Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A Wonderful Day

The Countess would have turned 85 today.
My doctors in the outpatient clinic were pleased today and did a marrow biopsy on me which will certainly show that I am continuing in full remission. Detlef maneuvered me through the narcotics allowing them to puncture my pelvis again and get me quickly back up on my feet.
The CMV test last week was negative, meaning the chances are good it was so today as well and I can soon drop the pills against it.
Micha is feeling better, fever free, will probably get out on Friday, and we can all have a nice evening together.
Life is wonderful.

Friday, August 26, 2011

HOME IS WONDERFUL

... and this time, there's no further hospital stay looming in the future. I've finished with all that, just have to get through the next weeks and months of living with and supported by my new stem cells without any GvHD or infections during the immune-suppressed period necessary to prevent the former.

As well as everything else has gone, this should go well, too.

And below is what I have left behind me!

Friday, August 19, 2011

I'm coming home soon!

(Thanks to my dear friend Nancy for the reminder of this title from the Broadway musical "The Wiz")

And this one I remembered myself: 

Saturday, August 13, 2011

50th Anniversary of an Infamous Structure

The Berlin Wall was begun 50 years ago today, dividing families, friends, lovers, for "economic" reasons. This cynical action, which quickly became deadly brutal as many died trying to cross the Wall, was finally overcome on November 9, 1989. Without the fall of the Wall, I could not lead my life where I do today, with my husband in Weißensee.

Never forget! The Berlin Wall was an example of man's inhumanity to man.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Everyone should be able to ...

Everyone should be able to have the privilege, the duty of marriage with the one they love!

Detlef and I, who celebrated 15 years of relationship in May, were able yesterday to celebrate our Tenth Wedding Anniversary. The law allowing civil unions between gays and lesbians came into effect on August 1, 2001, and we were there that day with our paperwork complete and got the first appointment to say "I do" in the Weißensee district of Berlin. On the morning of August 7 at 9am we were in the handsome room in Parkstraße with Detlef's mom and our friend Erich to become legally wed. Waiting for us at home was Detlef's father with a congratulations basket, and that evening we threw a spontaneous party to celebrate to which everyone was able to come; better than had we planned it long in advance.

May every country, state, jurisdiction that has not already done so speedily enact legislation to enable gay and lesbian couples to make their relationships legal, with all the duties and responsibilities and privileges and rights involved.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Taxation WITH Representation - Caring for the People!

30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died MichaelMoore.com

Perhaps the anarchist tea-party henchman of the wealthy few who duck taxes and all social responsibility should think about this rather than spending all their time attempting to destroy government of the people, by the people, and FOR the people!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Let them drink tea ...

... yes, drink tea is what those lame-brains should do and leave governing the country, especially given the implications of poorly caring for a citizenry and a country's obligations in our ever more globalized system, to those interested in and committed to governing well, judiciously, fairly, socially, responsibly rather than to those who are actually only interested in abolishing government altogether.
It is time to call these Tea-Party denizens what they truly are: dangerously radical ANARCHISTS !

See also this accurate editorial in today's print edition of The New York Times:

To Escape Chaos, a Terrible Deal
There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists. It will hurt programs for the middle class and poor, and hinder an economic recovery.
[...]
Democratic negotiators decided that the automatic cut system, as bad as it is, was less of a threat to the economy than another default crisis, and many are counting on future Congresses to undo its arbitrary butchering.
Sadly, in a political environment laced with lunacy, that calculation is probably correct. Some Republicans in the House were inviting a default, hoping that an economic earthquake would shake Washington and the Obama administration beyond recognition. Democrats were right to fear the effects of a default and the impact of a new recession on all Americans.
President Obama could have been more adamant in dealing with Republicans, perhaps threatening to use constitutional powers to ignore the debt ceiling if Congress abrogated its responsibility to raise it. But this episode demonstrates the effectiveness of extortion. Reasonable people are forced to give in to those willing to endanger the national interest.
Democrats can look forward to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts next year, and will have to make the case in the 2012 elections for new lawmakers who will undo the damage.

And, I might add, the wealthy MUST carry more of the burden of taxation; and tea partiers should stop believing that they are helping themselves with what they demand: they are only helping the very wealthy to the detriment of all less well-off!