First snowshoe

So glad that I was able to breath again so that we could enjoy the first snowfall.  Originally I didn't want to go out because it was freezing.  The high was only 17 but we enjoyed every minute and it wasn't cold at all.  In fact next time I'm going to wear lighter long underwear on top.

Unplanned hospital visit

I repeated this so many times on Monday, Dec 11 when I went to the Emergency Dept at RGH but I'll just document it here for my reference.

Here is the whole story.

On Saturday Larry was going to heat up the last of the Moroccan Stew that I made and before he put it in the microwave I grabbed a spoon, took a taste and started to cough because something went down the wrong way.  I didn't cough it up but after awhile I couldn't feel it anymore to cough up, but my throat was a little sore.  

The next day I noticed a shortness of breath.  I couldn't understand why it happened but it felt like back in the old days if I had too many cigarettes and it was hard to do an inhale without coughing.  We took our usual 2 mile neighborhood walk and life seemed normal.

On Monday Larry wanted to go for a walk but I didn't want to because it was COLD.  Eventually I changed my mind and we set out.  As we came around the block and up Ensign (small hill)  I couldn't catch my breath.  I was breathing so hard and I checked my heartbeat on my apple watch and it was over 140.  We walked down another block and stopped to talk to a neighbor and I caught my breath.  We finished the rest of the walk but I didn't have my usual energy.  After we got home I kept checking my pulse rate and it never went below 115.  Usually it's resting rate is in the 60s or less.  

So of course I looked up my symptoms on the internet and I decided we needed to go to Emergency.  Before I made the final decision I took a shower and washed my hair just in case.

On the way to the hospital we stopped at the doctor's office which we were driving right by and they also said "Head over to ED."

Good thing we did.  After an X-ray and CT scan I was told that based on the story starting Saturday I had aspirated food into my lung.  They wanted me to stay overnight and I was scheduled for a bronchoscopy the next day.  It was supposed to happen in the morning but didn't until the afternoon.

Fortuantely I brought my iPad and iPhone and portable charging device with me.

I stayed awake for most of the bronchoscopy but I think I must have dozed or just don't remember them removing the food that went into my lung.  They told me it was a potato but I knew there weren't any potatoes in the recipe and when I looked up the recipe I saw that the culprit was probably a garbanzo bean.  After some more hanging around I finally got to go home.  For the next couple of days I was really cautious about what I ate, mainly yogurt and smooth foods.  I'm also being kind of vigilant about making sure I chew everything really well now too.

I spent the afternoon in the hall watching all the activity

My CT scan machine

missed dinner but this was good except for the white bread

My overnight and 2nd day stay room in MCO - Observation

P.S.  12/27/17 - When I went home, I was told I should make an appointment with my personal physician within 3 days.  I actually got one for the next day.  The reason they wanted me to go was so that she could tell me they found "an ill-defined area of low attenuation within the periphery of the right lobe of the liver" and it was advised that I go for a follow-up CT scan.  I don't know why they couldn't have done it while I was already in the hospital.  Anyway I got an appointment for Dec 22 and went to the imaging lab over by RGH, a really nice, quiet space.  And for $60 I had my CT scan and then had to wait for the results.  I sort of remembered that 14 years earlier when I went to emergency for some complication  I thought I was having right before I was leaving to go to Greta's before Myles was born they found something on my liver but checked it out then and it was nothing.  Anyway, of course, I had to worry that I probably had cancer although in researching spots on livers they usually turn out to be nothing - but that didn't matter - I was giving myself 2 months.  On Tuesday, 12/26 I got a call from the doctors office and put a name to what it was - a benign liver hemangioma.  It's nothing and probably something I was born with - Happy New Year!!!!

3 wise women

I came across this and with the womens movement now I thought this was so cute.


What would have happened if it had been three wise women instead of three wise men who visited Jesus? They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts.

Hilton Head

We got down to Hilton Head and had to sit through another owner update.  It was at that update that we found out that the package for the extra nights at Surf Watch that we bought last year came with a cruise too.  Neither of us realized that.  Now we have to find someplace to go.  Life is tough.

Our room overlooked the pool and I spent some relaxing hours there.  We went to Kroger over in Shelter Cove and found our favorite horeseradish cheese and also Larry's favorite Merlot Cheddar from Murray's.  We can't get either of these at home.  It's amazing how much food I have to import because we can't get it here. 

We met JoAnn and Jerry for dinner at the British Open Pub.  We hadn't seen them since we were in HH in April 2016.

Wadmalaw

We left Myrtle Beach early to spend the weekend with Gerry and Kay at there house and Nadine flew down from New Hampshire.  It was short but fun and when we left we booked a week at there house for next October.

 We took a walk down to the boat launch and took a group selfie.

Myrtle Beach

We had a pleasant drive to Myrtle Beach.  Weather was good and so was the traffic.  We got out of the car at Ocean Watch and boy was it hot!  80 degrees.  We went to check in but our room wasn't ready.  We finished our check in and rooms were supposed to be ready at 4:00  and it was 3:57 and we didn't have a room.  We went down to the pool bar to wait with a beer and got a call at 4:22 that our room was ready.

We eventually went and got our room key and them unpacked our car onto 2 carts and went to our room where we found someone laying on the kitchen floor working on our refrigerator.  We took all the stuff off the cart and decided to go to the store.  We came back and the refrigerator still wasn't fixed.  No problem - all we have to do is make sure we close the door.  The door just won't close automatically with a push.  We wanted to put our stuff in and go to the hot tub.  We told him he could come back on Friday since we were leaving 2 days early and he should have plenty of time to work on it.

We did go to the hot tub and it felt so good.

On the Way to Myrtle Beach

We drove down on Saturday thinking we wouldn't have any traffic going through DC since it was a Saturday.  Forget it!!  Our ride was fined until we got on 95 south of DC.  What a mess.
Anyway, we got off to stop at a gas station for their rest room since I never would have made it going less than 5 mph and when we got back on the traffic was gone.

We stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Fredericksburg and got upgraded to a two bedrooom.  Nice!!  And better yet, ther's is a whold new area at Town Center mall called the Villages at Town Center and we found the best restaurant - Park Lane Tavern.  Great draft beer and fish sandwich with the best tasting garlicky tartar sauce.  Usually I never use tartar sauce but this one was so good that I even dipped my french fries into it.  Good thing we could walk both ways from the hotel because we needed the exercise.  We want to repeat all of this on our way home.

Van Zile Travel Evening

We went to the Century Club for the Van Zile Travel evening.  We had 2 glasses of wine each, went around and talked to everyone at the tables, "I wish I was rich," and Larry, who never wins anything, won a $75 credit for Travelex insurance.  Fun evening.  Sherry and Rich were there too.

Conversions

This is the link to this page:  https://www.online-convert.com/

It should convert ibook to epub

Find text msgs on Mac

This is how you can find you're text messages on a Mac.

From the Finder Menu select Go and scroll down to Go to Folder

Type ~/Library/Messages

You will find all your messages by date and conversation.

To find email downloads go to:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads

Pesto

Since I have tons of basil and I'm going in for surgery in 4 days, I better make some pesto soon!!

I sort of used this recipe from http://www.closetcooking.com/2010/08/basil-pesto.html
I made two batches

In both batches I doubled the recipe but I used walnuts instead of pine nuts because that's what I had, a little more garlic and in the second batch I not only doubled the entire recipe I used twice as much basil.

Grandkids Photobook

I had to make a photobook because I bought a Groupon from Photobook America and it was expiring.  I decided to make a book about my grandsons from birth to present.  It came out so good I made another one for Greta.

The cover is my favorite.

New Car

Wednesday (7/26) I went to Hoselton for service on my car.  The past few weeks the Maint Req light was on but I kept ignoring it.  I finally made an appointment and as soon as I was checked in, I was approached by someone from the service sales force asking me if I would like to look at some new cars since my lease was up in 4 months.

Friday I picked up my new car.  A 2017 RAV4, I am definitely in a rut.  This is the 5th RAV4 I've gotten but at least I got a new color.  It's dark blue and in the sunlight it looks like it has glitter sprinkled all over it.

They changed a couple of things I didn't like about the 2015.  They added back the sunglass holder over the window and the small tray in the console box.  I also like the way the direction you're going shows on the rearview mirror.  I got a hitch with it for a bike rack, now maybe I'll go somewhere with my bike, and cross bars so I could get a kayak carrier, if I want.  The safety features all came standard like a beep if you change lanes without putting on the blinkers - GUILTY and a warning if your close to other cars or walls, etc.  I also like how the car will automatically slow down when using cruise control if you get too close to the car in front of you.

No more smell from the smoothie Tucker accidentally left in the back seat that spilled down under it, although that had dissipated over time with much cleaning and air fresheners.

Note:  11/29/17 - Noticed I can open the car with thin gloves on, not sure if it will work with heavier ones but this is also a plus over the last car.

Banana Split Cake

I looked online and couldn't find a recipe like the one I have that I got in the 1970s from Rosella from Garden Club.  This recipe was so good that I decided I would make it rather than try one of the others although I substitute 8 oz cream cheese for 1/2 cup butter and 2 eggs in the original recipe since the eggs would be raw which wasn't a problem back in the 70s.

Banana Split Cake
Crust:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix and line a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes

1st Layer:
2 cups confectioners sugar
8 oz cream cheese

Beat until creamy.  Spread over crust.  Cool in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

2nd Layer:
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple well drained.

Spread over crust and Layer #1

3rd Layer:
3 bananas

Sliced over layers

4th Layer:
1 cup fresh sliced strawberries or 2 (10 oz) packages frozen strawberries drained.

Spread over earlier layers

5th Layer:
1 large container of Cool Whip spread over top
Sprinkle with chopped nuts

You can make the crust ahead of time and then add the other layers on the day you serve it.

A Garden this Year?

For the first time since all my plants got drowned out a number of years ago I decided to plant some herbs.  But instead of planting them in pots I planted them in the ground.  When I did my last batch of plants in pots I had one lone oregano plant left over.  I was on my way to drop it in the trash and then it made me feel so guilty, after all it was just a baby, so I stuck it in the dirt alongside the garage.  It thrived.  And thrived.  And thrived.  This year we thought we pulled all of it out but it has now mingled it's way in with the mint that we can't get rid of either.

Here are some shots taken in June of the plants, although the chives died instantly and just yesterday I replaced it with a strawberry plant because I couldn't find anymore chives.

 Front row:  parsely, basil, cilantro  Back row:  rosemary, chives, missing strawberry

I did plant a tomato in a pot which is doing well.  Larry took very good care of them while I was at Greta's.

Flowers already on the tomatoes

And our apple tree is loaded with apples.  Last year we had none.  I may have mentioned that before.

June 9 - just babies

June 21 - growing up

I'm not Shrinking

These are a series of shots that were taken over the last 3 visits to Greta's which are only 3 months apart.

Myles at 13

Hunter at12

Tucker at 10

Congratulations to Myles

Today Myles won an award at school given annually to one outstanding 7th grader "who exemplifies the highest qualities of leadership, scholarship and service to the community".  We are all so proud of him.

Greta sent the video in a text and when I asked her if she knew she said, "We just knew Myles or Hunter were getting something but we didn't know who or what."

Bridge Club Related Deaths

Kay's husband died the other day and his obit was in the paper today.  I thought I should probably keep track of these things and then I remembered that I should add Beth's husband too because he was the first of the husbands to die.  But then I remembered about Ellie's husband who committed suicide so long ago and I can't remember what his first name was.  Maybe I should just keep it to our most recent members.  Then I better add Bob Chan too.

Walk

I walked 2 miles in 36 minutes today.  Maybe I don't need hip surgery after all :)

manage appleid

Found this today on the apple support communities page and don't want to lose it because this is similar to my problem.  I use one account for itunes and another for icloud.  One of my warranties is under the icloud account the others under the itunes.


Q:  AppleID, MobileMe, iCloud, iTunes mess

Can apple fix the appleID mess it's created?

Happy Birthday Larry

From Karen and Michael for Larry's birthday

You think??

Mother's Day Weekend

It was my slowest moving day.  I just couldn't get moving.  Usually I pack the night before I go but this time I packed in the morning.  It was only for a weekend and I wouldn't need that much and I actually did a good job of not overpacking.

On the drive Greta said if I got to her house by 5 we could drive together to Tucker's lower school concert.  I was 20 minutes away and all of a sudden my GPS showed a delay of another 20 minutes.  So I went straight to Brunswick and got there an hour before the start and got us the best seats right in front.

A jazz number

Tucker plays drums

Vanilla Vinaigrette Salad

Audrey invited us over for dinner the other night and I was bringing a salad.  I had fresh strawberries and oranges so looked up a salad that would have those ingredients.  I found one called "Salad Greens With Oranges, Strawberries and Vanilla Vinaigrette" at food.com and then remembered I had vanilla balsamic vinegar from F. Oliver's and made it "my own" as they say about singers.

Proportions aren't necessary.  Just use what you like or have on hand.  I'm listing what I've included in various versions I've made this past week as a reminder of options for next time.

My Vanilla Vinaigrette Salad

chopped romaine
small slices red onions
sectioned oranges
sliced strawberries
blackberries
grape tomatoes
toasted walnuts or pecans
blue cheese

Vanilla Vinaigrette
3 parts EVOO
2 parts vanilla balsamic vinegar

Cruise & Barcelona April 1-26

We have so many good pictures and memories from this trip, too many to put here especially since I need to do a magazine to document the trip but I'll post some of my favorite highlights here as we drank our way around.

Bermuda

Funchal, Portugal

Florida - Week 3 - short week

Tuesday I met Dennis, the brother (who works at Vistana Beach) of the woman from the wine and cheese the previous Tuesday night.  Glad I got to meet him because she had already told him about the circumstances of how we had met.  If I don't explain that here now will I remember 5 years from now?? Hint:  It was at a game to meet people where you had to list some facts about yourself on a paper that was given out to others and they had to find you.

From the Beach Club we went to Orlando for a few days at the Vistana Villages before the cruise and were able to get into our favorite section.  This was probbly the first time that we were in Orlando that we didn't go to an outlet mall.  Something must be wrong with me, I seem to have lost my desire to shop.  Or maybe it was that I didn't have one inch of space in my suitcase or weight for the plane when we were going to have to fly home from Barcelona.

We left on Saturday to head to Port Canaveral and return our rental car.  On our way to return the car where we thought the rental place was we came upon it in a different location.  Our timing was perfect, we dropped the car off, got on the van to the port and almost immediately got onto the ship with no lines and very little waiting.  However, that was probably the last time we didn't have to stand in a line for the entire cruise.

Florida - Week 2

Mon- March 20
Michael and Doris came to visit today.  After hanging out for awhile we went out to get some lunch.  We didn't know where we were going but then decided to go to downtown Stuart.  Doris remembered being on the street we were with her Grandmother and going to a jewelry store.  Laura also has mentioned this is a good area to go to for lots of restaurants and shops.  We had lunch at the Osceola Street Cafe

photo courtesy of my copying from Google maps

I wasn't too hungry so couldn't decide what to get but finally decided on a veggie melt.  It was delicious and I brought half of it home.   We wandered around Stuart on our way to the car and from

there we went to the Harris Museum which was filled with all kinds of old things especially cars that are in mint condition.  We had 1 hour and 10 minutes before they closed and thought that was just the right amount of time until we came to the photography room.  Here were all these great shots with the behind the scenes story of how each photographer was able to catch the shot.  This is something that shouldn't be missed because you'll want to read all the descriptions.  The people working there were so nice when they noticed how we were engrossed and they wanted to kick us out so they gave us four complimentary tickets so that we could go back.
For dinner we went to Shuckers around 6:00 and we ate inside because we would have to wait for an hour to eat outside.  I got my normal fish tacos and they were as good as always, even indoors.

On Thursday Nadine and Michael came and we went to Shuckers again, this time for lunch around 3:15, the best time when there never seems to be a wait.  I decided to get something new so I got a Tomato Mozzarella Panini, it was good but I think I'll stick with my tacos or the ahi tuna burger.

Friday became dark, windy and later in the afternoon we had a lot of rain.  We all went to the Harris Museum in the afternoon and I got to read the descriptions with all the pictures.  From there we went to a Mexcian restaurant, Cinco de Mayo, in the Publix shopping center for a late lunch, early dinner. 

Friday morning we all went for a walk on the street.  It was windy again but nice for walking as long as you held on to your hat.  Since we ate out for the last two days today was the day to help eat what we have in the refrigerator plus the ice cream that we bought last night and everyone was too full to eat.  Nadine and Michael left around 7:00 - a fun few days with them.

Saturday Audrey and Steve drove up from where they were staying at Marriott Ocean Pointe in Palm Beach Shores.  We sat out on the deck, ate popcorners, hummus and peanut butter pretzels and caught up on our travels.  They watched IVs game while I went to the pool and then we went to, where else, Shuckers.

Sunday I finally got a chance to take a walk on the beach again.  I walked all the way down to the CVS plaza and saw that there was a public beach and huge parking lot which wasn't noticeable when we walked on the street.

Monday morning, our last full day here, started out like a "real" Florida day.  It was hot and sunny and then the next time I turned around it was grey clouds and rainy.

Florida - Week 1

I can't believe the first week in Florida is over all ready.  I've washed the windstorm, no power, sleepless night and having to pack out of my mind (even though I just finally blogged about it last night).  We arrived down here around 11 PM after a nice, short, direct flight from Rochester.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn Orlando Airport using Larry's free night from his credit card.  If we didn't have to change our flight we would have forgotten all about that night and lost it.

The next day we took the shuttle from the hotel back to the airport to get our rental car from Dollar.  I was really concerned about the price we were told we would get when I booked the car because it was so good using a AAA discount.  When we went to get it we did upgrade to a medium priced car and it went up $200.  We got this really cute KIA Soul.

We drove to the Vistana Beach Club and our room wasn't ready so we went to Shuckers for lunch.

When we came back our room was ready and found out we got a room in the beachfront building. Later on in the week I realized it was the same room we had last year based on photos I took from the beach.  This is the picture from last year with Larry out on the deck.

We started off out stay here mostly doing some grocery shopping and some walking either on the beach or on the street.  On Friday, St Patrick's Day, after a corned beef and cabbage dinner, we went to The Barn Theatre in Stuart and saw Neil Simon's Chapter II.  The cast did a great job and we were so glad we went.

On Sunday Larry got a picture of me from the deck as I took a walk on the beach.  It was the first day nice enough to walk with a bathing suit.

Blizzard

Saturday night, after we had our power back I was lying on the couch watching TV and for some reason I went to the Southwest app on my phone.  I noticed they were talking about an impending blizzard that was forecast and were offering people with flights on various days from various cities to change their flight at no extra charge.

Our flight was scheduled for Tuesday morning and they had Tuesday and Wednesday as the days that could be changed if you were scheduled to fly out of Rochester.  I changed our flight to Monday morning and almost instantly realized I had an important dental appointment Monday morning to take care of some things before we would be gone for 6 weeks.  I called southwest and was informed that there would be 76 minute hold time or I could have a call back.  I chose the callback and more than 90 minutes later, at 1:06 I got the call.  I was on hold for 10 minutes before a real person came on the phone and after another 45 minutes and some begging and pleading we got on the Monday night flight.

I booked us a room at the Fairfield Airport hotel and by then, since the clocks were also moved ahead an hour, it was too late to go to sleep since it was almost time to get up.  Who knows what else I was doing but I was probably pretty wired by then and too tired to be tired.  I made it through all of Sunday without a nap and finished packing and got ready for the trip.

Karen took us to the airport where we shared a Subway sandwich for dinner.

Our plane was about 1 1/2 hours late but we got on it with all the other people who had switched their flight and flew direct to Orlando in 2 1/2 hours.

During the day the flights for Tuesday were cancelled and between Tuesday and Wednesday there was a snowfall of 27 inches in Rochester.  We were so fortunate to get our power back when  we did and get our flight out when we did.

Windstorm

Most of February and the beginning of March were such mild times for winter in Rochester.  We didn't have any snow stick around long enough to snowshoe or X-C ski.  Then all of a sudden we got a windstorm with winds up to 80 mph and the damage was almost as bad as the ice storm of 1991.
It was Wednesday, March 8th, I had a dentist appointment that morning and then was meeting Terry for lunch at the Red Lobster in Henrietta.  I didn't really notice the winds being that strong on my drive there but I did notice that some traffic lights were out.

During lunch Larry called to say that our power was out.  I guess I didn't think too much of it until we left and I got in my car.  The wind was howling.  The traffic lights were swaying back and forth and as I sat in my car without even turning it on, I felt like I would be whisked off to Oz just like Dorothy.

I called Larry and he was on the phone with me for most of my drive home.  The intersection of Jefferson and E. Henrietta Rd didn't have any traffic lights working but all the drivers were very good at taking turns.  I was glad to get on the expressway before I had to come to anymore traffic lights.  It wasn't until I got close to home that I could see where the problems were in our neighborhood.  I had to detour 3 times because trees were down across the road and I couldn't get through.   The trees took wires down with them too.
This was the first tree that I saw down on Raphael, roots and all as were most of the downed trees.

Oops, not going to get through this way so I turned around and went the other way on Stony Point Trail.

but when I tried to go that way, I wasn't going to get through there either and as I turned my car around

I watched this tree go down right next to me in slow motion.

Of course, now that we didn't have any power the temperature started to drop too.  We went out and took a walk around the neighborhood and when we realized the extent of the damage we didn't think we'd get it back right away.  The first night was fun. We had wine and appetizers in front of the fireplace and my leftovers from lunch for dinner.

The next day Larry and I both had breakfast plans and both wound up coming home without having breakfast.  It seems like everyone in town without power decided to go out for breakfast too and the lines were really long everywhere.  I was in Irondequoit and Larry was in Pittsford.  I saw that Wegmans had power so I took my devices and power cords and headed over there.  It was packed and the people at Wegmans were wonderful installing additional power cords and extensions in the food court to help out everyone and there was food too.  I spent the day there and Larry came over for awhile too.

At night it was wine and appetizers in front of the fire again.  I got my Coleman propane little stove up from the basement and cooked soup that we had in the freezer out on the deck.  I bought that stove in 2003 when we had the last ice storm so that if I lost power again I would at least be able to boil water for coffee.

Friday morning we used that little camp stove to boil water in the garage and then make some camp style drip coffee.  The coffee pot and drip were never used before either.

John brought over their generator that morning since he and Karen got their power back on Thursday and we got our refrigerator and microwave plugged in and hooked up a bunch of extension cords.

 I was hoping for some light and heat because I needed to pack and it was colder and darker in the downstairs bedroom where all my clothes were.  The next day he was going to install something to do the furnace.  Our gas fireplace was keeping the upstairs warm in the meantime.  It turns out we couldn't do the furnace after all because it was relatively new and had a lot of safety features.  

Saturday as we were camped out again in front of the fire with our wine I get a text from Betty saying how great it was to have power again.  We never would have known since we had the generator running unless we would have noticed lights from the outside.  We shut off the generator and flipped the switch and kept our fingers crossed.  YEA!!!!  We had power and HEAT!!!!!  What a great day!

Next up, a blizzard was on the way.