Me Likely Keithy

Not much health stuff going on right now. I have an appointment to see Dr. Cripe next week which will be my 6 month check-up. This appoint is usually pretty short but does include a CBC and my PCR_ABL test. Keep your fingers crossed - the last one didn't go so well :(.

On a related note - Keith Olbermann had a pretty good commentary that I'd like to share with all of you. Its largely political affiliation agnostic (though with a slight Democratic bend).

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Needless to say - things have slowed down a bit.

Eli and I are working on doing some stop-motion movies with Playmobil, here is our first stab. The Music is courtesy Howard Shore from 'Lord of the Rings:Return of the King'.

yeah.

sorry. been a month. I know.

Guess that means things are going well. April is a busy time around here, my birthday, Maris' birthday, Kris and my anniversary (7 years, thank you very much), Kris' birthday in early May and Mother's Day.

This year I got Kris a kayak for the anniv/birth/mothersday extravaganza. Its pretty cool really - 15' long and inflatable. It's essentially the same material as a white-water raft and designed for two adults (or single if need be). Attached is a photo where we went for a literal dry run. It took about 20 minutes to inflate, but I'm confident we can get that down to 10 now that we know what we're doing.

My Garden.

Ok, its not much now - but wait. Built entirely of cedar and filled with a blend of mushroom compost, top soil and peat. Oh yeah, I also added two dozen night crawlers.

Good Bye Mrs. Olbermann

Very few people like Keith the way I do. I find him entertaining and at the very least - leaning the way I do. He lost his mom to breast cancer this week and did a wonderful tribute to here. Enjoy.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

seriously, has it been a month.

I'm doing fine...aside from an infected finger (which was saved through the miracles of Neosporin), all clear.

I unfortunately didn't plan ahead very well and do not have pictures to post from my latest project, but I'll share anyway. We decided to plant a raised bed garden this year. The kids are now old enough to learn about plants, the planting process, food sources, etc and frankly, I just wanted to do it. I built the beds last weekend out of 2x4 cedar stock - they are just shy of 1' deep and will be filled with Mark's Mix ( a mixture of mushroom compost, peat and top soil ). I have two beds that are 4' x 8' with pvc canopy supports so I can top them with plastic to extend the growing season about a month in either direction.

We started seeds a couple weeks ago and Maris helps me keep them watered every other day. Our beans and peas are already about 7" tall and everything else is coming along nicely ( herbs, carrots, cherry tomatoes, beets, radishes and a lettuce mix ). I hope to get them all outside by mid next week so we can really let them grow. I suspect the beans are already root bound so waiting any longer is not an option. I should have probably waited another month to get this stuff going, but I refuse to wait until July before we can start harvesting.

Anyway - that's it. Pretty exciting - great project ( under budget ).

Next up, religion by John. More soon.

the cure.

Gleevec is not a curative drug. Howevever, a recent study showed that with Gleevec, 86 percent of patients are still alive after 7 years (I know, that also means that 14 in 100 still die in the same time frame).

An article on CNN.com (click here) talks about approaching cancer more as a chronic condition vs curative treatment. In short, treating cancer more like we treat heart disease and diabetes. For me, that's kinda what we're already doing. I often talk about the challenges/mortality of the stem cell/marrow transplant which to date is the only cure. Most doctors seem to think that managing chronic conditions is natural progression in medicine and one that can benefit overall patient outcomes.

So, what do you think?