If August 20 Was Your Birthday...

Max Benjamin Branson (second from left) with some of his cousins (Dominic Fischer and Bethany and Kristofer Karlek, to be exact), July 2009. (Kate's LRDC)

...If August 20 was your birthday, you should absolutely feel honored because this is the tardiest I have ever been to honor someone with a birthday blog...At least that's one way of looking at it, and it happens to be true!

...If August 20 was your birthday, I hope you'll forgive me for being so late. Please be assured that did not forget your birthday! It's just that I put so much pressure on myself to come up with something truly unique and entertaining for your birthday, because you deserve nothing less. After all, you, yourself, have always been such a unique and entertaining baby/child/person! Naturally, such pressure rendered me absolutely helpless in coming up with something!

...But if August 20 was your birthday, it is not my intent (nor is it my job as your aunt) to document all of the things which make you unique and entertaining. That has been adequately done by your mother. (Although I do own up to having regaled a few of my friends with tales of your uniquely entertaining ways. Who hasn't, after all, heard the story of the noodles and bars?)

...If August 20 is your birthday, I also hope you will forgive me for this:



An amateurish "recreation" of a photograph of Max in the "Alligator" Sweater knit for him by Aunt Kate when he was about two years old. (Kate, MSN Paint, 8/23/09

I hope you had a wonderful birthday, Max! I really do think you're awesome, and we love you!

One More Thing I Have to Tell You...

"Baby Bean," June 2009 (not my LRDC). Debut scheduled for February, 2010.


I'm going to be a Grandma! Actually, I'm going to be Grammakate. Within minutes of letting us know that she and Joe were going to have a baby, My Dazzling Daughter Meagan told me to start thinking about what I'd like to be called. (You know -- with reference to being a grandmother.) She made it sound like it was my decision, but it turns out she has some very specific ideas about names that will not be acceptable. For instance, anything with "Granny" in it. Like Granny Square, or Granny Cake.

That's okay. Once the little Bean gets here, Meagan can name her whatever she wants. I know what I'll be calling her when her mama's not around. (That is my decision to make, right?)

Note: It'll be a few more weeks before we can find out if Bean is a boy bean or a girl bean. Until then, I simply cannot refer to her as "it." In my heart I feel likes she's a girl. I could be wrong, of course; if I am, it will be very easy for me to turn around and start referring to her as "him." But for now she's a girl bean.

Of course My Awesome Husband Greg and I are thrilled. So is Uncle Dominic. Whenever one of us starts to feel a little overburdened by the all of the troubles in the world today, all we have to do is say, "Meagan's going to have a baby." Faces soften, eyes glow and smiles form.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful day!

Oh Yeah -- About My Car (An Interim Blog)

Remember this?





It's my boring old Catera, mentioned here a few weeks ago (But How Observant Am I REALLY?...), just sitting quietly in our garage, minding her own business on a Sunday evening...

That was before she was taken from us by some unknown malfeasant(s) who had the audacity to walk into our garage, climb into the driver's seat, start the ignition and drive her off to who knew where until an entire week had gone by!

Yes, the garage door was left open, and yes, the keys were left in the ignition. What's your point? We were all in the house at the time!

The next time we laid eyes on our poor old girl, she looked like this:






Note: I do realize that the "before" picture does not show her rear window at all (nor much else, other than her left side), but trust me -- the window was intact when she was taken!

There were more photographs, but they make me sad so I decided not to show them here. Suffice it to say that, because of the condition of that rear window, a severe thunderstorm thoroughly soaked her interior. The inside of her trunk was also ripped apart, apparently to allow access to what was most likely the reason for her abduction in the first place: a leveling pump which is standard in all Cadillac models, and worth a few hundred dollars in some markets. (Who knew, right?)

Anyway, this won't be over for me until I have another car I can call "mine." And when I do have one, I'm sure I'll learn to trust and feel comfortable in whatever it is, just as I did my old silver girl. (And if it's red, like the rental car provided by Insurance for a couple of weeks, why I may even learn to love it -- as long as it also has a CD player! We'll just have to wait and see.)

Meanwhile, this is just to let you know that our stolen car has been found. Actually, only a couple of miles from here, in the parking lot of the apartment complex where Meagan lived right after she graduated from college. She had been covered up with a tarp (the car -- not Meagan), but the aforementioned storm took care of that. When someone finally noticed her sitting there with her window broken out and her insides exposed to the elements, they called the police.

Of course we have no idea who took our car. We probably never will. We...er, I mean My Awesome Husband Greg...jousted with the insurance company, appraisers and Cadillac dealers for about a week. A dollar amount was settled upon, and now we just have to wait.

For what?

Well, apparenty for MAHG to look at EVERY SINGLE USED CAR FOR SALE IN THIS COUNTY! He needs to do that, you see, before he can make a decision. And even though I will most likely be the person to drive whatever we end up with, I have given MAHG complete authority to make such a decision on my behalf. I simply cannot let myself be drawn into the process. I liked the first [red] car he showed me; the price was right; I said "Buy" and thought it was a done deal. That was over a week ago. Still, we wait...

I Almost Forgot! (A Follow-Up Doctor Blog)

"A Happier Doctor" by Kate, August 11, 2009

I can't believe I almost forgot to post a follow-up doctor blog! My last one was on April 27 -- "What the Doctor Actually Said," and bore a picture captioned "Frowny-Face Doctor." It was not a blog I was happy to post, because in it, I had to admit that I had goofed; by listening to my "inner doctor," I had created a scary setback for myself, and was convinced that I never would see the day when I could post my "Ecstatic Doctor" blog.

Well, things are definitely looking up since then! I wouldn't say Dr. Pulmonologist was exactly ecstatic when I saw him in June, but he was certainly much happier than he had been at my last appointment! The results of my Pulmonary Function Test, although not "perfect," were very much "improved" over the ones I had last October (How Does Your Pulmonary Function?). So he seemed very pleased to tell me that I could now reduce my dosage of prednisone to five milligrams a day for two months (which will get me through August), and then, if things continue to go well (and they are!), I will be able to alternate days of five mg with zero mg. Then perhaps one day on, two days off? We'll see.

Of course my plan is still to be able to completely stop taking the stuff, but I'm no longer in such a big hurry. I like not having blue fingers. I also like not gasping and coughing whenever I'm having a conversation or giving a concert*. I like being able to run if I feel like it, and dance without worrying about oxygen deficit. In fact, if things stay the way they are today, I'll be happy!

Well -- with one exception: If things can stay as they are with NO prednisone!

Because I don't like wondering if that powerful little pill...the one which is now causing my hair to fall out and my face to look like a great big giant sugar cookie with eyes...which is making me look like I have an inner tube under my tee-shirt and curls of spun glass outlining what used to be my jawline...if that same little pill isn't doing other, even more horrifying things to parts of me that I can't so easily see! (It does have that reputation, you know.)

Well, I'm glad I got this post out of the way. I've decided that my doctor blogs are the most boring, tedious ones I've written (and for that I apologize); however, they are a way of keeping track of this stuff for myself. (And I do enjoy making different faces on Dr. Pulmonologist.)

I'd like to say I'm now back to blogging with renewed resolve, because I've got lots of other stuff that I'm looking forward to writing about. But I'm afraid I can't make any promises, because I'm being pulled away from blogging by several other obsessions right now. Maybe I'll tell you about them some day. For now, thanks for listening...and keep your fingers crossed about that prednisone!



*Oh -- One more thing that would make me even happier: If I could actually sing!