GO HAWKS

Big big day coming up. SUPERBOWL. Oh the excitement. Oh the nerves. Good luck to our hometown team!!! We support!

Look at the Bright Side

If you are 50 you might have already done this, but on Monday I had the "pleasure" of my first colonoscopy. I'm not going to tell you anything about how much I really wasn't in the mood for such an event, so instead I'm going to tell you all the good parts (or as many as I can come up with!)

All docs are different and have different protocol for how to prep. Some use a certain kind of "mix", my doctors gave me a prescription for polyethylene glycol, or PEG bowel prep. Not terrible, not great. But the good the comes along with it all is this:

Three days before event you have to not each veggies or fruit or high fiber - so as long as I avoided those, I got to have an excellent dinner of anything I wanted knowing that I wasn't going to be eating for quite a while. I had a chicken quesadilla - yes!!!

Two days before you are on liquids but they don't have to be clear liquids yet. And the directions say right out loud that you can have a milkshake!!! And I did and I didn't even feel bad about it at all. That was probably because it was the only thing with any calories at all that I could think of to eat drink! I think I got some juice and maybe some clear soup later.

One day before, it's all clear liquids. Broth, juice, pop, that kind of thing. I ate Miso soup with the good stuff strained out. There is really no good part of the one day before.

Day of dreaded event. The good news is that by now you are practically one-sided because you haven't eaten for a while, so you get to show up for your appointment feeling really skinny.

And finally... the best part.... the drugs they give you are awesome and you're pretty much out of it for the whole appointment. In fact, it's like you weren't even there.

And that's it. Over and done. Not bad. You don't need to know anything else - done and done.

Weekend Follow-up

We liked it. 

Utah was awesome. We flew into Vegas, got a car and drove up to St. George, Utah. Maybe an hour and a half driving - traffic out of Vegas at rush hour but the drive was easy once we got going. Weather was sunny and around 60 degrees the whole weekend, which was a little unusual for that area in January - but whatever, we loved it.

The resort was perfectly fine. Not a 5 star deal, but really comfortable and very nice for a wellness place, and not too hippy dippy at all. We got in just in time to drop our bags and head to the dining hall for dinner. The menu is smallish (just the right size) and all the options show you the calorie count, etc. if you are trying to be healthy. The food though is still really nice. Healthy nice! If you want, you can get beer and wine so you aren't forced to be on a diet here if you don't want to - and there is a dessert menu too - overall I would say AWESOME food. Really nice soup and salad bar, and the breakfast options were super good. Again, all healthy choices, and lots of choices. Fruit, yogurt, but also eggs and that kind of thing, oatmeal, toast, pretty much anything you want - so from the really important WHAT WILL WE EAT portion of the show, we liked it.

Saturday after breakfast we drove to the golf course. Had a great time there, beautiful course, pretty scenery. Loved it. Got back to the resort in time for spa appointments. We both had massages - very nice. Then we got dinner and hunkered down for a movie in our room. Great and relaxing!

Sunday we did a quick little hike in the State park next to the resort property. Gorgeous. Got back to the resort in time for more spa stuff. Followed that with the CRAZIEST FOOTBALL GAME ever. Watched the Seahawks pull out a big win over the Packers in the last 3 minutes of the game. So good, and soooooo stressful, but our Seahawks are now off to the SUPERBOWL!

Monday we checked out around 10am so that we could drive up into Zion National Park. It's about an hour outside of St. George, so we headed in, did a scenic loop drive, and a little hike that had a beautiful view, did another scenic drive the other direction in the park, and then worked our way back to Vegas. We got back just at dinner, so we pulled into the Bellagio, and ate at Yellowtail (Sushi) and had just enough time to win $10 bucks at a slot machine before heading to the airport. That, my friends, in not nearly enough gambling time for me, so just know that there will be another trip to Vegas in my future to make up for the lack of "gaming".

Got home late Monday night.

Here are a few pics of our little trip. Sorry, none of me, I'm still trying to come to terms with my new hair, so to survive the super short and hideous doo, I'm avoiding photos for the next couple of weeks. It's a complete fucking disaster, but since I can't do anything about it, I'm just avoiding looking at it. All I can say about it is.....Sigh!!!

Weekend re-TREAT!!!!

We are going somewhere GOOD this weekend.

Red Mountain Resort in St. George, Utah! We've never been there, but have heard a lot of nice things about it and are super excited to check it out. Apparently, you can sign up for guided hikes, horse riding, other stuff while there. Or you can go ala carte and just wing it. That's our plan. They have daily "events" like yoga, stretching, pilates, etc... so you can swing in to anything at any time or decide not to - your choice.Our plans so far:

Friday - Fly into Vegas in the afternoon and drive up - have fab dinner and check out the whole cozy joint. 

Saturday - Golf at The Ledges, then spa here, then maybe a little hike around the area, which looks super pretty.

Sunday - More spa and salon then football then another hike or something outdoors after the game.

Monday - check out and work our way back to Vegas to get home. And don't for a second think we won't stop at a casino on our way out of SIN CITY!!!

All photos are directly from the Red Mountain Resort website.

Here's hoping the resort is what we expect and that my shoulder holds up for golf, and that the weather is beautiful and that we have a great time. Can't wait.

Field Trip

Mt. Rainier? Huh? Oh that mountain that I'm practically picking it out of my teeth every sunny day? That one? Yep! Well, again, true, never been there. UNTIL NOW! Another thing we checked off the list over the Holidays. Jumped in the car and drove right on up. It was delightful - well.... once we got there it was nice, and once we got down it was nice, the actual getting to was a little distressing for me.

The roads were sort of snow covered on the way up, naturally. It was December and it is a big mountain... so you would think I might have considered that when I said "yep, let's go!" - then right when the road turned to snow and ice I thought that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Did you know that there are a really lot of steep cliff-like drop offs on the road to Mt. Rainier? Did you know that I'm terrified of heights and cliff-like drop offs? By the time we got to the top Kit had to peel my fingers off the arm rests. I was tense - to say the least. I might have said "Could you slow down?" about 850 times.

And by the way, the car did perfectly fine. We didn't slip at all - I was just way overly worried that we would, and then plunge to our deaths - ahhhhhhhh! We didn't. On the way down we saw a Land Cruiser in the ditch and thought "what a douchebag" because he was probably going too fast. Lucky for Kit I repeated "Could you slow down?" another 850 times on the way back down the hill, so we never ended up in any ditch.

The mountain is beautiful. I'd like to go back, but in a different season. That would be nice.

Field Trip

Until December 26th, 2014 - I had never been to Whidbey Island. EVER. I've heard so many great things about it, so finally we went!!!

Getting to Whidbey is easy. I-5 north, follow signs to Mukilteo, take the Mukilteo/Clinton ferry - about 15 minutes and boom! You're on the island. We did a bunch of driving around to check the place out on the 26th - then rounded our way back to Langley for the night.

We booked an overnight at the Inn at Langley, just on the main street of the cute cute downtown and had a fabulous time. They do a prepared dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights that can be reserved when you book your room. There is one seating at 7 and dinner lasts a few hours. You can add a wine pairing for all the courses or a "light" wine pairing if perhaps you drank yourself silly over the Holidays and couldn't possibly shove any more champagne and wine down your throat. The whole thing is really well done and the chef and staff are all fun to talk to and the food is good plus kind of fun little experiments, etc. Their dining area is really well designed and cozy and romantic - definitely worth going.

Breakfast is included in the room rate and it is also served in the main restaurant space. It is a really good selection of muffins, rolls, fruit, salmon (lox), eggs and meat and cheese options, toast, all the good stuff along with coffee and tea of course.

They also have a nice spa (or so I hear). We didn't make time to use the spa so we just walked by it with yearning. 

On Saturday the 27th, we meandered all over Langley and checked out all the shops and galleries, and had a lovely lunch at this cute little french restaurant called Prima Bistro! 

And then, it turns out, we bought a painting at this cute gallery called edit. It only just opened about 6 weeks ago and we had seen one of this guys paintings at the Inn and liked it so we stopped in and met him and looked at the rest of his work - which is fantastic. And now we own one of his pieces. Here is our painting which I am posting from his site because I haven't yet take a photo of it hung in our apartment. We are totally in love with it. If you get up to Whidbey, go see him.

I took some photo's of the Inn while we were walking around. It was a little rainy and cloudy but we had an excellent time. 

So - this is our room #12. Great room but if I were in charge of room decor, I would have selected
different furniture to make it feel more cozy. I think they were going for a light and airy approach, but
most of the year in the northwest is cloudy and rainy and the rooms would have been more suited to
a little more substantial furniture next to the bed, and softer more clubby chairs at the fireplace.
Just my opinion.

This is the bathroom from the sink area (double sinks) thru the toilet area with the shower and tub
beyond. The tub is a huge soaking tub so really nice to sit in and look over the water.

View from our deck

Inn from the water side. There is a walkway that meanders from the Inn to the town along the water.

Streetside entrance to the garden and dining room. Beautiful!
Must be fab in the summer.

Tightly trimmed hedge.

2015? Already?

Happy New Year! Seriously - HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A friend of mine who was diagnosed with breast cancer a month or so before me posted on her facebook page, "Hey, fuck you 2014! Happy New Year 2015!" - I thought - my sentiments exactly!

Pretty happy to be done and moving on to a better year - although I will always thank 2014 for the good outcome to a crap situation. So thanks, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

New Years Resolutions:

I didn't put a lot of thought into it, but a few things are jumping out at me.

1. Grow my hair out. That's sort of a joke. Haaaaaa- It's so damn short still, but I can't wear the wig one minute more, so as of yesterday - it's me in my real hair all the time now and in whatever the hell color it is,for now. It's hideous, but whatever, deal with it. As it grows out, most of the white freaky Guy Fiori nastiness will go away - apparently one more thing that people don't really tell you is that chemo can strip the color right out of your hair and when it grows back it often comes in white or gray. So pretty. As if I haven't had enough. 

2. Get it all back together. This is sort of a general statement but what I mean is, I'm going to pay close attention to feeling good again. I still have a lot of weird chemo related side effects - some are not really a big deal, some are about to kill me..... but I will focus on getting everything back in proper order - and getting back on a really good diet and exercise schedule and living the good life. Radiation is almost over and it hasn't been bad at all - but after that's done (in 2 weeks), I wont be spending nearly as much time at the doctors and will have a lot more time to invest in my well being. Hhhhommmmmm.

3. Pay closer attention to my wardrobe. I plan to NOT get sucked too far in by the insti-fashions at Zara, H & M, the Gap, etc. All of them are just fine for trendy "not meant to last" styles, but I get so disappointed by how those things wash, dry, lose their color, etc. I will TRY HARD to buy fewer and better things so that they will last and I will look better. Also, while working on #1 and #2, I will attempt to plan out my clothes the night before so I don't run around like a jackass every morning wondering what the hell I'm going to wear. 

4. I will pay WAY more attention to the effects of aging - sigh! I feel like I'm doing exactly the opposite of what I am supposed to be doing in regard to aging. When I was young (and had perky skin) I spent way more time on hair and make-up and lotions and potions. Now that I'm older (and less perky), I hardly do anything about anything. Granted, I've been a little busy this year looking and feeling like shit, but new year - new me! I'm getting back on board. It might take me longer to get ready in the morning, but c'mon - this has to happen. I really have to get the cute back.

5. No more talk about the big C. Now that this cancer thing is in the rear view mirror -  I'm done talking about it here. Unless you ask, then I will. But, I'm really so sick and tired of it that I'm ready to move on to way more interesting topics. One year of that was plenty! So, cancer - fuck off. I'm breaking up with you!

Ok, that's it for resolutions - Did you make any?

Yay 2015! Bring it!