Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Hitman goes medical






Since March 21 The Hitman is in the hospital. He wasn't feeling so great the week before that and on the 21st he texted my friend Ily "911". She took us both to the ER, where I whispered in his ear:
"If this turns out to be just a panic attack, I will kill you..."
He is still alive, so you can safely assume it was not just a panic attack. He got an emergency operation that same evening. The cardiology surgeon told me that there were blockages in his arteries. If it was only a few they would use a balloon; if it was more they would place stents; if it was even more they would perform an open heart surgery and if it was too many for that, the surgeon would come back to me and discuss other options. And out they run, with Joe on a bed, to the OR while I was still digesting what the surgeon just told me. I had to run after them... oh well, the first operation ended somewhere at 2 in the morning and he was fine with 2 stents near the heart.

This past week had then been a roller coaster ride for the both of us: He has several severe blocked arteries among which are his carotid arteries. He passed two kidney stones and due to that and the fact that his kidney didn't respond so well to Contrast Fluids, they postponed the second operation (more stents) until this afternoon. The Hitman called me and told me that they would operate him at around 1:30 pm. I dropped everything and went to the hospital, just in time to give him a big kiss before he went into the OR.

Again he came out looking fine and all smiling. I don't know what they are giving him for local anesthesia but I want some of that stuff...
Is he out of the woodwork yet? No not yet... Neurology still have to make a decision what they will do about the blocked carotid artery. Yes, it could mean another operation... but right now I am just happy for him that he has tomorrow off from tests and such.

One doctor told us that they are amazed that he was walking and talking with all those blockages, while any other person would have dropped dead . Well, he is the Hitman...and even if you would stab in the back with a large kitchen knife, he would probably wonder what was itching...

Monday, March 7, 2011

The Gorgeous Blogger Award

It makes perfectly sense that I would receive an award for being gorgeous but to receive one for being a gorgeous blogger... well not so much. I blog barely two years now and not even that often, however I have been gorgeous all my life and I will promise to keep that up for many years to come.
Nevertheless and to my surprise Ricardo unloaded and bestowed upon me the Gorgeous Blogger Award anyway.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
As this award requires that I answer a few questions and then pass the award onto others, I will do so without further ado.

1. When did you start blogging?
I started in 2009, after much arm twisting by Ily. She was and - I believe - still is convinced that both my talents and my wacky sense of humor should not be limited to a few, but be shared with many.

2. What's your blog about?
My art, impressions and observations. Nothing specific and everything and all goes, as long as I find it interesting, creative, weird, funny or worth writing about. Rarely about politics but sometimes I cannot help myself. But mostly I try to blog with a healthy dose of humor about the things around me. Occasionally I will showcase a painting that is finished. So what I am trying to say is that I am all over the board with my blog and why not? I am having fun with it and in many ways still test riding it... it is like... uuuhhmm... me in a Ferrari, driving at full speed while trying to figure out the clutch....

3. What makes your blog special?
Well.... (this is almost the same as the typical job interview question: "What makes you special?" I once answered that question with a straight face : "I don't slurp when I eat Spaghetti." and despite that reply I got the job, which was not in a restaurant.
Anyway, what makes my blog special and I have to answer with that I am the one writing it. And the people that return regularly to my blog and leave their comments make it extra special.

4. What got you into blogging?
Ily got me into blogging and I am happy that I followed her advise. Although it took a while before my arm was completely recovered from her persistent twisting it.

5. What would you like to change in your blog?
I would like to blog more often. Not as a journal but more often than once or twice per month. I will aim for 3 blogs per month... starting... oh well... somewhere in 2011.

I present this award to the following bloggers: Riot Kitty, Granny Annie, Valentina Ramos because they are so often an inspiration to me. Of course I would love to pass this award also to Ily, but Ricardo beat me to it (darn you Ricardo, why don't you break a leg.... )

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

What is on my easel...



Last Saturday I finished this painting and I named it "Secrets of a childhood".Again I painted on an unstretched canvas with acrylics. The painting itself measures 33" x 35". with a band painted in blue of 4" all around it.

The subject relates to me when I was a little girl and I would hide little secrets inside certain dolls. It could be a pebble, a little note, anything that I felt to be my own little treasure and some things I did not want anybody to know about. But even though I was always a little afraid that somebody would find it, I never thought all these little things inside a doll's body would make a noise. I now know my mother would take the arm of the doll to look inside, curious what made that noise when she moved the dolls to clean, but she never said anything to me about what she would find.