Our own personal Chia Pet

It's official... Peg's sprouting soft, downy hairs from her sweet, sweet head. Got a few long survivors from the summer's hairy ordeal (yeah right, Pun Boy), but this week her 1/8" mane has gotten noticeably longer.

We've heard that post-chemo hair grows in differently than pre-chemo. I'm picturing Peg three years from now with a caucasian "Angela Davis" style ginormous white afro. Riding a tiger. Wearing a leopard skin bikini. I'll do a painting on black velvet of the whole effect... how could I not?

Peg's got a big ol' mole on the side of her head, about half inch around, that our family doc is burning off tomorrow. Totally foils my plan of drawing spider legs around it with a Sharpie marker. I was thinking Peg could do a social experiment at the grocery store by letting me do the spider thing and not wearing a cap... and then catching passersby in the act of staring at it. "Hey, waddayou lookin' at, pal?"

She'd be unlikely to do it, and it's a moot point after tomorrow, but Peg is far more fearless than she was before June 12. It wouldn't surprise me if she actually went for it. Life 2.0.

Harry Potter and a Midnight walk in the fog

This was the first Harry Potter film we hadn't seen in the theater ("The Half-Blood Prince"). Zoë had seen it twice and swore she didn't want to see it again-- too much omitted from the book, and "too much snogging." We were, um, a bit busy this summer, but having seen it I think it's just fine on DVD. I agree with our daughter-- too many dramatic pauses, artsy-fartsy lighting and snogging, not enough adherence to the book.

Speaking of which, Peg and I learned a new Zoë fact-- she's read all the Harry Potter books anywhere from 5 to 9 times, depending on the book. She can connect all the dots from anywhere in the series, referencing every hint and foreshadowing and how it resolved. No wonder the movies bug her. This one left out some key plot lines that are resolved in the last book. Doh!

The fog had rolled in while we were watching the movie, so we took a 12:30am stroll in the pea soup afterward. Really fun and beautiful. Reminded me of when we first moved to Sacramento in 1988 and would drive around in the fog for hours, listening to Patrick O'Hearn (atmospheric electronica) on the cassette player in our '85 Honda Accord.

My favorite part of the walk was coming back to our house. I'd left the Christmas lights on (yes, we have... um... plans... to take them down before next week). There's something magical about soft glows that reveal themselves the closer you get.

So long, 2009... hello, 2010

This New Year feels different from every other one. This isn't just a progression from one year to the next, it's a radical departure from every year that's come before. More gifts, more realizations, more opportunities and more reasons to be thankful than we could have imagined just six months ago.

Celebrated New Years Day by seeing "Avatar" in IMAX 3D. Peg's first time, our second (and I suspect there's a third down the road for me). Had a wonderful dinner tonight at the home of our friends and another family who we'd planned to camp with in June and who canceled the trip when Peg was diagnosed. Plotted and planned some summer vacation that's pretty close to home and that doesn't involve camping, maybe renting a big house in Carmel for an extended weekend.

Other than "mystery trip #3" we're planning on going to Colorado in June (using up the tickets we couldn't use for our niece's wedding last summer) and camping in Carlsbad, California on the beach with some old, dear friends in late July. Peg will probably bail about four days in and visit her cousin in Huntington Beach while Zoë and I wrap it up at the beach. She's got a lot more energy than two months ago but is a long way off from where she was before she was diagnosed. Stronger than she was this summer but still fragile compared to where she was prior to June 12, which is our family's 9/11.

Happy New Year. Here's to new beginnings for all of us.

Peg sails through Port Yankout...

...I didn't have the stomach for it. Okay, enough with the bad jokes already-- Monday Peg had her abdominal chemo port removed. Yay! We ended up spending the entire day at the hospital for what's a fairly minor procedure, but it was nice to be back at Mercy for something expected and uncomplicated. Peg's a wee bit sore but glad to have one less reminder of our crazy summer.

Last night we spotted a coyote on the back deck sniffing around the sliding door to our bedroom. First sighting on our property in the 20 years we've lived here. He's joined the pantheon of other critters that have paid us a visit-- the possum we found slurping up the grease under our old grill; the raccoon family that showed up at our side door; the psychotic grey squirrel that threw itself repeatedly at our back door; and our neighbor's enormously pudgy cat, who amuses us by spazzing out on our old deck. The boards are a little rough, and the old thing rolls around repeatedly on them to scratch his own back.

I'm sure we amuse our neighbors as well ;-)

More Zoë Christmas fun

Peg and I have had a running joke for years that the longer we're married, we're one year closer to wearing matching track suits. You know, old couples wearing matching sweat pants and tops, cruising the mall... so our daughter decided to make an "old parents" ornament. We laughed really hard when we opened her gift.

Also for your enjoyment... the running of the bulls at Pamplona--uh, the running of the child down the hall while decorating the tree.

Tonight we'll play some Scrabble and try some exercises from the book, "Drawing on the right side of the brain." If we get too rowdy, I hope nobody calls the cops.

This year's Christmas is "in tents"

When we go camping, Zoë bails on the cabover camper and pitches a tent out back. She's been stuck with our six-man tent, so for Christmas we gave her a two-man REI tent... that she wants to sleep in tonight in our back yard. It'll get down to the low 30's, and she's got a good mummy bag, so she'll be all snuggly.

Last night Peg's sister Jeanette and her husband, Greg, had us over for a great vegetarian Christmas Eve dinner. Our nephew Jon's girlfriend, Maki, played her sitar for us after dinner and invited us to try it. I've got a serious jones for the thing... I suspect there's a sitar in my future. Far more interesting and intriguing than the bass guitar I played briefly (and badly) a few years ago.

The hallway photo shows a family tradition... before we string the lights on the tree, we run them all the way down the hall into Zoë's room.

Best Christmas present of all, and it almost goes without saying, is having Peg with us and healthy. She doesn't have eyebrows or any other flavor of hair, but is absolutely full of piss and vinegar. As I write this, she and Zoë are laughing and playing "Hearts" on our bed. Best Christmas "music" ever.

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.