Day 449 - Shock To The System

I am so not loving this weather. I am so thankful that I am only home for one week! Florida can NOT come soon enough! I managed to get ole Contemplate fired up today & drove home. I didn’t have any winter clothes with me, so I needed to go home & find warmer clothes, do laundry, unpack, repack & continue to box up the stuff at home.

I took the girls & boogied home. I’m a little overwhelmed at all the things I have yet to accomplish! Wish me luck as I try to jam it all in!

xxxxMaria & the Girls

Kingston & Easton happy to see Mom2 at the airport

Oceana snuggles with Tweet Pea

Look at those eyes!

Finny watches his Mama drive away

Day 334 - Cars & Insomnia

Another day of post-chemo rubbish. I'm struggling to find the upside of things these days. My arm is getting somewhat better, no more codeine, but it still aches. I'm so anxious to get away & go somewhere - do something! But I'm just not there yet. 


Today we took Contemplate to the mechanics to pick up Mom's car & I made arrangements to leave Contemplate there next week. The brakes are a little shoddy & I'm not sure why. Hopefully it will be an easy fix! The mechanic, Duane, is a wonderful man. I visited with him & his wife for quite some time today. It's nice to have a mechanic you can trust & you know isn't going to tell you the 'caneutre valve' is cracked & needs to be replaced for $2000. (When I was in flight school, I trained with a fellow named James & he used to joke about telling women their caneutre (kah-noo-turr) valve was busted & of course, us non-mechanically inclined women would just nod & say OK. 


I wore the mullet wig today. I think I may have overdone it. I also wore legwarmers. What!? They are back in style! Okay, granted, maybe not with a mullet wig, but it was fun anyhow! I had some pretty funny looks when I stopped at the grocery store. All in good fun. I felt a little like Joan Jett, only without the leather & denim.


Shortly after we got back from the mechanics, I got another headache. I was in bed by 2100 - a record for me! Unfortunately I woke up at 0030 & could NOT fall asleep until 0600. Yes, six in the morning. I have never had insomnia quite like that before! Ridiculous! I feel sorry for anyone who suffers regularly with it! What a horrible thing to deal with! 


So, rather groggily, I say goodnight... or good morning...


xxxxMJV&O

 Valentina LOVES the heater - she gets SO close to it!

 I think she's on some tropical island at the moment... Wish I was too!

 Jaco on facebook... Or YouTube

I'm thinking of submitting this to Acana - good to the last kibble!

Day 264 - Another Rainy Day!

Today was another miserable rainy day in East Kananaskis. The Stephan's had wanted to visit the zoo today, but it was quite cold & it pretty much poured rain for the better part of the day. We took the day to do a whole lot of nothing. Well, not really.


Collet sewed frantically. She is working on a beautiful patchwork quilt for the wedding they are going to this weekend. She is one talented gal! 7.5 months pregnant & she's impossible to keep up with! Did I mention she also has a 2.5 year old son? Yeah, she's amazing! 


She worked on her quilt & I did my best to do laundry, clean up the kitchen, vacuum my room & clean the bathroom. Yeah, it took me all day. I'm pretty slow these days! And easily distracted! Collet decided to have a nap in the afternoon with Ezra & about then Jaco called. We had a chat for a while & then I had to run to town to get the mail. (I forgot to get water. Whoops.) 


Dave boosted Contemplate & found the fuse that keeps the 'door ajar' light on. I let it run for 1/2 an hour or so, but when I went to start it & run to town, she was dead again. Hmpf. 


Ezra played with 'Nini' until they were both pooped. He loves to play with her. It's quite entertaining. He'll take her toy, but when she gets ahold of the end of it & starts to pull, Ezra will stop & say, 'Help me! Help me!' Too cute.


Collet made dinner for us - she's a great cook too... Yeah, the list just keeps going on & on... We wanted to do some belly photos, but time ran away with us. I haven't been home much for any of my girlfriend's pregnancies, so I was really hoping to do some photos of Collet before the baby arrives. Tomorrow is chemo, so I don't suspect that I will feel up to it, but gosh darn it, I'm sure going to try! 


The best part of my day was when Dave & I were talking about Facebook pages & groups. He is making one or the other for True Hope & we were discussing the differences. We were looking at various groups & pages & at one point, I was on Suzanne Somers 'page'. Ezra walked up, saw Suzanne's profile picture & said, 'Grandma?' His Grandma, Peggy, is a gorgeous blonde. An honest error, but priceless! I had a great laugh! I hope she appreciates the compliment! 


They are going to go to the zoo tomorrow, since it's supposed to be nice out & I'll be busy at the hospital for most of the day. Fingers crossed I'll feel up to a little photo shoot in the late afternoon, early evening... 


Wish me luck for tomorrow... It's going to be a long day!
Love & health hugs,
Maria & Valentina
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Working hard on the quilt!

Ezra hams it up with the mullet wig

Ezra & Nini jump!

Sharing Nini's tent

Day 202 - Doin' The Shuffle

Phew. What a day. I’m wiped! I’m not sure what exactly is causing this lack of energy, but boy, am I tired by the end of the day! Come 2100, I am ready for bed! I generally don’t find it until 2300, but not for lack of trying!

Today was a day of shuffling. As Mom has arranged her room into my room while I tackle this chemo thing, there was still a little rearranging to do. (& still is!)

I decided to put the desk in my room & give Mom more room in the living room. This meant moving the large clothes cupboard. And it meant moving the bead trolley twice. It also included taking apart the desk. It’s an antique & was no small task! Luckily Mom’s friend, Mitch stopped by & was able to give us a hand! I tried to put the TV on top of the desk, but it’s too large. I’ll be on the lookout for a nice flat screen TV… If you know of anyone, send ‘em my way! I’ll even rent it for 6 months! (I have plans to watch a lot of CSI & House this summer!)

Anyhow, we moved the mirror, sorted out closets, shuffled washstands & cupboards, threw out this & that, put this away for goodwill, that for recycling…

We also attempted to change the battery in Contemplate, but I think the Dude at Canadian Tire sold us the wrong one. The amperage & so forth is the same, but the part number is different & the posts are too far in the centre of the battery for the cables to reach. Looks like we’ll be driving NeverLate for another day!

The new girl & Valentina are getting along famously. Oceana is really coming out of her shell! It’s great to see! Valentina is still quite vocal & very possessive of her toys, but we’ll get there! Oceana will now go up & down the stairs on her own, fetches the ball & didn’t even mess in the house today!

Mom made a wonderful dinner – shrimp, red peppers, pineapple, garlic, ginger, coconut milk & quinoa and a couple of corn on the cobs. Yum! I’m so grateful she cooks, as I would be a waif otherwise!

I rearranged my jewelry drawer & polished my silver jewelry. I am very excited to wear my necklaces again & have them sit properly on my neck! Bring it on!

It was absolutely stunning outside, so I ventured out for a little reading in the sunshine. Valentina laid with me while I learned a little more of Cesar’s methods. I’ve got 10 pages left in the book! Yay!

I also spent some time last night & this morning looking for wigs online. It appears they are quite expensive! I’m very frustrated I missed the shop in Barbados, so I tracked them down online & called their head office. They are going to email me some photos & I will place an order & have it shipped to me. Just to give you an idea, the human hair wig I bought in Antigua was $30. Online the cheapest I could find was $70. Most of them are $200-1700!!! Crazy!!!

Anyhow, not too exciting of a day. Tomorrow will be a long one… Wish me luck & here’s hoping I have some good news to report! Love & hugs,

Maria & Valentina

xoxoxoxoxoxo

2 weiners on a treadmill

That's the long & the short of it, Folks.

Me & my wieners

Valentina

She forgot her dentures

Oceana

Dreaming of squeaky toys & treats

Oceana May

Day 150 - She Cleans & OMGosh - Is She? What the? SHE COOKS?!?!

Yes, call me Domesticated. Well, maybe not. Don't get too excited! It was nothing out of a Martha Stewart magazine. 


I had an email regarding the wedding decorations I'm trying to sell on Kijiji & the potential buyer wanted to know what all I had. I had written in down in last year's day planner, which I couldn't seem to find. I searched all over the house with no luck. Well, I must have packed it down to the bunkhouse last week when I was tidying up some stuff. 


Away I go, with Valentina sniffing along behind me. She is the funniest dog to watch jump a puddle. She leaps so high, rather then making use of her length, and then she falls short & ends up getting wet anyhow. It really is quite priceless! She is also getting very good at coming when I call her off leash. In fact, I've never seen her run so fast. It's really hard no to laugh as I watch her run to me. She looks so hilarious with her ears flopping & slicked back on her head. Her little legs just giving all they've got... I love my dog!


I pilfer through the bunkhouse again & find a few treasures (still no luck on the underwater housing) but I don't find the day planner. I walk back to the house & decide that perhaps it is in the car. Dear ol' Contemplate needs a bit of a clean, so I take the winter boots out, Valentina's toys & bits of toys, oh yeah, the air filter! I can change that too! 


I take the clamps off & take out the old air filter. Eew. There are bits of chips, green things & brown things. I'm not sure what they are or how they got there, but the vacuum is in order. So I decide to do a little Spring cleaning & vacuum the car, top off the windshield fluid, change the air filter, take out all the bits & pieces... There! Just like new! You'd never know she was 20 years old! BTW, still no day planner. But I did find:

• Slave for studio lighting
• Speakers & stereo still waiting to be installed
• Roll of duct tape under the seat
• Pair of socks from the hike Jaco & I did in September (yes, 6 months ago) (Oh my gosh, I know it's gross, but it SO does NOT compare to the stink bugs living under the bike seat that we put in the cab of the car to get to the trail head. THAT IS ONE SMELL I WILL NEVER FORGET!)
• Guide book for Banff
• Keith Urban concert ticket stubs
• The missing hamburger patty! Yay! No stench come July!!!
• Coins in various amounts

I quickly take the vacuum back inside the house before Mom gets home or any passer's -by might see me & think I know what I'm doing... 

I was quite baffled now, as I didn't know where else to look for the day planner. I'll look in the desk one more time. I thought it should have been there, as I usually leave it there, but I'd already looked twice. Maybe it's in the back of this... drawer. Found it!

I emailed the prospective buyer & about that time, Mom arrived home. I had promised I would cook supper. I had picked up a few cookbooks & picked out a recipe from each one. I started to mark the pages in each book when Mom asked me if I'd started the recipe already. No, why? Well, it says you have to dehydrate the squash for 18 hours. Whoopsie! Okay, so no raw dish for tonight. I couldn't do the Indian dish either, because not only did I not know what Bengal gram was, but apparently neither does CNF or Safeway! I was left with an Italian pasta dish & a Russian vegetable dish. 

I THOROUGHLY read each recipe before I began. The Russian one consisted of mushrooms & eggplant in a creamy sauce. Okay, is the cream bad? Should it have chunks in it? MOM! Come smell this... Nope, still good. The dish turned out quite good. But we were too full from eating the pasta, which was ready first, that we didn't have much room for it! Tomorrow!

The pasta dish was another story. I think I would have failed my first day of Italian Culinary school. The recipe called for pasta, pepper & cheese. Pretty easy, no? Well, I couldn't find fresh egg pasta, so I used rice linguini instead. The directions were to keep some of the water from cooking the pasta for the sauce. But since I used hard rice pasta, my water turned all milky & stuff. And I overcooked the pasta. Mushy. Next up was the peppercorns. It said to gently warm them in a frying pan to release the 'aroma & flavour'. Cool, I feel like a real chef! Releasing aroma! Then it said to crush the peppercorns using a mortar & pestle & if you didn't have one of those, then just put the peppercorns in a tea towel & crush them using a frying pan. 

I put the peppercorns in the towel on top of the cutting board & I take my warm-ish frying pan & WHACK, WHACK, WHACK. Crap. I just broke the handle on Mom's frying pan. Hmm. I suppose they probably just meant put pressure on the frying pan to crush the peppercorns, not annihilate them & the frying pan by use of brute force. Thank goodness Winners carries good pans! And thank goodness I just so happened to have a mortar & pestle left behind by a ship mate that she picked up in Costa Rica! I had never used it. Now I know why. The darned peppercorns just kept flying out of the mortar! I think Valentina sniffed more peppercorns than went into the pasta!

So that was supper. I'm feeling a little queasy at the moment. If there aren't any further blog posts after a week, maybe send someone over to check on Mom & I. 

Just let it be said - I did cook. Whether or not it is suitable for humans, well, I'll let you know how we're doing tomorrow! 

Jaco called after dinner - thank goodness he didn't call while I was cooking! I don't need him getting any bright ideas! :o) We discussed our 'Reunion' plans & it looks like I'll be heading to the ship on the 17th of April. Hello Barbados & more importantly, Hello Man of My Dreams!!!! I can't wait to see him! It's been too long! Again! 

Tomorrow I'm off to SK. Again. Bear with me as I try to keep up with the posting!

Love & kitchen kisses,

Maria & Valentina

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

My sneaky Mom taking a photo of the unsuspected unsuspecting chef.

Doesn't Mom know what happens when people with knives in their hands become upset? They break frying pans!!!