Ariel gets a personal trainer

Ariel has a gym membership and a personal trainer now instead of Physical therapy. The first day she did things she had never managed before. The semester going fine. She is typing better, trying to write an article and even sent of an abstract for a conference in April.

Her father died Thursday. He was 87. He was badly injured in a fire 9 years ago, and almost died then and several times since. We visited him there in June, because he seemed to be fading. She loved him very much.

Here they are together in Hania, Crete, in 1998 (we bought him a ticket to come with us

I have up a second blog with some of his artwork here

Birthday outing

The Antiques Roadshow came to town today, so I got tickets as an early birthday present for Ariel.
Here is the photo of her at the ARS site


We got there around 9:40, got in line until 11 for our sixty seconds with an appraiser. Pushing the wheelchair with one hand and carrying the rug in the other went fine until the cell phone rang.

The "Kazakh" carpet we brought turned out to be Qashqai, about 75 USD per square foot. So its not quite the precious object it might have been. She'll get her picture on their website though (along with 4000 others).

Road trip to Geneva

Ariel standing next to Douglas, from the original "house of Bob" and Hobart & William Smith College.


Sara Rappe, who had a nice dinner for Ariel when we were in Ann Arbor



Stopped along the way to see Granite City, Ariel's dad's childhood home. The home is gone, but the mill is still there.

Two years on

Ariel had a good OT evaluation this week, the two year anniversary of her stroke. This mostly an increased range of motion in her left arm, and a better ability to turn over her hand at the wrist.
She is on hiatus form PT for insurance reasons, but will return sometime this spring I hope. She has a new cane, replacing the cane pictured above (which looked like a small walker). It's jsut a regular cane with a four footed base,
Teaching is going better this term. She can lecture more fluidly than previously, and stands to write on the board from time to time. Her schedule is better than last term's, which forced her to stay an office for four hours three days a week until i could come get her after the HS day ends. WSU continues to harass her, however: the Grad School demoted her to associate status. She has a temporary reprieve, since she is directing a thesis at the moment (which she cannot do as an associate member).
I am beginning to worry about the mirgraine meds, because they are contra-indicated for people at risk for stroke heart attack. The work so well (Maxalt MLT) however, I am reluctant.

She wants to go to CAMWS in AZ in April. The above is from our Christmas trip to San Antonio. My sister gave her a new winter hat.