The countdown is on

Here's a shot of Sharon in 2006 outside the condo we rent in Telluride. From one of the bedrooms, you can fall asleep to the sound of this river. Very tranquil.

Being small has some significant advantages. Sharon found the t-shirt she is wearing in this photo for 5 bucks on a clearance rack. It has nice silk screening on both the front and back. It was originally over 20 bucks, but size 'Small' sells slowly I guess. She liked the t-shirt a lot and wore it frequently, fading the color a bit. We went back to the same store a year later and they still had these shirts for 5 bucks. Now she has two of them. I bet there are still some there today. Sharon says this $5 deal makes up for the fact that women's clothes usually cost twice what men's clothes cost despite using half the fabric.

Today was radiation treatment number 24. Just 10 more go. Her last day of chemo is scheduled to be next Monday (her 42nd consecutive day of chemo. Yuck) but that may get extended to overlap completely with the radiation treatments. The side effects have still been reasonable. Her fatigue is getting a bit worse but she still has plenty of energy in the morning and has some spurts of energy later in the day. She just got done yelling (in vain) for the dogs to come in, for example. On another good note, Sharon's hair loss seems to have slowed dramatically. When she wears a ballcap, one still can't tell she is under treatment. The blood level of her anti-seizure medicine is now at the very low end of normal, so we have a call in to the oncologist to get guidance on adjusting her dosage.

Sharon spent a lot of her weekend working on the blog she created last week for our neighborhood lake. You can check it out at foxchaseonemeraldlake.blogspot.com if interested. Amazingly, she has a heckler already. Some people just know how to tick off others I guess. In Sharon's defense, the heckler is a liberal arts professor, so, well, you b-school types know where that thought was headed. If you want to see an example of how to effectively respond to unwarranted hostility, check out her blog.

As you football fans know, Auburn lost a hard fought battle against LSU. One of my colleagues was quite pleased by this. He says that the Auburn students don't start paying any attention to their classes until after the football team loses a game. Interestingly, no other faculty member has mentioned this alleged phenomenon. I wonder if the truth is that he is just a meanie that is grouchy until Auburn loses a game, and this grouchiness discourages the students. After Auburn loses, he is cheerful and the students feel welcome in the class. Hmmmm.

This Saturday, Auburn hosts the Creamsicles of Tennessee. Be honest, their shade of orange is the same as the color of creamsicles. Our friend Russell is planning to come down for the game. Unfortunately, I am told that the seats we have access to are terrible. You cannot see the field so you have to crick your neck at on odd angle, leading to a stiff neck by halftime. Watching the game in the man cave is sounding pretty good at this point.

Auburn and UT do not play every year, so it is not a big rivalry. Some other SEC teams despise the Vols, however. Check out these comments from a Bama fan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mor3ZBsKINI

Special thanks go out to Brian in Arizona for finding a creative way to put some great beer in my hands.