Well, the last few days have been a mix of ups and downs. One of my longtime myeloma friends died. I didn’t even know that she wasn’t doing very well. So yesterday, when another MM friend wrote to me, giving me the news of Carol’s death, I was totally shocked…and upset, too…goes without saying. I’m going to miss you, Carol. Gentle hugs!

I’ve also been working quite a lot. In addition to my regular jobs, I’ve also just been assigned a long translation from English to Italian. It’s a company safety manual, which I have to translate for the company where I work here in Florence. 😯

But all work and no play would certainly make Margaret a dull gal, so tomorrow morning Stefano and I are going bird watching at the Parco della Piana, and in the afternoon I’m getting together with some of my crazy (in a good sense, of course!) girlfriends for some laughs and fun. It’s the weekend, after all!

Now for a few interesting things I’ve come across recently. This curcumin “alert” took me to an interview with a Johns Hopkins doctor who has become very interested in curcumin: http://goo.gl/mg66s Water-soluble curcumin, huh? Mmmh…perhaps that isn’t such an impossible dream after all… 🙂

This Science Daily article tells us that qigong can reduce symptoms of depression and improve quality of life in women undergoing radiation treatments for breast cancer (and I bet it can do the same for many other cancer patients, too): http://goo.gl/qqppm Good stuff! 

My longtime blog readers know about the mutant gene p53. I’ve written quite a lot about it (please use the blog’s “Search” box to find out more). Well, here, in this article, we have something “new” (though, to be quite honest, years ago I had already figured out that targeting mutant p53 would be an incredibly good idea, duuuh! But now we do have more proof to substantiate said targeting, I suppose…sigh…): http://goo.gl/2hbVQ

And finally, an article on curcumin and mistletoe (and their effects on pre-diabetes and liver damage and cancer): http://goo.gl/CKCJ8 I’ve read about mistletoe before but have never really researched it thoroughly. In fact, if you take mistletoe, would you mind getting in touch with me (in private, too)? Thanks a bunch! 

Okay, back to work a bit before dinner…

Have a great weekend, everyone! Ciao! 🙂