JAWS and Shark Fin Soup

Yesterday was an interesting day. I went to a new restaurant called "Fins" I don't really like that name, because I think of shark fin soup. The waitress said "I love shark fin soup." I don't know if I will ever go back. The fishermen catch the shark, cut off it's fins for the soup and throw the shark back in the water. It bleeds and drowns.

I am a big fan of sharks. Where I live Great White Sharks (GWS) are close by. They are amazing hunting machines. People have the wrong idea about GWS. People think they want to eat humans. That is not true at all. They want to taste you, and if you do not taste like seal, they will spit you out. Of corse in the process you have incurred some major damage. I don't understand why people want to swim or surf where the sharks are anyways? Around here it is mostly surfers who get bite. I have seen people swimming with the seals. Maybe the swimmers think they are "one with the seals." Maybe they think the GWS won't make a mistake a try a taste of them? I don't know. Bull sharks will eat you. So will Tiger sharks. Not GWS.

If a Bull shark gets ahold of you, it will do that shaky, shaky thing while your in their mouth. They will rip you to shreds. Then your dinner. Bull sharks are kind of cool because of the way the hold their fins sometimes. Have you ever seen those old western movies where the the bad guys and the good guys are getting ready to have a gunfight on main street? You know how the cowboys hold their arms when they are getting ready to grab their guns and shoot? That is how a bull shark hold his fins. Like he is going to grab his gun and shoot.

Once time a long long time ago, my x boyfriend said to me "your about as predictable as a GWS." I took that as a complement. I have been trying to live up to that ever since. All the same I don't want to eat shark fin soup.

Earthquake Food

Today my husband and I went to WinCo. Mega Super Grocery Store. Took us a total of 4 hours including driving and buying a pizza for dinner. My husband spotted my Dad's X girlfriend the braless wonder while we were shopping. SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE she did not have a bra on. Thankfully the store is so big we avoided her. We bought Rocket Coffee !!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE IT.

I am trying to get my earthquake emergency food supply together. This is what I need to buy.

• 6 cans of fruit in light syrup
• 2 cans of chilli
• 2 cans of corn
• 1 jar of peanut butter
• 1 jar of jam
• 1 box of whole grain crackers
• 1 package of dried fruit
• 1 package of granola
• Fruit juice boxes
• Dog food in small quantities. I usually buy 40 lbs. at a time.
• 4 gallon of water per day (me, husband, doggies)
• energy bars

and a bunch of other stuff. I hope the earthquake can wait until after payday.

A Woman with an Opinion

I had an enjoyable day today hanging out with my friend Sheryl. We talked religion, ( She is a Buddhist and I am a Christian) politics and all the things your not suppose to talk about. We talked about how our society still does not appreciate a woman with strong opinions. We both have strong opinions. We agree that boring women never make the history books. We went swimming. She took me out to a fabulous lunch at Chow's. We went to a quilt store and I met a fabric designer and a quilt book writer. They are all Sheryl's friends. At the quilt store a lady showed me the "easy" way to do flying geese. That is a quilt block for my non quilting friends. Sheryl is a master quilter. She makes the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen. She sews love into them.

Sheryl is a fashion coach. She helps you bring your inner beauty out. If you don't feel beautiful when she is done with you, you will! She suggest styles that suit you, and tells you what colors to have in your wardrobe, she picks stuff out of your closet but will not throw them away like that TV show. She even goes shopping with you to help you pick out that perfect outfit customized to your need. Job interview, date, dress to impress - whatever you want. Her business is growing. I am happy for her.

If I had to pick out one word to describe Sheryl it would be transformation. I know it sounds kind of new ageie, but that is not what I mean. She help me transform from non-student, to student. She has transformed herself, growing and changing. She will help you transform your wardrobe, so you will look and feel your best.

Sheryl is a warm, kind and generous person. She is also a Ninja warrior that will help you get dragon breath if you are scared about something you don't have to feel scared anymore. You can see why I think Sheryl SO FUN. She says she "is like coconut, either you like her or you don't." I bet you can guess I like coconut.

Garden update Photos

Front porch - a work in progress

Jumbo pumpkin

Mini Pumpkin 1- I am happy to see a lady bug on the leaf_

Mini Pumpkin 2

Mr. F

Mr. F left for boot camp yesterday at 4:15 am. He will be gone for a total of 8 months. Mrs. F was very heartbroken, but she had a little smile on her face and twinkle in her eye.

Hospital BS.

First I want to say Hi to Mama Jane. My new friend. (Really she is my other mother I keep talking about) Thanks for being my friend and a great influence on my life.

Back to the hospital.

Bill (my dad's roommate) was really pissed on Monday. He says to me, you won't believe what happened last night. I said tell me Bill, what happened. He says first of all this place is so noisy you cant sleep. He said is Sherman out there? I said Sherman who? He said Sherman and his tanks. My dad and Bill keep the door to the room shut because it is so noisy. Then he launched into his major complaint. Bill says:

Last night a nurse comes in the middle of the night, me and your dad were trying to sleep. The nurse slams the door open and starts banging on the computer. I tell her, can't you see we're trying to sleep.

The nurse replies you don't come to hospital to sleep, you come here to take test. This is not a hotel.

Bill says I need some sleep I am having surgery in the morning.

The nurse says if you need sleep, go home.

Bill says I have been a car sales men all my life, you don't treat your costumers like that.

The nurse says if you don't like me you can go home.

Bill says I don't have to take this from you. The nurse walks out.

Bill is telling everyone, and everyone tells him they will get a supervisor for him to talk to. Bill goes to surgery without talking to a superior. The ironic thing is the hospital has posters all over it saying "quiet heals." I will be a witness there is no such thing as quiet in a hospital. The nurses at the stations are loud other hospital staff walking with their friends including the lab and housekeeping staff and visitors all talking. Phones ringing. Then you have the machinery beeping and honking. They buff the floors at all hours of the day and night. Patients welling, crying or snoring. You have people yelling for the nurse. I think the hospital needs to take a closer look at their posters.

I keep telling my dad he needs to give me one of the surveys they give him all the time. Let me fill it out. He won't.

So on Sunday the nurses tell me, the HBS (what ever the Doctor) should be in first thing in the morning. So I go on Monday at 9:00 am hoping they are going to let dad out. the nurse Carousal is nice. She wheres her highlighter yellow belt so we won't talk to her when she is passing med. Carousal says at 10:00 am the doctor should be in anytime. 12 noon I ask Carousal where is the Doctor. She tries to call her. To make a long story short, the HBS shows up at 3pm. I am really mad. They tell me they are busy. Are you kidding me? I don't have a life. They are god? I have a solution for these very wise people who make decisions at the hospital. They need to divide the "HBS" doctors up just like down in the ER. The Red Doctors only do admitting. The yellow doctors do the checking on people to see the progress or lack of progress, the green doctors do the discharges. SIMPLE. One HBS to do all things is not working. Or why don't they give you a window of time like contractors? The HBS will be here between 9am and 12:00 pm. Or they can hire MORE HBS's . They have it right when they say H-BS. Friday (saturday) we waited for the HBS for what 9 hours, on monday I waited for 6 hours. That is ridiculous. So we where out of the hospital by 4:3oish. Thank God.

I hope Bill did ok with his surgery.

Dad is going to Chemo today. My sister is taking him. I am so thankful.

I get to go to a movie with my dear friend today. YEPPIE!

Tired

Sorry I am to tried to write and tell you more information. I will try again tomorrow.

Good News

Dad came home of the hospital around 4 pm. Dad and I are so tired of hospitals. I will give you a full update tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you who are pulling for my dad. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your emails and comments. They encourage me, and I tell dad what you say.

They encourage him.

Today's update 8/9

Dad looked so much better today! They are pumping him full of antibiotics. He has a funny roommate named Bill. Bill is 76 years old.

Bill likes to belly dance and gave me a little demonstration in his hospital gown. I did not tell him I used to belly dance. Bill does not care if his skivvies are showing when he walks down the hall because the gown is to small to go around him. He wears Joe boxers. Can't miss them, he weights almost 300 pounds. He says that is 128 kilos. He likes that better. He also told dad and I about his prostate problems today. He says he has to sit down when he pees, otherwise it goes all over the place. Thankfully the nurse walked in, and he forgot what he was talking about.

I saw one of our favorite nurses today. Her name is Ragina. She is fun. None of the nurses on the blue side of the hospital wear their highlighter yellow belt. If they have their belt on you are NOT suppose to talk to them. Regina cut up her highlighter yellow belt and sewed it on a jacket so when she walks the dog at night, people will see her.

I am not fond of the staff on the blue side of the hospital. They have the personalties of mud. On the tan side of the hospital at least they had of personally, like them or not. Regina is a floater so she works all over the hospital.

This will speak volumes. We know the ER staff now by first name. There is Mary Jay aka The Rebel nurse, Erin a soft spoken kind man RN, Steve who is a super friendly omelet loving EMT. Dr. Handsom, Dr. Jerk and Dr. Stinekind. Maybe Dr. Jerk only works on the red side. He likes broken bones and things that are not related to diabetes. He let us know that. Anyways, enough of hospital talk.

My husband and I moved the birdbath, planted a palm tree and a coleus after dinner. Right now at 10:00 pm it is 82 degrees in the house and 77 degrees outside. Ug. To hot. Maybe I should go outside to sleep tonight.

Cellulitis

They think my dad my have Cellulitis. His legs started out with a splotchy red rash and a fever.

http://dermnetnz.org/bacterial/cellulitis.html

If you would like more information please go the the website above

8 Yellow

Last night at around 7 pm I got a call from my dad. He said he had a temperature. Well when your on Chemo and have a temperature, if its after hours and / or a weekend you have to go to the Emergency Room. So off we went. We arrived at Kaiser and put into a room by 7:30 pm.

This if the first time at the ER we have been put in the "yellow" section. Yellow room 8 to be exact. It seems like it is 1 step down from The red section. I have to say yellow is boring. Red is were all the excitement is. If you are on red your critical. So people are coming in from car crashes, having strokes, and dyeing.

On yellow, it seemed to be more geriatric. The lady next to us broke her hip. She cried and was angry they did not help her and attend to her all the time.

The yellow ER doctor told the nurses not to use the port. He thought it was infected. Around 10 they got blood samples. Of corse they could not find any vain in my Dad's arm for an IV. They poked him 3 times before they gave up. Around 1 am they got the IVs going with antibiotics.

The staff keep telling us a "HBS" Home Based Specialist - The doctor who is in the hospital at all times who has the power to admit a patient. They keep saying that he would be coming in at any time. At 4 am I fell asleep unwilling for about 1 hour. The HBS showed up around 9 am.

They told dad he was going to be admitted. They got dad up into a room and settled in by 11:00 am. They told him he has an infection in both legs. I got home around 1:00 pm. I am very tired. I can't even imagine how dad must feel.

Today at Chemo

I took my dad in today for his second Chemo. Dad was really nervous. As you recall it was a horrid experience last time. Things went much smoother. They got the needle into the port without a problem. Nurse Nadine said she used a 1 inch needle. It seems Chemo gives dad the musnchies. He ate 2 gram crackers, a diabetic breakfast bar and some almonds. He also had water and a 1/2 can of diet 7 up. Oh by the way, today we find out they have a numbing ointment that you can put on your port to help stop the pain when they stick the needle in. To bad we didn't now that last week. One more treatment, then dad gets to have a week off.

It a strange sort of way going to Chemo has it's benefits. I know that might be stretching it a little. It seems it has its own little social club. We are getting to know people, they are getting to know us. Like the lady who dose not have a stomach any more. She is greek. I was hoping she was from the eastern middle east, so I could practice saying "excuse me, do you speak English?"

By the infusion room, in a open waiting room Kaiser has set up a gift shop. Today they had a robotic yellow chick that was about a foot high. (remember tickle me elmo) that sang "if your happy and you know it clap your hands." The next verse the chick said "stomp your feet." It jumped up and down. The greek lady with no stomach bought it. I was glad because If I had to hear that stupid song one more time I was going to knock chicken little into the pharmacy. The greek lady with no stomach seemed very happy with her purchase.

The male nurses aide is very kind. He asked us if he could get dad and I something to drink. I said only if it's a double. He smiled and said he was with me on that one. He dressing all in black. He is a big guy. I keep thinking how he remedied me of the grim reaper.

I made a promise to myself that I would have a little God talk every time I go with dad to Chemo. Don't tell Dad I said that! Today I talk about P. Terry's message about Huh? P. Terry said when he was young any time someone would say something to him, he would say Huh? Come to find out he had a pebble stuck in his ear. P. Terry says sometime when God tries to talk to us, all we say is Huh? So we need to make sure our ears are clear. Dad seems to like my God talk so far. This one made him smile.

Shipper and random thoughts

Mr F. is leaving for boot camp next Tuesday. The military calls people who are shipping out, no matter where they are going "shippers" I am not sure how I feel bout Mr. F being a shipper. I am proud of him and scared for him.

Mrs. F. is already feeling lonely, even though he is not a shipper yet. I volunteer to take Mrs. F to the shipping station so she does not have to drive and be upset. Oh young love.

It seems to me having a husband in the military is not such a bad thing. It gives the wife alot of freedom.

When your young you do not want your freedom. You want to live and breath for the other person. Like the book twilight. That book was so sicken sappy. I have to admit I once was like that. The desperate feeling of loneness when your boyfriend is away.

Have you even seen two married people try to control each other over their cell phone? They call each other every hour. That is sickening to me too.

I once was taking to a lady at safely, she said her boyfriend bought her a pack of cigarets for her birthday. Yeah, he is a keeper! I bet they were on the phone with each other all the time.

Happy Birthday Dad

My husband and I celebrated my Dad's 78 birthday today. It was a good day.

My Day - That's right its all about me!

I had a good day today! I am making a new quilt. You know when you have an idea of what something your making is suppose to look like. I could not find it. I went to 3 different fabric stores.. and spent about $20.00 in gas. I found a good piece of fabric to use. FINALLY.

Then I went to the library to pick up a learn how to speak a new language cd. I choose Eastern Arabic. I forgot that I can't even speak or write english correctly, why would I be able to speak Eastern Arabic. This has upset my husband to no end. He cannot understand why I would want to speak Arabic. I informed him it is the 5th most used language in the world. Maybe some day I will go to Dubai and stay on one of those islands the king made. My husband wants no part of the middle east, Dubai or not. I told him the king made a nice coral reef to snorkel around. This infuriated him. My husband says I should learn spanish. It seems to be the common language around this area. No, I am not going to. I don't want to be like everyone else. That is boring.

I stopped by and said Hi to my dad. He seemed to be doing well today. My sister was there.

So I did not feel like I had to stay for a long time. I talk to him on the phone every day, even if I have been over to his house.

This evening my husband and I repotted plants and moved things around. It looks good. It is green, lush and calm when you walk to our front door. To bad it is not calm once you are in the house.

Some friends from church stopped by. I was thankful. It is good to see friends from church. My husband says he is golng to church tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

I ate some pomegranate ice cream. It was SOOO good! I love pomegranate anything. I am not one of these fair weathered pomegranate fans. My love for pomegranate started when I was young. Me and my best friend used to eat pomegranates and spit out the seeds in Jane's front yard. It was so much fun.

Speaking of Jane. I refer to Jane as my other mother or my foster mother. I talked to her tonight. Sis and J (foster sisters) got out of the hospital. They both have been very sick. HI SIS. I am glad your on the road to recovery. You have always been a pepsi fan for as long as I can remember. (random thought I know) I also spoke to my "foster sister" J she is on the mend. I love my other family. They have always been so good to me.

I can hear the wind chimes we put up by my office window. The cool sea breeze is kicking in. That means I will sleep good tonight.