Being Tired

Two weeks ago I went and had a blood test done. I have not been feeling well, or sleeping well, and most of the time, I feel totally lethargic.

I have not had the time to sit around and just wait for the “Magic Health Fairy” to give me back my energy, so I called my doctor, and got the slips I needed for blood work.

After leaving more than my share of blood, I got the results of my blood tests back. Low thyroid condition! What this means is that I will have to take thyroid medication to replace what my body is not making. It also means that I am one happy chick.

You see, one of the side effects is weight gain, when your thyroid decides to shut down. I have worked so hard on my Weight Watchers plan, with very little results. Hopefully, increasing the thyroid medication will help me to stabilize theĀ  weight issue.

Yay for me!

I am also set to see two other doctors to help us sort out this situation. Finally a reason why I have felt so tired and run down! I am hopeful that in the next few weeks I can start feeling better. At least I know what is making me feel so tired now.

Random Dozen

1. How do you feel about “Gladiator” sandals, also called “Roman” or “Jesus” sandals? A fashion yea or nay?

Nay. Think that there are more comfortable and fashionable sandals out there.

2. What is your favorite pizza?

I love a thin crust Pizza with just about everything on it. Alas I now tend to go for vegetable Pizzas.

3. There are plans in the works to sell roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. This means you could buy Picard’s chair for your family room. If not a Star Trek item, what prop, background, set, etc. from what TV or movie would you buy if you could?
[Ex: Hurley’s “I Love my Shih tzu” shirt from LOST, the plantation home “Tara” from Gone With the Wind, or Tracy’s tambourine from the Partridge Family.]

Not sure there really is anything.

4. Name a local food or restaurant that your area is famous for.

Canoe. Known for having the best Sweet & Sour Calamari ever!

5. What is your current favorite snack?

Weight Watcher’s Toffee Ice Cream Bar!

6. Hypothetical: You are required to be a reality show contestant. Which show would you choose based on your probability of success? (You cannot choose “none.”)

A. Dancing with the Stars
B. Biggest Loser
C. Survivor

7. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being uninhabitable and 10 being cleanliness that meets the standards of OCD, how clean is your vehicle’s interior?

7. It’s clean but there are dackel nose prints on the windows.

8. It doesn’t feel like Spring until…the fruit trees bloom!

9. Something that made you laugh really hard recently is: Watching The Owl Box.

10. Tell me about a goal you’re working toward. Well, not necessarily working toward, but waiting for Anneliese to go into heat, so I can bring her to Germany to breed her.

11. Share a thought-provoking or inspiring quote this week.

“It’s tough to do, but you’ve got to work at living, you know? Most people work at dying, but anybody can die; the easiest thing on this earth is to die. But to live takes guts; it takes energy, vitality, it takes thought. . . . We have so many negative influences out there that are pulling us down. . . . You’ve got to be strong to overcome these adversities . . . that’s why I never stop.”
Jack LaLanne

12. Name one thing that you do as a parent that you absolutely know will make your kids happy. If you’re not a parent, feel free to substitute “friend” or nomenclature that works for you.

Listen. People get rushing around so much, and I think the best gift I give my daughter is that I listen to her. I hope she feels that this is important. I always wished my mother would just listen to me, so I have tried to be a sounding board for my daughter as she has grown up.

It’s Official

Our spring is far ahead of the usual ones that we have here in Central New Hampshire. Our fruit trees are starting to open their blossoms, which is a concern, as we do not want to lose, what could be a wonderful crop of fruit.

I went walking with Hubby, Fritz and the dackels today in the yard to look at the beautiful trees. The cherry tree is loaded with blossoms and a few more warm, sunny days and we will be overcome with their delicate blooms.

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Aren’t these just the most beautiful thing?

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We also noted that a peach tree is about to start with their lovely blossoms.

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I do so love spring. I love everything, but the pollen! As we walked around the trees I started sneezing and couldn’t stop. I need to find a good allergy medication!

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This evening was my Library Trustee meeting. I substituted for the regular Secretary, who was out with a severe cold. Since this was our first regular meeting since the Town Elections they had the Election of Officers. I was asked to be the new Secretary for the Trustees.

I accepted, but I am very nervous about doing the job correctly. I hope I can do a good job for the coming year. So now it is official. I am an officer on the Trustee Board.

Isn’t it amazing how life can change so quickly for you? A year ago, I would never have thought I would be involved in all the things I am.

But, it does feel good!

E-mail-dackel

Sunday

Sunday was the Taste Of The Lakes in a neighboring town. I’d purchased tickets for Hubby and me, and we met up with our friends, Laurie and Peter as well as a few other couples and secured a nice table…near the food!

This is the local chapter of Altrusa Internationale’s biggest fund raiser. Altrusa is an organization of Women (men too, in some areas) who work to better there community. I became drawn to Altrusa about 6 months ago, when I realized that it was time for me to give back to my town and the people in it.

So, today was the big event. Recently, Hubby and I have been saving our money, so we have not gone out much. To have two “dates” with him in one week was more than special!

I got all dressed up, did my hair and make-up and even wore the dreaded panty-hose! I put on a pair that have been in my dresser, like forever, and put them on. Then I stood there laughing. You see these were hose from before Weight Watchers and they were so big that they immediately started to fall south! No video of this exists, you will just have to trust me on this. It was funny!

Dress on, hair done, I went in and did my make-up. In my younger days, a tiny bit of blush, lip gloss and mascara and I was good to go. Now I all but use a putty knife to apple the make-up, for that young and “natural” look!

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We drove over the the event, and then walked to the door. It was quite a long walk and my feet, jammed into high heels that I never wear, groaned with each step. How do working women do it, wearing heels like this every day? All I wanted was my slippers! Heck, I would have taken a pair of sneakers!

Okay, back to the event. We entered with Peter and Laurie and selected a table. Then began 2 hours of grazing.

Here is Kevin’s Cafe. Naturally I spoke with them and enjoyed the best crab cake ever. It was just loaded with crab!

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You can see people moving around the different stations checking out the food!

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These people had Bruchetta and it was fabulous!

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This was Canoe and they served plain macaroni and cheese and meatballs, as well a cheesecake and toffee bars for dessert.

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One restaurant had Oysters. Hubby had several of those!

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Stuffed mushrooms!

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Wonderful Jamaican coffee was served there.

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And before I forget, these four gentlemen sang to us during the event. They sang Barber Shop Quartet songs! It made me think of my Grandfather Stevens who took me to hear the Barber Shop Quartet sing at the Prudential Center in Boston. I was a very little girl, as I remember sitting on his knees.

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After grazing for 2 hours we all headed out to get our cars and come home. The dackels were thrilled to see us, and I fed them quickly and we walked them. Then I sat down to write, but got interrupted again.

Baron’s owner called to tell me what a great guy Baron is.

Baron

He is Anneliese’s son, and looks the most like her, I think. I had a wonderful visit with him, before hanging it up and talking to my sister.

Busy, fabulous wonderful day! How was your Sunday?

22 Years & Counting…

Today Hubby and I are celebrating our 22nd Wedding Anniversary! We have been so lucky. Although we’ve shared the ups and downs that life throws at you, we’ve always managed to get through it because we had each other.

We were friends for a long time before we fell in love. Perhaps that is the key to a long relationship. Being friends first.

Whatever it is, we are blessed and thankful to have shared this time.

Our 22nd Anniversary from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

The Day After

The day after Easter found me exhausted! lol! I sat sipping my coffee on Monday morning, in a clean house, which was good, because I had very little ambition. I decided to take the day off. Do a little email writing, TV watching and Owl observing.

However, I was feeling guilty about the fact that dinner wasn’t up to my standards yesterday, so I decided to cook Hubby a nice rotisserie chicken for his dinner Monday night. The only thing was, he had a meeting at 6 o’clock, so I needed to have dinner on the table at 5 PM. That’s okay, just meant I had to start everything an hour and a half earlier than normal.

So, the dogs got fed at 4:15 (45 minutes early), and I worked on making a nice dinner after that. The chicken smelled great, and I made baked potatoes and eggplant roll-ups to go on the side.

The trees and shrubs are all budding and this is a problem for me. Seems I am allergic to this process and so I spend part of the last few days with severe allergy symptoms. Ahhhh-choooooo!

And my final piece of news is that Mandy’s cat, Maestro went to Rainbow Bridge over the weekend. He was a big, beautiful, Tuxedo cat with a heart of gold. I will miss him, and I know Mandy will too. I’m so sorry Sweetheart.

kitties and food

Rest in peace, dear Maestro.

The Owl Box

My sister turned me on the Molly and MaGee. Who are Molly and MaGee? They are Barn Owls out in San Marcos, California. Currently they have nested in a back yard Owl Box that is on Streaming Video. Please go and check it out. If you are lucky you will see the Owlets in the box with Molly. MaGee, the Daddy, brings food in several times a day to feed his family.

The Owl Box

It’s addicting, I tell you, as you watch nature, up close and so beautifully perfect. My thanks to Carlos and his wife Donna for doing this so that we all can see this wonderful sight!

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Hubby and I hit the shops today to buy the food for Easter. We found a nice ham, asparagus and purchased the cheese to make my special Macaroni and Cheese. The store was not stocked very well, and we ended up having to go to two other shops to finish our shopping.

I was in the soda isle getting a few bottle of soda for Hubby and as I reached up with one hand to grab a 2 liter bottle, a second bottle leapt off the shelf and started to fall. I grabbed and I actually caught it! Just as I did Hubby turned the corner, but he missed my great athletic feat!

The day here was bright, with blue skies and warm temperatures. I even put the windows down in the car and breathed in the fresh spring air.

Ah-choo! Oh yeah, springtime. Allergy season. That’s okay, I’ll deal with it. Bring on the sun and flowers!!!

No Joke, It’s April 1st

It was an odd day today. I woke feeling like doing nothing more than pulling the covers up and hiding in my bed, but I got up and dressed and headed to the hospital for blood work. They took six tubes of blood, and then put a simple band-aid on me and out I went.

Since this was a fasting test, I couldn’t eat or drink before it, so immediately after the test, I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts and got a tall coffee to warm the cockles of my heart! It was delicious!

By the time I reached my Weight Watchers meeting, and prepared to weigh in, I noticed that my arm was still bleeding and running down my arm! Thankfully, I still had another band-aid in my purse so I was able to clean up and re-band-aid my arm.

After that I weighed in and I had lost one half a pound! This is good because slow and steady wins the race. I stayed for most of the meeting and then left a few minutes early because of a bad migraine.

The rest of the day was spent sort of in a fog. Head aching, dogs barking (Always good for a headache! Ha!), and rain falling.

Oh yes, and by the way, I LOVE the new coffee maker. It makes great coffee, full bodied and nice and hot! Best of all, it stays hot for me as long as I want and the coffee remains just as delicious as it was when it was first brewed! I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will remain the case for a very long time.

My Crazy World

For those of you who know me, or have been reading Dackel Princess for a while, you will know that I have terrible luck with coffee makers. I have had them stop working and go in for service repair, and then after they are out of warranty, they have literally died and gone to coffee maker heaven. In the last 5 years I have had three coffee makers.

This last one, a K**** was the worst. I hated the machine and it hated me. I would carefully measure and put the coffee on while I walked the dogs, only to come back and find coffee all over my counter tops and running down onto the floor. But the fact that I am a cheapskate kept me using that horrible machine.

Then on Saturday morning I woke with a migraine. I turned on the coffee maker and NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I am not at all unhappy, as I keep a cheapo spare machine for emergencies. I was actually glad that the K**** machine bit the dust because now, now I could go out and buy a new one, with no guilt!

So off Hubby and I went today to buy a new machine. We’d been doing all sorts of research online to see what the best coffee maker was, and what we found was that most of the models out there are pure crap. Made to last just past their warranty and then give it up!

So we looked for a machine that would keep our coffee hot for at least 4 hours. Well that just cuts down the models to a bare minimum! You see, we can’t be trusted in this world, and so most machines turn off after 2 hours, PERIOD!

We finally found one that will brew a strong cup of coffee, and then keep it warm for four hours! Plus it is this cool black/bronzed color. It is a C********.

coffee maker

I will report on the quality of the coffee tomorrow, but it is up and set and ready to go in the morning. Oh, I hope this will solve my coffee woes, at least for a little while.

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We also stopped at a local dress shop and I actually bought a dress. A cute little number. You see I looked in my closet and realized that I didn’t own a dress! So when I got this great coupon in the mail, I decided to go off and find something.

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So the day ended with torrential rains, and wet dogs and me happily putting my new dress in the closet!

Arnie, Anneliese & Lilacs

When the day ends and I am getting ready for bed, I often look to see if my boyfriend has arrived. He is small, and dark with big brown eyes, which he flashes at me in such a way that he melts my heart! I’m not sure if Hubby is jealous of him or not, but I am thinking he is. What do you think?

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This is his “come hither” look!

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I must admit that between Arnie and the girls, I am well snuggled and well loved in bed each night. I woke briefly in the night last night and the two girls had my back and my belly and Arnie was near my feet, under the covers!

We’ve been having a cold snap the last few days, which means that Hubby has gotten out to ski again. Sadly, the forecast is for heavy rain the next three days, so I think that his skiing might be over for the year.

I hope we have some warmer weather soon, because my lilacs are starting to bud. I just want warm weather now to bring them out.

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A lilac bud today.

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This is the earliest I can remember them being out.

This week finds me preparing Anneliese’s documents for travel, as Arnie is showing me the first indications that Anneliese is close to going into heat. He simply will not leave her alone. I also have Library business to attend to, so that will keep me out of the house a bit.

Next weekend is Easter and I have a great menu planned for my guests, but I will tell you all about that in another post.