Big Whew...

It's been a whirlwind week.

Last Thursday at this time, we (me, Mike, and passenger Brad) were leaving Reno after eating at a hotel buffet, a welcome stop on a day-long road trip from SLC to the Bay Area for Sunstone West. We got through the Sierras OK and spent the night in Sacramento. Mapquested the route to the nearest Trader Joe's. Bought refreshments for Friday night's Sunstone event and stocked up on some staples for us.

Friday afternoon, we arrived in Cupertino, checked into the hotel, and I met with the banquet/meeting director for one last run through. I realized that my phone wasn't working properly for phone calls and chalked it up to being in a dead zone.

Dined at the Ranch 99 Market's Chinese buffet (a pattern emerges) and headed over to the Cornetts' home for a rousing hymn sing-along. Unfortunately, the street address in the db and on all our printed materials was wrong; we put up a sign directing people down the street to where they really live. Had a cozy time on a rainy night. While there, one panelist called to say that two speakers from Utah couldn't get over the Sierras and wouldn't be joining us for the Saturday night closing session. :(

Up bright and early Saturday to set up for Sunstone West. Mike was his usual AV-wizard self, getting the equipment set up and troubleshooting. Had some nice onsite registration numbers. At lunch--another buffet that partakers could bring back to the meeting room where Mike was showing Mormony Daily Show & Colbert Report clips and the episode of Big Love that mentioned Sunstone in a storyline.

The attendees seemed to enjoy themselves and we had a pretty big crowd at the closing session. A few die hards went out to dinner together afterward.

We kept an eye on weather reports Saturday night and Sunday morning; while we were eating breakfast, I-80 closed at Donner Pass, meaning we had to take an alternate route home. Mike thought Hwy 50 (if it remained open) would be crowded, so we took I-5 south and toodled over to Bakersfield and over to I-15 for the rest of the drive. Of course, this meant another buffet stop at dinnertime. Sixteen or so hours later, we pulled into our own driveway.

Monday was a blur; Mike had to teach and I worked from home and spent time with my mom ad dad before mom's surgery Tuesday morning. The surgery went well--the surgeon was able to place a stent over her aneurysm using the least invasive route. He plugged an artery near the aneurysm so that blood wouldn't leak in behind the stent. We were relieved that the process went smoothly.

Mom was in a lot of pain and stayed in the ICU for two days so she could have extra monitoring. By Tuesday night, the pain had gone down somewhat and by Wednesday it was considerably less. She's still having some chest, leg, and arm pain in addition to incisional pain in her groin. As of this writing, she's cut back on the pain meds and is resting more comfortably. When she's discharged from the hospital, she'll enter a cardiac rehab facility for a few weeks for recuperating and physical therapy/rehab.

Dad's been staying at the hospital guest house and will move in with us while mom's in rehab. Not sure how soon they'll go back to CA afterward. I guess we'll cross that bridge eventually.

I'm pretty tuckered out from the long roadtrips, the symposium, the surgery, the late nights and early mornings spent at the hospital, and trying to set up contractor appointments for stuff we need done at the new house and the old one. Mike's soldiering on through his many responsibilities on less sleep than usual, too. Looking forward to things CALMING DOWN.

Still haven't resolved the contract dispute with the Sheraton; they haven't made any contact for a couple of weeks now. Not since I said that they needed to comply with the terms of the contract as their starting point and that I would happily document the direct and consequential costs to Sunstone for the Sheraton's booking error--including my time spent on finding another venue and having to cancel a regional symposium in Washington DC. I may have dropped enough legal terms to indicate Sunstone is serious about getting the cancellation damages due us. They will keep hearing me roar until that happens.