Out and about

I didn't sleep fantastic last night since I'd taken a late, long nap thinking I was going to work the night shift at work. Last I remember, I was still looking at the clock at 2:00 am. Since we woke up at a decent time this morning, around 8:30, we decided to go to our favorite breakfast place, The Waffle House, for breakfast.
Poached eggs, hashbrowns and a giant fluffy waffle. Yum. After we got home I skedaddled over to Kohls to use my $10 off coupon and found two cute sweaters on clearance that came to a grand total of $15.
I love Kohls, they have the best deals.

Even though it was cold and snowy yesterday, it's bright sunshine and clear skies today. Even all the plants think it's spring.
Now it just needs to warm up enough for us to be outside to enjoy it.

Dreading "The Call"

Well it's official, I've been called in to work the Emergency Operation Center up in p-town. I really can't be surprised since I'm the call center supervisor, but I was really hoping the snow wouldn't be that bad. I'm on night shift (7pm - 7 am) since that's the hardest to fill with volunteers. But it's overtime pay, so I'm not complaining that much. The hardest part will be forcing myself to nap this afternoon so that I can pull an all-nighter. Got to remember to pack some puzzle books since the phones are pretty quiet overnight. And bring some food since the night shift does not get fed like the day shift. Weasels!

**Later edit: Right after I woke up from an hour and a half nap at 4:30 pm, I got a call from work saying that they were going to try to close down the EOC after the day shift ends and I didn't need to come in after all. Too late - now I'm going to be up all night no matter what!

A different kind of soup

Mmmm....tasty bandage soup.
When I had my bandages replaced yesterday morning my therapist sent me home with the used ones to wash and hang dry for Friday's bandage change. And for the $111 I had to pay the hospital for all six of my ace bandages, there's no way I'm throwing these out for new ones!

So far so good with therapy. Yesterday she taught me how to do the lymphatic massages myself and I have a series of them I'm supposed to do at least once a day. The only difficulty I've had was the first night in bandages was so extremely painful on my foot that by 2:00 a.m. I retreated to the couch so I could prop my foot up until the foot fell asleep and quit aching so bad. I got no sleep and was absolutely miserable. But after I explained what happened at my next session she made sure to add more padding to the front of my ankle and wrapped the bandages a little looser. Last night I slept with my foot on one pillow and it was perfect. Not a peep out of it all night.

Today we're expecting snow up in p-town again. In fact they had me set up the call center for Emergency Operations Center last thing yesterday just in case 17 feet of snow drops today. Highly unlikely, but certain staff members are so excitable about such things that they just go crazy with ordering plows and scheduling all staff members on active emergency duty. As soon as it's 5:00 pm I'll be running out the doors before they try to make me stay to man the call center!

Bionic foot

Today was my first day of physical therapy for my fat foot. Chris went with me to be a second set of eyes and ears about what kind of exercises and massages I'm supposed to be doing. My therapist started by having me lay down on the exam table and starting at my neck, started massaging areas where lymph nodes were. Neck, armpits, stomach, upper thigh, behind the knees, and then she also spent time actually massaging my scar tissue on the inner thigh before moving to my calf and foot. She would push upward, slowly and methodically and then start massaging the lymph nodes at the upper thigh to keep the fluid moving. When she was done it was time to mummify my foot in seven layers of bandages.
A cotton stocking went on first and then a layer of stretchy bandages followed by a thick padding and finally encased in ace bandages.
I get to wear a sweet little hospital bootie to cover my toes and keep my bandages clean when not wearing my super chic velcro walking shoe. The best part being that the $75 cast boot I bought was the wrong one and the medical supply store will not take back and/or refund those items once sold due to chance of infection. Thankfully the therapist let me use an extra walking shoe she had in the office so I wouldn't have to go buy another one.

I go back in the morning for my next session where she'll take off my bandages and do all the massages again. In the mean time, I can't get it wet or take off the bandages, but I can exercise in it and in fact she wants me to constantly be working that leg. Anything that makes the calf muscle work will help move fluids out of my foot. I can't wait to see my sleeker, skinnier foot in the morning!

Small town celebrity

Don't hold it against us, but we've been intermittently watching The Bachelor this season because a local girl from Chico is on it. She's part of the Newton-Bracewell families that own the funeral home in town and tonight was when The Bachelor, Brad, was visiting the hometowns and families of the final four girls. After Brad met her at the family mausoleum, they drove through downtown on the way to her folks' house.
He seemed seriously creeped out by her job as an embalmer and her family was quite distressed at the idea of her moving to Austin if he proposes since she was set to take over the family business. He didn't seemed as thrilled to visit her family as he was others, so I don't think the dad has to worry.

I didn't have to work today because it was a holiday, but Chris did so I spent my time at home working on church stuff. I have to go to the leadership meeting next Monday night so I need to get some end of year reports together.

Yesterday I went up to P-town to C.'s for a meeting of her close friends regarding her missionary training. She made us lunch and then gave us a thorough review of all the training they've been doing and what's next before they leave for North Carolina in July for the rest of the training until the end of the year. They'll come home for Christmas and then, assuming they have all the pledged funding in place, will ship out for Papua New Guinea in January for a 4 year stint. It's already almost March, so she'll be packing up to leave in no time. I try not to think about it because it makes me sad even though I'm sure she'll be having the time of her life.

Winter wonderland

It snowed today in Paradise;
This is out the front door at my work. It never stuck to the ground on the lower half of town, but the upper half had the plows running from 6:45 am until the end of the day. My favorite part of the day was listening to the scanner reports of all the retards who insisted on going out and sliding their cars into a ditches. We get snow every year, you'd think we'd be better at driving in it by now!

Catered by cupid

For Valentine's dinner I picked up a catered dinner for two from Bacio's catering (in the old Kramore Inn).
Gourmet crackers with a sun-dried tomato cheese spread (amazing!), salad with gorgonzola cheese, candied pecans and cranberries, french rolls, sauteed winter veggies, stuffed chicken and lemon orzo for me and tuscan flank steak and roasted red potatoes for the boy. Everything was cooked, it just needed to be heated up in the oven. Plus there was dessert;
Mini chocolate lava cakes with a raspberry custard. Add a little champagne and you've got yourself a pretty nice evening.
After dinner we watched The Town (with Ben Affleck) which Chris had redboxed for the evening. Though violent in parts, it was a really good movie. I had an excellent evening hanging out with my Valentine.

Valentine bandit

I'd taken the afternoon off today and when I got home I was greeted with this little surprise on my side of the couch;
Awwww...the Valentine Bandit struck again!

Valentine truffles

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day I made some Valentine treats to take to work tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago this recipe caught my attention and I saved it for just this occasion. First I combined natural chunky peanut butter with some butter, melted butterscotch chips, sugar, salt and chow mein noodles. Then I rolled them into little balls and placed them in the freezer on a cookie sheet for about 40 minutes. While they froze I chopped up some bittersweet chocolate to melt for the coating.
After the truffles were rolled in chocolate they were placed back in the fridge to harden while we ran off to Oroville for lunch. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I was putting them in the fridge that I realized I'd forgotten to put on the heart shaped candy toppings I'd bought. And by then, most of the chocolate had hardened too much to stick them on. Grrrrr!!!!
The Canadian did a quality control test and declared them deliciously edible. I wish I'd rolled them a bit smaller so they fit in the mini cupcake liners better, but I don't think that'll stop people from eating them!

Eatin' good in the 'ville

For a late lunch today we cruised over to Oroville to try out the new brewery at Feather Falls Casino. It was easy to locate right outside the main entrance to the casino with it's own entryway.
We asked for a seat outside under the veranda you see there by the front doors. I'd already studied the menu online so I knew exactly what I wanted and the boy was easy as long as he got his sampler.
The sampler was served in the cutest little 4 oz slim mugs and came with a guide that described each of the seven brews. Our lunch quickly arrived and we were served our seafood tacos (grilled halibut, salmon, lobster and shrimp) and salmon club sandwich with garlic fries.
The food was ridiculously delicious and incredibly cheap. The best seafood tacos we've ever had. And the beer wasn't bad either! Chris thoroughly enjoyed the sampler and was especially impressed with the hefeweisen and the dark ale.
We were already listing off all the people we wanted to take there so I know we're going back again. And hopefully sooner rather than later.

Knock knock

Who's there?

Two little girls with a wagon full of....
Girl Scout cookies! I could only scrounge up enough money for one box and unfortunately they were already out of Thin Mints so Tagalongs (Hoe Downs to us old school Girl Scouts) were my second choice. Only because the Canadian hates coconut so I couldn't pick the magically delicious Samoas (aka Jubilees). For $4 a box these had better be the best freaking cookies I eat all year!

Knowing that I would soon be immobilized with my cast boot I decided I'd better get out and start doing my bunko prize shopping asap. So I spent a couple of hours this afternoon elbowing my way through the crowds of slow moving college kids downtown and was rewarded with three of my five prizes.
I found a necklace and earring rack for my $20 gift, a super cute bathtub shaped soap dish from Christian & Johnson (gift wrapped in the pretty red paper) and a scented bar of soap from Made in Chico to go with it for the $15 gift, and a reusable shopping bag from Bird in Hand for one of the $10 gifts. I just need another $10 and $5 gift. We're going to B&N tonight so I'm going to run next door to Michael's and look there for stuff too.

I also stopped by Target and picked up a new Valentine's shirt for this year. Kari and I always wear our holiday shirts to work, but I don't like my old Valentine's shirt so a new one was in order.
Long sleeve black with bling. It will go nicely with my conversation heart earrings. Go ahead and be jealous of my holiday cuteness, I'll wait.

Big plans for tomorrow involve a trip to O'ville for lunch at the new brewery at Feather Falls Casino. They finally got their licensing in order to serve their own microbrews and have a sampler platter of the seven brews that Chris is excited to try. After that kind of commute I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Foot Therapy

I had my first appointment with Enloe's lymphedema clinic Thursday morning to examine my fatty foot and ankle. The nice therapist lady poked and measured and determined that indeed, my right foot and calf are larger than my left. The edema seems to be mainly in my foot so through a couple of weeks of scheduled therapy sessions we're going to try to get everything back to normal. Starting on the 22nd I'll go back three times a week for her to wrap my foot and calf in bandages over which I'll be wearing a big-ass cast boot. The point of which is to dissipate the swelling and then fit me for a thigh-high compression stocking to wear until the swelling stops. She'll also be doing massage on my foot and teaching me how to do it myself in case this turns out to be a chronic issue I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life. Unfortunately she explained that there's a chance that some of my lymph nodes were inadvertently removed during surgery and the swelling could be permanent. I truly think it'll get better so I'm not too worried about it.

Other big excitement for the week was winning the least wins at bunko Wednesday night. It scored me a soft and cuddly polka dot blanket.
Next month is my turn to host so I've $60 burning a hole in my pocket for my party gifts. I should go out and get those before I'm trying to hobble around in a cast boot. And shamrock stickers for our score cards are a must!

Patiently waiting

We are on Superbowl countdown over here;
Bacon wrapped little smokies and buffalo chicken stuffed crescent rolls are prepped and drinks are poured. Now if we could only fast-forward an hour to game time....

74 degrees and windy

A beautiful, beautiful day today - 74 sunny degrees with a hair-raising 50 mph wind factor. Not that I was enjoying it though, too busy paying church bills;
and doing dishes;
But I did get a good view of the sunset while making dinner;
Now we're just kicking back watching some boob tube while I look through my mounds of magazines and books. In particular, the new Seattle travel book we picked up last night at B&N;
It's the same book we got for Chicago and Washington D.C. I like the way the sections are broken down and the good information it gives on attractions. Plus they come with maps. What a deal! Unfortunately they didn't have a similar one for Victoria B.C. so we're going to have to stick with the travel guides the tourism center sent us. And best of all, they were free.

Catching up

Whoa! How did it go a whole week without me blogging? Bad Susana. Here's my week in photos:

Monday - Spent an hour in the afternoon at the e-waste recycling facility emptying 27 boxes of old tape cassettes from town council meetings in the '80s. Ah, the glamorous life of a recycling coordinator.
Tuesday - We took advantage of all day matinee prices to go to the movies to see the 8:00 pm showing of The Mechanic (with Jason Statham). Yes he took his shirt off and yes it was glorious. I went dressed in sweat pants and the Canadian wore his slippers. We always dress up fancy when we 'go to town'.
Wednesday - Blood donor day at the veteran's hall. What kind of awesome freebies were they giving out this time?? Absolutely nothing. I didn't even get a free ice cream coupon. WTF?? And there was hardly anybody there to donate which is highly unusual. After asking where everybody was I found out that there had been a special mobile event the week before at the local movie theater where they were giving out free movie coupons. What?? Why did nobody call and tell me? Just for that, I ate TWO snacks at the snack table. That'll show them!
Thursday - Got my new pedometer in the mail. I promise I will not drop this one in a gas station restroom toilet.
Friday - Caught an awesome sunrise on the way up the hill this morning at 6:45 am. Took the photo with one hand while eating a breakfast wrap from Starbucks in the other hand. That's driving talent! When the Canadian gets home tonight we're going to walk the couple of block over to Burger Hut for dinner and then spend some time at Barnes & Noble before doing grocery shopping. Since I'm still doing my treasury training on Friday afternoons I haven't been able to get my shopping done on time.
The big plan for the weekend of course is of course watching the super bowl and cheering for the Packers and Aaron Rodgers. I can only imagine the partying that will go down in the city if he wins!