Damn, I come here for some semblance of social relaxation, and now I’m worrying about shingles (I did have chicken pox as a kid; I believe that’s the precursor?) and looking for hampers with handles on Amazon.
My kitchen is clean, well, except I didn’t mop the floor, tho I did give it a good rollsuck, including getting along the baseboards and into the corners. I polished the counters, once again cursing the granite. I didn’t want it and I really don’t like it, except for being able to set hot pots on it. FCD wanted it and I caved. I’m really sorry I did, but oh well…
Anyway, the granite is shiny, the crap is cleared away (including the stuff I carried to the basement, stepping carefully the whole way since both hands were full.) I’m having some ice water and I’m about to settle in with my book for a while before deciding what else to tackle. Plus I need to figure out supper - it’s nearly 2 and if I need to thaw, I need to do it now. Or we’ll have grilled cheese. Either way…
ETA: @purplehorseshoe two posts up. FCM snuck in there.
Shingles is undesirable for sure. You getting a low-cost vax when it’s convenient is a darn good idea. But it’s not like there’s a raging plague of it out in the wilds where you are and every day you’re at great bodily peril.
I got shingles about 5 years ago, age 59. A reddish rash about 2" square on the side of my chest that looked like a herd of mosquitoes had had a feeding frenzy / pizza party there while I slept. Closely spaced distinct little red bumps. It wasn’t there when I went to bed and it was there big time the next morning. I was in a hotel and suspected bed bugs. Nope. Shingles. Doc took one glance at it and was sure. Alternate back-up doc agreed. Took a week of antibiotics and it subsided.
The rash was mildly annoying for that week or two then went away. After an infection you’re not supposed to get the vax for 6 months so I waited then got the two doses. No issues since.
I’ve certainly read and heard shingles horror stories. But here’s a shingles non-horror story if that makes you feel better.
To each their own, but I find granite indestructible, hides spills & water spots just wonderfully, and is easy to clean. And heatproof as you say. Seems to me to be a nearly ideal countertop material.
What makes yours so … challenging?
As to me:
We just got pix of the newborn who was released from the hospital this afternoon. Of course there was a mix-up. How could there not be? The kid had been transferred to a different hospital without telling the foster agency. So Daughter shows up to collect her new charge at the old hospital. Who has no clue what kid she’s talking about. Massive interagency stupidity ensues. “I thought you had the baby!”
Anyhow, all’s well that ends well (or begins well) and a new 4lb preemie joins the Chaotic Horde. Totally cute. We can’t share pix of fosters; against agency rules. Trust me - she’s adorable.
Got a fair amount done in two hours. DMV, dropped off DH’s full sharps container at the nearby hospital, got groceries*, and even got a Taco Bell breakfast, which isn’t frequent for me. I do like the AM Crunchwrap, you can never go wrong with those little Cinnabon balls, and I got orange juice so I can pretend my breakfast had some nutritional value 
.
- OK, the non-perishables are still in the car. This will be corrected once I’ve finished my breakfast. The first load in, with perishables, breakfast, purse, and folder with sensitive ID documents DMV needed to issue me a Real ID, pretty much got me to carrying capacity.
This is a bread that my mother used to make. I think she got it from a McCall’s magazine. It used to be called a “patio bread” for whatever reason:
Herb-Parmesan Bread
This is batter bread, so it doesn’t require kneading, just thorough mixing of ingredients.
4 ¼ cups sifted flour
2 pkg. active dry yeast (check date)
2 TBSP sugar
2 TSP salt
1½ TBSP dried oregano leaves
½ cup plus 1 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese (or combine with Romano or Asiago)
2 cups warm water (110 deg.F)
2 TBSP softened butter
In a mixing bowl, place three cups of the flour. Add salt, yeast, sugar, and oregano and mix on low speed or by hand until blended. Check the temperature of the water with a thermometer. This is critical for the yeast to properly activate. Add the water and softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add the ½ cup of Parmesan cheese. Continue beating for 2 minutes until the batter is smooth. Add the rest of the flour gradually, either beating in by hand or with mixer at low speed. The batter should not be too wet. If it is, add a bit more sifted flour, or you’ll end up with a dense product.
Cover the bowl and let rise in warm place for about 45 minutes until double in bulk. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Beat the dough down for about 30 seconds, then transfer to a well-greased 2-quart casserole dish.
Sprinkle the remaining TBSP of cheese over the top of the bread and bake for about 45 minutes or until nicely browned. Turn out immediately onto a wire rack. It helps to run a table knife around the dish to break the loaf loose before attempting to turn it out onto the rack. Otherwise, part of it may remain in the dish.
Context is everything. Took me a while to figure out that catlickers have nothing to do with cats.\
Every time I read about balconatin’ I come up with balconette, as in balconette bra.
All this talk about RSV vaccine prompted me to send an email to my parents to see if they got it, or have planned to, or need to. I have a doctor’s appointment in a few weeks, so I’ll ask if I can get the Shingles vaccine. I know another woman here who is the same age who was able to get her doctor to agree, which means insurance pays.
Not sure about the next Covid vaccine, mainly because I think the government hasn’t decided, but I will definitely get whatever’s recommended, plus the flu vaccine.
A bit pricier, but we got these, which my parents have been using for years: CleverMade Collapsible Laundry Totes
I really don’t like it when my husband walks down the circular stairs without being able to see where he’s going, so the totes help with that.
Looks yummy. This sounds like a good candidate for using up some of the oregano I harvested in June.
Did an Ikea run this morning and did two loads of laundry. We got the green light to store our garden tools in the shed again, so I started on that. Before the tools were just piled in a corner, and how we want to hang that up. So we’ll have to go to the hardware store in the morning. Such hardship. 
Supposed to be cooling off and then we’re going to get rain for 3 days. We need it. And I might catch up on my sleep.
This morning, I decided that Bailey should go to doggy daycare for some exercise and socialization (and to get a brush-out and nail trim while she’s there). Due to her “old dog” hip issues she hasn’t been able to jump into the passenger seat on her own for quite some time: I tried a couple different types of ramps, but she wouldn’t go near them. She uses an ottoman to jump up on the bed, and that recently gave me the idea to try a stepstool: I got a folding metal one that seemed like it would be both the right height and large/sturdy enough for her to trust (not a super common combo). This morning I put it next to the car for the first time, and – miracle of miracles – she used it! And it only took a couple of minutes for her to figure it out! I’m relieved: letting her get up there herself is much easier and better for both of us than me lifting her. (She still jumps down/out on her own, it’s just getting in the car that she needs a little help with.)
Anyway, I know she’s been having a good day there but the house has been waaaaaay too quiet. I miss her, and am looking forward to picking her up in about 2 hours (~5pm). Work has been fairly quiet today (
), so I’m hoping to call it quits around 4pm and do some putzing around before going to get her.
Once the dog and I are back home, I look forward to an evening/weekend of sloth. 
There’s a local jazz jam session on Sunday morning that I’m considering, but otherwise I have zero plans…well, except for paying my bills and calling Verizon to cancel my cable and landline services tomorrow.
I asked about it during my training session last night: turns out the local youth soccer organization has some kind of arrangement with the gym, for 8 weeks of team training sessions. Last night there was a group of HS boys working with a coach/trainer; the boys on Tuesday were much younger, and it was a larger group. Seems like a great idea to me, as general physical fitness has to be just as important for them as soccer skills. And last night I was working with my trainer in a separate part of the “training area” space, so the kids weren’t nearly as distracting.
I generally don’t nitpick simple typos (I believe you meant “mandonline”), but I seriously spent several minutes wondering why you’d have to be “old enough” to play a lute and how you could possibly cut yourself with one! 
I am content to remain a renter for the forseable future, but if I ever own a place I’m totally getting fake grass. Hell, the other day I actually Googled “artificial hedges” just to see if that was a thing (spoiler: it is!)!
I got last year’s in October; I generally target sometime in September/October. I used to never get flu shots – and I don’t remember the last time I had the flu – but I’ve gotten one every year since one of my best friends became immunocompromised.
I tried getting the shingles vaccine, but my insurance won’t cover Shingrix – at least, not at a regular CVS. The pharmacist said that sometimes it’ll be covered if I go to a Minute Clinic, but I haven’t bothered to call my insurance company yet to find out. It’s on my “one of these days” list.
I’ve been an election officer since 2020. Here, though, Republicans are thin on the ground; there’s no guarantee that Democrat-identifying officers will get assignments, and this past November I didn’t. I also didn’t work in November 2021, because my original bariatric surgery date was two days before the election. I’ve worked every June, though, and am hoping to get to work the upcoming general (we’ve already been asked to provide our availability statements).
I got a fancy change purse after my first election:
A few years ago I got nervous about the idea of falling in the shower (when my phone is in the other room) and not being able to get help, so I got a $50 Google Nest Mini. If your emergency contacts are willing to install/set up Goole Duo on their phones, you can use the Nest to call them via voice command. My place is small enough that I have it in an unobtrusive spot in the living room and it can hear me from anywhere in the house (even if I’m in the bathroom with the door closed). If I ever trip going down the back patio steps or in/out of the laundry room, though, and don’t have my phone on me, I’ll be screwed. 
My PCP always did/does my foot checks. I’ve only seen a podiatrist the two times I needed to have a toenail removed (same nail: the first time we let it grow back, but it was still infected so the second time the doc killed it for good).
Oooo, thank you for mentioning this! I checked my records, and will be due for another one in nine months.
(BTW, the CDC says it’s “DTaP” for kids but “Tdap” for teens and adults.)
Always a hit. One could probably substitute any dried herb, but oregano has a strong flavor that comes through well.
Yes, childhood chickenpox is the precursor. Once you have the evil virus in your body, it hides out in spinal nerves, waiting decades to strike (if ever).
The vaccine website (Shingrix) says it’s for those 50 and older. 96% of the health insurances pay for it completely (as does Medicare), but of course that only works if you get insurance through work or can afford ACA coverage. Way too many workers in the US fall between the cracks. So, the first time you’re 50 and you have insurance, get it. The price without insurance is running about $186 and up near me, so twice $186 over 2-6 months. Yikes!
I got to get shingles vaccine series twice. I am juuuussstt the right age to have gotten the Zostavax series (the first shingles vaccine) when I turned 60 and then ten years later was advised to do the shingrix series when it came out because it’s coverage was significantly better than the Zostavax was proving to be. So, all told, 4 shingles vaccines.
The good news is that we’ve developed better antivirals in the past decade and if you do get shingles, get diagnosed within 72 hours so you can pump in some acyclovir.
@LSLGuy’s experience is also common, it’s just that you never know whether your shingles are going to be his kind or the torture chamber kind til it happens. Relative youth, overall health and immune system strength help you have the LSL experience, so you have that in your favor. Being a home health nurse I saw all the torture chamber shingles and none of the easy ones, so my view is skewed to the worst case scenarios.
The “pattern” of the material hides everything. I have to run my hands over it to know if it’s dirty or sticky. Plus there are natural imperfections - little voids that trap crud. I wish we’d chosen an engineered material that is truly smooth. My mom has some that’s great. Ours, not so much.
FCD doesn’t want supper, so we’ll graze. I will help at the school tomorrow. The rest of today is for chillage.
Howdy Y’all! Much sloth and laziness has ensued as promised earlier. The wildest activity of the day was to don attire acceptable for bein’ amongst the great unwashed and goin’ to Sonny’s to eat around three-thirty this afternoon. I am just now postin’ cause all that activity wore me out and I needed to compose myself before I could compose a post.
Boo I had the TDAP last year durin’ my annual wellness visit. At least I’m up to date on one health thing. All this talk of vaccines reminded me of when I was a wee cub of seven or eight and we went over to the school house on a Sunday afternoon to get the Sabin polio vaccine. That’s the oral one that was given in a wee little cup with a sugar cube. I was there with my younger sister and brother (the twins) and sis was afraid to swallow the vaccine because she decided she would choke on the sugar cube. We found one of her girl friends and got her to chug it down with the friend. I remembered that, now, if only I can remember where my keys, wallet and phone are…
You get a 
from Nurse Boo. So many older folks (and way too many of their docs) miss that every ten years thing, unless something else happens like a scratch from on feral outdoors cat or falling and scraping your chin in a parking lot grate taking out trash. Those were my previous two tetanus ER or Urgent Care boosters (and I’m a nurse, no excuse and no gold stars for me). The last two tdaps or Dtaps were in 2017 and 2021 when I had a grandchild about to be born and their prospective pediatricians asked that grandparents who would be handling them as newborns get those to protect against pertussis (whooping cough) until the wee one was old enough to be vaccinated against pertussis themselves. Pharmacies tend to not stock all those vaccines (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis)separately and just say “oh, hell, here’s Tdap/Dtap, that’ll cover it”. Works for me if I get a grandbaby out of it. I sure am covered against tetanus for the next few years though!
I was eager to get the RSV one when I did because grandbaby #2 started at a new, large preschool this week and I figured he was likely to bring home a whole new bunch of germs from a whole new bunch of kids and teachers. RSV is scary if you have asthma and a hemiparalyzed diaphragm to begin with.
Next up for me is the latest Covid booster. Gonna give myself a week or so on that, let my immune system powerlift these two new ones first.
ETA:
Here’s what the CDC says about the latest Covid and when it’s expected. Looks like my immune system will have a month to powerlift the last two before I throw a Covid booster at it.
… Those shots still need approvals from the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC, which will set eligibility guidelines for the jabs. An independent panel of advisors to the CDC is meeting on Sept. 12 to vote on a recommendation for those guidelines.
Officials from the CDC and FDA said the agencies will encourage Americans to receive an updated Covid shot and other key vaccines ahead of the fall, when respiratory viruses typically begin to spread more widely. That includes the annual flu shot and recently approved jabs that protect older adults and infants from respiratory syncytial virus.…
I will be getting the 2nd shingles shot over labour day weekend, I have to try and find a window around allergy shots and dupixent shot. The doc wants 3 days between all shots. A bit tough with weekly allergy and biweekly dupixent. Fri or sat of labour day is the bit of a crack in the window.
I’m UTD with shingles and Tdap. Will get flu shot in October. @rocking_chair , are we Dupixent users allowed to get live vaccines? Thought I read somewhere that is a no no.
For some of us, that’s a feature, not a bug.
(Disclaimer: I don’t have granite counters.)
I was going to say the same thing. 
Patterns be good for those of us who are less than obsessive cleaners. I find sticky by setting something on the counter and when I lift it, if it fights back, that spot must be sticky. So that spot gets cleaned. Easy Peasy. Eventually every spot gets touched and cleaned, but not all at once. That would resemble work.
If you do have granite that’s got a bunch of small voids that’s a pisser. Those should have been filled at the stoneworks.
My new apartment came with some sort of engineered quartz. It’s predominantly off-white with a few dark gray and dark brown flecks about the size of breadcrumbs. It is very smooth. If it isn’t perfectly clean of water spots or spilled / condensed whatever it looks filthy. Easy to wipe off, but very high effort to make look good as opposed to just not-gross. The breadcrumb sized flecks also make it hard to find and pick up actual crumbs. We’re forever finding a fleck of this or that that got farther afield than we expected.
Be careful what you wish for.
We drove out to a nice fish place 3-4 miles away for sorta early dinner at 6pm. They’d opened a year-plus ago and we’d just never been. I had a very nice grilled swordfish (not whole) on a bed of sauteed spinach and shoe-stringed zukes & summer squash. Her Ladyship wanted the crab cakes appetizer, of which she ate half. We’re back now and I’m researching additional insurance. Yaay me! Ugh.
wheelie, I drove open bed pick up trucks for quite a few years, some of which I had to use a laundromat, so my clothes basket is actually a 33 gallon Rubbermaid tote. Even though the only steps at my place are the two to come in the door, I can carry the tote with one hand. It also serves as a suitcase on road trips.
Your bread recipe sounds like just the thing for my bumper crop of oregano cookie. I’m wondering if it would be good with a little basil too.
Your step stool for Bailey sounds like the one that I used on my 1967 Chevy C20 to check the oil (I stopped once a week to check the gas and fill up the oil 
). One of the several reasons that I chose to stick with a small dog was to be able to lift him into the car in case of a vet emergency.
JtC, my mom, and in some years, my dad served many years as a poll worker. Even my paternal grandfather served several elections after naturalization. I may do that after retirement.
Apartment is clean, laundry done, bed made, groceries / gas bought, bills / cards mailed, supper et and now for sloth. It hit 105F 
here today, so sloth under the AC is the best thing. I’ll work on the wedding invitation order tomorrow, since I’ll still be on OT next week 
Shingrex is not a live vaccine. After the initial double dose of dupixent I got a trifecta of bad ear infection, facial palsy, and shingles. The docs have been trying to get a window to get the shots after that.
Up from naptime, watching preseason handegg, and making fish tacos for dinner. And a gin&tonic, to fight a scurvy flare up.
Well when someone comes into your store and is upset about a company policy and throws a 20 minute screaming fit at you, sending everybody else running, and it’s the District Manager? Yeah, I had an extra martini or 3 after work. 
Organizing is very relaxing.(even my junk draw is organized.)
Yes, please. Thank you swampy and everyone. And, JtC, I think that I can let most office politics wash over me so long as I am not the specific target. In my current situation, there’s only two of us.
And I think she realizes she went too far yesterday, because she even wished me a good weekend when I left today. After yelling at me earlier for a mistake I did make. And being sarcastic about the project I was working on, and asking why aren’t you working on this other priority project instead. Because, I replied, I’ve gone as far as I can with it without your input. (I had told her a month ago that it was ready for her editing, but she wasn’t interested at the time. So I think she realized that that particular ball had been sitting in her court for quite some time. smirk
nellie, what shoe said about using the walker. We all heal on our own time so use the walker. Then work your way to a cane when the PT says you are ready for it. But hopefully a cane soon. And then keep that cane around for when you might need it again. Though I don’t need it right now, I discovered that it is handy for getting me priority boarding on flights after messing up a ligament in my foot. And it is handy for poking people, dogs, and hooking chairs to pull them nearer to you.
And yay for being an election worker. I signed up 4 years ago for working on mail-in ballots. While not thrilling, the process was interesting and I can confirm at least one county had no room for messing with people’s votes. Everything was professionally handled, and I
Sadly, the show is no more. I never got to see it. We would beg our parents to take us to the Dells, but our own cabin was closer and cheaper. But did I ever go myself once I became an adult? Heck no. Silly me.
I had a call with them several months back to help me determine whether I should pull the plug and collect early benefits. I, too, was darn impressed with my caller. He was able to confirm some suspicions I had about the drawbacks on collecting before I reach my retirement age so that’s part of why I’m working for the control freak. Only 4 years to to go before I reach full benefits, and 7 years before I hit age for top benefits, unless Congress decides otherwise.
Practice, practice. I suggest every week until you get it right! 
Sensei, I had that happen to me years ago with a neighbor I had never met. Turns out he was an alcoholic who drove the wrong way down a street after the bars closed and hit a cop car at speed. The cop landed in the hospital but the neighbor didn’t even make it that far. Just sad, as you say. I had even tried to be friendly with him, but he mumbled and then ignored me. What can you do?
Anyhoo, Friday night. Yay! Getting up at Oh Dark Thirty tomorrow to head to the race track. That will put some sanity back into my life. Yay again. You all have a wonderful day tomorrow!