Back from Christmas in New York

We took no video, shot few pictures... to big and fast moving to capture..so to sum up .... we had a great time, saw all the family, had a big fat visit from Santa and will be weeks in recovering.

New topic.
I was watching Jeopardy last night and I was wondering what I would say after the first commercial break if I were ever on that program.

I think I would either tell the story about the time my colostomy bag fell off in the airport and I got shit on my shirt and had to buy a new one.

Alex: "I understand you had an interesting experience in the Columbus Airport once."

Me: "Yes, Alex, I had just passed through security when I noticed a suspicious odor ... and I still have both shirts, hahahahahahah."

Or perhaps the story of my daughter being born on my birthday.

Alex: "I understand you daughter was born on a special day."

Me: "That's not in the form of a question Alex, but I will answer anyway. Yes, she was. But did I ever tell you about the time my colostomy bag fell off in the Columbus Airport?"

I don't know, the chemo is hooked up again and I think I am delerious.

what would you tell Alex?

In Syracuse

terrible sore throat.....but we had a nice drive yesterday and now it is just a short hop to Chateaugay.

I wear the chains I forged in life

Christmas has us by the throat. We are going home this year. First time in about 10 years. That is my sole reason for not posting more. That and not much happening. Chemo has me down in the dumps and I believe I am addicted to my sleeping pills...mmmmmm sleep. droooool.

Hip video

This is Lucy's favorite Tragically Hip video. It always reminds me of my friend Melissa, cause I am always wondering what that poet is doing.
Lucy likes this because we have a tape of her dancing to this when she was a curly haird 18 month old. Also it has cats. When we play the song in the car she always points out the spot where Gordon hits the light switch. We have it on DVD, but this guy stole it from TV

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

famous ostomates

Humbling list of famous people with ostomies

fake tree, real music

this came out pretty crappy

I am trying to learn Imovie for work, and I realy truly think it sucks. Windows movie maker is way more intuitive, easier to manipulate and, as far as I can tell, offers more features.

Sorry about that all you Mac fan, but the stuff Apple brags about in its commercials is bs stuff, that other programs and platforms generally do better. And Macs, in my experience crash more than PCs.

Merry Christmas all you Charlie Browns

Too lazy to do my own work.... it's the chemo .....

what a difference a year makes

Last year, when Lucy was attending a pre-school at a Methodist Church, we asked her to tell us about Christmas and this is what we got:



This year she attends public school for kindergarten and this was her response when we asked her to tell us about Christmas:



I don't think the school has anything to do with it. I think it is more of a reflection of us -- or that damn TV!

What part of Thanksgiving am I?

You Are The Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

More Lunch Notes

sorta recent photos

Here is Lucy and our backdooyard neighbor Logan enjoying some carrots while watching TV. Logan is a good kid.


That's Lucy in the white hat about to put her boot to the ball. It must have been early in the game.


This is Lucy playing goal. Notice her outstretched hands. Nothing is getting by her.


Here is Lucy making a play while playing goal. Nice job!


This is Chris and his son Peter. Peter is just one-year-old!

This was living

latest lunch note poem

What I am worth

Just totalled up my medical claims for the year, so far. I think I have a few thousand more befoe the end of the year because of the ongoing chemo.
the grand total processed by the insurance company as of today:

$122,590.55


I think I am worth it. Don't you?

Purely biological fixed so you can see it

I fixed the YouTube settings so you can see this without some ridiculous registrations crap.

A couple of days ago, when it came time to change my ostomy equipment, I decided to film a little one-man how to.
It came out OK and I offer it here for those of you that are curious.
It is really more interesting than anything else.
Going into my operation I knew that there was a chance that I would end up with a stoma. Unlike the rest of the operation I did very little research and had only the vaquest notion how the whole thing would work.
I am sure that most of you are a little unclear.
So, in the spirit on my openess about the consequences of cancer you can click here and see how it works for yourself.
It is not as horrible as you might imganine, but if you are squeamish about things like this, you might want to skip it.

Mom's Away

Lucy and I are bakers

mmmm supplies.

new video

It has been a while since we have seen Lucy on video.... I know you have all been dying for this. Most of these did not work out quite right.

Restaurant Eating

Day two of exclusively eating in restaurants and everything has gone OK.
Note to self: sit on outside of booth if you are going to get gassy.
I had to get up a lot and that meant displacing the fellow next to me.
I will leave Kent State around noon today. The drive home should be interesting. Something has to happen with all this food and it hasn't happened yet! eep!

By the way

My photo a day video on YouTube is up to 1,070 views. It has seven ratings - it is not rated very well. And there are only two comments. One is gobbledygook, which I am afraid is some sort of Web geek speak for, "it sucks" and the other is in French and actually means "it sucks."
C'est la vie.

From Kent, Ohio

In Kent State doing some recruiting work. It is very early in the morning and I am at loose ends. Maybe if I don't start working at 4 a.m. I won't get so tired in the afternoon.
Nah... it's the chemo.

Lucy celebrities

http://www.myheritage.com

Thursday already

Elections tend to send you into a time vortex... where am I? When am I? Somebody throw me a time preserver!!
Tried to make a DVD of Lucy movies to send with Lucy to school for show and tell.
Is that a little over-the-top.
WTF are we going to do for science fairs? Full length cgi movie?
Create a spell check just for daddy?

Lucy photos, soccer, school

More lunch notes

Click on the notes to see them real big


I had to spend a few hours sitting around a doctor's office getting juiced up on cancer drugs. So, I had some time to doodle. People say Lucy is lucky. I am not so sure.




I guess I could have used my time better, but I can't see how.

Vote early, then lay back in a comfy chair and get stuffed full of drugs

MMMm....second day of chemo....
Shouldn't be too bad, the needle is already in and that is the only painful part. I have had some side effects. When I touch something cold with my hands itmakes them feel like they are falling asleep and when I drink something just the slightest bit cold it feels like there is a fishbone stuck in my throat. I did get really tired yesterday afternoon but that might be because I have not been sleeping much.

Let's make it a thousand

This is the most viewed of my 60 or so videos on YouTube at 964. It would make me complete to see it hit 1,000

chemo underway

My first session of chemo has been completed and I am hooked up with my old pal the Curlin Medical 4000 CMS. I have to wear this for 22 hours then get another 2 hour batch at the doctor's office and then 22 more hours on the pump. Then I take a week off from medicine before I do it all again. I have to complete the 3 day course 4 times before I have any hope of not seeing a doctor for a while.
I like doctors alright, I got nothing against them, but this is getting a little silly.

Pictures from our trip to Cincinnati

Guess who is older!



Posing with the brew crew.. Hey it was after 10 a.m.!



Dad giving Syracuse Athletic Director Dr. Daryl Gross some sage advice. "Get a player like Dave Bing."


Mike with a statue of Cincinnati great Oscar Robertson.


Dad with Syracuse Athletic Director Dr. Daryl Gross.

Weekend movies

We wrapped up the soccer season with a trip to Tim Hortons for some hot chocolate and some Timbits (donut holes. I played a little disc golf and Lucy and I made some movies for our friends in Germany.
We are going to try to learn some German phrases. It's part of our heritage so it might come easy.

The first one is a video about Lucy's Halloween Candy. She got more candy than any little girl should eat in a lifetime, but I am betting it will last a week (with mommy and daddy's help).


And here is Lucy's new version on an old favorite. She really does think that she is funny. Maybe she is. You be the judge.

Celebrity Look alikes

Check out Warren G.!

late halloween costume idea

I could have gone as a kangaroo!!! I already have my pouch!

Parent Teacher Conference Results

Turns out Lucy is doing well in kindergarten.
In all the categories they have tested so far, she scored above where she is supposed to be at the end of the year.
We still have concerns about her ability to keep her hands to herself but the teacher says it is getting better.
The big deal about her behaviour is that,the teacher thinks, Lucy is developing a sense of humor and is exploring the boundaries of that humor.
In most families each generation gets smarter.
I believe in the Graser family we have evidence that while each generation is showing incremental increases in intelligence, the humor factor is off the charts.
Graser's aren't getting smarter, they're getting funnier.
Not sure if that's a good thing.

Parent Teacher Conference Tonight

Should be interesting. Lucy was shown a yellow card today for "beating up" a class mate.
Lucy used the term "beat up" but I am not sure if it means what we think it means. Sounds like there was a lot of playing involved. At least that's my story.
Soccer game tonight got called because of cold conditions.. babies.

Expensive bones

Lucy and I made the headstone and we bought the bag o' bones at Wal Mart.
The dirt pile was courtesy of our sewer repairmen who left us a great big bill too.

This is the only fun we got out of the great wads of money we spent.

My toilet time has dropped by about 95 percent, for chissakes!

Got this tip from Ash

We have our first parent-teacher conference on Thursday and frankly, I am a little stressed about it.
Still, the girl amuses me so.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Pumpkins

Lucy and I did some pumpkin carving.
Only one was completely our own. Lucy's first one was entirely here own design. I did one that was inspired by one I saw on Ashvegas's site, I think it was inspired by
Tim Burton. Our cat pumpkin was done with a stencil.

Game day video

It's a huge file. My best quality was over 23 megs... didn't feel like uploading it. This is more like 6 megs so.... quality suffers.

Busy weekend

I took Friday off from work. I have to figure out a way to use up three weeks of vacations. Right now I have a week and one half planned. I will try to take the rest a day at a time. Problem with that is that everybody else at work have vacations piled up because of my medical leave.

My brother and father blew into town Friday afternoon. We drove to Cincinnati to watch a football game on Saturday and they drove back to Syracuse on Sunday.

Lucy was a bit wound up because of the visitors. Also Halloween is coming and the weather has been lousy so she has been trapped inside.

Neighborhood News

A hot air balloon flew by!!!!

Lucy's view

One big deal first. I switched to a convex flange last night and I think it is going to make my life better. I know a lot of you don't know what I am talking about, but believe me, it is a big deal. Melissa can e-mail me if she wants the intensely biological details.

Meanwhile, here is what happens when Lucy grabs the video camera:

Last post a bummer

It is really not so bad. All of those side effects -except the sensitivity to cold - were part of my first experience with chemo and I didn't do too bad.

My first experience was coupled with radiation as well, which I will not have this time.

This will be a bit of an inconvenience, but not that big of a deal.

I did really want to get my mediport catheter removed, but I can live with it for a few more months.

A positive attitude makes all of this much easier.

And I heard a new colostomy joke yesterday (I think I've heard it before, but then it was tasteless, now it is hilarious)

What's the hardest thing about having a colostomy?

.... wait for it.....

Finding shoes to match your bag!!!!!!

FRIGGIN' HILARIOUS!!!!

I'll be in the Stoma Room all week.

Sorry about that.

And the good news is .... tempered with bad news

My oncologist says that the standards of treatment for colorectal cancer have changed since I started treatment.
So, even though my scans (pet, cat and mri)have shown no signs of cancer (that's the good news, if you were looking for it) it is strongly recommended that I undergo four more rounds of chemo therapy.

We will start in a couple of weeks.

The drug I will take is called Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin®). Here are some of its side effects:

• Numbness or tingling in hands or feet.

For some people, these symptoms can be triggered by anything cold, such as iced drinks and cold air.

• Lowered resistance to infection

Oxaliplatin can reduce the production of white blood cells by the bone marrow, making you more prone to infection.

• Bruising or bleeding

Oxaliplatin can reduce the production of platelets.which help the blood to clot.

• Anaemia (low number of red blood cells)

This may make you feel tired and breathless.

• Nausea (feeling sick)

We call itvomiting

• Diarrhoea

It is important to drink plenty of fluids if you have diarrhoea.

• Tiredness and a general feeling of weakness

It is important to allow yourself plenty of time to rest.

So, now I got that going for me...

Someday this will all be behind me (ha ha) and we can all have a big laugh about it...

I must say, however, that it is getting harder and harder to imagine that day.

Halloween Bedtime

Halloween Costume extravaganza

We had to respond to a halloween video from our friends Lucy and Leah!

Saturday Morning

Soccer game is at 10! Hurrah, those 9 a.m. games are a bear...
Lucy and grandma are watching Tom and Jerry in outerspace.
Apparently, Tom and Jerry travel in outer space and Tom chases Jerry and Jerry manages to bash Tom repeatedly with apparently deadly force, but in the weightlessness of space, Tom survives.

We are going to make a Halloween Costume video later.

Fiction or Fact?

Medical Report

Mary's surgery went well. She didn't sleep much last night but her swelling seems moderate and she is controlling the pain.

My scan was uneventful. We should get results on Monday..

No school for Lucy today ... poor grandma.

Big medical day today

Mary goes to Columbus for oral surgery and I get a pet scan. Thank goodness Mary's mom is here to fill in the gaps..

I should have scan results next week. My guess is that there will be nothing to report...

I hope

Another lunch note

Sort of a variation on a them inspired by Dr. Seuss

Lucy has gone international

Lucy has some new friends in Germany. They stumbled across a couple of her videos and decided she would be a good person to get to know. So we exchanged a few messages (the dads, I mean, Tom and Dirk) and soon we go this video:



Lucy responded with a video of her own:

More Lunch Notes

click on these and they get real, real, real big!!

New coffee maker

My preferred mode of communication is home-made video

New phone

I finally got a new phone.

I broke mine about two days out of the hospital and had to wait two months to be eligible for the free Verizon upgrade.. well. free if you manage to complete the mail-in rebate.

I took the photo above in bed last night and e-maile it to Mary who was upstairs on the computer at the time.

Already the phone has made our lives better.

See my Homer pillow case?

Soccer story

some more lunch notes

I cut these photos out of an Ohio vacation guide magazine. Looks like a fun state to visit, doesn't it?

Tomorrow I will tell you about my trip to the neurologist and what he found out was wrong with my brain.

Longest day of work yet

I think I was pretty productive yesterday. I still have a long way to go. I came home exhausted. Was barely able to stay up for my lastes tv obsession "Heroes"

Lunch Notes - The Movie

Lucy likes notes in her lunch. I like to doodle....

Lunch Notes the series

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples. If you click on them you can see them big, real big.

Lunch Notes - there are a lot of them.

Click on them to see them in their most enlargest state.

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples:

Lunch Notes Click on them to see them BIG!!

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples: