travel dream

Hmmm, I was having a little difficulty checking in for my flight last night. I had travel vouchers that I needed to cash and there was no bank in the airport. I asked the ticket agent what to do and was told that I needed to go to the help desk. I schlepped past everything, past the food court and found a lobby full of desks. A nice lady pointed out Emily who helped cash my vouchers. Then I had to go to security to answer a couple new screening questions. One question was a long complicated scenario and I was supposed to answer Yes or No would a senior citizen find the situation urgent? Um YES. Next question was from where are you traveling? I said Dillingham, Alaska. I was free to go. I wound up in a wing of the airport where everyone was seated eating dinner. I began to bus the tables. Then I woke up because I heard someone snoring. Phew!

Dream site says something general about travel dreams, they reflect your progress in the work a day world. From the looks of things I would say things are getting a little more complicated at work but so far I haven't had to bus the tables.

technology will get us someday soon

This is a picture of an automatic paper towel dispenser...wave your hands in front of the little red light and the machine spits out a foot of paper...

Today I stopped in the public bathroom at work and as I shut the door and locked it firmly, the towel dispenser fed out a foot of paper without my having to wave hands in front of little red light. As I was in a bit of a hurry I simply washed my hands, used the paper and left. However I did muse to myself that if a kid figured out the thing,there were be much door slamming, paper dispensing and giggles. Never gonna save on paper that away.

Oh yeah,the soap dispenser works the same way, wave hands at a mystical distance for the cleansing foam to drop into your filthy palms.

Got any fun technology at your workplace?

It's Sunday ...it must be SNOWING

It snowed ALL DAY at 100 feet above sea level. Great big fat flakes,that fell for a good two hours and then off and on all day. They were so wet you could stand outside and hear them plopping wetly on the ground. It has continued to snow most of the day. The pretty parking lot got tore up pretty slushy fairly quickly. If this keeps up the school district will declare a snow day because no one knows how to drive in wet slushy snow. I even took a 10 second video on my camera but have no idea how to load a video onto the blog. At least we won't have to shovel it off, twill melt soon and the neighbor kids snow fort will thankfully melt as well.

this really is the happiest place

Brief medical update: While I have NOT heard anything officially from my very OWN surgeon (well he IS busy.....) I did get a bill from Pathology associates wanting payment for my biopsy done at Bay Area Hospital on 1-16-08 (Today is the 25th mind you) I promptly fired up bill pay and sent the payment. I re-read the bill and there they kindly put an ICD9-CM code 216.7 which to me means benign neoplasm of the breast) All righty then!

We went to Coos Bay to get a new printer because my old is is D-E-A-D and I need a new one for tax season AND we got breakfast at the Pancake Mill. Yummy!

Saturday mail had come by the time we got home and well lookey here I has a notice from the nice Bay Area Hospital Mammography Department telling me that the results of my recent biopsy recommends that you have a follow up mammogram in six months to establish a new baseline and recheck the area where the biopsy was performed. That is very polite medical speak for "Your biopsy was negative, it ain't cancer, come see us again in six months". Thanks !!!

VEGETARIAN MEATLOAF not the human

I have been playing with recipes again. I jacked a recipe for Vegetarian Lentil Meatloaf and assembled the majority of the ingredients.

1 1/2 cup French green lentils. McKay's only had brown lentils in 16 ounce bag. So I cooked them in a heavy pot in a quart of chicken stock until tender.

3/4 cup chopped onion. I chopped up a whole honking onion because measuring 3/4 of a cup just seems a little lame, eyeball it for cryin' in a bucket!

1/2 cup shredded carrot. See above. I chopped two carrots.

1/2 cup red bell pepper...ditto...I chopped the whole red pepper.

1/4 cup wheat germ. I tossed in half a cup because from the looks of things the recipe was super sizing on me.

1/2 cup cooked brown rice. This is where I went seriously astray. I don't have brown rice, so I browned 1/2 cup of white rice then added chicken stock until creamy like risotto. That made LOTS of rice. Did I mention super sizing?

3/4 cup bread crumbs. I had a round container already open so I dumped that in probably actually a good cup full.

1/4 cup crushed flax seed. Jeez I had to purchase this in bulk at Freddy's health food store. I got a bag full of the stuff for 88 cents, I didn't bother crushing the flax seeds as they are pretty darn small as is.

2/3 CUP egg whites. That translates to me however erroneously as TWO WHOLE EGGS!

1 (6.5 OZ) can tomato sauce. My can of tomato paste was 12 ounces and I scraped it all into the bowl.

1 tablespoon olive oil. As Rachael Ray says, dribble one trip around the bowl.

2 tsp dried thyme. Yeah did that.

Pepper and salt to taste and I added crushed garlic.

The recipe calls for whirring this stuff together in a food process (Of which I do not possess) so I just dumped it all into a bowl, stirred until well mixed, dumped into a well buttered large casserole dish and one left over 4 x 8 bread pan.

Oven 375 for 45 minutes. At 45 minutes I sprinkled shredded Parmesan on top and let it go another 10 minutes. Let cool serve. Recipe says it will serve 6.

By the time I got done ... it will serve Tim all week.

Now, That's what I'm talking about.

Picture completely unrelated to contents today

The past couple of days have been precisely like working at the Zoo. Monday was the usual play catch up over the weekend. Everyone and their dog called wanting copies of ER records of patients seen over the weekend. Monkey see Fax, Monkey do Fax, more Monkey Fax.

Tuesday was Podiatry clinic and I have never seen the lobby so jam packed with the halt and the lame. It is good for the bottom line.

Wednesday was staff meeting day, we ate a pizza lunch and discussed how to meet our Vision Statement that has the phrase "Relentless" in it. Challenged to write five things we could do within the department to make us wonderful to the rest of the world. Besides World Peace ... the Valet Parking idea probably won't fly......

Thursday is tomorrow, I have been off on either holiday or medical something other other for the past four weeks, I think working a full week will KILL ME!!!!!

Oh wait I forgot to tell you about the sound effects. Our office is right next to respiratory therapy. Sometimes the noises coming out of there is enough to gag....ewwwwww it IS GAGGING.

We have a little old gentleman patient who cannot communicate in other than weird hooting woooooo sounds that sounds exactly like the sound effects on a Prairie Home Companion when Garrison Keillor is reading his script and says "Wapiti" "woooooo".
"Elk" "wooooooo". "Antelope" "wooooooo".

Fishy dream

Last night I dreamt of Manderlay....er..wait that's an old movie. Ahem, last night I dreamt a fish dream. Kind of. I was on vacation somewhere and I had caught a fish on the last day. I was at a market or fish market getting the fish packaged to take home on the plane. The lady at the counter was explaining that my 5 dollars would only cover 2/3 of the fish so she minced the thing and I told her I didn't have time to wait, I had to catch a boat to cross the river to the airport so I could make my flight in 74 minutes. Then I woke up.

Hmm, Dream Site A to Z says that to dream of a fish market is to dream about joy and happiness. Upon closer analysis, it would seem that my joy and happiness is contingent upon payment and very tight scheduling. Jeez.

Stereotactic core biopsy

Today I had an appointment at 9:30 a.m. at Bay Area Hospital radiology department for a stereotactic core biopsy of my right breast. Most recent mammogram showed a small cyst at 5 o'clock and upon follow up ultrasound the radiologist didn't like the way it looked so got this procedure booked. That was interesting. They have you lie down on a table that goes up and down like a car lift. There is a good sized hole that your breast goes through and then you have to lie there upwards of an hour with one arm at your side and one arm at your head. My arms were KILLING me. The nice radiologist lady said this Lidocaine might sting....didn't feel a thing. She poked, prodded, tweedled, whirred 12 samples worth and then they were done. Oh and I got a warm blankie out of the deal. Also went to room next door, after the blood had returned to my arms, for a follow up mammogram. I was VERY surprised when I said, "You don't squeeze as hard as they do at CVH". "Yeah, I've had lots of ladies tell me the same thing." GUESS where I'm getting my next mammogram?

Follow up

Doctor gave me the diverticulosis lecture, more water, more legumes. Isn't that a pretty picture of legumes? I'm hungry!

Portside at Charleston Oregon

It was a wet and stormy afternoon. We drove into a squall on our way to Coos Bay for dinner at The Portside in celebration of our 13th anniversary. I did take pictures of our dinner but the meal was much more appetizing then the pics. I ordered the Captains Platter and received the bounty of the seas but only ate the scallops, prawns and halibut. The baked potato was superb. Husband ordered the 10 ounce sirloin which had shrunk to 8 ounces by the time it hit the plate. Again a well cooked meal and delicious. We had the place to ourselves there was only one other couple in the dining room and a couple people sitting in the bar and as a result of that the service was extra attentive. So where did you dine on your anniversary?

Late weather bulletin

I work on Sundays and about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday the 6th, it snowed, altitude 103 feet above sea level. Melted off within a couple of hours in most spots but we did have a lot of bender benders that day. Drive careful!

Brief medical report without pictures

I worked Monday morning, came home and quaffed the first 1.5 oz of prep, spent the day near the facilities. Took next dose of prep at 5 pm. Quaffed ALMOST a gallon of Gatorade. Went to bed at 9 pm, forgot to drink an additional 3 eight ounce glasses of water. Woke up a little dehydrated.

Tuesday, went in a 8 a.m., Tim dropped me off with plans to come back at 9:30. Nurse Angie took me back to the endoscopy suite and had me dress in the appropriate garb and gave me heated socks to put on and a heated blankie to wrap up in. After missing a vein in my right hand she found a real good one in my left forearm. She put on three EKG electrodes, nasal oxygen, BP cuff and a finger tip instrument to track Oxygen saturation. I signed consent forms, everything was tickety boo. She gave me a little Versed, had me roll to my left side and that is the LAST thing I remember until she woke me up to get dressed and stagger out to the waiting room so Tim could take me home. The left hand did not get all ugly and bruised, neither did the right forearm. I received excellent care but the endoscopy suite ceiling sure could use some paint.

DIAGNOSIS: DIVERTICULOSIS, SIGMOID POLYP REMOVED.

Follow up clinic visit 14th to get results. Hah! I will probably see the path report before the doctor does.

stormin' on the coast

We have been having the usual winter rain but this past couple of days have been very VERY rainy with last night's soupcon of lots of thunder. This thunder was the up close and personal sounding kind only way up high. I am a bit surprised it woke me up as I am a rather sound sleeper. So sound that I once slept through a truly horrific wind storm. I got up the next morning, bounced out the door on my way to work and gawked. My front porch aluminum awning was gone! The first thing that flashed however stupidly through my mind was "Who would steal an aluminum porch awning?" I slowly walked around to my car looking up. I saw aluminum legs sticking out over the edge of the roof. The wind had neatly peeled back the roof. Later one of neighbors asked me if I had heard the horrible noise. I wisely nodded and said, "Yeah wasn't that AWFUL?".

And speaking of awful. I did not believe that I snored for many years until one day I was happily napping in my apartment until I was rudely wakened by someones very loud snoring.....through process of elimination turned out to be me.

One more snoring story. Occasionally a bunch of us would take the Jackpot bus for a weekend of gambling. One time I and three other ladies departed on the bus for the four or so hour ride to Jackpot, got our rooms and began rambling through the casino's until forced to quit due to exhaustion of self and funds. We all retired about the same time at dark thirty in the morning. The next day we got up and assembled in the hallway making comments and plans. One of the other bus party members greeted us with "Jeez were you able to sleep through all that snoring last night? It was horrible I didn't get a bit of sleep". We all nodded wisely and exclaimed "Yeah wasn't that AWFUL?"

I believe I have found the snoring cure. In my case at least it is age. I get up more often at night and haven't wakened myself up by snoring in a very long time.

Great I'm ten years past due for a colonoscopy

Visited my local friendly surgeon for something completely unrelated to the above and after reading my history, his eyes lit up and he preached the gospel to me..."You are 60! You have family history of cancers. What are you doing on 1-8-08?"

"Um, getting a colonoscopy?"

"That's right!"

So on Monday I get to drink three ounces of something that will make me wish I hadn't, and drink a GALLON of Gatorade. Gah.... I'll let you know how it all turned out...erp.

Happy New Years

Lovely lazy January 1st, I get the day off and have lolled around in my comfy chair watching the Rose Parade from Pasadena. My that was a fast two hours.

I decided to give the frozen rolls another chance. Carefully reading the package I discovered a "Fast" method. Involves placing rock hard frozen rolls in a glass dish, cover with plastic wrap, preheat oven to 175 degrees F, turn off oven, insert rolls into oven for 90 minutes or until they have doubled in size. That worked! Then heat oven to 350 degrees F, bake rolls minus plastic wrap for 20 minutes, allow to cool a bit before putting on the orange cream cheese spread. Yummy! I also put a little lemon zest on top. I think I shall have a cuppa to go with.