Buttercups and bananas

I guess you might say parts of this post are dedicated to my friend Margaret, what with a photo of the UWS location of Buttercup Bake Shop, their supertasty banana pudding (which I shared with my friend Ellen the other day) and a final one of her adorable baby boy, born October 1st.

Of course, it could also be my sadistic streak in showing her a bakery she can no longer visit... but hey, would I do THAT? ;)

Actually, food is kind of an unfortunate subject, since I overate tonight. Ooooh... I feel like I swallowed a bowling ball. On the plus side, I managed not to eat all of the fries, and subbed a turkey cheeseburger for a moo-cow cheeseburger. On the minus side, I ate the whole, NYC-diner-portion, an almost frisbee-sized burger. [*burp*] I guess the fact that it has been a really long time since I felt THIS overstuffed (no, not even during any of my Thanksgiving dinners) means that in general I have been diligently following the rules of moderation helpfully outlined by WW.

I will have to remember this unhappy feeling the next time I am tempted to overindulge. Indulging per se is fine and dandy. Eating like I'm a pro linebacker, not such a good idea.

On a more positive and productive note, I was playing kitchen cabinet tetris over the holiday weekend, and rearranging my cupboards, which normally had precariously stacked mounds of pots, pans, and containers behind each door. I was pretty pleased with the end result, which not only fit everything I wanted, but was organized in a logical manner, with the least frequently used objects on the top shelf, etc.

Also very satisfying was my progress in clearing out counter space so that I have more workspace for prepping food, which will be especially helpful now that the company cafeteria in our building has closed (just in time for cold weather -- natch) and I am just too darn lazy to walk several blocks overs to our other downtown building. Luckily, I would say that even before the lunchroom closed, I'd been bringing my lunch about 80% of the time.

And although it is tempting to once again skip discussing the latest medical developments in the apparently neverending saga that is the joy of boob cancer treatment, I will bite the bullet tonight and just give the highlights.

Remember how I mentioned that I will be taking tamoxifen for the next 5 years to minimize the risk of recurrence? Well, it apparently conflicts with another medication I am taking, so the pharmacy will not release it to me yet. Now, my oncologist is conferring with my other physician and they are trying to figure out what to do, once they stop playing phone tag.

In the meantime, I have also discovered the results of my oh-so-fun endometrial biopsy, and will skip all of the many multisyllabic medical terms and sum it up as: the answer really is 42, if the question is "when do I start menopause?"

The chemo has probably hastened the winding down of my biological clock, and less estrogen (post-menopause) is better for me, since my cancer is estrogen-positive, but I have to admit, "The Menopause" (as my sweetie's mom calls it) has thrown me for a loop, since well, that really kicks me firmly over into "you're middle-aged" territory. Plus, the endless cycles (I have supplies stashed at home, my mom's place, my engineer's apartment, the office, and my purse) are damn annoying, with particularly vicious spikes in mood due to wildly fluctuating hormone levels.

Speaking of crazy, my mom is feeling better these days, since she is back to complaining about everything under the sun, especially anything my sister and I do about getting her better medical care.

I'm signing off with a photo of baby du jour (my older niece is due again in May), who is really pretty darn cute. (By the way, the compressed version of the photo is a bit blurry, but if you click on it, it will open full size and crystal clear.) We had a very nice time during my jaunt out to Lawn Guyland to see Margaret and her men (they were visiting her husband's family for the holiday). I also thanked Margaret during the visit for having such a cute bambino so I wouldn't have to lie when I made admiring noises about his adorability. Heh.