August weekend 2024 thread

This technically didn't happen on the weekend, but we don't have a "weird weekday happenings" thread. So...

I spent Monday night removing a duck from my chimney.

Yes, the duck is fine.

Thereby surely hangs a tale, and Dragoneers can't help being curious. What was the duck doing in the chimney? How did it get there?

Was it a baby duck or an adult duck? Is your chimney wet? Does your chimney lead to a pond? OOOh, maybe your chimney is magical!

If the last, beware: maybe the next inhabitant will be an elephant. Pete would love that!

That's just quackers.

>1 MrAndrew: How is the poor chimney?

I never thought that was the way to smoke duck.

Not as exciting as quackery in the chimney, but today I had a friend over so we could work on our photo albums together. I don't have many friends left to do this with, and truth be told, I will never do another one unless it's digital, but I have three family heritage albums I was in the middle of and somehow haven't looked at since 2006. I want to finish them before I'm gone, so decided to dig them out again. Still typing my grandmother's travel sagas as well.

>2 hfglen: backstroke i believe, sir.

It's not so much a tale as a puzzle. I don't recall inviting any fowl over recently, and i don't think they are good tunnellers, so i have to assume that it fell down the chimney.

The weird thing is, why a duck? There's no shortage of birds in the immediate area, but not ducks. Parrots, pigeons, magpies, noisy miners, mynas, crows, even ibis if one would fit down the chimney. There are rivers and a lake in a 5km radius so there are ducks around, but no open water for several blocks in any direction, i've never seen ducks around my neighbourhood. I guess it was lost or disoriented, landed on my chimney, and fell in.

Or was it pushed? Foul play, perhaps.

Definitely fowl play.

>10 Bookmarque: I vote for fowl play! :D

We need a ducktective on the case. But i couldn't pay his bill.

Wondering what to do with a Hickory tree (I think it is a Mockernut) that is close to our house. We’ve got a cracked branch that is dangling over our sidewalk. Just four or five months ago we had another cracked branch we had to pay to have taken down. The tree has always leaned slightly given the shade of other trees around us. I’m concerned about the lean and how top heavy it is now. My husband just wants to take down the cracked branch. The tree service quoted us $1100 to come out. Last time it was only $600, which is still a lot. My husband says he can rent a scissor lift and do it himself for less money. However, I’m wondering if we need to take down the entire tree and let the tree service do it. I’d hate to lose the tree, as it’s really pretty in the fall and provides a lot of nuts for wildlife, etc., but it would be pretty devastating if it ever fell on the house.

Any tree experts out there?

Below is a pic (first time doing this so hopefully not too big).

>13 ludmillalotaria: IMHO tidying up that branch would probably improve the balance of the tree, and make it more nearly vertical. But I'd ask a proper tree surgeon first.

My weekend has begun - today is the first day of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, my favourite event of the whole year. It's held in a park very close to my house, which is a natural amphitheatre (and a heck of a good toboggan hill in winter LOL). I love the ambiance, traditions, music, food, sense of community, view of the downtown skyline and the sunset. I don't even care who the headliners are; most years my favourite acts are people I've never heard of before.

NorthernStar arrived last night, and she is in line to put down our tarp for today. My older son will do the tarp run tomorrow and I'll do either Saturday or Sunday. A friend who usually shares our tarp will do whichever of those I don't.

Phew! Back from a few days in NH with family and friends just in time for another weekend in northern Wisconsin. Am planning to attend an Introduction to Bryophyte Ecology given by an ecologist with the US Forest Service and hosted by the Kemp Natural Resources Station which is a part of UW Madison. It's a fabulous facility and I love it up there. I love mosses and liverworts so I'm hoping to learn a lot! Other than that, hanging with my hubby before he leaves for the whole of the next week.

I fell in the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday and broke my left wrist in about 5 places. Surgery tomorrow. So i guess I'll be spending my weekend in bed with painkillers.

>13 ludmillalotaria: We had a gorgeous pine in our backyard we had to take down because it was leaning. It would’ve caused damage to power lines had it fallen. I didn’t want it gone, but The Husband was worried. When we got the tree guys here, they agreed with The Husband. I miss that tree.

>17 theretiredlibrarian: oh no! That’s not fun! Sending you healing vibes.

We have nothing fun planned this weekend, but Monday is our 24th anniversary so we will head to the coast for a few days. Hopefully it’ll be sunny. But it shouldn’t be smoky. *crossing fingers*

Tomorrow night dinner with friends and then on Saturday it's the marimba picnic. My husband and I started marimba lessons just about a year ago and the school has a picnic once a year. I signed up to play on a few tunes. Should be fun!

>17 theretiredlibrarian: How awful! May you heal well and quickly.

>17 theretiredlibrarian:
Sorry to hear that. May the painkillers be effective and you hand heal quickly.

>17 theretiredlibrarian: No fun! Best wishes for quick healing.

>17 theretiredlibrarian: Oh, no! I hope you will heal quickly.

>17 theretiredlibrarian: Einaaaaa! Loads of sympathy, and best wishes for a quick, complete and painless recovert.

>15 tardis: tarp runs, huh. Oh yeah, that takes me back... to times... with tarps. Yup.
>16 Bookmarque: looking up Bryophytes.
>17 theretiredlibrarian: oh no! Sorry to hear that. I shall refrain from any comment on wee hours.
>13 ludmillalotaria: >18 catzteach: that reminds me of The Woodlanders, if my recollection serves me, an introductory character dies from fear that a tree will fall on his house.
>19 littlegeek:: looking up marimbas.

Archery cancelled due to work commitments :(

>17 theretiredlibrarian: Oh no! I hope the surgery goes well and you get decent pain relief.

>15 tardis: Have fun! That sounds like an awesome festival!

>19 littlegeek: Marimba! That is cool and unusual! Hope your performance goes well

I'm going to visit a friend and her family at the house they bought a couple of years ago and which they are in the process of rebuilding. I believe I have been enlisted to help repair their chicken enclosure.

>12 MrAndrew: :o)

>17 theretiredlibrarian: Oh no!

We were supposed to be getting hit with hurricane remnants all weekend so I did not make any plans. We've still got bad weather coming in overnight tonight, but the rest of the weekend looks okay, and now I don't know what I will be doing. Working outside most likely!

>17 theretiredlibrarian: Owwwww! So sorry to hear this and hope the painkillers work, surgery goes well, and healing is quick.

>25 MrAndrew: Until Sunday, the tarp is my home, whereever it ends up each day. It's 8x10 ft, and I share it with at least 7 other people. I do get to go back to the house to sleep at night.

>18 catzteach: Happy Anniversary!

>26 Sakerfalcon: It is an awesome festival. Not that I have any experience with OTHER festivals, but the artists consistently rate it one of the best they perform at, and there is at least one person who comes from Scotland every year to volunteer.

Last night was all on main stage. The first group was African (Mali) style, which isn't a favourite with me (although people who do like that style raved about them), the second performer was good but mumbled and forgot some words to one of his songs, but the third, Black Puma, was terrific. He had such a good rapport with the audience and so much energy. Tonight, the side stages (6 of them, cleverly numbered 1-7, with 4 being missing) will have smaller concerts and group sessions until 9, and then we get Main Stage again.

I probably won't inflict a daily report on you all because Saturday and Sunday are full days that start early and end late - very tiring - but it will be great, and when it's not, I always have a book or my ebook reader along. Usually a book AND my e-reader, because once it gets dark the backlit e-reader means I can keep reading.

the surgery went well, everything is back where they are supposed to be, held together with a metal plate and a bunch of screws. they gave me a nerve blocker so right now i feel nothing and cant move from the shoulder to fingertips. that will probably wear off by tomorrow. thanks for all the well wishes, and apologies for noncapititalizing and typos as i amdoing this one handed for the forseeable future. at least it was my nondominant hand.

>29 theretiredlibrarian: Reminds me of that old koan: What is the sound of one hand typing?
I'm glad that they got you fixed up. Hope you are over the worst of it.

>29 theretiredlibrarian: Strength to you!

>29 theretiredlibrarian: glad it went well. Wishing you a quick recovery.

>29 theretiredlibrarian:
I wish you a rapid recovery.

I am in Glasgow for WorldCon, The World Science Fiction Convention. This morning I took the opportunity to visit the locations where my grandparents lived and were married. It turned out these locations were only a twenty minute walk from my hotel.

My grandparents were married in 1905. Where each of them lived at the time were all tenements. Now they are modern housing.

The original church is gone. Its parish hall was used for masses after the church was demolished. Today it appears this building is disused and due for demolition.

At least the street names remain.

Just hanging with hubby today since he'll be gone from tomorrow to Saturday night. The weather is perfect for sitting on the deck and I just found some delicious hedgehog mushrooms in the yard to put on a pizza he'll make in the wood-fired oven. Sweet!

Other than that, took photos of stuff to go in my online store. Was seriously tempted to keep this baby -



A bit of Rose-cut turquoise about 2cm wide.

Pretty!

Folk Fest wrapped up last night with an absolute banger of a set by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. If their current tour goes anywhere near you, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Today, I'm suffering from a bit of a hangover; not from booze (I seldom drink it), but from sun, heat, dust, lack of sleep, crowds (25,000 people per day!), and fabulous but LOUD music. NorthernStar and I had a slow morning, made the holy pilgrimage to IKEA, and are now back home, taking it easy.

>37 tardis: They came to Bend last summer. I don’t know if they’ll be here this year. When they were here, Robert Plant went into one of my favorite indie bookstores. He ordered a coffee, bought a book, and took a pic with the owner. :)

>34 pgmcc: Were they living there because that is where the jobs were?

>35 Bookmarque: Lovely!

>37 tardis: Sounds wonderful.

>39 clamairy:
Grandmother was born in there and worked as a fruitier's assistant at the age of 22 when she married my grandfather. Grandfather was a fruitier (ho! ho!) of 27 years of age. He was widowed and had one child, my uncle John. I have no information at the moment regarding his first wife, but I suspect she was a Glaswegian too and was the reason he was in Glasgow. This could, of course, be incorrect. My brother has done some family tree research so I should mine his resources for this information.

My Grandfather had been born in Durham in England while his parents were in England for work.

They got married in 1905 and my father, who was the first born of the new union, was born in 1908. He was born in Hamilton in Scotland, so I presume they had moved there. as far as I know my grandfather was managing a hotel in Hamilton at the time of my father's birth. He and my grandmother went on to have another nine children, one of whom died at an early age, I think it was 10 years old. The rest survived long enough for me to meet them.

By 1915 they had moved to County Down and my Grandfather was running a public house, yes, a pub.

At the time my grandparents were married the accommodation in the area was tenement blocks. They are all gone now and are replaced by more modern public housing.

>40 pgmcc: Fascinating, thank you. Part of a countrywide diaspora, no doubt.

As usual, late posting about last weekend. The Folk festival was awesome! My favourite was Blue Rodeo, on Friday night, but there were so many excellent performers! Had a lovely visit with tardis, only marred by my truck leaking oil on the road where is was parked. Couldn't get it in the shop until today, and have been worrying all week about how bad things are and what it will cost. Turned out not to be as bad as I feared, so it is fixed, and I am heading home tomorrow. It will be a long day (1100 km), but nice to see the cats and Duncan (dog) again and sleep in my own bed. Today we went to the museum, which reopened in a new and bigger venue a few years ago. It is impressive! Saturday, which is the actual weekend, I may get out to watch the triathlon at home. I didn't sign up this year, as I wasn't sure when I'd get back. I expect the rest of the weekend will be very low key.

>29 theretiredlibrarian: - glad things seem to be going well, and I'm hoping you have a speedy recovery.

>34 pgmcc: - WorldCon sounds fun! And interesting to connect with a bit of family history.

This weekend will partly include hubby, but only on Sunday since he doesn't get back until Saturday night. Luckily I have friends to entertain me! We are going to a local beer and brats joint tonight and tomorrow float down the river on tubes all tied together. We do it a couple times a year and it's always great. Lots of adult beverages to hand!

This weekend will be spent preparing for another road trip to New Jersey. Unlike the BMW Tour of '21, I'm taking the shortest route possible, with only the first day being a 500-mile haul (from here to Little Rock.) After that, no more than 350 miles per day. The destination is a cousin's house where we'll be having what will likely be the last family reunion on the weekend of the 24th. The previous one was in 1998, with over a hundred relatives in attendance - all either my immediate family, spouses and offspring, or members of my mother's side of the family. Same thing this time, except the head count is 25, with only 4 of them being cousins. The rest are all dead. And that's why we're having it. It's just to get together without a reason to mourn.
I'll be starting home on the 26th and hope to spend a day or two at a friend's home in northwest Arkansas, but that means traveling on Labor Day weekend, and I dread that.

Today (Friday) I get to take my mother-in-law grocery shopping. Not my favourite thing to do, but I'm fond of her. I also have to pick up my race kit; I'm running the 10K that is part of the Edmonton Marathon. That is assuming the air quality doesn't tank again. We've been having a lot of smoke lately. My training has been sporadic since my last race at the end of May, but it's a flat course, and should be okay anyway. I'm not going to set the racing world on fire, but I'll finish. After that, I'm going out to lunch with my husband and some of his regular run group, none of whom are running the Edmonton Marathon or associated smaller distances.

I had Friday off in anticipation of a meetup with a fellow GDer (one of these days, Lee), so got a bunch of things done around the house including getting the washing machine fixed. Saturday was a beautiful hike at my favorite local trail (Fall Creek), and today was a burial-at-sea for my friend's mom. It was beautifully sunny as we headed out, and just as the actual "burial" took place, a lovely fog settled upon us. Magical. Rest in peace, Betty.

Made it home Friday night. The cats were super happy to see me. Saturday after breakfast headed out to the kennel to pick up Duncan. We stopped on the way back home to check out the local triathlon and cheer on the racers. They now have lots of distance options, but I didn't enter because I wasn't sure when I would be getting home from Edmonton. So glad I didn't!

Yesterday was lovely weather, but today is very smoky - I knew I should have done laundry yesterday! Also, the gas company is digging up my yard to update the gas lines and change the meter. I thought the new meter was going on the front, but they are putting it on the back. I didn't finish cutting the back grass before they started digging - oh well. They have a tiny hoe that fit through the gate, which dug a big hole and a trench to the corner of the house - right past my clothesline, so even if it wasn't smoky, I couldn't have used it today. Now they are using a big truck to drive part of the line under both the fence and my Saskatoon bushes towards the hole they dug. It is too noisy to sit outside right now. Just got somewhat quieter, so I'm hoping they may be finished the worst of it.

My race time was deeply unimpressive: 1:31:17, but I finished, which was my only real goal :)

Lunch was great, and it turned out that most of the other people there HAD run either the marathon or half-marathon. No other 10K runners in the group. Anyway, we had a nice time comparing our races AND the restaurant was giving marathon participants a discount! Bonus!

I had a very busy but excellent weekend with a visiting friend. I finished work at 1pm on Friday, and met my friend to see exhibitions at Japan House London, and the Serpentine galleries in Hyde Park. All three were free, and the weather was glorious for walking in the park. On Saturday we went to Petworth, which is a pretty village in Southern England (West Sussex) and saw another art exhibition, of work by Leonora Carrington who is one of my favourite artists. After that we went to the Weald & Downland Museum, which has many unique historical buildings that were saved from demolition and carefully reconstructed on the site, allowing visitors to explore domestic, agricultural and public buildings from the Anglo Saxon era up to Victorian times. It really gave you a feel for how people lived in the past. Then on Sunday, we went to Chartwell, which was the beloved country home of Winston Churchill. Then my friend went home and I dashed up to London for dinner with other friends, and we ate delicious Turkish food. Still sorting out photographs but I will put some on Facebook when I'm done.

Well, the highlight of my weekend was actually supposed to be tonight -- a dinner with a long-time friend who is still making her way home from Worldcon in Glasgow. Unfortunately, she has had to bail out (wayward airlines, wayward luggage, airport parking, etc.) I'm both disappointed that we're not going to gab face to face as we so often used to do, but also a bit worried for her. She takes a great deal on herself and is loathe to admit that she can't do as much as she used to.

That said, good for you >48 tardis:!! You finished the event and that is a worthwhile accomplishment. And it sounds as if you >49 Sakerfalcon: had a lovely weekend.

My own life continues as a dreary little procession of boring events and annoying details. I am SO GRATEFUL for books and for any number of the authors who produce them.

>49 Sakerfalcon: Looking forward to your photo-journal of your weekend.

>50 jillmwo: Did you have another friend at Worldcon that I have not met, or is this the one with whom I send selfies to you from Worldcon?

>48 tardis: To some of us managing to run and catch the bus is a major achievement. Running a marathon, half marathon or 10k run is just beyond imagination. Well done on your run regardless of the time. I am impressed.

>52 pgmcc: This is someone whom you most likely would not have met. However, on FB, she shared a photo of her son outside the same hotel that you featured in your photo of the convention venue, so I am confident that you were both attending Worldcon at the same time in the same city.

>54 jillmwo:
I met up with your other friend in that hotel just before she and her husband were about to give a concert. They had their own concert. Filking stars.

>50 jillmwo: My own life continues as a dreary little procession of boring events and annoying details.

I hear that.

>50 jillmwo: & >56 MrAndrew: Yes, same here. But I'm kind of okay with that. The older I get the more recovery time I need from social interaction. LOL It's finally cooling off here so I can get back to working outside in the gardens, which have been neglected because of the humidity & heat.

>50 jillmwo: & >56 MrAndrew: & >57 clamairy: Terry Prachett said something like, The worst curse you can put on someone is to wish for them Interesting Times. Embrace the boredom.

>50 jillmwo:; >56 MrAndrew:; >57 clamairy:

Listen to >58 MrsLee: and be careful what you wish for. Look what happened to Bilbo Baggins when he went on an adventure.

But if Bilbo had listened to Mrs Lee, Sauron would presumably be ruling Middle Earth. So there's that.

We are heading out today for a Porsche club event in southern Indiana. Will be boring highway until we get there, then we should have a lot of fun in the hills down that way. Coming back on Sunday. Should be fun. Car stuff like this usually is.

>58 MrsLee: Oh, I would never in a million years refer to these times as boring. I don't believe my life is boring either. Gardening and reading are two of my favorite things in the world. And I take breaks to eat cheese... :o)

>62 clamairy: Agreed, I can't remember a time I was bored recently, although others may not find my days as stimulating as I do.

>60 MrAndrew: It's all part of the plan I didn't say not to do anything, only to embrace the quiet moments because the interesting times will be along any moment.

I knew it!

Touchstones don't seem to want to work on this one but The Cormorant and The The Woodwitch by Stephen Gregory just came to mind.

It's been a very interesting week!

Our boy started first grade on Monday (the school system here is grades 0-9, so this is his second year of school). New building, new classroom, new teacher - this is difficult enough for neurotypical children, it's even more difficult for neurodiverse people. Phew. But everything went well! As I came to pick him up from after school programme on Friday afternoon, he was running across the playground, laughing. He looked surprised and disappointed for a moment when he saw me, lol. This was such a good sign!

My husband was away on a business trip all week. It's a rare thing, so it felt weird. I managed everything just fine ;) It's really nice that he is back now, though! I missed him :)

After all this, I think we all deserve a lazy Saturday. I might bake something to spoil us.
Tomorrow, I am planning to go to piano concert together with my mom, so I am looking forward to that.

>66 Alexandra_book_life: Sounds like a great start to the school year.

>66 Alexandra_book_life: How wonderful. I hope he enjoys the whole year as much as he did his first week.

>66 Alexandra_book_life: A good start! All the best to you and your son for a happy year!

Today is the Garden Festival, put on by the Horticultural Society of which I am a member. Vendors, speakers, food, door prizes, and a small bench show (show of garden produce, judged for excellence). I'm only entering one category - bouquet of mixed flowers - because I'm chronologically too old for the children's categories (we won't go into my mental age!) or don't have what's needed for the category (e.g. largest tomato). It would be nice to win, but mainly I'm entering to support the event.

The rest of the weekend will be mainly gardening and reading and the other ordinary (but still enjoyable!) stuff.

>67 Karlstar: >68 clamairy: >69 tardis: Thank you so much, everyone! :)))

>69 tardis: It sounds lovely. Good luck to you and your flowers!

>69 tardis: Best of luck!

RAIN! WE ARE HAVING RAIN!

It isn't much, but the skies are a lovely grey and the temperature has been in the 70s for two days. Tomorrow summer returns, but today is lovely.
We are heading to Farmer's Market, and that is the extent of our plans.

I continue to work on the family history/ letters. In addition to typing my grandmother's letters, I decided I needed to get out some photo albums which I began over 10 years ago. They are the family lines through the matriarch side. Two albums for my family and one for my husband's. His side didn't save nearly as much stuff as mine did.

Then, I thought it would be a good idea to pull out the 6 crates I have which are filled with photos, ephemera, and histories my mom put together. When I first sorted them after she died, I was mostly cramming stuff in the correct boxes without looking through it. There are a lot of poorly copied duplicates my mother intended to send to distant relatives who were interested. In the 1970s and on her income, she didn't get the lovely copies we can do now for little cost. I have scanned most of the photos, so that's nice. What I hope to end up with are organized files of each family, to make it easier for anyone who wants to delve in.

oh god it's so humid. I'm dying of humidity.

>73 MrsLee: Hooray for rain!!

My bouquet won first place! It wasn't a shoo-in, either - the other bouquets were lovely. Anyway, here it is!



The flowers are amaranth (love-lies-bleeding), dill, and garlic chives.

>75 tardis: Congratulations! That is gorgeous.

>75 tardis: Love that, the judges had good taste, and actually, the bouquet sounds like it tastes good.

>73 MrsLee: Oh, wonderful! Rain, rain, rain! :)

>75 tardis: Wow, congratulations! This is a beautiful bouquet.

>73 MrsLee:
Enjoy the rain.

You continue to amaze me with your family history projects.

>75 tardis:
Amazing. Congratulations.

>75 tardis: Beaut! Well done, and well deserved!

>73 MrsLee: The rain was so refreshing! There was snow up on the mountain and I had to use a blanket when I read on the porch. But, yes, summer comes back tomorrow (just in time for school to start and no A/C).

>75 tardis: Oh my! That is gorgeous!

No real activities this weekend. Went to the library to pick up a book for a friend. Then a trip to the bookstore to replace a book I bought last week and spilled water on. Did some quilting and crocheting. And watched some football. A good, relaxing weekend. :)

Busy weekend, the first one venturing out a lot. My niece was married yesterday at a very nice campground on the shore of Lake Ontario. Great site, perfect weather, great occasion. We went up Friday night for the rehearsal dinner and then yesterday for the ceremony and dinner. We had to leave when dinner was over, I just couldn't sit for the remaining 4 hours or so. Still nice to get out with everyone and see my kids and grand-daughter.

Had a fabulous weekend with the Southern Indiana Porsche club running around beautiful roads, talking about beautiful cars and enjoying good food and company. We had around 75 cars and here are some of them with my hubby loading the frunk of ours behind.

>85 Bookmarque: Looks like fun and good weather for it.

We are picking up my son and grandson today to go to visit my husband's parent's grave. It is in the Igo Veterans Cemetery which is in the middle of nowhere, but a very lovely nowhere with lots of scenery of mountains, creeks, rocks and some trees. A fire burned up a lot of the vegetation a few years ago. As much as I hate fires, I find the recovery and regrowth an interesting thing to see.

>84 Karlstar: Congratulations to the newlyweds :)

frunk lol

I had a lovely weekend. Started with dinner Friday night with one of my oldest friends. She is about 20 years older than I, but we have been friends since we met. Her husband died several years ago, but some time after he died she heard from an old high school friend - the brother of her best friend. Apparently he has been carrying a torch for her all these years, and since both their spouses had died, he decided to get back in touch. They hit it off, and are now living together. Sadly (for me) mostly not here. Saturday I went to the farmers market and walked the dog. On Sunday my friend and I drove up the highway into the mountains to have lunch with some other friends who are mostly living elsewhere now. It was a lovely day for a drive. We saw quite a few small groups of caribou, 5 stone sheep, a herd of 20-30 bison, and a few deer. A really nice weekend.

Almost the weekend so this counts. :)
Tonight was Back to School night. About half of my 25 kiddos showed. Oh my! They were all so super cute! I do have a lot of active boys: almost all of their parents told me their kiddo is ADHD. I’m going to have to keep things moving. It’ll be an interesting year! :D

>90 catzteach:
Good luck with new class.

>90 catzteach: Good luck :)))

I've got nothing planned for the long weekend except grocery shopping with my mother-in-law and a bunch of gardening. I have to deal with my surfeit of cucumbers somehow, too. Make more pickles, maybe some relish.

Good grief, weekends come fast when you aren't working.

No plans, but hoping one of the days will include my grandson. Plodding away at the family history stuff. So much to do, so little time.

More medical tests next week. They will probably show that the doctors are not sure about the results and we better have some more tests. That's how it seems to go, anyway. Happily, my eye exam ruled out any major bad issues and it may be as simple as applying tears 3 times a day. That seems to be helping anyway and when I thought about it, the problems did seem to come on when we had to be running fans all day and night.

>90 catzteach: Oh, best of luck!

>94 MrsLee: Yeah, I use the liquid tears all Winter. They really help.

My son and his girlfriend (and pup) are coming, but the weather looks like crap on Sunday. Instead of the big family picnic at the beach near me we are all going to my sister's house instead.

Oh boy, more tests - hope all goes well for you MrsL and that things are looking better. FWIW I use some eyedrops myself these days. Actually, now I think of it, ever since coming to see you. Ha! Well not that it was you in particular, but it was so dry I thought my contacts would weld to my eyeballs and the doctor recommended Systane drops just to keep things lubed up. Once or twice a day works well.

This weekend my oldest and dearest friend is visiting again for a few days. I borrow another friend's kayak and we go out on the water or into the woods or just hang around the house and laugh ourselves to bits. I made her this Longido ruby pendant since she's a July baby. I hope she likes it -

>94 MrsLee: ...the doctors are not sure about the results and we better have some more tests. That's how it seems to go, anyway. On a somewhat less alarming level than your own, I hardly expected the podiatrist this week to announce more physical therapy would be in order. And I'm not even sure what physical therapy on a foot might entail. It's a FOOT. You either walk on it or stand on it. There's not much room for creativity in that context. I keep reminding myself that they -- the doctors -- likely do know more about the situation than I do.

At any rate, with my foot elevated, we're not going anywhere. I had hoped that I'd be able to order some new (and functioning) shoes so that I could begin moving around outside of the house.

Sigh. I shall have to pick up another book. Such trauma...

>94 MrsLee: Good luck with all the tests!

My husband and my son have been at home with a cold since Tuesday (hello, school year, hello). They are still not well, and I am beginning to get a cough :(
So, we are staying put and being lazy (books, nice food, anime). We did do some reading exercises with the boy, as well as the math they were going to cover during the week - so, not 100% lazy ;)
I am just wondering how much work I will get done next week...

>96 Bookmarque: That is lovely!

>97 jillmwo: Maybe foot massage is included in the therapy? That might not be too bad. There are several exercises I do when my feet are sore which seem to help. Most of them have to do with alignment of my posture to prevent the soreness. Hope you heal quickly.

>93 tardis: Make more pickles

Words to live by.

>100 MrsLee: Oh, now there's a lovely thought. Foot massage as a part of physical therapy. Don't I wish... Actually, my foot looked halfway decent when we redid the bandage wrapping this am. The next step is getting both feet into real shoes. Once I can do that, I can return to being in the kitchen and maybe even going out for a meal without feeling like I have to keep my feet out of sight.

>96 Bookmarque: That's a lovely pendant! I'm sure your friend will be thrilled with it.

>97 jillmwo: I had to have PT on my foot. Yes, there were massages. :) As well as this horrible scraper thing that I couldn’t stand because my feet are super sensitive to touch so we didn’t do it much. And, of course, they always seem to find exercises to do. :) I hope it works out and your foot heals well.

>96 Bookmarque: That is beautiful!!

>94 MrsLee: I use Systane drops. I notice when my eyes are dry, my vision is blurrier.

>94 MrsLee: Good luck with the tests and I hope the drops work.

Since I couldn't find decent habaneros last year, I bought a new planter this spring and put nothing but habaneros in it, and we have a ton. The first batch of hot pepper jelly is now done, I'll need to make at least 2 more batches.

>104 Karlstar: I would love to know more about your hot pepper jelly :)

>104 Karlstar: I may have to start raising my own hot chilies. The farmers in our area only raise mild chilies. Those in our stores are not quite what I want for my fermented Sriracha sauce.

>106 MrsLee: I tried that :) I had a lovely chili plant for three years. The chilis were hot, hot, hot. Last year, some evil virus or insect killed it :( Once I get over the trauma, I'll try again.

>107 Alexandra_book_life: For three years I had real Mozambican piri-piri growing next to the bathroom window in Pretoria. In the fourth year, the plants set fruit, all of which vanished before ripening. Eventually I found out why -- a bulbul ate them as soon as they started to turn from green to orange! The plants didn't last long after that.

>107 Alexandra_book_life: I have only tried to grow them once, with very little success. I think the plants have me three peppers and then died. The on success I did have was a volunteer. It put on tons of small red chilies. Not sure what variety they were.

>108 hfglen: From looking up bulbul, at least it was a pretty feathered friend and not a monkey.

>109 MrsLee: Yerrsss, there is that. Fortunately suburban Pretoria is monkey-free. But we were occasionally visited by a Kipling character from The Elephant's Child, namely the Go-'way Bird (aka a Grey Loerie).

>109 MrsLee: and >110 hfglen:. Apparently, there is at least one species of bulbul that is being monitored by the state of Hawaii. Not indigenous to the Americas, the red-whiskered bulbul has emerged there. It is believed that the population in Hawaii is due to the release or escape of pet birds back during the 1960s.

Don't know if your area has any of those, Hugh?