About Me

My photo
Concerned Citizen and a Serial Entrepreneur wrapped in a progressive democratic soul longing for us all to get along.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Today is Saturday, April 28th

Wow! What a week!!!! Best news: Tracy is holding his own. His white cell count is still holding at 2.5. Normal is 4-11. His weight is back to normal at 231 lbs. Yahoo! He handled the chemo yesterday with great humor after shucking and jiving with Bruno and a new Fellow. Bruno teases Tracy relentlessly about his beautiful curls... I think he's jealous.... and of course T smiles and preens and tosses his curls. Bruno says T's hair will go back to his original state after chemo... we'll see. We're still looking at October for the end of this maintenance protocol and I think Bruno is resigned to keeping T on Vincristine once a month and no other additional chemo chemicals. I'm glad. T is tolerating this and oh soooo tired. He just left for his walk on the beach with our Riley, his constant companion.

 I'm off to meet with a client/friend to go through all of their new home's disclosures. Tricky, we're gonna conference in her Dad who is at home about 500 miles away. He'll be able to sign digitally as we go through everything. Technology is so amazing! After we're through, I'm off to Relay for Life in Santa Clara. I'm walking for our pal, Roddy Magallanes and of course our boy, T and then... a real treat... a massage for both of us by Jan, of oh so wonderful hands...

 Yesterday, we managed to pack in a listing appointment in Cupertino prior to Stanford and then, a listing appointment in Milpitas afterwards. Then, we came home and collapsed. That's a sample of what our lives have been like over the last week. Jammed packed and happy and very busy... it's a good thing.

 Our favorite Stanford Concierge, Holly Gautier stopped to visit with us yesterday. She told Tracy about videotaped lectures that he can access online. The lectures are all about the different phases of the cancer cycle. I think T will benefit from hearing about others experiences. It would be good for him to know that the aches and pains will cease at some point after chemo... he is coming back though... he solved a dilemma for me and my iPhone yesterday. I have a new fob that attaches to my phone which with a wonderful new app makes my phone my Realtor lockbox key and much more. Only problem was that my iPhone case didn't allow the fob to attach closely enough to get a signal. Tracy saw the problem and was able to cut the case enough to seal the deal. His brain is back!!! His cunning and clever aptitude has resurfaced and our boy is baaaack!!!


 Hallelujah!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Today is Saturday, April 21st

OK, so it's been awhile... life got in the way...

 I'm a very happy gal today. Tracy & I are enjoying the simple pleasures of living on the coast. It's 88 degrees and we're sitting on our back deck in the wonderful shade having listened to my favorite programs on KAZU (our NPR station) since about 10:00 this morning while I caught up on the last 3 days of the SS Sentinel and the SJ Mercury News. Our listening pleasure started with Click and Clack, the Tappet Bros. whose "Car Talk" show about all the foibles facing car owners leads to a lot of giggles until "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" makes for outright belly laughs.

 Speaking of belly laughs...OMG! last night was a night for raucous outright belly rolling hysterics... Carla, Jayne and Tim (the lovelies) arrived about 8:30PM armed with an Aptos Pizza large ( T inspired vegetarian with sausage substituted for mushrooms) pizza pie and their ready for anything selves and we proceeded to sample Skinny Girls Cosmos in frozen form while we munched on pizza and our special cheese cake. I took it it very slowly having already been a very bad girl earlier in the week.

 Interesting... I went from almost zero for several weeks/months (T doesn't drink much at all anymore and I don't like to drink alone) to sharing several bottles of red with my good friend, Deb while watching the finals of the singer/songwriter contest at Brittania Arms Tues. night. Gar had invited us at dinner time with the salmon burger enticing us to join them. That incident cruelly reminded me that having fun has its cost sometimes... also remembered that eating prior to imbibing was VERY important.

 Anyway, last night was a total hoot for all especially after we sampled some of T's special sauce. I felt like a little kid again as we ran outside to smell our blooming lilacs. All of us making enough noise to raise our sleepy neighborhood from sleep... and everything was funny as we each laughed with total abandonment at our stories, Tim's impressions and nothing at all... until T announced it was time for bed...1:15 AM came very quickly. I was sad to see everyone leave this morning but so glad that we had all enjoyed ourselves to the max and none of us would have to give up the day because of excess last night! Phew!

 Lots of amazing stuff going on over the last week. I started a new refresher real estate class- Peak Producers by Brian Buffini. I've realized that I can tailor the class program to what I want to adopt and that's a very good thing. Lots of reminders about what's important to me and most of all to my clients. BUT with starting this 12 week class and my conversational Italian every other Thurs., I've definitely got a very full dance card. I figure if we can't travel, I won't be bored... I had brought up a brief road trip perhaps to Santa Barbara to my honey and he summarily nixed it with "why go there, when we live here?" as we strolled the shore one morning....

 And then there's my honey, Tracy. My love still suffers with headaches and aching feet and body pain with nary a word. I know he's in pain when I hear the Tylenol bottle shaking out a few pills. I'm thankful that he and I share our home and our lives together ignoring the elephant in the room. He had his labs done last week and we waited anxiously hoping that we wouldn't hear anything about low counts... and THANK GOD!!! no news was good news... Next Friday will be telling and we hope uneventful as well.

I've made a commitment to take a few hearty hikes with Marilyn and hopefully, that will lead to shedding a few pounds. I'm ready for Spring and Summer and being outdoors again as we relish being here on the coast...

 Carpe diem!!!!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Today is Tuesday, April 10th

A few days reprieve from the Tax Man... taxes are due on the 17th this year... and the wheel goes round and round.

I'm in a reflective mood... we walked the beach in the rain this morning and Riley ran until I thought he'd drop and then, he ran some more.... I just decided to take the day off. I'm in need of a day to do nothing.... we have a movie and the couch has beckoned me... oh and a good book "Satori" too.... think I'll turn on the fireplace and cuddle with my Riley if he dares...

Tracy has been achy, crampy and a little off for a couple days now. He's gonna take the day too. He managed to drag a rusted out smoker out to the street at my Rio Del Mar listing and put a free sign on it yesterday along with putting it on freecycle.org. Hopefully, someone will want it and soon. Reduced the listing price of the home to $594,000 and that should entice interest...

Allora... I attended a conversational Italian group last Thurs at Lila's. I loved it! Ordered a couple verb workbooks from Amazon last night that should help... I would love to be able to converse in Italian aside from using the present tense solamente.... I probably sounded like a child in the past cause I couldn't use all the appropriate tenses and verbs but it sure is fun to do it this way... all conversations are in Italian with the leader/ teacher correcting and prodding as we go... a total flight from the usual and a chance to exercise my brain in a different way... and a total throwback to my childhood memory of Mom & Dad speaking in their secret language...

Easter day was a wonderful gathering of dear friends and an opportunity to see Lea, our God child. She's gorgeous and vibrant- so alive!!! Grad school- Vet school is keeping her hopping. It was a quick trip over the hill to Carla's for a beautiful dinner and lots of catching up... that's what holidays are all about... we missed Gary & Deanna's celebration and the Pevarnick holiday gatherings and Jan & Tom's picnic on the beach... we were everywhere in spirit and avoiding small children (think petri dishes) and hoping for Tracy's health to hold and thank God it did...

Carpe diem my friends!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday

What a beautiful crisp morning! There are many of us who have lost their faith in organized religion... me being one of them... but on this holy day, I realize that I believe in the power of us. I have faith in us. I love and I find love in people. I believe that we are put here on earth to spread love and to find our purpose to share love in whatever we do. I truly believe in "do unto others as you would have them do unto me". I guess I could call myself a Christian. I could get off on a rant right now about the Christian coalition co-opting Christian for all the wrong reasons but I won't ....suffice to say... I believe in the God in all of us and that God is love...

On this holiest of days... share love with all that you encounter ... I hope you all are with your loved ones wherever that may be...

Happy Easter and Happy Passover!!!!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Today is Sunday, April 1st April Fool's Day

Wow! What a weekend! As we left for our walk on the beach Sat. morning, I casually asked T if he thought it was going to rain... ai yi yi the next thing we knew the wind started whipping us and the rain was pelting us as the storm came crashing down. Riley didn't care as he roamed the deserted shore and we fought the wind and rain... home to shed our drenched clothes & relish a long hot shower after bathing our contented boy, Riley. Then it was time to attack our taxes and finally, a brief respite with Lila & Pat. Home to rustle up some dinner and watch "A Week with Marilyn". Now that was a 4 star movie. Michelle Williams embodied Marilyn! she was fabulous and I loved the movie!

Today between finishing up the tax compilation for our meeting with our tax gal in the morning and clearing out the route for our new (to us) sofas for Tracy's lair; I showed homes to Carol and Chuck. They are set on one and away we go!!! We'll write an offer by Wed. and keep our fingers crossed...

T had a very big day. He borrowed Tom's truck, & he & Riley drove over to Saratoga and picked up the couches and made arrangements with Sean & a friend to unload the couches on this end. My man is tired but oh so happy...
The couch story is a great one. Deanna wanted a sleeper couch for family to visit (since they don't have a guest room). The couches that Gary really didn't want to replace were to be donated but we came along and were able to lovingly recycle them. They're wonderful! We are able to recline on each end and still have Riley snuggled between us. We settled into them this evening and watched "Moneyball" A good movie but definitely NOT best movie of the year.. and the couch was very comfortable...thank you one and all!!!

Now we get to recycle our settee plus leather recliners....and the wheel goes round and round.