Bread and cookies

I baked bread yesterday because Michael and James both love it so much. One loaf for them, one for me and Rob. I made whoopie pies today, an old New England treat. It's two choclate cookies with a sweet cream frosting sandwiched inbetween. I asked MIchael on Friday if there was anything I could bring and he asked for whoopie pies.

It was pretty much a cooking weekend. I made a black bean and chicken chili with chorizo and chipotle -- my own recipe. It burns all the way down, just the way I like it.

Michael told me he stepped on the scale this morning and he's gained 3 or 4 pounds. He's had a couple of days where he couldn't eat, but overall, he's been packing away the calories. What a relief. Actually, it's beyond a relief. I won't be bringing him home to die just yet.

We're still trying to figure out how to get Peyton up here next week. I don't know if she'll want to go with me to Cary to take Michael to chemo. It's not something most 15-year-olds want to do. She does want to spend more time with her Uncle Mike, but I'm sure chemo wouldn't be her first choice.

Our old friend Bruce McKeown called yesterday. He had been wanting to call, but didn't know what to say."I'm sorry this is happening," is about all anyone can say. That family lost four elderly members within a week last month.

So, we talked about work, trying to lost weight -- Bruce and I have a long history of overindulging in food, especially when we're on vacation. I bragged one time while we were vacationing on Block Island, RI, that I had eaten two double-dip cones at the Ice Cream Factory, He looked at me rather proudly and said, "I had three." It's not like we're competing, it's just that we both tend to overindulge on vacations, and we both look forward to vacations so we can do just that.

Bruce said he can't imagine facing the loss of a child. But when it's there, you can't escape it. Michael is like family to the McKeowns - Bruce and Fran and Craig and Cindy -- just as their children are to me. Rob has been friends with Craig since the fourth grade, and by the time they were teenagers, Bruce was tagging along. There is a group of friends in Central New Jersey who grew up together, played softball together, vacationed together, and have been friends for 45 years now.

Eric Tull, who lives in Manhattan now, called last week to say he and his son, Sam, want to take a road trip this summer to visit us. I'd love to see them. Michael always loved Eric because he has a childlike playfulness about him. In fact, most of the people in the Jersry gang have their own way of being immature.They work and pay their bills, but as soon as that's out of the way, it'd time to play again. I really need that,