New Header

I put my new header in yesterday, Mac finally finished it.  Well not actually finished, he's never completely satisfied, he says there's something wrong with the bird's bill.  I had to pry the paintbrush out of his hands and tell him to stop.
We saw a cartoon one time of an artist and his wife looking at one of his paintings in a museum and the artist tells his wife, "You distract the guard and I'll just fix this one little part."  We both laughed because it's so true, he walks by some of his paintings here in the house and asks, "Don't you think I should ..." and I always say NO!  Don't touch it.
I'm very pleased with this one, very wintery and the colors are so vibrant.

Roses and Bear Part Two

Earlier I'd said that I'd tell you more about the roses from our daughter and the bear from Mac, so here's the story.
In November as a part of an ultrasound check of my carotid arteries a nodule was found on my thyroid gland.  Well nodules on thyroid glands are very common and as you grow older the chance of having one increases, plus the fact that I've been on thyroid medication for years, I have a very lazy thyroid.
My primary care doctor decided that it needed to be assessed by a specialist so he sent me to an ENT doctor who could actually feel it, but he assured me that most of these nodules are benign, but to be on the safe side they'd have a needle aspiration done on it.  I was sent to another doctor who did another ultrasound and then using a very fine needle withdrew 4 samples to be biopsied.
Unfortunately the biopsy was inconclusive, but the doctor who'd done the needle aspiration said the nodule exhibited characteristics of a cancer.
So my doctor decided the most prudent thing to do was to remove the left lobe of my thyroid and have the whole nodule biopsied.   As far as I was concerned the sooner they did it the better so last Thursday I went into the hospital and had a left thyroid lobectomy.
It was a quick operation, my doctor said it only took 42 minutes, but when I woke up my throat was on fire, worse than when I'd had my tonsils out as a kid.  I spend the night in the hospital, Mac gave me the little stitched up bear to keep me company, I had great care and Mac brought me home on Friday where those lovely roses awaited me.
I had to stay on soft food (think mashed potatoes and ice cream) for 4 days and then today I was to return to the Doctor to get my results.
He came into the examining room and asked if I wanted the Good news or the Good news, I laughed and said I wanted good news, and I got it, no cancer!
I was so relieved and Mac even more so because after the surgery when he'd talked to the Doctor he'd asked how it looked and the Doctor said it was an ugly little thing and he hadn't liked the look of it.  Mac didn't tell me about this conversation until after we got the good news today,  What a sweetie he is for not wanting to worry me.
I don't have to go back for 3 months, my wound is healing nicely, and they'll probably have to increase the amount of thyroid medication I'm taking, but Whoo Hoo, no cancer.
It's been a very good day.

Before the Weather Changes

It was 81 here yesterday, broke an 80 year old record, going to be quite warm today too, but Thursday into Friday brings a change, back to to 50's and 60's.  Mrs. Micawber snarkily said I'll have to dig out the winter long johns for that.    I love her pictures of the cold Wisconsin winter, but I'm glad I live in our version of winter here in Georgia.

The garden beds are a mess, but the Hyacinths are coming up, as are the Daffodils.  The Camellia is in full bloom and we're eating lovely fresh peas from the garden.  Definitely can't complain about that.

Home Again, Home Again ...

Two doctor visits, one shot, one clear check-up, oh Melisandre you surprised me, I thought for sure you'd grab that liquid nitrogen and burn away, but you said I was good for 6 months----YEAH!
In between those two appointments we visited the wonderful world of Wally, also known as Walmart. Needed a little of this, a bit of that and some of the other.  I have to say though, that if Wally were not so cheap I'd shop elsewhere cause it's a bit of a creepy place, no one seems to be happy to be there, customers, clerks, anyone.
Another beautiful day though they're threatening us with colder weather by the weekend, guess I can't complain, the 70's are lovely, but the 50's are what it should be for January.

Love the Weather

It was 80 here yesterday and they're promising more of the same for today.  It's just beautiful, but I worry about plants budding out too soon and then us having a frost.
Received these beautiful roses from our daughter this week and the little Teddy from my husband, more about that later this week.
Really enjoyed the football yesterday, and not withstanding the fact that we like Peyton Manning, we hate Denver,  and were pleased to see them lose to Baltimore, our daughter's favorite team.  Also enjoyed the San Francisco/Green Bay game, hope today's games are as good.
Lots of Doctor appointments this week--Melisandre and her liquid fire, B-12 shot and other stuff.
I think I'll go outside for awhile and just enjoy,

Vintage or Antique?

I shop online a bit, Etsy being one of my favorite places and I find myself shaking my head at what some people consider vintage or antique.  Vintage in particular seems to have a different meaning everywhere you go.  Some folks are saying that items 7 years old or older are vintage and items 50 years or older are antique.  Others use vintage with the year: vintage 1973 or vintage 1980.
Well I beg to differ, I've always been told that vintage means at least 35 years old, otherwise it's just "used".
As for antique,  I use the U.S. government definition.  They say that for Customs purposes an item must be at least 100 years old to be considered Antique, and if it is, then it can be imported duty free.  We do most of our antique shopping in England and I'm careful about buying real antiques.

So Vintage = 35 years old or older

Antique = 100 years old or older

That means  I'm Vintage, but not quite Antique.

Too Much Work and No Play

I think I have House Maid's Knee from crawling around cleaning the stairs.  I'd much rather have tendonitis from playing too much piano or carpel tunnel syndrome from crocheting too much.  Unfortunately it's the stairs that need the most work and I'm not through yet.  I crawled around with a stiff brush sweeping as much gunk  off and out of them as I could, now I need to go back and spot clean them.
In my next life I want to be a cat, ours spent the morning having breakfast, playing with her tree stump and cuddling up with her tiger thingy next to a heater.
Come to think of it most of the gunk in/on the stairs was cat hair, maybe she should be cleaning them instead of me.

Don't I Wish!

Rainy Sunday

Cold, wet Sunday here, I've been  standing by the fireplace to thaw out after  sitting and crocheting = I'd reached the point where I could no longer feel my feet.  I'm crocheting on something that was supposed to be a Christmas present for 2012, but unless I crochet a bit faster it may not make it as a 2013 present.

We've been watching the NFL playoffs and I have to say, that as much as I like football, and I do like it, these games have been incredibly boring. They'll be hard pressed for highlights to natter about at half time, it was more low lights than anything.

I'm making Chicken Cordon Bleu for Sunday lunch, I don't have any regular ham, but Mac got some prosciutto for Christmas and he says I can use that.  That's a bit saltier than regular ham, I wonder if washing it off would help.  I don't use much salt, almost never put in any when I'm cooking, just let everyone salt to their own taste.

Downton Abbey III starts tonight, can't wait.  We watch very little regular tv and so I really look forward to something like this.  Season II wasn't quite as good as season I, but I hear season III is better.

Miss Kitty's Christmas

The Tiger Thingy

Miss Kitty had a good Christmas, she was a good girl this year, well, as good as a cat can be--I mean she's not a dog and definitely has a mind of her own. So Santa brought her 2 presents, one she tried to break into before Christmas and the other was in a box that she didn't realize was for her.
On Christmas morning we let her break into the first one and she liked it, a tiger print I know not what with a bushy tail and it's stuffed with catnip.  She rubbed herself all over it and fell contentedly to sleep.  Two weeks after Christmas she still rubs it a bit,  she likes it, but she doesn't love it.

The second present is a small tree stump with a mouse hanging inside it and when you push the button a mouse tail randomly comes out of 3 different openings on the bottom and wags itself. This she LOVES, we hear her playing with it at all hours of the day and night, we've never seen her enjoy a toy so much.  She grabs the tail, shakes the stump and pokes the mouse.  The mouse makes a very high pitched squeak when you poke it, Kitty can hear it and so can I, but Mac says he can't, so it must be a girl-level squeak.

Tree Stump With Mouse
Note Tail at Bottom

If this toy dies it will definitely have to be replaced.

Winter Header

My new header is temporary, Mac is painting me a new one for winter.  He's not at all pleased with how the picture of this one turned out, too faded he thought, the flash from one camera washed it out more and the finish he put on it made it very shiny.  But I like it, a typical English bridge on a snowy day, it's supposed to look a bit washed out.

Well we didn't fall off any cliffs last night, though it looked like some wanted to push us over--just to see how hard we'd land I guess.  But never fear, the media assures us there are more cliffs ahead that Congress can play chicken with---are we having fun yet?

Seven coaches and five general managers fired in the NFL this week, anyone looking for a job?  Definitely a few openings.  I'm a little more proactive, I don't believe my coach is to blame for the fact that the team can't, run, block, pass, catch or score touchdowns.  The Oakland Raiders were worse than pathetic this year, but instead of firing the coach I hope the owner fires the team and hires a bunch of new players.

I cleaned glass shelves in two display cases today, that's so much fun, now all the shelves and the backing mirrors are nice and streaky, but clean streaky.  I didn't do the shelves on the dining room china cabinet because I can remember cleaning it and if a job like that is in living memory then I don't need to do it for awhile.

Good Luck in 2013

   To ensure good luck in 2013 I'm cooking a pot of black-eyed peas and ham hocks.  They've been bubbling away while I cleaned out my receipt box.  Anything before 2012 was put in the burn bag, all utility bills went in, I figure that if I still have lights, water and tv everyone received their money last year.  Credit card bill were categorized so Mac can find what he needs for taxes, all Social Security and medical papers were brought up to date and bank statements put in order.  The box weighs about half of what it did before the purge.
We had a quiet night last night rewatching Sherlock Holmes, the first one.  Really like that one this was about our third time watching it, whoever did the set design did an incredible job and we really like Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, they  play off of each other so well.

While flying around the web I found an article  about overused words and phrases that many feel  need to be thrown out this year and they include:

•   •“to be honest with you” or “honestly” 
•   •“I ain’t gonna lie” 
•   •“I mean” [at beginning of sentence]
•   •“no problem” [when used instead of "you're welcome"]
•   •“basically”
•   • ªbring it” or “game on”
•   •“step up your
•   •“absolutely” [instead of just saying "yes"]
•   •“singing Kumbaya”
•   •“at the end of the day”
•   •“it is what it is”
•   •“throwing [someone] under the bus”
•   •“how ya doin’”
•   •“I have your back” or “you have my back”.
•   •“I don’t have a dog in this fight”

Dishonorable mention:

• millionaires and billionaires
• tax cuts for the rich
• fiscal cliff
• 
  

I'd like to add "unbelieveable"  when used to describe something that is quite believable.  Pigs flying is unbelievable, baseball players making a catch is believable.

Have any you want to throw out?