Still healthy

I had my second 3 month checkup today and was given a clean bill of health again. That was nice. I didn't get a CAT scan this time, but will get one in three months. I'm also going to get a follow up lung test. I mentioned that I didn't think my breathing was back to 100%, so the doctor thought it would be a good idea to do an after treatment lung test. I have fond memories of the last one, so that is fine by me.

100%

Zefrank does it again. from 52 to 48 | 48 to 52 with love

Wow

I don't believe in destiny, but as I watched this speech, I had the overwhelming feeling that I was witnessing it.

Just when you thought things had changed...

I woke up to this bit of news:
Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

"The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, 'It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break.'"

My final endorsement link (I think)

A(nother) Conservative for Obama

Wick Allison former publisher of the National Review:

"Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers."

So this is what everyone is afraid of

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Seems like a pretty smart guy

An unlikely Obama supporter

To inspire

Finger pointing

I have seen quite a few articles about how if McCain looses there is going to be a lot of scapegoating and finger pointing within his campaign. What I have been wondering is when are the Republicans going to start to point fingers at Bush - there just have to be a lot of Republicans who are furious with Bush and what he has done.

This is the first article I have seen where that anger is starting to come to the surface in detailed accusations: Top GOP-ers: It’s Bush and Rove’s fault

I'll bet its not the last.

Here it is

An extremely well written and "wholehearted" endorsement for Obama.
The Economist

Just to show I can

Here is a video critical of Obama, and it's hard to deny it is true.


(If video doesn't load, you can see it here)

It's interesting how when the opponent does something "wrong" we are up in arms, and when our own candidate does it we cringe and think to ourselves, well, the ends justifies the means. Politics is probably a lot like having kids. It has become so emotional, that we don't really see anything objectively. We can acknowledge that it is wrong, but it doesn't have nearly the same impact on us as it would if the opponent did it. (ie Obama's support of ACORN is scary and bad while McCain's support of ACORN is okay. (I had a much longer list of comparisons but decided to keep it at one :-)))

I certainly don't think the video above is reason to not vote for Obama, but I post it because I think it is important to acknowledge that neither candidate is perfect.

Borat had me laughing out loud

I liked this

It's political, but touching.

I wonder how the hell we got here

On Socialism

I find these recent accusations of socialism quite amusing. Living in Denmark, where the Conservative party would land somewhere to the left of the US Democrats on the political scale, the notion that the US is about to slide into socialism is comical. From my perspective, saying Obama is a socialist is kind of like accusing a Muslim woman of being a whore because she shows too much wrist.

But even if we pretend that the US is flirting with socialism, I get the feeling that most people don't even now what this big bad boogie-man is. Denmark is MUCH closer to socialism then I ever imagine the US could be (free health care, free education, extensive welfare, high taxes), and yet I don't recognize anything the Republicans are warning us about. People here still work hard, they can get rich, they can be poor, they start businesses, make a million, they go bankrupt, they choose their own doctor, use private hospitals, get breast implants, travel wherever they want, save money, spend too much, read and watch anything they want, get good educations, get little education, go to church, get married, have kids, enjoy life.

And the funny thing about it is, despite the fact that this socialist monster has apparently laid claim to Denmark, Danes are actually quite happy, and if you ask most of them if they think they pay too much in taxes, they say, "no" (I think the average person pays somewhere around 40% (but the graduated income tax goes MUCH higher)).

So, I don't think socialism is quite the boogie-man its made out to be. The ironic thing is, that most Danes would worry if you told them that Denmark is going to become like the US. This is actually something that can frustrate me living in another culture - that is that people seem to inherently think that their way is the best way (or the only way). Danes are often guilty of this, but I think in the States it has actually become a problem. We can learn from others, and we can learn from experience. If we are convinced that we are, without question and in all areas, the best, then we have only experience left. And as the saying goes, "Experience is a hard teacher..."

This isn't to say that the US should adopt anything from Denmark (or Europe) at all. I'm just saying, lets stop with the boogie-men, and try for a minute to look at what we are actually talking about.

All these words above, were really only meant to be a short introduction to this article, "Like, Socialism" , in the New Yorker.

Another endorsement

The Financial Times for Obama

There have been a lot of other papers endorsing Obama lately, but I am particularly interested in the ones that absolutely cannot be called "the liberal press" and who traditionally have a conservative view.

I thought this paragraph was interesting, because while Obama's critics disregard his speaking ability as little more than pretty words, it is much, much more than that.

Nor should one disdain Mr Obama’s way with a crowd. Good presidents engage the country’s attention; great ones inspire. Mr McCain, on form, is an adequate speaker but no more. Mr Obama, on form, is as fine a political orator as the country has heard in decades. Put to the right purposes, this is no mere decoration but a priceless asset.

I think there is a growing consensus that what America is going to need a lot of, soon, is inspiration.

And this commentary of McCain's behavior of late:

He has offered risk-taking almost as his chief qualification, but gambles do not always pay off. His choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, widely acknowledged to have been a mistake, is an obtrusive case in point. Rashness is not a virtue in a president. The cautious and deliberate Mr Obama is altogether a less alarming prospect.

Video Friday

I woke up this morning to a bunch of video's in my mailbox. They all made me smile, so I thought I would share them.


From Aunt Susie

Unbelievable McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off - Watch more free videos

From Lauren (takes a while to load)


From Luke

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Powell's endorsement

When I wrote the post below this one, I had only read excerpts of Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama, I hadn't actually seen it. Here it is below. I think he makes an excellent case to like minded Republicans who are worried about the direction of the party. I also thought his comments on Obama being a Muslim were excellent.

A Choice

I haven't posted anything in a while, and that is primarily for two reasons. The first is, I have been very busy. The second is, because I kind of feel like anything I post at this point, would be beating a dead horse.

In my opinion, Obama is clearly the better candidate, and McCain has done nearly nothing to show us that the next four years under his leadership will be different from the last 8, and I think the last 8 have been pretty scary. After 8 years, Bush's popularity is somewhere around 20%. For the 20% who think Bush is doing a good job, I'm sure nothing I can say would convince them otherwise (although, I might encourage them to dig a little deeper). For those who fall in the 80%, and are still considering voting for McCain, I can't help but think it is because of fear. I can't really relate to this fear. This fear, I am guessing, ranges from the crazy (Obama is a terrorist, or Obama is a closet Muslim who is going to turn the US into a Muslim nation) to the somewhat grounded (Obama is a tax and spend Democrat).

For those on the crazy end, first, I am sorry for offending you by calling you crazy. Second - SERIOUSLY! take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Do I really believe this, or do I want it to be true?". I mean, I'm sure if you are on the "crazy" end you are not going to vote for Obama anyway. Fine. But at least accept that he isn't going to take over the country and enslave all white people. He may have a different opinion than you, but he isn't some closet, manic Muslim, domestic terrorist, anti-white, un-American, socialist, communist, community organizer. Does that kind of shit happen anywhere but in really awful movies?

When Palin was announced as the VP candidate, I spent a morning reading all sorts of rumors about Palin's baby not really being hers. The truth is, there IS a lot of weird stuff there to feed the rumor mill, but after several hours of gleefully reading every little piece of evidence I could find, I stopped myself and said, "What the fuck am I doing!? SERIOUSLY! Do I believe this, or do I just WANT it to be true?" I found out that, of course, I just wanted it to be true. I wanted it to be true because it would be easy. If everybody could just be made to believe that Palin had faked her pregnancy to cover for her daughter's premarital sex, then Obama would win the election no problem.

It's the same thing with all of the crazy rumors about the Bush administration planning 9/11 so they could start a war. Nut cases on the far left want it to be true because they want to have a clean and easy way to get rid of Bush (and, more importantly, because they want to justify their dislike of Bush). Again, the truth is, if you start looking, you can find a lot of evidence to feed the rumors. But if you ask yourself, as an intelligent, thinking person, if you really believe it, I think you will say no.

Those who don't say no, those who let themselves be hoodwinked into believing absurdities, are those, quiet frankly, who end up in line shouting shit like this. I don't think any of us want to be in that company. So, if you are thinking stupid stuff, please stop, even if you disagree with Obama and aren't going to vote for him, stop!

And so, on to the those who fear Obama for more rational reasons. I would like to say, "Do you really think your worst fear could be worse than what we have now?" but that would be too easy. That would assume that you felt the same way I did about where Bush has brought us. I am well aware that my views are tainted by where I get my news (I get my news from the Internet, I'm sure most of the news I get has a liberal slant). All of our views are tainted such. We need to be aware of this, and we need to try to distinguish between what is, and what we have been presented, and then figure out what we think. But still, I am convinced that if any intelligent person spent time researching it, they would see that we were intentionally mislead into a war, that the Bush administration has abused their power, and that we have offended what it means be an American in the name of freedom (here I am looking at torture and the Patriot Act).

You may read this and think I am being reactionary. In response, I would say that I think if you spent three or four hours online, really looking into it, you will agree that we have been take to a very scary place in the history of our country. I won't even give you a starting point, just all on your own, start looking - I think you will be shocked at what you find.

I truly believe that Obama will take us away from all of that, and back to where we should be. I think this is what Colin Powell is talking about when he says an Obama Presidency would "electrify" the country and the World. Bush and fear has turned America into something it should not be (the terrified, unthinking mob that we see in the video I linked to above) and people are desperate to learn that America has only lost her way, and not become something else (something doomed). McCain and Palin's willingness to turn this election into and "US vs. NOT LIKE US" "AMERICAN vs. UN-AMERICAN" debate is evidence enough for me that they are not the ones to take the country back where is should be.

But again, I sense this argument is far to easy, and won't work. So, I defer to the other sensible conservatives. I'd like to start a list, because I bet it is longer than what I have here, But for now, I will defer to the Chicago Tribiune, who have not, in 161 years, endorsed a Democrat for president. This year, they endorse Obama. Or, William F. Buckley's son, a former writer for the National Review, who has also endorsed Obama.

I'm sure there are more, and more will come (I bet the Economist endorses Obama) - people who have the same principles of government as you, and yet still can see the reason for voting Obama. They may have had their fears (or still have them) but either decided that Obama is pragmatic enough so that their fears are largely unfounded, or, they simply realized the danger of continuing what we have now is much worse than anywhere Obama could bring us. Maybe just consider your self the mirror image of a Reagan Democrat - somebody who wasn't completely comfortable with where we might go, but was far too dissatisfied with where were to not go someplace else.

So anyway, this is one of the reasons I haven't posted in a while. I have seen a lot of funny/interesting stuff, but I knew posting it would be preaching to the choir. I have felt like I wanted to say more about what I thought at this point. So I just did, and I let it all flow out in a kind of stream of consciousness. And it's late now, and I don't have time to even go back and proof-read (sorry about that). But anyway, at least I didn't just link to something else and preach to the choir - even if nobody is listening - or even if if the seven or eight who are listening, are already in the choir anyway :-)

A look into the future

Thought this was interesting. The speech is from July, the clips edited in are from the present.

A pretty good kid

Birthdays and Christmas can often be a rude awakening for parents. We love our kids. We want them to have a special day, and we want them to be happy. So, we plan, decorate, buy presents, and all to often, go overboard (feeling guilty about it as we do). And then, almost always, we don't get the reaction we expect. We expect them to be overjoyed, eternally grateful, and, at the very, very least, we expect their best behavior for the next 2 or 3 days. What we get instead... well, I'll spare you the details, but often, it ain't pretty.

Today is Anna's birthday. According to tradition here in Denmark, we woke her up with birthday songs, and the breakfast table was decorated with streamers and presents. What Anna really, really, really wanted for her birthday was a bicycle (she had outgrown the third generation hand-me-down bike she has now) . When she came down to the breakfast table, there was no bike there, but she didn't blink, she was just excited about her presents. The ones she was most excited about were the ones Emily made her. The rest were a lot of clothes that she was pretty psyched about, but the truth is she has really needed clothes and we have been putting it off until her birthday.

All the presents were unwrapped, and Anna sat there eating her breakfast. I kept waiting for a spoiled-rotten side of her to appear and say, "why didn't get a bike!" - but it never came.

Then, we found one last little present wrapped in wrinkled, green, wrapping paper, almost more scotch-tape than paper (it was a key to a new bike). We gave her this tiny little package, that looked like nothing. Before she opened it, we asked her if she'd had a good birthday, she said, "yeah". We asked he if there was anything she was upset she didn't get. Quiet pause. "No..." and then she added in the sweetest little voice, "but next year, I'm going to wish for a new bicycle".

I don't care about the best behavior for the next 2 days, that one comment made it all worth it.



Note to A&B and G&G: We haven't given her your gifts yet, but will this evening.

Once upon a time...

...he was a principled man.

I just have to rely on the good judgment of the voters not to buy into these negative attack ads. Sooner or later, people are going to figure out if all you run is negative attack ads you don't have much of a vision for the future or you're not ready to articulate it. (John McCain 2000)

Let's hope now is sooner.

An endorsement

The New Yorker wrote an excellent endorsement of Obama. Reading it gave me an even greater sense of the extreme importance of this election.

It's a pretty long article, and Mathilde has complained that I link to articles without giving an abridged version. So here it is:

At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.

An FAQ for the 2008 US Presidential Election

Written by the director of research at Google.

This is an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) for the 2008 United States Presidential Election. It is meant to portray factual information, not the author's opinions.

It really is a great resource, and very non-partisan. Read it here.

A familiar Strategy

You've probably already seen Palin answer Couric's question about the bailout. Here it is below in case you missed it.



Fareed Zakaria summed up her response pretty well, "This is nonsense—a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head" (Newsweek).

I have to say, when I saw it I had a strange feeling of Deja Vu. I'd seen this kind of nonsensical answer in a video before. Was it perhaps another clip from the same interview I was thinking of? No, that wasn't really it. It wasn't just the nonsense that was familiar, it was the strategy - the "vapid emptying out of every catchphrase" strategy - that reminded me of something else.

Where I had I seen it before? I couldn't put a finger on it. But then, this morning, as I drank a cup of coffee, it hit me.

Ms. South Carolina!

Judgement

In case you missed it, below was Barack Obama's position on the war, October 2, 2002

Now let me be clear — I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.

He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

Full speech here

I'm pretty sure I feel much more comfortable with Barack Obama's judgement.

You gotta hand it to him

He's always thinking one step ahead. It just seems that lately, it's the wrong step.

(If you are reading this after Friday, the screen shot in the image above was taken BEFORE the debate that did or did not happen Friday Sept 26th)

A freedom memory

For the Jews (and grandchildren in general)

Remember Sarah? (she's the one who's friendly with Matt Damon)


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Seriously

I don't even know what to say about this one... Well, actually I do. I'm sorry to say it... she could be good at many things. She could be a nice person, a wonderful mother, a great governor of Alaska, BUT THIS PERSON IS NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. I'm sorry, she just isn't. I'm not qualified, my friends and family aren't qualified, nobody I know is qualified. It's the truth.


Watch CBS Videos Online

And the really scary thing is she COULD be President.

My Dad always said, "Don't make excuses!"

And with that in mind, I think TPM kind of has a point on this one.

He can't debate Barack Obama because he's got to go to Washington and save the economy? It's like the biggest 'dog at my homework' in history.

Morning entertainment

I usually spend 20 minutes in the morning getting up to date on what is going on in the world. There sure was a lot of interesting stuff to get updated on this morning.

This one made me laugh. I guess Letterman is best when he gets angry.



This one made me worried. I guess Palin is best when she has a script and TelePrompTer.


Watch CBS Videos Online

I'm curious

Is the video of Palin being blessed by the witch doctor all over the news like the Jeremiah Wright thing was? I can only follow along through YouTube clips, and this one below is the first I have seen of it.

For the Republican readers

If you have your doubts about McCain, you aren't alone.

You'll be fine

I love Zefrank. He gets his readers to join him on his creative journey and together they usually come up with some really cool stuff.

Together with the help of about 20 readers, he composed "a children's song for adults: anxiety" I just listened to it, and I have to say, it made me feel pretty damn good :-)

Check it out here.

By the way, if you don't know who Zefrank is, this is a good place to start.

This video, is one of my favorites. A lot of it may seem weird, but the more you watch the more you understand what all of the weirdness is.

If last week HAD been a job interview

It looks like George Will (he's a conservative) thought Obama acted more Presidential too.

The Economist weighs in

Whenever I read The Economist, and find something that disagrees with my own point of view, I usually find myself reevaluating my point of view (they even made me wonder if Bush wasn't as bad as I suspected when they endorsed him in 2000). The Economist, a British news magazine, is in so many ways the polar opposite of the US main stream media (and they can by no means be categorized as the "liberal press"). They argue their opinions in a low key, extremely well informed, and very intelligent manner.

The Economist calls it like they see it, with out any emotional, reactionary bullshit. So, ever since the Republican convention, I have been waiting for their point of view on the election, McCain's choice of Palin, and the tone of his campaign. I have been waiting for them to set me straight - is my opinion opinion unbiased and reactionary, or is it grounded in some truth?

Well, here is the truth as The Economist sees it. (I'll include an excerpt from the article below, but I think you should read it all (Brian). McCain takes the harshest criticism, but they don't give Obama a free ride)

The decision to play this election, like that of 2004, as a fresh instalment of the culture wars is disappointing to those who thought Mr McCain was more principled than that. By choosing Sarah Palin as his running-mate he made a cynical tryst with a party base that he has never much liked and that has never much liked him. Mr McCain’s whole candidacy rests on his assertion that these are perilous times that require a strong and experienced commander-in-chief; but he has chosen, as the person who may be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency, someone who demonstrably knows very little about international affairs or the economy.

Pretend it's a job interview

And then ask yourself, which of these two you would hire?



In fairness, I haven't seen either press conference in it's entirety, but even the Wall Street Journal has picked up on McCain's scapegoating:

In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution. He'll never beat Mr. Obama by running as an angry populist like Al Gore, circa 2000.

Hurricane Ike

Just saw these devastating images from the hurricane

I have been thinking a lot about my Uncle Doug and his family lately. I'm glad they made it out of Galveston safely before the hurricane hit, but I can't imagine what they are going through and will have to go through in the many hard months ahead.

Desire

Ever since people started claiming that Palin is just as qualified to be President as Obama I have had this thought that I haven't quite been able to articulate. It revolves around what I see as a critical difference, that being that Obama has had a clear desire and AMBITION to be President, while Palin, it seems to me, probably hadn't thought about it much at all until she was asked to join McCain. As I said, I couldn't really articulate why this matters to me, but it does.

I just read this excellent article by James Fallows that explains what I couldn't. It has to do with Palin not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is, and why this is so important. Here's a quick excerpt from the article:

What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.

He ties that all into why this lack of interest is important, and I think he makes a very good point. But go ahead and read it yourself.

What I would like

I would like our president to be a man like this. I don't mean Obama (although I'm sure you have guessed by now I would like that too). What I mean is I would like our president to be the type of man (or woman) who stands up and says these kinds of things. A person with principle.



This is also what I meant in my previous post when I talked about the man McCain used to be.

I used to be a McCain fan

I remember having a brief political discussion with my doctor many months back. He said he liked McCain. I said I did too. I remembered McCain from 2000, and was very impressed by the straight talk, no bullshit, high moral standard stuff. I said I was actually happy because I thought , Democrat or Republican, we would get a good President this time.

I don't feel that way any more. I have been disappointed, often shocked and lately disgusted by the way McCain has run his campaign. I am not the first one to say it seems like an entirely different John McCain.

I just read this article by Andrew Sullivan (who was also once a McCain fan), and I have to say, I couldn't agree with him more.

A rose by any other name...

One thing that sucks about having shingles, is that it just doesn't sound cool. I mean not only is it known as an "old person" illness, but the name is completely lame - shingles - ugh...

The Danish name for it is MUCH better - helvedesild:

helvedes = hell's
ild = fire

Put em together and the word means - "Hell's fire"

Pretty cool name, I think. I almost feel proud telling people I have helvedesild

I was telling Luke how the name is so much cooler in Danish. Luke is clever though, so he pretended to misunderstand helvedesild this way:

helvede = hell
sild = herring

"You've got Herring from Hell?!"

Of course, the dumb doctor refereed to it as some kind of herpes.

Shingles

I've got 'em!

Kind of proud that Mathilde and I made the diagnosis ourselves with nothing but a photo of the red spot on my back and a little help from Google. The doctor took one look and said there was no doubt. I just swallowed my first horse pill (with spit) while waiting to pick up sushi to go for Emily's birthday lunch. Writing this as I drive home (kidding). I kind of like this mobile blogging.

Live blogging

Just for fun I thought I would try writing a blog post "on location". I am currently in the waiting room at the doctors, surrounded by a bunch of sad looking sick people. I have felt like I had the flu for the last few days (Mathilde was sick last weekend) but now I have a red rash on my back that looks like shingles. I forgot about this one, but shingles is actually very common in Hodgkins patients, both before and after treatment. I called the hospital and they told me to head over to the doctor and get it checked out..so, here I am.

Only 5 people ahead of me in line. I'll let you know what he says.

Untruths drive me crazy

From Palin's speech:

This is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform, not even in the state Senate

Although the quote is catchy enough to be convincing, and musical enough to be repeated, it just ain't true. I have now seen the quote in numerous papers without it being refuted. I figured I could do my part and refute it for my 6 or 7 readers.

You can see Obama's senate record here (it includes links to sources).

And I think it's relevant to note that Obama's second book was much more than a memoir. For example, this from a NYT's book review, "the bulk of it (The Audacity of Hope) is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues. From education to health care to the war in Iraq." Having read it, I can only say I agree.

Obama has also been mocked the last few days for being a "Community Organizer". I think Stewart deals with this sleazy kind of mockery quite nicely in this clip:



Obama also raises some interesting points when asked about the mockery:

Why would that kind of work be ridiculous? Who are they fighting for? What are they advocating for? They think that the lives of those folks who are struggling each and every day, that working with them to try to improve their lives is somehow not relevant to the presidency?

Sorry, again...

It's just that Jon Stewart is so funny.

I'm not sure I should, but...

My instinct is that I shouldn't get into a whole bunch of political stuff here, but then I thought the last post with the clip of McCain's voice mail was just too funny to pass up.

And then I remembered this video I saw that made me giggle too, and I figured what the hell! I haven't come up with much else to blog about lately, so I may as well share :-)

John McCain's Wandering Eyes



Some people might point out that I never really post funny stuff about Obama. It could be I am looking in the wrong places, but I just haven't really seen anything funny about him. Or, maybe Obama supporters are just better at making funny things I can link to.

Or... it's possible I am biased ;-)

McCain's Voice Mail to Palin Leaked to Press

I thought it was a pretty darn good giggle :-)
Listen to it here.

Cancer free!

Just got out of a meeting with the doctor, who told me I am tip top, good as new. Woohoo!

I danced out of there wanting to shout to everyone, "I AM CANCER FREE!" Funny though, I looked over at Mathilde and she was crying! I told her it wasn't fair if she acted the same whether it was good news or bad.

I have to confess, I was pretty nervous going into this one. In many ways, I feel great now, more healthy than I have felt in years, but there were a few things that have been bothering me. I started getting night sweats last week, and I found a lymph node under my jaw. The night sweats weren't too bad and the lymph node not that big, but they were enough to worry me considering the circumstances.

The night sweats went away the last few nights when I made sure I didn't eat anything before going to bed, and the doctor checked the lymph node and said it was a normal size. He showed me a picture of my PET scan and we could see I was spot free.

I go back again in three months. But as I said in my last post, that will be a different story. This one was the big one - the fight is over and WE won!

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful support through a rough time!

PET scanned today

I went in for my after treatment PET scan today. The PET scan is the thing I bitched about several months back because my shoulder hurt. I won't bitch today, but it still was pretty friggin' painful. Next time I am going to stretch days in advance, like Mathilde said I should, and I'm going to remember to take Advil like my Mom said I should. I guess I should listen more to the women in my life.

I have to wait until August 28th to get the results. I called to hear if I could find out earlier, and they said probably not (which means no). I have to say I am pretty nervous. This is sort of the deciding moment. I realize I am going to be having similar moments every third month for the next couple of years, but I think this one is a bit more stressful. The future scans will check to make sure the cancer hasn't come back - this one today is checking to see if the cancer really went away, or if it somehow managed to weather the chemo/radiation storm unleashed on it during the last 9 months.

My fingers are crossed

A theme song for me

A very nice birthday package arrived today from Scott, Lauren, Madeleine and Aiden (thanks guys - I love my Ninjas :-))

Included in the package was a letter from Madeleine that she made for me back when I finished chemo.


So cute! And I love who she addresses the letter to.

THANKS Madeleine!!

Paris responds to the white haired guy

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

80 days

It has been about 80 days since I started taking daily pictures of myself, thats 80 days and 2 weeks since the last chemo. Funny, it doesn't seem like it was 90 days ago.

You'll notice in the beginning the video is pretty jumpy. I wasn't careful enough about finding the same position and lighting - sorry about that. I actually stopped taking pictures on July 14, but I decided to take a few more today just to finish it up.

The quality in youtube was pretty grainy, so I have uploaded it here instead.

Little miss big mouth

I am having trouble getting myself out of vacation mode. I've fallen out of the blogging groove, and discovered that when you're out of the groove you don't just naturally stumble across interesting things to blog about. In fact, sometimes subjects smack you right in the head and you still don't notice. In hindsight, there have been a number of funny little tidbits I could have shared these past few weeks. Here's one of them.

I have been noticing that the loss of chest hair from radiation is actually pretty significant. I don't know know if I just haven't noticed before, or if hair has continued to fall out even after radiation ended. But basically, I have a D shaped semi-bald spot in the middle of my otherwise long (and pretty thick) chest hair. I'm not sure how noticeable it really is, but I notice - particularly when I step out of the shower right in front of the big bathroom mirror.

So anyway, this Saturday afternoon when I stepped out of the shower, I decided that if I trimmed the long, think chest hairs a bit, the bald spot wouldn't be so apparent. I grabbed the electric hair trimmer, adjusted it to what I thought was a suitable length, and got busy.

It took me about 3 passes with the trimmer to realize the length I chose was not so suitable. I had intended to go from "thick wool", to "light-weight cashmere". Unfortunately the setting I picked was more like "nearly naked". In a foolish attempt to avoid ending up with a completely bare chest, I decided I would sort of trim in a haphazard, unsystematic way - believing naively that this technique would just thin it out a bit.

I stood and looked at my handi-work and thought it actually looked okay. But I realized the hairs on my stomach were now considerably longer and darker than the hairs on my chest. I decided I had no choice but to continue down to my waste-line. It was about this time that Anna knocked on the bathroom door and told me dinner was ready. I said I would be right there. She heard the trimmer grinding away and asked what I was doing. I said I was shaving. I finished up as quickly as I could, got dressed, and went down to dinner.

So, we were about halfway through dinner, with Mathilde's Dad as our dinner guest, when Anna took advantage of a moment of silence to ask, "Daddy, why were you standing in the bathroom, naked, shaving your belly?" The little shit had been looking through the keyhole!

Mathilde cackled with laughter and looked at me with a big question mark on her face. Her Dad kind of cleared his throat and pretended he hadn't quite heard. Emily perked with curiosity and said "What? What did he do? What did he do?" That of course gave little Anna the chance to repeat her question, and then elaborate, happily watching me squirm with each little detail...I love kids.

Anyway, once the cat was out of the bag, I was kind of looking forward to showing Mathilde to see what she thought of my new do. Later that night I took my shirt off for her. She couldn't tell me what she thought right away because she really couldn't talk while laughing that hard. Apparently my haphazard technique didn't have quite the effect I hoped it would.

I got out the trimmer again and cut off all the mangey little patches I had skipped the first time. It looked better, but I still looked a lot goofier than I had before I'd started trimming at all. I now have a light, five o'clock shadow thing going on on some of my chest, with a MUCH more noticeable bald spot smack dab in the middle.

When I was done, Mathilde studied my new chest for a few moments, then patted me on the head and said in her most patronizing voice, "now we won't be doing that again will we?"

I guess not.

It's like sympathy shaving, only goofier

Looks as if I am going to have to share my father of the year award.

Jay, an old friend from my summers in Henderson Harbor, saw the picture of me looking like a dork on the kiddy-ride. Convinced he could out-dork me, Jay sent along this image of himself on a similar ride with his two sons (left and right of Jay).


After laughing my ass of at the picture a few times, I am starting to think maybe Jay did win - but it's probably just the camera angle.

Thanks for the laughs Jay :-) And to any other parents who think they can out-dork Jay and I, feel free to send me your picture.

The things a father does

We were at Tivoli. Anna really, really, really wanted to go on this kiddy ride. She didn't want to go alone. Emily was off doing something else. What's a father to do?


I think I should get some kind of father of the year prize or something. Especially considering Anna looks to be bored out of her mind, while the camera caught me with a big, stupid smile on my face.

Gray day fun

We had a cold, blustery day this Sunday so we stayed home and played around with making our own stop-motion video. It was pretty fun.

Rod heads home

Rod got over his jet lag pretty quickly, and we had a fantastic 10 days with him. One of the most enjoyable things for me was to see how much the girls LOVE their Uncle. And he sure does put up with a lot of "love" from them.

But it looked like they formed a mutual understanding pretty quickly - Rod accepted that they would treat him like a Jungle Gym any chance they got, and they understood that when he pinched, hit or tripped them, it meant "I like you too".

We all drove Rod out to the airport yesterday to say goodbye, and after checking in, we went to a cafe where the girls had one last hour to maul Uncle Roddy.

Below is a picture from the last hour.


I think it captures Anna and Emily perfectly. Though I am sure they were equally sad, they both react very different to their emotions. Emily was playful and finding things to laugh about, and Anna was sort of an emotional train wreck.

Officially, Anna was devastated because I scolded her for walking on the chairs in the cafe. However, I have been scolding Anna for walking on furniture for years, and I can tell you this is the first time I have gotten any response other than a happy-go-lucky, "Opps...Sorry!"

For the record, I miss Rod too. He is great brother and a fantastic person. (And now that I've said flattering things about him, I think I'll see if I can find another silly picture or two to post in order to even it out a bit)

Health note (6)

I have been in vacation mode the last few weeks, taking full advantage of my return to normal health. I feel great, and have almost no remaining side-effects from the cancer or the treatment.

My toes still feel a bit sleepy -my big toe nail is actually in the process of falling off as a result of jamming it back in May (I'd post a picture but it really only looks silly, and not at all cool like Brian's thumb).

The other lingering side effect I was dealing with was with the lungs, which are basically back to normal. I can run and play and exercise without any trouble. If I take a deep, deep breath, there is still a slight burn, but I feel confident that will go away in time. And even if it doesn't it is something I can easily live with.

I think I'll post my daily photo video soon, since I have forgotten to take picture for the last 2 weeks. I'm happy to report that I look like myself again (no chemo curls, but a lot of grey).

The radiation burn on my chest has faded and is almost gone. My chest hair is thinner where I had radiation.

In August, I'll have a PET scan (we get the results August 28th), which will tell us whether the cancer is in remission or not. I fully expect that it is (as do the doctors, who have said as much). But I have to admit I have moments of fear as we get closer to the PET scan.

I read a while ago that one of the toughest moments for some cancer patients can be when the treatment stops. I don't fell this way, but I can imagine why some people do. Even though the treatment sucks, it is very comforting to be doing something, to be fighting the cancer. When the treatment is over, you just kind of wait, and hope, and worry that it might be sneaking up on you again now that you've held your fire.

But it's not. 99% of the time, I am not worrying, I feel great, and I feel totally confident that I am cancer free.

The ladies are back

The girls arrived home from their fabulous two and a half week adventure in the States. They were escorted by their Super-Uncle Rod. It sounds like the flight was problem free. Emily and Anna watched the same movie two times in a row, and of course neither one of them slept a wink (and neither did poor Rod). They arrived happy and raring to go though, and we are thrilled to have them back.

The expectant mother waits.


Rod, Anna and Emily.


The girls said they were absolutely, no way, not even close to being tired. They bounced off the walls (and on the trampoline) for about 3 hours, at which point, despite there protests, we forced them to lie down. Emily crashed after about 4 minutes, Anna was snoring 20 seconds after her head hit the pillow.


I'm not sure how long it took Rod to pass-out, but I'll swear he sprang bolt upright about a millisecond after the camera made that little beep it makes right before it snaps a picture. I don't think I've ever seen someone go from sleep to action so quickly in my life - the guy must have some serious "fight-flight" instincts. He would have scared me if he didn't look so damn cute. You can see what I mean in the picture below (you can't see it but he is actually moving really, really fast when the picture is taken).

Anna breaks rule number five

We gave the girls a few rules before we sent them off to the States. They were told to behave themselves, eat politely, no passing gas, no growing, and we specifically told Anna she was not supposed to loose any teeth.

I have heard from my parents that they are doing fairly well at the first two, they seem to have completely forgotten the third, not sure about the fourth (we'll measure them when they get back). As for the fifth... Anna yanked out not one, but TWO teeth yesterday. Below is little Miss Toothless showing me her proud smile. You look great Anna Banana!

Fred

Just heard about this kid from Luke. Pretty friggin' funny actually (or maybe I just miss my kids)

Check out Fred. His videos have had over 45 million views!!

Waterboarding

I imagine I am not the only one who has wondered what exactly waterboarding is. Well, Christopher Hitchens decided to give it a try. There is a video here and his article about it in Vanity Fair.

Apparently Hitchens used to be in the camp that argued waterboarding is not torture. If so, he has certainly changed his mind.

Always something new

The fun thing about chatting with the girls while they are in Caz, is that we always seem to catch them in the middle of a new and exciting activity. This is how they greeted us yesterday.



I can't remember if that was before or after we interrupted them in the middle of a felt-spinning project with Aunt Susie. The day before they were still dripping wet from their swim in the lake.

Of course, today we caught them in the middle of a punishment for "not listening". As their father, it shames me to say that listening is not their strong suit. Talking, however, they excel at!

Damn! It is a rule

I found it right here. John Dvorak from PC Mag says it is a rule. Rule number #3 in fact (there are apparently 8 rules...who knew!)

3. Humility. Blog daily. If you miss a day, use the next day's entire blog entry to apologize profusely. Explain in detail the fascinating adventure you had that caused you to miss a day of blogging. Make sure to rave about how great blogging is and why everyone should blog and how blogging will change the world.

But hmm... maybe Dvorak is being facetious...he is after all a loud mouth, smart-ass who is notoriously wrong

By the way, I think my use of the word "smart-ass" satisfies Rule 4 (and I get bonus points for using "damn" in the title). And my links to obscure blogsphere stuff about Dvorak ought to satisfy Rule 5. And I'm pretty sure I already have Rule 7 down, because "Squatic Diversion" is like the cutest name I can think of.

Woohoo! I think I have followed most of the rules and I didn't even know they existed!

Rule

Mathilde tells me that there is a rule that if you blog you have to write in your blog once a day. I didn't know such a rule existed. I'll have to Google it.

Chatting with the girls

With girls on the other side of the Atlantic, we have to get our daily dose of them through the computer. It's actually not to bad. I mean you don't get to hug them, but when they invariably start pushing each other and fighting, my parents get to deal with it.

Here is a picture of them saying goodbye to us.



That thing they are doing with their hands...my Mom taught it to them years ago, and claims it is sign language for "I love you". I don't know about that, but the girls think it's pretty fun. They have got into the habit of giving us the "I love you sign" whenever we dropped them off at school or daycare. We just thought it was sweet, then one day a concerned mother asked Mathilde why our kids were giving us the devil sign. Mathilde thought about explaining, but she just hissed at the woman instead. Rock on!

Unchemo 4.0

It was 6 weeks ago today that I got my last chemo. Two weeks after the last chemo, I had a post called Unchemo 1.0 where I posted a picture of myself. I have taken a picture everyday since then and I am turning it into a little time-lapse film that I will post here when I get enough days down to make it interesting. In the meantime, you can see the direction I am heading in. Below, on the left, is a picture of me on Unchemo 1.0 (that's day 1) to the right is me today, Unchemo 4.0 (43 days later).

Check out my handsome eyebrows! And more importantly, notice how my head is now back to normal size (Aiden, if you are wondering, normal size head means I am ALL done).

Life ought to be backwards

There is a lot of George Carlin stuff popping up on the internets these days. I just stumbled across a great quote attributed to him (which it looks like he actually didn't say). Either way, it's brilliant, and he COULD have said it.

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating …and you finish off as an orgasm."

Radiation 20.0 (or Finito)

Had my 20th and last radiation today. Feels weird. Anti-climactic really. I am happy to be done, but radiation has been so easy, I have felt done for quite a while now. At least no more daily trips out to the hospital.

I'll wait with the cork popping until I get my PET scan in August. To make an analogy, we are in the stage of battle where we have fired all of the big guns, and now we wait for the smoke to clear and hope there is nothing left standing. I feel pretty darn good about it though!

Big smile

This video made me happy. I bet it makes you happy too :-)


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Arrived safely

It could be its just Mathilde and I, but we experienced that there is something distinctly nerve-racking about putting our two children on a plane without us. We were very relieved when Mathilde's Dad called to tell us they had arrived safely and everything went fine. About an hour later Emily and Anna called, and they were babbling away with excitement about their adventure.

Sara D. sent us this picture the next day (and in her email, she even said our girls were "so polite and friendly" woohoo! the training paid off!) Thats Mathilde's Dad on the right, and then my Mom and the girls' cousin Madeleine. Everybody looks happy (but I guess we need to teach Anna that "show teeth" does not necessarily equal "smile").



We video chatted with the girls yesterday, and they were doing great. It was 9 am their time, and they had already pushed Grampy in the water and gone swimming themselves. My parents claimed they were about to eat breakfast, but as far I could tell the girls were just happily chowing down on the remnants of the goodie-bags Sara D. had given them for the ride from Newark to Caz. (My Mom will claim that's not true, but I have a screen shot of Anna pouring orange, cheddar cheese, fish crackers in her mouth like she's Homer Simpson)

Patronized

We took Emily and Anna (and Mathilde's Dad) to the airport today. Mathilde and I had positive, happy smiles pasted on our faces, but even so, when we were saying goodbye, the girls did seem sad. Neither of them cried, but I at least had the impression that they were trying hard not to. And then they waved goodbye and walked around the corner towards security.

They didn't know it, but we could still see them through a window off to the side - and there they were, not more than 10 seconds after our nearly-tearful goodbye, holding hands, skipping and giggling. Man! The little squirts had been patronizing us all along. The whole time Mathilde and I were disguising our glum faces, they were fighting back the smiles.

Depression

We are about to put our two little monkeys on a plane and send them over to Gamma and Grampy for two and a half weeks. They could not be more excited - while Mathilde looks a bit like I used to when it was time to get chemo again.

Their bags are packed, and they are sleeping soundly. They fly tomorrow at noon.

Radiation 18.0 & 19.0

Only one more to go.

As I was flossing my teeth last night, I noticed that I have two red spots on my chest. One big one in the center, and a smaller one by the left armpit. They look like a slight sunburn. That is the cumulative effect of the radiation leaving its mark. I have also been noticing that the skin on my chest is a bit irritated - much like a sunburn. None of it is a big deal, but I have to admit the spot on my chest is bigger than I thought it would be.

I had a meeting with the oncologist again today. It was a different one this time too, and although this guy was very good, I am noticing that each oncologist seems to be interested in something different (except the last one who wasn't particularly interested in anything at all). The doctor today was mostly focused on my lungs (which sound fine and aren't bothering me at all really). He said that in very rare cases radiation treatment can cause what he called "chemical pneumonia" (which sounds like the same problem the hematologist talked about during chemotherapy). He also said that it can occur weeks or months after treatment, so even though I got a clean bill of health today, he scheduled me to come back for another check-up in two weeks.

Also, I have realized that after a week of radiation my energy level is lower than normal. Today, after getting back from the hospital, I was feeling pretty groggy. I lied down on the couch to take a quick 15 minute snooze, and woke up two and a half hours later. I felt guilty about sleeping, but the doctor did tell me to nap if I felt tired (where were those doctors when I was a teenager).

Radiation 17.0

Today wasn't quite as smooth as the other days have been. There are now two of the four new radiation machines that are down, so I had to wait over an hour for treatment. It took a bigger chunk out of my day than I would have liked, but considering thats all I really have to complain about, I won't complain.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to be there for 45 minutes (as opposed to the usual 15). They will be reducing the radiation field for the last three treatments, so they need to realign me and adjust the machine.

Now that radiation is almost done, I am thinking I need something else to monitor. Chemo sort of gave me a steady subject for a few months, and radiation has at least given me inspiration for 20 unique titles. I was talking to my Dad earlier about how it might be good to find something new to document in order to keep the blog going. I am not sure exactly, but I am considering "The Kiwi Report".

Probably not, though.

Radiation 16.0

There was a traffic jam on the way to radiation this morning so I arrived 20 minutes late. Turned out that wasn't such a big deal, because Odin was broken (or as the euphemistic radiologists say, "sleeping"). I waited around for a while, then they sent me home with instructions to come back this evening at 8:45. So I did that and it went fine. Odin was still broken, so I got hammered by Thor.

Air time

Yesterday, when Luke and his family were visiting, we took a walk over to the playground. After tearing through the place like a pack of chimpanzees the kids ended up at the swings where they had a contest to see who could do the best jump.

Here is Emily going for distance (that's Max in the background).


This is Sebastian, getting pretty damn high.


Then we have Max again, really flying.



I watched them for a while, and I have to admit I was impressed. And yet I still couldn't resist the urge to give it a go. You know, to really show them how its done. I figured I'd get some momentum going in those big-bird legs of mine, and then grab some sick air that would just make all those young tykes say "wow!"

Well...what is it they say? That thing about a picture and a thousand words? I can tell you, not one of those words was "wow!"

Radiation 15.0

3/4 of the way there! Swallowing hasn't gotten any worse than it was last week, so I still have nothing to complain about.

Busy weekend

Now that chemo is behind me and radiation has proven to be pretty easy, it's nice to realize that we ware actually getting back to a normal life. Friday we were at a party at Emily's school. It didn't end until 11:00 so I left early and put Anna to bed. I guess radiation has taken a toll on my energy, because when Mathilde and Emily got home at 9:45 I was conked out on the bed next to Anna.

Because we planned to have brunch guests on Sunday, Mathilde and the girls made me a Father's Day breakfast on Saturday. They woke me up with coffee and a raspberry smoothie. The four of us sat in bed and drank smoothies while Emily talked about how Mathilde was "SO embarrassing" at the party. I guess Mathilde made the mistake of grabbing Emily and her friends and dragging them out onto the dance floor. Although I really don't like that Emily is growing up so fast, I am happy that she is entering the age where we can do stuff to embarrass her. The ultimate parental weapon :-)

I had kind of figured that since it was Father's day I would be able to just hang out and do nothing for a while, but Mathilde had other plans. A few days earlier, Mathilde had discovered the joys of online auctions. With her first many bids, she immediately got outbid. After a while, I think she had given up hope of actually winning anything and was just bidding on stuff for the malicious satisfaction of making some sorry sucker pay more.

That's at least how it was Tuesday evening when I headed out to pick up Emily from a friend's house. When I came home 15 minutes later Mathilde met me at the door saying, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry". She had stumbled across a faux sandstone fountain that was up for auction and decided to make some fool pay a bit more... well, to make a long story short, we spent Saturday morning picking up our new faux sandstone, plastic fountain. (Actually we just drove to the warehouse, looked at at, and said we didn't want it after all - Mathilde claimed she didn't know "epoxy" meant plastic).

Saturday evening we had dinner at Pernille & Benjamin's house and the girls got to see baby Sarah again. They actually got a double dose of babies this weekend, because Luke and his family came by for brunch yesterday. For Emily and Anna that was about the best thing in the world. They both adore Luke's teenage sons and now, he has a 9 month old daughter they can play with too. His daughter was extremely cute, and his sons were a complete riot. Those two have the ability of making any old game ten times the fun - I spent half the day in stitches laughing at the crazy stuff they did.

By the end of the day we were all exhausted, and Emily and Anna hit their pillows like rocks last night.

Radiation 14.0

I didn't quite finish this post on Friday, and then it turned into a busy weekend.

Radiation went fine Friday. Luke and I had a meeting with the accountant at 9 Friday morning, and since I was driving, I dragged Luke along with me to radiation at 10:30. I think he actually enjoyed himself, though. I told Luke he could just wait in the waiting room, and he said something to the extent of, "No way!" That was fine with me. I thought he could even help me understand the nice Swedish nurse, but instead he focused on charming the grumpy nurse. It's funny, I have had the grumpy one 3 times, and she hasn't said more than "hello" to me. Well, for some reason she thought Luke only spoke English, and as soon as she realized that, she started yammering away in English. She explained more about the process to Luke than anybody has ever told me.

I don't think they let Luke push buttons in the control room like they did with Emily and Anna, but I don't think that bothered him. His first comment when it was all over was, "SO COOL!"

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

You are the coolest - and if when my girls grow up they think I'm just half as cool as you are, then I'll know I did something right. Thanks for everything - and thanks for being there!

Neck and neck with Russia, for the win

I would think this image ought to make us want to re-evaluate a few things.

Radiation 13.0

We're getting there! I had the weekly meeting with the doctor. It was a new doctor again this time, and this guy was a real dud. He gave the impression that talking to me was about as interesting as watching paint dry (maybe I should send him some pictures of the flower bed).

Luckily there was a chipper nurse there who took over the conversation and put him out of his misery. She also gave me some licorice flavored novocain syrup that I can drink before I eat - if swallowing becomes too painful. It sounds like a fun thing to play around with, but I think I'll wait until swallowing gets really bad before giving it a try.

I asked about the CAT scan. The doctor seemed a little confused about why I had the CAT scan, since they have planned all along to reduce the radiation field after the 16th time. I said that it seems a number of procedures have been performed that turned out to be unnecessary. He responded with a blank stare. Anyway, it really does seem like that wacky doctor I met the first time went a little pencil happy when filling out my forms.

No more Amish dude

Check it out - mustache seedlings all over the friggin' place! I knew I still had it. (And yes Mathilde, NOW I will shave)

Radiation 12.0 with a side of CAT scan

Things looked a bit backed up at radiation this morning. When I arrived at 8:30, the waiting room had 3 other people in it - it is usually empty. Luckily for me, I had a CAT scan I had to get to at 9:00, so I got jump to the head of the line.

The reason for the CAT scan is to measure the size of the lymph nodes now (after 12 treatments) and see if it is possible to reduce the size of the radiated field. The last time I had a CAT scan, I had my spiderman costume on. Since that has been retired, I got a few more tattoos - so now I have like 7 tattoos on my chest which sounds pretty cool

--------------------
TECHNICAL EXPLANATION OF THE NEW TATOOS
(not required reading for the exam, simply here to quell any fears my parents may have that the people running the radiation ward are disorganized dingbats)

When you get a CAT scan for radiation, they mark you so that you can be aligned to the same position when getting radiation. The last time that happened, I had the mask. Because I didn't actually need the mask, the radiologists aligned me the first time using mask. Once aligned, they scrapped the mask, and gave me 4 new tattoos which would allow them to align me in the future without the mask. However, those 4 new tattoos were created using a laser pattern they do not have at the CAT scanner. Thus, the CAT scan technician couldn't align me with those tattoos. So, he remarked me so that if they decide adjust the radiation fields, they will be able to align me to the latest CAT scan.

TECHNICAL EXPLANATION COMPLETE
--------------------

Radiation and the CAT scan went fine, but today WAS one of those days where, while lying there half naked on a board, with a tube in my arm, listening to the electric hum of the room, and staring at the green laser lights of a big ass CAT scan machine, I thought to myself, "What the fuck am I doing here?"

I also realized a few minutes ago that I am feeling a side effect of radiation. I have suspected for the past few days that it was getting slightly difficult to swallow (they said that would happen). Stuff kind of stalls halfway down and I need to give it another push. But just now, for lunch, I made a tuna fish sandwich on a toasted roll. I was kind of hungry so I didn't chew the first bite so well. It slid down my esophagus (thanks for the word Kelley) like a ball of gravel. Chewing thoroughly helps a lot though (and I may as well use those teeth now that I am being so diligent about flossing them).

I'll put up with the side effects though, because I have decided I like this radiation stuff. I haven't talked about night sweats much lately because they kind of bummed me out. They certainly were reduced dramatically by chemo, but they never really went away. Since I have started radiation though, they have been completely gone. I can feel that I am really relieved by that. As I mentioned sometime earlier, the lingering night sweats could have been caused by many things (they could even have been a side effect of chemo), but they still made me nervous. Now I feel certain that if there were any cancer cells still standing after chemo, then radiation has come along and delivered the final knockout punch.

An oldie but a goodie

I saw this one several months ago and it made me laugh pretty damn hard. I just happened across it again, and laughed just as hard this time. (As I write this, I suddenly suspect that I may have posted this video here before. If I did, and I forgot, its only cause I had cheom brain back then - hopefully you'll laugh the second time too)


Bird Craps In Reporters Mouth - Watch more free videos

Radiation 11.0

Still doing fine. Happy about that.

Radiation 10.0

Halfway there. Can't really say I am feeling any side-effects. I was a bit more tired than usual on Friday and Saturday, but felt fine yesterday. Maybe the weekend off did me some good.

Fond memories

I was just chatting with my Mom about the girls visit this summer. Emily and Anna are counting the days (13) until they arrive in Cazenovia, where they will spend 3 weeks with my parents. Mathilde and I won't be making the trip this year (the uncertainty around the length of my treatment made it difficult to order tickets in time), so, that means my parents will have the girls alone, together with the girls' cousin Madeleine (8 yrs)

The 3 girls love everything about the lake - swimming, boating, s'mores by the campfire, sunbathing on the boat house, pushing Grampy in the water. My Mom and I were chatting about this, and my Mom pointed out that the girls even love the rules that come with a life by the lake. And she is right. The girls are so proud of the way they remember to ask if it is okay to go on the boat house, to ask if it is okay to go IN the boat house, to ask if it is okay to go on the dock, to ask if it is okay to go in the water. After about three days of this incessant asking, I think the adults are so fed up with up it that they just want to scream "YES! YES! YES! Of course you can go on the boathouse - you just stepped off it 3 friggin' seconds ago!"

This brings me to my fond memory. Back a few years ago (I think Emily was 6 and Madeleine was 5), in order to eliminate trips up to the house, and thus put a damper on some of the relentless asking, my Mom got the bright idea that she would leave one of those little plastic, kiddy potties at the boat house. The idea was that if the girls had to pee (or as she says "tinkle") they could do it in the potty (instead of running all the way up to the house). The pee would then be emptied in the bushes, and play would continue.

My Mom showed it to the girls, and they giggled at first because they knew they were far too old for a little kiddy potty. But being enthusiastic about all things involving the lake, it didn't take long before they thought it was pretty cool. And it wasn't more than an hour after that, that my Mom discovered that one of her sweet grand-daughters had taken a big, giant crap in the little kiddy potty.

After that, I guess she decided another question to answer and a few trips up to the house weren't so bad.