Tomatoes, Fambly, Cochlear Implants

1.  Our tomatoes are starting to ripen, so I took a photo of the four types of heirloom tomatoes we appear to have in our garden.  The small plum-shaped tomatoes are Amish Paste; the larger plum-shaped tomatoes (with kind of an indent in the center) are San Marzano.  (Confession time:  We had these mixed up, and it was only when I referred back to the catalog for this blog entry that I realized this.)

Four types of tomatoes from our garden – 2013

The two types of mystery tomatoes are round, and one is no longer a mystery now that they’ve ripened up.  We confirmed that one type is from Russia, called Nature’s Riddle.  We originally thought it was a pink variety, and then we realized the top was actually yellow.  We ended up finding them in the Striped section of the catalog – the top ripens to golden yellow and the bottom becomes a salmon-pink color.  Pretty cool!  The others are still a mystery … but they are very pretty, we have a lot of them and, luckily, they are delicious.

2.  The family is doing well:  Dave is starting to feel better – his graft versus host issues seem to be letting up a bit.  Paige set out on her own and has moved in with some friends, so we are wishing her well as she moves on to this next stage of her life.  Eric came out for a visit over the weekend and is still enjoying his life in the big city; we had a great visit and got to watch the first two episodes of The Heroes of Cosplay with him.

3.  When I originally got my cochlear implants, I worried for a while over whether I should just get one or do both ears at the same time.  One of my concerns was that having two CIs would double my costs.  So far that hasn’t been much of an issue, but now I’m considering an upgrade and that money thing is coming into play.  Advanced Bionics has a new, just-approved-by-the-FDA processor called the Naida CI Q70.  It is VERY COOL and has lots of new capabilities that I would love to have; it’s also smaller, has an option to wear it off the ear and also to use regular batteries if I want (instead of the AB rechargeables).  I’ve had my CIs for just over five years now, so I qualify for an upgrade through insurance (not sure though if they will pay for one or both – I’m waiting to find that out).  I would still have to pay 20% out of pocket, though, and that comes to a few thousand dollars that I don’t have.

Luckily, I don’t NEED an upgrade – my Harmonies work just fine.  Since there’s no urgency, I can save some money and wait a while before I upgrade.  (We don’t use credit cards, remember, so no slapping down the plastic to pay for these babies!)  I won’t be able to even consider an upgrade until 2014 sometime.  So it’s exciting and a little agonizing (the wait, that is) but ultimately I’m pleased that they aren’t out of reach for me.  In the meantime, I’m paying attention to all the feedback from those who do upgrade right away…by the time I get them, I should be pretty well-versed in everything they can do!