It's Friday so it must be ....

.... Pizza Night! It's the end of another good week for us.

Since our lives are interesting, but not that interesting these days, I'm going to award myself a one week hiatus from this blog site and take it "off the air" until next Friday night (August 14).

Next Friday is our first appointment with Karmanos Cancer Center in the afternoon. We'll have more newsworthy information then.

All for now. Enjoy your weekend.

Haiku:

Another long week

Being home still feels unreal.

Returning to life.

The Studio Workspace

This is where a lot of Gil's photo work takes place.

Photoshop -- the enormously capable photo editing software program -- plays a big part in bringing Gil's vision of the finished image to completion. Sometimes the image and the artist work smoothly together. Sometimes it's a struggle. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. And when it doesn't work, you can feel like you've wasted a whole day.

Gil spent almost the entire day at his desk working on his photos, calibrating his monitor and adjusting his commercial-sized printer so that he can begin printing some of his new photos.

He's excited about a new direction of work he's starting.

We went to Kensington Metro Park today with our folding chairs and the dogs and sat at the lake's edge. Gil read his Kindle and I finished another NYT crossword puzzle. It was relaxing.

Marika heads to Lollapalooza -- an outdoor concert venue in Chicago -- for the weekend with her closest friend, Lindey. It's a girls away weekend for them.

Adam and Laura host Laura's sisters and their spouses in LA for the weekend for a friend's wedding in San Diego on Friday.

Evan tries to survive the final day tomorrow of his first week of med school negotiating it all on crutches. He says it is very "in-elegant" to maneuver around the campus. Only seven more weeks to go as a non-weight bearing ambulator.

My mom is recuperating in the rehab center in Kentucky and the fractured pelvis "is not going to keep me down for long" she tells me.

I'm keeping everyone's schedules up and everyone's anxiety levels down.

Haiku:

Printer cartridge filled

Photo paper loaded up

Time spent is worthwhile.

Gil's Photos

I'm posting two of Gil's photos that are among some of my favorites. He's back to photographing now that he has time to be creative. The first photo is titled In the Garden.

The second photo of the milkweed pods is titled Exploding Pods and was chosen to illustrate a book that a friend/professor who teaches at MIT recently published -- Falling for Science: Objects in Mind; Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, Spring 2008. (I highly recommend the book and you won't be sorry if you order it from Amazon today!)

I love watching the creative process work its way through Gil's mind from idea to completion. He can be absorbed for a whole day with getting the image just right. He loves walking out into nature and collecting seeds and pods and blossoms and nature's interesting "jetsam and flotsam" found in the woods and near the pond at the end of our street.

In addition to working on his photos, he did continue to do his workouts. He went to the Milford High School fitness room today to use the free weights and he rode the stationary bike here at home. He probably ate ten small meals throughout the day

Haiku:

Object(s) found on walks

A composition unfolds.

Image is revealed.

Father-Daughter Time

Well it's Marika writing, the youngest (and let's be honest, most precious) Raff sibling. I can say that over the past eight weeks my dad and I have grown to be as close as a father and daughter can be. I saw him at his best and worst. I was sure to recap my daily adventures in my research lab to keep the outside world present in his daily routine. Not only did I share bits of my day with him, I shared special moments, even giving him a 20 year-old sorority girl worthy nail clip and filing. This task was something that I did without hesitation upon his request only later thinking it isn't generally an experience a daughter has with her father. It made me realize he was letting all his walls down, letting me see every nuance of himself. I will cherish memories like those, no matter how seemingly insignificant, forever.

Now that my dad has been liberated, much like our fellow Israelites released from the Pharoah's bondage, he has settled right back into his old routine. I returned home from a trip to LA to nurse my brother back to health from a knee operation, to find the kitchen in a familiar disarray, only found when my dad has infiltrated it following my mom's meticulous cleaning. Pasta sauce crusting on the kitchen counter, check, noodles clinging for dear life to the side of the kitchen sink and stove, check, parmesan delicately sprinkled on the floor, check.

Happy to have arrived back to Michigan with my dad picking me up from the airport instead of in a hospital bed, I could only smile at this mess and enjoy the nostalgia that resided in me. I graciously got to cleaning the next day and only my dad would afford me that great pleasure twice more in the same day, after lunch AND dinner. Ah yes, I am a seasoned vet at pre-washing, loading, and unloading the dishes. Not to mention irradicating any crusted-on mess gracing the counter top.

As my mom mentioned yesterday, my dad had great aspirations for his not-yet proven lasagna. I was lucky enough to be the first to taste the steaming dish and it looks like we have a new Mario Batali on our hands.

After asking him the level of difficulty he experienced putting it together he answered like a true scientist in a language we both understood:

"It was just like being in the chemistry lab."

" All about following the procedure?" I asked.

"Precisely."

The kitchen re-cleaned for a record fourth time in two days, my job here is done until the next pasta sensation from chef Gil Raff.

Making Lasagna

Gil is being very particular these days about his diet. He's looking for ways to increase his protein intake without eating heavy meat or poultry. He has hit upon pasta as the solution.

Marika woke up late this morning, made her way down to the kitchen and found dried pasta stuck to pots and counters and plates. Clearly her dad had chosen a pasta dish as his breakfast and lunch of choice.

And there was more to come!

"I want to make lasagna," Gil said.

"Dad, do you know how to make lasagna?" asked Marika.

"No. But I found some lasagna noodles in the pantry," Gil replied. "Do we have a recipe?"

"I can find one for you," Marika said as she thumbed through our Joy of Cooking.

And she did.

Gil approved her recipe choice. And sent her out to the grocery where she purchased the ingredients and brought them home.

At the time I am writing this blog entry, we haven't been invited to see or taste the final casserole.

Haiku:

Pasta and a sauce

Add some noodles and some herbs.

Buon Appetito!

Photographer at Work

The light was right early this morning to capture the blooming morning glory. I'll attach the final photo from this shoot when Gil approves it.

It was another good day for Gil as he went swimming, took the dogs for a short walk and worked out on the stationary bike. He rotates his activities and rests a lot in between.

He drove to the airport tonight to pick up Marika from her ten days in LA. Evan is still not recovered enough to get to his classes tomorrow but Marika left him with clean laundry, a fully-stocked refrigerator and plenty of reading material close at hand as he patiently waits to be more mobile.

Haiku:

Morning glory blooms

Closes in the afternoon.

Awaits a new dawn.

Gift Basket Bonanza

A gift basket of food arrived at our home this afternoon.

It was from the staff of the Beaumont Coordinating Center. "Everything that's good that I've been able to accomplish over the past few years in my research has been possible only with the help and cooperation of every member of the team there," Gil said.

(And he sent those exact words recently in an email to the Director of the Coordinating Center to pass along to the personnel there.)

Filled with strawberries, zucchini bread, blueberry muffins, fruit, brownies and popcorn, the basket was a most-welcomed delivery. Thank you.

We had breakfast at The French Laundry in Fenton and we were waiting right there when they opened at 7 am!

I asked Gil what time he had woken up this morning and he said, "5:30 am."

I said, "That's pretty early on a day when you can sleep in for as long as you want."

"I know," he replied, "but I'll be getting up at that time when I go back to work so it isn't a problem now."

(That was heartening to hear!)

After breakfast, he put on his wetsuit top and drove to the high school swimming pool where he used to do his lap work. He says he made it down one length of the Olympic-sized pool before tiring and heading back home.

He's also getting back to his photography work which always makes him feel good. (I'll attach one of his photos to a blog entry this week for you to see.)

Tonight was not the usual "Saturday night out" we're used to, but it feels mighty good just to have him home on a Saturday night again.

Haiku:

Weekend night at home

No movie or dinner out.

Just the two of us.