6/17/2009 Still Cancer Free! There was also a high speed police chace that ended in wreck, I took some pictures on the way home. Here is a video. 6/16/2009 Hello all, A lot has happened since my last updated, below is part of the big updated I promised so many months ago: • I officially graduated from law school May 24 th ! I am taking the Bar exam, which is my final permission slip to practice law, July 27-29. This is a 22 hour exam over three days. Studying for this monster is the main reason I am behind on updates as well as just about everything else in my life. Writing this update is a welcome break from the rigors of studying.
• I was asked to give the invocation speech at my law school graduation dinner, which was the night before the commencement. Giving this speech turned out to be one of the biggest highlights of my recent life. There was a crowd of well over a thousand consisting of Judges, present and past Bar presidents with an untold number of practicing attorneys. I thanked my school for all the help and support and they gave me during my cancer treatment. A thank you which has been long overdue. I have placed a copy online, I welcome any thoughts and feedback. I am still overwhelmed to have been given the opportunity to thank those who helped me get through this period of my life in front of some the greatest minds in our state. • I am in Houston this week for my follow up screening. I had my CAT scan and blood work Monday and will learn the results Wednesday. I will post an announcement as soon as learn what the doctors say. I have no reason to worry about a negative result but these moments are always nail biting. • We scheduled the appointment at this time to give me peace of mind going into the Bar next month. Otherwise my next appointment was going to be the week after my test. Big tip to those going through cancer or follow up treatment: whenever possible, plan your treatment tests around the important events in your life. There is no comparison to the peace of mind you have before going into a big event.
• I began playing web based online game, Ikariam, a few months ago. You start with one town and the object of the game is to build and expand your town while making friends and enemies of your neighbors. There is no way to actually win the game, you just keep expanding your empire, earning points while stopping others from raiding your town. I found this game a great fit in my life. It designed so people can long in once or twice a day to make some decision and leave the empire at it the rest of the day. It has become my smoke break from studying. • In other new my mom had open heart surgery at the end of March. They replaced her aortic valve with a pig valve. Her operation was a complete a success and she is doing great. Given that she is now part swine, she is boycotting bacon, sausage and all pork products due to cannibalism. • One bit of unfortunate news, Dave's cancer has returned. I haven't had a follow up in a while but he is undergoing a new type of chemotherapy and his doctors are still very hopeful. Please keep Alex and Dave in your prayers. • Love to all, Slate
Graduation Dinner, Left to Right: Simbo (brother), Father, Me
2/28/2009 The Alienware's hard drive is dying and I have about half an hour befire this dies. Big updating still coming! Here is the quik version:
More coming soon. God Bless, Slate
2/10/2009 Right now I am in the waiting room of the May's clinic Ct imagining room. I have just been handed my first cup of barium to drink for the scan, Pena colada without the alcohol. Recently, three friends asked in a two day period if I am going to continue updating IReallyHateCancer.com. The answer is Yes but I am obviously way behind on updates. I finished all my core law school classes in December and between finals, Christmas, getting ready for the bar and planning a wedding (although most of the planning is not being done by myself) time has been tight. However, I have lots of updates, thoughts and pictures to add and have made a new friend from the site. I am planning to get these up this week. I would like to thank everyone who continues to check on my site and progress. The amount of love and support I have received since first being diagnosed with cancer is still overwhelming and I thank you all for your continued wishes and prayers. Please check back soon for a thorough update. Slate
CT Imaging Waiting Room
11/13/2008 One year ago today I had my last round of chemo. For those of you who have just been diagnosed or undergoing treatment, it does work and you will make it! Cancer is not fun and it might be the worst experience of your life. But you can survive it. When you look back a year later following your last treatment the view on life is amazing. Good luck to you or your loved one and God Bless.
10/22/2008 I received word yesterday that Dave (my new friend from California who found me by this site) is now Cancer Free! Congratulations Allison and Dave, I know it was a long hard road but you made it. Believe it or not you both are now experts in cancer survival. Try to encourage and help others when and where you can. In more somber news, my friend's Adam father's leukemia has taken a turn for the worse. The word is he has weeks to live if the chemotherapy isn't successful and maybe a year if it is. Please include them in your thoughts and prayers. I have made little progress since my last post with the new IReallyHateCancer web site. The hardest part so far is figuring out how to move the old IReallyHateCancer over into the new format. I have learned how to setup RSS feeds to display news and add modules and themes to Drupal (all programming stuff). Hopefully after this semester I will have more time to spend on developing it. Take care to you all, God Bless and Happy Halloween!
10/14/2008 First, I want to say that CNN.com recently had an article about cancer support sites. I'm going to be listing the sites on my Cancer Links page. I strongly recommend anyone who wants to discover more or to discuss their diseases to check out the support sites. One forum at Medhelp.org has doctors and nurses who will discuss treatments and illnesses. I read several good stories from this network site and have included them on my Links page. I traveled to Houston last week for my quarterly checkup. I had my tests on Tuesday and my appointment to go over them with Dr. Fanale was on Wednesday. But due to some network problems (and what I think is Hurricane workload overflow), my test results were not back by my Wednesday appointment. I received my test results today (Monday), and I am officially still cancer free! As for our travel to Houston, we could not find a hotel room. The Holiday Inn was taking Ike refuges and contractors. My appointment was originally scheduled for September 22, the week of Hurricane Ike. My appointments were rescheduled for last week but we had a hard time finding a hotel room. When I called the last week of September they were not taking reservations until October. When I called the week before I went out, they had no rooms for three weeks and knew of no other hotel with space. We stayed with Penn and Margaritta, my best friend's father and step-mother. We didn't see a lot of Hurricane damage but there were several businesses and homes with tarps over their roofs and a lot of debris still waiting to be picked up. On the interstate, a very large sign was completely blown over midway down its support beams (and this was a BIG sign on BIG beams). We didn't make it to Galveston, but the local pictures looked grim. Our prayers go out to whose life that has been affected by the storm. I began working on an update for I Really Hate Cancer. I have been playing with a web application called DRUPAL. It seems like pretty good stuff and allows me a lot of flexibility in setting up a web site. I am slowly copying this site over and setting up the new format as time permits. If everything works, the new I Really Hate Cancer will permit me to take members, and it will allow everyone to have their own blogs, share their stories, and do much more. Please feel free to go ahead and check it out. You can sign up as a member and post in the blog and forum. Please remember this is a work in progress and all feedback is welcome! I am about to begin putting Christmas Lights out in Mentone. Happy early Merry Christmas and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Sunset from Mentone
9/22/2008 I was supposed to have my three month check-up appointments this week. However, due to Hurricane Ike, my appointments have been postponed for a couple of weeks. MD Anderson is up and running, but the city is still a mess, and the hotels are still fully occupied. Our prayers go out to everyone who was involved in this natural disaster. You can help by donating to the Red Cross relief fund. In other news, I lost the Mayoral election but showed a block of 21%. Not too bad for my first election --considering I incurred my first political scandal: some humor based websites (IHateMen.com and IHateWomen.com) were used against me to promote me as a “woman-hater.” Politics can be a dirty business! I am working on new sections to this site –including a prayer list. Please check back soon for links to the prayer list, information/financial resources and a survival guide. I have a new page for cancer links started. As always, my prayers go out to everyone who is suffering from the effects of this disease. Hang in there, and never give up.
8/17/2008 First, I would like to post my most recent email from Alex and Dave: "We are on are 5th treatment & David is doing GREAT. The tumors are nearly gone- were just worried about the bone marrow being eradicated with the chemo..I never realized that both you are so lucky to have been able to endure the chemo period. so many are sent home with adeath sentence because their bodies can't handle the toxins.So before his sixth treatment, the doctors have decided to do A ct scan early to check his progress -- I think they feel very positive. Again, thanks for your support- it has been invaluable. A Godsend is our friend slate.I'll let you know how everything goes- us" Below is their picture:
It was around my 5 th round of chemo last year when I began experiencing my lowest point of the treatment. It was about this time last year I had pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week. Katherine and I are very happy Dave is doing so well and we are keeping you in our prayers. As for myself, I am running for mayor of Mentone and enjoying the political process. Please wish me luck in my political endeavors. If anyone reading this site has been recently diagnosed with cancer, you may write me and I will share my experiences with you. God Bless, Slate
7/18/2008 My mother and I visited MD Anderson 3 weeks ago for my quarterly checkup. I am still cancer free! I started an outline of our visit for the site but kept putting I off. Then last week my grandmother of a 101 died. This has been my first experience with the death of a close family member. My mother's parents passed before I was born and my father's grandfather passed when I was 4. She was a magnificently wonderful, kind, loving, thankful, blessed, insightful, wise, charming, humble, sneaky, beautiful, stubborn, polite, generous, frugal, amazing lady who is best placed in a category by herself. I have created a at our McDorman web site in her memory and invite you to read a little bit about her life. Around May, a couple from California, Alex and Dave, emailed me. Dave is undergoing treatment for Stage 4 Diffuse B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, exact same type as mine. Except his tumors are more spread and is inside his bones. He is also on the RCHOP treatment and it sounds like the things are working. They found I Really Hate Cancer to be very useful and we have been emailing back and forth. I am going to set them up with their blog to start sharing their story. If you know anyone with some web development experience and they would like to help me create an online cancer resource, I would like to work with them on doing so. I am going to put up a donation link requesting any help for hosting expenses. It doesn't cost much to run the sites but anything you can contribute would be a great help right now. More Soon…
My mother and I visited MD Anderson 3 weeks ago for a checkup, and I am still cancer free. I started a draft of our visit but kept putting it off and then last week my grandmother of a 101 died. This has been my first expercience of the death of a close family member. My mothers parents passed before I was born and my fathers grandfather passed when I was about age 4. She was a magnifificently wonderful lady who was in a category all by herself. I have made a full page about her at our web site. A couple from California, Alex and Dave, emailed me around May. They found I Really Hate Cancer to be very useful and we have been emailing back and forth. I am going to set them up with their blog to start sharing their story. 4/7/2008 My mom showed me a few typo's in yesterday post and since I needed to correct them, I wanted to let everyone know I made a 100 on my ethics midterm. This was my first law exam in almost a year. Again, thank you for stopping by and please pray for those who are scared, sick or hurting for whatever reason.
4/6/2008 I visited Houston last week, March 23rd -29th, for my first 3 month check up. I received the results that Wednesday and my PET and CT scans came back free and clear. In other words, I'm Still Cancer Free! One slide on the PET scan showed a bright spot on my pancreas but the CT scan didn't show it. Since my pancreas wasn't near the area my cancer was located, wasn't the type of cancer I had and the CT scan didn't show it, Dr. Fanale wasn't worried. She explained blips in scans happen all the time and in her opinion there was less than a .02% chance of it being anything to worry about. Her first guess is that it was a gallstone, but just to be safe, she ordered a special CT scan for my pancreas. With this scan they will magnify the little booger a 1,000 times and examine it in microscopic detail. That test was run on Tuesday at the St. Vincent's Cancer Center in Birmingham. I spoke with the nurse Friday and the test came back negative, no sign of anything wrong. In Birmingham I began seeing Dr. Cara Bondley at the St. Vincent's Cancer Center. Dr. Fanale recommended her for my at home care as that they are really good friends. They are sharing my tests and staying in touch about my progress and care between visits to Houston. While waiting to take one of my tests in Houston, I met a very nice lady named Kelly in the Diagnostic Imaging center at the Mayes Clinic. Before I discuss what we talked about, it still amazes me how many dear friends I make every day when we are out there. I have expercienced nothing else like this in my life. The medical center area consists of several hospitals; all focused on treating cancer and some of the other worst illnesses imaginable. Eeveryone we meet then either: treats, has, had, or takes care of someone with a life threatening illness. When sitting in a waiting room, a lunch table, a bar (yes, these exist around the hospitals) or standing on the curb waiting for the shuttle, it feels comfortable to talk about your most life changing experiences with complete strangers. The conversations that make friends and family cry are the ice breakers when introducing yourself. I have lost count of all the new friends I have met since first going out there. Kelly, the new friend who I started this paragraph about, visited this web site and she sent me the following:
Congratulations again on being cured and your positive report Kelly! She and I also talked about my future plans for this web site. That conversation reinforced my motivation for succeeding and eventually expanding this into a Cancer resource for patients and care givers. I mentioned this before, but I envision seeing this becoming something similar to caringbridge.com. Where anyone with Cancer can setup a blog and seek donations to help with their treatment. If anyone with programming or graphic design experience would like to help, please let me know. In my other health news, since resuming my normal life, I have had leg and back pains do partly to the inactivity I had all those months. Also, the nerves on the right side of my spine have become enlarged due to tramua from the tumor. Dr. Fanale wrote me an order for physical therapy and I started going to the Bruno Center at St. Vincent's. Their primary focus is to help with the tightness in my legs and back. Two of the same same physical therapists who helped me last year are working with me now. Tom and Eddie. They were both very happy to see me again and it's been great working with them again. I will try and get some pictures up in the new few weeks. Finals begin at Law School week after next and I'm entering "cram mode". It has been almost exactly one year since my last final but I think everything is under control. I probably made a mistake taking a full load my first semester back. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead has always been my paradigm. I was stir crazy sitting out there and didn't realize how taxing the treatment was until I tried going full speed again. With so much pent up energy, I thought I could jump right back into my old life without any problems. I was fine the first few weeks but then my energy plummeted. I found myself needing 10 hours of sleep to feel rested and then needed a nap every 4 to 6 hours to keep going. Around February I began missing classes from exhaustion and was considering dropping out the rest of the semester. Around mid February I began taking multi-vitamins and got back into a daily exercise routine. A couple of weeks later my energy picked up and now I'm close to being back at full speed. Now I think about 80% of normal energy is back and I should have enough strength to finish this semester up. Finally, this morning at my Mentone church, St. Joseph's, our Reverend, David Crippin, informed us that his daughter, Bekki Crippin, had been diagnosed with cancer and will have surgery this week to remove the tumor. Additionally, another member, Georgia, will have a serious dental operation this week. Please include both of these ladies in your thoughts and prayers in the upcoming days. While in Houston, I took a few pictures with my cell phone but haven't figured out how to pull them off. After I get these off I will post them. I also have plans to add some more information about cancer and receiving treatment at MD Anderson. Please keep checking back every couple of weeks for updates. Thank you for stopping by again and God Bless, Slate McDormwan
1/02/2007 Hello everyone and Happy New Year! For those who haven't heard yet, Katherine and I made it back safely from Houston. We arrived back in Alabama on the 12 th after spending two and half days in New Orleans (this was a great stress relief after the past twelve months. For the final 200 miles of the trip I read the latest Star Wars novel to Katherine as she drove (yes, we are that geeky). We had a kind of funny experience as we were leaving Houston that started the Christmas spirit for our Holiday's. After packing the car (packed to the ceiling with no space in the back seat or trunk. ) and leaving the apartment about 10pm, many hours later than we anticipated, I remembered a favor my brother asked. Several weeks earlier Mike had asked if we would look for a game, Rock Band, for my nephew Gibson. Rock Band was sold out in Birmingham and they couldn't even find one on the Internet. I asked Katherine if we could stop by the game store on the way out so I could at least tell him we tried. We didn't expect this store to actually have it because we had been trying for weeks to find a Wii for Katherine's sister, but every store was literally selling out within minutes of their arrival. However, it turned out they did have the game in stock. As we waited for the store clerk to pull it off the shelf, he looked at us and said it would take a minute; he had to go get the box from the back. He added off handedly that it was a big box. A few moments later Katherine and I made a connection, Big Box + Packed Car = Big Problem. I called Suzane, my sister and law, and she said they still couldn't find one so we decided to ship it back. The Box was so big I had to drive so Katherine could squish it in her lap between her and the windshield. Remember, my license had expired so I was driving very carefully. We went to the nearest Fed Ex store, which was literally around the corner, and they were closed. It was 10:30pm on Sunday, who would have thought? For the next hour we are driving around Houston trying to find a 24hour Fed Ex to ship the box. After finding one and filling out the paper work, we got on the road heading out of Houston around midnight. This detour delayed us arriving in New Orleans until 5am but was worth every extra second after watching Gibson open it Christmas day. Upon returning to Alabama, we fist stopped by Katherine's Mom's on the way through Tuscaloosa and then stopped by and saw my grandmother first thing in Birmingham. After a brief stop at my parents', we left Birmingham, drove to Mentone, and started putting up Christmas lights the next day. Our caretaker, John Fischer, already had a good start. We then proceeded to turn Mentone into a mini winter wonderland. We spent Christmas in Birmingham and then stayed a few days in Tuscaloosa. We then came back to Mentone and brought in the New Year. If feels so great to be home that I don't know how exactly describe the feeling. Part déjà vu, part excitement, and a little sadness from leaving the home and life we had in Houston. Sometimes it is hard to believe we have been gone the last six months. When driving around Birmingham I saw buildings complete and occupied that were just being stated six months ago. After living in a large city like Houston, Alabama feels very small in comparison. My hair is starting to grow back and my scalp has become warmer. However, having a 90% of body hair regrowing at once is a little itchy at times. Katherine says it looks like I have two new streaks of gray on and some of my hair is turning a little red. I have heard stories from a number of cancer survivors of how their hair grew back different colors and textures. I am very curious on what final color and shape my hair will be in six months. Katherine and I visited my father's Sunday school class and everyone was excited to see me. There is a wall of pictures in the room from this web site. Seeing everyone was a lot of fun. Now that I am cancer free I'm not really sure what to do with this site. I think I am going to turn this into an information site for cancer patients with information about MD Anderson. I will have a few more posts up before then. A friend told me he had a hard time reading my site with the white text on the black background. So the color will defiantly be changed in the near future. Take Care, Slate
12/08/2007 This will be my final blog entry from Houston, Katherine and I are leaving tomorrow for home! We have collected a sizable amount of stuff coming out here and will ship most of it back UPS ground. Unfortunately, Katherine will be doing all the driving back. My license expired in May. Since I haven't been home, I haven't been able to renew it. I'm looking forward to being able to legally drive again. Something else I have to look forward to on our way home will be relaxing in New Orleans. We might stay until Tuesday and take it easy. This will be fun since I was just given the OK to drink again. My mom came out to help us pack and hear my latest doctor report. This last week I had a PET and CAT scan, the results came back clear and I'm still cancer free! I will be returning in February for my first 3 month check up. We spent Thanksgiving with Katherine's friend, Sandy, and her family. We had a huge feast and watched fireworks of the Houston Galleria after dinner. We thank them very much for inviting us. We thank everyone for their love, prayers and support this past six months. I couldn't have made it without you.
11/20/2007 Today I had a Fast Track appointment and they did a blood test. My blood counts were overall very good but my potassium was a little low. Not the first time that count has been low, they give me pills almost the size of my pinky for replenishment. The day after they took the port out of my arm last week, Katherine and I discovered a crack in one of the tube lines. This means any fluid that was inserted into that port tube came out before it reached the end. Always fearing the worst, we took my used port by infusion therapy while we were at the hospital today. When we first met the Charge Nurse and told her our situation, she gave us a look of amusement and told us her boss said that those things couldn't crack. She asked if she could show the port to her boss and upon returning from that office she asked if they could keep the port to send back to the manufacture. We were a little heartbroken, that port had been inside my chest for the past six months and we were looking forward to keeping it as a piece of memorabilia. The nurse offered to give us a new port in replacement of my used one. Always wanting to advance science and product quality we were reluctant but happy to turn over the port. On a final note about the port, taking my first shower last week without it was a real treat! I had had that thing in their since June 9 th , and have been having to wrap up my arm up in Press-N-Seal wrap for every shower. It's great to be able to just hop in the shower again without a 10 minute preparation to make sure I didn't get my line wet. Another fun thing… Katherine and I got ourselves a Wii! We're having a blast fun playing with it (Katherine hasn't played video games in years). Last Saturday night, we crossed town to eat dinner with Sandy and Sloan Colt. Sandy is Katherine's mom's oldest friend. They grew up together here in Houston. Sandy cooked a delicious meal, and we spent the evening talking and laughing. They're a riot and so nice. Finally, Katherine and I are staying here for Thanksgiving. My parents and Katherine's mom and sister have colds and don't want to risk getting me sick. Sandy has invited us to her parents' for Thanksgiving and, unless I take a turn for the worse, we are planning on attending. Katherine feels like they're part of her family, so even though we won't be home, we'll be among loved ones for the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!
11/14/2007 I had my last round of chemo today and feel GREAT! Katherine was even lucky enough to get a recliner for the 8 hours. Recliners are in the minority in the Chair Unit. But you never know what you might get unless you ask. So far so good though, my lowest period is usually in the second week. Immediately after they disconnected me from the machine, a nurse from the Infusion Therapy department, who are one of the busiest hardest working departments I have witnessed in action here, came down and removed my port. What a relief! The procedure lasted about 10 minutes or less, and they placed a bandage over the hole which is to stay there for 24 hours. Then, 16 hours from now, I can take a normal shower again!!! The port was placed in the day I was diagnosed with the cancer being in stage four. I had my first treatment the next day. The device is essentially two IV tubes running through a vein in my arm and ending six inches from my heart. It's what they use to inject, chemotherapy, blood transfusions and other needed fluids. In a big way, having it removed is the most genuine feeling so far that this is becoming behind me, and my cancer is over with. Thank you God and MD Anderson. We came across a little piece of waiting room gossip concerning these things while hanging out in the waiting room all these many hours. There are two basic types of ports, one they place in your arm and one they place over your chest. The chest version is of course better at direct delivery of fluids into the body, but most people I met were given the option between the two. There was even a video we watched about how the whole thing worked, and the video strongly recommended the chest over the arm. The majority of the people we met in the waiting room and the Holiday Inn Lobby who had the chest port, had had an infection. Few people who chose the arm port had had an infection. Even though not the most scientific way to make a medical decision, their experience plus not wanting a large bandage over my chest that I couldn't get wet was my deciding factor on going for the arm. Having met several other people who have had the same experience, I'm glad I went for the arm. If you ever need one, go for the arm port no matter how hard they try to sell the chest. Katherine has had to do a bandage change and clean the site twice a week for the past six months. These normally took anywhere from 30-70 minutes depending on how well it needed to be cleaned, and, of course, we became more proficient over time. When she started changing my bandage we were both scared to death of messing something up. I told her if she was doing a good job it would show by me not getting an infection. No infection, Great Job Katherine!!! Tomorrow I have my Neulasta shot to boost my immune system. For the next 5 days, I take extremely high doses of steroids to finish the chemo therapy. In 14-15 days, the chemo should be out of my system. Thank you everyone for your continued letters and email. God Bless! Slate
11/12/2007 I saw Dr. Fanale today and I will be having my last round of chemotherapy on Wednesday. My Long Arm port will be taken out immediately afterwards. I had no idea it would be removed so soon! I can then take showers without having to wrap my arm in plastic wrap and cover it in a bag. After my blood count returns to normal I am visiting an indoor water park in Galveston. The only downside to having it removed is that they will be pricking me for my blood work; right now they can draw it form the port. Dr. Fanale also said she will test my blood counts next Tuesday to see if they are high enough for us to visit home for Thanksgiving. My next round of tests will be scheduled for the first week of December. More soon....
11/11/2007 Hello, Tomorrow I meet with Doctor Fanale for a Fast Track and to schedule my last round of chemotherapy. Katherine, my family and I have talked about postponing it a week or two so we can go home for Thanksgiving. If I have the therapy this week, Thanksgiving week will be my bad week. However if I postpone it, we will have to come back and be here into early December. I am leaning toward going ahead and doing it, but we will see what the doctor says.
This morning, the Crown Plaza hotel was imploded at the Medical Center complex. We didn't make it to the actual implosion but somebody Also in the news, I spent some time working on McDorman.com. I haven't put much up yet, but what I have is a picture John Lewis and Edna took of my grandmother at the McDorman Sunday school Room. I plan on posting information about the Sunday School and my father's law practice on the web site. Thank you for stopping by, Slate
11/02/2007 Hello Everyone, My white blood count at last Friday's Fast Track showed my white blood and other counts normal. My counts are doing so well in fact they didn't schedule me for a Fast Track this week. Monday I meet with my Doctor and we will decide when my last round of chemo will be. My nurses and I discussed pSostponing it a week or two so I can come home for Thanksgivings. If that is not possible, my parents and my brother Simbo will come out here to celebra Since we couldn't do anything for Halloween, do to my white blood count being low, Katherine and I dressed up and went out Friday night. Unfortunately, the only haunted house we knew of that was still open decided to close early due to lack of business. We were fortunate enough to hang out with the monsters in the parking lot and had our picture taken with them. After leaving these ghouls, we drove around trying to figure out what to do next. By chance we found a local comedy club. I think we chose the right place, the management was so impressed that we were dressed up two day's after Halloween they gave us free admission! Katherine was wonder woman and I Lex Luther (the bad guy from superman).
After the show we hung out with some of the local comedians at the bar and learned of an obscure local attraction. An artist has created statues of the Beatles 25 feet high and is working on creating every presidents head about 15 feet. We went and visited Beatles site after the comedy club; picture to the right. --> In other news, This weekend, my Aunt and her friend Barbara are coming to visit. We should have a good time together. I have started the process of getting reenrolled in law school for the spring. I cannot wait to get back in and finish up, I should be through by next December. Also, a couple of days ago, I sent an email out to everyone I know--- if I missed you, I apologize--- and have received dozen of congratulating me on my recovery. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It has been a long road but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have once piece of sad news to report. We learned last night that a friend whom we made has passed on due to her leukemia. Her name is Jessica Villalobos and she was 22 years young. She was diagnosed with leukemia a year and half ago was first told she wouldn't make it through last January. But do to the determination and strength of her mother she exceeded the doctors expectations by 10 months. I don't think I have ever seen anybody fight so hard after being told how much the odds were stacked against her. Our prayers go out to Jessica and her family during this time. She is no longer in pain but with Jesus now. I have provided a link to Jessica's blog so you can see who this wonderful person was. God be with her. Thank You for stopping and god bless, Slate
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was nice enough to let Katherine and me take pictures of the destruction from a pretty great angle (THANK YOU, somebody). Below are a couple of pictures and here is the 
