Welcome!

Dear family and friends,

Welcome to the Burger Abode! We have created this site for a multitude of reasons, all of which you will be informed of in a few minutes, hoping we retain your attention long enough to get you to that magical point!

We hope you find this blog informative. At this point we have a real need to dispurse large amounts of information to a vast number of people in an accurate and timely manner. Rita and I have recently discovered that this is a daunting task! What began as 5 outgoing cell phone calls quickly erupted to literally hundreds of unmanageable incoming calls, texts, and e-mails. We began questioning our correct relay of information - to who and when - and did I forget to tell this and that, and do I need to call back and etc... to the near pinnacle of insanity! Again, welcome to the Burger Abode! Where there is "no tellin' what's next!


Just a couple of quick notes: We realize that that we are unintentionally going to miss some folks on the first couple of publications of this blog. PLEASE DO NOT forward to them, but let us know via e-mail so we can add them to our distribution list. We just kinda want to know who all (if anyone) is keeping up with the Burger Abode! Also, there is a place at the bottom of this blog for comments and questions. Rita and I ask that you not utilize this function but address such issues to our email account burgerabodeupdate@sbcglobal.net
so they will be included in the next blog posting! Thank you in advance for your understanding in these matters!
Rita and John

Thursday, January 21, 2010

January 21, 2010

Hey Gang! Sorry it's been so long, but it has been a wild ride! I'll get back with all the boring stuff in a little bit.


Hot Chocolate...John's new coffee. The Dr. has had me off coffee and tea for a long enough time now for me to make a few comments. Cocoa is cocoa. Period. It is not coffee. It is not tea. It contains no caffiene. You can't make a pot in the morning and sip on it all day. It's hot chocolate!


Hot chocolate does have some benifits, however. Unlike coffee, the instant varieties are actually pretty good. A cup of cocoa can be prepared in about 2 1/2 minutes using a microwave. It is sweet and hopefully is partially responsible for putting some weight back on me. Hot Chocolate is creamy and does feel good on the throat. Cheap brands are usually just as good as the higher priced products available.


I also made a discovery about preparing hot chocolate. Rather than heating up the water in a measuiung cup and pouring into a cup with the mix in it, heat the water in the cup you intend to drink from, add the mix, and stir. This process heats the mug at the same keeping your liquid enjoyment hotter longer. Yes I have beeen drinking a lot of hot chocolate.


The holidays were pretty blah for us. (How would John know he slept the whole time and believe me, when I was off, I sleep just as much. I think I might could do that for a living but it takes alot to get me to that point. Imagine that!) Justin was in town and came to visit. Unfortunately I was feeling so bad I only got to spend a few short hours with him. I did make it to Mass on Christmas Eve, "the Children's Mass"but after that it all went downhill. Rita and I just sat around the house burning a fire and letting me sleep. I spent Dec. 28 through Jan. 3 in the hospital. I was prescribed an antibiotic (3 weeks earlier with the 1st round of chemo) that essentially killed everything in my stomach so they kept me in the hospital and got my stomach back to some type of functional order. ( Yeah right!!!)

Rita continiues to work an enormous amount of hours, but still loves her job. Her next road trip will be to Corpus Christi at the beginning of Feb.

My last chemo was 1/4 /2010 and my next is 2/2/2010. I will find out more details on the 2nd.

I think that's all for now. Of course if you have any questions feel free to e-mail or call.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all there emails,phone calls

text messages and last but certainally not least prayers and concerns. You have no idea how far

or how much they all mean when you get feeling pretty low and down just knowing people really do care and are concerned about you means alot.

So from the bottom of John and my heart I would truely like to Thank All of you for keeping in touch and hopefully in our next blog we will have some good news for everyone.