Just got a brand spankin’ new Nook for my birthday last week. Yay! To say I’m thrilled to pieces is an understatement. Hubby certainly knows how to take a hint. I only had to leave the brochure laying on the kitchen counter for two weeks, the Nook I wanted circled in bright red, and instructions to my daughter to take daddy shopping and make sure he gets the right one. Subtle? I think not.

On Saturday, I went to Barnes & Noble to find someone to help me set it up. I could have read the instructions, but that would have been too easy … plus I wanted first hand information and wanted to begin loading lots and lots of books onto this sucker. Salesperson Ginger was stellar. She was very helpful and tolerant of my jillion questions. In the end, I have over ten books already loaded, spent a good portion of yesterday reading Molly Harper’s second “Nice Girls” series … dying of laughter through much of it and now exploring how I can download a couple of ebooks I have saved on my computer. Fun, fun, fun.

Oh, and I’m told that I need to name my Nook. Any suggestions?

Met with Dr. D yesterday morning and he said the blood work was lookin’ good. White cells were back to acceptable levels. Go figure. So, I got to start my second round of CMF. Joy. On my birthday yet.

However, it could be worse. I’m feelin’ pretty good, my energy levels are going up and I actually lost five pounds. Gotta love that. Just not eating as much as I was. So this is a nice steady loss. We’re going to wait until the end of this second cycle before we check the tumor markers. So it’s the waiting game again. Yesterday I told Dr. D that I was 49 and jokingly asked him if he had any doubts about getting me to this age. He just gave me a look and said “absolutely no doubt whatsoever.” I love the confidence he shows. He seems as determined to help beat cancer as I.

So, the moral of the story is … when you have an oncologist who has a vested interest in helping you kick cancer’s ass … you stick with him or her. That’s the type of doctor you want.

And remember to repeat after me …“YOU ARE A CANCER WARRIOR”

Now, I have absolutely no problem with motorcyclists. They are, for the most part, courtesy drivers, careful with other drivers because … frankly, the other drivers can squish them very easily with their big, honkin’ vehicles.

But I did see something yesterday on my way to work that I found disturbing. A motorcyclist ahead of me, balancing his bike and chatting on a cell phone. I don’t like it when I see people driving and talking on the cell phone. Seeing a motorcyclist doing it was doubly disturbing. Those are heavy machines. I would think it would take all your attention to maintain control and watch for traffic … particularly during the morning commute. Talking on a cell phone did not strike me as the brightest move this guy could make.

Don’t get me wrong. I want to get a motorcycle in the worse way. I think they’re cool and makes a statement of the type of person I am … or want to be. I just know that motorcycles and cell phones (at the same time) do not mix.

Weeeellll, the first update I gotta do is announce that my crit partner extraodinaire, Edie Ramer has released her first book on Kindle. Cattitude is a wonderful story that well worth checkin’ out.

Here’s a short blurb …

“After Belle the cat switches bodies with a psychic on the run from a murderer, she wants her perfect cat body back instead of this furless human one. But she doesn’t count on falling in love with her former owner. Or that a CEO and a beauty queen want to use up her nine lives. Now is her chance to prove anything a human can do, a cat can do better.”

I’m very excited for Edie and know that this endeavor will be very successful.

Second. I’ve managed to work my way through a problem I was having with my current WIP. I had to have a really (REALLY) good reason for my heroine to hate everything Supernatural. I believe I found it and have even written out the scene. Gotta incorporate it into the actual book and see how it works.

I’m very excited with the recent developments … both with Edie and myself. So I would suggest that you drop everything and head on over to either Amazon or Smashwords (or just go to Edie’s website where she has the links) and pick up Cattitude. Well worth the read.

With luck, this was my last going in on a Friday for treatment. I’ll probably go back to Thursdays … which is fine with me since I’d gotten used to it.

Update — everything is still going pretty good. The fatigue still seems to be fading (although that could be my imagination), but I do have a few rounds of dizziness and a touch of nausea ‘pon occasion (which I counter with hard peppermint candies … works wonders). There are days when the headaches seem worse and days when everything feels pretty good.

One day at a time, folks. Ya gotta take it one day at a time. I’ll be starting my second round of CMF next week. This will be a pretty good indication as to whether the effects are accumulative or if this is it as far as side effects go for me.

Here’s hopin’ it’s the latter.

And remember to repeat after me …“YOU ARE A CANCER WARRIOR”