2010 Ends and 2011 Begins

I had one big goal to accomplish Thursday, 12/30, and that was to get the sound fixed on Joe's new TV. Mission Accomplished! After spending several hours with Vizio on line tech support, it was fixed. The service tech who helped me was  in South Dakota which pleased me since someone has a customer service job in the good old USA. It turned out the sound issue was not in the TV but it is controlled by the Comcast HD Cable Box. Who would have thunk?!? Not me!

Since I was on a roll, I decided to spend some more time on my touch pad issue on my ASUS notepad. It is now working consistently so maybe the issue where it disappeared is gone. The truth be known, I think that it is still lurking in the background to jump at me when I can least handle it.

Friday started with an 8:30AM Lab appointment at Winship at Emory. We were happily surprised that Joe's blood count was decent enough to not need any transfusions. What a great way to end 2010 and start 2011! I hope that this is an omen. Joe's White Blood Count was 3.8 (4,2-9.1) which is close to normal. Red Blood Count was 3.24 (4.63-6.08). Hemoglobin was 9.4 (13.7-17.5) which was great news since 8 would mean he would need a transfusion of red blood. Hematocrit was 27.8 ( 40.1-51.0). Platelets were 28 ( 140-400), Another surprise is that his MCV, MCH, MCHC, MPV were all in the normal range. Those "M and M's" have not been all normal for over 13 years because of Joe's other incurable disease called Myelofibrosis. Now, do not take me wrong the important counts are still below normal but this is progress. I will continue to pray that Joe's bone marrow will be able to produce blood. Time will tell.

We were giggly with excitement since now we could drive to Jacksonville, Florida to be with my son Mike and our two granddaughters, Samantha 12 years old and Emily 6 years old. The day was bright and the roads wide open as Joe, Max and I drove down Interstate 75 to the joys in our lives. As we got closer, I started texting Samantha as to our location and we both were wild with anticipation. It has been four months since we saw our granddaughters and we missed our first Christmas together, Samantha had texted me requesting if Katie, her girlfriend, could spend the night with her and us. Of course, she can! Katie is a very sweet 12 year old and a great friend of Samantha's and very polite as well as appreciative.

When got to Mike's house, he was busy cleaning and disinfecting his home for us since he wanted to make sure that Joe would not catch any virus. Much to my surprise, the girls were not there. They were at their Mom's home about a mile away. Mike and Jennifer are separated which still aches my heart. We got to Mike's about 4PM and Jennifer was to drop off the girls for the weekend at 5PM. I helped Mike finish cleaning up the house while Joe rested from the drive.

Promptly at 5PM, Jennifer and the girls arrived with hugs, smiles and kisses. The girls opened their Christmas gifts from Joe and me with gusto. Samantha got a stylish black leather military jacket, a blouse with a necklace, a snow globe, a silver necklace with her name. Emily got a black sparkling net layered skirt, a Princess Doll kit with lots of gowns, a necklace with her name on it, coloring book, United Stated puzzle, and a snow globe. The big gift from Joe and me was the XBOX 360 KINECT for the girls and Mike with an Adventure game. Jennifer, Mike's estranged wife, got a special wine decorated coaster set that I loved. Jennifer left for the weekend and Joe and I took all the girls to an Italian dinner at Carrabba's in Orange Park. Even though we got there at 6PM, there was already an hour wait for a table. Instead of hanging around there we drive over to the Orange Park Mall just in time they closed it up for New Year's Eve so we went across the street to Target to waste an hour. I went with the girls while Joe hung out at Starbucks. Mike did not come with us since he was meeting a friend down at The Landings in downtown Jacksonville. He also put the XBOX together for us so when we got home, we could start the Adventure.

We did not get seated for inner until 7:30 PM and we all squeezed into a booth. Thank goodness all three girls could comfortably fit on one side of the booth with Joe and me on the other side. We had a delicious meal and very good service. Much to our surprise, Samantha ate her Caesar Salad, all of it! She never has eaten salad before so this was a breakthrough. She loved it.

Once we got home, we started to play the XBOX. It is a very active experience and loud. Poor Joe was not a happy man with all the noise, giggling and shouting that was going on. The KLINECTwatch Ryan Seacrest count down the minutes to the New Year. Shortly thereafter Joe and I headed to bed.

On Saturday morning all six of us headed to Panera Bread for a light breakfast. All three girls had bagels like Grandma Bonnie. Papa Joe and Mike had the three cheese souffle. Joe and I were happy to find out that the opened a new Panera Bread at the Oakleaf Town Center rather than having to drive way over to the very busy Blanding Boulevard.

When we got home, we played the very much fun game, Dance Party, on the Klinect system, What a blast and what a fin way to learn the new fun dance moves of the current generation. It is also a sure way to get exercise while having fun as a family. I loved watching each girl do their dance and they did quite good. Daddy Mike did the best of all of us. I realized Joe was missing. He had taken the car and escaped the pre-teen dance party. I texted Joe to be back by 2:15PM since we were all going to the AMC Theater to see TRON 3-D at the Orange Park Mall. Joe showed up and all six of us went to the show. Before the show Mike took the girls to the Dollar Store to buy candy and drinks for the movie. I can see how a family of six could easily spend $120 going to the show if they all got candy, popcorn and a coke. Good Grief! No wonder kids and their parents love the grandparents! TRON was a video gamer's delight but it sure was not my and Joe's type of movie. It was a bug video advertisement for one to buy the game and toys. I found that quite insulting. They should be paying US to see that type of movie. Joe swore the two hour movie was really three hours since he was bored to death. He slept through most of it. Poor Joe is not having any fun.

After the show, I cooked the traditional New Year's Day dinner with Roast Pork Loin, Red Potatoes, Black Eye Peas, Collard Greens, Mac N Cheese, Caesar Salad and Texas Cheese Toast. Katie has gone home so it was just Mike, Joe, the girls and me. The meal was a hit and we just about cleared all the food off the plates except for the red potatoes which the three dogs enjoyed! Mike has a huge English Bulldog called Georgia, a sweet gentle Beagle called Lucy, two cats called Timmy and Gracie. What a Klan!

After dinner we played some more of the Dance Party and Joe escaped to ventures unknown,  Mike had gotten some rental movies and we all sat down an watched the Big A which is a comedy of sorts, Joe had come back and watched it but he just barely lived through it since it is a teen girl type of movie. He headed to bed while I watched most of another movie about Dance. Very talented young dancers had me entranced with their cool creative moves. I tried to go to bed at midnight but I was still all keyed up. I gave up after tossing and turning for about an hour so I got up and played solitaire on my iPhone for hours till I finally got tired.

When we woke up this morning, Joe started that he wanted to get home early and did not want to drive at night. He would never state it but the noise and chaos of little girls was too hard on him. I reluctantly agreed and started to get everything packed up. Mike got both the girls up so we could all get a light breakfast at Panera Bread before we headed back to Atlanta. We gave our hugs and kisses good-bye. I drove first till we got a little North of  Valdosta where we filled up the gas tank and got lunch at Wendys. We got Max two small hamburgers for his treat which is chomped up pretty quickly.

The Falcon's game came on the radio at 1PM so the game kept us entertained until we got to the South Atlanta suburbs. The iPhone helped up wonderfully in giving us the Falcon radio stations in each town so we did not miss a minute of the game. The Great Falcons won the Southern NFL Divisions and won home field advantage for the whole play-offs. It is the best season the Falcons ever had, 13-3!

As soon as we got home, Joe headed to Starbucks to get coffee which did not make me a happy wife. I unpacked and caught up on the bills and e-mails.

After watching the Bear/Packer Football game we went to dinner at Capozzi's on Clairmont Road in Decatur which is a great neighborhood restaurant. Clifford and CJ greeted us with a big Happy New Year and a hug. It was the first time Joe has been there since we got back from Houston. Clifford got me a gratis glass of Prosceco Champagne. Joe can not drink so he settled for Sweet Iced Tea. Joe enjoyed his Caesar Salad as I shared my lovely lightly breaded tender Calamari. They make it perfect! Joe had the Chicken Marsala and I had the Veal Marsala. This  is the place to have Marsala, FABULOUS! I took home a piece of cheesecake for Joe which was a birthday gift from the restaurant. What a place!

Tomorrow we start at 10AM at Winship, I will be surprise if Joe does NOT need a transfusion since he is so tired and has way too many black and blue marks on his legs. I finally am getting to see the neck spine specialist at 2:30 PM to decided what needs to be done to fix my bulging discs. It has been hurting since August and has gotten steadily worse with way more less motion in my right arm. We shall see.


My wish for one and all is for peace, good health, hope, faith and love for 2011.

Ciao!





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