Skipping Town

As though we don't have enough chaos, Lucia tested positive for covid this morning and stayed home from school. She's mostly fine--no fever or cough; just a sore throat--but still. Covid? She's isolating in her bedroom and I'm masking in the house, which is the worst but necessary. Sigh. Our house continues to be chaotic. Having a basement kitchen is great...until the work moves to the basement. The electricians and plumbers both need to be down there this week, which has made things like preparing lunch or getting a glass of water a challenge. 

Behind on these posts. In a nutshell:  Andrew was supposed to come home from Germany on Friday but didn't get back until Sunday because of an ice storm in Berlin. We also had bad weather and I chickened out on taking Lucia for her permit test on Saturday morning. The girls and I hunkered down to play games and watch This Is Us. The basement is inconvenient...but also pretty cozy. Sunday was the Big Game. We usually host a Super Bowl party but, obviously, there is no hosting this year. So we went to the Clarks'. The girls and I brought our 'analog bags' and busied ourselves with various crafts while others watched the game. (We had some crafting company, too.) I did a Valentine's zentangle; Greta colored and worked on a puzzle; Lucia started bedazzling a book cover. We did watch the halftime show. Monday, Lucia came home from school saying she didn't feel well, so that's not great.  The house continues to be chaotic. Random areas of ceiling have been cut into...

Lucia is selecting classes for junior year. She is supposed to start choosing classes that create kind of 'narrative' for what she wants to study. We are trying to help (not that she wants our help), but she truly has no idea what she is interested in.  I can relate. I recently came across a bio I wrote during my summer at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, which was the summer of 1994, when I'd just finished my junior year of high school. I was seventeen. This bio was to be included in a collection of pieces written by the other students in my poetry class:           Besides writing poetry, Margo "Violet" Orlando also enjoys writing in her journal, playing the violin, and acting. This year, she will be a senior at Geibel High School in Connellsville, PA. Margo's future plans are completely made--where she wants to go, what she wants to do, who she wants to be--and she's waiting for just the right moment to reveal these plans to the world...

I won't bury the lede: our insurance claim for ribociclib (kisqali) was APPROVED on Tuesday afternoon! I am, frankly, surprised. But so happy. The other medication choice was absolutely valid, and I'll likely be on it at some point; but the side effects are more intense, so I'm glad to be able to choose this fulvestrant + kisqali protocol right now. There are also side effects from this one, of course. But different. (A compromised/decimated immune system is one of them, so I'll be back to masking in public.)  After the peer-to-peer discussion failed to happen again on Monday, I'd pretty much assumed it would never happen. However, it actually did happen on Tuesday, and I was told I'd have an answer within 24-48 hours. But within one hour, I got a notification that the insurance has approved the treatment, and I was able to call the speciality pharmacy to arrange delivery of the pills for Thursday.  Glad to have this in place. The eighteen-wheeler is revving its...

We had a busy Sunday: Costco in the morning (I wanted a round of prepared/frozen foods to get me through this week since Andrew will be in Germany), brunch at the Clarks', and then a visit to the Center for Creative Reuse, which is basically a permanent rummage sale of craft supplies. Andrew escaped to get a coffee but the girls and I were in our element.  On our way there, knowing from a photo I found online that there would be a card catalog full of junk that you could purchase by the bag, Lucia said, "I'm going straight to the junk drawers," and my heart filled with pride, both in her for being a creative child and in myself for successfully parenting her into that child. I feel like there's a college application just waiting in that line--I can't articulate it yet, and she didn't buy it, but I think there's something to it.  Tonight, I went upstairs and found that the salad Greta had made for Nutmeg was sitting on her bedroom floor, untouched. This...

Friday evening we went to dinner at the club as a break from our cobbled-together "cooking" from the week, and then Greta met a friend at school to see the Upper School play.  Saturday Lucia was gone all day--from 6:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m.--for a track meet in Spirer, Ohio. She got a new PR for the mile--5:57!--and was exhausted but excited about her events. Greta went to Saturday crew practice in the morning, and Andrew and I went to the Oakmont Bakery after dropping her off. Afterward, we went to Panera for lunch then browsed in Anthropologie. Greta found a cute skirt sale-on-sale and Andrew bought a cute casserole dish, also sale-on-sale. I admired a swan tray that will, at some point, be mine. Later Greta and I watched an episode of Stranger Things.  I forgot to write earlier in the week that Greta won two awards for her short stories! Her teacher had encouraged her to submit two of her stories for the Scholastic Writing Awards, and this week she found out she was awarde...

The workers fixed the heat when the arrived on Tuesday. I guess I should say "fixed," because the only thing they had to do was TURN THE THERMOSTAT UP. They'd turned it down when they worked on Friday so dust wouldn't fly around everywhere. We had no idea the thermostat was still there. "Ha ha, I guess that was an easy fix, we had no idea," I blathered when I saw the guys on my way to the basement. They gave me withering looks (at least they did in my imagination). Tuesday the girls had a two-hour delay and their piano lessons were virtual. Wednesday they were back at school at regular time. It's still not easy getting around, and there are mountains of snow in front of our house, but the roads are somewhat / kind of cleared. Fun New Winter Twist: it's so cold outside that we now have drips of water coming down our chandelier in the stairwell. This, in addition to the drips of water near the window in our bathroom. There must be some kind of ice dam....

We are all excited about the snow. It's been too long since we've had a decent snowstorm, and we were happy to just stay home all day Sunday and Monday. The kids had remote school and Andrew and I worked from home. We played Blokus and Rummikub. Greta and I read some winter picture books in front of the fire in the Long Room. We watched This Is Us. Greta and I worked on a puzzle. The kids went sledding down Wightman on Sunday; on Monday they had a snowball fight in the backyard. Farrah loves bounding around in the snow. When we took her for a walk on Monday, Andrew ended up helping to push a stuck car out of the snow; three people had unwisely ventured out, trying to get to the airport. It took a few neighbors to push the car and dig them out, but they were successful. The only bad thing about these snowy days is that somehow the heat in the basement completely stopped working over the weekend. Saturday was chilly, but by Sunday it was absolutely freezing. Lucia had the good id...

The week flew by rather chaotically. With Andrew in Brazil I had to manage the crazy mornings of trying to get the car out of the driveway so the workers could park there, but also then arrange with the street crew who are tearing up the street right in front of our house, prohibiting parking on our block, then get the kids to school, then park again, then go to work.  There was also a winter storm to prepare for. We have a generator and lots of food, so I went out Thursday just to get some milk and jugs of water.  The insurance approval process continues with a denial of the appeal. Now it goes to a peer-to-peer stage where my doctor has to present evidence and argument to justify giving me this drug. From what I've read in the LGSOC group I belong to on Facebook, some doctors won't even go through this process. So I'm lucky that my care team is doing everything they can to make this happen, but it's still extremely frustrating and nerve-wracking. Andrew got home Frida...

It was so cold today that the kids' school switched to remote learning. Since this is the very beginning of the semester, there wasn't a lot of work to do, so after completing what they were assigned they spent the rest of the day sewing clothes (Greta) and bedazzling things while listening to a Percy Jackson audiobook (Lucia).  My sewing machine may be on its last legs--Greta was having all kinds of problems with it today--and when I looked back on old emails I realized I got it for my birthday from Mom and Dad in 2012. It's 14 years old! I got it that year because I wanted to sew a sleep sack for Lucia's baby doll, which, at 3, she carried everywhere. *sob* It may be time for an upgrade, especially if Greta wants to keep sewing. There were piano lessons and Lucia's tutoring in the evening, and then we heated up a few Trader Joe's meals and watched This Is Us. The house was quiet, a lull between electircal work and continued demo. 

Today was a day off for me and the kids. It was also the day the electricians were here to move an electrical box from the kitchen to the basement. This meant power to a large portion of the house would be shut off, and the entire basement kitchen would be emptied so the new box could go into the closet with the HVAC. Greta was valiantly trying to hand-sew since the sewing machine was not working, and I was trying to clean up my office in uncomfortable dimness. Once Lucia woke up, we decided to just leave the house. We started off with pastries and coffees at Paris Baguette in Shadyside, finding some seats by the front window, and hung out there for a while. After a quick browse at Kards Unlimited, we drove to Target, where the kids were struck by the weird cuteness (?) of mini Fuggler backpack charms. They are strange little plush creatures with realistic human teeth. I bought them each one since the day had the feeling of a snow day--cozy togetherness. Everyone was chatty and in a go...

A relaxing day. The girls and I went to Trader Joe's this morning for some groceries. Since Andrew will be in Brazil all week for work, we picked out a bunch of frozen meals for our dinners. I'm giving myself the grace of pre-made meals this week instead of doing the labor of prepping, cooking, and cleaning up while also going to work every day and doing all the chauffering. Something has to give and what is going to give is cooking. Pad thai! Orange chicken! Pork shumai! Lasagna! Trader Joe's has no shortage of options. There will come a day when I will happily undertake elaborate recipes in an enormous, sparkling new kitchen. That day is not today.  We were home for the rest of the day. Greta continued her intense crafting, turning her attention to upcycling some old jeans. She sewed fabric panels into one pair and wore them the rest of the day, and also made a tote bag out of another pair.  Lucia worked on some homework as well as editing a video she and a friend made at...

Wednesday I got my first fulvestrant injections--two shots, one at the top of each glute. I was a little nervous but they weren't anywhere as bad as I'd feared. It was a relief to finally get this part of the new treatment started. Do your work, powerful meds. Next dose is in two weeks. Thursday, the electricians were here and told me when they arrived that the power would likely be off intermittently. So instead of working from home like I'd planned, I went into the office for the morning. (Andrew played with fire and worked from home.) Andrew picked me up at lunchtime and we had lunch at the club, sitting in front of the fire. Very pleasant. Then I worked from home all afternoon, and the power stayed on.  Thursday evening was the Middle School and Upper School winter chorus concert. Mom and Dad drove in for it and we gathered in the basement afterward to have dessert for Mom's birthday (which is Friday).  Friday was Greta's Middle School dance. She wore a beautifu...

The waiting is the hardest part. Waiting for test results is always excruciating (so excruciating that I've stopped looking at them) but the waiting I'm doing now, for my new treatment to start, is also difficult. I want the new meds IN MY SYSTEM, doing their powerful work. This is known to be a powerful combo, and I just need it to get going. But, good news, on Monday, on my way to a lunch meeting, the gyn-onc nurse called me and said I can start the fulvestrant injections on Wednesday while we wait for insurance approval for the ribociclib. That's great. Glad I can get started with this part.  Tuesday just felt like more waiting. I told Andrew I felt like my eighteen-wheeler was incrementally making its corner turn and he looked at me like I was crazy--he does not really keep up with the daily brilliance of my blog. "I'M the eighteen-wheeler," I said, trying to clarify.  The demo continues. Dust is absolutely everywhere. The cleaners came Tuesday morning (to...

A day of errands and catching up. Greta and I took Nutmeg to her grooming appointment in Bethel Park this morning. We are always amazed at how expertly and easily the volunteers handle the bunnies--for us, trying to pick Nutmeg up is like trying to hold onto a handful of water. After that, the kids and I went to Target, Tous Les Jours, and Giant Eagle. Later in the afternoon, Greta, Farrah, and I went for a walk in Schenley, in the snow. It was very pretty, and very cold--so cold that pebbles had become encased in ice and attached themselves to Farrah's paws. We had to stop a few times and then run her paws under warm water at home to melt them off.   The kids did homework and piano practicing in the evening, and I finally finished Gilmore Girls. I'll watch the reboot next, though I like where the series proper ended, with everyone just on the other side of the cusp of happiness. It was a good finale. 

A day of sports for my sports-loving family. Andrew left the house at 4:00 a.m. to get a flight to Florida to see a football game (and to see his sister, since he didn't get to see her at Christmas). He was excited about this "playoff" football game so I'm glad he got to go. I'm not sure if it's related, but the other day he forced me and the girls to "choose" a football team for some kind of pool. After Andrew read off the team names, most of which we'd never heard of, Greta, deadpan, announced that she'd take the Seahorses, and she's referred to them this way ever since. (I think the actual team name is "Seahawks," which makes even less sense than Seahorses, because at least seahorses are real animals. Is a seahawk just a blustery, masculine, watch-out-or-I'll-tackle-you way of saying "seagull"? Or maybe it's a real creature? I could Google it, but I prefer the uncertainty and the ongoing irritation we can br...

Lo, we have a working dishwasher and garbage disposal in the basement kitchen! Along with demo-ing a lot of drywall today, the workers also moved one of our dishwashers to the basement and installed it (replacing an old, non-working dishwasher) and moved the garbage disposal from our kitchen into our basement kitchen and installed it.  What this means is that our basement kitchen is now more functional than 98% of the kitchens we had in all the apartments and houses we lived in in our twenties and thirties. All of our NYC apartments--no garbage disposals or dishwashers. Our two apartments in Barcelona--neither (we didn't even have an oven in the second one, and only hot plates for a stovetop). Our apartment on P Street in Sacramento--neither. We did have a fully working kitchen in our rented house in Roseville, California. Then back to Brooklyn--neither. Our house in NH--neither. Our house in Maplewood did, of course, have a beautiful kitchen (eventually, after we renovated). Andre...

Demo began in earnest today, and when I got home from work I found an almost completely empty kitchen. All the cabinets, the island, and all the appliances except the refrigerator are gone. We could see notes scrawled on the drywall from the previous renovation thirty years ago. (I'll do a post with photos soon.) The other thing I found from the old kitchen was the only remaining drawer, which a workman had carried down to the basement, and which was filled with POTHOLDERS. Mystery solved! We had forgotten to empty one entire drawer.  We are doing well in our basement kitchen. Andrew and I have resolved not to buy any new food (except for staples like milk and things for the kids' lunches) until we eat everything from the freezer and pantry. We have had very normal meals so far (pierogies, chicken parmesan). Tonight was a little more free-form; the kids had the last of Mom's pasta with cauliflower and carrots (left over from their stay this weekend) and Andrew and I had a r...

This morning I had my appointment with my oncologist at Magee, and we agreed that my new treatment plan will follow Dr. Gershenson's recommendation of fulvestrant + ribociclib. Now we wait for insurance approvals, and then I can begin. My doctor seemed optimistic about getting the approvals, not least because a clinical trial has been studying this very combo for my cancer type. It can't be said loudly enough: Anyone who continues to support and vote republican is actively and directly harming my treatment possibilities and future options for life-saving care. Research funding and clinical trials matter. I am literally impacted by existing and future trials. My ability to get insurance approval for my new treatment, which, without approval, will cost more than $20,000 per month just for the ribociclib, relies on current clinical trials. I'm not sure it's clear to people who aren't very politically engaged that the impact this administration is having on science and ...

The title of this post is a summary of today's searches. As we settle into the basement kitchen, each day brings its own mysteries. Tonight, though "cooking dinner" consisted only of reheating chicken parmesan from the freezer and boiling pasta, it was complicated by the lack of easily-found potholders and colander. The potholders remain missing, but I did find a colander. The tablecloths, though we have several, seem to have disappeared into thin air. They are essential since our basement kitchen table, usually just a craft table but now called into action as a table where we eat, is covered with unremoveable swirls of super glue, candlemaking wax, glitter, resin, and acrylic paint. The workmen came today and prepped for demo. They covered all the floors with heavy planks of cardboard and taped them down securely. They sealed off the doors to the dining room. They sealed off the laundry area but with a zippered opening so we can still get in there when needed. The work h...

Andrew and I flew down to Houston on Sunday so I could meet with my doctor at MD Anderson this morning for a treatment consultation. I feel so fortunate to have access to the expert in this rare cancer. He laid out several treatment options and advised us which he would recommend for me right now, which is a different option than the one my doctor at home recommended. We'll talk to her on Wednesday and determine a path forward, which I imagine will be the new recommendation. This one has fewer side effects but a complicated insurace-approval aspect, but we will persevere.  It's reassuring to hear that there are many treatments. There is currently no "right" order to try them, but trying one doesn't rule out the others. It is, as they say, a journey.  After lunch at Navy Blue in Rice Village, we headed to the airport, where we are currently sitting in the United Club, waiting for our flight. (Just for the record--when we arrived last night we ordered Torchy's T...

With the basement setup nearly complete, today Andrew turned his attention to our wi-fi, a big question mark and issue. The wi-fi whatever whatever is hooked up to some kind of cable in our family room, and now it has to be reconnected to something somewhere else. Andrew explained the issue with a word salad that included words like cable, tower, router, mesh network, wi-fi, internet, TV, and more. This is actually a serious problem because we need to have wi-fi on every floor of our house. My home office is in the attic, Andrew's office and the girls' bedroms (where they do homework) are on the second floor, and our smart TV (which requires wi-fi or cable or something like that to function) is in the basement. Andrew and I work from home quite a bit, and having strong wi-fi is essential.  Anyway, the only phrase that stood out for me in all this as Andrew grimly described the complexity of the project was "mesh network," and I asked a barrage of absurd follow-up ques...

Today we continued moving things out of the kitchen and family room and into the basement. We are at peak inconvenience right now, running up and down the stairs to complete even the smallest task. Ready for lunch? Great--it's in the upstairs fridge. Go down to the basement for a plate. Back upstairs. Oops--I need a serving spoon. Back upstairs. Back downstairs to heat up the food and eat it. Forgot water--back upstairs to fill a glass. Forgot a glass. Back downstairs and then back upstairs and then back downstairs to eat. Back upstairs for the dishwasher. By the end of tomorrow, we'll be fully moved, but today was comical (and annoying).  Lucia spent most of the day hanging out at a friend's house, and Greta spent most of the day doing a puzzle. She has rediscovered a love of puzzling since we gave her a cute puzzle for Christmas and Mom and Dad gave us a puzzle table-top with drawers as a family gift. It is the best. I spent most of the day organizing the kitchen, reading...

Let the 2026 edition of Skipping Town begin. And let us begin with a renovation. Before Molly, Jeremy, and Luca left today, Jeremy helped Andrew move all the furniture out of the family room. This was no small task: two couches, a massively heavy bureau, a large farmhouse table, a leather armchair. Once they left, Andrew did the rest: a glass coffee table (with Greta's help), lamps. Mom and Dad came over in the afternoon to help us with the next phase: moving out all of the plants and all of the contents of every kitchen cupboard.  It took a few hours, but we did it. We have relocated our kitchen and family room entirely to the basement. The plants are now collected in various areas, and I hope they survive this time away from their favorite windows. Andrew and I spent the rest of the day organizing, putting away, storing, arranging. The end result is actually quite cozy and functional. The farmhouse table is in the Long Room, a perfect spot for playing games by the fire. The large...