Vacation Wednesday -- The Project Continues

I bought this wacky plant stand several months ago. It's been harder to get pots that fit than I thought. Yesterday I went to the Home Depot near work, since I had to go that way to get blood tests. I had partial success. For some reason three of the pots that are the same size won't fit in some of the holders. And then some of the holders are sizes that aren't common. So it's a bit of a mosh.

Also I need to Rustoleum the metal, and I really don't feel like doing it. And I am now seeing that this project is going to require patience, and trial and error.

But my goal became clear this week. What I really want is to get the front porch a bit tidier and to create an herb garden in the plant stand. There is enough room for the other things that I love, like succulents, but one thing that I have felt is lacking at the Big Brown Box is herbs. Accessible herbs. During the pandemic I had them in the aku room, but they eventually got buggy, so I gave up. Right now the aku room is kinda perfect. I have some great geraniums that are flowering like mad, and some weird succulents that I decided to like because they apparently like the room. It looks so darned great.

So here's what the week looks like.

Monday. A hodgepodge of pots and plants.

This morning I had some plants temporarily in random pots.

This afternoon I found *some*pots that fit and some saucers that I could use. In the meantime I repotted some orchids that came from my mom's house that have never bloomed. Hoping to find a home for them somewhere in the garden, but the maple trees seem to have made all of the front yard un-diggable. We'll see if I can get help. Or grow stronger ;)

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, mrguy is on Day 3 of his radiation. He slept a lot this afternoon and has now gone back to bed at 6:55. I watched the episode of Dr. Pimple Popper that was recorded after her stroke. She and her husband talked about how their children are in college and these are supposed to be their golden years, wondering what comes next. I cried while cooking greens.

News of Norway

Is it me? Is it Norway?

It's probably a bit of both.

Happy Saturday! I'm reading the English language translation of Bergens Tidende, the local newspaper and finding all of the weird parts. There's an opinion piece about some new development on a spit of land that's about half a mile from the place where my grandmother was born. The author seems miffed that the developer is mimicking the shape and color of historic buildings. Around here, ersatz historic buildings are considered somewhat sensitive to the local aesthetic. I used to call them Fictorians, but I've gotten used to them.

Anyhoo -- I'm reading the article and minding my own business, navigating the ads for athletic shoes that keep popping up, when I see it:

I write to my friend and ask "Is this a Norwegian idiom?" I mean, I get it but who expects to read the words "butt" and "taste" in the same sentence over their morning coffee. I told mrguy and he says it is now his favorite saying and will use it all the time.

Then I'm reading an article with the headline "They were waiting to die. Then came the miracle drug." As the wife of a man with a terminal illness, I am drawn to miracle cures of a Western medicine sort. The story starts out as one of testicular cancer in Norway, which in the 1970s metastasized rapidly in patients. Then there was nothing that could be done to help. Then a scientist discovered that bacteria stopped dividing when current was run through it using platinum electrodes. It was the platinum, which was spreading platinum compounds into the bacteria solution. They tested the platinum stuff on animals and people. So was born Cisplatin. Men with testicular cancer were saved by this treatment. My man, also, has been saved by this treatment. Also, if he ever had ball cancer, he's probably cured of that.

Also, this is the only article I've ever read in which a cancer doctor advises a patient to continue smoking.

A Saturday in April

It is a magnificent grey day here in the big brown box. We had a good coffee time convo this morning, with the brilliant mrguy realizing that if our insurance doesn't pay for the PET scan we want, we could totally pay for it ourselves and make it happen. This is exactly what money is for. For saving your life. Yay!

Yesterday we talked to the oncologist and our oncology nurse navigator. The onco doctor has referred mrguy to a radiologist, and now is suggesting that because we think there aren't any mets, radiation could just zap that little effer and get rid of it. Radiation is not a groovy time. He'd switch to carbo/taxol as his chemo, and for 5 weeks he'd get zapped 5 days a week. Both the carbo and the radiation are cumulatively awful. That's why we'd want to get a PET sooner than later. a) are there any metastases and b) is the kanjinti already beating the cancer back by itself? If b, why worry about radiation? It was doing so well before. Or can he have kanjinti instead of switching up his chemo while he's doing radiation? Our nurse navigator is hoping for kanjinti rather than radiation. Anyhoo, mrguy is doing his research.

Today's The Kentucky Derby. It's my sister's favorite thing, and it always reminds me of her. It used to fall on the same weekend as Norway Day, which was our sister thing we did together. But we'd always need to find a spot nearby to watch it. Apparently I wrote this up in mrsguy and don't have to retell that story! But today my sister reminded me of a different story that she was telling to some friends over coffee this morning:

My brother-in-law, her husband, used to go to the races on Fridays with his friend Junior. One of those Fridays was the day before the Derby, so my sister gave her husband a tenner and asked him to put it on Giacomo to win the Derby. She wanted Giacomo specifically because that was her husband's grandfather's name. Next day they were watching the Derby and Giacomo won!!! It was at this point that her husband confessed that he hadn't placed the bet because he thought it was such a bad bet. Yeah, he was wrong. It paid out 50-1. A $2 bet paid out $800, and her ten bucks would have been many times more than that. Sis told this story to her feisty 90-year-old friend this morning over coffee and her friend said "And he's still alive?!" Funny. And Giacomo the horse is still alive, apparently, living the stud life.

Because it is Derby day today I went to the Derby website to look at the horses. I don't believe in racing, but this was in solidarity with my sister. There was a grey horse who was sooo pretty. Then I remembered that my grandparents owned a grey race horse at one point. Her name was Eleanor Grey. Not sure what the nomenclature was, but she was a harness race horse, and a pacer. She did some racing in the early 1950s. So like my granny to want a race horse.

Before signing off, here are some of yesterdays colors.

Good Friday Thoughts

The rev invited me to see some amazing singing that's happening at her church today. I was going to do it (fancy opera singers were on the bill). Then I looked at the church calendar and realized that it is Good Friday, the saddest day on the calendar. I can't do more sads. My feelings are too close to the surface, and this morning was Pilates, a conversation with the oncologist, a conversation with our oncology nurse navigator and a followup / stitch removal at the dermatologist. I'm 50-50 -- of four spots he biopsied two were cancer. One will get burned off, and the other is in the middle of my face and will require Mohs. On the way home the central character of the memoir I'm listening to was murdered. 

I put on my makeup and everything, thinking I was going to hear Bach, but no. Jesus death is too depressing.

In other news I've had a mixed bag of dreams lately. Last night I dreamed that I was at my old restaurant and my section filled up and I simply couldn't get to everyone fast enough (a recurring dream). Then someone wanted a crawfish milkshake. I asked my boss if we had crawdads that week and she said yes, and it was evident that I would have to cook and shell my own crawdads in order to make the milkshake.

A different dream saw me at the forklift factory, which was kinda laid out like a supermarket. Donald Trump was on the PA system telling us that there would be no more awards given to employees, that it cost too much money. I couldn't believe that he had infiltrated my work life somehow, so I put my fingers in my ears and sang really loud so I could drown him out in my own head.

A very rewarding dream had me in a familiar situation in which I had taken incompletes in a few classes repeatedly (I used to do this in undergrad) and then took these classes again and totally flaked until the end. I went to the final but was obviously going to flunk. Instead of reminding myself that I could take these classes again I stopped to realize that none of this mattered because I was about to retire and had already had a career. Now *that* was pretty awesome. 

If I could take control of my dreams more often I'd probably sleep better.

Other Kine News

It's baaaack!

Today we went for mrguy's endoscopy and they "found a mass".

The doctors knew that something was up because of his recent PET scan, and have been awaiting the news. They are primed to act, so we look forward to talking to his oncologist and team asap to decide on a plan of action.

In the meantime he is processing the info very well, and is about to watch his favorite team on Opening Day.

Really, things could be lots worse.

I'm headed to the bedroom to wake him up :)

A few more things:

1) Prior to the endoscopy he participated in a study by blowing into a plastic bag. They are comparing the volatile elements that they find in the air of patients who have EC to see if they can find any markers that they could use in the future to detect it.

2) When he woke up from the anaesthesia this morning he was trying to speak, but they couldn't understand him. He told me he was trying to say "What are all of these people doing in my room?"

Things That Tickled My Fancy on Christmas Eve

Yesterday cack and blick came over for the end-of-year visit. It was deeelightful. We ate mole and caught up on 6 months of news and laughed our butts off.

Today I had two different video appointments for a doctor procedure in January. Should be a small thing but they have to put me under in order to do it. Then I finished up a work project, sent an explanatory email to coworkers and made a big old batch of twice-baked potatoes.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, mrguy had chemo today. Scheduling is scheduling, and there you go. My joke was that Cancer Santa brought him chemo. Here's what that would look like:

In other news I very much appreciated this warning from the weather channel the other day.

A few days ago I made apple and otherstuff sauce from my own elder hoard: apples, pears, persimmons, allspice leaf. I have deemed it delicious. It also made the house smell really nice. I watched Shop Around the Corner (1940) while I cooked, and that was downright Christmassy. You know it's that backlot Budapest that made me want to go to the real one all those years ago.

It is excellent to have nothing to do for the rest of the day. I forgot to trim the tree, so I'm not doing that. I did put some solar lights on the three lumps of the topiary mugo pine, so we're not entirely unfestive. I am very much enjoying their subtle colored blinking.

OK, one more thing to like. I was going to take some shredding to the shredding place and they updated their holiday hours on the interwebs so I know that they are closed until Friday. So thoughtful!