Life is a Series of Vicissitudes

Yesterday's clinic appointment was for a second ultrasound and aspersion on my underarm. *sigh* Although I have great doctors, it's one procedure that I'm not all that fond of. Nonetheless, I'm certainly getting used to it, and they pulled out more than 20 cc of fluid buildup (slightly less than seven fluid ounces), so that was excellent and I feel much better today. 

The printer for the store sales computer system is an 
HP Laserjet 1100 printer - VERY old. I bought a 
duplicate printer a couple of years ago just in case, 
and we might have to switch over to it for a while 
to see if it is any improvement (or even works at all). 

Of course, when one thing starts going well, something else makes up for it, and that happened at work when our store laser printer decided it didn't want to work properly. Eventually we did get it to work, but it's not feeding the paper quite straight. Print quality has been an issue for years, but we live with it. It's a VERY old printer, and anything newer doesn't work with the VERY old software it needs to mesh with. I do have a spare - I purchased one a couple of years ago just in case. As I recall, that one had problems too, but between them, we'll hopefully be able to get reports printed out through the end of the year or whenever we actually shut the doors permanently. 

The Allina/United Hospital complex in 
downtown St Paul is massive in scope. 
I usually park in the Gold ramp (upper 
right), crossing to the orange section for 
my breast cancer appointments. For my 
radiation therapy, I'll be at the opposite 
end, in the purple/red building on the 
right. My surgery took place in the main 
turquoise blue building. 

If all goes well, I start Radiation treatment next week Wednesday for a total of fifteen days, every weekday morning. I needed appointments as early as possible, and they've accommodated me to the best of their ability. I have 9:15 am for the first week, 9:15 am for the second week, the third full week ranges from 9:00 am through 8:00 am, and the final days have me there at 7:45 am. That's excellent. Hopefully snow won't mess things up even more, but I'll deal as I need to. I take major roads all the way to the clinic and back, so street clearing shouldn't be a factor. (I only think of this because we got a major snow dump last night that DH will need to snow blow this morning so that I can grocery shop, he can go to work, and I can put the trash bin to the curb for the weekly pickup). 

It's winter, so no leaves on the trees, but the main 
hospital complex is this. I'm always impressed when 
I come down to here. I worked in hospitals for years 
when I was young, and our hospitals then were 
nothing like the ones we have now! 

So, life is a series of vicissitudes. I'm sure your own life also has its' challenges that you must face, whether it be just getting the kids out of the door and off to school, or dealing with an illness or a dysfunctional companion. Everyone is dealing with something in their lives, so be kind to others today. Smile, offer a sincere compliment, and generally, try to make their lives slightly brighter. Shine that light! I'll be back tomorrow, Slava Ukraini. 

Back To the Grind - Santa Claus Has Left the Building

It was a wonderful holiday - three days off from the gym, lots of great food and lots of sleep. I think that last one was the most necessary thing, but all of it was really good. Santa was very kind to me this year - I got repaid for my coat and two swimsuits I had ordered to have in reserve, and I also got an updated Nook Tablet 7" (my old Nook reader was 5+ years old and had some issues). Although I do most of my reading on my phone, I want to bounce back and forth between books I'm using for research and my regular reading for entertainment. Now I can do that easily. I ordered a cover and screen protector for it on Sunday and it should arrive in a few days.

I wanted the Nook Tablet 7" because it was pretty inexpensive,
but would work really well for what I needed. This one isn't
one of their really pricey tablets, this guy was less than $50. 

Was Santa good to you? I am always so blessed by that kindly old man. Monday was DH's birthday, so he had more presents to open for that, and he had a bit of cake to celebrate too. Total of my three-day indulgence was a three-pound weight gain, but I'll be back in the pool today and every other day this week.

I've been eating one piece of Candy Cane Pie every night since
Christmas Day, but yesterday DH ate his square of birthday
cake instead. He was happy, I was happy, a win/win for both. 

Our friend Matt was admitted back into the hospital on the 23rd with a fever. As of yesterday, the doctors still haven't determined what is causing it. We were going to go and visit him on Christmas Day, but the roads were a skating rink with freezing rain. Very bad. So we waited for Monday instead and it was a much safer trip there and back. It's such a bummer to see him in the hospital again, but his oldest daughter was able to come up for an extended trip from her job/school in Iowa so seeing Grace again was a real plus. Crossing fingers that he gets to go home again soon.

The Bead & Button Show classes are open for browsing
and normally I'd be all over it - post-it notes throughout
the catalog and decisions being made. The idea is boring
me this year  - that's so unusual. This is a trip I take every
year that I usually LOVE. 

Bead & Button Show registration opens in a couple of weeks and I'm still not sure that I'm going this year. I keep angling toward going to Vermont to see several LJ friends instead, but I'm quite torn on this. I guess I'll take another look through the class catalog and see if there is anything at all of interest to me. Last time I looked through, it was pretty much a bust for me, but it's also a business trip and the only chance to see old friends that I get each year.

I did get my fill of "A Christmas Story" on the 24-hours showing. I caught bits
and pieces, but managed to catch all of the important bits throughout the day.
I just love this movie! 

I hope you have a great Tuesday. It's nice to be back into my routine again. Those three pesky pounds will be off before I know it! Enjoy your day - it's the first day of my Four-Day End Of The Year Sale and I'll be working hard!

Sunday Rocks!

Sunday is usually a sleep-in day and a clean house and kick back day. But yesterday, Sunday was a rock day. Twice a year the G&LW Inc show holds a wholesale only event at one of the hotels near the Mall of America and we've been attending this show every spring for almost twenty years now. This time we were ignoring any products we might purchase for the store and concentrating on rocks and fun things for ourselves. After the show we were going to go to the hospital and visit Matt for a while, finally wrapping things up with a nice dinner out. And it all worked according to plan! (That doesn't happen all of the time.)

Red Lace Agate. I just loved that orange stripe going down
the center. I want that color in the next piece I'm designing, so
had to have the stone. I'm hoping it cuts true and doesn't turn
to mud under the saw blade and polishing disks. 

I bought several very lovely slabs to cut up, polish, and use in jewelry that right now is just perched in my head. It will be fun to work with these, though. The first picture is Red Lace Agate. I'm happier with Jaspers, usually, but the color was brilliant and bright and I want that color. So into my little box it went.

Serape Jasper - the banding on this is so beautiful. I'm hoping
I can control that and get it through the process in one piece. 

The second rock was Serape Jasper - probably named after the brightly colored serapes worn in Mexico. These stripes are wonderfully delineated and I am super stoked to play with this one.

Willow Creek Jasper has wide bands, but they are
not usually this evenly distributed. It's geological time
in the palm of my hand. 

The final slab I bought was a piece of Willow Creek Jasper. I was just bowled over by these regular, almost symmetrical bands of time set down in the rock. It's just exceptional and so darned pretty!

After a few hours at the show and other fun little finds, we wandered out and headed over to the hospital to see Matt. We had a chance to spend an hour with him and Liz without their kids or other visitors. That was fun, because we actually had a chance to talk. We didn't talk about anything major - grocery shopping, using computer apps, even the rocks that we had just bought - but it was nice to spend some time together. We're trying to have at least one of us drop by to say "Hi" every day when possible. I think it's really important for him as well as for both of them to know they have people other than family that they can call upon if needed.

Chili's has good food and their Patron Margaritas are steller!
We had a great meal to cap off a fun and productive day. 

After our visit, we headed to Chili's for dinner. It was the perfect cap-off for the day - a great diner and a Patron Margarita. Yummy! Now it's off to the pool to swim off some of those calories, but it was well worth the small weight gain for a great day. Have a wonderful Monday!