It's a Sabatino's day!

Sunday, December 3rd, 2017
Venice, Florida

Health update

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When we last left off, Timmy was trapped in a well, Lassie had gone for help, I was officially in remission from my non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and the plan was to...

...monitor my blood work every two weeks and visit the oncologist every four weeks, in the hope of catching any relapse sooner rather than later.

​Since then, I have had my blood work checked as indicated and visited the oncologist twice, most recently on Thursday. When he came into the room and took a look at me, he said that (A) I was "radiating health," (B) my blood work agreed and (C) I didn't need to come back until mid-January. All in all, it was a Sabatino's day!

You might also recall that...

No matter how short or long the remission period might be, and what treatment we pursue once it does, one thing is clear: odds are strong that I will not be walking this planet at a ripe old age. To that end, Alison and I have chosen to slip into what I refer to as our early, temporary semi-retirement:

• Early, as I wasn't expecting retirement, semi- or otherwise, at 52
• Temporary, as we won't be riding this out until that ripe old age
• Semi, as we are each working a little bit each week, as health and interest permits

"A little bit" has turned out to be around 15 hours per week (a.k.a. three hours per day) for me and one day per week for Alison. That generates enough money for us to live our newly simplified life and gives us enough time to enjoy it as much as possible.

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Long live the Volt

The first step in our simplification was to sell my tried and trusty Chevy Volt. As much as I loved my electric car, it had spent the vast majority of the last 18 months (since I moved my office back home) sitting in the driveway collecting leaves, pollen and the odd bird dropping. The only time that I ever used it was to meet friends for an occasional lunch. All in all, that wasn't a sufficient excuse to keep the car and absorb the associated expenses for it. So, we sold the Volt and used the proceeds to both pay off and enhance our Subaru Forester a bit. More on those enhancements later...

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Halloween

Alison and I have never been the type to dress up for Halloween. Instead, we dutifully hand out candy and secretly hope that it will start to rain so that the crowds dwindle and we're left with a hoard of chocolate to gorge on by ourselves. This year, it didn't rain but the crowds dwindled nonetheless, leaving us with enough gorge-worthy chocolate to eat our selves sick. And that we did!

Our friends and family, however, do enjoy dressing up. Here are a few photos of them.

Indianapolis

The week after Halloween, Alison and I headed west with my dad and brother. Our destination was downtown Indianapolis, where Nathan has lived since January of this year. This was our first trip out there since he moved and our first chance to really explore the city. I had driven and flown through Indianapolis previously, but never stopped to look around. It is an impressive place: spacious, well-planned and with urban renewal sprouting in all of the right places.

​Click the More Pictures button for all of the pictures from our trip.

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Camping

The week before Halloween, Alison and I headed to the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains for our first camping experience as a couple (we've been together 15 years) and my first camping experience that I wasn't sporting braces and pimples. We camped at the Cave Mountain Lake Recreation Area, carved out of the wilderness during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Our hosts, our brother-in-law Will and his wife Stacey did every shred of the work. I lounged in my nifty new camping recliner and Alison collected kindling for the fire.

​Click the More Pictures button for all of the pictures from our trip.

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The Brooklyn Golubs

Since we last blogged, we were also treated to a visit in Lexington by the Brooklyn Golubs: my dad's brother (and only sibling) Phil and his wife Ann. Life-long residents of the New York metro area, they were finally lured into the wilds of Virginia by the promise of fall foliage, home-cooked meals and a healthy dose of NYT Crossword puzzles.

​​Click the More Pictures button for all of the pictures from their visit.

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, of course, has elapsed since last we spoke. We hosted an informal, Thanksgiving-like event for Alison's side of the family on Wednesday night, then attended a slightly-more-formal Thanksgiving hosted by my sister Liesl on Thursday. In the span of 24 short hours, we visited and broke bread (with an occasional toss) with the vast majority of our combined family — parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

​Click the More Pictures buttons for all of the pictures from these two events. I apologize in advance for the overly-photographed backyard football game.

Droppleman Thanksgiving

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Delisio Thanksgiving

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Music

Rachael Price is the lead singer for Lake Street Dive, a favorite band of mine of late. Like many of my favorite musicians, she popped up on A Prairie Home Companion recently. This time, she arrived without Lake Street Dive in tow and instead teamed up on stage with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Here are some highlights of their performance.

Rachael and PHJB

Just PHJB

Just Rachael

Pictures

​Here are some photos that we've either taken or collected recently.

Who is this Sabatino?

Sabatino's — a what, not a who — is an Italian restaurant in the Little Italy neighborhood of Baltimore. Just a stone's throw from Johns Hopkins, it was our go-to destination to celebrate our many "good news" visits to the oncologist as far back as 2004, when I began my care at Hopkins. They long ago perfected the staples of an Italian meal in mouthwatering fashion: salad, pasta, meatballs and bread.

Sadly, we haven't been back to Sabatino's since 2010, when I began my gluten-free adventures. For the most part, gluten-free and Italian are words that rarely sit comfortably in the same sentence.

So, to come full circle back to the title of this post, a Sabatino's day is any day that overflows with very good news and (hopefully) equally good food to match.

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