Ruminations

Ruminations
Ruminations. Is that a word? I guess it is since Spell Check did not reject it.

I was tired yesterday so I took a nice little three hour nap in the afternoon. I think the chemotherapy regime in finally getting to me. I don’t remember being this tired when I was in Cycle Three or Cycle Four as I am now. Fortunately for me, I only have two more cycles of this round of chemotherapy left to go.

While I still have my appetite, it is not as strong as it has been. I doubt that I will be all that hungry when I go see Merit at El Gringo on Thursday for diner.

My PET Scan is scheduled for the morning of May 6th which was almost the exact time I had set up for my trip to the Molly Moon Salon and my appointment with Amber the Stylist for a haircut. It will be close to two months since my last haircut with Amber.

I will have a full head of hair when I go to Salt Lake City this weekend. I wonder how many of my fraternity brothers have lost a good part of their hair by now. If I get a nice trim from Amber, I will look good when I visit the Princess and the Golfer in Seattle at the end of May.

The weather is cooling off at the beach now. It will warm up a bit by the weekend when I am out of town. I went out on the balcony and shined my shoes this afternoon. It was nice to be in the sun and warmth for a change.

It was not nice to be out on the balcony with the crows flying around and calling to each other. I dread when the full flock arrives in May.

I graded some more student assignments; it was like a Sergio Leone film, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. One student sent me file that I couldn’t open. It had a .dat extension, one that I have never seen before. Maybe it was better for me not to see the file.

Programming Note
I won’t be posting a blog entry on Sunday as I usually do. I will be flying home from Salt Lake City. While I am scheduled to arrive at a decent time, I want to give Delta Airlines – Skywest Airlines an opportunity to have completion delays that will only inconvenience me slightly.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Alone

Weekend on My Own
I was on my own to a certain extent this weekend. Doug was off to a concert in San Francisco with some of his film school friends and the Princess was in Seattle, of course.

I was not truly alone my friends; Lisa, Lizzie, and Sharon all offered to help me if I needed any help or assistance. Fortunately, I managed to get through the weekend without any difficulty.

I drove myself the clinic for the infusion and dressing change. No problems or difficulties for me there except when I drove home. I stopped at Giuliano’s for a sandwich and some semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies; they were out of cookies on Friday and Saturday.
That was a big disappointment for me.

But, all was not lost; I cracked open a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies that I had in the freezer. After I let them warm to room temperature, I was just fine and happy. My friend Barbie would say I shouldn’t eat so many sweets.

My Saturday class was good for me. I had a full class. This is a class that I really enjoy. But, I have one student who is an absolute pain in the place where you sit down. She constantly talks and interrupts the class with her worthless comments. I don’t think she has listened to anything I have said so far this term. Her homework is very painful to read and grade. None of the other students in the class want to work with her on the course project. I will be so glad when this class is over for me.

I did clean up my email inboxes today. I had a mess of trash in my Yahoo.com account.

Infusion and Dressing Change
The sixth infusion went along according to the normal procedure. I didn’t have too much in the way of side affects beyond the usual one of tingling in my finger tips and toes. This affect should dissipate in few days and by the end of the week for sure.

The Baby Blues didn’t change my dressing on Friday. Myrna changed the dressing and she went out of her way to find a way to cover some of my really irritated skin. The skin has been taped over since January and the only break comes when the dressing is changed.

Glenda did stop by and said hello to me. I don’t know if she had to be in the area or just came by to say hello to me. Life is full of mysteries that are yet to be solved.

Visitors
We had another good week of visitors to the blog. There were no new visitors this week.

Our visitors came from Texas [8], Japan [10], Indonesia [2], Netherlands [3], China, Poland [2], Norway [3], Germany [5], Thailand [2], Canada [10], Cambodia, Saudi Arabia [3], Singapore [9], United Kingdom [9], France [3], Colombia, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, [3], Malaysia [2], Philippines [2], Bahrain, Iran, India, New Zealand [3], Italy [2], Hong Kong, Ukraine, Spain, Kuwait, Romania, and Egypt.

I do appreciate all of you who took time to visit the blog.

PET Scan
I received my PET scan appointment notice on Friday; that was quicker than I thought it would take to receive it. I get to spend most of the morning of May 6th in the Nuclear Medicine Department.

Mostly, I just sit and wait; sometimes I get to lie down.

I start off with an IV injection of a low level nuclear trace agent. Then, I have to sit around for an hour and a half or so while the trace agent circulates in my body. I don’t think that I will be glowing like Homer Simpson does.

The actual scan itself takes about an hour. This is where I have to lie still and not move around. I can do the lying down part easy; I have had lots of practice with the other X-ray scans, CT scans, and the MRI scan.

The procedure requires me to fast for at least six hours before the actual scan; all I can take is plain water. The appointment notice encouraged me to maintain a very low carbohydrate diet for the day or two before the scan. There go my morning bagel, my cookies, my rice and pasta, and my sandwiches.

Since it is only for a day or so; I think I can manage the diet well enough.

Weather
One of the nice aspects about living at the beach in Southern California is the warm Summers. Normally, I would be out on m balcony, probably reading some books or business periodical.

The temperature this afternoon is somewhere around 85F or 29C. There is a slight breeze to make it pleasant on the balcony and there is relatively little noise from the road in front of the building that leads to the beach.

Perfectomundo.

So, why am I inside on such a great day to be outside?

The simple answer is my medications. Two of the drugs that I take say to stay out of the direct sunlight. Not a good idea to sit on the balcony is it. Oh well, life happens and one simply has to deal with it I guess.

Car Thoughts
I had some time to kill this weekend so I decided to go revisit my plans to purchase a new automobile at the end of the year. I had been thinking about buying a MINI Cooper Convertible; a perfect vehicle for Southern California.

Then, I stated thinking about the consequences of the purchase. First, there would be the financing and, even with my good credit, the interest will still amount to a pile of money. Second, there is the daunting task of finding a younger woman [any woman younger than me] who would want to ride around in a convertible. I have learned when I bought a MGB convertible that women do not like to have the wind make a mess of their hair. Third, there will be the higher car insurance premiums that will last a long time.

All of this information made me want to revisit the idea to repair the Honda Prelude, a car I love to drive and it gets good gas mileage. The cost to repair the Prelude is not a drop in the bucket but it is much less than buying a new car. I can fight the repair costs in my budget and pay for the repairs this year. I will just have to defer some other purchase until next year.

I can live with the temporary deferrals and not suffer unduly. The big screen television will have to wait until next year I guess.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Thoughts

Weekend Thoughts
I noticed that there are more units for sale in the building. There are seven units out of thirty six apparently for sale. This is up I think from a Winter low of only four. I wonder if these units are unsold ones from last Summer and if there has been a big drop in prices which then translates into value for me.

Hard to tell but I am still ahead of the value game because I have been here for twenty three years now.

I cracked the second carton of ice cream open today. It is a rich vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and swirls of chocolate in the ice cream. It did have a layer of Dove Chocolate like the other Dove Chocolate Ice Cream.

My friend and former co-worker Lisa got back to me about having lunch. Lisa invited me to have lunch with her at her office. This is a forty five mile / seventy kilometer drive, one way.

While I would love to have lunch with Lisa, the drive was so unappetizing for me. That, plus the rigid time lunch limit, made the idea scream for alternative solutions. I suggested that we have lunch on a Saturday because I teach a class on Saturday mornings. I drive bye a venue with several fast casual restaurants and it is only five miles from her house.

Perfectomundo.

Plus, we will not be bothered in a silly one hour time limit.

Doug called today to check out how the blood test went for me this morning. I told him that I completed the whole process in less than an hour. Doug thought that was epic. I told that I was ready for the infusion tomorrow and I did not foresee any troubles.

We talked about Doug’s website business was going. It looks like he will hit something over 300,000 hits this month and be in bonus territory for the month.

Excellent.

His trip to San Francisco with his friends from film school is still on. He will leave early tomorrow. It ought to be an interesting trip for him.

I had to replace the battery in one of my watches this week. I figured that a watch store was a good place to have the time set on your watch. It turned out the store set my watch to run three minutes slow or late.

I ran out of light blubs in the house this week. I had three blubs fail and that has never happened to me before. I decided to try one of those compact fluorescent lights. I ended up buying the small blubs, 60 watts, because I was uncertain if the 75 or 100 watt blubs would fit in my lamps.

They are working fairly well now. The really nice thing is they are supposed to last for five years and they will save me around USD$38.00 over the five years, maybe more if electricity rates go up. The blub only cost USD$4.00. This is a money maker for me.

Merit and El Gringo
I went to El Gringo for dinner tonight.

Merit was the server of duty and Niki the busser was missing in action tonight. El Gringo was not very busy tonight so I had a better chance to talk with Merit. Merit spent more time talking with me than she is in the last three or four weeks.

I had a chicken burrito for dinner tonight. I had not had one in some time. I surprised myself and Merit when I finished it off tonight. It really tasted great to me. The last three weeks at El Gringo resulted in half of my dinner being taken home for lunch or dinner on Friday.

I made Merit happy when I told her that I did not like the photo that Doug took of us last week. I said that I thought I looked badly because I was only half smiling when I should have been grinning like a proverbial Cheshire cat. Merit smiled and then giggled.

I was glad to be able to make her happy.

Merit bought a cookie for me from her favorite cookie store. It was a shortbread cookie with yellow icing and sprinkles on top. It was like the ones my grandmother made for my brother and me the holidays.


Be well and stay happy.

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts
I didn’t put a blog posting yesterday.

I spent more time at school than I normally do during the week. I had a brief, in the middle of the hall, talk with the Associate Dean about my recovery and my plans for the next term. I told him that I thought I would be able to teach again and asked for Friday’s off so I wont have to miss class because of the chemotherapy session.

The Dean and the school have been very supportive of my recovery. He did not see any trouble in granting me the Fridays off from teaching.

I stopped by my broker on the way home to pick up a check. Then, I took it to my credit union after I had my lunch and changed my clothes. I was struck by the fact the credit union seemed overstaffed with three tellers and a branch manager and a business development officer. I don’t understand why the business development officer was helping a teller sort out a problem. This is something that the branch manager is supposed to do or at least it what was the practice when I was the credit union’s Chief Operating Officer.

I finished up the day with a trip to the hospital to drop off my latest prescription for Xeloda. It was an interesting why to spend thirty or forty minutes. I just shrugged of my impressions of inefficiency, laziness, and lack of concern for the patients.

I got to refresh my opinions today when I picked up the prescription this morning. The sign on the door says the pharmacy opens at 8:00 AM. To me, that means being at your job before you are supposed to open. The pharmacy opened at 8:07, not stellar performance in my measurement and management book. Of course, the process was slowed by the counter clerks sharing photos from a party over the weekend and lack of all full staff. Some workers were not ready to serve the patients as late as 8:20.

So much for professionalism in the hospital pharmacy.

I had two phone calls this morning while I was changing my colostomy bag. I can personally and absolutely assure you that this is something that should never be interrupted. Not so surprisingly, neither caller left a message.

Doug thought the caller dialed a wrong number and hung up after hearing my voice.

I graded papers today. My writing students are getting much better now. I think my red pen will lost until the end of the term. That makes me feel great as a teacher.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - April 20th

Weekend Update
I hope you all or y’alls had a great weekend. I was teaching on Saturday morning and grading papers on Sunday. Fortunately for me, it was be cool and partially overcast all weekend so I will not feel too badly having to stay inside.

I had a phone call from the Princess on Friday, after my visit with the oncologists. We talked for a while about my treatment plans and what will happen next. I told that I feel confident and positive going forward.

We also talked about my trip to Salt Lake City and to Seattle. The Salt Lake trip is fairly well settled now. The trip to Seattle is close to being settled with the only likely contingency being when I am going to my PET scan [see below in Me and the Cancer].

The Golfer [the Princess’ husband for you new readers] seems to have developed a fondness for the tea leaves I sent her. He hasn’t cracked open the bags of gourmet coffee I added to her shipment of tea. I am beyond highly confident when I type that I know that Emily and Maggie loved their coffee.

I tried some of the new Dove Chocolate ice cream today. I went to the market and picked up a small container of Unconditionally Chocolate Ice Cream. My first taste was superb. The container comes with a layer of Dove Chocolate, much like a seal or cap, on the ice cream. The ice cream was rich and creamy and I exercised extreme restraint in not finishing it off in one sitting. That would be excessive and unwarranted on my part.

Extra Rich Light Ice Cream.

That struck me as being one of the best oxymoron’s that have seen in a very long time. How can an extra rich ice cream be considered light at the same?

In the interest of science and my own love of really good ice cream, I will investigate this seemingly contradictory idea. I purchased a small container of Haagen Daze Extra Rich Light Coffee Ice Cream and I will thoroughly test it this week. Naturally, I will provide a complete report, without drippings or other messes, for the blog.

Doug called me this afternoon after returned from a free concert at the Los Angeles Central Library that featured Miko Mika and No Age. He was one of the lucky 250 who got to sit in the small auditorium for the concert. The Central Library was built in the 1930s and it is one of those old classic building or what passes for an old, classic building in Los Angeles.

Doug had to pay for car parking but the cost of parking USD$8.00 was less than the USD$25.00 to USD$30.00 that he would pay to see the groups play in a different venue. He would also have crummy seats, if any, and not enjoy himself as much.

Doug said the concert was almost surreal; it was wonderful, fantastic, and great. Miko Mika is one of his current favorite groups so that made the concert all the more worth while He was so glad he got up early and got to the Library in plenty of time to one of the first 250 concert goers. I guess the rest had to listen to the concert from outside speakers.

Visitors
We had another good week for visitors to the blog. This is always encouraging if you are a writer. We had some new first time visitors as well.

We had visitors from Hong Kong [2], Thailand, Germany [6], United Kingdom [8], Italy [4], Australia [8], Japan [11], Malaysia [3], Brazil [4], Canada [16], Netherlands [4], Austria [3], Madagascar, Ireland, Iran, Chile, France [3], Turkey, India, Philippines, Sweden, Singapore [4], Lithuania, India, Qatar, South Africa [2], Switzerland, Texas [5], Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Saudi Arabia, Mexico [2], Portugal, and Bulgaria.

This was the first time that we have had visitors from Madagascar and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. I hoped you enjoyed your visit and will return often.

I do appreciate all of you who stopped bye the blog and spent some time here.

Me and the Cancer
I assume that almost all of you are better off than me; you don’t have cancer. Even with my cancer, I feel pretty good today. Of course my mood may have been influenced by the Heineken’s lunch brew [a can of cold beer with my lunch] that accompanied my roast beef sandwich at lunch. Doug says that lunch brews are almost always a perfect way to wash a meal down. I think he is on to something here.

Friday was my scheduled visit with the oncologists. The big issue was the results from my MRI examination a couple of weeks ago. The MRI results were likely to determine the course of my treatment regime.

The MRI showed that the spots on my right liver had metastasized. We, that would be Doug and me, were expecting this result. Dr. T [Dr. Aileen Takahashi], when she cut me open in October last year, said the spots were likely cancerous and the likely course of treatment, after a round of chemotherapy, would be to surgically removed that section of my liver. This is a simple and elegant solution. I have another scar but Dr. T said it would look fine along side the other scars. The good news from the MRI was that the spots on my liver had not grown in the last six months; they are about 2 centimeters by 1 centimeter or about the size of my thumb nail. The nice thing about this procedure, removing part of my liver, is that our livers grow back in time.

The oncology resident, Dr. Bryan King, said that he was scheduling me for a PET scan which is designed to see if my cancer has spread beyond my liver and colon. PET stand for Proton E[something] Tomography. I’m sure this has clarified so much for you. This ought to happen in the next few weeks. The PET scan didn’t sound too terribly bad to me as Dr, King explained it. I don’t think I will be drinking any wall paper paste liquid. I get to drink a sugar based, radioactive trace and then get scanned. The trace will cluster where there are cancer cells and the scan will, in Dr. King’s words, light them up.

The PET scan results will determine the next course of my treatment. If there is no spread of the cancer, then I can look forward to a simple operation and a two to three week recovery. The recovery takes two to three weeks because the surgeons will have to cut through six layers of muscle in my abdomen. Dr. King explained that the hospital has to conduct a review before going forward with the surgery; this is largely a formality, given the established treatment regime for my condition.

There is no decision yet on whether I will continue with my current plan to have eight cycles of chemotherapy or to stop at the six cycle level. Dr. King said whether to go on to the full eight cycles will depend on how well I handle this next infusion. But, as he observed, since I have handled the treatment well, it is likely that it will go the full eight cycles which means this round would end in early June.

What else can I say now?

I feel good and I tolerate the treatment regime well. I have all of my grey hair. I have lost some weight and I discussed this with Dr. King. He seems to be fine with my planned loss of weight. I would like to drop another 5 to 10 pounds / 2 to 4 kilograms over the next few months. I think this is an achievable goal; I dropped a kilo in the last three weeks. My platelet count is back up and is not too much of a concern. My blood pressure is well within the desired range. All of the other test results were in the normal ranges.

I guess you can say that I feel good and feel confident of the future.

I sent out my usual post major visit email to a growing circle of family and friends on Friday. I do this for several reasons, primarily because I don’t have the blog visitor’s email addresses.

I received two responses from two former girl friends. Yes, it is possible to be friends with someone who was once so very close to you and then to have moved on. They both offered to help me out if I need any assistance. I did send them a nice thank you. Right now, I am able to get along without any outside help. Doug has cut back on his visits here because I don’t need his assistance. He stills comes when I see the oncologists and will be with me when we talk about the surgery later on this year.

This Friday is infusion day for me. Normally Doug would go with me but he has plans to go to San Francisco to see a concert with three of his friends. I told that he should go and not worry. I will be in a hospital after all so if something adverse happens, I will have lots of skilled professional help; maybe even the Baby Blues would be there to help me.

One of the other consequences of my email to close friends and family is that well meaning acquaintances have sent me information on food, supplements like vitamins and herbal remedies, and plans or programs on how to eat well and live better. This is all very thoughtful of them and I do appreciate their interest in me.

Sometimes, I have found the information confusing or contradictory. For example, when I had my first infusion, the hospital gave me a pamphlet on food and nutrition that suggested that ice cream was a good source of calories and that it could help sustain my weight. We’re setting aside my desire to lose some weight right now. Another article said that ice cream was bad for me because it contained sugar and cancer cell like to grow with the energy and resources provided by sugar.

Doug and I talked about this when we had dinner at Flemings Steak House and Wine Bar on Saturday in Newport Beach. We came to the conclusion that if I eat healthy foods in moderation that I ought to be alright at the end of the day.


Be well and stay happy.

A Sunny Day for Me

Another Sunny Day
Today was a sunny day for me for a change.

I was not rudely awakened this morning by the back alarms of a dozen or more construction vehicles. I was not shaken out of bed by a machine that was grinding the
asphalt road just outside my building.

When I went to the market on Monday, I saw some new ice cream that I should try as soon as I can. The Dove Chocolate company has an ice cream product. The new product that caught my eye was called “Unconditionally Chocolate.” I am almost certain that there were other flavors in the cooler bin; I just didn’t notice them. I will definitely have some over the weekend for sure and certain.

More premium chocolate ice cream on the market is always a ginormous plus for me.

Baby Blues
Jennifer changed my dressing again today. Glenda was not with her today. More of the sunny day for me.

Jennifer did a great job of changing the dressing on my arm last week. I had patch of irritated or sore skin. Jennifer was able to bandage around the area that so it could heal. I think it will heal completely in another two or three weeks.

While I was there, one of Jennifer’s supervisors came in to remind her of new program that offered dressing changes at the patient’s home. I told her that I thought that was a bad idea.

Jennifer asked why I thought that way.

I said that I wouldn’t be able to see you as often as I do now.

Jennifer giggled and laughed, just like I thought she would do.

Fox News Channel
I was watching Fox News Channel as I ate my lunch. The show featured an alleged real estate expert who was pushing the idea that people should look in other area where prices have fallen dramatically.

Well, doh.

Isn’t that obvious to almost anyone?

This alleged expert suggested that the viewers might want to consider a suburb of Salt Lake City. That sounded very reasonable on its face until she said the suburb she had in mind was Logan, Utah.

Fortunately for me, I had nothing in my mouth at the time. I laughed out loud.

Logan is not a suburb of Salt Lake City. It is 83 miles / 134 kilometers away and the last 30 miles / 48 kilometers or so is over a two lane highway that runs through the mountains. Microsoft Trips and Maps says you can make the trip in 8o minutes.

There is only one way you can make the trip in 80 minutes and that is with a police escort for the entire trip. You have to travel through the mountains, think lots of snow in the Winter, to reach the Interstate highway and then you have to drive through Ogden and its suburbs, think lots of messy morning and evening commuter traffic, before you reach Salt Lake.

You can forget the 80 minute drive as soon as Winter arrives, usually in October and stays until late Spring. There is snow and ice and rain and fog to challenge your driving skill. I would not want to drive and push the speed in those conditions. Driving in a white out is difficult because the road has disappeared from view.

I had to share this gaff with the Princess because I knew she would appreciate it and I wanted to return her call. She laughed and snickered at the expert’s gross error. Then I asked her if she could guess the expert’s hair color.

The Princess said, “Blond, of course, Daddy.”

Perfectomundo Princess.

I guess Fox News Channel can still be fair and balanced but not necessarily accurate.

The Princess
The Princess returned my call and wanted to see how her favorite father was doing with his recovery. I told her that I would phone her tomorrow after the oncologist’s visit and let her know the results of the visit.

I asked her how she liked the tea I sent her and the coffee I sent for the Golfer. The Princess loves all three of the tea flavors but sounded more partial to the Chinese oolong tea. I asked how the Golfer liked the coffee. She said he was drinking tea with her right now and had not touched the coffee yet. Hopefully, they will try the coffee soon.

Firefox
I got a notice this morning that Firefox had downloaded an update and that it was ready to be installed. I apprehensively clicked the accept button and waited to see what happened.

I just knew that this Version 2.0.0.14 had to be better than that nightmare called Version 2.0.0.13.

It seems to be working out just fine. My Internet surfing is much, much smoother and quicker. I have not found sudden hang-ups or “not responding” problems. I think it may be too soon to remove Safari but I am leaning that if the new version holds up for me over the next week or so.

Another sunny day for me.

Woman of the Moment Encore
This will be the end of the formal Woman of the Moment Encore for now. I will probably run periodic Women of the Moment Encore features of my personal favorite Woman of the Moment, Faline Song. I can do that; it’s my blog after all.





Be well and stay happy.

Mid Week Bonus Feature

Mid Week Bonus Feature or I'm Too Tired to Post a Decent Blog
It's my blog so I can post or not post if I want. I wanted a little extra sleep today but the construction equipment, grinding away on the asphalt outside of my building prevented any thought of an extra hour or so asleep.

You'll just have to make do with the Woman of the Moment Encore feature instead of what passes for wit and humor on my part. This works for me; I hope it works for you.





Be well and stay happy.

Let Down Today

Let down today
I sort of had a let down today. This will be a short post as a result of me feeling tired and crummy. I am still bothered by a slight sense or feeling of exhaustion. I hope it will go away soon, maybe by the end of the week.

My morning class went well today. It is a class of only nine students so I run it more as a seminar as opposed to a straight lecture. The school had a meeting or presentation on some changes to our 401(k) plan. The presentation lasted longer than it should have taken; there was one instructor who asked really stupid questions just to hear his own voice. I think he made a complete ass of himself. I didn’t get home until a little after 2:00 PM.

I thought about hopping in bed for a quick nab to refresh myself. No chance of that. The city or rather the city’s contractor started repaving work on the road in front of my building. The workers removed the top level of asphalt with a large grinder and now they are using pneumatic hammers to further break up some of the paving or concrete work. Fortunately, the work will only last a week; not like the other construction project that went on for months and months.

When I got home, I found I had three messages on my phone. This was unusual because I can go for a month without a message on the home phone. I get messages all of the time on the cell phones. One was the regular check-in call from Doug. The other two calls were from one of the department head at school and were unintelligible.

I phoned the department head back because I thought he was calling me to ask me to fill in as a substitute instructor. He was calling to see if I wanted to fill in on two Saturday afternoons for a class that I have taught before. I told him that I could work on one Saturday but that I would be out of town on the other Saturday. He was happy that I could help him out with half of his problem.

I got a phone call on the cell phone while I was in the presentation. I didn’t recognize the Area Code of 845 at all beyond the point that it wasn’t a local area code. I checked it out when I got home and fond it was for New York State.

Fortunately, the caller left a message. The caller was a recruiter who wanted to talk to me about a banking job in Salt Lake City. I could work in Salt Lake City very easily; I spent four years there in college and still have a great many friends who live there today. I will phone him in the morning and learn more about the job.

Maybe I will be moving to Salt Lake City soon or maybe not.

Woman of the Moment Encore
I thought last night’s images were particularly good ones even if they were two years old. We should exhaust the limited supply of photos of Sunisa this week and then the Woman of the Moment will go dark until this time next year. I am thinking of making the Encore a regular annual feature.




Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - April 13th

Weekend Update – Busted Plans
This was a sort of busted week for me.

This last round of chemotherapy seemed to knock me off of my feet. I had less energy than I have had after previous treatment sessions. I also lacked some focus in my activities and was not as alert as I should have been.

It was very cool for the first part of the week and I was overly sensitive to the cold. I think the cooler temperature helped to drain my energy.
By the weekend, things warmed up considerably. I talked to Doug on Saturday; he was behind the Orange Curtain at his mother’s house. He said it was “909 hot.” That is bad.

I had planned to go to Giuliano’s and pick up a sandwich for my lunch. On my way home, I decided to change first and put on some shorts. This was the first time that I have worn shorts since before the operation in October. My plan was to have lunch and then go out on the balcony and read in the afternoon sun while I sipped on a cold Heineken’s beer.

Excellent.

Lucy talked me into a pastrami sandwich with potato salad as a lunch idea. I also picked up some semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies as well. That sounded like an excellent idea to me.

I thought that a Heineken’s would be a good way to wash the sandwich down. This was a bad idea for me because it led to a busted plan.

I planned to go out on the balcony and read after lunch. Instead, I feel asleep after lunch and was woken by a shrill woman who was yelling during a commercial from a car dealer. This is not the best way to wake up for me. I got up from the couch and went in the bedroom and took a further nap.

So much for reading on the balcony.

That also affected my plans to grade papers and then read on the balcony on Sunday. I only graded papers on the balcony.

I forgot to have breakfast on Saturday so I decided to get a candy bar at school to hold me over until lunch. I picked out a Butterfinger because I happen to like them. I noticed the price had dropped back to the old USD$0.75 from USD$1.00. The vending company also shrunk the size of the bar.

Why did that not surprise me?

I put my money and pushed the buttons. For a moment, it looked like the machine wasn’t going dispense my candy bar.

It pushed out two candy bars so that made me feel really good. Life as a way of balancing things out in the end.

Visitors
This was an unusual week in that we had no visitors stay for a long time. It is highly possible that I may have missed one or more of the long term visitors with my erratic checking of the visitor logs.

We had visitors from Canada [17], Italy [6], Switzerland, France [7], Brazil, Japan [5], Mexico [2], Poland, Germany [7], Greece, Australia, Belgium, Thailand, United Kingdom [4], Iran, Malaysia [3], Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, Spain [2], Texas [3], Latvia, Singapore, Ireland, Norway, Korea, Philippines, and China.

This was the first time we have had a visitor from Brunei Darussalam.

I do appreciate all of you who took time from your days or nights to visit the blog

Woman of the Moment Encore
I have a few more images of Sunisa Kim left to post during the Woman of the Moment Encore event. I think I will have enough to last through the week.






Be well and stay happy.

Oh Happy Day

Oh Happy Day
I was going to title this blog Feeling Crummy – Part 2. But, that was before I went to the clinic for my weekly dressing change.

The Baby Blues Are Back
The Baby Blues changed my dressing today and that was just great for me. Glenda and Jennifer are my favorite nurses; I’ve told them so before and again today.

Jennifer was the one who changed my dressing today. She was surprised at how much tape the last nurse had used on me. She went out of her way to use as little tape as possible. It felt so, so great when she rubbed my skin that had been under the tape for a week. It had been itchy for a couple of days at least.

Glenda smiled more today than I can recall at other time. I think she colored her hair or maybe lightened it is a better choice of words. I like the new Glenda look.

We talked about their work to place the PICC line in my arm back in January. Normally, this procedure lasts about thirty minutes. It took them close to ninety minutes to get it in place. I want the record to show that I was fully cooperative at all times. I had to be cooperative because I was flat on my back on a hospital bed while Glenda and Jennifer struggled with my arm and its uncooperative veins.

This was when Jennifer tried to help get the PICC line in place by massaging my chest. That was better than a girl friend because Glenda and Jennifer are both attractive and intelligent and they also know how to take of a person with cancer like me.

The only sad parts about the dressing change this morning was that it was over so fast and I didn’t bring my camera and Doug wasn’t with me. Today would have been a great day for a photo of the Baby Blues. Jennifer finished me up in about five minutes.

I think this was mostly my fault because I am overly cooperative with the Baby Blues as compared to the other nurses. I do like the other nurses and chat with them. I just like the Baby Blues more.

I ended the dressing change with a hug from Glenda and Jennifer.

Perfectomundo.

That was the perfect way to start the day.

Dinner with Merit
Today is Thursday so that means it is Dinner with Merit at El Gringo.

I don’t actually have dinner with Merit because she is the server at El Gringo on Thursday nights. It would be impossible for her to sit down and spend an entire meal with me.

I had a chicken tostado for dinner tonight. It was mostly lettuce and cheese with shredded chicken with sour cream, guacamole, and refried beans. It was a very filling meal and I enjoyed it. Like most of my meals at El Gringo since starting chemotherapy they have been too much food for me. I ended up taking home about half of the tostado. Tonight was no different for me.

Merit did spend more time talking to me than she has in recent weeks. This was a function of going to dinner early and having a small crowd in the restaurant. Mostly, we talked about her life and how I am doing with my cancer.

Merit was wearing a halter top night so I had a chance to see part of one her tattoos on her lower back. I think it looks good on Merit because she is like so many young women in Southern California. Merit tans all year long and looks very good as a golden brown woman.

Perfectomundo.

This was a perfect way to book-end my day; first the Baby Blues and then concluding with Merit.

What else I did today
I didn’t do much else today. I finished my sudoku after I came home from the clinic and read the newspaper.

After lunch, I tried to read a new Star Wars book. I started to fall asleep so I decided to take a nap instead. My nap lasted about two hours and that was good.

Woman of the Moment Encore
Tonight, we start Sunisa Kim’s time as the Woman of the Moment Encore featured model. I found Sunisa Kim on the late and great Speed Options web site. Sunisa has a web site, http://sunisakim.com.

I am not certain the web site is functioning properly. I tried to visit the site, so I could verify its existence and functionality so I could save my readers any difficulty. I was only able to download about 40% of the content before I signed off and went to the BBC web site. It was taking longer to download and view than it took for me to download the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 release and that download was over 430 MB of data.





Be well and stay happy.

Feeling Crummy

Feeling Crummy
I’ve been feeling crummy the last couple of days, mostly since I had my last infusion of the chemotherapy drug on Friday. I didn’t have the energy to write a blog posting. Things will be better next week.

One of the reasons that I was feeling crummy was that it was cooler than usual and my fingers were numb whenever I took them out of my pockets or out from under my underarms. The cold is a real killer for me right now.

I came home from the clinic and tried to take a nap after lunch. I couldn’t nap; I sort of tossed around a lot. I had better luck napping after my Saturday morning class.

Sunday was an epic day for sleeping for me. I picked up about ten hours of sleep overnight and then I took another nap for about two or three hours. Surprisingly, I had no trouble falling asleep Sunday night.

When I came home from the hospital after the operation, my surgeon, Dr. Aileen Takahashi, recommended that I take some Advil PM to help me sleep. She also gave me prescription for Vicodin. I first started out with a full dose of Advil, two pills. Then, I reduced the dose to only one pill. I don’t think I have taken an Advil in maybe three weeks now and I sleep very well.

I didn’t see any of the Baby Blues when I went in for a dressing change in Friday. I usually go in for a change on Thursday so I seem to have a better chance of seeing them then. I went in on Friday for the change because I had to go to the clinic for the infusion.

I spent close to five hours with the infusion process on Friday. I did get a lot of reading completed on Friday.

Mostly, it is all about waiting. I learned how to wait when I was in the United States Navy and serving on board the good ship USS Leonard F. Mason. The Navy is an excellent place to learn how to wait and to develop patience.

Doug finally got his wifi hook-up for his wireless modem working at his mother’s house over the weekend. He said he planned to stay behind the Orange Curtain this week as he worked on his web site writing. I think he will be back up towards the end of next week when I have my appointment with the oncologists. I really do appreciate that Doug has been here for me when I needed help some help when I came home the hospital in October.

Visitors
I haven’t paid much attention to my visitors over the weekend. The visitor tracking got caught up in my lack of energy.

We had visitors from Texas [4], Brazil [3], Turkey [2], Iran, Japan [6], Germany [6], Sweden [3], Canada [5], Austria [2], Thailand, Switzerland [3], United Kingdom, Singapore, Greece, Malaysia [2], France [4], Australia [2], Azerbaijan, China [2], Saudi Arabia, Belgium [2], Netherlands [2], Spain [2], Taiwan, Latvia, Poland, and Romania.

I think this is the first time we have had a visitor from Azerbaijan to the blog.

I don’t think we had any visitors who stopped by and stayed around for a while. Of course, I could have missed several visitors because of the lack of energy.

Woman of the Moment Encore
I’m not sure how many more images that I have left for Aiko Tanaka to post. I am certain that I will be shifting to Sunisa Kim before too many more days.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Awaits Me

Weekend Awaits Me
Yes, it is almost time for the weekend and I am looking forward to the weekend. For one reason, the weather promises to be better. We had some rain, heavy at times and usually when I was sound asleep, on Wednesday. The weekend is supposed to be clear and cool; not the best weather for me after an infusion.

Baby Blues and the Clinic
I do get to see the Baby Blues on Friday when I go to the clinic for another infusion. This will be my fifth infusion. Seeing the Baby Blues is always an excellent way to start out my weekend. I am very hopeful that Jennifer will be around when it comes time to change my dressing. I haven’t seen Jennifer in a month or so.

I had my regular before the infusion blood test this morning. I got in and out of the clinic in under an hour. This is good timing for me. in fact, I was home before Doug got up today.

I have a new book to read while I am waiting for the chemical to run through the IV machine. It usually takes a little over two hours to complete the process. This book is One Hundred Unorthodox Strategies. It is a Chinese military treatise on strategy. Most of the articles were written over a thousand or more years ago but they still seem very valid today. I started reading it and I have around 200 pages to go. I don’t think I will finish it tomorrow at the clinic.

Merit and El Gringo
I went to El Gringo for what I call my “Dinner with Merit.” Actually, as most you know, Merit is the Server. Merit waved to me as I pulled up and parked in front of El Gringo.

Merit was working tonight; last week, I went to my fraternity dinner. Merit said she missed me last week and kept thinking I would be in late until Alana the Busser told her that I was having dinner somewhere else.

On a side note, Alana left El Gringo. She was one of the best bussers. A busser is the person who cleans up a table and then resets it after the guests leave. A busser will also fill your water glasses and non-alcoholic drink glasses.

While it was so wonderful to see Merit, we didn’t have much time to talk. El Gringo was busy with several large groups. Couple that with training two new bussers meant no real conversation time for us.

Hopefully, next week will be better.

On a very positive note, Merit was wearing shorty shorts tonight. That was another sure and certain sign that Summer is coming. Maybe I can give up wearing my jacket soon.

Glacier Gelato
Our, that would Doug and me, planned trip to Glacier Gelato this afternoon did not come to pass. One of Doug’s best friends was in the area and he and Doug hung up for most of the afternoon to the point that a trip to Glacier would not make senses.

There will be plenty of other opportunities to go Glacier Gelato. Summer is right around the corner.

Woman of the Moment Encore
Time for more Aiko Tanaka images. I am running out of images so I will probably wrap up the Aiko Tanaka session over the weekend. Next week, I will feature Sunisa Kim as the Woman of the Moment Encore.


School
School on Wednesday was a long day for me. I had two three hours courses and a one hour meeting in between the classes.

Both of my classes went well for me. I think I got the lessons across. But, I am troubled by the school’s near obsession with maintaining a specific completion rate [students who start the course and student who complete the course] and an unrealistic assumption for the course passing rate [students who pass the course]. Instructors are judged and retained on a basis of not necessarily be a good instructor but more on the completion and passing rates.

I find this to be very troubling as an instructor.

I did garner a small measure of pleasure at seeing how some of my advanced writing students improved from week to week. This is one of the few nonmonetary rewards that teaching brings. Hopefully, I will be able to bring more of my students along as the term progresses.

My Saturday class should be a relaxing one for me because I am going to have the students get caught up on their presentations. I can sit while they present to the class.


Be well and stay happy.

Signs of Summer

Signs of Summer
There are signs of Summer all over the place.

On Friday, as Doug and I were on our way to the hospital, we drove by a middle school that was directly on the way. I noticed that a couple of the young female students were wearing shorty shorts and sandals.

That was a sure sign of Summer.

I went to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf with Doug after lunch yesterday. I wanted to get an ice blended coffee drink. I had a large ice blended mocha drink. It tasted great and I enjoyed it for about an hour.

Short blog postings are another sign that Summer is getting closer.

March 2008 Visitors
March has been the best month ever for both visitors to the blog and for pages views as well. We had 1,298 visitors and 2,217 page views. I guess that most of the visitors were interested in old Woman of the Moment blog postings. That’s OK with me.

Woman of the Moment Encore
I know this is a good way to end the blog. Aiko Tanaka ended up as being the most popular Woman of the Moment during the January evaluation. It looks like the readers made a good choice.



Be well and stay happy.