I started catching up on the blogs I read this week and discovered a lot has happened.

Scott at The Sorry Centrist so thoughtfully included me in his Top Thirteen Hottest Women Bloggers List.  I can only assume that Scott is Blind or his definition of hot extends far beyond physical beauty;) AND he used a terrible picture of me, but I forgive him as he did say nice things and mentioned basketball;)

Then Dan at BrikWall is examining his life and looking at what would be a fulfilling career for him. I enjoy his blog musings and he takes amazing photos. I think he’d be great to hire for taking fabulous family photos. Not the boring, sit on a stool, posed look. But the kind of photos that capture your children’s essence in play and life.

Skylark had an amazing youtube video up on her site. It shows the power of the human touch. Of how something as simple as a hug can bring people together. A man with a sign asking for free hugs stood in a busy city area. Most people walked by, but after a while someone took the first step. And then it went from there. It seemed to take one person (mostly women initially) to start the process. And then others were also sharing the sign and giving and receiving hugs. And of course, we can’t have people hugging each other in public places, so the police had to come and put a stop to it. They banned hugs. This led to a petition that resulted in the ban being overturned. In some ways, it baffles me that they had to create a petition. But at the same time, it brought a lot of people together that wouldn’t have otherwise, and I suspect it’s changed people’s way of looking at a hug.

I caught a bit of the CBC news that did the profile on Charles LeBlanc. I have to say that the video footage they showed certainly leaned towards Charles being treated unfairly and that the police lumped him in with the protesters. I checked out his summary of the court case on his blog.

I’m still getting caught up on the rest of you:)

And yes, halloween pics from this week;

Alec the Alien and Bram the Bunny.

When I was a kid, I didn’t know anyone with cancer. We all knew it was a deadly disease but it seemed so far removed from my everyday life. Then when I was 20, the mother of a good friend of mine died of cancer. That was the first time it touched my life in a semi-peripheral way. I remember thinking how unfair that someone at the age of 20 should lose their mother and wondering how I would feel if that was me. I called both my Mom and Dad that night to talk with them. Those fleeting moments where we realize we’re taking loved ones for granted. Then I was 28 and my mother was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). We were told that it was aggressive, relatively rare and virtually impossible to treat. Suddenly cancer was in my own family. They gave my Mom 6 months to live. She survived for three more years. During that three year long struggle, I learned more about cancer than I had ever wanted to know. I learned that 1 in 3 people will develop cancer. Suddenly my perspective was a lot different.  Like most people, when something affects us so personally, we suddenly notice it everywhere. I heard about cancer in the news more, people I knew were diagnosed with it, people were dying from it, like my Mother did.

Then a year or so later, my Dad calls to tell me that he has a malignant growth in his neck. I can remember the blood draining from my head and the word cancer burning into my consciousness. He was going to have radiation and that everything should be fine. It was. 

Then a couple of years ago, they discover pre-cancerous cells on my Dad’s esophagus. He’s been ok though so far, no changes in those cells.

Then last year, my Aunt, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went through surgeries and treatments. Always courageous and strong though and she is a survivor. She started a campaign sewing bandana’s for cancer survivors.

Shortly after, my cousin on my Dad’s side, only a few years older than me, with small children at home, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been fighting this battle and I know that she leans on my Aunt for support, for someone who truly understands.

Yesterday, my phone rings and it’s my Dad. During the day. My Dad never calls me during the day. He’d been in the hospital over the last few weeks because he’d been having problems with his prostate. He makes small chat for a minute and then tells me he has Prostate Cancer. He tells me that it’s not aggressive and that the doctors will have a plan for him in two weeks. He tells me not to worry and that everything will be ok.

I am worried. How can I not be. And, yes, I’m scared. I lost one parent to cancer already and for some reason, it keeps trying to embed its insiduous self in my father. I always said that I was never scared of growing older. And I’m not, not for myself at least. But I’m realizing that growing older also means that those around us have a higher incidence of cancer and other illness’s and for that reason I’m afraid of growing older. Growing older means more chances of losing loved ones.

I love you Dad. 

I hurt myself at basketball last night. Well technically I had pulled a calf muscle on sat. but it seemed ok, but last night it got worse and worse as I played until at one point, it just went *zing* and that was it, I was out of the game. I’m not a great player, but I am fairly fast and last night I felt like a turtle going up and down the court because my leg was so sore. I’m still trying to figure out where this streak of stupidity that I have that I keep playing while injured;) So I limped home, grabbed the bag of frozen veggies I keep exclusively in the freezer for this and watched Lost.

I have a love/hate relationship with the show Lost. It’s the only tv show that I watch regularly. I love the hidden mysteries and complexities of it. Yet at the same time I can’t help but notice the ridiculous details that never make sense. All the women continue to have wonderfully shaped eyebrows and shaved armpits and legs. Jack and Sawyer continue to get stubble on their chins while they’re in captivity, but Kate still looks the same other than dirty. That scene where Kate lifts her arms to remove her shirt showing her bare arms and yes, shaved armpits. Women don’t really quailify for reality I guess;)

Stumbled on this, this week and I can’t find the link right now, but it lets you make a south park version of yourself.

Updated: Found the link to make your own South Park character. Tip: You have to do a screen capture to save the photo.

This is my Cat Brandy. She’s an unbelievable 18 years old. She’s a cat next door and siamese cross and acts nothing like a typical siamese. I brought her home 16 years ago when I was a Veterinary Technology Student at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, ON (yes a very eclectic background;)). Ironically in my cancer theme this week, her original owner had cancer and was dying and she neeeded to find a home for Brandy. Brandy’s age is starting to show. She’s arthritic and her joints don’t work as well as they used to. Yet she still insists on jumping on and off the couch despite often landing in a jumbled heap on the floor. I’ve tried putting in stepping stools to create a midway jump for her, but she won’t use them. Like humans, she refuses to accept she can’t do it the way she always has. One behaviour that Brandy has always had is she eats paper. She rolls all over it and rips pieces off it and chews them. Sometimes it drives me nuts because she’s damaged a few important papers. For the most part, it’s not an issue because it’s only when the papers make their way to the floor that it’s an issue. I cleaned my desk on the weekend and missed this flyer that I had been keeping for work purposes and Brandy got to it before me.

Tonight, seconds after supper was cooked and the kids and I sat down to eat, the power went off in the house. Bram screamed, instantly scared of the dark. I sat there and tried to remember where I had put the flash light the last time we had a big wind storm and I thought the power was going to go out. I couldn’t see a thing and it dawned on me that the laptop would provide a small light source. Sure enough, I grabbed it off the table turned it on and voila, instant light. I managed to light some candles (never did find the flashlight) and we ate a nice candle lit dinner. So we can add handy light source during power outages to my previous list;)

I worked until 4 am on Fri. night (Sat. morning). I don’t recommend that, particulary when you have a 9 year old and a 4 year old. They keep knocking on your door in the morning saying things like “Mom, can we have some yogurt?”"Can I use the computer?” or like Bram did with “Mom, I need a band-aid because my foot is bleeding really badly and there’s blood”. Which got me out of bed pretty quick, only to discover I’d probably need a microscope to see any blood on his foot. Guess he’s not dense, he knew what would get me up;)