a new movie

Just a little number I shot the other day on our early morning walk, with a cutaway from last time Chilli visited the Mabardi's.

Watch for the Chilli sequel ...out on video  soon!

Christmas results

this pretty much speaks for its self. lets see about adding video shall we?

Christmas is coming!

Well I know, you know its coming but ....its coming!  the Marbardis are coming up to play with us and we might have a house full here as a central place to host folk but we are still working out the arrangements. 

Bluey  is going to work right up to Christmas Eve but I'm off now until late in January!  I've started doing things for the holidays like I've finished my christmas baking..... that's going to the stores buying stuff and putting them into  tupper ware in nice groupings and dropping them in the frezzer only to be discovered in March of next year. Oh I do a Christmas cake... Step One: take the local fundraising cake, this years its the Lions cake, soak a cloth in rum and wrap it up in the cloth and then plastic wrap. Step two: open it up every few days, add more rum and mavel at what genius you are, rewrap. Then when the season is upon us serve up delicious cake that no one around here likes but I find totally delish! And I get lots of it.  What is it about Christmas cake that people really love it or really hate it?

Did I tell you I played Santa at the Neighborhood Centre Volunteers party last Monday and got asked to come back to the Limited Hours Child Care Centre on Wednesday. The Child care is the gig that started the santa business in the first place, but I haven't done it due to health and then they wanted a less confronting image for the little kids so have they have had an Elf do it the past couple of years. I was an old bushy santa with my red and green hawaii loud shirt. my red shorts pulled up to my arm pits with this big black belt across my big belly (no padding needed unfortunately) and black slaps on my feet.  So the director of the center though it might be less confronting.   I had the whole beard hair and hat going as well. I only terrified one child and  a couple others stayed back but some were pretty cool and came right up. Its way fun.  

At the volunteers party I had the same dress but they didn't really have anything for me to do so I greeted folk and had this big empty bag so I sort of did Prednisone Santa and went around collecting purses  and the crackers off tables.  "every year its give give give but this year its all about santa getting something." I thought I was hilarious and some others thought so too but some were still trying to fathom a Santa Clown figure.

We are off to the "The Correct central Queensland city" (Wright-McKay's) for breakfast, then we are all going to see AUSTRALIA the movie at 9:30

Why am I up at 6:00 am blogging? because Floydd was up for his walk at 5:00! I'm getting some good walking and lots of time in the mornings to do things, but I'm beat at night.

more later

Chris

I have new news

We went to Brisbane overnight last Thursday and stayed with Jo at a conference then drove into my doc appointment on Friday and came home that night. 

Two steps forward one step back.

I'm starting to ramp down the prednisone (the one that makes me make Bluey crazy) it will take four weeks to go to zero. And he took me off the lasics (the one that makes me into a fire hose) unless I am retaining water so two pills off ...but one new pill!  Another type of immunosuprression so i'm on three for a few weeks then back down to two kinds.  This new one is to help my body get off the prednisone and I'm guessing I will get weaned off that later, I hope.

So prednisone boy is going away. I'm not unhappy about that it is nice to have lots of extra energy but it puts my body in fight or flight mode all the time and that's not good. The prednisone also messes with my blood sugar (makes it high) and it increases appetite so I'm doubly screwed. 

I met a lad in the clinic this time that seemed to be a teen but has Downs. His name is Ben and I expect that it really sucks being at day 35 of his BMT. I at least understand some of the reasons for all this stuff that goes on but he just knows he has to do these things and that he feels bad. He liked my loud shirt.... it's the 'skeleton'. The nurses got me to model it for him because he asked about it from a distance. So I showed him and then gave him the shirt. 

This could be my new thing. Buy the way Chip at this web site

has great loud shirts by mambo. And you can see the skeleton shirt here.

Anyway Chip is making me a deal on two new shirts so its like Christmas. I'm off at the end of this coming week and plan lots of blogging. Yes I know you've heard  that before. .....We'll see!

more later 

Chris

Hello, another rainy day day in paradise

yes it is thundering a bit but it is very hot with very high humidity. yesterday we had a nice wind that kept things cool a bit but not today.

Its Saturday Bluey is on her computer doing Uni work. I'm down loading new updates and talking to you.

Okay I just found out that my messing around adding the subscribe thingy to the foront of this blog caused my download to crash so its starting again...oh well.

Doc Shoozenboots called me today. he was due to talk to me last Friday (not yesterday) but when he didn't call I presumed that things were find with my interim blood test. But he called today to say my test was fine but that I was to drink more water. This was a scream as I was on my way in to Joyce's work to pick her up and GET A DRINK OF WATER!  Weird eh?

Anyway I seem to have settled a bit with the Prednisone and am still hyper but am trying real hard not to succumb to the irritability part. I even had a very streesful day on Thursday and kept it together very well.

I haave been organizing the school annual used computer sale and this time we had 8 laptops going out at 100.00 each, yes that is a good price and no you can't get one. I had heard from several people that they were going to line up earlier than the 8:oo amm start time so came and hour early only to find 20 people in line. Apparently the line started at 4:30 am!  I had prepared cards with numbers one to eight so that I could relieve people as to the outcome once the sale started. We all looked at each other and I thought it would be okay to start the sale since anyone coming later would not be getting a laptop any way. So in 40 minutes I had sold 8 laptops and 15 desktops! We had achieved our goal of unloading the old out of warranty units with a minimum of labour! Wildly successful. But..... its not just about being fair it about being seen to be fair! I copped a bit stick by starting early but when I got a chance to explain that the OUTCOME of the sale was determined by all those people lined up early and not any thing I did  everyone seemed cool.  In fact one mother of a disappointed daughter challenged us to work out a way to reduce the angst even more, meet our requirement of being easy, make it totally transparent, and even see if we could get some of the computers into the hands of parents and kids that may have trouble even getting the 50.00 or 100.00 we were charging.  She even offered to kick in for one next year. 

Watch this space for future developments on 'Comps for Kids' the foundation!!!!

I'm pretty pumped about this idea but that could just be the chemical talking ;-)

more later

Chris

Hello, hello...... is this thing on?

Yes I know I have used that old joke before but sometimes I just can't help myself.

Yep its been months and months since my last entry. Sorry life got in the way. It is still in the way but I've been feeling like I need to blog so here  goes.

It is full on summer here now. Its hot and lately very sultry with storms in the late afternoon evening. Today, Sunday, it was a bit cooler then the last few days and nice and sunny and dry with a great wind that was just refreshing.

Bluey and I and Chilli and....Floydd went down to hear Gene play at a small Music In the Park gig. It was an activity for community members that don't get out that often organized by a staff member of Joyce's. 

Gene was great but Floydd was over taken by the joy of it all and the fact that I haven't learned his language yet and he peed all over the foot of a friend that was sitting beside me visiting while we listened to the music. I was mortified. She's such a great lady she just laughed but how bad is that. We don't blame Floydd at all we just kept him close on the leash for too long. Lesson really learned. 

Floydd is a rescue dog from the firing squad at Gayndah he is very charming and polite and very well trained . He is smart smart smart. We don't get why he wasn't snapped up but a connection to Jo took him even though she knew she couldn't keep him ( She all ready has 2 dogs, three cats, five kids.... you do the math) so Jo got him and she knows I've wanted a border collie for a long time.  He's been here two weeks but he just passed probation, Chilli was given veto power and it took her a little time to welcome him in but she has now so he's here to stay. 

Bluey is getting cranked up with fundraising to finish off the building fund it looks positive  for a construction start this coming year and maybe even finish before the end of 2009 or early 2010! i'm helping with campaign as well.

I'm dong a shave campaign again but I plan on shoving my two newest recruits Tamika and Erin to the fore. They are two student leaders in the community that both had mentioned to a Community worker that they wanted to shave this year and they are both excited about helping with the campaign and maybe taking it over for the following year. We are all working very hard to get a number of smaller satellite  shave/color events going in the schools this year and we are identifying students in each school already. Stay tuned.

I'm doing Lighting consultation on a Production of Wizard of Oz at the Brolga and just got invited to do the Lighting Design for hamlet at the local  little theatre, Z-PAC. They have got some new equipment and the play is a challenge but its one that could allow a great deal of creativity in the design. More on that later. 

I've been meaning to do some classes for young folk on lighting and sound and I may see about combining this show with that idea. More on that later.

So its probably a good thing that I'm on a new drug the side effects, of which, include increased hyper activity! Yep  I'm on Prednisone (oh you have to google this one).

I just had a look back at my blog because I thought I had told a story about Prednisone way back then. I can't find it but the story is that the main Hospital Registra was concerned about my weird behavior over Neutripeno Man.  You know where I dressed with my undies over my pj pants and my dressing gown as a cape......you know the super hero that is saving the world one neutrapenic at a time beacuse due to an industrial chemo acident he has way, way too many Neutriphils himself .... yes that what the Registra was worried about,.... was there a drug reaction to explain this hyper activity?... and aparently Shoeszenboots said "No that's just Chris, but God help us if we have to put him on to prednisone. 

Ta Da ...He's back!  That smooth talkin. jive walking energy junkie with the wakefulness and a word about everything. Its the newly created Prednisone Boy. 

Anyway I'm already feeling hungry and having to watch my food, I'm way too in tune with the cosmos and although Joyce sees it differently, I only remember getting irritable when Joyce talks about shooting Prednisone Boy - to get her man back. Apparently it has mild personality altering effects. What?.......uhuh.....uhuh........uhuh ... got it. It has huge spiked personality effects mostly to do with the areas of  getting along with humans that I am cohabiting with.   I wish we could pick and choose our symptoms but ....! Bluey has to be fair on this though, I have made her laugh so hard she has shorted a couple of times. 

Okay, why am I on this new drug? Because my fat ankles were not responding to laysics to get the water out. I have a mild form of GVHD in the skin of my ankles that leaves them spongy so I'm starting big and then I get weaned down until they still control the GVHD but reduce the sideeffects. 

My friend Jerry  with the heart transplant is only on 7 mg a day, the husband of my PhysioTherapist is down to 10 mg this go round for his kidney transplant and I'm on 25 mg a day. Perhaps Bluey has a point.

Anyway in two weeks I get to see what's what at the doctors. 

I've been writing for a while here so I'm going to sign off and recollect on stuff I saw in the old blog' s

a link to lists..... Principles/parables of my life - a list! March first 2007

PS you can check out Neutripeno Man in blog on FRiday March 23 entry.

A new look for a new time

Well I have been very very slack lately.

I've thought about why that might be...Partly its because I was pretty tired after "A Close Shave" and then we travelled to Canada. I have increased my hours at work and we are moving forward with the house plans so I guess when I look at it, I understand it. But...

I do want to keep in touch with friends that have been quite supportive to me and so I have revamped this blog and will try to make more timely entries.

News: We are going to Canada in August. John and Marlene Chorny are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary on the 23rd and we want to be their.  Jo and Gene are going as well. We are also going to spend more time at John's farm helping them with their house.  We have a few other things in the "what if" planning stages but more on that later.

I'm back to the subject of food.  I know and you know that fish is good for you and tastes good too. Some fish, shellfish in fact is really good in the taste department like lobster in butter sauce, prawns in garlic sauce, scallops on the half shell with creamy garlic and creme cheese potatoes.   You may see where I'm going with this thread?..... Not yet?  Well the things that go with some fish is the part that tastes good but in reality that part is bad for us, yes dear reader a half pound of butter melted to dip lobster in pretty much negates the good in the basic fish!  So I have been trying to come up with recipes for fish, plain good eating fillets of regular fish, that taste as good as the battered deep fried cousin that is so bad for us. help Bluey and I get over this hurdle in our good eating campaign. 

Health: Yep I'm eating pretty much anything except buffets but that's as much snobbery as safety.  I'm back on shell fish, and leftovers if they are really fresh and I know the history. I'm back on take out from special places. I'm still not looking at moldy things and soft cheeses. I actually do like vegetables and  I have been doing a lot of the cooking again.  I am trying to stay away form fancy sauces but this brings me back to the appeal above. Help me with recipes.

We got around to asking Doc Schoozenbootzen about my one  year test results and he said. "the scarring and fibrosis in your bone marrow has completely resolved". "Sounds good" says I "but what does it mean." "You are in total remission!" And my liver levels are down to near normal levels so that good too.  I'm still on immune suppression drugs but that's okay I guess. 

House: We have our plans into the Certifier and after fixing little issues...

the soil type didn't match the foundation so we had the foundation reengineered

the prices of steel has gone up 5 times since we paid our deposit on the kit homes

and  a bunch of other little things we are at the final stage and we may have an announcement next ......

More later

Chris