you know i have cancer, right?

So those of you who have been following me for a while will remember that every year at this time, I go up to Connecticut to participate in a charity race. I walk in the MMRF Race for Research as a member of the Pop's Posse team. Pops is my uncle Paul. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma five years ago - a plasma cancer that develops in the bone marrow and interferes with bone health, prevents normal blood clotting, and leads to overworked and failing kidneys.

Ironically, when I came home from last year's race, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. (If you haven't already, you can read all about it on my cancer blog.) But now, less than one year later, I have been declared free of active cancers. Less than one year. And barring any unforeseen complications, my oncologists are confident that I will remain cancer free for a good long while. Maybe even the rest of my life.

But multiple myeloma is different. There is no cure. Remissions happen, but don't last. There are a limited number of therapies, and the more types of treatments a patient uses, the fewer options they have. And the treatments can often have devastating side effects.

Pops isn't the only person I know that has been affected by this cancer. My lifelong best friend Kimberly's mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002. Earlier this month, she lost her battle. This year, I will be racing in her memory.

Please support my efforts by visiting http://321cure.themmrf.org/goto/bonez and making a donation. Any donation. Big. Small. Whatever. Just something. Because if enough people give enough somethings, SOMEDAY someone might be able to say "last year I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, but now I'm OK."

Linda's Racing for Pops

Cantering for the Cure


Me and my Mom at the
2007 MMRF Race for Research



Why We Race…
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects more than 50,000 Americans. It develops in the bone marrow, causing normal plasma cells to transform into malignant cells. Those cells interfere with normal bone growth and health, increase the risk of infection, prevent normal blood clotting, and lead to overworked and failing kidneys.

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation is an international nonprofit foundation driven by a single purpose: to accelerate the search for a cure for multiple myeloma. Drug companies have typically not been interested in developing drugs for myeloma, preferring to focus on diseases that affect large numbers of people, for which treatments are most profitable. But scientists at the MMRF track myeloma research at academic institutions around the world and choose projects that are most likely to lead to new therapies for patients, and are thus the best candidates for funding. Once funded, researchers are required to meet strict deadlines for demonstrating progress.

Why I’m Fighting for a Cure…
Multiple myeloma became a part of my life in 2002 when my best friend’s mother Lin was diagnosed. At that time, the prognosis was bleak: no cure, no remission, few extreme treatments, and a life expectancy of 6 months to 1 year. Two years later, multiple myeloma became a bigger part of my life when my uncle Paul was diagnosed. By that time, treatment options had increased and diagnoses were being made in earlier stages, which resulted in longer life expectancies. Both Lin and Paul have undergone intense treatments that left them both wonderfully in remission. Without research made possible by funding from the MMRF, those treatment options would not have been available to them, and they would both be facing much harsher realities.

Why You Should Help…
93% of every dollar raised by the MMRF goes straight to research. That means that $.93 of every dollar you donate will directly fund those research projects that are most likely to result in an effective treatment and, one day, a cure. Please give what you can to help others like Lin and Paul have brighter futures.

Thank you for supporting me in my Race for Research!

good news everyone...

I'm sending you all on a highly controversial mission!

No, wait, that's a cartoon! But I have good news of my own - are you ready?

I...

Got...

A PROMOTION AND A NEW OFFICE!!!!!!!!

Hooray! Woo-hooooo! clap clap clap

First the promotion: I am now the Special Projects Manager at PACE Center for Girls (a step up from the Special Projects Coordinator I was a week ago). Basically, it's the same as what I was doing with a dash of extra responsibility and just a pinch of additional duties. Oh, and I get to manage the receptionist (who I first have to hire - ugh!). And - best of all - I get to be as anal retentive as my beating heart desires AND THEY WILL LOVE ME FOR IT!!!!! MWAAH-HAAAAAHH-HAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

And then there's the office, which actually came before the promotion. I used to be on the second floor of our main building, but now I've moved across the courtyard to a ground floor office (yippee - no stairs!). Plus, for the first time since...well, since ever, I have an office with a window. Scratch that. I don't have A window, I have two windows! All the other offices have one, but mine has two. Damn right, I'm special!

Here is a little tour:


This is the view from the hallway...



This is me sitting at my desk, working very hard...



This is my already cluttered desk...

Check out that 80's style white formica - at non-profits, sometimes you have to take what you get :-)



And this is what I see while sitting in my chair...
Notice the very cool Harry Potter note pad that my friend and co-worker Tracey gave me (no, I'm not a geek)...



To get an idea of what conditions I'd been working in for the past year, check out this pic. It was small and dark and not very cheerful. Quite a difference!

I've even added plants and a fish.


This is Blooberry Stroodle. He's not featured in the pictures of my office because I just got him this afternoon. But he's on the file cabinet under the window, next to the plant.



I've also added two more plants since the picture - one on the bookcase and the other near the phone on the desk. If you close your eyes and imagine potted fittonia like this, you'll get the idea.


So that's my big news. Maybe someone reading this (ahem) has good news of her own (ahem ahem) and will be inspired to update her very very very outdated blog (ahem) with her good news. (Ahem)




Coming up: SHOES

what i'm doing on june 10

This summer, I will be competing... No, no that's not the right word. Racing? Definitely not. Participating? Yes, but not descriptive enough. Ah, I've got it...


This summer, I will be dragging my sorry self up and down some hills and trying not to expire in the process in the annual MMRF RACE for RESEARCH in New Canaan, CT along with the rest of the Pop's Posse team. You of vivid imagination can picture me, there at the back of the pack, panting, cramping, compaining, whining, hurting, crying, begging to be carried. That was me last year. And last year, I had been "training" for a few months prior by walking 2-3 miles a day. This year, I haven't had any training, unless you count the 20 foot walk from my couch to my kitchen. And with the RACE less than a month away, I don't foresee any great miracle of fitness happening for me. Let me put it to you this way: my 80-something year old uncle could do the 5K circuit twice before I'll cross that finish line.

But the point isn't how long it will take me to cross the finish line. The point is that I will cross it. And why will I do this? I will do this because the MMRF RACE for RESEARCH is a cause that I believe in. MMRF is the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, an organization that raises awareness and funds research to fight and one day cure multiple myeloma. Ten years ago, I had never heard of this disease. When my best friend Kim's mother was diagnosed with it, I looked it up on the internet. At that time, there was a bleak outlook for those with this cancer; difficult to diagnose, there was no cure, no remission, few treatments, and a life expectency averaging 6 months to 1 year after diagnosis. A few years later, my uncle Paul (a.k.a. Pop) was diagnosed. By then, the number of treatments had increased and diagnoses were coming in earlier stages of the disease, which led to exponentially longer life expectencies. Both Kim's mom and my uncle Paul underwent intense (although very different) treatments, and are now both in remission.

This would not be possible without the MMRF. Although the American Cancer Society funds a diverse array of cancer research, less than 1% has gone toward myeloma. In contrast, the MMRF has channeled 92% of every dollar raised toward the most cutting-edge myeloma research worldwide. So far, that has totalled over $60 million funding 51 laboratories. But there is so much more they can do. The treatments available today are not cures, and they all have drastic side-effects including neuropathy and diabetes that do not go away when the treatment stops.



So I'm asking - please click this link to Pop's Posse Fundraising Central and donate a buck or two or twenty or however much you can to this worthwhile cause. It'll make a difference. And it'll make you feel good! And it will make me work that much harder to get myself up and down those blasted hills and across that finish line!

Danke schön!

"i got smashed this weekend"

said the old ugly Nissan.






First I paid $1 to hit the bugger two times. My first hit took out the driver's side view mirror.



My second whack dented the left front fender.




Man, that felt great!!!


A little later, I paid another $1 but this time, I got to hit it as many times as I could in 60 seconds. I went to town - check out the videos:
Part 1
Part 2

Just imagine how much more satisfying it would have been if it was a Saturn...

nevermind cocoa puffs....

....we're cuckoo for cuckoo clocks!

[if this reference made no sense to you, check this out]

We love 'em! We're crazy about 'em! We have 'em all over!


This one is all by himself (for now) in the reading area. watch video



These two are by the front door. They don't have a cuckoo, but they have an equally amusing bouncing lady and a bird that ticks back and forth! watch video



These three hang near our couch. The one on the right only cuckoos, but the other two also have a music box, and the men on the one on the left drink beer. The center one has an angry man that slams the door shut after the music box plays. watch video
I know, I know. The video ends before the door slams :(
I will have to try again...




If you sit in the center of our living room and close your eyes, it is like being enveloped in a giant irregular heartbeat!

cheshire-o-lantern

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Here is my pumpkin for 2006.


It was odd to carve it without a certain nephew and niece covering me in the guts :(
But it turned out good and the seeds will be yummy!

Hope you have more treats than tricks!