The holidays: medical and merriment

Medical

Peg gets her abdominal port yanked out on the 28th (that's the chemo port that went straight into her belly-- the one near her collarbone worked so much better it was only used once, in July). It's a wee little gizmo like a wine cork, just under the skin. The procedure is in the hospital, but they'll just do a "Whoa, where am I... and who am I" light anesthetic and she'll be out of la-la land in a half an hour.

Still looking for hair to sprout. A watched pot never boils.

Merriment

Now for the merriment: last night we saw the Sacramento Master Singers perform their annual Christmas show in a grand, old Catholic church downtown, something we always really enjoy. This year they also featured Mary Youngblood (center of the circle), a two-time Grammy winner and wonderful native american flutist. If you get a chance to hear her, even on a CD, it will make your hair stand up on end. Same for the Master Singers... they hit a crescendo while singing "hallelujah" that had me having a near out-of-body experience. As a prelude to this wonderful concert, Zoë and I saw "Avatar" in IMAX 3D. Astonishing. Run, do not walk, to see this movie.

Greg and Jeanette (Peg's sister and her husband) are having a small solstice gathering tomorrow night, and they're hosting us for Christmas Eve dinner; Peg's a lot stronger, but not up to hosting a dinner. Spending New Year's with dear friends the Andre family, who we met 12 years ago through an interesting story I'll tell you sometime and with whom we've had many fine adventures.

And we have yet to score a Christmas tree. I see from Peg's cousin Diane's comment on the last post she has a connection with a guy who has good smelling ones. This old dog's gonna give her a call in the morning.