I have been busy....again!

I had a busy day so I could only get 1/2 mile walk in this morning before it all started.  For the last two days I have hit 10,000 steps.  Not sure I will get there today though.  I am at 5876 right now and have another 1/2 mile with the dogs later.  Not 10,000 worth though.  I  can't figure out how to use the calorie portion yet. 


I had a Care Plan meeting for my mother, the big change is that Hospice is there and she is getting more eyes looking at her.  She is 111 lbs now, losing 1 or 2 lbs a week.  I get weekly reports from each person, so that is one from the nursing home and 3 from the Hospice.  Exhausting.

Before (See where the Roomba lives)

I had lunch with my friend Paula.  She heads the Bonnie Hunter Club and I will see her tomorrow at the meeting.  She went with me to the Chalk Paint place to pick out some Chalk Paint for my newest project, the Guest Bathroom.  I want to redo the cabinet.  If that goes well I will do the Master Bath and the Kitchen.  You need to investigate Chalk Paint if you have never heard of it.  No prep work other than cleaning your surface of dust and grease.  No sanding, no scraping, no nothing!  I am down with that since the cabinets have a poly varnish on them.

I scrubbed the cabinet and saw the wallpaper peeling.  I had intended to take the wallpaper off anyway so I started pulling.  Well, we know where that heads!

The doorbell rang and it was my Bose unit back from the dead.  It plays like it did before the Great Disaster.  So I listened to more of Hope by Amanda Berry and Gina Dejesus. 

When Frank got home he was surprised I had destroyed the bathroom!  But offered to take me to Rotolos for cheese calzones and sweet tea.   I can't say no to that.

But the day was not over accomplishing stuff.  When we got home we put up the new Roman Shade behind the long arm in the dining room.  It looks fabulous!

I will put one of the quilts on the frame later in the week.  Quilt a little, paint a little, pull a little wallpaper.  You know how fun that all is!

Whew!

Better Today

Yesterday was such an emotional day for me.  I was exhausted.

Mom in 2007

I called my brother about the hospice thing, and checked in on his family.  They have their own thing going on and are in another city, and you know.  I rarely hear from them.  But we had a nice conversation and we are both on the same page, and it is OK.

I dealt with the health insurance crisis.  In January they changed the details of the reimbursement stuff and we no longer have a co-pay or deductible.  But no doctor's office or pharmacy understands this.  We are constantly overcharged and it is difficult to get your money back from the pharmacies and doctors who ARGUE with you when you show them the policy wording even!  It took me a week of calls to the benefits office at Frank's home office in Houston just to get a call back.  And when she did, she told me her child was sick and I should be more understanding!

And all the intake nurse and social work visits are being done through the Hospice and everyone calls me to discuss my mother.  Yesterday I explained to two pastors about our religious views and why we were comfortable with them.  I ended up just saying, go visit her, she has no idea you are even there.  Say what you want to her!  Make yourself feel better.

And on top of all that, I have 4 books on tape from the library and my Bose unit decides never to play CDs again.  I called Bose and they are willing to replace the guts of the machine for $99 plus shipping.  Frank won the unit at a Sales Meeting in 2008 so that is actually a good deal.  It will get shipped off today!

Chloe

And after listening to me for a while, all Frank said last night was:  do you think we can go get some more Klondike bars - I ate the last one last night?

And you wonder why I have dogs??????????

Listening to Books On CD while Quilting

In the studio I am listening to The Madonna Of Excelsior by Zakes Mda.  Excellent book.  Zakes Mda is a novelist and playwright from South Africa.  In 1971 the rural town of Excelsior was the site of a scandalous breach in the apartheid Immorality Act, which forbade sexual congress between races.  The black women involved were jailed and the white men released on bail.  Ultimately, the charges were dropped by the authorities, but for one of the accused women, Niki, life's hardships were only intensified.  This is the story of one family weathering the storm from early 1970s oppression to the present day mixed society of South Africa.

The voice of the narrator Robin Miles is beautiful.  It lilts through the accent.  And it should, she is a professor of speech and dialects at SUNY.

I am on the very last CD, and I am missing the book already.  I always hate for a good book to end.

Stupid MP3 Player
See my cute pjs?

Blocks I won at River City
I will use black between the rows
to set them apart

This weekend I need to get working on getting some quilts quilted.  While at the library for the meeting last night, I picked up two more books on CD to quilt by.  The librarian told me I could download the books to my computer.  Then save them to a file.  Then upload them to my MP3 player and thus have the entire book on the device.

My particular MP3 player does not upload, for some reason, from Overdrive (the program used by the library to disseminate ebooks and voice books).  I have an audio book waiting to download from the library at this moment, so I may play around with it tonight to see if I can get it on my MP3

My wonderful Bose Unit
holding my spray starch

The problem is that I cannot hear it when it is on the Bose player and my quilting machine is humming in my head so close to my ears.  I cannot get it loud enough.  Hmm.

Dilemma.  When I sew in the studio, I have to turn the Bose up loudly so I can hear it.  It is doable with out a problem, however.  DiNozzo sits on his window seat and sleeps through it.  I used to put the Bose in the window seat but you know how that went.  Frank won the Bose player when he was at a sales meeting for his company.  They had a contest and of course he won, he is a really good salesman and people just like him.  He gave it to me when he got home

(working on downloading the book to the MP3)

Try as I might I could not get the MP3 to accept the download.  So tomorrow I will try to download it directly from the computer.

The computer says it is downloading, and the MP3 says it is receiving but they are speaking two languages and it doesn't get on to my player.

Darn, I really wanted to listen to books when I was quilting.    I need another plan.

glen