Now what?

 So I tested negative this morning!  WOOHOO!!!  Going this afternoon for a legit test to confirm.  I've got an appt at 3. With no symptoms to speak of except this cold that just keeps on going, I think I'm one of those that would spread it around nilly willy without knowing.  Thank goodness Ada gave me the heads up to test!  She's done with her isolation as of the end of today too. Whew!

SO many things I need to do that are NOT in this bedroom. 

This morning, before I tested again, my throat felt kind of weird when I swallowed.  Uh oh, I figured a Covid related issue.  Isn't EVERYTHING these days?  After my cappuccino and cream of wheat (my fast meal to get out of the kitchen), I shone a flashlight into my mouth to see what was what and saw that my uvula was pointing west.  ???  What?  So I was trying to swallow THAT?!  It stayed that way for a good long time and around 10am, it appeared to have relaxed.  I must have slept with my mouth open.  weird.  So, it's NOT a covid symptom.

I'll still wear a mask around the fam until I have the confirmation this afternoon.

Why is it that I'm not totally confined anymore but feel guilty for leaving my bedroom?

and a bit overwhelmed with stuff I have to do?

All Sanitized Up And No Place To Go

 Remember me saying that Ada had covid?

Well, guess what?

For the record, that's NOT a pregnancy test.

A friend wanted me to come over on Friday night for dinner and I didn't want to get her sick, so instead of waiting for Saturday to do a test, I did the test on Friday. 

c$*p.

So I've been in isolation since Friday, escaping the confines of my bedroom only to get breakfast and some pop/ice at 5:30am (well masked, gloves and dripping in hand sanitizer).  Also after yelling downstairs that I'm coming down, giving them ample time to get the heck out of my way, for the food that either Meri brings over, Jen makes and leaves outside my door or some canned food.  I'm snacking on some canned coleslaw right now. YUM!

Me, waiting for Meri's supper last night.  Just leave it on bench! Thanks!

Other than that, I've been stuck in my room all weekend thru today.  I tested myself again yesterday and yep, still positive.  I was kind of hoping the first test was a false positive.

So far, no symptoms outside of my cold that seems to have hung on.  It's weird.  It's almost like I'm becoming an introvert.  I kind of like it...  and I'm NOT an introvert! But I see it's appeal.

You'd think introverts would have the cleanest houses!  Because every day, I'm looking around my room, thinking, "yuck. how have I lived with that bookshelf/closet/bedside drawers/trunk looking like that?"  And the bathroom floor might even get mopped at this rate.  I'm pretty sure the lines around the tiles aren't supposed to be gray.  We'll see later.

I sorted and cleaned out my (supposedly) walk-in closet, which produced 5 bags of clothes for Leon's half siblings, 5-6 bags of rejected items (sheets/clothing/etc) for donations to either Goodwill or Salvation Army and 3 bags of garbage.  I can WALK into my closet and there's still a lot of stuff in there, but at least now I can get to it without climbing over bags of outgrown clothing.

I sorted out Robb's bedside stand and after a good bout of crying, the drawers are all organized.  He'd have hated the neatness of it.  You can see everything at a glance and that would be terrible for him. It takes away the hope that there is a toenail clipper in there somewhere.  *nope*

On Sunday, I streamed church and then for the entire rest of the day, organized all my jewelry that had been in a wadded up heap for years!  I actually have partnered earrings now!  Maddy said that I have a lot of jewelry.  And I guess I do.  I had a regular Avon lady for a good many years, attended several home jewelry parties including Silpada, Sarah Coventry, and some other MLM parties that I don't remember.  I was invited to them all and if they were serving treats? You bet I was there!  Buying the cheapest thing in the catalog.  After having a Tupperware party AND a lingerie party, both the first week in our last house as kind of a housewarming party.  Robb asked me sincerely to use him as an excuse that we don't do that anymore.  So I did! :)  "My husband says I can't".  But I sure went to the parties!

So yeah, I guess I do have a lot of jewelry.  There are some gifts that the kids made for me too.  If you look closely, there is a Lego necklace that I could NEVER part with.  And Robb bought me a lot too.  The bracelets, rings and watches are in a different area.

Nothing very expensive, but they are steeped in sentimentality.

The kids have been wonderful and concerned.  They insisted that I send out hourly, homemade, BeReal updates to them.  As soon as the hourly alarm on my phone goes off, I have to take a pic of what I can see and what I look like and send to them.  No arranging the photos to make it look good. The thing is to BE REAL.  sigh.  It's like they're going to write a book documenting my demise.  But I'm doing it!

And don't critique my bed making skills, or lack thereof.  Who's going to see it?!  me. and I don't care today.  The bathroom drawers are all lined up for my next organizing stint. Lots of junk in there.

My sister-in-law thought it would be funny to send different pics to throw the kids off.  So one hour I sent them a pic of her pantry, the next hour I sent them this.

Instead of where did all those Golden Retrievers come from or why do you have a pool in your room, it was all, "Who is that man and why is he in your bedroom?"  sigh.  SOMEBODY needs to manage the dogs and the pool!

Why do I have to be contagious in order to carve time to do deep cleaning in areas of the house that no one will see?!  Well, it's getting done.  Maybe once it's all clean, it'll give me the boost I need to hit other problem spots in the house. maybe.

Quarantine Day 4 (6?) Stir Crazy and Irish Colcannon recipe

 It snowed overnight.  Not by much, maybe an inch or so. If I FEEL like it, I'll go out and shovel a bit.  Or send one of the strapping young men in my house out, if I can pull them away from school or a Dune book.  Eh, I'd rather do it myself.

A recipe I found on a rebel canning group that I want to see if I can (can) do this weekend.

Irish Colcannon!!!

Yesterday was beautiful, 50s.  I went on a little excursion!!!!  As I left town, I passed Jen!  lol!  She actually lives in our house and has Covid.  I thought I'd seen her leave earlier...  Didn't know where she had gone, but I'm not in charge of her.  She must have felt awkward as we waved in passing so as soon as she got home, she texted me. "I just needed to get out of the house and drive around a little!"

and I totally got that!!!  That's why I was heading out too.  I went to the county health facility to pick up some free at home Covid tests.  They're the PCR type.  I pulled up into their parking lot and called them.  After a little questioning about who in my house is showing symptoms and do I really need 5, they brought them out and popped them in the back of my minivan as if I was picking up groceries.

easy peasy.  Then went back home where we made everyone spit into some vials.  Then after packaging them all back up, I went on another excursion and dropped them all off back at the closest UPS drop off.

It was great getting out!!  I even had my window down a few times when I wasn't on the interstate. 

ahhhhh

I stopped at the cemetery and visited with Robb a little.  I knew a cold snap was coming and this might be the last time til March I could come out and have a sit down visit.  Wow I miss him.

Then back home.

As of this week, it's been exactly 24 years since we moved into this house.  So many memories.  So many dents in the walls.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  I've sent some pictures of the items I've sewn lately to the leader of ASG and will be participating this month!  I've missed several of the last months, I'm sure they're wondering if I've given up sewing. NOPE.  Just got too much life in the way at the moment.

My mild sore throat from yesterday turned into nothing. YAY!  I cleared my throat yesterday, thinking THIS IS IT!  But I sucked down a Halls before bed and all is fine today.  

I do need to crack my back tho.  I might pull out my little roller thingy and let it do the cracking for me.  The trick is to find a big enough spot on the floor to do it easily without anyone seeing me.  I guess I'll rearrange my room a little today too.  to make room...

On with life.  Enjoy your weekend!

Day 3 Quarantine - or is it day 5?

 I'm so confused by how to count the days of when the quarantine started.  The symptoms for Jen started on Saturday or Sunday but she took the home test on Sunday and it was positive.

And what does that mean for me?  She just needs to test 5 days after her symptoms are over, but what about the rest of us?  Do we still stay in quarantine for 2 weeks or until tested Negative twice?  Because we can actually start symptoms up to 2 weeks after being exposed to it, right?  Help me out folks!

Anyway, enough of stuff I can't control...  and on to OTHER things I can't control...

Work.  You never know when some crisis will rear it's ugly head and Covid has made it REALLY hopping.  Shoot - Covid got an appearance again.

I watched part of Nacho Libre with Leon last night.  Not sure if he's into it yet, as I had to pause it a few times to hear about a game that he really likes.  Although the "stretchy pants" part made him giggle.  He DOES love stretchy pants... It may take a few weeks of quarantine to finish it.  Shoot.

Yesterday I got into my sewing room and threaded up the machine for the last red skirt flounce.  And then got sidetracked with the reels from Facebook.  That can really gobble up time, huh?  And then I lost my sewing mojo...  The ASG American Sewing Guild monthly meeting is on Zoom this weekend!!  At least I can attend this time remotely!  I'm hoping that kicks my mojo into gear.  Maybe I'll do some pinning while attending the meeting... I'd like to have the first sample dress completely done by the time quarantine is over. shoot.

Last night I was at a loss as to what to make for supper.  I had 1/3rd of a pork loin left that needed to be used up, lots of carrots that I was going to can and tons of other stuff.  Fried pork cutlets again??  Ryan suggested stir fry with the pork, carrots, green peppers, etc. hmmm  ok!  I started cutting the meat and then Ryan and Dylan (his renter friend also quarantined with us) came in and helped with the peppers and onions.  I thought that maybe we needed twice the sauce and that was a mistake (Too much soy sauce?) but they still gobbled it up and liked it.  Leon even liked it most except the carrots so he left a little pile and picked through the rest for the meat.  I don't know HOW to get veggies into him unless I puree it up and hide it in stuff. hmmm

His mom has Covid too so he'll still be at our house for next week as well.

I've got a table set up in the living room of Robb's computer stuff.  Ryan has been pulling some things apart and putting together another computer as well as trying to get a laptop we found in the storage units working.  It works, but we don't know the password nor how to reinstall the operating system.  He'll figure it out... Or I'll ask Robb's old co-workers for help.  We'll see what he can do by this weekend or whenever we get out of house arrest (quarantine).

Most of the Christmas decor is down.  Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus glow molds got tucked into the garage yesterday morning and the leg lamp got moved behind the big butt chair in the living room.  The only thing left is our Christmas card swirls on the dining room pillar.  I'd never done that before but always wanted to.  It worked out SO slick with little clampy things I had purchased for Meri's grad party to keep all her prom dresses and play costumes on the mannequins.  I had a ton of them.  

I might keep the card pillar up for a while.  And maybe do the same thing with all the cards we got to memorialize Robb's passing for that anniversary.  I can't believe it's almost a month away!  That idea will probably get shot down but we'll see.

AGGGHH!!  I may need to go change.  I THOUGHT this 3/4 sleeved flannel shirt would be perfect today but I'm already overheating in it. sigh.  I just checked the house temp and it's the same as it's always been... So hot flash it is!

Isn't life unpredictable?

Thanks Covid...

Day 2 of quarantine - Distraction Techniques

 I made sugar free jello in cute little half pint jars this morning.  I'm getting addicted to them with some sugar free whipped topping that we still have leftover from the holidays.  Don't remember exactly which one...

Last night I was determined to find some cottage cheese that I was positive we had in the fridge and mix it with some sugar free whipped topping and maybe some jello mix, but all I found was cottage cheese that had expired in October and was frozen...  and a cottage cheese container with rotten rotel in it.

I think my next cleaning binge needs to be the fridge.

Maddy and Matthew stopped by last night for a couple At Home Covid tests that I had.  I waved to them, yelling "I love you!"

A church friend stopped by for some winter tires he had stored in my garage.  I'd pulled them out earlier and yelled "How are you"s from the porch.

My socially distanced life is HOPPING!

I'm sure I'll be calling out people walking past just for someone new to talk to soon.

Streaming everything is becoming old... Everything at the tip of my fingers and nothing to watch.  And since I had some rabbit ears sitting there collecting dust, I decided to see what's happening in the real world.  I mean, HOW would I get an accurate picture of what the weather will be if I'm hearing it from Facebook who has NO idea where my podunk little town is?  I want to hear it from our local news people and see the moving radar screen for MY area.

SO...  I hooked the rabbit ears up and suddenly got a feeling of being in a hotel with no clue what channels are what.  And why are there so many channels about shopping, skin care and solving old mysteries?

SO.. I went one step further and plugged in an old Tivo that I found stuck in Robb's closet.  It had a lifetime membership on it so really was just plug and partially play. 

It used to be Meri's when she was a pre-teen.  It has Aquamarine, Walking Dead episodes and the 70s version of The Poseidon Adventure recorded on it!!

 Of course, that's when I realized it needs a digital/analog converter box.  I ordered one on Ebay and it'll be here Monday.

Woohoo!  I so miss the built in TV guide from my Tivo years!  

I can't wait to speed past the commercials again!  They still haven't improved much...

Well, back to work.  Need to write code to zip up specific files today in a timely fashion before I get distracted again...

Living Vicariously

 It was a wonderful Christmas.  My kids are awesome and kept me busy and happy throughout the holiday.  In fact, I was so "wrapped" up in the day that I didn't remember to take any pictures until the next morning...  So here is my messed up living room.

This was the main gift for each of my kids and their significant others.  I don't have Meri's boyfriend's on here, but he got a U-Haul pillow (made from a U-Haul shirt).  

The shirts were all Robb's.  He never threw one out with the logic that we always need a paint shirt, don't we?  Or a laundry day shirt?  I'm planning quilts with the rest of them but who knows when I'll get to that!  I made one for myself too.

This is the reason I won't be making quilts any time soon.  The sample wedding dress bodice.  I hope to get some time in to sew again on it soon.  Thankfully I'm on a quarantine right now (I've been exposed) so I've got some time when I'm not working to sew.  I've been using my time though to clean the problem areas of the house.  Today could be the day!!

And after taking down the tree on the 1st Saturday after Epiphany (Meri's birthday), I've rearranged the living room and have my obligatory puzzle out for the cats to maul.  They're doing a FINE job of it.

And here is Daisy, one of my grandpups.  I spent a day with Maddy and Meri last week and we visited in Maddy's apartment.  She is such a sweetheart.

AND super model...

Sigh.  I hate quarantine...  I miss my girls.

No Rest For the ...

 While Meri waits for her VID test results, I've been working out alone.  It takes about 10 minutes less time to work out these days...  I guess we talk a lot.

This was my view driving home.  I had to pull over for a good shot of it.  God is the best artist!

And a few days ago, I happened to notice this...

*gasp*

So Vanna 2.0 has reached a literal mile marker!!

I'm so proud of her!

I am SO looking forward to this weekend!!!!  With the weather yesterday being so beautiful, I got in a visit with Ada over lunch and then managed to hang some Christmas lights.  Not all of them, but enough to show people (when we turn them on next Friday) that we love Christmas.  Not as much as our new neighbors that hired professionals to put up theirs...  But we love Christmas anyway.

I've got a virtual sewing meeting on Saturday morning that I need to send some pics of projects I've worked on for the show and tell portion.  I haven't showed anything for a while and I really should.  I'm sure some of the ladies think I've given up on the group.  I haven't!  Just been busy lately and usually forget the deadline to submit pics for the meetings before hand.

An ex-neighborhood friend lost her dad a couple weeks ago and today just lost her mom.  All the feels came back for me.  Not as strong as they were a year and a half ago, but my eyes have leaked a lot so far today.  I feel so bad for what she and her family are going through.

and it's terrible to say, but I know exactly how she feels.

Before work today, I went all the way around the dining room with a critical eye.  All the clutter that has gathered from who knows where is now gone.  Well, except for the junk I threw on the table to be sorted.  OH!  and the golden retriever cast project.  

Meri and I are going to make a PVC pipe cast for Reedus so his leg can finally heal...  Come hell or high water, he WILL get better.  She's also switching his dog food (possible allergies) to homemade.  I feel like that would get old quick...  So I'm looking for a dry dog food that might work better for him than Purina.  Anyone have suggestions?

I also Super Glued a couple metal bars on Dad's old windmill that we'd given him many years ago.  Some of those tiny screws have fallen out...

During my workout this morning, I listened to Love Actually soundtrack on Youtube.  So when I got to the treadmill, I watched the proposal to Aurelia clip from that movie.  It made me cry. sigh... so much does!!!  But it got me looking for where the girls and I could stream it this year.  It IS on an old TIVO of ours but we can't get into it anymore because we don't have an account with them anymore.  I mentioned my dilemma to Robb and I think we're going to buy the digital version of it.  Then it will always be available for us to stream.  But mainly in December...  

I told Ryan and he was even excited about it.  Jen hasn't seen it yet and he's looking forward to watching it with her.  

Leon's little brother, Finn, is going to stay over tonight.  They're already planning a game night for the two of them, even tho Finn doesn't know it yet.  I'm sure he'll go along with it!

Well, on to my day...  Even tho it's SEW not a restful one.

Catch UP

We found out that Maddy and Matthew will NOT in fact be coming for Thanksgiving...  

dang.

I guess Robb gets his wish of a Skype/DUO Thanksgiving after all... I just thought those two would be on this side of the camera.

So I told Ryan that he can move his gaming stuff back into the spare bedroom after all instead of being camped out with his gaming equipment in the living room.

I'll be heading over to Meri's soon, to be "Meri's Mom" while she runs some errands that she can't do after hours.  

Leon has been doing well with online school.  Well, up until he finds out that he was supposed to write a rough draft last week for something due today.  whoops...  So he crammed and wrote an essay about how to make a pepperoni sandwich.  I'm looking forward to reading it later.

My MIL has been in the hospital for the past 2.5 weeks.  Several issues, non Covid related, but the last and biggie is pneumonia.  I've been going every morning to see her before work and Robb's been stopping to see her after work. About the same schedule timing on the weekends.  She'll probably recuperate in a nursing facility for a few weeks before coming home.  Not sure yet.  A lot up in the air and she has to be better than she can get even that far.

SINCE it's not Covid related, she's allowed one visitor in her room at a time.

My uncle, my Mom's brother, is in a  Minnesota hospital right now with pneumonia and internal bleeding from a fall.  Since going there, him and his whole family got tested.  They all have Covid..  So NO ONE is able to be with him.  And that's bad...  Mainly because he's got dementia almost worse than my mom did, maybe worse by now.  I haven't seen him for almost a year.  So the dementia is going to take a hit...  

AND today would be my Dad's 86th birthday.  He shares it with one of my nephews in Wisconsin.  I hope Daniel is having a wonderful day.  

I know Dad is.

Weekend Adventures

It's been a great weekend!  Robb and I were able to escape the mundane and live in a hotel for a couple nights!  I talked him into watching the entire first season of the Office and we watched the rest of Space Force.  Who KNOWS when more will be made?... 

But the weekend wasn't just to binge watch stuff.  My favorite cousin had invited us to her son's wedding!  

We arrived two hours early and had a great visit with her and her husband, my aunt and uncle, and her siblings and their families.  

While one of her siblings jokingly accused us of being wedding crashers, I did feel a bit like we needed to prove that we were invited...

Honest!  We HAVE an invite!!!

And Julie and her husband were so happy to see us.  Her husband is a great bagpiper fan and introduced Robb as the piper to all of his family.

Here is Julie and her son, the groom.

The wedding was outside and about 90 degrees, but it was shaded and a bit breezy.  Beautiful!

There were probably 200 - 250 people there!  Amazing!  I hadn't seen that many people together since last summer at the Iowa State Fair.  and just in lines for the porta potties!

It was a lot of fun and emotional.  When the groom walked his grandpa and then his other set of grandparents (my aunt and uncle) as well as his soon-to-be inlaw grandparents, I lost it.  

I know you're not supposed to touch your face, but what else could I use?  Robb's sleeve?  

The thought crossed my mind...

Knowing the reason why my parents wouldn't be able to be walked down the aisle someday, tore me up.  It is now too.

Cherish those moments people!

I visited with my aunt later and she showed me some pics on her phone that other relatives had sent her of family past.  A lot of black and white photos.  Those are so precious too.  

She reminded me SO much of Mom, that it was kind of tough...

For dinner, we sat with my cousin, Lorie, and talked about everything under the sun.

The slide show was created on the spot and that's why everyone had their phones out.  You had to go a certain website and upload pics of the bride and groom along with well wishes.  I had a few of them from Thanksgivings past.

VERY cool way to get some photos that everyone would love to see, maybe for the first time!

I hope they take all those photos that were submitted and put them into a book for future remembrances.  That would be so cool!

The wedding couple had a photo booth and of course we took advantage of that!  

Before we left, Julie wanted to get some pics of us at the booth too.

They also had a corn-hole wooden game set that all the guests got to sign.  I forgot to take a pic of that.  

My aunt, uncle and two of their girls.

We finally headed back to the hotel around 8:30ish and were worn OUT! 

We woke up around 5ish Sunday morning and made it back to town in time for church.  Afterwards, Meri and Shub met me to load up some more landscaping rocks.  There is enough for one more load and Robb and I will do that later today.  It's all sitting next to the kid swing in our yard until time to actually get the dream into fruition.  Someday...

I got a visit in with Ada at the nursing home. She had had a chance to watch the Father of the Bride movies I'd dropped off for her and loved them. Especially the first one.  We're working out a procedure to get them back to me...

No telling how soon the nursing home will open back up as this past week, it was announced that there were three cases of Covid discovered there.

Sigh. She is SO tired of not getting visitors in her room!

Or not getting to go home on occasion.

I guess things are going to drag on.

It was SO hot sitting outside her window that I stopped at the DQ on the way home and then drove to a quiet shaded park to enjoy a medium sized Turtle Blizzard.

Ummm those things are over 900 calories!!!

BUT SOOOO worth it...

Got the buffalo masks started stitching.  Not sure when I'll be able to finish them up.

I got to talk to Maddy a little bit and realized that I need to post less here so that we have stuff to talk about!  BUT I told her all about the weekend so we're caught up.

Meri had a socially distant pool party yesterday at her house with some friends who each brought kiddie pools.  She hadn't realized that you can sunburn quicker next to water and is miserable today.

Well, that's the weekend wrap up.

When's the next wedding??!!!

Sweatin to the Oldies

It's another sticky day.  I came away from this morning's workout drenched in sweat.  

Meri was glistening pretty good too.

A friend of ours from college is stopping by tomorrow for a quick visit before heading on to see his dad.  It'll be nice to see him again!  Robb has the day off and will entertain him.  I'll be assisting at Meri's for an hour or so during that time.  

And I just found out that he won't be here very long, so I'll probably miss him.

Oh well.  Next time in Colorado, we'll look him up!

This weekend Robb and I will head to Omaha for a wedding. The rest of the family can carry on without us around.  They'll be fine...  I hardly ever even SEE Leon anymore...  Well the most I have seen of him lately was him (after sneaking into our room the other night) sleeping on our couch while I got ready in the morning.  Ryan has been keeping him busy. Or Leon has learned how to hide away and do what HE wants.

My own kids figured that out shortly after I started working from home.  If anyone came out to my office and said they were bored, then they obviously didn't have enough chores to keep them busy!  So I'd give them a job to do and poof, they never said they were bored again.

Well, not much...

My favorite cousin Julie's son is getting married this weekend!  And we're invited!!!!  It'll be SO good to see her!  They're a huggie family so I'm not sure if I'll catch the covid there...  Probably not.  And the hugs might be on hold til later this fall anyway.  I'll bring along masks and hand sanitizer and go with the flow.

Speaking of masks, I've got 15 cut out for my nephew's pizza joint again. Apparently the buffalo masks were a hit and the manager was getting lots of compliments on them, so she ordered more!  With the yard and a half of the fabric, I was able to find enough buffaloes in it for 15 more masks.  I know she only wanted another dozen, but why settle for a dozen when you can have a McVal dozen?!

They won't get stitched until next week.

And I got my hair cut today!!!! WOOHOO!  It felt REALLY good to lose four months of growth and my hairdresser was so excited to be back at work and fixing what I screwed up with my hair trimmings at home.

The world felt like normal again!

Well... lots to do inside, where it's cool.  My office vent is blocked right now by a few boxes of vintage patterns.  You know... patterns from the 80s...  MY ERA...  But still, haven't had time to move them so it's 84 degrees in here.  

I'm pretending like it's my own personal sauna.

I'm going to SWEAT those pounds off!!!

Just don't stand too close.

It's FRIDAY!!!!

Robb and I had a very nice anniversary evening!  

We drove to Des Moines.

After dropping of a package for someone, we ordered online to Montana Mikes restaurant that I had won a $20 gift certificate for!  The meal would have cost us only $2.28 over that, but the online app didn't let me enter any gift certs... So I just paid for it with my credit card.

I guess that will ensure that we come back to visit them when their dining room is open, so we can use it.

You know... NEXT year.

We didn't open the food until we were out of town at a rest area with a view.  That's when we noticed that there were NO condiments for Robb's tenderloin or fries.  shoot.  It hadn't said anything like that on the app or I would have ordered some.

I'm glad I thought to ask if they had included a fork for my salad while I was there!

They hadn't done that either until I mentioned it.

My strawberry salad with chicken was delish though...  

and when I got home, I FINALLY found the nutritional facts for Montana Mike's food.

WHOOPS!  The caloric intake for the salad was greater than all the calories I should have eaten for the entire day.

Oh well.  WALK it off!  and drink lots of water.

After weighing myself this morning, it didn't really do too much damage.  

Not as much as that six pack and a pound that Robb and I shared from Wednesdays Taco John's hit...

walk it off

walk it off

Yesterday was frighteningly busy at work.  I had been hoping to call Sonya and work out some details on her site, but after being in a one hour meeting, quickly followed by a 5 hour call, then a 15 minute Zoom meeting with Robb, Meri, Maddy and Matthew, then back to the 5 hour call people...  I forgot.

It was all I could do to run use the rest room...

Sorry Sonya!  Will try you today.

I did have a chance to stop over and see Ada before dinner though.  She's sick of this covid thing.  As are everyone, but have you tried being cooped up in a nursing home with no visitors inside for going on more than three months now?  cripes.  That poor woman.  

But it started raining and Leon was literally running all around the outside of the home in it while he waited for me to finish my visit.  I figured I better get him home before we catch pneumonia...  or worse.

OH!  Also yesterday, while I was in one of my quick potty breaks and finally relaxing... the doorbell rings.  of course... that's when the house phone rings too...  Leon ran to it and found a mysterious note laying in front of the door.  

Whomever had left it had already bolted and we could see two boys, Leon's age, racing up the street on their bikes.

So we scrounged up some change and Leon ran around the house to see if anyone else wanted strawberry crush.  He found one taker and off we went.  

Kids were milling around a few tables a couple blocks away and we got to buy our strawberry crush, which ended up being strawberry kool-ade.  

Even though we kept our distance, it was nice to pretend to be normal again!

On the way back, Leon was already planning what his lemonade stand will look like this year.  

He'll have a menu.

AND he promised he won't freak if he has to give back 50 cents if someone gives him a dollar.

Like he did the LAST time.

He's learning the concept of money...

Back to the ol grind.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Where the deer and the antelope.. TITONKA!

I started back on My Fitness Pal yesterday along with Meri. Not sure if Maddy still uses it or not.  But in 1 day, I dropped that elusive pound and now (again) I'm within 2 pounds of what I weighed at Maddy's wedding!

  

If I can stay away from chips and salsa, I might make this work!

I haven't been this light since probably last summer and I STILL couldn't get down to the wedding weight even then.  

Oh!  Speaking of yard work, it's been chill and rainy the last couple days, so nothing for me to do outside.  I did take a bit yesterday and drop off two tires of my mower off at a farm and fleet type place.  $22 per new tire and one hour later...  Why didn't I do this sooner!?

While I was waiting for them, my nephew texted me.  YEAH!  I NEVER get a text from him!  But he texted and asked if I was willing to make face masks for his co-workers at an awesome pizza joint he works at in college town.  Um yeah...  I could just imagine what the payment would be.  

I'll have those pizzas in oat crust please...

It's my fave!

and I was right.  I'm getting paid in pizza certificates!

So while I was waiting for the tires, I bopped into JoAnn Fabrics to see if I could find something appropriate.  He gave me the guidelines of greys (boring...) or something with Buffalos.  

Yeah - I'm going with the Buffalo theme.  

I found the fabric below.  It had bears, antelope, deer and of course buffalo.  woohoo!

After fussy cutting the top of the masks out, the backs are just in brown.  I've got sideways buffalo with a hint of bear, a full on buffalo with the horns of a ram, it's all very buffalo.  

I sewed on them last night and got a good portion of them to the inside out part.  Twelve in all.  I hope to get them all done by tomorrow.

And wouldn't you just know it?!  The remaining foldover elastic that I have is brown and I have 5 yards of it...  PERFECT...

My evening is planned...

Once and Future projects

So the other day, I made the "infamous" whipped coffee.  I was so convinced that it was going to change my life and all my closets would get cleaned up and maybe if I drank enough, the garage.

The only thing I can say is, eh - iced coffee...  and (ok 2 things) I must be broken because I didn't do more than I usually do in a day.  and (ok 3 things) I think I overheated the motor in Jen's hand held immersion mixer.  The handle was smokin hot.  So I stopped before it whipped up as much as on the internet.  Threw it in the blender to finish it up.  It's harder to get every bit out but oh well.

It had kind of a coffee meringue consistency...  

I only used half of it as I didn't want to have a heart attack.

Here's the recipe in case you ever want to try it.

2 tablespoons instant coffee

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons boiling water

Whip it by hand, with a mixer or an immersion blender for a LONG time.  Some said for 20 minutes, others said 5.  

Then fill a glass half way with ice cubes and then with milk.  Put the coffee froth/meringue on top and drink the milk thru the froth.

I was getting too much coffee meringue on my upper lip, so I stirred it in.

Again, eh.  Not worth the hype.  Unless I totally did it wrong. 

How are you all doing making face masks?  After making roughly 40 and finding out that hospitals want a different type of mask or when the hospitals wash them in boiling water for extended periods of time, they will fall apart because I used poly thread...  I hadn't given them to a hospital yet so at least it wasn't MINE that fell apart...

So I'm done.

For 2 reasons.  I don't have just cotton thread and I'm out of elastic.  AND because (ok 3 reasons) my family and friends have enough now to hold them *hopefully* thru this period of Covid yuck.

I mailed off a couple packages of the DON'T BOIL ME masks yesterday so unless this drags out and my masks fall apart, I won't be making more for the next week or two.   

I'm actually so excited to sew something for myself that I don't know where to begin!!!

Do I finish the hem on the last shirt that I was making? 

Do I sew a few potato bags because I'm going to grow potatoes this year?

Do I start a new pattern?  

I just don't know!!!!

THEN I saw this...

But not only am I out of elastic, we're out of bacon too.

Darn.

Frandomly Friday

It's a Good Friday!  

So far anyway.  

Compared with one from a couple thousand years ago tho... Now THAT was a great Friday!

And unless I drink a couple cans of diet pop soon, it'll be a so-so Friday...

The fixings for chili dogs are in the house and I'm out in my office.  Work has been crazy busy lately.  Even with the virus, some of our customers (medical labs) are having to put most of their staffs on furlough due to the low traffic of the usual tests.  So additional help from my company is needed.

My MIL had a doctor's appointment by Zoom the other day. Maybe just to make sure she's still kicking.

She is.

Leon and I painted the front window yesterday.  From the inside, it looks cool, but we always have that shade down.  So we won't see it at all unless you go outside.

And from the outside it's all washed out.  I may hang some dark fabric behind it on the window so you can see the pic better...

 update: I just hung some black fabric behind it and it's even worse...  uggg.  Oh well.  It'll be fine.  Maybe we'll put another coat of paint on it today so it could stand out more.

Also yesterday, I dyed a jacket of mine that I've loved for years, but it's been sitting in my closet for about 20 of them because of a stain on the sleeve.  I wore it on our first trip to Ireland in 1998.

And now I see that there's paint on the pocket that didn't dye.  

Oh well.  I am loving this dark chocolate brown!

The house was so cold this morning that I turned the heat back on.    

I'm hoping to get some masks done for that neighbor today.  Sigh!  So many things come up when you least expect it!  I've got a few done, but I'm wondering if that's truly what they were looking for.  Oh well.  One of my sewing friends said they'll be happy to get anything given to them.  Yeah...  maybe.

So I'll carry on.

The people in the house are getting stir crazy and Leon's room is getting an overhaul.  Eh - it gives them something to do I guess.  However now our guest room solution needs an overhaul as well.

Not that anyone is coming to see us any time soon...

Well, back to work after I throw a few dozen eggs in the IP.

Have a wonderful Good Friday and Happy Easter!

Is it Saturday yet?

Ah Spring break!  The days when the kiddies are home and you can do fun stuff!

Well, in an alternate universe maybe...

The weather was great on Tuesday, so instead of doing the bagpipe pub crawl (cancelled) Leon and I walked to the park and he read his Essential Pokemon Handbook.  I sat below and heard him call out that he'd seen a Meekui or Zambalam Pokemon or some such thing.  The names of them are silly... ;)

He said a Reiku was right behind me, but there was nothing there. Apparently I can't see them.

He ran around and chased an imaginary Pokemon, tripped and fell on the railroad ties bordering the play area.  He's got a nasty bruise on one leg now and a slightly larger tear in the sweatpants I made him a while back. We sat for a while until he felt better then walked home.

The next day, we'd planned on going to the zoo (cancelled due the COVID19 and rain).  It was cold!

So instead of a walk, Leon and I sat on in the car for a while with our umbrellas. (We had had ambition to walk in the rain anyway, but the temp had dropped and as I mentioned, it was cold! so we climbed into the car and he continued to climb all over it, opening the hatch and watching the rain.)

Then we went to the side porch and he read to me the various types of Pokemon from his book and he picked out a legendary Pokemon just for me.  I feel so honored.

All the rest of my three days off were jam packed with cleaning, sewing, errands, etc.  

The etcetera part about killed me.  Robb's closet looks mostly swell now and he'll be able to find his shirts easier.

On Friday, a neighbor friend posted that during this time of social distancing, it would be nice to know that neighbors are still ok and kicking.  So at 6pm, she scheduled a neighborhood musical noise party.  Meri and Shub came over and from our driveway, we played Maddy's old bells (xylophone), the snare drum, Meri's old clarinet and shouted a lot.  Some neighbors played instruments from the end of their driveways and some cruised the loop honking and waving out windows.  

Meri, Shub and Leon did that for a while too after Leon got sick of pounding on our drum.

On Saturday, I did a wee bit of sewing.  Feeling like I needed to sew something productive, rather than just clothes for me...  I saw an email from our sewing group leader with links on how to make face masks, as hospitals are in need of washable types.  So I whipped up a few and showed them to my sewing group online.  By the way, Leon wanted his own, even tho he's NOT sick, he just wants to feel like a doctor...

The post drew lots of comments about calling hospitals and finding out exactly what they wanted, even tho the link showed what this one particular hospital needed and what I'd made.  I guess each hospital has their own needs/wants.  It killed my mood for a while so I worked on cleaning another closet.  Maybe by next weekend, I'll get back into it.  From what I've heard, JoAnns has put together face mask kits and they'll give them to you at their front door to put together for free.  Then deliver back to them and they'll take them to the hospitals that want them.

Cool!  I might do that.

On Saturday afternoon, Meri, Shub and I headed to Menards and picked up supplies for her to paint her main floor of her house and replace the kitchen carpeting with square linoleum tiles.  She's ready and raring to get going on it!  Her daycare closed for 3 weeks on Friday and she is using this time to do the updating.  More power to her!  Good thing too, as of this morning, she found a wee bit of black mold behind a cabinet that had to be moved out!

We've talked to Maddy and Matthew a lot more lately and it's been fun!  However we need to figure out a more comfortable seating arrangement for our DUO calls.  The arm rest of Robb's chair is really uncomfortable...

Maddy has been preparing to teach her kindergartners from afar and has posted a lot of videos of herself reading books as well as some lessons for them onto Youtube.  I won't post them here for reasons.  I've been enjoying the stories too!

Since church is cancelled because of the virus, Robb is recording our pastors sermons and posting them on our church website for the congregation to watch remotely.

We watched the sermon on youtube from home early on Sunday.

It's weird to go to church directly from bed...

Also on Sunday, it was Robb's birthday!  For almost 4 months I'll be married to an old man.

A while back Robb saw this recipe and said, hmmm, make this for my birthday!  So I did.

I should have started earlier in the day, because at 10pm, the recipe was at the point where you were supposed to let it cool to room temperature and I was tired and stuck it right in the fridge...

I made Peach Cobbler Cheese Cake

Below is my version.  The only difference besides just sticking the thing into the fridge was that the peaches were from frozen.  No one had fresh peaches on Saturday!

No matter. It turned out really good!  We still have half left in the fridge.

I broiled steaks for Robb's birthday dinner and also gave one of Robb's gifts to him early.  I got him two George Foreman grills, one family sized.  Not big enough for eight people sized, but Ryan and Jen wanted their steaks done rare, so they did their own on the new grill.  And Robb can take the 2nd one to the office for quick meals there as his old one was kicking off too much Teflon...

It was a nice dinner!  We played some Chameleon afterwards and then talked for a while until Meri, Shub, Ryan and Jen went over to Meri's house for some gaming late into the night.

I met up with her this morning (not TOO early) for Pilates.   I really need to invest in some yoga mats because her floors are hard...  And the planking?  Not gonna happen...  The rest of the work out is killer enough.  

Well, that was my weekend.

I'm back to work today but ready for another weekend any time now.

:)