Housebound!

First off, though.... Tori was SOOO sweet and gave me THIS on Monday!

Thank you Tori!!! How lovely to be a recipient of this. Esp. as I feel I've been such a BAD blogger lately, not posting nearly often enough.

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I've been pretty well house-bound all week, and it's driving me nuts! That cold I mentioned last week??? Well I saw the Dr. on Monday morning and she diagnosed that I've got Bronchitis born of a sore-throat-bacteria AND seasonal allergies. Apparently the bacteria that's causing the sore-thoat didn't END with the sore throat for me. The infection moved down into my lungs, and mixed with some post-nasal-drip issues from my allergies, and I've got some fluid in my lungs. So, she gave me antibiotics to fight the infection, an Albuterol inhaler for the fact that I couldn't/can't catch a full breath, some codein-laced cough syrup for the sore throat (and to calm my body so that it's not coughing so much), and told me to pick up a 30 day supply of a "leading over-the-counter allergy medication" who's "name" I won't utter here. Suffice it to say, she sent me away with a pocket full of prescriptions and instructions to get back to her if I wasn't feeling better in a few days time.

By Thursday morning, I wasn't feeling ANY better, even actually a bit worse. So I called. Twice. Left two messages on the voicemail with her assistant. No return call. *sigh* The assistant FINALLY got back to me this morning and when I'd described for her my increased difficulty with the coughing and breathing, she said she'd call another prescription out to the pharmacy for me. Turns out it's a course of even STRONGER steroids to try to assist my lungs in their job of expelling the fluid still in them. I'm to take this through the weekend, and get back to her Monday if I'm still not feeling better. As it is, I'm pretty miserable. I've had so little energy that I've been sitting here at the computer, or in front of the TV, almost non-stop for the past week.

What I've WANTED to be doing is gardening!!!! I SHOULD be getting my flower bed dug and planted! That ACTUALLY should have happened last weekend, but it didn't because I've been feeling so poorly. And Scott isn't highly inclined to get out there and shovel and dig for me. *sigh* Even if he was, there's still an expense of energy on my part in the raking out (because he cannot rake evenly!) and the planting of seeds.

These three pots are pretty well the extent of my gardening over the past couple of weeks. I did find just a TOUCH of energy to do a bit today, but I'll post that little bit more on my Independence Day update on Sunday.

These three pots consist of 1 pot with two hyacinth bulbs (there in front); 1 pot with 3 basil seedlings (to the left in back); and the final pot which contains 1 pepper seedling and 2 lettuce seedlings. (Neither of the lettuce seedlings look like they're going to surivive. Darn it! The pepper seedling is from those pepper seeds that I saved this past winter.)

Here is a close-up of the two lettuce seedlings and the pepper seedling. I planted 2 more lettuce seeds around the other side of the pot today. We'll see if they do any better than these two have.

And here is a close-up of my basil seedlings. These came from a friend/coworker of mine whom much appreciated the pepper seeds I passed on to her, and decided to pass some basil seedlings on to me. I've never grown basil before! I look forward to trying it in cooking!

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What DID happen this week that was exciting????

I got new dishware!!! My old dishes were purchased just after my HS graduation, before Tay was born. It's the only set I've bought for use, before now. I'd broken at least 1 salad plate and at least 1 dinner plate, I think even a bowl. And I never kept the mugs from that set because they were highly impractical. What I hadn't broken outright, had chips and cracks in it. It was simply time for a new set. It has long irked me, people who go out and buy new dishware every year or two just because they want a change. Well bully for them!!! What a waste!!!! (MIL is one of these people. She simply tosses her set into the trash, or has FIL take it to the dump when she upgrades.) But, there DOES come a time when it is pretty well a done deal that new dishware is needed. But I hope that this set lasts me at least as long as my previous set did.

This set, I didn't actually buy. Scott bought it for me, but only after I'd done extensive searching online for a set that I liked the appearance of. He went out looking for something that resembled what I was wanting and found this. I DO like it!!! Unfortunately the picture with the bowl (was more of a side view) didn't make it through my editing process. (The computer wouldn't save it for some reason, and therefor it got deleted from the picture editing software.) Anyway, the dishes are FABULOUSLY heavy!!! Not "fine china" but more pottery style. They've also got this rather faint speckling to them that's not really visible in this picture.

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I did get outside and get some pictures to share with you, though!!! Tay had Jenny out playing fetch. (This was AFTER she took Puck for a good long walk. Jenny prefers playing fetch, but Puck prefers walking around the neighbourhood sedately smelling and peeing on every tree, bush and blade of grass he can find.) So, I decided to go out and take some pictures to share.

What are you doing, Mom?!?!?!

(Tori, Tay's standing in the frame, holding the green tennis ball, and Jenny's just looking at the ball, waiting for Tay to throw the darned thing already. Tay was actually asking what I was doing, as I took this picture.)

"Here she comes to save the day!!!!!" (Sorry, "Mighty Mouse" theme going through my head!)

(Tori: just trying to show some pics of how fast and sleek Jenny is when she's playing fetch. I really wish I could describe these better for ya. But man..... Really she's a white blur, all I did was catch what I could on "film". Her long white tail streaking out behind her; long legs galloping underneath..... Almost resembles a horse when she runs.)

"Gosh I love it when they throw that ball for me!!!"

(Tori, she's almost got a smile as she turns back toward us in this pic. It's funny, because when she's playing ball, Jenny really does look like she's smiling and having fun. This pic is pretty funny because only her back, left leg is on the ground, the rest of her legs are off the ground a little bit as she comes down from a stride.)

"I'm gonna get it, I tell ya!!!!! I'm not gonna let it outta my sight!"

(Tori, this is a photo taken as Jenny attempts to leap and catch the ball out of the air. In the background is the neighbour's house, as Tay bounced the ball up into their yard. Jenny is kinda squatting and ready to pounce up and GRAB that ball out of the air. AND SHE DOES, TOO!!!)

"I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it...."

(The ball is there in the neighbour's yard, this is Jenny racing down the road toward the ball.)

What is this??? Some new kind of dance??? Nope!!! It's Tay kicking the ball for Jenny. And Jenny, apparently hasn't caught on yet that the ball is already airborn.

(Tori, Tay is in an odd pose in this pic. Left foot on the ground, leg straight. Right foot in a kicking position, about stomach-level. Left arm in the air above her head, and right arm balancing her at about waist level. Jenny is ears-forward, tail curled up over her back, almost looking ready to pounce.)

"Ooooooh, what fun it is to run all out.... Breeze in my fur, tail flying behind me!!!!"

(Tori, Another pic of Jenny at an all-out gallop up the street toward us again after she's caught her ball.)

"Am I PRETTY or what?!?!?!"

(Side-view of Jenny, holding her ball in her mouth, tail wagging..... She's been having a blast.)

"That's enough Mom..... I'm done. You can turn off the camera for now!"

(She was rather worn out by the time I even STARTED taking pics, as it took me forever to figure out how to change the setting to the sports-activity photography setting. So, she's lying down here in the grass, away from me, ignoring me even though I kept trying to get her attention. She just wanted to be left along to rest a spell. Of course, the fact that she was done playing fetch doesn't mean she gave up that ball. She's still guarding it even though she wasn't running after it any more. We went in a few minutes later.)

I hope y'all enjoy the pics. I don't often think to grab my camera and take pics while Jenny's out playing fetch, and even on the rare occasions I do, I never seem to get the picture settings accurate in time to get some photos.

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The weather cooled down a bit this past week. Temps haven't been back up into the 70's and sunny and clear since last Saturday. It's been overcast and cold, or partly cloudy and kinda muggy, all week. A good bit of breeze blowing too. That breeze has Scott worried, as we don't now have snow anchoring our car-sheds in to keep the wind from blowing them about. Not that I wish we DID still have snow. I'm glad we don't. BUT, I also wish the wind would quit blowing.

As for the rest, It's not that I mind terribly that it's been a bit overcast. It makes it easier for me to not hate being so sick, when the weather is kinda yucky as well. BUT, I DO wish it would actually rain a bit. I mean, I don't want the non-stop rain like we had last July and August, but every few days, a good soaking rain wouldn't go unappreciate. Well, maybe unappreciated by some, but not by those of us who'd like to have rain to water our gardens.

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Speaking of rain being unappreciated though..... I hear that the overflowing Chena, Tanana, and Yukon Rivers made national news. A small town to the East of us, Eagle, was pretty well wiped off the map when the Yukon overflowed. Apparently the river level was 20 feet above it's norm. *shaking head* I can appreciate sometimes why folks build along rivers, but at other times it makes me wonder at the idiocy. Then again, the Chatanika river has also been terribly high, according to our neighbours Jim & Teresa. They were out at their cabin along the Chatanika this past week, and said that the water was about 8 inches from breaching the flooring of their cabin. Said they lost 5 big spruce trees and 20+ feet of ground to the river.

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Ok, a bit of a primer on how to pronounce these river names!

Chena: chee-na (chee as in "cheese")

Tanana: ta-na-na (the first a sounds like "apple", the second a sounds like the u in "ugly", the third a sounds like "awful")

Yukon: you con

Chatanika: chat a neeka (that second "a" also has the "u as in ugly" sound; the "neeka" is Knee like the body part, k, then "u" as in ugly)

Oh, and for the record, don't EVER pronounce "Valdez" with a short "e" It's a LONG EEEE sound. Very hard "e" sound. Val DEEZ And "Prudhoe Bay" is pronounced "pru" like "prudent" and "dough" as in bread dough.

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Last but not least, PETER, you'd asked me for an "Alaskan Pollock" recipe. I'm pretty sure that pollock is a fish, but I don't think I've ever eaten it. Is there anything you can compare it to??? Is it like whiting, or cod or tilapia??? If I have something to compare it to, I may be able to provide some recipes. But I know for a fact I've never seen "pollock" in the grocery store bins. If it's anything like either of these other 3 fish, I'm sure any recipe that I would use for them could easily be used for pollock as well. I'll look around, see if I can find any ideas.

Have a Blessed Day!