FLOWERS

 I love getting flowers.  And Joe knows that I love it.  The other day he came home from running an errand with a big bouquet for me.

You can sort of see the pretty golden vase I put them into.

This was my favorite flower of all of them.  So pretty!

But there were lots of other pretty flowers too.  Carnations, freesia, and some others that I don't know what their names are.  It doesn't matter because they are all beautiful.

It is going down to 26*F overnight around here.  (around -3*C).  My tulips and daffodils are up, but not blooming.  I'm afraid that may be the end of them and I won't have any flowers this year.  The weather is crazy though because on Thursday it will be around 74*F (23*C).

It just turned midnight so this is going to be a short post tonight.  I have to teach in the morning so it's to bed for me.  Have a good week everyone.

Kathy

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

 Hello friends!  I thought I would do a quick post to tell you about St. Patrick's Day this year.  I made a YouTube video about it too in which I take my viewers along with me during the day.

It was a productive day even though I slept for several hours.  I felt up to it so I made some Irish Soda Bread.  It's such an easy recipe.  Just four ingredients:  flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk.  It wasn't the best I've ever made, but it turned out good.

For dinner I didn't have a ham, so I used Spam for my meat.  Some people don't like Spam, but I love it.  I also had a small head of cabbage and some potatoes that I cooked along with it.

Joe's cousin came over in the afternoon.  It was the first time I had met her,  She is so sweet and she had made us some Irish potatoes.  She gave us two boxes.  They were so good!  And she is such an artistic person.  The boxes were decorated so pretty.

I don't have any St. Patrick's Day decorations, so I saved what she had put into the boxes (gold coins, wired shamrocks, yellow ribbon) and I have an idea of how to use them next year.  I asked if she does Easter candy and she said yes, so I plan on buying some from her for my friends.

It is very late so I am going to get going.  Church comes early tomorrow.  Hope you all had a good day and I will see you soon.

Kathy

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON

 Hello, friends.  Hope you are all well.  A lot has happened since I last wrote.  Let me tell you what has been going on.

On Friday the 4th I had a fasting blood test at my doctor's.  I was the only one there and everyone was masked so I felt very safe.  When I got out I was very hungry and so went to Wawa and got breakfast sandwiches for Joe and me.  Everything was great until later that night when I began to feel sick.  By the time I went to bed I knew that I had a stomach virus.  I've had enough of them to know the signs.  Yuk!

This lasted for almost a week.  I barely kept anything down and was miserable.  I began feeling better on Wednesday and so had chicken broth and an egg for breakfast.  It was good to have something in my stomach.  But then...

I started having palpitations in my chest.  I often have this after I eat but it lasts just a few seconds.  This went on for over half an hour.  I began to think I was having a heart attack and called 911.  The paramedics came over and took me to the nearest hospital (just a few minutes from my house).

I was checked into the Emergency Room and they hooked me up to the machines and took some blood.  I was there for a couple of hours and then they took some more blood.

The lady in the bed next to me started talking to me.  It turns out that when I worked for the library she was one of my customers.  Small world!

The blood did not come back good, so I was told they were going to keep me overnight for observation.  I wanted to go home but let me tell you I was feeling so bad that I was glad for them to keep me.  Of course all the palpitations had stopped on the way to the hospital and never came back the entire time I was there.

The nurses and Physician's Assistant and doctors were so nice and so good.  I have never had such good care as I had in this hospital.  I was afraid to go there because I had heard bad things about it, but they were wonderful.  And the room, even though it was older was nice and very clean.  I got a kick out of the picture they had on the wall.  It was of a street in the neighborhood I grew up in.  I recognized the corner.

I had told them that I was scheduled to have a barium swallow test at the other branch of the hospital the next day and I was told that since I was right there they would do the test.  And they did.  It was hard because I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight.  And they ended up not doing the test until 2 p.m.  But it was probably better that I was in the hospital because I couldn't cheat where I would have been tempted to do so at home.

The tests showed what was wrong.  It wasn't my heart at all, but my esophagus that was having the problem and banging against my chest wall.  So now I know what has to be treated.  Hopefully the easy way will do the job and I will be OK.

After the test I was given a sandwich to eat and I went home.  Just as they were telling me I could go, my friend called and I asked if she could come and get me.  She did.  What wonderful timing.  Since I came in the ambulance, my car was at home.  Joe couldn't come and get me because he was at the doctor having a test himself.  We make quite a pair don't we?

I was really glad to get home.  But I have been so tired since.  I don't know if it is the time change or because I've been sick, but I am exhausted.  I sleep 10 and 12 hours at a time.

So that's my story.  Hope I didn't bore you.

Yesterday was Pi Day.  3.14 is pi or March 14.  What do you eat on that day?  Pie of course.  We had to go food shopping and while we were there we got an apple pie.  It was good.  Well, still good because there's about half of it left.

T

Joe had more pie than me because he had a pizza for dinner.

It was a beautiful warm day today.  Tomorrow will be cooler, but then on Friday it's supposed to go up to 75*F (24*C).  I can't wait to go out in the yard on this beautiful day.

That's about it.  I am planning on celebrating St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.  Not a lot, but a little Irish going on.  Hope you all have a wonderful night.

Kathy

THE NEW DISHWASHER

 Hello, friends!  Welcome to March.  I hope you are having a great week.  Each day I am going to post, and things just aren't working out that way.  So today I am finally going to tell you about my new dishwasher.  Hooray!

On Valentine's Day morning I got a phone call that the dishwasher would be delivered in 30 minutes.  Oh my!  I was so not ready.  But I got an area cleared out and by the time they showed up I was all ready.  Now, believe it or not, we had them leave the dishwasher in the middle of the living room.  Why?  If we had put it into the kitchen, we couldn't use the kitchen at all.  The room is so small that we wouldn't have been able to open the refrigerator, sit at the table or get to the stove or sink.  So there it sat for 24 hours.

The next morning the plumber who was going to install it came.  He said we had done the right thing because he wouldn't have had enough room to get the old one out.  Joe turned off all of the electric and this really nice guy got to work.  He was so pleasant, and we had a great talk with him while he was working.  It took about 90 minutes for him to unhook the old machine and put the new one in.  An interesting thing was that there wasn't enough room between the refrigerator and the pantry to get the machine through.  So, with Joe's help, they lifted the new one in over the fridge and the old one out the same way.  Good thing they were both light.

After the old one was on the truck to be taken away, he came back and went to work on getting the new one in.  The old one had some water left in the hoses and it had gone all over the floor.  So, I cleaned that up while they were outside.

I really meant to take a picture of the old dishwasher before it left, but that didn't happen.  The best I could find is this picture of Jack laying in front of it.  But you all know what a white dishwasher looks like.

In just a short time I had my new stainless-steel dishwasher installed.

It looks so nice that now I am sorry that I didn't get stainless-steel appliances from the beginning.

The only thing that I don't like about it is there isn't a lot of room for the silverware.  The old one had tons of space.  But that's a little thing when I don't have to do dishes by hand anymore.

Wonder what is going to be next.  Hope it isn't expensive.

Have a good night, everyone.

Until later...

Kathy