Inadvertent Week Off

I totally did not mean to be off the airwaves (fiber optic cables?) for so long. I'll give a quick run-down of what I've been up to though, since last Wednesday. Okay—Wednesday we signed a new mortgage, which makes us feel like we have a lot of extra cash. You know there's the grace period of one month before you start paying, and then, since we refinanced in October, our property taxes had to be paid by the mortgage company, which we rolled into the loan amount, so we don't have to pay those out of pocket, either. That's a total of close to $2500 not going out—plus, somehow, we got $100 back after closing. So all in all, last Wednesday was a good day.

Thursday I cooked my first roast beef, and we had three dear and dorky friends (you all can decide if you're one or the other or both) join us. We made purple mashed potatoes (mashed potatoes out of purple potatoes that is, no dye involved), which looked kind of like Muppet food, and I couldn't really decide if that meant Muppets ate it or it was made out of Muppets. At any rate, VERY purple. I highly recommend them. Oh, and they were tasty, too—a feast for the palate as well as the eye. We also had sautéed Brussels sprouts and mushrooms, and a salad. I made a pear and raspberry pie for dessert, but E&J brought cupcakes, so we just had tiny slivers of pie and I sent home big pieces with the guests. And Ian and I finished it when we arrived back home Sunday night. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

At some point Thursday morning it occurred to me to wonder why I had decided to throw a small dinner party the night before we went on a trip . . . but there is no reasonable explanation. Anyway, Friday morning we drove down to SeaTac and left our car, and flew to Oakland and picked up a different car, filled it with our friend S and her two daughters P&A and all the accoutrements of travel with toddlers, and our one shared bag, and we drove to the Anderson Valley (home of an excellent organic brewery) for a wedding weekend extravaganza of a dear college friend. The weekend included a barbeque Friday night, the ceremony on Saturday afternoon and reception following (and Ian turned 34 woot!), and a brunch Sunday morning before we drove back to Oakland, stopping briefly for milkshakes, and returned home. All events were fabulous and romantic and heartfelt and just what they should be.

Monday I had my riding lesson then took the back roads through Duvall, Carnation and Fall City to Mom's to pick up Hoover and Spackle and help Mom and Marsh with some computer and cell phone issues, then Ian took the bus out from Seattle (the novelty didn't quite wear off by the time he arrived in the booming metropolis of Maple Valley 1 ½ hours after getting off work), we ate a tasty dinner and came home.

Yesterday I had my chemo and got my blood test results and my new tumor markers and then I came home and slept off my Benadryl; the dex kicked in then around 11:30pm when I turned off my light and after an hour I got up and voted, then cleaned the dining room and read some Harper's; this morning we met with Dr. Specht to discuss the test results.

They were very good. My markers made another precipitous drop, from 196 to 118 (out of 37), and we found out that when I started last May, I was at a stellar 1,008! I don't know what the clinic record is, but I feel that I must have been pretty close, because at that level it seems like my blood must have been mostly cancer.

My oxygen levels, when I remember to check them now (which isn't often), are at 99, so that's good too.

And now my hours of awakeness last night have caught up with me, and I am tired.