where have we been?

Of course I mean the royal "we". Since it's been nigh on 4 years since my last post, I thought it might be something to resurrect the ol' girl. After all, I finally "finished" my BIP (Book in Progress, for those not in the know) and have been lackadaisically submitting it to literary agents with the encouragement of the excellent Ms. Reisman. A couple months ago I also started a YA novel, which I unfortunately put on hold to do more tweaking and revisions of Ambrose's story. Not much time to write a full post now, but I swear I'll be back! And soon!

birthdays and staplers and dogs, oh my!

Apparently, I haven't even logged into my blog since March as there were comments to be moderated. But now there's an awesome reason to revive the blog and post:

Suebob's 50th birthday!

It was 5 years ago that I stumbled on her blog from another internet friend's blogroll and I haven't stopped reading since. S, early on in the relationship, got used to the fact that I talked about all these people whose lives I read but had never met.
And in Chicago in 2009, I did get to meet the wonderful Suebob (never SueBob, it irks her!) and her red stapler. Even though it was broken. Like Laurie, I was a bit intimidated because everyone knows Suebob and who was I? Just a some time blogger who had no business being at a blogging convention, let alone meeting and rooming with one of the coolest gals at the conference. Yet, when I opened the hotel room door for her, it really wasn't like we were meeting for the first time in real life. And that's what's so great about Sue; how welcoming she is, to all.
And I love how much she loves Goldie. She's part of the reason I broke down and adopted Grover, the love of my life. Other people would talk about the hardships of pet ownership and it would give me a second thought, but the love she has for that mutt (& I use that term fondly) is amazing. It shouldn't be considering all the love she has to give for all of her causes. Case in point, her 50 for 50 birthday celebration. Rather than request presents, Sue brought attention to different charities near and dear to her heart for people to send donations if they so choose.
And this is why I love Suebob Davis.
Oh, and because she's cute!

the party don't stop

The pity party, that is. Harhar!
The stress from S's unemployment dispute being denied (and hoping in some small, traitorous way that he won't appeal the decision, therefore having to go to court and extending my stress, not to mention his) is causing me to end up going out of remission or forming an ulcer. Yay, for more steroids to cure me (& plump me up)! Just as I'd lost a pound or two.
But all is not lost, at least not entirely. Home life in general is fairly decent, S's mom is turning 60 next week and we're having a big celebration for her on Sunday, we got to see my darling baby neice 3 weeks ago and she's cuter than ever (very proud Auntie Em here), getting an awesome Lush package (thanks Suzanne!) and our little fur baby, Grover, turned 2 on the 23rd. That little monster is one of the best things to happen to either of us. Unfortunately, he was a sick doggie on his b-day and we had to pick up some puppy probiotics (go figure!) on the day. He was much improved by the weekend & demolished his new loofah dog from grandma & grandpa.
Another encouraging event, not that I'm the marriage-hungry type, is that S has changed from saying "if we get married" to "when we get married" in the rare conversation. Not that I feel 32, but it's creeping up on me. And it saddens me little sad to say that occasionally looking at wedding stuff online is a little exciting. I've never been that girl, don't really want to be, but I think I would love to have a classy, intimate ceremony and a big reception afterwards. Guess I'm something of a girly-girl deep down after all.

outlook: not so good

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the e-mail program. But luckily, I'm also not talking about S's dad's prognosis. Even though he's not doing so well on the chemo and they've had to reduce the dosage. The daily radiation is fine and hopefully will see results.
The problem is that his former employer has disputed his unemployment claim for misconduct (because he swore at his boss's brother after being being called incompetent among other things). So yeah, that's awesome. It means S has to have a conference call with his former boss and a mediator to tell their sides of the story and then see who they judge is in the right. Which is funny because his boss wasn't even in the state when it happened. And I'm not holding my breath that he'll get to come out on the winning side; this'll be awesome for his PTSD/depression.
On a lighter note, I found cheap(ish) plane tickets to visit my darling baby niece and we're headed to the Great North on Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend. It'll be 4 months since we saw her the first time and by the time we do, she might even be crawling. I'm not much of a baby person, and of course I'm totally biased, but she's the most adorable baby!
Well, lunch break is over. Best get back to it since I'm the only breadwinner in the house now. My joking about being a sugar mama has come true! Oh nos!

always more fun

This getting back on track stuff is hard. I really thought I'd be able to keep up with blogging. That was a good one and it lasted about as long as the average New Year's resolution. Good thing I forgot to make any this year.
At least I'm still going to the gym 5-6 days/week. But I started that trend back in August, so now it's one of those good habits, like making your bed for 2 solid weeks so that it becomes second nature.
Anyroad, enough with the ramble. The whole point of posting again is to whine about recent life. As that seems to be the whole point of my blog at all.
Two weeks ago, S's dad started his radiation and chemo. 2 and a half weeks ago S got fired. Since we were technically DINKs (double income, no kids), does that make us OINKs now? Lots of fun there, what with a mortgage and all. Hopefully some unemployment will come through and we have a little bit of money to tide us to supplement my salary. I may get into more details later. After all, this is my 301st post in 6 years. In for a penny, in for a pound, right?

new year, new you?

Not really new me. Just more of me. I've apparently put on 20lbs in the last 2 years. This would be since I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, but the meds are supposed to keep any weight gain in check. Of course, then there's the moving in with S, plus even more settling in since we bought the house 10 months ago. Not to mention I've been on prednisone for 2 months.
Despite getting my ever-expanding behind to the gym 3 to 5 times every week, I seem to have a problem. I'm going to have to step it up even more in the minutiae that is calorie counting because I am seriously failing at something. And I'm pretty sure it's not that I now belong to a gym. Never in my life have I been a runner, but I actually enjoy the treadmill (to an extent). Maybe it's because I did a 5k in a decent time and didn't explode. Admittedly, it wasn't 100% running, but even 5 minutes at a stretch with intervals of jogging is impressive for me who couldn't finish the mile back in hs in the time required. In fact, I would totally go to the gym twice a day if work didn't hinder me. Mayhap the lottery pool at work will allow me to ramp up my gym activity. (Come on, big money!)
In one week, I should be done with the steroids. *fingers crossed* Hoping there will be no symptoms that lead me to have to start back on them. Maybe then I'll be able to dig in and at least lose 5lbs by my birthday on the 1st. Even 10% of my body weight at this point is a low goal. But I do have a workout buddy & that is some motivation. I always hated the thought of someone seeing me in all my red, sweaty glory, but the high from the workout has diminished my vanity to some extent. Perhaps I'm less concerned in my old age.
So this is my non-resolution, new year's resolution. Get healthy, stay healthy and encourage those around me to be healthy.

while we were away

So I didn't think anyone would actually notice my absence all that much since BlogHer. But apparently I have been missed. The reasoning behind my silence is the result of numerous things. After I got back from an amazing time in NYC, I joined the new rec center (first ever gym membership for me!) because of the employee incentive of it costing $12.50/month if you go just once a week. We've also been dealing with a plethora of renovation stuff. After almost 4 months of waiting, and sending back a sliding glass door that was incorrectly ordered by the association contractors, we finally had a new deck door in October. With that they had to rip up our kitchen floor because of rotting underneath where the door leaked. Over a month of splinters and walking on plywood, we currently have Durock down waiting on tiling to be completed.
And here's where things get to the bad and the ugly. S's dad is a contractor, who planned to help us. He put down travertine in the half bath and started patching the walls in there over Thanksgiving, but he'd been feeling sick. Two weeks ago Thursday he turned yellow, painless jaundice, and went into acute care that Friday morning. A CT scan showed a mass in his pancreas, he refused to be admitted because his wife was sick and opted to be seen in the clinic where I work that Monday. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The size of the mass (3cm) meant it had probably been growing for 2 years. I scheduled him for the necessary procedures with the best docs on Wednesday and Thursday. Spent Wednesday afternoon with S's mom while he was in the procedure. Two days ago they saw the surgical oncologist and Friday they see the rad oncology doctor. From the biopsies they believe he's a good surgical candidate for resection, but they want to use chemo and radiation to try to shrink the tumor as much as possible before they go in to remove it. At the very least the biopsies came back clear that the cancer had not metastasized to his liver.
Pancreatic cancer has something like a 3% survival rate and S's dad is only 60. He's an extremely large presence in all of our lives. My parents live 800 miles away and because S's parents live on the other side of town, they have become my family these past 4 years. Right now all we can do is take it one day at a time and whatever the experts recommend.

for sb

A few months ago, as a fundraiser for the local animal shelter, the lovely Heather Jahn offered a free photo along with a mini photo shoot for your pet. We are total suckers and took Grover because it is near impossible for us to get pictures of him. (Black dog=bad lighting)
Here is the result:







Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen? Even if he is a total bratface half the time!