Wahoo!

The leaves are D-O-N-E!

Now there's something to celebrate!

Black Friday

I know many people would stay as far away from the mall on black Friday as they possibly can. A few years ago I would have said the same. But, my friend Renee talked me into going out several years ago and we really had a great time. Not being a morning person, it's hard for me to slip out of my warm bed to do anything. I don't like mornings, and I don't like crowds, but I do enjoy going out to shop on black Friday.

I have my shopping list, I gathered all the flyers, and put together my itinerary. Neighbor Deb was game, despite the fact that she had to be at work by 9. Crazy! We agreed to meet at 4 a.m. and head for Walmart. I was shocked when Kera called at 3:45 and said she'd be at my place by 4. The three of us set off for the madness that is Walmart at 5 in the morning. Honestly, I'd had enough of it in pretty short order, but we were finding things on our list, so I did my best to tolerate the chaos.

Moving on to Target where the line went through the entire store, we walked in and walked right back out, and headed back to the East Shore. We found a few things at Five Below, and Game Stop where Deb left us. Kera and I c ontinued into Target, where we shopped, and walked right up to a cashier. Good deal! Went to Toys R Us and then to Neato Burrito for lunch. We ended our shopping day and I only need two items to have all the grandkids gifts purchased.

Yeah, an early morning, lots of craziness, but fun with Kera and Deb and lots accomplished. A good day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Despite the dreary weather, our Thanksgiving was wonderful. Ten of us gathered, intending to devour our 25 pound stuffed turkey with all the trimmings. Everyone looks forward to our annual traditional meal.

We are so thankful that three of our four parents are still here to celebrate with us. The clan elders, my parents, picked up the big bird and made the most delicious pumpking cheesecakes. Brent's mom seemed to enjoy alk the chaos. My brother made his famous cauliflower casserole, and I'm quite disappointed that there were no leftovers. We were delighted to meet Travis's friend, Jessica. We're not quite sure where he found such a nice girl...LOL! Finally, we were thankful to have friends, Deb and Loren, join us again this year.

Our large bird was taking an extraordinarily long time to cook. About an hour later than we anticipated, we began pulling everything together and getting food on the table. The back door opened, and Kera, Chris, and Gwen walked in. If you didn't know, they were spending two weeks in India and were going to miss Thanksgiving. I've done nothing but worry and miss them since the day they left. I was so surprised, and tremendously thankful to have them home safe and sound five days earlier than we expected.

What a great day. All our family (except Kylie) together, friends to join us, and a holiday meal with plenty of leftovers. We have so much to be thankful for, unlike so many people in the world. We are tremendously grateful for all that we have.

A Busy Week

Don't you wonder why time is flying by so quickly? It seems to me that not all that many years ago I seemed to have so much more free time. I'm trying to figure out what has happened to make life so complicated, difficult, and stressful.

While we made good progress on the leaves last weekend, we still have piles all over the front and side that need to be raked onto tarps and dragged to the street. At least another full day of work ahead and lousy weather on the horizon.

Monday night Travis brought Kylie over. We haven't seen her since July 15, so we were very excited to see her. I've had a gift for her from our October trip to Disney and I bought her Christmas dress. I'm tickled pink that Kylie was thrilled with both of them. She's getting so big I can't believe it. A real tangible example of time going so fast. I stole this picture from Trav.

Renee invited me to see Michael Buble on Tuesday. While I knew who he was and the type of music he performs, I'm really not very familiar with his music. Well, the concert was quite a pleasant surprise - Michael Buble is awesome. His band was great, he has a great voice, he's very funny, and he really plays to his audience. It was a great evening.

Each day I get up and go to work like millions of other people. Once again, as it has been for the last 26 years of employment, my job is in jeopardy. I am at the point where I just feel that no matter where I go, all hell breaks loose. This job is no different. The timing for this job wasn't the best as a month after moving there I had my knees done and was off work for 2 months. Now, the organization I moved to looks like it will be disappearing which leaves me in a quandry just about as bad as the one I just came from. Is there a sign on my back? A black cloud floating over my head? Seriously? WTF? Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I guess I'll be thankful for having a job at least one more day.

Happy Nouveau Beaujolais Day!

Yes! Today is the third Thursday in November when the nouveau beaujolais are released for sale. Although the wine isn't great - what do you want for the young fruity stuff that was made this year - but it's a great excuse to get together, raise a glass (or two or three), have a few hot sausages and whatever else I can pull together quickly when I get home.

Don't know what to do tonight? You know where I live!

The Beach in November

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera on this trip, and there wee plenty of great opportunities for good photos. About six months ago my book club started to plan a girls weekend in Rehoboth. While 12 of us committed to go, when the weekend finally rolled around, there were only 8 of us. The good news is that it was a really compatible group and we had so much fun.

Since I missed so much of my summer this year, I was tickled to be at the beach and felt so lucky that we had a fantastic weather. Our place was very nice and absolutely huge. We had 6 bedrooms and Renee and I claimed one on the first floor with a queen sized bed and a bathroom. Renee brought a queen sized blow up mattress so we both had lots of room and were comfortable. Yes, I took my huge body pillow plus my regular pillow!

After some fantastic snacks we selected our books for next year. That's always fun because there are so many books I would never pick to read myself. 2011 will be a good year! After the book selection, we all got comfy and all grabbed some wine and gathered together to play Apples to Apples. Vicci asked lots of personal questions as we played and now, I daresay, I know more about some of my friends than I really wanted to! LOL!


The next morning Lisa and I walked the boardwalk and walked for 15 minutes or so in the sand. My therapist said I could walk no more than 20 minutes in the sand and I was tickled that it went quite well. We hit some of the great eclectic shops then had some famous Grotto pizza. Of course, the highlight for me was getting some Thrashers fries. It's been years since I've had some Thrashers and they were as wonderful as I remembered.

Saturday night we all went out for dinner to a seafood place called Fins. I had the best fish tacos I think I've ever had. They were really yummy. Then we hit a bar with a crazy guitar player/singer. He sang the types of songs we all know the words to so we were all singing at the top of our lungs. A few beers, a few shots, and lots of fun.

I hope we do this again next year. I got to know some of the newer members of our book club and had a very relaxing weekend.

More PT

Insurance approved 8 more physical therapy sessions. So, I'll be going two times a week. I'm happy about this and am hopeful that this is going to go well.

So Far, So Good

I met with the PA at the surgeon's office today. He thinks things are coming along and estimates 100 degrees flexion in the left and 105+ on the right. He believes that at the end of the day I will end up with 110 in each. So, I need to reconcile myself to the fact that I won't be able to hit that magical goal of 120 degrees. He feels that this will take between 12-15 months until I reach the max I'm going to get and everything finally settles down (i.e. stiffness at night, edema, etc.). I should keep going to physical therapy as long as my insurance will pay for it. Right now, that will end on Thursday, so we'll see what happens. After that he said that in a real world I would continue with my exercises twice a day, but realistically, he said I need to have a life too.

So, it's important that I continue to be diligent but if I miss a day here and there or only get one session in I shouldn't beat myself up about it. I hope that the PT continues. Last time it ended, I continued to kill myself with the exercises only to lose flexion. Intellectually I understand that this was due to the scarring, but emotionally that had a negative impact on my morale. But if it does end at the end of this week, I have a plan. It's good to have a plan.

Physical Therapy - Day 13

I wasn't sure how today would go since it was difficult to do my exercises at my usual level while I was at my scrapbook retreat. But, things went really well. I love the cage! I'm still struggling with going down the stairs, but I have some things to do to work on it.

I'm going to the surgeon tomorrow so we'll get his opinion on how things are going. I think the therapist is happy, I'm so-so (really, did you think I would be overjoyed?!!), and I hope the surgeon will be thrilled (not a chance, but there's always hope). I continually to be moderately optimistic.

Wish me luck.

Scrapping, Scrapping, Scrapping

I had a great time at the scrapbooking retreat - as always. I managed to complete 20 pages of my Austria album so it was a successful trip. Kimberly and I can't wait for the spring retreat. Many thanks to Sandy (Kim's Mom) who graciously cooked us dinner and offered her home to us for the night despite the fact that she was heading out for vacation the next morning. Not to mention she bought me my favorite 1% milk rther than that fat free blue skim milk they all seem to favor. Ugh! Spring is right around the corner - I hope!

Physical Therapy - Day 12

Well, I certainly need to learn how to celebrate incremental improvements. This entire week my knees have been stiff and have made me miserable. Just thinking that things aren't getting better drives me crazy. But, there have been some major improvements this week:

1. Two weeks ago I couldn't use the elliptical without huge compensation. I simply didn't have enough flexion. Today Jeff told me I didn't need to use the Nu-Step anymore to warm up. It appears I've graduated to the elliptical!

2. I also graduated to the larger (and thus less stable) bosu ball.

3. I was able to make some pretty good revolutions on the spin bike, keeping the knees straight and the ankle/foot was close to being right. My hip was still raised to compensate, but Brent said it was the best it has looked since the surgery in June.

4. I took on several new exercises:

• Wooden Wedge - used to stretch the hamstrings
• Stair stepper - 1)stepping up with one leg leading and stepping down with the same leg leading. 2)And, stepping up with one leg and stepping down on the other side of the stepper with the opposite leg - just like doing stairs. This is okay with right leg, and as expected, less than stellar on the left.
• Used the True Stretch Machine - This is way cool http://www.truefitness.com. I did two exercises here which you can maybe see on the placard. I did #6 and #8 on the first line from the top with real people in the pictures. I was surprised I could get my left leg up there. Jeff opted not to stretch me himself today, but rather I used this cage.

Very strange how things can feel so yucky but yet the results at the end of the day are okay. If I look at it through rose colored glasses, it all looks okay. We'll see what the surgeon says next week.

As for now, I'm all packed and heading for my scrapbooking retreat. Yes, I packed my leash. No rest for the weary!

Grrrrr

My knees were more stiff than they have been since the manipulation. WTH?

Hope everyone got out there to vote today. Keep your fingers crossed.

Physical Therapy Day 11

Things were pretty stiff this morning as I went through my exercises a home. PT was at 5:00 tonight and things hadn't loosened up much. Things went okay with the normal stuff. Jeff did some different stretching manipulations which I hope pay off. But, the bike went as crappy as it has been. Discouraging.

Halloween, Physical Therapy 10, and the Weekend

This post is all out of order, so please bear with it!

Friday's PT went pretty darn good. I seemed to do a little better on the bike. I just keep plugging away.

While we were in Disney, Renee and Jeff asked if we wanted to go to the Dine with the Devil event at the Appalachain Brewing Company on Friday night. While I'm not much of a beer drinker, we had a really good time. First, I don't think it sank into us until Friday that we needed to come up with costumes. So, Brent and I were both on the intranet trying to figure out what we could pull together with stuff at home. Although I was partial to going as static cling, Brent suggested I wear my chef's jacket and hat and he would wear an apron and his hat and be my sous chef. Well, that worked as well as anything else with a whole lot less trouble.

With each course one or two beer samples were paired with the food. They didn't just serve their brews either, there were other micro brews served. They described each beer in great detail and talked about why it was paired with the food. Very interesting and pretty darn good.

Thursday, the day before we were invited to trick or treat with Gwen. Well, let me rephrase that. It was my year to stay behind and pass out candy while Brent walked along with Gwen, Kera, and Chris. I don't mind. I really enjoy seeing all the kids dressed up. Gwen was beautiful as an angel. She was so excited about the whole thing and it's great to see her have so much fun. Kera made a yummy stir fry for dinner and a delicious "smores" cupcake. All very delicious.

Bent suggested we go to Middletown Saturday night to see Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, I was a RHPS virgin. But no more. I went out and looked to see what we needed for a prop bag and Brent said we didn't need one; we should just sit back and enjoy the craziness. Well, some woman was handing out prop bags to those who didn't have one. It only included rice, confetti, a rubber glove, and newspaper, but we had fun participating. I'm convinced that some people really have nothing in their lives except this crazy movie. They knew every participatory line and when to deliver it. Very fun night.

Sunday was a lazy day which included dinner at Mom and Dad's. My mom made pork and sauerkraut and I always think this is the time of year for that dish. Dad surprised the heck out of me. Each year Kera gets him a much loved Wine Loves Calendar. He found a recipes in the calendar for poached pears in a reisling sauce which was then reduced. The pears were topped with creme fraich and hazelnuts. My oh my. Fantastic! Huge kudos to my folks for a great dinner.