how about drinking?
Comments
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@reader425 The Peach sangria sounds wonderful, was it made by a restaurant or is it something I can buy somewhere?
Found this berry wine at a local HEB (Texas grocery store) and it’s very nice. Light, sweet and not boozy at all.
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Illinois that wine looks so refreshing 😍
The peach sangria was house made and served in a goofy looking glass shaped like a fierce warrior. I'll take a picture next time.
Carole hope today continued on the upswing for DH ( and you).
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Hubby likes his new job. It’s at a tech college and less stressful than the last college he worked at.
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I’m celebrating my birthday today. The family is meeting for pizza. Obviously we aren’t high end diners. Both gs and their wives will be there
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Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy TGIF day! I had a very lazy day yesterday, didn't feel really well, had a bit of a headache, but otherwise nothing specific. Decided to veg in the recliner, ended up taking a lovely nap, and woke up feeling a bit hungry. Felt much better after having a bite to eat. Last week Mom had a couple days of not feeling right, but nothing specific, I think her system was fighting off a bug and did so successfully, but in the process passed it on to me! It was really nice to be able to just sit and veg and not have to try to work through feeling off. One of the advantages of being retired, I guess! The puppers were sweet yesterday, always one or the other in my lap or on my feet.
Carole—sorry to hear about PT being paused and the drainage DH is experiencing. Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing concerning.
Ili—That berry wine looks amazing! I wonder if I can find that around here?
Reader—I can't wait to see the warrior glass pic! Sounds like a fun place to eat!
MOmmy—glad to hear DH likes the new job!
Absolute Stress Pineapple Version
ingredients
1 ounce malibu coconut rum
2 cranberries (fresh or frozen, for garnish)
1 ounce malibu coconut rum
1 ounce Absolut vodka
1 ounce Absolut vodka
1⁄2 ounce peach schnapps
1⁄2 ounce peach schnapps
2 ounces cranberry juice
2 ounces cranberry juice
1 ounce pineapple juice (can use less pineapple & more cranberry to taste)
1 ounce pineapple juice (can use less pineapple & more cranberry to taste)
2 cranberries (fresh or frozen, for garnish)
1 pineapple chunk (for garnish)
1 ounce pineapple juice (can use less pineapple & more cranberry to taste)
directions
- Combine rum, vodka & schnapps in a shaker that's half full of ice & shake till frosty.
- Pour into highball glass then add cranberry & pineapple juices.
- Garnish with fruit on cocktail pick & serve.
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wren, happy birthday 🎉
NM, maybe total wine or something similar might carry it.
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Happy Birthday, Wren! A pizza party with family sounds like my kind of celebration.
Total Wine is an amazing place. It carries Gilbey's gin, dh's favorite that he hasn't been able to buy anywhere else for a couple of years. It's not an expensive gin but he likes it better than more expensive gins. He makes his gin martinis so "dirty" that it's hard to imagine the gin mattering! LOL.
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Wren - chiming in with B-day wishes. I'm not far behind you.
Carole - I'm a true Total Wine dan. I drink Gordons, for every day. It's also not an expensive gin.
NM - hope you're totally recovered tomorrow. Yup - retirement is great.
m0mmy - great news that your DH likes his new job.
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Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Saturday! Still enjoying some really nice fall weather hear, I expect it will pass soon enough. I hear we're in the running for the warmest month of October in a very long time. I swear when I was a kid there was almost always snow on the ground by Halloween, lately we don't really see any snow until after Thanksgiving.
Illi/Carile—I looked up Total Wine. Nearest store is in Massachusetts, and they don't ship to Maine. There's a little wine and cheese shop nearby that has all kinds of wines from all kinds of places, I'll check with them, if they don't have it they will probably special order some for me. There's also a big warehouse type place I can check with that carries a lot of imported wines.
Minus—I seem to be totally recovered from whatever that was, thank you!
- Dirty Martini
ingredients
- 2 ounces gin (I prefer vodka)
- 2 ounce extra-dry vermouth
- 1⁄4 ounce olive juice
- 2 green olives
directions
- Mix all the ingredients (except the olive) in a coctail mixer with 2 ice cubes.
- Put it in a frozen martini glass and the olive on a wooden stick.
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NM, I went back an got blueberry and peach too, I’ll report on those next week 😁
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My house is QUIET!!! My DD#1 and GD left this morning after 12 days. DH just left with DD#2 to the airport (I don't drive at night) after an amazing 4 1/2 week visit. She starts her last year in school to be an Electrical Engineer on Wednesday. I will miss them. All the baby toys etc are put away till the next visit. For a few meals, all 3 kids were here- not often that all three are in the same place.
A full week of work for me - the first one since I went back to work October 1st after being off all of September. My foot is healing nicely. It is still a little swollen and I'm living in my Sauconys - bought a second pair, same style, different color. I'm back to walking, back to almost my normal pace.
Next up is cataract surgery on November 14 and 21st.
Hope everyone is doing well. I haven't read back.
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Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Monday Monkey Day! Bit of exciting Sunday here yesterday. Miss Zoe had an encounter with a porcupine and came out the loser. Spent all morning and into the afternoon at the emergency vet. Sedation and quill pulling, antibioitcs and pain meds and $900 later and we were back home and except for the spot on her cheek she's no worse for wear. She did sleep hard last night, though.
Before:
After:
Illi—can't wait to hear your report on the blueberry and peach wines!
Karen—I imagine your house is very quiet in comparison to recent times! So glad to hear your foot is healing so well and things are getting back to normal for you that way. The very idea of cataract surgery makes me cringe, I've seen it done and its one of the very few things that actually turned my stomach!
Zoe special
Ingredients
- 1 part Vodka
Instructions
- Fill half a glass with vodka and top up with some fanta fruit twist.
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Poor Zoe! I've never seen a porcupine. We must not have them down south.
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@nativemainer, poor Miss Zoe - that looks so painful and she is so lucky she didn't get a quill in her eye. Poor baby. I bet she won't investigate any more porcupines in the future. A hard lesson for the poor thing. I am giving her a virtual scratch behind her ear on the uninjured side of her head. The Zoe special seems very appropriate - as alcohol is a disinfectant of sorts.
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NM, that poor girl and those pics, ouch!
DH and I enjoyed the blueberry but the peach was only okay. Definitely getting another bottle or berry and blueberry before we head home. I’m doing an Airbnb in Florida for my 50th birthday in February, so I’ll save those to share with DH and our small group of oldest and bestest friends.
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Oh, poor sweetie! Glad to hear she's doing better now.
We don't have porcupines here, but we have plenty of skunks. The only time I've ever had to deal with cleaning off skunk funk was when we briefly had an outdoors cat. He was surprisingly good with getting bathed, though. Sadly, he wasn't good about not pooping on the carpets. DH had a coworker who needed a good barn cat, and he's been living a very happy life ever since.
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Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Twofer Tuesday! Waking up to a very chilly 31 degrees and cloudy. I had to give in and turn the heat on this ayem. Brrr outside and inside this ayem. I don't notice the cold at night thanks to the puppers!
Carole—I found info that porcupines are not present in a number of southern states, so It's no surprise that you haven't seen one! Around here they are seen all the time. They generally don't cause any trouble except when frightened or irritated, and their quills are an effective defense system, except against foolish doggos. Zoe seems to have completely recovered except for the scabs where some of the quills had broken off under the skin and the Vet had to nick the skin to get at them to remove them. The only real damage is the $800 Vet bill currently sitting on the credit card. A bit of a hit to the budget, but manageable.
Mallee—I am very grateful she didn't get a quill in her eye, that was very good luck indeed! The quills do hurt, but she was pretty good at not scratching at them before getting sedated. I am hopeing she learned her lesson this time. A couple of years ago she and Colt both got quilled but good—face, chest, legs, feet. Zoe says 'thank you' for the ear scritch!
Illi—Glad to hear the blueberry version is good! Sounds like a great treat for the birthday trip in Februry!
Miriandra—around here porcupines are one step above skunks on the pet owner's annoyance rating, mostly because the fix usually requires a Vet visit for the quills, but skunk funk can be managed, or at least mitigated, by the owner. Some dogs and cats never do catch on to the housetraining thing. I"m glad your former kitteh has a happy home and life. I bet he's just living his best life as a barn cat!
The Crazy Cat Lady Cocktail
3 oz. spiced rum
3 oz. coconut rum
1 splash lemon-lime soda
2 splashes cranberry juice
Vigorously shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a martini class. Garnish with a cherry on top.
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Has Zoe fully recovered from the quill punctures? It occurred to me that the only skunks I've seen were road kill. We must not have many or any of them. We do get armadillos. They're strange looking and acting animals that make holes in yards. Haven't seen any of them for a long time.
Dh finally had a home therapy session today with the therapist. She will ask for two additional sessions since she hasn't been doing therapy during previous visits, because of doctor's orders. DH did very well with bending the new knee and he is walking almost normally. I feel that I can go on errands for an hour or so without being fearful of leaving him. It just occurred to me, NM, that having you as a neighbor would have been great during this post surgery time.
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Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Thirsty Thursday! I had a petty good day out with Mom yesterday. Took her to the podiatrist to get her toenails trimmed. She wanted "a big, fat hamburger" for lunch, so we went to Five Guys. I love their burgers. Mom got a bacon burger, I got a cheeseburger, we split and order of fries. She ate about half her burger (typical amount of food for a meal for her) and seemed to enjoy it, but later said it wasn't all that good. Couldn't say what warwrong with it other than they were stingy with the ketchup. Still, se was going to heat up the remaining half for supper last night. I got her one of the clocks that shows the day, date, time of day and time and set it up for her on my prior visit. This visit I had to plug the cord back into the clock, and the plug the clock back into the extension cord, and plug the extension cord back in so it would work. How she went from knocking the clock off the cannister she has it sat on to unplugging everything I can not figure out. The puppers were not happy with being left home alone most of the day.
Carole—Zoe is pretty much recovered. She's eating and behaving totally normally. She still has a few scabs on her cheek, but no signs of infection. I have had to pull out 2 quills that worked themselves out near her ear, one she didn't notice, the second one required a tiny tug and made her feel very abused for a while. We don't have armadillos around here, they sound like odd critters. Do they bite or scratch people and pets or just make annoying holes in yards? Glad to hear DH is doing well with the new knee! I would certainly have helped out if I lived close enough!
Not much going on here in the HTL. Time to bring out the Champagne Fountain?
Champagne Cocktail – a Vintage Recipe
Ingredients
3 ounces brandy
4 ounces of Triple Sec, Cointreau or Grand Marnier
1 bottle champagne or prosecco
Instructions
- You need 4 champagne glasses. My husband prefers to use champagne coupes, although champagne flutes work well too.
- Pour ¾ ounce of brandy into the bottom of each glass.
- Pour an ounce of Triple Sec or Cointreau into each glass over the brandy. Do not stir.
- Top up with champagne.
- Please note, unless your glasses are very large, there will be leftover champagne, but I have never seen this as a problem!
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Armadillos typically eat insects that we don't want in our gardens anyway: slugs and snails, grasshoppers and locusts, termites, and even wasps. But they also like grubs and worms that they dig up from yards, which makes them less welcome despite their other pest control abilities. They're not aggressive and won't scratch or bite unless their scared. Their preferred defense is to roll up into an armored ball.
Their other claim to fame is that they are one of the few remaining vectors for leprosy. For a while in Texas, there was a fraternity that made its pledges find a roadkill armadillo and … um … "desecrate" it. This was discovered and stopped when college boys were starting to get unusual lesions and lack of sensation on their nethers.
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Boo! Happy Halloween 🎃 This is my favorite tealight holder and I see i need to find a way to fix the now missing tree on the left. A trip to a craft store is in order I guess.
Last night I had a delicious Greek white wine blend with dinner (didn't know that was a thing). Cheers 🥂
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The tea light holder is really cute. We get less and less kids every year. More young people are moving into our neighborhood but fewer kid trick or treating. We had maybe 4 or 5 groups with 2 - 4 kids. I bought 3 bags to Dum Dum lollipops cuz 3 were cheaper than 2 and we used 1 bag giving everyone 3 lollipops. I miss the little kiddos. Told DH that maybe we'll skip it next year. I guess there is plenty of time to decide.
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We don't live in a subdivision and don't "do" trick or treat after a couple of years of eating our candy. Last night it rained. I think a lot of people do Hallowe'en parties for the kids. Collecting candy from strangers isn't always a safe way to go.
That is a cute light decoration.
We used to see a lot of roadkill armadillos. But not in recent years. One year my parents had an armadillo family in their yard. The little ones were cute.
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Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy TGIF day! Happy first day of November! I hope everyone had a nice Halloween, or at least didn't get too many tricks played. Door-to-door trick-or-treating has become a rare thing around hear over recent years. Now it's mostly 'trunk-or-treat' or parties. There doesn't seem to be the same sense of community and neighborhoods that there used to be, either that or I don't know enough people with children to be seeing and hearing about it.
Teka—love the pic!
Miriandra—armadillos sounds like pretty good critters to have around, mostly. I can see where the hole digging could be annoying, but any critter that eats slugs and bugs and other undesireables is welcome in my mind. Hmm, being carriers of leprosy isn't such a good thing, but given that It's treatble these days, and 'desecrating' them doesn't sound like a lot of fun to begin with, not such a big problem.
Reader—the tealight holder is adorable! Shouldn't be too hard to replace the missing tree. Greek white wine blend sound yummy!
Karen—I've got to admit I miss seeing the houses decorated for Halloween. No where near as many decorate as I remember. Driving around looking at Halloween decorations used to be as popular as looking at Christmas decorations.
Armadillo
Ingredients
1.75 oz
Patrón Reposado
.5 oz
Roasted yellow pepper shrub*
.25 oz
Grapefruit juice
3 drops
Chipotle bitters
2 drops
Coriander bitters
+
Grapefruit slice for garnish
How to Make
- Add all ingredients to a mixing glass.
- Fill with ice and stir for 15-20 seconds, until all ingredients are mixed and cold.
- Strain into a rocks glass over ice.
- Garnish with a grapefruit slice.
*Roasted yellow pepper shrub: Roast yellow peppers and infuse with rice vinegar for 24 hours. Add agave syrup to taste.
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I "graduated" from PT on Friday after 5 weeks - now on a home program. Friday was 9 weeks since surgery. Other than some swelling that I'm told that can last 3-6 months, all is pretty good. I'm walking at my normal pace without pain. I'm living in my Saucony. I bought a second pair. I've worn running shoes more in the past 5 weeks that I've done in a year in the past. They are so, so comfy. Other than snow, I don't mind wearing them all the time. I'm heading up to Vail Thursday - Saturday for the annual CO school psych conference. I don't mind the cold, which it will be, I just hope there is no snow. I have to see if either pair of snow boots fit. Last year, they closed Vail Pass on Thursday afternoon due to snow conditions, so I had to wait over an hour, maybe two to leave to drive to Frisco where I will stay again, Wednesday and Thursday night. Friday I will stay at the Grand Hyatt, which have given us a great rate. People driving up Thursday were caught in the snow storm.
Meeting a gf for coffee this morning and then running errands. She is a teacher friend for many years. She taught for 50 years- 30 years teaching and 20 as a substitute.
Have a great Sunday.
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Colorado has a pretty voting sticker this year
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Jazzy - I sure miss hearing from you. Hope you are OK
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MAJOR UNLOAD, feel free to skip
Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Monday Monkey Day! It's been a busy weekend with Mom. She called me at 2 ayem Saturday, she had called an ambulance and was going to the hospital because she was thowing up and feeling lousy. I met her in the ER, which was moderately busy. The doctor came in, looked her over, asked some questions, then said he'd order some blood tests and some medication for the nausea. The tech comes in and takes the blood, a nurse comes in and sets up the nausea medicine through an IV, and a couple hours later a transported comes in to take her for a CT scan. All he can tell us about it is that the ER doctor ordered it. Another couple hours go by, and a secretary from MRI calls to ask a bunch of screening questions, can only say that the MRI was ordered from the ER, and that its going to be a "very long time" before they can fit her in. Then the nurse comes back and starts antibiotics through the IV and I ask what id going on, what what the CT scan for, what is the MRI for, she didn't even know about the MRI. Then a surgeon shows up, and I ask about the scans, she says they are following up on the abnormal lab work. WHAT abnormal lab work, and what are the antibiotics for, I asked, not very nicely, I'll admit. Turns out Mom's liver enzymes are elevated, the CT showed an inflamed gall bladder. The surgeon knows nothing about the MRI. She checks Mom over a bot, asks a bunch of the same questions, tells us that with her heart problems and being on Eliquis she can't have emergency gall bladder surgery, if surgey is indicated. A cardiologist needs to see her to clear her for surgery if needed. A gastroenterologist needs to evaluate her and determine if she needs to have an upper endoscopy to try to remove some of the stones. A medicine doctor needs to evaluate her for admission to the hospital, and comes in and repeats the questions and does his exam. A couple more hours go by, and she's taken out for the MRI. While she's getting that done she's assigned a room, and gets moved upstairs when she gets back from the MRI. It's now about 10 ayem. The hospitalist comes in, goes over the same questions and does her exam, then tells us that Mom will be put on a heparin IV for blood clot prevention secondary to Afib and the Eliquis stopped temporarily, in case she needs a procedure or surgery. The gastroenterologist hasn't seen her yet, but will be by "when they get free" and after the results of an MRCP test are available. Eventually the cardiologist comes in, does the questions and exam thing, and looks at the reports of the echocardiogram and holter monitor from last August (Mom's PCP gave me a copy), tells us the mitral valve leakage that was minor has gotten worse but isn't at the point of requiring surgery to replace the valve (which was nice to hear) and that she is cleared for surgery if needed. A bit later I ask the nurse when the MRCP would be done (I was wondering if it was something that could/would be done over the weekend) and found out the MRI she went for was actually the MRCP. So now we are down to waiting for the gastroenterologist to see if the bile duct is blocked (the CT said it wasn't) and what needed to be done from here. Around 5 peeyem, I head for home, I'm so tired I'm starting to fee nauseated and need to tend to the puppers who have been home alone for more than 12 hours, Almost 6:30 peeyem, Mom calls, the gastroenterologist is there, and get to speak to her. The MRCP shows no blockage of the bile duct, Lots of stones in the gall bladder. Gall bladder inflamed and thickened, likely infected. No need for an upper endoscopy, plan is to continue IV antibiotics and gradually advance Mom's diet over the next couple of days, if the gall bladder stays settled down and the liver enzymes start moving back toward normal, then the gall bladder issue can be maanged with a low fat diet. If it flares up again, then removal would be planned. So I go to bed feeling pretty good that there is a plan in place, and Mom's feeling better since getting to eat, even if it was only clear liquids. Yesterday ayem, at 8:25 Mom calls. The doctor has been in, there are 4 things happening today and 2 are surgery. I'm like, WTF?!?!? What surgery? She didn't know. What other things are happening? She didn't know. When is this all happening? She didn't know. I'm getting ready to head in when Mom calls and tells me they are taking her to surgery. I freak out, have her holler for someone to talk to me, the nurse says she's not going for surgery, she's going for a test. There's lots of noise and confusion going on the backgroud, the nurse has to tend to something and will call me back. So I go flying in to the hospital, when I get there Mom is having an echocardiogram done in her room. When the echo is done, her nurse came and I'm afraid I rather jumped down her throat about what 4 things are happening today, what 2 surgeries are planned, when did the plan change so drastically, did something happen overnight? (My 'polite' way of asking What the Fuck is Going ON?). The nurse steps out of the room, returns a minute later dragging the hospitalist in with her and I finally get an explanation. The hospitalist, on her rounds this morning ordered another test, a HIDA scan, to determine definitively if the gallbladder is just infected or chronically inflamed and not working as well as it should, This will determine if removal is indicated now or not. The HIDA scan can't be done on the weekend, will be done Monday. Mom is going to stay on clear liquids until then. The gastroenterologist was only supposed to see if Mom needed to have stone removed from the bile duct to relieve the pressure and isn't managing Mom's care at this point, The echocardiogram was ordered by the cardiologist on Saturday to compare to the one in August and so he could see the pictures and not just the report (the August echo was done in a different hospital system, the report didn't include the pictures). And she never did go off the floor for any tests, what happened there was a transporter came to collect another patient for surgery, but Mom's room number was put in the system accidentally. The nurses caught him outside Mom's room and verfied that Mom wasn't the man he was supposed to pick up and got him sent to the correct room. Mom overheard part of the conversation, assumed she was going to surgery, and called me. I still haven't figured out where Mom got the idea that 4 things were happening. I get the thinking she was having surgery part, the doctor was talking about the things that needed to happen to determine if she needs surgery, and she picked up on the word 'surgery' and missed the rest.
Thanks for letting me unload all of this here.
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Oh NM - what a mess. Hope Mom can stay calm in the hospital until all the determining tests are done.
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Wow, NM. You need a calming drink. Hope your mom gets the care she needs.
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