Skipping Town

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...