Garbage Truck

I've had Max for 6 years now. (He's 6 1/2 now) We went for our normal walk around one of the buildings on Saturday morning. My apartment is in the back corner of the complex, so we walk toward the the front office and round one of the buildings along the courtyard/pool area. Then we loop around along the driveway back to the house. It's usually pretty uneventful aside from a rabbit or frog encounter here and there. Mostly it's serene because we are both trying to wake up.    On this morning, we were walking like normal toward the office when he stopped and I thought he might have spotted a rabbit so I tried to focus and didn't see anything. I did, on the other hand, hear the garbage truck coming into the complex. ...it was still on the street and hadn't gotten inside the gates. At 7am it's pretty noisy. Max sniffed, stood very still...then after looking toward the sound and back at me a couple of times, he walked quickly back to me. He was at the top of the hill and I wasn't going in that direction, so I just thought he was coming back to join me.    Then he kept walking, pretty much pulling me back to my apartment. He wasn't in an all out run, but he might as well have been. He was really tugging.    As we crossed the street/drive back to my building, I saw the garbage truck emptying the dumpster at the front of the complex. Max led be right back to my front door. He had pulled the retractable leash the full length, about 12 feet. When I made it into the breezeway, his nose was about an inch from the door - he was so eager to go in.    I saw a little worry on his face. Kind of a "we have to get inside NOW!" kind of look. It wasn't what I would call so much fear that his tail was between his legs, but pretty close. He had a look of dread really.    Being a "mom", I thought I'd let him see what the big scary thing was...well, by that time it was passing my breezeway, so he got a really good look at a HUGE blue garbage truck! Not exactly a good idea. He got his butt back to the door and waited for me to let him in.  At first, I thought he would bolt into the safety of his house when I got the leash off, but he didn't. He just really needed to get inside the house.    He didn't even do his business.

Week 1

…my plan was to do a daily log of the weirdness that Lupron causes. Because the symptoms online were scary to say the least.

The reality is not much better.

The week with Lupron:

Hot Flashes…Nope

Night Sweats…Nope

Moodiness…Nope

And all those other 32 symptoms we saw online...nada

What’s really happened is that I don’t feel anything. Not in the good way, where I am not experiencing any weird symptoms, so that must be nice… but in the totally APATHETIC kind of way.

I’m thinking of things that stress me, but I don’t FEEL anything. It’s so hard to explain, but that’s the only way I can describe it.

I’m thinking the hyper thoughts, but I’m not feeling that thing that you get in your chest when you passionately feel angst or anger or even find something funny.

Weird.

That’s my only observation so far. …Let me just add that this is also the BEST I’ve felt in a while. I’m always tired or PMS’y so I’m dragged down and nervous all the time. Not feeling that. At the time I got the shot, I was in full on PMS mode, so I definitely noticed the difference.

My neighbor actually told me that my coloring looks good. That was nice. J and knowing I won’t have to worry about my period for 30 days…that’s nice too.

I have my pre-op appt on Nov 2. I will have to pay the difference of what my insurance won’t cover at that time. So I have something that’s going to loom overhead for a little while more.

The M-Word

I don't think I'll go into all the details, but suffice it to say, I will be having a "procedure" in mid-November that necesitates my getting a shot of a drug called Lupron.

Lupron will bring on menopause immediately. I will get this shot on Wednesday, and 30 days later, mid-November, I will have this procedure that I am not going into.

I thought it might be interesting to put this experience in writing as even I don't know what the world around me is getting into. I'm trying to be good humored about it, but really a normal woman goes thru different stages before hitting full on menopause, so with it happening overnight, I'm worried. My chemistry will go back to normal afterward, so I'm lucky, I'll have at least 10 to 15 years before I need to worry again. I will get a peek into the inevitable.

I know what you're asking, what are the symptoms of menopause? ...besides hot flashes and night sweats? At least that's all I knew, and that's bad enough. I found a list of 35, yes, thirty-five symptoms. for the list go here: http://www.project-aware.org/Experience/symptoms.shtml

I laughed and shared the list with several coworkers, but then started getting really nervous about the implications. "sudden tears"? Really? I tend to hold it together rather well, but now I'm going to cry when they run out of bacon in the cafeteria? Will I need to go home on occasion? Will I "go off" on people because I will be that irritable? Some of these symptoms I already have because of my hypothyroid, so will they intensify or remain the same?

It all has me wondering.

I've gotten some sympathy from coworkers, so I feel better. They will keep an eye on me and hopefully keep me in check, rather than snicker behind my back. I don't think they will snicker...but will they pull me off someone if I jump them? Will my reputation be smeared because of my behavior in the next 30 days? Hopefully, it will pass innocently.

We'll see! I'll try to write every day, unless of course, if I'm in jail. ;-)

Weird weekend leads into weirder week

A recap of the weekend of July24th…A weekend I will not soon forget…

Let’s see…I escorted the boys to San Antonio, we got up EARLY on Saturday to set up for Renee’s garage sale, then Renee’ felt sick, turns out, after dad took her to the hospital emergency room, she had a kidney stone…Baby Herbie is fine. He had the hiccups and was kicking the mic every chance he got.

BUT…Dori and I were left to make up prices for items since Renee’ chose not to put price tags on anything. …and that was FUN! Customer: How much is this…me: Um $5, right Dori, Renee wants $5? Dori: Yea, that’s right.

SOLD!

I came back home Saturday night, promptly lost my phone. Searched all over for it on Sunday, decided to locate the phone using Sprint’s Family Locator. Expected to narrow down whether it was at the airport or in my car somewhere, my heart skipped when I found it was actually in a different part of town altogether. Kicker is that I’m not about to knock on the door, but neither are the police. I have to write a “Lost Property Report”. I know where the darn thing is for goodness sake!

So to the guy at the apartment complex at Dennis and Northaven, in building 15, either apartment 1036, 1037 or 1038.

You SUCK!

So, out of boldness or sheer stupidity, my friend Sam and I made up flyers and put them on the doors of the apartment. We also wanted to put them at the mailroom but couldn’t find it, so we asked in the office. The guy in there said he would talk to them directly and let them know there is a reward too. We’ll see what happens.

8/9: …I am on a waiting list behind 39 other people and the store only gets 5 per week..nice. ..We gave up on the apartments because the phone cannot be activated, they simply have a paper weight right now. And AMEX can reimburse the cost of the phone to me because I purchased it less than 90 days ago. So by the time my name pops up to number 1, I will only be spending $50 out of pocket.

I’m still bitter though.

My reaction to chicken of the sea

The other night I made the most awesome tuna-fish salad. I had been craving it all day and went to the store and even got preboiled eggs so I wouldn’t have to wait on those. Pickles, Olives, Mayo and Eggs…Ooooh it was gooood!

Then yesterday, I didn’t realize it, but I had bitten the side of my tongue and I think my teeth felt weird all day.

It was in fact because my tongue was SWOLLEN! Even so, an allergic reaction to something didn’t even occur to me until late in the day. I had eaten normally, but that feeling you have when you first wake up and can’t really talk well stayed with me all day. ..and then I remembered the tuna-fish sandwich. … So I did what I normally do and called my friend, who yelled at me that I could have died and she made me call my doctor. After asking if I was itchy (No) or if my mouth itched (No) or if my throat was closing up (No). Just my swollen tongue, it’s just difficult to say numbers easily. “Call her right now and call me back and tell me what she says!” is how the conversation ended.

So I did. The doctor said that I might be allergic to tuna. Sad huh? I’ve had small reactions to sushi in the past, but I thought it was the roe that is on some of them, never occurred to me that it could be the tuna.

I love tuna-fish salad. -=sigh=-

She said to take 50mg of Benadryl at first and then 25mg every 6 hours for the next 2 days.

…and (as if it was an afterthought), “if you feel your throat closing up, call 911 immediately, because if you try to drive to the emergency room, you probably won’t make it.” Nice.

Seems my newness to sushi made me more sensitized to the cooked tuna. Weird. All of my allergies have been more intense in the last year or so. all kinds of stuff is popping into my head.

So the doctor is sending me to the lab to have me tested for fish allergies. They have tests that can determine exactly which fish I am allergic to. That would be cool because I would still be able to eat sushi, just not tuna rolls.

The end.

well, almost. I was trying to be good, but this morning I took 2 benadryl, not just one. ...realized that when I was on the tollway and my arms were tingling as the drug was kicking in...my thought..."Aw crap, Benadryl makes people sleepy!" I got to work okay, but I warned my team that I might just be a little woozy. I took about 2 hours to complete one task because I kept getting distracted and doing something else!

I'm a dork.

...with a swollen bitten tongue.

...there's still an awesome tuna-fish salad in my fridge.

Single Style - Chicken Patties

So I had some leftover Rotisserie Chicken that was calling my name, but I didn't want to just do the same ole same ole....Now that it's Lent, memories of Salmon Patties and Tuna Patties flew into my mind. Chicken Salad, Tuna Salad and Egg salad all have the same ingredients, why can't Chicken, tuna, or Salmon patties be the same?
I don't even know how much chicken it was...maybe a cup or two. I looked in my handy dandy Better Homes and Gardens red-checkered cookbook and found Salmon Patties. Immediately, I knew I wouldn't be using this recipe because it has a LOT of ingredients! But I got the idea. I then decided to check out FoodTV.com since I love the 5 ingredients idea of food. The trusty Paula Dean has a great basic recipe that I could compare to the other and find similarities. One Egg, and Crackers/bread crumbs was basically it.
Off to the Pantry.
I've got nuthin'... just flour and very basic spices.
Then the fridge...Eggs! Yes!!! what else???
..5 beers, a bag of condiments, string cheese...nothing that popped out at me for salmon or chicken patties.

Well, I had it in my head that I had to do this so I resorted to the usual...used what I had. For the dry ingredients: 1/2 a bag of Shake and Bake (I can't remember making Shake and Bake Chicken!), 1 bag of Wendy's croutons from a salad purchased who knows when, some Garlic powder, Table Blend Mrs. Dash and some flour.
Mixed and chopped it all in the handy dandy Magic Bullet Blender.
Threw all of that in the bowl with the deboned Rotisserie Chicken.
Mixed thoroughly by hand. I threw in a little shredded cheese to help bind.
In another bowl, mixed together one beaten egg and some Mayo (about 3 packets --lol)
Stirred all that in with the Chicken it's ready for the pan! It smelled good!

I used an ice cream scoop to drop them into the oil. Then, with a spatula dipped in the oil, flattened out the scoop.
I'm telling you they looked like Salmon Patties, so I knew I was on the right track. I tried not to mess with them and flipped only once. When complete, I placed them on a paper towel a la Salmon patties.
Served on a hamburger bun slathered with more mayo (yes, I have a lot of Mayo packs in my condiment bag.) and a slice of cheese.
Voila! Workin' with what I've got people. :)
I usually don't have bread at all, today was just coincidence. If I hadn't had bread, I would have probably tried to replicate Lenten Friday dinner by adding Macaroni and Cheese as the side item. But I don't have that either! So there would be another recipe showing you what I do when I crave it!
For another day. :)

Now...some recipes that will let me use some of those ketchup packets!