Sunshine, blue sky, and vitamin D
May 11, 2008 at 6:32 pm
There is something about just standing out in the sun that makes me crave vegetables.
Yes, vegetables.
And I don’t even like vegetables!
I was standing outside, letting my little bit of exposed skin try to generate some vitamin D, when I thought “fresh tomatoes on a turkey club“.
That really isn’t a big dose of vegetables.
Then I remembered Jenn’s suggestion of chicken souvlaki salad. Of course, I’ve never made it, even though we’ve actually discussed it several times. And it would require a trip to the market since there are no vegetables of edible size in the card.
I needed the fresh air, and the sunshine. I hope you got out and enjoyed it too.
Posted in : Food, Weather
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Seeing Red
I’ve completed 18 chemo sessions and have 10 more to go. This past Thursday the RadOnc looked at my very red armpit area (where a dozen of the lymph nodes were removed from) and said there was going to be an adjustment of the wet towel.
I can’t remember if I’ve explained the wet towel before, so let me possibly repeat myself (and show I’m too lazy to go back in the blog and check).
To trick the radiation field into thinking my skin is closer to the machine, they put ‘bolus’ on me every other radiation treatment. The standard bolus material is this slab of silicone. On me, the silicone won’t lie flat because I’ve already had my reconstruction. To compensate for my fake boob, the techs use a folded wet towel instead of the silicone slab. Thus, wet towel.
I was laid out on the machine …
How to post an RSS feed in a block using Drupal
First off, I know that this website uses Wordpress, but I have other websites, one of which is Drupal based.
Here are the quicky technical details:
- Drupal site (I just upgraded to 6.1)
- Tapestry by RoopleTheme
- SimplePie (1.1.1 stable release)
Ok, first thing you’ll want to do is grab the SimplePie core and FTP it to your website (or, if playing at home, put it some place useful). I try to put things like this in a place that will stay untouched by the Fantastico upgrade, but for some reason, that never happens. On Drupal 6 the location /sites/all/modules/ is a good place to start. Then again the reality is, you can use SimplePie without Drupal, but you’ll see that as we go to the next step.
Next, grab the sample SimplePie page and open it in a text editor (ie: notepad) on your computer. We’ll …
Weird on four wheels
I’ve been riding the scoot so much lately, it is a weird transition to drive the car on random rainy days.
Thursday was a rainy morning, so I headed out in Zippy. This was the first drive with the Yakima rack. PBJ had installed it the other day, but the towers didn’t seem to ‘look right’.
After school I was able to stop by EMS and confer with their install expert. He came out to the parking lot and checked out the rack. While there are huge gaps in the towers, they are in the correct place. And the rack is tightly installed, so he gave it the ok.
I picked up a four pack of lock cores. I considered a six pack, but I’m not sure if the future bike rails will be Yakima (we’ve been looking at Rocky Mountain’s).
I headed across town for my daily …
Another wrap-up
The semester is winding down. Thank goodness. I turned in my one big paper. All 3500+ words. I could have kept going, but I was already 1000 words over (and overall, it sucked).
I completed a presentation and now just have to put the files onto a CD for submission.
My third class, which is my first class of the day, is going down to the wire. I’m glad I never thought I could do computer programming. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the logic.
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Why do I always fall asleep after eating a chicken salad sandwich?
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I was inspired by a 50% off sale at Stop & Rob. The 2008 Scooter Mascot is:
She fit snuggly in between the dash and the windscreen. When I scooter along, all I see is:
Not too much of a distraction.
It should be noted that …
Note to self: Rain is wet
It was the 32nd annual blessing of the bikes at West Dennis beach today. Last year there was a very large crowd. Both sides of the beach parking lot had bikes.
This year, with pouring rain, there was about 1/8th as many bikes. And not only were we cold, but soaked to the bone. The Gold Wing guys parked to our right asked if we had rain gear. We didn’t, so my bike cover was used as an impromptu tent.
One of the last minute arrivals had a female passenger. “Were you here last year?, she asked me. “This is ridiculous!” she told me ask I noticed her jeans were sopping wet from the ride to the beach.
It was funny to notice the young sport bike riders were mostly in jeans, the Harley guys had leathers, and the Gold Wingers had full rain …
Here is what’s happening
I’m still hot flashing, especially at night. I was commiserating with Jesse last week (or what it two weeks ago?) over Tour de French Toast at iHop. She’s hot flashing too, but not for the same reasons. Drew actually said Jesse was practically too hot to sleep next to. I wonder if my pillows feel the same way.
My energy level is starting to pick up. I thought Wednesday night might have been a fluke. I was feeling upbeat and didn’t have many problems until it came time to work the abs. I can’t do any across the body crunches (ie: right elbow to left knee) without feeling twinges of pain. I know this, but each time I hit an ab class I try anyways.
Thursday night kick boxing was crazy (for me, in my brain). The ‘angry white boy’ cd was playing. …
Game Plan - Cancer Edition
I have a new oncologist, Dr C. (who looks like Micheal Chiklis if Micheal Chiklis didn’t have a neck) and I think this is a good fit.
Step 1 in the plan: blood work at next infusion. Dr C is going to check tumor markers, liver functions, and the estrogen markers.
Step 2 in the plan: I get to count the 40 weeks of Herceptin. Yippy! He’s comfortable deferring to my scribble sheet from Dr P.
Step 3 in the plan: get my slight edema under control. Not to say it’s out of control, but it’s there and I need to keep an eye on it. Now keep in mind I’ve always been puffy, even before cancer, so I just need to keep it from getting worse. Easy.
Step 4 in the plan: finish up the radiation.
Step 5 in the plan: Get ready for …
Seesmic Ahoy!
Tabbed browsing in Firefox is addictive. I have like a bazzilion tabs going…. but I digress.
I finally figured out where the mystery Seesmic videos are going. Trouble is that on the Fuji Apple (I tried both Safari and Firefox 2) the embed video code doesn’t get returned back to the Wordpress posting window. Now that I figured out how to get into the Seesmic site, I was able to retrieve the embed code and post the video here:
The spiffy thing about this Seesmic plugin for Wordpress is that it records live. You can post video comments if you have a webcam on your computer. It does all the encoding, converting, embedding for you. So far I’ve only had one Seesmic comment, and it was posted by a …
Ten minutes
At the college they occasionally publish a little book entitled “Sea Change”. When published it features writings, pictures, drawings, etc., submitted by students. As a part of Creative Writing I am required to submit something. Below is my submission (read notes after):
I wasn’t suppose to be here.
The refrain played over and over in my mind, a record with a skip. To my right the oven sized pancake disk swiveled into place. The plastic screen displayed the lead plates, standing on end, clicking into the pattern the radiation would assault my body in. The lights dimmed so the techs could see the red laser lines that criss-crossed the room and my body. Every movement reflected on the plastic screen. I wanted to close my eyes, wish it all away, but the record just kept skipping in my head. A tear slipped out of my eye and slowly
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Late Evening Munchies
Are you hungry? Are you in Buzzards Bay after 7pm?
We headed out for dinner late Friday night. We were tasked with a Depot shopping errand, so a choice of food in Buzzards Bay was in order.
I picked Buzzards Bay House of Pizza (no website). Arriving around 8pm (PBJ had been napping) we were greeted with a HUGE menu. The place isn’t super sized, but the menu is extensive.
On the traditional menu you will find: Pizzas, Gourmet Pizzas, Subs, Club Sandwiches, Dinner Platters, Appetizers, Kids Meals
On the Mediterranean menu you will find: Greek Appetizers, Greek Salads, Baked Greek Dinners, Grilled Greek Dinners, Pasta, Pasta Specials, Salads, Greed Desserts
And in the greater Buzzards Bay area, they are the only game in town after 8pm, have beer & wine, and they deliver!
We started with a dinner platter of boneless buffalo fingers ($8.50). The chicken was evenly thin so …
Housekeeping 4-25-08
- The calendar link actually goes to my calendar. I had to switch software that displays the ics file published by iCal. It’s all good now (though terribly ugly until I fix it).
- Pictures from last weekend’s ride on the rail trail are posted in the gallery. Here’s a sample:
- Last fall I had given Jesse an azalea for her birthday. This past Monday it was happily blooming in her front yard.
- I put the interior pages of the spring farm newsletter online. It lists all the plants. Check it out (the graphics didn’t translate well…).
- Have a nice day!
- I’ve enabled Seesmic comments. I haven’t been able to get it to work on the Mac osx, but I’ll be firing up the PC for some weekend homework session. If you have a webcam, try and post a short (keep it under a minute)
…
Almost Saturday
There’s nothing particularly special about Saturday.
Today, though, was jam packed. My rescheduled nuke-ation for bright and early this morning found me scootering at top speeds on the eerily empty roads.
The nuke-ation clinic has been out of Janies the last two days. It’s ok because sometimes I think it takes longer to change in and out of the Janies then to get nuked.
I was then off to school.
I accumulated a ton of homework for my first class. Let me correct that: I really need to catch up on my homework. I’m blaming the non-stop nice weather. Who wants to stay in and study when it’s all nice outside?
My second class was a bust. We were settling into our seats when the resident slacker came into the room. Reading through his sunglasses, “hey, this says we don’t have class”. Ugh, I …
Product Endorsement - unpaid
In case you missed it, I’m going through weeks and weeks of radiation.
I was told I couldn’t use deodorant. I don’t know the technical reasons why, but I crinkled my nose at the thought.
Then I was told I could use “Tom’s” deodorant. I don’t know Tom, but I’ve heard he makes good toothpaste.
Being a blockhead, I ended up looking for Tom’s deodorant while Stop & Rob was doing a reset of H&B. Fortunately they realized that people stink and would be looking for deodorant, and not just Tom’s.
I did find Tom’s deodorant, and in a “lemon grass” scent (made with more hops! the label says…). I’ve been using it for almost two weeks now.
If you’ve ever had a squishygram, you know that they too tell you no deodorant, no talc, no baby powder, etc. I read over the ingredient’s Tom puts in his deodorant. …
SquishyGram
It’s been a busy day, buckaroos.
I started with the morning classes at the college. Tons of fun. I even did a little oral report, which sucked and I’m ok with it. Heck, at least I did it! Three people didn’t even bother.
At noon I left campus and rode the scoot across the sandbar to Bourne for an updated SquishyGram.
I sign in and am brought back to change into my Umpalumpa outfit. I watch TV (Days of our Lives) a few minutes while waiting for my name to be called.
Tech J called my name and brought me back into one of the SquishyGram rooms. I was ready to get squished, but she wanted to ask questions, find out what’s been going on since I was last squished (in Bourne, lots of squishing happened in BeanTown) 16 months ago.
She marveled at how much I’ve gone through, …
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