PET Scan & Birthday Pictures

The PET scan went as usual.  Their radio station had very bad reception.  I should have had them turn it off but didn’t want to interrupt things.

It took 2 hours, one of those hours was napping in a very comfortable lazy-boy style chair with a warmed blanket over me.  The scan itself takes about 30 minutes so the rest of the time was getting signed in, etc.

Of course, it was raining on the way there and the way back and it’s supposed to rain tonight.  Right now it is just cloudy.

I found poopy dog messes when I got home.  Luckily I had kept the dogs in the kitchen and mud room.  Don’t know what they ate yesterday but it sure upset their stomachs.

I’m going to try for another urine sample from Bandit tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

The pictures from Carson’s fourth birthday got forgotten on the camera till now. 

Carson is thrilled with his blue drink.

Jaren, not thrilled so much.

Four year old muscles.

Lilies blooming in my yard.  The orange kind are seen along many country roads.  I always think there must have been a house there at one time or another.

Later….

Sunday

Miscellaneous Ramble Warning

It’s raining, it’s pouring,

The old man is snoring.

He bumped his head when he jumped in bed

And he couldn’t get up in the morning.

Remember that old tune? 

Something I’m eating is giving me some itchy hives.  I am on a quest to find out what it is.  Today we are sticking to known items like chicken and rice.  I suspect onions.  Bummer.

I get a PET scan Monday morning.  The hospital has called 4 or 5 times this week, once to set up the appointment.  The other times were to get my information.  I get a PET scan every three months.  I’ve already had two this year.  I’m still the same person, I have the same insurance, the same birth date, the same social security number, etc.

Maybe they have too many employees to keep busy.  I have seen two people slowly pushing a cart of stuff down the hall, chatting as they stroll.  No wonder their bills are so high. 

I spent Friday afternoon at the Butter Street Barn visiting with the other dealers my friends.  Very few customers interrupted us. 

Later….

 

 

Tuesday

Under tools, internet options, browsing history, settings, I can increase the size of my temporary internet file.  I increased it from 250 MB to 350 MB.  I’ll see how that works.

My sister’s comment on the last post gave me the clue I needed.  Thanks, Sis.

There is a beautiful salt water fish tank in the doctor’s waiting room.  Yesterday when I was leaving a man was working on the tank and there were no fish visible. 

I asked him what he did with my fish!

Now an old lady with a grey mohawk hairdo cannot be taken too seriously so he laughed – first – then he looked a little scared.   The following pictures may explain why.

Above – bro-in-law Bob & me, between us we have a whole head of hair.

Paula, my favorite chemo nurse, and me while getting chemo.  My sister took this last week.  As you can see, my mohawk hairdo continues clear down the back of my head. 

Since I had my whole head buzzed on Dec. 10, 2010 the longer hair you see has kept growing. It never fell out.  The sides continue to fall out.  I don’t know why.  If I had left that top hair alone I could have had a comb-over, or comb-down hairdo like some men do.  Oh well.

So the poor scared fish man explained to this crazy looking lady that the fish were all hiding because he had been cleaning the tank. 

He pointed out my favorite grey, fat, buggy eyed fish, I thanked him, and then I left. 

Today the sun is shining which is appropriate for the first day of summer.  The trash and recyclables were taken away in the night. 

The ground was soft enough so Lory built her bamboo teepee and planted climbing beans all around it.  Should be fun for the grandkids – maybe not so good for the beans. 

Both my daughters were here for a while last evening.  They shared some of their triumphs and trials.  We all had input for one another.  This is what family is about. 

later….

 

Chemo & Nook

Went for chemotherapy this morning.   They give me some IV steroids before the chemo which peps me up a little bit for the rest of the day.  So I went grocery shopping at Walmart. 

I pooped out on bringing all the groceries into the house so I brought in the refrigerator stuff and left the rest for later.  Actually I left it for Lory who stopped by and brought it in for me.

Yesterday I tried to download some more books from the library to my PC and then onto my Nook ereader.   It didn’t work!  Then I noticed that I had asked for some books that weren’t in the right format.

I removed those books from my list and tried again.  No luck.  I ended up sending an email to the library computer person.  Their expert, Vicki, called today and we discussed the problem.

I tried downloading again and actually read the message I got when it didn’t work.  What a concept – reading the error message!

It said something about not being able to find the “temporary internet” file.    So I went into “tools” which is now a gear or cog shaped icon, went to “internet options” and deleted the temporary files.

AHAH – I downloaded one book, the second book got the same old message.  So I moved the first book to the Nook, then deleted the temporary files again – downloaded a second book – no problem.

I called Vicki at the library and told her what my problem was and how I had solved it.  She said she would add that to their knowledge that might help other people.

Now I need to find out how to increase the size of my “temporary file”.  It obviously is too small – or maybe the books I want to read are too big.

Anyway, I have books to read on rainy days – we have those often. 

later….

 

 

Quiet Around Here

I forgot to mention the shaggy rug my sister washed for me.  It was the one that stayed in the mud room, just inside the back door, where the dogs come in and out of the back yard.   It was VERY dirty. 

She used my method of putting it in the bathtub but she didn’t get in with her feet.  Maybe she didn’t want to ruin her pedicure.  The first wash, with about four inches of water, made the rug invisible with dirty water.   It took at least four rinses to get the water to come out semi-clean.

It hung on the clothes line through several rains before it finally got dry.  I’m sure I thanked her but I will do it again here.    THANK YOU!

The floor under the rug is actually concrete painted to look like bricks.  It looked good till the paint started to chip off here and there.

Also my company gave me a cure for my over heating laptop computer.  It is a fan thing that goes under the computer and keeps it from overheating.  They weren’t using it so I gratefully accepted it.  No more “there I fixed it” methods.

By the way, it says CoolMax on the top.

It’s awfully quiet around here since they left.  I’ve been reading the books I downloaded for my NOOK from the library. 

Speaking of the pedicure my sister got, she was going to invite me to get one too until she remembered that I don’t have any toenails.  I had them all permanently removed several years ago. 

In fact I tried to have some of them permanently removed more than once.  If my health insurance was on the ball they might have noticed that I have had 15 toenails permanently removed.  It doesn’t always work but must look rather odd on the records.

They were extremely ingrown to the point of the two sides almost meeting in the middle.   My theory is that it could be reverse evolution, toenails going back to claws.  That would be okay if it weren’t so painful.

This evening there is a birthday party in my backyard for my 4 year old great grandson.  I may stay in the house and lock the doors.  It is hot and humid outside and my patience isn’t what it once was. 

later….

Odd Jobs and a Great Visit

Using family to help get jobs done. 

One problem was a very easy fix but if you don’t know what that easy fix is it might as well be an impossibility.  The motion activated lights on the garage stopped working quite a while ago.  So did the lights inside the garage.  No one could figure out what was wrong.  I even got a new bulb but that didn’t work.

Then came Wonder Bob.  He flicked a couple of light switches just inside the garage door and - taa daa – the lights came on.

The remote control for the gas fireplace is now working.  Bob just had to read a lot of instructions.

The hand braided wool rug that his Mother made got mended also.   Some dog tried to rearrange it and some stitching came out.  Teddy helped with that job.  Bandit did too but he saw the camera and ran off.

They visited the Veterans Museum in Germantown. 

There’s a nice smile from Linda while she looks at some of the museum displays.

 

Bob enjoyed the museum.

We had a wonderful visit.  Linda and I even got into the geneology stuff and solved a few problems with my family tree maker program.  Our ancestors didn’t have much imagination when it came to names.  There are many John’s and William’s in each generation.  We decided to put their birth year in as a middle name to try to keep them straight. 

Linda went with me to my doctor appointments.  She liked my doctor but wondered when they started letting young girls be doctors.

Got a dose of chemo Monday.  I get a dose of steroids before the chemo so I was pretty energetic Monday and Tuesday.  Today I will probably crash.

It will be awfully quiet around here with the visitors gone.  They may stop by again next fall.

later….

Number 3 Child’s Birthday

Parental Ramble Warning…………………………

June 12 is my daughter Susan’s birthday.  She was a 7 lb 8 oz. 22 inch long baby.  I think they stretched her too much when they measured her as she didn’t grow any taller for several months.  In fact the pediatrician had us coming for extra visits until she finally grew taller at about 8 months of age.  She is 5’ 4” now.

She was my wild child.  She was tiny and blonde.  She liked big things.  She collected elephants and wanted to play the tuba. 

She worked at every carnival that came to town.  Once I had to go to the next town to collect her from the carnival when it moved on.  They were relieved to see me.

At the local renaissance fair she got the job of giving elephant rides.  For a girl who collected elephant figures this was wonderful. 

Of course, when the Palestinian man showed up at our house a few days later she was a bit upset.  She had been mowing the lawn and they sat on the front steps (not inside – she was a bit wild but not that wild). 

He explained that she shouldn’t be mowing lawns.  So it was okay to lead an elephant around for him but she shouldn’t mow her own lawn.  Whatever she said to him worked as he never came back.

She was a gymnast and did very well at it.  She broke her arm twice, once nearly broke it off.  Eight hours of surgery put it back together.  She could do one armed cartwheels with a cast from shoulder to fingers.

After a few troubled years she went to school and got an associates degree.  Now she wears a hard hat and steel toed shoes and tells the men what to do. 

I am very proud of her. I depend on her good sense.  She is in charge of things for me.

I am sorry I wished her children like herself.  I love her very much.

Happy Birthday Susan!

later….

 

 

Pizza Night

Proud great grandmother warning.

Linda and I baked cookies Thursday morning.  They came out a little different than usual but they will be eaten.

Thursday evening the company came.

Carson, who will be 4 years old in a few days, and Jaryen, who was 2 last November, found their toys in the house. 

Carson is a very busy boy and got a time out.   Great Gramma’s  tomato plants barely survived.

Soon they were playing with their Home Depot tool box.   Outside is better for kids since my house isn’t very child proof.

Uncle Jake will be a sophomore next year. 

Lory, know as G-ma, and Mama are having a good time.

Aunt Andrea is in beauty school and got her hair colored recently.  What color will it be next week?  Good question.

We had pizza and portabella mushroom sandwiches from Frisch’s provided by Lory.  

Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle Bob enjoyed seeing all the family.   Our generation has forgotten just how much energy those little ones have. 

The visitors were given a tour of their motor home. 

The adults were worn out and I think the little ones were tired also but they couldn’t let on.

A thunder storm came through in the wee hours this morning so Bandit got in the bathtub.  He got out for breakfast.  He even went outside after breakfast.

Looks like today might be a good day for resting up and doing inside activities.

later…. 

Enjoying Family and another Nook

My sister and I have been trying to take turns talking but sometimes we don’t make it.  It’s great to have time to catch up with one another’s lives.

They brought me some farm fresh eggs from the area we grew up.   I still had one from the grocery store.  Here is a picture of the one from the grocery with one of the free range chickens eggs.  Big difference!  It tasted wonderful.  I have to find a place around here to buy this kind of eggs.

There was a new version of the Nook coming out and I had put my name on a list at Barnes & Noble to see one of them when they came in.  I called yesterday and they said their first shipment had come and gone already.  My name wasn’t high enough on the list yet.  BOO!

This morning we were doing some shopping at the Health Food Store which is close to Barnes & Noble so we stopped in to see if they had one of the new Nooks to just try out.  They did so we checked it out and I decided I wanted one.  They even called someone to see if they really wanted the one reserved for them – but they couldn’t get hold of them.

When we got home there was a message on the answering machine – telling me they had a Nook for me at the store.  The message was left about 10 minutes after we left the house. 

Someone else had decided not to buy the one they had reserved so that brought my name up.   It was MY phone number they tried to call to see if I wanted the Nook now reserved for me.  Sheeeesh!

Dear sister and bro-in-law had other errands (Sam’s Club and a pedicure – which person had the pedicure?  you figure it out) to do in the afternoon so they picked up my Nook for me.  

We spent some time reading instructions and trying to follow them.  Then a phone call to my niece in CA got us to the final solution.   I now have a book downloaded from the local library on my new Nook.

I plan to try to do it again soon to be sure I can do it.   At my age the learning curve gets steeper.

Tomorrow night is a pizza night in the back yard with kids, grandkids, and greatgrandkids.   I’ll try to get some pictures of the greatgrands if we can get a 4 and 2 year old to hold still long enough.

later….

 

Company Arrives

The first picture is my grandson being attacked by dogs.  On the floor is a dangerous place around here if you mind being licked.

My sister and brother-in-law arrived this afternoon.  My kids came to see them. 

There was a lot of catching up to do.   We talked in the house and in the driveway and on the porch.

They are parked in my driveway with their RV.

They live in their RV full time and travel around the country. 

Tonight we are having a thunder storm so Bandit is in the bathtub.  Maybe I’ll be able to get him outside one last time – and maybe not.

later….