Not BC but SC

Yesterday I got a call from the dermatology clinic at the Royal Free Hospital. Remember the presumed basal cell carcinoma on my forehead that they biopsied a few weeks ago? Well, it turns out it wasn't a basal cell -- it was a squamous cell, which is slightly more serious. Still nothing to worry about, the guy on the phone assured me, but they need to do surgery to remove more of a margin because squamous cell carcinomas, unlike basal cells, can metastasize and spread.

Great.

So now I have an appointment for June 29 to remove the rest of it. (If there's any left I can't see it, but I can understand how they might need to take more tissue just to be sure.)

What's going to make this especially interesting is that I leave for Florida six days later, and I need to have the stitches removed after about a week. So either I have to a) find a clinic to remove the stitches in Florida, or b) have them removed here a day or two early, or c) ask the Royal Free to use dissolving stitches, which they apparently don't like to do.

And I'm going to go to Florida looking like Frankenstein. But at least my remaining squamous cells will be whipped into shape. (Squamous is kind of a gross word, isn't it?) The dermatology guy said this type of lesion comes from years-ago sun exposure, of the kind I certainly received while growing up in Florida.

On the bright side, remember the acanthus we rescued in early April from the house down the street? Well, that leafless clump of roots has grown into the plant above. Kind of amazing, isn't it? There's even a little flower spike, which you can see in the upper part of the photo -- hopefully later this summer it will mature.

Also on the bright side, my sensitive tooth is better since I started using the Sensodyne. That stuff really works!

Today's the last day of the school year with students -- and it's only a half-day for them. Almost all our overdue books have been returned. Hopefully the five or six remaining dawdlers will turn in their stuff today so they don't start next fall with blighted library accounts. In past years we've successfully retrieved everything, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

(Top photo: A bird chirping on a fence along the Regent's Canal, last Saturday.)

Dave at the Back Door

I really like this picture of Dave looking out our patio doors during a rainstorm a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how he'll feel about me putting his snowflake pajama pants on my blog, but hopefully he won't mind.

I spent nearly all day yesterday writing e-mails to the parents of children with overdue library books. We're making that last push to get everything back. We have one and a half more days of school, so we're down to the wire!

Camo Dog and a Lost Hat

I know this looks like about a million other photos I've posted of Olga on Hampstead Heath. But check out how well she blends into that sun-dappled forest floor! Now I understand why dogs evolved with spots, and preserved them through all their hybridizing. Camouflage!

We had a long, thorough walk yesterday, which we enjoyed, even though we're both apparently showing our age. I could barely keep my eyes open after I got home, and I had to take an aspirin for back pain from walking so long with my camera bag. And Olga, well, she went practically unconscious for the duration of the day.

It somehow never occurred to me, while walking the dog on the Heath these past few years, that a day might come when we can no longer do it comfortably. Gather ye rosebuds!

The "David Bowie" beetles are back again. This one looks like he/she lost an antenna.

Olga took a few mudbaths during her walk, as usual, but by the time we began heading home she was pretty much white again. I was so happy that I wouldn't have to bathe her, and I deliberately steered clear of a few rivulets and puddles so she wouldn't be tempted. And then...

...she found a hidden bog I didn't even know about. Bath required!

Regarding yesterday's post, I think I gave the impression that summer vacation has started for us. But no -- we still have another week of school. The seniors are finished, and many Middle Schoolers are on field trips this week, but technically we still have students through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are faculty/staff work days. Then we're done.

As one of my helpful commenters pointed out, even then we're not entirely on vacation. Well, I am, but Dave spends a lot of his time in the summer planning and developing music for the coming year.

Apropos of nothing, I also have to say a quick RIP for my Human Rights Campaign hat, which I bought in Provincetown back in 2010. It was an olive green ball cap with the blue-and-yellow "equal" sign on the front, aimed at the question of marriage equality. (I was wearing it here during my selfie with Olga.) Now that issue has been decided and my hat, alas, is no more. It blew off my head on Saturday as I crossed a bridge over the Thameslink tracks in West Hampstead, sailing over the railing and into the void below. I'm sure it's still lying down there, somewhere, but I'm not risking being hit by a train to retrieve it...and it was worn out anyway. Life goes on!

Sunny Camden Lock

Dave and I had to go to Camden Town yesterday morning to prove to our landlord's management company that we're in the country legally. It's part of the process of renewing our lease. Like the flat inspection, we've never had to do this before -- but this year they asked us for copies of our passports and visas. I don't know whether these requirements kicked in because it will soon be our fourth year of renting this flat, or whether they've simply tightened their renting rules.

Or does it have to do with the growing populist unease toward immigration and immigrants?

Hmmm...

Anyway, it was an easy errand, and afterwards we went to the World's End pub for lunch. The pickings were slim -- the menu had about four items on it. I had a pulled pork sandwich, and Dave had rib ends, which were basically exactly the same thing, maybe slightly less pulled and in a different container.

Then Dave went to the graduation ceremony for the school where we work. He's faculty, so he's expected to be there. I, however, am not, so I took the opportunity to walk back along the Regent's Canal toward home. As you can see above, the crowds were out and about around Camden Lock.

As usual, there was some interesting and lively street art along the way.

When I got to St. John's Wood I popped into Boots for some Sensodyne toothpaste. As I wrote before, I have been having real problems with one of my molars, my "problem tooth" with the gold inlay. It's become incredibly sensitive to temperature changes. The dentist told me to try this toothpaste, so I'm going to give it a whirl. I bought the "rapid relief" variety, in a burst of optimism.

Then I came home, spent some time tidying the garden, and sat on our back bench reading. (I love my new book, "Echo Park" by Michael Connelly -- it's a light, summery page-turner. I'll probably finish it today.)

It may be my imagination, but my tooth does feel less sensitive this morning. Fingers crossed!

Mylar

On my way to work the other day I saw these red mylar balloons stuck in the top of this radically pruned tree, flapping energetically in the breeze. Then we had a couple of incredibly windy days and I thought sure those balloons would be somewhere over France -- but no, when I walked past last night, they were still there. Deflated and limp, but hanging on for dear life. They'll probably be there for years.

Plastics -- our modern curse! I guess they're better stuck in that tree than in the belly of a whale.

Dave had a work dinner last night so I came home and watched "The Big Chill" with Olga. I haven't seen that movie in years, and it was fun to watch it again.

Dave and I have been trying to watch the newest season of "House of Cards" this week, but I'm finding that my enthusiasm is lagging. I'm so confused by that show. Part of the problem is that so much time elapses between seasons -- now I can't remember all the characters and I have no idea what's going on. I think it's jumped the shark, along with "Orange is the New Black."

We have just a few days of school left! Three days with students next week -- and even then, they're not around much because they have exams and field trips -- and then two days with just the staff working. The library still has a fair number of books out, but I'm not going to worry about it too much. If they don't come back next week, the kids will have to return them in the fall before they can check anything else out. As Alfred E. Neuman used to say, "What, me worry?"

A Smattering of Politics and Aphids

By now you've probably heard about our election results here in the UK. When will these politicians learn to stop calling unnecessary elections that ultimately don't go their way?!

Dave and I, being newcomers to the British political system, are still unsure what it all means. But Theresa May has certainly weakened her position and that of the Conservatives. I'm not sure Brexit can be stopped, but it looks like we'll now have more of an opposition voice in crafting the details of the departure -- which sounds to me like a good thing. Not to mention more influence for Labour overall, and I am definitely a Labour sympathizer.

I'm also happy because our local MP, who's a Labour representative, kept her seat, and we like her. Whew!

I am cautiously optimistic.

Let's talk about something I do know about -- the garden. Our echinacea plant is larger this year than it's ever been (above) and it's attracted both aphids and ladybirds. Because we don't use pesticides we have several plants that are aphid magnets, but the ladybirds work hard to keep them in check. We bought three echinacea plants a few years ago and this is the only one that survived -- we had to put it in a pot because the slugs went after it with such vigor. And it looks like this year we're going to get a flower!

When I came home from work last night I spent about an hour tidying the garden. I swept up windblown leaves and dead-headed all the roses, and although these blossoms are loose and fading a bit, I put them in a bowl to enjoy for one or two more days. I usually let roses stay on the bush right up until the petals begin falling. Dave, on the other hand, is an over-enthusiastic dead-header -- he chops blossoms off almost as soon as they're fully open. He's like Morticia Addams! I tell him, "Dave, it's called DEAD-heading. The flowers are supposed to be DEAD first."

We asked our landlord for permission to remove a small holly tree at the side of the garden -- it's a spindly and ugly little thing, and it doesn't have enough space where it's growing. We even agreed to pay for it. She said yes, so we'll look into that in the coming weeks. Mrs. Kravitz will be thrilled -- she has complained in the past that the holly drops berries on her trampoline!

Olga the Purebred

Remember how Dave and I ordered a DNA test for Olga? The test was supposed to determine which breeds are in her background. A coworker did it for her dog and found out all kinds of interesting things.

Well, we got the test back yesterday, with the shocking result that Olga is basically 100 percent Staffordshire Bull Terrier. One or both of her parents were probably purebred. And that's all it said -- there was no indication of any presence of other breeds.

Anticlimactic, to be sure, but I guess at least now we know. (Occasionally I get asked whether she's a mix of some kind.) The breed description that accompanied her paperwork definitely describes her to a T: "totally fearless and tenacious...does everything at full throttle," "sees life as one big adventure and lives it to the fullest," "enjoys nothing more than to be around their people."

Yep. That's Olga.

Yesterday I opened the linen closet to get a towel, and a distinct whiff of dog emerged. I realized I'd never washed her pink blanket -- a blanket I used to have on my bed in childhood and brought from my mom's house a few years ago. Olga loves this blanket, and in the colder months it lives on the couch, and she lives on top of it. Well, when Dave's nieces visited a few weeks ago, I just folded it up and put it away for the time being, intending to wash it later, and I forgot. Let's just say it was a bit pungent. The situation has now been remedied.

Remember how I posted about bad book covers a while back? Well, we've weeded some of our library fiction since then, and I'm sorry to say "The Dark and Deadly Pool" did not make the cut. I kept it anyway, though -- it's on my desk now.

What about good book covers? Do you remember any that made an impact on you?

When I was a kid, my mom had a paperback copy of "Player Piano," by Kurt Vonnegut. On its cover was the artwork above. I don't know whose art it is, but I always found it such a haunting illustration. It made enough of an impact on me that I occasionally think about it even now, although her paperback is long gone and I never read it. (Maybe I should put "Player Piano" on my summer reading list!)

(Top photo: The closed buds of an allium blossom in our garden.)