Official blog restart about two weeks away

Peg's "cancer numbers" are continually heading down, now at 226. She has periods of absolute exhaustion, but rallies...currently she's transforming our fireplace we've hated/put up with for 21 years with metallic paints.

Here's some weird news... I think we'll actually put out our "New Years Letter" around the new year. First time it's gone out this early in maybe ten years (it usually ships in Mid-April to early June).

Thanks for thinking of us. We'll ping everyone when the blog is really up to speed and I've committed the time to keeping it current.

Restarting the blog

First, apologies all around to those of you who have followed this blog and have seen it run out of gas. When Peg was in remission it seemed less important. When the cancer came back my heart just wasn't in it.

But there's some good news...after she restarted chemotherapy, her numbers went from almost 500 to 279 after just two sessions. We were waiting for the other shoe to drop, and are very thankful it went this direction.

This photo was taken yesterday (Thanksgiving Day) by our wonderful friend and gifted photographer Bruce Patt. We were blessed to share Turkey Day with their family, Peg's sister Jeanette's family and other friends at Greg and Jeanette's house.

Truly a day of thanksgiving.

I'm about to re-invite everyone to the blog and once again make it a living, breathing chronicle of Peg's and our family's journey. It's a flower I won't forget to water. Stay tuned.

Peggy's surgery: one year ago this week

Peg was diagnosed June 12 last year. Major surgery on June 23. Our friend Bruce Patt, who was good company in the waiting room that day, took this photo last night after dinner on our back deck.

We met with Peg's oncologist just before our Colorado trip two weeks ago, and learned that Peg's numbers were slightly elevated. Below 20 is considered normal, and Peg tested at 30. She had been as low as 5. (For comparison, when she was so ill last summer the number was close to 300).

For now, it's just a number. We see Dr. B. on July 14 and we'll see if it's trending up or staying steady. We're not freaking out, and we don't want you to, either.

We had a wonderful (but really brief) Colorado visit with Peg's (almost 90 year-old) mom and family. We wish we had more time to visit friends. Got up into the Rockies and did a little hiking around Silverthorne, just north of Breckenridge.

Peg so loves the Rockies. It was great to be back. We had to cancel attending our niece's wedding last summer, so we hadn't been there for a year and a half. Plus, according to my wife, I don't snore at that altitude.

We had great fun seeing our niece's new baby and reconnecting with everyone, but Sacramento is really our home. We've been here for 22 years and in our house for 21 years. Oh, and as long as we're counting, on August 15 it'll be the 24th anniversary of when I met Peg at our friends Kent and Diane's backyard barbecue in Denver.

I swear on my Captain Underpants secret decoder ring to be better about posting more frequently!

Beets me!

Pulled our first set o' beets out of the garden today. Peg made a killer salad with freshly plucked garden yummies and spinach. Unbelievably good. The fresh broccoli is out of this world, but soon to make way for summer crops.

Today I dug out the side of the hill with a little pathway to harvest future goodies: watermelon (2 kinds), cantaloupe (2 kinds) and pumpkin. Peg helped to dig the holes and mix in the good soil. The hill contains the crappy, clay-infested soil we replaced with organic soil a year ago and dumped into the yard. We're going to let the new crop just spread out over the hill. Probably keep a close watch on the pumpkins lest they end up rolling down to the bottom to be gobbled up by whatever critters happen to find them.

Happy Mother's Day!

Can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. Things are going well. Today was a great Mother's Day on many levels: Peg's here and healthy; the weather was cool, cloudy and perfect for gardening; and we got a great hike in at the end of the day. Zoë and I are going to give Peg a hot foot soak and leg/footie massage in a bit.

Here's Peg's video greeting to y'all and a photo from the hike, on the bluffs above Lake Natoma near Folsom at sunset.

Peg sails out of port--actually port sails out of Peg

Last week Peg's chemo port was removed. It's the lil' gizmo that was placed just under the skin near her clavicle in June. Every three weeks, from July until October, we'd trek to the infusion center where a nurse would insert a needle into the port and put Peg on a four-hour chemo drip.

We were all surprised to see this cool-looking purple anodized aluminum thing emerge from Peg's chest. The tube had been directly inside a vein that went to her heart. The three small bumps on the silicone part helped the infusion nurse find the center.

As soon as we went out to the front yard to take these photos Peg noticed how closely the color matches the lavender petals.

Peg's going to incorporate it into some cool sculpture. For now it lives on the kitchen counter where we all play with it.

More beach photos

As promised, more photos from our beach trip (courtesy of Chris Andre). Peg found a live sand dollar, which we've never seen in our 22 years of living in California. I think that says a lot.

'Twas a delight to see Zoë, Camille and Marie thoroughly enjoying the beach. Our two families also had a great time hanging out at the campsite. Because the weather cooperated, we never had the chance to hole up in the Andre's pop-up tent trailer and play cards, so tonight we went to their house to play Pinochle. Peg won. She's on a roll... first cancer, then Pinochle... I think she's headed next for world peace.