Oh boo Teppy, hope you feel better real soon. What a vacation bummer!!

Beaurocrazy~ma, Hec.

I have finished my hoop hopping obstacle o'er leaping morning!

Instead of waking up in a sweat of anxiety about getting everything done, I woke up in the middle of the night reviewed all the documents in my head, decided to go with a two-folder system (one for the Passport officer at the P.O., one for the expeditng office), and sorted everything thusly.

Got Matilda up earlier than I have all summer, had her fill out the necessary form, got us coffee, drove to FedEx and copied three last things and then we headed across the GG Bridge (shrouded in fog) to Sausalito.

We were in and out of the P.O. within 15 minutes, and back on the road with new Peet's coffee, headed directly downtown and dropped the whole megilla off with Passport Depot, where they reviewed all and declared us well prepared and done. And her passport should come in a week. {knock wood}

Brought Matilda home, and she took an anxiety med and went to bed. I went to the local deli to order gigantic deli sandwiches, then walked over to Borderlands to kill 15 minutes while they were made.

I just polished off my Italian stallion (sandwich) in triumph over paperwork. {knock wood}

In the meantime, Hannah bought all the airline tickets and set up the air bnb's so they are ready to roll!

I am exhaling. I might take a nap myself. Nap of Celebration!

Well done, Hec and Matilda! And Hannah!

I'm eating Mexican dinner solo (DH did not want to leave the house, which, fair enough!) -- I love dining solo. Also with people, but solo always feels very "treat yo'self" a la Parks and Rec to me.

visits to two different Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Pitzer)

I taught some theatre classes at Pomona many years ago.

We just got home from Fish Fry. We haven't gone all summer. It is a thing here that doesn't happen in Florida, except occasionally I will see a Fish Fry sign at a Catholic church on a Friday. Every single restaurant here has Fish Fry on Fridays. Anyway, we gobbled down the fried haddock and are well satisfied. Now I have to buy a bag of salt potatoes to check off the last of the local foodstuff list. I've already had the local corn and curd cheese. There are other local delicacies that are popular but aren't my thing, like chicken riggies, Utica greens, and half moon cookies. Oh, I just remembered that I haven't had any tomato pie yet either, although I have had damn fine pizza. I can grab some tomato pie at the deli where my son's gf works anytime. When I was a kid we always bought the slices which were in square wax paper envelopes and cost a dime.

Timelies all!

My dad has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He says there going to try hormone therapy first, and if that doesn't bring down the PSA levels, then they'll try radiation therapy. He seems pretty optimistic, so that's good. Still, that's one more thing to worry about. This fucking year...

Best of luck to him, Sheryl. I'm sorry you are dealing with so much all the time.

Sheryl, sorry to hear that. Sounds like it was caught pretty early, though, so the prospects for a cure are pretty good. There are quite a few different hormone therapy treatments available, and quite a few different types of radiation therapy treatments as well.

The best advice I can offer to counter the common side-effects of the hormone therapies is encourage him to start and maintain a regular strength-building exercise regimen. It doesn't have to be super-aggressive, but it needs to be frequent and regular to prevent (or at least slow down) loss of muscle.

If I can help further, my profile email address is good.

I went to urgent care today because I woke up with an excruciatingly painful sore throat. I honestly thought it was just because the humidity in Colorado is so low, and or maybe it was allergies/sinus issues. Nope.

It’s uvulitis, which is an inflammation of the small piece of tissue (uvula) that hangs down in the back of the throat. Uvulitis is most often caused by an infection, usually streptococcus bacteria. If you google pictures of uvulitis, it’s pretty gross. So the nice doctor gave me steroids to reduce the swelling, so my airway doesn’t get blocked (😱), and antibiotics for the infection.

The doctor says I’ll start to feel better tomorrow. I hope so, because I only have a few more days out here, and we have lots of shenanigans planned!

Uvula~ma to Steph.