Mr. Salty in the Bedroom

Paul walked out of our room Sunday with a perplexed look on his face carrying a jar of nuts. He wanted to know just why those crunchy legumes, a jar of Mr. Salty Peanuts, were in the bedroom. He looked a little jealous - though the lid hadn't even been cracked open!

I had to explain to my dear husband that my physical therapist Christine has assigned me some exercises for my shoulder. I decided I was ready to add in a bit of weight and looked in the cupboard for a soup can...but then I spied Mr. Salty. He is a nicely weighted plastic container with a waist so he, um, I mean it is easily gripped. Not to worry Pablo - you've not been replaced by nuts.

The cleaning crew came to our home today. I put Mr. Salty away in a drawer, but I did leave out a few more of my workout tools. I hope they don't think I'm kinky....

a rubber thingy on the door knob - glad it wasn't on the ceiling fan...

There is also a pulley and ropes on my dresser. All such fun stuff! My arm is doing about 172 degrees - not too bad.

Other health news: Today I went to Methodist for a blood test to see what those T3 and T4 levels are doing after 3 weeks on the Methimizole. It takes about that long for the thyroid to give up the stored hormones...so this is when I should start feeling the effects of the drug which is a blocker. I hope it's more like the front line blocking like the Dallas Cowboys rather than the ISU Cyclones.

Rotten day and progress

I had a somewhat rotten day today. First I woke up groggy - left over Advil PMs in my system I guess. I hate that!

Then I drove over to Penn Med for Physical Therapy at 10:15 a.m. only to find out that Lori the clerk had tried to call me - on my home phone. Gee that's in Creston. I didn't get it.

I know in all that paperwork they had me fill out I gave them my cell number, why didn't she use that? It seems Tim has to call the insurance company to find out if they'll allow more visits after my initial 20. I also had discussed this with them earlier - asking them if they would cover this. I figured they had already done so...guess not. Today I wasted 45 minutes for nothing! They'll call if I can go to Thursday's appointment. The made me grumpy.

Then, I messed up something at work - it was resolved somewhat easily, but still, I dislike finding out that I screwed something up. I assigned the same grant number to 2 grants! Estupido! I have a list of grant numbers, but they were on 2 pages. It was really dumb. I put them all on 1 page now so it doesn't happen again.

On a better note, it was the first day I noticed that my shoulder is improving! So take that crappy day. In your face! It was really the lack of pain that I first noticed on my lunchtime walk - what a refreshing surprise! I ate a lovely salad I had picked up at Target the night before - chicken with greens and walnuts, goat cheese and crancherries. So yummy. I sat at my usual bench in the shade on Locust.

After lunch though - that's when I discovered my mess up. Bummerooski. I hate being human sometimes. Again though - in the afternoon, I noticed I didn't need meds, ice, nothing!

After work I stopped by Trader Joe's to get a few things for the Goldsmith Fam Reunion this weekend. I love picking out foods there - stuff you can't get at Fareway or HyVee. Plus I got a Cod dinner for supper - it was pretty good. When I got home I did my exercises and walked to the Waukee Library to take my book back. That's a pretty good hike, and again the should was feeling fine. I think I'm turning the corner so that makes me happy!

Roomie Joan is working late this week so I've hardly seen her. I don't like that - miss hanging with her. I do like watching the Olympics though! I think they should do them every year. I know - then they wouldn't be special.

Tomorrow - a half hour massage! Yay!

Deep Thoughts and Funky Pants



Our former loft on East Court is looking good!

I took a couple walks today - giving me a chance to ponder. It's what I do! When I walked by our former loft I considered our wonderful time this past winter/spring. Paul and I got to live together there 3 months, trying new restaurants and bars each night. But mostly we just enjoyed living together along with our little black weiner doggy.

I wondered...could my trying time with my shoulder be payment for that? I considered that carefully - then rejected the idea. Illness is not payback for something good that's happened, or a curse for something bad we've done. Nobody sick deserves it.

That said - I told myself, I must learn lessons from all the good things and the bad things that happen to me in life. When our baby Patrick died, that's the one thing that helped me heal - knowing that going forward I was going to be a better person because of that little guy.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this painful episode in my life is, but I'll figure it out - and will be better in the future for it.

Geese caused me to cross the road - they didn't ask me why

Pablo made yet another trip to DSM today. I'm such a magnet the guy just can't stay away! Plus he'd scheduled an oil change for his Subaru - a mere 1 day after mine. Ramsey loves us.

And he needed to get his bike tire fixed and pick up a few things for his September Elk hunting trip to Colorado. I know...that trip is weeks away, but the guy is so excited he's like, well Amy used to be when it was time to get school supplies. I swear she couldn't sleep the night before shopping for new notebooks, pencils, crayolas and the like. Tonight Paul was picking up things like MREs (meals ready to eat) and gas for the cookstove he purchased. Maybe he'll start putting his name on everything with sharpies next, like Amy did on each and every crayon.

I'm glad Paul has a hobby he's so into. He's been working out really hard so he's in good shape for this fall's hunt near Aspen. This year 3 guys are going with him - they met last Friday night to plan. That's when he really started getting fired up about the trip.

I met him at Jordan Creek, entering through the upper level of Younkers. That's near the Young Women's section. As I entered I overheard a mom with a teen in tow. Or was it the other way around - the mom was kinda following the teen girl who was about 16. The mom spied some animal print looking legging kinda jeans and said, "These are funky!" trying to attract the daughter's attention.

I thought to myself. "Self - that was you 10 years ago with Amy - and oh honey, you shouldn't say funky to your teen daughter." The daughter ignored mom and kept shopping, certainly cringing but hiding it well since Mom had the purse strings. She'll save snotty for another day...

It was nice to have an evening with Paul. We ate outside Panera. Even though it was hot, it wasn't too bad in the shade. We sat and chatted, enjoying each other's company.

Friends, Corn and Recovery

I think NBC network execs are knuckleheads for delaying showing exciting Olympic events until the evening. It's the weekend! We all know Michael Phelps lost and that hunky other guy whose name starts with L (I can't ever remember it) won. L guy has the body of a god...

Dumb move NBC. Because we were busy watching this:

Sunset looking NW from Creston

at Bobbie and Jeff's house. So we didn't even get to watch the race - though we already knew Phelps didn't medal.

B & J invited McKims, Eckhoffs and us over for delish grilled burgers. All we had to take was a bit of beer and some sweet corn. Roomie Joan and her husband Billy and sis Jeanie (they're both Jeff's sisters) stopped by later too. It was a nice night, with thunder and lightning all around but alas no rain. Fun chatting with good friends.

As I said, Paul and I were in charge of rounding up sweet corn for the night. We heard the Gates fam lost their 2nd batch of sweet corn - drought? raccoons?. The Gates family tent is where I usually get my sweet corn in town - right on main street. So yesterday we had to track down the Kiburtz stuff at Casey's South. It wasn't all bad though because their sales kid, while no Olympic swimmer, was rather built. Gee there seems to be a theme here. Am I becoming a dirty old woman? Perhaps reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" got to me more that I thought.

But face it, romance and hanky panky has been the last thing on my mind with this shoulder. It's felt a bit better at times. But is still plenty painful. My bruise is now deep purple. Like the song.

Bruises must be from doc grasping my arm to break scar tissue in shoulder

I see the surgeon tomorrow and will find out just how I'm doing compared to others who have experienced frozen shoulder. I'm not sure how hard to push therapy. It seems to be more painful if I work it hard. If the scar tissue will eventually go away anyway I would prefer to be painfree. After some 3 full months of constant pain, I've about had it. But when I see some of the others awaiting Physical Therapy at Penn Med, I feel like such a wimp! I am sick of taking pain meds too. I'm done whining now.

Good thoughts and prayers to my sissy Cindo as she recovers from partial knee replacement #2. She had to be on oxygen for a while post surgery, but she got rid of extra O2 now. She even went to the grocery store yesterday but said it about wiped her out...

Cindy had her left knee done in April, Right knee July!

The Bullock girls are on the mend! We text each other often - kindred recovering spirits.

Goodbye CB on to Portland

We had to say goodbye to the Kohans and Cannon Beach Saturday morning, along with our temp home near the beach. Betsy and Wayne plan to rent this place next summer since the house they've been renting is on the market. I hated to say goodbye to Betso - I don't know when I'll see her and the rest of the clan again next.

Then the Lefebvres, Goldsmiths and Kara packed into the Grand Caravan (amazingly we fit!) and headed for Portland. Gar pointed us to the Marriott Courtyard downtown and we dropped off everyone and the luggage. Paul and I had to take the van back to the airport Alamo, which was a drag. We took the Max - light rail back, for $2.40 a piece. Very clean and efficient!

The Max

We hopped off downtown right near a shopping area, and ran into Jud and Kara in an overpriced Nike Store. Paul found something at the Columbia Store. Downtown Portland is an interesting place. There seem to be a lot of homeless people there and we were approached by a number of people for strange purposes - ultimately for money. It was a bit un-nerving for this Midwestern gal. That said we enjoyed the eclectic experience - the shopping, restaurants, bars etc.

 Saturday night we started out at Herman's - a place Bolder had scoped out. It's got a frost bar - a strip of frost where you can set your drink to keep it cold.

Amy takes a photo of our drinks on the frost strip at Herman's

Jud in his "Big Jud's" shirt Bobbie got him in Boise with Cindo at Herman's

We couldn't decide where to eat that night, so we ended up sitting in our motel room. We had pizza delivered by bike. It was delish! Kara, Jud, Amy, Paul and I sat and chatted until 10 or so. Then Kara and Jud went to see the sights. The rest of us hit the hay.

In the morning Jud and Kara took off in a rental car for Seattle. Kara works for Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, providing medical software training. This week she worked in Seattle. How convenient! Jud rode along with her on the drive to Seattle and flew back to KC that afternoon. We were so glad they were able to spend a few days with us. We hugged Jud goodbye about 9 a.m. and off they went.

Amy didn't have to fly out Sunday until later that afternoon. It was misty when we woke up, but we were determined to trek to Voodoo Donuts - a place we'd seen on the Travel Channel, and scoped out online. We were lucky that due to rain, the line of people craving sugar and starch wasn't down the block. Amy had to order the voodoo guy donut but she couldn't eat the lil guy, cuz she can't eat stuff with faces. (I didn't remind her that at one time a hamburger had a real face...). The donuts weren't really anything special but the place was interesting due to the S&M/Voodoo theme.

The voodoo donut in the middle was filled with red jelly that oozes when you poke him with the pretzel sticking in his chest

We did a bit of shopping that day. We found a "dancing girl" theater with the name Stewart above it. That's my Grandma Zora Stewart Bullock's maiden name. So Cindo and I kicked up our heels there.

I can't get my leg up too high...plus no boobs. I'd make a terrible dancing girl

At one point we walked by the Roseland Theater - I saw this:

Rock On - Foghat was in Creston this summer!

We had a nice brunch/lunch and all too soon it was time to walk Amy to the Max light rail and hug her goodbye. It will probably be a fall football game before we see her again. That's what is hard about having kids who live far away.

That night I was crabby. End of vacation, sayin' goodbye crabby. Cindo told me to snap out of it and I did my best. Of course I knew that when I got back I'd have a day of work and then my shoulder manipulation to deal with. And Cindy had her second partial knee replacement in Vail, Colorado. She had the first one in April. What a couple of old has-beens we are! We've been texting each other about Physical Therapy and pain levels...

We wandered around Sunday night trying to figure out what we were hungry for, finally stopping at an Italian joint, in the lounge. The waitress saw us hesitating and did a tremendous sales job. She had us a "best ever lemondrop". Or perhaps that was me...It was really great food and we had a nice time! Our hugs in the elevator that night were teary. We'd had a great week together - love those guys!

Photo from earlier in the week of two of my fave peeps

Paul and I had to get up at 1:45 a.m. and a car was awaiting for a trip to the airport. We needed to be there too early for the cheap light rail. So it was $50, but worth it (the driver had a difficult to understand accent and liked loud country music). Flights went smoothly - through Seattle, with a couple hour layover back to Kansas City. After a frantic night of unpacking and laundry then packing again it was back to DSM early Tuesday.

What a lucky girl I am to have such a fab family! I love each and every one of them and thank my lucky stars and that higher power for all my great fortune. Not stuff, but relationships.

Now on to healing this nasty shoulder. Very painful. No fun - don't ever get one! Thanks to all for texts, cards and encouragement. Mendy even dropped off cookies. The only way they'd be better is if they contained painkilling drugs! 

Shoulder and Peg - it will come back to you *(politics)

One of my favorite peeps was visiting Iowa this week. It worked out nicely into our schedule - the most excellent Bruce Hornsby concert Wednesday night - Paul rode up with Petersons and stayed all night with me at Joan's. I'm so lucky to have a nice roomie! ;>)

The next morning, we had a quick breakfast at Panera (did you know there's such thing as a French Toast bagel?) before my appointment with the shoulder surgeon at DMOS. That's the same place I went for the removal of Imelda, my shoe loving tumor (see my blog from March for more on this...). Unfortunately, the arm surgeon doesn't do shoulders. So that day I saw Dr. Kary Schulte.

First, because the computers at DMOS don't speak to the computers at Southwest Fam Physicians I had to have more X-Rays. I don't like that, but what are you going to do. At least I didn't have to disrobe and it was quick. Dr. Schulte reminded me a lot of my Doc Bro-In-Law - Betso's husband, Wayne Kohan. He's probably in his late 40's, soft-spoken, but someone you listen to. He put me through a series of movements and poked around. It didn't take him long to decide that scar tissue is my problem - not a torn rotator cuff, which I had feared.

I had a few options, but as bad as it's gotten, I've decided to have him put me under in mid July (as early as our schedules allow) and he'll crank that sucker and pop the scar tissue. Yeah, I know - sounds very painful. Paul had that done after his knee surgery and it was worse than the surgery! The same day of the procedure I'll begin physical therapy to prevent new scar tissue from laying down. This time I'll have to work through the pain instead of babying the thing - which is what I must have done that cause this whole problem. When it got sore, I quit using it. How are you supposed to know? And I didn't go to the doctor until it was too late - it was frozen by then. So a lesson to you all - treat injuries early! In between now and July 18, I'll Advil will be my friend and sleep hard to come by. Now that I know nothing is torn in there I'm going to get back to working out - no more whoa is me.

After my appointment (I was glad to have Pablo there for moral support and to ask questions), Paul dropped me off so I could work for a couple hours and he stopped at LifeServe Blood Center to donate. Yes - I turned him into a donor during our time living in the East Village. (Score one for me). I tried to donate at Valley West later, alas my blood pressure was too low. I hate getting rejected!

Dave Fox, Jean, (with Kelli - Denny's wife - not in this blog...)

Then we headed to Webster City for a mini-Goldsmith gathering - a chance to see my girl Peg Fox, who was coming back for her 25 high school reunion and to see family of course. In addition Paul's sisters were visiting: Pat, with husband Dave from Freeport, IL, Carol from Northwood and of course Peg's folks Paul's sis Jean and Husband Dave who have lived in Webster for a long time. Peg and her wife Brooke and twins Alex and Logan, age 4 arrived around 5:30 p.m. Sib pictures from last summer's fam reunion. Didn't seem to get one of Pat and Dave...

Carol and Jean

Peg is the second oldest of the Fox clan. Steve her bro lives in San Diego, Peg in New York City, Kris in Houston and Annette just west of the Twin Cities. So they are spread far and wide. When Peg moved to NYC in the mid 1990s, Jean and I went to visit her there. She attended the New School and worked part time. She had already gotten her undergrad and masters at UNI. It was then when I began to suspect that she was gay, but it was unspoken - I don't think I even said anything to Paul about it.

In 2000, Amy, Jean and I took a trip to NYC. Peg was temping at an insurance company and got us their box seat tickets to Tina Turner at Madison Square Garden. How's that for your first concert experience, Amy? We saw Lion King at the New Amsterdam Theater and had a great time throughout the whole trip! I love talking to Peg - she's a caring, intelligent, funny person. She always asks about our family and takes a true interest in their lives.

I can't say I was surprised a couple years later when Jean told Paul and me that Peg had come out to them - that she is gay. It was hard on Jean and Dave. I don't wish to bring this up every time I talk about her - the fact that Peg is gay certainly doesn't define her - but so many people still don't get it. I can't remember how long ago Peg and Brooke got married in Canada. Four years ago Peg gave birth to the boys - with the help of donor sperm. They are a committed couple raising their family just like any other couple. Oh wait - lots of children don't have 2 parents raising them...

Brooke, Logan, Alex, Peg

Anyway, for all of you out there who are against gay marriage - I wish you could meet Peg and her wife Brooke. Peg didn't choose to be attracted to women - she was born that way. The same with Brooke. Would it make all of us feel better if they faked it and married men? I'd prefer happy people marrying the ones they really love. If Dave Fox can accept this (he started out very conservative and his mind changed through the years), I think many of you out there can. When you have people who have been married and divorced multiple times arguing about the sanctity of marriage....

I'm glad we got to see them. The boys are full of energy - especially after a day of traveling. Like any good auntie I took sidewalk chalk - they enjoyed drawing "ant traps". It was a busy day, but paid off in hugs!

*Peg It Will Come Back to You is a song by Steely Dan