Short on Time, Short in Post - LOL

 Hi all! I'm really tight on time today, so this will be a short post. 

Just a really quick post today. I'm tight on time. 

First of all - Pope Francis. Generally, for someone who is NOT Catholic, nor Christian for that matter, I don't really care about who is in the Vatican. But Pope Francis was a good man. He was a man who cared deeply about the poor, and about the children and he tried his best to make sure the Church remained inclusive and welcoming. He didn't go quite as far as allowing female priests, but I think the black and white formal attire of most nuns carries weight anyway. "Pengies", we've always nicknamed nuns - with all respect for the actual women wearing the attire. 

I generally liked Pope Francis - he was a real 
Pope for the people, a very humble man with 
deep faith. 

Secondly, hummingbirds are getting closer and closer to my area. They're in southern Illinois now, heading northward. I'll probably start putting my feeder out within a week or so. 

I adore hummingbirds. I'm always amazed by how far 
they come in their migration (just as I'm amazed at the 
distances traveled by the Monarch butterflies). Such tiny 
creatures and such vast distances! 

So, that's it for a very short post because I'm running really late on time, and I hope all of you have a fabulous Monday and that you had a good Easter if you celebrate that holiday. We enjoyed our roast and watching "Penguins" on TV before switching over to the hockey finals (I haven't looked at the score yet, so I have no idea if the Wild won or lost against Las Vegas). Enjoy your Monday, Slava Ukraini. 

My Oldest Grand-Niece on TV, Swimming Sound and Cooking

I'm going to start out by being the proud Grand-aunt of Lexi, my oldest niece's daughter. My Grand-niece has been featured in several broadcasts and I shared a shorter clip of this on Facebook within the past week, but yesterday my niece posted the full interview, and I wanted to share. Here's the You Tube link, and I hope you enjoy meeting my Grand-niece. She'll be graduating next month with a 3.8 (out of 4.0 possible), and continuing onward in her educational goals to Augsburg College - a private and rather elite local collage. She has a full scholarship for her advanced education. So, here's the link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i24GgGQ_uNA

My new Aftershokx headset arrived at the shop yesterday, and I instructed Chickie to "Make Sure he brings it home with him". So, DH walked through the door last night with a small brown box in his hand with a note, "Make sure you bring this home with you", attached. I immediately got it out of the package, dumped the packing materials and plugged it in to charge. Fortunately, they do arrive pre-charged, at least 80% charged, so that took minimal time. I downloaded my book onto it, counted out the hours, and started it playing. It's played overnight. I know I'll be re-listening to some chapters, but hopefully it won't be a lot of do-over. At least I have a book to listen to again, instead of just counting laps. Hurrah! 

I'm delighted to have my headset back. I'll be re-listening 
to parts I've already listened to, but I'll let it run until I'm 
finally at the new parts of the book. At least it's better than 
counting laps, which I can do while listening to something 
more interesting than my breathing and the sound of the 
water. 

It was a lovely day yesterday. As I was driving around on my errands, there were green leaves sprouting from trees and bushes everywhere. Spring is most definitely here. A year ago yesterday, we had a 9-inch snowfall - the last snow of the 2022-2023 winter season (which ended up with more than 90 total inches of snow). This year's snowfalls amounted to less than a foot! We've been getting some lovely rain, which is great, and we're not quite through our drought yet, but the ponds and cache ponds are full, and the birds are coming back. I filled and hung my hummingbird feeder yesterday. They are very terrirorial birds, and I want to catch a male (they're always the first into the areas, followed by the females). Once I have a male calling my area home, he'll keep all of the other males away and I'll have a busy feeder with his females and their chicks. I'm already looking forward to this year's hummers. 

It might be a week or two early, but I decided to go ahead 
and put the hummingbird feeder up. It's a very early 
Spring, and the weather - although cold now for a few more 
days - is totally in Spring mode - no more Winter. Time to 
tell those little, wonderful birds, that they are welcome. 

My fence company should be receiving my paperwork and downpayment today. I went to my bank yesterday and got a new check-card to replace the one that had been compromised. I'll have to try a small purchase to make sure it's working properly and that it's attached to the correct account (I have four accounts with my credit union), but I'm 99% sure everything is perfect. Then I came home and started cooking. I had started the day at my co-op - so many WONDERFUL veggies. I ended up with WAY more than intended, and doubled the batch of vegetable soup I had been planning to make. I have a bunch of wonderful, flavorful soup in the fridge, and if I want to add meat, it's an easy add. 

I decided to make the recipe called "Seriously Good Vegetable 
Soup" by Cookie and Kate. The co-op had some serously 
wonderful veggies, and I WAY overbought. I made enough 
soup for an army! I'll be eating this for a week or more, and 
I won't mind at all. I can add anything to it and it'll just 
bring more flavor to the broth for that day's portion. Yum! 

So, I'm off to the pool, my new headset draped around my neck, ready for the day to come. It'll be a busy one - DH got a shipment checked in yesterday, and I'll be making and printing price tags for much of the day. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Autumn is Creeping In on Tip Toes, But I'm Not Ready Yet

I'm ahead of schedule today, on a very busy day, but not because I was really good at setting my alarm. Rather, I awakened a bit after 2:00 am and simply couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I got an hour's jump on my day. All things totaled, that's not a horrible thing. I'll actually be able to sleep in a bit longer than usual on Sunday since we won't be going to Renaissance Festival,. We'll be going to the MN Gem and Mineral Show instead. 

We always look forward to the MN Gem and Mineral Show. The 
new State Fairgrounds location has been a great shift for them.  
The number of people attending the show has gone up a LOT. 
One of the vendors dropped into the shop yesterday for a few 
supplies and said that it's been a great move for them - much 
more room for each vendor, and a LOT more customers. 

This time of the year is always a more difficult adjustment for me than any other seasonal changeover. We're moving into Autumn now, and Winter is knocking at the door. I'm NOT ready for that at all. The garden looks sparse in sections because DH has been transplanting a variety of plants to new locations for next Spring, and because the colder temperatures are slowly causing the plants to either go dormant or die back. 

At this time of the year, our growing season is coming to 
an end. My tomato plants aren't getting as many ripe tomatoes, 
and those that are unripened might well remain unripe. 
We still gets lots of sun, but the temperatures are colder - 
enough that we're skirting with frost. I expect we'll have 
our first frost before too long and that will be the end 
of this year's crop. 

My tomato crop this year actually ripened at a sustainable rate - I didn't feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of tomatoes I was getting. I did dehydrate a small batch just to see how it would go (it worked beautifully), and I'll use those in cooking later this season. But my plants are slowing down. I have several Jalapeno peppers trying their best to ripen before the frost, and they might make it. But they probably won't be quite as red as those I got earlier in the year. I have a bunch of Tabasco peppers on that plant waiting to ripen a bit more, so I'll have a lot of peppers to dehydrate from that plant. My banana peppers are pretty much done for the season. 

At this point of the year, most of my Tabasco peppers 
are yellow or orange. Still, these peppers can be 
harvested at any point, so I'll leave them to ripen 
as much as possible, then harvest them and dry them. 
They'll grind up beautifully for my winter chili and 
soup recipes. 

The hummingbirds have almost all left for the season. There are a few still hanging around, and of course I keep the feeder full for them. But, I'm not getting the crowds. The males left almost a month ago, and the females and young ones are leaving now. They have a LONG flight down to Costa Rica, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in the Spring. I'll keep the feeder stocked for them until after we get a few hard frosts, of course. But that won't be much longer. 

I'm up in the yellow portion, shading into the green. We 
start seeing our hummingbirds start their migration a 
month ago when the males leave. Now the females and 
this year's crop of yearlings are also leaving for their 
long flight through the USA and down to Costa Rica. 
Not all of them will go that far South, but not all of 
them come this far North either - LOL. 

So Autumn is creeping in. Autumn is one of our most spectacular visual seasons here in the Frozen Northlands. The exceptional range of colors we get from our trees and other greenery as they move into their winter naps is always spectacular. I expect that next weekend's drive to and from the final weekend of Fest will be a gorgeous visual treat to end our Festival year with. 

So, I'm off to the pool. Have a lovely Wednesday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

How Was Your May? Today Is The Last Day So Wrap Things Up Before June

So here it is, the last day of May. Another month wraps up and it's a good time to look back at the first few months of this year and reassess. How has your year been going? Are you on track to meet (or exceed) any personal goals you might have set for yourself? Or maybe you'd prefer a "do-over" instead? Well, you can't get the do-over, but you can take advantage of a brand new month beginning tomorrow. 

It's the last day of May today. Tie up your loose 
ends and start strong and new tomorrow. Don't 
worry about unfinished tasks, just understand 
that some things aren't meant to be completed 
quickly, just complete them within the fullness 
of your own time, to the best of your ability. 

A new month offers new possibilities. It will be a chance to clean that room you had planned on for May but just didn't get to. A chance to weed that part of the garden that you kept putting off. A chance to tell those you love how much you care for them - something that should be on your agenda all of the time in any case, but that sometimes gets forgotten. 

We should have some blooming lillies within two-three 
weeks. They've grown up tall, and are almost at their 
terminus and ready to put up buds. 

It will be a new opportunity to admire whatever weather and opportunities Mother Nature throws at you. Here, we'll have hot weather, some thunderstorms (some of which may be severe), maybe a tornado or few, and some hot days. We'll help our next door neighbors celebrate the High School graduation of their oldest child, and wish her well as she leaves the nest for a college in a different state. We'll watch our garden blossom into a riot of colors and shapes. Our lillies should bud and bloom in June, and our other plants, which were new little things not too long ago, will spread, grow and feature a riot of colors to attract the bees and hummingbirds. 

Our hummingbirds have definitely returned and are using 
the feeder. It's a lot of fun to sit outside and watch the 
little guys swoop in for a quick drink, then swoop back 
out again. Remarkable birds. 

Our hummingbirds will continue to come to our feeder. We've had hummers coming by now for approximately thee weeks. I checked with my oldest niece, and her hummers have been on the same basic schedule, so I chose properly when I put out my feeder. They've found it, and they flit in and out all the time while we're sitting on the patio, enjoying our Sundays. 

June is one month where we have no expectations. There is a holiday - Father's Day - but our fathers are long dead, and we don't have children, so that holiday passes us by. We can relax until the 4th of July, when the summer kicks into high gear and schedules will start to compress. 

My plans to attend my family reunion are undergoing 
revision in my head. It's just at a rotten time of the 
year, in a city that, although exciting, isn't really one I 
want to visit again, and I'll be compressed for time, so 
can't do the extra East Coast things I wanted to do. 
I'm probably going to pass on this yet again. Maybe we'll 
have another one in 2028. If so, I'll deal with it then. 

As for the family reuinion? I've pretty much given up on that one. Markus is staying at the Hotel St James, a block or so off from Times Square. I've never had a desire to see Times Square, although I've been to New York several times. I didn't check the room rates, but I'm sure it's up there - it's central NYC. But when it gets down to it, I just don't have the time, the money, or the time. Oh, did I mention the time? I have no idea if there will be another reunion in 2028, and I'm sure it will be in Europe again, not the USA, but I'll consider it then. Not now. 

On that note, I need to get moving. It's a "day off" for me, so busy, busy, busy. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

A Wonky Schedule This Week and Chickie Back Issues

My schedule this week is a bit messed up - I'll swim today and tomorrow, have eye surgery on Wednesday, and recover from that until Saturday, when I'll be back at work. (I might return to work on Friday, but I'm not promising that). 

My schedule this week, because of surgery on a Wednesday, 
is totally messed up. Chickie and DH will have to work 
for me for at least two days, maybe three. It'll be hard on 
both of them, but we'll persevere. 

Chickie finally got the results of her MRI yesterday. Her doctor said "Your recent MRI test results showed some significant degenerative and nerve/spinal cord compression in your neck and low back that is probably causing your current symptoms. I'd like to have you see a spine specialist re this." Chickie says she wants to see what Mayo has to say before doing anything further, so I'm sure she'll be on the phone to Mayo today. Chickie's got this rare disease that affects each person differently, and Mayo is her go-to for direction when health issues arise for her. So, we'll see what Mayo has to say, but right now, Chickie is in a LOT of pain and just bending over can be excruciating. Not good! 

Spinal cord compressions are NOT a fun thing. I remember 
my aunt dealing with spine pain for most of her life. She 
tried everything possible at the time to relieve her pain, but 
nothing really worked. 

DH and I saw our first hummingbirds yesterday, and they're using my feeder. I put new food out for them yesterday, so I'm delighted they're back and drinking what I make for them. I swept and totally cleaned up the patio, while DH mixed dirt, spread it in two places in the yard, and applied grass seed. These are places where we've had difficulty getting grass established in prior years, but our experiments with this new grass seed on other parts of the lawn have been very successful, so we're hoping grass will take hold here as well. 

We get seven different kinds of hummingbirds in 
Minnesota. Six of them are pictured here. The one 
in the larger photo is like the one that I saw at our 
feeder yesterday. 

It was an absolutely beautiful Sunday - not too hot, not too cold. Just perfect! Starting my week out in the pool makes it all better too, so I'm looking forward to my week ahead, despite the surgery and wonky schedule. It's all good - LOL. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Errands, Appointments, Phones and Hummers - It Was a Busy Wednesday

Yesterday's crazy schedule shift did work out, although I stumbled a few times. Still, by the end of the day I had succeeded in quite a lot. Of course, the main focus was my pre-surgical physical first thing in the morning, and the fact that CenturyLink was coming over to check the phone lines sometime during the day. That was originally scheduled for sometime between 9-5, but when I logged on to check, it had been extended to sometime between 9-7:30, thus taking in the entire day. 

I was expecting the phone company to repair the 
lines, and had to build that into my already 
skewed schedule for the day. Still, by the end 
of the day, everything had worked out - somewhat. 

I was at the grocery store shortly after 6:00 am and picked up what I needed for the next few days. I'll be back for my main shop on Friday, since Friday will be my cooking day this week. But, I got the groceries, put them away, and then headed to the clinic where I saw my Doctor (I really like my doctor - she's fun and very smart. I've been seeing her for years now). This one simple appointment will bracket both surgeries, so I'm good to go onward towards sight once again. 

Allina Clinic, Bandana Square location is close to the 
house, has pretty much everything I need in it, and 
it's a beautiful location - very well designed and 
operated. It's located between my house and the 
shop, so it's close and it's convenient. 

Tomorrow's major task will be renewing my driver's license. It's far from impossible, but can be a time sink. Of course, since I couldn't swim yesterday, I'll be swimming tomorrow. Today's major task will be the phone company's return. After the tech showed up yesterday while I was on my weekly catch-up call with Aearwen, he checked around the house and said the problem was indeed an exterior problem and if he couldn't fix it right away, he'd add it onto Thursday's schedule. I guess he couldn't fix it, because we're now on the Thursday schedule for sometime between 9:00 am and 6:30 pm. Hopefully we'll have a land line again by the time I get home from work tonight. 

Apparently Costa Rica has more species of 
hummingbirds than anywhere else in the 
world. Just look at all of the varieties! How 
truly amazing! 

So, that's the excitement in my house right now - LOL. I did get my hummingbird feeder hung yesterday, and then on PBS last night, there was a show featuring the hummingbirds of Costa Rica on "Nature" last night. It was marvelous. Such amazing birds. The tree where I hang the feeder lost a large branch in our winter snow. It's not impacting anything, but we'll have to clean it up at some point. The tree has been slowly dying for several years now, and it's a large maple in the perfect place. We would rather keep the shade for as long as we can, so we're not getting it cut down - yet. That time will come. 

I hung my hummingbird feeder up for the season 
yesterday. In my part of the country, it should be hung 
anytime after April 1st. Now I have to start keeping an 
eye on it, making sure the ant trap is filled with water 
and the hummers have plenty of food. 

So, I'm off to the swimming pool. Have a wonderful Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow, before I head out to swim again on a rare Friday swim. Be kind, be thoughtful, and Slava Ukraini. 

Housecleaning - Getting Ready for Migration and the Change of Seasons

It's my "day off" today, and I have five of them left before Sharon arrives for the State Fair and Renaissance Festival. That's not very many days to pound my house into shape, but she's seen it at its' worst over the years, as well as at its' best. I suspect this year will be middle-of-the-road. I have done the vacuuming, and cleaned my dragon shelving, and her room is ready for me to set up the bed. I will be concentrating on straightening up some of the other rooms today, and maybe digging into the computer room to get things a bit less "piled" in there. 

The shower, always a major cleaning job, is actually looking 
great now. I've been cleaning it on the days I'm showering 
at home, and it's in great shape. That's a good thing, because 
it can be a horrendous job to get clean if I'm not ahead of 
the game. 

But it's still an errand day - groceries are important. I'll need to do Whole Foods as well as my local grocer today, so two of the three places I shop. I don't get much at Whole Foods, but they're the only place that carries the bread products that I love. It's hard to find tasty non-grain breads and I'm not fond of eating cardboard. 

My hummingbirds will start migrating south in 
September, with a few hanging on through October. 
I'll make sure to keep food available for them until 
the end of October, then put the feeder aside for the 
Winter and begin feeding again in March. 

Yesterday evening I quickly fed my hummingbirds before making my own dinner. I'm rather astonished by how quickly I can make their food, clean the feeder, and get things back onto the hooks. When I started, several months ago, it was quite a procedure, but I've got it totally nailed now, and the hummers
seem to be happy with the nectar I make for them. I'll keep it up until the end of October, unless we get a serious snow before then. They'll start migrating south next month, but there are always some hangers on who stick around a bit too long. It rather sounds like DH and I and hanging on to the shop in some ways. 

Having a coffin that can be written and/or drawn on 
is new to me, but what a wonderful idea. Red will 
make sure to have a message on there from all of us 
who got to know Kei through her Tolkien fiction, so 
we're all going to be represented on there in some 
fashion. 

Keiliss will be buried on Tuesday. Red put information in her post yesterday on how we can send funds to the family to help them with expenses, and I'll be sending some their direction via PayPal today. Funerals are expensive. Apparently Kei requested that her coffin be of a style that will allow people to write and/or draw on it. What a lovely idea. Red said she'll make sure to write something of her own, and then a second writing for Kei's Tolkien peeps. So, we'll all be included, and that's making me tear up again. Damn. 

I've got goals for today. I'll have to see how far I 
get with them. I have five days off until Sharon 
arrives, and a lot still to do in the house. 

Have an excellent Wednesday. I have a million things to do today, but I'm glad I'll have a chance to get some of them accomplished. Goals, you know? They can be important. Slava Ukraini. 

It's a Time Crunch Today - I'd Better Finish Reading and Voting on LJ Idol Stories

I'm crunched for time today, so let's see if I can get a post up within 15 minutes. Yesterday was a busy, busy day as expected, and I'm sure I forgot some things, but I actually accomplished quite a bit. When going out to see the garden with DH when he returned home from work, I glanced at my hummingbird feeder. Cleaning and putting in new nectar had been on my "To Do" list, but I hadn't had time. I was going to put it off until Friday, but saw that the birds had been hitting it hard all day and it was quite low. I quickly made up a batch and got it restocked right after dinner. I don't want my hummers going hungry, now that they've found and are using my feeder. 

I love the fact that the hummingbirds are using the feeder. 
I think it's the best thing we bought at the garden center, 
hands-down. My peas and beans are coming up, the 
flowers and plants are (mostly) doing well, but the 
hummingbird feeder is giving me the greatest joy. 

I'm getting a few of my cherry tomatoes ripening now, but I'll be overwhelmed in another week or two. Of my five plants, I have four with fruit that's ready to go quite soon, so I'll be swimming in tomatoes. At least I won't have to buy any at the store, but I'll also have to look into recipes I can make that will actually use some of them up because I'll have too many for my nightly salad needs. 

I have four cherry tomato plants, and three of them are 
already giving me ripe tomatoes. I'll be overwhelmed 
with them soon. I only wanted three plants, but DH 
ended up with four. *sigh*

I did get my Ogre Juice made yesterday - I have it down to about an hour or so now. I've been making it for more than a year and practice helps. I need to make a second batch of four tomorrow so that I won't be in a crunch when I have to work next Wednesday. Frankly, Chickie and ChickieMama couldn't have chosen a worse day for their Mayo follow-up appointment. 

I know ChickieMama's cancer has been located in her 
stomach with possible locations going into her 
stomach from her trachea. We'll find out how bad it 
all is after her next Mayo appointment, but she may 
end up having half of her stomach removed to 
get rid of it. That would be a serious bummer. 

ChickieMama texted me yesterday telling me that one of her lab results from last week's Mayo trip showed a "return of the Neuroendocrine cancer". That's probably not very good news, and I'm sure the return trip to Mayo next week is necessary, but I really wish Chickie had called me to double-check my availability before setting up the appointment and just telling me afterward. It would have been more courteous. As it is, it's the worst possible scheduling since I have my eye doctor appointment that morning. 

Our usual lifeguard is on vacation this week. She picked 
an excellent week for it. The weather has been perfect, 
and the pool has been excellent. Her replacements are 
doing just fine, so we're not having problems having 
the pool open for all of us. It's been crowded a few 
times, but so far hasn't been bad. 

I'm off to the pool. It's a beautiful day - low 60's, clear skies and warm water. Life is good. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Namaste and Slava Ukraini.