Peaceful week

 

A blog I follow , Escape wth Dollycas into a Good Book, recaps her week including outside activities, so I thought I might give it a try so that you all would know what was going on besides reading.

MONDAY - Headed off to the lab to get some blood work done before a doctor's appt. later this week.  Home to any easy day of reading.

TUESDAY - Another Mah Jongg day - morning at the Country Club with 4 other ladies, evening a home with regular ladies. Winnings 20¢

WEDNESDAY -  Easy day with .reading and evening at the Country Club teaching 4 ladies how to play Mah Jongg.  We a re adding Mah Jongg to the Ladies Game night starting in June - Yeah!

THURSDAY - Off to Frederick to see an old friend and get a haircut.  Evening Ladies at the Country Club got to together for BUNCO Charity night.  One of the players had to cancel so my sweet hubbie filled in and was a winner with the other ladies.  We raised $400 for the Kevin Miller Family Fund - a family in our neighborhood (wife 3 children) that lost their husband/father at the age of 43.

FRIDAY -  Off to The doctor's office - test results were a big improvement and lost 11 LBS!  Worked on spreading the news about the summer Ladies' events at the Country Club. Easy reading day the rest of the time.

SATURDAY - Morning dawned on our 39th wedding anniversary. Tim and I went to the grocery store and then after putting everything away, we went off to our friends home for a brunch in honor of their son's graduation from high school.  We had a great time visiting, the last to leave.  Home around 4PM for afternoon naps and then out to dinner.

On our anniversary I always want to acknowledge how very fortunate I am by the blessing of the wonderful man who shares my life.  His kind heart and generous spirit is frequently directed at me but also his friends and family.  He may not be the most romantic but I'll take his sweet disposition any day.

SUNDAY - Slept in, caught up on some of my taped TV programs, watched baseball, read.


Hope everyone had a great week!

Weekly Rewind

 

A blog I follow , Escape wth Dollycas into a Good Book, recaps her week including outside activities, so I thought I might give it a try so that you all would know what was going on besides reading.

MONDAY - Was  a book oriented day.  First I caught up on my reviews, I had 3 that I needed to write and get posted from last week.  Then I finished HEAT RISES the third book in the Nikki Heat/Richard Castle series.   I also did a few loads of laundry and talked to my Mom a few times.  I'm still trying to figure out he issues with my Outlook email. I can receive the messages fine, but none of my replies or new messages go any where - they just sit in my outbox.  Boo hiss.

TUESDAY - This seemed to be my day for games!  I had Mah Jongg scheduled at the Country Club and managed to win $6.55 - I think that's my best ever session, but then I went to my friend's house that night and played again and won another $2.65.  Nice....

WEDNESDAY -  Grocery shopping started the day and then reading.  I managed to catch a short nap, and then headed off to the Country Club where I was teaching a beginning class in Mah Jongg.  I met 1 lovely lady who I hope will continue to join the MCC Lilies in their other events.

THURSDAY - A quiet day, I spent fixing my e-mail (YEAH), and listening to Game of Thrones. BUNCO scheduled for this evening was rescheduled for next week.

FRIDAY -  Start of a weekend trip - I went off to get my hair done then, when I got home Tim packed up the car, picked up Mary-ellen, John, and Ellen (2 SIL and BIL - Tim's siblings) and we hit the road for Pittsburgh. We reached Tim's cousin's house with a cooler filled with 4 dozen steamed blue crabs.   They were gone before we left to settle in at the hotel.

SATURDAY - Morning was the reason for the trip - a memorial service for Tim's cousin Joe who had passed away  during the winter.  Tim's aunt was in Florida so they postponed the funeral until she came north.  At the luncheon afterward, we sat with cousin Tammy's son Alex who was a very charming young man.  The people who had come to the service were a few more than expected, so we volunteered to sit at the "kids" table -off in a different spot than the rest.  Much more quiet and it gave us a chance to talk and tell stories.  Then later in the evening dinner at cousin Greg's where there was an old-fashioned Irish Wake.

SUNDAY - We headed home arriving about 4PM to unpack and rest.

 

A blog I follow , Escape wth Dollycas into a Good Book, recaps her week including outside activities, so I thought I might give it a try so that you all would know what was going on besides reading.

MONDAY - The Country Club that my husband and belong to is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year and since he's President and I'm head of the Social Committee there are lots of items on our agenda for this.  Monday I spent researching (reading numerous past newsletters) past events in the history of the Club. I still have more to go through.  I sent an e-mail out to the Ladies Social group reminding them about our charity fundraising event later in the week ad tried to nag the media coordinator about sending out the notices for our newest event - Social Golf.  No luck on that.  I also finished listening to the audio version of Night Watch by Linda Fairstein. I really enjoy this series and look forward to the new one due out later this year.

TUESDAY -  I played hookie from responsibilities and went to spend time with my lady friends at the Country Club.  Six of us gathered to play Mah Jongg, eat, and imbibe with a few delicate Mimosas.  Most of the group is just learning (I'm the trainer), so we can't get as many games in as more experienced groups but we have a great time getting together anyway.  After lunch, I came home, grabbed a quick nap, and tried again to read Fountainhead.  A second nap ensued.  For dinner, we headed back to the Country Club for the 60's Rollback prices on drinks and dinner.  One of my favorites (liver and onions) was on the menu, YUM - I know most people don't like it and I don't get it often but at $2.99 it was a steal! The tab was less than $10 without the drinks.  Can't wait to see what 70's rollbacks are!

I'm continuing Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman for a group read on LibraryThing.  This one I am greatly enjoying.

WEDNESDAY -  Believe it or not I just read and played games on the internet.

THURSDAY -  I caught up on my book reviews, e-mail, and notices to be posted at the Country Club for events that I am involved in. In the evening, my sister-in-law, Mary-ellen and I went to the club for our monthly ladies charity event and a game of Bunco.  Dinner and a good time.  Back in time to see the end of the ball game and catch up on some threads at LT.

FRIDAY -  First, I kissed my hubby off to his weekend with the boys.  Then I went to get my hair done, stopped at the library to return 3 books, and then stopped at the grocery store to purchase some comfort food to keep me happy while 

SATURDAY -  Easy day, just finishing Fountainhead for Book club, watching a doubleheader for the Orioles vs. Dodgers, and start audio while I play some games.  Mac & cheese for dinner - yum!

SUNDAY -  A quiet day of reading and baseball. My sweetie returned from his boys weekend.

Falling Mondays

Obviously Monday is not my smart day. 
6 months ago took a fall, on MONDAY. 
This morning another fall - MONDAY. 

This time I was really, really stupid. I drove up to the car wash, told the gentleman what I wanted (there are different options) handed him my credit card, and he said - Fine we'll take it from here. I opened the car door, started to get out and the car started to roll away from me - throwing me onto the concrete - smack onto my good knee. OUCH! I had forgotten to take it out of gear but the man jumped in and put on the brake before it could roll over me! However, I have a really pretty bruise starting to appear!
I think I'll stay in on Monday's from now on.

Little ones together

Here's a a shot of four of my grandchildren at Easter.

From Left to right:

Miller Patrick  2 mos.

Stella Reese 18 mos.

Molly Kate 2½ yrs old.

Olivia Bryn  2 weeks

Height challenge at bedtime

Before I left for SC I went to the orthopedic Dr. because my left knee has been killing me and he inform me that I might have a small tear in my meniscus(sp?) and that if it was still bothering me when I got home, we could try a cortisone shot.  Well, it still hurts like h.... on and off (more on than off) which causes me to adjust how I'm sitting/standing/walking which then affects my back.  Needless to say, I am not a happy camper.

The timeshare where we are staying  at Hilton Head is lovely, however, it has one shortfall - no footrest so I've been trying to find the right number of pillows to prop up my legs to support the knee.  If that's not enough, this place has those overstuffed mattresses and the bed is so high that I need a footstool to get into bed.  The first night we had no footstool, and Tim just laid there laughing while I tried to dive into the bed, missing about 4 times, sliding off to the floor.  We finally devised a stool of sofa cushions so that I could get into bed, by which time I was completely exhausted just getting there.  Tim thought it was hilarious, I, however, did not.

Why do places like this never think about short people?  If my Mom had been able to come, there's no way she could have gotten into the beds here without a stool. Granted the mattresses are very comfortable once you get on them, but getting on them is a bit tricky for a height-challenged person. Needless to say when they called checking on how everything was, I informed them that they needed to think about things like this.

PC woes

On February 1st I started having problems with my laptop which I use everyday to communicate with the outside world and for some of my hobbies.  I thought the problem was from sitting out in the car  with the cold weather, but apparently not.

I took it to the PC doctor on Sunday the 3rd and on the 4th he called with the bad news.  He can't get the data from my hard drive (150+ audiobooks and all my photos) without sending it off to a specialist. They told me at the store it could take up to 3 weeks before my baby is well and can come home to me. It could also cost up to $1,500 to recover the data. 

In the meantime, I've been trying  to recreate my working file for my reading reviews and book selection. My old PC that I am using now, is much slower, smaller screen, and on an old Operating System. I feel like I'm back in the dark ages already. :-(

For all my friends out there, learn my lesson - BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!

TODAY, Well, the verdict is in on my PC and the news is not good.

The hard drive failed and to recover my pictures and data files it will be $1,300 and 4-8 weeks.  That's just the data files. However, if they can't recover what I want/need,  I can refuse the files and it will only cost me $250.

The pictures are what I  really want so I told them to go ahead with the recovery but now I have to get a new PC because this one won't be back and functioning anytime soon (no software programs until I can find the keys from 3½ years - do you think that's going to happen? That's the kind of info I stored on my PC.), my backup is lacking some of the programs that I need for the projects that I use for my other activities and I'm not sure I want to trust the sick one again when it eventually returns.  I think I need to sell some of my stock to pay for this expenditure unless I can find a good deal out there.

WHAT A BUMMER!!   

I guess it could be worse, I could be without a PC completely, right?
Well, I think I'll go try to lose myself in a book.  Maybe I'll feel better then.

I don't know where to start.

Last Saturday (after Tim headed off to Florida for 5 days) my left knee started to hurt/ache.  I tried all kinds of things, ice/heat/elevation/massage - one day it was better, another no, so I made an appointment with the regular doctor for Thursday but by Wednesday I could barely walk.  So when I went to the back doctor on Wednesday, he asked me how I was doing and I told him that my knee was killing me, and he replied "I can't help you there."  We talked and decided that a set of regular steroid shots might reactivate the rhizotomy loss (I still fell that I'm about 45% improved from before the rhizotomy) so we scheduled them for March 1st.  He only does that procedure on Fridays - This coming Friday (2/8) I'm getting ready to leave for Hilton Head with my Mom, 2/15 I'll be coming back from HH, 2/22 I already have 2 other DR appts. scheduled so 3/1 was the first opening.
On Thursday morning when I was headed to the doctor for my knee (of course it felt better because I had the doctor's  appointment )  he said that it could be several things but to try increasing my arthritis medication first before heading off to the orthopedic doctor. Friday it was horrible again and today a little better.  I'm beginning to think that I should just give it up and live on drugs.  No I won't.
Worse than the pain in my knee is my computer is not working (I'm on my backup) so I can't access any of the things I regularly use. Thank God the Internet is not computer specific.  LT withdraw along with knee and back pain would be unimaginable!

But good news - little (?) Miller Patrick made his appearance on January 21st weighing at 8 lbs. 7 ozs.!  I'll get to see him in a week!

Those of you who follow my reading blog (Cheli's Shelves) know that I read a number of books each year.  Usually they are for some challenge or other but I've never really defined them outside of the separate challenges.  SO when I made a list, these are the top ten that came out.

My Top Ten 2013 reading goals:

  1. Read 105 books from my shelf  (35 ea audio, e-book, ARD)
  2. Read at least 45,000 pages
  3. Read at least 6 books in 13 categories selected for 2013
  4. Read books to bring at least 10 series up-to-date
  5. Read the first 2 Fire and Ice series books
  6. Read at least 4 CLASSICS
  7. Read a book over 500 pages long
  8. Read the Sharon Kay Penman series (that should take care of #6)
  9. Read my first graphic novel
10. Read at least 5 books borrowed from Tina (I've borrowed them, now I need to read them and get them back to her)

My other big goal for 2013 is to try to reduce the number of new books coming to my possession this year.  In 2012 I acquired over 150 books.
This year I'd like to keep it under 100.

So wish me luck!