good for the soul

Old friend. New babe. Coffee. Fireplace. Exactly what I needed today.

worn out

Dad had some major surgery this week. He needed to have a parathyroid gland removed. This would normally have been outpatient surgery, easy peasy, but dad's parathyroid had detached from the thyroid and had migrated to the middle of his chest. They had to saw through his sternum and open up 4 ribs to get at it. Surgery went very well. Normally split-pea sized, his was closer to kidney bean size, and the benign adenoma was confirmed, and his calcium levels seem to have normalized post-surgery. The bad part is that dad's reward for making it through surgery is to get to go back to chemo. But he made it through surgery. We're all relieved about that.

It was a long few days at the hospital. I was extremely anxious and emotional on Tuesday before the surgery. And spending three more days with him was exhausting, especially since I am super OCD about germs when it comes to my dad and was constantly cleaning every surface with wipes and making dad wash his hands at every opportunity. Because with his already compromised immune system due to so many rounds of chemo, the flu or pneumonia is especially scary. And hospitals are great places to pick up a bad cold or worse.

His 70th bday is coming up in a couple of months. Have to think of something really fun to do to celebrate.

freeze yer gizzard

Because it isn't cold enough in Minneapolis, some running pals and I decided to venture to International Falls, a stone's throw from Canada, for their annual Icebox Days. We ran a 10k, the Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard 10k, and had some beer. And margaritas. We watched smoosh racing and hung out in the hot tub. And it was captured by Nightline, which aired earlier this week (you can see me at 1:03 at the start of the race. Red top, black hat with a red/black trim). All in all, a fun winter weekend. Oh, and I came in 3rd in the run! Clearly, there wasn't much competition. But hey, third is third. Our top guy, Brian, won the whole thing, and another runner, Pam, placed second in her age group. A fun race, made better by the bragging rights of frigid temps.

polar vortex

Because of the polar vortex that has lived over the midwest the last three days, campus was closed and classes canceled yesterday and today. It meant I had to figure out how to hold a 3.5 hour class online with students who were not prepared for an online class. So, I couldn't guarantee they would all be able to access a new technology to meet synchronously and yet had to figure out how to accomplish the necessary objectives for the class. With only 4 weeks of class and a total of 8 meetings, I needed this one.

So I ended up creating some crappy videos in my dining room I uploaded to YouTube for students to watch, and narrated a lecture. It wasn't ideal, but it was all I could do in the short notice. Students seem to have managed ok, and I was thankful not to have to deal with whining about the cold if they were forced to come to class. I guess I'll see how it went in class tomorrow.

Here's to J-term!

a visit to Hibbing

My sis is moving back to the cities from the northern tundra, but before that happened, I wanted to make a relaxing trip up there to visit with my boyfriend. Of course I would pick the coldest weekend in, maybe, forever to go farther north. Seriously, it is cold there. It's cold in the cities, but Hibbing? Really cold.

 

Needless to say, with air temps in the -30s with windchills close to -50, we didn't do much outside. We did get a run in together on Saturday morning, before the really really cold weather settled in. After breakfast, we gave her sweet pup a bath which, as you can tell, he really enjoyed. Poor thing.

 

Then we headed out to the mine overlook to see the biggest open pit iron mine (or its the most or biggest or oldest iron mine of some sort). We stood at the lookout for about 30 seconds before heading back to the car.

 

We also went to L&M Fleet Supply, which is a pretty cool store, if you're in need of winter weather work gear or some Duck Dynasty clothing. I bought a pair of warm mittens for shoveling, and the sis got some dog food.

After our errands were done, we stayed in for the rest of the day. I made it through much of my new book, The Goldfinch, which I am loving, and also got some work done. I had made some chicken salsa chili for the trip, and Meg made chocolate chip cookies. We watched a movie and went to bed early. Meg made a delicious late breakfast for us before we headed back to the cities.

I am very happy my sis is moving back, because I miss her a lot. But I have enjoyed my weekend visits up there to her cute house a lot. Might have to do some sleepovers at her house when she moves back.