My mom is in recovery and she came through fine. The surgeon said there were no surprises and there appeared to be no lymph node involvement, so, yay!

Husband has a job interview tomorrow morning around 6AM board time. I would appreciate "best possible outcome" and "just let it be over quickly" vibes.

My mom got her biopsy results. The lung cancer was apparently two small tumors, not one, and it had spread to one lymph node. They do think they got it all, but have mentioned chemo, which I know is NOT a possibility. So, there you have it. She gets out of the hospital tomorrow and I'll be there Monday morning.

Some reasonable~bank~ma would be appreciated. We have been arguing with the mortgage bank for 4 years now and have a mediation scheduled this afternoon (not the first time). We feel like Obama and Boehner here, except only our side goes off the cliff. Hoping for an agreement of some kind so we can go forward. The stress after so many years of this is exhausting.

I maded a blog! About 20 years after they started but hey - better late than never, right? It's mostly craft stuff.

[link]

I have a new Hilo Heroes piece up at Hilobrow on the Swiss/German modernist painter Paul Klee - a fascinating guy.

Please check it out and give it a Like at the Hilobrow site if you could.

Mal and I have started a blog, mostly for him to journal his experience living in Venezuela, partially as a response to a request from his Spanish teacher. [link]

I'm crossposting from fb here, NOT for hair pats but because so many of the people mentioned, who helped me to survive this day last year, and the subsequent months, are Buffistas.

I've said it before, but thank you all for being who you are to me. If you only knew what I mean by that, you would feel pretty darned good about yourselves right about now.

Today is the first anniversary of the passing of my beloved Bartleby. I say this, not for sympathy, but to respect and appreciate the process of grieving.

AND, to give what seems like feeble thanks to those many, many kind people who helped me, in innumerable ways, both to keep him healthy and to let him go with what little grace was available to me.

My heart still aches, and may always. Still, I am able, so much more than I could have hoped, to focus on the simple joy of having had him in my life. He was a gift beyond measure and I am a very different human for having loved that quirky little spirit. He touched many and I am grateful.

FYI:

If you got an email from me about shopkick app, it's not spam.

My sister made me get it on my smartphone 5 months ago and you get points and giftcards. Sis's been using it 2 years and has gotten like $300 in giftcards. It's easy and a lot of stores honor it.

I have "Invite your friends to download and register to use the Shopkick app via the friend referral program in the shopkick app. To be a qualified friend, your invited friend must register using your personalized web registration link and login that account on the shopkick mobile app" according to their info.

I'm just letting people I know....er, know, because I wish I'd started a couple of years ago. A free gift card is cat litter or chocolate or Coach bags or whatever!

Sorry about any confusion!

If anyone has spare ~ma laying around, my extended family could use some. My cousin's baby passed away Monday (not unexpectedly), and things are pretty sad on that front.