Monday, Nov. 1

November, already! The months are rolling past way too fast.

October ended on both joyous and sad notes: happily, two great-grandchildren and a grandson-in-law had birthdays, a granddaughter and her husband celebrated an anniversary, a great-granddaughter was crowned queen of her second grade class, and most family enjoyed various Halloween events. But due to downsizing, a nephew-in-law has lost his job. Hubbie's son has had rotator cuff surgery and is very uncomfortable right now. And sadly, a sister-in-law has suffered a massive stroke, with dim prognosis. A lot can happen in just a few days.

We were up just before 8 a.m. this morning, and I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. After that, Mother came over and put color in my hair in anticipation of a beauty shop appointment tomorrow. After that I did this and that around the house.

While I was busy in household chores, Mother put a pot of chicken on to stew...a combination of leg quarters and breasts. The leg quarters are for Shih Tzu, to stimulate her appetite, which has recently declined. Along with a medicine stimulant from the vet, Shih Tzu has been eating much better the past few days.

The chicken breasts were for our supper. We used a can of low-fat, low-sodium biscuits as dumplings with the broth and chicken breasts, and had this with mashed potatoes, English peas, and canned cranberry sauce. Very holiday-ish.

After lunch, I took Mother to a 2 p.m. medical appointment with her urologist. This was just a follow-up appointment to make sure the infection was completely clear. It is. Mother still doesn't drink nearly enough fluids (beyond coffee), so today she had difficulty giving a specimen. The specimen was so small that the nurse couldn't test it. So she had to do a catheter test, something Mother really, really doesn't like.

I often wonder if folks check themselves in their mirror before leaving home. Today, an obese young woman corraling two children under age three was forced from time-to-time to chase after a toddler and bend over to pick him up. Whenever she bent over, her jeans and shirt parted to reveal about twelves inches of buttock cleavage. Very unappealing. There is no shame these days.

After we got back home, I booted the laptop computer to show Mother snapshots of the great-grandkids in Halloween costumes, and Great-Granddaughter in her pageant outfit.

Hubbie was busy all day, too, running errands and washing the truck.

We spent the evening after supper doing the usual...watching TV, particularly an episode of "Dancing With the Stars."