David, all the health vibes in the world for Karen. She'll be in my thoughts.

Susan, the Cute-Bad Pirate Annabel sounds adorable. And yay you and DH getting away for a bit.

Health-ma to your young friend, too, Hil.

Thanks, all.

If I'm reading the charts right she's Stage III. That puts her survival rate a bit better than a coin flip. Actually somewhere between 50% and 64%.

Fucking sucks.

Her youngest daughter is an 8th grader at Emmett's middle school. We saw her the other day and she's aware but sort of blithely oblivious. They've told her, but she really doesn't understand the implications. Which is fine. I know I was when my mother had her first bout of cancer.

I don't know what to do except stop by her house and give her foot rubs.

David, I'm so sorry about Karen's news. I hope the treatment turns out to be aggressive enough.

Job #2 seems to love me to bits, but it just makes my gut churn with dread.

I'ma go a bit against the grain here.

When I decided to take this job, it was with a heart full of desperation and a belly full of apprehension. Lots of reasons I was going to HATE working for Boss. He's too young, he wouldn't "get" me, he'd be an a-hole, etc etc etc. I was convinced I would HATE it.

I was wrong. I love it here, I love what I do, and Boss isn't AT ALL what I thought he'd be and he truly values me, I really believe that. He's like, one of my top 5 favortie bosses and I've never even slept with him! (Well, just that once. Kidding!!!)

Sometimes, I think, the job that just looks like it sucks ass on the outside, actually turns out to taste like lime-aid. Of course, if you hate lime-aid, then it does suck like ass.

...

...

I should eat and be caffinated before adivce-ing people.

Christ, David. Much -ma to your friend.

When we have wireless mic's on actors, we take an unlubed condom and put the transmitter in it to keep the actors sweat from making yukkies with the electronics.

...okay, that wouldn't have been in the top 100 guesses for use-of-condom I'd have hazarded.

Buffista babies - cute! But we knew that.

JZ - I'm thinking that this "go with your gut" thing is good, if you can afford to hang fire a bit. Just because you can't put your finger on why it's a bad choice doesn't mean that you're mistaken in getting the bad vibes about the place.

ion - holy crap, DQ raspberry/oreo blizzard is to die for. Wow. I heart raspberries and chocolate in combination.

So, finished the first week back, and to my pleasant surprise, I think that I'm going to like this class as much as the last class. I mean, I know one is supposed to not have favourites, but in practice each class is different, and some ARE just more immediately engaging than others. And my last year's class were one hell of a difficult act to follow - so very much adorability! But this lot - yeah, I think they're pretty damn adorable too. It's a bit shocking how young they are in comparison to the level I'm now used to (ie, how they'll be by the end of the year), but they're terribly sweet. Terribly. 'Course, one of them's new to the school and doesn't have a word of English, but she'll be okay. She's trying hard, and she seems like a smart kid.

...shall I go and buy some deep fried bananas with sesame seeds to take home? I think I might. Hmm. And maybe some Vietnamese rolls for tomorrow's lunch...

eta

OMG The Trouble With Tribbles, in the style of Edward Gorey!

This wins at life!

Hec, I truly hope Karen can whip cancer's ass and be around for a very long time. Better to fret to us and be strong for her.

Annabel is my kinda girl.

Owen had his first potty success this morning. I made cinnamon rolls to celebrate and we're off to preschool dropoff.

Yay, Owen! and yummy cinnamon rolls!

I was actually just dropping by to share my own toddler picspam: [link]

Llama!

Hec, all best wishes for Karen.

Llamas are larger than frogs.

Vibing hard for Karen, David.

Don't despair yet, David. For one thing, five-year statistics are, by definition, five years old, and the survival rate is improving all the time. I had Stage IIIB, with 15 out of 17 positive lymph nodes. I was diagnosed 4.5 years ago and finished treatment 3.5 years ago and I'm still here and still *knock wood* cancer free. Also, chemo isn't as bad as it used to be. On one type of chemo, I just slept for two days and was really tired for a couple of more, but that still gave me two good weeks out of three. I took all the anti-nausea medication and was never particularly nauseated. Okay, it's not really a happy! fun! time. The hair falls out, your nails get weird and you get sores in your mouth, but for me it was not the horror people pictured it to be. I was less cheerful about the second half of my chemo, but even with the evil Taxol I still had two good weeks out three. The bad week was just worse. Radiation isn't terrible. You do get more and more tired, but part of that is just having to drive to the hospital for five days a week for six weeks.

I'll send you an e-mail with some tips this weekend.

(Sorry to go on and on about me me me, but I just wanted people to know that it's not as gloomy as they're thinking.)