I'm back in one piece!

Both flight sections yesterday were great and on time, and of course I was most comfortable in the Chi-Sac flight where I had a 1st class seat!  Both my grandsons had some kind of stomach bug that lasted them for a day, and my flight day was when it hit me.  Besides being so tired from getting up at 4 am, I had to keep running to the bathroom!  After a good night's sleep I'm almost back to normal today.

In Chicago I went into a cafe and ordered a medium size coffee.  Lord I was tired and it was only about 9 in the morning!  I took the cup and set it under what looked like a pump, thinking it was cream.  I gave a full, strong push on the pump and watched a dollop of catsup drop into my coffee.  After making sure that no one had observed what I did, I asked the clerk where the cream was, and proceeded to add lots of the good stuff.  The first sip was ok - no catsupy taste at all, so I sat by a window overlooking the planes landing and departing, and drank the coffee.  When I reached the bottom of the cup and saw a sludgy brown mess I threw it away and no one was the wiser.  I certainly didn't notice a strange flavor or anything, but I still chuckle when I think about it.

First class had the usual all-you-can-drink policy plus the delicious meal but I wasn't feeling up to enjoying it like I did on the flight out to NY.  I ate the salad and veggie side, but left the lobster mac & cheese, plus the sorbet dessert.   I did take a taste of the lobster and under better circumstances I would have polished it off with gusto!  I drank about a beer and a half on the flight and really didn't enjoy it all that much as it just made me have to go to the restroom more often.

I love the new bathroom here at home.  I can't take a picture just yet because Joe is grouting the tile in the shower right now.  The water is back on - I spent the night at Jeannie's last night because I wouldn't have been able to use the restroom at the laundry room after 10pm.

The 4 kids all chipped in and bought me a beautiful new vanity  and sink for Mother's Day which I am going to really love.  Now I notice that the old medicine cabinets and mirrors look out of place, so I am probably going to hang a big wall mirror in that space, and keep the supplies from the med cabinets in one of the smaller compartments of the vanity.  It will work out perfectly!  I will take photos as soon as the work is completed and post them.

Steve ran into a lot of problems with the plumbing - you can imagine with a model that was sold in 1962 and was probably manufactured with little or no standards they had to adhere to.  The space behind the walls is too small to hold pipes, so they ran narrow hoses instead.  I found my RV to be similar - it was nice looking and relatively good quality for the industry, but it seemed to be thrown together in many aspects.  I'm happy with what the boys have done, and am already making a mental list of things I want to do in the future.

I'll be back in a day or two with photos.

New Setup

Mike updated my computer's operating system yesterday to the latest OSX version of "El Capitan".  I had let two new operating systems go by because I knew that I would face problems just figuring out and installing them.  In the end we moved all my photos to the iCloud, including the photos I couldn't retrieve from my iPhoto program which had been corrupted.  (It took hours to move nearly 3000 photos!)  So while I really don't understand any of it, my computer seems to run a little better.  I still will need service to vacuum all the crumbs out from under the keyboard!

Maybe some of you who are near my age will understand how I dislike crowding up my brain with new stuff that I'm really not interested in knowing.  I am an intelligent woman and can do and understand anything I set my mind to, but now I am just more selective in what I set my mind to.  Let the younger folks constantly crave something new and different, but I am satisfied with tried and true.  That said, I may end up liking this new setup.

My suitcase is packed and I am so proud of the job. The only thing I will have to do is to throw the few items that are left into my carry-on.  I'm getting anxious to see the progress on my bathroom remodel - Steve warned that I may not be able to use the shower for the first few days I'm back because he wants all the grout, etc., to dry properly.  I have nothing on my calendar for a while so I can live with washing up out of the sink.  He's keeping Mike up on everything but no one is telling me much, so I'm in for a delightful surprise.

I didn't walk on the treadmill yesterday, so maybe I should do double today?  I am ready to quit when I reach 25-30 min!

Aggravation

This computer is really getting on my last nerve.  I updated Firefox and let them fix some glitches, and now I have a very different program that I can't say I'm happy with.  For one thing I didn't have ads before.  Also, I have been diligent about cleaning out the unnecessary cookies lately, but just had to delete 350 cookies, many of which had to do with ads.  The font size is also giving me problems, but for now I can live with it.  I'm hoping to get weaned from so much computer dependency when I get back.  Summertime is no time to be glued to a computer or a television, and my house will need a good cleaning to say nothing of the new weeds that will need to be pulled.

The tub has been set in place, the window is in, and the backerboard is on the walls, ready to be tiled.  I believe Steve also started laying the floor tile and will install the new toilet next week.  I never did get whether or not he was able to separate the vanity top from the base, but hopefully it went smoothly and I will only have to buy the top.  The base I have suits my needs completely, especially after doing the Marie Kondo number on cleaning out the contents of the vanity.  I'm going to be anxious to get back to tossing things I don't need.

I just wanted to say I'm still breathing, and hope all is well with the readers of my blog.  I'd like to wish all you moms a happy Mother's Day tomorrow.

All Better

It may or may not last, but for the present the computer is working much better.  I deleted tons of files and folders, and since this computer was new I have never checked the "History" list.  Today I deleted the whole damn thing and I believe it was over 100,000 items.  I'm still not finished with getting rid of unneeded files and hope that my problem with the constant hanging up and having to restart is over with.

Here is a photo of the bathroom wall, which you may remember had a nasty symbol drawn on the surface under the formica.  Steve used his sharpie and made a nice flower of it, although cutting the space for a larger window has also cut into the flower.

(Click to enlarge).

I attended a concert tonight of choral groups from schools in the area, from Joshua's 4th grade up through high school.  It was outstanding!  I look at those beautiful children and wonder what kind of a world they are going to have in their future, and then listen to them sings songs of joy, courage, and hope.

I wanted to mention the delicious pizza Sandy made yesterday, with the crust being made of cauliflower, cheese, and egg.  Yes, cauliflower.  She used frozen Caul., thawed, run through the food processor, squeezed in a towel to remove the moisture, then processed again with mozzarella and 2 beaten eggs.  The mixture is pressed into a baking pan and baked on both sides - turning it is a bit tricky but she did it perfectly.  It came out nicely cooked and browned, then she  spread it with pizza sauce and lots of cheese, then baked in the oven.  It doesn't have a strong cauliflower taste as you might think it would.  I am going to try it, using my blender, and adding some artichokes and olives on the sauce before the cheese topping.  I am ecstatic about it because as you can tell, there are no carbs in the crust!  I also read in one of the recipes that you can cook the crust and cut it into rectangles or squares to be used in place of bread.  

Joshua emailed me the recipe which I think he found online.  Sandy altered it slightly, using more cheese and an extra egg.  I think she also baked it longer than called for, but as all ovens are somewhat different, your results may vary.  I'd be glad to do a post that includes the recipe if enough people are interested.  I wish I had taken a photo of it, but didn't. 

I hope this entry posts with no problems like the one I did earlier this morning.  I was really steamed when I lost all but the first few lines.  Since I deleted history, I couldn't get to the page to compose this new entry.  Instead I took the previous entry and typed over it, but I can't get rid of the comments, so please ignore the ones that don't match this post.   

All better

It may or may not last, but for the present the computer is working much better.  I deleted tons of files and folders, and since this computer was new I have never checked the "History" list.  Today I deleted the whole damn thing and I believe it was over 100,000 items.  I'm still not finished with getting rid of unneeded files and hope that my problem with the constant hanging up and having to restart is over with.

Here is a photo of the bathroom wall, which you may remember had a nasty symbol drawn on the surface under the formica.  Steve used his sharpie and made a nice flower of it, although cutting the space for a larger window has also cut into the flower.

(Click to enlarge).

I attended a concert tonight of choral groups from schools in the area, from Joshua's 4th grade up through high school.  It was outstanding!  I look at those beautiful children and wonder what kind of a world they are going to have in their future, and then listen to them sings songs of joy, courage, and hope.

I wanted to mention the delicious pizza Sandy made yesterday, with the crust being made of cauliflower, cheese, and egg.  Yes, cauliflower.  She used frozen Caul., thawed, run through the food processor, squeezed in a towel to remove the moisture, then processed again with mozzarella and 2 beaten eggs.  The mixture is pressed into a baking pan and baked on both sides - turning it is a bit tricky but she did it perfectly.  It came out nicely cooked and browned, then she  spread it with pizza sauce and lots of cheese, then baked in the oven.  It doesn't have a strong cauliflower taste as you might think it would.  I am going to try it, using my blender, and adding some artichokes and olives on the sauce before the cheese topping.  I am ecstatic about it because as you can tell, there are no carbs in the crust!  I also read in one of the recipes that you can cook the crust and cut it into rectangles or squares to be used in place of bread.  

Joshua emailed me the recipe which I think he found online.  Sandy altered it slightly, using more cheese and an extra egg.  I think she also baked it longer than called for, but as all ovens are somewhat different, your results may vary.  I'd be glad to do a post that includes the recipe if enough people are interested.  I wish I had taken a photo of it, but didn't. 

I hope this entry posts with no problems like the one I did earlier this morning.  I was really steamed when I lost all but the first few lines.   

What shall I do this week?

I really need to take my computer to Best Buy to see if they can check it out and clean it up.  I'd also like to go to Barnes & Noble, but both are a little distance away and on Rte 9, which is usually pretty heavily traveled.  I'm going to do the treadmill in a few minutes and will see how I feel then.

About my bathroom remodel, when Steve pulled off the old formica and came to the bare wall, he found that someone had drawn a very obnoxious symbol on the wall.  When I heard about it and asked him to paint over it before covering it with the backerboard and tile, he said he had already taken his Sharpie pen and turned it into a flower.  I guess you can never tell what is there that you can't see.

The rain and fog made me decide to stay home today, but as soon as I came upstairs from my walk on the treadmill I got a call from Sandy asking me to pick Josh up from school as he wasn't feeling well.  I made it with no problems and am home now - and here I will stay for the day. 

When I went into the school office to get him I needed a photo ID, and naturally went to pull out my drivers license.  It wasn't in the place I normally keep it and I frantically searched for something with a picture, but the only thing I could come up with was my Costco membership card, which has my photo on the back.  That card sufficed.  When we were finally home I realized I had my passport with me, and on searching the bottom of my purse I found my D/L.  I had shown it to get through the airport security lines in Sacramento and hastily threw it into my purse to go through the rest of the line.  At least I didn't have to search for long to find it!



  

Back to normal

The events of yesterday went well, family and friends all gathered at a local restaurant after the church service, and I ate enough food for 3 days!  It was super delicious but I'm not used to so many courses, although because of the crowd and the private room it was spread out over a longer period of time than most meals would take.

It was so good to see Katy and Ara - Sandy just left to drive them to catch their train back to NYC and Ara on to Philly.  They are so energizing to me and I think we are so alike in much of our thinking, even though I'm way older than they are.

I passed the 28 day mark of the 28 day lemon water challenge and hope to continue it for as long as I can.  I think I have Katy hooked on it now, and wish her the success with it as I have experienced.  When I get back home I am going to try to get serious with the low carb, low sugar regimen.  The meal yesterday ended with a huge slice of the best cake I've ever eaten!

Not sure what I will do for the coming week - I'd like to drive to Best Buy at the mall where they have an Apple department.  My computer is not operating very well and I need to have it serviced.  I would imagine when they take the keyboard off they will find enough crumbs to bake a loaf of bread or a cake!  I shouldn't snack so close to the computer but I do it anyway.

When I get back to Sacramento I'm going to try to unhook myself from so much time on the computer as I have done with the TV.  I believe my ATT contract is up in late July/early August; I hope I can find an affordable internet connection with another company, but even if I have to go with something like the Verizon hot spot I will do it.  The big problem will be getting used to monitoring the gigabytes used.