Tag: home

Taking it Easy

I decided to return home last night rather than stay over another night with elsaf and judiang. I missed my kitty, wanted to see Granny, and had papers to grade. I’m glad I did this (though I do miss the girls, terribly) because I had a nice relaxing day today. And I got to see Leo and Granny and best of all, got the papers graded. Yay! The folks took me out to lunch, too. To Arang, the local Japanese restaurant. I had shrimp teriyaki & California rolls. Very yummy! They gave me $50, which I think I might use to buy The Flash, the Complete Series on DVD. (Yay! It comes out Jan 10!) I also opened Amy & Rachel’s gift – they gave me a log cabin toy set (like Lincoln Logs, only squarer). Fun to play with.

I had a lovely holiday this year. For my birthday, Elsa got me some Fox River Socks! (I’m wearing a pair right now. I love new socks, especially Fox Sox.) Judi got me Dangermouse seasons 1-4 – yay! We headed off to Tom & Ardath’s to meet up with them and Elsa’s parents. Lunch was dim sum at a restaurant near there. Very tasty food and very fresh. Elsa’s father even bought us lunch – yay! (I love parents who buy their daughter’s meals. Witness my parental units above.) After lunch, it was back to Tom’s for a short concert of Tom on recorder and Elsa’s mom on piano. Very nicely done.

We headed off to see Memoirs of a Geisha at a theater near Elsa’s place. The movie was very good. My neck was wet when it finished, cuz I’d been crying and the tears ran down my neck. I haven’t read the book, but Judi has and she said it was a pretty faithful rendition. She really liked the book.

Once we returned to the car, my ankle started vibrating. I had my purse between my feet & someone had called me on my cell phone. It was Amy! She & Rachel sang “Happy Birthday” to me. 🙂 We chatted for a little bit as Elsa drove us home. And once we were home, we had ice cream & geeked on our computers. During the geeking, my cell rang again, and this time it was mom & dad singing me “Happy Birthday.” Heh – I love my family.

As it neared suppertime (and, alas, time for Trina to leave the girls), we decided to go out one last time for dinner. Most places were closed for New Years, but we found the Shore Inn open. I had a fish sammich and fries, which was yummy & filling. Elsa paid the bill – yay Elsa! I love friends who buy their friend’s dinner. 🙂

We returned to Elsa’s for my last bit of packing up the car & hugs. Then I headed on home. The drive was fine & I got in around 11:30pm. Leo was happy to see me (and had eaten all his food already). We stayed up for an hour or so, then headed off to bed.

This morning was my parade. I hate when they air it on the second – it’s for my birthday, you know! Alas, there was much rain, but the floats were still beautiful to see. I graded catapult reports while watching. And Leo decided he wanted to sit on the board I was grading on. No surprise. But it was as I had hoped – good kitty time and good grading time. I headed next door after the parade for lunch with the parentals.

When we visited Granny at her new room in a nearby nursing home, she complained that people weren’t visiting. Well, dad’s been going every day – and yesterday she was so sound asleep he couldn’t wake her. But today, she didn’t have to worry about lack of visitors. While we were there, Aunt Becky & Deanna arrived with a couple of Xmas presents & a new wheelchair. Then Mick (Becky’s oldest son), his fiancée, and two daughters (9 and 6) arrived. We couldn’t all squeeze into the room, so we sat in the lobby (looking at the live birds they have there) chatting. Granny was lucid the entire time and was looking better than she had when I saw her last. She’s still weak, but here’s hoping they can strengthen her up at the home. She’s eating (not a lot, but at least some!) and will be going to physical therapy. So I have high hopes for her.

I have tomorrow off as well, so I’ll have some relaxation times tomorrow as well. I hope to visit Granny again, as well as exchange some slacks I got at Xmas for a longer style. And who knows what else I’ll do. (Hopefully read some of the cool books I got this holiday!)

Merry Christmas!

Yay! It’s Christmas today! And in our recent tradition of having nontraditional Christmases, we actually opened all of our presents last night. It was fun opening presents in the evening. For one thing, there was wine instead of coffee. Heh. It took over 2 hours to get everything opened (with occasional breaks for food & stuff). Mom was originally thinking she might have gotten more presents for Amy than anyone (an Amy Christmas), but it turns out it was a Dad Christmas after all. Yay dad! (One of the presents he got, however, was the replacement order of jumping beans from Oriental Trading. Mom said she’d had 2 boxes sent to my place with dad’s presents. And I got 2 boxes one day. And didn’t examine the labels all THAT well – and neither did mom. She wrapped the boxes without opening, and voila! Dad opens a box to find my jumping beans. We all laughed.)

Now, there were rumors that Santa was still going to come around last night, so we did put out our stockings. He even left 2 stockings here for the parental units. Amy will be arriving shortly to help me carry the stockings over (*wink wink*) but also to open Leo’s presents for him. His lack of opposable thumbs does make it hard to open presents.

I’ll probably report in more detail about the day in another post. I just wanted to get my “Merry Christmas” out before the day was over. Hope everyone reading is having a nice End to December, regardless of which holidays, if any, that you celebrate.

Holiday Goings On

Things started off wonderfully this holiday season. Mom & I got up early and headed off to Curves and then to mom’s Weight Watchers meeting. (They had some funny Weight Loss Carols that were played.) Then we popped off to Walmart to pick up two family-sized pizzas from Papa Murphy’s. They make up the pizzas to order, then you bake them yourself. These were for supper. And then it was back home to pick up Papa so we could head off to the airport.

Amy & Rachel arrived in Ohio just fine and only a little late (darn that Detroit airport!). We had a nice lunch at Max & Erma’s and then scooted on home. Mom’s brothers were going to join us for supper (hence the pizza) since the girls head back to Minnesota before the Anderson gathering. Folks all napped and I returned home to goof off (and write my journal entry).

Uncle Bob & Aunt Madeline arrived first, followed by Uncle Doug, Aunt Charlene and finally Patty, my cousin. We all squeezed around the kitchen table for pizza, chips, and popcorn popped in Gramma’s old kettle. (Doug recognized it right away.) We had a nice evening chatting, eating, and laughing. I ate too much (no surprise there).

The next day was our day off. Heh. We decided to spend it shopping. CD Connection to pick up an Amy gift, the pet store for Leo’s present, then K’s for lunch. K’s is a greasy spoon (aka diner) that’s been in Troy since 1935. I got a cheeseburger, fries, and malted milk. Very yummy. And greasy. The way cheeseburgers are meant to be. We then headed off to Kohl’s where I found a bedspread for my winter sheets. It’s flannel and had matching shams & bedskirt all together. I also got a spare set of snowman flannel sheets for when my current winter sheets wear out. Some more Christmas presents were found & bought. And our final stop of the shopping experience was Krogers, for all of the groceries we’d need for the holidays.

Once we got back, I dumped my stuff off in my house. When I got back to the folks’ house, I found out they had a phone call from Aunt Becky – they were waiting on the squad to come & pick up Granny. So mom & dad headed off to Granny’s and followed the ambulance to the emergency room. Granny was having intestinal woes (TMI) but in the process of helping her with that, they found out her blood had gotten too thin and she was bleeding internally. Eep! Had she not had the intestinal complaint, they wouldn’t have found the blood chemistry problem and she probably would have passed away that evening. Yikes!

The good news is that they caught it in time. They were able to stabilize her condition and they admitted her to ICU that night. Mom & dad stayed with her the whole time, finally coming home after 11pm or so. Poor Granny!

Today, Amy, Rachel & I went to visit Granny in ICU. She recognized us OK, but she did have a lot of confusion. She asked about Grandma Lowry (either her grandmother or mother – I’m not sure which). She was convinced that mom & dad were in a car accident and was relieved when we told her that they were both home and fine. It was sad to see her with such confusion, but she is eating and drinking. Not a lot, but it’s something. Her blood pressure is fairly normal now. They still have the intestinal complaint to deal with, so she has that to contend with. But they’ll do what they can for her. When the folks get home from visiting, we’ll find out of there’s anything new.

After visiting Granny, we headed to the Night Sky Cafe for lunch. Grilled cheese on sourdough with tomato & ham, plus a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, was my lunch. I bought lunch for the girls too. Then off to Wynan’s for coffee (for the girls) and cocoa (peppermint, for me). A stop in The Bakehouse for a chocolate chip cookie split three ways, and we were done with the downtown. We stopped at Krogers once more to pick up something for the parentals, then back home.

I returned home to form the dried beef cheeseballs I made this morning. One for tonight at Granny’s (even though she won’t be there – alas!), one for tomorrow night when we open presents, and two to take along to elsaf‘s. One for the Doctor Who Viewing Party (where her brother and his g/f will join us to watch The Christmas Invasion!) and the other for when Elsa, judiang and I get together in Chicago.

While typing this up, I got a call from CD Connection- the other CD that I ordered is in, so I should probably go get it before the party tonight. Then I can wrap it tonight so it’ll be ready for tomorrow. Yay! I love Christmas!

Granny, get well!

Baking Day (Part 1)

A tradition for as long as I can remember, mom and I spend a day baking up all the Christmas goodies for our upcoming gatherings. Sometimes it spreads over two days, like this year. We started by heading out to get supplies. First, I had to get my haircut cuz people were beginning to notice it was getting LONG. (Long for me, BTW, isn’t horribly long. I can’t ever stand it enough to get to that stage.) But then we went to Wally World and got supplies. Lunch was Chinese Buffet. Then home again to start baking.

We started with some snicker doodles that mom bought from a co-worker. These were pre-made & frozen dough balls, ready for baking. The teenage daughter of this co-worker was trying to get money for a school or athletics related trip. And she’s a good dough maker. Then we made the chocolate chip cookies (aka Lindy Cookies – so named after my mom, Linda). We used some really great cookie sheets from KitchenAid which made baking easy-peasey. Mom made the dough for Ice Box cookies (aka butterscotch cookies). Those were then put into loafs & out into the back porch for ice boxing. 🙂 We hit something of an impasse here. We needed the recipe for candy buckeyes, and our favorite recipe was in a cookbook now at the Lake. So I called Granny & asked to borrow their copy. I headed off to visit with her & aunt Becky & pick up the book.

When I got back, it was supper time. I ate light – apple, orange, cashews – and returned to the folks’. Mom had made her praline mix (evil addictive munchy stuff) while I was at Granny’s. We then got to work on the peanut butter innards for buckeyes. That’s one of those things you just have to do by hand, so before too long, I was up to my elbows in peanut butter, powdered sugar, and butter. I then rolled the little buckeyes & we put them out in the back porch to cool. While I’d been rolling, mom was working one another of my favorite holiday treats, floor-sweeping cake. It doesn’t actually have floor sweepings, it just looks like it. 🙂 By then, it was nearing 9pm, so we had Advent & I returned home.

Tomorrow, we dip the buckeyes, bake the Ice Box cookies, and make peanut butter blossoms (aka nipple cookies – you know, the peanut butter ones with Hershey’s kisses in ’em). Oh yeah, and there’s the cheesecake cupcakes. I think we’ll be done then. 🙂

If I’m feeling in a generous mood, I might put the recipes of some of these delectables up in another post. Or I could just let y’all suffer. (judiang & elsaf will get to sample many of these treats this year – unless we eat them all before I get off to visit with them!)

Soup Making Day

Thanks to the ice and now snow being dumped on us, school is closed again today. Works for me! I’ve spent the morning making mom’s veggie soup. Here’s hoping I do a capable job of it cuz mom & dad are joining me for lunch. The soup is better with cooking, so they won’t be getting it at its prime, but it should be tasty.

Several of my coworkers and I were going to go shopping (and eating) today after work, but, alas, with work closed, it’s been canceled. So perhaps we can do it next Tuesday instead. Tuesday, meanwhile, is our last day of school before break. And best of all, the break lasts until January 4th. So I’ll have two days to recover from my birthday. (The birthday, btw, will be spent with judiang & elsaf at Elsa’s. 🙂 (Oh! Elsa,, the parade isn’t until the 2nd! Maybe the 1st can be movie day & the second sleep in & brunch day?)

It’s very pretty outside – the ice on the trees has allowed the snow to stick nicely on them. Of course, ice on trees is never good – leads to falling on things like power lines. They say we’ll get 3″ or more snow. Ice might be icky, but I don’t mind snow. 🙂

Well, looks like chemistry won’t be having their test over naming & formula writing until after Christmas break. We’ll have tomorrow for a review, then Monday is Making Gak day. Tuesday is “Spirit of Giving Day” which used to be called “Christmas Fun Day.” With donations to the Pleasant Hill Food Pantry, students get to spend the day doing fun things like playing euchre, charades, Monopoly, volleyball, etc. Movies are also available for watching too. Physics is building toothpick bridges from now until Christmas Fun Day. So they’ve got an easy load for the rest of 2005. We might have to have another build day when we get back – usually we test the bridges the day we get back. We’ll see how tomorrow & Monday go. (That’s 3 periods of building for them, so it might be enough.)

The folks and I have finally started doing Advent. 🙂 Yup, 3 weeks in and we’re finally lighting candles. We have to get in practice because Amy & Rachel join us next Wednesday (YAY!) and they’ve been doing Advent since it began. It’ll be great to have the girls here with us over Christmas. Actually, they leave Christmas evening, so we’re going to do our gift exchange Christmas Eve. Dunno if I can do it! (Actually, I probably can. I’m in it for the family togetherness & the gift giving & receiving. The date is really arbitrary.)

I think I’ve discovered why Leo’s been eating his food so damn fast. I think that he thinks there’s someone eating his food. So he feels he has to hurry up and eat his food before someone else does. What he doesn’t realize is that the person eating his food so quickly is HIM. Stupid cat. 🙂 I’ve decided I should have called him Garfield. He is so obsessed with food these days. Maybe he intends to hibernate. 🙂

Anyhoo, since it’s a snow day, I don’t have any real plans. So I think I’ll go do them. 🙂

Quick Survey

After a discussion with elsaf and judiang, I decided to find out what others thought. And the thing we’re curious to know is, do you make your bed in the morning or not? Judi seems to think lots of people do this. I think it’s rarer than she thinks. So now you can help figure out who’s right!

Vote early (and often)!