Randomness

There's actually nothing much to pass on right now. Not much has been happening. I'm learning to deal with chemo more and more. I have a few types of carbonated drinks in my pantry so I have the fluids thing under control.

Yesterday I finally got around to fixing most of our water hoses. Most of the ones we have here were on the premises throughout construction and needed repairs, so I fixed all that I could, except for one. You can't fix the kink-free ones, I guess! The ribs inside the hose do not allow for a good seal.

Today I plan to put some systemic rose food/insect control down for the roses. Plus I may clean the furniture in the basement. The sofa and love seat down there are Dave's original set and are quite old. A good upholstery cleaning is necessary.

Also today we may go purchase a couple of privacy screens. When we have company we still don't like to close our bedroom doors all the way so that Theo can come in when he finally decides to come upstairs, so I'd like to get a screen. Plus the basement doors have windows so I think a screen for there would be nice for guests.

We also have to go up to Los Altos to pick up our pendulum for our new wall clock. (It needed some attention from the clock store.)

Dave had a job interview yesterday and is in "the process" for jobs at two companies. Hopefully he gets a job at the one he's most interested in.

How's that for randomness!

Chemo Update

There's not much new to report since the same thing happens every other week (one week I'm tired & must avoid all coldness at all cost, the next week I'm not tired but I still can't handle or drink cold stuff). But I do have some small new tidbits of information to pass along. I did get clarification on how long I'll have to do this. I will have a total of 12 cycles and have done 4 already, so I have 8 more to do. I guess if I can do 4 then I can do 4 more, then 4 more. Also, if I stay on schedule then my last cycle will be August 25th.

The second tidbit is that I've successfully found stuff I can drink. I have to stay away from all ice-cold beverages, naturally. But I was also having trouble drinking regular water at room temperature. But I discovered that I can drink ginger ale at room temp and it doesn't hurt. Then one day after drinking three or so cans and getting tired of the sweetness I thought that maybe what's allowing me to drink it was the carbonation. So, I tried sparkling water and was pleased to find out that I could drink that too! So, there's something about the bubbles that keep the liquid from hurting the nerve endings in my throat. So, now I've added a couple more carbonated beverages to my list of things to drink. The trick is finding ones that taste good at room temp.

That's pretty much all I can say that I haven't said before. Other than that, every other week is a repeat of the previous 2-week cycle. Boooring...

Party Report

Our open house party on Saturday was a blast! The whole afternoon is a bit of a blur for us, but we had fun and it sounds like everyone had their fill of food.

David and I agreed that we remember our wedding and wedding party better than the housewarming. Of course both the wedding and the subsequent party were smaller than the housewarming. We talked with the caterer yesterday and she said that over 100 pizzas were made. 3 cases of water, an unknown amount of sodas, 3 1/2 cases of wine, 1/2 pony keg of beer, and 438 deserts were also consumed. We ended up with just 12 of the deserts (petit fours) left for us.

There were some gifts brought as well though we didn't have any time set aside at all for opening them that evening. That would have been impossible, as I'm sure that anyone who was there could understand! So, if you brought something then I'm sorry we weren't able to open it right away but we had a good time doing so yesterday, and it was delightful. Also, one thing to mention: our wine cellar is definitely diverse now! We ended up gaining 3 cases of wine to add to the cellar. Of special note is the "vertical" provided by our friends Ralph, Valerie, Jim, Noelle, Matt, & Laura. This vertical is special. Not only are all 12 bottles of a different vintage year, sequentially, but each bottle is also a different kind, and from a different winery from the others. This really is special to us and these 12 bottles are now residing together in our cellar.

This party was the 1st (OK, maybe 2nd...) of many to come, though there will probably never be any that are nearly as large.

Oh, one last thing... the person who gets the prize for travelling the farthest: my very good friend Joanne. Joanne used to work with me a number of years back on NHANES, the travelling job that you may or may not know about. She & I grew very close and still have a bond of friendship. She is from Rhode Island, and flew all the way out here for our party. How unlikely is that?: A girl from Texas and a girl from Rhode Island becoming such good friends? She said she hopes to come back out here soon (and hopefully spend more time!) which would be great, but I have a feeling it's our turn to fly out that way next.