Monthly Archives: January 2021

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, Myeloma, reading, simple foods, Uncategorized, Walking by

Things are quiet around here.

The big storm is over and now it’s just cloudy, no rain. Today, I plan on tidying up the entry zones and my office area(done!). This time of year the entry zone is really just sweeping and removing any debris or stuff lying around.

We had a nice Sunday walk. Jerk walker was still there but then left as we started our second round. We’ve missed him for the most part as he must be getting there earlier but today, being Sunday, he was later.

I’ve almost finished reupholstering the dining room Heywood chairs. I have one left. Using a drop cloth as the fabric is economical and I actually love the look of the cotton. Next time I will need to replace the foam cushions but that’s a few years away at this point.

I plan on starting my painting project this week. Since I can’t really paint for long periods with my rib issues(arms raised and using a roller), I figured I’ll use the Flylady method and do it in 15 minute intervals. I’m still debating using the Behr white I have or wait till I have Benjamin Moore‘s Simple White. I think I’ll do the ceiling in front of the bathroom door with the Behr and then decide whether to keep going. I did read about a paint called, Farrow and Ball that sounds like a really nice paint with great coverage. I plan on checking it out this week.

Yesterday I made another NYT recipe called https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021839-potato-cheddar-soup-with-quick-pickled-jalapenos. I made it my Staub, of course, and it was really good. Somehow the sprinkling of jalapenos really did uplift the soup. There’s enough left over for lunch today. I plan on making meatballs for dinner and maybe put them in sauce and bake. Not sure yet if that’s how I’ll do it since then B wouldn’t be able to eat the pasta bake. So I guess I’ll just leave them on the side.

My order from King Arthur Flour showed up and I made one of the scone mixes. It was White Chocolate cranberry scones. They were a big hit. Perhaps a little expensive for a mix ( 7.99) but it made 8 large scones so basically $1.00 a scone. I think overall it was worth it.

For Christmas my son had gotten me an Easton press of “ Robinson Crusoe” . I’ve read it before many years ago, but it is very entertaining and well written.

Round 1 over, Velcade, shot #3

Posted in Blood test, cancer, cooking, instant pot recipes, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, Walking by

It was a brutal drive down to Sacramento yesterday.

We had wind and rain here overnight and it didn’t let up driving down. Sacramento looked liked a war zone. It was hit very hard by wind and rain. I saw debis all over and many trees snapped in two. There was no power in the C street area but Mercy did have power. Off the exit onto J street, the homeless encampments looked like they took a huge hit with stuff ALL over the place. Why we can’t provide some kind of motel/hotel rooms for these people is beyond me. I know Gov Newsom is trying his best to come up with solutions. Why the nutsos want to recall him is all so beyond me. What was he supposed to do during a pandemic, just say ok, keep businesses open and spread Covid-19?? Honestly?? Some People are really stupid.

Anyway, I got down there just fine and saw Dr. Laptalo. He said the soft lump that was on my front temple area probably was a plasmacytoma so fortunately with 24 hours of my first shot it was gone and he said that’s good. But there’s not much we can do with the bone area right now. sigh… why is it always something?. But the important thing is when my numbers started to double in early November, that’s when this soft lump appeared so clearly the abnormal plasma cells were working overtime. I’ll be more aggressive next time saying we need to start treatment when we reach this 500 point.

So then when I left, the sun was out but still very strong winds. I headed up to Rocklin for my shot. I was 1/2 hour early but the nurse told me just to come in since the shot doesn’t require IV hook up or anything and they had done my vitals in Sacramento. The shot went well and I was on my way.

I need to do labs before my next round starts in February and I have off next week.

There wasn’t any rain when I left but the winds were still very strong and it was hard to even walk back to the car.

I got home by 12 having left by 8am. So not too bad. I ate some lunch and took Dex.

I guess it’s all a waiting game to see what my blood work shows, but after only one round, you can’t expect too much. Maybe by Round 3 in March.

My daughter made a nice comfort food dinner of Mac and Cheese, wedge salad and a few breaded Costco shrimp in the air fryer.

We are watching Brooklyn 99 with my son and it you want a funny show this is definitely it. Great writing and characters. We’re taking a break from the ‘Money Heist’ since we just finished Part 3. Then we browsed and started ‘Lupin” . French and quite good so far. We also paused Cobra Kai. It’s a good show, I’m just not sure if I’m into the story line although it is good and it’s fun they are the original characters from the “Karate Kid”.

Tonight my son will cook and is planning an IP chicken teriyaki dish. I’m going to make a tofu curry for the veggies. Plus I’ll put some arborio rice in the Zojirushi. An easy meal to put together.

It’s still raining and we didn’t walk. I just ordered this morning a set of Frogg Toggs since I don’t mind walking in the rain if I have the right gear. If I feel up to it, I’ll get on the treadmill and do at least something, maybe:)

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, meal planning, Myeloma, simple foods, Uncategorized, Walking by

I went down to Walmart for a grocery pickup. It went smooth and fast. They really have it dialed in and it was loaded quickly and efficiently. Part of the reason I did Walmart is you just can’t beat their prices. I checked out Campbell’s tomato soup at the store as I didn’t have any. It was $1.99. At Walmart it was .98 . So go figure.

I came home and put together a batch of cranberry orange scones. Scones are fairly easy but sometimes they don’t hold together so we’ll see. The recipe is NYT orange cranberry scones.

This week FL is in the living room zone so I plan on doing a few things this morning. I wasn’t feeling totally great so I’ll leave most of it for tomorrow.

Last night I made what I’m calling Tucson mix. Back when we were at U of A, being vegetarians, there weren’t a lot of options to eating out but there was a small health food shop that sold a bowl of brown rice topped with a medley of zucchini, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and ?? Actually both of us can’t quite remember but I think that was it. They sold a bowl for .99 . So we ate there often. Yesterday I started it in the Staub and simmered most of the day. It turned out delicious. For my son( a meat eater) I sauteed some jalapeno cheddar sausage from costco and we also had some sauteed shrimp if anyone wanted to add that. I’m definitely adding this to the rotation in monthly meal planning. Next time maybe adding a yellow squash. I’m pretty sure it didn’t have eggplant because Barclay doesn’t like eggplant. Anyway it was a good first attempt.

Here’s the pizza from Friday night. Very nice!!

This week’s menu will include breakfast for dinner, Mac and cheese and salad, a new tofu recipe I saw in the NYT for BBQ tofu.

I just finished tidying the living room and dusted. I might do the windows or leave that for tomorrow. I still need to vacuum.

Rain is predicted all week with even the possibility of snow tomorrow. Our walk this morning was cold @ 36 degrees but NO one else showed up so it was nice. Everything was quiet and frosty! I can already tell I’m getting slight tingling( neuropathy) in my foot. Hopefully it will just an annoyance and NOT a problem. Velcade does cause neuropathy so I guess I’ll bring that up at my doctor appt.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, frugalism, meal planning, Myeloma, simple foods by

I made all our bread and snacks this week. The sourdough seed bread was really good.

The chocolate sheet cake went pretty fast too. I used my new hand mixer and the frosting got nice and fluffy. This morning I’ve got a pan of brownies started and am thinking about making some scones as well.

We were going to order out pizza but then we all decided to just stick with homemade cheese and one with pepperoni. That all will save $40. minimum. Pizza is very expensive these days.

So with me being on Vel/Dex two days( Wed and Thurs) cooking dinner is a challenge so my daughter is doing Wednesday night pastas and my son is doing Thursday whatever. Last night he did a turkey pot pie and a tofu pot pie. Boy, were they ever delicious.

This is the tofu one in one of my small Lodge pans!!! He ate it all!!!! it had tofu, mushrooms, carrots, onions, cream, wine, salt and pepper. Yumm.

So because I was dexed up I paid a bill early:) I guess that counts as a frugal win since now it’s one less to do. Actually almost every bill we have, is paid directly except this one and PGE. PGE because we’re on their balance program so that your bill is averaged over the year. For some reason they don’t do auto pay for that.Go figure.

My VW( Buggie) got an oil change this week so that cost but since I drive it under 2,000 miles a year the last time it was done was late 2019 so it was time.

I still need to plan a small shop for lettuce, and a few things next week. I haven’t decided to just go to the Holiday here or actually do a Walmart pick up. I guess I’ll think about it since I won’t do it till Sunday or even Monday.

B went and bought another stack of boards to turn the corner on the fence. We will do 3 panels down to block off the neighbors hoard of junk. Then that will be done. Sometime when the weather turns sunny again I ‘ll get a gallon of redwood stain and paint it. I like painting overall so I don’t mind doing most of that.

Earlier in the week I redid one of the Heywood chair covers. I use painters canvas and it holds up well.

This is the only keyhole Heywood chair I have. The others are solid back. The key hole ones are more valuable.

Basically, you just cut the piece to fit and then staple down. Pretty easy. This is the piece that I took off. I plan on doing another one today.

It’s raining out and it looks like rain for the next week with temperatures colder. I guess that’s good. The mountains will get much needed snow.

Round 1, Velcade, shot #2

Posted in Blood test, bread, cancer, cooking, Myeloma by

I was able to watch the swearing in of Harris and Biden and it really brought me to tears.

Then I left to go to Rocklin for shot #2 and was able to listen to quite a bit on the radio.

This nurse wasn’t quite as good as the first one. She did a blood draw which they need to check my WPC and RBC and she didn’t seem very seasoned in where a vein was on my arm. They do it always in the same place at Quest so not sure what her thing was but she did it and did leave a bruise. A good draw never leaves a mark at all.

This is the injection site. The red lasts maybe 3-4 days. Yesterday she did the opposite side and did leave a little bruising. So the other nurse did seemed to do a better injection. Other than that no complaints and of course, I just want it to work again.

I made a loaf of sourdough seed bread. It came out very nice.

I also made a chocolate sheet pan cake and it’s disappeared so I guess it was good.

Today is just a home day due to dex but I hope to get a few things done.

I should know better than to do business, so I went to pay a bill and and instead of putting in Feb 1st( due date) I left it as today. So I had to move money over from savings to cover it as it will come out tomorrow. Oh well, just a reminder that dex messes with your mind:)

A new day!

Posted in Political things by

It was a perfect inauguration in every way.

I loved seeing VP Harris and Second Gentleman Doug. Lady Gaga was outstanding as was J Lo. It was inspiring.

The inaugural speech was uplifting and filled with hope. The youth poet Laureate was one of the most inspiring pieces of work I have ever heard.

Let’s hope we can move forward, away from all the awfulness that was Trump and all that he stood for. Seeing him leave was a moment of happiness. Such a coward, weak, egotistical jackass.

Five on Friday

Posted in California, cooking, frugalism, Myeloma by

  • I’m feeling pretty good this morning and most of the ‘Dex’ effects are gone. Just a small bit of hyper-ness. But I put that to use making yogurt in the IP. Actually, I made it yesterday and I put the yogurt selection on for 24 hours. It looks good. Also, frugal-wise, I bought the organic milk at Costco just for this purpose so it was 2 gallons for 9.95. So 1/2 a gallon is about $2.50. That puts a quart of homemade organic yogurt at $2.50.
  • We picked up the free pizza at the Holiday Market for dinner tonight. Each month there is a coupon for something free so this month is the pizza. It’s not the best pizza but heck it’ll be fine. Last night my son cooked the new vegetable burgers from Costco that were on sale. Normally $12.89 and then $5.00 off. The box is 10 burgers I think. They are not soy or pea protein like Beyond burgers or Impossible. They are brown rice, veggies, and almonds. We all like them with pickles, cheese( swiss) and tomatoes, and lettuce. If you go to Costco they are on sale till Jan 24.
  • Our weather is really nice , with a high yesterday of 67. We really need rain but this is nice ,and I’m enjoying it. Next does show some rain though.
  • I’m re-reading all the Sue Grafton books and that’s been fun. She was such a good writer and I totally enjoy reading about Santa Barbara that she called Santa Theresa. I don’t know if I ever mentioned that the first trip I did to SB with B when he was working, we were walking the beach path near the marina and in the parking lot near one of the restaurants was a 1974 light blue VW with Kinsey on the license plate. Of course, if you know her character Kinsey Millhone, she drove a Baby blue 1974 VW. We never saw her but still, I saw her car. ( Sue Grafton’s as she lived in Santa Barbara).
  • We’re planning on having a fire in the fire pit this afternoon as again the temps are still @ 67 degrees. It’s nice to sit out and watch the birds and have a glass of wine or two:)

January 13, 1st Velcade

Posted in cancer, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma by

So yesterday I went down to the Mercy( Dignity Health) satellite medical center in Rocklin. It was about a 25 minute drive so this is less than 1/2 of going down to C street in Sacramento. It was very nice. A quite small infusion room with 5 chairs. The nurses(2) seemed exceptional and mine was over the top friendly and informative.

So this is round 1.

Shot one of 2.5 milligrams of bortezomib. The nurse said she had quite a few patients on different regimes such as weekly( no breaks), 2x weekly for 2 weeks and then a 2 week break. So I thought that was interesting.

The drive home uneventful and I was back quickly.

When I got home I waited till @ noon to take the dex. I rested a bit and got up around 2 and read some. My daughter made some tortellini for dinner. My eyes do get affected with dex and so we only watched one Bridgerton.

I took an Ativan and was in bed @ 9. I didn’t fall right to sleep but eventually. This morning I could tell it was still a Dexish morning so I’ve done some of my morning resets( swish and swipe), tidy kitchen, and started a IP of yogurt. I did cut our walk short by 1 round as I was just too tired to do another.

So onward to Shot # 2 next week.

New Fence

Posted in home improvement, home stuff by

This is our new fence that you see when you drive up our hill. We are the last house and our neighbors( the old man, Leo) house is on the right as you drive up. The fencing that was there was just rusty old hog wire that the original owner had up. Sometime after the new neighbors moved in ( about 2 years ago now) we knew we wanted a more private fence. Their house is across the driveway and down some. They remodeled the garage to be a studio apartment for their adult daughter. It’s a great property and they bought it at a really great price from the original owners.

The boards are not redwood but stained fir. So they may not last 25 years but they should last a good long time.

So this is looking down the driveway and you can see our little house onthe left.

My daughter did an amazing job building this and digging the post holes with the help of her Dad.

So this shot is looking down the driveway to where we park. That’s my daughters Honda Fit. To the right is Leo’s house and we know once he dies and the house goes on the market we will build the same fence along this property line. His house and the yard are right there to the right and I don’t want to see new neighbors especially if they are noisy and have kids.

We’re actually thinking of coming down the one side so we can block off seeing the neighbors truck and hoarding yard filled to the brim with everything.

This is shot looking down toward the neighbors mess.

We’re planning on spraying it this summer with some kind of sealant or outdoor stain even though it is already coated.

Our property line actually comes straight out from the end post so the fence is not on the property line as that would close off the driveway too much for emergency vehicles. Our new neighbor was parking his RV across from this shot and it was limiting access. Interestingly, right after he moved it down by his garage Leo( our 95 yr old face planted right there and knocked himself out and is still recovering in the hospital from a brain bleed. I really don’t think he’ll be coming back to his house but we’ll see. We do feel bad for him living alone but he wants to die there and not in a nursing home so I understand that.

Here you can see the other driveway that leads to the barn and the sunporch entry way. We plan to put up another gate here in the summer. Our next fencing project would be back behind the barn to block the view of our very ‘unfriendly’ neighbors that built a huge workshop that we can see and hear him in all the time. He rebuilds cars and is always grinding away. Plus they moved up from the valley so they’re new to ‘country ‘ living.