maison rustique

Lots of music memories. RIP

I'm reminded of a piece in the Wall Street Journal many years ago that referred to Meat Loaf as Mr. Loaf.

Well, that, too.

Blue folders matter.

Bacon & onion? It looks fantastic!

Grilled brie and home-grown tomato.

For anyone who would like to know more about my husband before his illness.

Thank you all so much. I have been grieving in various ways for at least 2 years, so it isn't completely overwhelming for me. I will figure out what I want my life to look like now and work toward that. I'm thankful that we chose a new financial advisor (friend of my sister who I already knew a little) a year or so ago and he hooked me up with his estate/tax attorney. They have been godsends. Since we already knew what we were dealing with, much of the legal stuff has already been done or is set to go. We moved everything out of his room yesterday (I do not know what I'd do with my sister and her husband.) so now the garage and house are full of "stuff". Tons of laundry to do so I can donate all the clothes. My nephew wants a couple of chairs and I'll try to work on him to take a few other things, too. Lots of phone calls to make. Those are the hard things.

I needed this today. 🤣

Might be a strange place to post this. Not really cheerful, but thankful. My husband finally escaped the hell that is dementia. He passed this morning around 1:30. I'm so happy that he isn't suffering any more.

Back when I lived in Boston back in the late 70s/early 80s and worked in advertising, one of the publishing companies had a lovely lunch followed by going to the game on opening day every year. Tons of fun.

I saw my husband yesterday for his birthday. Nothing could have prepared me. He isn't really alive--eyes closed, can't really speak or move, he has mostly stopped eating and drinking. Hospice says his vitals are still OK, but he is gradually shutting down. Just a matter of time. A day? A week? Hard to say. I thought I was prepared. I almost think it would have been easier if I hadn't seen him. But I will go back today/tomorrow. I cancelled my EGD and colonoscopy on Tuesday.

I had no idea! All this time I thought it was some guy named Abe. I'm so disappointed. Is there anything that Amazon, Google or Microsoft doesn't own?

A quick note to say that the hospice case worker said she's taking care of the bed (I don't want or need it back). I need to take some twin sheets for the hospital bed and some sweatpants for him because it is too hard to get him into/out of jeans now. They are ordering him a reclining wheelchair because he is too restless and won't stay in the regular wheelchair and unless someone is literally at his side constantly, he keeps trying to get up, which means he goes down. We worked out a plan that when I take his BD cake and supplies tomorrow, I will have them whisk me straight through to the courtyard, and then bring him out so we can visit outside for a bit.

Hugs for all. Must be something in the air. My husband is also going through a bad spell, which is not to say that you ever have a good spell when you have dementia. He is falling a lot. While I was at the orthopedist setting up my hip replacement, hospice was calling me, asking me to get his bed out of his room because they were bringing in a hospital bed for him. And the surgeon does not want me to visit the facility before surgery with so many active COVID cases and god-knows-what-else floating around in there. One of the night nurses (I think she must be a contract worker.) keeps calling me during the night to tell me he fell. She doesn't expect me to do anything about it, just wants me to know. Well, thanks for waking me up and insuring that I'll never get back to sleep. I think I need a bionic body and super-human abilities for at least the next year or so. So much for ever getting this house down-sized and listing it for sale. One step forward, ten steps backward.

@StephanieL, you just described one of my all-time favorite meals. Nothing like a S.M. tri-tip and pinquitos. I'm drooling!

The epitome of cool.

My food-gifting friend brought me smoked Italian sausage and country-style beef ribs because I mentioned I was craving BBQ. So I had a bit of both last night with some potatoes, arugula, tomato, butter and German potato salt.

Yes, it was a battery issue. I didn't think to ask if it might have been prevented, but the design of the thing had the disk drive next to the battery. As the battery got hotter and hotter, it damaged the drive and the case of the laptop was literally expanding and breaking apart. It looked like there was an alien trapped inside that was trying to break out.

I had no idea that the battery in a laptop could overheat to the point that it melted the PC. I learned this the hard way. The guy at the Geeks said he needed to get it in sand immediately and was afraid it would catch fire if he didn't. The laptop was toast. Data lost. It was only about 3 years old and a really nice HP. Geek could not believe it and naturally it was just out of warranty. I have my previous Dell and am trying to get it updated and going. It hadn't been started since I got the HP so it has been nothing but MS updates since I turned it on a day and a half ago. I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and getting a new one, but I hate setting up new computers. I'll think about it tomorrow.

I must confess that I'd forgotten about her and likely wouldn't have come up with her name, but the instant I saw your post, her face flashed into my mind. In those days, I wanted so badly to be Twiggy or Peggy or whichever other skinny big-eyed girl hit the magazines that year. RIP Peggy.

Made up a soup with some of the chicken from the skewers I roasted the other day. Used a packaged cilantro lime rice, some chopped tomato, chicken stock and a dollop of jalapeno something from Trader Joe's that's been lurking in the fridge for a long time. I have to admit that I am really getting hungry for "real" food, i.e., meat to eat with a knife/fork, veggies and a nice glass of wine. My dear friend who always beings me food texted me yesterday and asked me what I'd like to cheer me up and he'd make it for me. I politely declined. I was afraid it would be chicken drumsticks. LOL.

A friend dropped off some wonderful chili lime chicken skewers while I was visiting my husband. I popped them into the oven for a quick roast before it got too hot. Froze some for later and ate some tonight with arugula, sliced tomato, avocado lime dressing and buttered baguette. And as long as I had the oven on, put in the shriveling cherry tomatoes I had and a huge green pepper to roast for freezing to use in whatever.

Thanks for the prosciutto tip!

@small h Congrats!! The cake looks/sounds delicious!!