It''s been a while!
Yes, it's been a while. Things have been incredibly busy in the Smith-Wensel (or Wensel-Smith) household.
Since I last updated, the porch has been totally torn off and replaced. What was supposed to take 5 weeks took 5 months. Our contractor seemed incapable of scheduling all his projects and manpower to get our porch done in a timely manner. And incapable of remembering what the project encompassed and worked hard to tell me that Julia agreed to one thing in a meeting and tell her that I agreed to something else - and always in his favor.
Julia's stint as Faculty Organization President at EWU is going well. The big fight over whether or not the university would switch from a quarter-based calendar to a semester-based calendar came out in favor of the faculty and student's preference -- staying on the quarter system. As a result of the work that was done to get that result, Julia and some of her colleagues are working on a couple of articles for peer-reviewed journals that compare the efficacy of quarter systems and semester systems and how schools do after they switch. I won't spoil the surprise beyond saying that the results are not what you might think. (Ask Julia for more information.)
In dystonia news, I've continued to have problems with my ribs. My doctor has come to the conclusion that the problem isn't so much spasms as spasticity and that might also be a lot of what is happening in my neck and shoulders too. So we've added a muscle relaxant that is designed to work on receptors in the spinal cord associated with muscle spasticity. And it has worked well. I still need the Botox, but we've been able to redistribute it a little. Unfortunately my neuro is retiring this spring so he's referring me to a new doctor (which I will need to clear with my insurance company *sigh*).
And now for the question that everyone really wants the answer to: How are we finding married life? it's a lot like the last 20 years have been, but it feels good knowing that we have a lot of legal rights and protections we didn't have before.
S
Since I last updated, the porch has been totally torn off and replaced. What was supposed to take 5 weeks took 5 months. Our contractor seemed incapable of scheduling all his projects and manpower to get our porch done in a timely manner. And incapable of remembering what the project encompassed and worked hard to tell me that Julia agreed to one thing in a meeting and tell her that I agreed to something else - and always in his favor.
Julia's stint as Faculty Organization President at EWU is going well. The big fight over whether or not the university would switch from a quarter-based calendar to a semester-based calendar came out in favor of the faculty and student's preference -- staying on the quarter system. As a result of the work that was done to get that result, Julia and some of her colleagues are working on a couple of articles for peer-reviewed journals that compare the efficacy of quarter systems and semester systems and how schools do after they switch. I won't spoil the surprise beyond saying that the results are not what you might think. (Ask Julia for more information.)
In dystonia news, I've continued to have problems with my ribs. My doctor has come to the conclusion that the problem isn't so much spasms as spasticity and that might also be a lot of what is happening in my neck and shoulders too. So we've added a muscle relaxant that is designed to work on receptors in the spinal cord associated with muscle spasticity. And it has worked well. I still need the Botox, but we've been able to redistribute it a little. Unfortunately my neuro is retiring this spring so he's referring me to a new doctor (which I will need to clear with my insurance company *sigh*).
And now for the question that everyone really wants the answer to: How are we finding married life? it's a lot like the last 20 years have been, but it feels good knowing that we have a lot of legal rights and protections we didn't have before.
S