Groceries at Costco were $200. I bought a few things on sale like the breaded Talipa which is a great easy dinner option. Mostly things like milk, and eggs ( no shortage at Costco). I bought the organic 2 dozen pkt for $8.69. I also bought French roast coffee, seaweed snacks my daughter likes, Triscuits, nuts, cheese, asparagus, and a few items I wanted to try. One is a garlic spread( Toom)that’s supposed to be very good.
With that and my TJ’s trip, I’m already at $400 so I’ll need to be careful for the next couple of weeks.
Next week I have a dental cleaning so that’s out of pocket. But I am going to sign up for their dental plan which is $400. That covers 2 cleanings and other stuff so it seems like a good deal.
Today is the national No Spend Day. I hope it has an impact, especially on Amazon, Walmart, etc. During the pandemic, I liked Walmart’s pickup service and used it a lot. But since then I haven’t even been back.
I got gas at Costco so that’s always a savings.
I bought a Christmas gift for my son. An Easton Press copy of ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs’s Court. ” That was Ebay and was $28.00. I haven’t started my Christmas envelope yet, but I’ll write this down. This year is going to be even more minimal as nobody really wants anything. So I’ll do a few gifts each like the Easton Press and East Fork Pottery.
This is the Lemon Meyer rosemary Sourdough. Wow was that good.
This is the newly rearranged office area with the couch on the opposite wall so I can open the sunroom doors.
Here are two of the newly reupholstered Heywood chairs. We got all 5 done. One is my office chair.
This is the dirty cover. Uck!! I guess it’s been about 3-4 years since I did these. I use painter drop cloth material.
They are certainly not professional but work for us.
Today is Dex day and I don’t have a lot planned but I am going to try and wash the inside sunroom windows.
I’m thankful for the beautiful weather here in Northern Ca. Our daffodils are up and the flowering cherry tree is blooming. Today is supposed to hit 70. nice!!
I’m grateful B is recovering so well from the laparoscopy and he can pretty much do what needs doing. We have a date now for the surgery and Hipec. It’s April 14. So the plan is to arrive Sunday and he will need labs. Fortunately, the lab is open on Sunday. Then Monday is the surgery although we don’t know the time yet. The surgery is where the surgeon(Dr. Lee) goes in and basically scrapes any cancer areas he sees. Then he is closed back up except for tubes that will administer the chemo. That part I’m not sure how long it will be but it could be quite long. At this point, I am NOT staying in the hospital but will go back to the hotel. After last time sitting in the waiting room just about did me in. Then the plan is I will go see him on Tuesday and check in about how things are. The last time Dr. Lee called me after the surgery was over so I suspect he will do that again. Then B will be in the hospital for at least a week. We haven’t figured out part 2 of getting him as I do not plan on staying all week.
I’m thankful for good food that I cook and feel good enough to do that. Last night we had a piece of the Halibut I got from Alaskian Fish. I think it was the first time I’ve had halibut and it was very good.
I’m grateful I can get my Velcade shot today in Rocklin and not drive into Sacramento. That is a real time saver and emotional one too not having to deal with Sacramento traffic.
I’m not so thankful for Dex overall, but it does do the job so I guess I am grateful for that.
I’m thankful ” to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world”. What else can I say? Our democracy is in serious danger of falling apart thanks to tRump and mUsk. What a bunch of assholes.
I have the sourdough lemon myer rosemary boule in the oven as I write this. Basically, it’s a no-knead bread that uses just sourdough. It’s not rocket science. I’ve been adding a 1/2 tsp yeast and that’s giving it a bit more of a rise. If you want to make the no-knead bread that was started by Jim Lathery(sp), just google it. He was the one who basically started the whole movement. Sourdough though is just a few folds and turns and then into the fridge for an overnight rise. Easy and delicious, especially as sourdough is better in general, for digestion or if there’s a sensitivity to wheat.
I’ve been making bread since 1975. Of course, those first loaves that were from Laurel’s Kitchen and Tassajara Bread Book left a lot to be desired. 🙂
Last night we had a curry with tofu, potatoes, peas and onion. I used TJ’s jar of red curry sauce. That’s a really good one to keep in the pantry for an easy meal.
Meals are not in any particular order. I sometimes switch meals around.
Monday- pasta and salad. I have a fettuccine alfredo in the freezer to use.
Tuesday- quesadillas with cheese,beans, etc
Wednesday- Soup. I have chicken and wild rice and vegetable barley from Costco. I’ll serve it with bread.
Thursday- TBD but maybe breakfast for dinner
Friday- pizza. I have a coupon for a free pizza from RoundTable so I may use that.
A cloudy walk this morning but it was warm. It was 51 degrees. It’s quite nice really.
I’ve been to the Auburn gym and now I’m home. I’ve swished the bathroom and now plan to do some other regular Sunday things.
Sunday is our sheet-washing day. We only have one set of linen sheets so we wash, dry, and put them back on the bed. B was just saying though the sheets seem to wearing thin. He does the laundry so he would know.
I fed my sourdough so I might make a dough later after it does its thing.
I made some chicken salad for sandwiches from the chicken I roasted the other day. I’m not sure what I’m doing for dinner tonight. I know a salad is on the menu but I need to check what I have to use up. Last night we (my daughter and I) had the last turkey burgers and B had the last Boca burger.
We’re considering taking the trailer to Napa as we only have a brief window of time before he’s in for the major surgery. I’m mixed on this as it’s money and effort. I guess we’ll give it a few days to filter through.
This little Cherry( the only girl who gets picked on by her brothers and Bean.
This is Guster(Gus) and Smudge. I know… 🙂 these are the names they got when they came out of the barn. 🙂 They were the ‘barn kitties’.
Little Tux is adapting here well. But we need to get the neuter going. He’s a very sweet cat. As soon as I can I’ll get a picture.
Well, I’m going to move the loveseat couch on the opposite wall and see if I like it better. I don’t want to put it in the sunroom yet because Tux is sleeping out there and he might be squirting? 😦 I hope not.
The biggest expense this week was my dental appointment. It was quite a bit but then what isn’t these days. It needed to be done so. I still have a cleaning in March and I’m planning on signing up for their dental saver program. It’s $400 a year and covers 2 cleanings and lots of other stuff. It seems a good deal.
Then I went to Costco earlier this week and that was around $200. That shop will last us a while until we need coffee again. Food was less because B picked some socks, and I picked up the new Dawn spray cleaner and there was something else nonfood.
I drove to Sacramento for my doctor’s appt, which uses more gas. I have enough gas in the Santa Fe until I go back to the pool which I think will be Monday. i have labs early Monday and plan to go to the pool afterwards.
Not a very frugal week but manageable.
Today I opted to stay home and do some extra house needs. I washed my office windows, and dusted baseboards. I also started sourdough baguette loaf for tomorrow. Last night I roasted a chicken and made homemade mac and cheese. Tonight I think I’ll make a frozen Costco pizza. It’s a new brand they had and I’d like to try it. I think it said made in Italy.
It’s a beautiful sunny day with a temperature of 62 degrees. I’m looking to put a chair in the sunroom so I can sit out there. right now, I don’t have the little loveseat because Tux is sleeping out there in a cat bed and he’s not fixed. therefore he’s spraying although we haven’t seen him spray out there. I’m thinking of a used Poang chair from market place. I’ll have to look at listings.
It’s been a week since the surgery and B is doing fantastic. He’s doing mostly his normal chores just being more careful. So I’m so thankful he has a great response.
I’m thankful the drive to Palo Alto and back were uneventful (except for a few assholes) but mostly it went smoothly.
I’m very grateful for the Sheraton giving us a discount that was probably half of what the room rate was. When we’re down there next, if it’s a week that’ll add up but we don’t really have an alternative. An Airbnb would probably cost more.
I’m thankful my dentist appt went well too and is over.:) I do have a cleaning coming up so there’s that. 😦
As always I’m grateful to be able to swim and go for walks. I’d like to ramp it up some but honestly, it feels like this is the best I can do at this time. So I’ll take what I can do and not worry about adding to it.
I made the garlic confit yesterday but cooked the garlic too long and some burned so I just drained the olive oil into a jar to use and threw out the garlic cloves. It tasted good. ( the olive oil).
This is the homemade butter I made using heavy cream I had frozen. I made it in the Kitchen aid.
The dentist was long yesterday but it worked out fine. The fillings were taken care of. She’s a good dentist. I just wish that Medicare had some dental option. It was very pricey:(
Today I’m heading to the pool for a swim. I don’t have anything else urgent that needs doing so I’ll come straight home. I want to make a few of the condiment recipes in the new cookbook. She has a recipe for olive oil mayo that looks easy and I have the breadcrumbs with rosemary and parsley dried and ready to whiz up. I also plan on making the garlic confit with some cherry tomatoes I have some that need to be used up. BTW, if you’re a Costco shopper those cherry tomatoes, Hirros, are absolutely delicious.
I plan to vacuum as well and do some dusting. We heat mostly with wood ( no central air/heat) and it does create dust. We do have a wall heater(propane) that we use on very cold mornings.
It’s another cloudy day but not too cold. I think the temperature is around 55 degrees.
Well, I best be off to do my daily routine so I can read in a bit.
Here’s the new cookbook I ordered a while ago. I did use Amazon which I guess for some things like this, I will. This book was from a third-party seller though but still. I just heard about Feb. 28 as a nation wide no buy anything day so I hope you’ll join in.
It has some good recipes and the recipes are the way and what I cook. She also has a new cookbook coming out in June. I made the fried chicken pieces last night and it was a good recipe. She started as a youtube channel and I guess got pretty famous quickly. I plan on making some new recipes this week.
So, last night we had the fried chicken from this book and we had a packaged salad on the side. B had a quiche from Trader Joes.
Tonight, I think I’ll do tofu burgers because I have several packages of tofu. I don’t have any fries or potatoes so when I go to Costco I’ll pick up some of those baby potatoes.
Tuesday- I think something with beans. A bean bowl with rice, avocados, sour cream etc.
Wednesday- soup of some sort, ?
Thursday- a recipe in the new book for roast chicken with garlic. Probably salad on the side.
Friday- Pizza. I haven’t made homemade in quite a while so I think I’ll make a batch of dough. The recipe I use makes 4 dough balls.
Saturday-TBD
Our daffodils are coming up and it’s starting to look like spring. I picked a nice bouquet yesterday. My daughter has started all the tomato seeds and some other things. She got the onions in the raised beds too.
It certainly takes a few days to get back to normal stuff after a trip like we did. But today we had a nice walk and then I went to the gym.
I like a schedule and do feel a bit unmoored when we are traveling. Plus, I like routines and the structure they give me.
This coming week I have 2 appts so that’ll change my schedule. I think I’ll swim on Wednesday and then try and hit the gym Friday. It just depends on how much I want to be out and about.
I’m trying not to have a nervous breakdown over frump but it’s hard and my anxiety is high just thinking about what is going on. I just hope enough people start boycotting businesses that have dropped DEI and other ways to hit them in their money pockets.
Barclay is doing really great and still isn’t supposed to lift more than 10 lbs. But he’s doing great with no pain meds. I’m sure the next phase will be harder and a longer recovery. I’m hoping he’s only in the hospital for 2 weeks since that will be easier to either stay or come home. We won’t know any of that till we get the final word from Dr. Lee.
The weather is supposed to get very spring with temperatures in the mid-60s and even low 70s. Yeah, for nice weather. I’m not sure I could handle winters like back east.
Well, I’m keeping this short and will write more soon.
We made it down to Palo Alto on Tuesday in good time. 4 hours with one coffee stop. Traffic was ok. Our first stop was back at Stanford medical Center so B could get his labs. We got a little turned around (confused) as to how to get there from our direction but we figured it out. I wanted in the parking lot while he went in. it didn’t take long.
From there we went to where the hospital is and got a sense of parking etc. It’s an underground garage. Next, we decided to check into the hotel ( Sheraton) and they had the room ready. These rooms are discounted for medical patients at Stanford and we are very grateful. The room had a nice king bed and was very pleasant.
We were very happy with the room and B figured out how to park around the back of the hotel and from there, it was straight into the elevators and up to our room. I slept great both nights and weirdly my sleep disturbances were not elevated so I thought that was odd. So now I’m thinking maybe my higher elevations have something to do with our bed. Our bed is quite old and maybe when I’m turning at night it’s recording ( my Apple watch)this as disturbances. The hotel bed was very plus and even when I turned it seemed to absorb that. Then interestingly, last night, no differences in going to bed, etc, and my disturbances were quite high. So very odd and I’ll keep observing this.
Then we decided to go to a pizza place, Delpino’s, in downtown which looked good and not far from the hotel. OK, one tells you that downtown Palo Alto is congested, has no parking, and is a nightmare to navigate. We circled 3 times looking for parking after we found the restaurant. So eventually we found a parking lot(city) about 4 blocks away. It was so weird that there were so many people. Maybe not for them since I’m assuming they (whoever lives there) do this routinely. Anyway, we got the the restaurant. They had some tables for 4 it looked like but the hostess said, the bar was the only place. I could have made a fuss because sitting on a bar stool is not easy for me with my back, but we said ok. The pizza was totally worth it though.
It was expensive and we decided the rest of the time we’d just buy stuff at Safeway.
We made it back fine and watched some Amazon BritBox for a while.
The next morning we went to Safeway for supplies. I got a sandwich for dinner and some cottage cheese for B because we weren’t sure what he’d feel like eating if anything. From there we did a dry run to the hospital and found the building we were supposed to check into. We went back to the hotel for a few hours until it was time to go.
We found the underground garage and parked(crazy busy). Then onto the Bldg 3oo. So many people. But we checked in and then B had to wait till 1 and then he got called back for pre-op. i waited in the waiting area. After an hour I was allowed to go back and sit with him till surgery. OMG, there were so many patients waiting it was somewhat overwhelming. Dr. Lee showed up to say hi and explain what he’d do. Then the anesthesiologist showed up and then 45 minutes late he got wheeled away. I went back out to the waiting area. It was a LONG wait. The waiting area was also very uncomfortable so that didn’t help.
Dr. Lee called me at 4:30 or so and said the procedure went great and his abdomen looked great. The chemo had done a great job he said. So he said surgery is on unless something in the biopsy shows something else which I didn’t quite get what it was. None the less I was over the moon happy. At about 5:30 I was allowed back in post-op. B looked good and was eating a snack pack they had brought him. He hadn’t had food since the night before at 6pm. So then we had to just wait as is protocol for 2 hours.
We finally left at 7pm. I had to go get the car and meet him out front as he was in the wheelchair. By then it was raining, so not fun.
We got back to the hotel and I had half my sandwich. He had some fruit and crackers.
All was good and he wasn’t in too much pain. They had given him an oxycontin before he left.
The next morning it was raining and we loaded up the car and headed out. Traffic was heavy in Palo Alto but we reversed how we got there and by the time we were changing from 92 to the bridge and then 280 traffic was moving along. So there were no slow downs and I didn’t get confused once about what road to take. The rain stopped somewhere after an hour.
It was a great drive home.
today, He’s doing well, not much pain he said. The incisions are very small and we just have to watch for infection. All good at least right now.
We have to get his prescription for the pain meds but that’s it.
I've been married for nearly 20 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 17, 16 and 14. Oh, and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!
Tahoe Girl 