Cold Spring

Brrrrr. I went to John's this weekend. He messaged me Thursday night, told me to be prepared, that his house was the warmest it had been all day at 4:45 p.m., and it was 53 degrees! Yikes. I packed up my long underwear and other warm gear. But thanks to a cold, wet work day he spent at a donated house he is rehabbing for work, he got chilled to the bone, and the heat got turned on yesterday! Woo hoo, and the thermostat all the way up to 60!

John's kitties are gorgeous. They are still one-man cats though. They tolerate me. I think.

The sisters, Isis and Hera.

Aunt Carrie's Bon Bon Cake from an old Betty Crocker Cookbook I found at a thrift stores. Alas My fudge icing wouldn't whip up (what the hell is soft ball stage anyway? I guess what I remember from foods class is a little sketchy LOL), so I sliced it up and served the icing as a "sauce"! It was yummy. That white stuff tastes like the middle of a Suzy Q. And I must have hit the soft ball stage with that filling because it was perfect. The fudge icing, no. Maybe next time. Scratch cakes are the best. Wait til you see my 6 layer salted caramel birthday cake John is going to make for me! I'm not sure he knows about that yet. All sorts of razzle dazzle, thanks to Martha Stewart.

Midge, my dainty girl, snooping on one of the strays eating on front porch.

The kitchen is done, I have to get some pics. It's like night and day, so bright and cheery now.

Mom is doing well. She commented the other day that Dad had wanted one more summer and he didn't get it. We both know it wouldn't have been the kind of summer Dad would have wanted. I find myself thinking of him at the store, when I see a White Sox shirt, or in the candy aisle, or in the grocery when I see his favorites.

Streator Unlimited is having their 50th anniversary in a couple of weeks, and I'm taking Mom and Joe over to the celebration. A big to-do, should be fun. Quite the outing for mom and Joe. We'll have to stop and visit the girls too. Plus Mom and Joe can do some ciggies! Priorities!

I planted a few things, but Mother Nature is trying to freeze them! I picked up some Lantana at the nursery, and have had to bring it in a bunch of times.

This will be Midge's flower bed this year. Changing things around. 

Onions, radishes and lettuce. I'll be eating some organic (thanks Midge and Finn!) salads soon. Thanks to Midge I've planted the same onions 5 or 6 times . . . so far.

Had a fun afternoon off with Mar, looking for a new kitchen table. And gosh, those Tempur-Pedic beds are super cool! Take a Tuesday afternoon off, go to Wilmington to a furniture store, and you get the place pretty much to yourself! LOL We had a  yummy lunch too.

And last, but not least, my sweet Finn. I had Finn to the vet for an irritated ear, and he lost a pound! I'm glad someone in the family can lose weight. He is down to 18#! LOL He is feeling kind of frisky out in the yard sometimes, and he tackled my calf the other day, and nearly took me down!

Have a most pleasant week. Or. at the rate I've been posting on this blog, have a most pleasant month!

Kay :)

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

I'm tired of this spring/winter weather!? So are my kitties.

I got a funny text from my friend Musito (name has been changed to protect the . . . hmmm the what?) the other day. We were chatting and, in closing she sent me this message:

8:57:08 AM  Okay I'm out of here I'll see you sometime later use your pet penis to your advantage today.

Then boom she was gone, leaving me to wonder (through my tear-filled belly laughter) what in the hell is she talking about!?  Well later when I caught up with her, she was referring to my comment earlier in conversation that I woke up peppy! LOL   So I was to take advantage of my peppiness! Whew!


Work in progress . . . dark paneling is gone! Woo hoo. This color might be the polar opposite of dark paneling! LOL 

Yukon Gold . .  also my favorite tater!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy St. Pats!

Missing Dad today. He loved St. Patrick's Day. He had a lot of Irish t-shirts, and always got a good buzz on at the bar to celebrate his Irish heritage! LOL

Dad's recliner is gone. Before it went to the curb we flipped it over and did some investigating . . . $7 and the long-lost remote control! We had a good giggle over that.

Mom is getting the kitchen redone. Dad was always against it, he thought it was a great kitchen! It needs it badly. But right now it is a disaster. Photos from Day 2 of demo:

All the walls look pretty much like this . . . or worse!

A couple of interesting finds . . .

Newspapers in the walls (insulation?), this one from February 28, 1892, and a phone book from 1972, the year Mom and Dad bought the house.

What a mess! Plumbing needs repair too. It will be good when it is done!

Kay :)

March

Mom and I had a good trip to Social Security on Tuesday. Well, there was one memory lapse and one fall. But for us, that is a good trip! LOL  Our appointment was at 11:00, we got in a little early, and I checked the clock when we got back in the car, 11:10. Very good. Mom forgot her social security number (we are not good under pressure!) when we went to sign in, but she found it in her purse and we got things rolling along after that.

Mom picked the lunch spot, Portillo’s (yum!) and when we got there mom stayed outside to have her ciggy and I went in and got lunch. Found mom at a table, dealt out the burgers and drinks and such, started eating, and noticed some blood on mom’s hands. After some questioning mom admitted that she had fallen outside, she didn’t know what happened, she somehow fell against the building. She said was very close to the building. I asked her if anybody saw her, helped her . . . ? She said a man came over, but by that time she was already up. Pretty snazzy for 77. The getting up part, not the falling part. And the fall did not hurt Mom’s appetite, so all was well.

After lunch we headed over to visit Aunt Kay. We pulled in the driveway. Before mom stopped driving out of town she would drive Dad to his doctor’s appointments at the VA and they would always stop and visit Aunt Jean and Aunt Kay on the way home. Well I headed for the front door, but Mom told me they always used the garage door. Okey dokey. Mom kind of knocked on outside garage door, and went right on in to the garage . . . up to the back screen door going into the house (the whole visit gave me great memories of fun graduation parties at this home, with terrific food and awesome polish sausage, yum), reached up . . . and pushed the garage door opener. We had arrived! LOL  I had the giggles. So did Aunt Kay. LOL  We had a nice visit, Aunt Kay, Uncle Lee, and then Cousin Mike showed up for some coffee. A pleasant time had by all, and we loved seeing Aunt’s Kay’s beautiful kitchen remodel . . . oh that pantry!  I almost clipped the mailbox backing out of the driveway, but whew, missed it! That would have been embarrassing.

Aunt Kay says she falls all the time too. Like Mom, she doesn’t get hurt! Whew!

Later I caught Mom looking in the mirror, she had a nice bump and bruise coming out on the side of her forehead too! Yikes. I said that I still couldn’t quite figure out how she fell . . . and all she said was, “I’m lucky I didn’t break my glasses!” Amen to that . . . or anything else!

My next day off is for a colonoscopy! I’m going to make sure the one after that is for something super fun! LOL

One more thing . . . how come if you buy one orange it is the best orange you have ever eaten, and if you buy a whole bag, they are awful?

I wrote that earlier in the week, now on Sunday . . .

Mom has a horrible bruise on her head, black yellowish, ouch! She said it never did hurt unless she touched it. I asked her if she didn’t notice all the color in the mirror and she said “I try to avoid looking in the mirror.” LOL  I hear you Mom! Last time I looked in the mirror while sort of bent over the sink, brushing my teeth, wow, gave me quite a fright!

Anyway pork shoulder .99 a pound a Jewel, I got one and cooked it off and bagged it up and I have bags and bags of it in the freezer. That is a good thing. Today was Runza II. It was delicious. I made a dijony-horseradishy pork jus to go with (has someone been watching too much Top Chef?), and served it with How Long Have These Been in the Freezer Perogies!? It was delicious. And I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow, a real treat, as I have a clear liquid diet to look forward to on Tuesday for my routine colonoscopy on Wednesday. Blech.

Could use some color, but my runza was delicious; cabbage, pork and cheese baked in bread dough. A Midwest classic (according to the internet), that I didn't know about til my friend's niece spent some time in Nebraska!

Nice snowy Sunday to lay around. Ewww and maybe knock down some cobwebs . . . it's bright today!

March already. Mom and Dad’s anniversary on the 9th.  56 years.

Kay :)

Confessions of a Former Redhead

It started out sort of strawberry blonde, and got redder and redder . . . until it stopped!

John informed me a while back that my hair wasn't red any more. Like I didn't already know that on some level.

Well, the other day Mar told me the same thing. When your friend of nearly 40 years (wow!) tells you something like that, it is true. Mar, with much thought: "You know . . . there is no red left in your hair." Like I didn't already know that on some level. I used to have a tortoiseshell cat, Eleanor (aka Nelly Belly), and when you brushed her the wad of hair left on the brush was this weird sort of non-color, sort of indescribable, a little bit of everything. That is how my hair is now. Will tortoiseshell even fit on your driver's license? I guess I'll have to go with brown. Or brownish-gray. I'm not sure that will fit on a driver's license either. Nothing against brown hair . . . but after you have had pretty red hair, it is kind of boring. I have two boxes of hair color here, but I'm not ready . . . yet. Between my hair color being incorrect, and my weight being way off (WAY!) on my driver's license, who am I?

With all the stuff going on with Dad, I forgot my annual "woo hoo for colostomy reversals" on January 24th. Belated WOO HOO.  After the reversal I had a colonoscopy and the doc said, due to one weeeee tiny polyp that I should have another one in 3 years, and it is here already! I already set it up, not dawdling about, went for other annual things that needed to be checked out, and everything is just fine, I say when you are going to meet your deductible, MEET YOUR DEDUCTIBLE, and meet it in one month lol! But what are the odds that someone would have a doctor's appointment . . .  I mean 364 days out of the year a girl gets her underwear on right side out . . . the one day she doesn't  . . well . . . never mind.

Still doesn't seem real that Dad is gone. Even Mom said that. Mom, who has hermit-like tendencies, has barely been out of the house. She hates the cold. She doesn't mind not going out much, she gets to the library for her books and stuff, and some of Dad's estate stuff has gotten her out.  But Tuesday I have the day off and we are going up to the Social Security office for an appointment. And then we plan on going to visit Aunt Kay. Big outing for mother. Will be good for her. 

I'll be glad for a warm up in the weather. I'm tired of this cold. And the cats are driving me bonkers. Seed catalogs are rolling in, and spring is on the way.

Kay :)

Missing Pieces and Dollar Bills

Dad loved puzzles. I wanted to put this pic on the photo board at the funeral, but I couldn't find it. I remembered tonight that I had put on a calendar I gave Dad for a gift a few years back. This pic is a favorite of mine. Look how wee Finnegan is in the puzzle box! LOL  If a puzzle was missing a piece Dad would look and look and look for it, and make comments about the missing piece maybe being in another puzzle box, or he could make a replacement piece, or it might turn up  . . . better leave the puzzle up for a while, don't hurry to take it down. He was ever optimistic! See how he is leaning on the puzzle? In warmer weather the pieces would stick to his arms and he'd carry them everywhere! Not just around the house either, I even found one in the driveway one time. Dad found them in his bed, up his sleeves, in his pockets, in his car! LOL  And often in or around his chair in the living room.

Well, yesterday Mom made a lasagna and John came home for dinner. I was sitting in Dad's recliner, and it has seen better days (the chair is a hand-me-down from John! lol), and the footrest was askew, so I tilted the recliner on its back to see if I could finagle the footrest back in. John was watching and he said, laughing (and rather bepuzzled), "Look! Money and a puzzle piece!"

Dad never carried a wallet. He'd always reach into his pocket and pull out a wad of bills folded just like this.

I took this photo on my new used vintage TV tray from an estate sale. Bernie would have loved it too, he would have thought it quite pretty, as do I. We love all things flowered.

Looking forward to a short week. Thursday is a court holiday, as is next Monday, so I went ahead and took Friday off and will have a nice long weekend.

Kay :)

Snow!

Heap big snow! Big winds coming later too.  Bernie would be "scairt" by this weather! It's nice to think that he has no worries now. Since the dementia onset, every single night was his first night in town! How disconcerting that would be, for anyone. I'm thinking that the night of January 10th was the best first night ever for Dad! Aunt Joan's family said that when she was near passing they heard her say "Mama". That is so comforting to me, I'm glad they shared that, because for the last couple of years Dad has longed for his mother. He spoke all the time of how good she was and how much he missed her.

We all miss him. It's funny when it pops into your head. I get chilly and stand over the heater at work, and see a barge on the river, and whenever I see a cardinal, and I've been seeing a lot of them lately! They seem to come out of nowhere. Or I'll be at the store and see something and think to myself that Dad would enjoy that. I'll never get that feeling that someone is looking at me again, and look out the window to see Mom and Dad going by, stopped by my side window, with Dad looking for a wave! Smile and wave at the old people, you might make their day! Teach your kids to do it too. Nothing tickled Dad more than getting "a wave" at the bar, and gosh, once in a while, if we caught the red light, one of his buddies would rush to the door and yell "Hey Bernie!" That always made Dad's day, what a hoot it was. He would have the biggest smile.

Mom and Dad, from my window at work. I'd feel eyes on me, get up pronto, go to the other window, pull back mini blind and wave like crazy! Dad would be peering and looking, and he'd see me, and smile, and wave harder. Sweetness. And gosh what did other people who saw me doing that think! LOLOL

I know what to do in a winter storm, soon (1 hour and 45 minutes) to be a blizzard! Which came first, the chicken tortellini soup, or the cookie?

The cookie of course!

Kay :)