Painting, BBQ, and the ER

That's a good description of my holiday weekend. On Sunday, I spent the day with my Dad in the ER. Due to some nasty medication interaction, he took a bad tumble down the stairs. No major damage, but he strained his left hand and wrist badly and cut up his forearms. It was a long day, but I did learn a few things that may help if you have older parents:

1. Keep a list of all the medications that your parents take and make sure it is correct and up to date.
   
2. Ask lots and lots of questions. Remember, unless there is an M.D. after your name, you don't know diddly.
   
3. Make sure your cell phone is fully charged, even though you can't use it inside the hospital.

Dad is on the mend, and we hope to get his mediation situation straightened out this week.

But there were some nicer highlights of the weekend. Here's one:


While I was taking care of my Dad, Sweetie busied herself by painting the back bedroom. Three of the walls are "Cucumber Crush" (the color on the right) and the remaining wall is "Rockland Jade." (These are Behr paint colors, you can go to their website and look 'em up.) Sweetie is a really great painter, and she picked out some great colors for the room. I was kinda worried that these might not go together, since I am color blind in my Red-Green shift.

And here's another:


Yes, Tommy finally bbq'd some ribs this weekend! No, I haven't eaten them all yet. I'm using them for sandwiches this week. It was nice to have my smoker up and running well, something that eluded me all last summer.

Here's hoping that the rest of the summer involves more BBQ and painting, and far less ER!