stacey ewing

Thinking of Trey hard these last two days after finding out that he’s been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks with pancreatitis. They found gangrene yesterday and will be doing surgery hopefully soon. Right now he is in an induced coma and everyone is holding their breath.

There is more information at a website that some friends set up: http://trey.thecoho.net

He doesn’t have health insurance so there is a donation box set up on the site to collect money to help defray medical costs.

Meanwhile, we’re sending all our thoughts and love to the boy:

I’m SO excited and not just because today is FRIDAY! ;) One of my most favorite kitties in the world now has his own blog!

I love, Love, LOVE this 21lb hunk of luuuuuvvve and look forward to following his daily adventures!

On Wednesday, right after work, Tim and I loaded up the car and hit the road, driving south on I-75 to Ft. Myers. The plan was to spend Thanksgiving with my brother, Jay, and his girlfriend, Lorraine.

We’d anticipated heavy traffic on the interstate but certainly didn’t plan on the ‘stop-go-stop-go-stop-go-stop-friggin-go’ traffic that turned 40 miles into nearly two hours. *well, suuurprise!* There were more than a few moments when flipping a u-turn across the “grassy knoll” and heading home almost became a reality, but we soldiered on and eventually traffic eased up a little bit once we passed Zephyrhills.

We stopped in a nameless armpit of a town south of Z-hillz for gas and ::shudder:: fast food (since we’d skipped dinner to get on the road as soon as possible). We were in and out of there as fast as we could possibly could, since the “local color” was out en force, whoopin’ it up for the holiday- doing donuts in the McD parking lot with giaganticon 4-wheeled trucks emblazoned with stars-n-bars (niiiice).

We’d planned on arriving there by 10ish but the way things were progressing (or not), our arrival would be delayed to around the same time Jay got off duty at 11pm, which was fine.

TOTALLY bored about 35 miles outside of Ft. Myers and with a strong need to entertain myself, I started to annoy Tim by calling out the remaining mileage every time we passed a mile marker. Not too long after I called out “20!” the car made a LOUD popping noise.

Stacey: What was that??!

Tim: Did you hear that??!

Stacey: Was that the Timing Belt?? Did the timing belt just blow on my gorram station wagon??!

(the car starts to decelerate)

Tim: Sounds Like…

Stacey: I thought Ford just checked our engine!

Tim: Yeah, well if this trucker over here in our blind spot doesn’t let us over, this situation could get pretty interesting…

Stacey: Define Interesting…

Tim: Oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die?

Stacey: Just get us to the side of the road…

Tim (deftly threading the needle between two semis): That part will happen pretty definitely…

It was only approx. 38 degrees out and LUCKILY Tim was fully outfitted in his warm North Face hiking fleece and Keen hiking shoes, so he was able to hike a half mile to figure out which mile marker we were closest too (I’d forgotten which one we’d passed in all the excitement). He called the marker number in to Jay, who in turn very kindly called dispatch and had them send a wrecker.

The wrecker, with tow lights flashing, Jay, with his FWC lights flashing, and Lorraine, with her hazard lights flashing, all showed up at the same time! Lorraine loaded us up and took us back to their place while Jay and the tow truck driver followed. Upon arrival, the boys helped the tow truck guy unload the car into a parking space outside the building and it wasn’t long before we were all hanging out in the living room having a good laugh about the whole situation. So what if our 4.5 hour drive turned into 7.5 hours, we were finally at our destination!! :D

This morning we slept in a bit (which means I snoozed the alarm about 10 or 15 times before finally turning it off and getting up. Our awesome little travel clock, the one I bought Tim 10 years ago for his Alaskan cruise ship gig, finally gave up the ghost :( so we’re back to an old giaganticon digital monstrosity that is terrifyingly loud, so snoozing the alarm isn’t as pleasant as it once was. heh that didn’t stop me this morning… :)

I got up and got around so I could meet the Accidental Environmentalist at the Farmer’s Market for the Need-a-Bag Project. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of stopping by the bank on the way there and got stuck in a line (someone two cars up had obviously NEVER used an ATM machine before…sigh) so I was running about 10 minutes late and the poor girl was nearly frozen by the time I got there.

A.E. had already done all the work of collecting the bags and stowing them away for next week, so we got the heck outta there toute de suite and regrouped over at Kay’s Coffee on 34th for a cuppa and a muffin. Had SUCH a great time chatting and catching up that I almost lost track of the time. We parted ways- AE was off on the great saturday candle wick hunt and I headed home to gather up The Tim.

The boy was ready to go when I pulled into the parking lot so we hit the road and headed down to O-ca-la to meet the Wood-Harvin for lunch! We all grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed over to Gander Mountain so the Wood could look for jeans, the Harvin to find a gift for his pa (and some shoes) and for Murray to fondle all the hiking gear in the store. I was just along for the ride and tried not to pay too much attention to the stuffed critters scowling down on us from shelves and poles, cursing all of us and our children and our children’s children… After 2.5 hours of goofing off (hey, the place is pretty big!), the Wood-Harvin had to go back and help Momma Wood prep for a party.

Tim & I drove home and when we got in, we fed the kitties right away before they decided to take matters into their own hands (thank god they don’t have opposable thumbs, we would’ve been screwed long ago…). He went in and practiced for a couple of hours and I finished book #3 of the weekend.

WARNING! SPOILER ALERT AHEAD: He and I met back up over pad thai and watched a Japanese Ninja vs. Sammurai Shakespearian-based Love Story where EVERYONE dies in the end. God I hate those movies sometimes, can’t there ever be a happily ever after ending just once?? They were such a cute couple… sigh. Oh well, at least the ninjas were cool (yeah, I KNOW, ninjas are ALWAYS cool!). :)

What a great day. :)

The venerable Dr. West graced us with his presence this weekend with a surprise visit! We picked him up in Jacksonville and had a freakin’ amazing time until he headed south to visit his ‘rents on Tuesday. The only downside was that he was sans handler… J-nelle was sorely missed this trip and yes, in February there WILL be a party to end all parties!!

Best news of all: Our dear doctor deftly defended his doctoral dissertation and will be degreed December 12!

The weekend was so action packed that I completely forgot to take pictures again (dammit!)! So, the only evidence of his visit are all the little gifts (expertly hidden around the house) that just keep on giving and giving and giving, such as this one…

And for the record, let me just state that I had better not find ANY of my comic books “signed” by their “authors!” :P (oh yes, there will be blood…)

OMG, do we ever *HEART* having company!!! W & C were up for the weekend for the UF/UM game AND to visit C’s mom AND they chose to stay with US!!! Me, Tim and the kitties!!! SWEET!

Momma Wood had surgery on Friday which BTW, was VERY successful and she’s doing SO well that she got to go home about a week early!! (Who’s the cylon now??! ::grin::) We are all so happy for her and the entire family! Man! it’s so freakin’ nice to have good news around here for once! :D

Before I sign off, something that you need to know about CWH- this chica breathes & exhales creativity 24-7! This trip she brought me this totally kicka** bento lunch box that she made!! My embarrassingly crappily lit photos do not even come close to doing it justice- but that’s okay, this “bento box” is SO cool that it will actually burn out your retinas if you stare at it directly for too longl!! :D

Labor Day Weekend Tim & I went Tally for a day/night to visit Clannus Austinus and it was good.

Highlights include but are not limited to:

The requisite trip to Decent Pizza was made…

Tim and John consumed many Liberty Ales…

I finally got to visit 10,000 Villages (was always closed during prev. trips) w/Ally & Lydia…

We were treated to brunch at the “Grouper” (heehee) bagel shop across the street from World Market…

A trip was made to the Florida Museum of History downtown…

So sad to leave…

Well, it will be 18 years for us this year and yesterday marked the 9th year of the “government sanctioned” portion of our union. Has it really been that long since we had that awesome party with our best friends and family??! Well, NEXT year is #10 for us and that means we will ALL party once again like it’s… yep… 1999… ;)

Reading the latest “I, Cringley” column today, made me think about Friendster, so I dialed back in for the first time in four years. Almost everyone in my friend list is gone with the exception of a couple folks who, like me, haven’t logged in since 2004. Before I deleted my account, I looked at the “Testimonials for Stacey” section and found the testimonial left for me by LocalHoney in 2003. It’s quite safe to say I haven’t laughed like that in awhile! :) Thanks chica- I hope all is well with you out there!

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Local Honey
Posted 12/8/2003 8:50 pm

i used to think stacey was so nice i
wanted to kick her ass…but now that
i’ve peeked in her pocket of evil, i’m
buying.

To kill some time on Saturday afternoon, Wes, Court, Spencer, Tim and I went to the old FIT campus (Wes, Tim and I went there on Friday afternoon too). The gates to the old Leech (Leach?) Estate up on the hill were open so we walked up there to explore. Apparently renovations would be in the works but the old mansion is built on top of a native american burial ground in addition to being next to/on top of a fragile ecological system. So things are on hold until the historical, anthropological, and environmental societies/groups can work out their separate issues/interests. :) Meanwhile, we had a great time exploring the grounds… slideshow here.