I was home today until 11:30 except for picking up SHARE at 9AM. We got a nice mixture today. Chicken, Imitation Crab, Pork chops, beef lunch meat and seasoned chicken breasts. AND we also got a cantaloupe, apples, oranges, potatoes and onions. I knew we were getting a cantaloupe so I have a watermelon on hand and will make a fruit salad tomorrow or the next day.

I cleaned Dick's bathroom while he was sleeping and did some more desk straightening.

And I DID remember to put the yeast in the currant wine when I got up this morning. It was supposed to go into the mix 12 hours after the other ingredients were added. Bobbie and I laughed and said that meant I had to get up at 1:30AM. (Fat Chance.) But it is all added, now I will check it daily and let Bobbie know when it is fermenting really good.

I left at 11:30 or so for the warm up for Stevan Naffin's memorial. Boy, did we have a choir. There were lots of people who couldn't make it for the practice so the choir seats were full. The service was really beautiful. It started with a half hour prelude beginning at 12:30. The choir sang two pieces, the bell choir did two pieces, there were good friends of Steve including Linda O'Brien, Andy Gremminger who played and/or sang songs that Steve had written or co -written. Andy sang a beautiful song that he and Stevan had co-written. Then we got into the Mass which was again full of music and lots of love. It was hard not to cry. After the Mass, we did a Hymn Sing beginning with Amazing Grace and ending with America the Beautiful with the whole congregation joining in.

With Zach Holzer directing us, who did a lot of training under Stevan, we really felt good and sang our hearts out. I know we sounded good, because we felt good about it. Mary Jo picked out perfect songs and we sang two of them a capella.

After that everybody was invited to the Boys and Girls Club for a social and remembrance time. I saw and visited with so many people that I had not seen much since I moved to Plymouth. Bob is doing quite well. He was pleased with this day, such a nice tribute to his life partner.

I got home at about 430. Roxie was waiting impatiently. If she wore a watch, she would have been pointing at it and asking where I had been. I fed them right away and have been kind of lazing around since. We had soup and grilled cheese for our supper. Easy and good. I had a container of dump soup in the freezer that I defrosted and heated up.

We are down to pizza soup and turkey soup now as far as homemade soups.

Tomorrow I will make the reservations for my train trip to Chicago and my hotel room.
I get to stay home all day anyway. I am looking forward to that.

Til tomorrow

Love

Mary

No good walk for Chelsea today. There was a steady chilly rain all day. She does not mind the damp stuff coming down, but I sure don't want to walk in it.

She had enough excitement today anyway. Her annual vet appointment was this morning at 8AM. Quite early. She is doing as well as can be expected, I guess. The only possible medicine that Dr. Pat could offer to help delay the deterioration in her heart failure an other signs could possibly and probably would cause liver damage. So we will just continue as we are. We got her nails clipped too. A couple of weeks ago she got her dewclaw caught in her collar and that could be dangerous.

Dr. Pat thinks that Chelsea's seizures are really fainting spells when the oxygen stops being pumped to her brain. For the first time since I know her, she peed on the floor at the vets office, I think she was just too excited and I did not get her outside soon enough.

So we just keep taking care of and enjoying her as long as we can.

I met Bobbie at the American Club for the Food and Wine event. We had a good time as we always do, but were really a bit disappointed in it this year. It was not newly as big as last year. There were less vendors and virtually no wine vendors. We were hoping to run into some of them from last year. But we tasted several cheeses and oils and other foods, then went over to the Design Center and Woodlake Market. We did see a demonstration at Woodlake from Stone Crossing Winery. We got to taste their Pinot Noir and I bought a bottle of their Riesling and got a free wine glass with it. They also did a cooking demonstration of a nummy pork sandwich with apple mayonnaise as a dressing- Now I can't find the recipe but I will, or ask Bobbie for a copy as it was delicious.

Anyway, then Bobbie and I came back here and put the sugar into the currant wine. Tomorrow I will add the yeast and then wait for it to start fermenting.

I took a nice nap this afternoon. Then went shooting with Nancy at 5PM. She and I both did pretty good tonight. I am done with this league, which is good because I will be gone next Friday to Chicago for the IBAM event at the Irish Center. Then the 6th is the bust up party. Such a whirlwind of a life.

Take care - Til tomorrow.

Mary

Chelsea woke me up at 2:30AM again this morning. But I was able to get back to sleep quickly and slept til shortly after 6AM. We had a lot to do before 8AM when Joan, the cleaning lady came.

Bobbie came at 10AM because we mixed up her currant wine. I took the currants out of the freezer last night so they would be somewhat thawed. As it turned out, the only thing we had to do today was to crush the berries and then pour boiling water on them. So Bobbie will come back tomorrow after we have our fun at the Kohler Food and Wine Experience. We had such a good time last year that we want to go back. I am going to try to find some raspberry mustard for Dick. He loved what I got last year. I found out it makes a good addition to pork chops when they are cooking too.

I made a vegetable nut loaf for our dinner. It was an experiment to see if it would make a good vegetarian main dish for Thanksgiving. The three of us agreed that is is good. So I am set.

Dick had his dental appointment to put in the permanent filling in his root canal at 1PM. That went so quickly that I told him he had not left me enough time to finish the chapter in the book I was reading.

I took a nap when I got home until my cell phone rang. It was in my purse across the room and by the time I got there I was too late. But they called back as I was trying to see who it was. It was Fuzzie's Bakery wondering where they were to deliver the rolls. He had been given a wrong number, obviously. We got a good laugh out of that.

I went downstairs and did a bit of sewing on my quilt projects, then came up and fixed our supper.

Tonight was the choir practice for the memorial service for my friend, Stevan Naffin, which will be on Saturday. Zack and Mary Jo Holzer picked out some really uplifting happy songs that we know very well. Soon and Very Soon, Over My Head, On That Holy Mountain, We are Singing, For the Lord is our Light.

It was a reunion night. I can't express how much I enjoyed singing with a choir again and with these particular people in memory of a man who taught us so very much in the years we sang under him. I think Saturday will be something special.

It was raining most of the day, not hard but just enough to make the day cold and leave a chill in the bones. When we got back from the dentist a lone crow was in the upper branches of a tree across the street complaining at the top of his lungs. I am sure that he was complaining about the rain too.

I don't know if tomorrow will be any better weather wise. Dick mentioned today that he doesn't even remember a summer this year.

Oh well, at least the nice holidays are coming up.

Enjoy your Friday

Love

Mary

Today was a mixed blessing. Chelsea let me sleep until 5:30AM. As well she should have as I took her out at 10PM or so. I decided to just stay up then but am regretting it a bit now because I am really tired.

Actually, it was good that I had the extra time, because Dick had his appointment with Dr. Sharon at 9AM and we had a lot to do to get him ready for that.

The appointment went very well. All of his vitals are good and he has lost four pounds since he was weighed last. We are pleased with that news. We scheduled a day for his colonoscopy. Not a joyous thing but perhaps something will be discovered that can help solve the choking that he has been experiencing. It is scheduled for November 13 so he has time to get mentally prepared.

I went grocery shopping after we got home and then fixed our lunch, after which we both took a nap. I had a rather short one as the phone rang twice. Once with a message from Aurora about one of mom's prescriptions and the other was - get this - BARBARA, calling from Germany to let me know that Bart is safe and sound and that all is well. She is exhausted with work and everything else that is going on but they are so glad to be together again. And I am glad that I know that he has safely arrived. I have their phone number too.

I picked up a couple of prescriptions for Dick this afternoon and stopped at the bank. We finally got a refund from the Insurance Company. We had to prepay for the last month he spent there. It only took them 9 months to get our payment to us. So. we are rich. Actually, we just put it into the Medical reserve that we try to keep up.

This evening I heated some homemade veggie soup and made grilled cheese for supper. Now it is time to just relax and wait for bedtime.

I have a funny little kitty sitting on my desk who seems suddenly very big when she is spreading herself out over everything. I sure like having my peaceable kingdom back. Miss my Oscar. I think that Roxie misses him too. She is so cuddly.

Love

Mary

I had a rotten sleeping night last night. Every joint in my lower extremity hurt. So, I was tired most of the day. I got most of my work done in the morning, cooking, cleaning, emailing and getting Dick's foot all changed cleaned, so after lunch, I lay down and slept for almost two hours. It was great.

Then I went downstairs and spent an hour assembling quilting blocks. Dick was still napping so I was uninterrupted, except for Roxie who finally climbed into a chair down there and took a nap.


Tonight was the Herbal Class at 6PM. So I had to leave at 5:30PM. It was kind of misting when I drove there and is still misting a bit. Actually, when I took Chelsea for her walk at 9AM, it was beautiful. There wasn't any sun, but the temperature was very pleasant and there was no wind. We ran into several people as we walked because it was trash day and more people come out in the morning then. As we walked down Cattail Lane, I could hear the geese. There were hundreds of them just swarming all over the skies, all trying to talk at once. They didn't seem to have any organization, there were just lots of them, many in vees. All the vees were going in different directions and eventually they all flew out of sight.

Anyway, we had an interesting herbal class. Linda brought two infusions for us to try. One was a mullein, which is an plant that strengthens the lungs and is good for preventing colds. The other was roasted dandelion root, which is bitter somewhat like a coffee. They were both OK. I liked the mullein best. I am still looking for an infusion that I would like to drink every day.

Then she prepared a salad of wild plants: dandelion leaf, Queen Anne's Lace, chick weed, chives, fennel and many others. We got to sample with a salad dressing that she gave us the recipe for and a seed mixture to add some crunch. It was really good.

On the way home I stopped at Mother's to drop off her eye vitamins. We had a little visit and I have a call to make for her tomorrow. Next week we are going to meet for the class at 5:30PM. We are hoping to not have the rain and have a bit of light so we can go out in the woods and identify a few plants out there.

That is all for now. Chelsea is whining at me to take her out for the third time since I got home and I am ready to wind down for the night anyway. It is 10:20PM and way past my bedtime.

Til tomorrow

Mary

I am really tired AGAIN tonight. I am sure that you are tired of hearing about that. But it was a good day. Part of the problem was Chelsea. She woke me up shortly after 2AM this morning. So I took her out. Because it was SO middle of the night, I did not shut the door.

Big mistake. She was back at 2:30AM. This time I did shut the door and slept until 6:30 after I got back to sleep. But interrupted sleep is always a problem.

Anyway. This morning I had Bible study at 9:30. We had a nice group there, nine in all. We are at the end of Mark chapter 4 and got into good discussions on parables, the gifts of the Spirit and how to apply the lessons to today. A good question was posed. Are there prophets in our modern age? Fran pointed out that perhaps Martin Luther King was a prophet. He saw things, and many of them have come true.

ThenI dropped some things off to Mother. She was at the ear doctor. So I came home after filling up the tank and picking up prescriptions for Dick at Walgreens. We had a meal that Dick felt was worthy of a king. Meatballs, gravy and NOODLES with Brussels Sprouts and apple cookies for dessert.

Next, Cream City Writers at 1PM. We had a good group there too with a new person showing up, Vicki. That is always nice. We read what we had for the week then spent 15 minutes just writing on Autumn or pumpkins or something. I wrote the following that I may expand on.

Some of the trees are vivid red this year. I learned that if the leaves turn too soon it means that the tree is dying. What a glorious way to die. Bathed in color.

It was a good meeting.

When I got home, I took a nap. As I said that I am tired, I guss it just was not long enough.

Tomorrow is quiet all day but I will be going to UW Sheboygan for my Herb Class in the evening but the day is mine.

It was pleasant out there but I had hoped that the temps would be just a little more "user friendly". I felt quite chilled when I was out in the open air.

Take care and enjoy the week.

Mary

 

Here is a picture of me and my friend Janet at the Samhain dinner wearing our CWI tartan at Rhine in front of the old hunter's safety posters.

Pretty nice.

Mary

A quiet Sunday, kind of. I went to Mass at 9:30 as I was unable to go last night. It was a nice mass and I got to see my friend's the Cain's grandson Charlie who was in church for his baptism after the Mass. He is a lovely little chubby healthy fellow who smiles easily.

Watched the Packer game. They won handily, but there were lots of mistakes. Poor Aaron Rogers is still not being protected, I can't even remember how many times he was sacked and the fouls were ridiculous, but they won anyway. Handily.

I napped during part of the game. I am still exhausted.

I did a review of our Samhain for the Sheboygan Group and did some research of the International CWI.

Bart called this afternoon. He leaves for Germany tomorrow. He has a long flight with three changes so pray for him. I am worried about his sitting for such a long time. He says he has fresh patches and will try to stretch his legs during the flights.

Tomorrow will be busy with Bible Study and Cream City Writers.

Take care. I baked apple cookies today that are really really good.

Mary