Dinner with Tao and Cathy

Last night I was invited over to my Uncle Tao's and Aunt Cathy's house for dinner. She also had over my my mother, my aunt Mei-Ling, my aunt A-gimm, A-gimm's niece and her niece's husband. In addition Eric was home, so I got to spend some time with my cousin.

The dinner and company was wonderful, and every one stayed around talking until 9:30pm in the evening. My Aunt A-gimm, relayed a story about something that happened at least 20 years ago, when she was on a crowded train platform and had gotten pushed off the edge because of the large numbers of people on the platform. She was lucky because there was a police officer right next to her when she fell. Otherwise there was no certainty that the next train would have been stopped. The police office jumped down and helped her with her handbag, coat and packages and stopped the train from entering the station. My aunt says it was providence that she survived, and she went immediately to pray and thank the gods after that event.

Eric had to leave during the conversation to go to his tennis lessons (I believe that was a tennis racquet you had, I didn't even ask!). For those of you that don't know, Eric turned 16 on Michaela's birthday, so he's chomping at the bit to learn how to drive. How time flies! I remember when Eric was just a newborn in 1988, and I got to play with him in his stroller. Eric's got the opportunity to visit China, specifically Pudong, Shanghai, this summer in a program where he'll be teaching English.

My father, on the other hand did not attend the dinner, as he's still on his vegetarian diet, and was not up to a large family event. The good news though is that his CEA numbers from the last round of chemo are down. This is the first improvement in a few months. My dad thinks it's linked to Iressa, the cancer drug that caused him to get the perforated duodenum. This last round was the first to reincorporate Iressa since the surgery. So he and the oncologist have decided to pursue the Iressa treatment for the next round of chemotherapy.