First Friday and the End of Vacation

The wind down of Jessica's visit and my vacation 2 weeks from work - and an update on Brian -- resting most of day and going out for short walks is what we've been tending to do -- we watched all 3 seasons of Downton Abbey so we could be ready for Sunday's premier of Season 4.  Then we watched almost all of the 1st season of Breaking Bad, which we never started watching either.  And we went to see American Hustle, which I highly recommend - all 3 of us really enjoyed it!

First Friday Carl and Diane came down, and we tried Orso's first, but it was so crowded that we ended up at Sullivan's.  All 5 of us crowded around a table, and we split 2 appetizers at a time so that we could fit them on the table!  Hmmm . . . oysters on the 1/2 shell, blue cheese potato chips, calamari, and seared ahi tuna -- enough to call it a meal, along with some good wine and music!

 
Afterwards we walked over to the Town Square to try the teacups again, Jessica likes to be twirled in them (and so do the rest of the kids!  Including Diane!)

I have a video of her actually spinning but can't seem to get the videos to load.  The ice sculptures were due to be completed by 4:00 on Sunday, so we had a preview on Friday while they were worked on, and then we walked up to see them on Sunday just before the deadline, which was also the time we had to leave to take Jessica to the airport to fly back to L.A.  Saturday we took a quick trip to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, but it was wet and icy and windy/wild, so we mostly drove through and saw the elk and musk oxen and wood bison huddled up against the weather - also a lynx, owl, and red fox and Sitka black-tailed deer. 

The dragon in the middle was completed by a 2 person Chinese team - each has a 2 person team, and the dragon won 1st place - I liked the one on the bottom!  All in all a neat display and fun for families to traipse around the Town Square on a Sunday afternoon.  There was also an ice train that kids could play in and unfortunately some bigger kids probably under the cover of darkness played rough with that!  And then there was Monday morning . . . back to work.  

Brian is getting blood checks twice a week and will until he gets the all clear for some stable numbers on the blood thinning.  Then he can stop giving himself shots too, which won't hurt his feelings one bit!  

A New Year and Jessica's Visit

Jessica arrived for a 9 day visit two days after Christmas and a day after Brian went into the hospital - it was great to see her, and the day after Brian got out, we drove to Girdwood, an hour away, took a hike on the Winner Creek Trail and then rode the gondola to the 7 Glaciers Restaurant for a late lunch.  Jessica has the lunch pictures and the hiking pictures, but we did get this one gondola picture riding down through the clouds!

and one of Jessica and I at the top waiting for the return trip!  We had a wonderful lunch with an excellent presentation of all of the food - totally worth the drive and the ride to the top - it's a free ride if you have reservations at the restaurant!

The next day was New Year's Eve, and we generally go to our friends, Carl and Diane, for fireworks and a superb feast of appetizers and champagne that Diane spends an awfully lot of time preparing!  We were all looking forward to it, but Brian was really not up to it and needed to rest, so we stayed home.  Jessica and I walked up to the Town Square for the fireworks at 8, which were really great - see them with the Statue of Liberty ice sculpture here and Jessica modeling the holding of the torch. 

And lastly, a moose is loose on 12th Avenue!  We spied one out of our dining room window, chomping on the trees right from the sidewalk, so Jessica ran down and got the video of him right across the street, from our front porch!  And, I can't get the video to load, so you'll have to take my word for it! No wonder Jessica likes it here.  We had a wonderful week, in spite of and including Brian and I and Jessica all worrying about him and how he's doing- it certainly has us present to how much we love him and love each other.  More on First Friday and more ice sculptures in the next blog!  

and the aftermath of Christmas . . .

Well, a different post-Christmas than we had anticipated!  We had such a cozy Christmas Day, didn't ski since it continued to be zero or below, and went out the next day, much warmer, beautifully groomed trails . . . and 20 minutes out on the trail, Brian called to me and said he had to go back, didn't feel well enough to go on.  Well, that was it.  If Brian wants to go back after only 20 minutes of skiing, there is definitely something seriously wrong - he'd been feeling "off" for a couple of weeks, heaviness in his legs, no zip, now short of breath, the day before we left for Talkeetna he'd had pain in his chest but didn't want to tell me since it went away.  We went straight to the hospital via the doctor's office which I had called on the way - his blood pressure was 180/84, and she sent us on to the hospital, where we were headed anyway.

After a few hours in the hospital, an EKG, chest X-ray and CT scan, Brian was admitted with 2 pulmonary embolisms.  He had a little bit of a scare over night and a temporary trip to Intensive Care when they were taking blood at 4 am, poked around painfully, and Brian's heart slowed to 20s, then stopped for 16 seconds.  They had him back in his regular room within 4 hours, and he spent 3-4 days altogether.

Back home on Sunday!  Now we're taking it more slowly and waiting for those darn things to break up and disappear.  It's pretty hard to watch the perfect snow conditions and groomed trails and take a short walk!  And, we're grateful that Brian is home and recovering and that we have skiing together in our future!