Say What?

My hearing has been a little problematic for years, but I didn’t really have it checked until 2005. I recently had it checked again at Costco, since it’s free there, and the results weren’t encouraging. Dr. Tracy asked me to get a second test done at an “official” hearing lab, and the results were the same. In the past three years my low to mid range hearing has worsened by about 20 to 30 decibels, meaning sounds in that frequency range (that of adult human speech) sound 20 to 30 decibels quieter to me than they actually are.

According to “Doc Rock,” my Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor, the pattern of my hearing loss is not consistent with nerve damage caused by noise exposure, but does closely match that from a condition called otosclerosis. If I do have that, my hearing will most likely just continue to deteriorate. Treatment options include surgery to replace a bone in the inner ear (usually the stapes) with a prosthetic one, or hearing aids. The surgery, called a stapedectomy, usually improves hearing, but actually has a small chance of causing complete deafness in the affected ear (they usually do one ear at a time). It is also not necessarily a permanent fix, and so the patient often ends up wearing hearing aids later on. As for starting with hearing aids, this might be the only option if the hearing loss isn’t severe enough.

Doc Rock is having me get a second opinion from an otologist (ear specialist). I see her on Wednesday, and I’ll report back here with what she says.

We all went to the Puyallup Fair yesterday with the Hesses. It was a grand time! I haven’t been there in years! Keegan was amazed and didn’t take a nap for the longest time, until he just plain conked out around 2pm (he had been up at 8). Zoey went on rides for the very first time! She went on the helicopter ride:

The car (I remember it as the tea cup) ride:

And the roller coaster (third car back on the right)!:

Much fun was had! We also saw the animals. Keegan was looking at cows here:

It was a good time!

“Someday you’re going to discover you’re not invincible, and it’s going to come as a shock.”

“Daddy, what does ’shock’ mean?”

We just had a very busy couple of weeks, Brassapalooza Trumpet Camp, Evan went to GenCon in Indianapolis, and Evan’s parents were here for a week to help us out. During this time, Evelyn, Earl, and I took the kids to the portrait studio to get some pictures done. I haven’t done pictures at the studio for a while, mainly because the photographers just seemed to be getting worse. This time we got some good pictures, but, the only one of the kids together took about 10 minutes and they had trouble with Keeg either trying to suck his thumb or almost crying. Hmmmmm. A Challenge. They have nice props and backdrops, though.

It was lovely having the Portland Sasses up. Earl ended up fixing tons of things for us! Thanks Earl!!! He fixed our droopy gutter, tackled our scary morning glory invasion, fixed the hole in the side of the house from where we took out an vent duct from the old stove (he fixed the venting on the new stove when we moved in a couple years ago), got rid of the yellowjacket nest (which was in the ground in our rosebed—it was the size of a soccer ball!), vacuumed the van, fixed the lightbulb in the bathroom and fixed the plumbing in the toilet (which broke the morning they were leaving!). Wow. We thank you so much for helping our little home stay running!

Evan came back on Monday. It is nice to have him home again! Trumpet camp was a complete success! YAY! The kids are doing great, and things are starting to ramp up faster into the school year. Zoey will be in the Inventors class at preschool. Keegan will be doing the Little Gym all year. We are signing up Zoey for more art classes for the Fall and then ballet starting up again in January, I think.

Summer has been great so far! We did some things, saw some people, played some music, had free time, took naps, and even watched some movies! Two more weeks of summer!

That’s the view I had on my way to Gen Con, but so far it’s pretty much the same on the way back home. I’m at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, spending a bit too much for wi-fi. Just one more hour left on my layover.

Judging by the constant announcements over the PA system, either most airports don’t care, or this one serves the most forgetful people in the world. I just hope I never leave my cell phone at the security checkpoint.

It was a good convention, but I’m very ready to be home.

In case you were wondering about the bluesy strains coming over the baby monitor a while ago, no, Keegan’s nap didn’t “take,” and yes, apparently Zoey left a harmonica in his crib.

“Thanks for getting more gorilla bars!”

“You’re welcome, Zoey.”

“I’m so proud of you, Mommy.”

Yesterday we moved Keegan’s crib into Zoey’s room—now Zoey & Keegan’s room—and he spent his first night in there with her. He had trouble falling asleep in the new space, and then woke up at Time I Can’t Remember From Lack Of Sleep in the night, but Zoey slept fine, which was my main concern. Rona did a great job cleaning out their room, which job included moving out a clutter-magnet chair, and it is great in there now. I declare Operation One Room a success!

In case you get your FrogTacoBlog from an RSS feed, or, like me, haven’t had your coffee yet, you might want to stop by and see what we’ve done to spiff up the place, or else pour yourself a mug and click F5.

Along with upgrading Wordpress, I installed a new theme and created some custom graphics that show off some of our favorites from our Flickr photostream.

I’d love to hear what any of you might think about the new look. I didn’t design it, but I can change it, so if anything is hard to read or confusing or seems broken in your browser, please leave us a comment. Which is also a fine thing to do if you like it.

I know, I know… We’re way behind on posting photos or even real honest-to-goodness updates or, well, anything really. So, here’s some food to show we still love you. Or to at least tide you over until we get the photo factory rolling along again.

Evan’s Pressure-Cooker Dhal (Indian Lentil Curry Soup)

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil [edit: I've started using 1 TBSP extra-virgin coconut oil instead, if for no other reason than the amazing smell it wafts through the kitchen]
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, smashed & finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 or 3 tsp Patak’s Mild Curry Paste (or go spicier, or use whatever kind you can find or make your own)
• 1 can (14-15 oz.) Thai light coconut milk
• 1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
• 32 oz. vegetable or chicken stock (buy a box at the store, or, make your own—it’s easy!)
• 1 1/3 cups red lentils, rinsed & picked over
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 lime, cut in half

Equipment:

• Pressure cooker (ours is 6 quarts—if yours isn’t or you don’t have one, just use a regular old large pot and it’ll just take a little longer)
• Food processor or blender
• Large mixing bowl or other large container that can take the heat

Start Cookin’:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, until it can run around the bottom of the pot like water.
2. Add the diced veggies and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes
3. Add the curry paste and stir around until the veggies are coated
4. Pour in the coconut milk and veggie stock
5. Add the diced tomatoes
6. Stir in the lentils
7. Add in the cinnamon stick & cardamom pods (just leave ‘em floating on top)
8. Close lid on pressure cooker, bring up to pressure, reduce heat, cook for 8 minutes while regulator doohickey gently rocks.
9. Carefully transfer pressure cooker to sink (look out for escaping steam when you set it down) and run cold water over the top to force the pressure down and unlock the lid.
10. Fish out the cardamom pods (these can be hard to find) and the cinnamon stick.
11. Puree most of the soup mixture in your food processor or blender, only filling vessel up 1/2 way or less at a time to avoid steam causing a soup geyser.
12. Transfer blended soup to bowl, mix in the bit you left out of the blender.
13. Add salt and pepper to taste, and squeeze in fresh lime juice.
14. Eat up!

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook uncovered in a large stock pot for about 20 minutes. Recipe inspired by “Garlicky Lentil Soup” and “Spiced Lentil Soup” in The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup, Barnes & Noble Books, 2002 (ISBN: 0-7607-3096-2).