Puzzling!!?

When I had all of the company last week I didn't bother to go to the Library and collect my weekly NYT Sunday crossword. I went in Mon. and got the two I had missed with a bonus puzzle. I have been sick all week. Great gobs of green and chartreause snot come out of my nose and lungs. I have been hoarse and tired. Regardless of this I was able to do one of the crosswords 100% and the other all but about 3 squares and the bonus in about 3 hours Monday night. Last night I did my very first Killer Sudoku. (My sister Beth gave me a hint about them when she was here.) I guess my body is sick but my mind works OK.

New Outfit

My new blouse came yesterday from Cloldwater Creek. I bought it in Ann Arbor and it is the 4th and final top that I have purchased to go with these pants.
I got such a deal on the pants ($2 at the Izod outlet in TC). I even found them at the Birch Run Izod on sale for $40 last week. The pants set me off on a huge shopping binge that ended in Ann Arbor.
(I got one top in Brighton, two others in Grand Rapids.)
Mary was with me when I tried this blouse on in a size L in AA. It was just the right colors but a little snug. It zips up the front and looks cute that way too. Mary encouraged me to ask them to look for an XL at another shop. They found it in Troy and sent it to Gowen for free. I just love it. Since the pants were such a good deal I don't feel bad about spending $53 on the blouse. (The blouse was on sale too!)
I now have another nice outfit for Sean's party weekend in New York. I am flying to NY a few days early to play bridge with Harry and then he will take me to the party and I am riding back to the NY airport with Shannon and Caleb.
My next big party is the 4th of July weekend. I will be having 11 people overnight in two campers and our dorm room. We have the fireworks purchased and the pills to sedate the dog and I even ironed the boat decorations. We will have all of this done and it will rain all weekend.
Oh welll, as Mac says, we will just about have this place whipped into shape by the time we leave in November for FLorida.

I'm Lonesome

We had a great family reunion at Jerry's Boyne home. Shannon and her family came to Gowen the night before and we stayed overnight at Jerry's and then spent Father's day in Traverse City and met Patrick there, followed by a week in Gowen with Shannon's family, Beth and Mary and now they are all gone and I miss everyone a lot.

What's Up

Today we found out that Mac doesn't have prostate cancer. He had a biopsy on Friday and we got the results today. He is very relieved. I even got shingles from the pressure of his depression. He was so up tight that I felt like I should just shoot him to put him out of his misery. I did get to go to Ann Arbor for a few days in the middle of all of this PSA nonsense. That was really fun. I played bridge and shopped and saw some of my old and dear friends down there. I had to cut the visit short when Mac found out he had to have a biopsy. The procedure took about 10 minutes and the results came back pretty fast.(3 days)

Mary is in Ann Arbor now and soon we will all converge on Jerry's place for a huge family reunion. It will be the first time I have been with all of my sisters and brothers since Dad's funeral three years ago. Shannon and her whole family should be arriving in Detroit right about now. It will be great to see them after all the time they have been in Europe.

I have started a great new scrapbook. I identified 23 fantastic females in my life an told them that they were going to be in a book together. They are my favorites, I asked them to tell me what their favorite things were. I got two responses so far. Beth sent her photos of grandchild #1, ultrasound of #2, owls, movie angels and her family. Jo sent pictures of her and Sean, her dog, a great looking key lime cupcake with sprinkles and an ultrasound of follicles and some drug they use in the fertility process. I am really amazed with the creativity they both used to express a collage snapshot of themselves. I have been loving my part too, which is to write up the reasons that I am including them each as a favorite. I have done Beth, Shannon, Anja, Jo and Sofie so far. My sister Mary tells me that I can say she is my favorite sister because she drinks more than all of the rest and is the thinest. I will try to say something a bit more than that. 18 to go.

More about Me

I have had a nice day. The first thing I accomplished was ordering Mac some Mach III razor blades on the internet for less than they ever cost at Meijer with free shipping to boot. Then I went to Yoga and came back with a bucket of KFC thighs and legs with coleslaw for lunch.
That tasted yummy but I followed it up with coffee ice cream--very nice.
This afternoon I made a great vegetable curry with cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, butternut squash and chic peas. It was wonderful. I am freezing a bunch of it so that when I have company soon, I can serve it to them. I also planted some Cosmos and watered the flowers a bit. Mac let me read to him about Prostate Cancer from the internet and that makes him a little less anxious all of the time.
I just got out of the hot tub. We got the water in yesterday and the heat and chemicals adjusted today and it was great to be in it again. It is a little brisk out and there was a light wind so it was perfect weather for a soak.
Too bad about the Red Wings last night. Maybe they can finish off Pittsburgh tomorrow. Tonight we get the very last returns on the Democratic primary. It has lasted way too long and used up way too much money. I am sorry that Hillary hasn't topped it off. The split is going to be hard to mend with the democratic party. Anyway, when there is a political return or a Red Wing game I can watch anything I want on TV and entertain myself at will. Mac just gets glued to the TV, like he was last night through three overtimes.

This and That

Last night the itching that I had on my back turned into little red spots with blisters. Yikes, I have shingles again! Second time this year. I have been taking L-Lysine every day to ward them off, but I am not surprised. Mac isn't the only one being anxious about his current prostate problem. Plus I have had very little energy lately, in fact I told Mac on Saturday after I came back from the gym that I was having trouble swimming as the water was hard to push. Now I know why I was tired enough after yoga.

One good thing about having very little physical energy is that I was able to launch my FAVORITE WOMEN project. I picked out my favorite 23 women and put them on notice that I will be needing some contributions from them. That took about 3 hours in front of the computor. I have even started to write up the paragraphs for the book which will explain why they were chosen. Beth has sent me a bunch of photos to use and I will get her page done first.

I had a nice Skype call to Shannon and her family today. We talked for about an hour. They will be home soon and we are almost done getting ready for their arrival. Shannon was mad at me for not reading her blog lately. She said that there were no comments. I know what she means as I never get any comments to mine. I like writing it anyway. It is a diary and I use it as a memory jogger when I do my scrapbooks.

I did a little research and found out that the Orthopedic surgeon that comes to Greenville does take my insurance this year. He didn't take it last year as it was only BC/BS but this year it is Medicare plus blue and that makes a big difference I guess. Anyway, I cancelled with the GR doctor I was going to see tomorrow and I am now going to schedule an appt in Greenville with this guy. I hope I can see him before I am unable to walk, but I would rather be going to him, than 4 or 5 round trips to GR. I wish that I had looked into this sooner. The last knee shots were in December and they wear off after 6 months or so.

I got a lot of ingredients and I was going to make a curried vegetable dish tonight, but when we finally got home after, (lunch at Ponderosa, 3 stops to see if we could get Mac's glasses fixed, the Library twice (had to go back because I left the key to our safety deposit box inside a book that I returned), the bank to clean out our box, Walgreens for the photos of Beth, recycling of the newspapers, and finally Meijer where we took back cans, refilled our giant water bottles, did some grocery shopping, drove home and unpacked everything) I was pooped.

I don't know if it is the medicine or the Shingles but I am going to go to bed now and tear into the two NYT sunday puzzles I xeroxed at the library. My dog Rascal will curl up beside me I'm sure.