The day before

In the last hour, my sister and brother-in-law dropped by and Derek joined us. We all sat on the back porch (those of you who were at Derek's birthday party will know what it looks like) and we had some of my brother-in-law's delicious homemade beer. Derek could not have that, because his current "purging" does not allow alcohol, so he had something like Gatorade. Derek was surprisingly upbeat and we all shared some good laughs; a great attitude, considering his surgery tomorrow. My brother-in-law had surgery for colon cancer as well earlier this year - he's recovered totally and has a clean bill of health at this time. We look at this as a good omen.