Peg's wiggin' out!

In a good way. She went with our friend Mary to get her chemo wig trimmed up and styled and wore the durn thing for the second time since we bade her hair farewell.

They saw "It's Complicated" at the theater and went to Trader Joe's (cool specialty grocery store, for those reading this outside of California). Peg said it was really different to be in public and not getting second glances, especially from kids who can tell when something's a bit off.

Just the opposite for Zoë and I. We're so used to seeing her sans hair that the wig threw us for a loop when she came home. Costume party moment.

It's all relative. Peg has a really nicely shaped head. Seriously. Looks perfectly fine bald or with her new downy bird feathers. But you've got to have the right head for the bald look. I've seen a lot of fellow male customers at the supermarket or a gas station who look like Manson wannabees or nazi skinheads, with lots o' moles, folds, ditsels and bumps... totally creeps me out. They may be fine upstanding citizens, but the look says, "Priors... Arrest warrant...Restraining order... Tweaker... Aryan Brotherhood... ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

Peg's hair growth seems to be exponential. Every day brings another fresh crop. Fun to watch.

A "welcome back" for Peg

One of the many ways we've been blessed is becoming friends with the parents of Zoë's kindergarten and soccer classmates. We've all watched our kids grow up together. I can't imagine not knowing them... a lot of great memories.

Today they threw a "welcome back" luncheon for Peggy. Thought y'all would get a kick out of this-- Peg's mouse pad. The photo was taken during a volunteer day around Halloween when our girls were in the second grade. Geneva (possible mouse pad perpetrator) and Jade (willing participant/teutonic warrior and possible mouse pad perpetrator) accompany Bad Teeth Peg. Peggy's got a really nasty set of fake joke teeth that look pretty real. And she's not afraid to use them.

Growing up in a small Nebraska town, I really appreciate that we have a lot of the same experiences in a metro area bigger than Denver. Zoë will graduate with a lot of the kids she went to kindergarten with. And Peg and I have a rich history with them and their parents.

We don't really need a mouse pad, the optical mouse works with or without one. But we keep using this one because it makes us smile.

Farewell to Christmas... in late January

Seemed like a good idea at the time... whack the tree into small chunks in the living room to avoid dragging the carcass through the house with the accompanying trail of needles.

Turns out the moment it knows it's a goner, the thing spews needles like you wouldn't believe. My look of triumph was short-lived-- spent a lot of time extracting tree remnants from the carpet.

Note to self: next year, wrap the thing in plastic tarp and muscle it out to the driveway before dismembering it.

Had two fun family walks today. The first when it was raining like hell and blowing gale-force winds this morning. Amazing how many times an umbrella can turn inside out and still function. The second when all had calmed down and we were digging the cool orange ethereal sunset.

Zoë and I went for the puddles, she in flip-flops, me in Vibram Five-Fingers (foot gloves). Peg, not so much.

Tomorrow is Peg's first visit to the oncology infusion center for "non-treatment." Just flushing out her sternum port. No chemo, no drugs, no big deal.

Putting the wheelchair up on Craig's List. Only had to use it once, in August, to get her from the car to the infusion center. So thankful to put the thing up for sale without a second thought.

Mmmmm... hair....

The new family activity is rubbing Peg's head. Enjoyable for the "rubber" (ooooh, it's soooo soft!) and for the "rubbee" (mmmmmmmmmmm).

Today we took Zoë and her friend Jessica to the midtown Sacramento skating rink. For those of you from out of the area, it does not get cold enough for water to freeze here; the city closed off a street and allowed a company to create a rink there. Yep, they even have a Zamboni, though it was a little overkill for such a small area.

Getting more distance from "Cancerland." Peg's getting her port flushed on Tuesday, and we see her oncologist in mid-March. This is precisely where we like to see the "Big C": in the rear-view mirror, getting smaller and smaller.

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.