I forgot all about signing up for the.....

Until I heard all the bustle of the folks setting up next door and in the hallway.
I have not donated blood for several decades. For one thing, I was anemic as hell for several years and sort of got out of the habit. One of the lab ladies started the ball rolling and here we are.

They have to do a whole lot more screening these days; have you had sex with a,b,c?? I remember sex... have you traveled to A.B.C? Um no, I prefer to stay off air planes simply for the reason that it is a damned uncomfortable exercise.

I was also worried that I was still too anemic to donate. Lady stuck my finger and my hemoglobin was 15.1 you must be at 12.5 to qualify. Oh goodie onto the rest of it. After answering multiple questions on screen, I was escorted into the donating room. The technician inspected my antecubital fossa (forearm where needle goes) looking for prime veins. So site selected, needle inserted, tubing hooked up, squeeze little ball once every 4 seconds.

There was a young man in the next chair and he was having a little difficulty and the lady finally had to tell him that they would what they had. I have type B positive blood. I once heard that the Basque population is mostly B positive blood type.

Last step cookies and OJ.



My favorite, Chocolate chip!

The scaffolding is gone

The owner of the scaffolding knocked on the door this evening. I was surprised to see that he had almost everything already loaded. Boy he was either very quiet or my tinnitus was so loud I couldn't hear a thing. I gave him a check and got his number in case we need scaffolding in future. Probably next year for the sun room demo and fix.

Still waiting to hear from the roofer. But Labor Day weekend is coming and I'm thinking he won't want to start a job over the holiday? I could be wrong.

Tonight I made turkey pot pie, it turned out fairly tasty, I added dill to the mix.

The lawn is brown, if God meant for me to water the lawn in the summer, it would rain. I have faith.

AS YOU CAN SEE...

Ths scaffolding is still neatly stacked in the front yard. I googled to see how much these cost, one site said about 50 bucks for each frame, x 8 is 400 bucks
plus the cross ties, the levels, nuts, bolts and hefty wooden planks are extra, I'm sure. Hope the owner comes and picks them up before it starts raining again and the lawn grows up around the pile...sigh...

The scaffolding is down.

....and is stacked neatly in the front yard waiting to be taken away tomorrow. There are only a couple hours work left to do, finish the short upper wall on the east side of the chimney, put the drains back up to the gutters, install the fence and gate and Bob's yer uncle.

Also the roofer guy did not come today, maybe Monday..it was hot today but not as hot as yesterday.

Today at work was our annual mandatory in service on safety, ergonomics, Hipaa, security, lock out tag out, infection control, policies and procedures, and fire safety. After we got to use extinguishers to put out a HUGE fire, we got donuts, popcorn and pizza. One of the videos we watched was "Give him the pickle!".

Nice little bit all about customer service. Remember Ferrel's Ice Cream stores? Mr. Ferrel told several stories about customer service. The one regarding the pickle was about a letter he received from a customer who told him that he always ordered extra pickles until one day the waitress told him they would have to charge him for a side of pickles for 75 cents. That little policy got changed and customers got their pickles. Anyway, Jim went to a Ferrels' once in Sacramento, I believe, he at something huge and might even have gotten "Happy Birthday" sung to him.

I liked his definition of team work; anything a team member does to make another team member look good.

More construction and eating...

He's got the top tier added to reach the top floor, hopefully that will go quickly.
The roofer came over today and said he would start tomorrow. He would have started today but it was beastly hot. He will work on the North half of the roof while the siding is being completed. The painting on the siding will have to wait for the roofer to be through with tossing stuff off the sides.



I was also motivated to make a pie, its' sort of a Shepherds pie only there is hominy instead of peas and at no time was a Shepherd harmed in the making of this pie. Husband has sampled it already and says it tastes pretty good. That ought to last a couple three days.

SCAFFOLDING IS UP

The scaffolding got set up today, more siding put up, more caulking of things that needed to be caulked. The office window got removed and the subcontractor put in new wood all the way around, it sure needed it. If you will look at the top of the picture, he stood on THAT to fix the window and there is yet a third deck to go on top of that to fix up to the roof line. I get dizzy just looking that far up.

Wish we could afford to just keep on going around the house but not this year.

NECK PIERCING OR NAPE PIERCING

I was walking down the hall at work the other day and stopped at a traffic jam to wait for one of the aids to take a food tray into one of the rooms. I noticed that she had a neck pierce similar to photo just above. She is very young. I was a little shocked.

Here are five reasons not to pierce your neck:

1. Immune reaction, your body might reject the foreign object.
2. Infection. Keep it clean.
3. Limited employment, especially if there is a dress code that extends to body piercing.
4. Personal problems if friends or family strongly object to piercing adding stress to your already colorful life.
5. Extended piercing, in cases where the piercee is getting older, can leave permanent holes in youse hide.

... and my personal favorite:

6. Better sleep on your face unless you take the trouble to remove that 1 1/2 inch bar from the back of your neck, you jack wagon!!

BREAKFAST

This morning I decided to halve, slice and grill a ripe banana. I then toasted two slices of hazelnut bread, buttered it and smeared the cooked banana on the toast, cuppa coffee and yummy!!

I pondered to myself, "Self, " I sez, "Is there such a thing as Banana Jam?" So I decided to Google "Banana Jam".

I was expecting at least one rock band web site and a couple of porn sites but NO, I got banana jam websites and recipes as below. Hmmm, a project for another day, bananas don't usually last to the over ripe stage at this house.







Banana Jam
2 lbs ripe bananas (1 Kg)
3 3/4 Cup brown sugar (750 g)(That sounds like a LOT of sugar)
1 1/3 Cup water (3 dl)
juice of 3 limes (or lemons)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (1 cc)
3 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract (or use real vanilla beans) (1 cs)
1 dash of ginger powder (I'm note crazy about ginger, but maybe shredded fresh ginger would be nice)
1/4 Cup of rum (1/2 dl)

Peel and mash the bananas.
Mix water, lime juice, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger over moderate heat and stir until syrup thickens. Add the mashed bananas and let cook 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add rum during the last few minutes of cooking to let alcohol burn off. Immediately place in jam jars and seal.

SUMMER CONSTRUCTION

We have hired a subcontractor to remove the siding that has failed on the weather side (south) of the house. He is taking the old stuff off and putting on new paper barrier on top of the original 1920's boards, which don't look that bad but what do I know about siding and is putting up something called "quicky board". I think is what I heard. Anyway it is the same stuff that went up on the house next door last summer and it looks good. We have a detail on the corners where the boards are dovetailed kind of. He has solved that problem by cutting a couple inches away on the wrap around sides and priming and painting boards to go there. He is taking the trash with him as he goes for which I am grateful. We may have to wait for some scaffolding to come available next week so he can get to the upper works. One window will have to come out in order to replace the wood around that.



Also I called our roofer guy and he said send a check for half, he will order supplies and may start late next week. So should be nice and noisy around here.

Then NEXT year I will further gut the retirement and hire someone to fix the sun room.
After 100 years, its patch patch patch.

Dreamt of teeth.

I dreamt of teeth, in particular my front teeth that got smashed on the sidewalk a week or so ago. Everything has healed nicely, however, I remember this one scene in my dream where I was looking in the mirror and there in the space between my two front teeth was a brand new shiny very skinny tooth. It looked very odd. So I decided I better look it up on the dream interpretation URL. Hmmmmm.

Teeth
1. To dream that you have rotten or decaying teeth, forewarns that your health and/or business is in jeopardy. You may have uttered some false or foul words and those words are coming back to haunt you.

Does not apply at present although I am over due for cleaning...drat!

2. To dream that your teeth is gleaming, signifies happiness and fulfilled wishes.

I will take this particular interpretation being of a more positive mind set.

3. To dream that you are brushing your teeth, refers to your level of confidence, your struggles and your aggressiveness. You need to look out for yourself and your own interest. Perhaps, you feel that your position is shaky.

Nope wasn't brushing teeth, merely looking, my level of confidence, struggles and aggressiveness are in balance.

CHICKEN PARMESAN

Package of chicken "cutlets" breast pieces, cut into thirds, dump in casserole, salt, pepper. Mix left over shredded Parm about 3/4 cup into remaining Mayo about one cup, stir well.

Thrown in half bag frozen peas. Open and drain can of asparagus. Mix in with chicken. Dot with Parmesan mayo mixture, top with bread crumbs.

Serve with a glass of 2010 McKay's grapefruit tangerine...a mighty fine vintage.

UPDATE ON NOSE: Healing nicely, have discarded band-aids, applying Neosporin, almost completely healed,upper lip still a little sore.

UPDATE ON HOUSE: The roofer has not called back, but we did hire a man to tear off siding on the south side of the house and put new siding up, fix rotten wood bits here and there and he carts off all the trash. Next year the sun room, hope it does not fall off by then.

OPEN FACED TOASTED CHEESE SANDWICH

I have been wanting toasted cheese for awhile but not white bread, cheese spread kind.

I purchased some artisan garlic bread, some Gruyere and sliced and diced.
Also a dollop of home make apple sauce, very tasty. I need more garlic bread.

For Those Princess Bride fans...

Or you can provide something different for the cat to think since it obvious that the meow translator is turned off.

My contribution, "Oh nooooooooo, she's reading another chapter from "Vindication of the Rights of Women"......

AND NOW, ON TO A PRETTIER FACE......

Decided to post this to get the nose posted a bit lower on the blog.

For the life of me I cannot figure out what sort of club this man may have belonged to, some benevolent organization that dresses in silly hats, or some obscure mittle Europa place, ya? AND he's a very manly smoker.

DAY THREE ... RACCOON EYES

That is UGLY! I was working at my desk today when the wound care nurse stopped in to inspect my injury on a purely voluntary basis.

I had gone in without band-aids, just Neosporin ointment. She asked me if I needed glasses to see the computer. Um, yeah, I need glasses to see the end of my nose.

Oh you can't have those eyepieces resting on the bridge of your nose like that, come with me.

So, I followed here down the hall to her treatment room. She said it looked like there was no infection (good) and that I should be scrubbing with soap and water, do NOT use hydrogen peroxide to clean wound, soap and water is the ticket. Okay.
Then she put a special kind of membrane band-aid on my nose, it is all puffy.
She started laughing. Go look in the mirror, bruiser! Oh yeah, bruiser it is.
People kept asking me all day if I had surgery. Yep, new nose.

And as you can see the raccoon eyes are filling in nicely. Can hardly wait for them to turn green, yellow and purple. yeach.

Oh yes, I am not the only walking wounded. Our surgeon dived into a shallow lake and bashed his noggin as well. I haven't seen him but he wears a mask most of the time anyway.

Makes a person rethink about the merits of taking up the veil, or chador or the burka. Hard to type in a burka.

C&B SALAD AND WEIRD PEACHES

Decided to make cauliflower and broccoli salad today. One head of cauliflower, one head broccoli, one half large onion, half cup golden raisins, half cup sunflower seeds, 3/4 cup frozen peas. Chop to hearts content, put in bowl.

Original recipe calls for several strips of crispy bacon crumbled into the salad. This is optional for the vegetarians.

Dressing; 1 cup mayo, 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 4 to 5 packets Splenda, dash pepper. Stir, mix together, put in suitable shaped container, give a shake,shake, shake to distribute dressing and store in fridge.



At first glance this looks like some eggs. Nope, look closer,they are PEACHES, I decided to purchase some and let them ripen up a bit before making something peaches and cream, maybe Clafuti. I watched the show Two Fat Ladies and the Clafuti looked delicious. Clafuti is such a strange word for a French dish.

Must research crumpets.

FACE REPORT: I have scabbed up nicely, I only have a partial raccoon eye on the right. People kept telling me today, "I can't believe you worked yesterday!". Well I did leave after four hours and things were slow. That's all for now, I may update with a picture once everything turns purple, green and yellow.

Ewwwwwwwwwww!

This morning as I went to work, I noticed a huge spider web with a big old spider strung across the front porch. I swerved to the right to miss it, fell out of my shoes, banged my knees and hands and kissed the cement sidewalk. Bloody nose everywhere, a few scrapes. So I went back inside to ask for help in the transportation department. No problem. Away we went. I walked in and stopped at the nurses station and said that I needed to be seen.

Um, yeah, Bay 2.

Grabbed clean tissues and dabbed at home. Started paper work etc. BP a little high but not ridiculous. Pain scale 6 or 7 out of 10, down to 2 by end of visit. Doctor sent me to x-ray. No broken nose, thank you very much.

Apply band aid, Neosporin, rinse cut inside lip with hydrogen peroxide. And I checked in and went to work. Got the x-rays done, got the procedures for Dr. C done and decided I would come home. Called for transport and husband very quickly showed up. Hydrogen peroxide stings a bit on a fresh cut. Dang but you hafta do that for mouth wounds too much natural flora growing in there that needs to be killed off.

The light level was kind of low on the picture but there is a huge nasty scab forming on the end of the nose, the scrape on the upper lip is firming up as well. The cut under the band aid will just have to rest a bit. The lip is very fat and the doctor says I will look distintly racoon like by tomorrow, O Joy!

Oh and I scratched my new glasses, I should probably drop by the local friendly optometrist to see if the scratch can be buffed out.

Sigh...I am going to look at this as an opportunity to drop five pounds. It hurts to chew and I like applesauce. So, be careful out there, go ahead and keep an eye on spider webs but do stay on a steady course.

SATURDAY LEFT OVER CASSEROLE AND A PARTIAL BOOK REPORT.

Having dutifully consumed the chicken pot pie, it was time to roam through the freezer and cupboards gathering ingredients for left over casserole.

Hmm, a bundle of three bags of frozen turkey stock. Must thaw carefully. One bag of frozen left over bread crumbs. One bag of left over shredded frozen new potatoes. Hmmm



One thawed bag of turkey stock and one chopped white onion simmer until melted.



Use largest mixing bowl for bag of left over bread crumbs, try to bash into slightly smaller pieces. Open can of whole pitted olives and carefully halve them, automatic pitting machines can miss now and then. Open and drain one can whole corn. Mix in two beaten eggs, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, garlic, dill, celery seed. Mix with Grandma Horn's heavy duty wooden spoon, one that was most often used to stir lemonade. Don't forget the melted half cube of butter.



Pour on top of the shredded potatoes, pat smooth and bake in 350 oven for 45 minutes.

The smell is driving everyone crazy.

Oh and I found a container of frozen homemade applesauce. I plan to put some in a container and take that and some of the stuffing to work for lunch. Yummmy!

BOOK REPORT:
I have SO many books that today I was idly cruising through the shelves downstairs and picked one up and browsed a bit. I gradually dawned on me that I. HAD. NEVER. READ. IT. !! Well!

"The Pleasure Trap" By Elizabeth Thornton" Set in Regency England (for you who failed history, Regency period is when King George III of Revolutionary War fame was declared incompetent and his son, George the Fourth, or Prinny was established as Regent).

Story involves a group of women who write Gothic novels and romance. They all have pseudonyms. Some one named Angelo is writing short stories about thinly disguised tragedies amongst the nobility. The nobility is alarmed.

My main character,Eve Dearing writing as Mrs. Barrymore, has dreams that seem to be coming true. Ash Denison is investigating Angelo. He thinks Eve Dearing is also Angelo. Hmm, not so. So much suspicion and a little bit of romance. I'm only up to page 127 and Ash has given Eve her first ever kiss.

Well, she was wearing a red satin dress, what is a red blooded Brit to do? I ax youse.

BOOK REPORT

Todd McAffrey is the youngest son of Ann, writer of all things Pern. I love the Pern books. I even like the son's books. However the most recent one "Dragon Girl" consists mostly of talking heads. Lots of conversations between various raiders ie; T'bon, X'ray etc and their dragons Doodath, Flipith etc.

I was drowning in mass paragraphs of identifiers and very little plot exposition. Mostly all I got out of this book is that the young heroine, a golden queen dragon rider surrounds herself with difficult people and winds up having a threesome or a foursome when her queen rises in her first mating flight and one of the partners was in a coma for gawds sake!! Jaid Black should have been subcontracted to write the sex scenes.

Another thing that I find highly irksome is that they are having what seems to be a very high fatality rate amongst the dragons and riders during Fall, that darn thread keeps sneaking up on these dummies who were designed and trained to fight thread not get eaten by it! No fix has been suggested in this book except that the queens must rise more often and lay more eggs.

I will somewhat warily keep an eye out for the next Dragon rider book but I don't expect much. There is one character that is destined to reappear in a future book but I am uncertain which volume.

I could just go smack somebody.

THE COMMERCIAL IS ON YOU TUBE

If you have not seen the Direct TV commercial; open Google, type You Tube Direct TV pygmy giraffe. Play to your hearts content. Don't miss the dogs playing poker in the opening shot. First words out of his mouth are "Opulence, I has it."

I still thinks it is the cutest commercial I have seen in a while.



And now for a dream interpretation.

A couple nights I woke from a dream where I was walking around a large new industrial complex, had all sorts of people walking here and there. I was carrying something. I finally saw what looked like a reception area. I walked up and seated behind a desk was one of our nurse administrators, I exclaimed, "Jane! I'm so happy to see you! Where do I take these?" and gestured to what I was carrying. She looked at them and said, "Oh you just go back outside, across the courtyard and into the garage and come in again from there, you will find bookkeeping." Sure enough I looked down and I was holding about one hundred bright blue time cards. Then I woke up.

I looked up "Lost" as a general theme at the dream interpretation web site and got what I figured it meant, I am looking for direction or have lost my way in my life.

Um, not quite. The alternative meaning was being lost could represent new occurrences in my life that have forced me to examine the direction I am taking.

Hmmm, pretty heavy stuff. I will partially accept the secondary meaning because the landscape at work changes constantly with the plans for the new facility and some of the ongoing drama within the department. It seems like somebody has to be excited about something ALL the time.

DUNT Dunt DUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!