how about drinking?

NM and Sadie, Good Morning!!

We had 0 trick or treaters.

karentwriter,

I agree with ChiSandy............I had nausea and loss of taste during chemo.

Jazzy reminded me how much I enjoyed fresh linen on our king size bed during BC treatments. I was huffing and puffing by the time I finished then crawled in for a long nap.

Jazzy, love the pics!!

BBL

Good morning girls and happy saturday to ye all. Sorry I have been distant, been working so hard these days. With still learning, it gets quite stressful. I hate do-overs and seems I have had a few too many. I do like that I am self employed, no one to shout at me for making mistakes. I do get great support from my mentor, Dan who is very experienced in underwriting and helps me any time day or night.

Sue, I feel like crying after reading your post, wtf? Jest not fair. Try to keep your head up dahling, my prayers will be pouring out to you on a daily basis. And after all this, having a MX is on your mind? I guess it is time if that is what it takes to kick the FRB to the curb.

Jazzy, love the pics you post, it is jest so doggone beautiful there in NM. Wish I could come out and see for myself and cop a visit with one of my breasties. I will be sailabrating Thanksgiving on Dec 2nd as my sisters will be away in New Orleans for TG and the entire weekend. They are going to a surprise 60th birthday party for a good family friend. Wish I could go but that would mean I do not get paid so no vaca for this loungette.

Lori, glad DD made it back to the island and more happy that she has power, wooooo hoooo. Cute that she cried, def mom's daughter.

NM, is your power not back? Forgive me for missing it if it is. That wind event was sumting else the other night. The wind here pulled the cover off my gazebo and bent some of the metal, I am fart sick, I mean heart sick. Good for you in getting the laundry done and NOT having to pay for it.

Ill, so glad it is not shingles, hope the rash goes away quickly.

Teka, I remember when I had my bmx, my sister came over and washed all of my bedding and HUNG my comforter on the clothes line. I recall the feeling of crawling into the clean covers and smelling the air dried comforter, felt sooooo fine.

Great suggestions for Karen and the start of chemo on dwinking. I say hell to the yes on getting dwunk yesturday and again today, Karen!

Sandy, sorry you were ill while you were away. You sure have had more than your share of crud lately. Happy belated birthday to Gordie.

Well hello to anyone I missed and shame on me. I have to git back to work. I am hungry but not allowing myself another break until I get two more files reveiwed so will jest sit here whilst mese tummy hollars at me.

Love and miss all of you girls, was telling my pain doc yesterday about the onederfoil connection I have with all of you, new and old loungettes, loves you all so berry much.

Now git in dis lounge and dwink up, sending rounds to all.

Well NM, you are worth worrying about, even iffin it is just you. But we know Sadie at least TRIES to help! As for my DD, she does NOT have power. But she thinks it's something to do with her breaker, as everyone around her has power. She will have it looked at today. Also, because the house has been empty, she was infested with cock roaches. And she didn't "have" to evacuate. There was no time for that, and not because she "wouldn't". By the time they knew Irma was going to hit them, it was too late. No where to go, no flights out, so they just had to hunker down and pray for the best. All of my laundry goes outside, except socks and undies. Even in the winter.

Karen, I never got sick while on chemo. I felt nauseas and only had dry heaves a couple of times. And really only felt crappy for a few days and it would start on day 3. I also had 3 weeks between treatments.

Wacko, glad you are bizzy with work, I did not know you got to work from home. So you don't ever have to go to an office? How's that tummy doin?

Jazzy, how nice to get a FREE class. And like you said, the new gal was probably excited. If you have her again, maybe you can bring it to either the original teacher or her, just as a polite suggestion? NM was without power, hence the laundry mat. I too will hang clothes in the house if too cold outside. It helps add a little humidity inside too. But usually I just wait for a decent warmer day to hang outside. We were in TN visiting my mother in law. Step DD will be here for TG. It's a four hour drive and they are even leaving until TG day. So I am considering doing dinner on Friday, instead ofThursday.

Good Morning, Loungettes!Happy Sunday Funday! 36 degrees outside this ayem, but very little breeze, thank goodness. Went to a bean supper with Mom and Dick and a couple they are friends with. The lady of the couple clearly has dementia, and clearly in the middle stages. Sad to see but at least she is very happy.Her husband takes such good care of her. I was surprised by how much weight Dick has lost, though. Looked like he ate pretty well, so I'm not sure what that is about. Obviously I need to be keeping a closer eye on them. Mom looked good, though. Apparently the Bean supper is usually better than last nights, but I thought hot beans, goulash, biscuit, hot dogs all hot and cooked by someone else was pretty good! So was the cherry cheesecake, especially after Mom gave me her cherry topping. She doesn't like cherries, so why she chose cherry cheesecake when there was blueberry pie, apple pie, chocolate cake, and cookies to choose from baffles me.

Teka--good morning!Nothing like fresh bed linens. Hope the nap was restorative! Love your Note to Self, too.

Dara--I hear you about hating do-overs, but we all have to learn in the beginning. As long as you aren't doing-over the same thing you are making progress, right? It's great you have a good mentor. That can be a huge help. My power is back, came back on Wednesday when it wasn't expected back until Friday. Mom and Dick's power came back on Friday. We are all in agreement that being able to flush toilets is a VERY GOOD THING! Now get back to work!Hard being self-disciplined, isn't it?

Jazzy--Double workout day?Good for you! Even better to be getting good yoga classes close to home. I should invest in a drying rack. We always had one when I was growing up. I used to have one, but it fell apart after years of use. The washer is working, but the dryer broke down more than 10 years ago and I've never looked into having it fixed cuz I never missed it enough to bother. It's only about once a year or so that it even crosses my mind to use a laundromat, and that's more of a power outage thing than anything else. And, yes, Silly Sadie likes her comfort, and will make a nest in the bed pillows whenever she gets a chance. It's actually kind of funny, sometimes.

Goldie--I hope your DD gets her power back on ASAP. Must have been disappointing for her to get home and find everyone else with power. But cockroaches?? YUCK! I hope they aren't hard to evict. I misunderstood about the evacuation thing, or mixed it up with somewhere else. It must have been a truly terrifying time to be watching Irma and waiting to see what was going to happen.

Dances with Hornets' DOTD:

Karen, the chemo itself doesn't hurt. It's the needle for the IV going into the port. I always numbed mine, so not sure how it feels if it is NOT numb. I made a few comments on your blog.

ugh..... hungover.....

Good thing I don't do this too often, I don't bounce back as quick as I used to.

Very, very lazy Sunday. Bob & Gordy were out overnight, so I reheated my leftover fish & chips in the air fryer--much faster & neater than the toaster oven. Didn't feel like opening wine, so I had coconut-flavored water (unsweetened coconut drops I bought at the hotel spa in Vegas). No ice though--had forgotten to turn the icemaker back on upon our return. Stayed up late "nibbling" through my DVR backlog, then slept in till 11:30 (actually 12:30 had it not been the Std. Time changeover).

Yesterday had a productive rehearsal for the BarShow. The number in which I'm playing Angela Merkel (watched a lot of Kate McKinnon to get the accent right) is gonna be a lot of fun--though it's waaay down in the bottom of my range. (I could handle it an octave up, but the woman playing Theresa May is a soprano and the director thought we wouldn't have enough vocal contrast between us. Gotta work on beefing up chest voice, though I will be miked). It's a really cheesy parody of Neil Diamond's "(Comin' to) America," which takes place at some global policy summit. I'm fully off-book on that one now. And the parody of Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling" (from Trolls, with which I'm unfamiliar because I don't go see movies based on merchandise) is also coming together. I picked it up by ear pretty quickly. Only two of us from the number were there yesterday--we weren't supposed to rehearse it till next Fri. night--but since we were, we recorded it for the other two women to learn. It was disgustingly cold & rainy in the morning, so I took a Lyft down there but rode the L back and walked home from the station.

What does that have to do with drinking? Well, I was early for rehearsal, so I stopped at the cafe across the street from the Bar Assn. bldg. for an almond-milk cappuccino. The barista there gets almond milk to froth perfectly, but I can't do it at home--either with my Nespresso Aeroccino 3 frother (very picky--it likes only skim or very fresh 1%) or the steam wand on my espresso machine (which froths everything else from soy to all forms of dairy). I noticed she was using Pacific brand almond milk, while I use Califia unsweetened (plain, vanilla or vanilla coconut-almond blend). Maybe the unsweetened, lacking some form of sugar, has insufficient viscosity to thicken when steamed. Thinking about that, I tried cutting it in with heavy cream. No luck.

Thanks to Std. Time, it's already gloomy & dark. Am in my PJs, and my ingrown toenail is bothering me (feels inflamed but I hope I can hold out till after the run of the show, or get it taken care during the week-long Thanksgiving break). Going for my DEXAScan tomorrow--maybe stop in at Urgent Care en route home for a temporary fix, such as a lidocaine/bacitracin ointment or spray. Surgery would keep me off my feet for too long, not to mention limiting my choice of footwear. But I need to do something, because the dang thing is keeping me from working out.

Good Morning, Loungettes!Happy Monday Monkey day! Up for work at the Immunization Clinic this ayem, totally dark, YUCK. At least it's warm, almost 60 degrees. Going to cool off overnight. At least it's still only raining a bit and not snow yet. Instructor training is going well, and I'm actually a little bit ahead of the time line for prepping the entire teacher's manual. I sent an e-mail to Hospice saying I could work up to 8 hours on Wednesday if they wanted, thinking I'd get an answer back today, got an answer back about 3 minutes later! Apparently still busy there.

I made up two of the three meals in the kit yesterday, one was a salad that didn't take any cooking, just mixing up, got that packed to take for lunch today. It's a chicken, cranberry, walnut, spinach salad. The other was Pasta e Fagioli which is something I've never tried to make before and was surprisingly easy and surprisingly good! Had that for supper last night, have another serving that I'll probably eat tonight. Silly Sadie must have gotten 10,000 steps just in the kitchen yesterday, sticking right to my side (or getting between me and the counter) while I was cooking! You'd think she never got fed from the way she behaves when I'm cooking. I finally managed to cook up a mess of bacon AND got it into the fridge before Sadie could snatch most of it yesterday, so that's another plus for yesterday! Silly fool will take bacon right out of the sizzling pan if I turn my back long enough.

Karen--sending virtual hugs and will be in your pocket today. Firsts are always hard. If accessing the port hurts there are things that can be done going forward, I'm sure Goldie covered them well. And alcohol is an underrated anesthetic!

Jazzy--gorgeous Oak, love the deep red color!

Illi--{{{hugs}}}}

Chi--An air frying sounds like a fancy bit of equipment! Also sounds like it might be fun to use. The Bar Show sounds like it's going to be hilarious. Too bad about the ingrown toenail, that cannot be comfortable. Funny about the frothing differences of various substances and machines. And thanks to the time change I am getting up BEFORE sunrise, YUCK. AND will be getting home after dark. Even more YUCK. So glad I'm not working all day 5 days a week anymore. At least I can see SOME sun during the week!

Cammy--Poor Leslie, but I can imagine it's a bit of a hassle to always have something on your head. I'm hoping that a bit of a routine is developing for her, that makes life a bit easier.

Dances with Hornets' DOTD:

• Pumpkin Pie –

• 1 oz Malibu rum

• 1 oz Kahlua

• 6 oz milk

• 1/3 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 to 1 tsp pumpkin pie filling

• Garnish with fine graham cracker crumbs on the rim

Good Morning Ladies

♪♫Monday, Monday♫♪ ugh

Sandy I don't think I ever had that on a toe before, but it sounds miserable--I hope u can get it treated so u can be more comfortable.

Good drink Lori, u gals find some really good ones all the time. Oh Lori Leslie is more emotional about everything now, I mean everything. I'm glad she'll be seeing a head Dr., to make sure all her meds for that are evenly distributed thruout. U know she takes Steroid meds for a few days after, well I personally don't think they do her much good, but there must be a reason---when she misses sleep I seem to worry more of course, that's so very important for her mental illness. But they know that. And I know that weighs heavy on her. I remember when I first met her Dr <retired now> and went into this big beautiful office and asked if he was just moving in, there were boxes all over and file cabinets empty and files all over, and he said Oh no I;ve been here for a couple of years and no one answering phones or keeping track of things--never got any kind of bill for anything. But he was brilliant and u couldn't help but really like him--oh he was handsome too. LOL I see bits and pieces of her now like before and I pray that's all it is.

I talked to one of my GF's yesterday, and we're going to try and have lunch this coming Saturday, but we'll do it at my other GF's restaurant this way it's actually easier on her, cuz her Sat. nites are so busy she'll be able to oversee without the worry.

I've had only 1 cup of coffee nd I'm ready to go back to sleep---so I'd better set my phones up.

LUBS U ALL

Toe is a tad better today, thanks to using antibiotic ointment, wearing loose soft socks under oxfords with a generous toe box, and cushioning it with cotton and a foam tube while I slept last night. I do get pedis every 4 weeks--the salon owner is my tech, the only one who knows how to deal with ingrown toenails. For most clients, she simply prevents them by cutting or filing the nail straight across. Unfortunately, I have nail beds the sides of which curl under sharply. Even tried podiatric surgery on one toe that shaved the curved part of the sides, which the DPM said would prevent me from ever getting ingrown toenails again, so long as I kept the nails cut straight across. He lied. (And the anesthetic injections into my toe were excruciating--worse than the sentinel-node tracer shots into my nipple; and I still felt every bit of the surgery. Ugh). No matter what, "barbs" grow into the skin and (with another DPM's approval) my tech digs in and extracts them. It's the only thing I hate about pedicures, and the reason why I need to take Tylenol before I leave the house on mani-pedi day. I could go to my DPM for "training" the nails to grow out by stuffing bits of cotton beneath the corners, but that takes roughly 18 months and requires going barefoot or wearing sandals or open-toed shoes all the time. (I had my childhood DPM try that, and it didn't work back then either). Maybe once I am elderly and have retired from everything that could possibly require me to wear closed shoes, but not yet.

Looking forward to some Bourgogne Rouge, or a good Pinot Noir tonight, to go with coho salmon I plan to pan-sear for dinner.

En route home from my DEXAScan today, stopped in at WF. To satisfy my curiosity, I bought a couple of 1-qt. cartons of Pacific almond milk: unsweetened vanilla (3g carb/cup) and Original (8g, the variety the barista used on Sat.). Fired up the espresso machine and tried steaming the unsweetened vanilla...it frothed. Coarsely, not like the "micro-foam" the barista achieved (and with which she was able to free-pour latte art), but the foam stayed stable till I licked it out of my cup after finishing the cappuccino. So the Califia unsweetened vanilla coconut/almond's lack of sweetener was not the reason it wouldn't froth (maybe it's simply less viscous than the Pacific unsweetened). Not gonna throw out the Califia--it'll still be good on cereal, in recipes and in cold drinks. But I will use the Pacific when I want a credible cappuccino or latte without dairy. (Might also open the Original, try frothing it, and see if it tastes better than the unsweetened vanilla).

Good Morning, Loungettes!Happy Twofer Tuesday, and here in Maine, election day. Going to stop on the way to the clinic for the staff meeting and some afternoon hours and vote. Better than going after work, when I might have to wait in line for all of 2 or 3 minutes in the after work rush. The weather guessers are talking about cold temps and high winds on Friday, and have even used the term "wind chill"! I guess winter is arriving, wanted or not. Been getting quite chilly at night, Sadie makes a great bed warmer.

Goldie--Interesting drink! I do pretty well keeping to the hours for Hospice lately, and am careful to schedule my work days with them to days it's not a problem if the day runs really long. (Hmmm, how many times can I use the word "day" in one sentence?) And since I started telling them I can work a certain number of hours on a given day they seem to be a bit more careful of the assignment they give me. I think changing the way I talked about my availability has changed the way they set my assignments. Talking about hours reminds them that I am not salaried anymore. I've started using the ready-made salads from the grocery store more often, they are really convenient. Some of the local grocery stores also make salads that are really good, especially the chicken Caesar and chef salads. I do wish they had a bit more dressing sometimes, though. One local store even includes a plastic fork in each bowl! Others have forks available next to the salads. I pictured the air fryer as much bigger than that pic. And I do remember we have talked about them before.

Cammy--I'm glad Leslie has a doc to oversee her meds. Steroids can do a real job on the emotions, but are so necessary many times. Funny about the doc that never finished moving in. You gotta wonder how he stayed in business all those years! The GF lunch sounds like a lot of fun, hope you all can make it work out.

Jazzy--WOW, that is one fantastic pic!

Chi--Ouch, is all I can say about the ingrown toe issue. My brother had a problem with ingrown toenails and finally had the toenails completely removed to stop the problem. It worked pretty well, but he still has to pull out what he calls "fangs" from time to time. They are in one corner of each toe, and I think they must be from some toenail that didn't get completely removed. Sounds like thefrothing experiments were successful, that's always a good thing!

Dances with Hornets' DOTD:

CRUZAN® PILGRIM PUNCH

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Bottle Cruzan® 9 Spiced Rum
• 1/2 Bottle Cruzan® Aged Dark Rum
• 1/2 can Cranberry Sauce
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 Bottles Sparkling Apple Cider
• Apple Slices

Mixing Instructions: Combine rums, cranberry sauce and sugar in a bowl and stir until well combined. Refrigerate for 1 hour. When ready to serve, add sparkling apple cider, and drop in apple slices to garnish. Serve over ice in punch glass, making sure to scoop out an apple slice with each drink. Raise glass and toast.

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope everything is all right--It seems off balance here, like where is NM, did I miss something???

Karen I was thinking about you, I don't remember reading about ur first chemo., I hope it went well. Oh let's face it think of everyone here thruout the day, just praying everyon e is good.

It's strange I'm in DejaVue with Leslie, only worse cuz it's my DD. I'm feeling all enclosed in this all over again daily and I know I'm bitchy too, well as they say now I own it. LOL

SusyQ how r u doing???

Jazzy that is one spooky picture, let me tell you, if u saw that in the middle of the nite CHIT.

Teka how's the weather in the north country. It's dreary here chilly and rainy, but it's that time of year so...

Lori How's ur DD doing now that she's home???

OK I'll be bock.

LUBS U ALL

Morning DahhhhLinkS

Yes tis I. Crawled outta the wabbit hole jes to say HI to my breasties. Still no word from my MO, the waiting is really hard. Am trying to stay positive tho. Hope to hear by weeks end.

Just kno that I thank you for all your prayers and positive wishes. I will be back, but don't kno when.

Lubslubslubs to all

I made it through the hangover better than I thought, DH was in worse shape or at least complaining more, lol

Memasue, I noticed your b-day was yesterday, right?

More Dia Dos Muertos parade pics