Return from Vacation

The week at work was up and down. Pulling materials and prepping for a YouTube shoot. Trying to remember what to say in what order on camera. Turning right around from on-camera talent to Right away pulling together digital collections of material we showed off on camera for our colleagues to use as stills in the filmed segments. Pause the action to do photo documentation of some offices with a photographer at work. He reminded me that there was a New Year's mochi pounding underway, so he and I went to that.

I participated in the pounding. That mallet is so heavy! And then they made mochi balls with the still-warm mochi and put out two sauces -- red bean paste and a thick shoyu sauce. It was beyond delicious. Then back to work.

On Friday I worked from home -- still collecting the digital files for the YouTube segment. Mrguy wandered in and mentioned that during the night before he'd had one of those episodes. Kind of the worst one yet. He told his oncologist, who asked him to go to the ER to get checked out. So we did. I brought my work computer so I could continue with the project, but the connection wasn't great. Still I was able to hand off, and explain to my colleagues what I'd been able to accomplish so far and, more importantly, what I had not.

Mrguy is fine. The odd thing about this episode is that it's been mysterious. He has them during infusion or close to the time of infusion (day of, and now night after). His doctor has removed various drugs from his regimen, only to have the episodes continue. This time he only had 5FU. But he had *no* 5FU once, and it still happened. He's had it on and off Kanjinti. And I believe on and off Oxaliplatin, but I'm not sure about that. It's gotta be his pre-med regimen. This would be good, because he needs those drugs in order to be alive, and stuff.

In the meantime, his regular neurologist has handed him over to a neurologist who specializes in seizures. And, in a few weeks, he's going to have an electroencephalogram *while* having his infusion. Bring it on!

I liked this plant that was in the ER parking lot...pretty in winter.

Penultimate Vacation Day

Vacation was niiiice. I like vacation. On the last day, we painted alebrijes. I bought them for Christmas, because one of the most relaxing days we had on our cruise in 2013 was a few hours painting alebrijes in Cozumel. Ahhh.

So that's what we did last Sunday.

We listed to the Red Album [aka Sons of Hawaii: Folk Music of Hawaii]. I bought it in mint condition many years ago, with autographs of all members, including Gabby Pahinui. We also listened to Buddy Fo Live at the Shell Bar.  

There was drama in real life, as the cheapo paint I bought for the project wasn't very thick. 

Mrguy pivoted after his purple was thin *and* wouldn't dry, and moved on to using black, which was thicker. He ended up making the most darling alebrije. 

My bottom layer of paint was thick and dried fast, but none of the other paints would cover it, so I needed to make the other paints mix with white (thick) for contrast. I often say that constraints are a good thing. I wound up really liking my result. After a while I used a tool that I bought in Bautzen many years ago that is used by Sorbian folks to decorate Easter eggs with colored wax. That really helped.

Our new friends have joined our original friends on the kitchen shelf.

And I started a little touchup on a pencil sharpener that an old boyfriend gave me years ago. I only use mechanical pencils, but I think this little friend is so sweet that I keep him around.

So ends holiday break 2025.

Happy New Year

One of my pet peeves is people who say good riddance to the previous year, assuming the next one will be better (or just out of habit). My prediction for 2026, although I'm already enjoying the numbers, is that it will continue in much the same way. Find joy where you can. Create joy where you can.

I already found joy in this 1986 photo depicting a Macy's Parade balloon of Betty Boop. She goes into the public domain in 2026, and this is the photo accompanying the article about that fact. The balloon seems to be deflating, and it looks like the photo was taken before the local neighborhood was cleaned up. The marquee at the bottom advertises 3XXX Hits "French Erotica" and "Naughty Girls". This, sports fans, is the New York of the past.

[But back to misery]

I wrote this on New Year's Day, but didn't publish it. In the ten days since, "we" have:

• Overthrown the regime of Venezuela, captured Nicolas Maduro and his wife and thrown them in jail in Brooklyn
• Murdered a protester in Minneapolis, which was recorded on many phones on the scene and then told the world that we did not see what we saw
• Told the world that we were planning to take Greenland by force if necessary
• Stated that we were going to cut off Venezuela's oil to Cuba, which relies on Venezuelan support for some of its livelihood
• Threatened to bomb Iran

I'm sure to be forgetting something. There is so much, every day.