Some heart~ma for my step-dad would be appreciated. He has always been a very physically active man in the 30 years I have known him, but in the past few weeks he started getting substantial chest pain and shortness of breath with even minimal exertion. We went for an echo and stress test Friday and after about 3 seconds of the stress test they stopped it and scheduled him for a cath at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Most likely outcome will be a stent put in tomorrow, but we will know more when they get in there. I know this is very routine stuff, but his emotional state has been horrible since Mom died and he could use some ~ma in the form of strength for the next few days.

Thank you!

At 66 years old, 4 months from retirement, my BIL had a massive heart attack at swim practice this morning. He was gone before they got him out of the pool.

This fucking year.

My dad was admitted to the hospital today with a cellulitis infection in his leg. He's in good health, but he's also 70 and probably put off going to the hospital longer than he should have. I will gladly take any medical ~ma you feel like sending his way.

I'm off to attend a funeral for a friend today, the first of my post-college circle to pass away. We had thought he was on the road to recovery after a couple months of being hospitalized (I mentioned him in Beep Me back in late June), but his heart gave out very soon after he was moved to a rehab hospital to regain his strength. You'll be missed, Jerry.

Do we have anybody in Georgia? ( Dianne Cameron??) My former roommate and dear friend Mona Romero (whose house burned down in the CA Valley Fire a couple of years ago) is in the process of evacuating from her house near Tampa. She's on the freeway now, and she said it's stop and go. She has a place to go in North Carolina, but doesn't think she can get that far tonight. Can anybody put her up overnight? Eta: hotel'd it for a few days near Atlanta, then back to Tampa, where their house was undamaged, hooray.

Some make-this-dream-happen-ma would be appreciated...ND and I just found and put in an offer on a house within the past four days. This has all happened very unexpectedly and with lightning speed. We are freaking out more than a little. I know the price will seem outrageous for most of the country, but a place this size with an attached apartment, all renovated and gorgeous, is a freaking STEAL for this area. I. Am. Freaking. Out.

Link went POOF for now...

So nothing is decided yet, but early signs point to something sketchy going on since the listing agent seems less than interested in actually letting the buyer consider our offer. There's a reason it's been sitting there. We aren't giving up, but it isn't looking good. Any spare -ma you have would be appreciated.

Hey gang, we found out late Monday that they've fast-tracked the surgery to install my dad's feeding tube, and he goes in to the hospital Friday morning. Any health~ma for that day would be appreciated—it's supposed to be a simple outpatient procedure, but with an octogenarian disabled patient any surgery risks complications.

At least I'll be able to kid him about being a cyborg afterwards.

Best luck with your dad's procedure, Matt.

For those wondering about the radio silence regarding our dream house, I've been trying to keep my personal crazy off the board. It's a long story, but the short version is that the listing agent is SUPER BEYOND SKETCHY. There's a previous offer that isn't working but SSA (super sketchy agent, whose name might be Tino) has been dragging his feet getting the owner out of, but persistence (and a little patented sneakiness and our own awesome agent) means we aren't out of the running yet. The owners actually want to sell to us, so there's hope. Keep thinking positive thoughts for us. I'll let you know once it's resolved.

If anyone has an iPad Air 2 what died, or has a cracked touch screen but works, I might be interested. Let me know.I might be able to salvage the LCD from it to repair Andi's.