My Friend Laura Silverman Published in Los Angeles Times

I'm very proud of my dear friend Laura Silverman who has written an article that is appearing in the My Turn column of the Los Angeles Times. The title is:

Doctor: 'There's nothing wrong with you.'
Patient: Can I quote you on that?

Read the story here. It's short and well worth reading!

See Laura's bog here.

Today's Update on Mom

The photo you see is of the hospital where our mom is a patient.

Today we were able to talk with the doctor. He told us they have determined that our mom has no virus after all and that they believe that the problem is in the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain. Specifically, it is not mixing or circulating correctly. They describe it as a plumbing problem in the head.

On Monday, mom will be moved out of Infectious Diseases, because she doesn't have one of those, and into Neurology, where they should be able to help her more.

A New Addition to the Family

Here is my sister holding the newest addition to the family, an itty-bitty kitten. I came up with his name. He's brown, you see, and the word brown in Italian is marrone (mah-roh-neh). I also thought of how in New York, the transplanted Sicilians there would pronounce Madonna "Marron" when frustrated, so I suggested we call it Marron. In English, I guess, we'd translate its name as "Brownie."

Cute, huh? But it has a set of lungs on it!

My Brother-in-Law's Secret Formula

Like most of us who get older, once we realize we like something, we stick with it. My brother-in-law figured out a while ago that mixing certain flavors of soda (or pop, whatever you prefer to call it) in just the right proportions makes for the perfect flavor for him.

So here he is mixing just the right ratios of ginger and orange soda and who knows what else? I tried it once. Let's just say that I don't think the results would be a big seller on the open market! But each to his own, right?