Catching Up

Well, I debated whether I should iron clothes, slice the cabbage to get ready for tomorrow’s barbecue or sit down to write my blog. After thinking about all I need to do tomorrow, I figured I’d better get to it now otherwise another week would slip by without my writing.

It has been a busy two weeks since we brought the boat up from Baltimore. Thierry started right in on preparing the boat for her journey north. I was busy with laundry, shopping and catching up on my paperwork.

I had thought about writing a couple of times but had a few dark days, thinking about illness and I think, dreading the thought of Thierry going away. These thoughts also made me a bit grouchy, but, I managed to put all that out of my mind and we had a busy and fun two weeks.

While we were occupied with our own things during the day, we went out at night; to see the movie, The Girl Who Played With Fire (based on Steig Larson’s book), and then the next night, to the Blarney Pub to hear our neighbor play. We had a big crowd and a lot of fun.

We had got it into our heads that since we are spending a lot more time at the condo we should have some plants; in particular, on our balcony. Many of our neighbors have planters, flower boxes, and furniture, making things look very homey. Our balcony gets sun in the morning and a lot of wind. Some time ago I had mentioned our thoughts to my friend, Judy, who lives in Maryland and is a huge plant person. She said she would be interested in helping me with this project and she spent a lot of time researching plants and planters that would require little care, withstand the elements and survive the winter on our balcony.

Judy came up on Friday (the 16th) and she and I went to the Barnes Foundation to see the remainder of the exhibit before it moves to its new location in the city. For those of you who are not familiar with the Barnes, the “museum houses the world’s largest collection of French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern paintings,” with a large number of paintings by Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse, Seurat, Modigliani and Picasso to name a few. The museum is known for its historically restrictive practices, one of which is that you can only go if you have a reservation, in addition to only being open four days a week in the summer, less in winter. We had to chuckle when we entered the property and had to search for the entrance as there were no signs directing you from the parking lot.

The next day we went shopping for soil, stones, peat moss and plants. We decided on a Oriental Fountain Grass for the main focal point, framed by Rex Begonias. The greens, silver and purple leaves look great against the silver frame of the balcony and provide a very peaceful, calming effect when gazing onto the balcony from the living room.

On Friday night we had a gathering on Curlew. There were 15 of us and we pretty near depleted Curlew’s wine locker in addition to the bottles our guests brought. A good time was had by all.

We spent Sunday and Monday supplying the boat, and Thierry took off on Tuesday morning along with his crew, Tom and Barry. Be sure to click on the link to Curlew’s log to get an update on his adventures.

Since Thierry left, I have kept busy with work and housework. After two weeks of no real physical activity I am back to my gym routine. I panicked a bit when I heard that the FDA took Avastin off its approved list for breast cancer treatment. I saw my oncologist on Thursday, and she told me not to worry. I am not sure what that means, but I am hoping that my insurance provider doesn’t take it off their approved list.

I also asked my doctor about the status of my tumor cells that are housed somewhere in the hospital. I had heard that many women ask for their cells in the event that they may be used by researchers in the future. I would like my cells to be used in research, and possibly to be used to develop a drug that may put my cancer into remission. My doctor, who did not answer my question directly, seemed to indicate that the research she is involved with would be looking at cancers like mine. She assured me she has my back, and my front. Mmmmm, I think I need to push her on this a bit.

Today has been a rather quiet day, five loads of laundry done and my in-box is cleaned out and my bills are all scheduled for payment (pretty productive I guess). It’s been a good couple of weeks, but I miss Thierry and I am counting the days until my plane takes off for Bangor!