Friday, 12/13 -- I like French Fried potatoes with Mustard. Uh huh.

Hey everybody! Look at what we won!

Two large boxes were waiting for us when we got home from work. I won the Grand Prize in the B101, Maille Mustard and Le Crueset sweepstakes. Pretty sweet!

Thanks to Melanie, my sister-in-law, for telling us about the sweepstakes. She wins sweeps and contests from B101 all the time. She knows her stuff. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have know about this sweepstakes.

Look, aren't they pretty?

Thursday, 12/9 -- Vexing visuals lead to more preemptive pill popping.

Experimenting with my head.

I am still having the headaches that I've mentioned before. Still in the same spot, with the same pattern. One twist on the story is that on Saturday I experienced a visual distortion while at a party. That's a new one.

I was sitting in a crowded room, with a TV and various lights on. Lots of action and eye candy. Out of my left peripheral field of vision I saw a prism band of light arching and dancing. I rubbed my eyes, looked in different directions, closed one eye, then the other trying to find the source of the disturbance.

Nothing in the room seemed to be causing it. I didn't let it upset me since it takes an awful lot to upset me anymore. Besides, it only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes.

I mentioned this to my oncologists on Tuesday and they thought that maybe it was suggesting that my headaches and visual distortion were pointing to a migraine condition. I've never had migraines before. Something new just in time for Christmas!

They prescribed a new drug for me to take, Imitrex. Great. Pile it on. I'm so frustrated with pills that I have a hard time looking at M&Ms. Tic Tacs are also disturbing. Peas, don't even talk to me about peas.

I'll let y'all know if this new miracle drug helps anything, or if it just adds to the heaping pile of goo that is Eric 2.0.

Tuesday, 12/7 -- The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...

Today I received my second dose of Carboplatin, so far so good. As I write this, I'm ready to head off to bed. To dream my dreamy dreams and to drool all over the pillow.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I think I'm resting my head on a large, wet kitchen sponge. I've become a drool machine lately. Nice, huh?

My blood counts continue to improve, despite the chemo. Not all chemo treatments devastate your blood cells. The treatment I'm currently getting does effect them, however, not so drastically as the previous chemo bug juice.

My tumor markers, calcium levels and other related blood chemistry were all good, within normal ranges.

Let's keep this positive trend rolling!
Let me hear you say "HEY-hey"
Let me hear you say "all right"
Let me hear you say "whoop whoop"
Let me hear you say "work that bug juice, Eric"
"work that bug juice, Eric"
"work that bug juice, Eric"
"work that bug juice, Eric"

Monday, 12/6 -- BubbaGump Chocolates

Life is like a box of chocolates. – Forrest Gump

Life on chemotherapy is also like a box of chocolates... evil chocolates.
It's a box of cheap, Rite Aid brand chocolates; no matter which candy you pick the inside is full of that nasty pink goo. That nasty, nondescript pink goo that might be an attempt at strawberry nougat, or it could be a chocolate covered chicken liver. You're never quite sure.

Extreme metaphor? I think not.

Today I got a chocolate covered chicken liver with extra pink goo. I was expecting a delightful cashew turtle. Boy was I surprised.

I'm home today, in my PJs, feeling like I was beaten with the bag full of oranges. I'm sore in some spots, tender on others and kind of dizzy from being walloped on the head. I wasn't really walloped, I just feel that way.

I'm also foggier than.... than .... I'm too foggy to come up with another stupid metaphor.

I'll stop writing now, I have a distinct feeling that I'm not making much sense. Aren't you glad I'm not in control of a car right now? Where's my couch?

Saturday & Sunday, 12/4 & 5 -- Oooh, look! Pictures!

Here are some various shots of our Christmas display in the living room. Please take note of my witty captions.

This is the larger view of the living room display, including the mantel diorama and the tree, sans top.


Our blown glass star was too tall to fit on the tree, so we substituted Rudolph's Abominable Snowman climbing to the top to place his star. Note the festive hat on the tribal mask over the archway. I'm sure whatever deity it represents isn't too happy about wearing a Santa hat.


Detail of the mantel diorama. The Eternal Battle between Darth Vader and the Heat Miser.


Detail of mantel diorama. Not to be outdone, the Snow Miser, his Minions, Jingle and Jangle.


One of our favorite ornaments taking center stage over the fireplace. It's hand painted ceramic. It makes me smile every time I look at it.


The annual appearance of the elusive and famed Garlic Puss! He's not to be confused with his March 17th cousin Garlic O'Puss.


And finally, I couldn't resist two shots of Charcoal sleeping on the back of the couch. She was actually snoring as I took these shots.