always seem to have something new each year. I guess there must actually be fireworks developers out there working on new types of fireworks. Among things I don't remember seeing before were things that gave the impression of a giant sparkler in the air, shooting golden sparks in all directions along their trail, right from the launch. Also, some kind of rapid-fire, miniature-ish version of the big, exploding, archetypal fireworks, so that it looked like a miniature version of the finale they usually do, with 20 or so fireworks going off in rapid succession. Weee!! :{)} Just for my birthday? Gee guys, you shouldn't have. I declare myself well satisfied with my birthday. :{)} Thanks Beck. Current Mood:  grateful | | Thursday, May 7th, 2009 | | 2:18 pm |
Me spoose is cool
For any who may not be aware (and I believe you're a very rare beast on my friends list), my wife Beckett Gladney is a very talented visual artist. I use the somewhat generic-sounding term because if it's something that's cool to look at, then she's probably good at making it: drawings, paintings, photographs, knitted goods, sewn goods, et lengthy cetera. I had the opportunity to work with her on one and a half games (her doing art, and me doing programming) in my career, and it was a great joy. I can tell you that she's very well-respected in the artist community. Up until now, though, it was not so easy for most people to get ahold of her artwork. She used to display her wares in convention art shows, but stopped doing that many years back now. You could specifically commission an album cover or contract her for some game art. And a few lucky people have hired her for photography gigs. But none of these were cheap. Well, Beckett-art lovers (and will-be Beckett-art lovers), you now have a chance to grab little bits of her talent for extremely reasonable prices. Ms. Gladney has opened up an Etsy shop, and you (yes, I mean you) should check it out. Ergo: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7160505If you'd like to see more of her work (mostly photographs, but also some of her other media), you can look through her Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artbeco/[Brought to you by the "Yee-Haw That Beckett Gladney Sure is Cool" Foundation.] Current Mood: pleased | | Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 | | 9:40 pm |
Farewell, John Caspell
I'm shocked and sad to hear of the death of John Caspell. I first met John in Toronto. I'm not sure if it was my first FKO (1995) or my only Toronto Trek (a couple of years later), but I remember being very impressed with his music. I'm pretty sure he played a few songs with Jodi Krangle, which was a great musical pairing. I ran into him many times afterwards, mostly in Toronto. Then I was surprised and pleased to find him as Brooke's partner when I met her at OVFF 2006. I had the good luck to spend a weekend with both of them in a smaller setting at Pondfilk in 2007. I didn't know John well, but enjoyed his company, and loved and admired his music. He was a sort of a known friendly face at any filk event I'd walk into; I knew there'd be some good music. It's very sad to think that he won't be gracing filk those ways anymore. Hold out for a Taylor harp, John. They're worth it. Hugs and strength to those closer to him than I, to get through the loss. Current Mood:  distressed | | Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | | 8:26 pm |
Another note (har!) on music in church
In my previous entry, I mentioned playing music in church. I've done this several times before, and this month I ended up playing at two consecutive Sundays' services. The previous Sunday I' been asked to perform for the theme of "Saving Lives, Helping Families (Our Whole Lives program)". The music director didn't know what the "Our Whole Lives Program" was, so I asked for a little clarification, just so I could do something appropriate. She never got back to me. 3 days before the service, I got an e-mail from the worship associate running the service, asking what I'd be performing. I told her I'd been waiting for a description of the theme. So she pointed me to the Unitarian Universalist website for a description. The "Our Whole Lives Program" is all about healthy sexuality. Hmm. I did "God Bless the Artists" for my first song. And the second, well... If anyone had ever told me I'd be singing Christine Lavin's "Artificial Means" not only in a church, but as part of a service, I'd have laughed at them... (And, fortunately, the congregation laughed at/with me. And looked a little embarrassed as they did. But I got several positive comments afterwards.) (I prefaced with "Yin and Yang. Point and Counterpoint. The two sides of the same coin. In short, how can we reasonably speak of healthy sexual relationships without reference to an unhealthy one? Ergo, a convenient counter-example:") Current Mood: amused | | 8:11 pm |
| | Saturday, February 7th, 2009 | | 1:23 pm |
Conflikt
By the time we got to the convention, I had to run off straight away to a recording session with cadhla. Apparently the convention puts together a CD of performances by some of the attendees, and hands out copies to those who attend the Saturday brunch. So I needed to help out with guitar and vocal commentary while Seanan recorded two of her songs. It felt strange to have the car all unpacked by other people while I was elsewhere, but I could possibly get used to that, if required. ;{)} ( Let the good con roll... ) Current Mood: ecstatic | | Friday, February 6th, 2009 | | 10:29 pm |
Pre-Conflikt
I may be unemployed, but fortune can still shine on me in other ways... Beckett, the boys and I are headed home from a week and a half in the Seattle area, finishing with Puzzlebox's attendance at Conflikt 2. As we have with our past few gigs, we got together a week ahead of time, this time at trystel and tuto's house to practice and party. (I’m not sure which activity I enjoy more with Puzzlebox.) ( Here there be socialization and rehearsal ) Current Mood: ecstatic | | Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 | | 9:02 am |
Inaugural singer?
So, if you were going to be sworn in as leader of your nation, who would you have perform music at your inauguration? (Optionally, what might you ask them to perform?) Current Mood: hopeful | | Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 | | 2:00 pm |
Tumbling his way into the hearts of millions
Saturday was a family first: Casey participated in his first gymnastics competition. The hosting gymnastics academy was in Sacramento (actually, Rancho Cordova, an eastern suburb of Sacramento). We set out at 9:00 AM so that we could pick up Beck's mom (a Sacramento resident) on the way there. It turned out that she wasn't up for it, but Beck's sister Leslie and her spouse Ardyn were, so they caravaned over there with us. The gym was quite large, and it needed to be. There were somewhere around 100 participants, split up into two halves, each taking half the gym. Casey is "Level 4", which is the least-experienced level. There are 6 apparatuses: floor, pommel horse, vault, rings, parallel bars, and high bar. Any watchers of the Olympic gymnastics will be familiar with all these, although at Level 4 there are two minor differences: vault doesn't have a horse to bounce off of (they run, hit the springboard, then land on a mat), and pommel horse is split into horse and mushroom segments (the "mushroom" is a two-foot wide, short dome on a foot-tall pedastal, and this is where the spinning of one's legs in a circle happens, that you'd see more experienced gymnasts do on the horse.) Other than that, they work with the same equipment, doing routines that, while naturally simplified compared with those of Olympic athletes, are still expected to be very precise. They are expected to have correct balance, timing, postures, and to salute the judges before and after their performances. And yes, to stick their landings.  Well, the short story is that Mr. Casey Kwinn won 2nd place in floor exercises for his level and age group and 6th place overall (they gave out medals for 1st through 8th place), with a total of 5 medals. We cheered for him each time he was called up to the podium. Woooo!! :{)} 8 kids in each of 6 apparatuses, plus overall, plus the best team awards took a while.  (I'm not sure how many participants he was up against. There looked to be around 50 level 4's in his half of the gymnasium, with 3 age groups in that level, but I'm guessing there were more in his age group than the younger or older groups. So I'm guessing he was competing against 18-22 kids.) Beck wanted to take his picture outside of the gym with all his medals. He spent about 3 minutes trying to get them all turned around the right way and spread out so she could see them all. :{)}  Casey has told us before that he was "in it for the trophies", and it looks as though he's getting what he was after. :{)} Congratulations, Mr. Casey Kwinn! Current Mood: proud! | | Saturday, December 20th, 2008 | | 2:45 pm |
| | Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | | 3:15 pm |
Vehicular insight
"I'm glad I wasn't a tire on the car during the drive home; I would have had to do somersaults for 6 hours." --Casey Kwinn Current Mood: amused | | Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | | 9:40 pm |
Weekend with animals, gnomes, and filkers
Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes in the previous post (about my layoff). Support from friends makes things easier. :{)} A busy and good weekend. Saturday, Beckett had the day off, going off on her own (well, almost; she ended up taking the dog with her), leaving the men of the family to spend the day together. I'd planned earlier on making a trip to the park with the boys, taking along the dog, and trying out the remote-controlled helicopter that my brother gave me last Christmas. But by the time we got done with our morning shopping, it was raining, so we made alternate plans. After getting all the food put away, we went to see Madagascar 2 (good little movie). Then we borrowed a friend's WoW account (thanks, Marc!) so that all 3 of us could play together (Riley a gnome mage, Casey a gnome rogue, and me a dwarf paladin). That was good for a few hours of fun. We got ourselves out of the newbie zone. By then, Beck had returned home, and it was about time for dinner, so I let the boys play on for a while, as I went to make dinner (teriyaki chicken fajitas, my signature entree). We all ate, then there was a bit more playing of games before the boys went to bed, and Beck and I stayed up a little bit more to watch last week's ER on Tivo. Today we went to church (Unitarian Universalist), then came back and packed a few things into the car for an afternoon at the Bohnhoffs'. I was going to record supporting vocals on three of the tracks for Seanan's in-process, and the boys to play with their buddy Amanda. Beck kept an eye on the kids, showed them some crafts, knitted, and chatted with people. We ended the day with dinner at Seanan's favorite: Fresh Choice. Then, on the drive home, I called back a friend of mine (Chuck, who'd called earlier as we were on our way to the Bohnhoffs') who has a boy near Casey & Riley's age, and arranged to do another family day with them next Sunday. :{)} Wee! A nice weekend. Tomorrow, work on getting a job. Current Mood: happy | | Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | | 9:54 pm |
At Liberty
Well, dear readers, I have been subjected yet again to that all-too-common occurrence of my chosen industry (the video game biz): the lay-off. Yes, one week ago today, in fact (Thursday Oct 30). Completely out of the blue. And it turns out that the surprise part wasn't true just for poorly-connected introverts like me: I get the impression that it was kept very secret before the appointed day. 6% of Electronic Arts' workforce worldwide was laid off, apparently. The severance is decent, so I'm not immediately wondering how I'm going to keep a roof over our heads (although I need to start looking for a new job very soon). And it's still conceivable I could end up back at EA. The guy who originally hired me at the company (whom I'd known at a different company years before) was actually laid off then hired back just a few weeks later for a different project. I'm hoping that sort of thing can work out, since it would allow me to keep my seniority for things like vacation time. So I've been talking with some people. My resume is almost tweaked into up-to-date shape. I've been going through an online Java tutorial, to expand my skills a bit. And I'll be looking for prospects more seriously next week. But the timing wasn't awful: I got to spend Halloween with the boys, and their schedule was very busy indeed that day: they had parties in their classrooms, then a costume parade for the whole school in the playground, then back home for a couple of hours, then a little trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, then off to a Halloween party with some friends, then more trick-or-treating from there. A good deal. :{)} They both declared themselves pretty happy with the day. I've gotten to spend a little extra time with them the rest of the past week, too. A major plus. Current Mood: hopefulCurrent Music: Spot the Cat | | Sunday, October 19th, 2008 | | 4:45 pm |
Riley DMs
Four weeks ago, Mr. Riley Kwinn, at the ripe old age of 7, ran his first D&D adventure. As Dungeon Master, that is. Pretty cool. Beck and I had decided to spend a day of one-on-one time with the boys (something we do too rarely), and the boys remembered that it was Casey's turn with her and Riley's with me. So I thought it might be fun to help Riley set up a dungeon for Beck and Casey to play in. He was enthusiastic about it at first, then to my surprise, said that it sounded dumb, and he'd rather play his own character. I told him that was fine, that I thought I was offering him ice cream, but if he didn't think so, or didn't feel like ice cream, that was fine with me, and we could do something else. But then he started flipping through the Monster Manual, and he began to come up with ideas... So it was back on. We spent most of the afternoon going through the book and picking a consistent and appropriately-challenging set of creatures to be Riley's bad guys, then I set up character sheets for them, while Riley detailed the game story. And, as I knew would be the case, he had no trouble at all coming up with a story for the game; an evil plot by the denizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire. If anything, the plot was a bit grand for a one-night session with two players. :{)} But it had everything needed. After Mom and Casey returned, the boys wanted to play in the backyard for a while (it's kind of touching how quickly they get to miss each other). And I made dinner while Beck rested a bit. While I was in the kitchen, Riley came to help me and to talk gleefully about the adventure. In particular, he was so proud of his head bad guy. As he went on, I said to him "You realize that you're supposed to _lose_, right?" He opened his mouth as though to protest, hung there a few seconds, then said "Oh, all right..." :{)} Poor boy wasn't used to his carefully-built characters being on the losing end. Then we all ate and got down to D&D. Riley was the story-teller and decided what the NPC's did, while I helped with the rules. Dorf the dwarf fighter (Casey) and Kaylie the half-elf bard (Beck) found themselves walking into a village where some sort of disaster had obviously struck. Half of the homes were burnt or burning. The town's holy man, a druid (and former rogue) halfling named Greenie, asked our heroes if they'd be willing to help hunt down the fire elementals who'd ravaged the village. They agreed. So while the villagers put out fires and tended to their dead and injured, our now three heroes (and Greenie's loyal pet riding dog) set off into the forest. The trail was not hard to follow. Eventually, peeking around a bend in the road, they saw a cave with several small fire elementals milling about in front. Fortunately, Greenie had stocked up on Resist Energy spells, and laid 10 points of fire resistance on everyone. It used up all his 2nd level spells, but was a worthwhile magical investment. So the party jumped out from behind the trees and began firing arrows and crossbow bolts at the wicked flamers. There were 6 of the buggers, and let's face it, even at only 3 feet tall, a sentient mass of flames is dangerous. But the fire resistance helped a lot, and only Greenie's dog suffered serious damage. Inside the cave, they found two strange-looking creatures: 12 large spidery legs, but instead of a spider body, more of a reptilian head. They're called rasts, and they're weird creatures from Elemental Plane of Fire. (Riley had found these in the Monster Manual, and they were what started him thinking about a group of bad guys from the Plane of Fire.) What makes them tricky to fight is the fact that they fly and can briefly paralyze enemies with their gaze. That did draw the battle out for a bit, but the good guys prevailed. With all his minions dispatched, the boss finally took the scene: an adolescent efreeti. He was the youngest son of an efreet caliph (noble), sent to this part of the Prime Material Plane (the normal plane, where people and such live), to scout it for possible invasion. Riley even had this elaborate plan set up where the efreet would be using a massive heat beam to destroy a large section of the world. Of course, there's no way that the party would have known any of that, but better to have too much backstory than too little, eh? :{)} Well the boss man, with the interesting (and also unbeknownst to the party) name of Caboose, was naturally the toughest fight of the adventure. He had the "Quicken Spell-Like Ability" feat to apply to his Scorching Ray ability, meaning he could cast the scorching ray on the same round as he performed another action. Also, like the rasts, the efreeti could fly. The fire resistance once again helped, but he was wearing them down. In the end, unsurprisingly, our heroes prevailed. Ta-da! My boy is a DM. He's been pushing for Casey to try is hand at it, now. :{)} | | Monday, July 7th, 2008 | | 10:05 pm |
Birthday Boy
For any who might not have heard, I had a birthday last Friday, July 4th. Yup, I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. A 49-year-old one, now. I had a great day. My wife Beckett was kind enough to allow me to choose my day's activities. That started with a morning and early afternoon of gaming: some WoW, then "Sins of a Solar Empire" (sorry, it's just a real-time strategy game based in space; not quite as lurid as the title might lead you to believe), including lunch prepared by my wheelchair-bound sweetie (it must be Love, folks). Then my sister-in-law and her partner took on the boys (as they have quite a bit in the past month) and Beck and I went off to see "Hancock". Personally, I liked it a lot. I'd been very excited by the trailers, but I wasn't expecting a lot after the 36% rating in Rotten Tomatoes. But I liked it. Pretty much unforeseeable (but good) plot turn about half-way through made things exciting again. Then we went to Tony Roma's for dinner. Finally, we returned home, where I ended up decorating my own cake (Beckett's stomach was off), and we all had cake while watching fireworks on TV with Leslie, Ardyn, and our good friend Marc. Maybe I should do something big and mid-life-crisis-y for next year's half-century mark. Hmmm... Any suggesitons? Current Mood: jubilant | | Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 | | 3:22 pm |
In late Jan / early Feb, the boys invited their buddy Tyler over for a D&D session. Tyler's dad, Jason, is also a gamer, and had been playing a very simplified, figurine, combat-only version of D&D with him. (Tyler's mom is Alanna, and the two of them recently saved our bacon in real life by taking care of the boys when Beck hurt her knee.) So Casey & Riley were eager to introduce him to "real D&D". Tyler chose to play a half-orc cleric. The adventure began with our three heroes in a bar (go figure). There they met a man who told them a tale of an old mansion on a nearby hill, the wealthy, and eccentric, gnome wizard who had lived there, and the treasures that were said to lie within. The bartender told the old man to shut up, complaining that the people who went with him never came back, which was bad for the bar's business. Undeterred, he continued: telling our lads that he had inside information and could get them into the mansion by a back way, for only a modest fee.
Of course they accepted, and off they went to the hill outside town with their newfound friend. He took them around to the back of the hill, away from the road leaing up. And behind some bushes, hidden in a rock cliff face, was a keyhole to a secret door. They forked over their cash, and the old man pulled out a key from his shirt, tied to a string around his neck. He explained that he'd been a servant for the wizard before he'd disappeared. And while he lacked the courage to go in himself, he was neither too cowardly nor too loyal to let people into his old master's place for some coin. He opened the door, smiled, and bid them farewell, heading back to the bar. Our intrepid trio entered, finding themselves in a large room. Scattered around the room are bodies. It appears that the barkeep wasn't kidding about other people not returning. When they get 40 feet into the room, the door closes. When they get 60 feet in (and can see the far end of the room, the bodies begin to arise and attack. Tyler's character got a chance to shine right away: With one turn attempt, he manages to destroy 11 of the 16 skeletons. :{)} How to Pull a New Player Into the Game 101. The rest of the bony undead are quickly dispatched. Now the players notice a tiny wooden shed in one corner of the far wall. There is a flash of light in the shed, and out comes a gnoll skeleton. Not much of a fight. Two rounds later, another flash, and an ogre skeleton comes out. Slightly more dangerous, but soon dealt with. With a little nudging from the DM, they notice a pattern: every two rounds a skeleton 2 hit dice larger emerges. And they'd better destroy that little hut before they're overwhelmed by dragon skeletons. So Blink sets it aflame and Dorf chops at it while the cleric tries to hold off a large skeleton for a bit, and victory is had amongst the hut's hacked, charred ruins (and quite a pile of bones). They go through the stone door in the end wall, and find themselves in a room with high stone walls. Venturing further in, they find that there are no other doors, and the one they came in by slams shut. Looking high up, they can make out that the wall opposite the one they came in rises up maybe 80 feet, then leaves a 10-foot gap before the ceiling. Apparently their way out is to climb. Or perhaps to swim, since at that point a torrent of water begins pouring in on top of them and filling the room. Dorf, as it happens, is a good swimmer, but probably not good enough to stay alive long in plate armor. The cleric is likewise attired, and without benefit of swimming skill. Likewise the armor will make it very difficult to climb the wall. Dorf decides to try climbing the wall anyway, and makes a little progress while Blink helps the cleric out of his armor. But it's no good, as the dwarf lands with a splash. So Dorf gives in and removes his armor, just in time to give the incoming pirhanna a good bite at him. (Yeah: like Bugs Bunny, I'm a stinker.) Right about then, Blink realizes that he could use his much-loved monster-summoning spells to bring them some kind of flying mount. He manages to get the spell off, despite the itty-bitty fish with the big ol teeth, and a large bat appears. The bat carries them all to safety, one by one. (I believe Dorf swam back down for their left-behind armor.) So now they're on a stone balcony, with a pool full of carnivorous fish on one side and a room with a metal floor on the other. A ladder leads down to the metal floor, and a 10-foot tall, 3-foot wide metal cylinder is on the floor, toward the far end of the room. Proceeding cautiously down the ladder, they approach the cylinder. Which splits open, spilling gold and gems all over the floor the end. Yeah right. Actually, a humming noise fills the room and the cylinder begine to slowly sink into the floor. Slowly, a creature that Blink recognizes as a flesh golem is exposed. And once it's fully revealed, it attacks. And furthermore the humming grows progressively louder, until (every few rounds) all in the room are zapped with electrictiy through the metal floor, damaging the adventurers but healing the golem. Here's where the DM miscalculated. Even the relatively lowly flesh golem is probably more than a match for our heroes, without counting the possibly-clever-but-overpowered floor zaps. The party is running out of hit points and the players are running low on time before one of them has to go home. So lo! A secret door appears, high up in the wall, and out from it peers an elderly gnome. He orders the golem to return to his station, resets the cylinder and the zapping floor, and then comes down to join our boys on the floor. He says he is the gnome wizard of legend (and his voice is the same as the man from the bar, causing them to think this is actually a one-man operation). He says that the party did pretty well, but need some more experience before they're really ready for this place. He admits to a great fondness for setting up elaborate traps, and then seeing how well work, and how people deal with them. As he's explaining, he lead them out through another secret door, into the sunshine. Then he bids them farewell, and our group is done with their adventure, no richer, but more experienced for the trip. Can you say Deus ex Machina? I knew you could.
Current Mood: chipper | | Saturday, June 21st, 2008 | | 8:43 pm |
More D&D
OK, I believe I mentioned three more D&D adventures in Jan and Feb, yes? Next up was a surreal little jaunt. It involved only Riley and Casey, and them only one at a time. ( This way to the action... ) Current Mood: happy | | Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | | 11:50 am |
More "the knee"
Just a quick update to say that Beckett has been doing very well with physical therapy, and that she might be coming home today. The social worker at the facility is working with the insurance company to arrange to get the equipment she'll need (walker, wheelchair), and set up prescriptions and outpatient therapy for her. It's possible all the pieces won't fall into place until tomorrow, but we're still hoping for today. Woo! Mom's comin' home! Current Mood:  giddy | | Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 | | 11:51 pm |
The knee, part 4
Beck got transferred today (Tuesday) from the hospital to the rehab facility where she's going to get physical therapy for the next week or two. She continues to make good progress (made her way down the hall on both crutches and walker [not at the same time] at the hospital). The new place is... less than ideal. The staff seems very used to dealing with people who are not all there mentally. For example, they wanted to put a But hopefully they'll catch on to Beck's needs and competencies quickly. They also put her on a bed that wasn't electric (adjustable only by cranks at the foot of the bed) and wouldn't lay flat. While I was there this evening I helped replace the bed, so that's better now. And Beck does like the physical therapy staff that she's met so far, and that's probably the most important thing. Recovery continues. | | Thursday, June 5th, 2008 | | 11:48 pm |
The knee, part 3
Today (Thursday) we spoke with the new doctor who's taking over Beckett's case post-surgery. And we got a surprise: although the plan is indeed to release Beck from the hospital in the next day or two, they want her to go straight from there to a rehabilitation facility, where she will spend 1 or 2 weeks getting plenty of physical therapy. That does indeed sound like the fastest way to get her better, but she may get lonely there, without the rest of the family, although we'd visit her often, of course. We'll talk more with the doctor about it tomorrow, but the rehab facility does sound like it's probably the best plan. Also, Beck saw a physical therapist for the first time today. She wanted Beck to sit in a chair, which sounded challenging enough. But she also wanted her to get there by herself, by standing up. That, I thought, was very unlikely, and would only be achieved with screaming if it could be done at all. I'm here to tell you, folks, that today Beckett Gladney stood up on her good leg, with only some assistance from the PT in supporting the bad one while she did it. And it all happened without any screams. That bodes very well for her recovery, I believe. :{)} (She did not, as it turned out, sit in the chair, since standing with all the drugs in her system made her dizzy, and the PT didn't want to risk her falling down.) Tomorrow I'll work at home in the morning, visit Beck at lunchtime, then go on to work for the afternoon. Current Mood:  tired |
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