A Great Loss

On Friday, I heard of the loss of Dr. Randy Pausch. Dr. Pausch was a Carnegie-Mellon professor who delivered "The Last Lecture" speech about the importance of achieving your childhood dreams. He died on Friday after a long battle with Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 47. His story is told on the Carnegie-Mellon website and also on his own website. Links to his wonderful speech are on these sites. Donations in his honor can be sent to PANCAN: Pancreatic Action Network This is a wonderful organization to which we have made donations in honor of my father, Robert Collins, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1993 and my husband's grandfather, Robert Henderson, who died of the disease in 1999. This organization was not around when my father was diagnosed and there was little support for us as we went through it with him. As any doctor will tell you, if you are going to get cancer, this is not the one you want to get. My thoughts are with Dr. Pausch's family. He leaves behind his wife and three children.

Home Again

Well, back home after a wonderful week's vacation on the Cape. My brain is still in a vacation fog. I actually forgot what I was doing this morning while I was making breakfast and lunch for my husband! I got so used to just throwing on some clothes and heading downstairs to the "breakfast room" in the motel. Oh well, back to reality.

My daughter absolutely loved the ocean this year. In the past years, she has only walked along the edge of the waves, being careful not to get in too much. This year, she was in up to her shoulders, swimming and diving in the waves! We even bought her a boogie board, after she shared a new found friend's at the beach one day. The water was warm and the waves not too strong and she had a great time.

The weather was great...no rain except the day we arrived. The ride was a little tough on me, although I think I fared a little better this time than on our Boston trip. I had a couple of days of arm pain, but not too bad that I couldn't function. In the car, I had my U-shaped neck pillow on most of the ride. We stopped three times on the way there and back to get out and walk. I did my neck exercises every day to try to strengthen and stretch my neck muscles. I even brought my special S-shaped bed pillow. I think all of these preventative measures really did help.

I did pretty well ordering gluten-free food at the restaurants on the Cape. I pretty much stuck to broiled seafood, without breadcrumbs, baked potatoes, salads with oil and vinegar, too many hot fudge sundaes and LOBSTER OF COURSE! We even tried out a couple of restaurants that catered to Gluten Free diets. Not Your Average Joe's in the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis offers a small but tasty GF menu. I had an Angus burger served on lettuce and tomato with garlic mashed potatoes. BZ's Mexican and Pizza in Dennisport had a delicious GF pizza. I ate the whole thing myself! Only twice was I not exactly sure of what I was getting and that was my fault in not asking the right questions. I had a pre-made burger that I believe had some kind of filler in it and cauliflower augratin, which had breadcrumbs all over the top of it (which I didn't eat, I just picked at the food around it on the plate). Neither one seemed to bother me.

Now my only question is...when's the next vacation????