This arrived via the dreaded email FWD. *Shriek!*

If this is your copyrighted comic and you are upset that I’m displaying it without giving proper credit, just post a comment and I’ll give you credit. If that’s not good enough, have your lawyer call my lawyer. (Tee-hee-hee. Joke’s on them. I don’t have a lawyer!)

If you don’t know what the chocolate drive is all about click here and here and here and here.

In the four years since the chocolate drive began, we have shipped about 500 pounds of chocolate to U.S. Air Force medical units in Iraq.

You can bring chocolate to my house, office, or church. If you are too far away, or would just rather, you can give monetarily using the Donate link on the bottom of the side bar on my blog. Any money collected will be used to buy candy bars in bulk. Shipping has been graciously covered by an anonymous donor.

We are looking for chocolate, specifically, as other non-perishable candies are plentiful. Full sized bars are a favorite, but anything will do. I encourage you to look for deals. There will be big price cuts on chocolate items late on Halloween night, and early Nov 1st. Similar sales come up after Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. Just after Easter, we will send our final shipment for the year.

For full disclosure, I have not yet received confirmation from a contact in Iraq this year. It’s possible the unit I’ve been sending to has been recalled. Regardless, I will see to it that all donations find their way to U.S. troops, either in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I’m at my sister’s new house north of Austin. Mom’s hospital in Temple is about an hour from here. Several family members are there or on their way there. I spent all day yesterday with Mom. She slept most of the time, still fighting off some pain, but she is improving.

The second procedure, in which they inserted a tube through her abdomen into the problematic liver duct, was a success. They left the tube in place, externally draining the toxins from her liver. They will still probably put in a stint to maintain that duct, but there seems to be some debate among the doctors and what the root cause is/was, and thus, the best treatment.

Yesterday morning, a doctor did come in, making rounds with a room full of students, and discussed “what’s next.” But we were all a bit frustrated with his prognosis: Wait. They wanted to let her toxin levels drop much more and get her “feeling better” before they moved ahead. Mom hates lying there waiting to feel better. And I don’t like it much either.

She’s really bored, but still too “loopy” to do much. She doesn’t want to read, or watch TV, or much of anything because her head is too swimmy to enjoy it. So, we talked some, but mostly she slept.

I am waiting on more definitive news for today, but so far, “She’s feeling better,” is good enough.

Things are tough down on the ranch. I’m cross-posting an entry from my Mom’s blog written by my sister. Mom probably won’t be real pleased about the world knowing she’s sick, but I know some mighty prayer warriors read this blog.

To give you a bit of back-story, my mom had much of her liver removed a few years ago due to cancer. You may know that earlier this year she was in a serious car wreck that cost her her spleen. So, now, with no spleen and half a liver, her body has a hard time filtering her blood. The prevailing opinion is that this has lead to some complications in her liver. The ducts that “drain” the toxins from her liver into her intestine have become swollen and are now blocked.

Last I wrote, Dad was trying to get [Mom] to Scott & White for a procedure that would open ducts from her liver. … She was holding tough, but she was not good. Lifting her head made her dizzy, her speech was slurred because her tongue was a little swollen, and so forth. She also was beginning to get jaundice since Monday, maybe Sunday. She stayed reclined most of the time and felt fatigued quickly.

Dad managed to get the procedure scheduled for this Thursday morning, so they left La Grange about 4 a.m. I talked to Dad at 11:30 a.m., and he sounded weary and deflated. He said, “The procedure didn’t work.” The line the doctor ran down from Mom’s throat to her liver would not go through the compressed duct at all. It is either too inflamed, or something is pressing it that hard. They don’t know why.

Another procedure is schedule for tomorrow, something about going in through a needle into her side. Dad said, at the time I talked to him, that Mom was not coherent yet, so she hadn’t heard the news. It is possible that the doctors will order a PET scan to show them what the CAT scan could not.

I had planned a visit for this weekend, so I’ve got Friday off work already. Looks like I might be headed to the hospital rather than the ranch. But, as we’ve all learned, plans aren’t worth much.

Don’t ping my cheese with your bandwidth!

Best Cat Music Video EVAAHHR!

Link for Facebook Friends

Color me inspired.

P.S. I must warn you, if you go to YouTube to watch this, it’s got a potty mouth title. I’m sorry that some people can’t grow up and get a real vocabulary.

It’s that time of year again. My birthday is less than a month away. Christmas will be here before you know it! Time to check out my updated T-Shirt Wish List!

Why yes, I am that self-centered. You want me to buy you something? Post a wish list on your own blog! (And link to it in the comments, of course.)

The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music does.
– Harvie Krumpet

Now, if you thought that this week’s white board quip was dirty or sexual, then you are not fat enough.

Don’t we look tough?! I finally got time to dump the pictures off our camera. This is Tammy and I all decked out for a ride on Thumper.

You can read all about Thumper in this previous post. Since then, I have installed the Clarke 4.7 gallon plastic fuel tank, to replace the dinky stock 2.8 gallon metal tank. I’ve created a new blog page to post my work on Thumper (including the gas tank install) if anyone is interested.