From Friday: Here's to a happier post on Monday. Fingers crossed, but I kind of feel like we're due, you know? Turns out, we ARE due. On June 4th, to be exact. (SURPRISE!!!111!!eleven!) Read more →

My dad has decided to try the chemo "one more time." If it knocks him down again, he'll quit. But not yet. Not yet. They'll likely be removing one of the more hardcore drugs that was likely responsible for his bad reaction -- though that hardcore drug is absolutely necessary to fight a cancer as advanced as his, so at some point it has to go back into the treatment, so... *rubs temples, sighs wearily* (For the record, because it's been linked/emailed so many times, I have indeed read this article by Atul Gawande on hospice vs. aggressive treatment for terminal illness, and I forwarded it to my mom and quoted it to my dad and encourage everybody who hasn't read it to go do so right now, this second, even if you aren't currently dealing with end-of-life decisions. Which is kind of the problem. We don't want to think or talk about this stuff until we're in thick of it, when it's already past the point when we should have said "enough, stop.") (Also, when I look at that picture I wonder if my 7-year-old self inadvertently invented the Snuggie, and whether I would have a valid claim to... Read more →

Shh. Come here. Slowly. Casually. God. Seriously. BE COOL. ACT NATURAL. I need to tell you something but I'm absolutely terrified I'm going to jinx myself and ruin everything, so I'm going to type it out very s-l-o-w-l-y and s-o-f-t-l-y and hope that maybe the vengeful gods above are too distracted right now to pelt my ass with lightning bolts. (And yes, it IS also Invent Your Own Hodgepodge-y Religious Deities Day today. Thanks for asking.) So we appear to have stumbled upon a solution to Noah's picky eating habits. And by "picky" I should clarify: This child has eaten NOTHING since his first birthday. In fact, he has continued to ruthlessly edit down his list of acceptable foods ever since, meaning that up until a few weeks ago he would willingly eat ONLY the following: 1. Dry Cheerios 2. Plain toasted waffles 3. Peanut butter & jelly, though he usually opened the sandwich, licked off the peanut butter and left the rest 4. Grilled cheese, except for the "cheese" part 5. Pizza, but only the crust 6. Individually wrapped cereal bars 7. Frosting And that, my friends, was seriously it. No fruits, no vegetables, no meats. There were, once,... Read more →

So let me tell you what else was going on last week, now that I can. Now that I'm no longer curled up in an unwashed little ball under the covers. I mean, I'm still unwashed, but it's still better because at least now I'm sitting upright, on TOP of the covers. You may remember -- or not -- that I casually mentioned awhile back that Jason was sick. A weirdly persistent sore throat turned into the most vicious acid reflux I have ever had the privilege of hearing about over and over again. Having never even HAD heartburn before, he woke me up in the middle of the night to describe his symptoms to make sure that's actually what he was experiencing. I muttered something about having it for nine straight months, grarrrrr cranky smash, and went back to sleep. Since we were at his parents' house, which hasn't contained so much as a single Tylenol caplet since the mid-1990s, he had to go out in search of a 24-hour convenience store in order to find some Tums and Zantac. They didn't help, so once we got home he went to the doctor. By this point, he was having... Read more →