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.

Turbulent Tuesday

Well this morning I woke up to rain hitting the sky light in our bedroom. It was kind of a nice sound and almost relaxing. Too bad that I was wide awake enough that I knew that I would not be able to go back to sleep.

So after breakfast, I went into the living room to read the paper. Then after finishing the paper, I put it with the paper recycling and then took the bin out to the street. While I was doing that the recycling truck came, so I waited and then took the bin back into the mud room and put a new bag in it for the papers.

I had not heard the mail come, but when I checked, it was there, so I brought it in and opened it up. I got my senior recreation guide from the Portland Parks and Recreation department also a couple of catalog's and our East County paper. The only thing that I wound up keeping was the senior recreation guide.

They have several excursions and a couple classes that I would like to participate in. I first saw the van for the excursions while we were staying at the beach a couple weeks ago. They only charge $18 to go to the beach, it is cheaper than buying gas let alone wear and tear on the vehicle.

After I finished the mail, I sorted out all the clothes and things that we have been setting aside for Goodwill. It took over two hours to sort, catalog and box everything up. Kathleen was really surprised when she came downstairs and saw that I had been working on it. I have been meaning to do it for quite some time, but the weather has just been too nice to stay inside and work.

After finishing boxing everything up, I had worked up an appetite, so I made myself a salad. In doing so I used up all the lettuce, finished off one pack of celery, the last yellow pepper, next to the last tomato and green onions, so we will definitely have to go to the grocery store tomorrow.

This afternoon it cleared up a little but it was too wet outside to do anything, which may have been a good thing. Kathleen said that yesterday after I came in from working outside my eyes were a bright red from allergies. Anyway, I decided that I would vacuum up the downstairs and pick up all the lint from sorting out the clothes.

After finishing that I washed, dried, folded and put away two loads of laundry. For just the two of us it seems like I am still doing a couple/three loads of laundry every week. So we are either really clean people or really messy, or maybe a little of both.

Kathleen talked about dropping the things off at Goodwill this afternoon but by the time she came downstairs I was too tired. I did however after a while load it all into the SUV. I not only filled up the cargo area but the back seat as well.

Now tomorrow when we go to Winco we can drop the donations off at the same time seeing as they are both in the same parking lot.

By this time I was getting hungry again, Kathleen had her left-overs from last night so she heated that up and I made myself a Boca burger on dark rye with onion, Kosher dill pickle slices and cheddar.

We had a brief power outage this evening, probably from a lightning hit to one of the substations and both our computers went out. Mine eventually rebooted, but Kathleen's hard drive crashed, so she is out now buying a new one.

Well, that is about it for tonight, good night for now.

Milder Monday

Today was a much nicer day than it was suppose to be, I guess that they had a brief storm on the west side this morning, but today on the east side was quite nice. After breakfast I emptied the dishwasher, took the towels out of the dryer and folded them. I put the ones that belonged downstairs away and put the ones for upstairs on the stairs to put away the next time I went upstairs and then went into the living room to read the paper.

Just as I was finishing the paper the mail came, so I went out and got it. There was quite a bit of mail there, much of it was junk mail, but I did get my proxy vote pamphlet on some of my stocks, and the Visa bill, but other than that there was not much for me.

Kathleen got about the same amount of mail, and Toni got a couple. Some days Toni and Andrea get more mail than we do. By the time I read the mail and voted my proxy on-line it was about 1230, so I went outside and dumped the weeds that I had pulled yesterday. After that I noticed a bucket of rose prunings that I had not put into the yard debris barrel.

Not really wanting to go inside, I decided that I would start to weed around the area where Kathleen wants the arches to go, by the time I stopped and got cleaned up it was 1530. No wonder that I was hungry!

Since it was so late, I did not want to make anything too filling, so I made a Limburger cheese and onion sandwich on dark rye bread. That did the trick, as I felt pretty full. I was still pretty thirsty even after drinking a 12 ounce glass of water, so I made myself a cherry slushy.

About 1700 I sat down and watched Fox news and then about 1830 I went upstairs and asked Kathleen about dinner. She cooked up another chicken breast and reheated the wild rice. Since we had two bundles of asparagus in the refrigerator, Kathleen steamed one bundle to go with the rest of the dinner.

It looks like the rain will be here tomorrow, I just hope that it is not an all day, all week affair. Well, I cannot think of anything else to say, so I will just say good night.

Savoring Sunday

Well, I got up around 0600 this morning and my nose was so stuffed up that I could not get back to sleep, so I finally got up after trying for a while to go to sleep again. The paper had not even arrived yet when I got downstairs, so I went outside and pulled some weeds and picked up some trash in the front of our house and our neighbors and when I came back from putting it in the trash the paper carrier was just coming up the driveway.

So I took the paper into the house and then headed for the shower and then breakfast. I had not heard Kathleen upstairs yet, but as I was brushing my teeth, I could hear her moving around. Before I went upstairs, I arranged the ads and the paper to make it easier and quicker to go through when I got around to doing it.

We both got ready, out the door and to church before it started this morning, something that rarely ever happens any more. By the time church was over I could hardly wait to get up and move around, I was getting so stiff.

The same thing happened after Sunday Sch00l, I just can not sit very long, and when I have to I get really stiff. After cleaning up after S.S. we took off and went home, I could not wait to get out of the long paints and into my shorts, so as soon as we got home I headed upstairs to change.

Kathleen made a salad for lunch and then I went outside and did a little yard work. She came outside after a while and cut some boxwood branches to go with the cluster of roses that I had brought into the house earlier. She then told me where she wanted the arches to go that I bought and put together a couple of weeks ago. I need to do some more landscaping before I can put them where she wants them to go, but at least I have some idea of where they need to go and what needs to be done to get them there.

She went back into the house and I pulled some more weeds. With the weather scheduled to change tomorrow, I wanted to get some weeding done, even if it was kind of hit and miss. I am hoping that sometime this week I will be able to get the arches up and the clematis planted.

Then tonight for dinner Kathleen made some chicken and wild rice and also cooked an artichoke. We each had a half of an artichoke, half of a chicken breast and a cup of wild rice, I finished all of mine, but Kathleen only ate about half of hers.

Well, that was our day, I am tired and sore, somewhere along the line I must have pulled my calf muscle yesterday, it is really sore and it makes it really difficult for me to walk or move around at all.

So I guess this will be the last nice day for a while, it is suppose to start raining tomorrow and I am not sure how much outside work I am going to be able to accomplish...not that I do not have enough inside to do, but being outside is so much more fun!

That is about it from this side of the world; I guess that it is time for me to say good night!

Sunny Saturday

Today was another really nice day, so after breakfast, reading the paper and then the mail, I decided to go out and mow the front lawn. While I was at it I also mowed the neighbor’s front lawn and the other neighbors strip on the other side of the west fence.

After finishing that, I was smart enough to stop and go inside and rest for a while. I felt pretty good, so I went back out and finished mowing the back yard after moving the lawn furniture out of the way. When I finished I was feeling a little light headed, so I went into the house and had some water and then sat for a while.

It was getting close to 1400, so I decided to go into the kitchen and make a salad for lunch. I am getting pretty good at making a good and quick salads, so now it only takes me about fifteen minutes to make a salad with about eight different ingredients in it.

So after resting for a while, I went out side and did some weeding on the east side of the house, I got done what I wanted to accomplish, but there is still a lot to get done yet. When I finished up, I noticed that it was after 1630, so I put everything away and went into the house and got cleaned up.

About 1700 I asked Kathleen what she planned to do for dinner and she said a salad, nothing against salads, but I try to limit them to one a day, so I said that I would make myself a Boca burger and she could have a salad.

So about 1830 I went in and micro waved the burger and then toasted a couple slices of dark rye bread and that was my lunch. Kathleen came down about 1915 and decided that she would just have the rest of her chicken from Tuesday's trip around Mt Hood.

Well, that is all I can think of for now, I feel pretty good considering that I mowed the whole yard and half of the neighbors. I am pretty tired as well, so I have a feeling that it may be an early night for me, so I will just say good night for now.

Friday's Field Trip

This morning started out pretty normal, breakfast, read the paper and then the mail, but that is where it stopped being normal. About 0930 I went upstairs to check with Kathleen to see what time she planned on leaving for Alyssa and Dan's as we were going to watch Hayden because Alyssa was going on a field trip with Natalie's class and taking Zander and Dan had a business meeting with a new client in Sandy.

While I waited for her to get dressed and come downstairs, I vacuumed the downstairs carpeting, as it had not been done since Monday and was starting to show little white specks, not like when we had Reggie, but annoying just the same.

Anyway, she came downstairs about 1015 and we did not get out of the house until about 1030 and arrived at Alyssa's about 1100. Dan was talking with his Uncle Bill and left about fifteen minutes after we got there.

We played with Hayden for a while and before we knew it, it was about noon and time to put him down for a nap. Kathleen changed his diaper and put him down. While she was doing that, I swept and mopped her kitchen floor, I think the pool party Wednesday had taken its toll on the floor.

When Kathleen came back down, she worked on clearing the sink from the dishes and I watered a couple of her plants that I think only get watered when I think about it. While I was in the family room, I noticed that the floor could probably use a quick vacuuming, so I started to pick up some of the loose things lying around and started to vacuum.

All of a sudden the vacuum stopped running, I thought that it probably needed to have the bag changed, so I opened up the compartment that houses the bag and I was right. I looked for clean bags, but did not find any, so I decided that I would just empty the old one, not the best practice, but in a pinch it works.

So took it out to the garbage can and then I pulled out the stuff from the bag and put it into a plastic bag and then went back and put the bag back on. Then when I turned the switch on but nothing happened. I checked out the hose and it was plugged up as well, so I dug out the stuff from the hose, but it still would not start.

Next I went down to the circuit breaker box and checked the breakers and they were all okay, so I figured that there was a reset button on the vacuum someplace or it would shut off for a time and then work again.

I did not find a switch, so I just left it sit for a while and then decided to clean up and go outside for a while. I was going to sit out by the pool, which I did for a while, but I saw a lot of things that needed picking up, so I had Kathleen bring out a couple bags and I picked up the trash and tried to get the assorted socks and shoes in close proximity to one another.

Alyssa returned with the two older children about 1430 and Hayden woke up from his nap about the same time. When Alyssa came in a told her about the vacuum and she found the reset button and I was able to finish vacuuming the family room.

It was time for us to get going, so we left about 1500 just as Dan came home. By the time we got back home I was really feeling tired, so I sat down in my easy chair and took a nap. I had not planned to take a nap, but I guess that I was more tired than I thought that I was.

Kathleen was tired as well so when she came downstairs about 1845, I said that I would fix myself a Boca burger if she wanted to finish off her leftovers from her field trip on Tuesday with Linda, Karis and Toni, so she did. She also cooked up a sweet potato and sliced it up.

So I had the Boca burger, a few sweet potato slices and a couple dill pickles for dinner. Probably not the type of meal that most people would consider eating, but I was too tired to think of anything else. Well, I am really worn out tonight, so I think that I will just say good night.

Tremendious Thursday

I had pretty good nights sleep last night, so after breakfast and reading the paper and the mail, I loaded up the dishwasher and turned it on. Then I decided that I would go for a walk, since I had not done that in over a week.

I took a couple of walks while we were at the beach, but nothing very long, so today I decided to try it again. I just started out walking and when I got to a point where I could have turned and gone home, I decided to keep walking.

As it turned out I walked three miles and only had a little problem with my hip joint. My feet were plenty sore as I forgot when I took off that I had on my Birkenstock's and not my walking shoes. The did not feel too bad while I was walking, but about a half hour after I finished up, they let me know that they were not happy!

Kathleen had still not come downstairs yet, and the dishes were done, so I emptied the dishwasher. Kathleen finally came downstairs and we both went outside and sat out in the sun for a while.

I could only sit for a while and then I had to pull some weeds and do some pruning of the roses. When I took the rose trimming out to the yard debris, I noticed some low hanging dead branches on one of the walnut trees, so I cut them as well.

I was getting hungry and it was about 1400, so I decided that I would go inside, clean up and make my self a salad. I have gotten so that I really enjoy having a salad for lunch. It really gives me something to chew on and does a good job of filling me up without a lot of calories.

After eating, I sat down for a while and then went back outside and pulled a few more weeds. It was getting pretty warm again, so I decided that it would be better if I went back inside where it was nice and cool.

About 1830 I called up to Kathleen to find out what was for dinner, and she came down a little while later and made some shrimp stir fry and mixed in the rest of the left-over wild rice. The when that was all done, she cut up a mango to top it off, and boy was that ever good.

Well, that is about it for today, so I will say good night for now.

Whew What a Wednesday

Well, today was in the 90's and it is supposed to stay rather warm the rest of the week. This morning after breakfast and reading the paper, Toni called from work and said that she was not feeling well. So Kathleen took off around 0930 to take her some Gas-X, Pepcid AC Plus and some liquid simethicone to see if it would help with her stomach problems.

While she was gone I decided that I would do a couple loads of laundry, so I wash, dried, folded and put away a load of dark clothes and a load of light clothes.

I was thinking that she would be gone an hour or two, so I did not plan on doing too much, and I needed to stay home as Linda and Karis were stopping by before they went back up to Tacoma to drop some things off.

So I went outside and weeded for a while. They came and I gave Linda an old pair of sunglasses so that she could drive without squinting. Then I went back to weeding. I finally went into the house, not because I was done or overly tired, but just because it was hot out and I did not want to get too hot.

After a while in the house I decided to make myself a strawberry smoothie for lunch. As I was sipping the smoothie, I read a couple magazines and a catalog that had come in the mail. After a while I went back outside and weeded in the shade for a while.

I finally decided that I had better go inside as even in the shade it was hot. It got to be about 1600 and we had told Alyssa that we probably would be coming over to take advantage of her offer to go swimming and have a barbecue. So I called her and after many rings I got the answering machine, so I left a message that we probably would not be coming.

During the message I could here an incoming call, so I quickly hung up and answered the phone, it was Dan, so I gave him the message again that we would probably not make it tonight.

Kathleen finally got home about 1630 and was too tired to think about going. So she sat down on the couch and read her mail and then went upstairs. About 1915, I went upstairs to see when she had planned to do dinner. She came down about fifteen minutes later and heated up some of her left-over meals from yesterday and cooked a skinless chicken breast for me with wild rice and sliced up a mango.

Well, that is abut it from here for today, so I guess a good night is in order.

Temperate Tuesday

Well this morning after breakfast and reading the paper, I went to Becca's pre-school program. Kathleen, Linda and Karis went up to the mountain and I am not sure where else today. I got there a little early as there were some other things that I needed to drop off. The program was about forty-five minutes long and the children did a really good job.

Alexis sat on my lap for a while off and on; she got a little restless as the program went on. Afterwards they served up juice and cookies, but I passed on them. I took off after a while and took some clippers back to Target that I had gotten the other day and broke.

After coming home I changed clothes and mowed the front lawn. Not wanting to wear myself out, I stopped after doing the front lawn and went into the house to rest a while. It was also getting pretty warm out, mid 80's, and I did not want to get too hot.

I also took the time to make myself a salad for lunch, so after letting that digest for a few minutes, I went back outside and mowed the back lawn. After finishing the mowing, I dead-headed some of the roses that were pretty spent.

The hot dry weather does not do much for the life of the flowers after they have been out for a few days they get really wilty. I also pulled a few weeds and then decided to go back in the house and rest some more.

I do not feel too bad tonight, I did not do all that much, but I also tried to pace myself a little better than I had been. I sat down and watched the news and then about 1830, I decided that I would make myself some dinner, as Kathleen had not returned yet.

I made myself a Boca burger and reheated up some of the wild rice that was left-over from the other night. Kathleen called while I was eating, there was so much static that I could not understand what she was saying very well. So Toni called and her call was much clearer, I guess that they were going to get something to eat and wanted to know if I wanted them to bring anything back for me.

Since I was in the middle of eating, I declined. I think that my Boca burger and wild rice was probably a little healthier than just about anything that they could have brought home.

Well, that was my day, dull as it was. Tomorrow it is suppose to be in the 90's, so I probably will not be getting a lot done outside. Alyssa has invited everyone over for a swim tomorrow, but I am not sure what Kathleen has lined up, so I will have to wait until she gets home to find out. I think that I will just call it a day and say good night.