CLEAR!

They called me with the scan results on Friday morning!

ALL IS STILL STABLE!!

That's a full year without chemo, and with no changes.

My nurse was surprised by a fax that came less than an hour after my scans were completed.  We had just finished breakfast, and were headed home, when she called.

I figured the radiologist wanted to get his holiday weekend started, so he read the films right away.

What a lovely way to start vacation, without having to wonder about the results for the first three days!

I see the doc a week from Thursday, and will ask some questions about how much longer we need to do the monthly injections, and if maybe I can get the port out now without too much worry about needing it again.

The wedding rehearsal and ceremony the next day were sort of a cluster f*ck of disorganization and people not showing up, but, in the end, it went just fine.

If I can get permission to share some of the pictures Dave took, I will add them to this post.  Oh, look....permission is granted:

It was a pretty day, if a little windy. I messed things up a little during the blessing, but I don't think it mattered.

After the ceremony, our neighbors invited us to come hang out.  This was a first, and it was so nice!  They grilled up some chicken, and we brought potato salad and beers.

We've lived here for 8 years, and this is the first time we've had any social interaction with a neighbor.

Then, we came back to the house and got into the hot tub.  Ahhh.......

Today is a holiday for Christians, but for us, it will be yard work and grocery shopping at last.

The lawn really needs to be mowed.

It's supposed to start raining tomorrow night, and not really stop until Thursday, so we have to mow today, or spread it out over today and tomorrow.

I also REALLY want to get my herb garden in, put a barrier around my mint patch, and set up some container gardens during this coming week.

I got a cool stackable container garden thing in which I want to put strawberries and herbs, and maybe a trailing something in the bottom, like zucchini.  I'll place the stack in the end of the herb bed, so that whatever trails can run along the ground.

If it's raining, we now have half of a car port available for working outdoors in the rain.

We also might get the fence fixed this week, using some of the money Dave got for his car.  Our handy man hasn't given us a time yet, though, so we'll see.

It's a sunny, windy day today, and should be in the 70s by afternoon.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Short week

This coming week ends with Good Friday, which is a holiday that my office observes, so I am off work!

Since it's also time for my bi-annual scans, I successfully got them scheduled for Friday morning, so I don't have to miss work.

Now that my doctor has left the office I used to go to, that means that I will have to go to the "big hospital" for the scans, and wait for the results until the next week.

THEN, later in the day on Friday, I am leading a wedding rehearsal for an alternative ceremony that I am officiating on Saturday!

This will help distract me from worrying about scan results, and it will be fun and meaningful to participate in something so special.

In other news, this past week brought some changes at the Dragons' Roost.

The washing machine decided to die in the midst of doing a load of laundry with towels on Wednesday night.

OH, NO, it couldn't manage to die while it was washing shirts, socks, and underwear...it had to choose the most awkward thing possible to remove from the washer, carry to the bath tub, and finish by hand!  HAHA!

We managed to get the laundry moved using the buckets that we have out in the shed.  I got the towels and other items rinsed and wrung out by hand, and lugged back to the laundry room to the dryer.

Meantime, Dave got the shop vac and brought it into the house to empty the washer.

While the back door was propped open, our cats were secured in the bedroom.

With all of the going back and forth and in and out of the house, we didn't notice that someone came in to visit!

There were tiny kitty tracks on the laundry room floor from the spilled water.

One of our ferals came in to investigate!

We spotted the grey-tabby-with-white female (who is fixed) out in the back yard, and figured it was her.  She's one of the ones who is somewhat socialized, and lets us pet her.  We call her Arya.

It was sweet to think of her being brave enough to step in and give the laundry room a sniff!

After the mess was dealt with, Dave got on line, and we ordered a new washer from Lowe's.  Their bottom of the line Maytag was on sale, so that was perfect.

I'd always had Maytags in my previous life as a home owner (used ones, of course...couldn't afford new), and loved them.

The new washer was finally delivered on Friday afternoon (Dave came home to meet them), and they hauled away the old one.

I am grateful that we had some tax refund money left after the wiring job to pay for this surprise expense.

And then, Dave sold his car.

Yep.  Just up and sold it!

We never really talked about it in great detail as a decision process, and he placed it up for sale without us deciding on that together.

That had me a little miffed, just like when he BOUGHT the car without talking to me about it, but I can't expend any energy on being mad about it.  There's too much on my mind right now.

Basically, he had been thinking about the possibility for a while, we had tossed it about a bit, but I was not yet comfortable with it.

Logically, it is possibly a comfortable situation, with the advent of Lyft and Uber, and with the new trolley system between midtown (where I work), and downtown (where Dave works).

Also, with his dad now being in full-time residential care in a facility, there won't be any instances of us needing to drive to work separately because Dave has to spend the day dealing with issues with Pop, or the house.

(The house is under contract, too, by the way.  It took 5 days..... I can't remember if I mentioned that before or not.  Dave need never go back there.)

Anyway, the trolley stops right outside of my office, so the new, one-car commute will be me driving us to my office, and Dave getting on the trolley to get to his office.  He can buy a monthly pass.

On days when there may be severe storms, he will drop me off, and take the car to his parking garage, in order to keep it out of the hail.  Likewise, on days when he has his doctor appointments, or whatever, he will drop me off and keep the car.

We usually do errands together, and if there is ever an urgent instance when one of us needs to go somewhere while the other has the car, we can "Uber it" for roughly $10.

However, that is not highly likely to ever happen, unless one of us ends up in the hospital, gods forbid, and that person is the one with the car parked at work.

He keeps saying I'll get used to it.
Now, I have to get used to it!  *laughing*

Lots of people get by with one car.  Or no car.  Especially city dwellers, and we are, technically, city dwellers.

(even though OKC reminds me of the suburbs of Chicago, NOT of a big city)

His car wasn't really an expense, since it was paid off, and only carried liability and uninsured/underinsured coverage.

Getting rid of it won't actually save us any money, but now there is sheltered space under the car port for doing outdoor projects out of the sun, or we can use the grill if it's raining.

He sold the car to our friend Julie, in the long run.

She had brought her daughter over to look at it, and decided to buy it for herself.  It's kind of like keeping it in the family, haha...

We are using the proceeds to get the fence fixed, and finish insulating the attic.

AND THEN, the best thing of all.... the week after the wedding is our STAYCATION!  We will be OFF WORK for 10 days in all!

It will allow time to get out in the yard and get my herb garden and container garden started.  I hope things work this year, instead of most everything dying again....

Today, I hope to go thrift store shopping.  The bride wants me to NOT wear green, which is one of my best colors...AND she prefers pastels, which I do not have.  I will see if I can find anything.  If not, she'll probably not even notice what I am wearing!

Happy Palm Sunday to any readers who celebrate.  Today, I celebrate the memory of my dad, who was born on this date in 1921.

StormBorn

SO, this happened yesterday.  Blogger is acting up this morning, and this is the best I can do with the pictures.

I traded off my jinxed-but-adorable little green Mazda for a larger, somewhat ugly, Ford Focus hatch back.

Dave doesn't think it's ugly, and he actually spotted it and picked it out.

My car payment will go up about $120, but we can handle that.

This car is about the size of the Toyota Matrix that I had for 10 years.  It's MUCH more capable of doing long road trips with lots of luggage, and even of doing our big grocery running trips *wink*.

There were times when we could barely fit all of our bags in the Mazda when there were a lot of groceries.

We looked on the Carmax website,  found something to test drive, and made an appointment.

The salesman who met us was FAR more helpful than the one at the Mazda dealership last weekend, and was actually willing to work with me to find something that fit within my budget range.

The one I wanted (a Buick Encore crossover/mini SUV) at first was out of range, so he pulled up some other options, and I suggested we step down one size class to the 5 door hatch back idea that I loved so much in the Toyota.

Perfect.

Her name is StormBorn, after a character in Game of Thrones who has silver hair.

StormBorn is a 2016 Ford Focus SE (mid-range features), with almost 44K miles, 2 liter dual overhead cam 4 cylinder, 6 speed manual trans, with 160 horsepower.  No, that's not a typo.

I'll be "hexing her up" today, fending off all jinxes, and getting to know her via the owner's manual and possibly some driving around.

There are a couple of fancy features, like the back up camera, sunroof, and satellite radio, but some much appreciated basic features, too, like it still has a cd player (newer cars no longer have them), and nifty automatic headlights.

The two things that I want to add pretty quickly are window tinting, and a dash cam.  I've become accustomed to the privacy allowed by window tinting, not to mention the protection from the harsh Oklahoma sun.

The dash cam comes about for obvious reasons.  My paranoia about driving (and parking) around OKC in general is HIGH, after having my previous vehicles hit so many times.

(Not just the Mazda with its numerous times, but also the Toyota was run into in a parking lot once, too, and that Caddy loaner we had was hit while we had it, also when it was parked!)

We will be driving Stormy to Chicago in September, Colorado in October, and our cabin camping trip in November.

I feel a LOT better about having it for those trips than Dave's old Pontiac, which has been our road trip car, but which, as mentioned, OLD.

We had our lawn guy come and remove the bushes and tree suckers and stumps (oh my!) from the back yard that we have wanted to remove for years.  Dave said, every year, he was going to do it, and even bought a chain saw, but he was just feeling overwhelmed by it, and preferred to pay someone to do it.  He used some of the money he got from selling his musical instruments.

I hope to get out and mow today, if the grass dries enough.  We had heavy rain yesterday, and it's cool and damp this morning.  Maybe by late afternoon, it will be do-able.

Other than that, learning about the car and cooking are on my agenda!  Oh, and cheering on the Cubs, of course.

They finally broke their 6 game losing streak last night. Hoping things go up hill from here for a while!