In Memoriam

TJOM

23 July 1954 - 19 January 1985

In Memoriam

With you began the diary of a cure I have lived to fulfill.

At home together

Without the screws in his leg, Detti is back home and life is as it should be.
Time to visit Koko, even if it's too cold to bring him out, but I can't let Detlef walk around alone right now with his incision and screw holes still on the mend.
We are so very in love!

Die Rettung beginnt heute.

Today, with Terri here, begins the transplant phase of my treatment, exams and talks today tomorrow, fully stationary as of Wednesday, and I feel excellent emotionally & physically.
Detlef is in good shape, too, and we will make it through the coming ordeals connected with the transplant, the chemo before, the nadir danger phase thereafter, the adoption of the new stem cells from Terri, their grafting and becoming productive, so that I once and for all have leukemia FREE bone marrow for perfect blood cells for the longterm future!

Great to have a niece drop in...

We had a really nice visit with Jenn, who managed to fly over from London for my first weekend back home after the last hospital stay. It's so much better to really be face to face, smile to smile with our wonderful niece and to enjoy Hard Rock, the Gay Pride Festival, and a museum visit with her here in our great hometown of Berlin! Detlef and I both are so grateful for the love our families bring to us in our great love!

Home from the Second Round

Life is so wonderful when you can weather the storm of a heavy duty consolidation chemo against AML and get back home again with counts sufficient to provide you protection against infection.
I feel well, my counts are continuing to climb, and I am grateful...
... grateful to the nurses and staff of Station 51A (and B and 52) of Charité's Virchow Klinikum for their tireless support,
... grateful to the doctors of the oncology/hematology team there, Dr. Flörcken, Dr. Kuhnitz, Dr. Kreher, Dr. Westermann, Dr. Müller, et al. for their unceasing efforts to carry me through it all,
... to all my friends and family here who visited and called, to all my friends and family in the states who face-booked me words of encouragement,
... to Claudia & Alma for hosting Koko while I'm at home, so I can see him even if I can't be around him,
... to my dear sister, Terri, who stands ready to provide me with the stem cells that are a genetic match and which I need for the marrow transplant next month,
... to Detlef for always being there for me with his limitless love.

And, yes, I am even grateful to myself for mustering the strength that is rewarded by my home right here so full of love!

A Fabulous Birthday!

Despite being in the hospital, my birthday was wonderful. Best wishes came from so many on fb, from visitors here, including a cake from my brother- and sister-in-law, from all the nurses and doctors on the ward, as well as those on the other that we pass on the way during our walking rounds. It was good, and I KNOW I'm on the right path to a permanent cure from this AML!
A special thanks and all my love to my loving, caring, wonderful husband Detlef!

SHAME ON MINNESOTA !

There is really nothing else to say. It is so absurd, painful, arrogant, and inhumane that some people so HATE others LOVING each other and making a commitment to that LOVE !
Why do so many Republicans hate so much and fear the freedom of their fellow citizens so intensely?

West Central Tribune

Legislature sends anti-gay marriage amendment to 2012 election
ST. PAUL -- An 18-month campaign about gay marriage began moments after the Minnesota House approved a constitutional amendment on the issue late Saturday. [...]
The House debate, the most emotional in years, climaxed with Rep. John Kriesel, R-Cottage Grove, explaining why he was one of four Republicans to vote against the amendment.
Kriesel recalled losing both legs to an improvised explosive device in Iraq.
“I nearly died...” Kriesel said to a silent House. “I thought I was dead. I remember thinking about my life and kids. ... It changed me.”
If he can be with who he loves, the freshman lawmaker said, others also should have that ability.
His wife sitting nearby, Kriesel added that he joined the Army at 17 because “I love the country.”
“This amendment doesn’t represent what I went to fight for,” he said, with demonstrators’ chants drifting in from outside the House chamber. “Hear that out there? That is what I went to fight for and I am glad about that.”
After ending on the losing side, Kriesel went out through the giant House doors to the loudest cheer of the day from gay rights supporters.
He walked past them en route back to his office, with dozens of people shaking his hand or offering a hug.
When he left, the crowd of a couple hundred resumed singing “We Shall Overcome” and chanting “We Will Prevail.”

THERE IS ANOTHER POSSIBILITY:

For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage
Republicans and older Americans remain opposed
by Frank Newport
PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time in Gallup's tracking of the issue, a majority of Americans (53%) believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. The increase since last year came exclusively among political independents and Democrats. Republicans' views did not change.

HOMECOMING

I just found out this afternoon, 7 weeks after coming in here, that I can finally go home on Friday morning.

HOMECOMING

JOY

LOVE

WINNING THE BATTLE

I'm still watching you ...

Though I may be in the hospital for treatment of AML and not getting out particularly soon, I am nonetheless watching what you are doing, Mr. Obama, and must say that I am not exactly pleased about this:

The Guardian, March 7, 2011

Obama lifts suspension on military terror trials at Guantánamo Bay
Move marks departure from election promise to close camp and use civilian law to fight terrorism.

Barack Obama has given the green light to resume military trials of terror suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay, making a sharp departure from his election promises to close the camp and bring America's fight against terrorism back into the remit of civilian law.
The US president lifted a suspension on so-called "military commissions" which he had imposed on his first full day in the White House. By so doing, he permitted the revival of trials conducted by military officers, with a military judge presiding.
Obama also signed an executive order that moved to set into law the already existing practice on Guantánamo of holding detainees indefinitely without charge.

The president sought to sweeten the pill among civil rights and liberal groups of the resumption of two of the most widely criticised aspects of George Bush's war on terror by emphasising that he still wished to see Guantánamo close. When he came into office in January 2009, he repeatedly promised to have the camp closed within one year. It was set up in the wake of 9/11 in 2001 and thereafter the war in Afghanistan.

Bring charges against those who are accused and ensure them a fair and speedy trial, as is required by the Constitution of the United States. Indefinite incarceration without trial is fundamentally counter to all principles of enlightened justice and resembles, rather, the practices of those despots the world is attempting to rid itself of! Maintain the principles of democracy and abhor the practices of despotism!

Good News Can Be Found !

1. The people of Libya are well on the way to driving their monster-dictator Gadaffi out of the country and at least some governments are condemning his call to massacre his opponents.
2. Obama has ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, calling it unconstitutional. He has finally come out in support of gay marriage!
3. The people of Tunis and Egypt are moving along towards freely elected governments and (re)institution of civil and human rights in their respective countries.
4. My friends and family are so near even if some are physically distant in providing me all the emotional support I need.
5. Our efforts have shifted my treatment train onto a new track and our physician is arranging everything to speed up cyt/typ results and get me into another hospital, the one we have chosen over the one that took me in Monday and sent me home Tuesday to wait until Wed., March 2, only to return to their out-patient clinic (!) to talk about how things would go on from there. I need to begin treatment as soon as possible once exact genetics are there!
6. Whatever, I have the opportunity and strength to sit here at home with Koko warbling on his swing at my desk as I write this and Edith buzzes around getting our apartment in order and watching out for me. I am taken care of.

Let's Not Get Too Personal About It ...

but what I have to go through beginning next week, after the reprieve between second test and therapy begin I demanded and won for the weekend, will be none to easy.
But what will help me are the following:
Detlef, my dear, dear, loving and beloved husband!
Love, wherever it exists in this world, whether or not it has me as its source or target!
Family, however far away they may be in their incredible proximity to me!
Books, real literature to nurture my mind and my spirit!
And my pen, my notebook, my own writing.

I hope and trust I will not have to leave many days without signs here, and will soon not remain so cryptic about what is going on, but for now, that's all I want to post.

Happy Thanksgiving !

If I had a pumpkin and if I had some real sweet potatoes, I would do this today. Perhaps I will see what my local supermarket has to offer, as it is not at all easy here to make anything close to the traditional American Thanksgiving treats, but I'd love to bake a pumpkin pie for this evening after work, since we sure will not be having turkey anywhere during the day that my American friends and relatives observe with family and friends and full bellies at home on holiday today.

PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE
Ingredients
• 1 (2 1/2-pound / good 1 kilo) pumpkin (or half of a 5 pound / 2.5 kilo pumpkin)
• 1 pound (ca. 500 grams) sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 cup (480 ml) light brown sugar, packed and leveled
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) Steen's cane syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon (approximately 1/4 of a pod) freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 9-inch flaky pie crusts
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) cinnamon sugar, to top
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) raw sugar, to top
• Sweetened whipped cream (optional), for garnish
________________________________________
Directions
1. Quarter pumpkin and scoop out seeds. Roast pumpkin and sweet potatoes in a 350-degree F oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until sweet potatoes are soft in the center. After cooling, peel off and discard the pumpkin skin and puree meat in a blender or food processor. Peel the sweet potatoes and puree as well. Combine pumpkin and sweet potato purees with the heavy cream and milk.
2. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, egg yolks, brown sugar, cane syrup, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and white pepper.
3. Blend pumpkin and spice mixtures and divide between two 9-inch pie crusts. Sprinkle tops of pies liberally with cinnamon sugar and raw sugar.
4. Bake at 325° F (ca. 165° C) for 45 to 55 minutes, or until pumpkin filling is set. Allow to cool for 1 to 2 hours and serve at room temperature or slightly chilled, with sweetened whipped cream if desired.
[Source: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/fresh-pumpkin-pie-top1110 "delish"]

Enjoy your holiday or working day everybody!

Brief Tribute to a New Citizen of the Planet Earth

Kaeden Christopher Price was born yesterday at 5:oo pm, weighs 8 lbs. and is already 20 inches tall.

May his world know ever more peace, ever more tolerance, ever more justice, ever more thoughtfulness, ever more humaneness, ever more hope and charity and love.

Goodbye To My Mama - A.Prairie.Home.Companion.

She wouldn't have needed the strange subtitles, but the sound quality is good, so, one day later, this is for mama's birthday, Rose Tyson Gardner, August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007.

Spring Video for the Beginning of Summer

... and walking subjects one to less calamitous results than biking ...

Sonia Brex - Fruehling in Berlin from Jean de Oliveira on Vimeo.

... love to Detlef up on the Hedwigshöhe ...

(and thanks to Erich for sharing this video)

A Reminder for the F.ully-D.um-P.arty

Es wäre für eine bestimmte Partei in Deutschland mehr als angeraten, den höchstmodernen Text gänzlich zu lesen, von dem der unten stehende kurze Auszug genommen wurde.

The Theory of the Moral Sentiments, by Adam Smith, 1759

This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.
We desire both to be respectable and to be respected. We dread both to be contemptible and to be contemned. But, upon coming into the world, we soon find that wisdom and virtue are by no means the sole objects of respect; nor vice and folly, of contempt. We frequently see the respectful attentions of the world more strongly directed towards the rich and the great, than towards the wise and the virtuous. We see frequently the vices and follies of the powerful much less despised than the poverty and weakness of the innocent. To deserve, to acquire, and to enjoy the respect and admiration of mankind, are the great objects of ambition and emulation. Two different roads are presented to us, equally leading to the attainment of this so much desired object; the one, by the study of wisdom and the practice of virtue; the other, by the acquisition of wealth and greatness. Two different characters are presented to our emulation; the one, of proud ambition and ostentatious avidity, the other, of humble modesty and equitable justice. Two different models, two different pictures, are held out to us, according to which we may fashion our own character and behaviour; the one more gaudy and glittering in its colouring; the other more correct and more exquisitely beautiful in its outline: the one forcing itself upon the notice of every wandering eye; the other, attracting the attention of scarce any body but the most studious and careful observer. They are the wise and the virtuous chiefly, a select, though, I am afraid, but a small party, who are the real and steady admirers of wisdom and virtue. The great mob of mankind are the admirers and worshippers, and, what may seem more extraordinary, most frequently the disinterested admirers and worshippers, of wealth and greatness.

Adam Smith - The Theory of the Moral Sentiments - The Adam Smith Institute

Also wird geraten: Bescheidenheit, Beachtung der Rechte, Weisheit, Tugend.

(And, dear Mr. Westernwave and colleagues in snobbery, these few German words are to spur you to seek a translation of Adam Smith should you not manage the original.)

Christmas Eve With the Kids

Malte and Lea got a visit from Santa Claus and a lot of family and a lot of presents...

And even a very short video mememento:

Fine Feathered Friend

Well, Malte wants an Indian headdress for Xmas, and Koko has decided to let us use a lot of his feathers shed in the last year, so we're going to spend some handicraft time in the next days to create a war bonnet for our German nephew with a lot of green feathers tinged with red & blue. It should turn out to look at least similar to this Smithsonian exhibition piece.

Once we have some results, latest after Christmas Eve when the kids in Neuenhagen get their presents, we'll post some photographic evidence of our mastery of the craft here.

We're telling him it's an Indian peace-bonnet, connected with peace pipes, as Koko insists, which is also the reason parrots did not often allow the use of their feathers for these creations! But, as Malte is to be an enlightened peaceful creature, Koko was more than willing!

And after lunch, and visiting a department store for some material, this much progress has been made: Now it's time to get to a sewing machine to do the final facing and attach the elastic band for the back. We also have some beads to attach for decoration. Nothing like doing handicrafts for the holidays!

What a Great Weekend !

It's delightful to play host to a grown-up niece, and we especially enjoyed having her and her Moroccan-Barcelonian friend Amine here this weekend. Amine's presence even earned Koko's approval, as he proved to be without any aggressive tendencies towards Jenn, instead playing entertainer and onlooker.
It was a pleasure to get to know Amine, whom we both liked very much and found to be a very friendly, open-minded, humorous, and sensible young man who obviously cares a great deal for Jenn. And she glows with happiness. They both do. When speaking of plans for the future, they are both reasonable and determined, both knowing that things will take time and ready to invest that time, hoping for the best while realizing nothing can be taken for granted.
We can only wish them BOTH success in achieving the common future they are striving for. It was a great pleasure having them here, and we look forward to many more opportunities to spend time with them.
(And parents on the other side of an ocean or a sea should know that they can be perfectly calm, serene, and happy, just lean back and relax, enjoy the fact that their kids are mature and responsible. It's all going to be just fine.)

Jenn & Amine for a weekend in Berlin

Here a link to the photo album from the weekend, and following that a short weird video from the public karaokee at the amphitheatre in Mauerpark on Sunday.

Barcelona-Berlin Connection

Yes, this weekend is a reunion and introduction as our wonderful judicious niece flies in with her friend of a bit more than a year now after the first extended period they've been able to spend together. Her father was there and has already done the examination procedure; we simply get to play the part of the good uncles we are and show the happy couple around our town here in Berlin.

So lets hope for some sun in Berlin in November, though we don't need Barcelonian temperatures.
Any requests from the Greenville mom?