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Friday, January 9: In the Hierarchy of Functional Kitchens

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...
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Thursday, January 8: Demo

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...
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Wednesday, January 7: Status Update - I'm an Eighteen-Wheeler

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 ...
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Tuesday, January 6: Tablecloths, Potholders, Colander

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...
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Sunday, January 4 - Monday, January 5: Houston

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...
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Saturday, January 3: The Mesh Network

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...
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Friday, January 2: Upstairs, Downstairs

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...
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