 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Sunday, November 03, 2024
Changes in Space and Findings Whilst Shopping
 James has finally seen the spinal doctor at Emory!Not that it did him much good. The appointment was wayyyyy over at the old Executive Park complex which used to be a rabbit warren of little buildings, many of them rented by CDC. I had attended meetings and classes at Executive Park; the plus of going there was that it was near a plaza that was filled with restaurants, including a Chinese place we were very fond of going to for Friday lunch. All of the buildings are now gone. In its place are the big Arthur Blank Hospital, part of Children's Hospital of Atlanta, a bunch of construction, and the Emory Muskoskeletal and Spinal Center, which was us. The building is shiny new, with a very nice-smelling cafe at the entrance. They have an interesting system of elevators, too. When you get there you register, and they give you a ticket telling you where to go: Level 4, for example, and then Aisle E. Then you go to the elevator bay which has a central panel. You tell the elevator you're going to Level 4, and it tells you what elevator to take. There are no buttons in the elevator; it's kinda spooky. Anyway, we saw Dr. Hobson, but nothing was done that Thursday; she wanted a battery of tests first: a complete spinal CT scan, a complete MRI of the spine, and a bone density test. She doesn't want to start a treatment for his lower back that will screw up his upper back. She also prescribed a back brace, which we'll get from Hangar Orthotics, and hydrotherapy. When we got home we tried to set up the CT and MRI immediately, but the orders weren't in the system yet; they did not go in until Wednesday and James made appointments on Saturday evening the 9th at Townpark, but he couldn't get the bone scan until the following Tuesday. But it will be done quickly, so we can hopefully get James some pain relief. This wasn't our only appointment this week; we also went to see Dr. Coyle. The fistula still isn't "ripe." You know, we were told, both times, that this thing would be "ripe" in six weeks. Now they tell us six weeks to three months! In happier trips, we drove out to the Costco in Paulding County again. We got supplies, but there was no ScotTissue! We also stopped at the Walmart out there and I was able to find twelve cans of the recently discontinued Harvest Tomato soup, which I use to make chicken cacciatore. I think this is the only big haul I'm going to be able to get. I now have 20 cans, and then we will need to find something else. I'm very sad. James had already filled in his mail-in ballot, and I did mine on Wednesday. When we left dialysis, we drove past the Smyrna community center where they were having early voting. This year they did allow me to deposit James' ballot along with mine; last year they insisted he do it himself. I put up the outside Thanksgiving decorations on Friday only to discover I had no Thanksgiving flag! I ordered one immediately, a very beautiful surround of autumn leaves surrounding the word "thankful." Then I drove out to the Walmart near Roswell Road and Cobb Parkway in hope of finding more Harvest Tomato soup. No luck there, but they did have slip-on canvas shoes that I use for dog-walking at night. And just in time, too, because when I got home and swapped out the inserts in my old dog-walking shoes, I discovered the soles of both shoes were cracked! This Walmart is next to Sam's Club, so I went in for ScotTissue. Thank goodness, they did have some! They also had—oh, my ears and whiskers!—poultry gravy. It has been like pulling teeth to find containers of poultry gravy; you can get brown gravy all the time, but not poultry. I ended up paying something like fifteen dollars to get a canister of McCormick poultry gravy mix from Amazon, and there they were at Sam's Club for $5 each. So I bought three! Uploaded a new fanfic as well: "Haunted." Labels: change, clothing, food, health, shopping, sickness, writing  » Sunday, October 27, 2024
Back to This
James finally had an appointment with the pain clinic, even if it was just a video visit. After looking at James' spinal scans, Dr. Connally thinks he needs outpatient treatment on his back immediately, something called "an injection of 'cement'"? He has a fracture in one of his lower lumbar vertebrae that is probably pinching one or more nerves, causing the terrible pain and the interference in his sleep. So he will be getting a call from Emory about seeing a specialist there.I have been working on a fanfiction called "Quiver" all of the week and uploaded it on Saturday. I had Michaels credits, so we stopped at the Heritage Pointe store on Sunday afternoon and now I have a new 4-foot tree for the library. Otherwise it's been the usual chore-filled week. I did get a brighter light bulb for the library and was able to install it myself using the full-sized ladder. Leaning on the ladder makes me feel secure and I can stand being on the second step. I also replaced the long light bulb in the airplane fixture in the downstairs hall. This was a special gift to James from his mother, so we both cherish it. I found to my surprise when I got up there to replace the bulb that the old one was completely burned out! I could only get long light bulbs—they're called "radio bulbs" because they look like old-time radio tubes—in a four-pack, so I just replaced it with a regular-sized (A19) bulb. Fit perfectly, and damn it is bright down there now! Labels: Christmas, health, home repairs, illness, shopping, writing » Sunday, May 19, 2024
A Good Lift
Well, at least the chair lift on the truck is working properly. We had it checked out at Mobility Works on Tuesday—I followed James over there in Butch just in case they needed to keep it—and they gave it a thorough vetting and also some lubrication (you should hear it squeal in the wintertime when it's wet). We stopped by Sam's Club on the way home and gassed up both cars and got some great-looking sirloin steaks.We had kind of a quirk over at Kaiser on Wednesday; they took James' usual biweekly blood test and came up with the wrong results! Nevertheless, they allowed him to get his Procrit shot on Thursday, and we had an appointment with the podiatrist as well. James' toe looks great, even to me, and I'm hoping the stitches will come out next week because he's going lame in those surgical sandals. Also annoyed to discover that the Smyrna Publix has ceased to carry my favorite flavor of yogurt. My largest accomplishment this week was cleaning out in the spare bedroom and finally posting the final chapter in my latest fanfic. The story eventually ran to 43,000 words! I thought when I started it that it would top out at about half that amount, but things just happened...LOL. » Sunday, March 03, 2024
The Gathering and The Innocent
The highlight of this week was the second annual occurrence of Marietta: The Gathering. This is a fannish event held on the Square in Marietta. No celebrities or anything, but there was a "dealer's room" in booths out on the street—I found a new kitsune pin! and James bought me the cutest fox pin—and a Star Wars presence and lots of attendees (and their dogs) in costumes or t-shirts. We stayed an hour or two, also went to the candy store to get James some sugar-free candy and to the British store. Discovered a new Italian market/café is going to open downtown!The preceding day was cold and rainy, so we stayed in all day and James made biscuits in the air fryer. They were so good! I spent the day reading Barbara Feldon's book Getting Smarter, some about her time on Get Smart, but mostly about her relationship with Lucien Feldon, who turned out not at all what he portrayed himself to Barbara. I was surprised that she believed some of his wilder stories. In other news, I posted the conclusion of a fanfiction, finally put up the knife holder I bought for James (we mounted it on a cupboard door, having no other space for it), and went to Sam's Club and bought some nice sirloin steaks. Labels: events, food, shopping, television, weather, writing » Sunday, October 15, 2023
Busy for Us and Happy for Emma!
Well, we had some Big Events this week (and none of them involved goddamn Urgent Care).The Friends of the Library book sale was on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and it was the first time that I've gone that I did not go first thing on Friday morning. I still fret about James and I didn't feel like getting up early to boot, plus I know I'm not going to find the stuff on my want list at the sale (it has happened, but not often enough to be a pattern, like when I found Time Out for Happiness). I ended up going on Saturday instead, to kill a little over an hour before Jessie's birthday party at Mellow Mushroom. And, yes, I still did manage to find books, including Michener's Chesapeake and Alaska, a compendium of Agatha Christie's books, a book of British mystery short stories that includes one by the late Christopher Fowler, My American Revolution about the war in the Middle Colonies, and Ronald Kessler's The FBI. Also grabbed four books for James including a P.J. O'Rourke and a first edition Book of the Month club version of Victory Through Air Power (from 1942). Ironically, James was going to go to his club meeting and only I was attending the birthday party, but he discovered the meeting was next week, so I followed him over there only to find out Jessie had a problem and could not attend her own party. There was a nice crowd anyway and we enjoyed ourselves. Instead of the book sale on Friday James and I went to Home Depot, which was absolutely filled with Christmas trees! Doesn't anyone make a decent-looking tree under 7 1/2 feet tall? I simply cannot decorate one that big without getting on a stool! The small ones have mixed branches which are absolutely repulsive. Anyway, we were at HD to get light bulbs. I've discovered I like their "bright white" bulbs (3000K), since they are brighter, but don't mess with my eyes. I got a box of four clear 60-watt equivalents and one of 100-watt equivalents. For the living room I bought two bulbs which you can adjust from "warm white" to "daylight." I have left them on "true white" for now and am crossing fingers they don't irritate my eyes. We also went to Lowes just for the heck of it, and...more Christmas trees. Same heights, too. Had lunch at Hibachi Grill—oh, God, are they now in this oversalted hell, too?—then finally returned the pair of slip-on shoes I got for James at Walmart and bought up sugar-free candy, and picked up some things we hadn't gotten at Lidl during the big shopping trip on Thursday. On the way up the stairs with the groceries, I whacked my right elbow good on the woodwork of the stair rail. Oh, my God! I bang one of my elbows at least once a week and it's horrible and painful, but goes away in a minute. Today I had to run to the fridge and put ice on it for twenty minutes and it raised a big purple bruise and dear Lord it hurt! I was afraid I'd broken or chipped something. After the ice I wrapped it in an Ace bandage for the rest of the night, and by shower time it was fine. All I could think of was: if my arm is broken, how will I cath James???? Something nice happened to a friend of mine on Saturday that I was very happy about. Rupert Holmes was signing his book Murder Your Employer at the Deptford, NJ, Barnes & Noble store. Our friend Emma goes there all the time! I was practically jumping up and down in the truck seat as we went to James' physiotherapy I was so excited as I texted Emma the news. She was able to go and have MYE and also her copy of his novel Swing autographed by Rupert, and he told me how nice it was to meet another "friend of WENN" (Remember WENN, that is). We didn't go to the Apple Festival on Sunday because both of us got too little sleep and it's a 75 minute drive. I did manage to format a new piece of fanfic for upload on Thursday, though. Something sad did happen on Sunday that was of little consequence, but was still a bummer. I signed up for Twitter a couple of years ago so I could read posts from a few people I liked, including Susan Branch, Sam Neill, J. Michael Straczynski, and Vincent D'Onofrio. The latter, especially, would post neat views from his apartment of the NYC skyline, or his unusual little "poems" which are by turns funny, inspirational, and sometimes downright melancholy. After Elon took over Twitter, D'Onofrio mentioned he might quit, and Sunday afternoon he just pulled the plug. It will be sad not waking up to a funny video (like the one he posted a couple of weeks ago of him and his daughter cleaning the carpet in his apartment!) or a pretty view or a poem). Labels: books, Christmas, errands, food, friends, injuries, shopping, social media, writing » Sunday, September 03, 2023
From Pain to Pleasure
Poor James—he came down with a thump late Tuesday. Monday after the supposed dose of steroids during his surgery he had no pain at all and was walking tall and easily until bedtime. He even forgot his cane several times because he really didn't need it. Tuesday he had a little pain, but was doing okay. Wednesday the pain came back with a vengeance, especially after we went to physical therapy. Karen didn't have him do any arm exercises; just leg and hip and he was pretty miserable that evening, even though he told me he was "okay" at Publix. Thankfully, this let up a little by the end of the week and we could go on to have some fun.One other doctors' appointment this week: his Procrit shot. Apparently it's raising his iron levels well. And he got some comfort food: after doing the shopping we picked up chicken and dumplings from Cracker Barrel. Labels: books, fanfiction, food, health, shopping, sickness, television, writing » Sunday, August 06, 2023
The End of One Thing and the Beginning of Another
Several good things happened this week.The big primary was that the chair lift got installed. They removed the railings on the stairs and then set it up. I don't know why, but I didn't realize it was going to be installed on the stairs; for some reason I thought it would hang from the studs in the wall. Now that I look at it, it being in the studs in the wall wouldn't make sense. We also closed out the HOA post office box. There's no HOA anymore, so there's no use in having a post office box any longer. Thank goodness, no more trips to the post office for all that crap. Now to get the water turned off out front; in seventeen years we've never watered the lawn out there. We also finished watching all of season one of Dark Winds. Outstanding! Waiting for season two to finish so we can watch that. Did a bunch of chores this week, and worked on a piece of fanfiction. Yippee. Exciting! Labels: chores, health, television, writing » Monday, June 26, 2023
LibertyCon, Part 3
Of course, Sunday was better, but the con was almost over, too!Another morning, another breakfast. Alas, no bacon today. Had to content myself with oatmeal, toast, milk, and a bagel and cream cheese. Walked Tucker in the green area behind the breakfast area/pool, and then it was back to the con. I still hadn't found the art show or the dealer's room, so James escorted me there first. James bought an attractive piece of a spaceship against a starfield, and also an ironically whimsical print of an atomic cloud as part of a scoop of ice cream on top of a cone. He bought me a pretty blue-and-silver bracelet made of links. So blue. No purchases in the Dealer's Room. LibertyCon always has a charity; this year it was Ronald McDonald House. One of the things that was auctioned for charity was a chance to play Larry Correia's roleplaying game "Gritty Cop Show," which is basically an amalgam of every cop show you've ever seen. Six people bid a total of $5000 to play, and we went to watch. The first hour was fun and I wish we'd stayed. Instead we went off to a panel that was supposed to be about care of your old books. But mostly the moderator talked about valuation and buying of rare books, which I find a bore. I don't buy books to collect, I buy them to read. Finally we went to the tribute to Eric Flint. Yesterday was still affecting how I felt and I think I dozed through most of this. James enjoyed it, since Flint's 1632 universe is a favorite of his. Finally we went to closing ceremonies, where they told us how much they earned for Ronald McDonald House, the guests for next year, etc., and then people complained or complimented and asked for different things for next year. It was lively and upbeat... And then we emerged from the room and holy hell was going on outside! It was pouring. Can't call it Georgia Monsoon Season. Let's call it Tennessee Monsoon Season. So we talked to Sue a little while and then walked the last time down the long, long hall, made it across the street without being drowned (the rain had slowed down). We waited a little while and the rain finally stopped, so we went out to go to McKay's Books (I bought a Valdemar book I didn't have and a book about a couple who sold their house and live permanently traveling in Europe) and finally get some decent food at City Café: James had a shepherd's pie (he should have sent it back; he said it was way too salty) and I had two exquisitely grilled pork chops, a baked potato, and of course City Café's outstanding chicken soup with broken-up spaghetti in it. We brought a nice slice of Death by Chocolate cake back to the hotel. Whatever channel I found had Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes that were a tribute to Raul Esparza's Rafael Barba character, including the one where he left the show, so we watched those and went to bed at midnight—checkout time wasn't until noon, so why not? During commercials packed a few things up. Monday morning we packed, made it down to breakfast just in time (have to remember ends at 9:30 on weekdays), then proceeded to walk Tucker, and pack, pack, pack. Then it was checkout time, and then getting on the road time. We had stopped at "Buc-ee's," one of those giant rest stops, on the way up, so I could pee. Buc-ee's is a chain from Texas, with a restaurant, lots and lots of gas pumps, and a huge store that specializes in jerky. They have opened about a half-dozen of them down here, and one is on the way to Chattanooga, in Calhoun. Walking in is overwhelming: it's a big store and people everywhere, and noisy. I went in and pee'd and that was it. We talked about stopping on the way back, especially as Tucker had gone crazy when he saw the tumult, but we were tired. So of course there was a traffic jam. We waited over a half hour in Adairsville for them to clear a fracas that appeared to have involved two tractor-trailer trucks. It was exhausting. We got home safely, and the house was okay (the big storm we'd had in Chattanooga roared south and had hit Atlanta like a cannonball in some places; supposedly trees were down in Cobb County, but around us was safe). I shoved clothes in the washer and that was the end of LibertyCon. We will go up on Thursday next year (if we get in) and stop at Publix or whatever, and buy food like pot pies or Hungry Man dinners. $26 for meatloaf indeed! » Sunday, April 16, 2023
All Booked Up, and Empty As Well
It was a "booky" week. Monday we made our monthly trip to Canton. It was a lovely day, we had a nice stroll through Books-a-Million, and then a delicious lunch at Uncle Maddio's. I tried having some proscuitto on top of my pizza along with the bacon and black olives. Proscuitto tastes pretty good after it's gone through a pizza oven, nice and crunchy! We also went to BJs to buy fruit cups and other necessities.And finally, finally it was Friday and time for the book sale. I did not realize Ina Caro had another book besides Paris to the Past! Found a book about Native American culture. Found Victoria Thompson's newest book. And another about emergency room nurses. And other interesting things. Also found two books for James, one about the Battle of Britain and another about a series he loves, Ice Pilots. Found out only when I got home that the latter was autographed by two of the cast members. Did more dubbing this week (so now most of it is finished), made sure our tax payment to the IRS got postmarked at the post office. And found out about a totally unexpected electronics recycling day on Saturday thanks to Twitter. I managed to get the old printer (which was still in the foyer) on the hand truck and out the door more easily than I figured, then I mounted it on the chair lift and bungie-corded it down. The rest of the stuff we tossed in an expendable box and off we went to Jim Miller Park and got rid of it all. Uploaded the last of my long fanfic on Sunday. Onward to the next story! » Sunday, March 05, 2023
Gains and Losses
Things got done this week.We have a new laser printer. When James was hitched to the oxygen tank, he tripped over the tubing several times, thankfully never hurting himself, but he did kill the printer. We thought the cable plug was broken, but it's the plug inside that is broken. It would take as much to get the printer fixed as it would to buy a new one. So we went to MicroCenter and bought another Brother. We had to look carefully, because the new printer couldn't be over a certain height to fit on the shelf we have for it. I would have settled for black and white, which would have been smaller, but James wanted a color printer. We ordered new glasses at Costco. Less than $800 for four pairs of glasses for both of us. Go suck eggs, VisionWorks. Thursday we ordered new orthopedic shoes for James. Friday we went back to Dr. Salazar. James is going to start having steroid shots in his knees again. It will help alleviate some of the pain. Unfortunately the shots will eventually stop working. We also went to Barnes & Noble and decided we just can't do the buffet at Fried Tomato any longer. I love the pork ribs, but they also make me sick. Saturday we did do something fun: downtown Marietta hosted something called "Marietta: the Gathering," which was a bit like an outdoor convention with mostly a dealer's room. It was a lot of fun. There was at least one Star Trek artist there; most of it seemed anime and gaming oriented. I bought two kitsune pins (there's a kitsune reference in one of my stories) and we ran into Matt and Kelley Ceccato there. In some sad news, one of my favorite writers, Christopher Fowler, passed away. He had talked previously on Twitter about having cancer; it was the reason he had concluded the Bryant and May mysteries. I also found out that they are tearing down, floor by floor, the venerable old Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. I went to my first science fiction convention there, and it feels as if I've lost another piece of myself. Labels: books, conventions, events, food, health, purchases, writing » Sunday, February 19, 2023
In the Doctor's House
It's been a very medical week. James started out the week with a visit to Dr. Shash; this was very positive. His EKG came out fine, he didn't need another echocardiogram, and we got his prescriptions refilled. Plus the ride out to Glenlake was pretty painless.Wednesday James had his usual physiotherapy. Karen says he's doing very well, but she didn't have to say it. He's so much better than he was, especially when he got back from the hospital in October. He was so weak and his hands shook. Thursday we went to the first of three iron infusions for James because his iron is still too low. I'm not sure what goes on with the infusion clinic; they can always tap James for a blood test when he goes for a blood test, but they took an hour to find a vein to run the infusion through. Then there was another 90 minutes for the infusion itself. I'm spending the time uploading the finished story to Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net, and, yes, editing as I go! Ron and Lin have been splitting Hair Day into two parts to save Sheri's carpal tunnel problems, so Friday James went for his haircut. We are not the only ones with medical hassles: the doctor wants Juanita to have a very scary-sounding infusion. And on Saturday I gave in and got a vet appointment for Snowy next week. It's another drop-off, which I hate; I want to be with my boy when he sees the doctor. He was brighter on Sunday and even said "Hi, parakeet!" to me, but I noticed that when we were watching Alan Cumming and Miriam Margolies that night that he seemed to have some problem moving. I should go to the emergency vet, but they aren't avian qualified. Did get some neat books for Valentine's Day: James bought me In Search of Jefferson, and I also got A Book, Too, Can Be a Star in the mail, along with the new "Rivers of London" graphic novel. Labels: birds, books, friends, health, pets, sickness, Valentines Day, writing » Sunday, February 12, 2023
There's the Good and There's the Bad
It's a funny thing about writing; sometimes the story is easier to write than thinking up an appropriate title for it. For the stories I'm writing, I like a title that has a double meaning (because the source material had episode titles that almost always had multiple meanings). The current story has been a trial because any title I could give it pretty much gave away the ending. I started out with one title, changed it just after the first of the year, but have finally found the perfect title while finishing the last of my French research books.Also had some really good news during a Friday lunch: our friend Aubrey has been offered a good, boss new job due to her contacts in the writing community! The job market is so tough today we are so happy for her. And then, of course, comes the bad news: James had a x-ray of his knee last week, and saw the orthopedist this morning. Almost all the cartilage in his left knee, the one that creaks like a board in an old floor every time he climbs the stairs or gets up from a chair, is gone. The usual cure for this is knee replacement surgery. But James BMI is too high, and, the doctor stated matter-of-factly, even if he wasn't overweight, she would not recommend surgery because his other numbers (kidneys, heart, etc.) are so bad. And we had eye exams, and yes, indeed, Mr. Cataract is worse. I can actually have surgery now if I want to. And I'm frightened of anesthesia and painkillers, and I seem to remember you can't bend down for a certain amount of time when you have cataract surgery, so who would cath James even if I had it done? » Sunday, January 29, 2023
Medical
It seems hardly worth posting this. Mostly chores this week, put up hooks for the Christmas lights so I don't have to fish them out of a box. We went to Costco. It rained. Lower GI acting up again.James did have a doctor's visit. His creatitine is 3.9, lower than it's been, but not as low as it was. He did better on the furosimide, but based on the other test results, the torsemide is better for his kidneys. » Sunday, January 15, 2023
Tedium and Enjoyment
Have spent a very desultory week doing chores and "detinseling." The usual stuff got done, the easiest of the Christmas decorations got put away. Oh, and I trimmed the bushes in the front yard while they're dormant to keep them in check. I want the nandina to fill in at the bottom, not look like a bunch of broccoli with skinny stems.Most of my entertainment is reading about Paris for the piece of fanfiction I'm writing. It's a longer story and I'm scheduled to start posting the first chapter in mid-February. My favorite so far is Vivian Swift's Le Road Trip, which is written in handwriting like a Susan Branch book and illustrated with Swift's watercolors of France. I've also done research on what's at the Armistice site at Compiègne, which is pretty cool. The big event of the week was the late-date Christmas party at the Lawsons, which was a welcome break. John made a pineapple upside down cake, and we ordered pizzas. As usual, the men chatted and the ladies played games. We had one very funny minute where Jessie was supposed to toss the dice and she absently plopped them into her drink glass instead. By the time we left I had a killer headache from laughing so hard. He didn't get hurt, but James fell on the way out. He went to put the tip of his cane down and it sank into soft grass instead of the sidewalk of the driveway, so he just relaxed and went down. Luckily a few friends were able to get him vertical and going again. Labels: books, Christmas decorations, friends, parties, writing » Sunday, November 27, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving...Wishing for Happiness
I was born two weeks before Christmas, and baptized on Christmas Eve, and I've gravitated toward Christmas ever since. I love the color and the lights and giving gifts and the special scents of the season and getting together with friends. But after Christmas I love Thanksgiving best of all. There's no pretension to it. Oh, a lot of people try to turn Thanksgiving into a picture perfect magazine thing, or they go into the same old tiresome Pilgrim and Indian thing, which isn't even really true and isn't the basis for the holiday we celebrate. It's about getting together with special people, whether family or friends, eating together and feeling gratitude for our blessings, even if it's been a rotten year. After October's debacle, I am very thankful for November, even if it wasn't the November I wanted. This Thanksgiving was spent, as it has been for years, at the Lucyshyn home; they have a great big open space kitchen/dining/living room area just perfect for hosting guests. There were two turkeys, Clair's wonderful pot roast, lots of veg, including our carrot/craisin salad, cornbread, and other goodies, and of course homemade pies and other goodies for dessert. James got slightly wobbly heading back out to the car, but we made it okay. It's a pretty long haul out to Lawrenceville and back, but the company is worth it, and Butch did his best, except for a few minutes when I noticed that the car was in low gear. I couldn't figure it out, until James noticed the second time it happened that his portable oxygen bottle had pushed the gearshift down! Thank goodness it isn't something I need to have fixed again. (There's another thanks for today.) I posted a short Thanksgiving fanfic in my series and gave thanks for that, too, for keeping me sane through four hospital stays. I don't really want to be writing any more stories from the hospital, but am thankful I can. On Saturday, like hobbits, we had Second Thanksgiving at Alice and Ken Spivey's house. Yet another yummy turkey and more veg and warm friends. We are both still down from the October hospital stay, and, although this weekend was the first Sunday of Advent, I really had to push myself to put up the lights. I actually did it Saturday night because rain was expected Sunday, but got no joy out of it. However, I was rewarded for my promptness by being able to program the pesky timer with no mistakes the first time! On Sunday I put up the candoliers and the door wreaths, including the front door wreath and the flag.
Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, food, friends, holidays, Thanksgiving, writing » Saturday, June 04, 2022
And Yet More Books...
Well, summer has officially arrived. Yeah, I know, it's not the solstice yet. Actually, meteorological summer started June 1, and on Thursday, June 2, it was 93℉. That, folks, is summer.We braved it anyway after doing a morning of grocery shopping; we ate a sandwich each and then went to Barnes & Noble. I gave in and renewed my discount card; I mean, someone has to keep them in business. I ended up buying five books (including a birthday gift for James), four of them at "buy one, get the second for half price," including the one about forensics in Agatha Christie novels, plus both of the Jurassic World magazines that have just come out. The "Hollywood Spotlight" version has a killer pic of Sam Neill. Yum. Something else was put in motion on Thursday, but...let it simmer for now. Hoping things will be happier when...it's done. The rest of the week was quiet as we really didn't have anywhere else to go. On Friday we just decided to get takeout from Dragon168. This gave me a chance to duck into Publix and pick up the ramen noodles we forgot, and they also had unsalted vegetable broth; neither of the Publix we shop at carry it any longer. I spent Friday afternoon blogging, finished my latest L&O: CI story, and, in the best news, The Orville is back! The first episode dealt with the aftermath of Isaac's treachery, and introduced a new character, Charly Burke, the Orville's navigator. She's very good, and the score of the episode was spectacular. James went off to his club meeting on Saturday afternoon, and I was going to watch Emerald City, but my lower GI decided to rebel. Instead I washed the winter jackets and did the weekly vacuuming and watched Law & Order: Criminal Intent on Peacock instead. Labels: books, events, food, magazines, movies, shopping, television, weather, writing » Saturday, May 28, 2022
Give Me a Ring, and I'm Not Talking Jewelry
The news from Texas. Oh, God, the news from Texas. This gunman didn't even have a screed. And the police remained outside the school for an hour because they didn't have orders to go in, while a whole fourth grade classroom was under fire. Almost all the kids died. One played dead. Two teachers died. The gunman got in through an unlocked door. The lunatics are coming out of the woodwork."Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, Labels: electronics, food, health, news, shopping, sickness, writing » Saturday, October 30, 2021
Doctors and Dinosaurs
How amazing! It seems like we wait years for October to arrive and then the whole month goes by like the wind.Still looking for some real fall weather, but the temperature is dropping to better levels, and next week looks heavenly: nothing over 68℉! (Fifties would be better, but beggars can't be choosers, as they say.) Plus I had a first this week: cooked my first "stir-fry." It was actually pork bits in a sesame-seed sweet sauce, and it came out pretty well, especially when I did a reduction on the leftover sauce. Labels: books, food, health, movies, seasons, shopping, sickness, weather, writing » Saturday, October 16, 2021
Bejacketed, Trimmed, and Reworded
A considerably more low-key week and weekend than last, but also very profitable. The big news (for me, anyway) is that I finished a piece of writing I started a couple of weeks back. This is the first bit of fanfic I've worked on since my Dan Palmer story in 2015; it's been a long dry spell and one that's left me depressed even if I hadn't let on it was happening. Now I have to go back and put all the details into it; I hadn't written any fiction at all in so long that I figured I'd just better get the bones down first and do the rest later. I know I'll be tweaking this one for weeks to get the voices just right. (Plus I finally reviewed my September books, which is a relief.) Still having strange gastric upsets every so often; this iteration seems to be since I got the third vaccine. Alas, my digestion has been troublesome for over twenty years; I doubt it's going to get any better as I get older. Besides the usual weekly things (chores on Sunday, shopping on Thursday) we had a stop at the shopping center out on Dallas Highway that has Petco and Sprouts because Snowy was almost out of birdseed. Found the budgie enclosure full of a dozen baby budgies, some with head tucked under wing, a couple playing, several looking askance at this vertical living thing with the horizontal covering over the head. These days every time I go past the budgies, I always pray that each will find a loving home with someone who cares for them and understands they are little "bird persons" and not just toys to be stuck in a corner. Saturday was Hair Day—we had to skip last month because Sheri had badly injured her ankle—and James finally looks neatly bewhiskered again, rather than looking like a refugee from Duck Dynasty. I trimmed the hair on his neck and around his ears a couple of weeks earlier (before Jessie's wedding), but I really don't have Sheri's chops in hair cutting. From there we drove up to Town Center to the DXL store because James needed a decent winter jacket; his old plaid with the hood, which he likes best, even over the "Rhode Island-weight" winter coat we got him in 2005, was on its last legs, as I had mended and patched it where it got mangled in front by one of the clasps on his koala bag. Since I am not a seamstress by any means and this involved patching plaid, it didn't look very good any longer, even if it did keep him warm. We found a very nice black jacket with a hood and a quilted interior for $90; as a plus it is also water-resistant, which the old jacket wasn't, so he has a good raincoat as well.
» Saturday, September 10, 2016
Typewriters Don't Do This...
Yay, another day with eight hours sleep. Okay, seven and fifty-seven minutes. Don't quibble. James was already awake, having taken the dog out for an airing and eaten breakfast. Snowy was cheerfully burbling from his corner. We weren't in any particular hurry, because James was waiting to leave for his club meeting and I didn't have any particular plans. I savored my breakfast and took my vitamins.He left about ten thirty, and I spent the rest of the day doing chores (loading and unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming, making the bed, and fun stuff like that), finishing all the reviews of the Dragoncon panels, and trying to catch up on my blogging. I finished the Saturday of Dragoncon entry, and spent the last two hours of the afternoon listening to Christmas music while working on the Sunday entry. James came in the door just as I had saved everything and was preparing to do one more thing: add a few pictures of the guests. I had just pasted Naoko Mori's photo in and was clicking the adjustment button to make the image smaller. However, nothing was happening. Exasperated, I closed the post without saving it, then pulled it back up. For a minute I thought Blogger had lost half my post, then I realized the stupid thing had just taken the paragraph I had attached the photo to and moved it to the top of the post. Unsure what to do about this, I closed the post again (not saved, closed). For about a year, Blogger has been doing this weird thing after I save or publish: instead of going back to the "posts" screen, it suddenly just creates another blank post with the same name as the one you created, essentially a new, blank post. If you go to the list of posts you will see a duplicate post with that title as a draft. I'm used to this and just closed (again, not saved, just closed) this duplicate post. Except it wasn't a duplicate post. Blogger had just substituted a new blank post for the post I worked two hours on. That smell you might have noticed about 4:30 was me emitting steam from both ears. Went off to dinner in a minor huff, had turkey and dressing at West Cobb Diner (James avoided the salt and had meatloaf instead), and then went to Kroger for the milk, the bread, the yogurt and Those Damn Bananas. So the shopping is finished, leaving us to enjoy the Yellow Daisy Festival tomorrow in peace, and watched "Journey to Babel" on BBC America's Star Trek weekend, and I re-wrote the entire Sunday of Dragoncon post. And got the pictures in. And now I'm going to bed. |
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