Tag Archives: knitting

Almost back to normal

Posted in California, cancer, home stuff, meal planning, swimming, travel by

I am feeling much better and actually plan to go swimming today. The cold was mostly in my sinuses and didn’t go into a chest thing. I’m grateful for that. My eyes bothered me because they were watering so much but that’s been happening anyway and I think it’s a dex side effect. Still, I’m glad it was all relatively short-lived.

Tomorrow I have my Velcade but won’t be taking dex. I figure if I do 2 rounds of Velcade and my numbers are increasing I’ll need to add dex back in but at least for 2 months I’ll get a break. I guess it’s the luck of the draw.

Yesterday, I picked up my yarn at Joannes and then went to Trader Joe’s. I wanted some new cotton yarn for my millionth washcloth.:) Really, I just like knitting as it is meditative.

Meals have just been whatever is easiest to put together. I do plan on a BBQ tonight because I have a tri-tip from TJ’s to use. It’s one of the ones that comes all seasoned. I have a veggie burger for B and I’ll make a salad to go with it all. At TJ’s I picked up a few ready frozen meals for camping. One is the gnocchi cacio de pepe. That should be tasty. I might do a soup night and maybe a spaghetti night. We do keep it pretty simple when we’re camping. We plan on leaving later on Monday as we’re not sure if all the campgrounds are cracking down on early arrivals. We usually get there at 12:30 and we’ve always been allowed access but after New Brighton, we figure if we get there @ 1:30 then we’ll know. Either they’ll let us in or say no it’s 2pm. I’m guessing that the early arrivals were abused by people and now it’s something they have to deal with. Who knows?

In other news, we’ve had zero luck finding a plumber. I think because it’s such a small job it’s not worth their time. We’re still checking and I guess maybe B will have to watch some YouTube plumbing videos. 🙂

a new adventure

Posted in cooking, freezer cooking by

I asked on the Facebook no buy club in our area if anyone had a pressure canner they weren’t using anymore. I specifically said a Presto or All American. I had a nice lady respond with this:

It’s not the one I wanted but all the parts are there and it hadn’t been used. There is one chip in the handle but that’s all. I gave her a strawberry jam and the blackberry. I said I’d drop off some pickles and salsa too.

So yesterday after swimming, I did the first recommended thing which is to add a quart of water and some vinegar and get it up to 5lbs of pressure. I didn’t really know what to expect and didn’t realize the clicking( when the lb gauge is working) was the sound I supposed to hear and that is supposed to go 1-4 times a minute. So I learned something from that. Today I will try the 10lb gauge( this is what they recommend doing) and let it come up to pressure. Because this one doesn’t have the pressure gauge dial (that’s when you can see the pressure amount)you have to wait at least 1/2 hour for it to come off pressure. So today I’m making the chicken stock, and tomorrow or even later will try pressure canning it. The value in doing this is that it is then shelf stable. I’m still undecided if this is really something I want to do but with this free one I can experiment some and then if I want to buy the Presto on with the gauge dial I will next year.

Someone asked about my freezer containers. So here’s the one I do enchiladas, lasagna, casserole type things in.

Here’s the one for soups, stews etc. that’s minestrone from the other night.

This is the Ball recipe I’m going to use.

I also knitted 2 more dish cloths.

The small one is just a coaster size for a glass or wine glass. I find knitting very relaxing although I’ll never be the knitter my sister was. She did all kinds of things,sweaters, hats, although I don’t think she ever gave me one 😦

Well, I’m off to check on my chicken stock and batch cook some lasagnas.

Weekend stuff

Posted in Bone marrow transplant, California, cancer, Flylady, Uncategorized by

We had another big earthquake in California last night. We didn’t feel it here but some people in Sacramento did.  7.1 is a big quake. Scientists are saying there could be another within the week or at the least aftershocks.  We have an emergency kit in place and directions. Usually, up here it’s fires but who knows?

Mother Earth is not happy!!

Out weather continues to be quite lovely with yesterday being a little warm at 94 degrees.

I’ve been going out to the pool and floating and it’s been nice. My daughter has done a great job keeping the pool crystal clear as B can’t do it yet. Maybe by the end of summer, he’ll be able to take over.

Today, I’m going to the gym and then straight home. Not sure what I’ll do later. I started doing some knitting again and it’s a good meditative thing to do.

Next week we have 3 appts for B including the MRI for his leg.

The doctor is reducing one of his anti-rejection drugs so that’s like 6 fewer pills a day and a few others. He will be of the one anti-rejection drug completely next week. That’s a good thing!!

I need to meal plan for the week and I’d like to use a bunch of things from the freezer and do a clean out. I made homemade pizza last night and it was perfecto!! I did use my instant pot yesterday for hardboiled eggs. It is an easy way to make them for sure.

I’m in the kitchen zone next week, so I’ll start that Sunday as it is my biggest zone.