One More Day!

Brain cancer is...

 ...staying one more night.

Above is the current view from our suite, 4:40 p.m.  Late last night Darrell agreed to one more day of vacation.  Bonus Day!  Yuss!

As per usual, Geoff and Beth agreed to the ride.  Here's how the day unfolded:

Thank you, Beth and Geoff for molding the patterns of your lives to the patterns of ours during the past 31 months as we learned to negotiate brain cancer. 

Thank you, Team D, for the space you have made for us. 
And for the love that you have shared.

Vacation: One More Day!!

Just What We Had Hoped

Brain cancer is...

...satisfied.

Delicious day!

Cheers from...

...Old Town Temecula.

Brain cancer is...on the move!

Andi's Math Program meeting was highly productive, and Darrell worked hard on his fitness during meeting hours.

Our last meal in San Diego was with this guy:

Don't be angry, San Diego.  We always return.

Now we're ready for a weekend of fun, a Wine Country Weekend.

You made it to Friday, Team D!

(PS...Less update: Andi finished reading the book at about 4 a.m.  It was so good that she started over at page 1 as soon as she finished page 262.  So so sweet.)

What Is the Ratio of Boats to Humans? (Update: We Have an Answer!)

Brain cancer is...

...thinking about boats per capita.

We are spending our meals today pondering statistical questions about our world.  Namely, what do you suppose is the ratio of boats to people in the United States?   Some pics may suggest the inspiration for our question.

Boats at Breakfast

Boats at Lunch

Boats from the Meeting Room

Off we go to dinner.  We'll keep you boat posted. 

If you figure it out first, let us know.


UPDATE 9/28/18  Beth found the answer!

The ratio of humans to registered boats in the United States is 27:1.  For every 27 US humans, there is 1 boat.  Phrased differently, there is 0.03 boat for every 1 human.

Also fun:  Check out the ships making their way through the world's oceans, real time, by clicking here (MarineTraffic.com)

Gotta Love So Cal.

Brain cancer is...

...in San Diego for work.

No really!  San Diego!  For work!  We put in a full day of work at home, did our Optune Open House gig with new buddy Taylor, and headed down the coast to San Diego for a Math Project Directors Meeting.

Gotta love So Cal.

Big Tuesday Week 5? Check!

Brain cancer is...

...done with Big Tuesday, Semester Week 5.

Here are some snaps throughout the day.

8:30 Breakfast at "Our Place" with Kristine

 

10:30 New Tires for the Black Pearl

2:00 Giving Feedback on Chapter One

2:30 Rainbow Tees:  The Complete Collection

9:30 Block 24 Staying Strong!  (7 pm section) Thanks Block 24!

You notice there is no picture of Darrell's face.  I know, right?  Not much time together today.  Thus we'll now wrap up this Big Tuesday with a few minutes of couch hand holding and appreciation of said face.

All's well that ends well.

"Our pelicans are such hams!"

Brain cancer is...

  ...appreciating photogenic birds.

Darrell loved how the pelicans arranged themselves for maximum visual impact this morning.

We spent Monday atoning for our wild weekend.  We got back to the park, Darrell kept our home running, and Andi spent the day in front of the computer.  We ate all three meals at home.  Gasp.  So yes, Geoff, the pelican moment was indeed the high point of the day.

Way to survive Monday, Team D!

We Love the Internet.

Brain cancer is...

...loving the Web today.

For so many reasons.  Okay.  Let's try a list.

1. Above you see my new walking hat and--more importantly--one of Darrell's new vee neck tees.  We ordered a new set of shirts because the original rainbow collection wore out.  Such a great problem to have:  All the shirts wore out! Such a great use of the Internet: Shopping.(Click here to refresh your memory of the rainbow vee neck tee shirt wardrobe.)
2. Speaking of refreshing memory:  We love the Internet because we have a daily record of our lives via this blog, which was born with Darrell's GBM diagnosis. With our fading memories, that is so helpful! As Curt says, "Check the blog."   (Click here for the first post. It was read 1143 times.) 
3. Less.  I spend an hour or so a day reading on my phone with Kindle. Today I bought Less, a Pulitzer prize winner.  It had better make me laugh, as advertised.
4. Gordon checked in.  (Hi Dad!  We are celebrating life, at your suggestion.)
5. We had a virtual lobster lunch with Gail and Melanie on the East Coast. Beautiful. (Gail:  Did you sit in those chairs with the fabulous view?)
6. We talked with both of our kids.  (Great birthday party, T!)  
7. My phone keeps gathering power.  Thanks to the Internet, my phone can now measure things and calculate level.  Also it can take a photo of a document, scan it, and save it as a PDF with three clicks.  Amazing.
8. I found a listening technique  that has great potential to aid us in enacting our word of the year:  Story.  (Click here for the technique if you're bored.)
9. Darrell found resounding support to nurse his hurt over the calls against Clay Mathews this season.  Clay was clean, Man!  (The Packers lost anyway, or we wouldn't even be raising the issue.)
10. Pandora radio. Every day.
    
11. You.   Thanks for joining us in this journey in every single way, including reading via the internet. 

Happy Birthday, Tiana!!

Brain cancer is...

...celebrating the awesomeness of Tiana.

Happy birthday, Tiana!
And...

Ho dee door!

The Big Rocks

Brain cancer is...

...putting the big rocks in first. 

You have heard the parable about fitting rocks into a jar, yes?  Click here to read the full text, but briefly: Let's say you need to put big rocks, pebbles, sand, and water into a jar.  Put the big rocks in first. If you start by filling the jar with the little stuff, the big rocks won’t fit. When you start with the big rocks, the little stuff easily squeezes into the smaller spaces.

Today we are putting the big rocks of our lives—our people—into life’s jar first.  Andi's work?  It’s trickling into the smaller spaces.

Here’s to the big rocks, Team D.

Just Another Manic...Thursday

Brain cancer is...

 ...taking liberty with the lyrics of the song of the day.

Song of the day:  Manic Monday by the Bangles (Click here.)

You know it's going to be a great and manic Thursday when, by 6:28 a.m., Big D is having cheeseburgers and Diet Mountain Dew.  Cheers!

For Darrell's Thursday:  Shopping, yard work, and email went well.
For Andi's Thursday:  Block Four continues to provide a high point in the week of teaching mathematics well.

Happy Manic Thursday, Team D!

 
 

 

When Date Night Is Perfect

Brain cancer is...

 ...happy with the choice of a Wednesday Date Night.

Recent days have been pretty full for all of us, but Gail and Melanie made it down for an early date night nonetheless.

Tonight we discovered that a good antidote for a chock full week is...a midweek Date Night.

We all said goodbye a little more balanced, a little more restored, a little more ready for Thursday.

The lesson learned?  Balance quest is worth the continued questing.

Happy Wednesday, Team D!

"You Must Hold Hands!"

Brain cancer is...

...just doing what we're told.

Above you see our favorite "park friends."  The term is in quotes because we love to see this couple, and we always stop and talk to them, but that's our only interaction.  When we started walking at the park after Darrell's diagnosis, they were already there.

A year ago, as the couple approached us, the woman grabbed our hands and clasped them together, holding them in place with a surprisingly strong grip.  She told us, "You must hold hands!"  It makes a marriage stronger and heals the heart.

Whenever we see them coming, we put my phone away, shift our cans of LaCroix to our outside hands, and grab each other's hands so that, by the time they see us, we have a good grip on each other and our wedded bliss is obvious to the observer.

Sure, we're sorry to admit it, but you try it.  Walking multiple miles holding hands isn't as easy as they make it look.

Today we accomplished our hand clasp just in time.  She stopped to congratulate us. (Phew that was close!)  She shared that she and her sweetheart have been walking through life, holding hands, for the past 65 years.

Okay, clearly their strategy is working.  We'll try harder.

Many-Miles-Apart Monday

Brain cancer is...

...increasingly independent.

Yeah, yeah, everyone works.  But today Andi worked for a full day far away (Riverside) from Darrell.  Shout out to my carpooling CalTPA peeps Kim N, Dorothy, and Antoinette for signing the "must-leave-the-meeting-early-in-case-of-emergency-array-change" waiver.  

And shout out to Darrell, who did chores all day long.  I know this is going to cost me, legal-counsel-wise (Christine!), but full disclosure seems appropriate.  

When Darrell and Andi reflected at the end of the day, Darrell said he's feeling much more independent. 

 

We both thought that that notion was: 

• Accurate.  
• Odd.  (How did we get so far from diagnosis to have independence be the lesson of the day?  No one knows what tomorrow brings, but it feels like we are learning to live with brain cancer, rather than die from it.)  
• Laudable.  (You go, Big D.)

That deserves some patio time.

Happy Miles Apart Monday, Team D.  We hope your distances were all manageable today.  

Staycation Success

Brain cancer is...

...satisfied with the staycation.

Meridyth, thanks so much for giving a name to our past 24 hours. The term "Staycation" definitely changed our mindset from "slumber party" (which is also awesome) to "vacation"  (which is somewhere exotic and work free.)

24-hour staycation?  Highly recommend. 

Today we got Starbucks... 

Bellied Up to the (Coffee) Bar

 ...and drank it while walking at the park. Geoff was finally bird-impressed when a flock of Canada geese, minutes before this photo, did a graceful, synchronized water landing just for us.

 We got in a good 71-minute walk...

...before heading to Fullerton Brewing Company for huevos rancheros and kick off.  We headed to Claim Jumper at the half for lunch and dessert.

We weren't able to pull out a win for the Packers, but the company was great and dessert was free.

There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.

Happy Day, Team D.

StayCation

Brain cancer is...

 ...vacationing at home.

We had an amazingly rich walk at the park with happy people, fun dogs, and--for the first time this season--the pelicans.

Szabos came and we headed to Bowers for lunch and culture. Then to Stubriks and now finishing things up on the patio to be ready for kick off tomorrow morning.

Out to determine how much vacation fun can be had...at home...in 24 hours.

Here's a slideshow.
YouTube link instead.

Happy Saturday!

Hey Wait. Did We Go Out to Lunch TWICE Today?

Brain cancer is...

...ready for the weekend.

Yes, we did go out to lunch twice today.

First to Village Eatery with Gordon:

And then to Szechuan Garden with LuAnn.  I missed taking a picture, but we looked at plenty of pictures together.  Here's the view from LuAnn's house in Baja:

We intended for lunch with LuAnn to be our day's final meal, but then Yard House cried out to us.   Here's how that ended:

Darrell contemplating an open valet key box?  Curt and Brady:  You both know how awesome that could have been.  Sadly, Darrell collected himself, and we walked on by.

Happy Weekend Team D.

Bonus Content:  Andi's Retirement Update

This week we mailed the paperwork for my retirement from the last of the three systems in which I worked: UCRS.  I have already received checks from both the STRS and PERS systems.  This week I retired from the the UC system, where I taught during my doc program.

It never dawned on me that my husband might love me for my money.  Until now.

More retirement news:  I was required to surrender my faculty parking pass...

...in order to apply for my Emeritus pass.
I actually got a little choked up when I thanked this pass for its service for all these years. (I know, I know, you're not surprised that I could cry over a parking pass.) And then this sweet beauty arrived in the mail today:

Onward and upward!

Thankful Thursday

Brain cancer is...

...fearful of sounding trite.

Some say that one way to ensure that you say things worth listening to is to avoid repetition. Thus we hope that the title of this post doesn’t turn Team members away.

However, on some days we encounter thing after thing for which are grateful. Our hearts actually feel like they might be swelling.  Really.  For instance, when Block Four initiated and sustained a discussion on issues related to student tracking, only three weeks into their credential program? Heartfullove.

When Team D members wrote to us individually and shared their wonder over Taylor's story, and they shared their brain cancer/informal Optune ambassador experiences (Roene)?  Heartfullove.

So you see?  We repeat. Therefore we change our strategy.  For Thankful Thursday we share our "things after things" in images.  We have many words to share with each image, but sometimes (Ruth):  Less said, best said.  Thankful Thursday.