A Short Visit from John Ace and His Wife Carol

Allow me to introduce a lifelong friend, John Ace. He is the one who introduced Dominic and I back in 1983. For that reason ALONE I'll always love him. But... plenty of other reasons to love the guy... fun, fun, fun! He and Carol have been on a 2 week journey from CA. They came over yesterday at around 4:30 pm for the night. We haven't seen them for FIFTEEN YEARS! Invited Wendy (she hadn't seen him for over 20 years) and Bubbie over. What a fun reunion! Nothing but laughs, smiles and pop-tops.... *grinning* The rascal had us up until almost 2am.

They dragged me out of bed around 9am. (I prefer 10-12 hours of sleep per night) Loaded up their Vette, then followed us to Covington for lunch at The Times Bar and Grill. http://www.timesgrill.com/ Great food and tasty Bloody Marys. They hopped on the Interstate and headed West for home. We had a wonderful time.... such laughter!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We had a very busy day yesterday. The highlight of the day was an overnite visit from John Ace... a lifelong friend who drove in with his wife from California. I'll post pics of our night in a separate post.

Yesterday, Dom and I met a realtor at his ma's home in Slidell. She wants all of the carpet ripped out. Aunt Lou's pissy little dog did a real number on the carpeting.

We'll be meeting with her next week to sign papers and put it on the market. There's light at the end of this particular tunnel!

Then off to Dr. Culasso (whom I adore) for my annual check-up. He didn't like what he saw from my recent Rheumatologist's lab report, so ordered more bloodwork for next week. *sighing* Otherwise, he seemed pleased with me. Thinks I live too fast of a life, but nevermind.... he's known that for 20+ years! He keeps telling me that my lifestyle is going to "catch up with me". We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

After our customary hugs and kisses with Doc, Dom and I took off to Bogalusa for a big bucket of Popeye's Chicken for our overnight guests.

During our reunion, I snapped a picture of "my" possum, Pablo. He simply adores cat food. I just love the little fella!

Brilliant Sunset NOT photoshopped

Schools of Fish..... zillions of 'em

Thought you guys would get a kick out of these pics.... very few stingrays, but a ZILLION little fish up and down the entire beach. (Note last pic.... all of those dark areas are schools of fish). Again, it was amusing to watch swimmer's reactions when this living/breathing black mass would approach them. Freak out! (momentarily, anyway)

Dr. Safah is "Very Pleased" with Dom's Health

Hi gang-

We spent the day at Tulane yesterday. He had his monthly infusion of Zometa, and a check up with Dr. S. for the first time in 3 months. She's pleased with his progress. He feels "Almost 100%". He was complaining about a pain in his neck (other than his wife), so she ordered an xray. She's confident that it's muscular and not skeletal.

HCT: 32.5
WBC: 4.5
ANC: 2400
PLATELET: 186

Tomorrow will be his 1st Birthday. It's been an entire year since the Stem Cell Transplant! Unreal. We often talk about how we "lost" a couple of years. It seems like a big blur.

Anyway, they started giving him his childhood immunizations yesterday. Just like a little baby! Mind boggling!

Tomorrow, for his New Birthday, we're going to attack 4 pounds of Snow Crab, a pound of Boiled Shrimp, some Sweet Corn and a little bit of 3 Bean Salad.

Sooo.... enjoy your weekend, gang. We'll be doing the same!

More "people pics" during John and Jackie's visit

Pontoon and Captain John Soaking Stingray Wound

More Pics Soon.... Ran out of space

Just attempted to upload more pics only to find that I've run out of storage for this blog.

Just purchased 20 more gigs.... should be available tomorrow.

Hammerhead Fred's, Fireboat, Motorized Parachute (want one!!)

Fourth of July in PCB- Still no oil!!!

Hi gang-

We spent 7 nights in PCB last week. Just got home on Sunday. Had a marvelous time.

The 4th was phenomenal. When we blew into town, we went across the street to see our favorite bartender, Don. Asked him where all of the fireworks would be. He told us not to bother leaving our balcony.... there would be plenty on the beach.

OMG. We'd never seen anything like it. Non stop light displays right outside of our balcony for TWO HOURS straight! We can't even begin to guess how much money was spent by tourists and condo guests. Much, much more than the city spent for their organized show. Some of these guys really knew what they were doing, too...gorgeous. This will be an annual thing for us.

Had a wonderful visit with childhood friend John (now a dirty rotten biker) and his lovely wife Jackie. They spent 3 nights with us. Ate out alot.... had a great dinner at Firefly one night. Another night went to Hammerhead Fred's for the first time. http://www.hammerheadfreds.com/ Dom and I very much enjoyed it. John and Jackie weren't terribly impressed.

I had a couple dozen Apalachicola oysters on the half shell. Only $5.99 per dozen. Tasty, but TINY. Some were the size of a nickel or quarter. Dom had a good chicken sandwich. J & J got crabcakes, fish and chips, oysters and fish tacos. *cringing at the thought of fish tacos*. Anyway, I'd go back in a minute.

Dom wasn't feeling well on Thursday, so opted to stay in the condo while the 3 of us rented a pontoon boat to spend the day at "Shell Island". Less than 10 minutes after we dropped anchor, John got nailed by a stingray. It literally knocked him down.... and he's a big boy.

Bled like a stuck pig. Cleaned up the wound using a borrowed first aid kit. He felt a bit nauseous, so called the rental joint to ask if there was anything that he should be doing. (I offered to pee on him, but he politely declined.... accepted my Adolph's Meat Tenderizer instead).

The next thing you knew, we were headed back to the marina. A jet ski picked him up and took him about a mile away to the St. Andrews State Park where paramedics were waiting.

We were very impressed. Turns out that they were worried about an allergic reaction to the protein in the sting.

Managed to get $50 back of the $190 and headed home. The guys told John to soak his foot in the hottest water that he could stand. Within a couple of hours, the 4 of us were swimming on our beach.

So.... it was a fun and exciting visit with dear friends. Will be posting pictures above.

Hope all is well.... things are great here!

Quickie Update

Hi gang-

Just a quick update. I hope to get back up to speed with photos tomorrow.

Our patient is well. Stomach a little queasy for the past week, but other than that feels great. He has an appointment with Dr. Safah, as well as an infusion, scheduled for Thursday. (Hasn't seen the doc for 3 months!)

It's unreal how time flies... July 17th will be his "1st Birthday".... already! He'll be getting all of his childhood immunizations again...just like a baby.

We went to PCB for a week on the Fourth, thus the lack of posts. Had a blast, as per usual.