Silly Ideas

There are a lot of things going on at the moment which means that I don't have many interesting things to blog about other than hospital visits, colonic irrigation and so on. In fact, whilst syringing DKs ear this morning to get out the remains of an ear infection he seems to have had over the last week, the drain seems to have come out so that will mean yet another appointment with the ear doctor and probably another small operation to put a new one back in there.




I have been thinking about what I am eating again as I have slowly drifted back into more normal eating habits. That is not to say that I am eating badly again, but I have not been totally abstaining from cakes and sweet things. I have been eating very little of these sweet goodies and I intend to begin my abstinence again in the very near future - probably when MKs home make orange cake is all gone. Anyway, I digress. I have been considering trying out a few different diets to see how it is to try and survive with some strange and arbitrary eating rules. Maybe just for a day or maybe a week depending on the complexity of surviving without eating X, Y or Z.

Which should I try?

• Firstly I thought I would try the new raw food thing and see if I could last a week eating only raw food. To be honest, I don't think I could last more than a day or so on this one, because I simply can't think of many things worth eating that don't require cooking of some sort.
• Secondly I thought about being vegetarian for a week. I think I could manage this and it would probably do me some good.
• Taking this to the next level would mean being vegan for a day or two. Again, I can't imagine surviving this for long simply because there is nothing to eat if you're a vegan. I simply don't know how you could survive and it is even harder to see why you would want to do it.

To be honest, I am curious about the raw food, but I know I can't live on raw food in Denmark for long without learning a lot more about preparing stuff because I will go totally mad. I think it may be something I could incorporate into my diet more in the future.
Being a vegan is just daft, but maybe not eating meat for a few days would be interesting. I will think about a plan and post it tomorrow...

J seems to have flu today and is firmly attached to the sofa. I hope he gets better quickly.

Boys in tights

UPDATE:

According to my blogger stats, this is my most viewed post ever with regular visits every day from people searching for boys in tights. I sincerely hope that you are not spaking your monkey over photographs of my 4 year old son. If you are, then you are a monumental pervert and deserve to die sad and lonely as you almost certainly will

Have a nice day :-)


Apparently it is fairly normal for young boys to wear tights here in the winter to keep warm. It makes some sense and you can even buy them with cars and planes on them for boys. DK has some of these that MK has bought for him and they work really well when he is in his brace.

Last week MK took the boys shopping in town and she happened to mention that they had bought J some more spiderman sock and some tights. She didn't mention the colour.

At first I was somewhat horrified that my some was going to be wearing pink tights and even more concerned that the other kids in his nursery would be mean to him about them.
He wore them for the first time on Sunday and absolutely loves them to the extent that it is a fight to get him out of them (unless he pees in them) and I really can't find it in me to see anything wrong about it. He simply loves running around the house in them and I am fairly sure that none of the other kids will care in his nursery, after all, he has flowers on his rain coat :-)
DK is doing fine, and remains as cheerful as ever.

The details are emerging

It seems that the incompetence in DKs latest problem is turning out to the fact that nobody found out that he had it sooner. This means that the healthy guts have been strained and stretched somewhat, but hopefully will be back in shape by the time of the operation thanks to our new skills of administering colonic irrigation.

This morning we went to the hospital to find out what will be happening with the operation and to have DK flushed out. It took 4 litres today which seemed like rather a lot to me considering that we only use 1 at home to do it, but it's better out than in.

The operation is scheduled for 18th November and he will have to be in for a couple of days before and a week after the actual operation, until then he is not to go to day care and will need a month to 6 weeks recovery afterwards before he can start so that means he will start after Christmas

Drains

Having found out where the water in the basement comes from, I have finally started trying to solve the problem.

The water comes in through the window when there is heavy rain and the drain backs up enough to come up through the drain in the window box. I've had a look down the drain and it looks like a soak away, but that doesn't make sense because it goes straight down under the house rather than out into the garden. Last night I dug out the plans of the house and sure enough, it is a drain that should go under the house. That means that it is blocked...

I have had a first go at flushing it out with Lars' pressure wash things without any success because it seems to be basically full of soil. I will have another go this weekend, but in all honesty, I suspect that I won't be able to budge it.

I suppose that the next step will be to call someone with a truck and some sort of heavy duty sucking equipment to get all the soil out.

One thing I did learn is that it is best to put the drain flusher into the drain before giving it a test fire.

When the going gets tough

The tough have trouble sleeping and get rather a bad headache...

DK is getting better, I am getting worse. I have caught one of the boys colds and will no doubt be looking for a lot of sympathy over the coming days.

The hospital called to say that DK has to be flushed daily until his operation which should be at the start of November (provisionally) so MK has taken him to the hospital in CPH to be taught how to do it. He doesn't seem to like it much so I expect there will be a lot of mess and screaming involved in that over the coming days.

My bike ride was cancelled yesterday due to some shit/fan interfacing at work. Hopefully I can get that cleared up today and relax a little this evening.

Accepting Autumn

Autumn is certainly with us now so it is time to accept it, embrace it and enjoy it.

I would normally be trying to get out on my mountain bike at this time of year to enjoy the dry trails and the great colours in the woods, but the lack of a working back wheel means that I can't actually ride it at the moment.

The sun has been shining and despite the ferocious wind, it is a beautiful time to be out and about. The kids are fascinated by a bunch of bulldozers and diggers that are doing something in the park at the end of the road and we are now getting ready for the cold dark winter.

My priorities for cycling have changed from getting faster to making sure that I can still fit into the small trousers that I bought with such smugness only a few weeks ago. So far so good, but I am struggling to make progress towards my Christmas target of 90kg. I guess I will have to make a determined effort at some point to achieve that, but I am struggling with motivation and at the same time we both feel like we deserve a treat in the evening because of the trauma of DKs problems.

DK is doing much better the last couple of days although he has spent a couple of hours crying in the middle of the night for the last 2 nights. Hopefully he will get over that tonight...

DK

Hopfully we'll get the practical stuff sorted out in the next day or so...

Enjoying his supper (but not a lot)


Whining

Last week before his balls turned blue

Bad news

Daniel:

How it should be:

The surgeon called this afternoon to say that DK does have Hirschsprungs disease. That means that will have to have part of his large intestine removed at some point. Normally this is discovered very early on with small babies and is a life threatening condition if not treated promptly. From that I assume that DK doesn't have a particularly bad case since he is now 15 months old and not doing too badly. Unfortunately, all this means is that they won't have to remove too much although I really don't know what I am talking about.

More news will follow when I have some and I am already getting a headache from drinking too much wine too fast...

False alarm

Despite writing a few posts ago that I would try to avoid just keeping an online journal, that is more or less what I am doing at the moment.
I has a moderately sleepless night in the hospital on Friday and was very happy to see MK and J when they arrived with cake for breakfast on Saturday. We dossed around for a while, well I did, DK slept and J terrorised the entire ward on a plastic mini cooper at 100mph.
We came home in the afternoon and had a good night sleep but yesterday DK was rather under the weather. By the evening his temperature was rather high and it seemed that the panadol was not bringing it back down so after speaking to the nurse in the hospital, we packed up and headed to CPH at 7 o'clock. As soon as we got in the car DK stopped the whining that he had been doing for the previous 5 hours (not an exaggeration) and by the time we got to the hospital, he was fine.
After a quick examination we went home again.

Better safe than sorry, but it was rather a waste of time and petrol to be honest.

Hopefully we will get some news about his guts today and tomorrow we are meeting with his pediatrician tomorrow to see what's what. If we are lucky, that could be the last of the operations... Fingers crossed.

I suppose a photograph would be kiddy porn, but DKs nuts look terribly sore, they are blue and swollen and look really sore, he is not at all happy about having the plaster changed on his stitches and generally prefers to be lying down than sitting at the moment.

Home again

We have finally Been sent home. SKa fever has gone down and he is eating and drinking so there was no need to carry on with the drip. We shod get the biopsy result on Monday but in the meantime he looks pretty sore around his privates and one can't help wincing at the sight and thought of the stitches where they put the errant ball back.

Spoke too soon

DK has a fever so he and I will be in overnight to make sure he is OK

Full count

DK is now awake again after his operation and is now fully equipped with 2 testicles. Apparently the new one may not be much use but at least it is in the right place now!
Results on the Hirschsrung disease on Monday...

Another year

I guess I am about half way there today. It has been a busy day so far compared with yesterday which was spent waiting for something to happen. There were 3 men working on taking windows out of our house before I left for work this morning and we were all up and ready to go out a lot earlier than normal (something to do with the aforementioned men I think). J was busy telling the guys about his things and asking them what they were doing.

I had lots of generous gifts for my birthday this year. Thanks to everyone for them. I will post some pictures later.

Quickie

There was nothing quick about our trip to the hospital today. We waited for about 4 hours for DK to be flushed out which took about 20 minutes. Rather annoying, but I guess he got the worst of it.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, not only it is my birthday, but our new windows are being fitted from 8 in the morning and we are eating at J's nursery whilst seeing all the pictures and work from his field trip.

Today's most exciting event was my hair cut this evening. After some discussion with my hairdresser we decided to go with a new, more edgy look. At the end of it we both agreed that there was a good chance that nobody would notice and it is really only edgy if you're very nearly 35 years old!

Trouble? Us?

Sometimes, yes!

Green to Yellow to Brown

We have had a nice relaxing weekend with a little culture, an early birthday celebration and some time just relaxing.

On Saturday we went to a Munch exhibit north of Copenhagen at Ordrupgaard. Lunch was OK, the exhibit was dull, but they have recently opened the house of Finn Juhl to the public much as it was when he lived there. Finn Juhl was a Danish designer and Architect who designed furniture and also the UN building in New York amongst other things. The house was really nice and quite contemporary even now. In 1942 when it was built it must have been amazing. One of the things that amused me was that the kitchen was almost identical to the one in our house when we moved in, but not in such good condition. It is a shame that is was just not suitable for today's living.

On Saturday evening I had an early birthday party at T&Bs house before they left for Russia. Thanks to everyone for the generous gifts and have a good trip.

Sunday was a day for taking it easy. J was a little under the weather so we made the usual pancakes and stayed inside for the most part. I took him for a short bike ride in the afternoon before going out for my own ride. I must admit that I felt a little silly riding in the full Lycra with J even though he goes quite fast these days.

We finished the afternoon watching Cadel Evans with the road race at the world championships. A well deserved win for a guy who rarely seems to have luck on his side and who as has his fair share of stick in the media. Well done.

There is no doubt that the summer is in it's death throws, we are now considering putting the heating on and the leaves are quickly moving through the yellows and reds to a somewhat depressing brown. I don't suppose it will be long before they've all gone. On the bright side, however, I'll be able to put my new cool weather cycling gear through it's paces...

When to fit in those rides?

Now that the season is over for the guys riding races and the evenings are noticeably shorter, it is again becoming difficult to pin down that elusive time of day when you are able to get some exercise and also have the will and energy to do it.

Riding with a bunch of guys on a sunny evening is easy, riding on your own in the dark or in the basement is not so easy. The other problem is that when it is on your own time, it is difficult to justify bailing out on the family evening meal (chimpanzee tea party that it is) or putting the kids to bed. That means that the available time slots are before 7 ish in the morning and after 7:30 ish in the evening. Normally I opt for the later seeing as I am not a morning person and despite yearning to be able to get out of bed at 5:30 to get a workout in, deep in my heart, I know it's not going to happen often.

This weekend I think I will set up the trainer in the basement and accept that it is my main option for the coming months and try to find some time to get out on the roads when the opportunity arises.

In other news, more misery is probably waiting for MK as I can see that Crank Brothers have just shown some 29er wheels at Interbike. This is what I have been yearning for ever since my current wheels died a couple of months ago. I think I'll save up for them and hope that they are available before too long...

More pictures

Apparently the last one was popular so here are a few more.

Cropped

Early Morning and To Do Lists

This morning DK decided he had been in bed long enough just before 5:00 and he let us know in very clear terms (screaming) that he wanted to be out of his bed and he wanted his breakfast. I guess we'll be tired this evening.

As the summer is drawing to a close and I realise that there are still lots of house jobs that I should have done during the summer, but remain undone I have an ongoing list of jobs to do.

Chief amongst these is painting the doors for the kitchen cupboards and putting them back in place. I have now at least filled the holes in them, but there remains a great deal of scrubbing, sanding and painting to be done. I hope do have this done within the next couple of weeks.

Then there are the basement doors and windows that I started last weekend and need to finish. This will require a spell of good weather, but again, I think it is reasonable to expect this to be done within a couple of weeks. Then what?

I would like to get our basement painted and tidied up enough that it becomes a less unpleasant place to be. I am not aiming for a delightful living space, but I think I should be able to paint the walls and the floor a bit at a time during the winter and make it into more of an extension of the house than a dumping ground for all the crap that we don't want to look at. Building the bike rack was an important step in the right direction for this project because there are no longer bikes along all of the walls, but now I need to get rid of the kitchen doors and push ahead with the cleaning and painting.

Is Christmas realistic as a target? Only time will tell.