Rick & Kate are here!

Having a great time with Brian's bro Rick and his wife Kate! Visiting London, Blenheim Palace and the changing of the guard at the Queen's Windsor Castle. Museums and theatre tomorrow in London!

Update on Brian's Dad

Overall, things are progressing as well as they can be in Tom's current state. The best news is that he's been transferred now from St Mary's Trauma hospital in Duluth, down to a regional hospital in River Falls, WI. So closer to home for him, which is really great for both him and Karen. Probably best if I just pass along the words from Karen for the update:


Hello all! It has been a while since I updated everyone on Tom's progress - - they really keep us hopping with all the physical therapy, respiratory therapy, tests, x-rays, etc.

Tom is doing well. He had a bit of a scare with pneumonia, but the doctors at St. Mary's were watching for it and jumped on it right away. His breathing is doing much better these days.

On Monday, he was stabilized enough to be moved from Duluth to River Falls - a bit closer to home! Yeah! He is excited at the prospect of being able to go outside to the patio area and have me bring the dogs to visit him!

St. Mary's is a leading trauma hospital in the midwest and they provided excellent care and got him through some very touch-and-go moments. We are excited at the prospect of a smaller, home-town hospital, with less staff turnover, and a less hectic pace, however. We have learned the importance of continuity of care - - it will be nice to have the same nurses each day, and the same physical therapists, who already know his case, and what he is capable of doing.

In the River Falls hospital, he is in what they call a swing bed. Basically, they take care of him and teach him how to function independently in spite of his vast injuries. Once he can transfer himself from bed to wheelchair, dress himself and get himself into/out of his TSLO (a hard plastic brace that he has to wear whenever he is not in bed) by himself, he will be sent home to finish his recovery. And here I thought the days of a having a hospital bed in my living room ended when he quit racing! WRONG!

We are seeing daily improvements in his condition and his ability to move around. He has his cell phone with him, but honestly, they don't give him much time to hang out and chat.

Thanks for all the prayers, cards, texts, voice mails, etc. It is comforting to hear how many people are worried about him!

Attempt at Halloween

Well Halloween just isn't quite the big deal in the UK as in the US. The little kids do put on fancy dress (costumes), and kinda trick or treat. But commercially, it's hardly noticeable as a holiday amongst all of the Christmas stuff already out in the surpermarkets and shops! I'm not even such what people would hand out for candy on Halloween, I've never seen bags of mini-candy bars in the supermarkets. So not really sure what the kids get!

I asked my English girlfriends, if they ever trick or treated when they were little, and none of them had. It's only a recent thing, but they do remember carving turnips! Folklore has it that some Irish guy did something bad, and was stuck in-between heaven and hell, and so had to roam the earth at night. So he carved a face in a turnip and stole a light of fire from the devil, and used it as a "lantern" to light his way. So that is where we ended up getting the "jack o' lanterne" carving idea from (they say).

Brian and I weren't much in a large celebratory mood, but did want to enjoy the nice autumn weather and hang out with our friend Jo for the day. So we took a short drive to Millets Farm, where we figured it might be the closest thing to a UK pumpkin patch. It was a far stretch, but there were a few bales of hay where they were selling some pumpkins. So there we go! The largest pumpkin I've seen in this country is the one behind Brian on his right.

They also had a corn maze with scary monster actors, which the older kids could go to when it got dark.

We settled for afternoon tea looking over the farm land and lake!