In the Dark

For Tummy, I present a picture of a Wooly Bully.

The "In the Dark" title refers to us yesterday, and we didn't have tv or internet for a while, either. It just helped realize how much we depend on electricity. I think our next house will be solar, with maybe a windmill assist, if it all works out.

There are so many things you cannot do without electric power. Like get some decent sleep, because you rely on a CPAP machine, or vacuum you house, or turn on a fan, or the stove. You get the picture.

I'm glad it's back on now.

First post of October

Because Tummy said so!

I've been kind of busy or tired or a bit of both. I'm doing okay most days, but the right knee joint and the left arm rotator cuff make me scream out sometimes. I've been asked to be a secretary for the kids group at church, so that is taking up my time as well. Not paid work, but I do enjoy data and reports.

The big problem came up my second Sunday on the job. My church has had a lot of families move into the area, and I don't know the kids' names. It's been frustrating. Some families are easy, because either the kids look like their parents, or all of the kids look somewhat alike, or sometimes both.

Made my doctor's appointment, and tried to switch from my ho-hum doctor to a nurse practioner, who seems to care more, but the lady at the desk said I could not do that. DH reminded me that I could, because he did it. I think the NP is busy, but the doctor is probably losing patients because of her table side manner. Oh, well, I'll need to get a referral for an endocrinologist and another for the joint problems anyway. I may shop around for some other doctor's office after the first of the year.

DD is doing great art work in her 2 art related classes, just like I knew she would. She's still nervous and anxious, though.

Lucky Corner Vietnamese

Well, we finally found a restaurant that we really can rave about here in Frederick. It's called the Lucky Corner Vietnamese.

Since restaurant.com was having a sale on certificates at 90 percent off, I used the opportunity to buy 16 certificates, and the Lucky Corner was one of them. It is in downtown Frederick, about a 5 mile drive from where we live.

We started with shrimp spring rolls, which were both hot an delicious. We shared the 2, but I could have devoured 2 all by myself. It was 2 PM, and we were both hungry.

DH ordered the shrimp curry, and I had the chef's special chicken, which was supposed to be fashioned after General Tso's chicken. I've eaten in quite few chinese places in this town, but this was the absolute best I have ever tried. My chicken dish was very good, with lots of different veggies. I'm really into veggies, and it looked a lot healthier than any of the offerings of General Tso's chicken I've experienced in other restaurants anywhere. I ate about 2/3 of it, and only half of the white rice, so I took the rest home in a box. I deliberately saved some room for dessert, though the serving size was generous. It was spicy, and included broccoli, baby corn, cauliflower, red bell pepper, bok choy, and maybe a few other things I can't recall at the moment.

DH's curry shrimp was tremendous as well. He had quite a few shrimp in his dish, and they were in the 26 to a pound variety. He grabbed for the water frequently. His vegetable was green beans, and his dish was a little spicier than mine. I think I liked my dish better, but I do want to try new dishes each time I return here.

So we ordered dessert, and at first I was going to try the fried bananas, but I asked the waitress before she left what the chocolate truffle was like, and I changed my order to that. DH had ordered the pineapple sorbet. When it arrived, it was contained in a half of a baby pineapple shell. It was so cute, and dang it, I forgot my camera. I usually take pictures of every meal we eat, so I can remember our food.

Anyway, the chocolate truffle was more like a chocolate ice cream with vanilla center, coated with cocoa and small pieces of nut, accompanied by whipped cream and a cherry, which was placed on the flat dish that was holding the parfait dish containing the truffle. I enjoyed it immensely, and even let DH have a couple of bites. I tried his sorbet, and it was like a pina colada sorbet. You could taste the pineapple and coconut.

We ordered some chicken curry for DD, who decided to opt out and stay home. She missed out on dessert though. Her loss.

I went back to Restaurant.com for more certificates while their 90 percent sale is still going on. They were out of stock for the $25 Lucky Corner certificates, but they still had the $10 certificates, so I ordered 4 of them to use during the coming year. You can use one per month, and you have a year to use them up.

The prices for thier food was also reasonable. Our total bill came to just under $35, with tip included and the certificate amount subtracted. We've paid at least 3 times that much for meals we didn't care for at premium restaurants. The atmosphere was just okay, but they made up for it with their friendliness.

Sweet Note

When DH was rummaging around last week, he found a note from "Mom". He thought it was from his mother, but when I saw the handwriting, I knew right away it was from my own mother, written 3 days after my DD was born, back in 1990.

It is yellowed with age, written on the back of an envelope, and it gave me the warm fuzzies. Here it is:

"Hi There, 3-13-90

This is something I thought you might like to put with the baby's prints. I found it about a week before I went into the hospital and meant to give it to you when you were here.

Anyway, Love Mom

I can see both of you in the baby's picture."

Yep, that was my mother. She and I did not get along sometimes, but I really appreciate this note, now even more because mom passed away in 2007. The item she was referring to in the note was the black footprint they took when I was born. So all this time I've been passing for white, hahaha!

Speaking of White, we went to the annual White family reunion. The family is still growing, and the parking lot (a weedy lawn) was filled to capacity. We got there just a little late because of getting lost. We were driving down an unknown road, but thought we were going in the right direction. We stopped and asked a man how to get to Mummasburg road, and he chuckled.

Man: "You're on Mummasburg Road!"

Me: "Oh good! Thanks!" *blush*

More later, because I really need to get to the gym.

My latest interests

I've decided to make homemade soap again. I have some lye, and I've borrowed a book from the library. I also have some recipes on a paper that use beef fat. The book uses mostly oils of various sorts - olive, jojoba, coconut, etc. I will be making a couple of small batches of soap to try it out.

There is the cold process, which involves stirring the stuff together, and letting it saponify, or the hot process. I can use one of my slow cookers for the hot process.

At the same time, I am looking to buy some citric acid. So far, the only place I can buy it is online, but I have not yet looked at A.C. Moore. I want to make bath bombs. These will be used by me initially, but I also want to make some for gifts.

While searching online, I found out about soap nuts. Soap nuts are a natural soap that actually grows on trees. You can use them as laundry soap, and for other things. I am interested in the laundry soap because it is more natural than the commercial kinds, and you don't need fabric softeners. I have been using vinegar in my rinse water instead of fabric softener sheets, anyway, because it's not full of undesirable chemicals.

Random stuff

Teaching DD how to drive is a learning experience for me. I'd forgotten that you have to learn how to back up, by turning your steering wheel in the opposite direction of where you what to go. That, pulling into a parking space in a parking lot can be tricky, if you've never done it before.

I went shopping for a cast iron frying pan to cook eggs in. So far, it is not seasoned well enough to be truly non-stick. I went looking for an 8 inch pan, figuring I could experiment with it before buying a larger heavier cast iron pan. They are relatively low cost. I guess I should cook bacon in the new pan a few times to really grease it up.

I have ants in my kitchen, and don't know how to get rid of the rascals. DH has tried to find the source, as they usually trail up the side of the house, but he has put ant poison on the outside of the house. They are still coming, even though he has gotten rid of some of them. I'll bet they have a nest somewhere underneath our siding.

We only have 2 window air conditioners installed right now. We need the bigger one in the living room put in, but DH is not feeling well right now. He has a bit of work to do this weekend, and took Friday off, but he's not doing much besides mowing the grass.

I can't seem to get everything done lately. I guess I just have to face the fact that I can't do it all. Having to sleep with a mask on, and take insulin, plus the pills, plus trying to learn new ways to cook better food, have all taken some of my time.

I am switching from credit card to debit card, and it's made the budget a little tight. I will be glad when June comes around, and money should not be so tight.

I had a Nathan's hot dog at the Get Go, and it wasn't all that great. I guess I had so many good dogs off the grill last week, that it paled in comparison.

I really want to go to The Tree of Life spa out in Patagonia, Arizona, so I can get off insulin, but I don't have the money. I don't know how much it costs, but I would like to try it.

I have a nice life, but the physicality of being too fat is a problem I need to deal with right now.

April Rain in May

It's been raining hard here most of the day, and it has been for the past few days. It makes it okay to go shopping for food, but getting in and out of the store is kind of tricky.

I've developed a yen for people watching from my Ford Escape. I decided to watch to see whether someone is fit or fat - most of the people are the former, not the latter. It was a good exercise in seeing how others might see me. I am definitely not fit, but would really like to be. I plan on buckling down any day soon, lol.

Really, my doctor's appointment went pretty well Friday, except for the fact that she sent my prescriptions to the pharmacy, only to have me call and ask about them, to find out they were not there. I was miffed, because I had not expected that. Because it was after office hours when I found out they had not been received, I could not call the doctor to have her resubmit.

I called Saturday, but the office doesn't answer their phone then, either. Then I decided to wait until Monday, because I thought the after hours person on the doctors line would have straightened it out for me by then, but nooo.

I really didn't need that stress, but after all was said and done, I got my thyroid meds in time, and received an invitation to mystery shop for the pharmacy. I like that idea, as long as they reward me. I guess all is well that ends well, except for the unnecessary wear and tear on my nerves. I hope I never have to resort to nerve pills, like my poor mother.

Anyway, I did better overall with cholesterol, blood sugar, and thyroid function. I am happy to hear that. I could do so much better though, so I will try harder to stick to a better diet, and exercise plan.