Tuesday, June 29, 2010

New Haven!

I have to go to see Dr Valin, well, actually, Deb Valin, on July 14th for my annual follow-up for my gastric bypass. This will be a good appt...I have to talk with her about having the hernia repaired and also seeing if Dr. V will do my colonoscopy...all after I come back from Sweden, of course.

After the appointment, I want to do my usual trip to Ikea and then to either Frank Pepe's for pizza or to Lenny and Joe's for seafood.

I am looking for folks to accompany me on this adventure. Several people have said they have never been to Ikea and want to go...here's your chance.

The bus will leave Griswold a little after 9am to get to New Haven for my 10:30 appt.

Let me know if you are interested in spending the day...and some $$ down there.

I'm able to do a lot more lately...house work, laundry (hung two loads out on the line today---smells so good!) and tomorrow I'm going to mow the lawn again, with Sandy's permission! I do get tired, so I pace myself as my coach told me to do.

My bowels (knock on wood) seem to be getting straightened out...not too many trips to the toilet in the middle of the night the past two nights.

I'm four and a half weeks out now from my last treatment so every day will see things get better and better, or I'll know the reason why! Sandy said to expect that I will have more and more trouble with my allergies. I'll take that problem over cancer any day of the week!

I raised $1425 for the Relay this year. Not my best year, but not bad considering I really didn't have much energy to beg for funds and got a late start to boot.

We have voted to change the name of the team to "Husky Maniacs" instead of UConn Jack's Husky Maniacs"...Jack insisted on his name being removed. Leon wanted to do some foolishness like call the team "Annie's Army" but I pointed out I could become like Jack...stuck with a team named after me and feeling obligated to stick with it. Not that I plan to leave the team or anything. We need to get more people on the team.

The weather is gorgeous, except for yesterday, which was kind of scary. Tomorrow is supposed to be perfect. I plan to get a lot done.

Nighty night.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Relay


Well...the Relay is over for another year! It was HOT HOT HOT yesterday and it took a lot of "the starch" out of me, but I was able to walk the "Survivor Lap" and then later walked a few laps during the Luminaria Ceremony.

Russ, Bonnie and Lorraine showed up early. Way early. So they walked the early rounds and Russ took pictures. I met up with Joyce and Bill in the Survivor's Tent and we had a nice chat. Then Ginny invited me to walk with the banner at the start of the walk.

Steve showed up early and did a lot of walking, in the hottest part of the day. I sat under Janet's EZup and sweated a lot. Anne came and brought her famous brownies, Leon ran errands and Cindy and I sweated some more.

It was a good day but the heat got to me later. I went home around 4:30, staggered into the shower, collapsed into bed and slept for two hours. Sweet Bubbles let me sleep that long...even though they usually get fed at 5:00...she let me go an hour and a half longer!

I went and got Joyce at her house and we went back for the Luminaria ceremony. It was nice. We walked a couple of laps and then sat and watched the pictures on a big screen they had in the middle of the field. There were two good pictures of her and one of me...that they had taken in the Survivor's tent.

Hung around to see if I won anything in the raffles....no, but Leon won the "booby prize"....free salsa and chips with purchase of entree at Chili's! SOME PRIZE! It was a coupon with an August 31st expiration date...like someone cut it out of a magazine. We laughed our asses off at that one. Earlier we had been making fun of this "prize"...like "who in the hell would spend $20 to win that?" and "what cheap skate donated that one?" We found out the answer to question one!

Leon protested that he put one ticket in the bin for that prize...and it was a mistake since he thought it was for the $35 gift certificate to Chili's that was right next to the coupon one. Well...Leon's name was called again...he had won another prize. We all waited eagerly to see what he had won....it was ANOTHER damn coupon for "Free salsa and chips w/entree." OMG...more laughing!

After that I brought Joyce home and went home myself and crashed. But I couldn't sleep, multiple bathroom visits....interspersed by periods of lying there, wide awake.

So, I got up early and got back down to the Relay to close up shop this AM. Leon and Cindy helped pack stuff up and Janet, Jess and Jeremy came down just as I was running out of steam and loaded everything into the car for me. I went home and crashed for four hours, with my puppies sleeping with me.

Job well done, by all.

Sandy fixed the leaking waterfall situation. I had done a few things to it to try to stop it from leaking into the garage...at the filter site. Nothing had worked. She fiddled around with it and now it's not leaking AND the waterfall is running very good. The strongest it's run since we moved in. I think there was something plugging the line that slowed the water down to a trickle and it suddenly freed. We finally have a good looking waterfall...the fish will be forever grateful. It gets hot out there and they need a good flow of water to keep the pond oxygenated.

So, now nothing big going on until the trip to Sweden, just a month of playing, picnicing and kayaking (I hope!).


Thanks to all who contributed to my walk in the Relay, who walked the Relay and who helped our team in any way!

Later!