Friday Night at the Carolina Brewery

Jim and I go to the Carolina Brewery almost weekly and here of lately, it seems we go on Friday nights. After my endoscopy, I wasn't able to eat a lot of foods other than soft stuff but throughout the day on Friday, I had begun to venture out with more solid foods. I im'ed Jim to see if he had any ideas about dinner and he asked if I felt like I could handle the Carolina Brewery. I replied "I thought you'd never ask!" So we went and it was good. I was hungry! I had an artichoke appetizer and a beer. That was the first good meal I had eaten in about 2 days. Things are getting back to normal.

my Friday Gratitude list:

1) Sucha's biopsy was benign!
2) a good beer
3) my hubby did all my laundry while I was at work!

That Thing in my Esophagus!

I had to have an endoscopy because they think GERD (acid reflux) is aggravating my asthma. So while they were in there, they inserted a Bravo pH meter which is attached to my esophagus. It communicates the pH to a receiver worn on my belt for 48 hours. Then it sloughs off and goes out the back door! Look ma, no wires!



I am grateful for:

1) humor in the medical setting
2) my hubby for transporting me and taking care of me
3) good drugs! I don't remember a thing!

Data

As many of you know, I am the information manager for Duke Student Health and one of my many jobs is to produce data. Anytime, any of my bosses needs data, I write a query and give it to them. When we got an upgrade on our system in late summer, a new feature was a really neat query writer. So now I have been bust converting all of my Microsoft Access queries to the new report generator. I've done all of the quarterly QI reports and the monthly visit volumes. The more I do, the more I find that I can do. So I just sit and analyze data all day. I am creating all kinds of tables and graphs of different visit types and who they saw and why!

Things I am grateful for:
1) my new report generator
2) my health care reimbursement card
3) health insurance

Tuesday Night OUT!

My best friend from work, Pat, and I often talk about going out for drinks after work.............but we never do! We talked about it yesterday and sort of planned to do it this evening but didn't talk about it during the day today. Jean and I had gonr for a brisk 2 mile walk sort of late this afternoon, about 4:15 and when I returned to my office, I saw a missed call from Pat. She didn't leave a message and I figured it was about going out so I popped over to the lab to discuss it. She thought I had forgotten and wasn't going to mention it unless I did. But we made plans and invited Jean. We all met at the Carolina Ale House at 6 pm at the old Southsquare Mall area. We had wine and nachos and a lot of good laughs and good conversation.

So now that we have finally done it, we have vowed to do something like this at least once a month and invite some other close friends to join us. We plan to take turns planning an event. I am suggesting that we shoot for the second Tuesday of each month. maybe we should call ourselves "The Second Tuesday Club?"

Things I am grateful for:
1) great girlfriends that I have known for twenty years!
2) Sam's club..........paper plates at a cheap price
3) vests....helps keep me warm at work

Another New Recipe

I feel like I hardly cook anymore! It's mostly just the two of us and if Alex is here, he doesn't join us often. Therefore, we can try new and interesting things that kids usually don't like. Jim has found us another recipe to try and so after I ran a bunch of errands I called him to find out what we needed. It was a longer list than I could remember and I was driving and its a good idea to keep at least one hand on the wheel so he emailed it to me and I got it on my Blackberry. That's a convenient grocery list!

German Pork Chops:
8 pork chops
salt and pepper
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
3 medium apples
cinnamon sugar
32 oz Sauerkraut
3/4 cup raisins

Layer pork chops in a baking dish, season to taste with salt, pepper and seasoning salt. (I didn't use any salt, just the Lawry's)
Slice apples and layer over the meat. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Drain the Sauerkraut and reserve the juice for later. Spread the kraut over the apples. Add the raisins. The pour the kraut juice over it all. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.



My gratitude list for Sunday:
1) new towels.......on sale at LNT
2) black running pants........comfy to go anywhere
3) Jenni moving to Apex...............closer to me so I can pop over there quickly to see her paint job in her living room!

Gratitude list for Monday:
1) my Nike Plus to track my walk/runs
2) crisp salads............great for lunch
3) beautiful sunsets...........over Jordan lake

No More Teenagers!

Whew, I can't believe it; my baby will be 20 years old on Monday and that means that I don't have any teens. All of my children are in their twenties. Jenni is 27, Zack is 25 and Alex will be twenty. Guess I am getting old too huh?

We had a little family celebration. Zack and Amanda and Jenni and Ben came out to the house. Jim cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. Jenni made her lasagna; a special request from Alex. Of course we had wine and cake and ice cream.



Happy Birthday Alex!


Friday's gratitude list:
1) a beautiful day for me to go for a 2 mile walk/run
2) the sound of leaves falling in the woods
3) candles that make a home feel so cozy

Saturday's gratitude list:
1) a clean kitchen
2) family.....we were all together and had fun
3) my bike.........after I went for a walk with Jim, my bike "called" me to take it for a spin!

Lists

Everyone makes lists! Lists rule the world........at the grocery store, packing for a trip, planning a wedding, buying a car.........you name it. Everyday for the past 2 weeks I have been blogging with my list of gratitude's; 3 a day until Thanksgiving. I was thinking about it on my way to work this morning, but I didn't write them down. So much for my list. Well here are some anyway and I don't even know if it's what I came up with this morning!

1) sunshine.....so welcome after a few gray days with rain
2) napkins........the ones you stash in the car console after a trip through the drive through window. They are great for wiping up spilled coffee. This was the one I thought of this morning!
3)waking up and it's already daylight.............the good part about daylight savings time ending. I still hate that it is dark so early though.

Whew that was hard. Next time I'd better make a list!

Just Another Day

Yesterday was Election Day 2008, a Tuesday, just like all of the others. In the days and weeks leading up to yesterday, we were bombarded from all directions with radio and tv ads, roadside signs and internet pop ups full of promises and negativity. Then yesterday, history was made! The United States of America elected their first black president. And today was just another day. I really hope they remove the roadside signs!

My gratitude list:
1)the internet............it gives us a plethora of information just a click away
2)Molly.................my dog who always follows me everywhere for loved
3)water.............no shortages here anymore

A Nice Hot Shower

I have always showered in the morning. Believe me, I have tried to do the "bath" at night before bedtime to save time in the morning. I love that feeling of being fresh and clean and slipping into the fresh sheets and knowing they will stay fresher with my clean body. But even when I bath at night, I still shower in the morning. It wakes me up and when I get out of my warm bed, I usually get cold and the hot shower feels so good! Especially now that the cool mornings of fall are officially here!

My gratitude list for Election Day 2008!

1) a nice hot morning shower
2) my brother who turned 59 today, Happy Birthday Robbie!
3) Instant message..........a fun way to chat with my parents!

That Fall Smell

Since I am 50 years old, I have been feeling that my sniffer is getting old and not working as well as it used to. You know I just can't smell things like I used to but today walking out to my car in the almost dark evening, I could smell the fall leaves swirling on the ground at my feet. That brings back memories of piles of leaves at my house growing up. Half the fun of raking them into a pile was jumping in them and scattering them all out again!

My gratitude list:
1) the smell of fall
2) technology..packing a computer in a mini laptop!
3) the freedom to vote for whom we chose

Saturdays

I just love Saturdays.......................as good as Fridays, but a bit better. Jim always gets up a bit before me and has fresh strong coffee waiting on me. I actually think the smell of the coffee waifs upstairs and enters my sleep. I come down and fix a big ole cup and we sit on the couches and watch TV or read and chat and drink brew until we get ready to do our chores.

This Saturday's chore was cleaning out the basement. A job long overdue! Whenever we have stuff that we don't need anymore and can't decide what to do with it, we just "put it in the basement." Well after 12 years, it gets junky down there. Plus I am on a mission to declutter and get rid of stuff we don't need, don't use or is just plain broken.

We borrowed a trailer from a good friend. Since we got rid of Jim's big truck and downsized to a Honda Civic, we didn't even have a vehicle with a trailer hitch so Zack brought Amanda's Envoy out and helped us load all the stuff. We took 3 big loads! We got rid of the old fridge, stove, a bicycle, old moldy baby furniture a friend gave me that I wouldn't be able to use, an old mixer, breadmaker, mismatched dishes, trash, bottles, wires, comforters, old table and several old mismatched chairs, 2 plastic barrels, and just other junk! The basement is so empty. Then I vacuumed up all the dead bugs and dirt and sand and salt and moved all of the boxes to one "room." Now the chore will be do keep it clean!

My gratitude list for Saturday:
1) good friends who lend you things
2) my son who helps us so much
3) my hubby for helping and being a good sport about getting rid of stuff

My gratitude list for Sunday:
1) freshly brewed coffee
2)my warm cozy bed
3)my new book, Clinton Kelly's Freakin' Fabulous