Ups and downs

Vlad felt pretty good this morning and was not going to be denied his usual Saturday (usual before leukemia) with Sasha (pictured here with his wife, Valiya, who bought an SUV in a previous post). Vlad and Sasha are both from Odessa, both are serious geeks and love to talk over coffee. Sometimes they go to Fry's, sometimes they play around on computers, sometimes they just blah, blah, blah.

He had a short visit this morning, over my weak objections. I get tired of being the bad guy. The rest of the day was very low-key.

He was doing OK until I left to get balloons for Dylan's birthday party. Dylan will be 1 and they're having that party I alluded to earlier. It's tomorrow. Anyway, buying balloons, I find out in my late 40s, is a minor art form. Juggling purse, money, balloons. And chasing -- in utter futility -- the ones that get away. (two got away, mind you; two of four, clearly half of the entire balloon package. and they came off the ribbon; i did not let go. they broke away, like wild horses.) However, I managed to hang on to the $9.99 dolphin balloon. He had a non-realistic pelvic fin that made him easy to hold onto. Darwin would say that's why in real life they don't have pelvic fins.

Anyhoo, by the time I got back from this traumatic errand, Vlad was fading a bit. Cranky and tired. He had done a little kitchen cleaning and I think it did him in.

I'm still up because I've been working. I got done about an hour ago, then started looking at the May numbers for the gardening channel, since it's been June 1 for about 2 hours. We're up 28% in page views! Not really balloon-worthy, but hey, I'll keep my job another month.