Today's silly hat photo

Yesterday I left work early and headed over to Culver City to spend the day with my mom. She had a doctor's appointment (just a follow-up with her primary car physician) but she wasn't feeling good so we stayed home. She ended up taking a nap and we rescheduled the appointment.

She had her second chemotherapy treatment last Friday, and this one seems to be affecting her more than the first. She seems okay, but it takes a lot of out of her. Luckily she has this week off from therapy, and can hopefully recuperate some before starting the whole thing all over again.

Before the nap, though, she asked me to make lunch for her and my dad. I made them tuna melts, at their request. I think I freaked them out because instead of celery (which they were out of) I used carrots. They seemed to like their sandwiches, which looked yummy - perfectly golden on the outside, nice and squishy on the inside. I wasn't that hungry so I made myself half a toasted tuna sandwich (minus the "melt" part), but I added raisins to the leftover tuna. I wish I'd had some nuts to put in it, too! Yum, but I think my parents would be shocked. Shocked, I say!

While my mom was napping, I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen (I never cook or clean as much at my own home as I do at my parents' house!) and watched the rain. It was a cold day in Culver City yesterday.

After lunch and my mom's nap, I took the dog for a walk. I don't know if I've talked about Goldie, their dog before, so I will tell you now: Goldie is an aging, beautiful golden retriever. She is 100% retriever: though she's graying and getting a bit less agile, Goldie will play catch with you forever. It's her favorite thing to do. I have literally tossed that ball for her until she's practically limping. She's a sweet dog, and I have been tempted many times to take her home, but she needs more attention than we can give (I work too much! I wish I could stay home with a dog!) and would totally miss my dad, her best friend. It stopped raining for about 20 minutes, and I put on my coat, my scarf, and borrowed my brother Dan's hat (see photo), and took her out. I looked a little weird but it was cold and wet. That hat was warm. I think I look a bit like a chauffer (I always thought that would be a fun job, but that could just be because I loved that movie with Eric Stoltz). Goldie had a good time, I think, but we turned around earlier than I wanted to because of the rain. I didn't want to bring home a wet dog to my mom's clean house.

After the walk, when we got back my mom was up and watching TV with my dad. My dad has a strange fascination with the Maury Povich show (his favorite, Ricki Lake, went off the air in 2004). Total trash! The topic of yesterday's show was typical: DNA tests to determine the fathers of babies. Some of the stories were hard to watch because the people were such trainwrecks. Maury seemed like a good guy, though, I don't know. I could never watch that stuff on a regular basis.

After Maury, I went back in the kitchen, put on my mom's apron, and put together a turkey meatloaf my mom had her heart set on. It was easy, and no gourmet recipe (I followed the directions on the flavor packet, which includes a layer of ketchup on top of the whole thing) but was complicated by the fact that my parents' oven is jacked up. I'm not sure how my brother cooked a whole turkey in there on Thanksgiving, because the temperature was all over the place. It took much longer than I expected to cook that thing (my dad's going to get the oven checked out soon). My dad made mashed potatoes, I cooked a can of corn (ah! Just like the old days!) and finally we sat down to eat. Just like the old days, I helped myself to seconds (and, ahem, thirds). It's a good thing I don't cook at home (see, Patrick?) because we'd have even more serious weight issues to deal with.