I'm just, you know, this guy.

Many of you have been asking how my mom’s been dealing with her cancer and sending her your thoughts and prayers and they’re all appreciated. I got an email from mom today that I thought I’d share with you all. (Any emphasis is mine.)

Art and I have been home for 3 wks after 90 days in Seattle. I survived the transplant and all the poking and prodding after the fact and am doing very well. My doc here (Dr. Jafari) was thrilled to see me 2 wks ago and again yesterday, no more than we were glad to see him. All my #s are good and seem to be getting better, including my pesky liver function which is finally normal. My diagnosis was 1 year ago today and with any luck I have at least 20 more yrs!

Some of you have known me all or most of my life but I have known all of you for many years. I just have to tell you, and I KNOW you will all appreciate the irony: Jafari said I need to GAIN 10#s! I have waited all my life to have a doc say that to me! And Art was a witness! Having fought The Battle all my life, I nearly fell off the chair when he said that. But believe it or not am really am too thin. I have dropped almost 70#, not trying, just due to the therapies and treatments and this pesky metallic taste as my taste buds revive.

I will go back to work in the Fall, part-time again, but cannot go to see Junior play ball at Safeco this summer as I have to avoid crowds. Bummer. We do have some travel plans for summer, some driving, some flying. . .we had to cancel our Christmas trip to Hawaii, so hope to go in July, and we have a grandbaby’s 1st b’day July 3. (And a new one coming in Sept!!)

Are you bored yet? Well, I am done. . .thank you all for your love, support, friendship and prayers. I could not have done it without you!! Love to all

Last weekend, Jen, Claire and I joined the Johnston Clan (Caley, Sonya, Lex and Logan) and the Eppenbergers (Tom, Shelly and Lane) for a little adventure.

We weren’t sure we were going to be able to go as Jen had been terrible sick with the flu but she was starting to feel better and took a chance on going with us. It turned out to be just fine.

We started out by driving to Oakland to take the train from Jack London Square to Sacramento. On the way we made the usual train stops (I assume as I’d never been on this specific Amtrak line) and when we got to Suisun City we came across this beauty:

Claire claims it is a “mommy” train because it looks like a girl and who am I to argue with her?

When we got to Sacramento we took a quick five-minute walk from the train station to the Vagabond Inn and dropped off our bags. Once we got settled, we hoofed it over to the Train Museum and spent a few hours watching the kids run around and enjoy the museum:

I’d been to the museum before quite a few times when I was younger and once with Jen when we were still dating, but it was the first time for everyone else but Tom. I think Tom and I agree that the displays haven’t changed one bit since we were kids.

After the kids got naps in (well, Claire and Lane at least), Tom, Caley and I walked around Old Town Sac for a while and enjoyed some coffee and, as Tom mentioned in his blog what may very well be the world’s smallest comic book shop. As I’m a regular at the shop here in Livermore, I didn’t purchase anything but Tom and Caley did partake and it did my geeky heart proud.

We went to La Terraza for dinner and while, it tasted pretty good, it did a wonder on almost everyone’s stomachs. I wouldn’t recommend it. The only cool thing was watching Logan assed out on a few of the chairs:

I got some pics of him posed with some beer bottles too, but haven’t posted them on Flickr yet…

We got back to the hotel and played with the kids (and each other). There was a slight issue when Logan locked himself and Claire in the Eppenberger’s room for a while, but all in all they (and we) had a blast.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJY3ovJEtB8]

We got up the next morning, ate at Denny’s which was right next door and hoofed it back to the train station. The only time we really got hit with any bad weather was on the walk back to the train station when the skies opened up and it started raining. The rain wasn’t too bad, it was the wind that really kicked our asses and broke Jen’s umbrella.

We dried off at the train station and I got this picture of a a mural on the wall of the station:

We got home none the worse and have very fond memories of the trip. We totally need to make this a regular thing!

Harder to Find Than You Might Think

Originally uploaded by lantzilla.

Lance is in Sweden this week at a seminar and his Flickr pictures are causing some very fond memories to arise. Hs picture of Swedish Meatballs, lingonberry preserve and mashed potatoes alone brought me back the 17 years it’s been since I lived there.

Man, I’d l-o-v-e love to get back there as a full-grown adult for a another visit!
Have fun Lance!