Oregon Vacation - October 6, 2008

Had a great 4 day weekend in Portland, Oregon and surrounding areas. This area is a mecca for organic food, outstanding Pinot Noir (known as Burgundy in France), and creative gourmet chocolate. We indulged in all three, in moderation, with our good friends Darrell and Makenzie from Seattle. I was also able to track down a friend who has morphed from Manhattan finance maven to boutique winemaker. His stuff is both excellent and expensive. If you are ever in Willamette wine country, be sure to check out Jay MacDonald and his EIEIO winery and visit The Tasting Room near Carlton, Oregon. We also had some great meals in Portland, very good at El Gaucho and outstanding at Higgins. Check the links for my restaurant reviews! And while I'm not a big coffee drinker, the handcrafted masterpieces at the very downscale Stumptown Coffee Roasters were stunning, delicious, and amazing.

In other news, Kathryn and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary at a nice place in Salt Lake on Wednesday evening with two other couples - IF she decides to keep me for two more days!

7 comments:

Kathryn said...

Yeah, I think I'll keep you for a few more days...

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! I am sure she will keep you at least a few more days!! Enjoy!

Denise

Anonymous said...

Two days -- and out!

Kathie Brown said...

Happy anniversary to you both! No fear on her keeping you though! I'm glad you had such fun!

A Dived Ref said...

Congratulations to you both. Wishing you all the very best from across the pond and a further celebration to come later this months too.

David

Steve Kelley said...

Thanks to Denise, Kathie, and David. We are looking forward to a great evening on the town tonight. Hopefully it will be enough to convince her to keep me around for a few more years, Jon!

Anonymous said...

Steve, a quick summary: Blood in the urine summer 2008. Diagnosed with bladder cancer in October 2008.Had TURBT in Novermber 2008. Had 6 weeks of BCG treatment, which I tolerated well (some blood in the urine day one and two, urgency, also on day 1 and two. My urologists follows a Sloan-Kettering protocal, which requires a second hospital stay with a bladder exam under general anesthesia. He cuts away some of the scar tissue from the initial procedure. The path report came back negative. (He does not believe in killing patients with kindness, thus the aggresive treatment.) I am now scheduled for followup at three month intervals - a cysto and a BCG treatment. This goes on for 1 year with a different followup if all is well.

In general, I tolerated all the procedures well, and while the cystos and catherizations are not pleasant, given the reasons for them, I accept the mild discomfort. (I do not have to use squeezable rubber balls.)

I am seventy year old male with no other GU issues. I am also a beekeeper and attribute my tolerance to the bladder treatments to the 10 or so honeybee stings each year. (Just kidding!)

Ron McWold - New Jersey