8-mile

So there was a little new news this weekend. Christmas was great - we did the 6pm evening mass at Incarnation - which, as always, was really packed, and a lot of fun. Christmas day was beautiful - the girls loved everything that Santa brought, and we had an excellent feast to close the evening out.

On Saturday, I brewed another American Amber ale - this one was hopped with my own Cascade hops from this Summer. That's fermenting happily away in the basement. This weekend I hope to bottle a little of what I have in the kegs. Bottles are always nice for giving (and storing away for later). Also on Saturday, I had some high school friends over, and that was loads of fun.  I got a 'Tree Cam', which I've placed in my woods to (hopefully) get pictures of that bear. I'll pass 'em on to you as I get them.

On Sunday, we lounged around, not doing much more than relaxing. I was able to take a really nice long run - which was wonderful, except for this cold I caught from the kids. It's my longest run  since chemo - somewhere around 8 miles. I felt great afterward, though my runs yesterday and today had me fighting some sore muscles.

The doctor's office at VCU called this evening, and I've been recommended to have the stem cell transplant. I guess there's some competition to get into a program like this. Apparently, I have what it takes (though, as you can imagine, it would be nice to an underachiever on this front). At any rate, I've been released from the expert care of Dr. Cirenza at Martha Jefferson to the equally expert care of Dr. McCarty.  More to follow on that.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I can't tell you how different things are from last year this time. I've often thought at the end of the year, 'What will I be doing this time next year?'.  Always in the back of my mind I've thought 'at this time next year, my life could be radically different'. The funny thing is that it's always been a hypothetical proposition. This year, I got to see how much things can change.