Glad you made it out. The number of near misses in this country in this past year alone makes me cringe

On the most recent trip, I was fascinated by local radio. Especially the Montana 'classifieds' radio show where the presenter listed endless items for trade. Sort of a spoken word freecycle or Craig's list. I couldn't turn away!

HA!

The number of near misses in this country in this past year alone makes me cringe

Makes me think our Al Qaida cells are a bunch of damn slackers.

Start a rumor, take some credit, instill a little terror boys...

Mhmm the Al Qaida America (tm) hr department has a lot to answer for

Yay! Woke up to the news that Iowa will have to allow gay marriages, at least until the legislature hurriedly 'plugs up' the threat by some state Constitutional amendment!

When I was a kid, we drove the 18 hours straight from DC to our place in Canada every summer and I *loved* it. Long road trips make me happy. (DH and I generally take 2 days with a stop in either Toronto or Tobermory, but eventually I want to start driving straight through again. If my parents could drive for 18 hours straight with 4 kids in the car, we can sure as hell do it with 1. What's the point of owning the World's Greatest Travel Game if you're only going to be on the road 10 hours?)

Ann Arbor to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Ann Arbor.

My longest solo drive in one day was Chicago to Nashville, which ended up being ten hours after adding an extra two hours to get through some construction at the Kentucky/Tennessee state line. I've also solo driven from Chicago to southern NJ twice, but did that in two days both times. My dad always drives that in one day, but there's no way in hell I can make the 13-14 hours without a break. Last time, I did get from NJ to Sandusky, OH before having to stop, so I only had another four hours the next morning.

I've driven DC to various points in southern Wisconsin in 2 days, several times. Longest 1-day was either Atlanta-DC or DC-Boston.

Atlanta-DC was probably the worst because it started raining at the end. And I made the mistake of taking 85 to 95 instead of going up 77 to 81. Which meant that the last 2 hours involved dark, rainy conditions with heavy traffic and an exhausted driver who was too close to home to really stop.

Worst 1-day was either Parkersburg, WV to DC through a major snowstorm that started halfway through, or Janesville, WI to Cleveland through an ice storm in northern Indiana and dense fog all through Ohio.

Remains of a cup of coffee:

And new news on Teddy -- he's doing pretty good. His kidney values are stable, if a little high. His creatinine is 2.9, should be 2.5 or lower. His BUN is 45, should be 36 or lower. Everything else is within normal ranges.

The problems now are significant anemia and his weight loss. His red blood cell levels are 15 (should be at least 25, and 30 is really recommended). And he's hovering around 7 pounds, when at this time last year he was closer to 12.

He's off the Zofran (anti-nausea pills), as well as the liquids (Lactulose and Aluminum Hydroxide to deal with constipation and phosphorus, respectively). And the subcutaneous fluids are being cut to every other day. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to happy about it because (1) he still has to take meds, and (2) we're adding in meds that were labeled optional a few weeks ago (organic renal support pill and cod liver oil).

Vibing hard for Teddy and all others who need good health vibes!

ION, If Larry Craig were gay...

ETA: Tap Three Times with your loafer if you want me...