Holy crap. That was not as easy as advertised. Next time they can knock me out, thank you very much.
It's out now though, so that's the important part.
It was harder and took a lot longer than they expected to get it out, of course (though it still only took like 20 minutes I think; feels a lot longer when you're laying on the table).
That is all.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Another week gone by
So it's been nearly a week since the last post. Like I said in the last one, the chemo went better, as in I didn't feel as bad. But I've had some crazy side effects (or just unlucky problems) this week. I couldn't sleep at all on Monday, literally. And I've had some crazy constipation and hemorrhoid-like problems as well. And lots of stomach acid. I have some other prescriptions now that help greatly with the stomach acid and apparently sleeping too. There's this somewhat new drug called Rozarem which is supposedly completely non-addictive (i.e. unlike every other sleeping medication in existence). I took it Tuesday night I think? I slept like a baby, but was totally groggy for basically the whole next day. I haven't needed it again yet though. It's possible the Decadron I get during chemo is what is keeping me up or it could be something else totally unrelated.
I worked out yesterday, first time in quite a while. I was exhausted afterward and took a nap. I mowed the lawn too. Later in the day we trekked down to Alexandria and met up with Pat and Minh Chau. They moved into a new place which we went to go see. It was nice. Their three cats are adorable. I am going to catnap them. We went to old town Alexandria and had a totally surreal experience. I wanted pizza so we found this one pizza place but it didn't look super awesome so we walked like 7 blocks back to where we started and went to an Indian place because naan and curry sounded awesome. So we went in and sat down. And we sat, for a long time. No food ever came. Sometimes we would get a drink refill maybe. After like 40 minutes two plates (there were four of us) were delivered, but no food. So we sat some more. Eventually Minh Chau took charge and we just left after wasting about an hour. There were at least three people who had been there longer than us that also had no food. Their chef must have had a seizure or something, but it would have been nice for them to share that information with us. I was still in a good mood, miraculously, despite being hungry. So we had a good hilarious laugh about the situation. Then I got cranky. We went to Dairy Godmother which is a neat creamery type place in Alexandria (I think that's where we were at least) and I got a shake, but I needed actual food. After that we went to a different Indian place, which is actually on the first floor of the apartment they used to live at. It was excellent. It was apparently Emily's first time ever having Indian food and she liked it as well. I'm pretty sure it was actually good food, but I would have eaten anything by that point in time. It was fun hanging out with Pat and Minh Chau. We really need to do it more often; too bad it's at least a one hour one-way drive :(
Today we might have a BBQ with Trevor.
Tuesday I am having my stent removed. I'm a bit apprehensive about it as there is no anesthesia involved, but I'm told by several doctors who have presumably never had anything 30cm long removed through their urethra that it is not painful and is a routine procedure.
I am looking forward to biking again and hopefully even going for another camp/hike excursion or two before winter sets in again.
Other than that I am planning to have a nice quiet week at work. We get Friday off for the 4th. We might go into DC for the 4th. The fireworks are nice, but that's about it. I just feel like there is something a wee bit special about being in "our nation's capital" for Independence Day.
I worked out yesterday, first time in quite a while. I was exhausted afterward and took a nap. I mowed the lawn too. Later in the day we trekked down to Alexandria and met up with Pat and Minh Chau. They moved into a new place which we went to go see. It was nice. Their three cats are adorable. I am going to catnap them. We went to old town Alexandria and had a totally surreal experience. I wanted pizza so we found this one pizza place but it didn't look super awesome so we walked like 7 blocks back to where we started and went to an Indian place because naan and curry sounded awesome. So we went in and sat down. And we sat, for a long time. No food ever came. Sometimes we would get a drink refill maybe. After like 40 minutes two plates (there were four of us) were delivered, but no food. So we sat some more. Eventually Minh Chau took charge and we just left after wasting about an hour. There were at least three people who had been there longer than us that also had no food. Their chef must have had a seizure or something, but it would have been nice for them to share that information with us. I was still in a good mood, miraculously, despite being hungry. So we had a good hilarious laugh about the situation. Then I got cranky. We went to Dairy Godmother which is a neat creamery type place in Alexandria (I think that's where we were at least) and I got a shake, but I needed actual food. After that we went to a different Indian place, which is actually on the first floor of the apartment they used to live at. It was excellent. It was apparently Emily's first time ever having Indian food and she liked it as well. I'm pretty sure it was actually good food, but I would have eaten anything by that point in time. It was fun hanging out with Pat and Minh Chau. We really need to do it more often; too bad it's at least a one hour one-way drive :(
Today we might have a BBQ with Trevor.
Tuesday I am having my stent removed. I'm a bit apprehensive about it as there is no anesthesia involved, but I'm told by several doctors who have presumably never had anything 30cm long removed through their urethra that it is not painful and is a routine procedure.
I am looking forward to biking again and hopefully even going for another camp/hike excursion or two before winter sets in again.
Other than that I am planning to have a nice quiet week at work. We get Friday off for the 4th. We might go into DC for the 4th. The fireworks are nice, but that's about it. I just feel like there is something a wee bit special about being in "our nation's capital" for Independence Day.
Monday, June 22, 2009
First treatment with new cocktail
Today was the first treatment with my new reduced cocktail of drugs. I certainly feel better than I have historically on Mondays and Emily says I look at lot better (I never look in the mirror as I'm generally occupied with finding a bed to sleep in). I was still rather tired. I don't know if it was just expectation of being tired, or what. I don't believe any of the medication I received is supposed to make me sleepy. I only slept for maybe two hours though, so much better than my normal take. I have huge headache right now though. This is probably attributable to my right nostril still being perpetually upset and the gash over my right eyebrow.
Seems like things are going well, then.
The person next to me had their first infusion of IV Iron, and possibly had an allergic reaction to it (this is not a common occurrence). She was all freaking out (pain, trouble breathing, etc.) and the paramedics came and took her away in a stretcher. That was too much excitement for the infusion center! There were a bunch of people there initially as well, not too sure why. They're usually very quiet on Mondays and I get to monopolize their time. I was the only there by the time we left though.
The first episode of Series 13 of Top Gear aired Sunday night and I grabbed it and Emily and I just watched it. Entertaining as usual.
And lastly, here's a picture:
Sham-Wow!
(I've actually never seen that infomercial, but I've seen the guy on the side of a box and this picture mildly reminds me of that.)
Seems like things are going well, then.
The person next to me had their first infusion of IV Iron, and possibly had an allergic reaction to it (this is not a common occurrence). She was all freaking out (pain, trouble breathing, etc.) and the paramedics came and took her away in a stretcher. That was too much excitement for the infusion center! There were a bunch of people there initially as well, not too sure why. They're usually very quiet on Mondays and I get to monopolize their time. I was the only there by the time we left though.
The first episode of Series 13 of Top Gear aired Sunday night and I grabbed it and Emily and I just watched it. Entertaining as usual.
And lastly, here's a picture:
Sham-Wow!(I've actually never seen that infomercial, but I've seen the guy on the side of a box and this picture mildly reminds me of that.)
I look incredibly pale; but, then again I am pale. Also, this is the pump I keep talking about that I have to carry around with me. And you can see my accesseed port on my left (right of picture). The tiny little infusion cord is probably hard to make out. Also you can see my "sleepy hair cowlick" in the back.
I am not planning to go to work tomorrow, or Wednesday. Though if I feel very good tomorrow I might plop by work for a few hours after I have my pump out on Wendesday, as I will be basically halfway there.
I am not planning to go to work tomorrow, or Wednesday. Though if I feel very good tomorrow I might plop by work for a few hours after I have my pump out on Wendesday, as I will be basically halfway there.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Did a bunch of junk outside
*phew* I'm pooped out after working outside. After I finally got out of bed around 10:00AM I spent about3 hours working on a programming project (that I'm doing for fun; a budgeting application). That project is coming along very well actually. I can and have already used it to analyze my spending in the way that I want to.
After that I went outside. Got out the weed whacker and trimmed up all the hedges and knocked some crazy weeds in our "no go" areas. After that I got out my new wet/dry shop vac and emptied both Emily and my cars and vacuumed them out. Probably got a few pounds of sand out! They were both pretty dirty. After that I mowed the lawn and now it looks pretty and nice (nicest yard in the neighborhood! We are keeping up with the Jones'). After that I spread some of this "seed" which is actually insecticide. I put it in all the gardens (except Emily's new hill one, because I forgot about it until just now) and all around the base of the house and deck. Hopefully it rains (it has been pretty regularly) and gets it all soaked in and nukes those ants and whatever other baddies are in there. I got it all over me too, I'm sure that's healthy (not that I don't have things more important than that to worry about!).
Then I finally started the job of finishing replacing/burying all of the gutter downspout pipes. I need to dig a 16' x 7" ish sized trench for one. I didn't do that. But I did measure it and cut the huge roll of pipe that's been in my basement for a year down to size and put it out there, above ground. I got to replace some older yucky stuff that way there too. I took the extra pipe I had and put it on the back of the house downspout and ran it a good way down the hill. I doubt I'll ever bury that one, though it sort of annoying to walk over. Maybe someday.
After that I finished it all off by actually attaching a screw/hook to the outside of the deck to properly-ish suspend the defunct telephone wire (I ought to just cut the thing) and our cable modem incoming wire. They've basically been hanging on the ground since the deck went in. Got the screw in, managed to get the wires back up to deck level, attached guy wire to screw, routed the wires under the deck, and properly put a drip loop on each of them prior to the service entrance to the house.
I will relate something that I thought was hilarious. Last time I was at Lowe's in Catonsville here, I was buying a Sqaure D QO series 20 amp GFCI breaker because I am going to be adding some outlets to my basement. Of course this is against the law because I'm not going to pull permits for it, since only real electricians are allowed to do this in Baltimore county. Well, I sure felt good about my knowledge. There were these two guys there, I'll say they were from the country (if you catch my drift). They have a Lowe's guy there, and the Lowe's guy is on the phone (presumably to another Lowe's guy) and they're talking about what the guys have in their hand. They have a 100 amp subpanel breaker box, empty, and some breakers. They had absolutely no idea how to wire it up. And they were installed a subpanel somewhere. They were taking the advice of a Lowe's person on the phone to understand how the grounding, neutral, and hot bus bars worked. Wow. No wonder county codes and code enforcement exists. I'll probably read about the dying a fiery death in their sleep in the not to distant future.
I knocked the crap out of my head when I was in the basement looking at some stuff, the very corner is sort of stupidly laid out with a bunch of house stuff and then the weight machine ("the Borg cube"). I was crouched over trying to look at something for some random reason and as usual came up real fast and went about moving to somewhere else really fast. Well I came up and put my head right into the side of the weight bar. I got a nasty gash on right over my right eyebrow, missed my eye by about an inch. I made quite a racket about it, but Emily didn't know where I was so she was running around outside and what-not trying to find me. It'll be alright though.
Ewww! Blood!
I haven't been terribly hungry the past few days for some reason. I did all that on a granola bar and a muffin (a good Red Canoe muffin!) for breakfast. I finally came in and ate (lunch?) at about 5:30PM, which was the other half of my (actually, Emily's, but she gave it to me) panini from yesterday. Now I'm not hungry again. Not tired either, surprisingly. I need to go shower and get the funk off of me.
After that I went outside. Got out the weed whacker and trimmed up all the hedges and knocked some crazy weeds in our "no go" areas. After that I got out my new wet/dry shop vac and emptied both Emily and my cars and vacuumed them out. Probably got a few pounds of sand out! They were both pretty dirty. After that I mowed the lawn and now it looks pretty and nice (nicest yard in the neighborhood! We are keeping up with the Jones'). After that I spread some of this "seed" which is actually insecticide. I put it in all the gardens (except Emily's new hill one, because I forgot about it until just now) and all around the base of the house and deck. Hopefully it rains (it has been pretty regularly) and gets it all soaked in and nukes those ants and whatever other baddies are in there. I got it all over me too, I'm sure that's healthy (not that I don't have things more important than that to worry about!).
Then I finally started the job of finishing replacing/burying all of the gutter downspout pipes. I need to dig a 16' x 7" ish sized trench for one. I didn't do that. But I did measure it and cut the huge roll of pipe that's been in my basement for a year down to size and put it out there, above ground. I got to replace some older yucky stuff that way there too. I took the extra pipe I had and put it on the back of the house downspout and ran it a good way down the hill. I doubt I'll ever bury that one, though it sort of annoying to walk over. Maybe someday.
After that I finished it all off by actually attaching a screw/hook to the outside of the deck to properly-ish suspend the defunct telephone wire (I ought to just cut the thing) and our cable modem incoming wire. They've basically been hanging on the ground since the deck went in. Got the screw in, managed to get the wires back up to deck level, attached guy wire to screw, routed the wires under the deck, and properly put a drip loop on each of them prior to the service entrance to the house.
I will relate something that I thought was hilarious. Last time I was at Lowe's in Catonsville here, I was buying a Sqaure D QO series 20 amp GFCI breaker because I am going to be adding some outlets to my basement. Of course this is against the law because I'm not going to pull permits for it, since only real electricians are allowed to do this in Baltimore county. Well, I sure felt good about my knowledge. There were these two guys there, I'll say they were from the country (if you catch my drift). They have a Lowe's guy there, and the Lowe's guy is on the phone (presumably to another Lowe's guy) and they're talking about what the guys have in their hand. They have a 100 amp subpanel breaker box, empty, and some breakers. They had absolutely no idea how to wire it up. And they were installed a subpanel somewhere. They were taking the advice of a Lowe's person on the phone to understand how the grounding, neutral, and hot bus bars worked. Wow. No wonder county codes and code enforcement exists. I'll probably read about the dying a fiery death in their sleep in the not to distant future.
I knocked the crap out of my head when I was in the basement looking at some stuff, the very corner is sort of stupidly laid out with a bunch of house stuff and then the weight machine ("the Borg cube"). I was crouched over trying to look at something for some random reason and as usual came up real fast and went about moving to somewhere else really fast. Well I came up and put my head right into the side of the weight bar. I got a nasty gash on right over my right eyebrow, missed my eye by about an inch. I made quite a racket about it, but Emily didn't know where I was so she was running around outside and what-not trying to find me. It'll be alright though.
Ewww! Blood!I haven't been terribly hungry the past few days for some reason. I did all that on a granola bar and a muffin (a good Red Canoe muffin!) for breakfast. I finally came in and ate (lunch?) at about 5:30PM, which was the other half of my (actually, Emily's, but she gave it to me) panini from yesterday. Now I'm not hungry again. Not tired either, surprisingly. I need to go shower and get the funk off of me.
Insomniac
I dunno what it is but I have had quite a bit of trouble sleeping lately. My mind just feels like it's 1000 mph. After all the gadgets and lights go off and I am actually planning on going to sleep, I'm happy if it takes less than half an hour. This happens about every 1/3 days. Sometimes it takes less than an hour and a half, about another 1/3 days. Other days it feels like I will never go to sleep. I'll lay down trying to sleep at about 10:00PM, which is pretty normal for me. I roll and roll and roll until finally looking at the clock and seeing that it's 2:00AM. Usually at this point I just get out of bed and do something for a few hours, then I'm able to sleep.
I have used my oral Ativan prescription twice now for this, once last night. I am a bit leery of doing this, though that is it's purpose. When I get chemo I often can't go to sleep at night when I'm home the next few days, probably because I sleep so much in the day. But I still want to sleep at night, and the Ativan just calms my whirling mind down and I can sleep after that. I don't know if it's the same reason, being at the very tail end of my last treatment. I hope it goes away. I am not enamoured with the idea of getting addicted to something like Ativan or needing permanent sleep aids.
If you need fiber in your diet, Dave pointed me to an awesome thing: Quaker Chewy Oat Granola Bars, Fiber & Omega 3. I have the dark chocolate chunk flavor. One bar has 35% of your fiber for the day, which is honestly more than most people ever get in a day. And they taste great. I have mounds of Benefiber and Metamucil in various forms and I think they both taste just terrible. I need fiber in my diet, so this is great. There's another brand called Fiber Plus right next to these in the breakfast isle, but Dave says he think that the Quaker ones taste better. I also highly recommend them.
Also, Emily just caught some hilarious pictures of the kitty cats going at it:
The prequel...
The execution...
I have used my oral Ativan prescription twice now for this, once last night. I am a bit leery of doing this, though that is it's purpose. When I get chemo I often can't go to sleep at night when I'm home the next few days, probably because I sleep so much in the day. But I still want to sleep at night, and the Ativan just calms my whirling mind down and I can sleep after that. I don't know if it's the same reason, being at the very tail end of my last treatment. I hope it goes away. I am not enamoured with the idea of getting addicted to something like Ativan or needing permanent sleep aids.
If you need fiber in your diet, Dave pointed me to an awesome thing: Quaker Chewy Oat Granola Bars, Fiber & Omega 3. I have the dark chocolate chunk flavor. One bar has 35% of your fiber for the day, which is honestly more than most people ever get in a day. And they taste great. I have mounds of Benefiber and Metamucil in various forms and I think they both taste just terrible. I need fiber in my diet, so this is great. There's another brand called Fiber Plus right next to these in the breakfast isle, but Dave says he think that the Quaker ones taste better. I also highly recommend them.
Also, Emily just caught some hilarious pictures of the kitty cats going at it:
The prequel...
The execution...Saturday, June 20, 2009
Had a meeting with Dr. Kasamon
I had a meeting with Dr. Kasamon yesterday, my monthly one. We talked about the plans for chemotherapy, picking fruit from pick-your-own farms, the origin of his last name, and various other things. I happened to mention in passing that I had a blog for my family and he said that he had actually seen it before; he was Googling around for his name, which is very uncommon, and it was in the first couple pages of results. Funny! Also, I'm friends with him now on Facebook.
Anyway, back to what I'm sure you're all curious about: the chemotherapy. As of Monday we are removed the following drugs:
I am going to continue to get, for the immediate future at least:
For the immediate future I will still have the pump for 48 hours Monday-Wednesday, which is kind of a drag. 5-FU is available orally in a drug called Xeloda (Capecitabine), which I am going to try after a couple of infusions with the above cocktail. So when I'm on that I won't get the 48-hour 5-FU but will continue to go in for infusions of the other stuff (except maybe Aloxi/Decadron/Ativan).
I kind of expected this, but I'm pretty much going to be doing this for the rest of my life. I'm not super excited about that, but I guess given the alternative I'll take the infusions. We didn't get super into details, but I think eventually it might just be the 5-FU, which I can have orally. I'm not sure if I'll be on Avastin forever, which requires an infusion. At least that infusion is only 30 minutes long (and has no real side effects).
Regarding pick your own fruit, Dr. Kasamon said he and his wife enjoy going to Larriland Farms, which is out by the Days End Horse Farm west of here. He also said there's an organic pick-your-own place in Westminster called Baugher's Farm. Emily and I will have to check those out. We have yet to go to any places like that up here (or in Florida, for that matter). Seems like an excellent way to get fresh produce in quantities that we'll actually finish.
It's a yucky day outside so far. Right now Emily is making cheesecake brownies, which is super exciting. We're not sure what we're going to do today. We both want to eat at the Red Canoe, though we're not sure we'll get out there. I might do something around the house, don't know what. (We had some sugar ants get into our kitchen yesterday, that was fun. I think we'll be able to keep them relatively controlled. Apparently nearly everybody gets ants in their house in the summer up here.) Also Kevin (from work) is playing at Leadbetter's in Fell's Point tonight; we might go to that. Or maybe do nothing! Oh yeah, there's always test driving cars, which I haven't done any more of. I'm not in the mood for it right now though.
Update 2009-06-20 19:26:
We went to Red Canoe for lunch. It was excellent, though I was strangely not all that hungry. I had a vegetarian chili soup which was excellent. Emily had a gazpacho soup which I think she also very much enjoyed. And we split a panini which neither of us nearly finished. We also got blue corn chips along with it and we each had a medium mocha. Then we got two muffins to go. We were going to get some for Raquel (Todd's wife) because she once mentioned to me that she wanted to go there, and it's not really very close to their house. But I didn't (and still don't) know any of Todd's phone numbers miraculously, so I couldn't call and make sure that we could drop them by. I also don't know exactly where they live, which is also problematic. Oh well, we'll have to go back after I get that sorted out.
Here are some pictures to make you wish you had come, too:
Mocha mustache
Gazpacho and panini
Chili and panini
Panini close up, smiling at me
Aloof kitty cat who did not want to be my friend
We were super tired for some reason afterwards. We both ended up passing out asleep for a few hours. Ugh. It was great, but I really didn't need it. Emily hates naps, too.
Anyway, back to what I'm sure you're all curious about: the chemotherapy. As of Monday we are removed the following drugs:
- Irinotecan
- Emend
- Bolus of 5-FU
I am going to continue to get, for the immediate future at least:
- 48-hour infusion of 5-FU
- Avastin
- Leucavorin (folinic acid)
- Aloxi
- Decadron
- Ativan, if I want/need it
For the immediate future I will still have the pump for 48 hours Monday-Wednesday, which is kind of a drag. 5-FU is available orally in a drug called Xeloda (Capecitabine), which I am going to try after a couple of infusions with the above cocktail. So when I'm on that I won't get the 48-hour 5-FU but will continue to go in for infusions of the other stuff (except maybe Aloxi/Decadron/Ativan).
I kind of expected this, but I'm pretty much going to be doing this for the rest of my life. I'm not super excited about that, but I guess given the alternative I'll take the infusions. We didn't get super into details, but I think eventually it might just be the 5-FU, which I can have orally. I'm not sure if I'll be on Avastin forever, which requires an infusion. At least that infusion is only 30 minutes long (and has no real side effects).
Regarding pick your own fruit, Dr. Kasamon said he and his wife enjoy going to Larriland Farms, which is out by the Days End Horse Farm west of here. He also said there's an organic pick-your-own place in Westminster called Baugher's Farm. Emily and I will have to check those out. We have yet to go to any places like that up here (or in Florida, for that matter). Seems like an excellent way to get fresh produce in quantities that we'll actually finish.
It's a yucky day outside so far. Right now Emily is making cheesecake brownies, which is super exciting. We're not sure what we're going to do today. We both want to eat at the Red Canoe, though we're not sure we'll get out there. I might do something around the house, don't know what. (We had some sugar ants get into our kitchen yesterday, that was fun. I think we'll be able to keep them relatively controlled. Apparently nearly everybody gets ants in their house in the summer up here.) Also Kevin (from work) is playing at Leadbetter's in Fell's Point tonight; we might go to that. Or maybe do nothing! Oh yeah, there's always test driving cars, which I haven't done any more of. I'm not in the mood for it right now though.
Update 2009-06-20 19:26:
We went to Red Canoe for lunch. It was excellent, though I was strangely not all that hungry. I had a vegetarian chili soup which was excellent. Emily had a gazpacho soup which I think she also very much enjoyed. And we split a panini which neither of us nearly finished. We also got blue corn chips along with it and we each had a medium mocha. Then we got two muffins to go. We were going to get some for Raquel (Todd's wife) because she once mentioned to me that she wanted to go there, and it's not really very close to their house. But I didn't (and still don't) know any of Todd's phone numbers miraculously, so I couldn't call and make sure that we could drop them by. I also don't know exactly where they live, which is also problematic. Oh well, we'll have to go back after I get that sorted out.
Here are some pictures to make you wish you had come, too:
Mocha mustache
Gazpacho and panini
Chili and panini
Panini close up, smiling at me
Aloof kitty cat who did not want to be my friendWe were super tired for some reason afterwards. We both ended up passing out asleep for a few hours. Ugh. It was great, but I really didn't need it. Emily hates naps, too.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The venerable Honda Fit
First thing's first: I felt awful yesterday, I couldn't get any sleep at all Sunday night. Don't know what the reason was. I had a hard time falling asleep last night too and finally resorted to some Ativan. Hopefully I don't feel the need for that tonight (I've felt pretty good all day).
Didn't get what I was planning/hoping to do done at work because I got sidetracked on another problem that turned out to a lot more frustrating than I had initially suspected. I think I mostly solved it by the end of the day though, luckily. Hopefully on to my ever growing to-do list tomorrow.
Tonight Emily and I test drove a Honda Fit. She was grumpy because she had a bad day and I said I would be home early so we could eat and test drive and get home at a good hour, and I was not home early. We went anyway though. Anyway, it was at O'Donnell Honda on Rt. 40 in Ellicott City. The salesman was super friendly. I only had to mention once that I wasn't going to be buying a car that day and that I was already fairly familiar with the Fit. He didn't persist with anything after that, and actually just gave me the keys and told me to have a good time, basically. He didn't come along for the ride.
Anyway, the car certainly didn't have the same build quality as the VW, but it costs $7,000 less, so who would expect it to? It was quieter than my Saturn, and the steering was more responsive (though given my driving style from the Saturn, Emily said it was a bit "twitchy" as I was all over the place). I did get it settled down a bit after a few miles though. The car is very utilitarian too. It can hold 56 cubic feet of cargo, and the rear seats are engineered very cleverly to both fold flat with no effort, and the front of the seats can come up, leaving a deep cavity to fit tall things (i.e. a bike or two). Very very clever.
I'm still going to test drive a Mazda 3 and a VW GTI, which are both priced pretty similarly (i.e. $3,000+ more than the Fit) and are more sporty than the Fit. But that Fit can give a lot of stuff a run for the money. Very well priced, excellent gas mileage, and excellent utility.
Sigh, the choices are so tough!
Didn't get what I was planning/hoping to do done at work because I got sidetracked on another problem that turned out to a lot more frustrating than I had initially suspected. I think I mostly solved it by the end of the day though, luckily. Hopefully on to my ever growing to-do list tomorrow.
Tonight Emily and I test drove a Honda Fit. She was grumpy because she had a bad day and I said I would be home early so we could eat and test drive and get home at a good hour, and I was not home early. We went anyway though. Anyway, it was at O'Donnell Honda on Rt. 40 in Ellicott City. The salesman was super friendly. I only had to mention once that I wasn't going to be buying a car that day and that I was already fairly familiar with the Fit. He didn't persist with anything after that, and actually just gave me the keys and told me to have a good time, basically. He didn't come along for the ride.
Anyway, the car certainly didn't have the same build quality as the VW, but it costs $7,000 less, so who would expect it to? It was quieter than my Saturn, and the steering was more responsive (though given my driving style from the Saturn, Emily said it was a bit "twitchy" as I was all over the place). I did get it settled down a bit after a few miles though. The car is very utilitarian too. It can hold 56 cubic feet of cargo, and the rear seats are engineered very cleverly to both fold flat with no effort, and the front of the seats can come up, leaving a deep cavity to fit tall things (i.e. a bike or two). Very very clever.
I'm still going to test drive a Mazda 3 and a VW GTI, which are both priced pretty similarly (i.e. $3,000+ more than the Fit) and are more sporty than the Fit. But that Fit can give a lot of stuff a run for the money. Very well priced, excellent gas mileage, and excellent utility.
Sigh, the choices are so tough!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I test drove a car
So Emily and I just finished eating dinner after an outing to test drive a Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI.
Wow, it was a nice car. I totally did in my car search by driving such a nice car this early on. Now nothing else is going to compare, methinks.
I wanted to test drive the 2-door Rabbit as well, but they did not have any. Apparently they haven't even been able to buy them from VW for most of the year.
The SportWagen looks amazing (probably the nicest looking hatchback/wagon I've seen) and definitely feels like it has quite a bit of build quality to it. Certainly felt like a safe and well put together vehicle.
The "TDI" portion basically means it's a diesel engine. They hadn't been able to sell diesels in the U.S. since 2006 when some sort of emissions laws changed. So those Germans went back to the hinterland and toiled away until they came up with an even better engine that meets all 50 states' emissions requirements, and gets >40 miles per gallon highway moving a big wagon like that.
The engine has a lot of torque, and certainly more horsepower than my Saturn. I turned out into traffic for the first time and startled myself with the power. It was very nice. It was also very quiet and controlled on the interstate at 70MPH, which was also a very nice change of circumstance from my loud old Saturn ;)
I drove the "automated manual", which is Volkswagen's DSG manual transmission with "tiptronic" shifting, which is some fancy Porsche automatic transmission. Basically it's an extremely clever transmission system which has the ability to just shift automatically, but you can put it in manual override where you control the gear changes, though without a clutch (the cluch is automated)... so it's kind of like an F1 "flappy paddle" transmission, except you use the gear shifter to do the shifts rather than paddles on the steering wheel.
It was nice, but for $1,100 I think I could learn to drive a manual. Especially if we follow through on plans to move to the U.K.; they just don't seem to drive automatics over there on that other continent. So knowing how to drive a manual will be a very valuable skill.
The car I drove today had a sticker price of like $25,600... which I think is frankly crazy. And I'm still considering purchasing it. They are very hard to come by. They had two for sale, one manual and the one I drove. He said they are getting 4 more, he thinks, in the next couple of months and that's going to be it for the 2009 models. I liked the one I drove today, but I just wish it were a manual. The manual they have is an ugly black color (it has some chrome trim, which the grey one I drove had too, but it just looked gaudy and too contrasting on the black). Unfortunately with basically all of the cars on my list, beggars can't be choosers. They all seem to be in limited supply, this one just especially so.
Emily really liked it too. Looks like we'll have to do some sleeping on this one.
Wow, it was a nice car. I totally did in my car search by driving such a nice car this early on. Now nothing else is going to compare, methinks.
I wanted to test drive the 2-door Rabbit as well, but they did not have any. Apparently they haven't even been able to buy them from VW for most of the year.
The SportWagen looks amazing (probably the nicest looking hatchback/wagon I've seen) and definitely feels like it has quite a bit of build quality to it. Certainly felt like a safe and well put together vehicle.
The "TDI" portion basically means it's a diesel engine. They hadn't been able to sell diesels in the U.S. since 2006 when some sort of emissions laws changed. So those Germans went back to the hinterland and toiled away until they came up with an even better engine that meets all 50 states' emissions requirements, and gets >40 miles per gallon highway moving a big wagon like that.
The engine has a lot of torque, and certainly more horsepower than my Saturn. I turned out into traffic for the first time and startled myself with the power. It was very nice. It was also very quiet and controlled on the interstate at 70MPH, which was also a very nice change of circumstance from my loud old Saturn ;)
I drove the "automated manual", which is Volkswagen's DSG manual transmission with "tiptronic" shifting, which is some fancy Porsche automatic transmission. Basically it's an extremely clever transmission system which has the ability to just shift automatically, but you can put it in manual override where you control the gear changes, though without a clutch (the cluch is automated)... so it's kind of like an F1 "flappy paddle" transmission, except you use the gear shifter to do the shifts rather than paddles on the steering wheel.
It was nice, but for $1,100 I think I could learn to drive a manual. Especially if we follow through on plans to move to the U.K.; they just don't seem to drive automatics over there on that other continent. So knowing how to drive a manual will be a very valuable skill.
The car I drove today had a sticker price of like $25,600... which I think is frankly crazy. And I'm still considering purchasing it. They are very hard to come by. They had two for sale, one manual and the one I drove. He said they are getting 4 more, he thinks, in the next couple of months and that's going to be it for the 2009 models. I liked the one I drove today, but I just wish it were a manual. The manual they have is an ugly black color (it has some chrome trim, which the grey one I drove had too, but it just looked gaudy and too contrasting on the black). Unfortunately with basically all of the cars on my list, beggars can't be choosers. They all seem to be in limited supply, this one just especially so.
Emily really liked it too. Looks like we'll have to do some sleeping on this one.
Feeling pretty good at the moment
I don't want to jinx it, but I'm feeling pretty good right now considering it's a Thursday. I felt alright this morning, even considered going to work, but I had this residual stomach uncertainty and some mild diarrhea still. Then at about 10:30 I decided I was tired and took a nap for a couple of hours. That seems to have done me a world of good. I'm hoping to get into to work for maybe even 6 hours tomorrow!
Also in the good news category (I think it was Laurie who mentioned these) are that I have gained weight (I think I weigh about 156 now). Also, my stent is being removed on June 30th.
Indeed, I am not going to be getting Irinotecan (Camptosar) anymore, which is supposedly the worst of the drugs I'm on. I still get to go in for some lengthy-ish injections though (still getting Avastin, Leucovorin, and 5-FU through IV). That also means I get to have the pump for 48 hours still, which is a real drag (hauling it around, not being able to shower... especially in the summer, doesn't help my acne problem). I'm going to stick with this for a couple of doses and see how the side effects are. Then I plan to try Xeloda, which is an oral form of 5-FU, so I don't have to have the 48-hour pump. It has different side effects, so I'll see how I feel about those. Then whichever is better is what I'll stick with.
I'm on a new car kick (again). Periodically this comes back and goes away as quickly as it came in. My shortlist now appears to be something like:
Also, I have been playing around with my VoIP server (internet phone) and managed to get a free phone number that if you dial, will ring for 12 seconds, and shunt straight to a voicemail which then gets emailed to me. I can give this number to annoying car salesmen and then never be bothered with a ringing phone. Excellent. Setting up Voicemail was much easier than I expected, given the effort I've had to expend getting the rest of it working. I still have yet to bail on my $50/month cell phone plan and go pre-paid, which was the whole idea from the beginning. There is yet more loose talk afoot of having a big family plan. I doubt it will ever happen, and I'll just continue paying $50 a month ;)
Also in the good news category (I think it was Laurie who mentioned these) are that I have gained weight (I think I weigh about 156 now). Also, my stent is being removed on June 30th.
Indeed, I am not going to be getting Irinotecan (Camptosar) anymore, which is supposedly the worst of the drugs I'm on. I still get to go in for some lengthy-ish injections though (still getting Avastin, Leucovorin, and 5-FU through IV). That also means I get to have the pump for 48 hours still, which is a real drag (hauling it around, not being able to shower... especially in the summer, doesn't help my acne problem). I'm going to stick with this for a couple of doses and see how the side effects are. Then I plan to try Xeloda, which is an oral form of 5-FU, so I don't have to have the 48-hour pump. It has different side effects, so I'll see how I feel about those. Then whichever is better is what I'll stick with.
I'm on a new car kick (again). Periodically this comes back and goes away as quickly as it came in. My shortlist now appears to be something like:
- Honda Fit
- Subaru Outback
- Volkswagen Rabbit 2-door S
- Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI
- Mazda Mazda3
Also, I have been playing around with my VoIP server (internet phone) and managed to get a free phone number that if you dial, will ring for 12 seconds, and shunt straight to a voicemail which then gets emailed to me. I can give this number to annoying car salesmen and then never be bothered with a ringing phone. Excellent. Setting up Voicemail was much easier than I expected, given the effort I've had to expend getting the rest of it working. I still have yet to bail on my $50/month cell phone plan and go pre-paid, which was the whole idea from the beginning. There is yet more loose talk afoot of having a big family plan. I doubt it will ever happen, and I'll just continue paying $50 a month ;)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Places we have eaten at in/around Chicago and enjoyed
- Orange (excellent breakfast)
- Southport Grocery (not really a grocery store but kind of, excellent breakfast)
- Fox & Obel (grocery store with good food and a deli)
- Opart Thai
- Giordano's Pizza (for some "authentic" Chicago-style pizza)
Places we have eaten at in/around Florida and enjoyed
- Publix, all of Florida
- Hogan's Heros, Gainesville, FL (best hot pressed subs I've ever had)
- Leonardo's Pizza by the Slice, Gainesville, FL (great pizza and rolls, and tattoos)
- Mr. Han's, Gainesville, FL (Chinese)
- Backyard BBQ, Newberry, FL
- Mildred's, Gainesville, FL (chocolate bombe cake)
- Bagelicious, St. Augustine, FL
- Gypsy Cab Company, St. Augustine, FL
- Fusion Point, St. Augustine, FL (awesome sushi)
- Cafe Eleven, St. Augustine, FL
- The Columbia, St. Augustine, FL
- Lemongrass, Jacksonville, FL
- Shmagel's Bagels, St. Augustine, FL
- Spanish Bakery, St. Augustine, FL
- Manatee Cafe, St. Augustine, FL
Places Emily and I want to eat at in/around Maryland but haven't gotten around to yet
- Hagan's Tavern, Middletown, MD
- Clementine, Lauraville, MD
- That's Amore, Columbia, MD (Italian)
- Ze Mean Bean, Fells Point, MD
- Grace Garden Chinese, Odenton, MD
- Kabob place over by Arundel Mills
- Akbar's, Columbia, MD (Indian)
- Stella Notte, Ellicott City, MD (Italian)
- Eggspectation, Columbia, MD
- Spicy Garden, Catonsville, MD (Indian)
- Baldwin Station, Sykesville, MD
- Thai Heaven, Catonsville, MD
Places we have eaten at in/around Maryland and enjoyed
- Amish Market, Annapolis, MD (soft pretzels and shakes!)
- Puffs 'n Pastries, Hampden, MD
- Lemongrass, Annapolis, MD (Thai)
- Magruder's Market, Washington, DC (overstuffed sandwiches after seeing the National Zoo)
- Chef Geoff's Downtown, Washington, DC
- Guiseppe's, Frostburg, MD (Italian)
- Pitango Gelato, Baltimore, MD
- Opie's soft serve ice cream, Catonsville, MD
- Little Spice, Hanover, MD (Thai)
- Atwater's Bakery, Belvedere Square, Balitmore, MD (soups and sandwiches)
- Dogwood, Hampden, MD
- Scittino's Italian Market, Catonsville, MD
- The Bean Hollow, Ellicott City, MD
- The Red Canoe, Lauraville, MD (all good food, paninis)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Oh no, wind!
Maryland is incapable of coping with anything but perfect weather.
Some wind blew through and suddenly we find ourselves without power. We're hoping the fridge doesn't warm up too much. That's what you get when you have a cheap fridge, I'm sure it's not as insulated a fancy-pants one.
But on the up side my battery back up UPS has been powering the cable modem and wireless access point for the last hour or so, which I must say is amazing since I though the battery was going on it.
Rather than cook in dim light and light our stove with a match, we're going to Panera.
I expect to reorganize some things on my blog to showcase more stuff about food. We love food. More on that later.
Oh, and chemotherapy really sucks. It's just hard to describe... I just feel... *meh*. Not sick or anything though so I will keep my complaints to a minimum.
Some wind blew through and suddenly we find ourselves without power. We're hoping the fridge doesn't warm up too much. That's what you get when you have a cheap fridge, I'm sure it's not as insulated a fancy-pants one.
But on the up side my battery back up UPS has been powering the cable modem and wireless access point for the last hour or so, which I must say is amazing since I though the battery was going on it.
Rather than cook in dim light and light our stove with a match, we're going to Panera.
I expect to reorganize some things on my blog to showcase more stuff about food. We love food. More on that later.
Oh, and chemotherapy really sucks. It's just hard to describe... I just feel... *meh*. Not sick or anything though so I will keep my complaints to a minimum.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Two posts in one day!
Two posts in one day! Oh my.
I forgot to mention a fact that everyone in my family presumably knows: Emily and I are coming back to Florida to visit for a whole week in August (August 8th through the 16th). My family has rented a habitation (I wrote 'cabin' and Emily corrected me and said it was a 'condo', so I will use a generically applicable term) on the beach in St. Augustine for part of that. We're going to have some sort of happy-fest to belatedly celebrate our marriage (and get the families to meet) and my presumed good-ish health. We're going to stuff ourselves silly with good food (not that this is an abnormal thing for us).
We're back from the party in PA. It was fun. I really like being in rural areas, it's so bucolic and pretty.
Maryland is in fact growing on me. It may be that nobody can drive when it isn't amazingly nice outside, and it may be one of the most expensive places to live in the country, but it does have actual seasons which I can coming to like (except winter) and quite a bit to do within a 1.5 hour drive of home. Right now it's sunny and like 75 degrees outside and absolutely wonderful.
Here are some more pictures:
View up from our hammock
This is me writing this blog post
I forgot to mention a fact that everyone in my family presumably knows: Emily and I are coming back to Florida to visit for a whole week in August (August 8th through the 16th). My family has rented a habitation (I wrote 'cabin' and Emily corrected me and said it was a 'condo', so I will use a generically applicable term) on the beach in St. Augustine for part of that. We're going to have some sort of happy-fest to belatedly celebrate our marriage (and get the families to meet) and my presumed good-ish health. We're going to stuff ourselves silly with good food (not that this is an abnormal thing for us).
We're back from the party in PA. It was fun. I really like being in rural areas, it's so bucolic and pretty.
Maryland is in fact growing on me. It may be that nobody can drive when it isn't amazingly nice outside, and it may be one of the most expensive places to live in the country, but it does have actual seasons which I can coming to like (except winter) and quite a bit to do within a 1.5 hour drive of home. Right now it's sunny and like 75 degrees outside and absolutely wonderful.
Here are some more pictures:
View up from our hammock
This is me writing this blog postIt's been a while
It's been a while since I made a blog post. Not a whole lot has happened.
Somebody at work mentioned that they once had an intestinal blockage and it hurt like crap too, so my crazy abdominal pain could have been some form of constipation. That was something the folks at the hospital suggested. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out when I need to take what medication to handle nausea/constipation/diarrhea so I was a bit doubtful as I was pretty sure I was still in the "OK" zone at the time, but maybe. It hasn't come back so I don't care anymore really.
This was a pretty normal week of work. There was a conference this week and some visiting guys who we spent quite a bit of time talking to. I really didn't accomplish much of anything all week long, but I was physically present at the minimum. It was really hard to get things rolling again, having not been in to the office for three weeks. I never really did, but perhaps a little.
Friday night Emily and I went into DC to the Warner Theater to see PJ Harvey and John Parish in concert. We had never been to the Warner Theater, and I had never really listened to PJ Harvey (though Emily is extremely fond of her music). The venue was amazingly nice, and the concert was a pretty good as well, though a bit loud (as all music is nowadays for some reason) and I didn't really care for the way the music was mixed. I think it was largely on purpose to fit the style of music, but everything was very "harsh". The drummer was a basher, and the bass was mixed with absolutely no treble. Still though, there was a good bit of sonic diversity and I enjoyed it. My favorite song of the night was actually the first encore and was a John Parish song, called False Fire. That's probably because it was basically a two-step and I seem to love all two-steps. Also I rather enjoyed a song called "16 15 14".
Before the concert we ate at Chef Geoff's Downtown, which was recommended by Dave at work. It was literally across the street from the theater, which was pretty cool. It was a very good recommendation. The food was absolutely excellent, and very well proportioned too. I was glad to get a meal that I could actually finish. And it was prepared extremely well with what was surely extremely fresh ingredients. I had a Madras curry chicken which had some neat couscous contraption next to it. Emily had a salmon with a Caribbean-style salsa and sweet potato fries. It was all good.
Today we are going up to PA to visit one of Emily's coworkers for a party. It should be entertaining. We're going to stop at REI on the way up and waste some more money ;) I want some more "base layer" undershirts. I have one white one from them and it is amazingly comfortable in the summer sun.
It's been raining all week pretty much, so we haven't spent too much time on our new deck. But last weekend we did grill out on Sunday with Trevor. And we got a hammock which is up there now. I've fallen asleep in it once and Emily has used it a couple of times too. This weekend is supposed to be nice and sunny, so we hope to get some more hammock time in tomorrow.
Here are some deck pictures:
As you can see we have a grill already! (We got it the day after it was finished). No pictures of the hammock, but it's nice. Also, you almost can't tell we live in a city with all those trees around.
Somebody at work mentioned that they once had an intestinal blockage and it hurt like crap too, so my crazy abdominal pain could have been some form of constipation. That was something the folks at the hospital suggested. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out when I need to take what medication to handle nausea/constipation/diarrhea so I was a bit doubtful as I was pretty sure I was still in the "OK" zone at the time, but maybe. It hasn't come back so I don't care anymore really.
This was a pretty normal week of work. There was a conference this week and some visiting guys who we spent quite a bit of time talking to. I really didn't accomplish much of anything all week long, but I was physically present at the minimum. It was really hard to get things rolling again, having not been in to the office for three weeks. I never really did, but perhaps a little.
Friday night Emily and I went into DC to the Warner Theater to see PJ Harvey and John Parish in concert. We had never been to the Warner Theater, and I had never really listened to PJ Harvey (though Emily is extremely fond of her music). The venue was amazingly nice, and the concert was a pretty good as well, though a bit loud (as all music is nowadays for some reason) and I didn't really care for the way the music was mixed. I think it was largely on purpose to fit the style of music, but everything was very "harsh". The drummer was a basher, and the bass was mixed with absolutely no treble. Still though, there was a good bit of sonic diversity and I enjoyed it. My favorite song of the night was actually the first encore and was a John Parish song, called False Fire. That's probably because it was basically a two-step and I seem to love all two-steps. Also I rather enjoyed a song called "16 15 14".
Before the concert we ate at Chef Geoff's Downtown, which was recommended by Dave at work. It was literally across the street from the theater, which was pretty cool. It was a very good recommendation. The food was absolutely excellent, and very well proportioned too. I was glad to get a meal that I could actually finish. And it was prepared extremely well with what was surely extremely fresh ingredients. I had a Madras curry chicken which had some neat couscous contraption next to it. Emily had a salmon with a Caribbean-style salsa and sweet potato fries. It was all good.
Today we are going up to PA to visit one of Emily's coworkers for a party. It should be entertaining. We're going to stop at REI on the way up and waste some more money ;) I want some more "base layer" undershirts. I have one white one from them and it is amazingly comfortable in the summer sun.
It's been raining all week pretty much, so we haven't spent too much time on our new deck. But last weekend we did grill out on Sunday with Trevor. And we got a hammock which is up there now. I've fallen asleep in it once and Emily has used it a couple of times too. This weekend is supposed to be nice and sunny, so we hope to get some more hammock time in tomorrow.
Here are some deck pictures:
As you can see we have a grill already! (We got it the day after it was finished). No pictures of the hammock, but it's nice. Also, you almost can't tell we live in a city with all those trees around.
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