Game changer

I took today off from work. I had a mid-morning appointment with my allergist, Dr. Stone, and I have loads of paid time off I can use. My appointment was just a follow up to check on my progress with the Dupixent injections. I was so excited to show him how great my skin looks! These shots have been a total game changer for my severe eczema. The skin on my ankles and feet hasn't been this clear (and itch free) in over 20 years!

There's still quite a bit of discoloration on the skin, which Dr. Stone thinks will gradually fade over the next 6 months or so. You can really see it in certain lights, like in this next photo:

I don't care about the lingering redness one bit, though. The skin is smooth, cool, and soft. It's not broken and bleeding from scratching anymore, and the terrible itching has stopped pretty much completely. I can't begin to tell you how much this has improved my quality of life!

 Bless the doctor for being persistent in getting my insurance to cover the cost for this medicine. I'm beyond grateful.

Miscellany

Is it just me, or did January seem like the longest month ever? It seems like New Year's Day was months ago rather than mere weeks. 

Gregg finished his five rounds of radiation early in the month. It was much easier than he was afraid it would be and the few side effects he's had have been relatively minor. We won't know how successful it was until March, when he's scheduled for a CT scan and follow up appointments. I hope that will be the end of this situation. It's been a constant nagging worry for months now. 

Plenty of other things were hard to deal with in January, of course the biggest was the return of the Trump to the White House. It's less than two weeks into his term and it's been utter chaos and flagrant cruelty in a non-stop barrage of evil (and mostly illegal) executive orders. It's been really hard to try to put all that aside and carry on with normal life, but for the sake of my mental health I've had to try. I know most of you understand.

It's going to be a long four years, friends. 

But enough about that. It's a new month in a still new year, and today the sun is shining and I'm at home. George and Poppy are always thrilled when they realize it's a weekend morning and I'm not leaving for work. They wrestled and played on the rug in front of me while I had my morning coffee earlier. Marco was on one of his big perches nearby, squawking and flapping his wings and obviously wanting to jump into the middle of the dogs' play fighting and participate. We have to keep a close eye on him to prevent that, because he doesn't have enough common sense to realize how badly that could go! The dogs wouldn't intentionally hurt him, but they play really rough with each other and get really wound up and fierce. Any normal bird wouldn't want any part of two "fighting" dogs, but Marco thinks it looks like fun! 

Speaking of life with Marco...this morning, while taking a shower, Gregg noticed a section of paint chewed off a corner at one end of the shower curtain rod. That's classic Marco business right there. Sometimes he likes to perch on the curtain rod while I shower so that I can give him a quick shower, too.  This isn't the first time he's chewed paint off that spot. We just (re)painted the bathroom last summer and tried to be diligent in keeping him away from that particular corner. I have no idea when or how he got away with it this time, and Gregg is PISSED. We have some extra leftover paint, and can touch up the area without too much trouble, but he's still pretty mad about it. Since he retired last spring, he's at home a lot more and gets pretty tired of dealing with Marco's bad behaviors day in and day out. 

In the linen closet the other day, refusing to come out. Incidentally, one of the outer corners of this closet is where he chewed off the paint. He's a real asshole sometimes.

In other exciting news, I started some tomato seeds last week and they've begun to sprout! Plans for the 2025 garden are well underway. This afternoon I want to start pepper seeds (I should have done this already) and I need to place a seed order soon. I plan to make a second, smaller raised bed this year so I can grow some extra vegetables. I'm afraid that produce prices are going to skyrocket this summer, and the more I can grow for us, the better. I'd also like to plant a lot more zinnia varieties this year, both for the pollinators and for the simple joy of bouquets in the house. I love cut flowers, and zinnias are so easy and cheerful!

Do you have any gardening plans this year?

Are you as glad as me that January is finally over? 

What are you up to this first weekend in February?

Answers on a postcard, please.

A coincidence, and a blast from the past

Last night I dreamed I was back in high school, and I was hanging out with my friend Trey. We were at the grocery store, picking out snacks because he was coming over to spend the night at my house. We were making plans to stay up late and watch scary movies. 

As soon as I woke up and took a shower, I sat down in front of my computer with a cup of coffee and opened up Facebook. And would you believe it? Trey had sent me a private message with a picture of the two of us in high school that he found recently! CRAZY.

Baby Trey and Baby Jennifer, circa 1989. We were freshmen in high school. 

We're still good friends all these years later. We met in kindergarten and now we're both on the verge of 50 years old. 

Snowy day

 

Overnight we got about 2-3 inches of snow. It's so pretty! Since our high temperature today is going to hover around the freezing mark, and tonight is supposed to be 13 degrees, I imagine it's going to stick around for a while. 

Prepared

It's 6am and 19 degrees outside. I'm drinking my second cup of coffee and preparing to don my heaviest sweater, coat, scarf, and hat and head out to work. Currently the only hazardous weather condition is the bitter cold, so we have school today. The winter storm warning doesn't take effect until early evening. I'm certain we won't have school tomorrow, and there's a chance we won't go back on Thursday, either. We'll see how it all shakes out.

We're well prepared for staying in and waiting out the weather. It's been a household goal of ours to keep the pantry, freezer, and household stores really well stocked up. The dogs and Marco have a month's worth of extra food on hand. We have several cases of bottled water on hand all the time. 

All that careful planning and preparing comes in handy when something like this winter weather is coming. I don't have to scramble and navigate crowds in stores. And in this circumstance, even if we lose power, we have gas logs to keep warm and a gas stove for cooking. We have plenty of flashlights and candles, too. I'm not worried.

I stayed away from social media and the news yesterday. I couldn't watch the travesty in DC and I don't have anything to say about it, really. Everyone knows how I feel and most of you feel the same way, I'm sure. We're just going to have to buckle in and get ready for the ride. 

So anyway, today I'm choosing to focus on the possibility of a rare winter snowfall. I have a feeling that the kids at school are going to be wild with excitement this morning at the prospect of snow. Good luck to my teacher friends trying to get anything done today!

Winter storm approaching

It looks like we're going to get some snow next week, as well as super cold temperatures lasting from Tuesday through Thursday. Some longer range forecasts are also predicting an ice storm next Friday night.

Need a laugh?

Gregg and I stumbled across this video on YouTube last night, and we laughed so hard tears streamed down our faces. 

Enjoy!

Twelth night book exchange

The holidays are well and truly over now. There are only one or two holdouts in the neighborhood as far as Christmas trees and lights, and what's left just looks...tired. It's back-to-work day for me, although I won't go in until noon because of conflict between the car situation and Gregg's appointment. I was able to sleep in a bit this morning and I still have some time to sip coffee and blog before heading out. A nice gentle way to return after more than two weeks off!

Yesterday afternoon I had my first and only visitor of the holiday season, my friend Martina. We've started a tradition over the past two or three years of exchanging books at Christmas. Normally we get together as close to Christmas Eve as possible (if not on Christmas Eve) but this year we both had a lot going on and couldn't manage it any sooner. 

It was nice to have something to look forward to on my last day off, though. Since any holiday treats were long gone, I went to the store and bought an assortment of cookies and a chocolate babka to serve, along with hot chai tea and iced tea. It was good see my friend and spend some time together, and the dogs were beside themselves with joy. They love Martina and all the attention she gives them. Marco likes her just fine, but since she occasionally helps me trim his nails (which he loathes) he always keeps a slightly wary eye on her! 

I'm really excited about the books I got! We both try to make sure our "want to read" lists on Goodreads are updated about a month prior to Christmas, and I like the two she picked for me this time. 

The first has gorgeous cover art.

And the other is a "slow building neo-Gothic" which sounds

 like something right up my alley.

A few loose ends

We're getting off to a cold start in this new year. For the whole first half of this month temperatures are predicted to be well below freezing almost every night, with some really intense cold starting in the middle of next week. Intense as in 20 degrees for a few nights, which is really cold for us. There's even talk of possible snow next weekend, but I'll believe that when I see it.

It looks like I may not start back to work until Tuesday. Gregg's radiation treatments (the two he's had so far) have been easy and he's able to drive himself home after, but he's got an appointment on Monday morning and we're sharing a car until late Monday afternoon. The oil light came on in Gregg's van on New Year's Eve and he took it to the shop yesterday. After diagnosing the problem(s) they told us it would take that long for them to get the work done. 

I'm supposed to spend part of the morning at a bookkeeper meeting across town (all staff have professional development on Monday) before returning to the school around 10:00, which is Gregg's appointment time. It just won't work out with one car, so I guess I'll have to use a personal day. I didn't come back immediately after last winter break, either, because my dad had died on New Year's Day. (I'm not liking this trend).

So, this is how the year is starting for us. The van repair is a real blow after a tough holiday season, because it's expensive. We knew when we bought a very late model van with a lot of miles that there would be repairs to deal with...but this first repair job is more than we spent on the car itself! The one consolation is that we'll get to write off the initial purchase as a business expense (Gregg uses the van for his aquarium gigs) on this year's taxes. And we're still better off repairing an old van than with a car payment! It is, after all, just used for hauling aquarium gear and as a second (backup) car.

I'm hoping next week we can tie up all these last bits of unfinished business from 2024 and then move forward. The van should be done on Monday afternoon, and next Friday will be Gregg's fifth and (hopefully) final radiation treatment. I'm hoping for at least a short period of smooth sailing after that! 

January 1st

Happy New Year everyone!

It's a crisp, blue-sky kind of day. I've got black-eyed peas simmering in a crockpot with the leftover bone from the Christmas ham, and we'll have some sort of greens to go along with them. I actually bought two nice bundles of collards, but if I decide to not bother with them today, I have some seasoned collard greens in a can I could heat up. It would certainly save time and effort. I also need to bake a couple of loaves of banana bread to use up some overripe bananas languishing on the kitchen counter. There's a container in the fridge with chopped pineapple leftover from the weekend, so it may end up being pineapple-banana bread. 

So for me today, I'm planning a little bit of cooking but not much else. I've also finally restarted a knitting project I began some years ago, and I may work on that for a little while. Gregg went out to clean aquariums at the nursing homes (so he won't get behind on them during his treatment). As for his treatment, yesterday was a bust. He got himself all nerved up to go have the first round, and when he got there found out he was mistaken about the day he starts. He actually starts tomorrow. That was a real letdown. He also woke up yesterday with a toothache, so as you can imagine, he's not having the best start to the new year. I told him we'll hold off for a few weeks and then have a small private New Year celebration. Maybe even that late winter/early spring weekend getaway we've been talking about...I have more time off coming at the end of February.

But for now, I'm off to stir the peas and then maybe take Miss Poppy for a nice long walk. George is asleep, so we'll let him snooze, and then later I'll take him out for his own (slower) walk. Georgie will be 12 years old this year and likes to take his time these days. He still loves his walks, though.

How the dogs spent New Year's Eve. I took both these photos shortly before midnight.

George went to his spot at the foot of the bed early on. He wasn't interested in staying up with us! Gregg went in and covered him up with one of his blankets. Look at that sweet boy!

Poppy stayed close by us in the living room, but it was past her bedtime, too. She slept like this until she got up to follow us to bed, finally. She's a good girl.