zmmiller: January 2009

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tonight we dealt with bed bugs, scabies and lice - a trifecta of fun, fun, fun! Here two of my colleagues don space suits to enter the forbidden zone. I stayed on the deck of the Calypso to make sure the crepes did not burn.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sea Monkeys

Well, I guess it's high time for an update as to how the Monkeys, life, the universe and everything are going - call it The State Of The Miller Address. The short version is: everything is fine. Christmas came and went - I had a nice week or so with the wee ones. Santa brought Miranda the Tinkerbell Tea Set that she wanted and Zachy got a train table set for his Thomas trains.

Since then, we have been chilling out... literally - it's been way cold in NYC this January. Both kids had dentist appointments a couple of weeks back, and we found that Panda has 20 teeth and Zachy's new front teeth seem to be coming in nicely. Zachy had an eye appointment last week - he still needs glasses (not that he ever wears the ones he has) but his prescription has not gotten any worse. Both kids had the plague then got better (trips to the pediatrician for both), then Zachy had an ear infection and is now on the mend (another trip to the pediatrician). Finally, Miranda took the gifted and talented test last Sunday, but we have to wait 10-12 weeks for the results. She seemed to enjoy the experience, however, for which I am very grateful... enough?

On a definite down note, one of the cats at Mommy's house died a week ago Tuesday. I found out the following day when I was saying goodbye to the kids and Miranda blurted out, "Wooty went to heaven." She said that Mommy said that "he was never coming back." Miranda was very thoughtful in a matter of fact way about it, but I could tell she was still processing it and trying to figure it out. It's a bummer, but considering that those cats never had any vaccinations, checkups or went to the vet, they've had a pretty good run. When I was Miranda's age my cat Sunshine was run over by a car, and I was trying to remember how I felt - near as I can recall it was not overly traumatic - I was too young I guess, so hopefully the same will be true of her. Still, the whole pet dying thing, with its metaphysical implications lies in new parental territory for me... Hmmmmn?

Anyway, this weekend I started two pet/animal related projects with the kids at Daddy's house: we started a colony of Sea Monkeys (remember them?) and started raising Painted Lady Butterflies to release in the spring. We got the butterfly nursery at Toys R Us and ordered the caterpillar larva which should now be in the mail. We started the Sea Monkeys by putting in the water conditioner packet and will add the eggs tomorrow night. I'll keep you posted.

I'm still working in the loony bin, which has been exceptionally loony of late. In addition to all the industrial strength psychosis, we've also had an outbreak of the norovirus (poop and puke flying everywhere) as well as the usual bed bug, scabies, lice and other assorted critters - one of the two units was even quarantined. It's great fun to go to work in a space suit! Each day brings something new and it is kind of fascinating experiencing things like the Obama innaguration or an airplane landing in the Hudson or whatever, on an accute in-patient psychiatric ward. This Sunday I'll be watching the Steelers win the Superbowl (hopefully) with a thorazine enhanced cheering section.

I'm sure that a lot more has gone on that I'm forgetting about - I had to look at my Twitter feed just to reconstruct this much, but I'll post it as I remember. Check back, as there are a bunch of pics on the old camera that I have to upload - I'll get to that asap. Peaceandlove.