Summery Spring Weather

 It was in the 80's yesterday and the day before! Today is lower 80's with drizzle. We got to sleep with the windows open!

A picture I borrowed from Facebook because I love the colors so much! 

We made a library trip! These were all books that I'd requested.

And we went to Sam's Club. They have gorgeous fruit, and I love blackberries and raspberries!

I have new cleaners here. They are an LLC, insured and bonded, which is what I wanted. Ralph is at breakfast with the Veterans, his usual Thursday morning occupation. After they are finished, we may go to the Auction to get new foam in the couch cushions. After ten years of constant use, they are a little saggy. 

One week til Steph and Dan come home for a visit!

This week

 We had a few nice springlike days.

So did Washington State. Manda called while the kids were having a blast on the splash pad. They ran around and slid for 2 hours the first day! It makes me so happy when I send something to them and they love it.

I had my routine cardiology visit, and all is well. He wants me to stay on the eliquis for now. My usual cardio, Dr. Death, is retiring, so Dr. Andrulli, who did my ablation and who I've been following up with, will keep me as a patient. Same group, same office. 

Before and after. Those roll up shades have been there probably 20 years, and it was time for them to go. The guest room/exercise room/Steph's room gets bright morning sun, so we added the room darkening waffle shades. And the new fan looks great, updated and with no cord running down the wall. Manda commented that we even provide for our guests exercise needs. Yep, we're a full service establishment! 

Steph and Dan will be here in about 2 weeks! Because we're lacking inside cats at the moment, they can stay here. It'll be great to see them! We haven't seen them since October 2019 when we did the Canada/New England cruise together. And it was a few months before that that they saw Dan's family. 

I'm up to 2 miles a day on the exercise bike! Ralph put a clip on it so we can use our iPads while on the bike, and I use the kindle app on my iPad mini to read, while I also have music going. Just the music is boring, being able to read is wonderful, and makes the time go so fast! 

I had a few more rows of this done, and the right side was not staying even. I consulted with a Facebook crochet group, and ended up pulling it out back to row 3. I'm back up to row 5, and so far so good. Nothing like frustrating yourself with something that's supposed to be relaxing. When I get it back to where it was, I'll take a day off and bring the snakes up to date. 

Another week begins

 It was a strange weekend. Friday night at midnight I was brushing my teeth and looked in the mirror. My right eye was full of blood on the nose side! The eye had felt like allergy eye all evening- watery, and a dull scratchy feeling. I woke Ralph up and made him look at it. My vision was fine, and I had no pain, so I went to bed.

Saturday morning I went to Urgent Care. The physician confirmed what we thought- it was a little hemorrhage of a blood vessel just under the clear surface of the eye. Because there was no pain and no visual changes, he recommended artificial tears to help the scratchy feeling. He said it will take about 2 weeks for the blood to be reabsorbed. He said the eliquis I'm on probably contributed to it. Bleeding like that can come from a big sneeze or cough. I see cardiology tomorrow, and hopefully the eliquis will be d/c'd.

I made ricotta bread in the bread maker! It's so good, so rich. It didn't rise a lot, but it was only 1.5 cups of bread flour. Ralph toasted a piece this morning, and said it was really good. Next I want to try cinnamon raisin bread.

Electrician Day

 We have the electrician coming this afternoon. For as long as we've lived here, in Steph's old room the ceiling fan has a long cord and is plugged into an outlet. And there is no wall switch to control that outlet. So we're having them run electric to the ceiling in that room and the laundry room, and replace some outlets that are not functional. Spreading our stimulus around!

There's a great Facebook page called Deals and Steals that shows Amazon sales. I get a lot of things from it. I ordered this water toy for Garrett and Amary. They should get it tomorrow.

Work in Progress Wednesday! I'm really happy with how the Apache Tears is working up. I did 5 rows yesterday! I'm using the colors that I use for the temperature afghans and temperature snakes. 

A woman that I've been online friends with for years is in the ICU with Covid. She lives in one of the stupidest states, where masks are not mandated, and she has other risks. Her niece called to tell me about the ICU. My friend had just become eligible for the shot, but hadn't gotten it yet. She's been in the ICU for over a week, which is not good. 

Another friend, who I call my third brother, also had covid. He has a history of a liver transplant, due to genetic issues, so he's compromised to begin with. He was really sick for two months, and I'm grateful he survived. 

They are the reason that I have no patience with people who won't get the shot. You don't do it just for yourself, you do it for other people. And the "no long term studies" bullshit doesn't cut it. Over 6 million people have gotten the shot, with extremely few side effects. And if something shows up in twenty years, well, we've lived that twenty years. 

My 20 year old nephew, who works in a hospital, thought he was going to refuse the shot. My brother and sister and law stopped that in it's tracks. Mike wasn't having it. 

Just get the damn shot!

A new week

 It was two weeks ago that we got Covid shot #2, so we are now considered fully immunized against it! Yay!

Yesterday I made pancakes! We had some, and I froze these for later. So now I have both pancakes and French toast in the freezer, along with 20 or so packets of sausages. 

Amanda put up this pic of Garrett. Talk about a clone, he could be Steph at that age! The same eyes, even the hair color. Genes are strong! He's such a doll.

I watched the video of the Apache Tears crochet pattern twice, then made a test piece, and wrote down the directions.

Then I started a full sized afghan! It's made of the temperature afghan colors, but just following the color wheel, not following temps. Another thing to drive me crazy! Once I got it going, the pattern is easy to follow- so far, at least. I'm on a vacation from my cross stitch, I needed a break. 

Today our library opens all the way! We can still do curbside, but we can also go in! I might stop in later this week, when I have books to take back.

Dinner tonight is with the help of Stauffers- frozen veggie lasagna. We haven't had it for a long time.

A busy day!

 As soon as I get up, I get on the recombinant bike. If I don't do it first thing, I don't do it. I'm up to 1.3 mile, which isn't much, but it's a start. After I did the bike, I made my tea for the day, and preheated the oven. I had 4 packages of sausage links and 2 of patties to oven cook, then freeze in baggies. I do 2 links and one patty per bag, and to use, they only have to be turned onto a plate and microwaved for one minute. I ended up with enough for 20 breakfasts!

While the sausage was cooking, I cleaned up my papers basket. Sorted, trashed, shredded and recycled a bunch. Wrote several checks for the month's bills that I don't pay online. 

By the time I was all done, it was 11.45. I suggested lunch out, and Ralph wanted to go to Applebee's. We mailed the checks I wrote on the way out. On the way back, we went to Rita's! I had a coupon!

Today would be my dad's 97th birthday!

It's so hard to believe he's been dead for 14 years! In this pic, he's way younger than my brothers and I are now! He loved that boat so much. I made that flag for him for Father's Day, and he was thrilled.

I made taco casserole two nights ago. We got 2 meals out of it. It was even better the second night! All the flavors had melded nicely, like the was lasagna does.

I made French Toast with my homemade bread! So good! We ate some, and I froze some for later. 

And we have leftover Applebee's for dinner!

Bread!

 I did it! I made the first loaf in the new bread machine! I was really nervous, as I am the first time I use anything.

It looks lighter on top in the pic than it did in real life. It's basic white bread. The entire process takes 3 hours. There is a glass window on top of the machine, so you can watch it work, which is cool. So of course we had bread and butter for lunch.

This morning we went food shopping. It's been 3 weeks since the last visit to Shop Rite, and I was starting to run low on things, and the milk was expired. And on Mondays, military gets a 5% discount, which turned out to be $8 for us. 

I bought 4 packages of sausage links to bake and freeze in baggies of 3. I also got patties, which I also bake, and freeze one in each baggie of 3 links. Ralph didn't like the Amish Market sausage as much as the Bob Evans brand. Oven cooking and freezing works out so well for us! When I make eggs, I just take out one of the baggies, put the sausages on a plate and microwave for one minute. It feels like I save so much time. 

Easter Sunday

 It's looking like it'll be a nice day out, the sky is blue, and the high will be 64. Ralph overdid it yesterday, and is taking it easy today. He'll never learn to pace himself.

Yum, Balsalmo's! We have pizza about once a month, and Balsalmo's is my favorite. I'd like to eat the whole pizza!

Yesterday I did all the preliminary set up stuff- washed the pan, baked it for 10 minutes empty, washed it again. Today, I actually started a loaf! In 3 hours, if all goes well, we'll have a loaf of white bread! Fingers crossed!

I was talking to Mike the other day, and we promised each other a family dinner next Easter! Here's hoping! I'm not sure what we're doing for dinner tonight, possibly takeout from the diner. 

Welcome April!

 Spring- maybe. Our high today is 45.

Heather did calendars for us for Christmas, so we'd all see the same pix each month. She did a fantastic job!

We got our second Covid shots on Monday! We both had sore arms for a few days. Ralph had a headache off and on for a few days, and I was fatigued. By Thursday we were back to normal, and it was worth it! 

LOL, I did some vaccinated shopping on Amazon! It's a bread maker! I had one a couple of decades ago, and used it a lot. A bread maker came up on the Deals and Steals Facebook page, and I started comparing them, and came up with this one. So of course I joined a couple of groups on Facebook! Plan for the weekend is to try it out.

2021 snakes are up to date! 25% completed! I still haven't played with the Apache Tears crochet stitch, I got sidetracked reading. I'm up to date with the Mercy Thompson series, which is fantastic. We just did a library run, I had two books in. 

March 31 was Mike's birthday. I forgot to call him til it was too late- they go to bed around 8.30. So I texted him with a bunch of birthday emoji's and he called me yesterday. He's 65, hard to believe. 

We were talking about Easter, still not safe for a family dinner. We have high hopes for next year. 

Heather texted us, she's at a new level of parenting- she sent the kids to Walmart to buy their Easter candy! Having a kid who drives can be very useful! They got the good news that Eddie's class will have a prom! It'll be divided into two, because of numbers. At the moment, he plans to go with friends, which is wonderful. 

I get a box each month from Adagio tea. It has one packet for each day, with ingredients and brewing instructions. You go on the website for the name of the daily tea. Some have been fantastic. You can rate each day with "love it" "meh" and "hate it," which is fun. It's a good way to try a variety of teas without committing to a big package. And they are based in jersey!