Live and Let Di

Dart Night

Last Wednesday, I went to Darts with my friend Kim and her team. Yes...there really is a dart league...actually several, with multiple divisions and everything. It's not easy...but it certainly is interesting.

 Why isn't it easy? Have you ever thrown a dart? Hitting the board isn't easy. And hitting a specific number when you are aiming at it is practically impossible. AND they have a game called 301 where you have to subtract whatever you score from 301 down to zero. Subtracting double digits from triple digits is hard. And harder still when you have to do it in a blink of any eye between shooters. Kim is amazing at subtracting.

Why is it interesting? Let me count the ways:

1. The teams are quite diverse. There was the guy with the crazy Christopher-Lloyd-in-Back-to-the-Future hair. There was the guy with the soccer shirt and shorts on who looked like his other sport might be, um, soccer. There was the really tall guy who didn't seem to care if he won or lost. He just liked to be there. There was the well-dressed guy who looked like he just got off work at a bank who kicked the wall when his dart didn't hit the board, and later, just for balance, hit the wall with his fist when he didn't hit the number he was looking for.

2. Kim is like a rock star there. She has been playing darts for years. Her ex-husband plays...and is even sometimes on her team. Everyone knows her...plus, since she is in remission from her Stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer...everyone wants to hug her. I was there, showing everyone pictures of her bald on my iPhone. Amelia, a girl we met there, borrowed Kim's fake boob and wore it around for a while.

3. There is serious Dart etiquette. Like, if you are the scorekeeper, you need to stand up near the scoreboard, not closer to the shooter where you could get in his peripheral vision. If you don't adhere to this etiquette, people can get really pissed off and pout for the rest of the night.

4. There are stories...oh, there are stories. And I'm new there, so everyone gets to tell me the stories everyone has heard a hundred times before. And they are still funny!

5. There was a guy there who was like a stoic robot for most of the night. When he was scorekeeping, he looked like on of those Indian chief statues except for the split second when he subtracted the two-digit number from the three-digit number and then returned to his pose.

6. Best line of the night...by the Indian chief to his team in a moment of unusual animation..."This isn't rocket surgery, you know!"

One of these days, I'm going to seriously practice at the Cantina and be able to play well enough to be on the Dart team. Not like Friday night when I had the advantage of a seven foot tall partner who needed only to lean forward and his dart was about three inches from the board. I think I hit a total of 3 points the whole game. But I have my professional coaches...Kim and Jim...and now I have a goal. Guess that dryer STILL isn't going to get unloaded.

Di

Good enough for me!

From an article about how to live longer...

 

Vote for Miss Kim!!!

If you've been reading my blog, you probably know about my friend Kim who was diagnosed last fall with Stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer. With the help of great doctors, lots of friends and family and lots of laughter, Kim has kicked cancer's ass! Her chemo brought her from a 15 cm. tumor to not detectable. She still faces a radical masectomy and radiation, but the prognosis is nothing short of miraculous.

Kim is a HUGE Boston Red Sox fan. She grew up in Orange, MA and regularly sports some kind of Boston apparel, whether a hat, a shirt or a necklace that our friend Mary custom made for her. She has applied to MLB to be an honorary bat girl for the Sox on Mother's Day. What she needs is votes...so if you are out there and reading this, please click on the link below, scroll down to Miss Kim and vote early and often. Send it to everyone you know. After what she has been through, this would be the biggest moment for her.

Miss Kim for Boston Bat Girl

Please pass this on to anyone and everyone you know. Kim's team has been busy helping, supporting and laughing for almost 8 months since she has been diagnosed. We want this SO bad for her, but we can't do it without you!

Thanks!

Di

Adirondack Art

Three teenagers. The first sunshine in days. What to do?

Adirondack chairs. Paint. Paintbrushes. Spray paint. Art.

Di

Flip for a Cure

You've all heard me mention Kim, my friend who is kicking breast cancer's butt. (Here is her Caring Bridge site. Whether you know Kim or not, reading her site will give you an idea about how one person has coped with this disease and how friends, family and strangers have been there to help.) Her daughter is a competitive gymnast and her gym is doing the coolest thing to help Kim and her family. Please tell everyone you know if you are reading this from the Raleigh area. Throughout this experience with Kim, I have been absolutely blown away by the lengths that people will go to in order to help in any way they can.

Top Books of 2008

So what have you been reading?

Because I’m kind of geeky, I started an Excel spreadsheet in 1997 listing the books that I read, keeping track of date read, who recommended it and a 1-10 rating. At the end of the year, I enjoyed sorting through what I had read and doing a top 10 list. When I started my blog in 2006, it became an annual staple. 12 years later, I have a spreadsheet listing over 800 books that I have read…so rest assured that if you need a book recommendation, I’m a good one to ask!

This year it seemed like writing and building a house and actually working (albeit temporarily) kept me from reading at my usual frenetic pace, but I still read enough to have some good books for my list. So, here are my top 5 fiction books and top 6 non-fiction books  (sorry, I just couldn’t narrow it down!) that I read in 2008. I hope you find something that will inspire you to pick up a book you might not otherwise have read. (The links provided are to my reviews of the books.)

TOP 5 FICTION
PLEASE LINK THE URLS TO THE BOOK TITLES…THANKS!

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (thanks to my sister Linda for the recommendation)

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (thanks to Stephen King for the recommendation)

In the Woods by Tana French (thanks to FSB Associates for sending me a free copy to review)

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (thanks to my BF Amy for recommending)

Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward

TOP 6 NON-FICTION

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (thanks to Andrea who tried to recommend it, but I never called her back and eventually found it myself being the Carrie Fisher-stalking loving person I am )

Comfort by Ann Hood (not sure, but if I had to guess I'd say Amy)

Comeback by Claire & Mia Fontaine (Andrea again! Andrea, if you are reading this, please leave a comment with your last 5 book recommendations....Andrea was off her feet for 6 weeks after surgery and probably read a ton! I'm sure with your 2008 track record, my readers want to know.)

In an Instant by Bob & Lee Woodruff (thanks to FSB Associates again. Book bloggers, if you are getting books from publishers, my opinion is that FSB Associates has the best record of sending books that you actually might like.)

Escape by Carolyn Jessop (Vicky...who recommended this ages ago, I bought it well over a year before I read it...and I loved it)

Strong at the Broken Places by Richard Cohen (I didn't mark down who recommended this, but Richard Cohen is Meredith Vieira's husband who has suffered with MS and colon cancer.)

I would LOVE to see your comments about what great books YOU read in 2008. It might give me books to add to my 2009 list! So far, the two books I've read in 2009 have scored an 8 and a 10...and the one I'm reading looks promising!

Di

Literally...

I find it really annoying when people use "literally" when they don't really mean it. Like the person who says, "I was literally walking on air." You get the idea.

No one understands "literally" better than a child. Children are oblivious to nuances and immune to sarcasm. I think that's why the TV programming for kids is so moronic and why a kid's "sense of humor" is anything but humorous to most adults.

Nati is my friend Pilar's niece. She lives in Florida, but comes up to visit for a couple weeks each summer. Over the years, she developed a friendship with our friend Marcy's daughter Nora who lives close by. They were so enamored with each other, that Nati wanted a football jersey just like Nora's. When she got it, Pilar and Marcy went running for their cameras because the girls looked so darn cute.

Now, my friends are witty and clever and funny (especially after a few glasses of wine), so as she arranged the girls for the picture. Marcy said, "Do you want to be 1,079 or 7,910?" She was met with twin blank stares. Unable to bear the thought of no one getting her cleverness, she said, "The numbers. Do you want to be 1,079 or 7,910?"

Nati put her hand up, fingers and thumb extended and said, "I am 5."

That's the only number she really cared about!

Di

E-bay International

I recently tried my hand at selling on E-bay. I've bought many things over the years. You would be surprised what you can find there for MUCH cheaper than retail. This is going to gross some people out, but I actually bought "slightly used" shoes on E-bay.

They are Chinese Laundry, a brand I really like and I ended up winning them for $.99 and paying $9.80 shipping. They appear to have been worn once or twice with nary a scuff on the bottom of the shoes. So, you truly can get anything on E-bay.

Since selling is a much different process than buying, my friend Tony has been serving as my E-bay consultant. He's a "Power Seller," a position I can't even aspire to. So, last week when I was selling a Nike+iPod Sport Kit (I really thought someone in  my family would use it!) and I got a question from a bidder asking if I would ship to Israel, I immediately turned to Tony. Here is the exchange that ensued:

***Please note that the following exchange takes no position on the issues in the Gaza strip and as is fairly obvious, makes no indication that either participant really has a clue of what is going on there.***

Tony:

I would discourage all international shipments period.  It turns into a huge mess.  Israel?  That just seems odd that there is a war going on there practically, and a guy wants a nike ipod thingy.  Guess he's tired of the bombs exploding around him all day and wants to stay in shape?  While jamming?  Got it.  Or wait...somehow this thing CAN MAKE A BOMB!!  Way to go Di, way to go.

Di:

OK...I sent him a message on e-bay that said:
 
My friend Tony said that you are going to make a bomb with this item and that you should probably be more worried about the war in your country instead of staying in shape...while jamming. Due to my pacifist mentality, I cannot, in good conscience, send this to you as I would feel responsible every time I read in the paper that someone got killed by a bomb in Israel. Unless it's a bad guy who gets killed. I'm not really sure who the bad guys are. Or is it like Dave Mason said, "There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys, there's only you and me and we just disagree." Please respond as soon as possible to clear this matter up.

Tony:

That sounds good.  I'd let him know that earbuds have also been the cause of hearing damage, and he may want to look into the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones (you know, the ones that they advertise on planes). That way, while he is on his morning jog, he can listen to Peter, Paul, and Mary in peace while at the same time monitoring his heart rate, etc.  Seems logical.  Your response to him seems condescending though.  I would at least let him know that everyone's idea of a bad guy is different and in no way is it meant to discourage him from getting in shape. He could be an honest guy who likes jogging in Israel. But on another note, turbans and bose headphones may not work either, so he may be screwed unless he runs with like a docking station up to his ear.  I wish I had all the answers for you Di, but even I get stumped sometimes.

E-bay, provider of endless hours of entertainment!

Di

Casey is feeling MUCH better

She looks 500% better than she did in the hospital when we got there on Sunday! She's out of the hospital and "recuperating" at her grandparents' home in Long Island:

Where has she been?

Sorry that my blog has gone dark the last few days, but there is a good reason.

Some of you who have been reading my blog for a long time may remember Casey. Believe it or not, more than two years later, Casey's battle with Ulcerative Colitis continues, her ileostomy bag serving as a banner for her cause. On Sunday I got a rather pathetic text from my friend, Casey's Mom, Stacy saying that Casey was back in the hospital in New York City where earlier in the week they had hoped to reverse the colostomy only to find yet another complication to prevent the surgery from happening. Casey now had an obstruction which required that she endure an NG tube...something I understood from my extensive medical background...Grey's Anatomy, House, ER, etc. For two years, Stacy has slept in the hospital with Casey at three different hospitals every time she's been admitted...and there have been way too many admissions for a girl who just turned 13.

My amazing husband saw how much I wanted to be there for Stacy and knew how much my son Rory would want to be there for Casey and immediately booked us a flight. An hour and a half later, we were at the airport and on our way. So here is where we spent our time for two days. As you are looking at the pictures, try to visualize beautiful tufts of snow falling in them. It snowed almost the whole time we were there. Rory even made a snowball with his bare hands and carried it into the hospital, up the elevator 6 floors and delivered it to Casey!

Mostly we were here. Cornell Presbyterian, specifically the Greenberg Pavilion, where Casey was staying. This is where Rory made Casey laugh in spite of her NG tube, got her to do "laps" around the nurse's station and single-handedly cured her of her obstruction. But remember, part of the objective was to get Stacy out of there and get HER to smile and laugh.

Stacy's Mom (yes, we know about the song) needed an iPhone since she had lost her phone getting out of a cab, so a trip to Mecca the Apple flagship store, near Central Park, was essential. Just the process of watching Nana Judi buy and try to learn the iPhone brought smiles and laughter!

 

Then it was off to Nana Judi's Mecca, Bergdorf Goodman. I don't want to say I was out of my league here, but we were perusing handbags that cost as much as my first car and had security around them that would make President Obama look relatively unprotected!

Nana Judi wanted to treat us to a girls' lunch at Bergdorf's. Since they are known for the Gotham Salad, I had to have that. It was wonderful. Stacy and I had glasses of crisp Chardonnay while Nana Judi enjoyed a bloody Mary. It was definitely a New York moment that this small town girl had never imagined.

 

For us, the extra-special thing about a trip to NYC is that we get to see my niece Ashley who is living the life there. She is 25 and has been there since graduating from college. We went to Cilantro, a Southwestern restaurant, where I enjoyed a ten dollar Margarita that was so good that it was well worth it. Rory, Ashley and I talked and laughed over dinner before sending Ashley on her way back to the lower East side where she happily resides in a shoebox with three roommates. That's part of living the life in NYC when you are 25.

 

Just down the street from the hospital was what had become the "Cheers" of the Casey's hospital stay, Murphy's Law, an Irish pub where one could have a beer, get a good meal and watch a football game...and they have Stella on draft. Casey's grandparents took me here the first night. Tuesday, as we were preparing to leave and half-hoping that the huge (6 inch) snowfall in Raleigh would result in the cancellation of our flight, Stacy and I went there for lunch and I had the best burger I have ever had in my life. I was kicking myself for ordering the portabello sandwich two nights before!

It was spontaneous. It may have been ridiculous. But our two days in NYC with our best friends were just what the doctor would have ordered if he had known the healing power of Rory and Casey just hanging out together and the fun, laughter, friendship and strength that me and Stacy being together revitalizes! And this is what made it all worthwhile:

Di