Sunday, Nov 20 This morning I spent much of my time cooking chocolate chip and walnut cookies that we had put together the dough for last night. It took a lot of time. Didn’t have lunch — just a few cookies, and left at 1:00 p.m. to drive 7 mi. down the road to catch a ride with friends to the Grange for the Blue Grass session, for which the cookies were baked. Once there, we had several others who brought cookies, and one person brought brownies. They made pots of coffee. We had 12 musicians, and a relatively large audience. Some people joined the group and sang along. I didn’t get home till after dark (about 5:20). The snow on the road was not too bad for me and my Subaru, but my friends were not pleased, even though they drove their 4WD truck. Came home to soup that John made with turkey, carrots, barley, lentils, tomatoes, and spices. We haven’t eaten yet as I’m writing this. Smells good though. He is shelling walnuts again. Ended up with the work before and after supper, with 1.5 pounds of walnuts. He figures he has about fifteen pounds of walnuts in the shell left.
Monday, Nov 21 Awoke with a neck/high backache. Hummm. So, will just rest today and not go to exercise. I did cut John’s hair—a much needed chore. Now he is out checking on things prior to a trip to Costco. We just decided on the trip because of good weather and clear roads today but questionable weather tomorrow. We didn’t get home till 4:00 p.m. and bought a lot of stuff. A lot. Should have gone for an INR but didn’t. May not go to town tomorrow just for that either. My neck is still aching, so I’m sitting in the recliner with heat on it. I couldn’t turn my head to the right to help with looking for traffic for John today. This is unusual. I hope I just slept wrong last night, and that it is gone by morning. Then I ended up laying on the heating pad tonight and burned by back. John had to doctor me with a special salve. Jeez.
John’s been sitting across from me shelling walnuts. He got 1.25 pounds done tonight. He has a couple of recipes we are going to try with them, to cover them with a sugar glaze. We did buy 8 fruitcakes today. The price went up from last year, but it’s still way less than any place else in the country. They are 4.28/pound. Our grocery store here in town sells little pieces at 8.98/pound… more than twice as much, and not nearly as good. Fancy fruitcakes from Claxton, GA (since 1910) cost $10/ pound.
http://www.claxtonfruitcake.com/page.php?page=story
This small town is just southwest of where my mother’s family came from; that was the country near Guyton. Anyway, here is a picture of the Costco fruitcake posted on the web – with a chunk missing on the right side:
http://static.flickr.com/144/317634168_dd14ca66fd_z.jpg
John just brought a piece with Blue Bunny’s ice cream (Bunny Tracks®)
http://www.bluebunny.com/Products/d/Original_Ice_Cream_Bunny_Tracks
on the side (vanilla, with chunks of chocolate). I just said to John, we really don’t need it with the fruitcake, and he said, well you can give it to me if you don’t want it. Ha — I kept it. It is tasty. But, I ate the ice cream and am finishing with the fruitcake by itself. I’m glad I’m not diabetic. That would really change our eating habits. Still, I’ve gained weight since hitting a very low point more than a year ago – and need to hold it now.
Tuesday, Nov 22 – Glad we are not going over the pass to Seattle. It is closed westbound at Easton, and chains are required eastbound. John’s done all the chores and I’m sitting recovering from my neck pain. It’s raining here. We think Rascal has decided John built the cat house for him. He is spending a lot of time there. John is cracking walnuts again. No trips needed to town today. Pass opened at 2:00 but still looks awful to me. Closed again one direction till after avalanche control is done after 3:00 some time. No thanks. No pass travel for me in the winter. If I had to fly anywhere, I would go out of Yakima, even at $100 more. It’s too dangerous and unpredictable on this mountain pass. Others (higher elevations) are driven on by drivers who know what they are doing in snow. Not so with Snoqualmie. People drive like maniacs, and cause needless accidents hurting innocent people. It’s getting dark, and John has to feed, exercise the dogs, and get the mail and paper. I’m working on my “jobs list” and clearing off the stacks of bills, mail, that has stacked up over the past couple of months. As I find something that requires a response, I’m stopping to do it. Should have started this activity months ago, instead of letting them stack up.
Dinner tonight: John fixed pork roast (bone in) and a baked potato, plus a Rome apple. Guess we’ll have fruitcake for dessert. We never froze them today. I was still feeling lousy from my neck pain, but I’m beginning to improve. Thank goodness.
Wednesday, Nov 23 –I went to give some cookies to our computer guys who fix our computers when needed, and they were closed. So I took the bag of cookies down to the hospital lab. Had my blood draw to check the INR for my Coumadin dosage. Before going to play music, I went to Bi-Mart and bought a large desktop calendar we hang on our wall in the kitchen to keep track of all the appointments and events. It was on sale for only $ 3.74. Amazing as the same thing at Fred Meyers was 9.99, and probably more at the university bookstore. It gives us squares for each day that are about 4 inches on a side to keep our activities straight. Our “Fiddlers & Friends group” played music at Hearthstone at 2:00 and they provided cookies/brownies and a hot beverage at the end. So many of the residents came up and spoke or called me over to their table to thank us. It is a joy to provide entertainment for such an appreciative audience. Then we all went to the Moose for the community turkey dinner in the afternoon (didn’t need supper). John doesn’t go with me to that event, but each year I go with my music group after we have played a day early at the retirement home (because normally we go on Thursday afternoons, but cannot on Thanksgiving Day). One year I took two residents with me, but I won’t this year. As it turned out, I met one of my friends (86) from the exercise class there and she had come via Hope Source bus. I called and cancelled her return trip and gave her a ride home, saving her a 30 minute wait. She lives right on my way home. She was so happy. They had a nice plate of food for us. They gave us a lot of good tender turkey, dressing (but I didn’t like the seasons used), mashed potatoes (with gravy), a great bean combo (peas, lima beans, and corn), plus a large roll with butter. Cranberry sauce (but I cannot have that with my meds I take). Pumpkin pie for dessert. No dinner required for me. John is putting up fruitcakes in the freezer. We are saving two out to take to potlucks in 3 weeks. John continued shelling walnuts this evening. He is nearing the end and that’s good, because he has seen enough walnuts for one year. Reminds us of this story: (a bit of not so nice language)
http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/christmas/funny_snow_shoveling.htm
We called his sister in Ohio to wish them a happy thanksgiving a day early.
Thursday, Nov 24 HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We called another couple of relatives in PA this morning and had a nice phone visit. We will be joining our neighbors for 4:00 p.m. dinner. Nineteen people are expected. We will take carrots and butternut squash dishes (each made with our walnuts caramelized with brown sugar and cinnamon). John is our cook. His mom would be proud.
John has been shelling the last of the walnuts, and I just picked out two cups of the best for putting in the butternut squash dish. He has been keeping track of the pounds of shelled nuts. We got 15 pounds shelled. Not bad, but John is very tired of shelling them. At least they are Carpathian (English) and not black walnuts – those we gave away.
I spent the morning figuring out how to use our new Motorola cell phone we got with our new service, consumercellular.com It is less than half the cost / month for us with no contract required moving from AT&T’s two phone required two year contract. And, we can change at any time if we need more (or less) minutes. One problem is that I have to re-enter all numbers in my phonebook. (John: Me too – all 5 of them!)
It just started snowing at 2:55 p.m. Had been sunny this morning, and then clouded over. The pass is all snowed in again, but not closed. The pass north of us (Blewett) is also covered in snow. Try this link during day time:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/Cameras/default.aspx?cam=1138
Not sure which way our neighbor’s son and family are coming from the north. Just called and found they had arrived, and come over that pass.
We got back around 8:00 p.m. It was a lovely dinner feast and great visiting with everyone there. Too much food. Many leftovers. We brought home ½ of each of the dishes we took (squash and carrots). We’ll freeze the squash, but have to eat the carrots because they already have been frozen once. The fare included: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, salad, two squash casseroles, two types of rolls, and several desserts (cranberry/pear pie, homemade almond roca [also called toffee],
http://food.sndimg.com/img/recipes/10/66/41/large/picKSf6mG.jpg
and mint brownies). We stayed and talked after eating and then played charades. Had an enjoyable time.
[For Almond Roca®, see http://www.brown-haley.com/
and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_Roca
you can learn that “roca” is Spanish for “rock” and the little tiny log-shaped pieces rolled in almond pieces are widely sold in a tin can:
http://imagethumbnails.milo.com/001/622/362/290/1622332_239362_290.jpg
Note the unwrapped piece in the front that looks a lot like this:
http://www.bear-tracker.com/newimages/coyotescat91008.jpg
and explains why the homemade flat sheet preparation is preferred!]
Friday, Nov 25 I gave thanks today because today marked the two year date of my heart attack that started all the illness in my life over the past two years. We are not participating in Black Friday, in store or online. Sunny and bright blue sky, but it did snow a touch overnight. We emptied the compost garbage this morning, and ate breakfast; John fed the cats and the horses and exercised the dogs. I have worked with my new cell phone. I’m still learning how to use it. I did manage to get the voice mail message on mine changed yesterday. I intend to stop this computer stuff soon, and attack the paperwork on the tables and counter. Need to make some progress there.
Whoopee, I’m back. Spent several hours working on going through months of paperwork that have piled up and not been filed. In the process I found a large white and dark chocolate candy bar and a $20 bill! We had a late afternoon snack with little pieces of candy with mixed nuts.
Also found my box of refill checks I had bought, (they were mailed), and then hit the table and got buried.
I realize this will sound amazing and crazy to most of you, but I have been taking care of the bills that needed paid, and leaving the rest of the materials for future sorting. I made good headway but still have four months left to organize. Also, I have put off arranging medical insurance reimbursements, except when I am told I owe some money. Since last year my Medicare and Group Health medical insurance has paid pretty much everything, except for isolated co-pays (for example, $25 for 45 minutes of physical therapy). I found out I could get free exercise at the activity center 3 days a week for an hour each time doing most of the same exercises. The only thing I cannot do there is machines.
Had dinner (spaghetti w/meat sauce) and applesauce (John’s homemade with Red Rome apples) and am back to settle some bills and cancel some subscriptions to free academic newsletters and magazines I no longer need. Okay. Today was Friday and I missed the contest with a local Rock N- Roll radio station. But I finished an entry with 4 Bob Dylan songs. If they choose mine, I will get a special tee shirt from Quake 102.1 (scroll down):
http://www.thequake1021.com/pages/8436917.php
Saturday, Nov 26 – Slept in this morning as my night’s sleep was interrupted. The morning started out clear, but has clouded over. John has run the dogs and fed the horses. We need to go to town today for meds. Before we left, I took my camera out and took some inside pictures of the cat house. The wild ones were not there, but Rascal came out and demonstrated entrance, inside, and exit for me. Then we got to town and went to Bi-Mart only to find the boots they had on sale were not in a size for John, and the quality didn’t look as good as the ones he bought mail order from Blair. I looked at a pair of zip-up snow boots, but there was only one pair in my size, and it didn’t feel right, plus the zipper was stuck half way up. So, we left them and bought only some candy (for gifts – near local company that we got heart-shaped boxes to take to the ICU nurses and doctors in 2010):
http://www.libertyorchards.com/?sicontent=0&sicreative=472246371&sitrackingid=3382441
The standard “famous originals” seem to be sold in the local stores as loss-leaders at about 1/3 of the cost shown on-line.
The store also had their already cheap jeans marked down so blue jeans for John got added to the cart. Lots of people shopping, and in the grocery too, but we bought only a few things in addition to the meds I needed. We did take a little time to sort out our walnuts into halves and pieces. Now I’m getting ready to give this to John to post, although it is getting dark, so he will need to go feed the horses and run the dogs — deer were here as we came in the drive so it is likely he will have to detour around them.
Hope your next week is very nice.
Nancy & John
on the Naneum Fan