Winter Break

Winter Break
I am on Winter Break from classes right now. Our school takes its break in the middle of the term unlike most schools on the quarter system that observe the Winter Break at quarter’s end.

So what does this all mean?

I will be taking a break from posting as frequently as I have. I know some of you will say that I haven’t been posting very often this month.

This month, I have been spending more time at the hospital and labs. That takes away from my posting time; I had six visits this month. I am also busy with writing lecture notes and lesson plans for my three new courses. It takes about three hours to prepare one lesson.

Natalie
I got a Christmas card from Natalie this week. This is normal this time of the year. Natalie thanked me for the customized M&Ms that I sent her. Her special M&Ms were red, green, and white, seasonal colors. I had the words merry Xmas, Happy New Year, and Natalie printed on them.

Natalie said that she loved M&Ms and I listened to her. The box weighted in at five pounds so there should be some left when I see Natalie on the 30th when I go in for my haircut, styling rather with Molly.

That made sense to me since the box was being delivery to her at the Molly Moon Salon. It would be very difficult to say that the candy belonged to someone else.

I should probably ask Natalie for a new image of her when I see on the 30th. This image is close to two years old although she has not changed much except for her hair style. I have found that women like to change their hairstyle with great regularity.

Visitors
We had another good week for visitor traffic. We had 811 visitors this past week. Traffic usually falls off in December because we are off doing other things with family and friends.

Looking ahead, I have two significant to me milestones that I should reach in 2009. Sometime in 2009, I will post my 1,000th entry; I had 885 posting through today. Then, the blog will also pick up its 50,000 visitor. We are at 31,626 visitors now. I wonder where he or she will come from. I ought to be able to reach both of those goals this year.

I do appreciate all of you who took time from your busy days to visit the blog. If you enjoyed your stay here, be sure to tell your friends.

Lisa and the Movies
My friend Lisa from the bank emailed me on Thursday about going to the movies on Saturday to see the film MILK. I said sure. Doug and my brother had both seen the film and had thought highly of it. I told Lisa that I would be willing to drive out to the O. C. where she lives for the film.

Perfectomundo.

Friday, I got up and sent Lisa the film times for shows out in her area and asked her to pick a theater.

Then, around 4:00 PM on Friday, Lisa called me. She was out on the Westside of Los Angeles seeing her doctor. She had just finished. Lisa said why don’t we go see MILK tonight. I said of course because Lisa is fun to be with. We agreed to meet at a theater close to my house; that was a real gas saver.

I got there early and bought the tickets; I qualify for a senior citizen discount. I never used to think too much of senior discounts because I haven’t been going to the cinema much lately. Doug has said it was a poor year for films. I ended up saving us USD$7.50 and that was very nice.

After the film, we grabbed a light dinner of appetizers at the L. A. Food Show which is in the same complex as the theater. We split an order of the Avocado Bacon Chicken egg rolls and an order of blue crab cakes. We love the egg rolls and almost always order then when we are there.

The blue crab cakes came with a white and black bean salsa that included diced tomatoes and onions along with some cilantro. We really enjoyed this item and I think we will probably have it again when we go to the Show. The Princess would like the crab cakes as well.

MILK
MILK is a very powerful film about the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States in the 1970s. It is a largely biographical film about the role San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk played in the movement.

This is not a film for everyone as it contains suggested homosexual sex, violence, and a number of other adult themes. It is rated “R.” All of this aside, we both agree that this is a film that is well worth seeing.

We both thought that Sean Penn gave an Oscar worthy performance in his role of Harvey Milk. I thought it was Penn’ best performance in his career to date. With the exception of Josh Brolin, who plays Supervisor Dan White, most of the cast seemed to have been selected for their resemblance to the characters that they played. One thing that I did appreciate was the closing credits were used to update the audience on what happened to the supporting characters after Milk’s death.

Doctors and Me
I had another clinic appointment on Thursday with the doctors in the Urology Clinic. This was a follow-up visit to the removal of the stent that had been in left ureter. I had an ultrasound examination of both kidneys earlier this month.

Once the doctor found the ultrasound report, everything was great. I had only spent 90 minutes waiting for him to find the report. It appears to have gotten misplaced between Radiology and Urology.

Wonderful, not.

But, in the end, the wait was worth it. The doctors said both kidneys were fine and normal; that is about the best I have found that you can get from a doctor in terms of how you are. I have no scheduled follow-up with Urology now and one less thing to worry about for me.

This will be something that I can talk to Dr. Karen about on Friday. I can also ask Dr. Karen whether she likes this avatar or not. I can always ask Ziying to give me a link to another set of Chinese avatar cartoons.

I also have or am getting over a sinus cold. This is something else that Dr. Karen can dwell on. This is the first cold in about two years for me. I ought to be over it by Friday.

I had a blood test on Friday. It is one of my regular tests that I have every three weeks. Since I was going that way, I also dropped off some candy for the Oncology Clinic staffers. Wendy and Vhruna were very pleased to see me when I walked in the door with the large box under my arm. The candy should have lasted at least through the day unless there were a bunch of hungry young residents in the clinic.

Then, I went up to the Infusion Clinic to wish all of the staffers a Merry Christmas. They did a great job of taking care of me when I first started out with my chemotherapy. They all thought I looked so good and handsome.

Obviously, that made me feel very good.

Sharon takes me to lunch, maybe
Sharon may be taking me to lunch on Monday. This assumes that my cold is much better than it is now. If I am not better tomorrow morning, I will cancel out on the lunch.

Sharon has been promising and saying she wants to take me out for lunch or dinner but has never come up with a day and time and venue. This has been going on from before my operation last year; but, this is just Sharon. She has a lot of drama and activity in her life.

I sent Sharon an email on Friday that asked if she wanted to take me out to lunch and she said Monday would be good for her.

Hopefully, my cold will be better and I can go have lunch with her. Anyway, there is always next week if I have to reschedule or later on in the new year if necessary.


That was my week and weekend. I hope you are ready for Christmas and New Year’s.


Be well and stay happy.