Buttmunch decided she would stay a couple extra days since her dad admitted he wasn't quite up to handling the dog. I think he also surprised her by telling her what a nice job she had done on our yard. She not only mowed it well (and mulched the thick clumps of grass that the mower was throwing out) but she also (don't faint!) put the equipment away afterward. That was something he didn't expect. Don't ask me why but I think it had something to do with the fact that he is such a chauvinist. He really IS! He will never give a woman credit for anything that he thinks is a MAN THING. That's why the compliment was astonishing.

Today, the Beast had his appointment with the orthopedic doctor and he is truly on a roll. He was NOT put into a cast after the doctor looked at the new x-rays that were taken before he went in for his appointment. The bones hadn't moved and showed the early signs of healing. He got to leave the brace on. I give myself some credit there for reminding him that the price of NOT keeping it on most of the time would probably lead to surgery. For that kind of surgery, you MUST be knocked out and he's terrified of that. But he came home feeling very smug and complacent now.

We really didn't do much of anything except that I touched up my daughter's hair because she hated the gray hairs she has. I really didn't think she had that many until I took a good look. They are pretty evenly distributed but there were a LOT of them on the top. She claims if she had a streak or it was all turning gray, she wouldn't color it but I think I will take that statement with a grain of salt.

Later this evening, my niece, Tara, came over and I did the same thing for her. Did I mention she is a bit on the short side? She IS over 5 foot tall but just barely. However, everyone she works with is taller than she is and they have been kidding her about the gray in HER hair. She doesn't have as many as my daughter but it made her sensitive so I performed the same thing on her. She left here happy, knowing that she won't be teased as much about her gray hair next week at work. They'll have something ELSE to tease her about but let her find that out for herself. Unless she is quick enough to say she just plucked them all out.....LOL

I didn't do a whole lot other than to make my bed, empty the dishwasher and fix us something to eat. I made the mistake of freezing some stew a few weeks back and thought I would make that for dinner. Ugh. It was awful. Freezing potatoes does NOT make for appetizing stew. In the future, I will just make less and throw away any leftovers that aren't eaten within two days. The biscuits were good though.

Tomorrow the Beast wants to make potato pancakes for dinner and I will let him. I have to make potato salad, an apple pie (I bought some nice apples for that) and get ready for our barbeque on Sunday. It's going to be simple...hot dogs, hamburgers, Tara's pasta salad, my potato salad and a nice fresh pie for dessert. I have to run to the store for the hot dogs and some fresh hamburger meat and buns. I just realized that I might also have to buy some more potatoes. Speaking of which, have you priced those things lately? OMG!

Our Wal-Mart carries a lot of locally grown produce but we don't grow potatoes here in Alabama so most of those come from Idaho. The price of gas has actually doubled the cost of potatoes in just a couple weeks. I almost fainted when I bought them the last time. I'm actually using more rice these days. It isn't the same and the Beast isn't as happy but he likes the savings in money so he doesn't complain too much. Plus there are a lot of different ways to serve rice as a side dish so I'm getting to experiment a bit.

Everyone but me is in bed, asleep but I am anxious to join them. I'm able to sleep sounder now that the Beast isn't moaning and groaning because of a catheter and the dog has settled down some, too. He is managing to sleep through the night without having to wake me up to let him out to pee. I swear, they really ARE like kids sometimes. *sigh*

Have a great weekend everyone and be sure to tell those you love that you do. We are missing my niece's wedding tomorrow and that makes me sad but everyone knows (or will know) why we missed it. At least we will get to see pictures later on.

Love you all.

The Beast woke up early (around 5 am) and I know it was solely in anticipation of being freed from the dreaded catheter. To him it was sheer torture to sit, stand or lay down. If he got comfortable, it didn't last long. He really DID go in his bathrobe (the beige one, of course). It looked rather odd with his white socks and black sneakers but, thankfully, he's never been a slave to fashion....LOL.

The nurse removed the catheter and made the Beast pee in a cup. It was partly to make sure he COULD pee on his own and also to take a sample to check for the presence of any blood that wasn't visible to the naked eye. But he was FREE!!! He could hardly wait to put on his tidy-whity's and his jeans. The nurse then asked me to join the Beast in the examining room for the doctor to talk to us. DUM-DEE-DUM-DUM...DUM! (Insert ominous music here) The Beast didn't think that was a good sign at all. He was partly right.

The doctor told us that on a scale of 1-3m with 1 being the less agressive and 3 being the most aggressive, the Beast's tumor was a *1*. He also told us that he KNEW it was a cancer but was not sure how bad it was. That is what he needed to be sure of before talking to us.

The tumor did NOT penetrate the lining of the bladder so all he will need is monitoring every three months for eternity I think. If it returns (which it does in 70% of cases), it will mean surgery again. It could return and penetrate the lining and/or the muscle of the bladder and that will be a horse of a different color.

It means also that he will have to have that *scope* exam every three months. which was not news the Beast wanted to hear. He took it in stride, however, since the alternative is a lot less fun. Later, I joked and told him that he might develop a callous from the scoping and then it wouldn't bother him all that much. He didn't seem to find that idea humorous, however. I don't know why. I thought it was, kinda....LOL.

Anyway, I want to thank all of you that kept the Beast in your prayers. Although not entirely the news we wanted to hear, it is certainly better than what it could have been. For now, we are content and grateful.

Even Baron seemed to sense the difference (as well as the return of the Beast's normal attire) and went a bit berserk when he saw him. He did NOT, however, jump up on the Beast in happiness so he must still *feel* that all is not entirely back to normal.

For now, suffice it to say, we are counting our blessings and glad for everyone's support and prayers. I can't tell you how much that has meant. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Buttmunch completed the yard work today and informed us that she is going to return to her REAL life (she did NOT say that but *I* did) on Saturday. We will make the trip sadly on Saturday morning since her bus will be leaving at 9:30 am.

The most exciting thing we have going for us is the Beast's date with the orthopedic doctor tomorrow about his wrist. He has to get an x-ray at the hospital prior to his office visit but that won't be until 10 am so he can get to the hospital at 9 am and be safe. I fully expect him to come home with a cast on it but there he might be fortunate since he's been so careful and so good about it up to this point.

Love you all and have a great weekend. I should be updating before that but, with the Beast feeling so much better not being confined, he might have plans for us this weekend that he hasn't told me about....yet!

This is an early post (sort-of) but it's mostly because I am still up and should be in bed. The Beast has an early appointment at the doctor's tomorrow to get the catheter removed (Thank God!) and we get the results of the biopsy. I don't know why but my gut feeling is that it will be benign. I can't tell you why except that our family has displayed this kind of esp about family members for my whole life and I just can't shake the feeling that it's going to be okay.

Now, I could be wrong and we will deal with it, whatever the results may be. You will just have to check out this page a bit later when I have calmed down and so has the Beast.

My daughter, Buttmunch, spent yesterday and today taking care of mowing the lawn. She used the regular mower to cut the grass around the trees as close as she could without damaging the bark and then got on the John Deere and had a ball. She was enjoying the heck out of being the first person other than her father to even SIT on it.

Yesterday, the Beast HAD to be outside to watch her and critique her mowing techniques and also to tell her where she was screwing up. No one knows the foibles of that machine like he does, of course, but she quickly got the hang of it. She plans on doing the trim work around the base of the trees, the house and other places that need it tomorrow (today) after we get back from the doctor's office. I told her she could sleep in and I would just put Baron out into the yard but she feels she wants to be there when we get the news. I understand that since she DID come here to help out and also to be able to be supportive whatever the outcome was on the tumor.

I've really enjoyed the time I have had with her. It's been a long time since we had the time to just sit and schmooze over stuff. I love her sense of humor and her laugh. She has been a help with her dad because I DO get tired of his, oh, I guess you would call it his *dramatization* when he's truly ill. Men are such babies when they have a crummy cold so you can imagine what it's like when he's TRULY having a problem.

Unfortunately, today was also a bad day for me. I was in a great deal of pain this morning and even my pain pills were not helping much. Buttmunch was right THERE, close to him, but he had to YELL for me for something that she could have taken care of easily (like getting him a glass of water to take his pills). NOOOOOOO......he had to get me up from my prone position (which is the only way I can keep from screaming until the pain pill kicks in) to ask me to do something . A few times he just wanted to ask me a stupid question or to see something HE thought was important on TV. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to hit him over the head with a cast iron skillet. He's lucky that it was not handy.

Well, my night time meds have kicked in so I think I can get to sleep now. I took the dog out for his nightly *duty* so he won't (I hope) be waking us up in a couple hours because he has to pee. We are down to the wire now so keep praying until we have the news.

The Beast DID tell me today that he wanted to plan on taking a trip to North Carolina to see his aunt. She was just diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (she is 88 and has always been active enough to make me groan at times) and then he wants to take a driving trip through the Smoky Mountain National Park. He's just dying to use his new camera and deer are plentiful and not people shy. All this is IF he doesn't have cancer, of course. Things will change a bit if he does.

Love you all and talk to you later this morning when we get the diagnosis.

I am going to be so grateful to have an end to this saga. My poor daughter, Buttmunch, is not used to sleeping with a 110 lb. dog and he has kept her up for several nights just because of his stretching and need for bodily contact. His favorite position is laying on your legs. I know. Been there, gone through that.

I finally decided, the day after picking him up from the vet, that he was going into his kennel. At least WE are used to his whimpers and such but, in the kennel, he can't keep you awake with just his darn weight on you. *sigh* What we did not count on was the food that they fed Baron at the vets while I kenneled him there overnight. It was not a good few days after bringing him home because it upset his digestive tract.

This time, and I discovered it after the first night of his repeated needs to get up and go out to *do his thing*, she had fed him canned dog food. Baron has never had canned dog food. Why did I suspect it? Because he went into a major *farting mode. All the dogs that I have lived with or been around my whole life have had this same problem. I hate to say it because so many people love the brand but Alpo seems to be a major offender in this way. My poor baby couldn't sit down without farting....and I am not talking a small fart but a MAJOR, VERY LOUD fart. The Beast patted him on his head and said with some pride, *Yep, this is MY BOY!!!* I cracked up. The first few times this happened, Baron had the temerity to at least look embarrassed.

However, Baron was having a major digestive upset and he left the evidence on our living room carpet. I was up and about when Buttmunch made some kind of comment like....Oh YUK!!!! When I said *What?* she told me Baron had upchucked on the carpet. I turned the corner and it actually looked like he had taken a dump. I quickly grabbed some paper towels and went back to clean it up and poor Buttmunch sounded like SHE was going to upchuck because Baron, like all dogs, went back to his *mess* and started to eat it. I tried to tell her that it was very normal in the animal kingdom but, you know how it goes....that doesn't mean a damn thing when something makes you feel like upchucking. I cleaned up the mess and sprayed some oust in case she felt she *smelled* some after-odors (there were none) but I will do anything to help my kids get over an unpleasant episode.

The bad part of all this is that it also affected the OTHER end of his digestive system. I won't go into all the details but the worst part of it was having to get up about every hour-and-a-half to let him out into the back yard. Since the Beast was wounded, Buttmunch was both grossed out and tired, guess who was elected to react? Yes. Me. "Nuff said.

So, from 2:30 am until NOW, I have been up and about. I didn't even get a nap, sad to say although I really TRIED. Baron needed to get out of his kennel about every hour on the hour so I sat up, drank coffee, smoked cigarettes and tried to balance my checkbook so I could pay bills. (Do NOT do this when you are tired.) I finally made out bills around 10 o'clock or so and paid ahead on a couple bills since we may just be gone when they come in. The two things we do NOT want turned off are #1: electric and #2: water. I think you can figure out why. But I also paid double our bill on our satellite tv because *I* am always the one that has to sit on the phone and deal with them when we have been gone for longer than a week. We are constantly having problems with Hughes, not for lack of payment but for lack of USE. It pisses me off big time but there you go! Just one of the things you have to put up with when your services are not land-based. It's like...well, if you aren't using it, we're just going to turn off your services so it will make your life miserable when you return. No rhythm or reason, just to inconvenience you when you have been gone from home.

The Beast has been talking about *doing something* when he is *feeling better*, which means he wants to visit his Aunt Marge while she is still in North Carolina. We just recently found out that she has advanced Parkinson's disease and her daughter has to feed her. She SOUNDS good talking to her on the phone (although I have these mental images of her beating herself in the head with the phone because of her shaking). She is more like a mother to my Beast than his own mother has been so it upsets us whenever she is ill. The doctors thought she had developed a bleeding ulcer due to the strong medications for the Parkinson's but it turned out she needed gall bladder surgery. I can relate to that since it's not more than 18 months since I had MY gall bladder surgery after a year of being in pain and not having a diagnosis.

Anyway, if the Beast feels better quickly (and we don't have to deal with radiation therapy or chemo), we will make the trip up to Franklin, NC to see his aunt and then take a trip through the Smokies for the hellofit. *grin* The way *I* feel about it, even if he needs chemo or radiation therapy, we will STILL make that trip. His aunt is 88. She loves the Beast and he loves her. I love her for loving my Beast. So we will make that trip with happiness and love and share some memories because we are all becoming aware of how short life truly is for us. We sometimes need to live each day as if it is our last. Maybe it is not OUR last, but it might be of the person we spend it with.

Love you all. Have a great day.