In Part 1, I explored how I scanned in my family’s old photos. After doing this, my "Preserve Family History" initiative languished for awhile. Then two things happened. First of all, I started watching "Who Do You Think You Are?" For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a wonderful show that takes a celebrity and traces their family’s history. It’s amazing to see Sarah Jessica Parker anguish over the fate of an ancestor charged with being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials. Or marveling with Emmit Smith over the cold calculations that went into the slave trade. While there are parts of the show I could do without (the "coming up next" clips that give away major surprises and the musical segment at the end), overall I really like the show.

The other thing that happened was that B’s grandmother had a fall about a month ago. I realized that her grandmother’s not going to live forever. I’ve already lost a huge family history resource on my side. With my grandmother’s passing last year, all of my grandparents are dead. On B’s side, her grandmother is the last one still living. I wanted to preserve as much family history as possible.

I began looking into programs to help me organize my geneological pursuits. I came upon a nice piece of free (and open source) software called GRAMPS. The interface took a little getting used to. I’ll admit that I came pretty close to deleting the whole deal a few times. Once I worked out how to operate it, though, I was amazed by how much information I could input into it. What really sealed the deal, though, was the portable version. Pop that onto a USB drive and you can tote your entire family tree around and work on it on any computer.

The fun doesn’t stop at inputting data, however. You can add plugins for GRAMPS that allow it to easily output the data to web pages, family trees, etc. Pretty much anything you want to do with your family history, you can do with GRAMPS. This is definitely a tool I’d recommend for people who want to keep a local family history.

Next week, I’ll expand my search beyond your PC to the World Wide Web and the various resources that are available there.

You might remember that, a month ago, I had my nose electrically cauterized.  Well, yesterday I had my followup appointment.  Perhaps I should have known how things were going to go a few days prior when the doctor who did my procedure had to cancel due to emergency surgery and I was given an appointment with another doctor.  But I figured that these things happen.

Getting to the office and into the waiting area for the doctor went without incident.  Then the doctor came in.  She was nice, listened to my history and looked in my nose.  She got it to bleed which was a good thing because she seemed to be actively trying to find where it was bleeding from.  Doesn’t make sense to treat areas that you *think* are bleeding when another area might be the actual bleeding spot.  So far all good, but we’re about to head downhill fast.

She said she was going to put some stuff in my nose.  I didn’t quite catch the name, but I thought I heard "Afrin" which I had taken to reduce the size of my nasal blood vessels and so reduce the number and severity of the bleeds.  I figured she was going to pack my nose like was done one time before to help it heal.  As she stuffed a cotton ball up my nose, liquid ran down my lips.

"That’ll just numb your lips a bit," she joked.

Numb?  Excuse me?!!!  Just what was she planning on doing?  I told her that I didn’t want another electrical cauterization done.

"Well, I’m going to have to do something," she said as she walked out of the room.

Now alarm bells were going off.  Just what was "something" and why would she leave the room mid-discussion like that without giving me a chance to respond?  I was left to sit there and think this over (and text message) a bit before she came back in.  I reiterated my stance against another electrical cauterization.  I told her how painful it was last time, how I was so clogged up that I couldn’t sleep last time, and how I had nobody to drive me home should I not feel up to it.  She insisted that she was going to do a silver nitrate cauterization.  She said it’s less intense and I won’t get as clogged up.  I grudgingly accepted, half feeling like I was backed into a corner.

The procedure went smoothly, I guess.  The two main problems during it (for me) came when a flood of fluid spilled from another cotton ball stuffed in my nose into my mouth causing me to swallow numbing solution.  She made sure to squeeze the cotton balls better next time to prevent a recurrence.  The other incident happened when a gush of something came out of my nose and went *under* the bib they put on me right onto my white shirt.  During the electrical cauterization, a similar incident involved blood so I was fearful that my white shirt was now ruined.  Luckily, it was that numbing stuff again which is clear and doesn’t stain.  Still, her joke post-procedure that my white shirt is "too much pressure" for her was in poor taste.

After the procedure was completed, she said she wanted to see me on a weekly basis to keep an eye on the bleeds.  She explained that you can cauterize one area only to have another bleed form slightly higher up in the vessel.  Apparently, she was planning on repeating this procedure many times until the bleeding stopped.

I went to check out and was told I owed a $30 co-pay.  I asked why.  After all, this appointment was a follow-up to my electrical cauterization procedure.  I was informed that followups don’t need co-pays only when dealing with a surgical procedure and electrical cauterization doesn’t count as a surgical procedure.  Then I asked if this meant that my weekly followups would have co-pays as well.  Yes they would was the answer.  This was the last straw.  I can’t afford to spend $30 per week to have someone chase nosebleeds in my nose!

They gave me the number of their billing manager (the person at the desk had no authority to do anything except collect co-pays and schedule appointments) and I called the next day.  The billing manager told me that they had zero leeway with this.  This is what my insurance company mandates so this is what they charge.

Meanwhile, I had had a chance to stew about some of the problems with what went on in the doctor’s office and asked to speak with the patient representative.  I explained to her the situation and she (with my permission) said she’d talk with the doctor.

Now it gets *really fun*.  The doctor called me back and started all but blaming me outright for the situation, telling me that she "can’t read minds."  EXCUSE ME?!!!!  A doctor is not supposed to start a procedure on a patient and just assume they’ll get up to speed about things.  A doctor is supposed to give the patient options and discuss a course of action before starting something.

She said the only other option was packing my nose and I told her that’s what I thought she was doing before I felt the numbing stuff inside my nose.  I quickly realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere with her and got off the phone with her.  B called the patient representative back and lodged a complaint.  Curiously, the doctor didn’t want to see me and the doctor who did my electrical cauterization will now see me on my appointment this Friday.  (If I keep it.)

In any event, this whole situation could have been diffused by five minutes of sitting down with the patient (me) and telling me what our options were and what she thought was needed.  I’d have likely agreed and the rest would have gone the same, but at least I’d have known and agreed to the medical procedure *BEFORE* it was started and not *AFTER* the doctor began it.

Maybe it’s a sign that "Patient Representative" is the first option on their phone menu.

Weight: 194 lbs (up 2 pounds)

Average Hours of Sleep: N/A

Total Workout Time: 0

Total Calories Burned: 0

Passover is now over and, as expected, I gained some more weight. My total weight gain for the 8 Passover days and the 6 non-Passover days that I didn’t count points was 4 pounds. I find that quite reasonable. My challenge now is to get back on track with my weight loss. After all, I have a mere 6 weeks to go and now have 7 pounds to lose. That’s not impossible to do, but it will take some effort.

In my post yesterday (Keeping History Alive, Part 1: Family Photos), I described how I scanned my grandmother’s photos to preserve them and share them with all of my family members.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: What have you done to preserve your old family photos? Have you scanned them? Have you cataloged who is in them?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #33

When it became apparent that my grandmother was going to pass away soon, my mother asked me what items of hers I wanted. I honestly couldn’t think of anything. There wasn’t a single item that I wanted to hold onto to remember her. This wasn’t because I didn’t want to remember her, mind you. It was because no vase, necklace or other bauble seemed to readily bring her to mind.

Instead, an idea popped into my head. Her photos. I wanted her photos. Of course, it would be unfair of me to get all of her photos. However, it seemed equally unfair for the photos to be divided amongst her 2 children and 5 grandchildren. Everyone would get a piece of our history, but not the whole thing. I decided to take it upon myself to scan her photo collection. This way, everyone could get a complete set of photos (scanned) and could get a few originals as well. The collection would be both divided and stay complete at the same time.

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As this post goes live, Passover will be winding down to a close. During Passover, cooking can be quite troublesome. First of all, you can’t use any bread products save for Matzoh. So no breadcrumbs, rolls, toast, english muffins, pasta, pitas, etc. In addition, Ashenazi (that’s Jews of Eastern European descent) have a tradition of banning kitniyot, substances such as corn, beans, rice, lentils and peas which historically could be “contaminated” with grains banned during Passover. This means that most of the dishes I’d usually make are impossible to do during Passover.

Last year, I wrote an Ode to Quinoa. Quinoa (being a seed, not a grain) doesn’t count as kitniyot and so is allowed. Last year, I made a Quinoa Pilaf and a Breakfast Quinoa with honey, cinnamon and milk. This year, while getting ready for Passover, I decided to try Apple Cinnamon Quinoa.

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Weight: 192 lbs (up 2 pounds)

Average Hours of Sleep: N/A

Total Workout Time: 0

Total Calories Burned: 0

Well, it’s the middle of Passover (actually, getting toward the end). Given the complexity of cooking for Passover, I decided not to track points. I figured that, I’d gain weight but I’d try to keep it under control by eating healthy wherever possible. I’ll admit to snacking on more than my fair share of Passover cakes, but those tend to be self-limiting as they don’t taste as good as non-Passover cakes. In any event, my weight gain was only 2 pounds which I’d say was pretty good.

I didn’t keep track of my sleep time either, but I think that I got less than average amount of sleep. Between being up until midnight for the Sedars and being up late cleaning, I didn’t get that much sleep. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more sleep during the upcoming week.

This time of year always brings back fond food memories. Since we celebrate Passover, we would have a whole week of eating Matzoh in various forms. Matzoh and cream cheese. Matzoh Pizza (matzoh microwaved with sauce & cheese). Matzoh with schmaltz (rendered chicken fat – tastes like a rich butter) and salt (very unhealthy but oh-so-good). Matzoh Brei (matzoh soaked in water, drained, mixed with eggs and fried like a pancake). Are you sensing a theme here?

Yes, we eat a lot of Matzoh during Passover. It’s pretty much the only “bread” we can eat during the holiday. No rolls, bread, tortillas, pitas, pasta, cereal, or other bread product. In fact, since we’re Ashkenazi, we have more restrictions. No corn (or corn products), beans or rice (among other things).

As you can guess, cooking for Passover can be tricky. Especially when dealing with little kids used to breaded chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese and the like. In years past, we would buy a lot of pre-packaged, frozen foods at great expense. This year, we decided to prepare more fresh foods. Just today, I baked turkey burgers, wrapped them in romaine lettuce leaves and served it with a broccoli/mushroom stir fry in teryaki sauce. (Well, fake teryaki sauce since the real stuff isn’t kosher for Passover.) All in all a delicious, but not too fattening dinner.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: What meals does this season remind you of? What do you do to eat healthy during holidays?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #32

Last year, I wrote a "Things that make me go *drool*" blog post highlighting some cool tech items I’d love to buy. The backpack and EA Sports Active were bought soon after that post. The Webcam, I bought a few weeks ago. (Well, a different model, but same idea. Review on that coming soon.)

The last item was a Portable Media Enclosure. I didn’t wind up buying this, but I did wind up winning something even better: The Brite-View CinemaTube. (Thanks to Brite-View and Jen from The Dirty Shirt for running the giveaway.) The Brite-View can connect to an external hard drive (which I happened to have an extra of) via USB. It can also connect to your home network and/or the Internet via Ethernet or optional Wi-Fi adapter. I purchased the Wi-Fi adapter and set up the Brite-View.

I’ll admit that my first impressions weren’t all that great. I encountered two big problems. Problem 1 was that the remote had a lag to it. If you pressed a button, you had to wait about 30 seconds before pushing another button. I worked with Brite-View’s customer support and finally realized that the problem was low battery charge in the remote control. Recharging the batteries overnight solved this issue.

The second problem was on the screen where I had to enter my wireless network’s password. The password was longer than the screen allowed and extra characters were added on the end, invisible to the user. This meant that any mistake towards the end was impossible to detect until the network connection failed and the long password had to be entered all over again. This problem was fixed with a firmware update. My takeaway from this is that Brite-View seems to be constantly striving to improve their product with firmware updates. (A good sign as no product is ever perfect.)

Those problems aside, I love the Brite-View. As I said in my "drool" post last year, I hate having to swap out DVDs. First, I need to move the inevitable pile of toys that gather in front of the DVD cabinet’s doors. Then I need to find the correct DVD. Then I need to put it in, keeping the case handy so I’ll be able to put it away when the kids are done with it. Discs can easily get misplaced or lost in the stack of DVDs.

My new system is to convert the DVD to MPEG, store them on the external hard drive and let the Brite-View play them. Even better, the Brite-View allows me to set up video playlists so I can have The Wiggles, followed by 2 Max and Ruby videos and ending with Sesame Street. In other words, I can have hours of kid-entertainment without a single disc to swap. I can also play/view music files or photos or add them to the playlist, but honestly my main use is movie viewing.

In addition, the CinemaTube can stream files from other computers on your home network. Just set up a desktop computer (or laptop, but desktops tend to be more "always on") as a server using TVersity, PlayOn or any similar UPNP media server. I tried TVersity, but want to try out PlayOn for the Netflix streaming capability. I’ll post a review update when I’ve done this, but I’m very excited about this possibility. (We could move the Roku to our bedroom and use the CinemaTube in the living room for Netflix streaming.)

The CinemaTube costs $99.99, or $119.99 for the CinemaTube and USB wireless adapter. At this price, it is well worth it. If I hadn’t won it, I would have gladly paid for the functionality the CinemaTube has provided me.