A Puppy's Dreams

Inspired by this crazy quilt at Piecemakers, my aunt and I have been working on this square - since last Spring!  (I didn't much feel like crafting while I was dealing with breast cancer, but my mood's been looking up lately and I've been crafting again!)

I called it A Puppy's Dreams because the Yorkie in the corner has been wandering in a misty garden and watching the spider and butterfly going about heir business.

Here are some detail shots:

The puppy.

The spider.

The butterfly.

Our signatures.

The puppy and his trail of footprints in the dew.

The bottom right corner of the square where nothing much is happening.

I'm loving my Singer embroidery machine!

Veering in Another Direction Yet Again

I'm not sure if this is plan D or E or what, but I've been accepted into Connecticut's ARC program.  For 9 weeks this summer, full time, I'll be taking classes and student teaching, and when I'm done I'll be certified to teach math in middle and high school.

I no longer enjoy programming the way I used to, and my sanity can't take living apart from my guys any more.  I'm looking forward to the new challenges.

Blue Funk Necklace and Earrings

My aunt gave me a broken shard of flow blue pottery, and I've been playing with it for months.  Mostly I designed it by changing stitches when I got bored!

Fiddler

Dan played a merchant in Fiddler on the Roof at his high school this past weekend.  We're so proud of him for just trying out, and besides ourselves that our freshman was in all the big ensemble numbers and even scored a few lines!

Here he is selling bagels (wait for the transition from the previous scene):

And amongst "the sons" in "Tradition":

A couple more photos:

Meeting The "Obamas"

Me, Blair and Daniel at Madame Tussaud's in NYC, 12/29/10.

The Next Phase

Today I had my follow up appointment with the oncologist.  He started me on tamoxifen.  (He also wants me to start taking baby aspirin to counter balance the increased risk of clotting from the tamoxifen.)  I'm to come back in a month if I'm experiencing side effects.  

I also spoke to the gal who was supposed to set me up with PT for my shoulder and a personal trainer.  She made an appointment for me for tonight.  The cancer center has an arrangement with an assisted living facility (that coincidentally Blair used to work at) to use their fitness center two nights a week.  The trainer showed me how to use the machines and I tried them all and used the recumbent bike and a recumbent stepper.  I can go Monday and Friday afternoons.  And I can do yoga Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings.  That seems like a good start.

It's also time to stop eating like I'm bulking up for an endless winter.  I decided not to worry about it too much while I was in treatment, but it's time to get serious.

Happy Anniversary!

To my parents - 50 years today! We're all meeting up in the Bronx for dinner (but Mom doesn't know), and my youngest sister came through by letting Dad know that an eternity band would go over well. They couldn't afford a diamond when they got married (she 19, he 23).

Photos! clockwise from top left: My Mom and her mother; dad and mom;
dad and his mother; mom's mom and dad's dad - they were soooo young!!

And here they are at their party 50 years later!

And she was thrilled and overwhelmed with her ring. We went back to my brother's for dessert and he gave it to her there. She was surprised and loved it. She kept watching it sparkle all night. Dad did good.

Wish Me Luck!

I just finished my application for CT's ARC program this summer.  Hopefully I can start next fall as a High School Math teacher.



The program runs for 8 or 9 weeks this summer in Hartford including student teaching. It runs all day each week.
It's about an hour or so drive from here and I don't know whether to suck up the drive or stay up there during the week.

Typical Teenager

A friend's teen "liked" this on Facebook:


> I'm just a typical teenager?
> I have a messy room.
> I'm moody.
> I get up late.
> I swear.
> I complain most of the time.
> I spend most of my time on my pc.
> I have private things on my phone.
> I go to bed late.
> So mom and dad .. Deal with it.

So I came up with:

I'm just the parent of a typical teenager?
I know a messy room can make it hard to concentrate (not to mention it being unsanitary).
I'd prefer you didn't take your mood out on the rest of us.
It makes the rest of us late when you get up late.
I'd like you to swear only when it's appropriate to the situation and audience.
Instead of complaining, pitch in and fix it.
Take some breaks from the computer to rest your eyes and exercise your body.
Until you're 18, privacy is a privilege and not a right - earn it. And until you are paying your own phone bill, your phone is really mine.
You can go to bed when you want to, as long as you wake up on time and in a good mood..
So teenager .. Deal with it.

A Day in NYC

We skipped FAO Schwarz and Ripley's to save time. We went to the big Toys R Us in Times Square - it was jam packed! And we spent less there than we would have at Ripley's for admission. We took a pedi-cab up to the Mars restaurant, not realizing the fee was >per person<. Luckily Blair had the cash, and we really enjoyed the ride (he zipped around and between cars at stop lights). We all had caffeine with our snack on Mars, and our seats were amazing - the third row of the highest balcony. It was very cool when the dancers were making shapes (a la Ziegfeld) to see them from above.

I'm such a geek. I made a spreadsheet of the places we wanted to go and what time we wanted to get there. In between each stop, I pasted a google map showing the route..The only time we got turned around was when we came up out of the Times Square shuttle station in a different spot than it showed on the map, and we walked a block or so in the wrong direction before finding out we'd been right next to it when we got to the street level.

Jekkyl and Hyde's was cool and lots of fun. We ended up spending about double what we'd have paid to eat something similar at Chilis, but the "show" was fun. Mars 2112 was a little more hokey, but fun. We were still pretty full from lunch so we had dessert and caffeine.

We got home a bit after midnight and all slept like logs. I took some motrin before I went to sleep and my leg muscles feel better this morning than I thought they would. Dan's in a fabulous mood and thought the show was awesome.

Nice Little Surprise

I saw the radiation oncologist today and she told me I have only three more treatments! Tomorrow, Thursday and Monday. I was expecting a few more days next week.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the hospital first thing (8:15) so we can go into the city. We bought tickets for tomorrow night's Xmas Spectacular at Radio City (my Jewish hubby has always wanted to go.)

We may or may not get to everything we want to do but our plans include:

• Madame Tussaud's
• a tour of Grand Central Terminal (we've both always wanted to do that)
• Jekkyl and Hyde's restaurant (like eating in Disney's haunted mansion, the men's room is in a secret passage behind a bookcase, how cool is that?)
• FAO Schwarz
• Ripley's museum
• (we have to pick up our show tickets)
• Mars 2112 restaurant (restaurant "on Mars", tee hee)
• the Rockettes

Snowed In

Well, the weathermen kept going back and forth as to whether our part of CT was going to get walloped or no snow at all. We're getting walloped.

My sister posted on Facebook that the wind moved her dog a half foot to the side wheb she took him out. Dumbledore wouldn't even go near the back door when we opened it and encouraged him to go out. Blair took him down to the garage, and shoveled him a little area just outside the garage door - the snow was taller than he was (at least a foot). 

This is reminding me of the blizzard of '96. The state was shut down for two days and I was convinced I would go into labor and not be able to get to the hospital. At least we never lost power. Today though, the wind is blowing so hard that the family room is pretty chilly despite the fact that the heat is on.

This morning, Blair and I got up early-ish (8) to hit the Hallmark store. We got tissue paper and bows which I was out of, but they had no wrapping paper, which I am running low on. It was all only 40% off though. I'm bummed because I'm finally running out of the paper I got for 50% off when Alex was small.

Then we hit the supermarket. What a zoo!! Blair got on line at the service desk to return the Coke he bought by mistake. He was supposed to get Diet Coke to go with the Mentos we gave Daniel for Christmas. I stopped at the hand scanner kiosk and they were all dead (there were only three units in the display). I ran to the other end of the store and there was an out of order sign on the kiosk there. Oh noes! We were going to have to wait on a long line to get out. 

We shopped and got on one of the self checkout lines behind at least 7 or 8 people. I'm leaning on the cart and I turn around to say something to B and he's not there. A little while later, he turns up with a working hand scanner (I guess those three units charged up and he got the last one). We start scanning like mad and packing up our reusable bags, figuring that at least when we get to the head of the line, we'll get out fast. But it got better, the gal who watches over the self service line saw us scanning. She was surprised and checked to make sure it was working OK. The she took us out of line to her station and processed our order, and bang zoom - we were done!

On the way out of the store, we popped the scanner back in the display, so hopefully someone else got lucky too. Once we were in the car, I kept telling Blair that he rocked and that he was "da man". On the way home, I realized I should have grabbed a bunch of scanners from the out of order side and popped them into the empty display. But maybe the woman told someone and they got them working again.

We got home and watched Despicable Me with Daniel. Then I made cheese sticks (wrap string cheese in refrigerator dough and bake according to the directions on the roll package). We all enjoyed them. Blair gave me one of those jewelry armoires (he got a really good deal on one with plenty of drawers, and my current box is overflowing) and I spent the afternoon and evening sorting through the stuff in my old jewelry box, pairing up earrings and such. It was loads of fun (I love sorting and organizing and loved seeing stuff I haven't looked at in a while). Blair and I watched a bunch of old NCISs while I did that.

The hospital massage therapist called to cancel tomorrow's appointment. She may reschedule for later in the week, since she missed last Monday too, due to illness. I probably won't have radiation either. (There's a LOT of snow out there already and it won't quit until tomorrow evening.) I was planning to take a "vacation" day from radiation on Wednesday or Thursday and going into NYC with Dan (who finished all the stuff he owed the English teacher on Christmas Eve!) and Blair, but now I'm thinking I should see if they can take me early in the morning instead, since it'll be 4 days off by the time I get to the hospital.

I felt pretty energetic today (although I did nap for a bit during the day). Maybe it won't take too long to recover my energy once I'm done with the radiation? That'd be nice.

I hope everyone is warm and cozy!