Merry Christmas

While driving around looking at holiday lights...pretty, huh?

Halloween in St. Augustine

Had a lovely time spending Halloween in St. Augustine. TNT always know how to throw a great party!

Neat wolf in historic St. Augustine.

Dead Donna greets you in the foyer.

Dr. Watson, I presume?

It's elementary, dear Watson.

Ghoulish...

Another ghoul in historic St. Augustine.

Halloween is Coming

Working on our costumes.

Frogger

Saw this little guy while sitting on the porch this evening.

Enjoying the 450th Anniversary of St. Augustine

Labor Day Respite

In St. Augustine to celebrate its 450th anniversary and enjoy some much needed down time.

Above in downtown listening to Mavis Staples. Yeah. Good times.

Ciao.

We ARE the 20%!

Pathology report: Sydney is cancer free! No chemo needed! Yippee!

Ciao!

Sydney's Home

Sydney resting comfortably a few minutes after returning home.

We've had better weeks than this...and we've had worse. This is life.

Lisa noticed some odd behavior from Sydney Monday at lunch and decided to work from home the rest of the day in order to keep an eye her. Sydney was lethargic, not interested in food and seemed to be getting weak. Miriam took a look when she came home from work - saw that Sydney was pale and decided we needed to get her in to the ER - something was not right.

An ultrasound revealed a splenic mass and internal bleeding. The ER doc indicated a strong possibility of hemangiosarcoma - an aggressive and deadly cancer. She spent the night and received two blood transfusions as her red blood count was low. She also underwent several other diagnostic procedures to rule out any obvious metastasis. All came back clear.

So, Tuesday afternoon she had a splenectomy to remove her spleen and its associated mass. While in there they did see a nodule on her liver but it was too dangerous to excise. So, we don't have any idea what it is.

We're waiting to get back the pathology report that will tell us if the splenic mass was a hemangiosarcoma. Unfortunately, all indications seem to suggest that it is. But there's a small chance it's not.

We're hoping that small chance comes our way.

To read more about this: National Canine Cancer Foundation

Stay tuned.

Justice Thomas - An Embarrassment to the Court

So, marriage equality has been decided...finally. The dissenting justices arguments were quite interesting.

"The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government,” Thomas wrote in his dissent. “Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. " ~Clarence Thomas 

George Takei had an interesting response to it to which I agree totally.

"It seems odd that Justice Thomas, as an African American, would be an opponent of marriage equality. His own current marriage, if he had sought to have it some fifty years ago, would have been illegal under then-existing anti-miscegenation laws. I cannot help but wonder if Justice Thomas would have felt any loss of dignity had the clerk’s office doors been shut in his face, simply because he was of a different race than his fiancée. It is a sad irony that he now enjoys the dignity of his marriage, equal in the eyes of the law to any others, while in the same breath proclaiming that the denial of marriage to LGBTs works no indignity." ~George Takei 

Love Wins!

"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth

Circuit is reversed.

It is so ordered."

Celebrate Love

On February 20, 2015 we unexpectedly got married. Let us explain.

We went to the courthouse that afternoon to apply for a marriage license. We learned that our 18 years together enabled the Clerk of the Court to waive the normal three day waiting period. And just like that we got hitched - no pomp, no circumstance. We informed family and friends by sending them a text of our marriage certificate.

Getting married was not a surprise to us - during a New Year's Eve party the Ouija board had foretold that our nuptials would take place in 2015. 

At the time of our marriage ceremony we had no rings. That's not to say that we hadn't given any thought to them. It's just that for the better part of 17 years we had been looking in vain for THE ring that we had seen at an art's festival in 1997. We didn't buy it then because we wanted an aquamarine stone and he had none. 

The idea of rings pretty much dried up....until our friend Terry asked if we were going to get rings for each other. We shrugged it off. But then she had a great idea - what if we could find someone to make the ring of our dreams? The quest began and ended on Aviles Street in St. Augustine.

However, the rings were only the beginning. Once again our friend Terry asked if we were planning a celebration. We looked at each other and said, "No". But she reminded us that the New Year's Eve party she hosted - the same one with the Ouija board - was also an audition showcasing her creative catering skills in the event we got married and wanted to celebrate. 

Terry was right - we needed to celebrate our special union. The date was picked, the menu selected, and the venue, their home, was transformed. Terry and Tom gave us a magical night - and celebrate we did.

We thank everyone for your love and support!

Ciao.

It's beginning to look a lot like....Spring!

Read and Get Healthy

"The most nutritious foods on the planet are the fat/proteins provided by nature. The most profitable foods on the planet are the carbohydrates provided by food manufacturers."

There are essential fats and proteins...but no essential carbohydrates. Think about that for a moment. We do not need carbohydrates to survive. 

http://trendsinmenshealth.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/01/What-caused-obesity-epidemic.pdf