Tuesday, August 28, 2007

One down, two to go

It's only been 48 hrs since last posting after the BBQ but it sure feels longer than that with all the activity. Where to start?

Well first thing Monday it was an early (without anything to eat or drink) start for the baby daughter as we headed up to see the dental surgeon. He was described as "a real tool" by said patient after her contact, but hopefully his lack of interpersonal skills is made up for by his technical expertise. To begin with he was over an hour behind when we arrived for a 9:15 a.m. appointment. Then the cost was $820 for extracting one molar which had to be paid on the spot and billed back to the insurer, he told the patient that the surgical flap procedure (to repair the sinus communication) wasn't covered by insurance for being done in the office only in the hospital (we will see about that!) And I wasn't too impressed that the oromaxillary facial surgery clinic last year hadn't noticed this and advised me, it would also have explained the post op infection she developed. Anyhoo, the IV sedation sure made missy more pleasant than she's been in a while. One of the postives of the whole experience was a nursing school classmate was the nurse who assisted so we got caught up on all the news as the patient was being discharged.

Daughter # 2 and I headed into WalMart to pick up supplies on the 'back to school' list and left the docile dental patient napping. We managed to get the prescriptions filled, the shopping done and back before missy got too cranky. I was very grateful for the assistance as the list/post op nursing was a two person procedure. The dental patient has done very well and this is as expected because she's wanting to transport the boyfriend off to university and there were two stipulations 1) satisfactory recovery 2) no increased backtalk. The recovery is going well is all I'll say.

Last night we had the prodigal son and his girlfriend drop in for supper to see off daughter # 2 for university. Always nice to have them all around the table catching up on the news. The the two daughters decide to take the cats to the spa, nails clipped, coats brushed and shampooed - only Gary suffers this without much protest. In the middle of this the man of the house is attempting to watch a DVD movie - why with all that activity I have no idea - but he complained about the noise level of course.

Today was the send off for daughter # 2 who was fine when she got back to university but was dawdling as she wasn't keen to head out. After being a short order cook, laundress, nurse and housekeeper for about 2 hrs, I finally excused myself to the steps with the heat gun I had borrowed from a neighbour and removed paint from the auction washstand to preserve what remained of my sanity. I watched my summer neighbours in kayaks playing with their dogs in the harbour and sighed to myself 'they are retired and their kids are grown, they have earned this' while I reminded myself that envy is not a nice emotion.

After lunch daughter # 2 was encouraged to pack (somewhat - the left-behind list has grown to four items by 8 p.m. and the unpacking has hardly begun) and as we were heading out the door her father actually appeared to accompany us. With a quick stop in Yarmouth we were off to University Ste Anne in Church Point - below:

http://www.usainteanne.ca/default.php

where we portered three years accumulation of 'stuff' from one residence to another before heading out to supper. If you're ever in Grosse Coques you really have to eat here at Chez Christophe, it has great food served in an Acadian homestead atmosphere:

http://www.chezchristophe.ca/

Between us we had fish cakes (salt pollock not cod as per the locals) seafood lasange (yum) and rappie pie (both chicken and clam) which couldn't be finished and had to become a student lunch for tomorrow as mister also had seafood chowder. This place never disappoints. We left the university with lots of hugs and talk of Thanksgiving visit and stopped at Canadian Tire to window shop the end of season sales in the Garden Center.

As I settled down to begin this post at 10 p.m. the prodigal son and his girlfriend appeared and before long were cooking up hamburgers, watching movies with his sister and examining the hamsters (who are enjoying their last night here with us) while making plans for tomorrow. The only one missing is the hamster owner (our semi-permanent houseguest since June) who is off at a farewell party. As the students head out the score is...one down and two to go.