Category Archives: covid-19

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, camping, covid-19, Gratitude, Political things, Uncategorized by

Wow, I’m thankful I feel better today after the booster shot knocked me out. It was the Moderna booster whichI hadn’t had before and it felt like the flu or chemo, take your choice. Since I know both, I’m just glad it’s over. One day is plenty. Today I feel back to normal.

I’m thankful to go to the pool today but will take it easy and not overdo my muscles. since we’ll be in New Brighton next week it’ll be another week of not swimming:( We are planning to find an Anytime gym ( which we have the free membership to) and use it twice. It’s in Santa Cruz so it’ll be a good excuse to go walk the Lighthouse trail and find a coffee.

I’m grateful that the truck’s AC will be fixed but it won’t be done till we’re back so driving thru the valley will be hot probably. It is very weird that this is the 2nd time this same issue with the truck has come up. Supposedly they changed the compressor last time but why would it go out in 2 years( usually they don’t go out) that quick. Then the guy said it would take a week to get the part and I’m thinking from where? China? Slow boat?. Who can’t get parts overnight these days? It’s a dealership?? Oh well, I’m grateful it SHOULD be covered in our warranty.

I’m thankful that’s been some justice done to tRump. It probably doesn’t change his base any but at least it’s something. And also that Santos has been indicted. What a dick. Claiming unemployment while paying himself from his Ponzi scheme. What a low life.

I’m grateful the weather is so beautiful right now and next week looks even warmer. Capitola should be lovely.

Simple Sunday and we got RAIN!!!!

Posted in California, cooking, covid-19, Flylady, husband, ikea, simple foods, Walking by

We woke up to rain and more is forecast for today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. The Mosquito Fire is still going but probably this is the boost the firefighters need. Yay. We walked with umbrellas but it was only a drizzle by then.

I started some minestrone for dinner in the crockpot using the cranberry beans from Ranch Gordo. Plus lots of veggies, onions, garlic, tomato sauce, and water. I think I might make some cheese toast on the side. This week’s menu will probably include some chicken, tofu, rice, and maybe a pasta dish. I reordered from amazon the freezer containers ( which were definitely worth it) and so I want to do some lasagnas and cheese enchiladas. I’ve tried freezing the mac and cheese and it just doesn’t freeze well. ( my version). I think you need to use Velveeta or maybe evaporated milk. Homemade mac and cheese is really easy. There’s a blogger on Youtube that thinks Wincos mac and cheese is real ‘home’ cooking. I don’t think she’s ever made homemade, probably too much work.

My arm is still sore from the Omicron shot but no ‘real’ reaction. I kind of felt off but that’s about it.

Tomorrow, I plan on going to the gym although if it’s raining too hard I won’t. Roseville is usually milder than here so that’s positive.

This week is the bedroom zone and closet. I will move my canning jars out to the garden shed as I’m done for the season except for applesauce. I’m planning to over to Apple Hill near Placerville to get apples, probably 20lbs. I’d like to get some heirloom apples but I’m not sure that’s what they have. There is a farm over in Petaluma that has heirloom apples but that’s 2-3 hours over there. Then I would like to put up the winter curtains but then I thought maybe I’ll do a between season one in a light linen. I’ll check if Ikea has any.

I have my appt with Dr. Laptalo on Thursday which happens to be B’s birthday. Not sure what he wants foodwise but usually the birthday person chooses their favorite meal.

Well, that’s a wrap.

Simple Sunday on a Monday

Posted in Blood test, California, camping, covid-19, Lake tahoe, meal planning, swimming, travel by

We left Tahoe in the smoke and came home to smoke. Ugh….One day the AQI was 500, which is pretty bad. Today is also not looking good. Our weather is cooler so hopefully, that will help the firefighters.

My daughter went and picked up my VW on Friday and didn’t notice the fan was on full blast, and when I went to turn it down it wasn’t working. I tried a few times and then just decided I would need to confront the garage because it was working fine when I brought it in. So I went in this morning, a little defensive, and said this was working when I left my VW here and now it’s not. She said, we didn’t work on that and I said that may be but my fan control is not working now and it was when I brought it in. I said I would like it fixed. I haven’t heard back from them; hopefully, it is a minor thing. I better not get charged. And there was a diagnostic charge I said don’t bother with and they have it on there so another confrontation, which I do not do well.

I canned BBQ sauce yesterday with the last of the tomatoes. It’s way early for them to be done but this summer has been so weird that it’s just one more thing. It’s thinner than I wanted so I wrote on the lid to add ketchup to thicken it.

Yesterday was my sister, Heidi’s birthday. She would have turned 74. It is so strange how she just had a flare up of the interstitial lung disease and died. She had been coping with it for a number of years with no flare ups. Well, I guess when it’s time, it’s time. ( that’s just me rationalizing).

Tomorrow I have my labs and so I should have my kappa light chain numbers by Friday. I see my doctor next week. Then I scheduled my omicron booster for Friday. I didn’t have any reaction last time so fingers crossed this time. But each time is probably different so who knows.

We’re still on the fence about going to Southern Ca next month. I guess we’ll just keep sifting through our feelings and fiances about it.

My son is off on a cool adventure staying in a fire lookout up in the McCloud district( way Northern Ca). This can be booked like a camping spot and is fairly hard to get a reservation. Back in the 70’s we often went to the Duncan Peak fire lookout especially since our friend Shelley was the lookout person. I haven’t been in years and years and my son said all that’s left is the foundation as all lookouts are done with remote viewing.

I just looked outside and everything is a weird yellow color from the fire. I’m sure the air quality is awful. I was going to swim today but the pool is closed also due to the AQI.

I still need to plan some meals this week and write a grocery list. I need salad stuff so maybe I’ll do Winco for organic spring mixes. I did see a recipe on a youtube channel for a green soup. Lots of veggies and spinach and then blended. Green soup is one of my favorites and this one also had cauliflower and broccoli.

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, California, cooking, covid-19, Flylady, Uncategorized by

The weather is about to change and it’s going to rain and be colder. We need the rain so it’s all good. Plus the stuff we’ve planted will do nicely with a sprinkling of rain.

My son and I made Lodge dinner last night and it was great. We got pre-marinated tri-tip and cooked for 1 hour in the lodge.

My daughter made Boca burgers for her dad.

We added extra coals about halfway and only did one turn. It came out superb. Lodge cooking is such fun. I like our 10″ Lodge best. The 12″ is bigger and probably good for a bigger family. He’s planning to camp up at Lassen later this week and wanted to try the Lodge out before he left. He’s planning on taking our car the Santa Fe as it is a very comfortable travel car. I might do another one this week maybe a vegetarian chili with the corn bread on top.

I plan on getting my 2nd covid booster this next week sometime. I got a few notices from Medicare that they’re available so I’ll probably go to CVS.

I just finished 2 books by Judith Jones( the one who was the editor at Knopf when she read Julia Child’s draft). The first was her memoir and she lived an interesting life. She lived in Paris as a young woman and was totally smitten by French food and the markets and all of it. The second book was written after her husband of 40+ years died and she wanted to keep cooking even if it was just for herself. So these dishes are basically for one person. But they could easily be doubled. She was an interesting person for sure. She died in 2006. She certainly loved very weird foods like offal and other things that I certainly wouldn’t eat but she was an adventurous cook. But she wrote about a number of the chefs( and were a lot) and the books that Knopf published. So I went to the Pet bookstore and found 3 of the ones she mentioned. i don’t know if I’ll keep them or even cook from them but for a $1.00 each it’s cheap entertainment for me.

Speaking of which I found this youtube, I think I mentioned before, Rachel loves to cook. She’s hispanic and is a great cook and cooks similar to how I cook. So last week she made this breakfast dish that was a homemade tomato chili sauce, corn tortillas, scrambled eggs, crisy bacon bits and then they are rolled into an enchilada shaped. Then sprinkled with cheese on top and baked or on the stove top covered till the cheese melts. I made it this morning and it was delicious. Check out her channel and subscribe.

This week is the Flylady bathroom zone which I finished. I also did the bedroom zone but that was just a quick wipe of surfaces and dusting.

2022

Posted in California, camping, covid-19, Flylady, home improvement, home stuff, Retirement, swimming, travel, Uncategorized, Walking by

I’ve said before, I never do resolutions anymore but I do set some goals as benchmarks to move toward. The top of the list is to keep doing things that are healthy for me/us. That would include walking almost every day, swimming 2x -3x a week, eating good food( which we do anyway), keeping positive( which I think we do anyway, but always a good reminder. I’m pretty disciplined with menus, budgets, groceries, Fly lady routines, and other chores.

Other goals would be for projects. The entryway windows where B has his desk are not doing well. They were wonderful old windows from a library in SF someone gave us. But now the wood is in bad shape so probably the first project will be taking them out and replacing them with a vinyl-type window. the footings under that part of the room should be done better too. The next 2 windows are in the sunroom. These shouldn’t be as complicated as the other ones as the wall is straight and not at an angle and it should be fairly straightforward. Other outside things are a fence along the nasty neighbor’s border. We hoped to do a privacy fence but I think that will be too expensive this year so we decided to put up 5-foot fencing to make the boundary more designated and we can even plant some things along it to create a barrier. Fencing and poles shouldn’t be more than $150 maybe and it’s a start. Right now it is the original (since 1950) 3-foot hog fence that has 4inch gaps. So this will be a good start. I’m pretty sure we are going to budget for the one tree to be taken down. I’m hoping the bid is @ 2500.

We’ve got 4 RV trips planned and I hope we can get reservations for at least 2 more maybe 3. I’d like to find one more new place to go. Last year was great with discovering Refugio State Beach and then the Wine Resort RV Park in Paso Robles. We definitely enjoyed full hookups.

My sister’s health is very precarious right now and she will go into hospice care soon. With Omicron, I won’t fly but we could drive back if she makes it into spring. We just don’t know and the details are somewhat sketchy. It’s been hard to deal with as she’s only 4 years older than me. What her husband said was, she was having difficulty breathing( she is on 24hour oxygen due to the Interstitial lung disease . Other than that , like why? I don’t have the details. It sucks really.

This week I have my 6 – month eye check for the macular pucker and I have Dr. Laptalo as well. I’ll swim at least once and probably call that good.

Last night I made a loaded baked potato soup and it was very good. Tonight I’m roasting a chicken and I’ll do some frozen nut loaf for B. Not sure what else, a salad and ? Then later in the week, I plan on making Beef bourguignon. I saw a recipe for mushroom bourguignon and I might do that for B.

Most of the week is supposed to be nice but there is rain tomorrow and Tuesday. I don’t think we’re supposed to get snow though.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cooking, covid-19, Gardening, Lake tahoe, travel, Uncategorized by

Lots being done today.

The laundry room is torn apart and there’s hammering and banging going on. The one window is out and that will need replacing. Realistically if it’s done by next weekend, that’ll be good. The washer is hooked outside to a hose , real Okie( not to be prejudiced) but it does look a bit like, well maybe Appalachia. The freezer is outside too on the dirt:( It is covered and running but the whole effect is, well, Okie like. humm…..

I finished the Kitchen zone which took quite a while. But the floor still needs mopping and I’m too bushed to do it now.

I made some granola this morning for the week ahead. Then I made another Zojirushi pot of brown rice that used up the last of the organic brown from last year. The date on it was still good but best to finish it up.

Yesterday, I did more pickled jalapenos.

Tomorrow I’m planning on doing one last batch of jalapeno pepper jelly and that should do it. What a year for peppers.

My daughter has been busy cleaning out garden beds and surrounding areas of dead stuff. It already looks so much better. I think we’re ready to pull up most everything in the garden beds including the pepper plants:)

Barclays IGIV went well and he has more energy. Next week he gets his Covid booster, so that’s good.

No word from the dealer on the AC in the truck. They looked swamped when we dropped it off so who knows.

Tomorrow I will be modifying our Tahoe trip. The whole Tahoe basin is closed till September 17 so that affects our camping trip. Under these circumstances I’m fine with that and even if it all gets cancelled. Better for less people to be up there so the firefighters can do their job. …sigh…

Five on Friday

Posted in covid-19, home improvement, home stuff, swimming by

So far I only got one swim in this week and I’ll go tomorrow.

We had to go back to the Honda dealer to resign the papers as they had put something wrong in the contract. On the way home we both noticed the AC wasn’t cold so later I called and now we have to go back down today. Thus, no swimming today and bumped till tomorrow. I’m thinking they’re going to just do a freon recharge but I don’t think that’s the problem as they probably did that when it was on the lot. so it’s under warranty but still a PITA. Why is it always something???

Barclay also goes today to infusion for his IGIV. His immunoglobulins have been steady but being on the Jakafi ( Gvs H drug) his numbers have declined. So on top of the truck drop off there’s that. Fortunately, my daughter will go get him at 4pm. It is a long infusion.

Our weather has been lovely cool fall like. There’s still smoke drifting over from the Caldor fire but we’ve mostly had clear skies. Today looks more smoky though.

Barclay and my son have the laundry room torn apart and hopefully will get new flooring this weekend and some new sheetrock. This is not your average house laundry room as it is attached to the back off the house with only outside access. It works for us for now. There wouldn’t be a place in the house to put a washer/ dryer unless we built a ‘real addition’. Oh well, that’s what we have.

Bonus: I got my Covid booster so very excited about that. A sore arm but that’s it!

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, California, cooking, covid-19, Lake tahoe, simple foods, Uncategorized, Walking by

I finished reading the sweetest little book called ‘Pottering, A cure for Modern Life”. Being British it’s pottering, here it would be puttering. I think I like the British spelling better. A very sweet book with lots of good ideas about how to slow your life down and really just a reminder for those of us who already live slow life, to keep going.

We had a nice walk this morning. No one was there till 6:05 and then of course it was AH. Later a couple showed up with 2 dogs and he (AH) had a hard time controlling his dog. It lurched at the other 2 dogs growling. He had to use both hands on his leash to control it.

Today I plan on doing refrigerator pickles with the ones I got at the farm. It’s only 4 cucumbers so maybe a small pint jars worth. I need some celery seed which I don’t normally keep in my spice basket.

Yesterday I made a King Arthurs scone mix, blueberry sour cream. They were very good and I’d buy the mix again. For dinner I made Ikea sauce, Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. The sauce was delicious. B had a Dr. Praeger burger with the sauce.

This coming week is somewhat busy. We’re going to look at another truck down in Roseville, I have my appt in Sacramento, the Santa Fe is going into the dealer for a recall fix it, B has a video dr appt, and it’s our anniversary. I had hoped we could drive up to Tahoe but with the smoke and all the Forest Service everything closed, it doesn’t seem like a good idea. This happened last year with the pandemic, everything shut down and this year it’s fires and the pandemic.

Velcade, Round 4, shot #2.

Posted in camping, cooking, covid-19, decluttering, garden shed, home stuff, husband, Multiple myeloma, travel by

I drove down to Rocklin yesterday and had my shot. I was out again by 10:20 and it went well. Sometimes the injection stings some and yesterday it did. Other times I barely feel it, so who knows.

From there I drove up to the Walmart in Rocklin which is right on my way home and picked up my order. They didn’t have the propane bottles we needed for camping so we’ll need to get them somewhere else. Then I went into the nursery side and bought 2 clay pots and 2 orchids. For some reason getting clay pots now is like winning the lottery. They only had 2 on the shelf. Oh well, I’ll keep checking but Home Depot also didn’t have any.

I took my Dex after lunch and rested. Geez, Dex is so weird. Oh well, my daughter made a nice stir fry with tempeh. It was good. Yesterday I experimented with making jasmine rice in the Staub and it came out great. I love my Zojirushi rice maker but wanted to try this as an alternative. The nice thing is that it is half the time . 15 minutes on a boil and then 15 minutes rest. The other method is an hour. It’s nice to have the alternative.

Today is just take it easy and do a few things. I want to air out the bed covers on the line. And move a few more things around in the closet.

We finished the bedroom painting it looks amazing. I’m very glad I screwed up and started the touch up as I wouldn’t have really know how bad it was( well I guess that’s relative. )

The stove hood debacle continues as it wasn’t working unless the bathroom fan was on which I said”No way, am I putting up with that”. I said hire an electrician, people do it all the time. But he managed to get it hooked to something else?? and now the bathroom fan isn’t working. Did I say just hire an electrician??Well, he is pretty handy and always figures out a solution. We had most of the wiring was redone when we moved in but there were some that the guy didn’t do for some reason. ( he wasn’t a real licensed electrician although he did know a lot).

I hope the tar paper can go on the garden shed before we leave on Sunday but the shingles will need to wait. Most of the trim is going on too. It looks good and I think we will like the extra storage.

I have another Goodwill run to make tomorrow but i will have my daughter help. Last with her helping it went really quick plus I couldn’t lift the monitor anyway.

Tonight my son cooks and I’m not sure what he planning. Maybe I’ll check the freezer but I know I have lots of salad stuff.

Plus, the most exciting thing this week is he gets his Covid shot tomorrow. Hurray!!!!

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, cooking, covid-19, Flylady, Uncategorized, Walking by

Daylight savings is so weird. I wish they would just pass the law and leave time in the spring alone since both mornings and evenings have plenty of light. I woke up at 4am on clock but it was 5am with the spring ahead. So I got up at 5:30 after I got the coffee going. We went out to walk about 6:10 or so and so really that was 5:10. AH was already there so I guess he’s on the same schedule as us. His dog crapped all over the path right where we walk but he didn’t pick it up. Just left it for someone else to do. Tomorrow is Monday and it’s our no walk day so that will give us another day to adjust.

We’re in for rain mixed with snow tomorrow. We need rain so can’t complain really. I’m planning to go to Costco tomorrow so we’ll see how that shapes up. I can hold off if necessary. Mostly it comes down to needing coffee:)

Flylady zone is the bathroom which I will do a little later.

I’m planning on a stir fry( tofu and veggies) for dinner with some rice. This week I wil BBQ( once the weather is nice again) some steak bits, tofu, and I have some chicken defrosting for a mediterranean dish with artichokes and olives. I also have a cabbage to use for something. We don’t eat the corned beef stuff and cabbage for St Pats day. I may make something similar with tempeh. Tempeh and cabbage and potatoes??? We don’t eat a lot of tempeh but it is good for certain things. I especially like tempeh reubens. You grill the tempeh, mustard,add sauerkraut and cheese. A trick I learned is to slice the tempeh thin and then soak in water for a few minutes as it takes away some of the bitterness that tempeh sometimes has.

After finishing the front room , I was pleased that the only thing I decluttered was 3 mini puzzles from so dollar store my son bought us for Christmas. We did them and now they can go to someone else. Other than that not much was deemed unnecessary.

T

The teak book case empty. This was a Salvation army find many years ago when you could still find deals there. I think I paid $20.

Some of the Easton Press Books.

The couch wall done.

More Easton Press and LP’s and photo albums.

It should be a good week. My daughter gets her 2nd covid shot this week. She’s a bit of a hypochondriac so hopefully it all goes well. The first shot did so I don’t expect any problem plus she will take a Tylenol and allergy pill when she gets home.