That was a suggestion at dinner last night by a friend of ours while discussing my upcoming heart cath today. Why can't they just run vinegar or lime-away or something through the veins to clean them out like I do with my Mr. Coffee? Ok, we've put it out there so go ahead universe, make it so!
Leaving in a few minutes to get the heart cath done and hope they can fix me. I'll report back with the details. In the meantime, take care of yourselves!!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Living in Swiss Cheese
As promised, here is a picture of my "living room".
Obviously there is no living taking place in here except maybe for the neighbor's cat, David, who sneaks in through the doggie door at night and sleeps on the couch. Sure, HE gets to sit on my couch!!
I'm told the new sink and cooktop is going in this week and two more cabinets will be finished in a few days so I will be able to start moving things out of the living room. Sofa, here I come!!
And on a really cool note, we figured granite on our kitchen island was not going to be an option because of the price. BUT!!! We saw an article in our little local paper talking about this family owned business (Chippewa Stone in Medina, Ohio - and they are AWESOME!!) that sells granite and loves helping people achieve their decorating and remodeling goals. So, we decided to go check em out and these folks couldn't have been nicer. We walked in and my first words were, "Hi, we would like granite for our kitchen, but we're poor." And instead of them tossing us out on our ears, they took us through their warehouse and we looked at probably 200 huge pieces of granite.
When I reiterated that money was a big issue, she helped us find a remnant piece that is a perfect match for what we want. So on a whim, I asked her to price it for us, not holding my breath since all the other places quoted between $1400.00 and $1800.00 which is NOT in our budget range. Well, it ended up being less than half of what we expected. And, they would even install it! Not even sex has ever excited me this much!! (Ok, that's an over-statement)
Obviously there is no living taking place in here except maybe for the neighbor's cat, David, who sneaks in through the doggie door at night and sleeps on the couch. Sure, HE gets to sit on my couch!!
I'm told the new sink and cooktop is going in this week and two more cabinets will be finished in a few days so I will be able to start moving things out of the living room. Sofa, here I come!!
And on a really cool note, we figured granite on our kitchen island was not going to be an option because of the price. BUT!!! We saw an article in our little local paper talking about this family owned business (Chippewa Stone in Medina, Ohio - and they are AWESOME!!) that sells granite and loves helping people achieve their decorating and remodeling goals. So, we decided to go check em out and these folks couldn't have been nicer. We walked in and my first words were, "Hi, we would like granite for our kitchen, but we're poor." And instead of them tossing us out on our ears, they took us through their warehouse and we looked at probably 200 huge pieces of granite.
When I reiterated that money was a big issue, she helped us find a remnant piece that is a perfect match for what we want. So on a whim, I asked her to price it for us, not holding my breath since all the other places quoted between $1400.00 and $1800.00 which is NOT in our budget range. Well, it ended up being less than half of what we expected. And, they would even install it! Not even sex has ever excited me this much!! (Ok, that's an over-statement)
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Boob pancakes day!!
So, as a continuation of my last post on the merits of staying in touch with your health, today is that wonderful day we (older) women look forward to each year. You know, the one where you voluntarily walk into a room that emits radiation and passively stand there while some woman (with a sadistic look in her eye and an evil grin) sweetly tells you to bare it all and walk up and lay your boob on a cold plate. She then applies pressure to a footplate, (still grinning) and lowers another cold plate on top of your boob and begins to, for lack of a better term, smoosh your breast until it resembles a pancake. At the same time, Cruella tells you to "stand a little sideways, put your arm up here, bend back a little and don't move". Uh huh.
She then leaves the room so you are the only one who gets to reap the benefits of radiation exposure and leaves you standing there while you hear the machine you are hopelessly pinned to humming happily along. If you are the least bit claustrophobic like me, trust me, this experience is delightful.
And the best part is, you get to do it on the other side too!! Woo-hoo!!
Ok, I'm just funnin with ya. Seriously, while only slightly uncomfortable, it takes less than 5 minutes and it's the absolute best way (along with feeling yourself up) to protect yourself against breast cancer. So DON'T PUT IT OFF!! Make the damned appointment, get it done and take care of yourself!!
She then leaves the room so you are the only one who gets to reap the benefits of radiation exposure and leaves you standing there while you hear the machine you are hopelessly pinned to humming happily along. If you are the least bit claustrophobic like me, trust me, this experience is delightful.
And the best part is, you get to do it on the other side too!! Woo-hoo!!
Ok, I'm just funnin with ya. Seriously, while only slightly uncomfortable, it takes less than 5 minutes and it's the absolute best way (along with feeling yourself up) to protect yourself against breast cancer. So DON'T PUT IT OFF!! Make the damned appointment, get it done and take care of yourself!!
Monday, October 10, 2011
I have nitro glycerin and know how to use it!!
I'm carrying nitro glycerin tablets in my purse now. Evidently, my family history and lifestyle has finally caught up with me and now I have a heart blockage. It started several months ago when I realized I was putting off taking a shower in our new shower (remember, we're remodeling) because just wiping it down afterward was wearing me out and making me short of breath. (Good thing we have a bathtub too!!) Also noticed other minor activities like pulling weeds or carrying a bag out to the trash just about did me in.
Finally ended up going to the doc who of course ordered a stress test which I proceeded to flunk with my usual flare. I was bragging when I made it through the whole 6 minutes like they wanted and got the heart rate up to 160 like they wanted and then scared the hell out of them when the heart rate and blood pressure wouldn't come back down.....for a very long time.
So now I have nitro in my purse (just in case) and I'm going to a cardiologist this week and I"m told a heart cath is in my near future. I actually had one of those about 4 years ago (my first clue that I wasn't paying attention) so I know the test is not bad. I'm just hoping they can fix whatever's wrong while they're in there lookin around so I don't have to have something more involved.
The worst part of all this is feeling fragile and breakable. I'm used to just plowing through problems and this one just doesn't work that way. So consider this a piece of advice from This Ole Broad; If you don't feel right, there's a reason for it and you need to go get it fixed before it's beyond fixing. Ignoring the problem is the WORST thing you can do. I'll report back later. Have a fabulous week!!
Finally ended up going to the doc who of course ordered a stress test which I proceeded to flunk with my usual flare. I was bragging when I made it through the whole 6 minutes like they wanted and got the heart rate up to 160 like they wanted and then scared the hell out of them when the heart rate and blood pressure wouldn't come back down.....for a very long time.
So now I have nitro in my purse (just in case) and I'm going to a cardiologist this week and I"m told a heart cath is in my near future. I actually had one of those about 4 years ago (my first clue that I wasn't paying attention) so I know the test is not bad. I'm just hoping they can fix whatever's wrong while they're in there lookin around so I don't have to have something more involved.
The worst part of all this is feeling fragile and breakable. I'm used to just plowing through problems and this one just doesn't work that way. So consider this a piece of advice from This Ole Broad; If you don't feel right, there's a reason for it and you need to go get it fixed before it's beyond fixing. Ignoring the problem is the WORST thing you can do. I'll report back later. Have a fabulous week!!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
"I'm living in swiss cheese with a door"....
So, about 15 years ago, Bob and I started talking about remodeling our house. It's a 60 year-old farm house that is probably the worst floor-plan ever designed. No, scratch that. It IS the worst floor-plan ever designed. I'm not exaggerating. I don't even have a front door. (Pause to let that fact sink in) I have a door off the screened-in side porch that goes directly into the kitchen. THAT's my front door.
The kitchen is a room with no wall space. One wall has the stairs to the upstairs; one wall has a big opening into the livingroom; one wall has a door to the basement; and one wall had a tiny (and our only) bathroom. By tiny, I mean 3x5. (Pause again so you can get a mental picture) This is what we had been living with for years.
We talked and talked about how to change this place into a liveable environment and Bob is a handy man extraordinaire, so much so that our friends say there should be a reality show called, "You're not Bob" because if he was on survivor, he'd have solar heat and running water in the first 24 hours. People would get voted off because, well, "You're not Bob".
But then he got the big C. Yep, Non-hodgkins Lymphoma. (That ongoing ordeal, I'll save for other posts) For now, suffice to say this nasty cancer has been coming back about every two years, each time requiring another 6 month long round of treatment and laying my hubby flat for several months.
So here we are, 15 years and 9 rounds of chemotherapy later and my energizer bunny is still going. Albeit slower and not quite as strong, but still going. Thank goodness. But naturally, this stalled the remodeling job....Big Time!
The other roadblock was and still is money. Once we decided what needed to be done, it occurred to us that we couldn't afford it. At least not all at once. So I got the brilliant idea (yes, I'm being facetious) to do it as time and health allowed. A little at a time. "Piece-meal it." I said. How bad could that be? In hindsight, hahahahahahahahahahaha.
So the project began two years ago and to date, the only place I have to sit down (literally) is my side of the bed or in the bathtub. I watch TV in bed, I eat my meals in bed, I read my mail in bed, and now that the weather is changing toward winter, I won't even have my patio as an escape. What was only supposed to be a minor re-do of the kitchen has exploded into a re-do of the entire house. Granted, the entire house is basically only 4 rooms on the first floor but when all four rooms are non-functional, it's beyond description. In order to make the kitchen bigger, we had to remove the bathroom. In order to create a new bathroom, we had to remove a walk-in closet and move a wall which made the bedroom smaller which meant we had to get rid of our king-sized bed. In order to work on the kitchen, everything in the kitchen had to be moved into the living room. I will post some pictures soon. You have to see it to believe it. Whenever one of us trips over a tool or stubs their toe on a pile of wood, we repeat our mantra.....IT'S GONNA BE GREAT!
I'm being told the project will be done by Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm barely holding on to my sanity!
The kitchen is a room with no wall space. One wall has the stairs to the upstairs; one wall has a big opening into the livingroom; one wall has a door to the basement; and one wall had a tiny (and our only) bathroom. By tiny, I mean 3x5. (Pause again so you can get a mental picture) This is what we had been living with for years.
We talked and talked about how to change this place into a liveable environment and Bob is a handy man extraordinaire, so much so that our friends say there should be a reality show called, "You're not Bob" because if he was on survivor, he'd have solar heat and running water in the first 24 hours. People would get voted off because, well, "You're not Bob".
But then he got the big C. Yep, Non-hodgkins Lymphoma. (That ongoing ordeal, I'll save for other posts) For now, suffice to say this nasty cancer has been coming back about every two years, each time requiring another 6 month long round of treatment and laying my hubby flat for several months.
So here we are, 15 years and 9 rounds of chemotherapy later and my energizer bunny is still going. Albeit slower and not quite as strong, but still going. Thank goodness. But naturally, this stalled the remodeling job....Big Time!
The other roadblock was and still is money. Once we decided what needed to be done, it occurred to us that we couldn't afford it. At least not all at once. So I got the brilliant idea (yes, I'm being facetious) to do it as time and health allowed. A little at a time. "Piece-meal it." I said. How bad could that be? In hindsight, hahahahahahahahahahaha.
So the project began two years ago and to date, the only place I have to sit down (literally) is my side of the bed or in the bathtub. I watch TV in bed, I eat my meals in bed, I read my mail in bed, and now that the weather is changing toward winter, I won't even have my patio as an escape. What was only supposed to be a minor re-do of the kitchen has exploded into a re-do of the entire house. Granted, the entire house is basically only 4 rooms on the first floor but when all four rooms are non-functional, it's beyond description. In order to make the kitchen bigger, we had to remove the bathroom. In order to create a new bathroom, we had to remove a walk-in closet and move a wall which made the bedroom smaller which meant we had to get rid of our king-sized bed. In order to work on the kitchen, everything in the kitchen had to be moved into the living room. I will post some pictures soon. You have to see it to believe it. Whenever one of us trips over a tool or stubs their toe on a pile of wood, we repeat our mantra.....IT'S GONNA BE GREAT!
I'm being told the project will be done by Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm barely holding on to my sanity!
Friday, September 23, 2011
My daughter says she's an atheist!.....continued
Decided I have more to say on this topic. That is, the topic of God, no God. I said earlier that I call myself a Christian because I try to follow the teachings of Jesus, which is true, but it goes much farther than that.
Last week, I had a really fun and interesting conversation over dinner with friends on this very subject. One of these friends is an ordained minister who I consider my spiritual guide and her husband is also one of the most gentle and deeply spiritual people I know. I was asking how they logically (or rather scientifically) approach the subject of atheism with people since they are coming from a faith-based perspective. The whole conversation was great, but the sentence that struck me most was, "Scientifically, you can't come to an objective conclusion on an experiment when you're a PART of the experiment". To me, that's kind of like can't see beyond our cosmic horizon but you know something else is out there. (Check out http://kottke.org/09/12/the-known-universe)
Anyway, where I guess I'm going with all this is, I can't put a face or a name or a personality to my God, but in MY cosmic universe, there IS a creator who is interactive and still creating to this day and we are creating our universe along with that creator and that's the piece of the puzzle that parts ways, I think, with conventional or traditional Christianity. My Christianity is not based on pain and suffering or judgement or guilt or fear. Mine is based on the message of Jesus who I believe was the most highly evolved being.....EVER and His message was 'love one another'. We are not living for "some day". We are living and creating now and we need to be In The Moment and creating a world of love and acceptance by our actions and by the words we say. I am not a bystander of my beliefs. I am a part of the experiment.
Last week, I had a really fun and interesting conversation over dinner with friends on this very subject. One of these friends is an ordained minister who I consider my spiritual guide and her husband is also one of the most gentle and deeply spiritual people I know. I was asking how they logically (or rather scientifically) approach the subject of atheism with people since they are coming from a faith-based perspective. The whole conversation was great, but the sentence that struck me most was, "Scientifically, you can't come to an objective conclusion on an experiment when you're a PART of the experiment". To me, that's kind of like can't see beyond our cosmic horizon but you know something else is out there. (Check out http://kottke.org/09/12/the-known-universe)
Anyway, where I guess I'm going with all this is, I can't put a face or a name or a personality to my God, but in MY cosmic universe, there IS a creator who is interactive and still creating to this day and we are creating our universe along with that creator and that's the piece of the puzzle that parts ways, I think, with conventional or traditional Christianity. My Christianity is not based on pain and suffering or judgement or guilt or fear. Mine is based on the message of Jesus who I believe was the most highly evolved being.....EVER and His message was 'love one another'. We are not living for "some day". We are living and creating now and we need to be In The Moment and creating a world of love and acceptance by our actions and by the words we say. I am not a bystander of my beliefs. I am a part of the experiment.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
My daughter says she's an atheist!
So, I'm talking to my daughter this morning and she gets on my case about not posting on my blog more often. I tell her I don't have too much on my mind lately and she says, "Why don't you post something about your crushing disappointment that I'm an athiest?" Without feeling the least bit compelled to discuss the theological or philosophical ramifications of her beliefs, I laugh because I'm perfectly ok with her being an athiest, for a few reasons.
First, I know that between the time I was her age and the age I am now, (and trust me, I have reached old fart status), I changed my mind on my beliefs at least a dozen times.
Then, I think it doesn't really matter what you believe or don't believe because what's going to happen is going to happen regardless. Jen and I have talked dozens of times on our disdain for those who profess to KNOW the answers when really, the only honest answer is "I DON'T KNOW". And we're ok with that answer because it's truth.
And then finally, I know that Jen is one of the best people I've ever known and is making the universe a better place every day. I can only believe that powerful energy will continue through the universe forever and I often enjoy meditating on who will be touched by that positive energy and how it will impact the universe.
So, Jen and I disagree on the subject of God or no God. I am convinced in my heart that a creator of some type was responsible for creating all this and creation continues today. That's what my intuition (gut) tells me based on my years of study and experience but scientifically, the truth is I don't know. And the other truth is, I either will or won't know eventually. Not something to lose sleep over in my opinion. What matters to me and what makes me call myself a Christian is not the life-after-death part or the guilt and judgement stuff. I call myself a Christian because I try to follow the teachings of Jesus each and every day. Everything he taught was about how we should treat each other. He was all about love and kindness and acceptance and the world is sorely lacking in those areas. It's even more important now to be an example of peace. I've decided to bring back the peace symbol of the 60's. I loved it then and I love it now and that little gesture speaks volumes. Instead of giving the finger, try giving the peace sign instead. I promise you'll feel better doing the later. Here's something to keep in mind for every day life. This is kind of my mission statement.
Go forth into the world and be of good courage;
Hold fast to that which is good;
Render to no person evil for evil;
Strengthen the faint-hearted;
Support the weak;
Help the afflicted;
Honor all people.
(and here's the rest of it for us Christians)
Love and serve God rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
First, I know that between the time I was her age and the age I am now, (and trust me, I have reached old fart status), I changed my mind on my beliefs at least a dozen times.
Then, I think it doesn't really matter what you believe or don't believe because what's going to happen is going to happen regardless. Jen and I have talked dozens of times on our disdain for those who profess to KNOW the answers when really, the only honest answer is "I DON'T KNOW". And we're ok with that answer because it's truth.
And then finally, I know that Jen is one of the best people I've ever known and is making the universe a better place every day. I can only believe that powerful energy will continue through the universe forever and I often enjoy meditating on who will be touched by that positive energy and how it will impact the universe.
So, Jen and I disagree on the subject of God or no God. I am convinced in my heart that a creator of some type was responsible for creating all this and creation continues today. That's what my intuition (gut) tells me based on my years of study and experience but scientifically, the truth is I don't know. And the other truth is, I either will or won't know eventually. Not something to lose sleep over in my opinion. What matters to me and what makes me call myself a Christian is not the life-after-death part or the guilt and judgement stuff. I call myself a Christian because I try to follow the teachings of Jesus each and every day. Everything he taught was about how we should treat each other. He was all about love and kindness and acceptance and the world is sorely lacking in those areas. It's even more important now to be an example of peace. I've decided to bring back the peace symbol of the 60's. I loved it then and I love it now and that little gesture speaks volumes. Instead of giving the finger, try giving the peace sign instead. I promise you'll feel better doing the later. Here's something to keep in mind for every day life. This is kind of my mission statement.
Go forth into the world and be of good courage;
Hold fast to that which is good;
Render to no person evil for evil;
Strengthen the faint-hearted;
Support the weak;
Help the afflicted;
Honor all people.
(and here's the rest of it for us Christians)
Love and serve God rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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