Showing posts with label Ten on Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ten on Tuesday. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

Well, I'm not sure if anyone is still doing Ten on Tuesday, but here we go. I'm not going to consciously aim for ten...will see what happens.

1. We decided to sleep in on Thursday, which is hubby's day off this week. Last Sunday we got up early and drove to the Wisconsin Dells. It was fun, but hubby is tired.

2. We want to visit Madison one of these days. We want to visit an Albanian restaurant in the area named Sofra. Drive time about an hour and a half.

3. Another destination still on the list is Sheboygan, drive time about the same.

5. I see frost on the roof and grass but still my flowers on the window sill are ok. My Sedum 'Coral Reef" is doing well and turning a nice bronze color.

Summer color, a cutting I brought inside, in case I loose the outside one.

Fall color. These are all sedums, and should all be good through winter outside

Still hanging in there

Frosty morning but still not real cold

Still some color across highway 60 along the Rubicon river

6. March 4th will be our 1 year anniversary living here. Our lease will then go from a yearly lease to monthly....Wisconsin law.

7. Maybe we will stay, maybe we will move.

8. Hubby's wish list....great job with better pay, a charming downtown with shopping, places to walk.

9. My wish list....darker location so I can see the stars at night, a view of the sunset and places to walk where I don't need to cross such a busy highway, because I usually don't have the car, so I can't drive to a place to walk.

10. My hubby falls in love with every place we visit. So far....Port Washington, Oconcmowoc and Portage. I'm sure we will be adding Madison (ew...no way am I moving to a city, but an outlaying area, maybe) and Sheboygan to the list after we visit.

I managed 10 after all!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things I'm Loving

1. Monday night breezy warm weather

2. Coffee with my hubby in Pewaukee Monday afternoon

3. Awesome Moon in the clouds picture I took (see below)

4. My plant stand since I added lights.

5. LED candles, lots of them

6. Going to the Dells with my daughter (I will report on that later)

7. Taking a side trip to the old cottage with my daughter (ditto on the report)

8. The fall colors

9. The fresh air

10. Wisconsin

My best picture of the moon in the clouds Monday night:

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Tuesday Came and Went

My friend, who always does Ten on Tuesday, did not do a Ten on Tuesday. I thought about it but honestly couldn't think of ten things to list. And then I checked with the lady who does the reminders, and she said she is switching to a once a month format, called "Ten on the Tenth". I checked her blog and the 10th went by with no post.

So today will be a Wednesday Ramble, or "Ramblin' on Wednesday". I made that up.

Yesterday I took a walk in the park. We had a cloudy start to a beautiful day, sunny and 70 degrees. Today we have some thunder rumbling, and there is a frost warning out for tonight. I have occasionally seen and heard a pair of Sandhill Cranes, but not every day.



Right now I am loving the sound of some rain with a few crashes of thunder. It's nearly 8:30 am and it's dark. My succulents are not going to like this darkness. When I lived in Indiana I had a south window with a high shelf which I never covered, so my plants had light all day. I hung curtains below the shelf for privacy. It worked great. In California I had wide window sills and the outdoors. About half my plants fit in the window here, when it's open, but not when the window is closed. I am going to need to rig up some lights. No easy task with my stiff neck. I might need to move the plants and turn over the shelves.

>Break for run to the store and looking for a misplaced cable<

It's now almost 4 pm. I haven't found the USB cable for updating our Garmin, but my camera cable works just fine. However my hubby will try to find the cable by looking everywhere I did if I have not found it by the time he comes home. He's like that. I learned a long time ago never to mention something that needs to be done late at night, because with my hubby there is no waiting until tomorrow. I just remind myself what an infuriating procrastinator my first hubby was and I'm ok with it.

It was pouring rain when I went to the store. Actually, it started when I was half way there. It rained rivers. The shopping cart was making rooster tails in the parking lot.

Enough rambles for today. Back to cleaning and looking for that cable!

*Update* I found it yay!

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

Last Tuesday I posted 5 things I looked forward to doing this Fall. Here is how the list is going, plus 5 things I need to do.

1. Watching the leaves turn colors.
They are beginning to turn. Yesterday my daughter and I went shopping together. She was delighted to see the fall colors, because the last time she had seen them was in 2010, the year her father died. She had just returned to the US after living in Australia for 8 years. By September 2011 she had moved to California.
2. Taking walks with hubby on his days off.
Hubby has a day off Friday. We are hoping for no rain. It's been raining on and off and cloudy quite often. Everyone is waiting for and hoping for "Indian Summer". If the sun comes out today, my daughter and I plan to take a walk.
3. Taking lots of pretty fall pictures.
Still working on this one.
4. Coffee on the balcony in Grafton
Did it! It was nice, kind of windy that day, and mostly cloudy.
5. Cooking in the oven more since the weather will be cooler.
Going OK, only hindered by my husband's picky eating. Albanians eat everything cut into bite sized pieces all cooked together in one pan. No such thing as a hunk of meat with a spud and a spoon of veggies.....no, the meat must be bite sized and the spuds bite sized and all mixed together. I once made a meat loaf. My hubby said it should be flatter and smaller, like many small ones, not one big chunk. Although he will eat a roast chicken.

Five Things I Need to Do:

1. Bring in my plants...not all that hard, but some need repotting. I found some cute pots when my daughter and I shopped the resale stores. Yup....that's a little turtle clinging to the side of the pot that looks like a rock. I collect turtle miniatures AND rocks, so that pot just rocks!

2. Figure out the shoe/boot situation. Winter is coming. Snowy, wet shoes and/or boots will be coming in with no proper place to put them in this tiny apartment. We found a boot tray for $5 but now where to put it? I fear that cute little table under the window will need to move. It doesn't just sit over the boot tray, it sits inside, with its legs inside the tray. Not good. And, with the shoe rack over the boot tray, no boots can fit in it.
Nope

Nope, door won't open enough

Nope again, still in the way

Looks like the only option. See how I put my hubby's shoes? They dry real nice over the radiator that way.

So....now, where to put my cute little table? The one bad thing about this tiny apartment...how to arrange furniture.

3. Obviously, number 3 will be arranging furniture.

4. Order a manual coffee grinder. No, electric coffee grinders set to "Turkish" DO NOT grind coffee fine enough for Turkish coffee. Case in point. Coffee on the left, ground on a commercial machine set to "Turkish". Coffee on the right, ground in my daughter's burr grinder set on "Turkish". Nope and nope. Unless the coffee is as fine as flour, as fine as dust, just powder, no grains at all whatsoever, then it is NOT fine enough for Turkish coffee. To avoid paying $1,000 for a commercial grade REAL Turkish coffee electric grinder, we are going to buy a manual one. Why so fine? So you don't drink grit when you drink it, because it's not filtered.

5. Shop for new clothes. I have jeans and tops, but I need something to lounge in. My hubby says he's sad seeing me in the same comfy outfit every day. He wants to buy me something nice. I dig in my heels because I don't want to spend money. But I said "OK". Now, am I really going to find something? I have a top that is size 1X simply because it's long enough to cover my butt, but it's a little baggy. I want something a little loose and soft, but not too baggy and not tight, not too warm but not too lightweight either because of cooler weather. If I had some nice longer tops or tunics I could easily pair them with leggings. Oh, and no dark colors. And not $89. Holy cow online clothes are expensive.

I think the woman's clothing has nice styles but they are too big on me. Maybe I need to shop the resale shops for short dresses and just wear leggings under them.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

The Robins left at some point. I didn't notice when. The Sandhill cranes have all flown south and the geese are heading that way, too. And it's Tuesday.

Today's post is in two parts, five in each.

Part One: The 5 Best Things I Did This Summer

1. Swimming with my daughter from Indiana and her hubby and his kids in the local pool.

2. Cooking out at Pike Lake with my daughter from Indiana and her family.

3. Exploring Wisconsin with my hubby on his days off.

4. Seeing Oconomowoc, Port Washington and other towns.

5. Visiting my other daughter (next apartment building) and laughing at the stories she tells.

Part Two: 5 Things I Am Looking Forward to Doing This Fall

1. Watching the leaves turn colors.

2. Taking walks with hubby on his days off.

3. Taking lots of pretty fall pictures.

4. Coffee on the balcony in Grafton

5. Cooking in the oven more since the weather will be cooler.


Some other things on my mind right now. My doctor upped my thyroid medicine from 75mcg to 125mcg. She upped my vitamin D3 from 2,000 IU to 6,000 IU. She also added Zetia, since I have no tolerance for statins. I must take 100 mg CoQ10 with the Zetia. She also added prescription-strength fish oil (ugh....fish burps...hate them). This is all in addition to the Biotin I take for my hair and other herbs I take. Too many pills, although half of them are supplements and not actual medications.

It seems like my hair fallout is finally slowing. I know I said that before but it wasn't true. It continued to come out in fistfuls. It may be coincidence but the fallout seemed slow significantly with the increase in my thyroid medicine.

It's a beautiful, sunny day.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Ten on Tuesday Revisited

I gathered them all up and looked them over. They are pretty boring, except for the first one, which I hardly expanded on. I decided to do that, so here we go.

From Stories from the Mist, Ten on Tuesday, location, Crescent City, California. Because we don't live there now, some of my answers are a little subjective.

Nov. 10, 2015

1. Ten things I'm thankful for. (What my parents taught me, the 8-1/2 years I spent living in the desert (Midland), the chance to have fun living near Hollywood California in my teen years, my first husband, my daughters, beating cancer, my second husband, the chance to visit Kosovo twice, living in California again, the chance to live in Wisconsin)

2. Ten things I miss from the Midwest. (Autumn leaves, snowy landscapes, spring, fall, Lake Michigan, Aldi, my daughter in Indiana, my husband's health, ethnic food, northern lights....they don't happen often but they can't be seen from California)

3. Ten things I've gained. (See # 6) 

4. Ten things I lost. (See # 2)

5. Ten things I'm afraid of. (Spiders, spider webs, heavy traffic, expressways, mountain roads, crashing into a river off a mountain road, walking alone in the dark, really big spiders, walking into a web, touching a web.....yes, I listed them again)

6. Ten things I love about where I am. (The California point of view here, because I posted this when I lived there---ocean views, the Smith River, nature trail walks with my husband, time spent with my younger daughter, our spacious duplex, a view of the sunsets, rocks, going to the shooting range in the mountains, fresh air, no summer humidity)

7. Ten things things I would change if I could.

8. Ten Poems I've written (This will take some digging)

9. Ten pets I've had (Desert tortoise, Horned Lizard, Garter Snake, White rat, Mouse, Praying Mantis, Parakeet, Dog, Cat, Bunny)

10. Ten places I've lived.
(Lawrence Massachusetts---place of birth, 
Inglewood California---age 3 to 4-1/2, 
Midland California---age 4-1/2 to 13, 
Bell California---age 13 to 15, 
Bell Gardens California---age 15 to 19, 
Highland Indiana---age 19 to 20, 
Hammond Indiana---age 20 bought our house with 1st husband,
Dyer Indiana---a brief time when we rented our house out for 2 years before moving back to Hammond, 
Crescent City California---moved with my second husband from September 2014 to Feb 2016, 
Hartford Wisconsin---March 2016 to Present)
...those are in order)

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

No Alarms

Yesterday I had my 3 month check up and X-ray. Results, excellent. Chance for future problems, slim, unless I stress my remaining movable neck joints too much. Chance for setting off airport security alarms...none. The metal in my neck is Titanium, and it's even MRI safe. Oh well, so much for setting off all the bells and whistles. It is possible for the joints above and below the fusion to eventually fail, but it doesn't happen to everyone, and if so, usually several years down the road.



I also need new glasses, simply because the ones I have are 10 years old and the lenses are cloudy. I tried to get new glasses when we still lived in California. The optical department at Fred Meyers in Brookings Oregon was close by and I found nice frames. The problem was the first time they put someone else's prescription in my frames. The second time it was my prescription but it was off. I still couldn't see well. This time we were less than 2 weeks away from moving. I had no choice but to get my money back. We were out of time.

I was kind of shocked when I started looking for glasses here because 95% of the frames were ugly thick black or dark plastic things. I don't care HOW FASHIONABLE they are supposed to be, to me they look like crap. Anyway, I'm on my hubby's vision plan from his work, and they only accept certain places. Since the Sofia Loren brand is always the one I reach for, as it turned out, Sears Optical was to be our go-to place. We drove out on Saturday because hubby had the day off. I lucked out and got a walk-in exam. The doc was good, an older man who was sharp as a tack. I felt good about my exam. My new script is only slightly changed from my old one. He also told me that I have some very slight yellowing of the lenses in my eyes. He said it is a very slight beginning of age-related cataracts. I asked about how this could progress. He said it might be 7 years before I need surgery. Let's hope my eyes and neck hold out, so I don't "fall apart" all at once.

We have been enjoying cooler, dryer weather. We've had some torrential rains. It's really green here. The lawns have been green all summer, no need to water. I've heard there are droughts in other areas of the Midwest. I don't ever remember having humidity in Wisconsin in the past. There was never a need for air conditioning at the cottage.

Looking back a little over a week, we had a good time with my older daughter, her hubby and his 2 kids. We went swimming one day, ate dinner at Perc Place, had a good time talking and laughing. My younger daughter appreciates having some furniture, which was the main reason for the visit.

Oh dear...it's Tuesday, and I didn't do a Ten on Tuesday.....ok, quick:

10 Things I Need to Do

1. Sort and file old mail
2. Clean out my closet
3. Repot some of my plants
4. Take more walks
5. Go back to healthy eating
6. Stop being so lazy (related to having no energy?)
7. Get my energy back (related to being lazy?)
8. Seriously sort out all the stuff in the bins in the bedroom
9. Sleep better...new pillow? (Maybe why I'm tired and lazy?)
10. Get better pictures of the mommy deer and her fawns and the Sandhill cranes

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

According to my fellow blogger, today's subject is 10 things I'm curious about.

1. How my neck is healing (the bones need to fuse).

2. When can I start driving.

3. Who the cast of Doc Martin is (I just looked it up). It's a British series I like to watch on Hulu.

4. Why my blood pressure has been perfect since my surgery.

5. If my blood pressure will stay good.

6. What happened to the violets I shared because people said they would share them back.

7. Is a house really a good investment for us.

8. Is carefree apartment living a better choice.

9. What's in the boxes my daughter is bringing on the 18th (stuff we left with her when we moved the first time).

10. When will the bloom on my succulent open.

Probably not the most interesting list, but it's what came to mind this morning.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

Putting a name on my feelings was another turning point for me. I suddenly crawled out of my pity pit, so, here are 10 things I'm looking forward to:

1. Washing my own hair and taking a shower without it being a big production of changing the pads on my brace.

2. Looking down without feeling like the back of my head is stuck on with pins and needles.

3. Increasing my range of motion

4. Cooking (hard when you can't look down)....how do you cut onions?

5. Being strong enough to walk the Lions's Den trails at Grafton with my hubby and daughter.

6. Take a trip to the Dells.

7. Visit old friends in Indiana

8. See my older daughter and her hubby again soon

9. See my younger daughter build her new life

10. Get rid of this neck brace forever!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

10 reasons I'm happy here, in no particular order:

1. My hubby's health

2. Sandhill Cranes

3. My hubby's job

4. Ethnic food

5. Northern Lights

6. Aldi

7. Fall colors

8. No more mountain roads

9. Lake Michigan

10. Our warm apartment with a view