YEAH, Chickadee. Stable. What a wonderful word. Still have digits crossed for 12/2.

I didn't have radiation, but have heard from friends it was MORE TIRING for them than chemotherapy.

FYI - I was surprised to learn Dana Farber doesn't use "tumor markers" - at least not for "early stage" - don't know about MBC. I was amazed, always thought they were "reliable" - but if those guys don't think they are, well.

Dumb question for Chickadee - is there a "low dose" chemotherapy - somewhere less than you were having, but not going what I called "cold turkey" when I stopped my 5 years on Arimidex. There wasn't for me - and I still (seem) to be fine, but the stopping any treatment is traumatic in its own way.

HOWEVER - right now, I think doing the Stable Happy Dance is in order, after you've rested a bit :-)

COLD COLD COLD. 8 oz. ( Vermont Country Store) go on the bed tonight ;-) Most flannel sheets are 5, or 6 oz.

Chickadee - I hope those zaps worked - good to see it hasn't affected you too much.

Going to see the bs today and to find out what the hell it was that they biopsied - I forgot to ask. Will also discuss getting my goitre removed seeing it's growing. So, I'll be working from home Got my pet plumber coming to fix the flusher in our ensuite, so I'll have to get dressed early.

We've been having fun, it seems a possum has taken up residence in our roof. A friend of Steve's helped him close off the entry point yesterday, but he can't borrow a trap until the weekend. So, all we could hear was scratching noises last night. So, here we are outside last night with a very very tall ladder reopening the entry point. Men are SO dumb - it would have made much more sense to get the trap first, then close off the entry point. We had a possum man quote, but he wanted $475 - crazy!!

I know I have told some of you via FB anyway. My DD1 is the vocal coach with the NZ Youth choir which is touring US and Canada. If anyone interested check out

http://www.choirsnz.co.nz/2013-usa-canada-tour-itinerary They are singing in LA, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, and Washington DC. They leave tonight.

Big hugs

I recorded John Stewart last night because I love Bill Cosby.

However the whole show had me chuckling and laughing out loud.

Thank JS and team. Every once in awhile there is genius

Blue.....those Repugs/Rt. Wing extremists will stop at nothing......but I think in the end they will end up cutting their own throats. At least I hope so. I'm sure its difficult to realize that some time soon a whole lot of people are going to be "wised" up and it will spell out for anyone with questions just how despicable this dangerous crowd can be.

Adored the pics as usual. Loved the color of the kitty's crochet hat.

Had a long day today........two hours of work, then on to feed feral cats, and after that directly up the road to the Marion V.A. Dh needed to go for a re-check of his hernia repair from two wks. ago and get the staples out. He is going to live.....that's good. We zipped on over to Steak & Shake for lunch. I totally love the Triple Pepper Burger.

After, we stopped in at Sam's Club to replenish supplies here. They can get low quick when you don't have an appt. going on at Marion for a while. It is a 140 mile round trip. We were back quite late so didn't get to work on the leaves today. Maybe tomorrow.

This is a picture of the road that leads to our house..........and save for the space our house sits in......this is to some extent what it looks like around our house.....there is yard.....but it fills pretty good with leaves. Oh, if I didn't adore being in the woods......but it is quiet, peaceful, and there is abundant wild-life to watch. Right now I can't imagine being else where. One of these days, I'll end a picture of the deck and yard.

So....work to do tomorrow to make up for what I didn't get done today as was only about an hour of day light by the time we got home late this afternoon.

Forgot to day....I, along with Dh will be working Thanksgiving day. The people I work for ( Dr. and wife ) are going to be out of town. So..... Grandma's son will bring dinner to Gram and me. I know it will be wonderful. I will have four long days as Gram can't get out....so I will have day shift from 8 a.m. to 8:30 each evening.

Great for me.......it has been something of a struggle with Dh out of work......Sears store in the mall, Mt. Vernon closed. He worked there 9 yrs.....but they wouldn't renew the lease because owners would not fix the leaky roof. Dh was able to get hired here at the home-town Sears. They are run differently from the regular Sears and has just started back. He'll be working on thanksgiving too. I'll cook up some Thanksgiving food that will only be used and eaten as leftovers because no one will be here to eat it anyway. It will all work out.

Hope you all have a good day.

E.....hope your doing ok.

Jackie

Off to see the bs and find out what the hell they saw in my boob. I really hate working from home - it's boring

Raining this morning. Will do so all day. Guess I won't blow leaves Bren....sigh. I'm so sad about that. But thankfully I have many other chores that never seem to complete or be that way for long so I'm sure I'll fill in with some thing enormously just as satisfying as attempting to do something with 2 acres of knee deep leaves.

Be back later.

Jackie

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/21/wonkbook-three-reasons-filibuster-reform-might-actually-happen-today/?hpid=z2

Wonkbook: Three reasons filibuster reform might actually happen today

By Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, Published: November 21 at 8:25 am

Filibuster reform might actually happen this time. In fact, it might happen today.

Harry Reid is poised to end the filibuster against executive-branch appointments and judicial nominations. Could Democrats back out at the last minute, as they have so many times before? Absolutely. But there've been three big changes in Senate Democrats' outlook since the last time filibuster reform failed.

1. Filibuster reform is just another word for nothing left to lose. Back in January, the best arguments against filibuster reform had nothing to do with filibuster reform. They had to do with the rest of the Democrats' agenda.

"Speaker John Boehner said the House wouldn't consider legislation from a post-filibuster reform Senate. It's very likely that a real filibuster reform fight would've destroyed the Democrats' agenda in the coming months -- think immigration and gun control."

But gun control died in the Senate. And it turned out that Boehner refused to consider the Senate's immigration legislation regardless of the filibuster's status. Now, with President Obama's political capital at a nadir, it's clear that there's no second-term agenda to protect in the near future, and they're may not even be a Democratic Senate majority after 2014.

So in pure "getting-things-done" terms, Democrats are faced with a choice: keep the filibuster and get nothing done. Change the filibuster and get nothing done aside from staffing the federal government and filling a huge number of judicial vacancies with lifetime appointments.

2. Democrats believe Republicans will shred the filibuster as soon as they get a chance. The main reason filibuster reform typically fails is that the majority party is scared of what will happen when the minority party gets into power. But Senate Democrats just watched Republicans mount a suicide mission to shut down the government. Their confidence that Republicans will treat the upper chamber's rules with reverence is low, to say the least.

This has led to some fatalistic thinking about filibuster reform: If Republicans are going to blow the filibuster up anyway, Democrats might as well take the first step and get some judges out of the deal.

3. Senate Democrats feel betrayed by Republicans. It's hard to overstate the pride senior Senate Democrats took in cutting their January deal with Senate Republicans. That kind of good-faith dealmaking, they said, was exactly how the Senate is supposed to work. Some even argued it was a sign that immigration reform, gun control, and other top Democratic initiatives might pass.

But then Republicans filibustered more judges and executive-branch nominees. And the pride top Democrats took in their deal to avert filibuster reform has turned to anger that Republicans made them look like trusting fools. "Just talked to at least 10 Senate Dems about filibuster reform, including some who previously opposed it," tweets the Huffington Post's Jennifer Bendery. "Just one opposes now."

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Do it, Harry - DO IT NOW. Democrats really do have nothing left to lose.

RL -- Well, Harry did it! And now the Repubs are calling it "the tyranny of the majority". Oh heck, what are elections for anyway? Just an exercise to make folks think they have a say in how their government is run?

Suzie -- A 'wait and see' response doesn't exactly put anyone's mind at ease, does it? And yes, working from home I found was always difficult; the office mindset is much more beneficial, IMO.

Moi, aussi. I find that when I work from home the dust bunnies are way more important than when I am not trying to work at home.

And now Grassley is threatening to eliminate filibuster *when* the regressives take back the Senate. Dream on.

"Tyranny of the majority" my eye. Here's the deal: Democrats in House races got a million more votes across the country than did regressives. Regressives only kept the House because of gerrymandering and voter suppression. Regessives actually LOST seats in the Senate in 2012. And a Democratic president (yeah, the black guy!) was elected by more than 50% of the vote BOTH times. That is no tyranny. THAT is democracy and THAT is the will of the people. The people elected Barack Obama and a majority in the Senate (and were stymied by gerrymandering in the House) because they liked Barack Obama's and the Democrats' ideas and plans better than those of regressives. No tyranny there, Itchie Mitchie - just the will of the people expressed.

I work from home and love it! I can start a load of wash and work uninterrupted. The only distraction I have are Tim's many phone calls home! I have the type of job that works well with the peace and quiet in my home office. I can't imagine having to go into an office anymore.

Had a great day with my sister today. Discovered what an Ollie's is ... huge store with lots and lots of stuff in it!

hugs to all,

Bren

YEAH - we're finally gonna get judges seated on the bench in DC, and where ever they've been waiting to be seated. YEAH.

Stock Market certainly liked it too.

But what RL said - tee, hee....

COLD. COLD. COLD. and supposed to get even colder soon -

What's Ollies? Don't think we have them in the north east.

Had a ton of things to do today so imagine how amazed when I came home and Dh told me that H. Reid went nuclear. Way to go Harry. He has not been my favorite person.....partly for giving McConnell so many chances to work with a gentleman's agreement. The minute McConnell got the chance he went back to play kissy-face with the Tehadists.

This should have come quite a while back. I'm sure the Regressives and Tehadists are crying foul and throwing giant hissy fits. Of course, they are the very soul of propriety -- if you don't count the racist hatred and obstructing every thing they could from day one. Fine up-standing Christians who don't mind letting kids starve and people work for minimum wages. All they know is destruction..........well, keep it up. You are using the wrecking ball to your own dis-advantage.

There are so many people ( actually the better the web-site gets....watch out ) that are smart enough to see through it all. People have good memories, especially when they see their government shut down, their wages held down, their Pres. obstructed in everything he tries to do to make our life better, and little kids having food taken out of their mouth. REALLY --- they cry foul. Karma train just took a huge leap ....stand back.

Jackie