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Brain cancer is...  ...newly appreciative of the meal we call "lunch." At Mile 5 of our walk today, we thought the title of today's post would be "the Santa Ana River Trail."  You see the tree-lined trail to the left of the bike lanes, above.  Back at Mile 5, we thought this new-to-us trail would be the most interesting part of our day. Then we started getting hungry.  We packed plenty of water, but we seriously under packed enough food to sustain us on a four-hour walk.  We know!  That's a newbie mistake! We don't know how it happened.  We compounded our error by planning the walk to span lunchtime, so not only did we not have enough snacks, we also missed a meal. At Mile 7, we fantasized about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  At Mile 8, we started walking very close to family parties with hot dogs on the grill.  None fell.  At Mile 9, Darrell said, "I wonder what egret tastes like." Then we just stumbled through to the end of Mile...

Brain cancer is...  ...tapering. Since returning home from vacation yesterday, we have gone out for a meal only once each day.  Shocking.  Imagine tomorrow, with further tapering.  Gasp. In Other News It was a beautiful day...in many places. When we sent Meridyth and Nolan the picture of our nice morning at the park ...we got a glimpse of rainy Lexington, Kentucky, from Nolan  ...and a snowy Wisconsin morning shot from Meridyth. To close the day, Meridyth shared a proper grand finale sunset. Bravo!

Brain cancer is...  ...sad about the rain damage at Craig Park. We returned from Carlsbad this morning to walk at the park.  Walkers gathered and shook their heads at all the damage caused by the storms.  The common theme was, "It wasn't that bad of a storm!" We counted four toppled trees.  Above is the saddest.   Here are a couple others: Very disconcerting.  The Bee Tree cheered us up, though.  Go, bees, go!   Click here for alternate YouTube Bee Tree link.  Welcome to the weekend, Team D!

 Brain cancer is... ...glad we walked yesterday. It rained all day.  Darrell’s quote of the morning was, “It just doesn’t feel like vacation without a museum.”* We had so much fun at the Museum of Making Music .  Good call, Darrell.  Here’s the video. Click here for the alternate YouTube link. *This was not his only quote of the day.  At 4 a.m., Darrell asked, sotto voce , “Hi! How’s your night going?” It was hard to stop laughing in order to go back to sleep.

Brain cancer is... ...happy to be on the other side of 10 miles. Today was walking day.  We scouted out three trails and gave them a shot.  Here's the on-property trail, starting at the golf course.  It was too muddy to continue, but lovely nonetheless. Second, we headed for Batiquitos Lagoon .  Apparently, all Darrell and I ever do near this lagoon is drive by it on the 5 Freeway.  We never knew! The lagoon was dredged in 1994, with some huge number of hundreds of tons of silt and garbage, such as tires, being removed. Restoration has been underway since then.  It warms our hearts to learn of efforts that attempt to fix past errors and work toward  coexistence of human life alongside California's fragile coastal ecosystems. Next, we headed to the Carlsbad seawall.   We took our victory lap in Carlsbad Village. Walking day was a great day.  We look forward to non-walking day, tomorrow. Happy Hump Day, Team Day!

Brain cancer is...  ...surprised by some blue sky today. Our big accomplishment today was a walk.  Based on predictions, we thought we were in for a completely rainy week, but--surprise!--sunshine this morning!   We were also surprised that we happened upon the Flower fields , above.  Opening day is March 1, apparently, so those flowers better get busy. It's back to stormy now.  We love our fireplace. Happy 26th Birthday, Zachary John! We love you.  We are proud of you.  We are so grateful to have you in our lives!  We hope that Year 27 brings everything you hope for. 

Brain cancer is.... ....acclimating. We had a great Monday, acclimating to vacation.

Brain cancer is... ...back in Carlsbad.  We spent the night in Murrieta and had a misty morning walk. Beth and Geoff met us and drove down with us to Carlsbad.  We spent the gift card from Team D (in our adventure book from 2016–so sweet!) at Karl Strauss while we watched football.  Whatever, Tom Brady. Then we checked into our place for the girls to discuss retirement: Others watched football.  Thank you Saints.  Here's the view from Deck Two. To end the day, we headed--as we did the last time we were here ( click here for the post if you have any interest in "last times") to the Chart House for dinner. While we were gone, the Evening Team checked in and told us to... ...relax.  Done. Happy Carlsbad Sunday, Team D.!

Brain cancer is... ...doing what big people do. Allison, above, enjoyed her Grandma Barb’s 60th Birthday Party.  As did we all.  Allison was just so darn cute at it!  Happy Birthday, Barbie!

Brain cancer is...  ...ending Friday with the Mayfields. Today was an action packed day. It included the dermatologist freezing a spot on Darrell's scalp into a painful wound. Owie.  We also did seven miles at the park. Look how the geese lined up. We have video, too, of widgeons making squeaky toy noises, but we respect Geoff's low bird tolerance and thus send said video only by request.    We changed arrays, and we had other adventures.  Friday ended with a dinner date at Lazy Dog with with Lennie and Christine. The only challenging thing about dinner is that we knew we'd sit in Greg's section, so we prepped for Greg's Yemen quiz.    If we passed the quiz on Yemeni current events, it was only at the C level.  Things are not good in Yemen. What was good is that we were with friends...again...at Lazy Dog, which we call the Dawg. Is the Dawg with the Mayfields a habit?  Maybe so.  The best sort of habit. Happy Friday!  Happy good ...

Brain cancer is... ...ready for January's MRI scan. You see the bandage on Darrell's forearm (above), right?  He's strong arming cancer. Oh.  Bad pun.  Sorry. Cancer eradication month currently comes to our house every three months.  January:  You're up.   We kick off each cancer month with Darrell's blood test, which proves him able to have the routine MRI scan, occurring later in the month. When phlebotomist Ken prepared to draw blood early this morning, he said, "I recognize this arm!"  We love that quote:  "I recognize this arm!"  Ken has been sticking Darrell's arm for nearly three years. How many people can say that they have a three-year relationship with a phlebotomist?  Sweet. We left Ken and picked up the traditional Dew (the first in 13 hours) by 7:15 this morning. We know you know that the stakes are high with the results of each of Darrell's MRI scans. The cancer tumor status is unknown without a MRI scan, a scan interprete...

Brain cancer is... ...such a thinker! For every three miles we walk, each of us usually drinks one can of water, carried in Andi's pack.  (Above see the water and the pack.) The full cans fit easily into the pack.  We take home the empties for recycling.  Somehow the empties are more difficult to fit into the pack than the full ones.  Maybe because they are so much lighter, they don't sink as easily to the bottom? Our problem with empty cans is exacerbated with increased mileage, as we attempt to fit more cans into the same pack. Darrell recently developed a life hack that we share here, because we love you. Did you know that one property of metals is that they are malleable ?  In this context, malleability is "the ability to withstand hammering and the ability to be made into thin sheets known as foils." Here's how Darrell harnesses the malleability property of metals to make our packing during walks so much easier: Click here for the alternate YouTube link...

Brain cancer is...  ...off loading responsibilities. Our Tuesday:  A Play in One Act Setting:  Office, Computer Station Two Darrell:  Hey, Andi!  People left some comments on the blog. Andi:  Great!  You can go ahead and respond. Darrell:  (Waves hand.) No.  You have more time now. Darrell exits, through kitchen. Andi:  (Belly laughs.) Fade to black. Back to Our Project List Speaking of having more time, we are enjoying getting back to our list and tackling projects.  You know the projects.  Not the ones you dread.  The ones you added to the list because they make you happy, and their completion brings great satisfaction.  And, yes, the ones you foolishly thought you could accomplish during the semester.  Those projects. We are on Project Number Three already.   Today we'd like to showcase our first project, The Wedding Bouquet Preservation Project. When Tiana and Alex married in June 2014, we eagerly took o...

Brain cancer is...  ...back on track with Date Night. We haven't had our traditional regular date night with Gail and Melanie since September.  Although we've had other good gatherings, Date Night is not optional.  We spent some time appreciating 2018 and catching up on life's adventures. Thanks for making it happen, Gail and Melanie. Onward!

Brain cancer is... ...enjoying varied perspectives. Our Perspective From our perspective, Sunday was as it should be.  Tiana and Alex were great hosts.  They took us to breakfast (Redlands tasty!), and we said goodbye to walk at Yorba Regional Park.   More Members' Perspectives Beth enjoyed this view from the top of her street in Murrieta, California: Meridyth's Neapolitan Mastiff, Ursa, enjoyed her view of the frozen north in Wisconsin: Melanie sent the view from her "office."  Check out our beloved Big Bear Lake from above: Thanks for the gifts of your perspectives, loved ones!