We finally got an upgrade for our son. Went from Lex01 to Lex07… big upgrade. Lis isn’t really comfortable with the new features yet, neither is Charlotte. But Lex and I love it.
The "Thinkers"
We just spent a week in Orlando at our timeshare checking out what amenities Marriott had to offer families…we can’t wait to take Blake (with or without his parents). We probably should wait till he can appreciate Disney, but we were pleased to see how family oriented the timeshare is.
Of course, while there, we saw Linda, Richie and Harry. Harry looks absolutely fabulous (as you can see in these pictures)! He’s 92 now, 93 in June. He’s in assisted living and still has his driver’s license. He basically drives to Linda’s once or twice a week, or to a store here or there (only day-time). We met for lunch the day we arrived, then golfed another day at Linda and Richie’s country club. Harry joined us for lunch after the first nine holes, then watched us tee off the back nine. Had a great visit with all of them!
Cousins in the Park
Sunday afternoon we met Natalie (via cellphone navigation) in Central Park. She, her friend Kati, Nancy, Lis, the kids and I had brunch together at The Boathouse, a restaurant located in the park on a small lake. We did a little strolling before we ate and a little after, too.
It was great to see her. The kids got a real big kick out of it… really starting to sink in now just how much family they have. I don’t think Lex knows yet that you can’t marry your cousin, but that’s OK for now.
We decided Nat will come back for the summer, live at our place, and babysit.
More signs I’m getting old…
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed something on my back as I was toweling off after getting out of the shower. It looked like a piece of tar or something. I reached back and scratched it and it immediately started bleeding – not a good sign I figured, so I made an appointment with my dermatologist.
When I described the problem to him, he said it’s probably nothing and sure enough he took one quick look at it and said “that’s a seborrheic keratosis – nothing to worry about”. He then pointed to a bunch of other marks on my chest and back, which I had also noticed once I started taking inventory after seeing the thing on my back, and said they were nothing to worry about either, just a sign of aging.
However, he then pointed to this thing on my upper lip near my nose and said “how long have you had this little white spot?” I told him it had been there a long while and I never really thought much of it. The doc said “well the thing on your back isn’t a problem, but I’m pretty sure this is”. He then decided to take a close look at the rest of me.
He then found what I thought was just a itchy dry spot that I often scratched on the back of my leg and asked how long that had been there. I had to admit that it had been there a while too, at least a couple of years. He decided to do a biopsy on both the leg and the lip thing. The doc was reasonably sure that the lip thing was a basal cell carcinoma but thought the leg thing would turn out to be OK.
Turns out he as only half right – the wrong half. The thing on the lip was cancer and the thing on the leg wasn’t alright. It was a cancer growth too, albeit a different kind, a squamous cell carcinoma. The good news is that neither of them are melanoma and neither of them metastasize very often.
I’m scheduled to have surgery to remove both them in a couple of weeks. It will be done in the dermatologist office with a local anesthesia and I should be fine afterward.
The only thing I need to do is reduce my exposure to the sun. Of course, considering that I usually golf 5-6 times a week that will be somewhat of a problem. The doctor says there are three preventative measures, with declining efficiency, that I need to decided among:
1. Avoid the sun altogether, particularly between the hours of 10am-4pm.
2. Wear pants and long sleeves when out in the sun.
3. Use sunblock.
He also said I should definitely wear a wide brim hat whenever I’m out in the sun.
I’m going to start by cutting back on my golf but I haven’t decided how much yet. One thing that I know is that I’m going to do is continue to play in my men’s league which is Wed nights after 4PM. After that, we’ll just see.
Two-In-One
Winter Fun
We had just a couple of chances to go sledding and skating this winter, it just wasn’t cold or snowy enough. So we crammed in a bunch when we could.
Have you seen these new “boogie” sleds? They fly!!
We did a lot of skating on a pond nearby. First chance the kids had to skate on something other than a rink (round and round in one direction) and we all had a blast. Both kids have been taking lessons again this year, but Lex is now taking hockey classes. First it was skating techniques, now he’s on to stick skills and scrimmages.
Charlotte’s Birthday
Saturday night we went to the local Japanese Hibachi Steakhouse with Lex, Charlotte and nine other eight yr old girls. Lotsa fun.
After dinner we went home for cake & ice cream and a movie.
Even more fun!