Hot Days, Fevers and Hip Pain

It's been a difficult week for me. I am out where the sun shines and temperatures rise during the day and I have a fever with some fairly uncomfortable hip pain. I have been trying to do some bodywork to help with the hip pain but it continues to ache.

This morning I took a shower and went outside to sit in the sunshine while my hair dried. It was very hot and I was only able to sit there for a short amount of time. I did get some mail written to friends back home and wrote in my journal which was nice.

Now I am ready for my fever to abate and to lose the hip pain.

Epic Dinner with Friends Last Night

Those of you who know me know that food is both my love and my enemy - I am a "foodie" in every sense of the word and even though I suffer for my love I am a faithful to it. Last night I had a meal that I will remember for every day of my life and I don't know if it will ever be surpassed.

It was a beautiful sunny day and my friends were celebrating their wedding anniversary by going out to dinner at a wonderful steakhouse where they are friends with the Executive Chef. I and another couple joined them for dinner and the Chef decided to do a few special dishes for the table.

We started with appetizers - the ladies had oysters - blue point, fanny bays and gulf. The blue points were my favorite and were wonderful, cold and briny. The gentlemen had large shrimp cocktails and the table shared a large crab cake with remoulade that was killer. The soup and salad course was lobster bisques and a large lump crabmeat, shrimp, avocado, orange segments, dates and almond over mixed green salad. The ladies all had wine - two had a wonderful Rodney Strong Merlot and one had a Davinci Chianti. The entrees were next and OMG this is where the Chef really did his best - A jumbo 5lb crabmeat stuffed lobster, a 7 bone veal prime rib roast with a morel port wine reduction! Also a dry aged filet and a lovely parmesan crusted dover sole with a lemon beurre blanc. Sides (which were just overkill) were parsley buttered potatoes and potato & gruyere fritters. We were all moaning at this point but the Chef then delivered his coup de grace - coconut macaroons made with freshly grated coconut and fresh coffee.

This meal lasted for 3 hours, filled with good conversation and good friends. I will never forget it and even though I could not keep up and didn't eat much I loved every single moment.

good lord where does the time go???

End of April and I realize that I haven't been here in months. Mostly it's because I have an awful PC at home and because I have not felt human for much of this time. Depressing fact but there it is.

Weather finally turning on the East Coast and I am getting ready to open the deck for the summer. That will cheer me because I love sitting out there in the sun and watching the ocean. It also gets me out of the house more - even if it's only 100 yards!

Christmas, Hospitals and Rambling Thoughts

Another Christmas is almost upon us. Shopping, what little of it there was this year, is finished. A small tinsel tree has been decorated along with a potted live tree that my daughter gave to me. I have made many types of cookies and will try to get to a few more before Wednesday if I can. We even had snow - lots of snow - this year.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Christmas. I decorate like a lunatic on a day pass, bake like a maniac and listen to Christmas music for months on end. This year though I am not feeling it at all.

It could have something to do with the fact that I have been sick this year, really and truly sick and this month I have reached new depths in how truly rotten I could feel. It got so bad that on Friday night, actually early Saturday morning, I took myself into the ER to get an IV. I also have had 6 seizures in the last week and I am exhausted.

I am hoping that just by letting this out I will move past it and start to feel better. I am planning on a nice Christmas Eve dinner and midnight Church service - I just have to build my strength.

Remembering and Christmas Cookies

It all began with a cookie. Years ago my father's second wife made cookies that had hazelnuts and eggwhites and were topped with a cherry. I loved them but never got the recipe. Years went by and I didn't think much about them - remembered them occasionally. This year I can't forget them and decided that I would go looking for the recipe online.

I started with Google and pulled up all hazelnut cookie recipes. I visited AllRecipes.com, Epicurious, and Betty Crocker looking for the recipe. No luck. I stumbled upon the Hazelnut Board and there was a recipe that looked like it might be the one. I copied it and went to the kitchen to immediately make them. I was so excited.

The first batch had too many hazelnuts and baked until they were crisp. The second batch I added an extra egg white and used less hazelnuts - good but not exactly what I remember. The third batch is in the oven now - extra egg white, less hazelnuts, almond extract and vanilla extract, baked for less time.

I may never get the exact recipe for these but I think I can come pretty close to what I remember and that will make me happy. I wish that I had Barbara here to share them with though.

Health, Health Insurance and Waiting Games

Sitting here today worrying about things that I cannot change - what a useless waste of time but still I cannot stop myself. It seems evident that I am probably without health insurance for the first time in 15 years. Of course my health is such that being without insurance is a precarious position to be in so I am scared.

I do happen to live in a state that mandates that all citizens carry health insurance and I think I finally found a plan that has my doctor on it so if I need to I will have to find a way to get an extra $650 a month to pay for it.

Meanwhile in a rotten economy my dh struggles to find employment. We are hopeful that this last round of interviews are now going to bear fruit but don't want to jinx it so try not to assume. Sure would be nice to have this worry erased.

I am in still AZ - flying home on Thursday. I am tired, running a fever and ready to be home with Lulu. It's harder and harder to travel - both physically and emotionally. I have all the usual health problems while I am here - those never change but now have the baseball in the armpit gland again too. It's enough.

Sitting in AZ

Another visit to Arizona - a few days to go until I return home. I wish I was able to enjoy this visit more than I am but there is so much going on in my life that I cannot relax. Sleeping has been terrible and I am on pain meds just to get through the days now. I have been eating well atleast and this morning was able to eat a nice bowl of cream of wheat. Tonight will be dinner out for a steak.

A few days ago we were driving through Zion National Park and Dixie National Forest. We stayed overnight in Cedar City, Utah where it was 30* and snowing - my favorite weather. I am glad that I got to see Utah and the mountains but I think I am now ready to go home.