What a Blast!

So serendipitous the way the surprise birthday celebration turned out. The event itself was surprise enough, but through last minute revelations, several beloved relatives showed up. These are people who I hadn't seen for over 20 years. It was a mountaintop moment.

Many thanks - to everyone who came and especially to she - Cindy, the best mate ever - who put it all together.

9/10/10 MRI

Clean.

Last Night

He was too young to know that, in any novel with a reasonable amount of forethought, there were no coincidences.

Last week, my sweetie bought me the latest novel by John Irving - Last Night in Twisted River (from which the above quote is lifted). I'm 143 pages into it. Mr. Irving has disappointed in the past (A Son of the Circus anyone?), but he is hitting all his marks on this one.

New England? Check.
Toronto? Check.
Writer protagonist? Check.
Bears? Check.
Women who should be illustrated by R. Crumb? Check.
Hoity toity prep school? Check.
Children missing at least one parent? Check.
Bizarre tragedy? Check.

And that's just in the first 143 pages.

Life is good.

UPDATE: While proofing this post, I noticed another bit of cleverness by Mr. Irving. In the title, is he talking about "the night that preceded today"? Or is he talking about "the final night ever"? I'll let you know if I find out.



UPDATE 2: Vietnam war? Check. Wrestling? Check.

New Ink

Where Were We?

I see my most recent post was in March... over five months ago. I often intend to write things on this here blog, but never get around to it. It's rare enough that I feel I have something worth saying. Oh well. I'm going to post something anyway.

Regarding that most recent post, it turns out that performance was the high point of Siobhan's year on Idol. We saw her this past Saturday evening at the Rose Garden. She was, of course, with 9 other Idolators. I hope she comes around here solo sometime. She was the only one of the ten who REALLY put on a SHOW.

There was one other idol who I would go see again:

Casey James - Way-More-Than-Adequate Guitar Guy

We recorded this Saturday night. I never saw this version of Casey on the show. Glimpses perhaps, but never like this.

I suppose a general update is in order. The bulk of past material on this blog is regarding my experiences with a cancer - brain tumor and melanoma. If you care to read, it starts in August 2007. The first couple of months were "exciting". As time passed, the posts and life in general got, I'm happy to say, relatively boring. Boring is good when recovering from cancer. For the last year, I've been having MRI's every 6 months instead of every 3 months. So things are groovy on the cancer front. "Groovy" means "cancer free, apparently".

Another development on the health front is that, in November 2009, I ceased smoking cigarettes. (Not that it matters THAT much, but I ceased smoking everything else decades ago.) I had tried Chantix a couple times in the last few years and ultimately, it didn't work. This time I tried Welbutrin - and it worked. The downside is I gained about 15 pounds. It's worth it.

The careful reader may have noted my earlier use of "we". I suppose not everyone knows that I was divorced earlier this year. I think most divorces are not fun at all; this one was no exception. But that's over and had been over for at least a year before the divorce was final on April Fool's Day this year. The point is, the "we" refers to my girlfriend Cindy and me. From this point on, if I refer to "we", unless otherwise stated, I'm talking about Cindy and m.

Cindy was someone I went to school with when I was a wee lad. She is a couple years older than me, but that didn't stop me from having a MAJOR crush on her. (I'm certain I wasn't the only boy that held her in high esteem... in SO many ways.) Fast forward to last summer. For some gawdz-only-know reason, I had joined Facebook. One of the VERY few cool things about FB is that one can look up old friends, e.g. school chums. One of those chums pointed out to me that Cindy was on FB AND single. So we wound up chatting and talking a bit. We saw each other at a school reunion late that summer, and started a lovely friendship. It didn't take long for us to become lovers and now we are "We".

She is my very best friend and an even better person than I imagined all those years ago. Plus... she's still at least as hot as she was back then... and believe you me, that is saying something. Ask anyone. Do NOT make me post pictures.

The latest news for "we" is that we are proud parents of a Boston Terrier girl puppy named Molly. She is almost 3 months old is the smartest puppy I've ever known. She is SUCH a quick study. She is as calm as a puppy can be. Of course I could go on and on. Let's just say we are thrilled to have her in our family.



And that's the news from 'round here.

Oh alright. Here's some more Molly love. This was the night we brought her home.

American Idolatry (h/t EW)

I've been watching since Season 3. Taylor Hicks, David Cook, Adam Lambert. These are the only contestants for whom I waited each week with bated breath. "What will they do THIS week? Will this be yet another mindblowing performance?"

Please welcome Siobhan Magnus to the list.