Great news.. and sad news

On Tuesday I saw my oncologist and got some great news: my tumour markers are steady at 33. Yay for low tumour markers! My blood counts are all normal although my calcium was a little bit low (but still within normal). She cautioned me to always, always take calcium because two people have died while taking it. One person had low kidney function and the other had never taken calcium at all. I have a good supply of calcium pills and I'm taking them in the mornings.

I wanted to write about my oncologist's appointment but when I got home I discovered that four of my friends had died since last Wednesday and I was alternately in shock and grieving. I knew that two of the women were close to their end because they were in hospice but I was terribly shocked and saddened to know that the other two had died.

I'm still not finished processing these deaths. I slept until 3pm yesterday - I was tired before this terrible news but I didn't think I was "sleep all day" tired - out of the shock and grief. Today I had metalsmithing class but when I was getting ready to leave I just started sobbing ... at which point I knew that I couldn't go out and see people. I needed to stay home and cuddle my dog.

How can I still be alive when so many have died? It's so unfair.

Dermatologist appointment

You might remember that I had a biopsy of the thickened skin on my left breast a while back and the pathologist thought that I had grannular annulare of the interstitial type, maybe. Well, I saw the dermatologist today and he thinks that I have morphea, a type of scleroderma, instead. This condition, which is also thought to be an autoimmune condition, is quite rare and can be caused by radiation therapy. Who knew?

I'm sure there are differences between the two conditions but I'm not sure what those differences might be. The dermatologist wants to do another biopsy to confirm his theory that I have this morphea thing. That's scheduled for September 4 in his office.

He warned me that whatever is causing my ugly breast syndrome, it's unlikely that it can be treated so I'll be stuck with it until or unless it resolves or fades on its own. I'm a little upset about that because I'm very self-conscious about how ugly that breast is. The thickening has also changed the shape and position of the breast it looks more like a bolt-on (or breast with an implant) and it's quite rigid. The rigidity means that I'm not able to pad it out in a bra anymore, which is frustrating. The breast also hurts and the skin itches like crazy.

If the breast issue turns out to be a form of scleroderma, there's a research group in Hamilton for people with scleroderma. That's something.

What are the odds of someone having cancer and two separate autoimmune diseases? I wonder if there's something connecting all of these conditions. Where's Dr. House when I need him?

Another Olympics over

The Olympics is over again. I've spent the last two weeks watching various sports instead of working on this or that. Now I'll have no excuse for not getting something done!

I liked the coverage of the various events at the beginning of the Olympics but towards the end it seemed like they showed more and more commercials. For example, we could only see about two-thirds of the dives in the Men's 10m Diving Final because TSN aired commercials during the other third. I found this to be very frustrating. I was able to watch almost all of the Men's 10m Diving Preliminaries so why couldn't I see almost all the dives in the final? I know that the Final was on Saturday so presumably viewership was higher but I would have been happier if fewer commercials were shown. I might have even been a bit more tolerant of the coverage if they'd broadcast new commercials but they showed the same old ones that had been showing during the entire Games.

This Olympics was broadcast by CTV and its partners TSN, SportsNet, OLN, and other non-English station. CBC has the rights to broadcast the next Olympics and while I hope that they'll have as many partners broadcasting coverage, I also hope they show fewer commercials. I know they have to make money and all but there must be a better way to balance prime-time coverage with commercials.

The Closing Ceremonies, like much of the Opening Ceremonies, focused on music. There were quite a few live performances, including a surprising one by Eric Idle! He sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life which was very well-received by the crowd: even Kate Middleton was swaying back and forth and whistling the whistling bits!

Rio, who will be hosting the 2016 Games, did a small segment to show the world what's coming in four years. As I recall, the London segment during the Beijing games was kind of lame. The Rio segment this year wasn't so much lame as it was kind of incomprehensible because it was so much like the rest of the ceremony except in another language. I'm sure their Opening Ceremony will be compelling in its own way.

Our long weekend

This past long weekend was very fun and productive for all of us. I met up with a friend and a couple of her friends for a delicious lunch at Yorkdale on Friday. When I'd said that Friday was better for me, it didn't occur to me that it was the Friday of a long weekend and that traffic might be bad with people heading up to the cottage for the long weekend. I've definitely driven through worse traffic but this was as bad as anything I've had to drive in for a long time. Normally the drive to Yorkdale takes about an hour and ten minutes or so and it took closer to an hour and three quarters each way.

Fortunately the trip was worth it. Lunch was delicious and I had a great time with my friend and her friends. I hit it off really well with one of them and we were in stitches laughing almost the whole time. It was great :) 

I also finally picked out a paint colour for my sewing room and we got the room painted this weekend! I chose Benjamin Moore's CSP-370 (Picket Fence). It's a light taupe colour, I guess. One thing I like about it is that it's a full-spectrum paint, meaning that it contains pigments from each colour in the spectrum and contains no black. Full spectrum paints read more like daylight colours and interact with the surrounding light and colours much more than regular paints do. As well, the shades are more luminous with subtle tones because all of the pigment colours are mixed in the final colour. 

We painted the ceiling and put two coats on the wall over the weekend. I love it! The ceiling has one of those california finishes with plaster scraped on and I think it looks so much better once it's painted. The shadows are softer. The wall colour looks fantastic even with the yellow subfloor and I know that once the floor is in it'll look just the way I wanted: welcoming and calming with some colour (but not so much that the colour would overwhelm the fabric).

Even Gozer had a productive weekend. We found her trying to eat a small rodent of some kind that had been dead for a while on Sunday. Then on Monday we found her with blood all over her face with a freshly dead mouse in front of her. I'm familiar with cats that kill and eat mice and birds but it never occurred to me that our cute little dog would kill them - especially since it seemed like she couldn't catch them. Apparently she has hunting skills we didn't know about.

In and around all of these adventures we watched the Olympics. I do love watching the different sports although I prefer watching gymnastics and diving. The timed sports like swimming and running are interesting but I like the sports that require some artistry. I'll watch just about anything, however.

Zucchini plant problems... again

Because we love zucchini, we planted another zucchini plant this year. It had three main stems and was producing lots of huge zucchini on each one. Then last week we noticed orange frass: the telltale signs of the Squash Vine Borer. (insert dramatic music here)

Yes, that damn SVB is back. We tried to poke holes in the affected stems and kill the larvae but the plant started wilting and we saw more frass. This sucks. Because the damage from the SVB was so near the root of the plant, the whole plant was about to go down. We ended up cutting off each of the three stems and sticking them into the ground. We did that last year and the plant grew; unfortunately, it was too late in the year to get an zucchini from it. We hope that at least one of the three former stems will bear zucchini before the summer is over.

We planted the zucchini in around the same place as we'd planted last year's zucchini so we're wondering if the SVB somehow overwintered in the soil and infested this year's plant. We're going to have to do some research on controlling and eradicating the SVB. I like zucchini and I want to grow it in our garden; the SVB, I can do without.

2012 Olympics

The summer Olympics have begun! Last night's opening ceremony was the vision of Artistic Director Danny Boyle with the theme "Isles of Wonder" and it was lovely. It included a bit of English history: from tranquil, pastoral English countryside to the Industrial Revolution to celebrating English literature to English music through the 20th century.

My favourite part was Emeli Sandé; singing "Abide with me" to only a heartbeat-like beat. I'm an atheist but the hymn sung only to the drumbeat brought tears to my eyes. During the song, dancers performed a moving tribute to the 7/7 victims. Apparently NBC cut that particular segment in favour of an interview with Michael Phelps. Why they did that I don't know - one would think that broadcasting the entire opening ceremony would be preferable to cutting out a segment in favour of an interview. Interviews can be broadcast anytime; a live opening ceremony cannot.

The parade of nations, which was only supposed to take an hour, took about two hours - and this was a surprise to no one who'd seen one of these parades before. Our Canadian athletes were horsing around a bit with some women riding on men's shoulders. It looked like they were having a great time.

I also loved that instead of having a celebrity light the Olympic cauldron, six young athletes lit six sections of a multi-piece Olympic cauldron. That cauldron was beautiful: each nation carried a piece of it during the parade of nations so it was like each country was a part of it.

I'm looking forward to watching the Olympics. I don't normally follow any of these sports but I enjoy seeing the competition.

The beginnings of the Penn State aftermath

I've still kept my eye on the Penn State sex abuse scandal over the last few weeks. I was so outraged about the whole situation that I wanted to follow its aftermath. Things are at a point now where lots has happened and it's going to be quite a while before lots more happens.

Penn State has removed the statue of Joe Paterno that was erected in 2001 after much debate. Interestingly, the day before Penn State removed the statue, sources from the board of trustees said that the statue would stay up, at least for a while. If that doesn't show how disconnected the university is from its board who is supposed to oversee it, I don't know what does. Clearly there are still some issues to work out there.

Penn State has received sanctions from the NCAA, basing their decision on the Freeh report instead of their own investigation: five years' probation, setting up new administrative oversight, a four-year bowl ban, a $60 million fine to go to an external charity for victims of child sexual abuse, vacating the results of the 1998-2011 seasons (making Joe Paterno no longer the coach with the most wins, aka the "winningest" coach), reduction of scholarships over four years, and allowing any player the ability to transfer to another institution and play right away. Apparently it was either these sanctions or a "death sentence" - no football at all - for up to four years. Clearly the university decided that a few years of reduced football was better for the community than no football at all.

The NCAA sanctions aren't the only punishment the university is facing. The Big Ten Conference has also sanctioned Penn State: Penn State will not be allowed to play in any post-season games and its share of the Big Ten bowl games will go to charity. Nike, Penn State's most visible and (some say) lucrative sponsor, took Paterno's name off of the child care center. State Farm is pulling their sponsorship from Penn State. The university's insurance company is trying to deny or limit coverage for anything related to this scandal because they were not kept informed of the liabilities that the university was facing in Sandusky; when the civil lawsuits start rolling in, the university will be on the hook for the entire amount. 

While the university is accepting the NCAA and Big Ten sanctions, not everyone is happy about them. Some feel that the Freeh report was written by the man who covered up the TWA 800 disaster. I say that if he did cover that up, he is the best person to recognize a cover-up when he sees one. Some others say that the Freeh report doesn't have enough proof that Paterno was involved, since only two "vague" emails were presented in the report as "proof". These people are conveniently ignoring the fact that the Freeh report also includes a thorough description of the culture that Paterno created: Paterno knew or was privy to everything that happened in that department. If you believe that this is true (and I think most do), you have to believe that he knew about the 1998 investigation of Sandusky. If you don't believe he knew about that, then he couldn't have known about everything that happened in his department. 

The Paterno family deserves a special mention of people who are struggling with the aftermath of the report. The Freeh report is inaccurate, they say, in part because the investigation didn't interview the family who knew Paterno best: their own family. They're determined to conduct their own investigation, which is fine. If they stopped there, I'd have no issue with the family. However, every time something happens, they issue a statement saying something about the Paterno legacy being defamed. There's only a token phrase in each statement about the victims; it's all about the family being victimized by the actions of everyone who believed that Paterno had done wrong. The more they portray themselves as victims, the more ridiculous they seem.


I do understand how hard it is for people to accept that their beloved grandfather-figure, Joe Paterno, and other university officials could have covered-up Sandusky's crimes. It must have been shocking for the people involved to realize that their friend was molesting boys, just as it is shocking for others to realize just how far people at the university went to cover up Sandusky's behaviour. It's almost too much for people to take in so instead they focus on small things and argue about them. Hopefully over time people will come to accept what happened.


If only it was so easy for Sandusky's victims to accept what happened and to heal. Everything that Penn State has to pay, all the hardships the fans and players will experience - that's nothing to what those boys have had to live with. I hope that some of the money being taken from Penn State ends up helping them.

James Franco movie weekend

Can a person ever get enough of the actor James Franco? Well, yes. I didn't think he was that great of an actor after watching his dismal performance during the 2011 Academy Award ceremonies. Fortunately, we managed to not overload our delicate James Franco sensibilities by watching one of his movies yesterday and again today.

Yesterday we watched the Academy-award nominated 127 Hours about Aron Ralston, a canyoneer whose arm was pinned by a boulder after falling in a slot canyon. He stayed in the canyon for 127 hours before freeing himself, hence the title of the movie. Apparently except for the bit with the two hikers, which didn't happen as shown in the movie, everything was very realistic and happened as shown. 

James Franco took up the screen for most of the movie as his struggle and experience trapped in the canyon was shown, and he was able to carry the movie and make it very compelling to watch. He was able to accurately show the range of emotions that Aron Ralston experienced during those five days: his despair, loneliness, anguish, and the realization that he would almost certainly die there alone. James Franco definitely deserved that Best Actor Academy Award nomination; had he not been up against Colin Firth in The King's Speech, he could have won it.

I wasn't expecting the cinematography and music styles used during the movie but they worked perfectly with the subject, helping to convey the stark beauty and isolation of the canyon country and the emotions Aron Ralston was feeling. The music and cinematography are perfectly balanced throughout the movie, working with and not against the script.

While some might think that watching one man trapped in a canyon for an hour and a half is a form of torture, this movie is interesting and compelling enough to make the time pass quickly. It's well worth watching.

I didn't expect as much from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This movie restarted the Planet of the Apes franchise by providing a new origin story and although it had a huge budget, I figured it would be lacking in plot and believability. I was (mostly) mistaken.

Sure, there are some flaws. When shots are flying everywhere, I expect all the cars to be hit by bullets, and I thought all windshield glass was tempered safety glass. Those are small details compared to the success of the rest of the movie.

The most obvious plot hole was the lack of proper ethics at the pharmaceutical firm .... but really, how unrealistic is that? Aside from that, the sequence of events seemed to be believable. James Franco plays a researcher who is trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. His research on chimps makes them smarter and looks promising but things go awry and he doesn't get the funding he expected. He raises a baby chimp who got the "cure" and resultant smarts from his mother but when the chimp attacks someone he's forced to put it in an ape care facility. From there, the apes begin to rise.

The movie is well-paced and beautifully shot. The real star of this movie is the computer generated imagery. The lead chimp was generated by motion-capturing Andy Serkis (who played Gollum) as he acted out the part and then applying the chimp characteristics. This CGI was flawless: the chimp looked real (with some extra facial expressions) and was fully integrated into the surrounding imagery. I actually thought that the filmmakers had used a chimp in the movie, and I knew better than that before I started watching.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes isn't an inspiring movie, or a classic movie, but it is worth a couple of hours if you've got it. Personally, I find the re-imagination of the origin of this franchise much more interesting than the original movies and I'm interested to see where things go next. 

So there you have it - two good James Franco movies. Who'd have thought?

Penn State scandal

Have you been following the Penn State scandal? In short, Football Defense Gerald (Jerry) Sandusky was tried and convicted on 45 of 48 counts related to molesting young boys from 1998 onwards. He recruited these boys at The Second Mile charity he set up in 1977 for young, underprivileged children. Sadly, it seems that child molesters are practically a dime a dozen, but what makes this case compelling is that several Penn State officials knew that he was molesting boys on Penn State property and didn't report it to the authorities or the Second Mile charity.

The Penn state-commissioned Freeh report showed that Joe Paterno, beloved head coach for the football team; athletic director Tim Curley; Gary Schultz,university vice president responsible for overseeing the university police, among other duties; and university president Graham Spanier knew about two molestation incidents and did nothing to punish Sandusky or prevent future crimes from occurring. Worse, during the grand jury investigation of Sandusky, Schultz and Curley lied about what they knew and are now under investigation for perjury.

I remember when Paterno was fired in November 2011 after Sandusky was formally charged and the students rioted. How could their football leader, the one who made the university what it was, have anything to do with Sandusky's crimes? Now we know: he had a lot to do with them. By all accounts, he was the most powerful person at that university because he ran football and football brought in the money. Therefore, he could call the shots when it came to his players and his team.

He clashed with Vicky Triponey, former head of student affairs, over how football players were disciplined. He didn't want the public to know about football player's crimes (does that sound familiar?) and he wanted football players to receive gentler punishment than everyone else. And who supported him? Why, Curley and Spanier, of course. Winning at football was more important than ethics and honesty. Football was more important than anything else, and it forced Triponey out of the school after she was threatened and shunned.

Paterno died in January, 2012, of complications related to lung cancer. Before he died, he wrote a letter that said that the Sandusky situation was not football-related. In another university, that might be true, but not at Penn State where football ran the school. If football wasn't so important to the university, Sandusky's crimes would never have been covered up and that makes this situation very much related to football.

Clearly there's a problem with Penn State's culture and it's going to take a long time to fix that culture. The "Penn State way" is wrong. Some are speculating that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a member organization that creates rules and policies for a number of university sports, and who could punish Penn State for organizational failures - the ones that covered up Sandusky's crimes and then lied about it. Those punishments could include the "death penalty" or preventing the team from playing in the league for a full season or more. It's also possible that the NCAA could ban post-season play or levy any one of a number of other punishments.

I'm outraged by the entire situation. How could football - a sport - be more important than ethics? How could keeping players on the field be more important that those players completing their punishments? How could fans maintain that Paterno had done nothing wrong when it's clear that did? I know, I know, football brings in money and everyone loves money. At Penn State, they also loved Paterno who had been there for 61 years. Bringing in a ton of money in no way justifies the kind of insular, "football is most important" views that Paterno and others shared.

The priorities at Penn State are a mess and will stay that way unless the university takes gigantic steps to fix them. The culture is just too deeply entrenched in the minds of people connected to Penn State for real change to occur easily. I don't think that the university should wait for the NCAA to dole out punishments; I think that Penn State should prevent the football team from playing for a year. Anything less than that will say that football is still the most important thing at Penn State, that it's more important than ethics or morals.

At the same time, Penn State needs to bring in new people from outside the community who have experience  guiding change in a large organization. Penn State needs to finally step up and do right by its students and its communities.

Heat wave

Our little dog was groomed today and she looks so much littler! Apparently she screamed during the drying process again so we really do need to work on desenstizing her to the the sound. I hope she'll be more comfortable with shorter hair in this terrible heat. It's supposed to stay above 30C for the next few days and even though the nights will be cool, those daytime temperatures make life pretty unbearable for her.

The only things that seem to love the heat are those lupine aphids. They've found their way to the other plant and they're starting to really take over. Every leaf cluster has a set of baby aphids on it and every single leaf on some clusters has a set of baby aphids. I killed as many as I could but I know that the population is about to explode. It's heartbreaking because that plant was doing so well and had a number of flower buds on it and now the leaves are crinkled and misshapen, all of the flower buds have died, and the plant appears to be dying due to the aphids. I wish there was a way to get rid of them.


The heat had sent most of the grass into dormancy so it's yellow everywhere. The weeds really show up against the dormant grass but the soil is so dry that it's hard to pull them out. Not that I'm spending a lot of time outside. Hanging out with the dog in the basement is more fun.

Well, hanging out in the basement is mostly fun. I've been feeling a bit restless lately because I want to be doing more than just sitting around. But then when I try to think of what I could do, nothing comes to mind. Do you ever have that happen? Where you know you want to do something and then when you have a chance to do it, nothing comes to mind? Maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe the heat is reducing my ability to think.

I'll be happy to see the end of this heat wave so that I can start feeling more productive. Gozer will be at least as happy as I will because then she can spend more time chasing chipmunks, birds, and squirrels, and getting to watch the outside world.

Adventures in weeding

It's been so crazy hot this past week that Gozer and I have spent most of our days holed up in the basement. While I love having no responsibilities or plans or anything, after a couple of days I started feeling really restless because I wanted to be outside doing things but it was just too hot.

Today the weather was slightly cooler - below 30C, at least - and so I went outside and spent about three hours weeding. I wasn't weeding in that relaxed way I usually weed; no, I was finally able to get outside and weed and I was going to make the most of the time I had. I was in some kind of weeding frenzy and I weeded with wild, reckless abandon.

I'm paying for being those hours. I felt so young and alive, being out there under the sun and working in the dirt and now I feel positively decrepit. My lower back is throbbing with pain no matter how I sit or lie down or stand, my legs are sore, and I'm bone-tired. I'm not sure that this back pain is worth those hours of happiness weeding under the sun - it's a higher price than I wanted to for those hours, even though I know that I overdid it.

Wishing that my body didn't betray me doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere, unfortunately. It would be better if I could remember that I can't do four days worth of work in three hours because then I wouldn't overdo it (and pay for it) like I did today.

Home from Edmonton

I arrived home from Edmonton on Sunday after a happy but exhausting trip. I'd gone to see my niece and nephew graduate from high school and to celebrate the occasion with my sisters and their families. Although I'd planned to call some friends while I was there, I ended up seeing only one friend and spending the rest of my time with my family.

I felt honoured to celebrate the graduations with my sisters. Watching both my niece and nephew walk across the stage to receive their (fake) diplomas, I felt so proud of each of them: they made it! I also realized that finishing high school was a rite of passage not just for my niece and nephew but for the adults in their lives, too, who'd watched them grow into adults. It seems like just yesterday that they started kindergarten and now here they were, finished their public schooling. They're basically adults, now, and they get to choose whether and where they pursue further education.

While I was there we had a family gathering to celebrate my niece and nephew's graduation, which is something we haven't done for quite some time. It was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed myself. It felt relaxed and casual and it seemed like everyone had a good time. One of my sisters hosted it and I got to see her beautiful garden in the summer for the first time in I don't know how long. She has a number of sweet-smelling, very healthy roses and lilacs and has planted gorgeous sweet peas lining her fence, as well as some other ground cover and a healthy ash tree (side note: I didn't know that ash trees grew in Edmonton. There are oak trees now, too, and I didn't think they grew there either).

The trip wasn't all good, unfortunately: my cell phone battery refused to charge so I wasn't able to use it to send or receive texts about halfway through the week. My Kindle was also starting to misbehave with the buttons not working properly and now only every other line is displayed. 


I wasn't able to rent a car at all, either. I tried to, I really did. My plane was late arriving into Edmonton so I changed my booking for an office near my hotel. To my surprise, I discovered that that particular Avis doesn't take Sears cards. I thought about going with my backup plan but then I decided that I didn't need a car... I just wanted one. so I did without and it worked out just fine.

Also, while my hotel was lovely - and it was; in fact, I highly recommend staying there if you're in Edmonton - the only alarm in the room was a radio and I don't easily wake up to a radio because the voices end up being incorporated into my dreams. Usually I use my cellphone as an alarm but since it was in paperweight mode, I had to rely on the radio alarm in the room. Yes, I could have called for a wake-up call but I needed to wake up from naps, too, and multiple wake-up calls in a day seems a little silly. Therefore, I ended up not sleeping so well for the latter half of the trip because I was so worried about waking up on time.

Even with these technical issues, I really enjoyed myself in Edmonton and I was sad to have to leave. Edmonton is beautiful at this time of year: the weather is warm but the light wind makes it bearable, everything is blooming, and the air smells so clean and fresh. Every time I walked outside I'd just stand there, breathing in the air. I'll be going back to Edmonton in a couple of months as one of my sisters is moving to the UK this fall and I want to see her in Edmonton before she moves away.

Car rental update

I'm still a bit upset about having my identity stolen but I'm feeling better than I did yesterday about it. Happily, Expedia canceled the car from my bill with no problems. I explained my situation and how the car rental companies' policy prevented me from picking up the car and after double-checking the policy, they canceled the car rental and are refunding my money for that part of the trip. I'd been prepared to eat the cost of the rental car and I'm happy that I don't have to do that.

I've also booked a new car rental reservation for my arrival tomorrow. I checked and it seems that Avis takes Sears credit cards. I think Budget used to be the company that accepted this card, but both Avis and Sears websites say that it's Avis that accepts it now. I didn't prepay this reservation so if it doesn't work out I haven't lost any money. If the rental doesn't work out, one of my sisters has generously offered me a backup plan. I'm touched and very grateful for her offer of help. 

I used to carry both a Visa and a MasterCard but dropped the Visa a few years ago. There's definitely an advantage to having more than one major credit card... but at the same time, having more than one could possibly open me up to being defrauded on the second card. Having had this second set of fraudulent charges on my card and having had my identity stolen, I'm feeling paranoid that it could happen again.

I'm looking forward to going to Edmonton tomorrow and seeing my sisters and their families and my friends. Hopefully everything will go smoothly while I'm there.

My identity is not my own

Yesterday I was looking at my Mastercard statements online and I was shocked to see that my balance was in the neighbourhood of $13K(!).  I was expecting a much lower balance because I pay it off every month or so and I know I haven't run up that much in charges considering I haven't used the card much.

I might not have used the card, but someone did. They purchased over $10K in camera equipment from a Toronto camera shop. I was a little upset because I'd had to change my card number within the last year because someone was booking flights on Vietnam Air. I filed things to dispute the charges and let it go. After all, I'm going to Edmonton on Sunday and I wanted to think about what I needed to do to get ready.

The BMO fraud department called this afternoon and I was surprised that they were contacting me so quickly. After the person identified herself I made some comment that she must have been calling about the charges and she said that she would get to that.

She would get to that? Why else would she be calling?

She would be calling to tell me that someone went and changed my address to someplace in North York (part of Toronto) and that I'm the victim of identity fraud.

While trying to reassure me that this happens all the time, she instructed me to cut up my card (which I did) because it's already been cancelled and they've put new security measures in place for the account. I also had to call Equifax and TransUnion (the credit reporting agencies) to report the identity theft and to take steps to prevent my identity from being stolen again or other people from getting credit from being issued in my name.

The person from the fraud department also instructed me to run virus scanners on our computers because whoever took my information (including information that would allow me to change the address for my credit card) could have done it through a virus on my computer.

This has all freaked me out quite a bit and I'm feel violated. What else does this person know? What else could they do?

This situation has also complicated my trip to Edmonton a bit. I've prepaid for everything - flight, hotel, car - so I hoped that not having the physical card anymore wouldn't be a problem. It isn't a problem for the hotel but it's a huge problem for the car company. It's such a huge problem that I will not be able to pick up the car at all. Not having a car isn't the end of the world, but it's annoying and frustrating that I won't be able to use something for which I've already paid. Tomorrow I'll try to contact Expedia (where I booked the trip) and see if I can get a refund for the car without messing up the rest of the trip but I'm not holding my breath.


Identity theft sucks. 

Sewing room progress

This past weekend, Ian finished laying the subfloor for my sewing room. Yay! It was a ton of work but he managed to finish it in one day. I'm very pleased with the way it looks and feels underfoot. It'll make the floor so much more comfortable than if the floor were laid directly over the concrete. Having the subfloor in place will also mean that we won't need to worry so much about leaks damaging the flooring as there are channels incorporated into the subfloor allowing water to move.

The top of the subfloor panels have some kind of wood composite on top that is yellowish so the light in the room looks very yellow. This will make it more difficult to choose a paint colour for the room so I think we'll have to lay the floor first. We'd planned to paint first so that we didn't need to protect the floor but I just don't think that I'll get a good read on the paint colour without the floor in place.

So now I need to go floor shopping. As much as I'd like to get it done before I leave for Edmonton, I don't think it'll happen. I'm already feeling a bit stressed about my available time and I don't want to add to that stress at all. I'll do that shopping when I get back

The idea that my sewing room is almost ready is very exciting... at this rate, I might have a sewing room before the end of the year. Oh, how I'd love that!

Catching up

I've been really, really busy this past week. Even though the aprons are done I'm still working on the gifts for my niece and nephew. Of course they're taking longer than I thought they would because that's how these things go, right? :) I'm very pleased with my designs and how they're coming together.

On Wednesday I saw a friend of mine that I haven't seen in ages. She and her husband made a beautiful purple knitted sweater with hand-made buttons for Gozer. I was touched by their generosity in making something for our little furchild. The sweater fits her perfectly and is a welcome addition to her fall and spring wardrobe.

I had a wonderful time visiting with my friend. We spent some time looking around the garden and then did some catching up over lunch and while walking Gozer. I'm so proud of my friend; she's been through a lot and has come out a stronger, happier person than before. She's in school in the process of starting over with a new career and is doing very, very, very well. Clearly she's found her calling and it makes me happy to see her happy and doing so well.

Yesterday I was finally able to spend some time in the garden. I wanted to get out there but I've been much too busy on other stuff so I decided that no matter what I was going to work out there yesterday. I did some puttering around and then got down to doing some serious work. Over where the birch trees were taken out things had been going a bit wild. There was Virginia creeper everywhere, a small sumac tree, three small ash or prickly ash trees, and a huge assortment of weeds. I got the trees and vines out along with anything that looked like it might possibly grow into a tree or bush. My muscles are all stiff now so I know that I worked hard.

This weekend I hope to get some work done on the gifts and maybe do more work in the garden. It's going to be really hot over the next few days so it might not be fun to be working outside. We'll see what happens.

Biopsy results

When I got to my surgeon's office the biopsy pathology results hadn't yet arrived. The receptionist called and was able to have the hospital fax the results over before I saw my surgeon. The results were both great and strange.

The great news is that the sample contained no malignancies, so the changes in my breast are not caused by any kind of cancer. Even though I figured that this was the case, it's nice to have confirmation that I don't have more or another cancer.

The strange news is that there was no sarcoidosis in the biopsy sample. Huh? The pathologist said that the changes are more like granular annulare of the interstitial type (whatever that means - could it be interstitial granulomatous dermatitis? I couldn't really find that part), which is apparently just a group of white blood cells that form and rise to the skin. This condition usually causes raised red rings to form on the skin, which is definitely what my thing looks like although it doesn't look the same as the pictures on the interwebs.

The report says that it's also possible that the breast changes are due to an interstitial granulomatous drug reaction. From what I can gather, this means that I`m having a rather unusual reaction to one or another of the drugs that I take. The most recent addition was the denosumab so of course I wonder if it's the one causing the problem.

How crazy would it be for me to have two distinct conditions characterized by granuloma formation: sarcoidosis and this other thing going on in the breast? Pretty darn crazy, I'd say. I'm fairly certain that I do have the sarcoidosis because it was confirmed by biopsy in my mediastinal lymph nodes and my elbow scar. Of course apparently sarcoidosis can look like these other conditions but apparently the pathology is usually different for each of them.

My surgeon is referring me to a dermatologist in Oakville because we need to figure out what`s going on with that one breast. The biopsy raised more questions than it answered, which seems to be par for the course. Hoepfully I'll be able to get some answers and maybe even some treatment.

Long week

I've been crazy busy lately what with finishing up the aprons for my metalsmithing class and working on my metalsmithing projects. I think that I've got up early every weekday for the last two weeks and I'll be doing it again this week, at least until Friday when I have absolutely no plans. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to not having a single thing to do that day. It'll be so wonderful, especially since I've had commitments every other day.

I know that this doesn't sound like I'm working all that hard, having to get up around 8am instead of 10am and do one thing per day, but it's more than I normally do. Fortunately, I've managed to keep myself from feeling too overwhelmed this whole time, which I think of as a big accomplishment.

Speaking of accomplishments, I've finished the aprons - finally! If I get orders for more I'll make more but for now I'm happy that they're done. Ian's also got the drywall done in my sewing room, has primed the walls, and is ready to lay the subfloor. I'd love to be sewing in my sewing room because everything will have a place and there will be space. Right now there isn't enough room for both my sewing machine and my serger and I have a hard time finding needles and other useful things. I bought a new pair of snips because while I know I have a pair, they're hiding somewhere.

I've also made progress on the gifts that I'm making for my niece and nephew as graduation presents. I hope to finish both gifts before I leave for Edmonton on June 24 - really, if I'm stressed about anything, it's finishing those gifts. It isn't the end of the world if they're not finished but I really want to have them done when I head out there. We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow I'm seeing my surgeon to get the biopsy stitch taken out and to hopefully get the pathology results. I'm not anticipating bad results or anything and I expect that the results will come back as sarcoidosis or maybe as insufficient sample. If I can get a confirmation that the skin changes are sarcoidosis then maybe I can get it treated. The skin is still changing and I'd like that skin to go back to normal.

So there's a summary of what's been going on over this last week or so. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

Landscaping done

The landscapers finished all of the work in our backyard last Thursday. I'm thrilled that it took them only four days to do the work. Overall, we're very happy with the results. The workers were very neat and tidy, cleaning up the patio and removing all traces of their presence on the driveway before they left each day. Contrast this with our neighbour's approach, which is to leave equipment and product he'll be using later on the road.

The workers also worked very fast and from what I can tell, they did a thorough job. They all seemed to take a lot of pride in their work and tried to make the new landscaping look nice and blend in with the existing landscaping. I trusted them to plant all of the perennials in the garden wherever they thought they should go because they knew more than I did about these plants. We've done some research on the plants and I think we might want to move them at some point but we'll leave each plant in its current position this year.

Of course not everything went perfectly. In particular, we had issues around communicating with the company owner. We'd have been better prepared for them if the owner had confirmed when the work was starting. As well, when the owner discussed the job with us, he said that when it came to planting the perennials he wanted us at home so that we could tell the guys where to put them. On what could have been planting day, I called him and asked when planting would happen as I thought he'd wanted us there and in response he said that the guys would lay out the plants where they would go and we could move them. Later on, I talked to the foreman who hadn't been planning to do that at all. That's when I told him to plant them where he thought best.

These were small communication problems and we were so happy with the work that we'd definitely recommend Lawrence Lawn Care for landscaping jobs. We have to check but if they have experience with permeable paving like grasspave2, we'll hire them again to make our driveway narrower so that our neighbour can see where his driveway ends... and hopefully stop driving and parking on our driveway.

Now for some pictures:

Before. This picture was actually taken last year; the bushes on both sides of the waterfall are much larger this year. The area to the left of the waterfall and bridge is where the landscaping was done. 

After. Even though this picture was taken at a slightly different angle and includes more than in the Before picture, the differences are obvious. The new landscaping extends from the waterfall over to the about the lilac tree on the lower left of the picture. They put the cedar mulch over all of the backyard plant beds to unify the look and while I don't love dyed cedar mulch, it does look nice. We're not loving the aluminum rails on either side of the path between the steps and bridge so we'll be wanting to cover them with creeping plants.

A second After view, taken from the other side of the bridge and waterfall. That little tigerseye sumac on the right, there, is going to grow up big and strong. It'll look great once it's fully grown to its 6ft high by 6ft wide self. Behind and just to the left of the sumac is our tulip tree. 

Yesterday's biopsy

Yesterday was biopsy day for me. Ian took the day off so that he could do the driving which I appreciated. I could have driven myself there an back because it was just a skin biopsy but biopsies of any kind are stressful and it's better for me (and everyone I guess) to not drive when I'm stressed.

We didn't want to leave Gozer crated in her kennel for the whole time we were gone so we decided to bring her with us and take her to his parent's house for a visit. I'd hoped that Gozer could visit with Ian's parents because they like her and she likes them but she spent most of the time looking out of the patio doors. Ian's parents get a lot of chipmunks, squirrels, and bunnies - not just fully-growed versions but baby-sized versions too! - and Gozer likes to watch them go by and bark at them when they get too close.

After dropping off Gozer, we went to the hospital for the biopsy. It wasn't busy at all in that department and I got in right away. My surgeon looked at the affected breast and noticed that the reddened, thickened areas had changed since he saw me last week. Yep, it's changed, because it really done change that quickly. He injected local anaesthetic in two locations (the slower that stuff goes in the less it hurts), waited a minute, sliced off a skin sample, and stitched it closed with one stitch. Even though I couldn't feel what was happening and it didn't hurt at all, I could feel the whole breast move and that creeped me out a little bit. Fortunately, the whole thing didn't take long so I didn't end up freaking out too much.

The area bled a little bit for the next 24 hours or so but it seems to have dried up completely now. I haven't had any pain at the incision site although I have had some pain and throbbing in the areola today. I think I'll live :)

I'm to call the surgeon's office on Monday to request an appointment on Monday, June 11. My surgeon will remove the stitch at that appointment and check how well the incision is healing. If the pathology results are back, we'll talk about them at that appointment; otherwise, he'll call me with the result.