The new bed

It's Christmas eve day and not a creature is stirring except for Noodle. As soon as I got her new bed out of the bag she was ready to hop in it. She first sniffed it, then scratched at it and now she can't stay out of it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS NOODLE.

The decorations

I'm not in very much of a holiday mood. I'm coming down with a cold and I have a scratchy throat. Bah humbug. The only decoration I put up was an advent banner. I finished it last week. It looks nice. There are 25 little pockets to put little treats in. There is a nice little surprise in day 25 for Bob. He will enjoy it. For Christmas I'm not doing anything. No special meal. We're just gonna graze on appetizers all day. There will be very little gift giving. Times are tough. And we really don't need any more stuff.

The flag

Nothing much going on. I hung up the current flag for the season. It was finished last year but done after Christmas. It looks pretty cute. It's called crazy eights.

Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving meal is finished, temporarily. It was a success. The menu was a butterflied turkey breast with sausage pean stuffing. It is rolled up and covered with the turkey skin that was carefully removed and wrapped around it. It was then covered with cheese cloth & tied so it wouldn't fall apart. It was then slathered with butter. This recipe was Martha's (Stewart). It was alot of work but well worth it. I also made cranbury chutney. There are raisons and a diced up apple in it. To die for. For desert I made a peacn chocolate chip pie. It is a Emeril recipe out of Martha's Everyday Food Magazine. Simple to make. I used brown sugar Splenda which barely made a dent in the caloric intake. It was well worth it.though.

Ready for the oven.The plated turkey.

                                                                           Bob's portion. I forgot the chutney.

My little portion with chutney. Yum yum.

Pecan chocolate chip pie. Delicious..

The latest

My eye is still healing. The gas bubble is shrinking a little. My left eye is still giving me trouble. I'll have to wait and see. LOL. I managed to finish the penny rug table mat for Thanksgiving. It came out pretty good for having only half an eye. Also in the mean time I asked Bob to add on to the spice rack he made a long time ago. And he also built a shelf for the craft room. He also built a custon holder for my Everyday Food magazines. He dovetailed it. It looks great.

Sewing with Noodle

Yesterday was Halloween and Noodle wore her bat girl dog outfit. The kids loved her. I also had a dancing broom that was sound activated. There were around 40 trick or treaters. Not bad. Today I was trying to do some sewing. Noodle was crying & whining. She has to be in on everything including sewing. I put her on the table on a pillow but she decided to once again to sit on the table mat while I'm working on it. I'm still blind in my eye because of the gas bubble and Noodle was making it harder to see with only one eye. But I can't be mad because she is too cute.

Noodle the Bat Girl Dog

I entered Noodle in the Petsmart halloween contest. There have been over 55,000 entries so far.  I'm sure she has a great shot of winning. Yeah, right.  Here is her potential winning shot.

http://apps.facebook.com/petsmartcontest//showentry?entryurl=%2Fcontests%2Fshowentry%2F581280%2Fnull%2F4&fb_page_id=77978885595

Please vote for Noodle.

Operation eye No.2

After repairing the first tear in my torn & detatched retina, the doctor discovered more tears & the retina is barely hanging on to anything.  Operation no. 2 was last Thursday. This one was done in the operating room. I thought I was gonna be put out. Wrongo! They numbed my eye. They said I would be relaxed & comfortable.  Well, let me tell you, I was neither relaxed or comfortable. I could feel all three needles entering my eyeball. Ouch! ouch! ouch!  There was a mask over my mouth for oxygen. I could not talk. They covered my good eye so that I could not see.  I felt I was being worked on by Dr. Mendele. They injected a giant gas bubble this time. There were so many tears. I'm recuperating now and I am totally temporarily blind for now. It isn't fun or pretty. Also my good eye is seeing slight shadows moving across it. I told the doctor the next day at my check up. He said there were no tears.  I told him I'd keep an eye on it.  LOL. Here's the patch and post patch.

The torn retina

The past couple weeks haven't been the greatest. While at work I noticed a bunch of floaters in my right eye. Then a bunch of marbleized swirls across my eye also. I didn't now if I should go to my primary doctor or to the ophthalmologist. I didn't know whether it was a stroke or what. I chose the primary doctor. Primary says make an immediate appointment with the eye doctor. That was Friday. Couldn't get an appointment until Tuesday. Monday was a holiday. I new something was wrong when they have me an appointment for an hour later. Routine stuff takes a month or two to get an appointment. The bottom line was I had a torn retina with some detachement. I had to go to Boston that day and have a procedure to repair it. It was not an overnight stay, thank god. Bob had just started a new deck for a customer and was thrilled to get my phone call. The procedure was no picnic. They inject a gas into your eye and it forms a bubble. The bubble is supposed to press against the retina & repair it. The headache (which they call an ice cream headache was something else.

Well it's been a week and it seemed that it wasn't getting better. Had another follow-up yesterday and the doctor saw more new tears. Whoa, is me!!  This time it's back to the hospital. This time it's done in the operating room. Your totally put out. Yippee!!! No ice cream headache. They inject more gas in your eye. You can't see at all in that eye for a couple weeks. I guess you can call me a bubble head for real.

the gross eye. Can't wait to see the next phase. ugh!

Noodle moves in

I'm in the craft room working on a table topper with a fall theme.  Bob went to bed. Noodle is in the living room crying & whining. I go and get her and bring her in to the room with me. She wants to climb up on a chair or anything high up. There is nothing but the sewing table. She walks around the table & sees the craft project.

Guess what. Noodle moves right in. Or should I say on.

Thats my little Noodle for ya. She finally decided to move and found another spot to make herself at home.

The office/craft room

The office/craft room is done. Bob outdid himself on this project. The desk came from Ikea. It is my new favorite place. The stuff for organizing is the greatest. Bob built the sewing table from scratch. It's on wheels. so that I can move it around when needed. He made raised panels for the sides and open shelves on the back. The cutting mats are flush with the border. I have 6' x 3' of  measurements. You couldn't ask for much more. Yesterday morning I mentioned that I wanted a thread holder to hang on the wall. That night when I got home there it was, ready to hang up. He used the beadboard as a backboard for it. Unbelievable.

The addition is done

Well , I haven't had any news for a while. Even this isn't really anything great except to me. The addition/office/craft room is done. Bob is working on the sewing table right now, but the room is finished and it looks great. Martha Stewart would be thrilled. I haven't moved in yet though. This weekend I'll move the computer and sort out all my files. Then I'll work on my sewing stuff. Here are a few pics.

More addition & a visit from relatives

Well it's been a while since I've reported any more thrilling news. LOL . So here goes. The addition is moving along. The walls have been painted. Beadboard has been installed & painted. I had to paint all the beads with an artist's brush. The paint didn't get into the grooves with a regular brush. This chore took 2 days to complete. The electrician came Friday to do all the final electric stuff. He had a few helpers with the fan. The Brazilian cherry flooring will be installed later this week. It has to dry out in the room for a few days. Bob is chomping at the bit so that he can get the closet door out of the garage and hanging it up. The picture is of Skip the electrian, Debbie & Bob. George is probably looking for the screws he kept dropping on the floor.

Meanwhile Bob's sister Debbie & husband George came for a brief visit. They came up from South Carolina for her class reunion. We had alot of fun & laughs.

Back to breakfast

Well Bob is back. Everything is back like he never left. Noodle was happy to see him. Actually she love's to hang out on the cool garage floor. Saturday we went to the best breakfast place on earth, "Arthur & Pat's, a couple of good eggs. It's in Brant Rock which is part of Marshfield. I had my favorite meal there. Turkey sausage feta cheese oemelet with home fries, no toast. I ate half and took it home for another morning.

Then I went for a walk along the ocean for a couple of miles to burn off those calories.

Almost home

Unit 3 is in Illinois. They should be back around 7pm tonight. A picture of Bob at his trailor. They parked next to a 53 footer. Don Burns is the on the road photographer. He also did all the driving.  Joanie sat  back & relaxed. 79 years young..

Returning home

Well the OFR's are returning home. They should be back Wednesday night. Bob did his laundry before he left.

Looks like Bob found an interesting relationship with a couple of buffalo. Looks like he's been away a little too long.

When the Ludden SD police saw this strange kinship, Buffalo Bob spent the night here.

Lynne's Chili

My buddy Lynne gave me her Chili recipe. With all my years of cooking, I have never made chili. I cut down on the calories by using a pound of 93% lean turkey & a pound of  96% lean ground beef. It tasted great to me and only 342 calories per 1 cup serving. It's not spicey, but you could always kick it up a notch.

Here's the recipe. Wicked easy.

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 can (35 oz.)italian peeled tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water
1 can (15 1/4 oz.) red kidney beans, drained
1 can (15 1/4 oz.) pinto beans, drained
2 tsp. splenda
1 tsp. salt
Serve with shredded chedder & chopped bell pepper

1. In a large pot, cook beef & turkey, onion and garlic over medium-high heat breaking up clumps of meat & stirring occasionally, until liquid evaporates & meat is browned about 15 minutes. Drain off fat.
2. Stir in chili powder, cumin & oregano; cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes with liquid & the water, stirring with a fork to break up tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, partially cover & simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened & flavors have blended.
3. Stir in beans, sugar & salt. Heat & serve.
Yum. Makes 8 servings.

The Badlands

Here is a nice picture of the Badlands. Some of the OFRs took a helicopter ride over them.

Who's that guy waving in the distance? I Photoshopped everyone out of the picture. I hope that guy is Bob. I'll ask him when he gets back.

Devils Tower & Montana

Here isthe gang looking at Devils Tower. Then they took a side trip to corner of Montana.

Do what you want day

Things to do today (Tuesday)
1. Laundry
2. Clean your bike
3. Sit by the pool
4. Ride
5. Get drunk

Guess what won. Bob looks thrilled. I hope Wednesday is better for him. The plan is Devils Tower & a side trip to Montana.

Sturgis

All I heard last night on the phone how unbelievable Sturgis is. Wild! Wild! Wild! No wild pictures yet.

Joe, Bob and Joan.

Mt Rushmore

Let me say right off the bat, I have no pictures of Mt Rushmore.. The OFR gang is in Hill City Sd, the home of Mt Rushmore. Everybody was busy taking pictures of one another. Thats ok. We all know what Mt Rushmore looks like or we can buy a postcard. Hill City is in the heart of the Black Hills.

There's biker Bob in picture 2 on the right.

Here is Joan Bradley & Jack Duggan friends of Bob.

I spoke with Bob last night after this sight seeing adventure He said he took some pictures. I guess you have to hike up the mountain a little bit to get a good view. We'll have to wait & see to see what they saw. LOL

The arrival

According to my latest email. Unit 3 of the OFR (old fart riders) arrived at Rapid City SD at 6:30PM mountain time. There was thunderous applause from the assembled Old Farts.

Look closely at the picture with the signs. Not only are they not wearing helmets they aren't wearing their leashes or playing in the pet area.

One day to go

Bob's group traveled 547 miles yesterday.There are 4 or 5 groups or units as they are being called are all converging on Rapid City. All the groups are on time & should be meeting some time today. This pic is of unit 3 from left to right, Joe, Don, Bob