how about drinking?

Goldie- love that photo of your neice and family, including the cute golden retriever. Wishing her a safe delivery, healthy baby and wonderful start to many family adventures together.

I started putting a few plants in containers yesterday and going to do some work in the garden tonight. Pics to follow soon!

Good Morning, Loungettes!Hapyy Thirsty Thursday! Had my annual physical yesterday, got caught up on all my shots, got Shingrix, dTaP, and pneumonia. Boy, does that Shingrix one HURT! Hurts going in, and my leg is so sore I'm actually limping around the house today. Called the dealer, they'll be looking at the Jeep on Monday, that was the first opening they had. I finally remembered to look for rentals through AARP and found a less expensive one, going to switch over on Sunday so I won't have to be dealing with this on work days for however long it takes to (1) fix the Jeep or (2) for me to decide to get a different vehicle. To top it all off, woke up to snow again. Snowing steadily, and collecting on the ground. Sigh. Very pretty on top of the green grass, and a bit windy so it's blowing around all over the place. So no outside work today. I did sit on the deck for a few minutes yesterday peeyem, but it was breezy and chilly even with a sweater on, and Sadie was sensibly inside curled up on the new doggy bed. So I gave up and went inside, too.

Jazzy--I am jealous that you can put plants out already!

Chi--I've made plenty a wine spritzer in my day by adding seltzer to wine, never thought of using it to wake up bubbly, though! Makes sense to me.

The Vaccination

Drink Type: Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 part(s) Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila
• 1 part(s) Orange Curacao

Instructions

Store spirits in freezer compartment until well chilled. Mix equal parts and serve in a brandy snifter. Sip slowly and savor the refreshing aroma and smooth taste. Don't exceed your limit.

From <https://www.barnonedrinks.com/drinks/t/the-vaccination-8352.html>

No,life is not fun today, or for the past week for our family. Our son, who had Hodgkin's lymphoma in the early 90s, was admitted to the hospital Saturday night with lower back pain and spiking fevers. The back pain is better when temp comes down but it is not staying down even with IV antibiotics since Sat. night.PET and CT scans show some changes in his spine and pelvis, lab work has not pointed to anything definitive. He is having a bone marrow biopsy today and then we will have the oh so familiar waiting for path results. Big part of the concern is that those who had Hodgkin's are at high risk for developing another cancer later in life. He is being followed by an oncologist, an infectious diseases doctor and an internal medicine specialist. At least two radiologists have looked at his films.

I'm at his house currently but will go home today (3.5 hours away) to keep an appointment tomorrow, wash clothes, repack and probably return over the weekend. I'll be lurking here but may not post much. Part of being here is that there are six children in the household and DIL owns and runs a veterinary clinic. An extra presence is needed. DILs parents are coming this afternoon but her father is developing dementia and am unsure how well he will do in a different environment.

Beaver- I am sorry to hear about your son and it sounds like you don't have a dx yet for what is going on but understand the concerns. He has a really good medical team from the sounds of it. Keep us posted and praying for good outcomes sister.

NM- sorry to hear it's time to put Pearl to rest in the scrap yard. If you can find a good used Subaru, go for it. They are highly dependable and I have found very low maintenance. I think ChiSandy has one too. I have literally had people ask to buy mine from me and am like "do you see a for sale sign on it?" LOL.

Put three plants in the front garden last night. When I get further along, will post some pics.

Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy TGIF day! Boy do I hope today ends up going better than yesterday.After finding out about the JEEP being beyond usefulness and Mom's friend at the end of her life, I did get my class assignment posted and then the shingles vaccine effect really kicked in. Very sore leg at the injection site. Headache. Chills. Exhaustion. A bit of nausea. I could not get warm no matter how much I cuddled with Sadie and how many blankets I had. I had to give in and take some Tylenol, that took enough of the edge off that I could get a nap and that helped. Between the Tylenol and lots of hot chocolate I got through the evening and night and feel better this ayem. Tired, but better. I keep reminding myself this will only last a day or two and is WAY better than getting shingles. I've seen how people suffer from that and do NOT want to experience that.

So, today's plan is to get this week's paper started, then go into town to look at the JEEPs on the dealer's lot that look interesting. A salesman sent me some pics and info and I looked at their website, too. There are 4 SUVsthat are affordable and have all the things I want (and a few I don't want, like that computer screen in the dashboard, I hate that thing, so distracting). The two Cherokee's have more mileage and cost $3k more but are a really pretty blue that I love, the other two are Compass Latitudes with less mileage but an ugly gray color. I'm having a hard time justifying paying $3K more just for a color, but I really like the pretty blue. Maybe there will be more differences when I look at them in person than I'm seeing online in pictures.

Beaver--oh my goodness, what a time you are having! I am praying for your son that this is not a new cancer and that a treatable cause is found. It sounds like you are going to be very busy and very needed there for a bit. It's good you can go and help.

Karen---My first instinct is to go with the car with the lowest mileage. I prioritized that when I was doing home care and driving almost 200 miles a day. Now I'm driving 30 miles one way to work, a very big difference. Anyway, I'll figure it out today. Need to get out of the rental car thing, it's a huge drain on the finances.

Jazzy--I have driven a Subaru in the past. I'll see what is on the local lot. Won't do business with the Subaru dealer in the area, not after finding out I paid for work that wasn't needed several times there. You are putting flowers out, I've got frost and freeze warnings for overnight last night. So not fair!

Automobile

Daly's Bartender's Encyclopedia (1903)

• 1 lump sugar
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters
• 1 dash white curaçao
• 2 dashes Creme Yvette
• 2 thin slices pineapple
• 1 thin slice orange
• champagne

Put all ingredients in a tall champagne stem, add a small lump of ice, and top with champagne.

From <https://cold-glass.com/2015/09/29/the-automobile-cocktail-two-ways/>

Just thinking about Cammi and I in our younger days....

Hello! Busy couple of days. I was on the phone yesterday making appointments. This morning I went to a local store for a bra fitting. They told me anyone that has had surgery (lumpectomy or mastectomy) can get 6 bras per year paid for by insurance. My mouth dropped and I said “what?” She will contact my oncologist to get a prescription. This is a TMI moment, but I have never had six new bras a year! Not to mention this one is very comfortable and fits well. The people were so very helpful. The bras are only $50.00 each. Does this happen everywhere?

My breast surgeon’s office called me yesterday. I have an appointment to get the port removed. This happened after several phone calls resulting in nothing. I had no idea this procedure is done IN HIS OFFICE! They somehow give you something to deaden the area, then make a small slit and pull that sucker out. There will be one stitch to close up shop. I asked about bringing my DH to drive me home. She said that he cannot come in and I will be able to drive home. This is also amazing to me. First, why was it so difficult to get the appointment and second, it is such a simple procedure. I gotta get out more!

NM - Sorry about Pearl. I bought a used Subaru Forester and paid too much. Mainly due to wanting the touch screen and the really pretty blue.

This afternoon I have a facial appointment. It is time to pamper myself after all the exciting revelations this morning. Hope everyone has planned for a fun weekend. Rain here for Saturday, but Sunday should be nice

Take care

just got an update on our son. Preliminary path on yesterday's bone marrow biopsy is leukemia, specific type to be identified. He is to be transferred to a leukemia treatment center in Houston, either Houston Methodist or MD Anderson. Both are nationally ranked for leukemia treatment so it may depend on who has a bed available. Looks like some long days ahead of us and he has a son and daughter who are graduating from high school this May. Praying for strength for all of us.

beaverintx, I’m sorry to hear about your don but agree that both hospitals are great places to be for further treatment. Maybe we’ll bump into each other in the med center. Good vibes coming your way

Praying for your son Beaver! Gotta be so hard to watch him going through this.... xoxoxo Chevy

Beav, praying hard tonight for your son. It'll be a tough road ahead, but odds have gotten better every year for clear sailing after finishing treatments. Both Houston hospitals you mentioned are the best in the country for leukemia.

Kim, you keep cars for a long time--so get the one that feels & drives the best and is easiest on your eyes. Pearl was a good ol' girl who served you well. I do love my Outback--bough it as a lease return with 4K miles on it, now 7 yrs later not quite at 38K. Fully-loaded, but because it was a lease return (and we paid cash) was able to knock $7K off the price. Seriously considering forking over a couple of grand to take it to an auto-customization shop to add on an aftermarket blind-spot-monitoring/cross-traffic alert system. I like it too much, and it's in way too good shape. to trade it in on a new Outback with those systems built in (besides the "EyeSight" safety suite mine already has). A new one with all the bells & whistles I want would be well in excess of $42K. Nope. Bob's (formerly my) 2011 Fusion Hybrid has 170K miles on it, and he is likely to keep it till it falls apart. When it does, he wants a Toyota Avalon hybrid--but I think if he's looking for another hybrid he should get something with both AWD & high ground clearance, like a Subaru Crosstrek hybrid. OTOH, he may be retired by then, so my car would have to be the only snow-worthy one.

And the nastiest injection-site reaction I ever had was the Shingrix shot. The hot red patch eventually spread down to almost my elbow--way bigger and "angrier" than any that have been reported after COVID shots (I saw photos of those and they looked like nothing in comparison to my "Shingrix arm"). But even a nasty injection-site reaction beats getting shingles.

Cami, it's getting a bit warmer--and this weekend it'll be at least 10 degrees warmer in your neck of the woods than up here by the lake. We were finally able to take the herb plants back outside (but still keeping them in their pots and in a box to keep the wind from knocking them over). No more frosts! Looking at high 70s, perhaps even 80, on Tues. & Wed. As I said, spring & fall in Chicago are not distinct seasons--instead, winter & summer duke it out to see which one will win for the following couple of months. We used to say there were two seasons here: winter & construction. Had to revise that to "construction & Snow Day."

Had a little more "bubble-enhanced" champagne with seared ahi tonight (which Bob brought home from Cellars because I had to stick around after my online concert to do a Zoom chat). I put in a fresh bottle for later this weekend. Also had a can of pineapple Bubly, which has supplanted black cherry as my favorite seltzer flavor.

Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Saturday! Well, I went out and bit the bullet and bought the bigger, pretty blue Jeep Cherokee yesterday. Wow, what a change in technology from Pearl's 2011 to the new one's 2018. It's got the funky screen in the dash that I don't like, but I did find the button to turn it off. It has heated seats, heated steering wheel, remote engine start, voice controls for changing the temperature and stuff, got the phone connected through bluetooth. It has a garage door control that I can set to open my garage door--can't wait to get that set up! There's a button on the inside that closes the back hatch. It rides really nicely. High up enough that I can see over bushes and snowbanks. Big enough to put the kayak in and probably can get the hatch closed, we'll have to see. Leather seats, I've never had leather seats before, was always afraid they would be way too hot in the summer.The dealer even had a couple who does nothing but drive cars around all day, on following the other, they took the rental back to the airport for me! Otherwise I would have had to wait until tomorrow to pick it up cuz Mom was down on the island waiting for a phone call that the boat was in so she could pick up some crabs. Come to find out, the boat's not coming in until TODAY, sometime! Got the rental bill via e-mail, looks like I'm going to have to pay for the whole week even though I turned the car in 3 days early. That's a bit of a bummer. Or maybe that's from the first rental, the print is so small in the picture it's hard to tell. I'll go look at it again in a bit. The only real drawback is that it's an automatic, and I really enjoy driving a standard. I've had automatics before and liked them, so that's really a little thing. What really blows my mind is that I went ahead and bought the car I really wanted, and not the less expensive one that would have served me perfectly well. Sadie came out and looked and sniffed it all over, but didn't get in, she just looked at me like "How do you expect me to get up that high?" I bought a ramp for her a while back but it didn't fit Pearl, I'll rummage it out and I'll bet it will fit this one.

Cammy Cat--Pearl did live a good long life. I got a whole $100 in trade in on her. The dealer isn't even going to try to get it running again, they're going to see what parts are salvageable and trash the rest. RIP, Pearl. Glad you had a nice visit with your niece. And glad she can help finish putting your room together. These things take time. Marty's Mom and Sister need to take a long walk off a short pier. Into cold water. Without floatation devices.

Chevy--you made me really laugh out loud!

Illi--I like your approach! I expect to run the new Jeep for at least 5 years, maybe longer, and that works out to $1.68 a day--I can justify that easily!

Librarian--I learned that insurance will pay for a certain number of mastectomy bras after mastectomy, but I never knew it also covers bras after lumpectomy! And 6? Wow! I used to get 7 bras at a time, so I could have one per day and do a wash once a week, I sweat so much I could never wear a bra two days in a row. Yes, taking a port out is a much smaller procedure than putting one in. They will numb up the area around and over the port, make a cut in the skin just big enough to get the port out, reach in and pull the port and the attached IV line out. Putting one in is a lot more work with having to make a pocket in the skin and tunnel the IV line through and then into the vein. Some people get some bruising if the skin has adhered to the port and they have to tease the skin off. Most people don't even need to take any pain medication. I've had people tell me that going back and getting the stitch taken out hurts more than having the port removed!

Beaver--I remember how hot and heavy the prosthesis could be. My Mom knit me a couple of "prostheses" thatI used to use when I didn't want to wear the "real" one. The look wasn't as perfect a match as the real one but boy the comfort factor was huge!I am so sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis. I am praying that there is a curative treatment available that will work quickly and for strength and peace for all the family.

Celia--hmm, I just assumed I was reacting to the shingles shot cuz I've heard so many people talk about having this kind of reaction, but it certainly could be the pneumonia shot or even the tetanus in the Tdap. In the end I supposed it doesn't really matter what shot, or if it's the combination of shots. The worst seems to be over. The shot sites in my thighs hurt today, I had some more chills last evening, still a bit headachy, but not so tired and worn out. I did fine yesterday while out doing the car thing, and I did get the color I wanted, and some of my not feeling right in the evening may have been from not getting any lunch. I'll probably use the shots as an excuse to be lazy today, though. I haven't had any Chambord in ages, need to get me some next shopping trip!

Karen--I did just that! When the sales man was going to bring the first car around to look at I told him not to bother with theCompasses, I wanted one of the Cherokees. Asked him to bring out the one with the lowest mileage first. Didn't even look at the other one (which was identical except for slightly more mileage).

Beaver--waiting is still hard, no matter how fast the preliminary results come in! The cost difference was not astronomical, and I did get the prettier car!

Chi--Pearl did serve me very well, and I will miss her. But she deserves to rest now. One of the things the Cherokee has is little lights on the mirrors when something is in the blind spot! I forget what it's called, but it's really neat. I do have to admit that I am enjoying discovering all the bells and whistles in the new car. Wow, sounds like you really had a reaction to the shingles shot. My injection site is not really red now, didn't get really angry red. The other site, where the Tdap and Pneumonia went is actually redder this morning. Red, warm and hard. But that's the tetanus, that one is always at it's worse on day 2, 3 or 4, and today is day 3. So by the time I go back to work on Monday I won't have anything worth complaining about. I've tried some of the Bubly seltzers, they are pretty good!

Blue Jeep Island Drink

• 1 oz. Sour Blue Pucker (DeKuyper Island Blue)
• 1 oz. Triple Sec
• 5 oz. 7-up

Mixing Instructions

Add Triple Sec and Blue Island Pucker to cocktail or margarita glass. Add 7 up and stir. Ice optional but colder is better.

From <http://www.drinknation.com/drink/blue-jeep-island>

Funny, my Kia Cadenza is also dark blue. Don't have a picture, though. At home trying to get laundry, etc done before going back to Houston tomorrow.

Thanks for all kind words and prayers as well as support for the quality of care available for him.

Happy Saturday ladies- the world seems to be opening up here with both people and color. So many trees now out in full bloom, lots of color here. Lovely day and ran a bunch of errands and saw a bunch of people in passing today too. I had a long overdue trip to a jeweler to get new watch batteries and also wanted to have a ring resized but now we are redoing the setting. This ring is a statement piece and after having resold some jewelry in consignment I have not worn in a long time, the money in my account is more than enough to cover this. Less is more, and getting the things I really love wearable and recycling the other things back into the community.

Things at work are still a bit messed up but think we now have the attention of the management after one of our very best people quit. I wlll be busy supporting changes with this project into June, but am doing what I can and focusing on the other things in my life I have more control over. I think I detached from the politics and will do this for awhile, but by the end of the year, this particular role will work itsellf out or not. In the mean time, I will do what I can to help and focus on a more balanced life with work, play and taking care of things, I do better. Working on the things I can control.....

Beaver- I am sorry about the news about your son, but I also know you said there was a chance he might have a second cancer. They got the dx quickly and will be working to get on this. I am just really sorry this is happening to him and your family.

NM- so glad you got the car you really wanted. I am like Ill in that cars matter and my last primary car color was a deep midnight blue (called Cosmo Blue). After two blue cars in a row, I now have a deep forest green Subaru (called Cypress Green so I call her Cypress). I like Goldie's idea of calling her Sapphire as it's my fav gem and also follow the gemstone theme. You work hard and also help a lot of other people in your free time like your mom. You deserve a nice car and it just looks fabulous. I hope you will give Sadie a ride too!

I understand you too about your Subaru dealer. I had a guy at my dealer trying to get me to replacing the timing chain on my outback way too soon. That is something that is not needed until after 100K. They have had a couple people there who have tried to sell me things I don't need yet but it is common in every place I have ever been. The crappy way men treat women in any situaiton like this. I have a woman at the dealer now and always ask for her, there is never any BS.

Cami- well I try to live on the positive side of life but have been kind of cranky about the work stuff lately. Good that your neice came over to help. That kitten getting squished in the box is kinda funny.

That's all for today. Hope everyone is having a good weekend and some nice weather!

I agree about the touchscreen, it’s so useful. My Toyota reads texts aloud too and DH has been having fun with it. He had the computer voice saying “I love your butt” several times last week, lol