Ship's Blog: February, 2007

This morning, on her drive to work, Kathy called me to wish me luck today at the surgeon's appointment. Thing is, we weren't sure what would constitute good luck.

My appointment was at 11 am, which meant that I was taken to the exam room at 11:45. I had a good chat with the person who takes my vitals - I remember her well from chemo - so that was nice. The surgeon popped her head in after I had waited about 10 minutes. She said she was going to examine my films and then she'd be back.  Read more »

This weekend, Kathy and I took a two-day class on Color with Tesia Blackburn. Tesia works with Golden Acrylics, as do we. Last May, we took an acrylic surfacing class from her that was fabulous, so we were excited to take another of her classes.

Tesia is a fun instructor. After explaining some of the technical background regarding pigments, she had us gather around so she could show us our first exercise. "Color theory is fine," she said, "but this...THIS is color reality." Ha!  Read more »

We all hear that cancer is big business, involving expensive treatment, but how expensive is it exactly?

I was recently reviewing my medical expenses for last year and was shocked at the numbers. I decided to share them to give my readers an idea of what cancer treatment can really cost. Keep in mind that this is nine months of treatment for early-stage breast cancer in a 40-year old woman with a strong family history. All treatment was provided at cancer centers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Total cost of care billed:  $224,725
Total paid by insurance: $134,110
Total paid by patient: $5,706  Read more »

I love it when the cattle that graze in the open space come over by my house. I love to watch them interact and feel kind of honored when they come by. I have this pastoral fantasy of me hanging out peacefully near the cows, but the truth is that they are not comfortable with me and tend to edge away nervously when I stand on my back deck watching them. I keep hoping we will work this through together.  Read more »

Lately, I've been thinking about the things that we surround ourselves with in life. Almost everyone has certain things that they have an abundance of, and the type of things vary from person to person. Typically, the nature of our things illustrate our values, show what we love and sometimes, broadcast our beliefs about what we think we need to make things better.  Read more »

Yesterday I read the mammogram report that I had shoved into my tote bag after this week's visit with the oncologist. (It got mixed up with the printouts of PHP code for a website; I'm such a geek!) The radiologist reported  "Surgical biopsy recommended."  Read more »

Kathy and I had lunch today at The Fish Market in San Mateo. We used to love eating at the Palo Alto Fish Market. This meal, though, was nothing like the ones we remembered. Was it because we went to the San Mateo restaurant, did they change the menu, or was the chef just bad?

I don't know, but ICK! The trout was bland while the swordfish was tasteless and greasy. The most tolerable part was the potatoes, just because it's harder to ruin them completely. They used a surprising amount of butter on everything, not that it helped the flavor at all. We tried to remove what we could.  Read more »

Un-shopping is a ritual that Kathy and I engage in after a big shopping excursion. If you shop, you must un-shop...or, at least, that's how it works in our household.  Read more »

I wish Circuit City asked questions like that at the end of their calls, because then I could answer NO! Sometimes, spending money involves too much drama.

Here's the deal: as you may recall, Kathy won us a fabulous TV in December. Woo-hoo! Well, we wanted to buy a service contract. (Our experience has shown that for large TVs, they pay off in the end.) I had written down the original Circuit City order number for the TV, so, at the end of December, I called to buy a contract.  Read more »

I had to hit the ground running this morning. Tomorrow is my niece's birthday and, as usual, I hadn't made her card ahead of time. That would be, I dunno, just not panicked enough for my style! So, I needed to make her card at 7 am and then fly out the door to drive to San Francisco for my appointments at the Breast Care Center. Here's the card that I made:

 Read more »

I stopped by a beauty supply store yesterday to get some special shampoo. My hair wanted to go brassy after the bleaching and so I need a violet shampoo to keep it toned down. (Yesterday my stylist said, "Use it only every few days or your hair might start turning lavender." I responded, "And that would be a problem...how? Maybe I should use it twice a day!")

I had never been to this shop before. As I parked, I saw that they had cool wigs in the window, including a bright red one. I don't have a red wig. I pointed at the red long bob, looked at Kathy, and said, "oooooh!"  Read more »

Yesterday I had my hair cut and bleached. The cutting part is funny, because it is soooo short, but what we're doing is trying to get the top to grow enough so that I can start growing the whole thing. I'd rather not grow the sides at the same rate and start to look like a dandelion - crazy me, I know!

My hair has starting curling, which is new for me. I've always had stick-straight hair that required harsh chemicals if it was going to hold a curl. Thank goodness I stopped doing perms over a decade ago. But now it's starting to act out and curl in funky directions of its own accord. I knew that might happen as hair often comes back curly after chemotherapy, but nonetheless, it's WEIRD.  Read more »

Over lunch at Chow in San Francisco, Kathy and I were chatting about Showtime's The L Word. I know we're lesbians and all that (good thing I know that, eh?) but I have to admit...it's not our kind of show. All the women are trendy, well-dressed, sex-starved...and more than a few are mean. Kind of icky people. They are certainly not people we'd want to hang out with, much less watch.  Read more »

Last night, over dinner, Kathy and I were watching TV. A preview for the return of Lost was going to air that hour, so we were actually paying attention to the commercials instead of whizzing past them, as I like to do. A commercial started that showed an overhead view of a small deserted island that was covered with tropical jungle. We paid attention, when bursting out of the jungle was...the Kool-Aid pitcher guy.

Kathy turned to me and said, "Maybe Mr. Eko was killed by the Kool-Aid Monster!"  Read more »

Our first December at this house (2005) we were introduced to the loudest, Sci-Fi-style noise we had ever heard. Heavy rains had started and, evidently, ONE MILLION tree frogs moved into the pond in the open space. Their combined song filled the night hair with a "spaceship landing" sound. It was incredible.

Even Oliver Heath, our little frog who lives in our hot tub (which we don't use) appeared to move out temporarily to go hang with the conventioneers. They were certainly having a party, night after night, carrying on so loudly that it took me a while to get to sleep. I imagine lots of cute girl frogs got hooked up with burly man frogs.  Read more »

I remember one day, as a teenager, when my family was getting ready for a wedding. I felt very ugly out and out place. My grandmother who was visiting from Chicago had just congratulated me on putting on weight. She thought was a compliment; I was crushed. On top of that, my face was shiny and I hated that. Why did I have to be the one with oily skin?

My aunt walked with me outside to talk to me. She said, "Let me tell you a secret. I had oily skin all my life and your mother never did. But then you get older and see? Look who doesn't have wrinkles!" She laughed wickedly. "Don't hate your skin; you're going to be thankful for it later on."  Read more »

Recently, Kathy has turned me on to the horror and humor that is Playmania.

Playmania is a two-hour show on the Game Show Network (a cable channel) that airs from 9-11 p.m. Pacific time, six days a week. It is a take off on Quiznation from the UK. A hot female host walks back and forth on a small set while posing games that people can call in to play. If people get a right answer, they usually win money in the range of $50-$600 (usually $200). You can get more information on the Playmania games from Wikipedia, but suffice to say that most are easy.  Read more »

As you may recall, I am a big fan of the cattle that graze in the open space behind my house. Often, I see them grazing in the rolling hills. On occasion, they graze right behind my house and I get to watch "the big boys" (as I call them) up close. I'll call out to Kathy, "They're behind the house! They're behind the house!" as I rush outside. You would think I'd never seen a steer before.  Read more »

As I expected, my doctor decided today that I must have a bacterial antagonist living inside me because I shouldn't be running fevers this long after having the flu. She prescribed an antibiotic; we'll see how that goes. In other news...

As seen on the drive home...

I drove behind a postal police car all the way across the Bay Bridge. I've never seen a postal police car! It had a rack of lights on top and looked very official, in that "armed officers will hunt you down and make your life scary" kind of way.  Read more »