Just a short note to put in writing that one of my New Years resolutions is going to be back on Zanga  

I've been spending too much time on Ford Truck World and SUV World and doing things to my truck.  Shame on me...it's been an escape I guess.

Today we go and find out the results of the last biopsy on my Mother-in-law.  We had a little piece of good news last week .  When they were starting to do the liver biopsy (CT scan biopsy) they discovered there was nothing on her liver so they re-did her pancreas.  They pulled a lot of tissue this time so they could get an accurate reading.  We know that there it is cancer but to what degree is the question.  We are hoping that it will be operable (this will make her a diabetic) but hopefully will still let her be around a while longer.

The best to you all and I'll try to get back and visit everyone's site soon.

I know it's been a long time and your probably very surprised that I am writing this.  There has been a lot of drama in my life and thought better of posting and depressing everyone.  But it is time that I try to get some of this off my shoulders and see if it can help heal a little.

My Mother-in-law has been getting ill since July.  With the aid of an MRI they are now looking at pancreatic cancer.  What course of action is taken will depend on whether it has spread to her liver or not.  They will be doing another biopsy on Wednesday of the liver to determine that.  She has another appointment with a surgeon this morning to review what her options will be once that has been decided.  She will be 69 years old on 1/1/04, so needless to say this is hitting the family pretty hard.  She has lost 45 pounds since July and looks very frail and thin.

We have still been going through the re-model and the contractor has finally finished up the major things this past week.  Of course there are some minor gliches he needs to fix but we are now trying to get everything painted so we can get back to normal.  Geesh what flakes these contractors are!!!  This was a very big learning experience for us in dealing them.  Of course we had heard horror stories from friends but to experience it ourselves has been a very rude awakening.

Hope this finds everyone having a very good Thanksgiving with your family and friends and I'll try not to be gone very long, hopefully this will be theraputic. 

Did ya miss me?  I know it's been way to long since I have been on Zanga.  There has been so much going on around here and with all the problems with Zanga I've been losing interest.  It seems everytime I want to post something Zanga is not being cooperative, just my luck I guess. 

First off, my cousin has begun her chemotherpy at UCSF.  They had her do another CAT scan about and told her that 2 of the areas have completely disappeared and the larger 3rd area is not getting any bigger.  I have not yet found out if it is shrinking but at least it appears that the chemo is working.  It has not been without it's setback's though.  She has been getting pretty sick, with ear infections and colds taking it's course.  She ended up in the hospital for 4 days on the verge of pneumonia last week. 

During all of this we have been planning a 50th wedding anniversary for my husband's parents.  That finally happened on July 4th, I'm so glad that is over, but it was a success and they were totally surprised.

With all of this going on we have been doing some remodeling as well.  My house has been in such a state....contractors are a strange breed of people.  Now I know why they have the jobs they do...they cannot work in a structured environment that the rest of the world does.  They have minds of their own and work when they want to, they do not care about their clients.  We removed all the carpeting in the family room, front room and hallway and installed Prego as well as in the kitchen.  That's done, but the new french door that is replacing 2 sliders in the family room is causing many problems.  The first door that was delivered was not what we wanted so now we are waiting on the new door to be delivered.  I'll be so glad with it is over....Since this work is being done we are taking the opportunity to paint and re-do stuff as well but when you only have 1 day off together it takes way to much time.  Here are a couple of pictures of the front room and what I am doing there.  There will be a chair rail going on as soon as we pick up the miter saw we purchased on Saturday.

This is the Prego in the front room

This is where the chair rail will be going in a walnut

This lamp belonged to my grandmother, my dad and now I have it.  It did not have a lamp shade so I had this made (hopefully from the period) and will now be in the front room when everything is complete.  That's my baby grand to the right that is covered, and the curio cabinet with the shelves and all it's stuff removed.  And that's me in the mirror taking the picture

I'll take some more pictures when we get the chair rail up with everything in it's place and pictures back on the walls.

I hope this finds everyone doing well, I have been keeping up with my daily subscriptions so I've keep up on what's been going on in everyone's life.

Oh my gosh....what a mess my house is!    I have furniture all over the place, no TV and I'm sneaking the PC in.  Everything is turned upside down and every which way but the right way.  Have you ever seen it fail...of course they ran into problems, it wouldn't be real life if they didn't huh?  They have 2/3 of the family room done, the kitchen linoleum has been removed and that's it.  Nothing again until Monday....we have to live in this.  The contractor is trying to talk us into going down the hallway and into the front room as well, I think we are going to go for it but I just want it done.  We were going to paint this weekend but not now. 

Hope everyone's weekend is better than mine.  

Wow has it really been 4 weeks since I've been on?  Sorry I haven't been around to everyone's site.  I really appreciate all the comments I have gotten from those of you hoping that everything is okay. 

I have been a little frustrated with Xanga and finally thought I would take a break and see what happens.  Plus my cousin has started chemo last week and I when up and stayed with her Thursday through Saturday.  They are attacking this very aggressively, she has 3 spots in her lungs and it is the small cell variety.  Supposed to be a very aggressive type of cancer.  They are giving her the level 4 chemo (very strong).  When she completes her 6 months of 3 days on and 3 weeks off she will then need to have radiation to her head.  Evidently this type moves north and since it is in her lungs they are very concerned about it reaching her brain.  They will be doing the radiation to the brain as a precaution.

This will be short, the contractor is supposed to be here shortly.  We are having the kitchen and family room in Prego laminate.  They are supposed to begin tomorrow and take 3 days to complete.....we'll see   Trying to post this and already having problems with Xanga again.....beginning to hate that I paid for a Lifetime account!!!

Well it's hump day and Friday looks like it's getting close.  I just got the call from Breuners that my new tables are in and will delivered tomorrow.  They weren't supposed to be here for another 3 weeks....I'm not ready!  I wanted the floor done before they got here.  Since we're having such a hard time trying to find someone to install the floors I guess it really doesn't matter.  No one wants to take on the job since they will not be purchasing the materials.  Something about they wouldn't be able to give a warrantey on them since we supplied the flooring versus them supplying it.  It appears to me they just wouldnt' be able to gouge us by tacking on additional costs for the material, if we have to do this ourselves it will take forever!!

It's that time of year, all the weather changes that I have a bad cold.  I'm not used to getting colds, it ususally is asthma or allergies, but my head feels like it is going to explode on me.  Time to go lay back down.  I'll catch up with everyone later, sorry.

Good morning one and all, it's a beautiful morning here in Northern California.  The birds are singing the sun is out drying off the little showers we had last night.  My 2 new treasures from the SF Garden show seem to be adjusting to their new environment and no leaves dropping yet!

Yesterday we went to the GoodGuys Auto Show in Pleasanton.  OMG I could not believe the number of people there.  We left home about 8:00 am....did not arrive inside the fairgrounds until about 10:00 am.  We were lined up in traffic on a major freeway (Interstate 680) for over an hour and 45 minutes, there were that many people going to the show.  The only reason I can think of (since we've gone to the shows before and not that many people were there) is that no one wanted to stay home and watch TV with almost nothing on but the war.  There were so many families there, unlike any show before.  The only thing we purchased was K&N Performance Plus air filters for both of our vehicles.  Supposed to help with better performance as well as improved gas mileage, and with the cost of gas today every little bit helps.  Additionally, they have a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty, you don't replace them at every oil change....interesting, only time will tell.

We've finally got our flooring for the kitchen and family room.  Now we need to find someone to install it.  We have linoleum in the kitchen and wall to wall carpeting in the family room but we are going to lay down Prego laminate.  I'm really excited about this and can't wait.  My kitchen is 14' x 18' with an island, the family room is off of the kitchen and is what looks out to our backyard deck.  The family room is 18' x 20' and we still have to pull up the old carpeting.  Guess I better get busy looking for some quality installers and see about getting the bids.  I'll take pictures when it's finally installed.

Looking forward to a great week, you all do the same.

I'm not usually outspoken on political issues.  I personally think there are a few things that one should never bring up in conversation, one of those is politics.  I do not agree with all the anti-war demonstrations that are going on right now.  Since I am in California the news has been showing all the demonstrators that are trying to clog up the financial district of San Francisco by laying down in the middle of the street, blocking all the major businesses so employees cannot get to work.   Basically they are trying to make their own opinion's be known that they disapprove of Bush and his decision to get rid of Sadam.  I do not want to stir up a hornets nest here, however, what do they think they are accomplishing?  No one in Washington is paying any attention to them.  I was not for this war either but what are we supposed to do, sit around and allow these terrorists to continue their rampage on us?  ~shaking my head~

Since I am at home having not returned to work from my carpel tunnel surgery yet all that the television is showing is what is going on whether in Kuwait or Iraq.  As I write the sirens are going off in Kuwait City and the newsman has a gas mask on for protection.  How sad that this has to happen, but now that we are committed I do believe that we must support our President and all the troops that are over there and pray for their safe return.  Enough said on my soapbox for today.

On a lighter note, we went to the Garden show of all garden shows (so we're told) in San Francisco yesterday.  It is a 5 day show and costs $20 per person to get in and $7 for parking.  A little on the pricey side but WOW what a show.  Of course I had to come home with a couple of treasures.  One of those being a Mikawa Yatsubusa variety of a Japanese Maple.  It is more of a bush versus a tree and we fell in love with it, additionally we bought a pretty old Juniper Bonsai Tree.  As soon as I get the pictures downloaded I'll post a picture  (that is if Xanga will be cooperative).  We also picked up the 2 benches and corner planter we purchased at the San Mateo show back in February.  The vendor got us in free and all we had to pay for was parking, very cool.

During that San Mateo show we also purchased a VitaMix.  It is mailed from the company and we finally received it last week.  I went to Costco and stocked up on every vegetable and fruit I could and have been cleaning them and freezing them all morning.  I finally mixed my first fruit smoothie in there and geesh it is wonderful.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to shed a few pounds by drinking my way out of them

It's a little difficult to keep on trying to blog when there is nothing but this war keeping my attention.  Everyone have a great day and pray for the safe return of all of our troops.  Bless you all.

Well, the bandage came off yesterday and I was able to take a shower.  I know, I know you don't want to know how rancid I had become...I'll let you use your imagination for that   Just remember the last shower I took was at 4:00 am Monday morning on the way to the hospital!  The hand does not look pretty, very black and blue down my arm towards my elbow, the palm of my hand and it looks like my hand has been sewn up in a running stitch ?  This is the wrist that I used to help break out the window during the house fire to try to get my kids out.  The tendon was totally sliced in half and they told me I probably would never use my baby finger and ring finger again since that tendon controls those 2 fingers (proved them wrong!)  During the surgery I can remember the surgeon discussing the damage with someone else in there and that he was going to try to repair something he found.  I'm at a loss for now and hoping during my next week's appointment he will enlighten me on exactly what he did.  I'm thinking that's why it looks so bad.  It does feel much better (outside the pain from the surgery) so I guess time will tell.

An update on my cousin (Shirley).  She saw the Oncologist Wednesday and was told she has 2 different kinds of cancer and that he will be treating each of them differently.  I feel so bad that I was not able to go with her but being on these meds and the distance I would have had to travel I don't think anyone would have wanted me on the freeway   I want to thank everyone for all your prayers and good wishes for her, it appears to be working.  She is getting so much better and starting to get into a positive frame of mind.  I feel that is so important to her recovery as well as being able to fight this disease.  Again, Thank You!

I think I've given enough of a workout to the hand so everyone have a great weekend, stay safe.