So my outside lights stopped working a couple of weeks ago, and now I have no idea why, because after I took them down, I tested each part, and they all work! Hmph.

Sometimes these things just want some attention.

I'm spending today (and much of the next 6 weeks) with Ron and Nancy Reagan across the hall from my office.

Poor CJ, the father/son dynamic is so often fraught. I hope his dad steps up and adjusts quickly.

Tell Ron and Nancy they are looking much better these days. As much as I hated Reagan, he still looks better than Trump.

In more homework procrastination distractions, I just found some amazing napkins for the wedding reception. There is an etsy shop that sells embossed napkins for a decent price. I ordered clocks, a brick wall, roses, a castle, and a pile of luggage - trying to find Harry Potter/Beauty and the Beast related symbols. I'm all too excited.

I got up at 3 yesterday and 1 today. I was determined to not be a slug, soooooo - I baked 52 sugar cookies, did 2 loads of laundry, 1 load of dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, have one sink and all the scrubbers soaking in bleach water, did a quick wash of the bathroom, and swept the kitchen ---- all while watch Gilmore Girl eps.

Dang msbelle...I wish you lived closer - I'd set you loose on my place.

At least five pages to write before midnight. Ugh. The brain just isn't cooperating.

my place is still a mess. clothes drying on a rack in my un-vacuumed living room. also a dog kennel in the middle of said living room that needs to go to garage, also 4 bags of stuff to go through, and 2 boxes of papers.

msbelle, you just inspired me to do the dishes that have been sitting in my sink because they can't go in the dishwasher.

woohoo! yay us doing dishes. well I still have one sink full cause I cooked more, but hey I did some.

now bed.

Fuck fuck fuck. Fuck 2018, fuck cancer. At Popou's house for our usual Sunday visit when my baby brother called our dad from Korea (tech work for the satellite feed for the Olympics) to tell him that he'll be heading back to CT this coming weekend, and not to worry too much but he has a plasma cancer issue called smoldering myeloma, a slow-incubating precursor to multiple myeloma, and the doctor said he could wait until after the Olympics to come home and start treatment but he decided to start right away.

The story he told about how it was diagnosed didn't add up when I looked it up on the Mayo and Johns Hopkins websites, but I kept that to myself until just now, when my mom and I had a long talk.

He told a gentle fiction to our dad. He has in fact been pre-cancerous for a couple of years, known it and been monitored regularly and told no one but his husband. This isn't smoldering, it's active multiple myeloma. My mom is flying back to CT a couple of days after he gets there to be with him for the first round. And I want to smash something, but there's nothing to smash.