Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 - A new week

Dear Bloggy,

As of what time it is when I started typing this entry, it is still Sunday for 20 more minutes. I'm sure by the time I finish typing the entry, it is going to be Monday, so I wasn't sure whether to put the title line as Sunday or Monday. See the dilemma?? :)

Anywho... this is just a little babble entry because if I leave it any longer, another two weeks or longer will have gone by. Which is crazy! If I leave it 10 days to two weeks, I seriously can't remember what happened in the last 2 weeks to report on here on the blog... yet, do you think I can get my act together to make an entry when things actually happen?? Nooooo! I need a secretary!! :)

Last week (yes, it's been a whole week!) was the Oscars. No big surprises there and no wild crazy moments that make the night memorable. It seems the Hollywood crowd has all grown older or something... there just aren't the crazy actors that used to be at the Awards and we all could look forward to some craziness to happen. I still haven't seen all the nominated movies and chances are I won't be getting to them in the near future. Time to move on I guess and will catch new ones that come out. I've got my eye on wanting to see The Other Boleyn Girl so hopefully will be able to take that in one of these days soo. I missed out on seeing the last Elizabeth movie and I really do like those historical movies.

But this week is already pretty booked, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to see any movies. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting my friend, Alison Tohill for lunch down on Granville Island. We haven't been able to get together for lunch since before Christmas, so time to catch up. On Tuesday, I'm going to meet up with Jill in the TUTS office to do some spreadsheet work. Then, if all goes according to plan, I am hoping to take a bus downtown Wednesday afternoon so I can pop in to say "hi" to the gang at work. Hehehe... this is dependent on me having enough energy every day. I'm pushing myself a bit to try and build up those energy reserves. It's interesting how some days I have the energy of the good old days and other days, I wake up knowing I'm in big trouble for the whole day :)

On Thursday, I have to go to the clinic here in the West End to have Nurse Chris flush out my portacath with heparin. This has to be done every 4 weeks when it's not being used. I'm sure Dr. Gill is wanting me to keep the portacath for awhile yet in case we ever need to use it again... but it would be fabulous if we just keep getting it flushed every 4 weeks and never have to use it again :) At some point she will then arrange for me to go to Vancouver General to have it surgically removed.

After I see Nurse Chris, I will then have a bit of time to kill before I go to the Cancer Agency to have my PET scan. Hahaha... it's not even as if I can take myself out for a nice lunch before I go to the Agency because I have to fast for 6 hours before the scan. I will be taking a good book to read because it sounds like there's a lot of waiting around. I will be there for 2 1/2 hours but the scanning process itself is only 30 minutes. So for the other 2 hours, it will be prep time and waiting. At some point I have to drink this sugar water type drink... and will also be hooked up to an IV where they will put a radioactive dye into my veins. It's the combination of the beverage and the dye that will be able to show any suspicious areas. The scan will be from the head (eyes) to the knees. I have to take a list of any surgeries I have had in my lifetime because apparently scar tissue will show up the same as active cancer cells would. So they will want to know right off the top what might be scar tissue vs an area that might cause some concern.

Anywho... I'll be glad to have that scan behind me. I won't actually know the results until the following week when I see Dr. Gill on Friday, March 14th. At that time, I will also have more blood work done at the lab at the Cancer Agency, in particular the Tumour Marker test which measures the levels of CEA in my blood.

I may have been a little misleading in the last entry. I had said that the normal reading for CEA is 0... except that everyone is different. For me, we are pretty sure the normal reading is 0 because that is what it was during the chemo sessions. The reason we are having the PET scan is the December reading (first time the test was done post chemo) the reading was slightly elevated at a 6. Now that could have just been a fluke or false positive so Dr. Gill was not concerned. At the beginning of February, the reading was an 18. So since there was a rise, she has decided to call for a PET scan. It is not much of a rise and it still may mean absolutely nothing, but best to check it out. For someone else, a 6 or 18 is very low so they would be perfectly happy with that reading. So, like I say, everyone's "norm" can be totally different and different factors can raise or lower the levels of measurement.

Well, it's now midnight. Soooo, the big question, do I go to bed with a good book or do I stay here at the computer and out of the corner of my eye watch CSI: Miami?? :D

Oh, and I forgot... must make a note for myself to go to the Book Warehouse tomorrow and pick up a copy of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth". This is currently one of the books on Oprah's Book of the Month Club and she thinks the world of this author. So much so that she is putting on a world first online class with the author about the book. It is going to be every Monday at 6pm PST for ten Mondays. You can register on her website (http://www.oprah.com) for the class. Of course, I am behind in that I haven't picked up the book yet and it would be ideal to have read the whole thing before tomorrow's class. But, I thought I would read the book and even though I won't have read it by tomorrow at 6pm, I'd check out the class and see if I enjoy it.

Hahaha and I DID finally get to finish tidying and clearing out my front hallway today. I've been wanting to do this for months. You know how it goes... you start leaving the mail and then a bag goes here and a bag goes there. I do NOT have a big hallway so it doesn't take much for it to look totally cluttered... and I ended up having a lot in it. It is now all neat and no clutter! Yayayaya! This is just the beginning... I'm going to go methodically through the whole apartment, and then the closets. And hopefully I will get the whole apartment decluttered and simplified before summer :D

Ciao for now!

Cheryl

Friday, February 22nd, 2007

Hiya Bloggy,

Just me again... another ten days has gone by without an update. What can I say? I suppose I can come up with some wonderful, elaborate excuses that will sound really good, but what the heck... someone is bound to catch me on that ;)

Naaaa... the truth is, there was a week of evenings and two weekends where we were busy with TUTS auditions. That was a lot of fun but it did seem to tire me out more than I thought it would. Go figure, eh? Here are a few pictures.. well, only a couple because, although I had my camera with me the whole time, I kept forgetting to take any pictures, which is sooo not like me!

Here we have Roxie, James Pollard's terrier, and Bridget, waiting patiently at the TUTS office for their carrot treats. Both are very patient girls!

Back at the Church hall where the auditions were being held, here are some of the kids and Aaron. You have to give it to the kids... they sure are darn cute!!

And here we have the next generation.. President James Cronk and a future star of TUTS!

Anywho... like I say the auditions were fun and tiring, but I was glad I helped work the audition desk.

Since then, I have gone to see the Rheumatologist and he's pretty sure that I'm not showing any signs of rheumatoid arthritis. Phew!! That is great news since I'm not sure I could take that on as well. He wants to keep an eye one things but is pretty sure that the pain I have been going through now for a few months is long term effects of the chemo. Which chemo, or whether it's a combination of one or more chemos, he can't be sure. He wants us to keep an eye on it over the long term but feels that within 6-12 months, some of the pain should start going away, although the osteo-arthritis in my knees will never up and disappear, but I had that prior to the chemo. He's saying that any of the joint/muscle pain that has come on since the chemo, it should hopefully go away... whether all of it or just some of it, only time will tell.

Meanwhile, I now have a PET scan appt... it is set for March 6 in the afternoon. This scan should take about 2 1/2 hours in total... and if truth be known, I can't wait until this one is behind me. There's just something a little nerve-wracking about having to have this scan done because the CEA levels are elevated. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all means nothing, it's just I don't like the fact the levels have been elevated twice in a row. Apparently a "normal" reading is 0. When I had mine done in December, my reading was a 6, which they consider slightly elevated. My reading in February was an 18, which they consider more than slightly elevated, but she didn't say if this was considerably more or ?? But it's elevated enough to warrant a PET scan. So I will be glad when it's all over... and even more glad if the scan comes back with no sign of anything to be concerned about.

Meanwhile... I'm taking it easy at home tonight. I'm kind of tired and this morning woke up with bad joint pain in the right elbow, upper arm and shoulder. The shoulder has been a problem for awhile and seems to be a little immune to the pain killers, although tonight it's feeling better as long as I'm not doing anything .

Meanwhile... it doesn't look like I'm going to catch up with getting to see all the Oscar nominated movies. I've seen Juno and Atonement... but the others? Oh well! Tomorrow, if I'm doing ok pain-wise, I am going to head to the local cinema here in the West End to see "Across the Universe". I know it's no longer at the mainstream cinemas, but it's one I really wanted to see on the big screen and I found out it's playing at the Denman Place Cinema tomorrow at 2:30pm.

Sunday, it will be off to my friend, Pat's for the Oscars! Sometime between now and then, I am going to bake a cheesecake to take with me... hahaha... now if only I had an Oscar shaped springform pan!

Until next time... enjoy the wonderful spring weather!! Hahaha... of course, having said that, the rain will now arrive!

Ciao!

Cheryl

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Hiya Blogster!! And all you Blogees (readers of the Blog) :)

I know, I know, you don't have to yell at me for being soooo out of date with the Bloggy. Believe it or not, I DID have every intention of updating the blog the weekend I got home from Hawaii, which was.. ya, well, a week ago . Now that I've left it this long, I am not sure what to report on since anything over a couple of days and I tend to forget what happened! I'm thinking I have some pictures on my camera, but alas... it would mean getting up and hunting down the camera... and then, quite possibly the pictures are out of date. I know there are probably a couple from the last day or two in Hawaii... but that is sooo old news now! So, I think I'm just going to have to start over and any pictures I take from here on in, those will be the ones I post!

Ok, where to start? I do remember coming home on a very packed, not an empty seat on the plane, flight. The flight home was ok, although I must admit, I did feel like a sardine and I hate feeling that claustrophobic for 6 hours!! But I did make it home ok... and wouldn't you know it, I swear the plane parked in Burnaby and we had to walk back to the terminal... that is how long the walk was. I had waited until most everyone was off the plane before I headed out... and by the time I got to customs, the people were all gone! I was the only one wandering all by my lonesome in that huge Customs area!! Poor Alice was looking all over for me, wondering if I had just up and disappeared. And Walter, bless his heart, got my luggage for me and put it on one of the luggage carts. From the airport, I took a taxi to my friends', Stephanie and Tony's house out in Tsawwassen.

Now, here's an interesting thing... for those of you following the US economy and, in particular, the US dollar. All us Canadians have always looked up to the US$. As a matter of fact, there is a generation or two of Canadians who have only known the US$ to always be higher than the Canadian dollar. Well, when I went to pay the taxi fare, I didn't have enough Canadian currency on me so I tried to pay with half Canadian and half American money. He was very nice, but said that he couldn't accept the American money but would take Canadian or a credit card. Tony came out at that point so when he saw the problem, he went back in and got the Canadian that I needed. I have never, in all my life, been anywhere in Canada where they did not only accept American cash, but LOVED American cash better than our own money!! So this is just a sign of the times... something I've been in discussion groups with others for a long time.

Anywho... I did get out to Tsawwassen ok and what Tony did was put the dogs out in the backyard ... then I came in and stood in the far corner. He then let both Bridget and Reagan in. Bridget immediately had her nose in the air and made a beeline for the kitchen. I wasn't there, so she came running back into the family room... and then she spotted me. Then the excitement began! She was very excited to see her mom... screaming, hollering and making all sorts of noise. When I picked her up, she was Velcro Dog... with a paw around each side of my neck and hundreds of puppy kisses. This lasted oh, 10-15 minutes, and then it was as if I had never gone ;) Until we got home... then I got the cold shoulder for the next 2 days. How DARE I abandon her!! Luckily, she got over that and she is now back to her old puppy-loving self :)

The rest of the week, I pretty much needed just to try and adjust back to the cooler (ok, at times, COLDER) weather. I did go out to see Dad, Pat, Jer and Erin out at Dad's place when I got home, but it's amazing how the drive out and back actually did tire me out. I'm not sure if it was the drive out/back or that I went out so soon after traveling by plane... but I was knackered!

This past weekend, for no reason, I got very sick on Friday night (well, the wee hours of Saturday morning). It wasn't food poisoning because I felt fine... and didn't get any of the normal waves of nausea. But oy vey, was I ever sick to my stomach!! That lasted for about 5 hours, every hour or so. Even now, I have no idea what brought that on!!

Lucky for me, it was over in 5 hours, because this past weekend was the start of the auditions for Theatre Under The Stars. WOW... can you believe that?? Auditioning for the two shows that make summer magic around here! Come heck or high water... even with the amount of joint/bone/muscle pain I am going through (hopefully it will be long gone by then ??), I will once again be volunteering to be part of the incredible TUTS team! This year, the two summer shows will be the revised version (written for Bernadette Peters) "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar!" Two great musicals... and if we get the good weather... well, wow! But first, the auditions! And we have gone hi-tech this year!! :D We have two older iMacs set up on a table, hooked up to a printer. Each of the iMacs have a cute little webcam that is on one of those twisty arms. So when someone comes up to register to audition, we can fill out the first part of their audition form (name, address, email, phone, etc), then at the same time, do a command/C which activates the web cam to take a still picture. Voila! We can then paste the picture right on the top left hand corner of the audition form, print off two copies (one for each show's set of directors) and the auditionee is ready to audition. This is the first time I have ever seen this done at an audition and it is brilliant... I'm surprised no one has thought of it before! The directors/choreographers/musical directors can now remember who was who when they go through the forms prior to callback auditions because the pictures are of the auditionees on the day of the auditions and not the lovely, professional headshots that actors turn in, where they look gorgeous, but not necessarily how they looked when they came in. Sooooo... I will be helping with the auditions in the evening this week and then again next weekend. I am staffing the computer/pictures, then when it's not busy, I am putting together a spreadsheet of auditionee's name, ph, email, address so these can be sorted easily when we need to get in touch with them later this week.

Ok... that sort of brings us to today. Today I went to see my oncologist, Dr. Gill. I am just going to paste the information I sent in an email to my family so I don't have to type it all over again...

My major complaint for the past umpteen months has been the joint and muscle pain. Prior to all this cancer stuff, I DID have osteo-arthritis in both knees and, as much as a pain as it is, it was something I was used to. The rest of me worked the same way as it always has. Since about the end of August, I was starting to notice more pains... like arthritis but in other joints... and as time went on and we finished the chemo treatments, the joint pain continued to get worse. Now, my oncologist is thinking that the joint pain is just the long term side affects from the chemo... and with time it may get better. Either that, or the chemo has triggered off any dormant arthritis I may have had in my body, so now it is her in full force. Before saying it's chemo-related or not, she is referring me to a rheumatologist and he/she will put me through some tests to see if I have any signs of rheumatoid arthritis (the crippling kind) or any other soft tissue damage. She doesn't think I do have any rheumatoid arthritis because I show no signs of inflammed joints, redness, etc. But, she wants to rule this out as a cause and if we can rule it out then we can be pretty confident that the joint pain, be it osteo-arthritis or a chemo-related infliction... it has probably been triggered by the chemo.

Then we got to talking about the blood work (which I had totally forgotten about since the joint pain was my main concern)... and my CEA levels are elevated again, even higher than in December. Some of you will remember that the CEA test is the one they call the "Tumour Marker". It does not mean they are marking a tumour, it's just the name of the test where they measure this substance in the blood. If the test shows the substance is elevated then it "COULD" mean there is cancer somewhere in the body or blood system, but it is not a "for sure" thing. It is just one of the tools they use to monitor.

Since my CEA levels were elevated again, Dr. Gill is going to go ahead with ordering another CAT scan, as well, she is going to order a PET scan. The CAT scan will be the same as the one they did in December where they will scan the whole abdominal area. With the PET scan, the procedure is they give me a special kind of sugar which, if there IS cancer, it will absorb this sugar and then show up on the scan as a glow of some sort. The PET scan is of the whole body, where as the CAT scan is specific to the abdomen.

So, that's where we are at the moment. There is no rush for these scans... it's not like we have to rush in an have them done in the next 48 hours. But it will be the PET scan that takes longer to book than the CAT scan, so they will probably book them at the same time. Chances are, I will have both scans and an appt. with the Rheumatologist within the next 4 weeks. Once they are set up, they will mail me the dates/times.

Okey dokey... this was a lot of babble and no pictures to break up the babble. But what's a girl to do?? I will add pictures later as I take them ... or I may even do something sneaky and post some pictures of friends/family once I get their permission :)

Soooo... until later... ciao for now!!

Cheryl

Wednesday, Jan 30th, 2008 - Getting ready to come home!

Hiya Bloggy,

Ok, I was going to say this is going to have to be a quick blog entry because I am really tired and have to get to bed. It's 11:15PM and it seems I've been getting up early just to get going in the morning. But, I have a bunch of pictures to add to the blog so maybe this entry I'll not talk as much and just put up the pictures :D Hahaha... this is going to have to be the last blog entry until I get home. I have one more full day at the beach (tomorrow - Thursday), then Friday is going to be a long day. I will be heading to the airport about 10:30am for my flight that leaves at 1:40pm. I'll get home about 9:15pm Vancouver time, but will be going out to Tsawwassen to pick up Bridget and my car. I can't wait to see that little schnauzer again!!! :)

Anywho... I digress! The pictures!! Let's see... where are we? Oh yes, it is Wednesday today. Gee, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Ok, on Sunday, I remember we were at the beach all day... and then we ended up staying a lot later than we normally do because it was Lumpy's birthday. Lumpy is one of the beach boys on Waikiki. Lumpy and Tommy are wonderful and they take good care of us. We have known them for years... and they are the ones who keep our chairs/umbrellas so that we don't have to be lugging them around every day, let alone every year. So, being that it was Lumpy's birthday, they had a BBQ birthday party for him and we all were invited to help celebrate with him. Here are some pictures from the birthday party on the beach...

This is Lumpy and part of our gang -- behind Lumpy from the left is Evan and Colleen, Chris, Doug, and Buddha (little Colleen).

Here's Lumpy and John Lovitz. Notice how Jon now has a good tan too? He gets here about the same time I do, give or take a few days... so we all show up here white...but end up leaving tanned. Lumpy, on the other hand, is tanned all year round since he lives here :)

Peggy is learning how to make leis out of ribbon and can tabs. Go figure, eh?? And they look gorgeous!

Hehehe... here's Tommy! The brat is sticking his tongue out at me!! I didn't realize that when I took this picture. But he and Lumpy are good guys and take good care of our group... I think we have grown on them :)

Here's Tommy playing with Prudence. Prudence is Miko Brando's daughter and Tommy has known her since she was just a wee toddler.

Here's a picture of Jon and Prudence. I just realize, I don't have any pictures of Miko Brando, although he was here at the party too.

I thought this was kind of a neat picture in sillouette. What it is is tandem surfers practising on the sand. This is where two people (usually a guy and a gal) are on the same surfboard and they do all these lifts, etc... almost like gymnatics, but all done on a surfboard. Kind of neat... although, I think when they do this on the sands of Waikiki, they tend to be showing off more than practising ;)

Ok... I think I may be out of sequence here... either that or I've lost track of the days, which is not unlikely . We are now going to jump to another party... this time it was at the condo that Doug and Marilyn were renting this vacation. It was one of the penthouse suites at the 4 Paddles Condo building. Nice condo ... but expensive to buy in Waikiki.

Here's a picture of Marilyn, Margie and Peggy. Aren't they cute?

And here is Marilyn, Buddha (Little Colleen) and Doug. Doug and Marilyn have adopted Buddha as their daughter and can be her Canadian parents. Colleen lives here in Hawaii and is going to school here (as well as working).

Hehehe... Peggy, Buddha and the "tongues" :)

Ok... last night some of us got together again at Doug and Marilyn's. We were going to order pizza and have an evening of playing our favourite card game, Quiddler, but we ended up eating appies and never did get around to ordering a pizza. I would show pictures of last night, but realized the are pretty much the same people as above so it wouldn't look any different than the last time (which I think was last Saturday).

Meanwhile, on Monday night, I met my old childhood friend, Julia and her husband Ken. We went to the Yard House for dinner and a few hours of chatting and catching up. I have only recently caught up with Julia again, but it had been like 40 years since we last saw each other! Here is a picture of her and I outside of the Yard House restaurant...

Aren't we just too cute???

Actually, Julia, Ken and I went out for dinner again tonight since I'll be heading home on Friday and they will be heading home on Saturday. Here's a picture of Julia and Ken at the restaurant tonight...

We went to Chili's Restaurant, which was very good and we had a good time yakking again. After having walked to the beach and back today... and then I walked to Chili's and back (Julia and Ken walked me back to my hotel after dinner), I was pretty tired and sore by the time I got back. But, we had done a bit of shopping at the International Market Place. I had found a dress this morning that I really like.. but do you think I could find the store again tonight??? Hahaha... so the three of us were on a mission to find the store... and we ended up finding it!! :)

Ok... so I'll end this blog entry with a head and shoulders shot of me to show those of you who I won't be seeing in person, that I really am coming home with a tan :)

Ya, ya, ya... I know some of you are going to say I look RED!! Well, I guess I sort of do but that is because we had major monsoon rains the last couple of mornings and then trade winds in the afternoon... so a lot of this "red" colour is actually wind burn ;) I am past the "sun burn" stage... but wind burn can happen whenever there is a wind around here :)

Oh wait... somewhere around here I have a picture I took outside my lanai door yesterday morning. This is a picture of the monsoons that I was talking about... unbelievable rain...



Ok... that is it for now! Next time you hear from me, I will be back in Vancouver. Not only am I looking forward to getting back to see my darling little Bridget and the diva-monster bird, C.B., but I have to admit, I will feel a whole lot more comfortable once I've seen my docs and gotten these various aches/pains taken care of. I had really thought that coming here and having the warmer climate hit these aching joint/muscles, I'd be back to my old self... so you can imagine my surprise to find out I'm no where near like my old self! Well, not yet. Maybe it's a little early yet.. but hopefully we can get that all straightened out when I get home :)

Sooooo... alooooha, my friends!! I'll see a whole bunch of you when I get home ... and catch up with the rest of you in email :)

Aloooooha!

Cheryl

Thursday, January 24th, 2008 - The tan is peeling!

Hiya sunburned Bloggy!

Waaaaah! My hard earned tan is peeling big time! As a matter of fact, there are certain parts of me that look like they have leprosy! Ack!! In particular... my hands. Have you ever heard of hands peeling from getting too much sun?? It's never happened to me before... likewise my legs and feet. I have never had them peel like that and when I do peel, it's usually when I get home and my skin goes into shock with the change in temps . Heaven only knows what I'm going to look like when I get home!! Hahahaha!

Well, Peggy took this picture of me today down at the Hale Koa beach. The one thing about getting your picture taken while in the sun, you don't look like you have much of a tan!!

See? It doesn't look like I have much of a tan... but I do! Really! :D But it is peeling and I have to admit that my skin is reacting sooo differently than in past years. Amazing!

Oh, here's a picture that was taken tonight... this shows a bit more of the tan, at least on the face. This picture was taken at California Pizza... yes, we went there again tonight. Joe (gee, can you guess which one is Joe?) is leaving tomorrow, so here he is surrounded by his harem... he should be so lucky!!! :)

In the picture, from left to right is moi in the pink, Marilyn, Peggy and Buddha (Colleen). Joe, of course, is in the middle.

Oh... Chet left a comment on the last blog entry and a couple of you did in email, wanting to see the turtle necklace that I fell in love with. Ok, here is a picture of it, but unfortunately, with the flash, it doesn't show the pink gold... and the chain looks a little thick. It is really a dainty chain and the turtles are very dainty and feminine...

Aren't they just the cutest little turtles?

Oops... now I'm backtracking here. Yesterday (Wednesday), when we were on Waikiki Beach, Peggy and Doug went surfing! Peggy had tried it a few times before, but Doug had never been. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures of them out on the waves on their boards because they are too far away from the shore for the camera to pick them up. But here is a picture of the two of them dressed and ready to go :)

They both had a lot of fun and did really well! Both got up numerous times and rode a wave in... and both have the bruises today to show for it :)

Well, today I was out in the sun most of the day which could explain the "glow" I'm wearing tonight ;) Joe kept telling my my "tan" was red. I told him he was colour-blind .

So, tomorrow is another day, although the weather folk here are still calling for rain on the weekend. Around here, that can mean anything from monsoons to hot sun. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Well, no words of wisdon to part with... I think I'm just going to head to bed with my book and watch David Letterman :)

Alooooha!

Cheryl

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 - Shopping!

Hello Bloggy,

And everyone else who may be reading along! Hehehe... ok, tonight, I'm being real lazy and not posting any pictures. I can't remember if I've taken any recently but I've already packed my camera in my beach bag for tomorrow and I was about to go to bed to read my book... when I decided to throw in an entry on Bloggy :) So, if I do have some pictures to share, I'll just have to catch up later .

The last blog entry was on Saturday, so yes, I'm sure I have more pictures... what I took them of, I really can't remember LOL!! BUT, I do remember that on Sunday the whole gang went on the catamaran for a 10:30am sail. It was, as usual, BEAUTIFUL!! The sail itself and being so low and close to the water is an amazing experience on it's own... but then add in a beautiful, sunny, warm day, with tropical blue waters and... can it get any better? Yes it can!! John was the first to notice, off to the left was a big, old whale!! At first, when it came up to the surface, it looked like it was a solid gray... but then it flapped it's big old tail and you could see it was an Orca with the definitely black and white markings. Truly beautiful!!

Yesterday (Monday), we all were down at the Hale Koa beach. Again, another beautiful, hot, day. We were all behaving quite nicely... but then (and I'm sure it was Ron that started it)... a water/ice war broke out!! Down at the Hale Koa we get kind of spoit by having beach umbrellas, chaise lounge chairs and buckets of ice to keep our bottles of water cold. Well, that ice eventually melts and we have lots of buckets of ice WATER... which is just too tempting for some of them. Like I say, I think Ron started the war with chasing Evan and throwing the first bucket of water... then Evan went after Ron, then Peggy joined in and before you knew it... water was being thrown at everyone. I, being the handicapped person who couldn't get off the chaise lounge and run, felt quite secure that I was safe... after all, who would be so mean as to throw a bucket of ice water on a helpless person who couldn't fend for herself? No one, right? WRONG!! Both Ron and Peggy got me at the same time!! HAHAHAHAHA!! And I couldn't even retaliate!!! I WILL get even!! Just you wait!!! :)

Let's see... today, we were down at Waikiki Beach... in our usual spot in front of Duke's. Again, another beautiful day with the trade winds happening. I like it when there is some breeze...otherwise, it gets just too damn hot!! It was hot, but a lot easier to take when there's a breeze ;) So not much happened today... just sitting out with the gang on the beach and yes, I did go into the water again! I love it in the water... it is the one time when all my joint and muscle pain just disappears. I feel like I can walk, jump, and do things with my limbs that I can't do when I'm out of the water and in chronic pain. So I stayed in for quite awhile today, even though, with the breeze, it was chilly being in the water :) I did need help when I was getting out of the water and had to get up that one step of sand at the shore line. That's where the waves break and for me, it's just a little too tricky stepping up and being hit by a wave at the same time. That is frustrating that I can't just walk up like everyone else.

Ok... now, tonight, I actually had more energy than I've had this whole trip in the evening. So after I showered and got dressed, I headed out to get something to eat and check a few of the shops on the new section of Lewers St. Oh-Oh! There is one clothing shop called "Blue Ginger" that has real cute clothes in wonderful tropical fabrics/prints. I ended up buying this lovely, comfortable sundress in a light green, leafy print. It has all smocking on the top and then non-smocking on the bottom. It is ankle-length which is actually very nice, but since it is exactly what I was looking for for Jeff and Helen's wedding back at home in July (our summer), I think I may take it to my seamstress and have her cut and hem it to just below knee length.

Then, on the same street, there was this jewellery store. There are a kajillion jewellery stores in Waikiki, but what caught my eye was this necklace in the window. It was a pinky/gold chain with a pinky/gold charm in the shape of an outline of a turtle holding onto a baby turtle. Across the back of the turtle is a row of small diamonds. So feminine and cute... I totally fell in love with it!! I just had to have it... no matter what the cost :) So, I got it... and I'm thrilled with it!

Sooooo... that was my day! It's not 11pm so I'm off to bed to read my book :)

Alooooha!

Cheryl

Saturday, January 19th, 2008 -- evening

Hey Bloggy,

I told you I'd be back! It's now 10pm HST on a Saturday night and can you believe it? I'm actually about to go to bed!! Too much sun and surf today!! Yes, today I went into the water against all my fears of falling or losing my balance while walking on the sand, I DID it! Oh sure, my wonderful friends are around me and would be there to help me in or give support with the walking if I needed it, but I wanted to do it on my own and I not only walked on the sand without the aid of the cane, I got in and out of the water on my own steam :) :)

Ok... now I'm not really sure where I left off, both in days and in pictures, so what the heck.... I'm just going to throw up a few photos that I've taken over the last week. There are others, but hey... this is just a taste of the past week...

This is the daily scene on the beach where you can find our group every day. I'm not exactly sure of our set up, but something to do with the beach boys that we've known for years store our umbrellas and chairs, then a couple of our guys come down early in the morning and set them up... the rest of us toddle down throughout the morning. These last few days, I've been the last one to get there in the mornings!

I thought this was one of those photo opportunities. Not far from where I get off the bus, on my way to the Hale Koa beach, these palm trees were blowing in unison against the blue sky... so of course I felt I had to take a picture. Especially since we've been hearing reports of wind, rain, snow and cold temps back at home... I figured I'd put this one up so everyone back at home could show sympathy that we are getting winds too :D Of course, ours are called the "Trade Winds" :)

Now, you may very well be asking what we do to keep ourselves amused while we spend every day down at the beach. A good question!! We get into competitive rounds of the card game, Quiddler!!! :)

I never get tired of seeing the Hibiscus growing outside. They grow everywhere... sort of like the daffodil or tulip back at home. These gorgeous flowers come in all sorts of colours, although this red/orange and a yellow one are probably the most common.

Oh, now how did this one get in here?? Yes, this is some of us up at Chuck's Steakhouse bar... where our favourite bartender, Bob Melton works. This was us AFTER having had dinner and now were having a few after dinner drinks.

Speaking of Bob... here he is! Peg is holding up the sign that announces, for the second year in a row, Bob is the winning bartender on the whole island for the new drink he made up. I forget the name of it, but he did make one for me and it was wonderful!

Ok, we are all getting ready to go to a Puu-Puu Party last night at Curt's house. A bunch of us met at the front of Peggy, Chris and my hotel and while we were waiting, had this picture taken ... just some of the gals ready to party :)

Hmmm... I thought I took more pictures at the party, but I guess I don't have them downloaded yet.

Today, we just sort of vegged out down at the beach, which is no different than what we do every day (grin). Ok, it's now going on 10:30pm and I'm sleepy so I'm heading to bed. The tops of my feet are peeling big time and are very burnt on the new skin. Ooops! Time to take it a bit easier :)

Alooooooooha!

Cheryl