Scattered Thoughts . . .

As always, when it comes to a good corned beef and cabbage meal, we both ate far too much last night! Last night's corned beef and cabbage was tasty! The previous time I made this meal, I attempted to cook it in more of a traditional way... everything in the same pot but each thing added at the appropriate time.  Uggg...  that was nasty. Everything took on the taste of the corned beef yet it all tasted bland because everything tasted the same. Last night I went back to my usual way of cooking this meal... meat in a dutch oven and slow cooked at 275 degrees in the oven. I cut up an onion, added spices, and added a weak beef broth to the pot... covered it... put it in the oven.   The remaining items are cooked separately. The potatoes are boiled but then I do a quick fry in a pan at the end with onion powder, salt, pepper and some paprika. The carrots are separate also... boiled until soft... then drain the water and add some butter and a little bit of brown sugar. The cabba

Tonight will be a little primer for St Paddy's Day. The corned beef is being slow-cooked in a dutch oven and the potatoes, carrots and cabbage are prepared and ready to be cooked. I plan to make some homemade Irish Soda Bread the next time I make this meal next week. In meantime, as the corned beef slow-cooks, the Guinness is cold and tasting smooth... and, it is being served in an antique can this evening... Seeing the fireplace in the background of this photo reminds me... When the guys were delivering and setting up the new furniture yesterday, they commented about how nice the fireplace looks and they asked if I do that sort of work for a living. I just chuckled and said it was more like one of my hobbies.

Our latest furniture order arrived yesterday!  The delivery guys were in and out of our house within twenty minutes and even carted away all of our old furniture. And, they arrived right at our scheduled time! The couch is firm but comfortable and it is a bit smaller than our previous couch. We've been searching for a smaller couch for years so this was a lucky find.  The bed felt great last night! Also, it is very nice to be able to easily adjust the position of the bed with the remote.  I think we're going to enjoy this furniture!

My health has been deteriorating consistently since my last doctor visit a month ago. My new specialist (for a little more than a year now) decided to attempt to simplify my myriad of medications. Some medications were eliminated while others were increased. He sort of consolidated similar medications while eliminating one or two he felt might be unnecessary and added one medication that he felt might help.  These changes did slightly simplify my four daily doses of medications but, unfortunately, my health has been in serious decline since my last visit a month ago. I was getting more and more groggy, exhausted and weakened with each passing day. I was spending more and more time in the bathroom sick (no more needs to be said about that here). I was dizzy and I wasn't thinking clearly. Oddly, even though I was overwhelmingly groggy, I was feeling exceptionally restless. I was groggy, exhausted and restless all at the same time. I slept... a lot... and still couldn't get ne

We've missed most of Lukey's hockey season due to Sheila's health issues over the past seven months but we did manage to get to a couple of games this season. Actually, we've missed most of everything over the past seven months but we were fortunate enough to be able to make a day of Lukey's last hockey game of the season a week ago... Lukey is number 10... Lukey has become a fairly quick skater since we've last seen him play... For Mallory and Kenzie, this was more of a snack and socializing day...  Unfortunately, I was stuck shooting photos through puck-marked glass. This made for less-than-sharp photos, at best. Some of the photos have reflections and some are slightly obscured by puck-marks on the glass. I still managed to capture some decent photos though... These next four photos are a great series...  in the first photo, Lukey is blocking a shot with his skate... the puck is hard to see because it is blen

Our primary impulse buy yesterday... As many of you already know, Sheila and I are worn out, exhausted and quite often we find ourselves walking around in a bit of a daze. I think we're kind of numb.  We've spent far too much time at hospitals since last summer and we are simply worn down and exhausted. No offense to our doctors and our respective medical teams, but we are also sick of doctors and hospitals at this point.  In addition to all these medical appointment and our illnesses, we are also not sleeping too well which is adding to our exhaustion. My extensive spinal injuries, bone pain and joint pain are keeping me up at night not to mention that the past seven months have been a bit stressful and that is contributing to sleep issues as well. Sheila is into a whole slew of new side effects due to her new cancer treatment which includes pain, hot flashes and drenching night-sweats while attempting to get some much needed rest. Difficulty sleeping has been compoun