My computer has continued to misbehave. The computer guys at Jimmy's office have been working on it, and Robert came to the house this morning to make sure the problems aren't with the connections here. So far so good.

We found out Monday that grandbaby #3 is a GIRL!!! We've all been hoping for a girl so badly that we'd almost convinced ourselves that it was another boy. Not so with three year old William: all along he has steadfastly pointed to his mother's tummy and proclaimed, "Baby girl." This makes two boys and a girl for Rosey and Pat; now they just need to even it out with one more girl after this one.

We talked with Dr. Lonial on Monday: he had received the results of last week's tests, and we were very relieved that the protein levels are holding steady at 1.6, which means that the cancer is stable. This drug we've been waiting so long for is called AMD3100; Dr. Lonial says he has five other patients who are sitting on ready, just like we are, and he thinks we are very, very close to having it approved.

The plan right now is for us to go to Atlanta in the next couple of weeks and do the stem cell mobilization, which should take ten days or so. With that accomplished, we can be home for Christmas, and do the transplant the first of the year.

Jimmy's doing OK. The last few weeks have been hard for him, and he says he's sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time. He has a little fuzzy-wuzzy hair growing on his head now. He's also begun to experience a common chemo side effect that has not bothered him until lately: everything tastes bad to him. He says it's an unpleasant medicinal metallic sort of taste. The only things he likes are real Coca Cola and boiled peanuts - not exactly your well-balanced diet.