it took us the better part of a day to make 30 half pints from our garden strawberries and today we got to sample the tasty results with some homemade buttermilk biscuits. >

holy waaa! jeez louise! OMG! i know i'm a bit biased but it might be the best jam i've ever had. odin enthusiastically agreed between gulps of milk. >

and we can wholeheartedly recommend pomona's universal pectin. we used two-thirds less sugar in the pomona's batches - the jam set very nicely and is stupendously delicious.

when we're making our strawberry jam we decided to compare the tried and true sure gell fruit pectin - which requires a lot of sugar to set properly - against pomona's universal pectin which can be made with little to no sugar.

we've never used pomona's before, but have read some positive reviews so we thought we'd put them head to head and report the tasty results.

the garden is producing quite nicely - i picked around 10 pounds today with plenty more coming along. and we picked up 10 pounds from work!

based on my observations while out getting supplies, i think 7/8ths of the population of vernon county is making strawberry jam today.

we decided that it would be fun to attend a previously scheduled la crosse loggers game with friends today even with some of the uncertainty surrounding odin's vitreous hemorrhage.

life must go on.

i talked with odin's former pediatric opthamologist today and he was appalled at the lack of communication from the doctor at the mayo clinic. he thought it was odd to not clearly tell us that odin's still at significant risk for retinal detachment while the blood clears from his eye and, if it were him, he should be getting an eye exam every day or two to ensure that things are improving.

and i didn't fully appreciate how rare a vitreous hemorrhage is compared to a retinal hemorrhage. according to him it's way outside the league of even the mayo pediatric opthamologist ( whom he knows and has great respect for ), which is why we were sent to mr. lack-of-bedside-manners retinal specialist.

the good news is that while there's a substantial risk of retinal detachment, odin's vision in his affected eye is improving ( at least as far as we can tell through improv vision tests ) as the blood clears. we've scheduled another vision test on monday per the recommendation of his former opthamologist and will certainly be tracking things very closely.

after receiving word from the mayo clinic at 9 a.m. sharp that we should get there as quickly as possible odin spent a long day in tests after tests after tests. during the eye chart tests it was amusing and devastating to hear him matter-of-factly state over and over again when asked to identify a letter with only his right eye that he couldn't because "it was too dark".

"i already toooooooooold yoooouuuuuu, it's too dark in here."

and after the hours and hours of tests including a sonogram, pictured here, where he bravely sat through having sonogram gel smeared on his eye and a sonogram sensor pressed against his eye we found ourselves finally sitting with the mayo opthamologist, attempting to be prepared for the worst.

"well, he has bleeding in the eye, a vitreous hemorrhage, with no apparent retinal detachment."

he then spins around on his stool, calls someone, mutters something and spins back around.

"i checked with a pediatric colleague and he said we have 3-4 weeks until the brain starts shutting down on his right eye. so, i'd like to schedule you for a follow-up in two weeks. if there's no blood in his eye we don't need to schedule a surgery."

"you're pretty sure he told you right away when he first noticed vision problems?"

"yes. i guess."

and then, i kid you not, he gets up to leave.

"uh, we have some questions - like is his eye still bleeding."

"we don't know."

and then, i kid you not, he says he doesn't have much time for more questions; perhaps maybe we could talk more when we come back in two weeks.

i did manage to get a few more hurried questions in, most notably, that odin can - for the most part - act like a normal kid over the next few weeks and we don't have to be overly concerned about the everyday knocks that a four year takes increasing the odds of his retina detaching.

so, for the most part, very positive news for us.

on the other hand, the renowned mayo clinic gets an F in customer service.

it was a sunny, beautiful morning and odin came into the bedroom.

"poppi, i see spots. i think i'm getting sick."

and so, that's how an otherwise normal day started. at first i thought he might be playing a game, but he was pretty specific and consistent with the details about the spots in terms of size and color and number.

i suddenly found myself attempting to not freak out as i recalled that the sudden appearance of floaters could be sign of retina detaching and, of course, most of you know he's at a higher risk for retinal detachment thanks to his history of retinopathy of prematurity.

so, after debating whether or not we were being alarmist, we scheduled an emergency eye exam and i found myself having a surreal lunch with co-workers about the odds of odin having a detached retina.

a few short hours later and we're in the doctor's office and odin is going through the pupil dilation routine and time is slowing down to a halt. dilation drops go in both eyes. and left eye checks out fine. right eye didn't dilate properly. doc thinks the nurse didn't put drops in, but i'm sure she did.

something feels wrong.

the doc looks into odin's right eye after putting more drops in and waiting 10 more minutes, pauses, covers his odin's left eye and asks him to identify the shape on the wall.

"i can't see it," odin responded.

time is slowing down more. odin is smiling, happy to be sitting in the cool eye doctor chair as i hear the doc say, "we have a problem," followed by phrases strung together loosely.

"detached retina"

"essentially no vision in the right eye"

"emergency surgery at the mayo clinic".

we won't know much about prognosis or probable outcomes until he gets evaluated by the experts. we expect that we'll hear bright and early tomorrow from the mayo about when he'll go in for evaluation and surgery. needless to say, coming less than 2 weeks away from his fourth birthday, we're feeling a little sucker-punched.

it's been almost 1,400 days since rop surgery and i was really starting to hold out hope that we had finally escaped its grasp.

go ahead if you haven't already, watch the video of matt harding dancing badly with people in 42 countries and try not to smile. don't miss the outtakes.

three years ago when we bought a new jetta diesel tdi, talking about being worried about $4 a gallon gas in the u.s., many people shrugged their shoulders and thought we were being alarmist.

but today, everybody is "getting rational" - look no further than the civic outselling the ford f-150 for the first time.

and while $4 a gallon gas is finally making hybrids "worth it" over a 4-5 year range, i'm still perplexed as to why you don't see more diesels on the road. or better yet, diesel hybrids which can get upwards of 75 m.p.g.

i mean, i can get 58.6 miles per gallon on a 17 mile drive through hilly, curvy wisconsin terrain and that's without trying any fancy schmancy hypermiling techniques which the folks at jalopnik used in "Hypermiling the 2007 Honda Civic 2.2 i-CTDi and 2007 Audi Q7 4.2 TDI":

"Yes, we know, 72.4 mpg [ on the civic ] is batshit cazy, but settle down, 'cause you haven't heard the Q7 numbers. Would you believe that a power plant capable of 550 lb.ft. of torque and a 6.4s 0-62 mph time, lugging around 5100 lbs and two svelte bloggers, returned 33.2 mpg?"