Today was a pretty mixed bag, and meh, that's not too bad overall.

Healthwise, it started off really poorly. I've been having nerve pain, likely caused by the current chemo drug I'm on (technical term is neuropathy). I've had it in various forms before, but in the past it has been in my feet and ankles. Now one of the worst parts is in my right neck/shoulder, the back of my head and worst of all, my right ear. It got so bad yesterday that I kept taking my glasses off (the arm of the glasses hurts when it rests on the right ear) so I finally just put in a pair of contacts. Taking some norco (similar to vicodin but only 350mg tylenol per pill rather than 500mg) helps. Before bed, I took my normal pills as well as two norco.

Woke up about 4am and was in a ton of pain on my right ear and that whole side of my head. I immediately took two more norco as well as a lot of water (felt dehydrated). Sat up for a bit and about 40 minutes later, the norco had kicked in enough to head back to sleep. So first thing this morning, I called my doctor's office and after the receptionist talked to the doctor, she called me back that he was doubling my nerve pain medicine (gabapentin). So - good... I'm still not taking as much as I had at one time, so I know I can handle this higher amount. The downside is that I'm going to be continuing to take the chemo drug for some time, so who knows how bad the neuropathy will get. But at least I got immediate response to my problems, which is one reason I love my oncologist (and all of his staff as well).

Spent the morning looking through various healthcare options for the point when I am no longer using sick-time hours to get a partial paycheck from work. At that point, I either do COBRA to continue my current healthcare, or some other coverage. I looked at what Medicare B and Covered California (California's health exchange under the Affordable Care Act) can do - and overall, it looks like doing COBRA is still my best bet. I'm going to try to go to the local Social Security office to double-check that I'm understanding my Medicare/Medigap options correctly.

I haven't mentioned it, but I am involved in a REALLY cool project. Since moving to the North Natomas part of Sacramento in late 2010, I've been involved with our "Friends of the North Natomas Regional Park." The NNRP is a 220 acre park that is just about a mile from the house. It is mainly undeveloped - just a dog park when we moved here and then this past November, we had the grand opening of a sports complex that included three ballfields, a playground, water spray area, picnic/grilling area, parking lot and amphitheater area. There is already funding and plans for the next stage which will add two more ballfields, a stage for the amphitheater, additional parking and a permanent farmer's market. Seeing the changes and having input to the planning of the Regional Park has been very fulfilling.

So at our November meeting, we heard about an effort by the Sacramento Tree Foundation to create a "Hanami Line" somewhere in the city. Hanami is the Japanese custom of enjoying the cherry blossoms and this effort is looking to put 200+ cherry trees somewhere, and requesting proposals on the best place to put them. Both since I'm half-Japanese but also because I adore the cherry trees around the DC Tidal Basin - as soon as I heard about this, I was very excited. Our Friends of the NNRP group was also thrilled, thinking of how the Hanami Line could fit into the regional park, and so we're moving forward with putting together a proposal. There is a steering group organized by the Tree foundation that is overall working on the Hanami Line, and I've been going to those meetings as well as both a representative of the Friends group, as well as just myself as, while I think our proposal will be one of the strongest, no matter what, I am excited about this concept and happy to work on bringing it to Sacramento.

So I bring this up because this afternoon I had a follow-up meeting with the leader of our Friends group to go over our proposal. We made a few changes that will make the proposal even better. I also briefly met and spoke with our local City Councilmember (and current Vice Mayor) who is very excited about our proposal and strongly supports our efforts. I have met her a few times in the past and have always just been so impressed with her. Once in a while I may disagree on policy items, but her enthusiasm for our area, her energy and her openness have just been so refreshing and wonderful. To cap it off, I get home and SHE is posting on my Facebook thanking ME for my efforts. :-)

Lastly (as if this wasn't enough) - I made Korokke tonight from my Mom's recipe (mainly). Before my Mom passed away in Feb 2010, I had tried to document a few of the recipes of hers. I love making her turkey and stuffing (and then turkey soup) as well as a few other items. To document her recipes, it usually took at least two or three times to get it all down right. For the other recipes, I had them down to the point where I would use the recipe in front of her and make corrections and finalize the recipe. With Korokke, I had just a first draft of sketchy notes, so I hadn't tried to make it since. I finally gave in (since I was craving it) and browsed some other recipes on the internet to fill in some gaps (like cooking temperature) and gave it a try. It WORKED! So now I have one more recipe to add to the files of my "Mom's recipes" AND I have a nice batch of made korokke, which by the way is a beef/curry/potato croquette.

So mixed bag, busy but at the end of the day (which this is), just in a really good mood (with a very stuffed belly).

PS - the previous blog title was due to me listening to the soundtrack of "Book of Mormon" at the time.