Saturday, March 12, 2011

Saturday, March 12

Up around 7:30 and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. We didn't do a lot before lunch aside from sprucing the house a little in anticipation of a visit from Hubbie's daughter.

After lunch, I went to the other store that has a sale every weekend hoping to use a 20% off coupon to find something fit to wear during spring and summer. No luck.

Hubbie's daughter, her husband, and a grandson arrived around 2:30. Daughter will be making a mission trip to Uganda with six other people next week, and I suppose she wanted to visit with family beforehand, because one never knows what might happen on a trip so far to a country on a troubled continent. The Congo, for instance, borders Uganda. And though they are many miles away, Egypt and Libya are also on the African continent. And Iraq and Iran are in the same part of the world.

She will be gone for a week to a village four hours away from a major city. The purpose of the trip is to teach elementary school teachers classroom techniques. They will take along lots of schoolroom supplies.

She said that when they arrive, there will be a ceremony of greeting that involves the leader of the mission delegation meeting with the leader and delegation of the area, who will decide if the mission group is acceptable. Part of the ceremony is providing "blessings" to the leader's delegation. Those blessings consist of the gifts of precious commodities...flour, sugar, and salt, which are difficult to come by in the area. Providing those blessings pretty much assures that the mission group will be accepted.

She also said that the women of the area do not wear pants...only skirts that fall below the ankles. Ankles, and knees are considered sensual in that country. So Daughter shopped at a consignment store and found $2 and $3 skirts and very conservative tops for the trip.

Daughter and her family agreed to join us for a supper of pork barbecue on hamburger buns, Parmesan potatoes, a choice of coleslaw or garden salad, sliced tomatoes from the hydroponic farm, and cottage cheese.

Daughter had brought along brownies, which we enjoyed as a mid-afternoon snack, so no one wanted dessert after supper.

Daughter and family left shortly after supper, around 6:30, and Mother went to her house. Hubbie and I watched TV.

The three cats spent the day in the sunroom, which they seemed to enjoy, but they were ready to come back inside when company left. They were cautious, though, when they came back in, sniffing the floor where "strangers" had trod, and investigating rooms to make sure no one but family was here.

What a gorgeous day, reminding us that spring is only one week away. Purple, lavender, and yellow crocus, yellow and white daffodils, white blooming Bradford pear trees, pink blooming trees, and yellow forsythia bushes lift the spirits.

Funny: Hubbie's daughter was admiring daffodils from our yard that I'd arranged in a white teapot for the dining room table. "They're so perfect they look like artificial flowers," she remarked.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Friday, March 11

When I came downstairs around 7:30 this morning, I was greeted by the awful television news that an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, creating a massive tsunami, had hit Japan. Naturally, we spent quite a bit of time today following continuing news reports.

I was late getting around to it, but I finally did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Mother came over mid-morning and worked on her jigsaw puzzle.

Once I was ready for the day, Hubbie and I took a stack of area rugs to a laundromat to be washed...I don't like washing them in my home machine. A couple of miles from home, Hubbie remembered that we forgot to bring detergent, so we turned around and came back to fetch it.

We noticed going, coming back, and going again that four police cars, lights flashing, were pulled alongside the road, with several officers investigating a truck, the bed of which contained scrap metal. A man, in handcuffs, was being led to one of the police cars. A woman stood by the truck with her head down on her arms.

Once we got the area rugs started washing at the laundromat, we drove out to the hydroponic farm to buy some tomatoes. I learned from the farm's social network page that tomatoes were available today, but I called this morning just to make sure, because they sell out pretty quickly.

When we arrived, we saw that the house next door to the farm had burned. I inquired about it, and the woman in the farm store said that it happened about a week ago. An older woman and her three-year-old grandchild were injured, but not seriously, in the fire. The house, though, was totally destroyed, leaving only a black shell.

I bought a half dozen beef steak tomatoes, one of which I sliced for BLT sandwiches at lunch.

Then we returned to the laundromat, a business that is located next door to a florist, which is conveniently located next door to a store-front funeral home. Until recently, the funeral home so prided itself on its attractive caskets that it had an open one displayed in the large front window.

Anyhow, we needed to wait only four minutes for the washing machine to stop, and then we were on our way back home.

We didn't accomplish much after lunch. Mother continued her jigsaw puzzle, Hubbie watched a basketball game on TV, and I read a magazine that had been included with my tomatoes. The magazine had a couple of cute articles...one about a woman's adventure trying to crack black walnuts, and one about heritage cookbooks.

Around 4 p.m., I took the chocolate scones, that I'd sliced into bite-sized portions, to the art gallery.

Earlier, Mother had fixed a pot of veggie soup, using leftover veggies that we'd saved in the freezer from various meals. She added the veggies to a base of browned beef, carrots, onions, and celery cooked in a combination of beef and chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes, and lots of spices, including garlic. Just before supper, I made a batch of bran muffins to go with the soup. It was a yummy supper.

Afterward, Mother went home, and Hubbie and went downtown to the art gallery, where a water color artist demonstrated his techniques. Only about ten people showed up for the event. Neither Hubbie nor I are artists, but we felt we should be supportive.

The artist is very skilled, and I love his work. Both Hubbie and I were intrigued by a particular work of his, done in Italy. It's so precise that I felt I could have just walked right into it. Most watercolors I've seen don't show this kind of precision. I learned during the evening that the artist was an engineer before he retired, and he is a very exacting, detail-oriented person.

One of this artist's works is featured both on the cover of this year's film festival magazine, and on our county's monthly slick magazine.

We were back home around 7 p.m., when we watched the 1992, R-rated movie, "Final Analysis," starring Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, and Eric Roberts. A psychiatrist (Gere) gets involved with a woman (Basinger), who supposedly becomes pathologically intoxicated drinking the smallest amount of alcohol, which renders her violent. She and her equally disturbed sister entangle the psychiatrist in murder.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Thursday, March 10

I was up around 7:30 this morning, and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast.

Hubbie went to a Master Gardener meeting at 10 a.m. Once I'd gotten ready for the day, I began the project of cleaning the upstairs bathroom...not just a routine cleaning, but deep cleaning that included washing the window blinds and curtains, washing the window, cleaning woodwork, thoroughly scrubbing down the modular shower, etc.

Since I planned to wash the bathroom curtains, I decided to also wash the curtain in the hall and the ones in the downstairs bedroom, which naturally necessitated washing the blinds and the windows in those areas, too. Hubbie helped me with those after he returned from his meeting and we'd had lunch.

Mid-morning, the arts council director called to ask me to provide some sort of refreshment item for Second Friday events downtown tomorrow evening. An artist is to speak at the art gallery, and she wanted a variety of nibbles available for folks who wandered in. I agreed to provide something.

I decided to try a recipe of chocolate chip scones that I found online last night. It's made with fat free milk, sugar substitute, and applesauce in place of oil, which is healthier than the cookie-like scones offered at the home medical board meeting yesterday morning.

So I temporarily abandoned my bathroom cleaning project and made a double batch of the scones, which are biscuit-like, but tasty. Hubbie tried one when he came home and declared it to be good. I also took one to Mother to sample, and she put her stamp of approval on it.

After lunch, she came over to try on her new jeans for me to assess. She said she thought they might be too baggy. I agreed they were somewhat baggy in the front, so I offered to go to the store and see if there was a pair in size 10 petite. There was one pair left, in stone washed color instead of indigo, but they were on sale for $9.99. The other pair was $15. She took the smaller size home to try them on. If they are okay, I'll return the $15 pair for a refund.

It was about 3:30 before Hubbie and I quit working on the bathroom and windows. I still haven't done all I want in the bathroom...the area rugs need to be washed, and the drawers need to be sorted...but we were far enough along on it to quit for the day.

Later, we had leftovers for supper, and then we watched a movie while our favorite college basketball team's tournament game recorded on DVR.

The movie we saw was the 2009, PG-13 film, "Fast and Furious," starring Vin Diesel. Fast cars, lots of action, chase scenes, gun play, explosions, and scantily clad women...what more could a guy ask for?

Following the movie, we watched as our team went down in defeat.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wednesday, March 9

Got up at 6 a.m. on this nippy but sunshiny Ash Wednesday morning, but skipped my exercises so I could get ready to go to a home medical services advisory board meeting at 8 a.m.



The meeting was held in a conference room of the hospital, where a staff member brought us up to date on the activities of both the home health service and Caring Hands Hospice. The board is made up of a couple of doctors, a bank president, a person who has had experience with hospice (for her mother-in-law), a representative of the disabled community, and volunteers like myself and another woman.



Our task is to make suggestions on how services can be improved, and then offer our assistance in implementing those improvements. Today's focus was how to better disseminate information about the importance of getting families to engage hospice care early on for a terminally ill patient. Hospice would like to become involved as quickly after diagnosis as possible...six months, even a year out, because there are many services available to make a patient more comfortable, and to give strong support to family.



The meeting ran longer than usual, and it was 10 a.m. before it ended. A "breakfast" of scones and coffee was available. I had breakfast before I went to the meeting, but I pinched off a taste of both a chocolate chip scone and a blueberry scone, and then brought the rest home for Mother and Hubbie. I could tell by the oil on the napkin where the scones sat that the pastries were high fat, so I didn't want to eat a whole one.



Seems like it would have been more appropriate for a health service holding a meeting in a hospital to offer fruits or some other healthy breakfast option over pastries.

We were all surprised when we left the hospital that in just two hours it had become cloudy, windy, and quite cold outside. Winter isn't quite over yet.


Back home, Mother came over and relaxed while Hubbie and I ran errands...to the newspaper office, to one of the stores that has a sale every weekend to pick up the jeans that I'd ordered for Mother, and to the home improvement store to return a fixture and bulbs that we didn't need.



Since we didn't have plans for the afternoon, Hubbie watched college basketball games on TV, Mother started another jigsaw puzzle, and I read my novel.



Supper tonight was leftover spaghetti, with salad. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I did our usual...watched TV.

We saw the 2009, R-rated movie, "Staten Island," starring Vincent D'Onofrio and Ethan Hawke. The lives of a septic tank cleaner who wants a better life for his unborn son, a deli worker who wants to escape mob infiltration, and a mob boss who wants to get rid of his competition, intertwine in unexpected ways.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Tuesday, March 8

I was up around 7 a.m. this morning, and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast.

Mother came over around 9 a.m. and worked on the jigsaw puzzle. I joined her in this activity once I was ready for the day. Finally, after working on this puzzle since last Saturday, Mother put the last few pieces in. I took pictures of it and posted one on my social network page.

What a chilly, rainy, dreary day. Made me want to crawl back into bed and cover my head. But I didn't. I didn't accomplish much, though, beyond making haircut appointments for Mother and myself, e-mailing an RSVP to my Alma Mater college to accept an invitation to attend a reception in April for the 50th anniversary of the college's honor society (I'm a 1990 inductee) and order tickets to film festival events later this month.

While I did this, Hubbie went to a home improvement store to buy a fluorescent light kit for the storage room, as well as bulbs for the kitchen unit...that one quit working last night. Hubbie hired an electrician to come and install the light in the storage room ceiling and repair the one in the kitchen.

He arrived around 9:30, but before he could get started on the task, he got an emergency call from one of the funeral homes and had to go tend to it. He returned after lunch to finish the job.

Mother made chicken salad from one of the boiled breasts she'd cooked for chicken noodle soup last Saturday, which we had in sandwiches for lunch today, before the repairman came back.

We idled the afternoon away...nobody was in the mood to do anything. Later, for supper, we heated leftover veggies, which we had with homemade macaroni and cheese. Mother went home afterward.

Later, around 7 p.m., I went to a community theater meeting. I debated whether I wanted to go or not, since it was still raining and there was a tornado watch, and then just as I was leaving the house it began lightening and thundering, but I girded my loin and went on.

Obviously, other members were not so brave, because only five of us and two guests showed up. We discussed possible upcoming productions, but did not vote on them since there wasn't a quorum.

At 8 p.m., the meeting adjourned. The board president had brought a king cake, left over from a church mardi gras party she'd attended before our meeting. I didn't eat any, but I brought a couple of small pieces home for Hubbie. Also, the lady at whose home we met sent me home with several jigsaw puzzles for Mother.

While I was gone, Hubbie entertained himself watching a basketball game. When I returned, we watched a couple of one-hour TV shows before bedtime.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Monday, March 7

Up at 7:30 and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. Mother came over about 9 a.m. and worked on her jigsaw puzzle while I got ready for the day. I spent the rest of the morning doing household chores.

After a chicken noodle soup lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands...to a grocery store for cottage cheese, to the bank, to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and to another pharmacy to use coupons for incidentals. Buying $20 worth at this store entitled us to a $5 discount from AARP.

From there, we went to the post office to mail a flash drive back to the high school classmate who sent it to me, and then on to the WDCS to shop for groceries for both Mother and ourselves. Then we went to a gas station, and ended at a vet clinic to pick up dog food.

Back home, I joined Mother in working on the jigsaw puzzle. Even after cataract surgery, Mother's eyesight leaves something to be desired, so I had to remove several puzzle pieces that were in the wrong places and substitute them with the correct pieces. It's no wonder she can't see how the pieces fit, though, since the puzzle is a photo of her white cat against a dark to black background.

Still, she had gotten quite a lot of it done. The border has been an absolute stinker, though...even Sis and Nephew had trouble with it while they were here, and there is still a section of it that isn't fitting together right. We finally had to abandon the border and work the inside of the puzzle first, hoping the border would finally fall into place. It hasn't so far.

Later, we had a supper of leftover biscuits with gravy, sauteed potatoes, and scrambled egg substitute. Mother went home afterward.

Around 6:30, Hubbie and I went down to the college about a mile from our house for a performance of "Masters of Motown." Three men and three women, accompanied by a three-man band, performed the music of the Temptations, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Jackson Five, and Gladys Knight and the Pips.

The group performed to a nearly full house. It was a totally appreciative audience, that was most captivated by the tiny woman who performed Gladys Knight. She couldn't have weighed more than 90 pounds, but wow what a voice! She brought down the house.

We were pleased to run into a couple we know from when we worked with the husband many years ago at an agency for the blind and visually impaired. He and his wife are also retired, and live part of the year in a town about twenty miles from us, and part of the year in Florida. This man is totally blind, and I was his secretary when I first went to work for the agency in our state's capital city.

The program ended around 9 p.m., and we were back home five minutes later. We watched a couple of TV shows, and then headed to bed.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Sunday, March 6

Today is Nephew's birthday. Happy Birthday, Nephew!


I got up at 7:30 this morning, but skipped my exercises, because I anticipated getting things ready for a fried chicken lunch. But when I called Mother on the intercom, she said Sis wasn't feeling well. She was running a fever and didn't have an appetite. So Mother and I agreed that a chicken noodle soup lunch might be better.


Soon after I talked to Mother, she and Sis came over to our house. As they were walking in the door, our black cat suddenly shot through the house with a plastic shopping bag wound around him by the handles.


The faster he ran, the more noise the bag made, and the more terrified he became. He whammed into doors and chair legs in his rush to get away from what he perceived to be his pursuer.


Finally, in the storage room, he managed to release himself from the bag and go into hiding behind storage containers. It took Hubbie quite a while to locate him and coax him out so he could comfort him. This cat has been the bane to my existence, but I felt sorry for him today.


While I was getting ready for the day, Mother and Hubbie went ahead and got the chicken soup started simmering. Close to noon, I put canned biscuits into the oven, and heated honey to melt it from a sugared state. I was the only one who had honey on my biscuits...Mother opted for pumpkin butter, and Hubbie chose apple butter. Sis had soup sans biscuits.



After lunch, we watched the 2009, PG animated movie, "Fantastic Mr. Fox," with the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep. In this feature, a fox promises his pregnant wife to give up stealing chickens and get another job. He becomes a newspaper columnist, but finally can't resist his old ways. He enlists friends to help him pilfer from the farmers again, but finally the farmers get tired of his thievery and vow to eliminate him and his family. Things ultimately turn out fine, of course.


After the movie, Mother, Hubbie, and I enjoyed dessert and coffee, but Sis wasn't interested. I did give her a hunk of the lemon pudding cake to take to Nephew for his birthday, though. Sis left around 3 p.m. She still had an uneasy tummy, but she assured us she was fit to drive the two hours back to her home.


Mother went to her house after Sis left, and I went to my office computer to post snapshots of Saturday's activities...Mother's birthday party, and the kid's day event at the museum.


Then I joined Hubbie in watching TV for the evening.