holidays 2007

Well, during the holidays I completely forgot to blog. Hopefully I will get back into the groove again and start blogging.

entered contest at Lifetimetv - please vote for me

I entered the "Look Good Naked" contest at Lifetimetv. Please go there and vote for me.

http://www.mylifetime.com/photos/keri/rate.php?id=183118

Mindy, I hope you don't mind that I used a picture that has Luke in it.

work was extremely challenging today

I love my work, but today was a big challenge. A server went down and clients were calling and calling and calling and instant messaging and emailing. I barely was able to eat lunch or get up to stretch my legs.

my nose is growing

I have a huge zit on my nose. I feel like Steve Martin in Roxanne. My nose seems to be getting bigger. If it gets any bigger I will not be able to see. I have to go to a football game tomorrow, so I will have to use some clever make up tricks to cover up the offending blemish.

Blogging

This is kind of fun. Maybe I will take the quiz again later and I will have advanced as a blogger. What kind are you?

oh brother where art thou - a classic movie

Dave and I love this movie. We are getting so we know some of the lines. These are lines that can be used in your every day life.



"Believe me Delmar, woman is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. "


"It is a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart."

"A half a gopher would only arouse my appetite without bedding it down."


"I'll tell you what I am - I'm the damn paterfamilias! You can't marry him! "


"Well Pete, I figured it should be the one with the capacity for abstract thought."


"Pete, the personal rancor reflected in that remark I don't intend to dignify with comment. But I would like to address your general attitude of hopeless negativism. Consider the lilies of the goddamn field or... hell! Take at look at Delmar here as your paradigm of hope."


"Do not seek the treasure.


"You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a... a cow... on the roof of a cotton house, ha. And, oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the ob-sta-cles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation. "

But there is a part that we either fast forward through or switch to another channel for a bit so that we don't have to watch it. It is when the "cyclops" beats them up. It is particularly violent and makes me uncomfortable. I think it makes Dave uncomfortable also since he didn't seem to want to watch it either.

handyman debbie, assistant dave

A couple of weeks ago our reclining rocker broke. The wooden piece in the front that holds the springs came off on one side. I think I have it fixed. It took a little trouble getting some of the hardware off and then Dave had to help pull the piece of wood that had the springs attached so that it popped back in place. Then I put all the hardware back in place and nailed some nails in to keep the wooden piece from popping out again. I certainly hope it lasts for a while. Don't want to have to buy more furniture right now.

McMillan Family Get-Together

I was the oldest one at the get-together. I think my sister, Cindi is a close second. We met at Cindi and Mike's house in Grand Rapids. Actually Ken Morris, our step-father, was the oldest person there. But here are the "sisters".








Minky, Mike, Luke, Mark and Charly - fathers and their children.










Brett with mom on the right and Aunt Cindi on the left.










Cindi's son, Japhy and his beautiful wife, Jenna, who we found out is 8 weeks pregnant. Congratulations. Kari is sitting to the right.









Beautiful Lisa, Cindi's daughter, hold Charly, my active and lively 18 month old grand-daughter.



Check out Mindy's and Kari's blogs to see what we ate and more pictures.

dancing with the stars

I wish I could be on dancing with the stars. Well maybe not, but I do love watching the show. Probably because I imagine myself dancing like that. Note to self: Get video to help you learn to dance like or sign up for lessons.

Malarkeys, Westland, Michigan

Dave and I have been having bad experiences a restaurants. The food hasn't been the greatest, the service slow and unfriendly, and the facilities not as kept up as you would want to see at a restaurant that you are eating at.

But we took a chance on a new restaurant, at least new to us. Dave says that local, unfranchised restaurants are better, in his opinion. So we went to Malarkey's Irish Pub in Westland. We were served promptly and the waitress was friendly. She even offered her suggestions for what to have to eat that was good. I chose the hamburger, cooked medium rare. Dave chose the french dip. Both meals were excellent by our standards, which I think are fairly high. The waitress came back to the table a couple of times to refill our drinks and make sure that our food was okay. The manager stopped to ask also. Overall, the atmosphere was pleasant, with lots of TVs running. I would have liked a little more choice over the content that was running, but that is not always available and we weren't going to stay long to watch the sports events scheduled for that night.

We will definitely go back there and see if our first impression was the norm or if it was just a fluke.

big boy restaurant

Dave and I eat out at least once a week and I think I am going to start writing critiques of the places that we eat. We have definite ideas of what we like and how we like to be served. Also, I tend to look around and be aware of how the restaurant seems to be run, how it is managed. So I will be commenting on different places that we eat at and my impressions.

I haven't figured out if I am going to have a scoring process, but if I do, I will come back and score this restaurant.

The first is the Big Boy Restaurant in Fowlerville, MI. We stopped at this place on our way to Mt. Pleasant. We had gotten a late start because we had to turn around to go back to the house because we forgot our binoculars for the football game. I have fond memories of Frisch's Big Boy from when I was growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio. My dad knew Dave Frisch and at one time was offered a job as a manager at one of the restaurants, but Dad turned the job down.

We were seated immediately and the waitress that seated us asked for our drink order. When she brought that, she informed us who our waitress would be and that she would be with us shortly. This is actually a very cool thing because it shows me that the waitresses are willing to help each other out. We didn't have to wait long for our waitress to show up and we made our order. I ordered the fish sandwich, Dave ordered the big boy sandwich (minus all sauce and stuff), and we ordered an order of fries to share. The food was delivered in a timely manner. Dave's food was prepared correctly with no extra stuff on it. My fish sandwich was perfect also. The fries were just right. The waitress refilled our drinks without asking and before our original drinks were empty.

Now what impressed me is that this fish sandwich seemed to taste the same as the first fish sandwich that I ever ate at a Big Boy restaurant. How can that be? That had to be about 48 years ago. Incredible. I have had some bad experiences at Big Boy restaurants when they run out of their signature tarter sauce and have to use the Gordon's brand. The sandwich tastes awful. This was just right.

We ordered the pumpkin pie. We usually don't get dessert, but the pie was so tempting. I asked for extra whipped cream if at all possible. The pie was delicious, not store bought, possibly fresh pumpkin.

Overall, it was a very nice experience.

More reviews of restaurants to come soon. Thursday night we went to a local bar, Malarkeys in Westland, MI, so that will be the next review.

The other noteable things about our experience was that the bathrooms were clean.

children

The kids and I get together for our birthdays. We just added Brett to the tradition. The girls and I started it so that we would have a "reason" to go out to eat and spend time with each other.

I am so glad we added Brett this year. Because now it feels complete.



I think I must be the luckiest mother in the world. I have the world's best children. I am not even sure I deserve them. But I thank God for them every day.

If as spirits in heaven we choose who we are going to come to earth with, I think that the four of us must have done just that. I would be the mother and the three of them would be the children. When we all get together it is like we are soul mates or something. I always feel like there is no other place I would rather be than spending time with them. The laughter comes so much easier. The tears do too. It is like all my feelings are heightened when I am around the three of them. After spending time with them, I feel recharged and relaxed.

It has always been like that and I hope it is like that forever.

halloween

It was kind of fun last night. I made Dave go buy some candy. He did good. He bought two bags, one of sweet tarts and the other suckers. I put them all in a bowl. Then I turned on the porch light, got my Eastern Michigan sweatshirt and cap on and waited for the kids to show up.

Right on cue, they started coming to the door. Cute kids, large and small. I got a kick out of the older kids. They half-heartedly got dressed up, held out their pillow cases, and did a nice job of saying thank-you. They didn't even look sheepish that they were "too old" for this. Nope, they wanted candy and were just having a good time walking around asking for it.

The other cool thing was that I was standing on my porch, I looked south down the street and there was a lot of activity, kids and parents walking around, people chatting with each other, someone mowing their lawn. It looked friendly and peaceful. What a nice looking block of houses. Maybe that is why people were driving in from somewhere else and trick or treating on our street. Yes, they were. I noticed a car with a load of people. After they were done with the block, they opened their trunk and poured the bag(s) of candy into a container in their trunk. Hmm, they were amassing quite a stash.

Well, we ran out of candy fairly quick. Guess we will get 3 bags next year. I turned off the porch light and closed the blinds. No one came to the door after that.

Last year we went away for the evening, but I am glad we didn't this year. I enjoyed seeing all the kids and saying hi to the parents.

The rifleman

When there isn't anything good on TV in the evenings and Dave and I want to have something on while we are working on our computers, Dave finds the old classic TV shows. I love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, and finally The Rifleman. I am enjoying watching these shows, but especially The Rifleman. I especially like the relationship between Lucas McCain and his son Mark. Lucas listens to his son, but yet is a stern disciplinarian. They have their differences and disagreements and sometimes Mark disobeys Lucas, but then they have a good sit down talk and they actually communicate their feelings and thoughts to each other. The story lines are weak, but they are just the vehicles to get across the themes of duty, honor, love, truth and justice. And that Mark McCain is one cute kid. Why didn't I have a crush on him when I was younger. I don't remember having a crush on him. I should have. I was about his age when the shows were on.

Football, falling and other fun things

Yesterday Dave and I went to the Eastern Michigan vs Western Michigan football game at Eastern. It was raining, but we hoped that it would quit by game time. The photographer that originally wanted to take pictures and we were counting on had something come up and would not be there, so I was going to take some pictures.

While walking down the steps of the bleachers to the field, I must have twisted my ankle, and I fell down hard on the steps. My back end hit the corner of the aluminum seat, so I have a pretty deep bruise on my hip. It will be pretty colors in a few days. My pants got wet from the steps and my ankle was a little achy, but after sitting for a bit, I was able to get up and go down to the field. What amazes me is that no one saw me or if they did, they chose not to come to help me. Granted there wasn't anybody near by, but I would have thought someone would have seen me. Oh well. Good thing I wasn't hurt real bad. I would have called Dave down from the press box to help me, but they had the music playing very, very loud. I did call him once I got the field and was able to get away from the speakers.

Well, I stayed on the field for the first half. The rain did clear up and I got a few good shots. Today I am a little achy, but not too bad. The game was good. Eastern won.

More later....going to Lansing to see baby Luke.

annoying neighbors

The "old guy" across the street has an "old woman" living with him. Right now - 8 p.m. at night, dark - she is trying to position a trailer that is attached to an old van that she sometimes drives. The van has a bad muffler. She has been positioning the trailer and van for 45 minutes now. All I hear is varoom, varoom, varoom. She inches forward, she inches backward, forward, backward, turn the wheel, forward again, now backward.....She is really irritating me.

emptying the dishwasher

I hate to empty the dishwasher. I don't really know why. I would rather wash the dirty dishes that are piling up (because the dishwasher is full with clean dishes) than put away the clean dishes. I am okay with puttting away the plates. The cups seem to be a little more of a problem for me. But I really get hung up at the silverware. I noticed that if I do one section at a time, first the plates, then the glasses, then the cups, I do better. But the silverware is a jumbled mess that just makes me want to go back to watching TV or reading my book. The spoons, forks, knives and spatulas are all jumbled together. It would be nice if there was a spot for each of those. All the spoons in one section of the silverware basket, all the forks in another. I did find that if I empty one section at a time that it works a little better for me. Does anyone else have this same problem?

crazy conure

I have a nightgown that has tiny snaps down the front. Riley the conure likes to chew on them until the come apart. He is really good at getting them unsnapped.

On another note, Riley likes a certain flower like seed that smells like licorce. A very pleasant smell.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Sunday - My dad celebrated his 85th birthday on Thursday. I called to say happy birthday. Turns out he isn't having a happy birthday. Yesterday half of his electricity in his mobile home went out. The lot owners are telling him that he has to pay to get it fixed. The line somewhere between the meter (four units down) and Dad's unit is bad. The lines are buried with the other lines, cable and such. He was initially quoted a price of $6,000. Oh, my. This doesn't sound right to me. How come if you rent a lot from a mobile home park you have to pay for the cost of a line that is buried on the mobile home park's premises? He is going to have a lawyer look over his lease and get other quotes. I am going to call him sometime this week and see how things are going.

Update: I started this on Sunday and didn't finish it. I still have to call my dad. Reminder to self, call your dad.

not sure what to say

I got to sleep in a little bit this morning. Dave had to get up early to work for a couple of hours, but I was able to sleep until almost 9 a.m. Then I made us some breakfast, took a shower, and then slowly got dressed. I was out the door a few minutes after Dave. Dave was off to watch the EMU vs UofM football at Al's house. I declined, as I wanted to take this opportunity to do whatever I wanted to do.

My first stop was Krogers. I had purchased some lightbulbs for the ceiling fans, only to find out they were not the correct size, so I thought I would return them. I also had cans to return and needed some cooking oil, q-tips, and anti-diarrheal medication. (what a combination) So that is what I did. I had to get tough with another shopper in the U-scan line. She was going to get the next open spot, even though I had already been standing in line before her. Granted, I was on the other side of the sign, but the sign was in the center of the area where people stand. I didn't feel too bad about gently reminding her that I was next, since she was the one that was causing problems at the service desk and I had to wait for her to do her business there for a good 10 minutes.

I then headed for JCPenney's to purchase needed underwear, socks, and a couple shirts for Dave and I. Penney's was having another sale (do they ever not have a sale?) and I was able to get some good prices on the needed items.

Next stop, the library. I had been without a book to read for a couple of weeks. I have been too busy with setting up the work, setting up the website to work with Joomla, and trying to find time to relax. I got three books. We shall see if I read them. I have already read all the books in the mystery series that I had been involved in and I didn't see any new books in any of the other series of books by other authors that I usually read, so I guess I have to try another author or two and see if I can get interested in their series of books.

After the library, I stopped to get some KFC, since I have been having a craving for that and Dave doesn't like it. I went home and watched a Lifetime Movie. Lifetime Movies are pretty silly and it is hard to watch them with other people around, especially Dave. He always points out how ridiculous they are. Of course, I do the same when he tries to watch bigtime wrestling or something like that.

All in all, it was a nice day. I got a little bit of cleaning done and hope to get more done tomorrow.

huge child

Oh my, check out this 17 pound baby.

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070926/ids_photos_ts/ra3291886192.jpg;_ylt=Ao7zbpjRYWQs8CXHuPJyjeyek3QF

allergies

I feel bad because I don't post very much. I think about it and then never have the time. I am going to try to post a couple more things today. Right now I want to complain, but don't want to actually complain to anyone specifically. I am having a bad day. For some reason I am having a horrible allergy attack. I have different kinds of allergies. Some are the sneezing and some are the asthma. But this one is the itchy nose. I mean itchy all over. Outside, inside and scratchy throat. If I am not careful, I will rub my nose raw and get an ugly scab on the top of my nose. I have done it before. I am trying to work and deal with this. I took an allergy pill, a benedryl, some cough medicine with codeine and have put an ice pack on my nose. Oh, and I sprayed the inside of my nose with Astelin. I still itch.

perfect salad

I think I made my perfect salad. At least perfect for me.

Crisp iceberg lettuce, cut up in small pieces.
Grated colby cheese
whole grain bread crumbs, toasted in skillet with butter
White wine vinaigrette, homemade (oil, white vinegar, sugar, garlic powder, salt)

Very tasty, yep, it was very tasty indeed.

Lazy Saturday

Well, I am having a slightly lazy Saturday. Dave is busy writing articles for Blue Ribbon YearBook and then he probably will have to start on his CD reviews for Living Blues. I left about 8:30 this morning to give blood. The Red Cross had been calling and calling me to see if I would give, as there is quite a blood shortage right now in the Detroit area. It seemed like it took forever to fill that pint and now I am feeling more weak that usual after giving blood. So I am just sitting around, reading a book, and intermittently popping up and doing a little bit of housework. I have cleaned the tub and sink in the bathroom, done 1 load of laundry and have two more to do. I want to put some nail polish on my nails and do some other little chores also. I am also feeling a little out of my element, since I have the website done and don't have too much more to do with that. I did want to set up a better photo gallery if I can.

Well, that's about it for now. More later maybe.

computer software

Dave has me working on a project for MAC Report Online. We want to change the website to a content management program. So I have installed Joomla and have been busy trying to configure and program it so that it is useful to our needs. For me this is fun (and frustrating sometimes) because the program is free, the addons and plugins are free, and I love taking software and figuring it out. We did pay for a template.

I feel like it is Christmas when I get new software to work with. This is even more exciting; there are all kinds of plugins, addons, etc to play with.

It is a work in progress, but you can watch the progress by going to www.macreportonline.com/Joomla


Comments, help, questions, constructive criticisms are welcome.

gross advertising

Watching TV and working on the laptop - commercial comes on for AllBran. It is a construction worker at a work site eating something from a bowl, walking around the job site. He is telling about how AllBran has really helped him. I don't think he uses any wording that describes the actual bowel process, just that he needed to be more regular. But behind him you see first a man pulling a huge iron girder out of a wall and then a dump truck dumping a load of bricks. How gross is that? Was that suppose to be sublimal?

Frank Marino

The last act at the Blues Festival in Pittsburgh was Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush. There were a lot of "groupies" in the audience, but by the time Frank played, a lot of them were so drunk they probably don't remember any of the concert. Frank is know for his hard, loud rock 'n roll blues. He also doesn't like to take breaks or stop playing. He is known for three hour long concerts. He had to cut his usual concert short for the festival format, but it still was not disappointing.

Well, that wasn't enough of Frank for Dave, so this last weekend we attended his concert in Detroit at St. Andrew's Hall. This was the real thing. Three hours and five minutes. No breaks. No chairs to sit in. No air conditioning, just fans. Oh my. Dave and I came prepared with ear plugs, comfortable shoes, and well-hydrated. Still, I had to sit down by the wall after 2-1/2 hours. Dave hardly noticed that I was gone. I think he loved it.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling

Well, at least it seems like it. Helicopters, small planes and now a bridge, just falling out of the sky. Sheesh.

Road trip to Blues Festival in Pittsburgh

Well, two weekends ago, Dave and I had a road trip to see a blues festival in Pittsburgh. Here are some pictures.

Larry McCray. Good, as always.


















Bernard Allison. He was a surprize for us. This is the first time we had heard him and he was very good. Plus he has two of the whitist band members, and they seemed even paler in comparison with the blackness of Bernard and his drummer. All musicians were awesome.

He even copied Lonnie and Ronnie Baker Brooks - going out into the crowd while playing. He doesn't have the handshake down yet, but the crowd loved it. I took this picture as he was walking past me. I was seated of course.

All and all, Dave and I had a good time, even if we did have to wait a long time for the music to start.

Blues on the Mall - Lansing, MI

We went to see Ronnie Baker Brooks in Lansing last Thursday.









I took this picture of these ladies dancing. What I find endearing is that they were just dancing away, not caring how they looked. They were happy, like little kids moving and shaking. How cool that we adults can sometimes just let loose and become kids again.





Ronnie is great at performing. His signature style, as is his dad's, is that he goes out in the crowd while playing a song and shakes hands, plays the guitar with a bottle (slide) and plays the guitar behind his back.


Mindy and Mike and Luke met us at the mall for the second half, after they got done meeting with Joel Zumaya and getting their picture taken with him. Check out Mindy's blog for that picture.

Finches visiting our birdfeeder - thanks Cindy

My sister gave me a thistle birdfeeder. We have seen two types of finches so far. A gold finch and a house finch. They are beautiful. I have the hummingbird feeder hanging out, but haven't seen any activity by it yet. They are probably too fast for us to see.

work today

Wow, what a day at work. I think I did pretty good at keeping up with things and not going crazy, but probably I could not have not whined to Kari or Bob about how busy I was. I had one VPN connection to get corrected, then immediately more calls started coming in. One to fix another VPN connection, one to fix some templates, another to install two of our programs on three computers, one of which proved to be a big problem, an email came in to fix a file on one website, another email to fix a graphic for a template, multiple questions about the software, more training for a new transcriptionist and a couple Instant Messages with questions. I barely got time to eat or relieve myself. I haven't had a busy day like that in a long time. It felt good to be able to handle things, but yet frustrating that I couldn't fix the couple things that I have left unfinished. Sometimes eight hours are not enough to handle all the problems that crop up.

Hopefully tomorrow will not be that busy.

Riley - ninja warrior

This is Riley sitting on his/her tail - preening - with the sound from the G4 TV show - Women Ninja Warriors.

Here are some pictures of Luke, born 5/17/2007 at 11:46 a.m. by C-section. 6 lb, 11 oz, 19 inches long.

Happy Mother's Day

Sometimes I miss my mom. She and I were not that close. I am not sure why. I think she didn't understand me and probably I didn't understand her. But I liked her. I just felt like I couldn't talk to her about things. I tried, but she would act like I was bothering her, so I stopped trying. Maybe I didn't listen to her, but I don't remember her really confiding in me or trying to.

But there was some kind of connection between her and me. I remember a few times when I thought she must be psychic or something. When I was pregnant a second time and Brett was about 14 months old, Jerry was studying for his exams and he was sick with a very bad cold. I all of sudden started spotting. I think the next day, my mom called to see how I was doing. I told her and the next thing I knew she and Ken were driving down to get Brett and I. She took us back to Grand Rapids and put me to bed. Then she called our family doctor. He had me go to the hospital where I miscarried. Mom took care of Brett while I was recovering.

There were other times when she would call out of the blue when things were going on in my life. So even though we never really had any heart to heart talks with each other, she always seemed to be there for me. I hope I was there for her when she needed some one also.

Driving to the hospital where she was dying, I knew I wouldn't make it to be there by her bedside when she took her last breath. I had been there the night before and I knew that she was at peace with dying. Looking at the clock in the car, I thought to myself, "Go ahead Mom, you don't have to wait for me", and later the nurse told me that she passed away at that time. I wonder if she still hears me now and then as the years go by. I do miss her, even though it has been 11 years.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

5/4 - 5/5 - weekend activities

Yesterday was a pretty good day. We went to a new restaurant for breakfast. We are compiling information for a book about good family dining places to eat breakfast at in Detroit. The place we went to will not be in the book. The food was not that great. We both came home and spent a good portion of the next hour in the bathroom. Good thing we have two.

Then I took off for the Red Cross, as they have been calling me and asking me to give blood. I had made an appointment for 10:30. I still felt a little iffy after the breakfast, but was hopeful that things would calm down, which it did, gradually, and 1-1/2 hours later I was out of there. I was lucky this time, didn't have any problems with blood pressure, hemoglobin, or clogged veins, and didn't get light-headed.

When I got back Dave wanted to go bowling. Great, I just gave blood, in my left arm and he wants to bowl. But I don't want to say no because we really need to start getting out and moving around and loosening up our joints so that we can exercise and loose weight. So I wrapped my arm up and we went bowling. We only bowled two games each so I didn't stress my arm out very much. Dave got a 205 on his second game. I didn't break 100 on either game.

Then we came home and relaxed. Then we were back in the car again, this time to go to the Eastern Michigan versus Central Michigan baseball game. The weather was slightly cold, but EMU won and it was fun to get out of the house.

Then today we checked out another breakfast restaurant. This one was good, so it will be in the book. Once home I browbeat Dave into helping me clean the house. It felt good to get things picked up and the floor vacuumed.

In keeping with our resolve to get out and exercise a little each day, if possible, we decided to go to the Lake Erie Metro Park and walk the 1-1/2 mile nature trail. Last weekend we walked the mile one and wanted to go back and try this one. This trail takes you along the shoreline of Lake Erie, so that was very scenic. We left about noon and it took us about 30 minutes to get to the park. For some reason we didn't plan very well. We didn't bring a lunch or drinks or even snacks. We just took off and left without preparing anything. I don't know what we were thinking. So a little more than half way through the walk I started noticing my blood sugar dropping. I looked over at Dave and he was fading also. We stopped to rest, but we both were not doing well. I think Dave was actually doing worse than I was. I totally forgot about his disease, where if he gets dehydrated, he gets ill and could die. Crap. I was scared. We were a little ways from the car and we did not have any fluids with us. Luckily we parked near the nature center and they had a vending machine with pepsi, water, and gatorade. After stopping for a few minutes, I was feeling a little better, but Dave seemed to be worse. I was holding his hand and encouraging him to keep going. I was trying to ascertain if I should make him sit down and have me go ahead to get some gatorade, but he said he could make it. He did. He sat on the bench outside the center, while I ran in to get the gatorade. As soon as he had his first sip, he said he started to feel better. I had enough change to get a pepsi.

We sat on the bench and looked at each other and wondered what we had been thinking. Why had we not been prepared for our hike? It has been so long since I have had to worry about Dave and the affects of his condition, that I had totally forgotten to be prepared.

It won't happen again, at least not this year.

Once the gatorade was gone, we got in the car, with me driving and drove to the nearest party store to pick up more gatorade and a candy bar for each of us. So much for dieting. But it was necessary that we both get our blood sugars back up quickly.

Then we headed back for home. Dave slept off and on in the car and is sleeping now on the couch. We did stop to eat supper on the way home.

Lessons learned. But this was a scary one. Dave works hard to live his life as normal as possible and he does a good job of managing his medications, so well, that I forgot about his condition. Low blood surgar for me isn't a big deal. Hypoglycemia (not caused by insulin injections) will not hurt you, as your body will not dip too low. You just feel uncomfortable. But Dave's low blood sugar was also accompanied with some dehydration and that is what causes his body problems.

Of course, it didn't help that I also was a pint low in the blood fluid area either, having given blood yesterday.

Well, all is well now. But having this little reality check, I am reflecting on how much Dave means to me and how devastated I would be if he were to not be in my life.

Good quiche

I have been reading a series of mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson, where the main character is a caterer and she has added delicious recipes in the books. I get very hungry when I read the books.

I tried this recipe and it was awesome. When I made it the recipe that I had wasn't correct. It didn't have the cream cheese in it, but still it was very good. It took me awhile to find the Jarlsberg cheese, but found that it was a hard swiss cheese that grated easily. If you like quiche, give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Crustless Jarlsberg Quiche
1/2 cup butter, sweet
1/2 cup flour, all-purpose
1 1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cup cottage cheese, small curd
1 teaspoon mustard, dijon
9 eggs
11 oz cream cheese; softened
3/4 lb jarlsberg; grated
1/3 cup parmesan; grated

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat, add the flour, and stir just until mixture bubbles. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Stir this cream sauce until it thickens. Set aside to cool. Stir baking powder, mustard and salt into cottage cheese. Beat eggs well, then beat in softened cream cheese and cottage cheese mixture. Slowly beat in cream sauce, then thoroughly incorporate Jarlsberg and Parmesan. Pour into two buttered 10" pie plates. Bake for about 45 minutes or until puffed and browned. Cut each quiche into eight large wedges. ---*Dying for Chocolate* Diane Mott Davidson

oops

Do not microwave a Marie Callendar pot pie upside down in the microwave.

Smoky Mountains

Some pictures of the outside of the cabin in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and a few of playing putt-putt golf.

More Parrot Mountain

Simon, the cockatoo, hopped on my shoulder. I was given a long lecture by the caretaker to make sure that I didn't attempt to put Simon back on his perch myself, as he would bite me. The caretaker should be the only one to do it, so that he would take the risk of biting.

I assured him that I would follow his directions.


Then the caretaker disappeared. So I sat down with Simon to discuss his bad habit of biting people. He told me that he just wanted people to pay attention to him and he really liked sitting on my chest. He did his trick of ruffling his head feathers when I passed my hand in front of him. He enjoyed the scritches I gave his neck and chest.

Still the caretaker was no where to be seen. So I walked over this his perch. Put my hand under his feet, saying "step up" and once he was on my hand, I put him near his perch. No problem. He went to his perch. Still no caretaker. What the heck was that all about?



Dave likes the hawk-headed parrot. Awesome bird.

Parrot Mountain

Well, one of our favorite places to visit in the Smoky Mountains is Parrot Mountain. The kookaburras caught my fancy. They seemed so content.
















I am not sure what this parrot was, but he sure was pretty.


See next post for more pics and comments.

ants

We have ants. Crud. They seem to be coming in from the outside in the front. Of course it doesn't help that I am not a meticulous housekeeper. So we have to find a remedy for this that will not cause the bird any problems with fumes or such.

How do you like your grits?

"How do you cook your grits? You like 'em regular, creamy, or al dente?"

Dave and I like to go to breakfast on the weekends. We found a place, Nora's Kitchen, that has a pretty good breakfast. They offer grits instead of hash browns. Now since I am not crazy about hash browns, unless they are well done, and even then I usually don't eat them all, I order the grits. I noticed that I have a routine of eating the grits, which is also the routine that I follow for oatmeal and cream of wheat. First I put a pat of butter on top of the grits and let it melt down. I stir it in just a little bit, probably only down the first quarter inch. Then I sprinkle sugar over the top. Then carefully, I spoon up the first layer of grit, butter, sugar mixture carefully a little bit at time, enjoying the butter/sugar/gritty taste. Then when that layer is all gone, I start over on the next layer.

Discount Pets robbed!!!

Dave and I were going to stop at our favorite pet store to pick up some bird food for Riley. When we got there, the police were there. The place had been robbed!

Someone stole the birds that the store was boarding and selling, except for the ones that were hand-fed, plus expensive cages, food, and toys. So they knew what they were doing. They did not take the 60-year-old macaw, Harry, the owner's bird.

I feel so bad for the store owner. She has been in business for a long time and this is devastating.

It is weird. We had boarded Riley there a few weeks ago and we had thought that next week we would board him again, but decided against it and instead are going to have Diana watch Riley for us. Scary to think that Riley could have been one of the birds that was taken if we had taken our vacation this week and had boarded him there.

rally bubble gum

Watching the Tigers play ball all night long. 0-0, boring game. Top of the 12th, I got out the rally bubble gum. I had bought a box of Dubble Bubble gum for the baseball games. I gave Dave two pieces and I put two pieces into my mouth. This was when Pudge was on first. Then two more got on base. Craig Monroe came to bat and hit a grand slam and yippee! the game is 4-0 Tigers. Bottom of the 12th.....let's see if they can play good defense.

Mindy's Baby Shower - 3/31/2007

Kari, with the help of Claudia and me, planned and prepared Mindy's Baby Shower. I went over on Thursday night to help her get ready. I wasn't much of a help, but I did try to entertain Charly while Kari was preparing the delicious food. We went to the store on Friday to get ingredients. The menu was barbequed beef sandwiches, fresh vegetables and three types of dip, peanut butter popcorn, trail mix, peanut butter and jelly finger sandwiches, turkey roll ups, coffee, punch, and iced tea. The theme was sports in honor of Luke the new baby. I am so excited to meet this new edition, as is everyone else.