Friday January 19th 2024

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 19, 2024

Good morning!

Joe, hope you have a good day. Do you have a home exercise routine? Equipment?

One of my Gen Z coworkers was showing me the app she uses to work out at home on her phone. She pays a fee but it seems pretty tailored to her and has videos daily, and she can choose her instructor. Some of them require some equipment like weights.

I still prefer getting out and going to the gym and yoga class. I never felt I would have the discipline to do it at home. But often my discipline lacks in getting up and going out. During the very brief lockdown here (I live in Florida) I did yoga at home pretty faithfully and walked outside.

I would have ate that chicken pot pie.

Dianah, glad you got your car back finally.

I just finished a book called "The Celebrants" about a group of friends that gather to have their funerals while they are still living over the course of many decades. At the end one of the friends is actually dying of cancer. Next up is a novel about a scam artist. Was recommended by a man that founded "shopqueer.com" to promote queer writers and give them a bigger share of profits than places like Amazon. He has a book club and I've read several of his recommendations and enjoy them all. (Side note, his husband is extremely handsome and also does drag and is a very pretty drag queen)

I leave Tuesday to India. First flying to Newark and have a long layover. This is in case there's a delay or something goes wrong we hopefully won't miss our connection. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but my history with flights is bad. Then a grueling 15 hour flight from Newark to Dehli. That will be torture. Coming back we go to Frankfurt Germany and then a non-stop to Tampa. Both are quite long flights but better than 15 hours. I hate flying but want to travel to far away places.

I went to India in 2008 and cut the trip short. My main reason for going back is to see the Taj Mahal which isn't in Dehli. Dehli is indeed chaotic. That's a good word. It's immensely crowded, smelly, polluted and dirty. The traffic is mostly at a standstill and they use their horns often. The contrast between rich, working class and the poor is stunning. Many people are overwhelmed and say India stands for "I'll Never Do It Again".

We'll be in Dehli one day before heading out to see various temples and sites around the northern country. We'll venture so far from Dehli that we'll take a plane from the famed and holy Ganges River back to Dehli before we fly out home. We're staying in Western quality hotels a couple with good names like the Sheraton and Raddison. No slumming it. I'm too old for that.

Today is wash the sheets day. I have a goal to mow my lawn and am charging the battery. We'll see if my motivation stays up. LOL

Have a great day.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 19, 2024

Hello all!

Thanks for describing your trip, Tweety! I look forward to photos and your descriptions once you're there.

On my last flight to France (four??? years ago???), I had restless legs in the last two hours of the 13-hr plane ride. It was MISERABLE!! So coming back, I threw caution to the winds, and upgraded to a business or first class. What. A. Difference! I had room to stretch out, remove shoes, and just enjoy the trip! I had no trouble with restless legs. My next-door seat-mate was an MD, an anesthesiologist, from Oregon, who had a side venture that required him to travel a lot. He said he ALWAYS travels business or first class on overseas trips, and will sleep on the way over (he remarked, I hope you will not be expecting me to carry on long conversations, I need to sleep on the flight). I hope you will have an uneventful flight, Tweety!

I will cook a little today, the simple rice dish: chicken rice-a-roni, and add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, two cans of shredded chicken, and I add a bag of frozen green beans. Combine all and bake at 350 for 45 min, sprinkle fried onion rings on top, bake another 5 min. One of our favorite "slop, plop, and bake" (slop all ingredients in a bowl, mix, then plop into casserole dish, and bake) recipes. We have finished the hot and sour soup, it was a hit!

Have a good day and evening!

No Stars In My Eyes · Jan 19, 2024

Slop, plop, and bake sounds pretty good to me. When my nephew was young we made a"dump cake" together----ya just throw stuff in the casserole-type dish and put it in the oven; somehow it sorts itself out with nary a stir. It was okay; mostly did it for nephew as he was intrigued by dumping the ingredients into the dish and seeing how it turned out.

Gosh, 15 hours on a plane sounds---tedious! I think the idea of switching to 1st class is a good way to go, for that long of a trip. Not sure of how much $ that would add on, but the idea of not being wedged into a narrow seat with your shoulders being tucked in close by a large person in the seat next to you, might make it worth it ! Easy for me to say, because taking a plane somewhere is pretty unlikely for me!

Supposed to get up to 50 degrees today, but, as the winds are 15-20 mph from the NW, it means the 'feels like' temp is pretty darn COLD! The winds just suck the warm air out of the house. We definitely could use someone to winterize the house; possibly BiL? This house could also use a thorough renovation. Wish I could get a few of the people from one of the HGTV shows to come here to demolish and reconstruct! Not that I have the $$$,$$$. But, ANYTHING they did would help! Nannie would probably have an entire 'litter' of cows, which would absolutely have to go in RIPLEY'S Believe It Or Not! I can see the headlines now: 94 y.o. Woman Gives Birth to SIX calves! That would be amazing, because she could be considered a 'born-again' virgin!

Love having the electric fireplace going. It takes a while to heat up the den, but once we're there, it's nice. The temp choices are 500, 750, and 1000, so I put it on 750 for now, to counteract the heat-sucking winds. But,I can use a hoodie later, and/or a lap-robe, if the winds effects prove to be too much for the electric fireplace to conquer.

Guess what I will be doing today? Yer right! LAUNDRY! Not so very w00t! But it is what it is, and it is just clothing, no bedding! Nannie has already assumed the mouth-open-head-leaning-sideways position in her recliner----long may it be so! I do need to hop out to Walmart pharmacy for 2 of Nannie's IMPORTANT refills! I should prolly stop at Food Lion and pick up the stuff from my list. I have a fat COHO Salmon filet I want to bake and I haven't got half the ingredients needed (lemon, fresh dill, olive oil). I might be tempted to actually cook tonight!

Anyway,if I'm going to go, I'd better get to it!

nursej22, MSN, RN · Jan 19, 2024

Splish, splash, splush. After some freezing rain overnight, it is finally warm enough to start melting our Winter wonderland. My pot roast from last night was meh, especially considering all the ingredients and prep that went into it. It had a rutabaga , and I didn't care for it. Tonight will be something much simpler.

A former coworker who was from Punjab and used to travel home yearly told me he much preferred flying from west to east, because it was British Airways and you could sleep. I've changed planes at Newark and it is not on my favorite list for airports.

Since we got the fireplace fixed, dh has been sleeping in his recliner in the living room with the fireplace on. This is the man who is always complaining that 72 is too hot. I've been getting up at night and turning down the thermostat to 60 and turning off the fireplace. And I get up and it's all turned back up.

I have restarted doing some arm exercises with light weights, and some core exercises, except the dogs come over and wash my face when I'm on the floor. Yuck.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 19, 2024

Re: your comment on the dogs getting in on your exercising, nursej22: my tabby, who is probably 12lb, will always jump onto my back and settle down when I am trying to do a 40-second plank. It is SO much more difficult with her walking, then settling down on my back!!

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Jan 19, 2024

Your trip sounds amazing Tweety. I am happy for you. Some parts tedious, many out of the comfort zone. As it should be. Enjoy!

No Stars In My Eyes · Jan 20, 2024

When I got home, Nannie was still sleeping, and Momo was having a barking, squeaking, squealing, whining fit. I reckon she was cussing me out. Y'know, I should know better than to go out to do errands in the mid-late afternoon, because naturally the rush hours go from 3 to 6 PM, especially on a Friday!

I got most of the ingredients except for fresh dill. Ima do that salmon fillet tomorrow. Not sure if Nannie would like it . Tonight it is take-out fish and chip.

At one store I was at, a man was walking around telling everybody whose attention he could capture, and to nobody in particular, about his sick cat who had to have surgery, and what the vet had told him. When I realized he was just speaking out into the air, I didn't pay any attention to him either. Poor guy.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2024

J22, I've gone east to west before through Chicago. That flight to Dehli was 13 hours. It's 6 in 1 half a dozen in the other. I'd rather have two long flights instead of one short and one marathon long, but it is what it is. It will be an overnight flight for us and we arrive at night time there which will be weird. Most likely will be tired enough to get to the hotel and settle in and sleep.

Stars, I wonder if that man wasn't on his phone talking to someone. They can have in ear buds and their phone in a jacket pocket and look like crazy people talking. But there are some crazy people out there.

Economy on those long flights are tough especially since I have to use the seat in front of me to store my back pack. I wish I had thought about an upgrade to economy seats with more leg room but it's too late. Business and first class are cost prohibitive. I don't think there's first class on this flight but business class is hundreds more. Maybe when I win the lottery. Plus my best friend that arranges everything is extremely frugal and wouldn't have it in him to fly business when there are cheaper seats to be had. He only picks a trip when a tour is on sale and gets the best deal. This can be annoying if a trip I want to take isn't on sale but so far there are enough trips we agree on that go on sale.

I guess being frugal is how he was able to retire at age 62 and I'm still having no choice but to work at age 64. LOL

I managed to mow the grass. It's still cloudy with no sunshine but I was out there in a tee shirt. Supposed to have a cold front move through tonight so tomorrow is going to stay in the 50's so glad I got it done today.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 20, 2024

I made the rice casserole, then tossed some sliced zucchini with olive oil, paprika, and S&P, and threw them into the oven after I pulled out the rice casserole. Recipe said to bake at 450 for 20-25 min. Well, that was apparently too long, for when I went to check on them, 3/4 of the slices were BLACK -- burned! I turned the stove fan on, but too late: smoke detector went off!! Dh paused his online jam to assist with turning off the alarm, and he turned on the house fan. He did say, however, that the un-burned ones were good! Oh well...

Have a good evening!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2024

My ex father in law said about his late wife that apparently couldn't cook "I knew when dinner was ready when the smoke alarm went off". LOL

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2024

The problem with the CMS upload has been resolved. Had to do a full installation rather thean just an update. "It was in the release notes." Who reads release notes? ?

Today took Darby to the vet to talk about where we are. She has a grade 4 heart murmur, her heart rate was only about 40, and she has fluid in her lungs. They took samples for lab tests. She was quite alert, though.

There are 3 (at the moment) feral cats that live near the hospital. It was clear for awhile that someone was feeding them. Then when we got the really cold days someone put out a box with a blanket that they could use for shelter. I'm not sure they've used the "house" but they definitely come for the food. For several days there were perfect disks of ice where the water bowls got emptied/refilled. They all melted yesterday when we got up to 50° or so.