Van Morrison

Van Morrison is coming to town, I think April 22. Tim will not go with me, and I don't have the brainpower to figure out who else to ask.

If anybody I know who reads this blog would like to go with me, please make contact! I want to see VM, but going alone to a big concert seems depressing.

Comment about PBC post

Kate,
My name is Janet and I live near Chattanooga, TN. I am 44, and found your blog regarding your Mom's Primary Biliary Cirhossis. I was diagnosed with PBC after a biopsy in January. I'm glad to hear that you are following up with a Gastro Dr. My Mom also had PBC. The Mayo clinic is doing a study to try to find the link that is allowing this disease to pass so clearly from Mothers to daughters. I also have a daughter, who is now 21. There isn't a lot of info about this rare disease. I hope your tests come out well. Good luck to you and your family.

--

I see the gastro MD on Thursday. I expect to be told I should have a biopsy of the liver, which I don't look forward to. Unfortunately it's the only way to rule out PBC and find out what the deal is, though.

cripes, we're 40

Many people I know were born in '66, including Tim and I. Today is Maureen C.'s 40th birthday, and she is one of my first '66 born friends to cross the finish line into middle age. Or peri-menopause, as I recently read we are about to move into!

Yikes-o-rama!

Also my friend Carmen turned 40 just 3 days ago. I hope she had a good one, and that she did something fun to celebrate. And I'm wondering, should we be doing something extra special to mark this year as a turning point? All I can remember of my parents turning 40 is that my mom threw a surprise party for my dad when it was his turn in 1978. And I guess my mom must have turned 40 shortly after we moved to Vienna in 1980, but I have no memory of what we did for her that year. Probably tried making her life as miserable as possible, since I was a pissy 14 year old who was not happy about having life turned upside down by a move to a strange new country.

Anyway, happy birthday to Maureen in the UAI! I'll try to skype you sometime today.. (even though I never got headphones like you told me to...)

sick of the flu

I spent the majority of the week taking care of flu stricken children. Days and nights and days and nights of feverish small people writhing around on the couch or the bed or the bathroom floor, threatening that the throw up was going to come out right now. Luckily (?), it never did. After 3-4 days of this misery, the gunky hacking coughs came on. Maggie finally went back to school on Thursday, and Frank was about a day behind her in his recovery.

Now I'm going into my 4th day of body-aches, headaches and eyeball-aches that are barely being touched by Ibuprofen, and this afternoon Maureen started her runny nosed version of the illness. So it looks like tomorrow will be me and the little one on the couch, flipping through Sunday movies and getting better at Sudoku. This week, while I was at home alone during the day, I watched a great PBS show about the Shakers, and also started watching the German mini series from the 80s called "Heimat". Also figured out how to do word jumble on the internet. And slept more consecutive hours than I have in 7 years. I hope to feel good enought tomorrow so that I can start burning all our bedding, or perform some other ritual that will make me feel like I'm exterminating the nasty rotten cruddies.

Hmmm, I wonder if Tim's disgusting petrie dish experiment had anything to do with all this illness?