Odds and Ends

It's way to early to have any feedback on the passport renewal process, but I talked to the folks here at the Big B making the travel arrangements and made sure they knew what my situation was. Since nobody said, "Oh, well, then we'll send someone else," I guess I'm still potentially on the team. And fortunately my life is organized such that I can cope with finding out at the last minute whether I'm going of not. The only annoying part will be trying to make tentative arrangements to see people while I'm there without dreadfully inconveniencing anyone if I end up not going. One of the things it occurs to me to look into is whether I can get short-term international access for my Cingular phone. (One of the reasons I went with Cingular was because they use the international standard for their network, but I'd still need to get a different SIM card or something.) Presumably I'll have internet access one way or another.

On an entirely different note, for the friends who are following along on my mother's myeloma, her oncologist went so far as to utter the word "remission" when discussing her current progress -- with the caveat that there are different types of remission. So that's good news, knowing how conservative doctors tend to be.