Temperate Tuesday

I woke up a little earlier than I wanted to this morning and did not try to go back to sleep because I wanted to get up a little early to water the berries and roses. So at 0630 I rolled out of bed and went downstairs and outside and dragged the hose to the back of the yard.

It took almost an hour to get everything watered that I wanted to water, so after I was done I went into the house and made myself some breakfast. I bought some Morningstar breakfast bits the other day and heated them up along with a Morningstar "sausage" patty. Morningstar makes some pretty tasty vegetarian foods and are pretty healthy to boot.

After breakfast, I emptied the dishwasher and then went into the living room to read the newspaper. Before I finished the paper the mail came, so I went out and got it. We got a couple get well cards from a couple of couples in our SS class and I got an annual report from one of my stocks and our dentist bill.

It was not even a full bill because Kathleen had to cancel her appointment because of her kidney stone procedure last week, so there is more to come. Luckily we have three months to pay it without drawing any interest charges.

Once I finished the mail and the paper, I went outside and got my pruners and collapsible container and went out front to work on the hedge once again. I thought that I would be able to finish it today, and even though I had to push myself a little bit I did finally get it finished. It only took me a couple weeks to do it, but it looks pretty good.

Not only did I do my side, but the east side as well...I figure that it was our hedge and that is the least I can do is keep it trimmed.

After finishing the hedge, I put everything away and sat out in the sun for about twenty minutes. I knew that there were a blackberry and a nightshade plant that I saw the other day that I needed to get out before they got too big.

So I went into the garage and got out my spading fork and dug out about seven blackberry plants and five nightshade plants. I also dug out a couple dandelion plants that were starting to get pretty large.

By this time it was getting time for lunch, so I cleaned up the spading fork and put it back into the garage and went into the house to and got cleaned up. For lunch I reheated the two ravioli that were left over from last night and finished the rest of the cottage cheese.

After putting the dishes into the dishwasher I went onto my computer to answer an e-mail from our financial adviser and check my other e-mails. When I finished on the computer I went upstairs to see if Kathleen was ready to go to Winco, she was not, so I went outside for a while and did a little cosmetic work on some of the roses.

I figured that Kathleen must be pretty close to being ready to go grocery shopping, so I went upstairs and changed my clothes. Then I went back downstairs and got the shopping list and the coupons and sat in my chair to wait for her to come down.

I dozed off for a while and when I woke up she still was not down, so I decided that I would go upstairs and take a nap rather than keep dozing in the chair. I napped for over an hour, but did not feel any better when I got up and by now it was really too late to go shopping. So I got up and put on my old clothes and went downstairs to watch the news.

About 1800 Kathleen asked if chili sounded okay for dinner, it sounded pretty good for me. I had not eaten much chili lately because of what it can do to my bowels, but I thought that I would give it a try. Kathleen also cut up a mango and an avocado to go along with the chili.

Kathleen made two cans, and there is going to be enough left over for lunch tomorrow...that is if my bowels do not react too strenuously to the chili that I had tonight. Well, that is about it for tonight, I am not quite as tired as I have been, but I am also not as energetic as I would like to be either.

I think that the weather might have something to do with it, it was almost 90 degrees out today and I usually get a little sluggish when it gets much above 80. Well, maybe tomorrow we will get our grocery shopping done, until then, good night.

Marveoous Monday

One would think that by sleeping in until 0730 I would be nice and rested, but I did not feel as rested as I think I should have after eight hours sleep. Anyway after breakfast this morning I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up.

Then I decided that I needed to shake out the throw rugs in the kitchen. Since I was doing that and had the rugs off the floor, I decided that I would sweep the floor and then mop it, so I did.

After sweeping the kitchen I thought I might as well vacuum the downstairs carpeting. The burgundy rug on top of the living room carpet seemed to have gotten a lot of "lint" on it so I thought that the rest of the carpet probably needed it as well.

Once I finished the vacuuming, I got the kitchen rugs off the fence and put them back down in the kitchen, and then I went into the living room and read the paper. After finishing the paper I emptied the dishwasher and as I was finishing that up the mail came, so I went out and got it. There really was not anything there for me, although Kathleen had a few things.

I went outside and pruned the dead roses off the plants and then got my spading fork and went to dig up the vine that was crowding out the climbing roses. The spading fork did not work so I went back to the garage, put the spading fork away and got the spade and after a few tries, I finally was able to get the roots dug up.

I decided that I was tired enough that I would go inside and sit and rest for a while. After sitting for a while inside, I thought to myself why not go outside and sit in the sun and get some fresh air at the same time. I sat there for a while and then decided to pull a few weeds.

I knew that it was starting to get time for lunch so I went inside, cleaned up and made myself a salad. I really think that the salads taste pretty good without dressing, but the raspberry vinaigrette and red wine vinegar really gives it a better flavor.

After eating, I went and gathered up the garbage from the cans in all the rooms and then put them into the garbage can and then took it up front for pickup tomorrow. Then I sat out in the sun for a while before going inside to watch Fox news.

Kathleen made some ravioli tonight for dinner and cut up the rest of the cantaloupe for dessert. The cantaloupe was really nice and sweet, and the ravioli was really good for being Costco frozen. Well, we had dinner earlier tonight than we normally do so I think I might even try to get a little extra sleep tonight.

Last night before going to bed I had to wake myself up after napping for a couple hours and then got eight hours sleep on top of that. Hopefully one of these days I will feel rested again. Well, good night for now.

Sunday's Storms

I woke up several times this morning and stayed in bed because I was so worn out that I could not get up. I woke up again about 0530 and thought about getting up, but decided to stay in bed a little while longer...the next thing that I knew it was after 0700.

I got up and showered, but I was still too tired to move very quickly so I decided that since Kathleen still was not up and she had not felt very good the last couple says that I would stay home this morning rather than try to make it to church.

So I made myself some breakfast and read the paper then about 1030 I decided to go out and pick some berries for a mid-morning snack. There is just something about fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries fresh off the bush, plant or vine.

While I was out there I checked for signs of my raccoon friends, but did not find anything. While I was out there, I had noticed a nightshade plant growing by the grapes so I decided to get my spading fork and dig it out. While I was getting it out I noticed several other smaller plants and a healthy looking blackberry bush, so I dug them out as well.

Since I was in the digging and cutting mode, I decided to prune the dead rose flowers, so I traded my spading fork for the pruners and went to work. I got the big rose garden and the square rose garden done and went out to do the ones along the driveway. While I was doing the climbing roses I decided to cut the climbing vine that was working its way into the roses.

I cut the vines off but I still will need to dig out the roots one of these days. While I was cutting out the vine it started to rain, I did not feel it as I was under the canopy of the fir trees, but when I finished and started to the back yard I had to run to get under the cover of the cherry trees the mountain ash and the apple tree.

It is thick enough back there that I hardly got wet at all. The rain did not last very long; in fact it stopped shortly after I got back into the house and cleaned up.

Andrea called about 1300 and asked if she could come over for a while as they were at the high school and Brandon was getting really fussy. So she, John and Brandon stopped by for a while. Kathleen had just gotten up and so she came downstairs shortly after the got here. Alyssa had called earlier this morning and wanted to come over, but I told her that her Mom was not up yet and to call back in a couple hours.

She called while Andrea, John and Brandon were here, so Andrea decided to stay so that she could see the other kids. Well Alyssa, Dan and their children were going to stop at the farmers market on the way, but it was just closing as they got there so they tried a couple other local produce stands and they were closed as well.

She finally called again and said that they were going to stop at Costco and then here. Andrea and her family stayed for a little while after Alyssa and her family got her and than Alyssa, Dan and the children stayed until about 1930. I was all set to make myself some lunch when Andrea got her, so by the time Alyssa left, I was ready to eat the wall paper.

Alyssa and Dan brought over my Father's Day present, the new Leatherman tool For gardeners, and a box of Ivar's clam chowder. So after everyone left, Kathleen opened up and mixed one of the packages of chowder and put it on the stove, I stirred it for fifteen minutes and then just about ate it out of the pan.

It rained off and on all day, but I do not think it rained enough to do a lot of good, so I will probably have to water either tomorrow or Tuesday morning to give the plants and shrubs some water. Well, that is about it for my day, so I will just say good night.

Stabilizing Saturday

Although I got up about 0630 this morning it was more of a normal day than I have had for a few days. After getting downstairs, I went out back just to see if my neighborhood raccoons were helping themselves to berries and apples. I did not see any so hopefully they will find another place to dine.

So after breakfast and reading the paper I emptied the dishwasher and put everything away and put my breakfast dishes into the dishwasher. Just as I started to go outside to work on the hedge again when the mail came, so I got the mail and the only thing that I kept was my stock market trades and the final visa bill for our laptop and Kathleen's printer.

We were able to buy it with no interest for four months, so that is why I put it on the card. We have been able to do that for a couple large ticket items that we were able to divide the payments into the number of free months offered and not have any interest owed.

Anyway, after going on line and paying the visa bill, I went outside and worked on the hedge for a little while. I talked to our new neighbor and told her that I would mow her lawn in a little bit. I have been doing it so long that it almost seems natural. I thought that I would do it until she can make arrangements to have it done.

She came out as I was finishing the front yard and said that her son would be over in a couple days to do the back yard. He only has a riding mower, so it is hard to do the newly planted areas without leaving deep trenches in the soft ground. So that is another reason that I have been mowing it.

After finishing up the front lawn, I took a couple swings around the perimeter to catch the areas that he could not get to with the riding mower. Then I went inside, cleaned up and made myself lunch. I just reheated the snapper and tater tots from last night, they did not taste any better, but no worse either.

After resting for a little while I decided that I needed to start walking again, so I asked Kathleen if she would mind if I went for a walk. She said no, so I put on my walking socks and shoes and took off. I only walked for about a mile for a couple reasons, one, I had not walked for a while and secondly, I did not want to be gone too long in case Kathleen needed something.

I watched a couple movies on the tube and around 1830 I decided that I would make something to eat. Kathleen had not felt very well today so I just micro waved a Boca burger and put it on some dark rye toast with an onion slice and a couple pickle slices and topped it off with some melted cheddar.

Kathleen came downstairs about 1900 and I told her that I made myself something to eat...she seemed rather relieved. Well to day was more of a normal day for me. I did not do a lot of yard work, as I did not want to get my allergies, asthma worked up. Well, I cannot think of anything else to say except, good night!

Funny Friday Farming

This morning I slept in a little later, it was just a little after 0600 when I got up. I decided that since I did not get around to watering yesterday, I would do it this morning...mornings are better for watering anyway.

As I was approaching the square rose garden I heard some rustling behind me over by the raspberries. When I turned around to look I did not see anything at first, so I kept looking, thinking it was probably a bird in the apple tree.

Was I ever surprised when I heard the rustling again and this time I was able to look right where it was coming from. It was not a bird or even a squirrel, but a big old raccoon, so I turned the hose from shower setting to stream and pointed it in the direction of the raccoon. It took off over the fence and headed west.

About five minutes later I heard another noise, and when I stood still for a few minutes I located where it was coming from...the apple tree. So I again turned the hose to stream and shot it into the apple tree at the raccoon. It climbed a little higher, but then started going down some of the branches and over the fence to the south and then headed east.

I really do not need a family of raccoons living in my back yard, so I am going to try to discourage them from finding a friendly nesting place. Unfortunately there is a good supply of food, in the berries and the apples, and while I do not like them eating the fruit and berries, I would rather that they visit rather than actually live here.

I now not only have to fight the birds, squirrels, slugs, ants and other insects, but now raccoons. I suppose it could be worse I could have bears, coyotes, wolves, foxes and cougars, so maybe raccoons are not that bad. Although they can be a real pest once they claim an area as theirs.

I finally finished watering about 0730 and went into the house and cleaned up. After breakfast, dry cereal and raspberries, I went into the living room to read the paper. While I was reading the paper the door bell rang. When I answered it, it was a person from our power company saying that he wanted to show me something.

I put on my Birkenstock's and went with him to the side of the house where he showed me the insulation from the mast coming into the house had come off. He said that I needed to have it fixed and that normally they would just turn the power off until I did, but he gave me 30 days to get the work done.

So after finishing the paper I called one of our friends who is an electrician to see if he could recommend someone to do the job. He gave me the name of one of his former employers, so I called them and had to leave a voice message with their estimator.

I waited for the call back, but finally thought that I would have to go out and mow the lawn as it is suppose to be raining off and on this weekend. So I took the phone with me and mowed the back yard first, since I still had a little energy left, I mowed the front lawn as well.

I still had not gotten a call from the estimator, but I had heard the mailman dropping off the mail as I was cleaning up. I got it, but other than the water bill there really was not much of anything there. Again the door bell rang and this time it was the FedEx driver delivering Kathleen's new A-pap machine. She had not gotten up yet, so I just left it on the couch.

The estimator finally called back and gave me a quote of $500 to replace the wire and bring everything else up to code. I was not expecting it to be quite so high, but I was not overly surprised either...everything cost so much anymore.

I decided to make myself some lunch, so I heated up the left over mac and cheese and the rest of the snapper for the other night. Not the tastiest meal, but I was too tired to really care.

Since the yard debris got picked up today I had an empty barrel to fill up so I went out and pulled out some more ivy and even got out my stubbing hoe and dug and cut out some of the roots. Some of them were three or so inches across, no wonder the ivy was so healthy.

After filling the barrel up about three-quarters full, I decided that I would call it enough and go inside. So I cleaned up the hoe and moved the barrel to behind the fir trees and went into the house and cleaned up.

After falling asleep in my chair, I decided that I would get on the computer and pay the water bill and get that out of the way. Kathleen heated up some frozen fish and tater tots for dinner. She cooked them in the convection oven so the fish and the tater tots were not real mushy and did not taste all that bad.

Well, I am sure that I am leaving out some other rather uninteresting information about my day, but that is all that I can think of for now, so I will just say good night!

I Think it is Thursday

Just when I did not think that I could get any more tired...I did! I woke up early this morning and finally got up a little after 0400 after tossing and turning for a couple hours. I did sleep a little during that time, but it was not a good sleep, so after a couple hours of that I just decided that I would be better off just getting up.

To make matters worse, the paper was not here when I got up, so I did all my computer stuff and then finally a little after 0700 I called the local dealer. After about forty-five minutes of not hearing anything, I called the paper circulation department and about a half hour later the paper came.

The local manager delivered it and rang the door bell, so I went out and talked to him and he asked me what I did to get my yard looking so good. I told him lots of time and many years of working at it. I usually get one or two people a week stop while I am working on the front yard and say how nice it looks.

After reading the paper, I took a cat nap in my chair and finally about 0930 the mail came, not much there, so I recycled the junk and then went outside and worked on the front hedge for a while. A lot of the trimming that I am doing is at shoulder level and so my arms get really tired quickly. It does not help that I am so tired to begin with, but I pushed on a little longer than I probably should.

The son of the woman who moved next door asked me if I would move the sprinkler for him as he had to leave, so about every twenty minutes or so I would move it until about 1400. By this time it was time for me to make some lunch for myself, so I cooked up a Boca burger and put it on some dark rye toast with onion, cheddar and a couple pickle slices.

After eating I went outside and sat in one of our Adirondack chairs and rested for a while. It was so nice outside that I just could not see myself sitting inside. Well, I did not sit too long and before I knew it I was digging up some columbine and some bachelor buttons and transplanting them.

Then I noticed some Italian prune tree starts in the rose garden, so I dug them up as well. That led me to noticing some weeds, so I pulled them out as well. I thought about watering the plants again, but I ate berries instead...I never did get around to watering...oh well there is always tomorrow!

I decided that I needed to go inside if I had any hope of getting any rest, so I cleaned up a little and sat in my chair and before I knew it I woke up and it was 1630. I watched the news for a while and Kathleen came down stairs and pointed out that my feet were pretty dirty. While I had washed up the upper part of me, I did not have the energy to clean off the lower extremities, so my feet were pretty filthy.

Kathleen made some macaroni and white cheddar cheese for dinner. She also added a can of chicken and some pearl onions and peas to the mix. It was anything that I would have asked for, but I was too tired to do anything different or even think of anything else, so it did the job.

She also opened a can of cranberry sauce to go along with the main dish. Well, it is a little after 1900 and I am almost ready for bed. I am sure that I will not go to bed for a while yet, but my brain has pretty much shut down, so I think that I will just say my good nights now.

One year ago today!

It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since I had my cancer surgery, but it has been. It is not like it has been uneventful year; both Kathleen and I have had our share of medical problems. I am so tired right now that I think this is going to be a really short blog.

This morning was somewhat normal, I did get the front lawn mowed this morning and pruned the dead rose buds, but that was about all I got accomplished today. Kathleen did not make it downstairs until about 1300 today; I know that she said that she slept over twelve hours. I had waited for her to get up before I went to Fred Meyer's to pick up her prescriptions to see if she needed anything else, she did not, so I took off.

When I got back from getting the prescriptions it was about 1500, so I made myself a salad for lunch and then crashed in my chair for a while. When I finally got the energy to go upstairs, I took a nap for a couple hours, but I still do not feel rested.

About 1900 I asked Kathleen about her meal schedule she said that she still did not feel well, so I reheated the snapper from the other night and I think that I used the last of the "Mexican" rice for dinner for myself and that is where we are now.

As I said, I am really worn out, so I think I will just say good night and call it a day!

Tiring Tuesday

I thought that I would start this early because I know that when I get home from spending most of the day at the hospital I will not feel like writing very much.

This morning after getting up I emptied the dishwasher and did the hand washing left over from last night, and then I made myself an egg and veggie sausage sandwich with dark rye bread. After eating I washed the pan and put the dishes into the dishwasher.

I had noticed that the micro wave
was starting to get pretty filthy, so I thought that I had better take a little time and scrub it down.
I washed the tray and also the top, sides, door and bottom of the micro wave and then wiped it down and did it all over again to get it clean.

With the kitchen somewhat clean, I went into the living room and read the paper. Tuesday is not usually a great news day, so it did not take me too long to finish the paper. When I did I took it outside and put it with the rest of the recycling and took the bin up to the front to be picked up today.

The mail had not come yet, so I thought that I would at least get a start on this and save some frustration tonight when I get home. The other reason is that Kathleen just got up and we will be leaving in a little while and I did not want to get started doing something that I would have to stop in the middle of.

Well, it is now 2140 and we are just getting home...it has been a long day for me and I am sure Kathleen as well. We spent almost nine hours at the hospital, Kathleen was out of it for a good portion of that time, and I think that I read all the magazines in the waiting rooms on two floors.

The doctor came out about 1730 and told me that it looks like they got the larger one to break up and the other ones should take care of themselves. So at that point I got to go to another waiting room and wait for Kathleen to wake up. About 1900 the nurse came and got me and said that Kathleen was looking for me, so I got to go into the room with her until about 2100 when they "kicked: her out.

Well, I am more tired than I thought that I would be, something about sitting around for nine hours will do that to me every time. So I am sure that Kathleen will write something about her procedure when she gets around to in, right now I can hardly see straight, so it is good night from here.

Monday's Mayhem

Well I only got about four hours sleep last night, not nearly enough and I have been tired all day. This morning after eating breakfast and reading the paper, I cleaned up the bathroom where Kathleen had gotten sick. Then I gathered up the towels and washed them.

Kathleen took a shower and afterwards I gathered up the rugs in the bathroom and the clothes that she had been wearing when she got sick and washed them as well. By this time the mail came so I opened it up and most of it was junk, so I recycled it.

After gathering up the garbage for around the house and taking it outside, I then took the can up front for pick up tomorrow. When I came back into the house the towels were dry, so I folded them and put them away.

By this time it was time to take Kathleen to the doctors. He asked how soon she wanted to take care of the stones and Kathleen said as soon as possible, so he asked how about tomorrow. That sounded good to us so we made arrangements to do it tomorrow early afternoon.

We will need to leave here about 100 or so because she needs to be there two hours before the procedure. We were there about an hour and when we finished we went to Walgreen's to pick up her prescription from last night and also some other things that she could only find at Walgreen's.

After finishing there, about another hour later, we finally were on our way to Winco to pick up some groceries that we were out of. We did not have our list, so I was going mostly off memory, I checked the list when we got home and did not do too badly.

After the groceries were put away, I cooked myself a Boca burger for a late lunch, it was almost 1630, and put it on some multi-grain bread heels that I had put a couple onion slices, a sliced up mushroom a couple dill pickle slices and a slice of cheese. This has become one of my staples, nest to salads, it is quick and tastes good.

Kathleen fixed some snapper for dinner, she had the white rice that she fixed the other night and I had the "Mexican" rice from last week with mine. It was very tasty and not too many bones.

Well, I am very tired and that is all I can think about writing tonight, so good night for now!

Sucha Sunday

Well yesterday was Father's Day and started out like must Sunday's should. After church and Sunday School, we went home and I tried calling my "little" bro, as it was his 54th birthday, boy is he getting old! Anyway I tried the two phone numbers that I had for them and one went right to a voice mail box and the other just kept ringing and ringing, so after letting it ring for over a minute, I just hung up.

I thought that I might try later, but I never got a chance to try. Kathleen chopped up some onion and mixed it with the "Mexican" rice and her salmon from last night and then heated it up. I added a little sour cream to it and it really was good.

Then I finished reading the paper and also collected, washed, dried, folded and put away the first load of laundry. John called about 1650 and said that we were to meet them at "Sweet Tomatoes" about 1730 for dinner with him, Andrea, Brandon and John's parents.

We arrived just before 1730 and John's parents arrived about ten minutes later, John, Andrea and Brandon were the last to arrive and when they did we all went inside and went through the line to gather our salads.

Kathleen started not feeling well and so we left as soon afterwards as we could. She had driven there and wanted me to drive home. Kathleen's pain was getting worse as we headed north so as we reached the exit that would take us close to our doctor's office, I asked her if she wanted me to get off and see if the office was still open. She said yes, so I did, I knew that the office hours were really short on Sunday, but I thought that I would give it a try.

The office had closed at 1500, so we were just a little late to see anyone. So then we called the office to get the on-call doctor. Kathleen told him her problem and he said that she could either go home and try to tough it out until morning or go to the emergency room.

Since the hospital emergency room was about a half mile away we thought that it would be better to stop there and have her checked out. We got to the hospital about 1900 and she finally got someone to take her into triage, and then to a room where they finished admitting her.

While in the room they gave her an IV with some pain killer and then just before we left they gave her some pain pills to take and a prescription for more, but we were too tired to drive out to Gresham, the closest 24 hour pharmacy.

About 2130 they sent her out for s CT scan and discovered kidney stones, the largest about 6mm and several others behind it. Long story short, we finally left about 2300 and I was really tired...hence no blog last night.

This morning we will have to go to see Doctor Winchester, the same doctor who did my surgery last June and whom she say many years ago for some other kidney stones.

This is not exactly how I had envisioned my Father's Day to turn out, but not totally unexpected either. Well, I am still tired as I did not get to bed until 0100 this morning as I had to take the second load of laundry out of the dryer and fold and put it away, and I was also too wound up to go to sleep before that.

When Kathleen gets up we will be getting an appointment to see the doctor this morning and will go from there.
I am sure that are not done with this episode yet so we will write more when we find out more. Hope to talk to you tonight.

Showery Saturday

I slept until about 0700 this morning and felt pretty good when I got up, so after breakfast, I emptied the dishwasher from last night. Then I went into the living room and read the paper. The mail came just before I finished reading the paper, so I went out and got it after I finished the paper.

There was not a lot there, so I recycled the paper and junk mail. I could tell that it was going to be one of those days where I would not be able to get a lot done outside because everything was pretty wet outside. So I decided that I would go out and trim some more off the front hedge even though it was wet, I could still trim it without getting wet myself.

AS I was doing that I turned around to put some of the branches into the folding barrel when there was Aaron. He had driven up and I had not seen him because the neighbor next door was getting her household goods delivered and the moving van blocked my view.

Aaron brought over a Gap 2007 flag shirt for Kathleen and me. I remember one year for Father's Day I received seven shirts, mostly from Aaron, Tami Alyssa and Dan; I still have all of them even though I use to wear a different one to work everyday I just never got then really dirty or put holes in them.

Aaron could not stay too long as he had to go to church to for the bicycle rodeo that Becca and Alexis were participating in. Tami was bringing the girls because Aaron would have to leave for work before it got over, so Aaron came over by himself.

After he left I gathered up the flower pots and hanging baskets from previous years and pulled out the weeds from them and then took them to the back yard to my potting area. Then I went back and worked on the hedge for a little while longer. My arms were getting tired so I decided that I would take the clippings to the back yard and put them in the pile to shred later.

Then I took some steel wool and cleaned up the pruners and oiled them so that they would last longer. Before I put them away, I took my file to the blades and took off some of the rough edges and put a little bit of an edge on the blades. It is amazing how long things will last when one takes care of them.

Just after I had gotten cleaned up it started to rain again, so my timing was pretty good on when to stop and get inside. I was wondering how the bicycle rodeo went and if every one got wet.

I was getting hungry about 1400, so I chopped up some mushrooms, green onions, radishes, and several kinds of lettuce and a tomato and made myself a salad. I had not had one in several days as we were running out of several items, but I found just enough to make a pretty good salad. To top it off, I used a raspberry dressing and added some red wine vinegar; the combination really gave it a good taste. Although the salad was tasty enough that I probably could have gotten by without and type of dressing but I did not.

After it stopped raining I decided to go back outside and pull a few weeds. I filled up a five gallon bucket in just a few minutes, but I was getting really wet because where I was weeding the grass and weeds were really high and wet. Next I went up front and watered the hanging fuchsia plants as they do not get any benefit from the rain as they are hanging on the overhang of the front porch.

After re-coiling the hose again, I decided that I would pull up some more of the ivy that I started doing a couple months ago. The ivy is really well rooted and intertwined, so it was harder work than I needed to be doing, but it needed doing and it was not getting any better by itself.

After going into the house and cleaning up, I decided that I had better work on our new budget some more. I still had a lot of work to do on it and our financial advisors wanted it this week.

After working on it for a while the system locked up and I lost all the work that I had just done. I tried to put it back together again and sent a cope to Kathleen for her input. John call and said that he and Andrea were going to take us to "Sweet Tomatoes" tomorrow evening for Father's Day, so that will be nice.

Kathleen said that she thought that Alyssa and Dan were going to be out of town, Aaron had to work and Toni probably has to work as well. So it will be nice to do something special on Father's Day.

Tonight Kathleen made some salmon for dinner. She made herself some instant rice and I reheated the "Mexican" rice soup base without adding water, so it really tasted good. Kathleen also steamed some asparagus and cut up a cantaloupe and some strawberries for dessert.

She only finished about half of her salmon and asparagus, so she asked if I wanted it.
I said not tonight, but some other time, so she put it into a plastic storage container and I will have it some day for lunch next week.

Well, that is about it for tonight, I am hoping that I feel well enough to make it to church tomorrow. I have been coughing quite a lot in the mornings so I hope that I do not do that tomorrow. I think that I will wait until tomorrow morning to take my shower; maybe the heat will help clear up the drainage.

Well, I guess that all is left is to say good night!

Feeling Better Friday

I felt much better this morning when I woke up. I still was up and out of bed before 0630, but I was feeling much better than I had in the last couple of days. I could not eat breakfast this morning as I had to have a fasting blood draw at 0840 this morning, so I read the paper. It was a good thing that it was Friday and the paper was the second largest next to Sunday’s paper.

I finished just about the time I needed to leave for the doctor's office, so that worked out pretty well. When I got there I had to wait quite a while to see the nurse so that she could draw my blood. Once in the room it took quite a while again for her to find a vein to draw the blood from.

I took a couple tries, but she finally was able to draw the blood that she needed. Then she mentioned that I needed to make another appointment for the second week in July to do another blood test to check on my potassium levels. So I am beginning to think that I will become a pin cushion, as I seem to be getting stuck a lot lately.

I finally made it back home just before 1000, and was slightly hungry, Kathleen had used up the rest of the eggs and I used the last of the shredded wheat earlier in the week, so Kathleen suggested Chex cereal. We had a Costco size box that contained a bag of wheat, rice and corn Chex so I used a little of each and that seemed to do the trick.

Shortly after I finished eating the mail came, so I went out and got it, there was not much of anything there, probably the only thing that needed any attention was a Visa bill, that we have on a no interest deal until January 2008, so I have been paying $40.00 a month on it for the last year or so.

Kathleen decided that she would go over to the other side of town and exchange her breathing machine and mask, so she asked if I wanted to go for a ride. Since it had been drizzling all morning and I could not mow, I said sure. So after a while we took off, traffic was getting worse as we got closer to town and the radio said that it was really slow going out of town. We could see that as we were driving that there was a lot of traffic.

She exchanged her machine and mask and we were off again, we took the back roads and went north to Marine Drive and then home from there. I use to drive Marine Drive just about everyday for a couple years. It is usually a very pretty drive and a lot less congested than the major roads.

Once we got home Kathleen cut up a cantaloupe and asked if I wanted some, I did but I wanted to mow the back lawn before it started raining again. So I mowed our back yard and the neighbor's front yard and called it good enough.

As I was mowing the back yard, I noticed that even though it had drizzled a little yesterday and this morning that the plants that I planted last week were looking pretty dried out, so I decided to go ahead and water them. That way if it really did rain they would be more ready to accept more water and if it did not rain then at least they would have had a little moisture.

Then I went into the house and read a couple magazines that have been collecting over the last couple of days. For dinner tonight Kathleen heated up the dinner from last night and sliced up a cantaloupe and some strawberries for dessert. I love having fresh fruit so readily available!


Well, Kathleen is back upstairs working on her computer, and I have pretty much run out of things to say for tonight, so I will just say good night.

Terrible Thursday

I woke up fairly early this morning, but dozed off and on until about 0600 and finally gave up and got up shortly after that. I felt pretty good so after breakfast and reading the paper and mail, I went outside with the intention of mowing and edging the rest of the back yard.

Intention is the key word here, before I got started on the back yard I thought that I would take a few minutes out to trim the flowering hedge along the west boundary, so I got out my hand pruners and folding barrel and went to work.

Kathleen likes it to look a little wild and not flatly trimmed, so I was clipping each branch or sprout individually. I had gotten almost half way done when Aaron and the girls drove up. Becca gathered up most of the immature walnuts that had fallen and then I suggested that we go into the back yard and see if we could find some berries.

I gave the girls a couple cans that I use to gauge how much water I have given to the plants to put their berries in and then showed them the ripe raspberries. Becca did a pretty good job of putting them into the can, but Lexis put hers into her mouth.

While they were doing that I dug up several raspberry plants for them to take home as the last ones that I gave them did not survive. I also dug up a couple butterfly bushes for them as well. Alyssa, next time you are over remind me that you wanted some more as well, and I will dig them up for you. I do not want to do that too early as with this weather they do not last as long as they did last fall.

After a while Kathleen came out so I went back out front to work on the hedge again. I started not feeling very well just as Kathleen and the girls came to the front yard, so I gathered up everything and dumped the twigs and put the shovels and clippers away and went into the house.

I started coughing so hard that I felt like I was going to pass out. I told Kathleen that I did not feel good and she said that I did not look good either so I went upstairs went to bed and slept for a couple hours. I felt a little better when I got up, but then my bottom started to act up.

So I spent most of the next hour sitting in the bathroom. Aaron went upstairs and worked on the cabinets and heat vent for Kathleen. I finally started to feel a little better around 1600, but by then Aaron and the girls were getting ready to go home.

I made myself a blueberry smoothie as I really did not have any lunch and then went and sat down in the living room and watched Fox News until the NBA finals came on. About 1800 I reminded Kathleen that I needed to make sure that I ate dinner before 2000 as I had to do another twelve hour fast for a blood test tomorrow at 0830.

So she used the rest of the wild rice and made another "Mexican" style dinner. This time it was not a soup, but rather more of a traditional "Mexican" rice dish. It was very good, and there is enough left over for several more meals.

Well, Kathleen has gone up stairs and I have pretty much run out of things to write about, so I think I will say good night and hope that I am feeling better tomorrow!

Wednesday's Whittling

I awoke a little earlier than normal, around 0600 this morning and did not get up until around 0630. So after eating breakfast and reading the paper I changed clothes and took off for the dentist office. Yes it was that time of the year for me to have my semi-annual teeth cleaning and check-up.

The dental hygienist cleaned my teeth and then the dentist checked my teeth out and they both gave me a clean bill of health. Dr Naughton said that I should be able to keep my teeth and not have any problems with them for the rest of my life.

When everyone was done with me I asked if I could go on an annual check-up and cleaning schedule to save a little extra money. Since no one could remember the last time I had a cavity they said that would be okay and so I scheduled my next appointment for June 2008.

Kathleen and I had discussed this a little before I left for my appointment, so it was not a spur of the moment thing when I asked about it. In fact I had contemplated the idea several times in the past, but just kind of decided not to follow through with it. So that should save about $120.00 a year, not a huge amount, but sometimes every little bit helps.

When I asked about it they said that it would be okay for me, but that they would not recommend it for Kathleen as her teeth are no where nearly as strong as mine. So for now at least Kathleen will try to make it every six months, I say try because it had been about two years since she last went in for a cleaning.

Anyway, Kathleen's appointment was right after mine so when I got home she had already left for her appointment. While the house was somewhat quiet I decided that I would work on our proposed new budget, so I did some modifications to the data base that I had created the other day.

So many of our expenses are fixed or at least somewhat out of our control, so it makes it a little challenging to try to modify it very much. I made sub categories for such things as insurance, and our Comcast bill, and divided the bills that only come every two or three months by the number of months that they covered to come up with an approximate monthly amount.

I could only work on it so long and then I decided that I needed to go outside and work in the ground for a while. So I pulled a bunch of weeds in one of the hill gardens that I really have neglected for a couple years and also in the old dog run that I need to de-weed and then plant something there.

I had kind of had the idea in the back of my head that I would get around to mowing the back yard seeing that I did not get to it yesterday, but before I did that I wanted to edge around the garden areas.

Long story short, by the time I finished doing the edging I was too tired again to mow, so I gathered up my tools, cleaned the off and put them away in the garage and headed inside to clean up myself.

I looked at the clock and it was 1545, no wonder I was tired, and besides that I missed lunch...it is a good thing that I am not in a union, I would be in big trouble! Seeing that it was so late, I decided that I would make myself a blueberry smoothie to tide me over until dinner.

For dinner I had re-heated "Mexican" soup from the other night, I finally finished it, and added the leftover flounder to it. Kathleen just about got sick just looking at it, but it really tasted pretty good. Kathleen heated up a can of lentil soup for herself.

There was just a little left so I asked if I could finish it off, she took another couple scoops and gave me the rest. I sliced off some Walla Walla onion and added it to the lentils and reheated it, yum yum!

Well other than the fact that I have been grazing on berries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, during the day for a couple days that is about all I got done today. I really enjoy this time of year, although the berries are not out in full force the early ones always seem so tasty.

So I guess that is about it from this part of the world...good night!

Tuesday Test Results

I slept a little better last night or maybe I should say this morning, I was able to sleep until about 0600 this morning, and then wound up getting up about 0630. After breakfast I read the paper and since the mail had not gotten here, I went outside and mowed the front lawn.

As I was coming in the house Kathleen said that the doctor's office was on the phone, so I answered it. The doctor's nurse had some of my test results back so she gave them to me. My urine and thyroid were normal; my potassium was a little low, so he prescribed something for me.

She also said that my glucose was a little high, so I have to go back Friday and have more blood drawn. So my health is still no where near where I would like to see it. I guess that I have had more than my share of good luck as far as my health has been concerned and I should be thankful that was as good as it had been for as long as it has.

I saw the mailman down the street, so I waited for him to get here and then went out and got the mail. There was not a lot there, I think my Golf magazine was the only thing that I kept.

After finishing the mail, I went outside again to prune the roses and pull some weeds. Before I knew it Kathleen came out and reminded me that we needed to get ready and got over to Tigard to meet with our financial advisors.

So I went inside and cleaned up and changed clothes and off we went. Our appointment was for 1330 and we did not get done until 1535. Our investments are doing really well, but they advise us to cut our budget so that when the market goes down we will still be doing okay.

So now we need to work on a reduced budget and e-mail it to them next week and then we will meet with them again in the middle of July to see how we are doing. So for the next couple days we will be looking at everything that we spend and see if or how we can lower it.

On the way home Kathleen needed to stop by Montivilla Sewing Center to pick up a couple things that she had put aside for her. After we did that we stopped by the doctor's office so that I could pick up my four prescriptions and then we were on our way home.

When we got home it was about 1645 and after a bit Kathleen went to Best Buy to exchange her hard drive as the one she got was not working. I stayed here and heated up a little of the soup from last night as I did not get to have lunch today. After that I filled out the form for my prescriptions and put it along with the prescriptions into an envelope and put a stamp on it so that I could mail it tomorrow.

She came back about 1730 and I suggested that we just have the soup re-heated for dinner tonight, so that is what we had. It has been a rather eventful day and I am tired...but that is nothing new. So with that I think that I will just say good night.

Medical Monday

Boy am I getting tired, in more ways than one, of waking up so early. This morning I woke up about 0300 and tossed and turned for the next two and a half hours when I finally gave up and got up. I had been fasting so I could not even make myself breakfast, so I read the paper and then went out front and watered the fuchsia that Kathleen bought the other day. Then I went out back and checked on the other plants that I had planted yesterday. They all seemed to be doing well and none of them looked the slightest bit wilty.

I finally killed enough time that I could leave for the doctor's office at 0800 for my 0830 appointment. It is only a fifteen minute drive, if I hit all the red lights so I got there in plenty of time. It was kind of a good thing as there were more forms to fill out. It seems like every time I go there are more forms to fill out.

The one form was to allow them to leave a voice message or give Kathleen the information in case I am not available for what ever the reason. It made sense, and I do not understand why it has taken so many years to go back to the way it use to be.

Well, I got back home about 0900 and made myself an egg sandwich on multi-grain bread with some sun dried tomatoes on it. The sun dried tomatoes really gave it a great flavor. Shortly after finishing breakfast, I took some medicine for my allergies; they have been really working overtime on me this year.

Right now I have a cough that is really giving me fits, I cough so hard that my throat gets sore and the cycle continues. Sometime this morning the mail came, among the things that arrived was my financial statement from my broker, right now it is at the highest point it has ever been. That is with us living on some the interest for the last year.

So I got on my computer and added the new numbers to the data base that I keep for it. I show it for the complete profile and for the individual holdings. I only had one that did not show a good interest increase, so I felt pretty good about that. From the data base I can extract graphs to show the trends over the period that I have held them and that is always interesting to look at as well.

With that done, I went outside and decided to pull some weeds in the rose garden. I started out just wanting to pull some of the bigger ones, but once I got that done I could not just stop there...NO, I had to keep going.

When I got to the point that most of the weeds were pulled out, I went into the garage and got out my tiller and cultivated the rows so that the soil got broken up and make it easier for the water to seep through to the roots of the roses.

That really wore me out, I am not sure whether it was the work of tilling or just the fact that I was sneezing and coughing so hard. No matter what the cause, I needed to stop and get inside, so I picked up everything and took the tiller into the garage again and went inside and cleaned up.

It was 1500, so I decided that I needed to eat something, so I heated up the Mexican soup that Kathleen made last night, adding more Tabasco sauce and some cheddar before heating it in the micro wave. It was even better than last night because all the flavors had had a chance to blend together.

I went back on my computer and created another data base to take to our financial advisors tomorrow and then sent a copy off to them via e-mail. Next I went into the living room and sat down in my chair where I promptly dozed off. I woke up just a little after Bill O'Reilly came on, so I watched that and than Kathleen made another Mexican soup for dinner.

This one was a little different, I liked the flavor, but I needed more heat to help clear up my sinuses so I added some Tabasco sauce to mine. I went back for seconds, but could only finish less than half of what I took. I am trying to learn to listen to my stomach and stop eating when I feel food in my stomach.

Well, that was my day, the doctor was impressed with my weight loss and my blood pressure, and wanted to wait until my test results came back before doing anything with my medications. I guess that is a good thing. I told him what my goal for weight loss was and he said that might be a little low, he thought more in the mid one-ninety's.

That was encouraging, but I still think I want to set my goal for about one-eighty to one-ninety. If I do not aim low enough it is too easy to be satisfied with not getting there at all. I still have a long way to go before I reach my long range goal. He said that he would see me in six months and I hope to be down around two hundred pounds by then.

Well, I am pretty sure that it will be an early night for me; I am having trouble staying awake now, so I think that I will just say good night!

Sunday's Sinus'

Well, I got up early again this morning because I was so plugged up that I could not breathe very easily. It rained off and on all day today, I took some allergy medicine but it really did not help as much as I would have liked it to. I drank a couple mugs of hot lemon juice, honey and red wine vinegar and even that did not help.

After breakfast, I read the paper and the comics I went outside and put up the arch that I bought a couple weeks ago. After that I planted a couple of our clematis on either side of the arch. Then I went inside as it started to rain again. I decided to make myself a blackberry smoothie and went into the living room to rest a bit.

I rested for a little while and then it stopped raining so I went back outside and did a little weeding, but I only get to do it for about fifteen minutes and it started to rain again. So I went into the house and made myself a salad for lunch.

After lunch, it had stopped raining so I talked Kathleen into going outside and showing me where she wanted me to plant the plants that she bought the other day. I put all of the herbs in pots as well as the tomatoes. I had not gotten to dig up the vegetable garden yet this year, so we are container gardening by default.

After cleaning up the shovels and cleaning up I went inside and washed up and then went into the living room to read and rest. About 1900 I asked Kathleen what she was going to make for dinner and she said how about some hot soup. I thought that that sounded pretty good so I said yes.

While she had intended on making a Mexican soup, it wound up being pretty thick, so we had it on plates instead of in a bowl. I really liked it, Kathleen tried to make it spicy hot, but it just was not hot enough for me so I added some Tabasco sauce to mine.

I needed to eat before 2030 because I have to fast twelve hours before my physical tomorrow morning. So about 2000, I went into the kitchen and started dishing mine up, Kathleen was trying to let it cool off a little, but I wanted mine hot so that maybe my sinus would drain a little more.

Well, it is after 2100 and I need to take a shower and hit the sack to get ready for tomorrow. So good night for now.

Saturday's Saturation

This morning was overcast when I woke up; I had been cat napping for about an hour and a half when I finally decided to get up. My throat and nose were both plugged up so I thought that I might as well get up and see if I could get them to drain.

About an hour after I got up they both started to drain and then I started to cough and that caused my throat to get soar...sometimes one can just not win.

After eating breakfast, and loading the dishwasher up, I started into to the living room to read the paper, but I saw the mailman delivering the mail, so I went out and got it. There were several things in the mail, including our back statement.

After going through the mail and recycling the junk mail, I went into my computer room and reconciled the savings account and my checking account, Kathleen's account has not been reconciled in I cannot remember when. She just keeps writing checks and I just keep transferring money into it.

After balancing the accounts, I voted my proxy on some more of my stocks, it must be that time of year, it seems like I have done this three or four times in the last month. Now it was time for me to go into the living room again and try to get the paper read.

I got a couple sections read when Kathleen came downstairs and wanted to go to Best Buy to exchange her battery backup. So I put on some shoes and socks and packed up her battery backup and off we went.

After finishing at Best Buy we went out to Harbor Freight because Kathleen wanted to get a new umbrella for our patio table and I had a coupon for the one she wanted that expired tomorrow. Well we did not just get the umbrella; we also got several other little things.

While we were at Harbor Freight we decided to stop at BiMart as we had a couple things that we wanted to get from the coupon book that expired tomorrow as well. Then it was time to go home as I was getting hungry seeing that I had not eaten since about 0830 and it was after 1400.

Kathleen heated up a can of beef vegetable soup and I toasted a couple slices of multi-grain bread and made a couple open faced sandwiches to go along with my soup. I also took an antihistamine to see if I could get my nose and throat to stop running. After finishing lunch, I went back to the living room to finish reading the paper.

I made myself some hot honey with lemon and red wine vinegar to see if I could get my throat to feeling better. It helped a little but not enough. I finally dozed off in my chair for an hour or so, I had thought about going upstairs before I fell asleep, but I was too tired to make it upstairs. I think that the antihistamine probably had something to do with my falling asleep, but I was also tired to begin with.

It was now about 1800 and I asked Kathleen what she was planning for dinner, and she asked what I felt like so I said spaghetti because I though that the sauce would help sooth my throat. Kathleen also made some steak to go along with the spaghetti and that was really good as well.

Well, I hope my allergies clear up soon as I have my annual physical Monday and I want to feel as good as possible when I do that. I cannot think of anything else to write about, so I will just say good night.

Friday!

I was too tired last night after I got back from meeting with the accountability group last night, but that was a good thing. I had not been able to meet with them for over three months so just being able to do that was good for me.

This morning I woke up with my throat feeling rather thick, I felt like I had a lot of mucus that had settled in my throat over night. Usually when this happens it breaks loose during the morning but this morning I could not get it loose.

Anyway, after breakfast this morning I emptied the dishwasher and then put the dishes from last night into it. Then it was off to the living room where the mail had just gotten here, so I went out and got it. Nothing for me, but Kathleen had a couple things, so I just read the paper.

Seeing that it was Friday and it was not raining, I went outside to mow the lawn. I mowed the front lawn, my neighbor's front lawn and the others neighbor's strip along our fence on the east side of the driveway.

While I was mowing our lawn, Kathleen said that she was going to go to the Barn to pick up a fuchsia hanging basket. She also said that she was going to stop off at Aaron and Tami's for a few minutes; she finally got back around 1700.

Back to mowing...after I finished the front yard, I brought the mower to the back yard and then was going to rest for a while, but about all I did was go into the house and get a glass of water. I felt pretty good, so I went right back outside and gathered up the lawn furniture so that I could mow without having to stop the mower to move it.

After finishing the back yard and putting the mower back into the garage, I decided that I would rest for a little while, so I put the lawn furniture back onto the lawn and plopped myself down.

Unfortunately the weeds were making so much noise that I had to get up and pull them. I spent about a half hour pulling weeds and then decided that I needed to go inside and make myself something to eat for lunch. By this time it was about 1500, so I just made a Boca burger on dark rye with onion and dill pickle slices.

Then I went back outside and picked up some trash from the parking strip and met our new neighbor, who just moved here from outside Chicago. After talking with her for several minutes I noticed that my pedometer had fallen off somewhere.

So I went all over looking for it, but could not find it, so I went back into the house and started to watch the news. Kathleen came home shortly after that with her purchases and said that she stayed so long at Aaron and Tami's because Becca was having a school is out party, but unfortunately not too many kids showed up, so Kathleen stayed to make it seem like there were more people there.

Besides getting the fuchsia hanging basket, she also got some herbs, some tomato plants and several flower. So while putting them into the back yard, I remembered that I had not looked on the other side of the fence for my pedometer, and there it was, it was one of the first places that I had mowed, so I did not record any of the walking that I did while mowing.

Yesterday I had over 2400 steps, and I am sure that I would have had at least that many but it only registered about 400, so I guess that I will just have to believe that I got a good amount of steps in today.

Tonight, Kathleen made a flounder dish along with some wild rice, the flounder was kind of mushy, and so I ate it with a spoon, kind of like fish chowder. Kathleen did not care for it too much, but I said that I would finish the left-over tomorrow. Kathleen was going to throw it out, but I hate to throw food out.

Well, I fell asleep watching Hannity & Colmes tonight, and I still feel pretty worn out, so I think that it will be early to bed tonight. So I think that I will just say good night!

Wet Wednesday

Today was one of those days when the sun would shine and by the time I got ready to go outside it would start to rain. Anyway, this morning was pretty normal (?) whatever that is except Kathleen made apple kiwi pancakes for breakfast.

Then about 1030 Kathleen and I headed out to do our errands, stop by the credit union to deposit a check, stop by the radiation/ oncology office to pay the $15 co-pay from my last visit, then stopped by the State Farm office to get our copies of the 50 Million Pound Challenge, then to Goodwill to drop off a SUV load of things that we no longer needed, then on to Winco to do our weekly shopping.

By the time we got back home it was almost 1400 and by the time we got the groceries unloaded and put away it was 1430. Kathleen made a frozen pizza that she bought today and I made a sardine sandwich. Kathleen shared some of her pizza with me so I put some sardines on the pizza, kind of a poor man's anchovy, it really was not that bad, but Kathleen could not stop laughing at me.

After letting the food settle we were off to return the hard drive that Kathleen got last night, as it was not the correct one for her machine. After she made the exchange we wound up buying a couple battery backups, one for upstairs and her machines and one for downstairs for mine.

With all that running around today, I am rather tired, in fact I seriously thought about not blogging tonight, but after dinner I got a little more energy and here I am. For dinner Kathleen made a shrimp salad, which was great since I had not had my lunch salad it worked out really well for me.

Well, the house is a little cleaner and there is more room with all the things we took to Goodwill today, now we just need to keep it up. I think I have run out of words today, so I will just say good night.