The weather report (Ben's Weather) informs us that March has had 20 inches so far, and it is still coming down.
I'm snuggled in bed still (at 10 AM, but i have told you i spend much of my time there) with two "cat warmers." But i have to get up before long and make a trip into town. I need some ingredients for cooking (Olivia is coming this afternoon to cook), the kitties are out of treats, the car needs gas, and a few other things.
Here at home i need to do some laundry, and i'd like to do some clean up in the kitchen so Olivia won't have too much to do.
On the menu today: Manicotti! (Gluten free) Also some to freeze as well as lasagna and perhaps some meat sauce for Duane to use with spaghetti. I think that if we group "like" food things together like this we can make more food in a short period of time.
Duane is cringing because it is cold out (well, not REALLY cold, just about 32F) and the SAR group is planning an all day and overnight camping trip this weekend. They leave at 8 AM tomorrow & come back sometime mid-day Sunday. Duane doesn't need any more training but he was told the team needs him. He'll have fun.
Next week i am staying home for one of the scheduled "recover weeks," but it is also Spring Break for the kids so i'll try to have them over. Lynnette just posted a recipe for GF scones. I think it might be fun to try them with Sierra. She likes tea parties with my good china. (Disclaimer, i personally believe these days that breads, grains, and the like and especially sugar are very bad for our health. But, well, once in a while you just gotta have some.)
Oh, and i'm going to try yet another new doctor. I have tried several now, and have been very frustrated. I'm rather cynical about the whole thing now, and trying a new doc seems an exercise in futility. Two of the docs have put me on such restrictive diets that there is little i can eat. I am feeling that the failure is all on my part as i'm not good at sticking to a regime. A small part of me feels that it isn't 100% me (probably 95% is me), tho, because the recommendations i'm getting are not taking into consideration who i am and what i can do.
If nothing else, i need to stick with this new doc even if i don't improve, because i need the documentation for my continued disability. I'm hopeful because she is coming with such high recommendation from Kim (the PT i work with), but i'm afraid to be too hopeful. The appointment is on 14 April.
So that is the news in this part of the world. Duane is going to take That Jeep in because it won't stay locked in 4WD, which is a problem. So i need to go pick him up and do the town errands.
What do you have planned for the weekend?
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I'm running out of ways to say "This 'n That."
We forgot to take our camera with us on Sunday. (It seems like we brought everything else, including a folding picnic table & a folding hammock.) Eva took pics but i've not seen them yet. We ended up behind some trees & had we had the camera, it could have been a problem. But we were free to move about in order to see better. I kind of liked seeing the fireworks thru the silhouetted pines.
I didn't properly credit the last ones. Duane took all of these. I've gotten pretty good with the camera, but i still don't do night shots well. There are all from 2007, & 2008.
Duane went down the hill yesterday. I tried to get him to take That Jeep (y'know, to show it off to the guys at work) but he just laughed. Eva & i took it to town. We went to Farmer's Market, & i did banking & we went to a store in the Village to check on some class times (cooking/baking demonstrations). Then we had lunch at Duane's favorite burger joint. They do salads, too, & the most wonderful sweet potato fries. Eva agreed that Duane's choice of burger was good.
We checked out a couple of thrift stores on the way home, but only found a couple of small items. Not that i need anything, but i think most of the purchases were mine. A couple of the stores weren't open. I forgot that since this is a resort town, many of the stores are closed Tue/Wed, or sometimes Thur as there is not much business then & they need some time off.
We got home safe. That Jeep didn't strand us.
I made pancakes & scrambled eggs for dinner last night. Neither of those are Duane's favorites so i don't often make them.
I tried the scrambled eggs differently as i'd seen a recipe & it sounded good: Scrambled eggs with cream cheese. The recipe i saw said to "melt" the cream cheese with butter in the pan before adding the eggs. Most of the others i saw said to blend room temp cream cheese into the eggs. I tried the first one. The cream cheese didn't "melt" much, but it got quite soft. It took much longer to cook than what i'm used to. They did taste good, soft & rich & fluffy. First bite reminded me almost more of a souffle than scrambled eggs, but i got used to it after that.
Many of the days i have things planned. This is a day without too many plans. I may take her on the "back way" road - 38 - to do some picture hunting. One of the churches in town with a big youth group has a dinner on Wednesdays, followed by a Bible Study. I thought i'd take her to that as i don't know many folks in town with kids. Well, i know a couple of girls her age, but they take summer school classes to lighten their load during the year.
I'm finding it a challenge to keep up with the prep-work, cooking & kitchen clean up. I guess i was hoping for something a bit different. We probably will end up eating at least one meal "out" each day just because i can't do it. The kitchen is downstairs waiting for me to come clean it from last night. (Ok, i went & did that. Still a little left to do, but it wasn't as bad as what was in my head.)
For the past week or so i've been in more pain. It hasn't been that i've "cheated" on diet, for pain is a wonderful motivator for me. I've found that taking cherry juice once, or maybe twice a day helps. Too much of it acts like prune juice & i want to avoid that! (Studies have found cherry juice as effective an anti-inflammatory as Motrin.) To my surprise, it has helped. My legs ache, ache, ache. I don't think it is just sedentary lifestyle, for i'm not bed bound. Yesterday at Farmer's Market i bought Emu oil. I've heard good things about it. Capsaicin cream works for me, too, however. I'm not so sure about the Emu oil as a vegetarian. (Just looked it up. NOT vegetarian.)
The past week or so has been a struggle. Also, while my sis was here, i was "up" much more than i normally am. I wasn't doing the "Up 20 down 40" or whatever variation of that is appropriate. So i was pretty exhausted when she left, besides having a huge mess in the kitchen waiting for me.
I'm finding that Eva is not as apt to get carsick as Larkin had told me to expect. Nor is she as allergic to cats. She doesn't seem to be much bothered by the cats at all, except i notice she is careful not to pet them & prefers them not to bother her. She is very much an introvert & a bit shy. But she can talk, & if i press the right "button" she will be quite verbal. She also has quite a sly sense of humor i enjoy. We're still kind of getting to know each other.
I'm thinking i'll show her my "master list" of food plans & activity & ask her to be honest with me & tell me what she'd like to do & what she'd rather not.
Just an aside, as i'm being ADD while writing this & off to check all kinds of other things. One of the blogs where i occasionally comment uses real words that have a black/white dichotomy (& are hard to read) instead of made up words/letters. Yesterday my words were, "Reality Spleen." ??? That kind of croggled my mind for a while.
Ok, i'm simply getting bored with myself & my writing. Here are the rest of Duane's beautiful pics that i've had waiting to add.
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Well, i seem to have fixed my Gmail without Duane's assistance. It took me most of the AM (Sunday). I haven't done updates on certain applications in a long time. In fact, it has probably been a couple of months since i turned the laptop off. I hate waiting for it to come on, so i usually have it just "sleep." So i loaded the updates & then, *gasp!* turned the computer off! Then rebooted it & things seem to be working fine now. I'm still waiting for it to lock up on me, but that hasn't happened yet.
Duane came home for dinner Saturday night, & then headed out to Holcomb Valley to camp in order to be there for some early AM race. He expected to be home Sunday PM by 2 or so, but was not. They didn't find the guy they were looking for. From his first description of the search, it almost sounded like some older guy had gone out into the desert to commit suicide. However, Duane told me at dinner that they think that he just went out & got drunk & lost. He was actually in an area of a bunch of houses assumed to be deserted, but they weren't allowed to actually search buildings for him. Also the family had been out to look for him & their prints had destroyed whatever trail he had made.
So, the result from that search might not be as dire as i first suspected. He might be holed up somewhere, sleeping it off. The results may not be good, still, but it isn't quite as bad as it could be.
I didn't make it to town on Saturday, but did on Sunday PM. The other book (besides the Sally Fallon book, which is much bigger than i expected) is Jason Boyett's Oh Me of Little Faith. I read the intro & part of the first chapter while at lunch.
On my way into town, i saw 10 or 15 Jeep Wranglers ("the he-man" form of Jeep according to Duane). We've often commented about what a high percentage of them up here. So i decided to do a limited count. I decided to use the 1.1 mile stretch between Division & Stanfield Cutoff along the "marsh" section of the lake. I counted the cars in the opposite lane coming toward me. Ok, here are the stats:
- I counted 50 cars.
- NOT ONE of them was a Jeep Wrangler!
- Two were Jeeps of other types, like a Cherokee or Patriot.
- As soon as i reached Stanfield Cutoff & stopped counting, i immediately saw 2 Jeep Wranglers coming toward me.
- There were also 2 Jeep Wranglers in the line ahead of me.
- This kind of count is useless.
Isn't life funny?
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This is the "path" we took Saturday evening in that Jeep. All the way to the X where we found we couldn't get out & then back again. We then got onto the road at the bottom of this pic, headed W (left) & back down to the main road. As you can see from this pic, we were surrounded by town roads all around. I can honestly tell you, however, it felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere, those hills were steep, & if we'd had to walk out i would have had a hard time with it. And it was cold! The snow storm was moving in.
This is the placemat i took for a pattern. My MIL likes the size & shape, but they are getting worn & the color isn't quite right for her dining table.
This is what i've completed so far on one placemat. It will never be finished.
- I can clearly see that these won't be done until Christmas or so, & i just don't want to devote that much time to them.
- It is a simple pattern, but needing constant counting & if i mess it up, the mistake is very apparent to me & i don't want to pull out a lot of rows to fix it. Others might not notice the mistake, but every time i sat at the table i would.
- The only yarn i could find that matches well is 20% wool. I'm allergic to wool. I thought with only 20% i could manage. My hands have been fine, but my eyes itch the whole time i'm working with this.
- Time, again. I just don't want to devote this much time to something i just don't think that important.
So i bought some fabric & figure i'll do a simple quilting pattern. I'm not 100% sure about the colors (the green might be a bit bluer in her dining chairs), but i think it will work. I cut some of the pieces to try out how it will work.
This pattern is called "around the world." There is a "simple" way to do it, but for the first one i went ahead & cut all the squares to lay it out to see how it looks. I learned i didn't have enough fabric, & i don't want to do this pattern. I probably will do one of these as a thingy for the center of the table, or i might do a runner with the pieces. But i'm not going to do this for the placemats.
I didn't like the way the top two came out with wider strips. So i tried doing narrower strips, moving out from a center line. I think i like this bottom one best. The strips will be 1 inch wide. This is just a general layout for an idea of what the finished project will look like.
Mac was being silly yesterday. He jumped up on the hamper thingy, then on top of the gas heater to get up on one of the beams. Nowhere to go from there.
I checked the trees today. The pear tree doesn't look like it was much effected by the snow. The apple still looks hopeful that we might get some fruit anyway. Neither of the peach trees is doing anything, but that was true before the snow.
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That the race was Friday
not today.
We woke to just a skiff of snow & i thought it would soon melt off. But it snowed off & on all thru church. Still, not too much was sticking.
The top is that Jeep when we went into Mountain Munchies - one of our favorite places for lunch. The bottom is that Jeep when we came out. Duane nearly got us kicked out of the restaurant, however. He is so happy that he gets to drive that Jeep in the snow - he thought he'd have to wait until next winter. He kept saying, "Oh, I love the snow!" and singing, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." He wasn't real popular with the folks. Gary, the owner told him he was lucky he'd already eaten, 'cause he just might not get served.
The bottom two are Duane in his "summer hat" first in bed, to keep warm, & later using Mac as a "cat warmer" in his office.
We took that Jeep off road yesterday. In the evening we started to take a "road" (not much more than a trail) between the Sugarloaf area & Moonridge. But we took a "side road" & ended up on top of a hill with nothing but junk some irresponsible folks had dumped instead of taking it where it should have been properly disposed of. Came across plenty of downed trees across the road. We went around - once with mirrors in & three INCHES of clearance on either side. Then, discovered that we couldn't get out at the bottom & had to go back up. This time Duane leveraged the tree out of the way.
We need to take a chainsaw with us next time. Also a repair kit with sockets. He said that had not the starter gone out in town the other day, it certainly would have with all the bouncing the starter would have come loose - & we would have been stuck. There was town all the way around us on all sides, tho it felt as though we were out in the middle of nowhere. BUT we would have had quite a walk & i'd not known we were going to do this so i was in sandals & short sleeves. Fortunately Duane had two extra jackets in that Jeep for i was cold.
(Duane said his "summer hat" looks like he used the squirrels in the above pics. He says "there were no squirrels injured in the making of this hat.)
He's gone from singing "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" to "Summertime, & the living is easy." I think that would get us kicked out of Mountain Munchies, too.
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Duane has an off the hill event today. Had to be up at 3.15 to leave for it. Because waking in the middle of the night disturbs my sleeping, i went to bed quite late, thinking i'd go back to sleep easier. Not so. Laid awake for over an hour before i gave up & got the computer out. So, i've slept maybe an hour & a half at this point. Will probably fall asleep again sometime near 6.
I took that Jeep into town Wednesday for the fundraiser. It was good. Not too many people & i wasn't too uncomfortable. People there made me feel welcome. At one point that Jeep didn't want to start, but then it did & i forgot about it.
Thursday Rebecca came. I had a meeting & then went to get groceries. Came out with said groceries & that Jeep wouldn't start. This could be a long story, but let's just cut it short. I kept myself busy for 1-3/4 hours until Duane got up the hill. I was quite stressed by then, tho i tried to distract myself. (I was lucky the groceries were largely not things effected by heat, 'cause it was a warm day for BB.)
It wasn't the battery. I didn't leave it in "park" (since i'm not used to automatics, this is something i've done in the past). Duane fooled around with it some. I went home (in the Honda) & got tools. Then he said the starter was bad. So how do we fix that in Vons parking lot? But he worked with it some more & the starter was just loose. He fixed it & he drove it home. He tightened everything down & promises me it won't happen again.
Think it will be a while before i want to drive that Jeep anywhere. Except, it is probably like falling off a horse. I need to get right back in the saddle. I'm really fortunate it happened Thursday when Duane was on his way home & not on Wednesday.
The AmGen Bike Tour had one of its legs from Palmdale to Big Bear. You can read about it here or here, if you're interested. Lance Armstrong wasn't in that part as he'd had an accident the day before & dropped out. Duane was helping & i had no intention of going into town. An extra 25,000 folks doesn't help traffic much. But then Duane forgot his phone. We arranged for me to drop it somewhere & someone pick it up for him. I took back streets into & around town to miss most of the traffic. The bikers were still a couple of hours away when i was in town. Traffic wasn't too bad going home.
Hoping i can sleep now. :) If i get ambitious, i'll post post pics later of my current craft projects.
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Some of the things we had blooming last week. The second pic is of peach blossoms.
It was a grey day in San Diego yesterday. I don't know what i was expecting could be seen from the Coronado Bridge, but these just weren't as spectacular as i'd hoped for.
It's a grey day today in Big Bear, too. Also much cooler. The top of these two is pear blossoms from the tiny tree we planted last fall. The bottom one is the apple blossoms near to blooming.
And, finally . . . tah dah!
Duane's Jeep. It definitely is Duane's. I hate it. Drove it into town to be smogged today, & it is simply awful. I hate driving automatic transmission vehicles. It is sluggish (like all automatics) & we should have a 6 cylinder not a 4. But, as i said, it is a "good enough" solution for now. (I LIKE the style, however, so Kathryn is definitely making plans for moving up to a Jeep that will drive faster than a slug! Start saving now . . . )
Duane is over the moon about having a Jeep. He's been trying to educate me on all things Jeep, CJs & TJs & Willy's. The only ones i'm really sure about are the KSs. Don't know those? They are my own creation. See, unless the Jeep in question is the Wrangler body style, Duane doesn't consider them "real" Jeeps. So if it is a Liberty, or a Cherokee or something like an SUV & not the square, he-man style, it just falls into "KS." I came up with the term. It is a "Kind-of/Sorta" Jeep. I can identify those really well.
Get to stay home today & rest. The migraine persisted all day yesterday, but i think it was stress & fatigue, for it was largely gone by the time we got home.
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