How pumpkin pies are really made

Thank you to my dear friend, C, for making me laugh today.

I appreciated all the snail mail and email felicitations yesterday, which made the day a bit more festive. Although, Max, the black lab, ate a bit too much grass when my son took him on his walk, with the expected result on my living room rug when he returned. Not the best thing to clean up when you're feeling queasy to begin with. But made it through and the birthday dinner and cake with my kids that evening was wonderful.

So today, the day after, is not unexpectedly, a bit of a downer. It's going on a month since chemotherapy started and I'm not coming back as quickly from this session as I did the past one. Although I've been pretty good about not "going there" in my thinking, I'm starting to wonder if the chemotherapy will have an effect on my condition. It's the 800 lb purple elephant in the living room that no one wants to mention. Or maybe it's the pumpkin pie getting made.