1. An update, just in case all of my wife's supporters are wondering how things are going. . . . Dorothy is doing quite well. She does find herself tiring easily, but we are told that is to be expected.
Four years ago, a catheter was surgically implanted into her peritoneal cavity, something that allowed her to do peritoneal dialysis on a nightly basis. Of course, that practice ended when she had a kidney transplant on Sept. 23. That kidney continues to work extremely well and most of her numbers, especially creatinine, are great.
The one exception in Monday's bloodwork involved phosphates. But that now is being dealt with and I would expect some improvement in the not-too-distant future. She smiled when she was told to eat pizza and also to have a Diet Coke per day. When you are on dialysis, they don't want phosphates in your system; when you have a working kidney, the opposite is true. So it could be that her system is trying to figure out what's going on with the mixed messages.
We had our first serious excursion on Saturday, which included going to our son's place in Burnaby for dinner. Dorothy handled it quite well, but was awfully tired on Sunday and slept a lot of the day away. I managed to cope with football!
So . . . things continue to progress and, really, that's all we can hope for.
2. From the blog of Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province: "Goalie coach Paul Fricker is a casualty of the Vancouver Giants’ 2-7-1-1 start." . . . Giants owner Ron Toigo told Ewen that the team and Fricker have "parted ways." . . . Fricker was in his third season with the Giants. . . . Ewen's bog is right here.
3. By now, you may have seen the video of the male New York Jets fan punching a New England Patriots sweater-wearing woman in the face after Sunday's NFL game. It seems that the male in question has done time . . . after he was involved in a stabbing death. The New York Daily News has more right here.
4. F Austin Calladine, acquired by Saskatoon from the Calgary Hitmen on Sept. 26, has been released by the Blades. They had given up a conditional eighth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft in the exchange. . . . Calladine, who is from Saskatoon, will turn 18 on Dec. 21. He got into three games with the Blades but wasn't able to get any points. . . . The Hitmen selected him 44th overall in the 2010 bantam draft. . . . Calladine played two games with the Blades, then suffered a brain injury that kept him out until Saturday.
5. Mitch Love, a former hard-nosed WHLer who now is an assistant coach with the Everett Silvertips, is the push behind the Love to Cheer program.
From a Silvertips news release:
"The Everett Silvertips are proud to once again partner with The Everett Clinic Center for Behavioral Health this season to provide complimentary Silvertips tickets to patients receiving treatment through the Clinic. Created by Silvertips Assistant Coach Mitch Love last season, the initiative has been named the 'Love to Cheer' Program for 2013-14.
Love spawned the idea last season as a tribute to the late John Dickey, his good friend and a longtime Silvertips season-ticket holder who passed away in 2012. To honor his friend, Love wanted to help people dealing with difficult circumstances in their lives by giving them the opportunity to enjoy a fun evening of Silvertips hockey free of charge."
Great stuff.
6. "This is a terrible quarter of football. Both of these teams are just bad." . . . It's the third quarter and ESPN's Mike Tirico sums up Monday's NFL game between the host New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings. Those teams were a combined 1-11 going into the game, so here's hoping Tirico wasn't surprised. . . . If you weren't aware, ESPN pays $1.9 billion for a season's worth of MNF.
7. "How much are we paying for this game?" tweeted ESPN's Bob Ley.
8. "This is the worst sporting event ever broadcasted," tweeted former NFL offensive lineman Steve Hutchinson.
9. Jim Leyland won't be back as the manager of the Detroit Tigers. Fox-TV's Ken Rosenthal, who once covered the CFL's Baltimore Stallions for the Baltimore Sun, has a terrific piece on Leyland right here.
10. While at St. Paul's Hospital on Monday, I finished one terrific book -- Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt that Brought Him to Justice -- and started what is going to be another. I have read about 25 per cent of League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth. . . . I'm not sure which of the two is the scariest. But they both read like fiction, which, of course, they aren't.
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