THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Unlike Wolverine but like Lance Armstrong and Wilfred Brimley

George noticed an enlargement on one of his testicles and saw a urologist. The urologist said, "well, its probably due to a trauma but we'll get an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a mass so the next step was a blood test that checks for cancer markers".

The test came back positive so the next thing was to schedule an operation to remove the testicle and a CT scan to check for any cancer in any other part of his body.

The CT scan was negative. The operation went smoothly (done on March 24) and quickly (checked in at 6am out of hospital by 1015am) and did not result in much lasting pain (off prescription pain killers by March 25, off all pain killers by March 26).

The next step will be to get the pathology report from an examination of the testicle tissue (which will presumably verify that it was cancer - Postscript from 3-31, the pathology did show cancer).

In about a month the blood test will be redone and then redone a month after that. If the cancer markers go down to normal and stay there, no radiation or chemo may be needed or maybe one chemotherapy course of 21 days with only 3 days of infusion will be done for prophylactic reasons.

Postscript from 6-5: cancer markers are close to normal now. Chemotherapy scheduled to begin 6-8. Plan is for that to be the end of treatment but for blood testing to continue.

posted by Martin Weiss # 5:22 PM

Saturday, March 21, 2015

A Disturbing Dream about Capital Punishment

I had a dream last night in which I was a prison warden or someone else high up in the prison administration system.

One of our prisoners had been on death row since 1986. All the appeals had ended and we were finally ready to have the execution. I was going over the paperwork and saw that the 1986 execution order had not been signed. I had decided to forge the signature of the person (I suppose that was the Governor at the time) who was to sign it.

Then I woke up. I was disappointed in my willingness to commit forgery.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:09 PM

Thursday, March 19, 2015

An Odd Event to Cater

I was doing mashgiach work at an event at the Watergate Hotel (first image has myself with the executive chief Gustavo Escalante to my left, the pastry chef Juan Lopez in front of me and assistant chef Juan Galvez looking closely at some food.)

Back in 2010 as the real estate market was just beginning to recover, a company called "Euro Capital Properties" bought the Watergate Hotel for $45 million at a foreclosure auction. This is the hotel which was the site of the infamous 1972 break in that eventually led to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974.

Since 1974 it has undergone several redevelopment efforts but since about 2007 has been unoccupied and falling into disrepair.

Euro Capital has just completed a topping out of an expansion to the ballroom and wanted to celebrate and also wanted the event to be kosher (the chief of Euro Capital is Jacques Cohen - his wife is practicing her speech in image two). So there we were (the flag on the right is the flag of the District of Columbia which you can see better in this article).

When complete, it expects to be the most luxurious hotel in the area with rooms (it will have over 300 rooms) beginning at about $500/night and suites at $3000/night.

The third image shows the Potomac behind the glass picture window and the temporary bar and cocktail table in front of it.

A Washington Post article (from December 2014) on the redevelopment is here.

A Washington Post article on the event itself is here.

A Washington City paper article on the event itself is here.

This article takes a look at the attire that is planned for the staff of the new hotel.

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posted by Martin Weiss # 3:50 PM

Sunday, March 15, 2015

SVS Strikes Again

I was doing mashgiach work again today and there was a major outbreak of SVS, which is my acronym for 'sudden vegetarian syndrome'.

There were about three times the number of vegetarian requests as the client had told the caterer to expect. They ran out of their standard vegetarian meal and had to improvise the final six or seven requests. The results didn't look all that good as it was basically a doubling of the cooked vegetable and rice and some vegetarian hors-d'oeuvre.

I've seen this happen to a number of caterers. This time, however, I think the caterer may have brought it on himself because many of the hor-d'oeuvres were meat and even the salad had skewers of delicatessen meat as a side to the salad.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:19 PM

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Sciatica pain somehow missing

I picked up a virus, perhaps on the cruise, perhaps in Mexico, perhaps on the bus back to the airport.

Anyway, on the flight from LAX to IAD, I was in some discomfort from sinus problems but without any sciatica pain (I had been having sciatica type pain intermittently for a month or so before that).

The virus got worse on March 5 and 6 and finally started getting better by March 9th or so. However, the sciatica type pain has not returned.

Probably just a coincidence.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:14 PM

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Day after arriving back from Hawaii

We missed 3 or 4 snow events (including freezing rain and sleet) while we were out of town.

However, on March 5, we had about 7" of snow at our house. National airport had about 5", Dulles about 9.5", BWI about 8".

G arranged to work at home on Mar 5 and 6.

Also, the min temp on Mar 6 was about 8F at our house.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:08 PM

Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Trip to Hawaii mid Feb to early March 2015

The image is of Ann and I at the Grand Canyon of Hawaii which is on the Island of Kawai.

Click once or twice on the image to expand it.

This was one of the stops on our cruise to Hawaii and Mexico.

I have a separate blog which has dozens of Hawaii and Cruise images and explanatory narrative. It is at this link.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:07 PM