Which means the kitchen nearly is—a lot of fiddly chipping of excess mastic (glue) before grouting, occasional replacement of a bit of tile where the match is less pleasing. It’s stretched into the second week, but we’re getting there. And we have—wait for it—ONE sheet of tile left, of the several boxes of sheets we ordered. It’s looking great.
We’re going to build (well, Scott is) two flanking display cabinets for the china hutch, because we have a lot of pretty little items. And then we can start moving boxes out of the kitchen. We will also be moving things into the garage for, ultimately, the long-threatened garage sale. We have the cumulative ‘stuff’ from the move up from Oklahoma, the 3 storage units, the Spokane Valley apartment, its storage units, and here, where it is junk in the basement. We are needing clutter gone from our lives.
The empty basement may start to feel spooky. Scott or youse guys might need to do something about that.
How are Tanner and Tracker doing? 😀 And how are Sei and Shu doing with them? 😀
That sounds great! I just received a small pack of 12 banker’s boxes and (ooh!) multi-colored packing tape, as a (desperately needed) way to tell what I have and haven’t done in my storage space, and to replace worn-out boxes. — I am going to ask friends to get some boxes, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that.
My tooth remains stubbornly there. Sigh. Contemplating chicken with pasta and Alfredo sauce and broccoli, sauce from a jar, as that sounds soft enough to try, if I chop up the chicken and broccoli more so than usual. Blender or immersion blender, have at thee!
(Somehow, a favorite line from Shakespeare, for the sheer oddity: “Aroint thee, runions!” Even thought that has really nothing to do with doing a fine dice of chicken or broccoli, or smothering them in Alfredo sauce. Not even if Alfredo was a…saucy knave or runion. … Oh, I think I strained something with that pun. Clearly not the pasta. Er…I need to get out more!) 😀 😀 😀
Saucy knave, huh? I should be so lucky….
Alas, they’re still in the basement library. Our cats are being fairly laid back but curious. And they’re having a little GI problem from total change of water and food, so we’re getting them some probiotics (Purina) to add to food. Tanner is very forward, but Tracker is still tending to stand off, or den up and watch you.
Good on Tanner; does Tracker understand the Fingertip of Friendship? For our two Hoovers, FortiFlora seems to do the trick of settling their GI problems. Speaking of gatos, yesterday at the library we had a very small (about 8 weeks), scared and cute kitten. We managed to get him into a box, then called the Humane Society to collect him. He was very feisty in the hiss’n’swat department; I suggested calling him Arlo, as in Arlo Guthrie (‘Boy, have you done rehabilitated yourself??’)
When you eventually have your yard sale, it will be EPIC.
Leilani Estates now has 15 fissures in various stages of spewage, and the sulfur dioxide level is untenable. I’m sorely afraid that most people who own houses in the area will not get them back.
Yesterday, I saw Honolulu news coverage from the 6th. Cracks in the highway glowing red-hot and what looked like reliquified tar underneath. Maybe it will quieten down and shift to putting out rock for the next Bigger Island to break the surface eventually. I guess sometimes Mother Nature is a hot mama….
Heh, Arlo, good name. Two of his story-songs (including the one about the army and rehabilitation, heheh) played in my playlist last month. I had to stop to enjoy those, as I hadn’t heard them all the way through in a long while. Still epic. — Arlo the kitten sounds like an epic little cat. Plus, he has good taste: He likes books! And apparently, good music and storytelling. Plus fisticuffs. Sometimes, a little guy has to be tough. (Yeah, also picturing Alf with the headband and denim vest, doing his Springsteen impression.) So possibly, Arlo needs to up his game and do a Springsteen denim look.
One last sheet of tile to lay! A small victory to help things along. Garage sale. Had multiple of those when I moved from the other duplex to the apartment building (where Thumper, the boy who ran but wouldn’t walk, lived upstairs). May I suggest that instead of having one huge blowout sale, you do it in stages? Maybe starting with the Oklahoma stuff in one sale, then the Spokane Valley apt in the next bunch, etc. Cut the work and effort into smaller bites and give yourselves a chance to rest up in between. I worry that you’ve been pushing yourselves too hard for too long already.
I love the idea of the flanking cabinets for the small breakables. This Scott sounds like a real treasure. You should make him a permanent member of the aishid somehow.
Because of my bad reaction to the last chemo drug, I’ve had to switch to an older, more toxic chemo regimen. It’s almost a shame that I don’t have a dermatologist on the case, as I’ve had a “minor side effect” rash this time, “skin discoloration,” totally different from the other two rashes I had with the first one. (they could get a journal paper out of me!) My lower thighs and shins look like I had a spray-on tan about 3 shades darker that partly flaked off (a bad paint job!). But, touch wood, no GI symptoms like nausea or vomiting or intestinal hissy fits this time. Also, this regimen is likely to cause me to lose my hair to some degree or other — anything between thinning head hair to losing every hair on my body including eyebrows, eyelashes and nose hairs! It typically happens about three weeks out and I got the chemo on Monday. Good thing I know how to knit chemo caps — LOL!
Of course, we’re heading into summer here and we’ve already had three days in a row of highs of 90+F/32+C, it was 99F/37.2C today, predicted 98F/36C tomorrow, and it hasn’t rained here to speak of in literally months. I broke down and ordered some “yarn snob” yarn — 70% cotton/30% silk to make me a chemo cap just in case. I’ll need to lay in some sun screen as well. Yeah, I know I could wear a wig, but I’m definitely not a wig person, and a wig would be hotter than a hat anyway. We’ll see — the snob yarn was on sale, too. Jane would like the colors I chose — some nice blues.
Had to share this — http://twistedsifter.com/videos/driving-through-a-hot-air-balloon-festival/
Really surreal but fun, too.
Thanks WOL for that link! It was fun, and not something I’d have seen without your link. I’m wishing you the best, and hoping this treatment works for you.
I didn’t lose all the scalp hair, but most of my eyebrows and eyelashes went – they’re coming back now – and nearly everything else (I’ve been calling it a drug-induced Brazilian. I missed the nausea but got lower GI effects that I’m still dealing with (cooked veggies aren’t much of a problem; raw fruits and veggies are; salads are iffy). The chemo-induced neuropathy is gradually going away, too, but not effing fast enough (that’s from one of the mabs they gave me).
They were supposed to do surgery tomorrow, but it was rescheduled for a month from now: their office was calling literally as I walked in the door from grocery shopping (put down bags, drop purse, get phone).
Indeed that balloon festival video is wild! Sort of like being in an animated Easter Egg fantasy road journey.
Hope the chemo treats your follicles gently but the cancer firmly. Here’s to hair but bald is beautiful (and welcomes fancy yarn)!
WOL, think of it as an excuse to wear a Jayne hat. Or any cool hat. Wishing you the best.
I am admittedly possibly odd on this: I thought Lt. Ilia in Star Trek 1: the Motion Picture looked cool, with her head shaved bald.
A weird idea, maybe with some merit: If you think it’s likely you’ll lose your hair, would it be a less drastic or more empowering transition, to do a “preemptive strike” and cut your hair very short beforehand? Then it might seem less disconcerting.
When my budget went so sour, I gave up haircuts and ended up shaving my head. Extreme, but being a guy, I could get away with that. — I discovered it’s much cooler and less fussy in summer. Having hair over my ears, on my collar, or down in my forehead has always bugged me. — Since then, I let it grow out until it does bother me, and then shave it. I found there are specifically scalp shavers, a sort of palm-shaped and -sized device, rather than the usual electric barber’s or hairstylist’s clippers. That was much better than using my (beard) razor after trimming the hair with scissors. Also, it leaves a hair length you can choose via the attachments. Without the attachment, it shaves down to about two weeks’ stubble, more than a five o’clock shadow, less hair than a typical crewcut on top. — So this has worked for me. (I still want to master the attachments. Most recently, I trimmed, but didn’t like the results, so I went without the attachment again.)
That might be too drastic for you. But getting a very short cut might help you feel more in control of the process by doing so beforehand. — Just a thought. I really hope the thought is helpful and not distressing. :: hugs ::
Weather here has been very oddly mild and spring-like, when by now, we’d usually be much hotter. So for the next 10 days, the forecast is continued low 90’s by day, low 70’s at night, and little chance of rain. That’s very odd for here by almost mid-May. But as that delays the chances of many days over 100, and might mean a less severe hurricane season (maybe), I’m glad to get the milder weather. Last year’s hurricane season was so completely off the charts, I have no idea what to think of this year, so I’m hopeful maybe it got the hissy fit out of its system for a while. That said, I kept expecting this summer to be extra hot, because our winter here was so warm.
Take care, everyone. — Font work here today and some writing. I ordered a couple of programming books because I’ve had the itch to try something again. (My old college programming skills have been mostly unused, so this may be very strange, but I’m wanting some practice, for some reason.) (Those old skills date from when the Mac Plus was just introduced and 386 Compaq PC’s were the new big thing, and the college campus was very proud of their DEC VAX 360’s or 380’s. I did not learn any GUI programming; didn’t get that far, and Windows was very new at 3.1, haha, with the Mac OS at System 6 or 7 and prior to the switch to Unix under the hood.) So…this could be very strange indeed. — If I can conquer using pointers and dynamic memory and the various weirdness of linked lists and binary trees and such-like, I will be very surprised. But I’ve bought a couple of new books and will look at what Mac-based compilers / programming editors to buy.
Somewhere in there, I also need to learn PHP for the web, that and renew learning JavaScript. My HTML 5 and CSS 3 should still be good, fairly fresh, but lacking PHP and SQL mean I have a hole in my modern web toolkit.
My sis worked in a clean room for years, and got used to short hair – she trims it to a half-inch or less. And she’s dyed it too: henna looks spectacular on her, as she has the complexion for red hair. (Sky blue isn’t bad, either.)
It is amazing how clutter builds up and up and up, I will be spending a week in early June helping my daughter after she has foot surgery after that I am free until late summer trip to Alaska.
My daughter found a newborn kitten in the bushes at the school where she teaches, U of I, she said it fit in the palm of her hand and was fortunate the receptionist actually took care of stray animals and would take it home and bottle feed it. I guess they have a lot of wandering cats but she was surprised at how young this one was and no clue how it got there – I wondered if maybe it was the runt and just got left or maybe the mother was moving the batch. I have only one cat at the moment and he is pretty entertaining – he leaves little half-eaten surprises right at the door so you have to be awake enough not to step on the darn things. Cats, ya gotta love em!
My friend in Keaau said things are just crazy over there and everyone is exhausted and frightened, she feels fairly safe but with things getting explosive they are on alert.
I finally got around to fixing the (more-or-less) Chicken Alfredo today. I’m waiting for it to cool down so I can work the blender on it. — This turned out fine, but I should have been smart enough to chop or blend the broccoli florets beforehand. It would’ve been much easier.
This used a large bag of frozen broccoli florets and about half a pkg. of udon noodles, because that’s what I had open. Rather than fixing part of a pkg. of chicken breast tenderloins, I used a can, about 10 ounces, of chicken, which was “Buffalo Chicken” flavor, a find from the grocery store. This looks like it will be plenty of meat for the dish. Then a jar of Prego or Ragù Alfredo sauce.
I fixed the pasta noodles, then put in the broccoli florets. — I should have chopped or blended them before putting them in to cook. They were larger pieces, so even without a loose tooth, this step still would be needed. — I added the can of chicken, which fell apart very nicely in cooking. — Enough time for the pasta to finish cooking and the broccoli to cook tender, then I turned off the heat (it was medium high). — Last, I folded in the Alfredo sauce and rinsed the jar with a bit of water to get it all out. — I guessed well on water content, not too dry or too wet. It looks like once it’s had time to rest and cool down, it will absorb the remaining liquid well. — Then I’ll use the immersion blender to chop the broccoli florets. (Oh, what was I (not) thinking? This should’ve been more obvious.) — If I’d used chicken pieces, those should have been chopped finer before adding to the dish. I had added salt and a tablespoon of oil for the pasta to cook, of course, then added a few other spices when I put in the broccoli and chicken.
One note, having tried it: The use of Buffalo Chicken flavor (about like Buffalo Wings) promises to add a nice mild zing to this, once the flavors blend, but when I tried it right after fixing, the “Buffalo” spice heat had not yet fully blended with the Alfredo sauce and broth from the broccoli and pasta cooking. I would estimate that an hour or so, or overnight, to let the flavors meld together, would greatly improve this. But it tastes like the chili heat from the Buffalo chicken will meld really nicely for a soothing but tangy zing for the finished dish.
This yielded around 8 cups or so for the finished dish, I’d estimate. (I don’t recall how many quarts that pot is, but will measure later.) — Nothing spectacular in this, kind of thrown together. I haven’t looked at a homemade Chicken Alfredo recipe regarding other veggies or ingredients, but I think you could easily add a few other veggies or use chicken or veggie stock to build body and flavor to this. I’d think pimiento / red bell pepper would add nicely, and those who like onions could add a small amount without it changing the character of the dish too much. Cauliflower and carrots would work fine with the broccoli. — So this could go very far from Chicken Alfredo and work well. — But I think I’m going to like the Buffalo Chicken substitution a lot. It’s a little spicier on its own than I’d thought. This could be a neat way to take the spice down a notch.
I think I have one or two more cans of the Buffalo Chicken. I may have gotten just one can of it and one can of Lemon-Pepper Chicken. But that’s a winner. I’m considering rice and some savory veggies to pair up with further Buffalo Chicken or with Lemon-Pepper Chicken. The latter might get a little lime juice and cilantro, I’m not sure.
While looking the other day, I came across “Patak’s brand pickled lime,” which may be a type of sauce or curry, rather than pickled lime wedges. I have not yet gotten that, but it sounded so intriguing, trying to guess how that flavor would turn out, and what it might taste good in, that I expect it will be a future purchase.
WOL, Thank You for the link to the Balloon Fiesta video. Made me so homesick for NM and the fiesta. My cousin lives there, and we’ve made that drive … walked the grounds many times, and ground crewed twice. When our grandson was the 2.5 years old edition, we drove through the balloons just like that, as we were the designated adults while daughter and son-in-law crewed. At the last minute, when the pilot found out it was our daughter’s birthday, he said “Hop in!” and she did. Good winds that day, they went way north, had a splash down in the Rio Grande, and ended up in the housing north of ABQ. We were driving for an hour, looking for “Mommy in the Balloon”! Another year we were in a campground north of ABQ closer to Bernalillo, the winds brought the balloons … right to the campground. Literally, as in the Buffalo Balloon came down right near our camper, and we all got to help get it down and flat without being damaged by antennas etc. … pretty exciting stuff. Watching the “zebras” who wear as much crazy black and white “zebra” clothing and hats as they can find, using whistles to orchestrate the consecutive flights of nearly a 1,000 balloons into the air all around you is just remarkable.
Anyone doing chemo certainly earns yarn snob yarn … cotton and silk is a lovely blend. I did a bit of yarn snob shopping during the recent Local Yarn Day events nearby. Nothing on the needles yet, and I owe someone a promised hat before I can dip into those treats. The colors are so hard to resist … like a new box of crayons … delightfully soft, squishy crayons you can wear 🙂 Hope it helps you get through the day, WOL.
I don’t do much “snob yarn” shopping as I cannot tolerate wool next to my skin (also budgetary constraints). My knitting group knits chemo caps for one of our local cancer centers, and I’ve been known to knit baby stuff. We always use hypoallergenic, machine-washable, acrylic yarn for chemo caps, and I always use acrylic for baby stuff too for same reasons. Google for “Knits Owl Underground WordPress” and see what you get.
You might enjoy this, WOL:
https://www.knitting-warehouse.com/collections/patons-silk-bamboo-yarn
That’s a great site, WOL! I can tolerate some wools, some not so much. Daughter is highly allergic to alpaca, other wools are okay. My sister can’t tolerate any wool, so for her knits I stockpile nice cottons or blends when I can find/afford. When someone is already in distress and or already ill, the slightest irritation is magnified. Babies … very wise to do the hypoallergenic, and machine washable 🙂 Thanks WOL.