Student Visionary of the Year


Floyd's Student Visionary of the Year Campaign benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has come to a close. His team, "Cancer's Collapse," took first place in the Golden Gate chapter. Thank you to everyone who contributed. You can read about the gala and more in this blog post.


Dad Diddly (gar)-Office

Blogging tunes: none.

No tunes right now because the studio monitors in the garoffice are disconnected. Alex is coming by today to fix/redo the East shelves (where the speakers reside.) I suppose I could put on headphones, but I like the sound of the outside, and the faint, low din of the 101 traffic in the background. Plus, I'm installing some stuff, rebooting, snacking, switching machines, etc. Sometimes silence really is golden. Uh oh, the washing machine just kicked into the spin cycle -- so much for silence.

My energy continues to improve very slowly, but seemingly, surely. I can't feel the changes day-to-day (or even week to week sometimes), but it's definitely happening. Yesterday was one of the fullest days I've had in a while. I went with Heather and the kids to swimming class, then we came home and I got my IV Mag -- no nap, I just watched the British Open and relaxed. Then we went to the Discovery Museum for a couple hours with the kiddos. It was absolutely gorgeous there (as opposed to Saturday when it was super foggy)

Rock and Bridge (Sunday)

Rock and ... ?  (Saturday)

The Discovery Museum is a ton of fun for them, and very tiring for me. But no rest for the weary! When we got back we had a dinner guest -- note: dinner guests who bring dinner (especially wonderfully smoked BBQ'd ribs and homemade BBQ sauce) are always welcome. Thanks for the killer ribs, Ev. I'm actually eating some of the chicken now. Yum! But of course, before dinner I had to pitch wiffleball to Floyd for a good 45 minutes. It's so awesome having the yard on the East side of the house -- the house acts as natural shade in the afternoon and creates the perfect shaded batting area. He's really starting to crush the ball.

By the time we got the kids to bed and started eating if was around 8:30p (which is late when ya have kids and you're recovering from a BMT.) Oh, here's a good one of Floyd at the top of this big ship they have in the outdoor play area at the Discovery Museum.

Ahoy, maties!

By 10pm I was completely exhausted and ready for bed but really I wanted to finish the Phillies game (on DVR.) I was speedin' through it just fine, but then things got all wacky in the 8th, so I had to slow down a little. I think I got to bed at around 11p.

The big question, of course, is... how would I feel this morning after such a full day? Before I go back to work, I need to be able to do 5 full days in a row -- that seems like 5 marathons to me right now -- and sustain that indefinitely. Answer about how I feel today? I'm tired. I still got up with Heather and the kids and then got out for a nice morning walk (more on that later!) but I was really dragging. I'm still beat and may even nap after I post this. Until I can sustain yesterday's pace for a full week, I think it would be a mistake to return to work. I'm still targeting September, which seemed extremely aggressive to my team a few months ago, but now seems achievable if everything continues to go perfectly.

Not really much else to update on the health front. My visit last week was uneventful, and they didn't change any of my meds. I don't talk about the oral meds much because I'm so used to them, but it's definitely a chore to take (including the mag-oxide tablets) 13 pills a day. Sometimes I just look at the pill box and have a gag reflex -- hard to get 'em down. Yeesh.

After my UCSF visit on Friday, I met Beeks for lunch at Kezar. Yes, I had a beer, and no, I didn't have wings (though I had one of Dave's.) I'm just not into chicken right now. Beef and pork are so much more appealing proteins -- I can't explain it -- so I got a burger. I figured bottled beer is generally safer than the tap, so I got a Corona. Thanks for lunch, Brown (yeah, he's got three names.)

First beer since transplant

The other cool thing about Friday was my weekly piano gig at Floyd's pre-school.  For those keeping track, here's the setlist:

Hello Song
Fearless >
Backwards Down the Number Line
Puff the Magic Dragon (1)(2) >
Possum
Touch of Grey (3)
Sunrise (2)
The Crystal Ship
Runaway Jim >
Russian Lullaby
Here Comes Sunshine (4)
Goodbye Song


(1) Requested previous week by a kid named "Bass"
(2) Kari on lead vocals
(3) Kari's husband on acoustic guitar
(4) Kari on backup vocals

Tripp is probably gonna call me all sorts of inappropriate names, but I think Sunrise is actually a really nice song, and it's great to play on piano. Kari (one of the Guides at Floyd's school) did a great job singing. I can't (and won't ever try to) sing that song.

This Friday and next Friday I have major appointments at UC, the latter for shock-wave lithotripsy for that pesky kidney stone :( so I'll be moving Piano day to Tuesday. Gotta learn somethin' new for tomorrow.  Hmmmm....

On Saturday afternoon, I had a chance to catch up (phone/skype) with a great friend -- love ya, LY -- while I was working on the garoffice. I will take a moment here to get on my soapbox.

< soapbox >
If you have people that are special to you, people with which you haven't connected in a long time, make some time to connect. Check in with your old friends. See how they are doing. Skype with them, so you can see them. Life moves pretty fast.
</ soapbox>

Later in the afternoon, jmomo came up to visit for a couple hours -- great to see you buddy. Heather and the kids were out, so we just got to hang and catch up. Later, Floyd went on a jumping spree, jumping from the chair to his bed. I think we need to take him to the Junior Bouncy House at the House of Air.

Ready? Set.

JUMP!

OK, so the walk today... I usually walk by myself, headphones on, up around the Dominican campus -- it's really beautiful up there. Well, I got a little of late start this morning, so Heather and Orion were able to walk with me.  After a nice slow walk through the campus, we came back out to Grand Ave. As we crossed a street, we saw a sign for "Camp Doodles" right on the corner. Avid readers will remember an earlier post that mentioned why that name is cool to us.  Anyway, as I'm pulling out my phone to take a pic of the Camp Doodles sign, this dude about my age in a nice sports car happens to stop at the intersection right in front of me. As fate(?) would have it, I was wearing my Utley jersey, and the dude said, "Yeah, Phillies!" I nodded and replied something like, "We're gonna do it this year." Then he says something like, "Man, I played for Phillies for 10 years."  I was like, "What?!?" and I looked closer, but I didn't recognize him. A car was behind him at this point, so he turned onto Grand and pulled over, got out his car and introduced himself as Mike Lieberthal.

The Lieby I remember was quite a bit leaner, but I guess that's what happens when you stop playing pro-ball for a few years. I still had to check the web when we got home to make sure it was really him and not some dude messin' with me. Based on some later pics, like this one with the Dodgers, it looks like it was really him. We just talked a little Phillies, baseball in general, the Philly media, steroids, kids, fatherhood, etc. for like 20 or 25 minutes. He was super friendly and chatty. I guess it's not every day that a former Phillie sees a guy in a Phillies jersey walking with his wife and baby in San Rafael. Apparently he's splitting some time up here (taking Masters courses at Dominican) and in SoCal. Heather got a decent pic of Mike, me, and Orion with the camera phone. Fun stuff.

Lieby, me, and Orion

Aight, I'll post one more pic of the kiddos and then I'm out. It's not every day Floyd and Orion will play together, but it doesn't get much better than this:

"Whaddya say we paint each-uddah-up."

Its ass is kicked into next week,

-jg

Comments

  1. LOVE the last photo of the boys at the end. Also, is Floyd bare-bottomed in the jumping shots, too? Who needs Harbin? XOXO

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  2. Ya, bare bottom pics ok in our book as long as something else isn't showing :)

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  3. Nice one, dude... improving health, good ribs, happy naked kids, back at the Kezar AND meeting an old Phillies player. Does it get better than this?

    Rock on,

    Nabib

    P.S. Where is the picture of Camp Doodles, and where is our recording of you playing for the kids? Gotta hear it.

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  4. Awesome post!! Good times all around. Keep kickin' arse!

    Great end photo. Painting the town -- silly.

    ...posting reply in the Google+ app on iPhone. :)

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  5. JG - glad to hear things are progressing nicely. That was really strange of you running into Mike Lieberthal.

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  6. @Matty: I forgot to take the pic of the Camp Doodles sign -- oh the irony. Man, I dunno about taking video of the pre-school gig. Maybe once the piano is tuned :)

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