A good day to be a carnivore

I did not sleep well last night despite being tired. I heard Chris roll the garbage out to the curb and then went back to sleep. I think I woke up again before 9. I read e-mail, did my exercises, and used the HappyLight. I posted to my blog for yesterday.  I searched for a quilt magazine article from 2012 requested by a member on Facebook, but I did not have it. I juiced a large cucumber, sprouts, and carrots. After juicing, I made breakfast. I worked out a Swanson's order. Two, actually, since I wanted to take advantage of two offers and there was enough on the list to do that. After breakfast, I took a shower and got dressed. I packed a lunch including nut cheese and a sheet of nori ripped into 4 pieces. Then I had to come up with a project to work on at quilting today. I needed to unpack the project box before I could re-pack it with something new. I decided to work on the Linus quilt started back in June or July. By the time I was ready to leave, it was after noon. The group at the church was small. Joan was there and I gave her the rest of the train track fabric. I was glad to see Lauri doing well, but heard that her back surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. I hope it goes well. Barbara was not there because her doctor sent her to the hospital with pneumonia and dehydration this morning. Cheryl came in later and we all prayed for Barbara. I stayed until 4:30, adding wonky strips to the blocks. I shall never do another one of these again. When I got home, it was dark and Chris had already come home and brought the garbage can in. I brought my project box in, leaving the machine in the car. I never ate my lunch, so the nut cheese went back in the fridge. I noticed it was getting low, so I prepared another batch to soak overnight.  I was going to cook the beef tongue defrosted from yesterday. But Chris had beef roasts in the oven, as well as sweet potatoes. So I had a few bites of kimchi to tide me over 'till it was done. I read my e-mail, and followed a few links. We ate supper in front of our laptops. Chris showed me the shirt he wanted patched. Later we watched the last three episodes of Forever Knight. I looked up Vauchon because the actor looked familiar. Chris went to bed and I stayed up just long enough to blog and tap.

Heading back to normal

My phone alarm went off at 8. I wasn't sure if it was on eastern time or central time. I tried to go back to sleep. Chris got up to take a shower and go to the continental breakfast for fruit. That was at 10. I got up to take my shower and discovered that there were no washcloths. Chris gave me the one he keeps in his laptop case to wipe the dust off of his screen. I hoped the staff would not think we stole the washcloths. Chris checked out at 11 and got a piece of tape from the office to re-splint my finger. On the road, we finished the book on CD (“Rising Storm”?) and started another one called “Utopia”, set in a theme park. When we got home mid afternoon, we sat in the car to listen to the last few minutes of the book. Then we unpacked the car and brought in the mail. Chris fixed himself lunch. I wasn't hungry, so I unpacked my luggage. I made sure to remove everything from each piece, and to open every bag, box, or other type of container so that everything would go back to where it belonged. I also wanted to make sure that all the items we were given for Michele got put in one place, and nothing was left out. We made a list and went to the grocery store. The aloe was replenished, so we got more of that. After we got home, we put groceries away and I remembered the gift cards for Michele. I could not find the i-tunes cards for the longest time and got really worried. But then I found them in my wallet. Phew! I noticed that Bob had replaced the faucet handles in the tub and it was no longer dripping.  Also, the outside lights were working, perhaps too well, because we had trouble turning them off. 

We read e-mail and had supper. I was so tired I could not think straight, but did not want to go to bed early because of the danger of waking up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep.  I drank filtered water and coconut water to make sure I was hydrated. We watched a DVD called Despicable Me 2. It was funny and I enjoyed it. Then I went straight to bed without blogging. That was about 9. I did wake up in the middle of the night, however, unable to sleep for some time. Oh well, at least I'm home now, and life can go back to normal, even if it takes a few days.
*  This is a pic of our motel - Days Inn  *

Leaving Virginia

I got up before 8 to use the bathroom. That is when I heard a thump in the back. I imagined Mom had fallen, but when I got there, Dad had her dressed and was helping her into her wheelchair. He pushed her into the den and I went back to bed for a little while. Then Chris got up and dressed, so I did, too. I fed Mom her breakfast, then made mine. There was green juice from yesterday and we both had some. We also both ingested coconut oil and liposomal vitamin C. Chris put the letters in the mail. I crossed that item off my to-do list. Everything on Dad's list got done except defrosting the freezer. Chris packed all our stuff in the car. We said goodbye to Mom and Dad. Then we hit the road. We finished the book on CD from last weekend. Then we started another. When we got near Bristol, I called the Amish store to see if they had gotten in some raw cheese. Sadly no. Chris took me to the Japanese restaurant that we went to after Thanksgiving, and I got the same raw fish platter. Finally we checked into our hotel, the same one as last weekend. They gave us the same room, too. Big and cold. Chris turned on the heat and I tried to look hot. But I had to wear several coats while dozing and waiting for the room to warm up. When I felt rested, I checked my e-mail, and then we watched 4 episodes of Bones on my laptop using the DVD drive. We shared some of the dried fruit that Chris got for Christmas. I took my splint off to rest my finger, but it felt a little sore. After watching the season ender, I finished my blog post from yesterday and wrote one for today. I had a little trouble getting pics from my tablet to my laptop, so I had to use ones that Faye e-mailed to herself from my Yahoo account. Thanks, Faye. 

*  This pic is from a few days ago.  For whatever reason, the click path that I used yesterday to save a photo from e-mail doesn't work that same way today.  So...back to the drawing board.  * 

Second half of Friday

Faye came over with a pineapple casserole at 6. When Kevin arrived, we had supper: pork chops, sauerkraut, sweet potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and the pineapple casserole. For dessert we had fudge and buckeyes. Faye cleaned up after supper. Dad continued to eat for some time. Then we all gathered in the livingroom to watch Chris open his gifts. Faye helped Mom open the package (which turned out to be the shoes Faye ordered for her). Kevin found several Youtube videos of accordion playing for Dad. Then he brought up a Christmas music playlist from Youtube on his new laptop. Mom and I enjoyed listening to it. When he had to leave, he set up my laptop to continue the music. Faye helped Dad and I fold 37 copies of the annual letter he printed out. We stuffed them in envelopes, and labeled and stamped them. Faye arranged them for the post office. Chris had laid down to rest after opening his gifts. I woke him up at midnight to say goodbye to Faye and to help me unfold the sleeper sofa. I was too tired to blog the whole day, so I just completed the notes I had taken earlier and published that.

First half of Friday - Chris arrives from Alabama

Dad got Mom's pills ready so I could feed her Ensure. I juiced all the rest of my vegetables and most of Dad's. It was so handy to have some table space. We drank as much as we could, but there was more. Mom drank 3 cups. The rest went into the fridge. I made two breakfasts, one for today and one for Sunday. I continued cleaning in the livingroom, then took an e-mail break. Chris called to say he'd be in around 5. I continued to clean, rearrange, and toss. I washed the sweet potatoes and coated them with coconut oil, and put them in the oven for 45 minutes. I took the Kirby rug attachment apart to get all the strings off of the beater bar. When I went back to take them out, I had to step over Dad who was sleeping on the floor in the den. Then the doorbell rang. Two young Mormon men wanted to talk to me. I had to beg off to get the potatoes out. Faye called to say she'd be over about 6. Mom wanted yogurt. While I was feeding her, my phone rang. Chris was calling me to say he'd arrived but all the house doors were locked. I let him in and saw there was a package by the door. I finished feeding her and Chris prepared the pork chops and put them in the oven.
*  This is Faye wearing her Merry Christmas shirt  *
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Cleaning and finding 'treasure'

I got up before 10.  That was amazing considering how late we went to bed.  Since Kurt was so gung ho about getting Skype on the tablets and his phone, I Skyped him from my tablet in the bedroom, waking him in the living room.  He did not seem to mind.  I quickly washed up and got dressed.  Mom had had her first Ensure, so I made the cruciferous juice for her.  Then, since I had bought so many vegetables for juicing, I made more juice for me and shared it with Dad.  Clean-up was a bear.  The tape on my splint got wet and it fell off.  But the finger was much better so I left it off.  I fed Mom her juice and another Ensure.  Then I ate my own breakfast.  I tried to help Dad write his Christmas /annual letter, but for some reason he wanted to figure out how he did it last year before starting on this year’s.  I could not help him with that.  He decided to take a nap before he started.  While he was sleeping under Mom’s wheelchair, the lady next door came over asking for newspapers.  She was packing up her kitchen.  I gave her the ones I could find.  Then I went back to fixing a pair of jeans.  He slept longer than he intended, and went back to obsessing.  At some point he took a copy of the letter from last year and read it to me with updates.  I typed it into his computer as best I could.  The distance between the keys is different on his laptop so I kept hitting the wrong ones.  He needed lots of time to edit my edits (I guess) so I amused myself in cleaning the diningroom and throwing out stuff that was moldy.  I found a pile of old cards written to Grandma.   I showed them to Dad and he suggested recycling them.  I was proud of him so did as he suggested, even though some part of me wanted to keep them.  I called Faye about a wrapped gift I found on the card table and we got to talking about supper tomorrow night.  Kurt came home from the science museum and packed his car to go home.  I asked him to go to the store for pork and sauerkraut.  He returned with the food and said goodbye to Mom and Dad and drove back to northern Virginia.  I resumed intensive cleaning the dining room, I found stuff I wanted to throw directly into the garbage cans, but could not find the cans.  I called William, and then Faye to find out.  But neither of them returned my call.   With all the cleaning action, my finger started to complain, so I re-splinted it.  Maybe not as well as Faye would have done.  When I finished cleaning and vacuuming the dining room, I started on the livingroom. I had to borrow flashlight from Dad to see in places where the lamps did not shine.  At 10 I put Mom to bed.  Dad did the heavy lifting.  Then he was ready to print out the letter, but I talked him into waiting until morning.  I thought it might go faster and easier then.

I was tempted to continue in the living room, but decided to be nice to my back and wait until morning.

*  This is Kurt's 'selfie' from Christmas Day, one of about 100 photos that he took with MY tablet.  *

Christmas Day

I got up while Natalie Morales was on, hosting a talk show  I finished the binding on quilt. When Dad got Mom's pills ready, I gave them to her with Ensure. After 2 bottles of Ensure, I juiced kale, cranberries and a long cucumber. The four of us shared it. I made more juice using celery. I cleaned up the juicer and made my breakfast. Kurt showed me Googlemap stuff he discovered on my tablet. Bet he wouldn't mind having it back. We looked for a skit called “It's Pat” on Youtube but could not find it. Then I checked e-mail while Kurt continued to play with the tablet. He installed the Enterprise klaxon sound. I took Mom to the bathroom while Kurt took a bath. Then he cleared the diningroom table and arranged seating in the livingroom around the tree. Dad got a large piece of plastic from one of the cars. We measured it and folded it in half to cut. I used my square quilting ruler and a twobyfour to mark the line. Faye came over to start supper. Dad and I spent hours dealing with the pile of papers, cards, bags, etc on the kitchen table. Kevin came over to sweep, and water the plants. Dad and I had the table 90 percent cleared when supper was ready. William arrived in time. Faye had the table set. She made a sweet potato casserole, chicken, pineapple casserole and mixed veggies. For dessert we had the fudge and buckeyes from the couple across the street. Faye cleaned up supper. Kurt played Christmas songs on my tablet until all had gathered. Dad came in with his accordion. We opened gifts in front of the table top tree. I gave a gift to Kurt - calendar. He said his gift to Faye was installing an app on her tablet. So then Faye gave me a calendar. For my turn I gave the quilt to William. And so it went, although we did not all get the same amount of gifts so the circle got broken. But we had a good time.  Kurt took LOTS of pics using my tablet.  We tried to Skype Michele but she overslept. But we did get to 'see' Chris. He took us on a virtual tour of my sewing room at home. Then Patrick came over to visit. Dad and I put the plastic on the table and used the Kirby to get up the crumbs by the toaster. Faye and I put Mom to bed. It got really late and I did not notice until 1 am. Kurt installed skype on both tablets and his phone. And now it's 2 am and I am going to bed.
 Ok, so I wrote my blog post and e-mailed one of the pictures from the tablet to my laptop.  While waiting for the pic to arrive, I saw Michele was up so I Skyped her.  The call only lasted 6 minutes because I was falling asleep.  Then the pic came through and I published the post and went to bed.