Putting a plug in a heart

It's amazing what kind of help people offer when you say the words "heart" and "procedure/operation." About a year and a half ago Angel went in to test for some rare adrenal cancer. Her father was diagnosed with it (years ago while we were planning our wedding - there was not difficulty in remove it) and apparently its genetic, so the whole family got tested. When Angel got her tests back they said, "Good news! You don't have adrenal cancer. You do have a hole in your heart." This was an unexpected diagnosis but it did explain some things. She had asthma and heart burn type symptoms but medicine never helped. She could tell the time up to 10:00 pm based on how tired she was. (Really. It was eerie.) It was also difficult for her to lose weight despite rigorous exercise and dieting. It made sense.

She went in for additional tests including one called the bubble test. The doctor shakes up a saline solution and puts it into the blood stream and they count the bubbles that aren't filtered by the lungs. The more bubbles there are the bigger the hole. When Angel had the test done they couldn't count the bubbles because there were too many of them. She was scheduled to get a scope done prior to a full procedure when we found out we were expecting Roo. They said to wait off until after the baby was born.

Now, a year later and with our out of pocket maximum achieved on our insurance we were able to get her in for the procedure. Below is a picture of what they put in her. It's called a septal occluder and the one they put in Angel was 30mm. I told her that I knew of tanks with a smaller gun that that. Ok, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle is an IFV not a AFV, but still. The procedure happen last week and since day one with the plug she has felt much more energy. They went in through the femoral artery and it went slick as a whistle. The Relief Society brought us dinner for three nights, which was very nice of them, and lots of people have asked about her. Some were surprised to see her at church yesterday. I think it boils down to the fact that the heart is a scary organ. It's so important to life that anything wrong with it is cause of grave concern. For Angel, this operation has provided her with additional energy she didn't know she could have.

A Russian Play and 911

This weekend was the first of twelve outing of Christmas. Angel and I were discouraged that we weren't able to take the kids swimming, to the park, or out and about as much as we wanted to last year. This mainly was to do lack of money or time. This year will be different. Each of the kids received a calendar this year with certain dates blocked out. Angel and I have scheduled in days and activities that will be funded by the money we would have spent on toys this last Christmas. We found an activity a month we could do and planned them out in advance.

For January we took the kids to a play put on by the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. It was called "The Frog Princess" and was based on a Russian plan. There was a cast of five people with a total of eight characters. They were clever and for the alternate roles they Russ-ified the actors' names. So Rob Green played a Russian prince, but Robert Mikhailovich played the forest spirit. They did a really good job and the kids enjoyed it a lot. Angel and I had fun to. They had some fun moments where you knew the actors were exiting stage right and then running around like made to enter stage left. From a my former (if limited) stage crew experience it was well done with sound and fun effects. The actors were a lot of fun to watch and it made me want to get involved some how. The kids were good through it except when Tigger asked in a loud voice, "Is that a real frog?" when the frog princess first appeared (as a puppet).

We arrived home a little later than planned, but still in good order to find our CO alarm going off. We didn't go in the house (or at least nobody besides me) and I called the city to figure out what to do. I didn't want to call 911 because we were all safe and nothing was in immediate danger. Come to find out, a CO alarm going off is something you call 911 for. The police, fire and ambulance all showed up in good order and the kids were thrilled to watch the firefighters go though the house looking for possible sources. The ambulance crew even gave them little fuzzy teddy bears. Roo even got one. After an hour or so, they figured it was a bad monitor but called the gas company just to double check the furnace and water heater. Angel and the Kids went to her parents as it was quite late by then and I waited with one of the paramedics. The gas guy arrived and found out that his testing machine was broken. He had to call another guy in from about an hour away. I gave them the garage code and went to join my family. All in all it was a busy day. Everything checked out (they finished around 1 am) and I went out and bought a new monitor that I'll be installing very soon.

Book Review - Slaves of Socorro by John Flanagan, Brotherband Chronicles book 4

I usually enjoy it when authors give us different views of the same world and characters they've introduced us to in previous books. The Brotherband Chronicles are just that. They are books that take place in the world the John Flanagan created with the Ranger's Apprentice series, but we are seeing it through the eyes of a different culture and different characters. We've met a couple of the ones we see, Eric the Oberjarl being the most often seen. But he remains a supporting character, much as he was when we first met him. The other thing I like about Brotherband is that, just like Ranger's Apprentice, we are introduced to a cast of characters and then proceed to go on a series of adventures with them. It is not one long story that spans several years, but rather a collection of the more interesting events that occur over the course of ten or twelve years. At least, we are into the first couple of years of our current set of characters. The first three books, The Outcasts, The Invaders, and The Hunters, introduce us to the crew of the Heron and detail their rise, fall, and restoration to honor. Flanagan has does a great job of giving the Herons a couple years of respite before throwing them into their next major life event. He does so with the usual humor, action, and suspense that we've come to expect from him. He's also given us a chance to reunite with other beloved characters we met in Ranger's Apprentice. What I particularly enjoy about how he's done this is our new main cast has been able to mature in our minds so there should be no difficulty maintaining their identity while we renew acquaintances with old friends. I'll be honest, I thought that Brotherband was well served as a trilogy but now I am very excited that is will go beyond that.

Plot: We pick up the story two years after Hal, as the young captain of the Heron, and his crew of former outcasts have reclaimed Skandia's prized artifact and returned it home. In that time Hal and the Herons have had regular duties as young men, patrolling the local waters and helping the country maintain his international role as maritime peace keepers. As part of their treaty with Araluen Skandia provides a duty ship for use by the Araluen king. Chosen to fulfill this duty for the next nine months, the herons set off with high spirits and happy hearts. However, they soon learn that one of their old acquaintances, rather, a formal rival, has gone rouge and they are the ones in the best position to deal with the delinquent. What else can they do when the scumbag has stolen people from the very country they are there to help to sell into slavery. It is useful that they have some help for the trip and that this help carries a longbow and mottled cloak.

My personal favorites: The characters remain wonderful. Whether it's Hal and Stig's long friendship, Invgar's quiet loyalty, or even the twin's sibling bickering. I also enjoy the accuracy of the sailing terms and conditions. Flanagan provides a nice glossary at the beginning of the book for those who are new to sailing. I also think the pacing is well done.

Considerations: Like Royal Ranger there is nothing that would cause me to keep this book from anyone. It is a great middle grade book, but may be fore appealing for young adult as the characters are late teens early twenties.

My sister brought this book up when she stayed with us and I had it finished in short order. And I enjoyed it immensely. The total length was 462 pages.

Audible Book Review - Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson, Legion Book 2.

This is one of the few times that I've read a successive book without reading the previous. Audible had Legion available for free and being somewhat of a Sanderson fan I scooped it up. I had heard of the first one - both of my parents had read it, but I didn't know much about it. Upon talking to my mother and learning that you didn't need to read the first to enjoy the second, I listened to it. I'm glad I did. Here is a link for the Audible page for the book. It was narrated by Oliver Wyman, who also did the Monster Hunter books by Corriea. He did a fantastic job, although I will say that his homicidal killer voice from Monster Hunter Nemesis and his history expect voice from Legion: Skin Deep sounded kind of similar. It was not distracting and I enjoyed the reading very much.

Plot: Stephan Leeds, a.k.a. Legion, is an expert. On anything he puts his mind to. And whenever he points his mind to learning something new he gets a new "aspect" in his imagination. He knows his aspects aren't real and that only he can see them. He knows that the whole situation makes him look like he has multiple personality disorder, or schizophrenia, or a myriad of other mental illnesses, but he also knows that he's not crazy. At least not any more than anyone else. What it makes him is a very effective problem solver. The problem he has been asked to solve now is to recover a dead body that has gone missing. It's not the body itself that is important, but rather what it contains. The body, when it was alive, worked for a company that had developed a way to plant data into human cells. The company is worried that whoever took the body will be able to extract the information that the employee undoubtedly, um, secreted about his person before he died. It appears that dead men can tell tales and the story this body tells could be disastrous.

My personal favorites: Leeds is a great character and his multiple aspects were a great addition to the cast. In some ways the set up reminded me of The Hollow City, but not in a "who's real and who's not" way. The writing was crisp and the pacing was excellent. This is a novella, so significantly shorter than what Sanderson usually writes. He clearly demonstrates thought that he is good at both long and short form.

Considerations: There is nothing in this story that would cause me to shy away from recommending it to anyone. The subject may be over the head of middle grade or some young adults, but there is very little violence (mostly scuffling), very limited language (one of the aspects is a prude who constantly censures people), and no sensuality. Like The Emperor's Soul this novella is something that just about anybody can enjoy very easily.

I don't know if it is still available for free. If it is, I would highly recommend picking it up. If it's not - I still highly recommend it. The total length was just about 4 and half hours.

Audible Book Review - 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber, The Ring of Fire book 2

I was a little torn on what to get this last month. I was considering another C.S. Forester, maybe the third Honor Harrington, possibly a non-fiction on Stonewall Jackson, or Cmd. Chris Hadfield's book. So many options, so few credits. On a whim I picked up 1633 and almost instantly regretted it. You know how it is when you make a decision and then wish you had mad it another way. Regardless, I decided to stick with my decision and didn't return the book. I am glad to say that I enjoyed it a lot. When starting the series I was worried about character creep - the habit that large series have with a huge cast of characters that you have to keep track of. I was impressed that while there were lots of characters it was pretty easy to keep track of the important ones and the characters that we were introduced to in the first book as "main" characters continued to be important. Here is a link to the Audible page for the book. It was narrated by George Guidall who did a good job with the characters.

Plot: The Uptimers, the citizens of the West Virginian town of Grantsville that found themselves in the midst of the 30 years' War, are facing new challenges. Upon the shock of discovering that they were vulnerable to attack, they have teamed up with the King of Sweden and formed a pseudo-republic. They have disease to combat, increasing diversity in their boarders, and war. Rebecca Stern and Rita Stimpson have been dispatched to foreign powers to seek allies in the struggle against Cardinal Richelieu and his inexhaustible resources and ire. The difficulty is that Europe has found access to the history books that Granstville brought with them. So what happens when your enemy already knows who achieved greatness and who left their country in need? Predestination is a tenant of many protestant faiths in the 1600s, now we'll see how many truly believe.

My personal favorites: I liked how there were very, very few characters that I didn't care about, even characters that are antagonistic in some ways. The Stimpsons, for example, were the pricks and idiots of the first book, but they really gain a face and a mind in this one. I also like the twisting of history that starts to happen in this book. The questions raised by foreknowledge and the idea of a literal predestination were fun to explore. The action, and tragedies, were well down and I cheered and despaired with the characters. Eric Flint is known for his historical facts and it doesn't go to waste here.

Considerations: Unlike the first book there was no sensual scenes in this book and like the first there were no graphic descriptions. There was a fair amount of language which prompt the largest consideration.

I am really glad that I picked up this book. It didn't have the amount of action that the first one had and was more of a social thriller with brief periods of action I found it very satisfying and really enjoyed the interplay between the Uptimers and the local populace. The total length was 22 and a quarter hours.

Audible Book Review - Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger, Finishing School book 2

I've gotten behind on my book reviews. I actually finished Curtsies & Conspiracies prior to New Year, but for whatever reason have not actually written up my review. Like the first book, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd in the Finishing School series. While at a family party I began sharing it with others just to find out that my older sister makes a point of buying them in hardback and loves them to death. She didn't know the third one was out yet, but was very excited when I told her about it. Here is a link to the Audible page for the book. Like the first, it is narrated by Moira Quirk who does an absolute delightful job. I particularly love her narration and I think that it greatly enhances the already good story.

Plot: Sophronia continues to enjoy her time at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality (pronounced "quali-`tay" with a French accent) However, it appears that other may not be finding it so pleasant. Two of her friends are put on probation for their lack of progress in either skills of intelligence or etiquette. Plus Sophronia seems to have attracted everyone's ire. As she grapples with trying to help her friends who don't seem to want help, it is announced that the school will be taking a field trip to London, in the company of ten choice students from the local boys school for aspiring evil geniuses. While the boys do not particularly attract Sophronia's attention she apparently has attached one of there's. And what's more, it's the attention of the highest ranking young man among them. However, Sophronia will always be a curious young lady of quality and so she is dead set on finding out what the school has to do in London and why her favorite vampire is involved.

My personal favorites: The characters continue to delight. I love how they each have their strengths and weaknesses and how Gail utilizes them all. There is no shame in an interest in dress over an ability to climb. Those who embroider as just as vulnerable as those who infiltrate. I also liked the introduction of some new supporting characters. The dandy vampire was a particular favorite. Moira's narration brought them all to life. I know that this series will get relistened to as time goes on, if not for the story then purely for the reading of it.

Considerations: This book does have a little more violence than the last, with a dead body being the prime source. There is also a conversation between the girls when one of them reveals that she has seen men naked that while rather vague is worth noting. I would not consider it inappropriate for any body who has dealt with the usual school discussions on "this is what happens when boys/girls go through puberty." Again, I did not feel any reason to withhold the book from a young teen.

I'm looking forward to the third book in a couple of weeks and have since recommend this series to a number of friends. I think it's telling that while my wife choose this book for her credit, I listed to it before starting the book I got with mine. The total length was 9 and a half hours.

Reflections on 2014

I had to run through my blog post to to remember some of the things that happened this year. In many ways, it felt just like any other year. Granted, the birth of your third child doesn't happen every year and it has been a wonderful blessing. That is one reason that if I were to sum up this year I would have to say that this year has been about family. We got a new son and two new nieces all in the 2nd half of the year. I also decided this year that my gift for Fathers' day would be to take the kids to the zoo, I haven't decided where I want to take the kids this year for Fathers' day, but I'm already looking forward to it. I also took the kids to a couple of museums. Angel and I were able to get a couple of dates (far fewer than I would have liked, but that's my fault) - including a masquerade ball.

Looking back on the year, family is just what I remember most. Perhaps because I tend to enjoy myself most when I am with family. It could also be the strength of group memories - you remember things better when others were there to share it (and can consequently remind you of it). For whatever reason, and to whatever result, my family is what I remember most about 2014. What's awesome is that I have my family with me always, so they can always be the highlights of my life.