"Sick Day"

A Sick Day that isn’t for when you’re sick can be highly productive and exhausting. . .

Mom and PJ had appointments, and since I haven’t taken a sick day so far this year [knock on wood]; I figured I might as well take the whole day off. Which is good as it turned out that I was able to get in to see the doctor about my knee. No sign of injury as far as he could tell, but referred me to an orthopedist just to make sure.
He said, “no more road races, at least not until next year. If it hurts don’t do it, if it doesn’t hurt, do it”. So I guess I’ll try my 6 miles on Saturday and see how things go. Would have so loved to done it this morning, so I could get it out of the way, but hey. . . stop whining, at least you have legs that move!!

Anyway . . . was up by 4:30 did my Upper Room devotional, and had some nice quiet, reflective time to myself. THEN I got started on the 2 batches of Oatmeal Cranberry cookies I had obligated myself to make. I had already pre-measured the dry ingredients on Sunday, so I took the bowl and hand mixer to the basement to mix everything up [didn't want to wake anyone].

I love this recipe from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham [not Richie’s Mother!]. I have had this cookbook for about 15 years, and use it whenever I want something “old fashioned”. You can tell from the food stains how much I use it!




I had to divide them up among several people: 2 ½ dozen for the 3 people at the office with birthdays- 1 ½ dozen to “Santa” for getting me the road race number, 1 dozen Steve took to his office, and then the rest stayed at home for the family . . . yum!


Picked the two ripe tomatoes . .



and noticed there were two more that should be ready to pick by the weekend. Update on the jalapeno Andrew picked . . . . very hot!

Also managed to scrub the back splash as I didn't get a chance when we moved in, and I was a bit tired of finding "stuff" from the previous owners. Now it sparkles and makes a lovely back drop for the photos. I have decided that people that photograph food for magazines, books, etc. have a unique talent that I don't possess.

Headed out about 9:30 with the intention of getting an emissions test done; when I got there the guy said it would be a “few minutes”, they were waiting for the Pennzoil truck to do something, and then leave. After 15 minutes I inquired if I’d be able to get out of there by 10:00, as I had an appointment. The guy tells me again, he’s waiting for the Pennzoil truck to back up, well duh, I can see that, so I asked again if he’d be able to get me out by 10. If not, I needed to leave, I wasn’t going to wait around [puhlease!]

So I left and headed to Starbucks for a pound of Café Verona for home brewing, a cup of coffee and a biscotti, blood pressure level is returning to normal, ah a few more sips, that's better. Stopped by Wolf Camera to get photos I had dropped off, then on to Kaiser Permanente for an appointment. Was in and out, including x-rays by 11:40, placed call to PJ, and requested a turkey sandwich [what did we do before cell phones?!] with tomato since I had to take Mom [Jean] to the dermatologist in Marietta, and would have just enough time to "wolf" down something before I left again, totally starving by the time I got home.

12:05-12:13- ate requested turkey sandwich [delish] while watching the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network. She was making chive biscuits to go with the soups she was preparing- the biscuits looked yummy- Mary do you have the recipe?

Anyway, back out the door at 12:15, with Mom in tow, in and out of the office by 1:30, then receive call from PJ saying “Nana” had left her baggie of prescriptions at the doctor’s office, so we turned around and headed back, retrieved said bag and headed home.

Dropped Mom off, and loaded up PJ, and went to Michael’s Craft Store to see if they had any double pointed needles- I need 5 #3’s and I only had 4 #3’s. . . rats. . . no luck there. So we headed to Goodyear to see if I could get an oil change in an hour's time,

and as it turned out I didn't need an emissions for the Tahoe, but for the Alero, which is what I was driving earlier in the day, so more musical cars to follow. No luck on a quicky [hee hee, get your mind out of the gutter],

and it was determined that this would have to be done on Saturday. All that being said my earlier attempt at getting an emissions would have been for naught since it didn't need one anyway! Sometimes things just have a way of working themselves out, despite our frustration, and desire to say "uuuggh!".

On the road again [hey that's a song!] for more stops--tryingt to see how much we can get done in an hour's time- ready, set, GO!

PJ was in dire need of a hair cut, so we stopped and took care of that [bummer didn’t take a photo].

Decided to go to my least favorite local yarn shop [LFLYS], and get the double pointed needles. Sent PJ in for this--as that’s what boys should do for their Mamas-- and then went to get the emissions done in the right vehicle this time-- yes, sometime during this episode, I managed to go back to the house and get the Alero--emission done in record time.

After emissions headed to the 4:00 orthodontist appointment, where I had to dispense another $35 for a band to be repaired, and hear another lecture -- “PJ, you really need to do a better job of brushing your teeth, wearing your rubber bands, blah, blah, blah].

If they can think of a better way to improve the overall hygienic practices of teenage boys let me know, nagging doesn’t help, hello! I’ve decided that if teenage girls knew how totally gross it was to live with a teenage boy, they wouldn’t be so anxious to have boyfriends! Ewwwww.

Left the orthodontist and went by Ryan’s to pick Andrew up, and then headed home, at least for a while. Got dinner started- scallop and shrimp risotto and salad.

The pictures of the risotto weren’t very good, so I’m not including them, but the food was tasty. Ate---got the kitchen squared away and headed out the door--again-- for the Ministry Team Meeting [a regular monthly meeting] at church. . . . finally home by 8:00, one last check of emails, and other bits for work on Wednesday, in bed working on my anklets by 8:40, read for a few minutes then lights out by 9:15 [or so]

IT’S A GOOD THING I WASN’T ACTUALLY SICK! I think I need another day off to recover