06.24.07
Popping in to say, “I haven’t abandoned my blog, yet.”
I just realized that I’ve let almost two weeks pass by without blogging, ack! Where has the time gone? Where have I been? Oh well, just thought I would make a quick entry just to pop in and say that I’m still around and things seem to be going okay.
We spent Father’s Day at my parents’ house. Lucky for me, Brian likes to cook, so he handled most of all the Father’s Day meal! Along with the usual veggies, we had three ducks and New York steaks. I think I continued to have left overs for the next two days.
My mom had her scopes done last Tuesday, and thank God, they didn’t find anything majorly wrong with her. They did find H.pylori, tho, so have her on antibiotics for a couple of weeks. Will check back in a couple weeks to see if there are any changes to her CBC since they didn’t find anything suspicious to explain her low iron and low hgb. Dad also continues to hang on pretty well. His IgGs went down 310 points at this last check up! Woo hoo! If only they’d go down another 2000 points! But we’re happy to see the 310 reduction. . . So at this point, they can play for another month until which time they check in to see what’s up for that month.
Other than that, I’ve just been doing the usual around here. My friend and I visited the Santa Monica Gem Show last weekend. Oh boy, oh boy do we love that show! We didn’t go hog wild like she did last time we went in December, but we did pick up a few little items like stirling silver and amber. We have matching pendants now. I also found some Chinese knotting cord there. I had been wondering where to get that stuff. I also finally got around to visiting Suss’s Outlet Store and found that she has some nice yarns there! Woo hoo! So I’ve got some fun stuff to keep me busy and out of trouble. Which reminds me. I did visit my knitting friend who broke her hip a couple weeks ago. What a coincidence that we would meet up being that we both have had blood problems and we both love knitting! Unfortunately, she fell and broke her hip, but her docs were still able to perform a successful total hip replacement with her only having 50K platelets! I find that encouraging and a reminder how God has given us so much abundance. To think that we can undergo hip replacement surgery with only 1/3 of our normal platelet levels and do just fine. We can actually function quite well at 30K plts, but God has provided us with 150-450K. That’s only one example of God’s grace to us and how He doesn’t just give us what’s enough, He gives us abundance. Unfortunately, I tend to forget that and take things for granted until something goes wrong. . . Hmmm.
One of my internet friends from Australia has written to me about how bitterly cold it has been there during this past couple weeks. That’s another thing I haven’t considered much–what the living conditions are like in the other parts of the world. It’s funny to think that during our cold weather here, it’s warm in the southern hemisphere, and vice versa. While she freezes, I sweat in this sweltering heat. Actually, the weather is fairly mild here in Los Angeles all year round, but the past few days have been a bit muggy, I think. I’m spoiled in that regard. But I do find it interesting how the internet has given me a little more awareness of the other side of the globe. It’s not like I’ve never travelled to the southern hemisphere, either. I have been to Brazil, but that was a very long time ago. I never used to think about the daylight times either until I had a friend who at 10PM his time I could see daylight from his webcam. That surprised me because here in L.A. the longest daylight would be at around 8:30PM max, I think. Never is it still daylight here at 10PM. How different! Ha! To think that some countries celebrate Christmas in summer weather. . .
Yeah I know, goofy things that amuse me. . . Oh, which reminds me. We checked out a DVD on a TV series from England. It’s called Jamie’s Kitchen. This DVD has 8 episodes wherein it shows how Jamie, apparently a prominent cooking personality on British TV, takes 15 unemployed people and gives them the opportunity to train and work as a gourmet chef. They go over a course of one year. Wow, chefs are something else I’ve never thought much of before, but sure gives me a better appreciation for professional chefs! Ha! One thing that struck me was the part when the student chefs were taken to a farm to see how animals were raised. The purpose is to have a more intimate understanding of where our meat comes from and what affects the quality of our meat. That particularly interested me because I have been interested in the quality of our meats and have gleaned bits and pieces of information regarding animal husbandry because of it. I would love to have an inside look at animal husbandry. So I was reminded when watching the series that lots of people don’t know the first thing about the meat they eat and where it comes from. Even these student chefs, after having gone first hand to visit farms with guided tours, “still” didn’t grasp the importance of what makes good quality meat. This was later evident when they were given an assignment to shop for meats at the butchers market. Bottom line for me was that I really appreciated that Jamie understood the importance of knowing “where” the meat came from and the animals living conditions prior to processing. This gives me respect for gourmet chefs.
Oh, speaking of DVDs. We also rented a movie about a little terrier dog. Shame on me that I didn’t even pay attention to the title of the movie! But what struck me about this movie was that it was based on a true story, and the faithfulness of this dog was absolutely amazing. To make a long story short, his master died, and this little dog went to his master’s grave and would sleep there night after night for “11 years!” until his own death. Do we have humans that faithful? I sure would like to know.
Anyway, I was originally just gonna pop in to “wave”. . . ha!, but ended up rattling on and on about, well, not much! Ha! So better go make myself useful. I hope everyone is having a nice summer!
Marlakins 
