More on the Other Performing McKeown

Last week was a musical one for Maggie (and by extension, me and Frank, her avid fans).

Wednesday evening was the Albany High spring choral concert, at St. Marks in Berkeley. I've been to a couple concerts there (to see good friend Monica, in the California Bach Society), and the church is a lovely place with very nice acoustics.

Then, this past Saturday evening, we attended the always-fun guitar recital at the Benicia home of her guitar teacher, Peter Morley. We always enjoy these recitals. Peter is a very giving teacher and a gracious host, and Maggie played "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

Before the recital, during the day, Maggie and I had joined the Cassims (with their visiting nephew, Sameer) for a mid-day visit to Sausalito. Lots of sun, a very nice lunch, and a bit of shopping. So, even before the recital, we were pretty pooped. When we returned home (around 9 p.m.), Maggie and I got comfy in jammies and watched some LotR (Two Towers).

The next day, Maggie and I went in to SF to finally pick some perfume to go into the bottle that was part of her Christmas. First we had lunch at City View (excellent dim sum) and then we smelled some fragrance at Macy*s. She thought she might like something from Chanel or Dior, but we looked at/took a whiff of several designers/brands until ending up with two possible choices from Dior--J'Adore and Cherie. We got some Ben & Jerry's while we pondered this monumental decision and then went back upstairs to get her a nice little Cherie gift box (that included a cute little purse and some body lotion). The sales guy--I think recognizing a potential future customer in Maggie--threw in an extra thing of body lotion for her.

A very nice weekend to kick off Maggie's spring break. At the end of this week, we'll be heading up to Tahoe to spend Easter with the Bauers. The fun just never stops!

Back to "Normal"...

...whatever that means. ;-)

I had a check-up with my oncologist on Monday and a blood test revealed that all my numbers are back to normal. (During treatment, I had been getting a steady dose of Neulasta to keep my count high enough to allow me to keep up the bi-weekly chemo treatments. These injections stopped, of course, when the chemo treatments stopped, and last June, my white blood cell count was somewhat low. Now, all is good again.) And since my most recent mammogram (December 1) was nice and clean, and my exam with Dr. Kuan yielded nothing scary, I don't have to have any more blood tests when I visit her. Yay!

In other news, we all went to see Slumdog Millionaire last weekend, with Jackie & Yusuf. A wonderful movie, and we followed it with curries and naan at Cafe Raj. A terrific date—I recommend it.

(Also, it's been a shocking two months since my last post. I'm getting back on the weekly wagon, just in case anyone is still reading.)

A Couple Celebrations

Maggie turned 14 a little over a week ago. She had a few friends over for curry and cake and what I refer to as "sneaky Jane Austen". The girls watched Clueless (a contemporary version of Emma), and then they watched Bride & Prejudice (a Bollywood version of Pride & Prejudice). A wonderful time was had and she felt properly feted.

And yesterday I celebrated my "all-clear" with a BBQ at Terrace Park. Here's the cake (courtesy of my darling daughter, Emily).

And that's how we do closure, Karen-style.

Goings On

I've got my port removal scheduled for next Monday (July 21). Yay! Dr. Broderick (who I love, btw) said he can do it as an outpatient service in his office, and I admit I am intrigued.

See, while the hard silicone thing (into which they put the needles to draw blood and infuse toxic chemicals) is supposed to be near the surface of the skin, mine appears to be somewhat deep (much commented upon during treatment and subsequent blood draws). Also? It's connected to a tube that goes up to the Subclavian vein. Can they just pull that out? They don't need to suture it or anything? Finally, mine is much farther down on my chest than the one in the diagram in the link--Dr. Broderick very kindly placed it within a reasonable line of decolletage, so, um.... Well, I guess we'll just see, won't we?

This Weekend
In other news, Emily is doing the AIDS Walk next Sunday, with team I Love This World. Feel free to sponsor Emily and donate by going here.

While Emily is doing that, Maggie and I will less helpful to society at large by going to the Giants v. Brewers game. Frank shares in season tickets with several other people, so we get about 10 or 11 games a year. And I love the seats. They're on the third baseline, in the Club section. Which means if it's too hot, we can go up to the glass-enclosed food/drink section, which also is air conditioned, and still see the game.

Oh, and Friday night, we're all going in to the city to see the Chihuly exhibit at the DeYoung, along with Jackie (and maybe Becky?) whose husbands will be at the annual golf "debacle" with Frank and five other fine gentlemen, up in Graeagle this weekend.

Last Weekend
This past weekend we saw "Ironman" at the Cerrito--way fun, we'd all recommend it. It was fun and over the top in a good way. And yesterday we saw "An Ideal Husband" at CalShakes* in Orinda. The sets and costumes were lovely, the direction was fine, and the acting was fairly solid. It's the play itself, I fear, that doesn't quite stand up. The play drags a bit in the middle (the plot bogs it down just a bit) and the wonderfully sexist point of view at the end is a bit hard to take. But you can't beat the venue--amphitheater, set in the hills, on EBMUD watershed property, so you really feel like you're away from everything else. "Ideal Husband" is on for a couple more weeks and then next up on their calendar is "Uncle Vanya". They did a super job with "The Seagull" a couple years ago, so I'm looking forward to this next one.

*Dinking around on their site, I found this terrific video from CalShakes' Artistic Director, Jon Moscone (yes, son of George Moscone) showing the site of the Bruns Amphitheater. Actually the video on their site didn't work, so I tracked it down on youtube. Check it out: