Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tile Party

I'm sitting in the atrium of Ceasar's Palace, here since 6:30 Vegas time, afflicted with a case of the grownupness- my body so used to Fayetteville time and the inconceivability of snoozing past 8am. I've enjoyed 8 dollars worth of coffee AND figured out how to post to the blog via email, via my crap iPhone. This iPhone I used to call my wizard is now dead to me. I've seen the other side....the pretty green grass yonder.... THE iPAD 2.

First things first. We arrived in Vegas on Sunday afternoon. We promptly took the worst smelling cab Vegas had to offer to the hotel, and had an awkward check in as two young women and a white-haired gentleman with money.

Even more awkward was when Rach asked if our room could have one king bed instead of two beds because were sisters and we used to sleep in the same bed a long long time ago and then we got married and our husbands told us it was weird to want to sleep in the same bed as your sister on vacation instead of with your husband so in an act of rebellion and just because we want to, could we just have one bed instead of two???? The nice man just said " so a king non smoking for you, sir... And a king non smoking for you two ladies.". We all nodded and smiled.

We then embarked on our journey to find the sands convention center ( maybe half a mile the way the crow flies) . It took us a good hour lost in casinos, 15 dollars in monorail tickets, a northbound monorail mutiny in favor of the southbound train instead "Dad! Hurry! get off get off! No! Wait! No! Stay on! Stay on! Wait.... I don't know!", and a favor from a man on an all-terrain vehicle(twice!), we made it.

After the journey we find out that the rumor amongst the tile world is that "the guy that rented that space" is either (1) dead, or (2) had some kidney problems, so they brought a forklift and took away all the materials he had shipped here in a cargo freight palate box and put it somewhere in the 1 million square foot Sands Convention Center.

So dad did a little tap dance to prove that he is, in fact, alive.... They found his palate, an we got busy setting up our display. He did not have to submit a urine sample to prove his kidney function, and we are thankful.
People from all over are coming to see Dad, remarking on his beautiful daughters, and give him manly handshakes with half-hug pats telling him, genuinely, that they're glad to see him.

Back to business...Dad's been hauling around this ugly heavy laptop in an even uglier attaché. Aaa taaaaa shey.
We have smoothly convinced him that he needs an iPad. Handily, there's an Apple store in our hotel?! Wow! We...., I mean he, bought himself a fancy little first generation iPad last night. We're going to play with his today and convince him to buy three more.....
He wants to buy three more, he just needs to know it's ok. Oh, it's juuuuuust fine.

We're having a good time. Not just because Dad is buying us dinner and teasing us with the faint possibility of iPads... just because we're having a good time.

Sent from my iPhone(crap)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I need more hours in my days!

My new Franchi..... finally got here. Debbie said something about "the last one" whaaaat?
It will be all ready for pheasant later this fall. Can't wait to take it to the range and knock down some clay pigeons.
Maybe it's my lucky day....I bought a Megaball ticket to $76 Million... I could stand it.


Y'all saw Erin's blog....well, I was the recipient of a chemistry cocktail today! I haven't quite figured out the PV=nRT of that yet....but it's in there, or at least my kids are sure that it is.
I took my first intravenious Avastin today along with an injection of low dose Interferon.
Ten hours out, not feeling bad at all.... that's a good thing.

Amazingly, the damned sore feet are as good as they have been in 15 months. I need to massage my data and Damn Sore Feet logs vs. Sutent dosage , but first brush says that probably 6 weeks ago I got a clue that something was different with the Sutent....the feet were not going to their peak..... I was paying attention to the number of bad days instead of the magnitude... the last round, they never got above a V (roman numeral) .

What I expect tonight is flu symtoms... fever, chills, aches and pains. I'll trade sore feet for that any day. The IV took longer than normal because it was the first time, it will speed up over the next couple of times until it's down to about 30 minutes. Dosage is Avastin every other Tuesday, and an injection of Interferon every week at the same time. Blood work and see Doctor Baltz every week.

I happened to mention a little angina when I was trudging up the hill in the snow and carrying firewood to the porch last week. Doc says, "Damn, are you gonna have a heart attack while I'm trying to control this cancer?"
"Who's your cardiologist?" Whaaat? you don't have a cardiologist? So he called a friend of mine, Dr. Ben Johnson. Got me right in.... we're gonna do a catheterization on Thursday morning to make sure things are as they should be and fix them if they are not. I think my ticker is ok, but I've been on some pretty strenuous chemistry for a while and I haven't been doing the gym like I did before. I promised Joe Henry that I'll get back to it... I have missed our bike rides to nowhere.

About enough for one day, don't you think? I'll go to work tomorrow and get a little rest.

Thank you all for the support of my family as we trudge through this unplowed ground.
I'm fine....life is good. Daffodils are up, pear trees blooming, my bees are active.

Love you all,
Great Speckled Byrd