Rest in peace Joan

Joan Bernet, the mother of one of my best friends, passed away last night after a lengthy battle with cancer. Our thoughts and well wishes are with you Bunda (Mervyn) and the rest of your family. We wish you all a long life.

Thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving everyone.

I will tell you what I am thankful for:

I'm thankful that I am still here! I'm thankful for my wonderful and supportive wife who has suffered this tough journey right alongside me. I'm thankful for my kids. Well, most of the time. They are good and decent kids. I'm thankful for my two incredible sisters. Their love, support and generosity has been simply overwhelming. I'm thankful for my mom who instilled in me all her great values and wonderful life lessons. I miss my dad. I'm thankful to my extended family for all their caring, support and love. I'm thankful for my friends who have also endured this battle right beside me. I'm thankful for my flying friends who have remained in touch with me and shown me the true meaning of camaraderie. I'm thankful for my job and the great company I work for (UPS). Even though I am temporarily indisposed!!! I'm thankful for the wonderful medical staff who have treated me and held my hand through this war. I know I still have miles to travel. I'm thankful for my dog, Max, who is 11 1/2 years young. What a cool companion. I'm thankful for all I have achieved in life. I know there is still more for me to do. I'm thankful for all the tests and trials in my life (I think) because at the end of the day I know I will overcome and endure. I'm thankful to all of you who read my blog and keep up with my trials and tribulations. Thank you. Until next thanksgiving.

Carpe Diem.

Monday with Mary

Hi all. This is Hamster Man. Today I was at the infusion center at Sinai hospital for my monthly oil, lube and filter. Commonly know as a port flush and blood work. It was great to see Mary again but I sure don't miss the infusion center with all the chemo memories! Everything was fine with the blood work, blood pressure etc. etc. I have added poundage to my jowls and 1 pack (Budweiser graveyard). I am now at 153 lbs. Oink, Oink. When will this stop?

Carpe Diem.

Weekend update

On Saturday morning, after a really cool breakfast of turkey bacon and eggs, we left on our adventure to Gettysburg. The new visitors center was really amazing. Lots of interesting information and artifacts. We really lucked out with our timing. It just so happened that it was remembrance day for something that happened during the civil war (forgive my ignorance) and there were hundreds of people in costume participating in this event. It was amazing. The whole town looked like a movie set. It made you feel like you were back in that time and era. The family was fascinated by all of this as they are very much into US history - even as die hard Canadians eehh. Oh, and we also lucked out with the weather. Friday night we had a dusting of snow to welcome our guests but the weekend weather was clear but bloody cold.

Saturday evening we did the obligatory Chinese dinner and then home to watch comedy stuff on TV and consume Cinnabons.

Sunday morning was bagel, lox and cream cheese time. Lest you think that all this eating and steroids hasn't helped my appearance, check out the pictures. One of my other cousins was kind enough to describe my appearance like this:

"Nice pictures - you look like a hamster with it's cheeks full and nowhere to spit the shells out... ".

Pretty damn accurate description.

Our Sunday adventure was to DC. We did the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. My Aunt did the Holocaust Museum and then joined us at the Air and Space museum. We drove around a bit, and once again, our Canadian guests were really impressed with all the sights and history in DC. We then said goodbye to them and they left on their merry way back to BWI airport for their flight to Toronto.

Carpe Diem.