So...whats for dinner?

Carol It sounds as though things are working out for the best in this difficult situation. I hope that my daughter stands up for me as you have for your Mother. You seem like a wonderful daughter.

Sandy That looks like the waterfront in Chicago. My daughter spent the best six years of her life obtaining three BS degrees from Depaul in Chicago and Auburn in Alabama (you read that correctly) before getting her Masters as an NP in Boston. Where did you fly in or out of?

For dinner Chipotle Seitan Chili from Hello Fresh

Making it but going out to dinner with a bunch of people and a Birthday Girl and tomorrow seeing more people.

Just catching up. Know I will miss some of you but I had pages to read....

I agree with Special, I could lick the screen looking at the bread Susan. You are a wonderment to me with all you are doing....Like a whirling dervish you must be.....

Carole, I am so sorry you are joining the "Dad" sub group with your Mom now....Sounds like her rehab placement is much like the one my Dad was in. I sometimes wish he could have stayed there, but the 3000 a month price tag difference made us try assisted living. Yesterday he told me it was PRISON.....and I asked him if he liked it better across the way (the Nursing home) and he wouldn't tell me. It will be a month on April 3....

Susan, I hope your Dad does well. I understand completely about your fears. Even with my dad, I worry something will go wrong.

I have completely lost my appetite with whatever this is, and nothing is sitting well, so I am doing Banana's, applesauce toast.....We have scrapped plans for Easter dinner as I don't think I could stand cooking smells. and he does not want me sharing my germs with him. PA thought it was related to an allergy attack I had Monday, but I was running a temp and congested/cough when I saw her, so I got 40 MG Pred 5X and Nasonex and Tessalon Pearl. Then my temp spiked 100.5 and I slept for 2 days. Now I will probably cough till mother's day.....

ChiSandy---oh my goodness, your food pics are just divine and I hope you have the best time.

Luv, my white star magnolia had just budded out and we got down to 29 the night I was so sick and in the morning, the little buds were drooping downward. But the stupid bush I planted 4 years ago and had never b loomed (was supposed to be forsythia) that I have been threatening every year with pulling it out if didn't get busy, was blooming when I backed out of the driveway----it is a forsythia.....

I saw a funny church Marqee on Facebook for Easter---it said Duct tape will mend many things but on Good Friday three nails fixed it all.

Oh Red I hope that you feel better The steroid should help. 100.5 is scary

Nance, about 5 years ago, after my mom had been in the nursing home during rehab for her broken hip, when they said she could go home she asked me if I thought she could make it on the outside......Her male nurse and I about wet our pants laughing on that one. I don't know why they say that. I ran into a fishing buddy of my dads at the RX, his 99 years young mom went to a nursing home in Dec. and she tells him she's in prison. But her room mate convinced her to go to the manicure on day and he told me its the first time in her life she has had finger nail polish on and she can't stop waving her hands at him when goes to see her. (she has all her mental skills, just physically too weak )

Nance, set the table with a couple of extra plates! Are you having guests for Easter dinner?

I cancelled a reservation for dinner at our club tonight. I was planning to have my complimentary birthday meal but I cancelled after spending a day taking o/c meds for a spring head cold/congestion attack. Instead we're ordering take out from Chili's which dh will go and pick up. We're both having "craft" burgers.

Red and Nance, I wish we lived close enough to get together and form a parental support club!

Redheaded love the image of the friend's mother waving her fingertips at him/ (My next-door neighbor, who's only 91, always twits me about my toenail polish, and insists that I attend to my "littlest piggie"--a little toe with a nail about the size of a chipmunk's pupil)

Barbecue(d) ribs in the slow cooker for dinner tomorrow night. Maybe an omelet and sossiges for brunch, but I promise nothing.

Big kitchen move is complete. Still have some boxes to unpack, but a good start to be sure. At least they can sauté some chicken breasts, make pasta, and steam some broccoli. My living room is full of the boxes that the professional moves will deal with tomorrow. This is what I found when I went downstairs just a moment ago. These cats are a bit concerned, guarding their boxes, and creating their own cat trees.

They will move Monday night. My amusements will leave with them. But get this!!! I have been asked to sit with them at their new house on Tuesday so that they don't feel abandoned. :-)

*susan*

Baking an uncured smoked ham, it is not precooked so will bake it. Traditional scalloped potatoes, baked asparagus drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. I am making a pineapple chutney, son will slice the pineapple.

Husband and I totally ignored Easter Sunday. In fact, Mr 02143 was shocked that his favorite bakery was closed today with an Easter sign on the door. The ACE hardware was also closed so he ended up doing two Home Depot runs. Sunday "brunch" was simple scrambled eggs with an English muffin. Dinner was the rest of the lamb stew with some Amish egg noodles. Darn, I love good egg noodles. I love them with butter and some sea salt. Since I am on day 5 of the Xeloda, the stomach is headed South and I was unable too much of the tomato. I was able to eat the noodles, however. The kids headed to his family's Easter dinner. Very few of them actually go to church, but they celebrate Easter every year at his grandmother's house. Sounds like this year a few items were actually made in house! Usually they get a pre-packaged supermarket "Dinner in a Box."

Mr. 02143 did a ton of work at the house today, finishing a lot of the punch list items so the kids can start their new life tomorrow. Movers arrive at 8am tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night the cats will ride in their carriers, and the four of them will be gone. I will love having half of my pantry storage space back. I will totally miss hearing about their daily lives in such detail.

Hope everyone enjoyed their special Easter meals!

*susan*

Got a call about 5 this afternoon. Dad was vomiting dark blood and was taken to the ER. He has a gastric bleed and is going to be in icu for a while. He is doing better and we will go see him tomorrow after my doctors appointment. One step forward two steps back . . .

Oh Nance, thinking about you and your dad. Nothing is easy on this path....

Susan, of course the move has to be bittersweet....but I do hope all goes smoothly tomorrow.

We ventured into Dorchester for "Easter Dinner", and to enjoy the lovely decor that DS2 and DGF have completed in their new condo. It is open, yet homey, elegantly understated, yet punctuated with meaningful pieces and family pix (including our one ! wedding photo as part of a gallery on the staircase landing to the roofdeck). They love it their space and so do we. DGF was working hard making the dinner... Baked chicken breasts with panko and parmesan with a cheese sauce, a mashed potato casserole, roasted carrots (courtesy of DS2...I so loved watching him cook), and the garden salad and vinaigrette I brought. Our table place markers were pretty bags of our favorite candies....mine, pastel M+Ms, DH's gummy worms, DS2's jelly beans, and DGF's starburst. I'm very happy that DS2 remembers such important personal facts about his parents! LOL

After our early dinner we took the pooch for a good long walk along the harborside...then back for tasty blueberry cobbler with ice cream. Oh my.....we drove home with very full tummies!

Hsant, thanks for that meyer lemon recipe. It looks delightful! The banana bread is made Hawaiian with the addition of pineapple, walnuts, coconut. Also recommended is maraschino cherries, but I just like them on ice cream. It is a very moist and tasty bread.

Bedo, best wishes with your surgery, and recovery! I'll be paying close attention since I may be headed in that direction when I can no longer nurse along my ailing left knee. Good luck

Nance, praying for your father.

Susan, it will be good to get back to your own life but I know you will miss the kids too. We've had my DD 2x, a nephew, and a Niece with her 2 kids live with us. The shortest stay was 1 year. LOL

Eric, sometimes not knowing everything about your DD exploits in college is a very good thing. LOL

Bedo, I hope your surgery goes well and you heal fast and strong. I'm always glad when the surgery is over its just the waiting. LOL

Lacey the remembering of the favorite candy was a sweet (no pun intended) touch. Kind of a little hug.

Guinofrm, that sounds like a lovely meal.

I had just a bean casserole, Ham, and roasted baby potatoes with my DD2 and DGD1. She looked adorable in her dressy clothes. After dinner we changed her into comfy clothes. My DD got all the pictures on her camera in the good clothes. By the time i got my pic she didn't want to pose but I'll share this one anyway. LOL.

Much love to all.

((Nancy))--hope the ICU can put your dad on the mend.

No dinner last night--instead after a Big Bus sightseeing tour we went to late aft. tea at the Lanesborough. Tea sandwiches (incl. salmon & caviar and truffled egg salad, pastries, scones, hot cross buns, a tea list longer than some wine lists--and of course champagne):

Next, the teapot--they even had a "cozy" for the handle!

Check out the detail on the spout!

Here are a couple of shots of the display in the lobby (they sent us home with some little milk-chocolate-truffle eggs):

Of course, E.T. phoned home, but from her cell, not from:

Too tired to eat afterward--packed for a 5:30 am departure to London City Airport for our flight to Geneva. But about 3 am I was awakened by a rumbling I could hear through my earplugs, with the bed shaking. (No, not "Magic Fingers"). Turns out we were being visited by Storm (eventually "Hurricane") Katie. Nonetheless, Swissair's site assured me that all flights out of London City were on time. Got there, and my Paris traveling buddy was denied a boarding pass because her passport expires in 3 weeks (which is 2 weeks after the end of the trip). She was able to enter the UK, but neither Switzerland nor any mainland EU country--which require that a passport be valid for at least 90 days after border crossing. Nobody had warned her--neither the Bar Assn nor airline (both online and at check-in at O'Hare). Probably didn't raise a red flag with United since she booked back in Nov with six months left on her passport. (Shouldn't passport expriry dates carry a warning to renew 90 days before that)? She was told that unless the US Embassy could overnight her an expedited new passport, her only options were either to stay in the UK up till the passport's expiration date, or go back home now. She went back into the city, only to find the US (!!!) Embassy closed for the Easter Monday bank holiday. Rather than stay in London and try again tomorrow, perhaps salvaging 2/3 of the CLE course and the Paris leg, she decided to go home today. GRRR--there's a special place in Hell for snotty border guards, bureaucrats and clueless airline ticket agents.

Meanwhile, got through even more intrusive security than TSA, only to find out group's flight had been cancelled because of the storm, as well as all flights to Switzerland out of London City & Gatwick. But there were still flights from Heathrow--by the time I could get a Swissair booking agent on the phone (the ticket counter desk line was at a 2-hr. standstill) every flight but the 2:30 was sold out, and I was lucky to get that. (So much for the motor coach we all paid for to get us from Geneva Airport to our hotel in Lausanne). At least the airline paid for van taxi to get us to Heathrow, a 90-min. drive. Went through security again (this time Fast Track, but my knees still set off the metal detector and I had to take off my shoes and get the pat-down. Killing time here in the business class lounge till our plane--now delayed till at least 4pm--leaves. Had a nice free lunch, cappuccino, & prosecco, though. But so much for seeing a doctor today, either. (And there is no OTC antibiotic ointment anywhere in Europe or the UK any more--and I don't want to start taking my emergency Keflex unless I absolutely must).

Gonna try and get some shut-eye till the wheelchair attendant picks me up in a little over an hour for the long schlep to the gate. Not easy--the lounge is packed. Can't imagine what a zoo the regular boarding area must be by now!

Wow, Moon, I am stunned (but maybe shouldn't be....time flies!) at how fast your darling granddaughter is growing up! I feel for the little ones who are constantly being asked to smile for the cell phone in our current "can't get enough pix culture. That said I enjoyed this one!

On that topic, DH and I are starting to become very uncomfortable about the posed head shots of our three year old DGD that are constantly being posted on Facebook. DH has been reading recent articles about the research of effects of social media on young girls and it IS distressing....and not just because we are old farts! DDIL's culture is very focused on physical beauty, so I doubt that she and her mother will be slowing down on these pix anytime soon. I have stopped "liking" them...and maybe the relatives will ask what is going on with me. Oy!

I am going very light for dinner tonight....maybe just salad. There are a variety of leftovers for DH.

I happened upon a LOT of neat kale recipes on Pinterest today. I could waste hours perusing and saving the thousands of recipes on Pinterest. Yikes!