Please support my sister

My sister Lynda is doing the Avon Breast Cancer Walk in San Francisco next month. She is close but needs our support to meet her goal. She is walking in honor of me. I was diagnosed in October 2006, 3 days before my 50th birthday. It was a challenging road but I survived due to the loving support of many people: my husband and my son, my sister and her family, my Stamp Your Heart Out family, my San Bernardino County Rancho Cucamonga Courthouse family (my support went well beyond the District Attorney's Office: judges, courtroom staff, the Public Defender's Office, private attorneys, the interpreters, members of law enforcement, victims, the clerk's office, and so many more), my Stamp Your Heart Out family (staff, teachers, and customers, especially Pat Simpson), University of La Verne, College of Law family (faculty, staff and students: Dave G., you know you will always be special), and last but definitely not least, my Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center family (every breast cancer patient should have Martha Osborne in her life. She is an angel. We just can't see her wings).

I had dark days but I never lost hope because of all of the support that Greg, Rory, and I received from so many people. That which doesn't defeat you makes you stronger. Battling breast cancer has made me a stronger and better person. Please help my sister and I help other women who are fighting this disease. Check out her personal page. You get to giggle at a picture of me when the two of us when I was twelve and she was four. Please copy the following link into your browser. If you have problems with it, email me.

http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk2008/SanFrancisco?px=3938318&pg
=personal&fr_id=1480&et=VG_E_pLhfDK_zeaGw3iZig..&s_tafId=271867

At last!

Free time to create! I turned in my grades and blue books on Friday afternoon. My jury also came back with a verdict. I can take a breath and have some time to play with my art toys. I worked about 8 hours today on the Stamp Your Heart Out blog. It debuts tomorrow and we are all very excited. I have learned so much getting it ready. I learned how to add pictures, how to do a slide show, and more.

It has been a week for learning. I did my first PowerPoint presentation in my argument for the case I just finished. I only did text; next time I will be adventurous and add some pictures. I had a scary moment when the screen went blank when I was ready to start. Luckily, everything came back with a push of a button. The jury was very complimentary so I will continue to venture into the digital presentation. Good bye to butcher paper charts!

Rory will be coming home from UCLA the end of this week. I can't wait to spend some time with him. The timing is perfect: he'll come home on Saturday and Father's Day is the next day. What a great gift for Greg. Here are my two guys at the graduation party in NYC.

It's the Big Apple

I went to New York City for Memorial Day Weekend. My nephew Jonathan was graduating from Stoneybrook University on Long Island and the Daly clan united to celebrate his success. Greg flew to New Jersey earlier in the week for hospital business. Rory and I were supposed to fly out late Thursday night, but the storms in the Midwest caused a delay and we left early morning Friday.

We arrived at JFK about 9:00 a.m. My brother-in-law, George, had arrived shortly before us from Phoenix. That worked out well for my niece Nicole who was picking all of us up from the airport. We went to her apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and dropped off our luggage. Nicole and Rory headed to Manhattan to see the new Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. George's friends immediately began calling and dropping by. The food fest began immediately. We went to Rocco's. We had clams, baked clams, pupa salad, grilled prawns, and more. We finished off our snack with fresh cannolis, the quintessential Italian pastry. Rocco made the cannoli cream and piped it in as we watched. Delectable but I could feel the pounds accumulating. It was definitely not a Weight Watchers sanctioned meal.

Saturday was the graduation party and it was one for the ages. The highlight was my 76 year old father-in-law doing a "keg stand." His grandsons had commented that this very lively party was almost like a college party except no one was doing any keg stands. Grandpa immediately asked what a "keg stand" is and was told it is when someone does a headstand on the keg while someone else pours beer in his mouth from the keg dispenser. Grandpa told his grandsons that he could do a "keg stand." He did do one, which I memorialized forever with my camera. He had a bit of help; his two biggest grandsons held him up in his handstand. I'm told that the expression on my mother-in-law's face was a classic.

But the Daly's did not stop there. Out of the 100 or so people in attendance, some 50 of them went into the pool fully dressed. No, they were not thrown into the pool: they went in voluntarily.The photo ops were wonderful. The next day, I borrowed my niece's computer and burned copies of the pics for everyone.

Monday arrived and we had to decide how to enjoy our Memorial Day. We decided to head out to Coney Island. The weather was beautiful: clear, warm, with a slight breeze. This is the first time that I have been in NYC in the spring. I have always been there in late summer when it is very humid. I loved the spring weather. We walked around. The Cyclones, a minor league baseball team, has their stadium there. I took a picture in front of a statue of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, memorializing the support that PWR gave JR when he was breaking the color barrier as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

We went to Nathan's Hot Dogs. It was packed! Greg, Nicole and Rory stood in line for over 50 minutes to buy food. I had gone to save a table. I had a series of people sit with me while I was waiting for them. My favorite was an older couple, in their 70's. They were riding their bikes on the boardwalk and had stopped for a snack. The husband commented that the crowd at the boardwalk that day was like it was 50 years ago. It must have been a combination of the beautiful weather, the holiday, and the UGLY gas prices. There is a subway station just a block away from Nathan's, and people were pouring out of the trains.

Nathan's Hot Dogs taste better at Coney Island than they do anywhere else. Greg says that it's the water. Rory won't eat hot dogs other than at Coney Island.

We went back to Nicole's, packed our bags and got ready to go to the airport. Knowing that Jet Blue was not going to feed us on this 5 1/2 hour flight, we stopped at the local deli and grabbed some yummy sandwiches for the trip.

Once again, our flight was late. But, instead of letting us relax in the terminal, we were boarded and sat forever on the tarmac. Instead of arriving before midnight, we got to Ontario about 12:45 a.m. The adventure was not over! Rory needed to get back to UCLA for an early class the next morning. We got to bed about 3:30 a.m. I was definitely dragging the next day at work.