Concert no, Hospital yes

Psalm 139:14-16

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
       

Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. 

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 Your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in Your book

before one of them came to be.

So there we were, being sensible and eating at home before going down town to the symphony. I had simply heated up a left-over macaroni casserole, and we were watching the news while we ate. But all of a sudden I got a very strange and unfamiliar sensation in my upper chest and neck. And suddenly felt VERY uncomfortable and tense and a bit like I might get sick. I quickly stopped eating and tried to relax, but the feelings didn't subside, and I began to feel hot and sweaty. I began to feel a bit panicked. I remembered that my sister had sent me an e-mail about female heart attacks, noting especially the fact that woman and men do not have the same sensations. So I grabbed my computer and quickly looked up the symptoms for a heart attack in women. The list had six things, and I was feeling 4 of them. The site then went on to say that if you have several of these symptoms you should call 911 immediately.

Well I really wanted to go to the symphony! It was to be Grieg's Piano concerto in A minor, played by Valentina Lisitsa from the Ukraine. Have I mentioned that I love rousing piano concertos? I like them so much that I coerced Riley into taking me to the symphony on his 50th birthday to hear Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23 But I began to imagine me having some kind of an attack right there at the symphony and ruining it for everyone there. So we called 911. And then Riley rushed off to get an aspirin for me.

From the sounds I could hear from the street they arrived in an ambulance and a fire truck, having arrived in something less than 4 minutes, seven of them, all looking young and fit and intelligent and pleasant. This was reassuring, but actually I was rather terrified. Riley had quickly moved the furniture about somewhat in the living room to make room, which was a good thing. They immediately set to work, questioning me and setting things up. They suick a plastic tube in my right arm, and stuck electrode things all about, hooking them to a machine. Others brought up a gurney and placed it on the outside stair landing - there are two flights of stairs to the house. They then took me through the garden to the driveway and out to the street. I didn't see the fire truck, but I know that i was put into the ambulance with simply the only woman in the group. She was very nice and did her best to calm me - of course that was so she could get a good EKG reading.

So, after not too fast ride to the hospital, I'm unloaded and taken into Emergency by the back way - thank goodness. I was not long in my space when Riley arrives - poor guy, he must have been very worried. They removed some of my clothes and made me put on the inescapable hospital gown, and then they quickly began attaching those little electrode things to me. And countless people asked me what happened.

Then after talking to ever so many very nice people, I was wheeled off to x-ray, to have my chest x-rayed from two different angles. Well after all their questioning and talking, it was decided that because there did appear to be a bit of a glitch in one of the EKGs, and something looked odd on one of the x-rays, I would be kept over-night, and the next day I was to have a stress test. They seemed quite determined that that was what was going to happen. So after a little while I sent Riley home, as he looked quite tired.

But just before he left he gave me a kiss, and for the fun of it he looked up at the monitor to see how the kiss affected my heart rate. It went up a beat of two. And then, as he headed for the door he paused to give me a foot rub. To his amazement, my heart rate went down 8 beats in a very short amount of time. It's so nice that he now knows that a foot rub does definitely have a good effect on me, positively affecting my state of well being.

So after he left, more people came to question me, but eventually I was taken to the third floor, but not after they got the rest of my clothes off. I hopped out of bed to remove my corduroys, and at that they decided that I did not need to be taken to my room on a gurney. So they went and got a wheelchair.

In the room they took me to was a very sick looking person. She had the front half of the room by the door, and I was in the part you couldn't really see into. This was okay with me. I got into bed and settled into knitting, as I wasn't sleepy even though it was late. So I sat there knitting for maybe a half hour when two nurses came in and apologized for having to disturb me, but that the doctor was concerned about my chest x-ray and wanted to have me moved to a private room. I was given a mask to wear during my transport, and they said that anyone on the hospital staff who came in to see me had to put on a gown and gloves and mask.  So off I went to my own private room.  This was much more to my liking, but what did they imagine was wrong with me?!  Nobody was saying.

"You should always go to other people's funerals; 

otherwise, they won't come to yours." 

Yogi Berra

Wednesday with Dorie - Lenox Almond Biscotti

The word of the LORD came to me: 

"What do you see, Jeremiah?"  

"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied. 

The LORD said to me, 

"You have seen correctly, 

for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled." 

Jeremiah 1:11-12 

As usual, I am behind. I meant to make the biscotti yesterday - the proper TWD day, but something came up, and I did not have the time. So today I was determined. Wednesday is also the day for the "Life Group" meeting at our house, so that meant that I would have eaters, and that's always a good thing.

I started out the day trying to straighten up the sitting room on the second floor. I had discovered that when I had asked Annie and Christian to clean the room up, all they had done was shove all the obviously offending objects into the already full closet. And then, after I got that stuff out of the closet I discovered that at some point a great deal of my sewing stuff had been shoved into that closet unbeknownst to me. Things I had really been wondering what happened to them, like the material for the curtains in the back room. And then finally, I discovered boxes of stuff that should have gone to Goodwill, not to the closet.

Well that made for a bit of a mess in the room, but I feel as if I've got a good start on that problem. But I left it in a bit of a mess, though one can now walk into the closet - YES!

It was about 4:30 when I finally got started on the biscotti, as I needed to get the kitchen all cleaned up. Well actually, I got it almost all cleaned up, I tend to lose interest in such endeavors. I got out the cookbook, and the needed ingredients, and as soon as I started the mixer to cream the butter and sugar, Emily heard the noise and came running, saying "Baby try!" She grabbed a chair, shoved it to the mixer area, and climbed up.

I let her push down the creamed butter and sugar, before adding the eggs. I also let her add the eggs, which I placed in a very small bowl for her to us to pour in the eggs, one at a time. She was very conscientious and nothing went astray. We then added the dry ingredients, and she was fine to let me guide her hand as she spooned them in.





We got the dry ingredients all mixed in and I took out the bowl and set it lower, so that Emily could add the nuts. I told her to stir in the nuts.















She carefully sized up the situation and then began to turn the bowl with her left hand as she held the rubber scraper steady with her right hand.









Then Emily got the pan ready to put the dough onto it. She greased the pan a bit so that the parchment would stick.



She did her best to get the dough worked into shape, but she did not like getting her hands so messy. She could hardly wait to get her hands washed.



Final analysis: These were really nice cookies, and I can't wait to make more of them - different flavors just for the fun of it.

"Reality is merely an illusion, 

albeit a very persistent one." 

Albert Einstein

Today Christian is 12 - and 5' 5.5" tall - and Riley left early this morning for Orlando

"And if one can overpower him who is alone, 

two can resist him. 

A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart." 

Ecclesiastes 4:12

I started this day by getting up early enough to get Riley to the airport sometime before seven in the morning, as he went to Florida for the week to give a presentation and attend seminars. I had wanted to go along, but I couldn't get a babysitter. But as it turned out the weather in Orlando was not at all good this week, so it's good I didn't spend any money to go there. Riley doesn't seem to like Florida and he said he'd much rather spend the money on going to Paris. Sounds like a great idea to me!

So today is Christian's 12th birthday. I started out by measuring him on the kitchen wall. I had measured him in June, and today he is two inches taller than he was in June. Then I asked him if he would like waffles or pancakes for breakfast. He chose waffles, so I went to the basement to find a waffle mix. I could only find a very healthy one, but he was fine with that, and Emily was delighted with an opportunity to cook.














Christian enjoyed his birthday waffles, and when he was done we all got in the car and took him to school.

Somehow Emily and I got terribly distracted before getting back home. I can't remember the details, but I think we went to Goodwill after going through the Starbucks drive-thru. And we also needed to go to the store for steak and green beans and whipping cream. We had a lot of fun, but when we got back I knew I needed to get going.

Menu for Christian's birthday dinner:

barbecued Chateaubriand
oven baked French fries
garlicky sauteed fresh green beans
green salad
French bread
chocolate birthday cake

First we started the bread. Emily again got a chance to practice her bread making skills.

We got the bread dough under control and then I put Emily in her chair with some toast and turned on Max and Ruby and for reasons she didn't make clear she covered her head with a tea towel and settled in. I then got the cake going.



I was doing my best to catch up with things, but by the time for dinner I felt really behind, but the girls all showed up and pitched in to help me. I got the steak marinated and Heidi took over the job of getting the coals going and cooking it. She did a really terrific job there.

Sarah topped and tailed the green beans and got them on to cook. They turned out lovely. I love fresh green beans.

As for the French fries, Tiah peel the potatoes and Corey got a pot of cold water for me. I cut the potatoes into strips. Then Tiah and Annie got out the big pan for baking the fries and put olive oil on it. Then as a group we all got the potatoes coated in oil and lined up. Then Annie and Corey watch the potatoes, and Corey and I got them turned. Corey was the one watching them in the end. They turned out fabulous!

Corey also made the salad, because she did not want to eat the beans. We used the salad dressing that I made earlier.

Luckily the bread co-operated and was nicely done on time, and it turned out very delicious. I added an egg to the dough.

It turned out to be a lovely dinner. And I forgot to mention the guests - me, Heidi, Annie, Corey, Sarah, Tiah, Christian, Caleb, and Emily. We were of course lacking Riley and Zac, the first being in Florida, and the last being at a wrestling meet.

Christian enjoying his birthday dinner.

The cake gave me a few fits trying to come together. I think that the problem was that the cake does not totally lend itself to being cut in half, and tended to spread. In the end Corey got the cake frosted and decorated for me, and it turned great.

Amazingly, Christian blew out the candles in one short breath.

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it." 

Yogi Berra

Emily learns more about making bread, and we have a dinner party for an unknown amount of unknown people

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing 

some people have entertained angels without knowing it." 

Hebrews 13:2

Today we had a dinner party for some prospective members of a new life group in our house. The trouble was that we absolutely could not figure out how many people were coming. At first I was going to have roast chicken, as I had two nice little chickens that we could rotisserie in the Meile oven. But if only one couple showed up that would look like over kill. And if I cooked only one chicken and four couples showed up, I would not have enough to feed them. So finally, after a bunch of thinking, I decided to serve spaghetti. That's about as flexible as it gets. You make a lot of sauce, but only but on the table what you need. And when you finally do know how many people are coming to dinner, you cook just the right amount of noodles. And I always make two loaves of bread, so no problems there. I also made up a batch of salad dressing, and washed, tore up, and dried two bunches of lettuce. For dessert I decided that I would make an apple crisp and get some ice cream to go with it, and I still had some of the brownies left over from Sunday.


I have gotten so I think that I imagine that whatever I make there will be people who don't like it. This dinner was no exception, though I think for the most part they liked the dinner. I starting to worry about myself. I always feel that whatever I do will be a failure, and any bit of criticism can really get me down. It's not good.


We had worked the night before on getting the house straightened up. With Emily over every day it seems a real chore to keep things tidy. But Riley even did the vacuuming the night before. I would have set the table, but as I said, I didn't know how many people were coming. I decided that I would add one leaf to the table and set three on a side for starters. As it turned out we had eight of us for dinner, so I just had to add places at the end of the table.


At around 9:30 this morning I started making the bread, and as usual, Emily was very keen to help. She is getting to really get the hang of participating. This time she learned about kneading the bread. And she took to it enthusiastically.

First she helped stir the water into the flour.

Then when she had it stirred in to her liking (and mine) I added the yeast and mixed in thoroughly in the mixer.

Then after I got the yeast mixed into the dough and kneaded it in the machine, I turned it out onto the board for Emily to knead.











It turned out to be wonderful bread.  I was able to get everything ready on time. What a relief. In the end we had 6 guests, so there were eight of us at table. We had a very nice time, and everyone left at about 8:30. This was brought on by the fact that one of the couples needed to get the child to bed.

"Once you can accept the universe as being something 

expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, 

wearing stripes with plaid is easy." 

Albert Einstein