So here I am , back at Cuttin’ Edge, getting a color & trim, and I have a chance to try new KCup flavors.
It always is nice to try a flavor and not have to commit. Kind of like life, and how you wish it could be!
Today’s flavors are Folger’s caramel drizzle, and Van Houtte’s Apple caramel pie. I sigh, because, America can’t cure cancer, but these coffees smell exactly as advertised. How they manage to make this happen is beyond me.
Have a great weekend!
I have thought that I should dedicate one blog a week to work on a list of things to help keep my perspective .
Right now I am a little out of sorts, so bear with me.
1. I am thankful I am employed and get a check. I am burnt out from being there 28 years, but there has always been a check. More importantly,I am grateful for the friends I have made along the way.
2. I am forever thankful and in love with “Shingleman”. God smiled on me the day I met him.
3. I love my girls, Zush & Kash…..enough said.
4. I thank God ,after 3 cancers in my 30’s, for every day I put 2 feet on the floor. Some people can’t .
5. I am waiting for the day when I am no longer tired……
Stay tuned next Friday…..
…don’t come a-knockin’….
Below is the surprise I found when I got home from work yesterday. Sorry, but I took the picture at sunset so the lighting is off. It’s a construction worker’s trailer.
As you come up the street, I was having heart failure because it appeared to be immediately in front of our house. Fortunately it’s not: it’s in front of our neighbors. Turns out that the city will be putting new water mains up and down the street and parking will be limited**quoting the no parking signs** from 3-27-2012 thru 7-27-2012. Yes, you read right. FOUR months. Four months of coming out of my house every morning and seeing this monstrosity in the street. What get’s me is there are TWO apartment buildings across the street from us: why they felt the need to put this in front of a residence I’ll never know.
So, unlike the Costanzas in Seinfeld, “Shingleman” and I will NOT be rockin’ this trailer…we’ll only be marking the days off the calendar until the mess is finished.
First, let me apologize for using my stock headache picture, but today is shaping up to fit the bill.
I have to attend a four, yes FOUR hour mandatory training class given by my employer on sexual harassment. Talk about preaching to the choir. I know that you have to do what they want you to do, but, seriously? Four hours? Do I look like a fraternity boy?
Yes I know I am getting paid for it, and in essence, it’ll be the easiest four hour pay I will make. Quite frankly, I just don’t care. I have had this “mandatory” class four times in twenty-eight years. I, hopefully, am getting out to retire to “Undisclosed Location”, and this will play a major part in my retirement.
The things we do for a check….
So if you have been following the epic saga of ” Shingleman”, you’ll remember our hero, “Shingleman” has been sleeping sporadically, at best, due to the nerve pain.
Enter….
Yes…Dunkin’ Donuts…Yesterday, being Monday, was “use your punch card for a free iced tea or coffee” day. Coming in from the train in the morning, I stopped and got an iced coffee. Didn’t have any coffee but that. Then lunchtime came. HAH! I have another card, I said to myself (yes, I often have conversations with myself…lol) hey, you have another card: get one with lunch. Keep in mind that I was eating lunch around 1:30 pm yesterday…AND…I am over 50….yup, you know where this is going.
I didn’t fall asleep until 1 in the morning and then promptly got up at….TWO! Finally fell back to sleep at three, and got up for the day at 5:15 a.m…..”Shingleman” actually slept a few hours : I know because I heard the snoring.
It’s going to be a LONG day.
..not delightful to inhale.
As I have gotten older, something I never really had an issue with has come back and bit me with a vengeance… POLLEN. The mean part is that I love flowers. I love flowering trees. What I don’t like is the 9am sitting at my office desk putting a frozen ice pack in the corner of my eyes because my tear ducts are so itchy I want to scratch them out. I hate the inhaling of what feels to be a gallon but is actually a few sprays of saline to unblock my nose. I loved Easter. I loved hyacinths, daffodils and the like. What I can’t tolerate is hearing on the television is the side effects that seem to be recited for almost three-quarters of the commercial while going 65 MPH for any allergy treatments. Anyhow, I figure that I have enough issues that I have to take mandatory medications for that I don’t need to throw over-the-counter on top of. I have become one of those people who actually looks for the pollen report on the weather channel…..
Pass the saline spray, would you?
As Jim’s Mom is still here, I have to bow to company,so as a result, Mamma Mia- the movie is currently blaring from our tv: at least Mom is enjoying it.
I had to get up early to catch Sandra’s money saving meals, and Hungry Girl. It’s all good- I am on my way to do my 4,2 mile buddy walk, only to come back and pack up for the city.
Time flies….
My Mother-in-law is staying with us this weekend at the Undisclosed Location. Jim’s sister, Kathy, has a week off, so we invited his Mom down to spend the weekend. His other sisters will help the rest of the week , basically, because Mom is pretty good, but she’s 93..
Jim’s buddy lost his Mom and her funeral yesterday made hit home that his Mom is basically the last one left. As I type this, the two are watching old music clips on You tube. I am glad they are having quality time and both of the are appreciating it.
I will be letting them go: time for me and our neighbors walk our 4,2 mile walk.
Happy rainy Saturday from the Undisclosed Location!
So it’s been the first week for new hires here in the office, as well as promotions for those who took the Supervisory test and passed.
I laugh and laugh, because, just like high school, those who fit in cliques are now in cliques. People who have been here under ten years are now so “professional” and won’t shut up. So ideally, you try to busy up, and take care of paperwork, and making sure your own area is in order.In order to do that, however, you make your ENT Appointment because you know your eardrums are compromised by the earphones you are wearing to keep the noise out. I have to laugh because even as I speak, a co-worker is pontificating in the hallway outside of my cubicle and if he realized how STUPID he sounds, well, I imagine he’d shut up
Working on my first cup of coffee and grabbing for the headphones…catch you guys later!
My nephew, Greg, came over after class yesterday and changed my hanging flag/banner that I keep out of pthe house. It is always good to have a nephew do this for you, especially when they are 6 foot tall or over!
I had a snowman flag that went up after Halloween was over, and it stayed there for a bit. I always like to put up the snowman because I figure I am at least committed to a season and not a holiday. I am covered through the first day of spring with the snowman, and the fact that our temperatures were in the 70’s, well, the snowman had seen his day.Sometimes I can get Jim to change it, but with the shingle situation, well, I thought it was best to ask Greg if he’d help his old aunt out.
Below is a shot of Greg with the Amish buggy flag. I usually go to the Amish flag until Jim’s birthday , and then go to the Cape May lighthouse for the summer, and then a maple leaf flag for the fall.
Thanks, Greg!
;
I don’t know if you had read about Paula Deen, celebrity chef, being diagnosed with diabetes.
I have been a fan of hers for a while, but would only be able to shake my head at her recipes, all of which seemed to include a ” stick of butter**tongue in cheek**.
There was another chef, Anthony Bourdain, who expressed what, I am sure, a whole lot of people thought when she came clean with her diagnosis. She was waiting so she could work a deal with an insulin distributer or some medical company to profit from it.
Really? Seriously?
If she came out with her diagnosis, well, that is her prerogative. I know people who are familiar with her recipes , such as yours truly, have seen the ingredients,and, at one time or another, thought, ” Southern cooking….” To be fair to Paula, I have seen a ton of Food Network television and although everyone seems to be mindful of their health these days, I remember seeing some majorly caloric meals. Paula is merely checking in now via her son, Bobby Deen. His show, “Not My Momma’s Meals” take her recipes and lighten them up.
People in glass kitchens……..
…Yup, if I have a card for a free Dunkin’ Donuts iced tea or coffee.
I picked one up coming into the office this morning from the train. I gave myself a treat and let them put some cream in it.**sorry Greg**
I can’t believe that it’s going to have highs in the 70’s today and this week. I think back longingly to the day of spring coats. and cardigans, and curse global warming. I am wearing a seersucker shirt today and strangely feel like I should be going home today pulling out capris out of my closet. I hate to see the heat come, as poor Zusher gets the best of it. My friend Juls has her Brinley puppy cut to keep her cool, and think I might have to resort to that to keep Zusher comfortable this year….**sigh**
Happy last day of winter !
It’s been a quiet Sunday, which is good, I guess.
We went to Mass this morning and walked a foggy beach afterward. As it’s St. Patrick’s weekend, there were more people on the beach than we are used to. I guess it’s going to mark the start of the season, sort of. We walked a nice clip, so that was good.
Now the sun is out full steam, which is a shame, because I have some household chores which have to get done. I am going to try to get them done quickly, get the girls out for a nice walk and get ready to face another week.
It was one year ago, on the 18th of March, that I had my two knees taken apart, and two new titanium knees put in their place.
It has been a long haul… LONG, long haul..I did my PT post-op , and I can do steps , but not quite well enough to make me happy. I know it takes time, but you wish you can walk, er, should I say, ambulate, as a “regular” person. I can bend my knees and often do my exercises to keep them a little limber, but sometimes, you think it would be nice just to be able to jump out of a car. I am just biding my time, trying to get the weight down, and make the knees work.
It was hysterical to look at the picture that I have added to this post one year post-op. I remember the relief at actually having my knees done. The mere fact that when I’d be standing up, I would no longer hear the crunch crunch of bone on bone when I would walk-that was a thought that made my day. The bow-legged stance that I had adapted along the way would be a thing of the past, and I was so happy to say good-bye to it. My youngest dog daughter, Kasia, NEVER had a real walk with me. New knees would allow me to finally get her out with Zush on a real walk. Zush, who suffered with me as my knees went downhill, would be walking full-steam with me again. As my nephew Greg would say, “It’s a win-win” situation.
Thank you to all who have helped me, prayed for me, supported me and stayed by me during this year. I have another 29 years to go on the warranty, according to Dr. Bartolozzi…..here’ hoping!
An actual post op shot of one of the two knees the hours after surgery.
The Food network has me scratching my head again and wonder…
Specifically, Ree Drummond, the pioneer woman, follows up her spooning of oil on egg white in the sunny-side up egg episode, with making a red velvet cake, with two other dishes for a church potluck dinner. She lets you know she got the traditional red velvet icing from a reader, and that is not the cream cheese frosting. I mean, why not delve a little deeper DURING the show? Not everyone has a working printer,or accessibility to a computer, or funds for your cookbook ….
“Just saying…”
The girls and I patiently are waiting for Daddy to get home. It has been a long week, and we all are in need of our good neighbors and the comfort of the Undisclosed location. The girls know that there’s a lot of walking coming, and I am getting set for St. Patricks’ day. Now if only Jim can relax, it’ ll all be good.
Have a good weekend!
By looking at the picture, you wouldn’t know that Jim is falling apart.He was trying to look pleasant for the camera.
His health is suffering, the shingle nerve pain is getting to him, he isn’t sleeping well at all:how he is actually functioning on 2 feet is beyond me. I try to tell him stress aggravates shingles, yet he continues daily life as best as he can.
Keep us all, but especially Jim in your prayers or whatever-we need all the good vibes we can get. Thanks, friends!
…I have become a “fan” of them. I never thought that I was the type of person to get into them, yet once the Travelocity gnome was introduced in ads, well, every time I saw a gnome statue I would think of their commercials and think, yeah, a gnome for me.
The ones pictured in this post aren’t mine, but my friend Vida’s…she has these in front of her Mom’s house. Thanks to my friend, Rita, I have two Phillie gnomes, one of which is at our house, and one down at “Undisclosed”. I also have a gnome riding a turtle, in homage to Jim and Kathy’s love for turtles, and one with a pitchfork, as I love to garden. I know, there’s a point of being too much, but I think with the 5 or so I have now I am doing good.
Now if I just can get me a mirrored reflection ball……..LOL
Yesterday, my April 2012 issue of Food Network magazine came in. It was the classic Easter/Passover issue, with a few other recipes thrown in for good measure. The funny thing was, I opened up the magazine and what do you think I found? It was Alton Brown’s, not Ree Drummond( aka Pioneer Woman) egg recipes! The picture I took was of the Over-Easy eggs, because not even Alton Brown chose to show you how to ladle oil over the yolks of a sunny-side up egg. His recipes included over easy, scrambled, omelette and poached. It was a pleasure to see a minimal amount of oil, if any, being used. I am sorry, but as a non-stick girl, somehow using a 1/4 inch oil in a pan for a sunny-side up eggs is just a little too much….the saqa continues…
..just a parody on an old Simon and Garfunkel song.
We were coming back from Undisclosed location yesterday, with its’ clean air and bright sky, and with daylight savings time, we were coming up in the light.
We came to the Walt Whitman Bridge and Jim was egging me on,” Take a picture, take a picture…you can do a blog on it.” I said ” Why?”
As a lifelong resident of the city, I think Jim is constantly amused when I call “Undisclosed Location” home. He’ll say we’re going home~I say to him we ARE home. Call me disenchanted with a city that I used to love to be in, with the taxes and violence and general indifference to its’ citizens,but I will happily be a woman without a country until I get established in “Undisclosed” on a full-time basis. I hear the mayor talk to city council, and having the job that I do, seeing the paperwork that gets generated by the political dance that is done, I just shudder.The end result will end up in another end result because they won’t be happy with the first end result.Not that I am not thankful for HAVING a job, but sometimes you just get tired of watching politicians dance.
Yesterday morning I caught the Pioneer Woman on the Food Network.
I couldn’t believe what I was watching : she was making sunny side up eggs. It wasn’t so much what she was making but HOW she made them. She had them in a cast iron skillet with a quarter inch of canola oil! She kept spooning it over the egg white to cook it. I was like , ooh, oil on an egg? Now I will be the first to admit sunny side eggs aren’t my favorite, but there’s something about OIL on an egg….
This week has been chock full of drama on the job. **. Shaking my head in amazement**…
It was enough to have me take a precious vacation day, kick back with my girls, forget about slackers and the office, and get ready for the “Undisclosed location.” Hopefully Jim will be feeling a little better, and I will get some walking in with friends and the girls.
Have a nice weekend!
…which wasn’t helped by my brother Bob and I going up to Mom’s after work yesterday to start going through some stuff. Past of you just wishes you could blink an eye and it would all be taken care of. Part of you feels like going in and yelling ” Mom, I’m home.” Part of you, after four years, looks for her laying or sitting up in the hospital bed and giving you a little smile or acknowledgement that she knows you are there. And them there’s the part that realizes she is physically gone but she will always be with you.
I don’t know what was more painful: watching her go through that terrible decline over four long years, or the pain that is coming now, that the memories have to surface when you go through belongings.It will be hard on Bob, I know. But as I spent all but the last nine years with Mom on a pretty much daily basis, I’ll be remembering what was worn for senior citizens, what was worn for church, what was worn to hang up clothes on the line…and so on. It’s kind of like you put a band-aid on when you bury a loved one, but then, to handle everything left behind, you have to rip the band-aid off to let the wound heal,
It just sucks. I hope to get down to Undisclosed with Jim and the girls this weekend, and catch a sunset as pictured above, and hopefully, the sting of going through Mom’s belongings won’t be so painful.
Please forgive the lousy shot that you above, as I took it with my Iphone and the devil dog,Kasia, pulling on the leash at the same time.
It’s a chicken and a rooster
Yup, you read right: a chicken and a rooster, albeit behind a Rubbermaid fence.
Our house is right next to the Wissahickon Valley, and one of our neighbors with a large single property has taken it on himself to have a few chickens and roosters, and he lets them roam free. He says he “loves the fresh eggs in the morning.” Uh, ok. Now, our house is not in the immediate vicinity of this guy’s house, so I don’t know about the noise or smell issue, but I know when I see them out, they are quiet. I should say, when the dogs see them out, because all of a sudden the leash tightens, Kasia pulls, and Zush just says it’s just the birds. I laughed as I walked my nephew Greg up to his house the other day, because I remember a time when I first discovered that the chickens lived in the neighborhood, and would walk across the road into the Wissahickon valley. It seems that either time, the neighbor, or something/one else would occasionally subtract a chicken from the bunch.
By the way, what would you call it? A flock of chickens, a herd of chickens?
Some people would call it one thing……. DINNER!
I have had the good fortune to be employed steadily since I was 22. That makes me have 30 years under my belt of office work.
In this latest address of our office, we have two “kitchenettes”, where there are sinks and refrigerators to keep your lunch in, you know, and so on.
When I came in this morning to put my lunch away, the picture below is an accurate shot of what I stumbled across.
SERIOUSLY…..
It’s a sink that is NOT at someone’s home, and yet there are dishes that have been sitting there soaking for a bit. Maybe they are waiting for their Mom or sister or better half to come in and wash them? There are close to 200 people in this office and they may think someone might have pity on them and WASH their dishes.
Uh-huh.
**holding my breath in anticipation**
My Jim is too funny.
Sick with his shingle pain, looking really twisted up with agony, moaning, ..whatever,….then one or both of our fur kids come along and he starts laughing. We always knew our Zush, the older gal, was our child in a fur suit. Our friend, Georgine, says you talk to Zush and she looks at you with those eyes and its like she is looking into your soul. Zush is respectful if you aren’t well. She’ll curl up next to you and be quiet company, and , once in a while she’ll give you a kiss.
Kasia, the baby fur kid,may understand you aren’t feeling well, but she’ll still come up to you, hit you on the shoulder ever so gently, and as lousy as you feel, you can only smile when you rub her belly and she stands as still as a statue. For both of them, if you stop doing whatever they like you doing, they nudge you to tell you not to stop.You can only laugh at that.
Our gifts from God- they’re the best medicine in the world.
…and another day walking the girls, only this time with Jim. We were trying to get his mind off his shingles, so we all walked until we couldn’t anymore. It’s a shame because it is almost sunset, and we hate to leave to come back up.
We walked the girls on the Cape May beach for a few miles and now we just came back from a long neighborhood walk. We hate to leave, but for now all four of us are refreshed and waiting for NEXT weekend!
This bit with Jim’s shingles is wearing on both our nerves.
We are down at Undisclosed, and things haven’t changed. Jim is in big time pain and slept most of the day. It goes without saying I’ll be trying to get some sleep.
The girls are the only ones making out in this, as Jim can not be bothered to walk them, so they are going steady with me and loving it.
“Patience is a virtue.”…lol
Jim had gotten discouraging news from the Doctor yesterday regarding the duration of his shingle pain. Long story short, we are in this for a long while.
The only thing we have to look forward to?
Philadelphia Phillies. Jim likes to say it’s another thing he has to get aggravated over.
Saturday the Comcast station airs the first televised pre-season Phillies game. I am sincerely hoping this will help take Jim’s mind off the shingle pain and we can both sit and enjoy the game together. It’s the one thing( sport-wise) that we both enjoy. It won’t quite be the same for me, though, as my favorite Phillie, Jamie Moyer, is now with the Colorado Rockies.
Anyone have a Rockies schedule? LOL
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