Saturday, August 23, 2008

Summery Saturday

Up until now, August has been an especially cool month, but today felt more like summer, again. Since we didn't have any major projects planned, we were in no hurry to get out of bed this morning, so it was after 8 a.m. before we rolled out.

After breakfast, I spent 40 minutes doing a treadmill exercise routine, including warm-up, stretches and working with weights, and cool-down. Mother came over after I was dressed and ready for the day, and we all set about straightening the house, doing laundry, and planning a menu for the week.

After lunch, Hubbie and I went to the farmer's market and to the WDCS to pick up groceries for the week's meals...particularly for Sunday lunch tomorrow, when Granddaughter and her significant other will visit to show us the car she purchased recently. Lunch will be chicken breasts cooked in the slow cooker (recipe below), baked potatoes, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and dinner rolls. Dessert will be slices of cold watermelon.

Chicken Recipe: spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Place two chopped onions, 3 stalks of chopped celery, 1 tbsp. chopped garlic (from a jar), in the cooker. Put the chicken breasts on top (can also use a whole chicken or a turkey breast). Combine 1 tsp. dried rosemary, 1 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp. sage (I don't use sage, because I’m allergic to it), 1/8 tsp. pepper, and ¼ cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth, and pour over chicken. Cook on low 2-3 hours (or 5-7 hours for a turkey breast), or until poultry is tender and registers 170 degrees.

Mother and I spent a lazy rest of the afternoon chatting and relaxing, while Hubbie gave Shih Tzu a bath and watched TV.

Supper was the "Week in Review"...leftover beef hash, sauteed okra, steamed squash, a combination of Lima and butter beans, Chinese beets, and fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.

Note: last night's movie fare was "The Messengers," rated PG13, for violence and scary scenes. In this 2007 haunted house movie, a family, including a mom, a dad, a troubled teen, and a traumatized little boy who doesn't speak, but points a lot, moves into a deteriorated house on a sunflower farm, where strange things happen that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Friday, August 22, 2008

This and That Friday

The water was a bit cool at the pool this morning, but felt good after I'd been in it a few minutes. There was a crowd for aerobics...around 30 of us. That will decline as time wears on, particularly when the weather turns cooler. Today, though, was warm, humid and cloudy.



I didn't accomplish a lot after I got back home beyond doing some computer updates and setting the DVR to record a couple of Encore movies we haven't seen.



This week's TV movie fare so far has included the cute PG comedy, "Evan Almighty," starring Steve Carell as a Congressman that God (played by Morgan Freeman) commands to build an Ark. We are fans of Morgan Freeman, and have enjoyed him in most of his roles.



Another movie we liked is: "We Are Marshall," rated PG, and starring Matthew McConaughey, and Matthew Fox. This true-event movie is about a town that rallies to build a new football program after nearly all of the Marshall University team of Huntington, W.V., the coaches, and other prominent members of the community are killed in a plane crash.



We also saw "The Winslow Boy," rated G. This is a very British movie that revolves around a 14-year-old boy in the early 20th century who has been accused of stealing, resulting in his being expelled from a military school. The screenplay was written by David Mamet, who also directed the film.



After lunch, we ran errands, as usual. Today, we went to the John Deere place, where Hubbie picked up a filter and other stuff for the lawn mower. From there, we dropped by the bank, a mailbox, and a nearby grocery store...I wanted to see if the store carried fresh sunflowers. They do, but the ones they have are ready to wilt. So we went on to a discount warehouse, where Hubbie hoped to find a specific tool. No dice. And I didn't find anything I wanted, either. So off we went to the WDCS to pick up photos and a couple of grocery items.



After we got home, I decided I should check out another discount store to see if they had silk sunflowers. This time, Mother went with us. The store had sunflowers, so I bought some, along with other items I'll need in the next few months. Again, Hubbie came up empty-handed.



From there, Hubbie decided to stop by the farm store to see if they had rain gauges. They did, and he bought three...a little after the fact, since we had downpours yesterday and Wednesday.



We got back home about 3:30 p.m., in plenty of time to fix a talapia fish dinner, served with sauteed new potatoes (left over from our veggie supper) and steamed squash (also left over).

We got an e-mail from Daughter-in-Law, telling us that Grandson will be playing on his middle-school football team this year. His coach will be using Grandson's powerhouse size in several positions as needed, such as offensive tackle and defensive guard. I hope I get to see him play some time during the season.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Soggy Thursday

We forgot to set the clock last night, so we overslept a little this morning. Still, we were up in time for me to get to Cardiac Rehab ahead of my scheduled hour. I took along an umbrella, though it only sprinkled during the morning.

Nothing unusual happened at Rehab...apparently, the new heart monitor/computer system is working well, and the staff have learned to operate it without difficulty. The new heart monitors have three lead wires instead of two, though I won't get a chance to try them until next month.

As I was leaving my parking space after the workout session, I noticed that a pickup truck parked next to me sported a bumper sticker that read: "Eat more beef...the West wasn't won eating salad." I'm pretty sure the truck belongs to the husband of one of my swim buddies, because they raise cattle. He is a Cardiac Rehab patient, and for those of us with heart disease, our bumper stickers should read: "salad...it's what's for dinner." But this man would be heartened to learn how much beef we've eaten over the past several days...as a roast on Sunday, then as leftovers on Tuesday, and finally as beef hash last night.

After freshening up for the day, I spent the rest of the morning designing a card for our friend who has terminal breast cancer. She will be honored at a gathering at the college next week, and the invitation states that gifts are discouraged, but cards will be welcome. It took quite a while for me to come up with an uplifting greeting that expresses how we feel about this lady without getting maudlin. I chose a sunflower design for the front of the card...one of my photos of a flower Hubbie grew...which I think reflects this woman's sunshiny personality. Despite gift discouragement, I'd like to pair the card with a bouquet of sunflowers in a watering can or some other suitable container, but we'll need to see if we can buy some, since the ones in our yard are gone now.

After lunch, Mother and I went to a scrapbook meeting at our local Extension Services office. Only three of us were in attendance, since one lady is tending to her ill husband, and another had car trouble today. A couple of others attend only occasionally, and today wasn't one of those occasions. We three had a great time visiting, though, and we got several memory pages completed.

Shortly after we arrived, the sky opened up, and it poured rain for a while, then stopped, then started up again. It slacked off by the time we were ready to leave, but we weren't home long before we got another soaking. And since then, it has rained hard a couple of more times.

For supper, we had 11-bean soup simmered all day with a can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes, a can of green chilies, onions, banana peppers, celery, carrots, garlic, lemon juice, no-salt seasoning, cumin, and chili powder, but no salt or ham. We had this with corn bread muffins for Hubbie, and canned biscuits for me, along with light margarine and honey. Dessert was individual serving size containers of applesauce.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Moths



There are a few attractive ones, like Luna Moths, but most of the moths I've seen are un-pretty. The two above are certainly not beauties, but they are interesting. I caught the top one...a Sphinx Moth...as it rested on the brick siding of a bank where I was attending a meeting. I found the Imperial Moth in the bottom photo lying in a muddy area near our front porch, one wing fluttering, as if it was injured or dying. If that wing hadn't been fluttering, I would have mistaken it for a dried leaf.

Wet Wednesday

I skipped water aerobics this morning so I could take Mother to her podiatrist appointment. The appointment wasn't until 10 a.m., but the office asked her to be there early to fill out paperwork.



I'd been telling Mother that the doctor would probably only examine her today, and then set an appointment to have the procedure done. Her primary physician had told her the podiatrist would do only one toenail at a time. Well, we were both wrong. As soon as we arrived in the treatment room, the doctor came in and set to work.



He did the procedures sans pain killers, because he said to deaden her toes, he'd need to inject them, which would be more painful than the procedures. So Mother endured...if not quietly...because it was indeed painful to her tender toes. I was in the room, trying to distract her with light banter. I'm not sure it helped much, because she threatened to "get me" for lying to her. Once the deed was done, though, and her toes were medicated with antibiotic salve and wrapped in bandages, she felt much better and could walk without pain.



It was raining when we left for the appointment, and was still raining hard as we drove home. It started raining last night before we went to bed and is predicted to continue into tomorrow. While we've been getting generous downpours, it apparently rained in torrents in the southern part of the state earlier today, causing hydroplaning accidents on the highways and roadways.



After lunch, Mother and I decided to work on memory pages and gather materials for a scrapbook meeting tomorrow afternoon.

Later, Hubbie and I did our usual running...to the post office, to the worldwide discount chain store, and to a grocery store to pick up the items that the WDCS didn't have. Lately, we've noticed that the grocery part of that store has quit carrying some products that we've always found there in the past, and they are promoting some of their house brand groceries in lieu of favorite name brands. And, of course, prices are climbing overall. We've noticed, too, that there are many gaps on the shelves, as if the store is phasing out certain items, or is selling current stock so they can re-stock at a higher price.

Supper tonight was beef hash, made from the remainder of last Sunday's roast. We served this with Lima beans and butter beans (Limas, because Mother doesn't like butter beans) and sliced tomatoes.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

This and That Tuesday

Daughter-in-Law called around 8 a.m. to let me know that the tech at Son's cardiologist office informed them this morning that Son's nuclear stress test showed no abnormalities. This would be happy news if Daughter-in-Law hadn't also said that Son has experienced more episodes of chest and arm pain, and that he also complains of being tired. Son is to see his primary physician soon to get information on a diet and exercise plan, and I'm hoping that at that time his doctor will see fit to further explore the cause of Son's complaints.


At 8:30 a.m., I went to Cardiac Rehab, where there was a crowd this morning. For the first time since I've been attending, there were more women than men...four of us to three of them. The reason there were so many patients at the session this morning is that Cardiac Rehab closed this afternoon and will be closed tomorrow while techs install a new heart monitor/computer system. Scheduled patients had to be re-scheduled to other sessions, so the 9 a.m. one was completely full, as I'm sure all the others today were, too.

Because there were so many of us, someone else was occupying my favorite treadmill, and since all the other treadmills were occupied, too, I had to use a machine that works much like a bicycle. But instead of ordinary handlebars, it has shoulder-high rotating handlebars for upper body workouts. I didn't use the pedals today. I just used the arms feature, which I felt mainly in my shoulders. I'll probably be somewhat sore in those areas tomorrow.

Most days, it has taken a while for my heart rate to go down after a vigorous workout, so today, instead of strolling, I walked briskly from my van to Cardiac Rehab, which raised my pulse enough that following my workout today, my heart rate dropped to acceptable limits pretty quickly.

Nothing of consequence happened for the rest of the morning. After lunch, Mother and I met a 12:30 p.m. appointment to get haircuts. Both of the hairdressers who cut our hair are on Weight Watchers diets, and are interested in gathering good recipes. We'll go through ours to see what we can provide.

Since we were ready to leave the beauty shop a little after 1 p.m., we decided to stop by our local home improvement store to attend an Extension Homemakers workshop on how to save money through simple home fix-its using inexpensive materials like caulking, electrical tape, liquid nails, etc., plus ideas on saving energy by using fluorescent bulbs in lamps, foam insulators behind electrical switch plates, winter window treatments, and insulator blankets around water heaters.

The workshop was open to everyone, so Hubbie attended, too, and was already in the store when Mother and I arrived. He picked up several of the suggested items to use in our home. I'm particularly interested in finding out how the dry film lubricant will work on our sliding glass doors. He also bought a laser straight edge tool that I think will be very handy the next time I want to hang pictures...in the past, our yardstick method has been pretty haphazard, resulting in multiple nail holes in the walls in our effort to align pictures.

We were back home by mid-afternoon. Hubbie said Daughter-in-Law called earlier asking for craft ideas for children two to four years old (she's babysitting grandchildren while their parents are at work). The craft ideas I have on hand are aimed at children at least school age, but I visited several online websites that have ideas for younger children. I printed some of those to send to her, since her home computer is down right now. Daughter-in-Law also asked for homemade dry mix ideas, like taco seasoning, for using in recipes, and I'm sending what I have.

Later this afternoon, I got a call from a lady at a technical school in a city near our capital city asking if I'd be interested in doing an after-school photography workshop for middle school kids during the first week of October. She's to send me details soon, so I can decide if it's something I want to do.

By this time, we were ready to prepare veggies for a veggie supper...yellow summer squash and new potatoes that we cooked in the steamer, breaded okra sauteed in a bit of canola oil, along with Chinese beets, and sliced tomatoes. Yum.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Back to Water Aerobics

Yay! Today was the first day of water aerobics after a three-week hiatus while the college was on break. The water was cool, but it felt wonderful once I was in it. It was good to get back and talk with swim buddies about how they spent their days away from the pool. Some traveled to other states to visit family, others caught up on projects at home, and some took advantage of the time to get routine doctor and dental appointments out of the way. Most broke with exercise routines, though. One lady said she got on her stationary bicycle a couple of times before giving up in favor of more interesting things to do. As a result, she put on a few pounds. I'm glad I stuck with my workouts.

After I got home from aerobics, Mother put color in my hair, because we have appointments for haircuts tomorrow. It was close to noon before I was ready to do anything else. After lunch, Hubbie and I (you guessed it) ran errands...to the post office, to the insurance office, to the farmer's market, to the gas station, and to the worldwide discount chain store. I picked up the photos of the Master Gardener (a lady in her 70s) and her posters from one-hour service, and when we'd finished shopping, we delivered the photos to the MG. As expected, she said the snapshots of her "look too much like me." But she decided one of them was acceptable just the same. She was very pleased with the photos of the posters.

Back home, we pattied hamburger, turkey burger, and ground pork for the freezer, and then I made a big bowl of Jell-o so we could use a couple of bananas, a peach, and a pear that were about to get too ripe.

Hubbie commented that several of the Asian pears we bought at the watermelon festival were getting over-ripe, so we peeled and sliced all of them, put them in two Dutch oven pans, covered them with water, brought them to a boil, cooked them for a couple of minutes, and then let them cool before draining them and putting them in quart-size freezer bags, along with three-quarter of a teaspoon of Fruit Fresh per bag (to keep them from turning brown). We got three quarts of the fruit for the freezer.

By now, it was suppertime. We heated leftover carrots, onions, and mashed potatoes in the oven, and served them with cold sliced roast beef, and hot beef gravy. Today, Mother made a recipe of Chinese beets, so we also had some of those, along with sliced garden tomatoes. Dessert, of course, was Jell-o with fat-free whipped topping.

Now it's time to relax.

Note: This afternoon, Mother talked with the nurse who works with one of the doctors who performs colonoscopies and scheduled the procedure for Wednesday, September 3. Her primary physician recommended the procedure mainly because Mother has never had one, but also because she has been complaining of tummy, intestine, and bowel troubles. Her physician wants to rule out any problems other than suspected irritable bowel syndrome.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Good News and Bad News

I decided to skip my exercises this morning in favor of sleeping late. We didn't get up until nearly 8:30 a.m. However, I had trouble falling asleep last night, and didn't drift off until around 12:30 a.m.

Hubbie is able to go to sleep nearly as soon as his head hits the pillow, which is great, but he also gets up a few times a night to take care of duties, including taking Shih Tzu for potty-break walks outdoors, or carrying her up or downstairs to whatever bathroom she takes a whim to sleep in (she's too blind and arthritic to manage the stairs by herself anymore).





We spent the rest of the morning in our usual Sunday activities...choosing TV shows and movies to schedule into the DVR, putting a beef roast, with carrots and onions, into the slow cooker for lunch, reading the Sunday paper, and listening to music.





This week I chose show tunes, because a couple of the CDs had the song "Memory," from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" featured on them. My choice of music on Sundays is often dictated by whatever we've experienced recently...like watching that movie yesterday. If we go to a symphony concert, then I'll choose classical music the following Sunday. If we go to a 1940s Big Band concert, then I'll choose music from that era. We have fairly eclectic musical tastes. As Mother says, "My favorite kind of music is whatever I'm listening to that day."





We also spent quite a bit of time on the phone talking with family, including a son, a daughter, a granddaughter, a great-grandson, and a great-granddaughter.





Daughter told us that Great-Grandson's dog was hit by a car and killed, and he is very, very distraught. I talked with him briefly and sent him a pet sympathy e-card. We know how hurt he is, and our hearts go out to him. We've lost several beloved pets over the years, and it never gets easier...they are such an integral part of the family.





Great-Grandson will begin school tomorrow, entering the fifth grade. It's good that he will have that distraction right now.





Granddaughter, on the other hand, is ecstatic, because she has located a suitable used car to purchase that is priced within her budget, and that her dad feels confident will be reliable transportation for her to travel to and from college in another town. Right now, she plans to come for a visit next Saturday, so we can see the car. I hope nothing happens to keep her from coming.