Category Archives: pets

Thankful Thursday, Frugal Friday and Saturday sum-up.

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, camping, cooking, LLS, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, pets, travel by

THANKFUL THURSDAY

  1. I am thankful we had a safe drive home from Capitola and traffic was not too bad at all. We made it home in 4 hours with a stop for gas and something to eat.

2. I am grateful that B does the driving and set up and take down of Rubi.

3. I am thankful the weather was beautiful and we had some lovely days in our camp spot. With the influx of kids, bikes, and loud people, we left a day early and I’m grateful we have the sense to do that and not just say” Oh, we paid for the night, we should stay”. We do not enjoy it when kids are throwing balls in front of the trailer, riding bikes, etc, while their parents are loud with partying.

4. I am very grateful to my daughter for taking care of the house and yard. With the chickens and cats, it can be a lot.

5. I am so incredibly grateful that LLS opened funding for Myeloma and I got my application in. It’s pending, waiting for my doctor to fax his form.

FRUGAL FRIDAY

We spent very little this past week while camping. We didn’t eat out except for Gayles and that was just coffee and a danish. We ate the rest of our meals in camp. We went to the grocery store for a few things and that was it.

If you figure a week almost in Capitola, and we had just the cost of gas and some food, it’s a low budget getaway.

Overall, the budget has been good this month. But some things have caused some alarm. I’ll describe that in Saturday Sum up.

All the monthly bills are done. I’m working on keeping a zero balance in the bank account and it’s right where I want it for now.

It’s a huge savings for me to have my LLS grant since it covers all my insurance costs. I’ll be able to have a look back of 90 days so for reimbursement.

SATURDAY SUM UP

Well, that was the frugal stuff.

The night before we left my son notice some water(moisture) on part of the kitchen foundation. Of course, I freaked out and had B use the giant flashlight to look under there. There was a slow drip from the kitchen water pipe that will need to be fixed. Now part of the problem is our house foundation is not that great and as you go from the back to the kitchen area it gets very small to access. When we had this work done the person had to use a very long something to put those pipes in place. So now we’re facing a difficult challenge of getting a plumber to go under there. B is going to suit up and go in to try and clear some old pilings of dirt. But he isn’t a plumber that can weld the copper pipes. We put a call in to someone while we were in camp and we will try and set up an appt for next week to have him check it out. I tremble to think of this added expense.

The good news is the truck will go in next week to fix the AC and it’s covered by the extended warranty we bought. That expires in August so right in the nick of time.

Today, I’m going to pick up a Walmart order that has some camping stuff( toilet paper, and small propane bottles for the Weber). Plus I need to dust as the pine yellow pollen is coating everything in the house.

While we were gone a red fox chased and almost caught Ciri the cat. It was caught on Arlo and it’s scary to watch. It actually jumped the gate and chased her into the laundry rooms. We’re guessing it has a litter of kits nearby and that’s why it was so aggressive.


Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, pets, swimming, Uncategorized, Walking by

HAPPY JUNETEENTH TOO!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL DAD’S OUT THERE, of kids, and furry kids too.

After the fiasco with the Ooni, yesterday we lit the pellets again and did get the temperature to 990 degrees. So that was working and probably what we did wrong was not wait long enough for the temperature and I think I need to scale the toppings way back. I did go and order Ooni pellets just to have the right specific ones they have.

This morning we had a nice walk with only one other person who has been showing up all week. He’s nice and seems to be enjoying walking. I’m planning on making a Father’s Day brunch of baked eggs with spinach in the individual lodge pans, bacon, both real and veggie, biscuits ,and homemade jam. I’m not sure what I’m planning for dinner but I might do Praeger burgers with corn, and I have some potatoes to use.

Our weather turns very hot by Wednesday, so today is probably a good day to BBQ and sit outside. When it’s 95 out it’s just too hot.

The pool was really nice yesterday because there were not a lot of swimmers. Almost everyone had their own lane which is rare. I enjoyed it immensely. After that, I went to the newish Trader Joe’s for a few things mainly wine, and bagels. I also got milk and juice and microgreens which I love on sandwiches. I was out of there in 15 minutes. We are planning Costco this week, but my son loves his bagels for breakfast.

This week is mellow, no appts or anything, just normal day to day stuff and a trip to Costco. I’m sure Costco will be pricey as so many prices have gone up. Even their bagels which used to be 5.99 are now 7.99. and that was 6 weeks ago. There’s not much you can do except try and hold to a budget and not freak out.

Flylady zone is the bedroom, if you follow the zones. She had a good description of decluttering the bedroom on her website which is really awful aesthetically. But the person who runs her website does a good job describing how to start under the bed, then to the right of the bed then left. And she always says, just do 15 minutes. I think Flylady works if you modify it to fit your circumstances.

Here’s a few pictures from the week, a funny video of Ciri the ‘mama kat’.

That’s a vulture sunning itself.

The Gus(ter)!!!!

She’s playing with a TOY mouse!!!

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, camping, pets, Uncategorized by

No walk this morning because I had to be in Auburn at 7:45 to get my hearing test and then see the ENT doctor. So I do have some hearing loss in the left ear but I could repeat all the words so there’s no distortion of hearing. He said to come back and check in 6, months to see if’s worse or the same. Uhh, well okay!

Then I went over to CVS to figure out why CVS Caremark( mail order) keeps getting my cholestyramine wrong. They’re sending the brand Prevalit which I do not like at all. I think we figured it out but I’ll have to wait for the doctor to reorder.

I bought 2 pairs of Okibashi at CVS and my Nasocort for my sinuses. I also spent over $100 at Safeway on Monday so I’ll need to figure out a menu for next week and then go to the store again maybe Sunday. I plan on swimming tomorrow so I could do Winco but I don’t have a list ready.

I ordered and received 6 1lb bags of Rancho Gordo beans which just happen to come from Napa. These are really lovely heirloom beans. I made the King City beans this past Tuesday and they were delicious. They cost more than regular beans but I think the flavor is superior. I froze a good size container for next week.

I need to tally up food costs for the month excluding camping. That comes out of travel money. I know gas for our trip was @ $300 maybe slightly less. With gas prices so high I imagine it’s restricting some RVers. Eating out camping was @ $ 110. The champagne tasting was $80 for both of us and the bottle we bought was $42. Groceries were @ $ 150. I’ll need to double-check my receipts. Plus Wrights Beach was $105 for 3 nights and Napa was $165. for 3 nights. Those were paid in advance.

This month is expensive because of property taxes and Allstate and we owed IRS this year. All in all, it was a lot. Our next annual bills are small ones like Costco membership, AAA membership, and ??? Plus there’s still no funding from LLS for myeloma so that’s quite a bit we count on that’s not there. I keep checking daily.

Here’s a picture of the kitties who are now almost 1 year old.

From left to right: Gus, Cherry, Bean, Smudgerton. So cute and they all have unique personalities. little Cherry is the only girl and the smallest.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, cooking, pets, simple foods, Uncategorized by

I had a nice walk starting at 5:30 am. Of course, HE was there, but no matter, I just ignore him and carry on. Although I will say, since I’ve been using my walking pole( for added stability) he stays to the right on the path, so that’s a good thing. I’m still debating my timing. Sunrise is 5:53 am so getting there at 5:30 is fine. But soon it will be getting darker as sunrise gets later. Not sure what I’ll do but I think thru July this will work out ok.

Today the big missionis to go to Costco. I’m hoping it’s not insane like the one Sunday we tried. Perhaps the hoarders are done with their hoarding food and non food and it’ll be a regular Sunday which is usually pretty mellow especially since all the church christians are not there. It looks like our last trip/shopping there was June 8th. So that’s about right with trying to go every 6-8 weeks. Coffee is on sale so we’ll get enough for 2 months. I don’t need any meat so really it’s the basics like bread, cheese, coffee, butter, bagels ,cereal, and that kind of stuff.

I used some of the veggies from the farm stand to make a summer ratatouille. I used the zucchini, onions, our bell peppers and tomatoes. I served it over some cheese tortellini I had in the freezer. It was pretty tasty. So far on the Ooni pizza oven, I’ve made 22 pizzas. So I need 8 more and the Ooni will have paid for it self in how much take out pizza would have been for a comparable 12″ wood fired pizza.

the radishes were quite excellent and so were the cherry tomatoes.

This week Flylady is in the bedroom. Sunday is sheet day so I’m putting those in the washer and then we will line dry them. I am still loving linen sheets and don’t think I would ever go back to cotton. I may need to buy another set though as my winter ones are in the RV. I suppose I could just take them off for the winter but I’ll wait and see.

I have my monthly labs tomorrow. I’m not too concerned yet as it’s only been a month or so since I finished Velcade but who knows? right? My doctor is in Europe for 2 weeks so I won’t even be able to get my results although I may call down and talk to the nurse. Then I also am picking up my new glasses which is really not new since I’m using my old frames. I love the Lindberg frames and they are uber expensive so I thought since they are exactly what I want rimless and a lovely color I’d use them. I was planning on getting my other pair done too but that would add on another $500 to my bill. The one’s I’m picking up are partly covered by our vision plan but the second pair wouldn’t be . It would just be OP.

It has been so great not to have weekly appts at the infusion center. Not that it was that much trouble but it’s still nice. Plus, overall I’m feeling better with the drugs coming out of my system. So a win-win.

Here’s a fun blast from the past. I have this print on our living room wall.

And here’s Barclay in front of his 1967 VW( that I wish we had never sold)

This was probably 1980. That’s Jason our first child. We loved that dog and he lived to be 15 and was the sweetest dog ever. The print is from a photo and then my son had it done that way with California on the print.

Those were the good ole days:)

Happy 4th of July!

Posted in budgets, cooking, Credit cards, Flylady, pets, pets,cats,dogs,, Uncategorized, Walking by

There are some great articles over at the Washington Post about 4th of July and it’s meaning to Black Americans. Quite fascinating. Plus the whole connection of slavery tied to our independence day. Definitely worth reading. There’s also a couple of good articles on Republican assholes trying to block any Critical theory information being taught in schools. Suppressing knowledge ,it seems, is what Republicans do best. At least most of the Confederate statues have been removed from public lands. Having such constant reminders of slavery and oppression must have been so hard for so long for Black Americans.

anyway,I have the digital subscription and it’s totally worth the price, if you want the news that is informative and FACT based.

We did a nice walk this morning although there were a few clouds so it seemed quite muggy. Generally, our humidity is quite low so the heat isn’t quite as oppressive. Tomorrow is Monday, so it’s a no walk day but being a holiday, we may walk anyway.

This week is the Flylady kitchen zone. I’ll start on that later after breakfast. We’re getting so many eggs from the girls, I can’t give the eggs away quick enough. So this morning I scrambled a dozen but since there’s another 2 dozen in the fridge. It’s still overwhelming. Still, there’s nothing like your own fresh eggs.

I need to do July’s budget. Our water bill came in thru the roof. But hopefully next month will decrease a little. Then I had an unexpected dental copay that I thought I’d paid for. It’s these things that throw my budget. Plus, I had an unauthorized purchase on my Visa so I had to cancel that and I have 2 bills I know of on that card so now I have to call and put them on a different card till I get the replacement which they said would be 10 days or so. What a pain.

No appts this week which is so great!! Last week I had my eye doctor appt and that went well. No change with the macular pucker.

I’ve sold a few more Waldorf toys to the lady who bought the others on Ebay. She has young children and I’m glad they are going to where they will be loved. I also gave my son a whole box of Waldorf toys to give his boss who has a young child. I didn’t want to deal with listing any of those. So more stuff gone that was just in boxes. i don’t have tons of clutter anymore but there seems to always be misc stuff that needs to be dealt with like the Waldorf toys. I am keeping most of the little wood animals as I think they are cute and I do put them out. Right now I have out the 2 bunnies, the frog prince and another frog. Why frogs?? Because right now they are croaking ALL night long in our pond. It’s frog mating time and boy, can they be noisy.

It’s too hot to BBQ so I ‘m not sure what we’ll do for 4th of July celebration. Maybe a big salad.

I leave you with the kitties…

Guster ( Gus) on the left, next is Smudgerton, Bean, and cherry blossom also known as Hissy Princess.

Mamakat is still totally neurotic about yowling at the kitties. I’m ready to give her to the ASPCA.( almost).

Simple Sunday

Posted in budgets, California, Flylady, Myeloma, pets, simple foods, Uncategorized, Walking by

A beautiful day here in Northern California. Not too hot and the next week looks really nice. We had a nice walk in the park this morning too. We missed yesterday because it was my Dex morning and my brain just isn’t all there.

We plan on going to Costco on Tuesday and then Wednesday I go back down to Rocklin for my Velcade shot.

We haven’t shopped Costco in over a month so that helped the grocery budget for sure. This won’t be a huge shop but big enough with basics. Plus I need flour,sugar, rice and other staples.

We’ve been watering like crazy and our water bill shows it . It’s $132 this month and I suspect it will be higher next month since we filled the pool. Oh well, in the winter it’s PGE in the summer it’s Meadow vista Water company. (sigh)…

We had some tamales for dinner last night( frozen ones I bought) so dinner was easy and no prep except I made a fresh salsa. The tamales were a New Mexico brand and they were ok not great.

Tonight I may just throw another freezer meal in and call it good. This week on the menu is:

Panko shrimp with jasmine rice, crispy tofu, bag of asian veggies( Trader Joes).

homemade mac and cheese to use up a block of sharp cheddar I have,

OOni pizza on Friday,

Something with eggs like a frittata,

And I think I’ll look for a recipe for an instant pot meal.

I need to go to Target to get a few things like stainless steel wipes, a basket for the kitty toys which are growing exponentially, paper plates for the cat food, some command hooks for the trailer and ?

BTW, 3 kitties are now in the foster cage in my office room/ everything room. My daughter has done an amazing job catching them and working with them. The last one is still out with mama and has been difficult to catch. She’s going to try today. We are going to call for Ciri to get spayed at a regular vet office hopefully this week.

Flylady zone is the kitchen which for some reason I thought was last week. So I did a quick sweep thru and timed it at 20 minutes. Really I could do whatever zone I want when it’s convenient but I just like to stick to the routine. Flylady’s book and program really did change my life when I needed it. Unfortunately, when I watched her on youtube, I was mortified at the Christian iconography all around her. I have no idea what religion she is but I think if in the beginning I knew that I would have not read her books. Fortunately, as far as I know that is never mentioned in her book( I may have to check that but I’m pretty sure I would have picked up on it.) Just to be clear, I have no problem with her being religious, but seeing a dozen weird crosses behind her when she’s doing a vlog is too much for me. That’s just me!

I

Velcade, Round 5, shot #1

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, home stuff, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, pets, travel, Walking by

I went down to Rocklin yesterday and started the next round. It went fine except I couldn’t remember which side of my belly they gave the last one. I’m fairly bruised up on both sides so I’m not sure it really matters. Then, Barclay had come with me, we headed down to the RV camping world to look at a Coleman. I will share the outcome tomorrow. We’ve been pretty set on an R pod, but there are absolutely none available within 3 hours, so then we looked a a new model of Coleman that an SUV can pull. It’s nice.

Today is Dex day and yesterday I took the 12mg ,down from 16mg and today feel good. Not too dexed out. I even walked 2 rounds at the park and wasn’t short of breath. ( a dex side effect). So I’m very pleased with the results. He said I could even try 8mg. The reason being is that since I’m back in the normal range of things, Dex isn’t as crucial in bonding with Velcade. It’s still important just that I can do well with less. So I’m pretty happy with that.

Today is just a puttering around day. I watered my plants, and ‘m cooking a chicken in the oven for tonight. I plan on making a potato salad and we still have some lovely asparagus from Costco. I wanted to try a new way of baking tofu too I read about in the NYT. You wrap the tofu in a paper towel then microwave it and it removes the moisture. Then you bake with tamari and oil. It’s worth a try. I usually just press it with a cast iron top.

We are all excited to have a cat show up near our barn. It is getting friendlier. We checked all the missing cats on our neighborhood watch but nothing showed up. She’s( we think it’s a she) has been her @ 10 days.

Not the best photo, but she’s cute and is now sitting inside the barn door. My son , who is NOT, a big animal person has really taken this on. First he named her Sgt Pepper, which I liked, then he didn’t think it fit her so now she’s Siri. I do hope she sticks around as we could really use a barn cat.

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, home stuff, pets, Uncategorized, Walking by

A nice walk in the park @ 6am so not dark but predawn. The jerk was still there but then left @ 6:15 so we had the path to ourselves. Nice!! The Easter christians were there for their annual sunrise thing but we avoided them.

The first iris are blooming now and so is the white camellia tree.

When we moved here almost 26 years ago there wasn’t much salvageable. But there were 3 camellia bushes. These were most likely heirloom from the 50’s. The only one to survive is this white one which is now more of a tree.

Under the camellia tree is buried Ollie and Finwe. Gosh, I still miss them everyday!!

This week is the kitchen zone. Because of all the painting and moving things, I don’t need to wipe a lot of shelves. Plus, I’ve been keeping up on some things I normally do in the K zone week, like the windows. It shouldn’t take too long to do.

For Easter/ Spring dinner( we don’t celebrate Easter), I’m making Southern Fried tofu which is just like it sounds. Like fried chicken but tofu. I dip the tofu( be sure it is pressed for a few hours) in an egg wash then coat with a blend of parmesan and bread crumbs.Then I fry. I serve it with a homemade tartar sauce made up of mayo,green olives, parsley and stone ground mustard. I usually make potato salad but I think I’ll do macaroni today.

The painting commences today and hopefully we will be done till we tackle the bedroom which was,as I said previously, kind of a mistake to start. Now we will need to finish it. That’s okay we’ll do it soon. I guess I didn’t realize the touch ups I was doing were so dramatically different even though it’s the same paint. It’ll look fresh and bright when it’s done.

Randomness…

Posted in Blood test, cooking, pets, Uncategorized, Walking by

6D9F544E-60C3-4525-B87C-E2E8144E42F1.jpeg

164431D6-CB25-456E-895E-5F4D51964F6E.jpeg

762ED453-9833-4F15-8630-112E49A8A859.jpeg

A bunch of random photos.

 

The top is the sourdough bread that came out PERFECT!

Next are my wood friends. These, of course, were my children’s toys but I have kept most of the Waldorf toys. I did pass on the Waldorf dolls and silks as over time they will deteriorate and so I did that quite a few years ago now.

Then my newest Catherine Holm. It’s all rusty on the inside but it’s for water on the woodstove and It only was $25.00. I’m not sure about the darker green but for what it is it’s fine.

We just got back from our walk and got there a little earlier and then dog walker showed up and as we were leaving the two women that are friends and SHOULD’NT be walking together. It really bugs me as they drive here to walk and they really shouldn’t be there but even more so they shouldn’t be waking together as they are not family. Oh well. :(:<<<

Today is just some housekeeping chores and maybe some gardening.

The zone if you follow is the bathroom. If you want to follow Flylady, you could go thru your shampoos etc and get rid of old stuff or stuff you’re not using. We keep ours to a minimum. Plus we have the smallest bathroom possible.

B has his labs today and then another video conference about his lowering Hemoglobins. A little concerning.

I’m missing Finnie and Ollie.

 

 

Another sad day…

Posted in Blood test, bread, pets, pets,cats,dogs,, Uncategorized by

We lost Finnie yesterday.

F91687D3-1467-493B-9FCB-E8FEFEE6F3D6.jpeg

 

4BC83E01-6F8F-4B89-835A-B8DAA105BC0A.jpegAlmost a month exactly from when Ollie died. Finnie seemed to be doing okay. We took him to the vet and he did a round of antibiotics but over this last week he got worse. We’re not really sure what it was but he was acting very weird and then confused and not very aware of things. So we called the vet and he went to kitty heaven. It’s been a hard last 9 months with both dogs and now both our cats. The cats were 17 years old and were adopted together so maybe they were so bonded or something. Anyway, it’s lonely in the morning without them yowling for cream and food. I’m sure we will get some kitties down the road but not for a while yet.

I think pets teach us so much about life and death. Plus they are just present. A lot to be learned from that alone.

The weather is still blah. Not sunny not rainy. Just grey. We walked this morning and only the one other dog walker was there so that was nice.

My labs came in and it’s okay. My kappa light chains went to 110mg/L so an 18 point increase and Lambda went down to 12mg/L. Looking back over my labs since 2015 my Lambda never did go out of normal range but that’s because my myeloma is kappa. So now the ratio is up to 9.23mg/L  So going up.

I’m planning to not go down to Sac at the end of the month but the assistant said we could do a video conference so that’s what I’ll do.  Really nothing different is going to be said until he’s ready for me to start treatment.  Sigh:(

I’m going to make some cookies today and then move some pantry stuff. My order of flour should be showing up today. That’s a good thing as I’m starting a Tartine bread leaven and will need the flour tomorrow.