We saw a neurosurgeon, and he said that it was probably a meningioma (which it did turn out to be). He explained that the tumor could cause some symptoms she was experiencing (loss of strength and coordination, problems with balance, etc.), but that it was on the wrong side (and too far back) to be causing the particular numbness she was experiencing (jawline to hairline on the left side of her face).

After another set of MRI scans and an MRA-COW, the neurosurgeon and radiologist agreed that there was no visible cause for the numbness. Their best guess was that it was an intermittent flare-up of a virus in the trigeminal nerve.

Still, there was that pesky tumor causing other problems, and it was only going to get bigger… so we scheduled surgery.

The neurosurgeon said that they would not need to shave her head–that they could shave just a small area on the right side of her head, and that she would be able to wear her hair over the incision/stitches. Unfortunately, the tech that was in charge that morning didn’t get the message. He shaved her bald. The surgeon was not pleased. Kim was a good sport about it, saying she had always wanted to shave her head, but never had an excuse before.

The surgery took about four hours, and the only status updates we got were “everyone still looks very busy in the operating room”. Apparently it is considered bad form to interrupt neurosurgery to ask “are you done yet?” We decided that was better than “everybody is hanging their heads sadly in the operating room” or “everybody is shouting and waving their arms in the operating room.”

The tumor came out in one piece, and was benign. They replaced the removed section of her skull with a wire mesh and the fragments of skull that they removed. Now that she has metal in her head, she can’t get an MRI, so this post-op image is a CT scan.

Here is a photo of the stitched up incision.

We expect her home tomorrow (Monday).

I’ve made a few. My kids really like them.

I made the pattern by marking up a folded bird, unfolding it, scanning it, then assembling pieces of various photographs. The wings are my least favorite part. I am pleased that the bottoms of the wings match up as well as they do, though.

Here’s the pattern:

Maybe eventually I’ll put together folding instructions, as an exercise in photographic documentation. In the meantime, you can use the wikihow instructions, although they don’t include the little beak fold. I’m also considering refining the pattern further.

It made me wonder what Whoopi Goldberg would look like with eyebrows, so I decided to find out:

I wonder if people would be able to recognize her WITH eyebrows in a similar test.

I hope to add other products soon.

I found out recently that it was possible to buy downloadable DivX movies, and I was kinda excited that I would no longer have to rip my own DVDs before streaming them to my TV. Then I noticed that they were DRMed, so I stopped short of ordering The Watchmen. Sorry, guys. You lost a sale because I wanted to actually be able to WATCH the movie I bought.

What are they afraid of? That people will share copies of the movie illegally?

Does it really make sense for it to be harder to legitimately buy and view a movie than to pirate it? I’m not encouraging piracy–I am in favor of rewarding creative efforts, but why punish the people who pay by burdening us with DRM?

MPAA, if you’re listening, please let me pay you money for the same level of convenience that the pirates get for free. Thanks.

I took many photos of my family and other Lagoonishness.

I think this is my favorite:

I posted a selection of other favorites on Flickr.

Last night I spent a few hours experimenting and touching it up, and came up with a version that I really like.

Detail:

Today I got an 8×10 print from Costco, and I think it turned out really nice.

Yeah, you can verb Bing. Kind of. People can say “bing it!” instead of “google it!” (and it only sounds SLIGHTLY profane)… but what’s the past tense of bing? Binged? That might work in speech, but not in writing. Written, it’s past tense for binge, which has strong negative connotations (the present participle is similarly troubled). Will people be comfortable blogging/chatting about how they “binged” for something?

When I mentioned Bing to my wife, she almost immediately came up with bung as a past tense verb. Ack! I am NOT Cornholio!

It’s only a name though. The name Bing definitely seems like an improvement over Live Search, and it IS very easy to type. I’m interested in seeing how people like the way it actually works.

I recently stumbled across a program called MyPaint for my Nokia Internet Tablet (a handheld device similar to a PDA). It’s a little slow on the low-power 400 MHz mobile processor, but it’s usable for low-detail doodling… and I really like the idea behind MyPaint (which is available for at least Windows and Linux–possibly other platforms). Here are a couple drawings I made while experimenting with it:

A few weeks ago, my manager mentioned to me that he’d won “photo of the month” on a web site back in the mid 1990’s for a picture he took of hoarfrost. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find the photo.

I wasn’t familiar with hoarfrost, so he explained to me that it was a somewhat unusual form of frost that occurs during prolonged fog. The next morning, I coincidentally had a chance to take some pictures of hoarfrost. Here is my favorite of them:

We had the stump removed today. Unfortunately, during stump removal the Utopia fiber line to our house was cut. As far as I know, there wasn’t really any way to avoid it–we didn’t know (or didn’t remember) it was running under the ground by the tree, and neither did the tree guy. Still, he is planning to pay for the repair work (which is fortunately going to be pretty inexpensive if the Utopia guys were correct).

The Utopia repair guys were here a few hours after the line was cut, but didn’t have enough conduit to fix it, so they’ll be back tomorrow. That’s pretty quick turnaround!

Recently I learned that Verizon Wireless had re-priced their Internet plans to be very reasonable, so I’m using my mobile phone for Internet right now.

Update: We’re back online. Total downtime was a little over 31 hours. Good job, Utopia!

I went back to the car, and while I was putting away the camera someone came over and said “can I help you?” I said “no thank you,” pulled my bottle of water out of the car, then stood there and drank it. I figured he thought I might be rummaging through the car trying to steal something, and that would put him at ease.

He walked away (pretending to do something around the corner, I think), then when he came back past me I said “thanks for looking out for the car.” He smiled at me and went back inside.

When Shaun got back, he informed me that there had been a minor panic. “There’s a guy outside taking pictures!!!” While the guy was outside “helping” me, Shaun told them I was with him, and that I take pictures every day. I had mentioned that morning how nice Timp looked.

When the guy got back inside, the person behind the counter pointed at Shaun and said “he fessed up… that guy’s with him.”

People are really scared of cameras! I suspect if I’d had a pocket camera instead of a big black beast, they wouldn’t have freaked out… but if I’d been up to no good, that’s just what I would’ve used!

Anyway… if you want to rob the fedex office, this photo is for you.

I like pickled eggs (boiled and peeled eggs soaked in brine), so I thought this might be an interesting way to make them. I also figured it would be easier to peel them if the shell was just a thin soft film… so we gave it a shot!

1. Egg in Cup of Vinegar

2. Post-Vinegar Egg

3. Egg in Pot

4. Boiling Egg

5. Boiled Egg

6. Post-Vinegar Boiled Peeled Half-Eaten Egg

The results…

It was indeed easier to peel. Once I broke the membrane, the egg just squeezed out.

The vinegar that soaked into the egg prevented it from solidifying as much as a normal boiled egg, leaving it goopy on the outside.

It tasted EXTREMELY bitter. Far more than just the sourness you would get from vinegar. The shell must have dissolved into the egg. I found the flavor of the white part unpleasant, even with salt–and I tend to like strong flavors. The texture wasn’t very appealing either. The yolk didn’t taste quite as bitter as the white, but it was fairly nasty, and not something I am likely to eat a second time on purpose.

We spent $70 on bowling, but didn’t manage to get the required score. I disapprove of that grading system, but I enjoyed bowling with my family. I intend to talk to the teacher about the possibility of an alternate assignment.

After bowling, we went to IHOP. Here’s a picture of my son drinking through an IHOP crazy straw.

He wrote many stories about his life, which I have begun to post on his posthumous blog at allenthrower.com. There’s also a page about Allen Thrower for anyone interested.

My instructions for this photo were "go stand by that fence." (No, he’s not actually beating her with a bottle of water in a sock, but that was the effect he was going for.)

Mum’s the word (because I can’t spell chrysanthemum).

Eureka! Eureka! Eureka! Eureka! Eureka! Eureka!

I’d allow them to run ahead to the next corner while I went at my own speed and took pictures. They got bored while waiting at this corner. This is just a candid photo.

This is my youngest daughter. It looks like she’s completely shocked by something in the sky, but really she’s pointing at a stop sign that she sounded out, saying "STOP!"