Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, y'all! Looks like I'm going to last into 2007. Don't know if I'll make it to 2008, but I would like to be around for the next presidential election. I wonder how early I can absentee vote.

We went to Grand Junction on Wednesday. I had a Gemzar infusion. My red blood cells/hemoglobin count was low, so I got an Aranesp shot to stimulate the bone marrow to produce red blood cells. I got a larger dose of steroids again, I think because my weight has been dropping a little bit - down to 137.5 pounds, so I've been pigging out lately. White blood cells and platelets were okay, and liver enzymes mostly good. Tumor marker is down to 2946 which is still really high, but at least it's down from last week. It was really busy in the infusion area this week - trying to fit five days of patients into four since Monday was a holiday. We go back again next week, but Dr. Bergen will be gone and I'll see another doctor. I only got infused this week - Dr. Bergen had 19 patients that day, so I didn't see him. I'll be getting a CT-scan about the second week of January.

Felt good yesterday from the steroids - I did bookkeeping from 5pm to midnight at ColoradoMinerals.com (with a dinner break for a big hamburger), and then went home and read 'til 3:00 am. Robert got me for Christmas a copy of Cynthia Lennon's book "A Twist of Lennon" which came out in the late 70's. She is John Lennon's first wife. I had to read the last chapter about Yoko Ono first. Cyn was really gracious about what happened.

My bowling team (Mike & the Harem) is tied for first place with the Tow-Ho's. (The Duces and the Pecks are on the Tow-Ho's - Steve Duce is partners in the service station in town.) Tied for second are Mixed Nuts and Hawaiin Heat. I think the OJ's are in third, then the MAKK Daddies and Team #2 tied for fourth. There's only seven teams in the league and we're all pretty close. I'm hoping we can hold our lead and finish in first so I can get my picture on the wall of the Elks Lodge, fair & square. Some ambition - eh? We have three games left starting next Tuesday night. There's a private pot-luck party there tonight with bowling that I hope I can go to. Don't know if I'll hit my chemo slump by tonight or not.

On New Year's Eve, we've been invited to a friend's house on Log Hill for dinner. Moosie and Jim have just gotten engaged - yea! Moosie's sons are in town, and I am looking forward to seeing them and hear how their college experiences are going.

We took Ian to the airport on Wednesday when we were in GJ for my chemo. He made it home quite easily and his bag was one of the first off the plane. His bag got to Ouray on Christmas morning very early. The three of us went outside to meet the truck.

Robert is busy winding down The Sandman shop. We are getting things situated at the mineral showroom for ColoradoMinerals.com and wrapping up 2006 bookkeeping.

Congratulations to my sister Diane who passed a kidney stone last week. I think this is the fourth episode she's had with kidney stones since high school. In that first incident, she was in terrible pain, and we were getting ready to take her to the emergency room. My mother was try to sew a hole in the toe of her hosiery and ended up stepping on the needle in the commotion, so we had two emergencies.

Just up here in Colorado looking forward to the fireworks on New Year's Eve at midnight. Hope I can stay up that late - usually the noise wakes you up. It's really loud and reverberates off the mountain side.

Sincerely, Caroline