Allison will be going home tomorrow (Sat.), which I think I already mentioned. Not sure if my Dad managed to get the trains out or if Allison will be sleeping in the guest room, instead. *grin* According to the biopsy she has CNS Lymphoma. This is supposedly treatable. Yay! They are already discussing the possiblities of her eventually going back to work (and even driving!). For now, they don’t want her to be alone until they are resonably sure she won’t have a seizure.

I spent the day working on the shopping cart for my store. I’ve pretty much got everything done with it except for figuring out the shipping and handling. With eBay I was able to include specific shipping charges for the US, Canada/Mexico, and the rest of the world for each item. With the shopping cart the only way I can come close is to give each item its own shipping price for US customers (as part of the buy button’s code), and state in the cart that international buyers have to pay an additional amount. It’s either that or I try and figure out weights and their respective shipping charges. This is when selling items as light as 1 ounce to as heavy as 7 pounds can be a real bitch! *laughs*

Allison will be going home either today or tomorrow (depends on how long it takes my dad to get his model train set up moved out of her old room). Her forehead is swollen. Her left eye swollen completely shut. She was having trouble with dizziness when trying to walk, but that seems to have cleared up. She also has her appetite back! She remembers most of those who came to visit her the day before the surgery (although the day of the surgery was a complete blur), and seems to understand what has happened and what will happen to her. I still don’t know anything about the biopsy of the tumor. I hope to hear of the results, soon.

Now, can anyone recommend some place online that delivers decent (and affordable) balloon bouquets?

In other news, I’m still working on my business site. Came across two “issues”. One is that at the bottom of every page are links to both the previous and the next pages, which I have to keep because each item will have it’s own page. It might, however, be confusing for those reading the ToS or similar pages. The other issue has to do with the blog’s topic feature, which groups posts together by topic. I thought this would be a good idea as it would make it easier for both the customers to browse the store, and for me to edit listings. But then I wondered if folks would really want to scroll through a bunch of full size listings. They might, just to save themselves from having to click individual links. Then again, they may not, especially if they have to scroll past alot of stuff that they’re not looking for. So I have to decide how I’m going to handle that.

It’s that time of year again! There is something about late Winter/early Spring that fucks with RCN’s cable/phone connections for the neighborhood. Once again my internet connection is periodically slowing down and grinding to a halt. I called two days ago and the techie I spoke with told me there where several other modems in my area that were having the same problem, so most likely it wasn’t just me (it never is!), but she insisted I make an appointment for a service call. After the fiasco that was last year’s flair up I’ve begun to hate service calls! I know where the fucking problem is! I’ve had this problem before. Plus, my father does this shit for a living! But do they ever listen to me? No! They replace my modem, pat me on the head and tell me if I have any more problems to call again, so I can go through all that BS again. Even when they elevate the situation I still get these idiots who cannot comprehend that the problem could be outside my apartment. *rolls eyes* I’d switch to Comcast but sadly they’re even worse (and they charge more for their incompetence).

To relieve stress…

Got an email late last night from my step mom. Allison (who, by the way, is a few weeks shy of her 26th birthday) had surgery yesterday afternoon to remove a portion of her left frontal lobe, to make room for the swelling of the tumor. I am assuming this is better than leaving things the way they are.

Coincidently I had a headache on the left side of my head all yesterday, something I RARELY ever have (99.9% of my headaches are on the right side of my head), and no, I didn’t know what part of Allison’s brain they were removing until last night. I’m still waiting to hear how she fared, as she was still asleep at the time my step-mom sent out the email. If all goes well she’ll be spending 2 days in ICU, 2 days in her own hospital room, and then she gets moved back home.

In other news, Ray Romeo, the owner of Wagglepop has at least one contract out on his life. WP openend its doors about a week and a half ago, with the offical opening being last Friday. Two nights ago, whilst in the midst a hissy, Ray shut down the Wagglepop forums. Last night WP was also gone.

Luckily I’ve had this nagging in the back of my head that I really need to open my own site, so I spent last night and a good part of today customizing a Tripod Blog to look less like a blog and more like a professional web site (which I found to be much easier than I thought it would be). I also spent time signing up with Blujay.com, Lunarbid.com and WitchAuctions.com, which are either free or very cheap. I’ll be using them to help promote my website. Then I reworked my marketing calendar to take all these last minute changes into considreation. Since today is SUPPOSED to be my day off I’m spending the rest of the free time I have until guard practice, goofing off. I’ll get to work on the storefront and the individual items tomorrow.

Spent the morning fighting with my boys while trying to get them ready for a birthday party tht Jarret was invited to. In the middle of the chaos my father calls.

My sister is in the hospital. With a brain tumor. A huge one. One that can’t be removed, and wasn’t there seven months ago. When they found her yesterday she didn’t know who she was, where she was, or who she was with. This morning, after much medication, she could recognize people but can only speak in numbers.

Of course I’m extremely curious to know why no one said squat to me about this seven months ago!

So I’m here, dealing with two boys who are hepped up on after party, wondering if my sister is going to make it to her own next birthday.