Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to all. 🎄 Our second Christmas without Dad. But who's counting?  I guess holidays will never be the same but thank goodness for the memories. His birthday was earlier this month, 12/12, so he was in my thoughts a lot this month.

Nothing like some Christmas tradition . . .

Midge and mayhem! I haven't seen her in that little cat house since . . . gosh, last Christmas when she destroyed my little display lol.

John was home for Christmas Eve and we enjoyed our favorite pizza and too many Christmas treats while the smell of brisket wafted through the house. Boy did it smell great. I cooked my brisket on Christmas Eve and made make-ahead mashed potatoes, so with that head start Christmas dinner was so easy.  Much nicer for everybody when I am not bitchy and hot from being in the kitchen all morning. Add moodiness from too many Christmas cookies, and gosh, what a treat I am! LOL  Tradition people, tradition!

Love my new microplane. It's pretty sharp though . . . 

Finn loves his new king size bed.

John was home today (New Years Eve) and we had a lasagna. A pleasant time had by all.

My friends invited me over tonight but gosh, it is dark and cold and New Year's Eve and I'm so old now, an evening of Twilight Zone marathon and a warm cat  and no drinking drivers (including me!) sounds terrific! What an old codger I am.

I'm heading to John's next week for some vegan food. Holidays are over! Finn is going to shape up too!

Peace to all and happy new year!

Kathleen

Chillin'

Finnegan

I do not care about wrinkles

Warm laundry is a very good thing.

4 Years Ago

4 years ago John got Hera and Isis! Love those weird girls.

Funny what you find when you are looking for cute cat photos. 

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving, delicious food, nice visit from John, carrot cake. Great leftovers. Just like usual.

Bed hog, and he came in wet to top it off! Good old Finnegan. It's really hard to make beds around here. You have to seize the moment.  

Started this post a few days back . . .

Isn't it funny how the one chocolate chip cookie you bake with a magnet in it (from your magnetic measuring spoons lol) ends up in one of the cookies you give away! Sorry John LOL Glad you didn't swallow it. I took those cookies to John when he had us over to lunch for Mom's 79th birthday. An excellent time had by all, and an excellent meal from a Streator restaurant, McGrath's Seafood, with fried chicken for Joe (what else?!), cod for John and Kay, and fried shrimp for the birthday mom. Joe gave me a bite of his fried chicken and I had a little lunch envy, it was delish. The cod was excellent too, but that chicken. I am a Mallaney after all. Well, I do choose fish over chicken usually. There are aberrations in life. Hera's weight reduction plan (lower carb) is definitely working, she is one hot cat.

And the election. What can I say? Words fail me. I picked up some hours processing mail-in ballots, that's about all I can think to say. What a shocker. I hope being prez doesn't cut into Trump's Miss America duties. God help us all.

Back to the present day . . .

I did some more temp work last week  for the same lawyer as before, and also did some more election work processing ballots that came in after the election. One of the local races that was separated by just 4 votes on election day ended in a tie. Just goes to show one vote does count . . .

Seems the weather has turned. Dark at 5:00. Yucko. It was kind of fun making the Thanksgiving carrot cake with carrots from the garden. I miss puttering around out there and I miss my fresh herbs too.

I'm off to donate platelets this afternoon.

That's all I got.

Have a good Cyber Monday.

Kay :)

Happy Veteran's Day

From the Morris Herald

Early November

Bernie would not like this Cubs in the World Series business. He would be getting a lot of grief from his buddies at the bar. So much, in fact, that he would NOT even go to the bar. Chicago baseball in November wow. I admit I have been checking in on the game, game sevens are hard to resist no matter who is playing. But I'm not rooting for them. I am my father's daughter after all!

What has been going on around here. Hmmm. Still looking for a job here in town.  I really do not want to drive out of town, but I suppose it might come to that . . . eventually.  I've been picking up some hours at the courthouse processing mail-in ballots. I like working at the election. And I will be glad when it is over. I do not like talking politics with my friends. Some of their thoughts surprise the hell out of me.  Even shock me. And not in a good way. And how about the friend who told me "You are welcome!" for the health insurance? What does one make of that? Two words come to mind. Yes, those two. Sometimes thoughts are best kept in your head. Or shoved way far up your ass.

In other happenings Mom's 79th birthday is coming up. We found out at her last doctor's appointment that her arm is not healing. Doc said it could still turn out OK, the bones could form some sort of connection, and if it does not there are things that can be done. We go back in January to see how things are going. She finished up all her therapy and I have to wonder if all that therapy on a broken elbow was warranted.

Dad used to have a heated mattress pad and he loved it. I got mom one for her birthday and she loves it too. She likes to be toasty warm, and it feels good on her arm. We'll probably take a ride to John's for a birthday lunch for her (I guess I better tell him that!), but not this weekend. He has a big fundraiser for work, and I might just take a ride over. It's a fun one, Food for Thought, and the chili cook-off is hard to resist.

This balmy weather in November is crazy. Still ripping up the garden and pulling down morning glories and washing windows, all the fall stuff. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is nearly here.

I did  a new thing this week. I donated platelets. I have donated blood before, but not platelets. I didn't know much about it, but last time I was donating I asked about this man hooked up to this machine. The nurse told me it takes like two hours or more so a lot of people don't have (or take) the time. Well time I got and I had quite a high platelet count and they were able "to do a triple". I guess that is good.  I had a friend that I ran around with in grade school, then again in middle school, then again in high school. There wasn't a time when we weren't friends, but we didn't always run around together, and after she got married we didn't really talk much or see each other much, but were always friendly, you know how it goes. You don't forget childhood friends like that. I used to hang out at her house all the time, we had a lot of fun and good times and laughs, lots of them. Leukemia got her, only 54 years old. It was weird to go to the wake, because her siblings were so much older than she was, they didn't know me, and I don't know her husband that well, and the only ones who really knew how much fun we had was just us and her mom, and she is gone too. So now it is just me.  Last time we talked she was in remission but it must have come back in a very bad way. So I donated platelets and I have an appointment to do it again next month too.

I will end this cheery post with a couple of photos, and dang, the Cubs are up 3-1   . . .

Mom enjoying the nice fall weather. See that glove on her hand? She got that at therapy. Cost $238. Not covered by insurance. Crazy.

Midge supervising the fall cleaning. She is a real stickler.

It's like cat glamping . . . clamping?

Finn roughing it in his heated bed in the shed. Life is rough. He spent a fair amount of time in this bed last year too . . . in the house!

Late August Early September

I didn't know that your mid 50's brought certain things, like hair that won't lay down, and age spots coming out on my arms in constellation formations. Nobody warned me about the Big Dipper.

Forget what I said about Whitey, the white cat visitor being  a delightful, young caller. He is a moody little shit. I still like him though. But I cannot figure him out! He doesn't want affection or treats or a pat.  I really thought I understood cats. How weird is he? He comes in the door so quick I can't stop him and then tries to strike at me when I go to put him out. LOL  Usually he walks in the back door, strolls through, snoops around, and exits out the front door. Oftentimes he jumps the fence again, and is in the back yard again so quick I can't believe it. I guess our house is cat-trot style.

All done with my eye drops. I hope that never happens again, ouch!

No more Tony on NCIS, no more Shemar and Hotch gets canned on Criminal Minds! What the hell is going on in Kay's TV Land?

I saw SuperDawg on Check, Please! on PBS (twice) and then when I saw a Groupon deal for it I grabbed it. John (on vacation this week) and I used it this week while my car was in the shop getting some recall work done. It was fun, a very tasty SuperDawg for me, and a Whoopsie Burger for John.  And corn nuggets in the Superveggies, delish! We also hit Caputo's Cheese Market and many other places.  A fun outing. And ever so much better than cooling my heels at Toyota for hours. Thanks John!

Later in the week we headed out to Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa. It was terrific.

John was more intrepid than I! lol

It was a very pleasant trip, the weather was perfect, for hiking and caving and driving, and the people were pleasant and friendly. The views from the car were stunning up in Northern Illinois, and Illinois should have more scenic overlooks up that way. We stopped at Torkelson Cheese Co. in Lena, IL and picked up some cheese, including their award winning Meunster, my fave pizza cheese. Too early for apples, not quite ready yet.

Mother continues to to go to physical and occupational therapy and is doing very well, which bodes well for fall fun for Kay. Summer was kind of a bust this year what with John's shingles and mother's spill, but fall is shaping up to be more promising for some unemployed fun. LOL

Kay :)

Summer

Mexican sunflowers too.

Nothing fancy pants here about gardening. Just pretty.

This wee hummer likes to buzz my head when I am outside. He is mindful of my corneal abrasion, so I guess it is OK. My eye is doing much better! A few more days of eye drops. I don't have to go back to eye doc unless I have problems.

We saw mom's ortho yesterday. Her arm is healing, there is calcification at the break and the bones have not shifted. Or something like that. He ordered physical therapy and we are leaving for her first appointment in a few minutes. The only word I can think of to describe mom's mood about therapy is P-I-S-S-Y! lol 

Kay :)

Anybody want a cat?

Be warned, said cat may slip while jumping up on your bed and then, in an attempt to avoid falling like 8 inches (he started out on his little green footstool, which I got him because of his gimpy hip), oh boy, will lunge up and try to catch himself (claws out) and cause an abrasion to your cornea. OUCH. Nasty, painful business. Said abrasion will cause you to miss your annual family reunion, which is a lot of fun. Grrrr. No family fun, no beer for Kay! John came home and took the fam over. They didn't stay long, Mom was really tired out, but it was good for her to have an outing and NOT to the doctor. I called my eye doc Thursday night after it happened, and had an appointment Saturday. Got a bunch of drops, one of which thankfully helped the pain. I have to go get re-checked tomorrow. Ouch. Ouch.

Mom has a doc appointment on Wednesday to see how the elbow is healing.

Tomatoes galore! They were really small but I couldn't stand the thought of them going to waste, so I made some sauce. Next time I will just buy some, what a mess.

To add insult to injury I seem to have a bug, or eaten something that did not agree with me. Grrrrr. And ouch. Whine whine.

And of course I'm just joking, nobody can have my sweet Finn.

Grumpy Growly Kathleen

Cat Days of Summer

Milkweed for the the monarchs and my first sunflower. Oh, and Finnegan, the most handsome and sweetest cat in the land. Except when he brings home baby bunnies. And birds. And bats. And Barbie Dolls. Forget I said anything.

Cat days of summer, Finn has to cool off his tummy under the ceiling fan occasionally. I never thought a gray and brown cat could be so handsome! What a looker.

Mother saw the doctor today. He took an x-ray. Her arm is healing. He wants her to stop using the sling at home and keep doing her exercises. He will do another x-ray in 2 weeks and then decide about physical therapy. Right now it would be too painful and mom is doing pretty well on her own. Mom asked the doctor if she should use a cane when she walks and he said if she needed stability it would be a good idea. I asked the doctor to order her to NOT try to light cigarettes while walking. If mom had a cane in her hand when I said that, I think I would have gotten clocked. She really is doing well, thank goodness for the pain pills, and thank goodness she is sleeping well.

Mosquitoes are terrible! Can't even sit outside with my coffee and kitties in the mornings, bastards!

That's all.

Kay :)

It's as big as my head . . .

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Hera and Isis! 4 years old today. Close call for Hera, glad she made it! :)

Patient Update

Had mother to the doctor today. He wants to see her again in two weeks. He had mom move her arm about, and asked her if she would be content with that range of motion for the rest of her life. Mother, who had been fearing that he was going to bring up surgery again, emphatically answered yes! LOL  Doctor said therapy would be too painful now, but they'll discuss it again after next visit, most likely therapy will start in 3-4 weeks. She is still using the sling. Doctor said in about a week to ten days take off the sling. I do not see that happening, honestly. She's doing well, just a little nausea, probably from the pain prescription, so we got something else to try today. Not as strong, but fewer side effects.

Her hair was bugging her so we went for a shampoo and a haircut yesterday. Outings 2 days in a row. I predict she will sleep like a baby tonight.

Introducing Whitey. He comes to call nearly every afternoon.  He's a real chatterbox. He doesn't want to be petted or touched. He likes the catnip, and he chases butterflies, and he annoys the hell out of Midge. I don't know where he lives, but he is clearly well taken care of and is a delightful young caller. He is very talkative, but never confrontational, except with Midge or unless you want to pet him. He wants nothing to do with that business.

John was home Saturday for his birthday lunch and to visit mother. A pleasant time was had by all. We had our favorite pizza and I made carrot cake. I don't like to brag, but I make really really good carrot cake. Really good.

Sent John home with a box of goodies from the garden. I suspect those green tomatoes got fried up! I haven't fried any yet myself. Everything is doing very well. I have this monstrous cherry tomato plant that has taken over a whole raised bed. It is everywhere. And it is producing like crazy. I'm doing my best to keep up with it. It is hard.

That's all I got.

Kay :)

Happy Birthday John!

Happy 50th birthday John!  Wow you are getting up there man! There will be carrot birthday cake this weekend!

Good old Metropolis, IL!

By this time last year I was already sort of tired of zucchini (but I was not tired of zucchini bread and zucchini chocolate cake, I just HAD to stop baking) and was pawning them off on friends, co-workers and passing strangers. This is what I got this year  . . .

Yeah. That's a quarter.

The most impressive thing I have growing this year is my Weed. I'm pretending that it is an exotic tropical plant. But yeah, it's a weed. My weed. It is making my showers feel very tropical, and one night a little creepy, growing up against the bathroom window.

Patient updates:

Finnegan: Done with antibiotic but still will not come near me for fear I'll pry his jaws open and try to drop a pill in there. Not sure how many he actually got in him really, since I saw a pill stuck on his back one night while he was running away from me.

Midge: Cowers and cringes every time I am within 10 feet of her lest I try to apply some eye ointment.

Mother: Back to doc today. Temporary cast came off and she is just in a splint. After just 9 days! Times they are a changing people. She is supposed to take the sling off a couple of times a day and gently exercise her arm. Just let me say . . . OUCH. She has a nasty looking bruise on her upper arm where the cast has been rubbing. The swelling has gone down a lot from last week. She is doing very well. Mom says she remembers watching a show on TV, a talk show or something, and a doctor was the guest. Someone in the audience asked the question, "What is the secret to a long life?" The doctor said, "Two words. DON'T FALL!" lol   Back to the doctor next week for an x-ray, and he'll decide about when she should start her physical therapy. Mother will hate that! But you gotta do what you gotta do.

A real senior moment . . . I went to the bank and was stymied when the ATM did not respond as usual when I inserted my card. It seems the bank wants me to insert my BANK card, NOT my AARP membership card. No, don't do that math, I'm not that old, but joining the AARP saved me some good bucks on my car insurance. I'm just old enough . . .

That's all folks.

Kay :)

Patient Update

Well, the doctor recommended surgery, and also discussed another option to put a cast on and let it heal, as it is not too terribly displaced, and then try some physical therapy beginning in a couple of weeks, just gentle stuff to help with her range of motion. Mom of course chose the non-surgery option. I don't blame her really. At 78, who wants to have surgery? Plus you can't smoke in those damn hospitals any more! When I was filling out the paperwork for Mom it shocked me to write in her health history that she has been smoking for about 70 years. What the hell? Anyway, the Doc said he could get her better range of motion if she had surgery, but mom isn't worried about it. Then the doctor said that if she didn't like the way it heals they could look at at elbow replacement, and that the recuperation from elbow replacement would be easier than recuperating after the surgery from this break. Wow.   Clearly he does not know my mother. Mom got a new cast on today that will hopefully be more comfortable and we go back in a week.  And we both really like that doctor, so that is a good thing.

The other patients (feline) . . .

Finn is on antibiotics for an abscess.

Midge is on ointment for a wonky eye. 

They are avoiding me like the plague.

Kay the Nurse

Summer Snaps and Independence Day Troubles

Illinois Canyon trail at Starved Rock

First garden green pepper. I whipped up a gourmet dish for supper with it, Weenies and Beans and Cornbread ala Kay.

I just want to say that this post was titled "Summer Snaps" BEFORE the calamitous event of July 4th.  I had started this post last week and since it contained nothing of substance I saved it as a draft figuring I'd fluff it up later. Perhaps I am a little psychic? I dunno. More likely . . .  psycho.

Yep, there is mom, with her supracondylar humerus fracture. She was not too keen on getting her picture taken but she looks just fine! She has a temporary cast all the way from her upper arm to her fingers. She took a tumble on the patio. Found her there with glass all around from a broken coffee cup (and some cut fingers), ciggies all around, lighter on the ground, a stick of gum, she was so close to her rocking chair, so close! She swears to me that she wasn't trying to light a cigarette while walking, like she did last time she fell! Because we have RULES against that now.  She went down hard on her right arm. She sits on patio all the time, multiple times a day, she enjoys the outdoors and to have her ciggies. She was a little shook up, doesn't know what happened. A real shame this happened to her, we are all very sad about it. She was reluctant to go to the ER but I talked her into it. I think at first the ER personnel didn't think anything was broken because Mom was doing so well, but the dang x-ray showed otherwise. The doc told her she is tough, and she is. She is doing very well. We left the ER with instructions to follow up with the ortho doc today. Of course on the way home we talked about how nice it is that you don't have to leave town anymore to see a specialist like you did years ago. But of course the ER was full of people who needed orthopedic referrals today so we can't get into the Morris office, we have to go to Joliet tomorrow. LOL  Mom wasn't even going to get a prescription for pain pills, she told the doc she'd take some ibuprofen, but I said oh yes, we need an Rx  . . . I may need to pop a pill! I was  just joking of course, and Mom is glad to have them now. The pain pills are working great and she has slept very well, considering.  She skipped supper last night,  and lunch today, but she had a nice supper, so I think things are going quite well really.

At least it was her right arm, and she is a lefty, so, as we are all getting tired of saying . . .it could have been worse!

More tomorrow after doc.

Kay :)

Happy Father's Day!

Bernie had just given John a $5 tip for a meal John had cooked for us all. On the way home Bernie said, "I slipped him a $5. I think he can use it after that spread." Priceless. 

Dad and Aunt Jean and Aunt Shirley and Uncle Jim might be in deep discussion at this very moment!

Oh my mom will kill me for this one, lol, but Dad looks so cute in his beer/shamrock t-shirt.  I used to have such fun finding "Bernie t-shirts" for Dad to wear to the bar! I still think "Oh, perfect shirt for Dad!" sometimes.

I'm going to be very Bernie today and have a beer and watch the cars go by for a while. Three cheers (and maybe beers) for good dads everywhere.  I am surely a lucky girl to have had such a great dad and great uncles!

Kay :)

I'm 54 and my hair is too red!

Just let me say, happy birthday to me! And Caribbean Caramel, Light Reddish Brown, my ass! I have a lot to learn about covering up my gray. It is just my 3rd try, I'll find the right color one of these days. I mean when people greet you by saying "oh my!" instead of "hello" .  . well, that is hardly ever a good thing.

Faithful readers may remember my lucky contest wins, Scotties tissues, potato chips, laundry detergent, and I don't think I mentioned the time I won a turkey in a raffle. I was 12 and I tried to sell it to the folks for Thanksgiving dinner, my logic being that I'd give them a deal, they wouldn't have to buy one. They just laughed. And ate my turkey. Well I have won something else . . . cottage cheese! Luck of the Irish people, luck of the Irish! I got it I guess. I haven't received cottage cheese or coupons yet, but the suspense is killing me! A months worth of cottage cheese, wow!

Had fun today at an estate sale, found a nice box of super old puzzles. John bought a nice La-Z-Boy armchair and an ottoman for his basement.  Super comfy if you want to chill in the cool basement and watch some flicks.

I used to like to go out on my birthday. Now I'm just fine with staying out of the heat and watching an old movie about  a Yeti!  And how is it possible I had never seen Lilies of the Field before? Great movie.

45 years ago today John was in cousin Denny and Holly's wedding as ring bearer!

Kathleen :)

Hera doing yoga.

When the heat index is 100, do a puzzle!

Do 2 puzzles! 

John got his own puzzle, a sliding tile puzzle of the United States. Bernie so would have bought that puzzle too! Cracks me up. And does anybody know what that green duck thing is? It's quite puzzling . . .

Old puzzles with no picture to work from are super cool . . . and hard!