thanks for the reminder - I'd forgotten about this dish! I don't have any ginger - and it's too snowy to go out and get any, but maybe I can make it without the ginger (although I'm sure it's better with..). I do have a bunch of vegetables in my fridge I need to do something with, so...

chocolate tuna sandwich??

Mornin' All!

well I need to get back on plan today. I've been allowing too many calories lately - not ungodly amounts, but enough extra every day that I'm not going to like what the scale says on Wednesday morning. Plus I've got some "eating events" at the end of the week - a luncheon and a dinner banquet on Thursday, and a wine tasting thing on Friday night (I hope that's it!!). So I need to be really careful until then. Not much else going on this week. My sister leaves on Thursday, so it's back to Mom duty. But we've been "testing" her, and she seems to be OK being by herself for several hours at a pop. So I'm going to hire someone to be with her an hour or two in the mornings, and I'll go over in the evenings. And I have to skip one here and there, it should be OK - she can now take her lidocaine patch and sling off by herself, can get into her pajamas, and can put herself to bed. The only thing is that she's still taking oxycodone, so if she still has some left by the time I take over, I really do have to go over there because she can't remember if and when she's taken it, so we have to hide it and mete it out. But she SHOULD be just about done with that. Hopefully by mid-April she'll be well enough that she won't need people around all the time - but we'll see.

I decided to watch all the 2024 Oscar nominees for best documentary since I'm in two documentary film groups, and one of the groups wants to discuss some of the films. Saw "To Kill a Tiger" yesterday. Fabulous! That one is definitely on the docket for the group. I'll watch more this week.

QOTD: I'm adventurous about everything except meat. I do not do weird meat. I rarely eat meat in general, but the common five or six I WILL eat (pork, chicken, fish, etc). Well except lamb. Will not eat. Lambs are too cute!

coffee with half & half

skyr with fruit

protein shake

chili

Greek yogurt

eggplant kuku

have a great day, everyone!

I LOVE pistachios - I would go ape over that cookie!

Mornin' All!

I was over at Mom's last night. My sister thinks she's doing better, but I don't know. Her memory ability has declined - or maybe it's just that I rarely spent more than an hour or so over there most of the time before, so I hadn't really noticed it until now. I'm worried about what will happen when my sister leaves a week from today. I think I'm going to have to arrange to have someone come in at least a couple of hours a day. If that doesn't do the trick, then it's finding new living arrangements for her. Having this going on after coming off months of awfulness with my MIL is about to put me over the edge. But...this is life. This is dealing with aging parents.

I went to a birthday luncheon yesterday and then had pizza at my mother's last night. I vastly overate and feel terrible this morning. I don't think I have any more formal "eating events" until a week from today (a lunch AND a dinner next Thursday), so I'm going to try to REALLY eat lightly until then to deal with this. I feel awful.

Having people stay at one job (or at least with one employer) for most/all of their career is a great sign. I was in an environment like that at my last job (a university library). So many lifers there. I think I was the "new person" at the library for the first five years I was there! (I stayed there for 16 years before retiring - it was a terrific place to work!)

QOTD: we have pretty much everything here being that we're a big college town - Chicago style, Detroit style, New York style, Trenton style. Although I think the "cracker thin crust" might be kind of a specialty here - several places feature it. It's even kind of crunchy since it's so thin. We also have a local place called Ian's that does all kinds of bizarre pizzas - like a traditional pizza dough with macaroni and cheese on it (I'm not a fan of such creativity when it comes to pizza, but it seems to appeal to a lot of people). Ian's became famous during the huge labor union protests we had under Scott Walker 10 or 15 years ago (probably since it's less than a block from the capitol building). People from literally all over the world were ordering pizzas for the protestors from Ian's!

coffee with half & half

Greek yogurt

protein shake

bagged salad and some kind of protein

more Greek yogurt ?

I'm going to make this Iranian dish tonight that I couldn't make last week because of my mother's accident (I actually had to cancel out on three events - all of which I was supposed to bring a dish to. Unfortunately, I'd already purchased all the ingredients for them). It's an aubergine kuku - sounds a bit like a quiche but with eggplant in it - and dried cranberries (the recipe calls for barberries, but I wasn't going to run all over town looking for barberries - I read online that dried cranberries are a good substitute, so I decided to go with that)

ex: I'd better! Probably Aqua Zumba - if I can manage to get my bloated body into a swimsuit today!!

have a great day, everyone!

Mornin' All!

my weight was up 4 lbs over last week (most of which has to be water and "crap"), but still.. It's the heaviest I've been since pre-surgery. Unfortunately, I have lunch out today and my sister wants to order pizza for dinner (at my mom's). May have to order soup for lunch and I don't know about dinner - stick to one piece, I guess (although 1-2 pieces is my norm "anyway", so...). God I hate this constant battle..

we spent a chunk of yesterday afternoon with Mom's insurance broker. We've got her on a much more reasonably-priced plan now, but she's so confused about everything. The only thing that's changing is her eye doctors (both types), but she still seems really stressed out about all of this. Although I know change can be hard for elderly folks. My sister seems to think my mom will do fine after she (sis) goes home at the end of next week, but I don't know. She seems confused all the time. Hopefully it's just some temporary thing as the result of the accident. If not, I'm not sure what we'll do. I wish this wasn't all happening so soon after my MIL's death. This past year (starting last March, when MIL first got really sick) has been awful.

QOTD: I've been retired for the last four years, so I can't really remember. I can be up and out the door in 30 minutes, but I prefer to take my time. I don't really like to schedule anything before 9:00, even though I'm often up by 6:00. Coffee, breakfast, email, Facebook, OH, (digital) newspaper reading, online games (Wordle, Worldle (these first two are two different games), Waffle, Redactle, Globle, Globle Capitals, crossword puzzle). After all that, I'm ready to roll!

coffee with half & half

Greek yogurt

protein shake

soup

more Greek yogurt (?)

one piece of pizza

ex: I'd better do it. If nothing else, I can go over to the gym and pedal a bike for an hour - but I'll check to see what all is going on - and what the weather forecast is.

have a great day, everyone!

Mornin' All!

sorry I've been MIA lately. I'd been staying with my mother who had a fall on Thursday morning and broke her arm. My sister flew in from Nevada on Saturday night to stay with her (she'll be here for 10 days - fabulous!!), and DH and I left for Chicago Sunday morning and got back last night (he had his Global Entry interview at O'Hare yesterday afternoon, so we just made a couple of days of it). I'm hoping my mother is going to get A LOT better by the time my sister leaves, because the following day the film festival starts, and I'm going to be swamped. We may have to end up hiring someone to stay with her. She's OK for an hour two on her own, but she needs help with some things and also, she gets very confused about her meds. I've been talking to sis about the very real possibility of assisted living or paying someone to live with her 24/7 if things don't really improve, but this is going to be an uphill battle...with both my mom and my sister. But this is a safety issue and I can't live at my mother's house - and if she moves in here (which I don't want), I can't be here 24/7 to watch her. Anyway, this has been really stressing me out - but hopefully, she'll improve enough to stay on her own. I guess I shouldn't panic yet. At least staying with her has given me a chance to take a look at her bank account. She is paying an ungodly amount for her Medigap insurance, so we're meeting with her insurance broker this afternoon (he's coming to her apt) to see what her options are. And she's running a ridiculous balance on her credit card and forking over interest payments every month, when she's got a wad sitting in her investment account. WTF? She doesn't want to touch that because she "might need it", and she'll get charged fees if she withdraws any of it. So she's planning to live to be 120 years old? And she's saving that $$ to use in the afterlife? We called her broker the other day to transfer enough $$ to her bank account to pay off the damn card. She's all confused about that too. This has been a rough few days...

QOTD: I'm really good about exercising, even if it's just getting off the bus a few stops early to walk to class. I know that if I get in at least 30 minutes of exercise most days (and I usually do an hour), I don't have to worry that much about going over a little on my calorie limit occasionally (and by that I mean 100 kcal or so - not by a ton!)

coffee with half & half

Greek yogurt

pedicure later this morning and then to Mom's - may take a protein bar or shake with me

probably another Greek. yogurt this afternoon

probably chili for dinner

have a great day, everyone!

Mornin' All!

I have to take my mother to her tax appt this morning. Class this afternoon, but not sure if I'll go or not - but since it's the class before spring break, maybe I should so at least he has a small group there. I remember from working on campus for. years that the kids start leaving on Wednesday - and the Thursday/Friday classes are typically a bust (some profs cancel them since they know hardly anyone will be there). I also need to get some exercise. I didn't do that well eating-wise yesterday, and I have two "eating events" tomorrow (a luncheon and then a party tomorrow night), and my cookbook group meets on Saturday. Well, and then there's Sunday/Monday - we'll be in Chicago since DH has his Global Entry interview at O'Hare at noon on Monday. Yikes. This is going to involve some tough food navigation...

QOTD: as I mentioned in response to Kelly's post, I'm not very auditory, so I could never speed things up. I have a hard enough time keeping my mind on some auditory thing when it's at regular speed. I'm often rewinding things because I missed something. I don't do audiobooks at all - and all but one podcast I've ever listened to (the Bear Brook one) has also been on YouTube, so I can watch the people talk (although even then, I sometimes have to rewind).

B: Greek yogurt, coffee with half & half

MS: should probably take a protein shake with me - it'll be a long-ish morning

L: ?? If I'm home, then probably tuna salad on a Wasa cracker (need to focus on finishing this tuna)

AS: ?? more Greek yogurt, maybe

D: we've got chili and sautéed vegetables with peanut sauce, so one of those

have a great day, everyone!

I feel the same way about relationships at our age. They're so much work during the first year or so. If anything happens to DH, I'll probably just go it alone. I have enough women friends and am involved in enough things that it's not like I'd be sitting at home every day twiddling my thumbs. Plus I enjoy my "alone" time, so there's that.

that's kind of what I'm thinking. Guy #2 said tuckpointing might only last a few years - like five or so - whereas a rebuild will last for decades. I guess it's hard for them to say because although there's obvious mortar missing and damaged at the surface, they can only see so far back between the stones. We're still thinking about getting a 3rd opinion, though...but at this point I'm kind of leaning towards a rebuild because at least we'll know it'll last for a really long time. I'm not sure what DH is thinking. He's doing some reading up on it, and I don't want to sway his opinion one way or the other at this point.

you guys -

I've been reading about cottage cheese ice cream lately and finally gave in to the urge to try making it. When I've made low-cal ice creams before (e.g., frozen protein shakes), they're icy and not really ice cream-y. So in addition to the cottage cheese (which I made myself so it wouldn't have salt in it), I added both milk and half & half (about half of each), and both sugar and xylitol (unfortunately, fat and sugar really help with the texture - anything without them is going to be icy...so I have at least of some of both in there ). I also churned it in my ice cream freezer (most people don't - they just put it in a container and stick it in the freezer for a few hours). It turned out fabulous! It's not low-cal (235 kcal/cup), but it has 18 grams of protein in that cup! So I had a cup of it for lunch (I know - awful lunch - but I just HAD to try it). If my future indulgences are for a snack or dessert, I can eat half a cup (well, if that's possible..it's pretty damn good...)

thanks!!!

we don't celebrate Easter, but for spring desserts, I usually make something like a lemon cake...or another "springy" flavor.