Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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Woo hoo, ORknitter!
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awesome orkinitter!
Happy 4th to my American sisters!
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I'm with you, Peggy. I am not an adventurous eater.
LG, I'm glad you're feeling better. Sounds like you've turned a corner. Try to stay cool today.
ORknitter, what a blessing to have no pain! Let's hope that continues.
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Poodles, nice to know I'm not the only non-adventurous eater. However, it must be nice to love to try new things - just not for me.
Happy Fourth! It's forecast to be in the 70s today. A little cool for this heat-seeker.
HUGS!
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I'm down here on the Gulf Coast with my mom. It's predicted to be 95 degrees with 89% humidity. Not even exaggerating. The heat index will be upwards of 107, at least. And Mother & I are going to go work on moving her boxes. And her A/C is out.
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Poodles, good luck with the move. I hope you are able to donate a lot of the things she has kept. Anymore dolls????
HUGS!
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Happy 4th to everyone, hope you have a great day.
Congrats OrKnitter! I'm envious of those who are getting to the other side of initial treatments.
When I did some consulting in Chicago schools, we went to a great steak house. It was incredible, but can't remember the name. You'd probably go for that Peggy :-)
Triple digits finally ended here so looking forward to a nice 90 degree day! Have fun all...
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Dara, I definitely would go for that! Sad when the 90s seem cool, isn't it? Hope you're feeling good and recovered from your lumpy!
HUGS!
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Yay ORknitter!
Happy 4th! Hope you all have a relaxing day. Rainy 70's in Central Illinois . Nice day to kick back and read.
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Peggy, you want to trade places? Lol! Ill even move your furniture in for you and you can come relax in the heat with my kitties for a while and get your fill of Cajun food while I cool off at your place? Lol!!! I could make the hubby do all the heavy labor? Lol!!
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Dear ORKnitter: I am so glad that you are no longer in pain. That is wonderful.
I am staying home today for the 4th of July. I had to decline attending the bar-b-q that I was invited to. Fireworks are "legal" in Florida and are sold in stores and in sidewalk tents. People shoot off fireworks non stop for days. I hate it. My dog is TERRIFIED of fireworks. I can't leave my dog home alone today. I put the "thunder coat" on her and I give her "calming dog chews" but she is still scared to death. She shakes, paces, hyperventilates, and tries to hide. Nothing works to alleviate her fear. She won't even go out for walks during the day. My neighbor down the block shoots off M-80's and other fireworks every July 4th and New Year's Eve. I am always afraid that he is going to burn down someone's house with his fireworks. I am not looking forward to tonight because I am afraid for my dog. I hate to say it but I hope that it rains.
I wish everyone else a lot of fun today though. Thanks LTF for your post even though you do not celebrate in Canada. I hope that your skin is on the mend.
Dear Dara: I am glad that you are keeping yourself busy with classes.
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614, I agree with your feelings about fireworks. Our 100 pound dog is also terrified of them and tries to hide under my legs every Fourth and New Years, but in the last few months she has gone pretty deaf so maybe this year they won't scare her so much.
Thanks to everyone who sent me congrats. I really can't believe it so am taking it a day at a time. I was surprised to have pain where they put in the wire and the biopsy needle. Now if my feet would stop tingling I would be perfect!
Hope everyone has a safe Fourth.
Best wishes to all.
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LG, switching places works for me
Just getting bar stools put together made a difference. This house won't really feel like mine until I get my furniture here and I can live in all the rooms. It's quite dry (normally low humidity) here in Spokane and my poor dog's nose shows it. She gets "scales" on the tip of her nose and they had started to go away when we came West. I think humidity has something to do with since she is usually better in the summer when it is humid (in Michigan). Now it looks like a year 'round thing. Poor dear.My dog and cat also do not like fireworks. I've had dogs who went frantic also with all the noise. Hopefully it will stay quiet in my neighborhood here. In Pontiac I usually had 2-3 weeks of the darned things. Good luck keeping the animals calm.
HUGS!
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orknitter, isn't it wonderful to realize your not in pain anymore? Yay!!!
Poodles, hope yal don't overdo it in the heat!
614, maybe I'm becoming a hum bug. I hate fireworks also. My neighbor started shooting them last night and scared my cats to death. They were running all over the house trying to find a place to hide!
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Jill, thank you! And happy belated Canada Day to you and our Canadian sisters!
Peggy, a lot of visitors are shocked to find that the PNW is definitely not just the more heavily-populated “wet side of the mountains" and in fact has a fairly large desert region (in N. central OR & S. central WA). No cacti, but definitely desert, especially around, say, Moses Lake and the aptly-named Soap Lake (alkaline & potash-rich). They also are surprised to find there is a small “banana belt" on that “wet side" along the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula along the Strait of Juan de Fuca--Sequim and Dungeness get over 300 days of sunshine a year, sort of like a cooler version of southern CA. There are as many microclimates in WA as in CA!
It's not hot out today, but very sticky & overcast here by the lake. My tomato plants can skip their daily gallon of water apiece. Bearing like crazy, but still quite hard & green.
Poodles, careful in that heat & humidity--any way to rig up a fan and an ice bucket as a swamp-cooler? We used one when we lived in Seattle during the couple of days a year it hit the high 90s, and our building wasn't adequately wired for A/C. But we kept running out of ice,
Dara, we're the steakhouse capital of the nation. Besides having a couple of outposts of NYC's Palm chain, we have Gene & Georgetti's, Gibson's, RPM Steak, Fleming's, Jameson's Charhouse, Morton's, Ruth's Chris, Joe’s Steak & Stone Crab, Sullivan's, Mastro's, Kinzie Chop House, Benny's Chop House, Chicago Cut, Bavette, Prime & Provisions, Pete Miller's, L. Woods, Michael Jordan's, Wildfire, The Clubhouse, several chain Brazilian churrascarias, and loads more. (A moment of silence for the late great That Steak Joynt and Eli's The Place For Steak--though Eli's lives on through its cheesecakes). Mmmm, steak.....think I'll take out a couple of grass-fed hanger steaks out of the freezer and grill them tonight.....
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Flemings sounds familiar. Does it have photos of Chicago mobsters on the walls?? It really was one of the best steaks I've ever had! Loved working in Chicago, even though it was in the south side! Really tragic to see the conditions that both kids and teachers experience every day. The teachers were so dedicated though. Was only topped when I was consulting in Oakland CA and the school I was visiting went on lockdown with SWAT surrounding the perimeter of the school (which was already surrounded with chain link fence with barbed wire.) Geesh, this is a bit of a bird walk from steak dinners isn't it??? Sorry :-)
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OMG, yes, more dolls! Some without legs or arms. Chewd up heels and fingers. One has no head! Too gruesome to photograph. She wants me to take them home. My niece offered to take them. Ha! Shes taking them straight to the trash can, soon as Mother is out of sight.
We worked for 5 hours and took away 6 small boxes, 4 small bags of trash and some crumbly cardboard. Oh. And Mother put exactly FOUR small items in the box for the thrift store. Five hours, i tell you. We hardly made a dent in her stuff..
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Poodles, you must be gnashing your teeth and hitting your head against the wall at the lack of progress at your mother's house. I really feel for you. Wish there were something I could do to help. I suspect the only way you are going to get rid of all the things that need to go is to do it without your mother. And good luck with that!
Sandy, I miss going to Chicago. We loved going to the Gift Show and eating at the fine restaurants. In Michigan, we had a Ruth's Chris near us and Oh My Heavens were the steaks good. There is one (at least) good steakhouse here in Spokane though haven't been there yet.
Windy and chilly. Ought to freeze at the baseball game tonight. I'll layer
HUGS!
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Poodles, wonder if we're going to be like that when we get older? Not wanting to let stuff go? I'm a BIG fan of getting rid of stuff easily lol! Feel for you!
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Ha ha, LG my husband is already like Poodles mom! I have to throw things away and then take the heat for it because he knows when things are missing.
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Molly, wish we had a "like" button like Facebook so we don't have to write someone when they make you laugh! LOL!!!! You made me really laugh!!
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Dear Poodles: Good luck. I feel for you.
Stay cool everyone else.
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Molly, my mother knows EXACTLY what's in that house. She may not know just where it is, but make no mistake, she knows it's there. And woe be unto the one who throws something out without her knowledge!
I managed to wrest some spices and baking items away from her with "best by"dates going back to 1991. Yikes!
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Well, Harry Caray's on Dearborn was built (unbeknownst to the owners) atop a Mafia vault. The Palm and Petterino's both have celebrity caricatures on the walls (though Petterino's, being in the theater district across from the Daley Center courthouse, has all showbiz caricatures, many autographed; the Palm supplements its celeb caricatures with those of regular patrons who are egotistical (and extravagant) enough to redeem their frequent-diner points to be immortalized on the walls rather than get discounts or freebies.
The pyrotechnics have been going full-blast here in Edgewater since dusk. More sound and fury than light--lots of firecrackers, M-80s, and Piccolo Petes. From our deck we could catch occasional glimpses between the trees and houses of Roman candles, fountains and even a chrysanthemum or two. Nature is giving us some gentle pyrotechnics in the form of fireflies. I was worried it was going to rain, because by 6:30 or so it was already getting dark (more like Sept. than July). Turns out it was all the gunpowder in the air. We grilled grass-fed steak, and because it was the 4th, drank American (Carneros & Napa). Gordy, ever the glutton for punishment, went to a third night of Guns'n'Roses/Alice in Chains. (aka the Geriatric Grunge/Hard Rock Tour). Poor kid is gonna be stuck on Lake Shore Drive in an Uber, paying surge prices. Oy. (Unless he walks the mile to the CTA).
Poodles, I feel for ya. When Bob's dad moved in with us from Queens in '08, his neighbor helped him pack his stuff. When it arrived, it turns out he shipped everything here: every insert and bag from every prescription he ever filled; spreadsheets for not just taxes but household expenses dating back to the 1960s, cans, toothpaste, tinfoil and plastic bags all marked with purchase dates; even a half-full can of 3-in-1 Oil (like WD-40) that leaked over all his shirts. (We're just finishing up the tinfoil). I have started going through my fountain pen collection, sequestering those which don't seem to write despite taking up ink; and organizing them to sell at pen shows. (Must...not...buy...new...ones...)
Upstairs in the office I've found outdated software and computer books, as well as our ancient law case-and-hornbooks (do students even use them any more?) and Bob's old genetics texts. Lots of obsolete peripherals too--AppleTalk, SCSI, and parallel cables; a screaming-fast 2400-baud Global Village modem (for 1990s Macs), etc. Downstairs in the basement is our Museum of Useless and Obsolete Coffee Devices: cheap grinders, Krups & Capresso espresso machines that work but make crappy coffee, etc, We have so much wine now that we've run out of rack space. And lots of empty guitar cases and gig bags (some not empty). Every time I go on to the Acoustic Guitar Forum and announce my possible intention to sell guitars I haven't used for a decade or more, I get a chorus of “NOOOOO!!!! You can't sell (insert name of instrument)--it's a limited edition and it's so beautiful, yada yada. And you might need it if (insert name of another instrument) is in the shop and you need to gig with it" Truth to tell, I have more guitars than I can properly care for (humidifying, string-changes, etc.).
We don't contemplate living in this house forever, and if we relocate and give it to Gordy, he might not want to rattle around in and maintain it either. We have some major repair projects that desperately need to be addressed: a staircase to the second floor with some ominously creaky steps; new windows; a complete re-do of the front porch (including a hole in the stucco), the first interior repaint of some rooms in nearly 30 and others in over 40 years, ceiling & drywall repairs (including a couple of huge wall cracks in the front room--formerly part of a full-width porch--that let in Arctic air in winter); and maybe some ductless centrai A/C. A lot of these will require big-time furniture-moving, which in turn will necessitate divesting ourselves of a lot of stuff.
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Our mini horses did OK tonight. One of them was a bit jittery so the kids and DH stayed with them until the worst was over. He called and said it was like a war. One of the horses was not doing well. They can colic when they get worked up and this one was pacing, kicking, and my daughter said he looked like he was hyperventilating. I don't know that owner well enough so I messaged one of the trainers and she texted the owner. The owner was watching on the live stream (some stalls have cameras) but was not in town. Not sure how that would help. I'm surprised she did not have someone watch him and have sedatives on hand since he was a new to her horse that she just got in Jan. She would not know what to expect from a horse in stables in the middle of a small city. DH said the houses that were literally on the other side of the fence we setting off some extremely loud fireworks. He and the girls came home at 10:30. I really hope that horse is OK and doesn't colic. Sounds like there were several that could have used their owners. The problem is you can't administer any kind of sedative without permission. We don't sedate our horses, just hang out with them, talk to them and give them extra hay. This other horse was nuts.
I stayed home with our three dogs. Our oldest, a Maltese, is really showing his age. He was shaking terribly. I really don't get the need to do fireworks in you back yard. GRRR.
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I guess my kids should be glad that I did a lot of downsizing and decluttering preparing for my move to Spokane. Of course, I still have tons of stuff. We'll see if it all fits in the new house. Poodles, you do have a thankless (and impossible) job. Molly at least you are removing some excess stuff. We hadn't run out of room - we had tons of storage room - so hadn't bothered to throw anything out. Sandy, I think you have a challenge ahead of you. It's hard to part with things that are such a part of your life - your books and guitars, e.g. I think you're right that fixing up your house will necessitate some decluttering. Next time you talk of selling one of your guitars and everyone says don't do it, offer to sell it to them and they can treasure it!
EJMann, I can imagine it has been hard for you with the horses and not being able to do much for them. I've been pleasantly surprised at the lack of fireworks in my new neighborhood. I was out at the Spokane Indians baseball game complete with fireworks. When I got home about 10:15 both pets were fine and not one bit stressed. What a change!! I'm sorry your doggie was so upset - that's rough when they are old.
HUGS!
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The books, obsolete peripherals and software are an absolute no-brainer. Not only don't I have any use for them, it's unlikely that anyone other than a Society for Creative Anachronism sub-chapter dedicated to all things 1980s-90s would take them. The guitars and pens can stay, though only if I can scrupulously maintain them (which I can if I spend less time online). I also have to be very disciplined about clothes. I've amassed several racks of them because I am terrified that if I give away clothes that are a size too big, I won't have anything to wear should I gain any more weight (I gave away all my 2x and 3x clothes last year), and I am deluding myself into thinking I will eventually fit into the small sizes I used to wear. Shoes are the easiest to ditch: if they don't fit over my bunion, or feel too tight if I put them on at night, my housekeeper's church gets them regardless of how pricy they were.
Amazing to consider that until Gordy was 2-1/2, we lived in a 2-BR one-bath apt. with a closet Bob & I shared, a coat closet, a closet for Gordy and a linen closet. Also, no cupboards--we had to bring in freestanding ones (though there was the ubiquitous Chicago apt. pantry room) and no counter space in the kitchen!
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Poodles, when we were cleaning out my grandmother's house, she had kept about 30 pair of my step grandfather's shoes and wouldn't get rid of any. She had food that had expired for 5 and 10 years. We got rid of SO much, and barely made a dent in what she had and we worked on her stuff for a week!! She had every scrap of paper saved back to the 60s Some freezer items were dated back 20 years ago!
Sandy, when me and husband first got married, we bought a 14x56 trailer on 2 acres of land with one tiny closet and lived in it for 7 or 8 years until we bought our house. We had to watch finances so close that we could only eat out once a month. That was after we dated four years and put off getting married so I could finish nursing school. Over the years, I now make more than double what I did as a new nurse and hubby landed job with the state that doesn't pay great, but has great insurance and retirement. I look back and wish I had taken a job with retirement benefits. I could have retired at 52 with thirty years in. As it is, ill be working until I die lol!!! Maybe sell the stuff you want to get rid of with the goal to use it to fix up house?
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I'm a few days late here, but I just loved Sandy's post about celebrities and journalists and how they have shared (or not shared) their experiences. Journalists especially have a responsibility to be as objective as possible, there is a fine line when it becomes about their own story. I agree Peachy - Sandra Lee's story of jumping to a mastectomy without sharing that alternative treatments is irresponsible use of her celebrity.
Anyway, LTF I hope you feel better soon. I have rads mapping this week, I start the 5 1/2 week schedule next week. I'm getting cording again, and having a bit of trouble extending my arms, I just need to keep moving so it doesn't stiffen up. Have to go back to PT though, as if I need more doctor's appointments on top of radiation every day and Herceptin every three weeks!
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Ah decluttering is the bane of my existence. Even DGS makes it hard to get rid of things. Oh well I am trying.
Here's an update to the studies of lx vs mx http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(16)30067-5/abstract
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