Sunday, July 14, 2013

THE WEEK IN REVIEW...

This week has flown by in misty blur.  We have had rain, on top of Rain, on top of RAIN...accompanied by ridiculously high temperatures.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the cool day of the coming week.  Round about Wednesday we could have real-feel temps around 104-105 F.  That is unheard of in this area!  To make it worse, it will likely be a muggy heat too, not the beautiful dry heat of the Southwestern part of our country.  This hot and muggy weather has even led to some tornado warnings in our area!

This hasn't been a particularly good week for me health-wise.  After a three day bout of Trigeminal Neuralgia (someone please numb me from the neck up!) I finally got relief from the TN only to be hit with a day long migraine!  I went to my family physician for a routine check up yesterday and told him I have also been having more "all over" pain this past week...without even starting any weaning of my medication (that starts in 2 weeks and I am DREADING it)!  My doctor wisely pointed out our horrendously hot and muggy weather and commented that many of his patients with rheumatologic disorders have been having a particularly hard time of it this week.  Well....DUH...I made the connection between my pain and the weather over a year ago.  I will blame my memory blip on my Fibro fog, lol. 



I have accomplished a few things this past week.  Remember the doodling I mentioned in my last post?  Well, I finished my "doodle", scanned it into my computer and printed it onto some light gray cotton.  I have decided to use it as the centerpiece of a new pillow...sewn with the super fun fabrics of "Happy Go Lucky" from Moda.  Making things even better, a few weeks ago my Dear Hubby threw out a shirt that was wearing out a bit in the cuffs.  I rescued it from the trashcan and just discovered that it is a perfect match to the green and navy in the "Happy Go Lucky" charm pack.  I think the front placket of the shirt will make an adorable back for the pillow.   Dang, I just noticed that the interfacing I used is wrinkled from folding the cotton.  I sure hope it irons out eventually!


My hope is to embroider the design, although I know it is going to take a very, VERY long time working in teeny "steady hand" chunks.  So yesterday I went to JoAnn's and bought a few skeins of embroidery floss in bright and happy colors...red, yellow, orange, green, gray, navy, and aqua.  They were so bright and cheery that I smiled all the way home from the store! 


When I began having problems doing hand sewing I gave away all of my embroidery supplies.  I was going to buy cards to wind my new floss onto and then thought I would look and see if my new Sizzix Big Shot could supply me with something suitable at no further cost.  The Sizzix is my birthday present from Dear Hubby, but he insisted that I begin using it now rather than waiting a month for my birthday.  Cutting shapes with scissors is really problematic sometimes so he wants me to take advantage of the Big Shot.   



I found just what I needed!  My Big Shot came with a free assortment of dies and embossing plates.  I found the PERFECT frame die in the bundle of accessories.  So I tried out my Big Shot to make sure it works (I can now throw away the shipping box) and I made myself cute little embroidery floss cards in the process! See!  Aren't they cute?  I just wish there was a way to have the Sizzix cut the little slits for starting and ending the winding.  Trying to cut those were the PITS.  I had to squeeze my arms against my sides and press my arms on the tabletop to steady myself enough to cut just those little slits.  Phooey!  My tremor has been really BAD this week; typing and texting has been rife with wrong letters and double strikes.  It just KILLS the transcriptionist in me!  To think I used to type 130 words per minute with 98% accuracy.......ugh......those days are definitely GONE.




In better news, a few days ago I was reading the blog, "Jenny of Elefantz" (fabulous blog by the way!).  In one of her posts she mentioned a delicious Irish Tea Bread that she had found on another blog.  So I followed the link and printed out a copy.  On Thursday night I started the raisins and sugar (I reduced it by about a third) soaking in the tea.  Friday morning I only needed to add some flour and one egg and pour the batter into my cast iron bread pans and bake. 



I hate to admit it, but by last night one whole loaf was gone.  Even Dear Hubby liked it!  In all honesty I probably should have only used one pan instead of two as it made rather short loaves.  But, it was FABULOUS. 



I had a piece of the second loaf this morning with my coffee.  The recipe said that the bread gets even better the longer it sits.  Oh yea....it was even yummier this morning!  I am going to try to eat just a skinny little slice with my coffee every morning to try to see at which point "post baking" it reaches its peak taste.  Do we think it will last that long?  Hehehe...I doubt it!  The next time I make it I am going to reduce the sugar even further and maybe even cut back a bit on the raisins.  I have found that most recipes can be adjusted quite a bit before it starts to mess up the end result. 



The other big news around here is that I have gotten my half of our anniversary gift...an IPAD!  I have wanted one that I can use when I am out and about, or when I'm waiting in doctor's offices, etc., and on our vacation every year.  I have been using a Netbook that Dear Hubby won a few years back, but it is not working properly and has a mind of its own...usually losing whatever I am typing or reading!  As it was a very inexpensive, very low end model (hey, what did I expect it was a door prize!) I can't say it owes me one penny.  I have used it long and hard for quite a few years and it has earned its retirement.  Dear Hubby will also be getting some type of tablet for his half of our anniversary gift.  However, as he wants to use his for doing work on our vacations (yes he works every day we are away, lol) and for traveling to the UK for work, he has to wait until the IT Department tells him the exact specs he needs.  They are doing a lot of upgrades and he doesn't want to buy his anniversary gift and then find out it isn't compatible with the specs.  

So, that is my week in a nutshell.  I am sure there are a few other "happenings" that I have forgotten to mention.  Knowing how bad my memory can be, I had intended to keep a running list of things I wanted to tell you.  But, thanks to my lousy memory I forgot to start the list, lol.  Oh well, no big loss.  It's not like I hit the lottery and forgot to mention it!



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