Happy Holidays or whatever.

Hey there. Sorry for the lack of updating, but things have been busy (sucky?) lately. We found out about a month ago (on my birthday no less) that A's dad's cancer has spread to his liver and there is nothing more they can do for him. He's been in hospice about a month, and although he's deteriorating physically, he continues to be as smart, funny, sarcastic and generally awesome as ever. Thanks so much to everyone who has been so supportive through all this. I know I could pick up the phone at 3am and call lots of people who will talk to me whenever I need it. You guys rock. A has been handling it OK (how well do you handle the death of your father?), and we've been trying to look at the bright side -- we have had lots of time with him, many good talks and we've heard some truly wacky stories about his misspent youth. We haven't always been the closest with that branch of the family -- usually seeing them once yearly on Christmas -- but I feel like we've gotten to know each other better through this experience. Christmas was bittersweet; knowing it was his last and trying to keep it together, but at the same time being so grateful that we could spend it with him.

Also during these past few months we had to put Morty to sleep and we have a new niece! A's sister had her baby Ava on December 4. Luckily she and mom are fine and have been cleared for travel, so they're winging their way to see the family as we speak. We're so glad they're going to be able to come -- A's dad (a.k.a. Grandpa Dude) wants so much to see his new granddaughter. As for Morty, well he just became very ill suddenly and was basically in complete liver failure by the next morning when we rushed him to the vet. I hate livers. LT hates kidneys, I hate livers. Poor little guy. It sucked really hard, but he was really suffering there at the end and maybe it told us something about going peacefully. We had him cremated and he's currently sitting in a tin on the shelf until we decide what to do with him. Anna was lonely and confused the first few weeks (she kept looking in the car every time we came home, as if to say "OK you took Morty away in this thing, where is he?") but now she's truly embracing her role as Only Dog. She's really a wonderful dog and truth be told, while we loved Morty so much (well I did anyway!), it's so much easier only having 1 dog who we can trust to run free during the day and not pee in the house. Anna's totally eating up all the attention -- being let into the house for loong periods of time for the first time in her life.

What else? My massage office is working out really well -- business has been good mostly (I sold lots of gift certificates for the holidays), although I haven't been doing that much massage since we're up in Columbus all the time. But I love how it's turned out so far.

I'm not sure what else to say right now. I hope everyone's holidays are going well. Will try and update this blog as I can but if I'm not back before then, Happy 2008!