Our Party

Today was the 4th of July. Independence Day. It’s also the day that Hubby and I like to spend entertaining our friends. The weather was perfect today, around 80 degrees, and the sunshine was bright. We set up our back patio with a picnic table as well as tables and chairs and by one o’clock we were sitting outside enjoying the day.

There was way too much food to eat (so Hubby and I won’t have to worry about meals for the rest of the week), and much talk and laughter, and dogs and kids running around the back yard. It was wonderful and chaotic and totally enjoyable!

Here is a short video montage of our day.

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Prelude to the 4th

There are times when I ask myself how I have made it to 49 years old! Let me tell you just a little about my day and I hope you will think it is as funny as I do.

Actually the first part of my day was very productive. Hubby and I got up early, had our breakfast and got out of the house by 8:45 to go grocery shopping for our 4th of July party. The stores were not overly crowded and we were able to get our shopping done in a few hours. We loaded everything into the trunk, placing the cold items in coolers. We stopped and paid a fortune to tank up the car, had lunch at the Chinese Buffet before arriving home.

We were greeted by the 4 dogs with such happiness and sheer joy that it took my breath away. How on earth could I ever survive without these guys?

Of course once home we had to unload the car. Now the trunk was full, the back seat, and even the floor in the back seat! We got everything in, the cold stuff put away and then the fun began.

I made two different marinades, chopping garlic and onions and mixing measured amounts of oils, vinegars and herbs, and whisking it all together. Then Hubby cut up the steak into cubes for the kebabs, I peeled the shrimp and after about 45 minutes of doing this, we took the beef and shrimp and put them in to marinate over night.

Hubby disappeared to do his yard work, and Emily and I worked on the next step of the preparations. We boiled the potatoes for the potato salad, and eggs for deviled eggs. I chopped the vegetables for the salad, made the dressing for the potato salad, and once the potatoes were done, cubed them and mixed the dressing and vegetables together.

I stepped back. It looked like a bomb had gone off in my kitchen. I think I used every dish, spoon, and measuring cup I own! So for the next hour I worked cleaning up the mess, loading the dishwasher and hand washing the other things.

I sat down briefly and sipped some lemonade, before I microwaved a meal for Hubby and myself.

That done, I decided I needed to do two things to end my day. First I wanted to empty out the Puppy pool and clean it out, so tomorrow we could put fresh water in it. So I went out, emptied the little pool, took it over to the side of the house and sprayed it off. The hose has a great jet setting that really shoots the water! What a great job it does.

When I got done I dropped the nozzle on the ground and it turned itself back on and was spraying me!!! I reached down and I swear to you, it was like the hose turned into a snake! I got soaked!!!

I stood there, with Anneliese watching me and I burst out laughing! Soaking wet and no one to blame for the drenching but myself!

I came inside and got on my nightgown and some dry underwear and socks and sat down to write my blog. I was about half way through the entry when my mouse slipped and POOF!

My entry was completely gone!

I did everything I could think of to find it and then I decided that it was gone for good. Thus, instead of hearing about what I plan to do at our 4th of July party, you get to hear about the build up to it and the silliness I myself inflicted upon…..myself!

So I am staying away from the hose for the rest of the night, and I have placed my mouse in an area of safety so it will not erase my entry.

It’s been a long but very good day!

Life Is Beautiful!

Life is full of beautiful moments, and we never know when they might appear. The best we can do is be prepared at all times with a camera or perhaps a sharp eye, so that the beauty of nature doesn’t just pass us by.

Recently I witnessed two totally beautiful parts of nature. I was also lucky enough to run outside with my camera and take these two pictures to share with you.

The first was taken a few days ago as the sun was setting. I looked outside and noted that we were having a light rain. I grabbed my camera and went to the back door to find this rainbow.

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I wish it had come out a bit better, but I think if you click on it and see the larger size picture you will be able to see the rainbow a little better. I felt a lightness and a warmth when I saw it. It made me think of happy times on Cape Cod when I was a child. We had many rainbows there, and not too many up here in New Hampshire where I live now.

The next picture I took last night as the sun was setting. I glanced out the front window, I saw this and grabbed the camera and ran to the front door. I took several pictures, but I liked this one the best. It’s amazing that as quickly as the moment arrived with the vivid colors, they were gone and darkness fell.

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Yes, life is beautiful!

By A Nose Par Deux

Today I met Dr. S. A nice man a tad older than me. He examined my schnozzola (nose) and gave me several options. First his diagnosis is more than likely Basal Cell Carcinoma. Not a big deal as it is very common for people “my age” to have these lesions appear. It is also very treatable. He gave me three options as to how to resolve this. First to have the lesion excised in surgery, which would leave a small line on my nose. The second is to do a “punch” biopsy, which would leave a scar and might require more surgery later, and lastly to scrape the lesion for a biopsy, and that also can leave a scar, and would require more surgery if it was positive. I opted for the first option. I’m going in next Wednesday for out patient surgery. They will do a frozen section on the tissue and we will know then and there. The scar will be a simple line and will fade quickly.

I also got the results of my “Glucose Tolerance” test. I am Hypoglycemic. This will require a change in diet, and a more careful monitoring of my blood sugar levels. I was a bit miffed at how on earth I could improve my diet, after all I am following Weight Watchers, but the doctor told me I need to cut out simple carbohydrates and starchy foods, like pasta, white bread, sugar, etc, and opt for whole grains, more protein and vegetables. He also wants me to eat 5-6 small meals a day. “Graze”, he said. “Graze”.

So, I am feeling a little old. I’m sure once I get things under control I will be okay, and it won’t bother me so much. I guess it’s just another adjustment that you make as your life goes on.

A Day With The Dackel

What an ordinary day today was. Well, except for the strange man, who caught me in my back yard in my pajamas early this morning, while I was walking Greta. I mean, aside from that, it was pretty normal.

Yes, a strange man appeared while I was outside walking Greta. It was such a lovely morning that I had slipped over to the garden to check on my crops. I have the tiniest Summer Squash, and all the other plants are flowering, so hopefully I will have zucchini and cucumbers soon…

I digress.

The man was hired by my neighbors to cut down a bunch of trees. These trees are not on our property, however the woman that owns the house next door is a tree fanatic and actually sued another man for cutting a tree down on her property line. Her husband had assisted the tree cutter, so we all thought that by the time it got to court it would be thrown out. That didn’t happen and the poor tree cutter had to pay her $5000.00 for that one tree! So while I stood there in my pajamas, feeling practically naked, even though I had perfectly nice pajamas on, I warned this man about her.

He disappeared and we have not seen him or heard his chair saw since.

I was actually quite productive after that because I ran inside, dressed in work clothes and proceeded to clear up some things inside the house before heading back outside and weeding in the garden.

In the afternoon I tossed down my gardening gloves and came in and whipped up one of Hubby’s favorites. I made “Stuffed Green Peppers” for dinner. There isn’t much that I cook that Hubby doesn’t like. He is so easy. The recipe is in the extended entry.

Yes, it was another day and another meal at the Dackel Diner!

Continue reading “A Day With The Dackel”

The Dackel Weekend Review

We are having a party here on Friday. It’ll be for the 4th of July. Independence Day! We’re doing the usual barbecue, but instead of hot-dogs and hamburgers, we’re going to do kabobs. Steak, chicken and shrimp. Should be good, right?

Well, it will be providing we have decent weather. You will recall that last year we started outside and due to rain quickly had to head in and eat our barbecued food under cover.

So, this year I am planning ahead. Although I will hope that we can enjoy this holiday ritual celebration outside, I will have our screened in porch and dining room cleaned up and ready for immediate occupancy. I think I’ll get Emily to help me this week do that major little cleaning job.

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My test appointment on Friday was……well interesting. Interesting in that I was forced asked to drink a container of orange liquid, which reminded me of Zarex, a kids drink from the 1960’s which is probably 99% sugar. Then they held me down and took blood every hour on the hour for three hours. At the end of this I had a severe low blood sugar attack, which felt like my body had been slammed into a brick wall. I crawled into a “Subway” restaurant and they fed me orange juice and a tuna roll up until I was stable enough to leave. Ah yes, it was a fun day.

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It appears that Bloglines has gone crazy. I check my feeds and I find I have several thousand new posts. Now come on. It’s the summer. It’s a Sunday. No one is writing their blogs, but me. What gives?

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I was in the yard with the dogs when our neighbor’s cat came waltzing across our front yard. He stopped took one look at the dogs, and ran. They in turn ran after him and I in turn ran after the dogs, yelling like a banshee! Not a pretty sight. The owners of the cat managed to pick it up and then yelled at me because my dogs were chasing their cat. I didn’t say much of anything because after all, my dogs simply chased the cat out of their yard. However, I must say it was terribly exciting at the time!

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And lastly, my daughter was up today with her boyfriend “M”. He is a very nice man, very handsome and entirely entertaining. I just love his sense of humor. I promised not to write too much about their visit on my blog, but I will post this one picture of them together.

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I hope everyone had a great weekend!

This & That Friday

Poor Hubby came in today carrying some of the baby apples he had culled from our trees. On June 22nd we had a terrible hail storm and in his hands he carried the results of the hail on his fruit trees. Although they are not all lost to this damage, a fair portion of the baby apples look like this:

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I feel so sad about it and I know that Hubby does too, but what can you do. The storm was out of anyone’s control, and there was nothing we could do to protect the trees. I guess we will be making a lot of applesauce this year!

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I had a wonderful surprise today as my two Viking’s called me to say hello from the land of the midnight sun! Renny and Tor are together at Tor’s summerhouse and they wanted to share a hello with me and with Hubby! Here is a picture that they sent to me taken at about 11 PM!

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It is wonderful when blogging helps you to connect with other people in the world who share your interests. Thank you again for calling!!!

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This is the day I will be having my Glucose Tolerance test. I think that is a poorly named test. You see, you have this test because your body is intolerant of sugar (glucose). The test takes three hours and requires you to fast before you go. Then they take your blood, make you drink some hideous sugar syrup and take more blood at timed intervals, over a three hour period.

Oh this should be fun! (NOT!)

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Now that I have been growing my hair for two and a half years I wanted to give you a shot of it from behind. Remember, two and a half years ago I looked like this:

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And now here is the back of my head. You can see how much it has grown.

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It sure makes me happy, as I have wanted to grow out my hair for a long time and lacked the patience. It wasn’t until my old hairdresser butchered me, that I was able to get the steely determination for growing it out.

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So TGIF everyone and have an excellent weekend!

Pups & Pounds!

I started to do a Thursday Thirteen and I realized that I was tired of that, so you have just me sitting here writing about a few little things.

Like Anneliese. Isn’t she just the cutest little thing?

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She is so sweet too. Hubby and I were talking about this the other day and we are quite amazed at how truly wonderful the two pups are. I imagine we are incredibly partial having had them since the very moment that they were born, but to us, Anneliese and her brother Arnie are just the best! We have watched them grow, and learn to play with each other, and to become part of our little dog pack.

Here is Arnie with me.

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He is my little snuggler and at night he sleeps down by my feet happily wound around them. Anneliese now sleeps by my tummy and Greta is now sleeping between our pillows. Yes, we have a full bed each night when we settle in. Only Fritz sleeps on the floor, and all I can say to that is, Thank God!!!

When my cousin, Janet was up visiting for her birthday she took this picture of me in a new outfit, showing off my weight loss. Yes, showing off, because after losing 40 pounds, I am enjoying showing off just a little!

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I have about 8 more pounds to go to get to my goal weight and then the real work starts ~ maintenance! I think that will be the real challenge.

Meanwhile I’ll keep working on Weight Watchers day by day, a little at a time.