18.3.08

For a change, good news! Well, mostly...

Yesterday afternoon, during a break from resting on the divan, I noticed that my sister had sent me an instant message advising me that my dad's new employer had let him go with no real reason given.

My immediate thought (and that of my sister as well) was that the employer had somehow gotten wind of my dad's cancer and gave him the sack to avoid insurance premiums down the road when he became eligible. Naturally, this did very little to improve my mood.

Sometimes words just don't suffice and one needs to start saying things with brickbats and broken bottles...

Fortunately (for them), some good news came along — which, I must say, was a welcome change. It's very tiring being perpetually screwed up in anticipation of something awful popping out at you when there's absolutely nothing at all that you can do to make things better. But, I digress.

Dad had an appointment today to have a bone marrow biopsy after which he met with the doctor who went over the results of the CT scan from yesterday and today's biopsy.

The CT scan and biopsy were both very, very good.

It turns out that the cancer has NOT spread like they initially thought. In fact, the cancer is localized in his skin on the spot on his leg. If I recall correctly, Mom said the doctors called it cutaneous large cell lymphoma. Or something. Regardless, it can be treated with Prednisone and localized radiation therapy. Mom also said that the doctor said that he (Dad) would die of other causes long before the cancer would carry him off — which, of course, is very, very good news.

Maybe I'll finally get a relatively decent night's sleep for a change instead of lying awake and worrying about my folks and being angry about the fucked up health care system (or lack thereof) in this country. Well, no, I'm still angry about the ghastliness of the American health care system. Clearly (as one political cartoonist put it), the President thinks it is better that we're sick than socialist.

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15.3.08

Some Retail Therapy.


My new fourteen eye Doc Marten Triumph 1914s. :D They're teh awesome - very comfortable to wear (although, I should've thought better about stomping around Seattle in them for the rest of the day since I'm now sportin' some hellacious blisters on my feet. Ah, well) and super awesome looking.




My new hat! Several years ago, I had a nice bowler hat. Unfortunately, years of wear and it not being the greatest quality caught up with it and it went out to the rubbish tip since there was nowt that anyone could do for it.

So, for my birthday, I staggered round to Byrnie Utz hats and purchased a new one. :) This is a weird 'I'm on the Metro taking a picture' kind of picture. The hat is really awesome. Ignore the old rickety Metro carriage in the background.




One of the reasons we were out and about shopping was to find Sina a new corset or a cincher. I rang up my very awesome friend Jess to come rally round and lend a hand - she has impec. taste with such things and is very knowledgeable about corsetry.

Anyway, we tottered about all of Cap Hill and downtown looking for something that was a) nice looking, b) wasn't crap, and c) was affordable. Mind you, a really good corset is going to set you back a few hundred dollars, but we were looking for a nice balance of cost and quality. Which we found in this corset. She's got a lil' top thing on underneath this corset (which needs to be worn a little bit lower) but it looks grrrrrrrreat. :D

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3.1.08

Marcus Brigstocke Takes On The Abrahamic Faiths

I think this sums up my position quite nicely.

Enjoy!

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4.7.07

Mr. Trevethan Discovers A Dinosaur, with Illustrations


It isn't terribly often that I get to write about something this remarkably interesting.

My very dear friend Ian, whom I haven't seen in an age nor do we get to talk as frequently as I'd like owing to a myriad of factors, discovered a dinosaur while on a dig in Montana.

Let me back up a smidge, Ian's currently studying the delightful science of paleontology at the Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. I've been over to Bozeman several times in the Distant Past to visit friends of the family who live out there (one of whom was the head of the Art Department at MSU as I recall).

Anyway, I was tottering about the house this morning when I noticed that Ian had called (I was fiddling in the kitchen with a spot of breakfast or something and missed his call). I returned his call and we were soon chatting about this and that when he said something in the vein of, "I just returned from a dig in northern Montana where I found what I believe to be a semi-articulated hadrosaur." Now, how often do you get to have a phone conversation where someone tells you in a delighted manner that they'd found what most of us call the duck-billed dinosaur?

Just another reason why I love my friends.

Ian surmises that the fossilized skeleton was that of an Edmontosaurus. Click here for more information regarding the Edmontosaurus.


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