My Weblog

Still alive and kicking.........

Well, I did a doozy on my back. I have taken muscle relaxers and slept the bulk of the last 24 hours. And, now I am all wrapped up in the super duper back brace. It helps--the pain is less because the back muscles are not working as hard to keep my body upright. But, I'm on my way to take another muscle relaxer and lie down. I'm figuring on limiting my "up" time to 2 hours and then back down again I go. So, I just wanted to let you know I'm still here. Now it's off to lie down.........

YOU be BLESSED today!

All Messed Up........

Don't expect a whole lot from me real soon. I have screwed up my latissimus dorsi muscle on the left side. The pain yields to muscle relaxers, but the only ones I have on hand are the ones that put me to sleep. Well, maybe I'll make up for all the sleepless nights I've had recently............

Through the tears.........

Yes, my eyes are still watering! No, I'm not sad, just allergic, LOL. 

At my last meeting with the doctor, I had a conversation I haven't updated you on. I had done the research and found that the antibiotic which was used during the treatment of pneumonia had very bad reviews for thyroid patients. This doc had changed me to a sulfa product (Bactrim) when I got out of the hospital. I thought maybe he, too, had done some research or had a knowledge base the doctor in the hospital didn't have. I asked him why he switched antibiotics. What I really wanted to hear was that he was not a fan of Levaquin for patients with thyroid problems or that he was not a fan of Levaquin because of its myriad side effects. His response: "You had taken both a myacin drug and the Levaquin and neither had done the job so I switched you to Bactrim". Well, I know that Bactrim is a tried and true antibiotic used to treat a broad spectrum of infections. But, that wasn't the answer I hoped to hear. Good idea on his part, given his line of reasoning, but no acknowledgement of the Levaquin side effects or its risks for thyroid patients...........

In terms of accomplishments, I had a decent day yesterday. I finished up a couple of loads of laundry I had started and did several more. The hall bath is now spic and span. I am still chasing the dream of a sparkly kitchen, but more surfaces sparkle this morning than yesterday morning. I washed the window, cleaned out the fridge drawers, emptied the dishwasher, scrubbed down the exterior of the fridge and the interior of the microwave and that's just what I can think of right now. 

I have been struggling with ways to make the living room a better place. Everything I've looked at seemed to require replacing both the coffee table and an end table. Today, I hit an idea I like and that I can do. I ran across these two photos: 

 

 

My coffee table is a cheapie and on at least its second life as it was given to me. It is cheap veneer over particle board type stuff, but it's sturdy enough to warrant a few more years. I am thinking I could easily do the upholstery technique in the first photo and I really like the looks of that treatment. I could also do the slipcover thing in the second photo though I am not quite so enamored of that look. By the way, I pinned these ideas from a blog called "Just Jan". However, that blog post is a compilation of photos she found around the web and I don't have the sources for where the photos originated. 

While I am not so impressed with the slipcovered option for the coffee table, it would work (with some variation) for the side table that needs replaced. I think I would opt for a more tailored, pleated look than all the gathers.......... I think I might have another option or two for a side table. Gotta think about those though.........

I have a HUGE piece of fabric I'd like to use for some projects in the living room/dining room area. I have a friend who used to live and work in Washington DC. She lived in an apartment with one room where the entire "wall" was window. Floor to ceiling, left to right--all window. This fabric was the curtain used on that window. My biggest problem with it is that it is SO BIG that I don't really have anywhere to lay it out to measure it! That's not a bad problem to have if you have to have a problem, LOL. 

The other problem is that I love the fabric so much that I want to use it on everything, LOL. So far I've thought of curtains (I have really terrible sunblocker curtains on the only window in the room). Also, the same friend gave me a wing back chair that is in good condition except for the fabric. I could re-upholster that chair with my HUGE piece of fabric. And, of course, there's always pillows for the sofa. And, now, upholstery for the coffee table......... I sincerely doubt that piece is big enough for all that and, even though I love it, I probably need to mix some other fabrics with it! Beautiful though it may be, it probably could get a little boring on so many surfaces in the same room.......

Magical...........

I am not the kind of person you'd necessarily expect to rave about a cleaning product. However...........

You know I've been fighting with trying to get my stove top clean. I go on "binges" of stove top cleaning. I get discouraged and just refuse to allow myself to obsess over it for a while. And then, I start scrubbing and scrubbing trying to get the burned on grease off. So far most of my obsession has been centered around the top surface of the stove. But there is another problem....

My stove is a gas model. It has those "grates" across the burners, you know, those things that enable a pan to sit above the flame. In the case of my stove, there are 3 "grates". The two outer ones each cover the front and back burner on the sides and the middle one just sits there, allowing you to move an about-to-boil-over pan off the heat. Needless to say, just like the stove top, things have been spilled on these "grates" and they weren't cleaned.

They're hard to clean. You can get up a pretty intense level of elbow grease on the flat stove top surface. But, these grates have so many cross pieces that you really can't scrub at them very well. But, alas, they were looking pretty disgusting. So...........

Do you remember I made some homemade diswasher detergent a few weeks back? Yeah, well..........

Last night I grabbed the right hand grate and the middle grate and stood them upright in the sink. And then I threw in a scoop of my homemade dishwasher detergent, and the hottest water I could get. I let those grates sit in there (one end only, sadly, due to my sink not being all that deep) overnight. 

As soon as I got the hot water up to a decent level, I could see "stuff" floating off those grates. And the color of the water this morning was pretty disgusting, but at least one end of two grates looks pretty darned good. 

This stuff for sure cuts grease! That was the "stuff" that came floating off the grates, starting immediately. I may have given you the "recipe" before, but now I think it bears repeating. I would gladly give you the original site where I found it if I had any clue just WHERE I found it! 

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup WASHING (not baking) soda

1/2 Cup Kosher Salt

5 packets lemonade mix (KoolAid, for example)

I'm pretty sure this stuff would be pretty hard on your hands. And, since my skin is in such terrible condition already, I was overly sure to keep my hands out of it, but it certainly does clean. And, the good news: it didn't harm the paint at all. So, keep this in mind if you decide to scrub some greasy blinds, or any other such surface. And, if you can spare 2 minutes, just sit there and watch it go to work. It'll leave you with your mouth hanging open!

Well, between yesterday and today, I am on my 4th load of laundry. Some of the stuff that's been sitting in that linen closet is just "shelf worn". Dirty and dusty from sitting. Some I'll keep and I want it clean. Some I'll donate and I don't want those fabulous people at the charity drop off to think I'm a slob. So, I've had several loads just from the linen closet. I still have one load to wash and one that needs to be folded/hung waiting for me in there. I also added more towels and sheets to the donate pile on the dining room table which is once again growing. I'll need to sort and list and pack that stuff up for donation soon. 

Except for the stove grates, I woke up this morning to empty sinks and empty countertops. Wahoo! I do have a dishwasher to unload. Then I'm after the veggie drawers in the fridge. I took a peek in there yesterday and realized they're overdue for a cleanup. 

Here's a good report on something from Target: I bought some strawberries there the last time I went. That was a week ago. I DID do a vinegar and water rinse on them, but they are still perfectly fresh! I pulled them out last night, cut the tops off of some of them and just dipped them in a bit of sugar and ate them. Perfect! These are "Driscoll" strawberries. I remember, years ago I had a friend who had been a produce manager for years. And he raved about "Driscoll" strawberries. And now I know why. El Cheapo used to have strawberries "on sale" all summer long, but if you didn't eat them or at least cut them up and add sugar, they spoiled really quickly. Those strawberries were from Mexico. And they were not as nice as the "Driscolls". I'm pretty sure they were picked a day or two early and took longer to get from wherever they were processed to El Cheapo. (The other thing to note is that Mexican grown strawberries are known to be LIBERALLY doused with chemicals which are a problem to begin with without anyone being "liberal".) Anyway, I will be buying more strawberries at Target! 

I actually got a halfway decent night's sleep last night. That's because I dosed myself with Benedryl which always makes me sleepy. The allergens in the air are bad enough here right now that the local news is tweeting about them and running spots on how to "protect" yourself from the pollens, etc. So, the Benedryl was helpful in two ways. 

I love make up. I don't think I've ever talked about that here. Until I got to the point that I no longer wanted anything to do with the male of the species, I wore makeup all the time. I wore makeup to clean the toilets! These days, I wear it when I go to work, but otherwise do not. I know there are some premium products out there and there are some "tools" I'm not familiar with. For example, I know little about what are "good" make up brushes. And primers are a fairly new product on the mass market so I don't know much about them. I decided to watch some youtube videos on current day makeup products/techniques. Unfortunately, I picked some by a person who is somewhere between 20-30 but who acts about like a precocious 13 year old. And she's pretty dumb. She was working with some stuff named "mein herr". Now that's German and it's pronounced like "mine hair". She, who, I think, is supposed to be some sort of makeup professional, pronounced it "men her". Geez. Then she was touting some lip product named "Dione". That would be pronounced like "dee-own". Or "dee-on". I can't even figure out how to spell what she said, but I had to go look up what she said in her list of products to figure out the word. She is all gushy and everything is "AMAAAZING". Lord help me. Wouldn't you think you should know how to pronounce the product names you are touting????

Gonna go do something else. YOU be BLESSED today!

hit by a truck............

I went to bed early. Around 10 PM. I was going to get a good night's sleep and hit it hard this morning. At 1AM I was still awake. I was more or less in bed til a little after 7 AM, but I was up every hour-every two hours from 1AM til 7AM. Sheesh! I feel like I've been hit by a truck and dragged alongside a ways.......

Somewhere in that "restful" 6 hours I had a nightmare. I dreamt I was on some sort of spy mission and my mother came along. We were "spying" in a store when all of a sudden, my hair caught on fire. I had a bottle of water which I was pouring on my hair to put the fire out, but my mother was fanning to keep the smoke and smell away and every time she would fan, the fire would start up again. Worst of all, I was running out of water and I couldn't get her to stop fanning! I just have a funny feeling that nightmare might have been precipitated by one of those night sweats incidents I should not be having with my "normal" thyroid. 

Anyway, I'm thinking I am going to head back to bed. I'll bet I didn't get 4 whole hours of sleep. 

I had a Bill Cosby/Scarlett O'Hara breakfast. I made corn muffins from a box of Jiffy mix. I was thinking that maybe that wasn't a very nutritious breakfast when I remembered good ole Dr. Huxtable discussing with his littlest "daughter" how cake for breakfast was okay because it contained eggs and other nutrients. Well, if that's the case, I had nutritious milk, egg, and corn. The corn part is the Scarlett O'Hara part--That "I'll think about that tomorrow" thing. You see, given the food industry these days, I figure the cornmeal was made from GMO corn and I'll get some weird kind of growth from it, but "I'll think about that tomorrow". In the meantime, it tasted pretty darned good, LOL. 

Anyway, I'm going to go try again to get some sleep. I'd cherish an uninterrupted 2-3 hours.......... YOU be BLESSED today!

Stayed busy all day..........

I'm about to give up for the day. I've managed to stay after it all day. In fact, all the way up to just a few minutes ago. I should do more, but I think I'm all in for now.

I have worked and worked and worked in the kitchen. Holy toledo. I will never run out of an abundance of stuff to do out there. I just want to get that room to a base of clean and organized and then, maybe, be able to keep it that way with consistent effort. So far, it is that base of clean and organized that eludes me. At least when I go to sleep tonight, the kitchen will be in better shape than it was last night so I guess there's progress. 

I've given the living room/dining room floor a THOROUGH vacuuming. I still want to clean some spots on the carpet, but I think that will happen tomorrow morning. My thorough vacuuming involved moving furniture, etc., and I'm tired. 

I did a good bit of unzipping files and organizing and deleting. That's another never ending project, I fear. At least, I am pretty sure it will be never ending as long as I'm doing design work. I also toted big water bottles for both me and the dogs. Had to get that empty bottle outside and replace it with a full one because the water guy comes tomorrow. He will only leave as many bottles as he picks up so......... important to get those empties out there and organized. I am finding that the two dogs drink about as much water as I do, so once my supply gets low, I have to stop and fill their bottle as well. 

I got coffee pods delivered today from Amazon. I was getting down pretty low on the supply in spite of the fact that I bought some at Target last week. But, I'm set for a good while now. And the boxes and other packaging materials are out at the curb together with the bit outside trash bin. Tomorrow is trash pickup day. 

So, that's about it for today. We'll see what tomorrow brings............

Before I was awake 20 minutes..........

I had sneezed 5 times and wiped my eyes twice. I can just tell--it's gonna be a great day....... I guess I may as well just go ahead and start the Benedryl now..........

I just checked the weather forecast for the next 10 days. The lowest forecasted high is 107 and we top out at 112 for several days. 

Tomorrow is water delivery day and trash pick up day. I will need to drag some trash to the curb (not much because I've been doing it more often this past week) and replace the water bottle. Hate that water bottle thing. They are HEAVY, bulky, and half the time I have to use a paring knife to get the tops off the bottles. 

Yesterday I headquartered in the office and the kitchen. The kitchen is a little messy looking this morning but it won't take much time to pull together to get it to something less than ghastly. I spent most of my "clean the office" time yesterday trying to get the windows in the french doors clean. That included scraping paint off 15 panes of glass. More scraping and more window cleaning to come. 

Today, I will headquarter in the living room and kitchen. So, yes, that kitchen will get whipped into shape. In the living room, I want to dust and vacuum. Also, there are some spots on the carpet I want to work on. I am now strong enough to believe I can actually get down on the floor to work on those AND get back up again, LOL. 

I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce yesterday, with meatballs. I actually bought the meatballs this time. That's actually an amusing story. My last two shopping trips have been at Target. I figure Target has decided it's targeted market is young working moms. They have prepared food in abundance. Their selection of produce and meat is REALLY limited. And pricey. And, as far as I'm concerned, the whole grocery part of the store is strangely arranged. I was looking for meatballs. I found a big sign saying "Turkey Meatballs" over a freezer display. But I really wanted beef meatballs. I searched every freezer compartment (and there are a lot of them) and found nothing. I searched it all again. Then I decided to double back to where the "Turkey Meatballs" were. I began digging around in there and found beef meatballs. I would certainly never have suspected they'd be in there, hiding under the "Turkey Meatballs" sign. 

Anyway, I kind of think I will not be doing much shopping at Target in the future, even if it IS about the closest place to shop. Trader Joe's is closer, but when I was getting ready to make 5-can soup, I only had a choice of beans or beans or corn. I wanted something other than beans in my soup........I hate to think I'll have to shop TJ's for produce and Target for other stuff. Geez...I wonder where I can shop for meat! 

I did notice there's a "new" store in town. In the same BIG shopping center as Target, there is a palce called Haggen. It used to be a Vons and I never shopped there because, for a big time grocery chain, their selection of produce in that store was miserable. But, when I drove by the other day, on my way to Target, the name had changed. I just fished out their weekly mailer in which they attempt to "introduce" themselves to the community. I found one thing kinda funny--they promise "locally caught seafood". Seeing as I live in the middle of the Mojave desert, I wonder just what they define as "local"! 

Well, that's all the "news" from da home and da hood for today. Exciting, huh? YOU be BLESSED today!

 

Gained a day........

I woke up this morning, convinced it was Monday. I checked my e-mail, noticing it was 6/21/15. That immediately rang a bell with me--first day of summer. Then I flipped over to Facebook and could not figure out why all these Father's Day postings were showing up. Why the heck were so many people wishing their dads a great Father's Day on the day after? For a short while I dismissed that question, guessing they'd posted that stuff yesterday and somehow it was just now showing up for me. Then I noticed that this stuff was posted in the last couple of hours. Weird. Finally I realized today is NOT Monday! Well, hallelujah, my life just got one day longer, LOL.

I suppose, by now, you have figured out both my Dad and my husband are no longer around to celebrate..........

So, according to my visit with the doc last Tuesday, my thyroid is "normal". I have awakened twice in the last 24 hours soaking wet--hair, jammies, and bedding. SO GLAD it's "normal" (tongue in cheek).

My dogs have a king-sized bed. At least, they seem to think they do. I walk in there and there they are--sometimes just Punkin, sometimes both of them--sleeping in "their" king-sized bed. If I go in there, say to use the restroom, I invariably find Punkin lying on the bed looking at me. 

I think Punkin may be entering her second childhood, LOL. When Joe was alive, for a while, he insisted that all 3 dogs (all 3 BIG dogs) were going to sleep with us. I found myself, night after night, clinging to the edge of the bed with all my might (instead of sleeping) just so I didn't get pushed out of bed. Finally, I said "no". We argued and I offered him the choice of taking the 3 dogs and sleeping with them in the guest room. He actually did for a few nights. However, the pups weren't used to it and they were up and down and wandering all around the house and that began to keep him awake. So, he moved back to the master bedroom and we agreed Punkin (the smallest of the 3) could move back with him. 

Not only was Punkin the smallest, she always slept between us at the foot of the bed. If we wanted to pet her or play with her, he'd drag her up between us where we could reach her. As soon as she'd had all of that she could stand, back to the foot of the bed she would go. Traditionally, since she has forgiven me for Joe's death and moved back into the bedroom, she has slept at the head of the bed on the other side. Lately, however, she has been staying up there for a few minutes while I pet her, and then she goes down to the foot of the bed. I think she thinks she can keep Parker out of the bed if she takes his spot on the bed. He, however, is very happy to slip into her spot, right up next to me. These two do keep me entertained! 

I just learned a lesson: Sometimes being frugal is not good. A few weeks ago I searched for fitted sheets in white. I finally found them on Amazon. They were priced at $18.99 each. I didn't want to spend the money right then so I put them in my cart but didn't push the button. I went in to check on them today and they sold out. Darn! The item Amazon substituted in my cart is $29.99! So, waiting a couple of weeks has cost me $11. Usually, waiting is a good thing, primarily, I think, because you might forget you want to buy something or just decided you don't need whatever it is. This time, waiting bit me in the butt...........In that it was so difficult to find a single fitted sheet (NOT as part of a sheet set) I guess I should have jumped on 'em when I found 'em. So, I guess I will go on another search to see if I can beat that $30 price tag........

 

Desk Day.........

Yesterday I basically only worked in two places--the kitchen and the desk. The kitchen is much improved. I wish I could say the same for the desk, but I did get some bills paid. 

Today, I am going back in the kitchen and I'm going to work on a giant pile of shredding that exists over in a corner of this room. I have to be extremely careful with client documents. Frequently they contain Social Security Numbers and I would feel absolutely terrible if I were ever the reason someone's identity was stolen. So everything that needs to be shredded is stacked separately and run through a cross cut shredder. I would guess the current pile to be shredded is a good 10 inches, maybe more. If it weren't for staples, I could easily get that done in a day, but there ARE staples and quite a few of them. I think my shredder will handle those, but I don't want to dull the blades. I plan on using this shredder for a long time to come.

IF by some weird circumstance, I manage to get all the shredding done or I manage to get the kitchen SO clean and organized I can't think of anything more to do, I will haul out the vacuum cleaner. Parker is shedding like mad and there is plenty of dog hair to vacuum up. 

There is plenty of dog hair on the hard floors too. I wanted to just use the Flylady mop and gather up the dog hair, but I'll be darn if I can spot the darn thing while touring through the house. There are two places I haven't looked which are possibles. But, I may not even get to that today. 

I open up Photoshop and there sits my outdoorsy kit waiting for me. I am anxious to get on to other things but I am having a hard time forcing myself to finish up that kit. I am in search of that mysterious thing called "balance" in my life. Also in search of "order", "focus", "discipline" and numerous other good things...........

Short post, I know. I'm going to get at it and pray it goes well today. In the recent past I have had far too many evenings, when looking back over my day, I see a pitiful pile of accomplishments for my day. YOU be BLESSED today!

I hate allergies!

Short but sweet: Allergies are causing many problems around here today. As I've been sitting here this evening, working, I've done so with tears running down my face. These are not tears of joy or tears of sadness but tears of allergies. If I could, I'd pluck my eyeballs from their sockets and wash them. My eyes burn and itch something awful. And everytime I turn around, I need to blow my nose. Bah, humbug!