kissy face

This isn't as severe as some of the lips I see on Naomi and other under 30s. A pretty girl but I can't stand it when she contorts her lips

It is just too hot here now to enjoy outside. I was perfectly fine with our colder than normal summer. It is 90 and will be tomorrow and the next day and the next day...on and on until we leave and THEN it cools down. We will be in the Pacific Northwest where I hope it will be cool but they have had record highs.

As the humidity is low (sprinklers working overtime; fortunately water is free though the electricity to pump it up isn't) it wasn't too bad for a long run really early this morning. I go on shady, hilly roads that often I don't see much more than one car even during rush hour. But the miasma of various decaying animals  and the cloud of biting bugs make it less pleasant. No sweet grass aroma today.

I am doing little chores around the house putting photos in frames, hanging lighter things up. I bought this big, beautiful but heavy mirror the other day. Steve does not want to put the anchors needed to put it on the wall. He was looking at easels that cost way more than the mirror. Also my Belgian garden print is fairly heavy too. He was gone most of the day enjoying a rare lunch out with his ex-coworkers.

Shanna and the kids came over. Soon it was too hot for them to be outside. Our basement is quite cool but all the fun toys are now outside. They did go outside for ice cream.

What to buy for ones neutropenic friend? I bought this beautiful succulent arrangement (low maintenance: can be outside for now) but then I read no flowers for those with low white counts though these are so dry. She is Italian and loves food from the Italian market but her appetite due to chemo is dicey. She has leukemia due to being treated with Adriamycin. This happens 1.5% of the time, double the rate since the dose dense protocol was followed. She is awaiting a bone marrow transplant but before they begin the process, the insurance company insists on all sorts of screens to see if she will survive it. In the meantime, she gets chemo to keep the leukemia from progressing. She gets a chemo holiday for 2 weeks and a transfusion as her blood counts are very low. Once they find a match (they aren't even looking yet or even testing her brother), she is hospitalized for a chemo blast that in 3 days destroys all her bone marrow. Although transferring the new marrow takes only a short period of time, it takes 3 weeks for it to find itself into her bone marrow and reproduce. She will be especially vulnerable to infections then followed by a period in which her body may reject the marrow. She will take powerful, very expensive drugs to help prevent that. A very arduous, expensive, time consuming process.