For those of you who knew my brother Bill or know my nephew Jeremy, or who just wan't to see an interesting and moving photo set.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremy_vaughan/sets/72157600027069639/show/with/434240241/

WEll this is supposed to work ... And now!: http://dragcave.net/incubators/incubator_ginnytracy.png

Well, I now have a baby blue walking cast and head back in to work tomorrow.  I'll be in a cast for the next four weeks at least, and the ankle is still giving me a fair amount of pain.  On the plus side, they did give me drugs for the pain ... good ones!

This past week should have been exciting, and I suppose it has been in a way, but not in the way I expected. So, instead of starting work in my new office (more about this later) I've been sitting in bed surfing the net with my leg up on pillows, nursing a broken ankle.

That's right, for the first time in my life I've broken a bone. How did I do this? Not skiing or sky-diving or anything like that. Not even an auto accident. I stepped in a hole in the pavement while on my way in to work, the first day of work in my new office, mind you. Naturally I was wearing pumps, so I turned my ankle and went down. I've done that before, and it's never pleasant, but this time I must have turned the ankle just wrong, and fractured the fibula.

Of course they missed that on the X-rays at first, so I was wearing a brace and hobbling on it (not a lot, but some) until I saw the orthopedist on Wednesday morning. She spotted it right away, so now I've got a sort of half splint/half cast, and am on crutches and off work until after my next appointment on the 29th.

On the plus side, it's a work-related injury, since it happened on their property, so Worker's Comp will cover everything, including my sick leave.

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to start in the new office some time next week... maybe.

For those who are wondering, I haven't left my employer of 25 years, the Department of Defense, but I have moved from the shift-work office I've been in for the last 10 to a new office and will now be a supervisor of a small team (around 5 people).

Not a good day.  my ex-husband's niece died last night.  She and her family had spent the last year battling DIPG (Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) a rare brainstem cancer.  She was 14 year 7mons and 3 days old.

Life sucks sometimes.

A video of her journey

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C4mpNLR__I0

Okay, I've seen this one floating around, but it took sierra_victor to get me to play

With some revisions, mostly sierra_victor's, because I too don't care if you've ever peed in a pool or not.

You're on my friends list. I'd like to know 27 things about you. Just copy and hit reply and paste in the comments section with answers. (All comments are screened) Thanks!

Then copy the meme and see if anyone answers you. You'll be surprised how much you didn't know about your friends!

1. Do you have a tattoo?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you single, taken or somewhere in-between?
4. Jammies, t-shirt or naked in the sack?
5. Do you dream in color?
6. Ever seen a corpse?
7. Chess, poker, D&D or WoW?
8. How did we meet?
9. What's your philosophy on life and death?
10. If you could go anywhere or do anything with me,  what would it be?
11. Do you trust the police?
12. Do you like musicals?
13. What is your fondest memory of me?
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?
15. Would you cheat?
16. What are you wearing?
17. What's your favorite 'silly' vice.
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair?
21. What's your favorite day of the week?
22. What's your favorite color?
23. If you could bring back anyone that has died, who would it be?
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?
25. What was your first impression of me?
26. Dogs, cats, or ...
27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

Thank God

He was missing for a week, and the story of his survival has made the national news. He's still in the hospital, but looks like he'll be okay.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0907/453866.html

For those of you in the greater Washington DC area:

A classmate/friend of my daughter Alicia has gone missing.   Julian -- a kid for whom this is completely atypical behavior -- has been missing since Saturday morning when he left Bowie headed for College Park.   the following press release has been issued by the police, and the story has been picked up by all of the local news outlets.

Needless to say, all his classmates and friends are very worried and we are spreading the word as far and wide as we can just in case someone somewhere can help.

If anyone sees the car ( A silver Blue 2003 Honda Civic with MD temp tags) or Julian -- please let the police know.

Snippet from WP article: 

McCormick is black, 6 feet tall, 175 pounds and has a medium-brown complexion. His car has a Maryland temporary tag number of 83870A, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Prince George's County Police Crime Solvers at 301-735-1111.

Link to Washington Post article

I keep meaning to add this note and then forgetting until I'm away from the computer -- Sigh.

Anyway, for those of you who are at all interested in reading Harry Potter fan fiction, Jim and I have begun writing under the pen name ArgentRoseSableWolf on fanfiction.net.

There's a one-shot and the beginnings of two other stories there. These stories are penned by Jim (Sable Wolf) and edited, smoothed, tweaked by me (Argent Rose). I have plans for some other stories that will be penned by Rose and edited by Wolf. Also, I will probably move the bits of my already written fanfic (mostly BtVS) that are compatible with the ratings limitations over to FFN.

NC-17 Material will be posted elsewhere -- I haven't decided where yet.
Enjoy.

http://www.fanfiction.net/~argentrosesablewolf

Ginny

Prom 07 by ~AliKat0417 on deviantART

They grow up too bloody fast.  My daughter Ali  (on the left) and her best friend Ashlye--ready for the Prom.  
Aren't they beautiful? 

Marguerite Vliet Vaughan
Aug 12, 1914 - Dec 28 2006

Requiescat in Pacem


Mom died this afternoon. She had broken her hip in the Rehab facility that they transferred her to after the infection had been cleared up. The hip replacement surgery went well, but 3 days later her blood pressure crashed and the transferred her to the ICU She never improved and her heart function was getting poorer constantly.

Well, I saw Mom last night. The nurse says that the only real problem is the bladder infection that is being difficult to control. They've got her on a good broad spectrum antibiotic, IV, and hopefully it will respond to that.

The worst part of this is that she's now looks her age. In the past 2 years, she's gone from looking lie someone on their lat 70's or early 80's to looking like a 92-year old. Her memory and mind are also going. She didn't recognize me or remember that she had a daughter when I first got there. Fortunately after talking to her for a while and telling her who I was she began to remember. It was hard, though. I had to call myself the pet name she called me when I was first born before she was able to put the pieces together.

I'm heading back in to see her today. More later

My brother Kit called last night. Mom is in the hospital -- cardiac arrhythmia and an infection that they're having trouble beating into submission. I'ts not exactly expected, but since she's 92 it's not exactly unexpected, either.

I'll be heading down there at an ungodly hour tomorrow. Ungodly only because I'll be getting off work at 0530 and leaving for the airport at about 0830. (All times EST).

The user pic for this post is my Mom at about Ali's age (17-18) standing on the roof of their house near Painesville, Lake County, Ohio.

I'm playing with my journal style again. I was using "Magic Paper for a while and I liked it a lot, but the text column was so narrow it was driving me crazy. So I'm trying out a few more layouts to see if I can find one I like. Let me know what you think :-)

Well, my work schedule has changed. We are now working 12 hour shifts. 6 AM to 6 PM and 6 PM to 6 AM. The new sked ahs upsides and downsides, but it should be easier for me to see other folks.. I'm going to try and tind a way to hang my schedule of this journal and/or our family website. So hang on. Soon you should be able to find out when it's safe to call :-)

Fabulous party on Saturday night! Mako dearest, loved seeing you. It's strange, but so nice to come home from work only to find my house already full of people enjoying themselves.

Great conversations, particularly when they veered off into the philosophical.

News, News News

My sister-in-law has had her baby--a little boy. Don't know the name yet, but he and his Mom are doing great.

Happy Birthday kellfire Long time, no see -- I miss you.

And a belated Happy Birthday to jake_bear217 May the blessings of the Psi-Frog make your life ...entertaining :-)
(BTW RenFaire sound great once Ali is back from seeing her dad.)