I DIDN'T DIE...FELT LIKE IT...BUT I DIDN'T

 Finally!!!  I was sick for 12 days with a few lingery days at the end.  My throat is sore from super heavy duty coughing.  Jeez Louise!!!  I was trying to remember the last time I was really sick and I couldn't. Oh piddlyass things and I did have an uncomfortable covid for two days.  A very mild case...thank you vaccines.  But really sick for days and days?  I honestly don't remember.

I haven't been out of the house even once since getting home.  It is buck*uck ugly out there.  Rain snow wind...nope.  Not going out in that!

I made a recipe, a follow along recipe the other day.  It was pounded out chicken breasts, something I never ever buy...never have ever bought a breast.  I don't like chicken much to begin with but breasts?  Why?  Tasteless dense chewy meat.  I feel the same about pork loin.  Have never bought it.

I used a cast iron frying pan.  Best casserole dish ever...no matter what you are making.  First layer went down..seasoned chicken.  Second layer was equal parts cream of chicken soup and sour cream...only I used mushroom soup plus poultry seasoning.  Thick layer.  Third layer was a couple of boxes of stuffing with lots of butter and chicken broth.  I packed that on top and into a 375 oven for an hour or more.  I wanted the top crunchy.

  What I appreciated about this recipe was zero canned tomato of any kind and zero freaking cheese.  I like cheese just fine but holy moly when you read recipes online the vast majority  are either Mexican or buried in cheese. This one smelled delicious!!!

Ange:  ate it but didn't say much about it.  I don't think my cooking is totally to her liking.  She doesn't eat fat.  To me fat is where the max flavour is...any type of fat.  Poor thing..fat doesn't agree with her digestive system.

Monte:  Absolutely totally loved it.  He usually just eats and says thanks.  This time he immediately made yum noises then actually out loud told me how much he loved it.  I had put the extra one in the fridge and I saw the next morning it was gone!

Me:  hated it.  OMG!!!  I could only take two bites.  I hate chicken breast and I don't think I like sour cream in mixed dishes.  I will make it for Monte...maybe.

Now I am on the hunt for a new dish to make.  I want one with no tomato, no cheese, no pasta, very little starch, no sour cream and doesn't look like a dog's breakfast on a plate.  Sigh!  (shovel list). The possibilities are getting slimmer and slimmer.  In the meantime I shall just stick to my raw wieners, sliced up tomatoes in homemade mayo or thousand islands.

Well I think today is the day I get ou1t of the house. The sun is actually shining out there! Monte is sleeping at the moment and probably will be for a while yet.  He was awake most the night.  But when he gets up I will get him to drive me down to the bank.  The reason why I'm going will maybe be mentioned some other time.  Makes me tired thinking about the why.  It is a massive (shovel list). 

I think I am getting tired of running the whole show here without help from Bill.  Car insurance, property tax, income tax, busted kitchen sink, broken florescent light fixture in kitchen, filthy needs paint walls, front door lock not working (it locks just difficult and dead battery), dishwasher in desperate need of deep cleaning by expert, I also desperately need double pained windows, house insurance is due and it is outrageously expensive due to wild fire hazard in Port, hot water tank needs replacing,  microwave door broke, van isn't running, a mystery pool of water shows up in the middle of the downstairs bathroom now and then,  deck needs massive repairs and work.....etc.  I wish I was a renter or still married to a handyman!  I am not really fully enjoying widowhood or retirement. lol!!!  Other than just selling this house and moving I am not sure how to solve all that.

Well time to put some green on and clean the mile high pile of crap on the dining room table.  Thank goodness the kitchen is clean!!!!

Sorry for whining.  TFL&TTYL

HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN JIGGITY JIG

 Home and sicker than a dog.  Wowza I haven't been sick like this in years.  This is way worse than the two days I had covid.  Coughing like a banshee..good thing my tonsils are gone...they would be stuck to my front room window by now...launched from my trusty dusty worn out chair.  And there is soooo much to do here and I can't move.  Whine.....

I spent two nights in the hotel with Mr. Man.  He was busy visiting his friend and going to Anton's for dinner...only the most amazing pasta palace.  I honestly do not remember what I did in that room....I got sick and I think my brain left to go elsewhere in a happier place.

Yesterday we left and drove straight home.  Although I will admit to dragging my sorry ass out of the car on the ferry and went up and got a bowl of their clam chowder, the most addictive stuff ever.  Then I skedaddled back down to the car to cough my lungs up in peace.  I hold my eyes in with my fingers when I super cough like that and I try not to do that part in public.  

Thats it.  All I got.  I can't think.  I shall catch up later when my legs are straighter, as my Billy used to  ALWAYS say.  TFL&TTYL

THE GANG ALL WAITING FOR A SUNSET 

I AM JUST PROVING I AM THE WORST SELFIE TAKER EVER

WE WENT FOR A WALK DOWN AT THE WATERFRONT

PARTY IN THE FRONT....NOT SO MUCH IN THE BACK

I GOT TO CUDDLE MY GREAT NEPHEW!!  

SMOOTH SAILING

The trip home was amazing for me...thanks to my incredible sister.  She had arranged on her phone a day or two before for a wheelchair to meet us as soon as we were about to line up for baggage check and then again in Calgary.

Now I will admit it was somewhat humbling.  That was the first time I had to admit to not being up to normal walking.  And after blowing out my knee one year on a cruise, Bill had to push me around Singapore in a rickety noisy wheelchair and it wore him out.  I was worried about poor Kathy pushing big old me through ridiculously loooong airports.  She kept saying she was fine but if pushing me could tax a huge tough man I knew that pushing me wasn't easy.  

At one point we came across a fairly long uphill ramp.  I was about to hop out and walk up, no way would she be able to push me up that hill, when a lovely looking pilot came along and told her to drag his luggage up the ramp and he would push me.  Which he did!!!  During this whole experience I was overwhelmed by the kindness of people.

We landed in a very snowy Calgary.  It was nine at night.  In the end we spent longer sitting around on a traffic jammed airport tarmac than we were in the air flying to Kamloops.  But we finally got to the Kamloops Airport by around three in the morning.  And there was Kerry, a very welcome sight, all ready to take us home.

I want to mention Jackie here.  She was one of the ladies on the trip.  Her dad and Bill signed up for the RCMP at the same time.  And way back when her dad was a teen they moved right beside my mom's parents in Kelowna.  What a coincidence!

The reason I mention her is she is the one that had the kutzpa to go to the lobby about the lack of decent stairs in the pool.  And down below I have put a picture to show what her smarts caused!!!  We were all so very proud of her!!!

I had one day at Kathy's before catching the bus to Vancouver.  I called Anne and made arrangements for her to pick me up.  She invited me to a lunch across town.  It was in the back of a thrift shop, run by a Catholic Church.  I am not sure if it's everyday or not but they serve seniors a free lunch made by a variety of people from the congregation.  And it being the first weekend lunch or something it was borscht and perogie day!!!  Now this is not something I would normally feel comfortable just showing up at but she was really wanting me to meet some of the people there.  So I agreed.

Well let me tell ya, it was fantastic.  Homemade pirogies and sour cream and the best borscht I have ever had.  And there were lots of seniors there.  I got talking to one lady across from me only to find out we went to Norkam together and knew all the same people.  What a head psyche that was!!!   She filled me in on how many and who are dead.  Yikes.  I feel a bit lucky to be alive. Overall what an awesome experience it was.  I am so glad I did the trip and did the lunch.  

I think over the last seven years since moving to Port I have become people and experience shy.  No one visits me on the island (I don't blame them) and I have lost interest in making friends.  I think I will revisit joining the senior club in Port.  They have about 65 different things I can join.  

Well this is getting long and a little diary ish.  Til next post TFL&TTYL

WHILST IN THE THRIFT SHOP I CAME ACROSS THIS GEM.  I WOULD GIVE MY RIGHT YOU KNOW WHAT TO HAVE THESE IN MY LIVING ROOM AT HOME.  WAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

JUST A LITTLE NACHOS WHILE WAITING FOR THE SHUTTLE TO THE AIRPORT

THERE SHE IS!!!  JACKIE, STANDING ON THE VERY STAIRS SHE TOLD THEM THEY NEEDED.  HOW POWERFUL IS THAT????!!!!