Playhouse Disney

Well, the severe weather never did materialize last night, which was good news.  The cold I had was still around, but it didn’t matter as I bought tickets for Playhouse Disney at the BJCC at noon today.  I purchased the third balcony (cheapest) seats for $15 last night because I figured we would be able to “move up” or upgrade our seats once we arrived.  Sure enough, much of the second tier had open seats, so we ended up sitting in the middle of the very front row – great seats.  Ben was just absolutely amazed because he did not know what to expect or really what was going on.  When the lights dimmed to start the show, Ben was more scared than excited and was quiet for most of the performance.  The show went on for about 40 minutes, had a 20 minute break, then finished up with another 20-30 minutes.  I just wonder how Ben will recall the show in the coming days, especially tomorrow when he watches any of the shows on Disney (i.e., Little Einsteins, Tigger and Pooh, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, or Handy Manny).  I think Ben had the most fun anytime Mickey Mouse was on the stage and led the crowd in the “Hot Dog” dance.  I stood up holding Ben and was moving his arms and legs for him because Ben was like a statue staring out at the stage during the entire performance.  We had a pretty good time, though.  We took a few pictures just before the show began and afterwards outside the BJCC.  My favorites were the ones taken just outside the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, which is located right next to the BJCC.  Jet will have some of her Thai friends over for dinner tonight to wrap up a very good day.

Ben’s Surgery

We got the news earlier in the week that there was an opening for Ben to have his teeth “fixed” and we jumped at the opportunity.  The alternatives we were given were to wait until we got back from Thailand or to have the procedure done in Thailand.  What it came down to was that we simply wanted it to get done.  We were told to arrive at Children’s hospital in Birmingham at 5:45am, but since it was raining outside, we decided to leave just a little earlier than we expected just to be safe.  We left the house at 4:00am and arrived at about 5:15am and were the second ones there in the waiting room.  Lucky for us, Ben was the first patient taken for the day, which meant that we would be one of the first to leave.  They put Ben to sleep at 6:30am and the procedure took about 30 minutes or so to complete.  Ben was back in the outpatient room with Jet and I by 7:30am.  The doctor/dentist ended up just giving Ben six fillings for his cavities and a thorough cleaning.  The doctor also warned us that his back molars were coming in, so perhaps that is why Ben had his fever last weekend.  Regardless, the nurses said that Ben was a real trooper and didn’t cry or complain once before or after the procedure.  A little after 8:00am we were in the car and heading back home.  Ben slept the entire way home and ended up sleeping until 11:30am after we got home.  Once Ben woke up, he was his usual self, running around and having a good time.  By 3:00pm, though, he crashed and has been sleeping since (a little over an hour), which is why I am able to post right now.  Tomorrow we are planning to go back to Birmingham to see the Disney Playhouse show at the BJCC, so that should be an interesting tale.

Lots of things happening elsewhere.  Congratulations Stephie and Scott with the arrival of Baby Christiana.  Jet and I can’t wait to meet her in person, but we were sure glad to see the pictures so soon from Sandy on Facebook and the e-mail we got from you.  Speaking of Sandy, hopefully her trip to Alaska is continuing as planned.  I guess you were a real trooper too for sleeping in the Minneapolis airport overnight, but I am sure that the trip will be well worth it.

We are expecting to get a couple rounds of severe storms tonight, perhaps capable of producing tornadoes, so it could be a real interesting evening.  I have already spoken to Sup and Linda to keep our ears posted for any sirens in case I sleep through any overnight.  We have gotten quite a bit of rain down here over the past two days too.  I guess the drought is over, even though I saw that we are still three inches under our average for this time of year in the newspaper this morning.  At least the weather looks like it will be super in the coming week so that Sup and I can get back to training for the Nashville marathon.

Back At Home

Just got back at home from Atlanta after a couple of exhausting days.  Ben was sick the past few days and finally got better yesterday (Sunday).  Unfortunately, Jet came down with a nasty bit of food poisoning – well, at least we think it was.  I was ready to go back to JSU today and get some work done, but Jet was in no condition to drive to Atlanta today to pick up Sup from the airport, even though Jet said she was feeling better.  Sup had no problems on the flight but he was tired and slept most of the drive back to Alabama.  The only things he did say (before he slept) were that it was very hot in Thailand right now (over 100 degrees every day) and that his friends and family thought he wasn’t eating because he had lost so much weight over here.  Sup has had plenty of Jet’s cooking, so he hasn’t been starving – it’s been our training for the marathon (almost 1 month exactly from today) that has gotten Sup into shape.  Anyways, after a full day of driving, I am staying in Oxford and working from home today while Sup, Jet, and Ben sleep.  The weather is still great here (mid 70’s), but we are supposed to get some rain perhaps as early as Wednesday.  At least everyone appears to be healthy now so that we can perhaps enjoy some of the weather.

Spring Break

Well, the start of the week turned into a really good spring break.  The first few days early in the week I caught more sleep than I had all of last week combined.  It was good that I caught that sleep because the last few days I haven’t gotten much.  Jet took Ben to the dentist to check out his teeth on Thursday morning, and it turned out that Ben has a few cavities and will likely need surgery to repair them.  We will likely try to have something scheduled before we go back to Thailand, so hopefully that goes well.  On Thursday night, almost at midnight, Ben walked from his room and stood in the doorway of our room and woke us up.  He had a fever of 103 and he didn’t get much sleep that night.  Neither did we.  We sat Ben down in our bed first and gave him some Motrin, but before it kicked in, he kept on saying “hurt, hurt” and pointing to his head and stomach.  It was the saddest thing I had ever heard from Ben.  Well, for the next two days, Ben has had his fever come and go – much like it used to every month before he turned two.  If it holds true to form, sometime tomorrow (Sunday) evening it should pass.  That means another night of little sleep.  With Jet working the past few nights, it has just been me and Ben 24-7, which has been fun when his fever hasn’t gotten the best of him.  Ben enjoys kicking balls back and forth to each other and he also enjoys catching the balls that I toss to him (at a close distance, say five feet).  The funnest thing he does is line up two balls next to each other, run up to them, and with both feet (almost in a hopping fashion) kick both balls at the same time.  It is quite a sight to see and it brings a smile to all of our faces.  Well, I hope this fever is on its way out because my spring break almost is.

Rainy Days And Mondays

Well, we are back from Charleston and we have had mostly rain since our return on Saturday night.  There doesn’t appear to be any rain in the forecast for the next 7 days, though, and with temperatures back in the 70’s, we will be just fine.  The conference went well as Jet and Ben had a great time with Amber and Olivia.  I gave all three presentations on Friday, so it was a pretty busy day, but it allowed me to relax for the next day before we left for home.  On Thursday night at a little after 7:00pm (8:00pm local time), we went out to eat together.  We drove around for a short bit until we found an open parking spot (street parking) right across the street from a Louis Vuitton shop and right in front of the Old Town Restaurant.  We figured it was fate so we ate gyro platters there, which tasted pretty good – maybe because we were so hungry at the time.  We also ate together for dinner at the conference reception on Friday night at the hotel and at the conference close lunch on Saturday.  All of the food was delicious.

I was elected to be the program chair for the conference next year (2010), which will be in Atlanta, and is a pretty big commitment.  The role of the program chair is primarily collecting all of the papers that are submitted to the conference, getting lots of people to review those papers, evaluating which papers are accepted, and getting final drafts from all accepted papers.  Since Atlanta is such a short distance from us, I have also agreed to help the conference chair work on the details of selecting a conference hotel and various other duties – perhaps as early as next weekend visiting hotels and getting quotes.  I want to be involved in this process as the following year (2011) I will take on the role of conference chair.  The year after that (2012) I will take on the role of president.  So it really is a big commitment, but it is one that I am looking forward to.

Not much happening this week as it is spring break.  I have a lot of grading and work to catch up on, so I will likely spend a few days at school, but hopefully get a chance to get a bit of extra sleep in.  I have a visit with the dentist scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3:00pm that I am not looking forward to.  While I was taking a bite chewing gum on Friday, it felt as if the filling in one of my back left teeth had come out and was quite painful for about 3 seconds.  After spitting the gum out, I did not notice any difference in my teeth – perhaps it came out and went back in?  Is that possible?  Anyways, I hope the dentist will be able to fix whatever that was tomorrow.  After all, it has been at least 10 years since I had those fillings first put in.  Don’t they have a shelf life?

Oh yeah, here are some pictures.  It has been about a month since I last posted some – sorry!  But then again, there haven’t been too many comments on here lately either – the road goes both ways!  Enjoy.

In Charleston

I have a few minutes before I have to give my first presentation, so what better time to give an update?  We left Oxford, Alabama yesterday at 8:30am so that we had enough time to drop Sup off at the airport for his flight back to Thailand over the spring break.  We drove in Amber’s (Jet’s friend) SUV and her daughter, Oliva.  With Jet and Ben also in tow, there were 6 passengers for 5 seats.  I decided to sit in the very back of the SUV, squished between the luggage, until we reached the Atlanta airport to drop Sup off.  After that (and shaking off my legs and feet that had fallen asleep), I drove the rest of the way.  The drive was not too bad as we arrived in Charleston at around 3:30pm (4:30pm local time).  We passed an outlet shopping mall just as we arrived in Charleston, so Jet and Amber took the kids with them after we checked into our rooms to leave me alone to finish up my presentations for today.  They got back at around 8:00pm (local time) and we all headed out for dinner at a Greek-Seafood restaurant a few blocks from the hotel.  We had the Gyro plate, which came with a Greek salad and a Greek-inspired chicken soup, which were all delicious – perhaps it was because we were all so hungry.  After dinner, we went right back to the hotel where Jet showed off her new (and very cheap) Coach purse, and then it was time for bed.

We are in Charleston for the Southern Association of Information Systems (SAIS) conference where I had three research papers accepted.  Lucky me (no, really), I get to present all three today (Friday).  While I am busy here at the hotel, Jet will travel with Amber and the kids around town for shopping and the sights.  Amber has relatives in the area and has been to Charleston several times before, so they should have a busy day planned ahead.  I think I overheard them talking about going to the beach in the morning (it was only 70 degrees yesterday and is supposed to be much cooler today) and the aquarium at some point.  The conference ends tomorrow after lunch and we are planning on returning back to Alabama after it is over, so we should be back home sometime Saturday night.  With spring break ahead for the next week, it would be nice to get a break.  Unfortunately I had major projects due in all of my classes yesterday, so I have a lot of grading to catch up on once I get back home.  Maybe there will be a little time for some rest and relaxation – after all, it is spring break.

Feeling Alright

After lots of rest during the week, Jet is now feeling much better.  We are quite thankful that both Ben and I did not come down with the same illness.  I am glad that I had the extra time to spend with Ben over the past few days.  He is just one funny guy to watch and you always wonder what he will say next.  The weather was just beautiful yesterday (77 degrees and sunny), so after Sup and I did another 10 mile run at JSU, we got back home, I cut the grass, and then washed and waxed my car with Ben.  I would scrub my car down and then let Ben spray it down with the hose.  I am surprised that Ben never turned the hose on me!  One thing that I did find out is that Ben is terrified of bees.  There are very large bumble bees that fly around this time of year and they are completely harmless.  In past years, Donald has actually grabbed them in mid-air (just to prove that he could) and then toss them away without getting stung.  As soon as Ben saw that bee he started shouting “Bee!  Bee!  Bee!” and insisted that I hold him.  I wonder what was the cause of that?  We haven’t seen any movies with bees in them.  And as for cutting the grass, I got 7 full bags of the stuff which is nearly a record (9 is the most I ever cut at one time), which was surprising since our lawn is still brown and dry.  I guess you never know how much the stuff can still grow over the winter.  Jet’s birthday is coming up, so there are a few plans to have guests over for dinner and cake.  The weather is going to be so good again today, perhaps we’ll just grill up some brats and spend much of our time outside.  My mouth is watering just thinking about the brats.

Quarantine

Jet began feeling bad on Monday afternoon and complained of a headache, fever, and chills through the night.  She felt so miserable when she woke up that she could barely get out of bed.  I gave Ben his breakfast, walked him over to Donald and Linda’s, then went driving around looking for an immediate care clinic to look at Jet.  We got into one just after 9:00am and although they immediately suspected the flu, that test came up negative and her test for strep throat came back positive.  Jet got an anti-biotic shot and I brought her back home with the instructions to sleep as much as she could for the rest of the day.  I spent the rest of the day with Ben at Donald and Linda’s while Jet recovered by herself.  Jet told me that she was feeling better this morning, but I will leave from school early today so that she can get some more rest and recover.

We did get some snow on Sunday – although I can’t say how much.  Well, we had enough that about an inch or so stayed on the grass for about 1 hour after it stopped snowing.  It snowed pretty good though from around 7:00am – 11:00am and likely had a few inches fall.  There is still snow in the mountains around here, so that tells you that it hasn’t been that warm around here since Saturday.  No worries though, we will be in the 60’s today and 70’s is forecasted for the next 10 days.  We will be off to Charleston, South Carolina next weekend (leaving Thursday, returning Saturday) for a conference, so it looks like we will have great weather at least until then.

Snow Possible?

The weather can be pretty strange down here in Alabama from time to time.  It was in the 50’s and 60’s earlier in the week until we finally got back into the 70’s the last few days.  It started to rain on Friday morning and it didn’t quit until early Saturday morning, giving us about 4 inches of rain.  The tornado watches were out again on Friday afternoon, but none for our county.  There were reports of some tornadoes that touched down nearby Birmingham (60 miles to the West of us) and nearby Auburn (90 miles to the South of us).  So what does the weather have in store for us today?  Well, they have predicted 4 inches of snow, 1 inch falling during the early morning and 3 more during the day on Sunday.  I will believe it when I see it.  As of 6:00am this morning, it is just rain falling.  It actually has been about 1 year since we had any snow that stuck to the ground.

It was a rough week running last week.  Sup and I had been running 5 miles at a time, 4 days a week, but since the Nashville marathon is quickly approaching, we started to increase our distances.  We ran 7 miles on Wednesday and 10 miles on Friday morning (just before the rain came).  I felt great running on Wednesday, but awful running on Friday.  How am I going to make it for 26+ miles?  We usually run at a pace of 8:45 – 9:00 minutes per mile (not record breaking by any means), but I had slowed to nearly a 10:00 minute pace for the last two miles on Friday.  My legs felt like I was wearing concrete boots, and instead of relaxing and listening to the songs on my iPod, I was instead focusing on my pace and distance left to travel, which just made things worse.  My legs were very sore on Saturday morning, in particular the outer part of both of my knees felt very tight and uncomfortable, but after lots of stretching during the day, they felt much better.  If it wasn’t for the rain outside right now and snow predicted for later today, I might be willing to have another run.  But then again, why should a little snow stop us?