An Invalid

Today I really took it easy. I couldn't do any dishes and I spent a lot of time soaking my thumb as per doctor's instructions. I found it difficult to sew and even to turn pages when I read, so I studied my spanish and played a lot of computer solitaire. Such a hard life.

The Emergency Room

I did something really dumb tonight. Hubby had shut Cleo in the basement and Fervor was running around upstairs. I went out to the garage with the trash and forgot to close the basement door. Immediately Fervor ran downstairs to attack Cleo. Martha saw Fervor go downstairs and we both ran down but it was too late. Fervor was already attacking Cleo. Like a dummy I reached down and grabbed Cleo. She scratched my thumb very deeply before she realized I had saved her. Fervor attacked my leg for having picked up Cleo. At the emergency room they had a lot of trouble stopping the bleeding in my thumb but didn't want to put stitches in for fear of infection on an animal scratch. I now have a splint on my thumb as the scratch is deep and a good inch and a half to two inches long. It is glued together with tape strips. I have to take an antibiotic, got a tetanus shot and have to see the doctor in 48 hours. I have a large bruise and scrape on my leg as well. Hubby says if the cats fight again we will use a broom or a shotgun.(which we don't have, - the shotgun that is)

Get Rid of it!

A couple of weeks ago I went to the dermatologist and told him I had a bump on the side of my nose that I didn't like and I wanted it off. Now it was not a big bump. Some of my kids never noticed it and others thought it was just a pimple, but I didn't like it. The doctor removed it. The kids were surprised because I didn't have him remove the large mole in the center of my chin. That mole looks just like the one all the Halloween witches have on their chins. When I taught piano, students invariably asked what it was and when my son John was five he asked me if that was where my babies came out. It is not exactly hidden. However I have had that mole as long as I can remember. This bump on my nose was quite new. Anyway the path report came back as basal cell cancer. Now this is nothing to worry about but I feel quite justified in being so adamant about getting rid of it.

Chocolate

Tonight Hubby and I went to a Tollgate Garden Society meeting. The topic was "chocolate." The speaker was a pastry chef who made a raspberry chocolate mouse for us and gave us lots of samples of different kinds of chocolate. He answered tons of questions for us on the different brands of chocolate and on chocolate standards and how to cook with chocolate. European countries have chocolate standards that we don't have in this country. He talked about making your own chocolates but said the Wilton chocolate pieces that they sell at Michael's are only good enough for plastering your walls. He said good white chocolate has cocoa butter in it but much of the white chocolate that you get has no chocolate in it at all. Mary once gave me a box of Vosage's chocolates from Chicago and he said they were some of the best chocolates but very expensive. During the talk tonight while the chef was mixing up his recipes and passing out samples, one of the members of the audience asked if he could mix in a little insulin.

Book Club Report

The family book club almost collapsed until my son in law suggested the story Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck and interested the group again. I got the book out of the library but I haven't started it. The books chosen by the family covered a wide range of topics some of which I never would have thought to read like The Tipping Point or Nickel & Dimed on (Not) getting by in America. They are fascinating non fiction. Of course I loved Memoirs of a Geisha and Water for Elephants as well. The ladies book club has really had a more difficult time choosing books. This month we are reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which I had never read even though my children all did. It is a wonderful story and I am really enjoying it. I usually read at night as my father always had a fit when I would read in the daytime instead of doing something more active. When I was younger and we would go camping I would sit and read all day now I find that I read during the day when I am on a cruise.

The Craft Room is a Mess

It has been a long standing joke about Hubby spending time cleaning up his cubical. ( That is what we call the bedroom that has been converted to his office because he put in gray carpeting and gray cubical furniture.) Hubby is always cleaning it but it never seems to get cleaner mostly because he gets distracted by the things he finds in it. My craft room, however has in the past been very neat and organized. Not any more! I have too many projects and nowhere to put all the boxes of stuff. I brought in my two large wax begonias from outside and they are dropping flower petals all over the floor and not helping one bit. It seems that for every piece of cloth I use, I buy three others that I haven't used. I made an excel spreadsheet of all my projects with a color coded scheme of green, in process and yellow complete but the list now has 87 projects, 21 completed and 10 in process. On Mondays I work on my Spanish lesson mostly at the computer which is located in the closet of my craft room. I brought a lingerie chest into the room but it just makes the room more crowded. So now my craft room matches Hubby's cubical for being downright messy.

Beautiful Fall

This weekend has been an exceptionally beautiful fall weekend here in Michigan. Yesterday we went to an outdoor party to celebrate the recovery from breast cancer of a dear friend. It was lots of fun to sit outside and talk with every one. Today Hubby and I went and walked around Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. To any of you out of staters, Greenfield Village is a must on any Michigan tour. The trees were all decked in their fall color and there were carved pumpkins all over the main street area. Because we have a membership it is especially nice because we don't have to try and see everything at once. We go for an hour or two and walk around or go the the adjacent Ford museum for the current exhibit. On the way home we stopped at Starbucks for a mocha frappicino. They are too expensive to get often but a treat when we do. ( Especially now that our 401K has been reduced to a 101K)