Saturday, December 6, 2008

Cribbage, Thanksgiving, Grappa and Not Medically Necessary

On Thanksgiving day Mary and I drove to Ellensburg to have Thanksgiving dinner with James and Ada. They couldn't be here on the west side because of James work schedule so we went over there for the big meal. Mary drove because my leg was (is) still aching. We spent a few hours with them and then left to let James get off to sleep so he would be ready for the early shift on Friday morning.


On Saturday James and Ada drove to Federal Way, a chance to get away from E-burg and do some shopping. First thing we did was our annual trip to Bees and Trees for our Christmas tree. We got that home and in the stand and through the afternoon Ada with a little help from James got the decorating started. James and Ada found some time to go shoping and then we all watched Oregon State tank their once in 44 year opportunity to go to the rose bowl by losing to the Ducks. Vey humiliating and humbling.

After the game Fran and Jim Pearson came over and we proceeded to celebrate with beverages and dinner. Jim had to return to Italy early Sunday morning and he had some grappa he was sharing with friends. Thank goodness there was only a "small" amount of the grappa left when he came over. Jim also brought along some Italian field wine (2008 vintage - very rugged). As you can see from the pic, Mary is something of a grappa fan ...
It became an evening of too many different beverages for me. Although the grappa was very good ... or so Jim said, and most seemed to enjoy including me, but in combination with everthing else it was too much for me and I paid for it through the night. Needless to say Sunday was pretty quiet, we didn't even make it to church and I am not a grappa fan, even though I am confident that this was very good grappa.
On Sunday morning we got moving slowly, had some breakfast, easy does it for me and eased into the day. We watched a little football and later in the day decided to play some cribbage before James and Ada left. We couldn't find our cribbage board so we dredged up our crib golf board and our book of Hoyle Cribbage rules and plowed forward. James and Ada proved to be the masters of the afternoon winning handily before heading up and over the hill back home to Ellensburg. During the crib game I found out that James played regularly when he was in Junior High and it was clear he had not lost his touch. And after playing it dawned on me that everybody seems to have crib boards on their Christmas lists this year ... hmmm!
Here it is a week later and Mary and I wanted to play some cribbage. We still couldn't find the crib board so I conjured up a crib template, left and we played a quick round. I think we will be ready for a rematch with James and Ada and ready to take on Matt and Cara when they visit at Christmas.

Just a little bit more ... an update on my hip leg. I have continued to live with want is sometimes rather acute pain in my left hip and leg. What I describe as chronic pain. Where it has eased of from early on it is still pretty persistent. I did see the doctor on 11/21 and he took xrays which convinced him I needed an MRI, this had to be submitted for approval. This past Friday I heard back from my doctor that the insurance review board had determined that an MRI is not medically necessary. I will follow-up this week on next steps, in the meantime I have been doing massage (including some agressive work on my piriformis in my left butt cheek) stretching and hot/cold treatments. It is getting better, but I sure would like to get some additional data which for now is Not Medically Necessary.
Hope all is well with all of you.
DaddyHoag

3 comments:

Ada said...

James and I can't wait to be there and spend some time with the family! ... by the way, I hope you and Mary are getting good practice cause James and I are also getting ready for the cribbage match! haha...
Big hugs and take care!!
ps. I loved the pictures, I'll have to send you the ones I took!!

Hoag said...

Can you play three way cribbage? I am giving Cara a few pointers and we will be ready to jump into the "fray" as well! Sorry to here the grippa had you down and out the day after - sounds like some heavy duty stuff! Luckily I felt a-ok the morning after my rendezvous with Wild Turkey for my 8am class!

Cara Hoag said...

Dare I admit? I'm a cribbage newbie! I told Matt that we'll need to practice but we haven't yet so you all will just have to be easy on me! I can't wait. We'll be there in 5 short days!