Sunday February 4th 2024

No Stars In My Eyes · Feb 4

Welcome home, Tweety! I hope you get plenty of rest and recuperation, and your inner clock resets itself easily. I could tell by your post that your brain was running on fumes.

My brain is just waking up. I got Momo to come down to the den so she would use her pee pad right away, and I went up to make my coffee and get Momo's breakfast. When I came back down to the den to put her breakfast down for her, there was Nannie, coming out of her room, completely dressed and wide awake. Huh, whaddya know! So I went back up to the kitchen to fix her tray. (such "fixing" requires pouring the cranapple into the juice glass, peeling off the lid from the yogurt container and putting a spoon and her pills on the tray) By then my coffee was no longer hot, so I took it back upstairs to nuke it.

When I sat back down and got my laptop open, Nannie sneezed. I told her there was a paper towel on her table. She searched her tray, so I said "On the table.". She picked up her tray and looked under it. I said,"On the table!"; she still searched around on her lap, I said, "Look out the window." So when she turned her head I said "Now look down at the table." She looked on the floor. I said "Nannie, the table beside your chair." By then she had forgotten she was looking for a paper towel, so I said "See the stack of paper towels on the table beside you?" She did, and picked up a paper towel, looking at me with a question on her face. I said, "Yes. Now wipe your nose" So she wiped her eyes and put the towel down on the table again. ? Then when she was through with her breakfast, her hands started compulsively rearranging the stuff on her tray so it would 'look good', ie, the spoon in her juice glass, her juice glass in the empty yogurt container. It has to be JUST SO for her. Of course, then everything fell over on its side on the tray and she began to rearrange it again, at which point I put down the laptop and went over to remove the tray from her lap. She is programmed to make everything look tidy and she was still trying to place things on her tray to her satisfaction, when I just took it away from her. OY! Her brain, bless her heart, is sliding down hill. I'd say her facial expressions are like: "That Does Not Compute".

So, it is Sunday, huh? The only thing I want to do is go out to a store and find some more extra-crunchy taquitos from the freezer section. I have become somewhat addicted to those: three on a paper plate, zapped for 2 minutes, and YUM! But alas, there are none in MY freezer, so I may very well dash out for a package of them in a little while.

Nannie has closed her eyes, and is 'sewing' something imaginary again. Pretty soon her head will bobble over to the side and she will be asleep again. WHOOPS, NO! First she has to resettle herself, because when I blew my nose, she startled, opened her eyes; she began laughing and laughing because I said to her,"What? I just blew my nose." Now she has picked up her 'sewing' and is at it again. She has spent so much of her life sewing one thing or another, that is her 'de facto' brain setting for activity, even as she is starting to fall asleep. Wonder what she thinks she is making?

My coffee is gone, but I don't know what I have planned beyond that. She's not asleep enough for me to sneak out, right now.

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 4

Tweety, welcome home, so glad you are home safely, even though that last delay and flight was a doozy! Hope your jet-lag doesn't last long, and am so glad you left yourself a few days to recover before you return to work. I really enjoyed seeing all your photos, thank you!

Joe, chickpea curry sounds good! Do you make it spicy or not-so-spicy? How was bird-watching?

No Stars, I hope you can get to the store for your taquitos, and that Nannie is not a pill today. ?

Not much planned for today, besides making soup and watching the rain come down (it should start around noon). I need to change the sheets and towels, which I laundered last night (they are still in the dryer). The cats and dog are doing well, though yesterday the dog was off his feed and subdued. He may have had a little stomach bug, for dh says in the evening he had a little diarrhea. He is perky today, though, and ate his apple! I thinly slice an apple, and he will eat about three small thin slices, if dh breaks them up and presents them. ? Then dh finishes the rest of the quarter of apple.

Have a good day/evening!

No Stars In My Eyes · Feb 4

RATZ! No taquitos at either of the closest Food Lion stores. I could look at Harris-Teeter, but that is off in the other direction. Guess I will have to go to WalMart for them. But not until tomorrow, because that is also in the other direction from where I was, and 12-15 miles from our house. *sigh*

I got some enchiladas and spooned their innards into yellow corn taco shells. Not very satisfying, as it didn't have the same spiciness as the taquitos. OOooooh well!

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Feb 4

Welcome home, Tweety! Glad you enjoyed the trip and arrived home safely, even with the delays and such.

Stars, Gma does the tidying-up thing and will even wipe her plate with a napkin. But then she also hides silverware in her clothes, so...

Yesterday Gma was petting Dory and telling her she's a good one. Go figure. A hospice nurse came to visit Friday and witnessed Gma in her angry state. So her seroquel has been increased from 25 to 50 mg BID. And we have more topical ativan. But Hubs hasn't started giving her the increased seroquel. At the moment she is sleeping and had only brief angry outbursts.

Twin A and I bought blinds for his bedroom. The cats had pretty much torn up the last set.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 5

G'day.

My dogs like apples, but don't get them much. I have an apple in my fridge to eat from before vacation now that you mention it.

I've made coconut chickpeas before several times. I'm a fan. I've used mushrooms in Hungarian dishes before instead of meat.

Joe, sounds like a nice full day.

Ado, hope the increase in Seroquel helps with the outbursts.

I was reading my post from last night and said "undercooked" for a flight. So yes Stars, brain wasn't functioning well.

I woke up with a case of GI disturbance and will spare the details. So I did a covid and it was negative. Went and got my dogs and am happy to be snuggling and having them home. I did my taxes this morning and had to really concentrate because I was so foggy headed. Took a 3-hour nap with the dogs and woke up with a temp of 101.2. Took some ibuprofen and had a cup of coffee and feel somewhat okay. I'm thinking it's just jet lag and/or food poisoning since I'm having GI symptoms. Bleh.....

Won't bore you with pictures. I have a bunch on facebook and Instagram. If you're on those formats I'll give you my addresses. I don't take good pictures and not sure what the smirk is the pic of the Taj Mahal because I was in awe of its beauty.

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 5

Ugh, I hope you are soon feeling better, Tweety. I'm sure the dogs were thrilled to cuddle with you!

When we moved to northern California, above the Napa Valley, we rented a cottage in an apple orchard. The landlord's dog taught our dog how to eat the apples. ?

Ado, good you got the increased seroquel dose, hope it helps (once it is implemented).

No Stars, sorry to hear you were unable to find the taquitos you wanted! Hope you can get them tomorrow!

I made tomato soup, from a recipe I saw on FB (from Ina Garten). I added dried basil to it (from our Summer garden). It should do us for a couple evening meals. I plan on having mine with melted cheddar cheese on sourdough bread, toasted. Dh will likely have his with naan. The rain hasn't started yet but is imminent. I still need to change sheets and towels. And I need to study up on election issues/persons. And I need to start playing the guitar again, to build calluses, before our music to do on Feb 20th. It's only two songs.

Have a good evening!

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Feb 5

Hope you feel better quickly.

I think coconut chickpea curry sounds good.

Was it J22 who made hummus? Canned chickpeas or dried and cooked? How did you process them? I tried once and was disappointed in the texture.

I haven't made the tres leches cake yet but still plan to. If it's good maybe that's what I'll take to church next week. We're doing a chili cook-off. I could see if my award-winning recipe from the hospital's chili cook-off would go over as well at the church.

I'm pretty sure Dory has eaten apple slices when offered. She doesn't turn down many foods. Darby is much more picky.

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 5

Ado Annie said:

Was it J22 who made hummus? Canned chickpeas or dried and cooked? How did you process them? I tried once and was disappointed in the texture.

I recently made some, first time. I used canned chickpeas, and used a blender. I had no complaints about the texture. At first (the day I made it), the lemon flavor was strong. It has since mellowed out, to where it isn't sharp like it was. It's tasty! Lemon juice, chickpeas (drained and rinsed), one garlic clove (minced), sea salt, 1/3 cup tahini. A friend commented she doesn't use tahini, and it still turns out tasty. Another friend said she adds sun-dried tomatoes to hers. There seem to be endless possibilities!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 5

Ado Annie said:

Was it J22 who made hummus? Canned chickpeas or dried and cooked? How did you process them? I tried once and was disappointed in the texture.

It pays to have one of those high speed blenders and for a creamier texture removing the skin really helps. I haven't found an easy way to do that. Once I removed them all by hand one by one and the hummus was delicious. Once I used this technique and had a hard time getting all the skins off.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 5

dianah said:

I recently made some, first time. I used canned chickpeas, and used a blender. I had no complaints about the texture. At first (the day I made it), the lemon flavor was strong. It has since mellowed out, to where it isn't sharp like it was. It's tasty! Lemon juice, chickpeas (drained and rinsed), one garlic clove (minced), sea salt, 1/3 cup tahini. A friend commented she doesn't use tahini, and it still turns out tasty. Another friend said she adds sun-dried tomatoes to hers. There seem to be endless possibilities!

I usually omit the garlic because it makes it too strong. But I've used all kinds of things like peanut butter, curry, but my favorite is sun-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives. I usually use the tahini and olive oil. Some of the anti-oil crowd makes it without olive oil which is sinful to me when it comes to hummus. LOL

No Stars In My Eyes · Feb 5

IT has been a really "Crabby Appleton" kind of evening in my head. Nannie jabbered on and on about what was going on in the TV shows she watched. Forgetting what she was saying, and stumbling over her words and trying to keep herself on the same subject she started with, then saying "Oh, I can't even talk," and she was 100% right but it did. not. stop. her, from. talking! I will hold a notebook in my lap so I can scribble down what she says and how she says it, and then I can send a post that will give you an idea of why she drives me so crazy sometimes. And Momo peed on the sofa AGAIN! But I had put underpads down, so it wouldn't stain the sofa cushions any more than it has. I think I told you all of this, so I will hush up and go to bed now. I had to take a 1/2 Xanax to keep me from coming apart at the seams with Nannie and Momo. Anyway, no more crabbing tonight----