Fat Tuesday

Yep, today is Fat Tuesday along with a new moon. Fat Tuesday is really Mardi Gras, "Gras" is French for fat and "Mardi" is French for Tuesday. Mardi Gras starts on January 6, the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany, when the three kings are supposed to have visited the Christ Child, and build to a climax on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, which always occurs on the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also called Shrove Day.

Many cultures celebrate this time in different ways although it is considered the time to party it up, and ....eat. It is a day when people eat all they want of everything and anything they want since the following day is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a long fasting period for Christians. In addition to fasting, Christians also give up something special that they enjoy. So, Fat Tuesday is a celebration and the opportunity to enjoy that favorite food or snack that you give up for the long lenten season.

The Polish celebrate Fat Tuesday with paczki (pronounced ponchki) which are pastries that are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings and can be glazed, or covered with granulated or powdered sugar. Never had one but heard they are delicious!

Venice is home to one of the most famous Carnival celebrations in the world, in addition to one of the oldest. The Carnival of Venice (or Carnevale di Venezia in Italian) was first recorded in 1268. While many cities and celebrations include parades with beads and coins thrown off floats, not all do. Panamaian cities celebrate by soaking people using water trucks and hoses. In Slovenia it is called Kurentovanje, from the word Kurent which is the name of a mask made of sheep skin and richly decorated. People make noise with bells attached on their hips. It's also one of the traditions to eat doughnuts. Eating pancakes is the tradition in Europe.

Well, I didn't celebrate by eating pancakes, paczkis or doughnuts. I didn't get one bead or see one mask or parade. I did get to research Fat Tuesday so that has to count for something, right?

And I did get to see the crazies that come with a New Moon. Lucky me!

High School Reunions

Do you attend or not? I just got a heads up that the high school my husband graduated from is planning their 40th class reunion this October. Hubs graduated from a small high school where everyone knew everyone else and 95% of them married within that community. We went to his 15th, 20th, and 25th and basically even though I was introduced and stood by my husband's side, I was not acknowledged nor made to feel welcome in the slightest. As soon as they heard I had not attended "their school", I became the tablecloth. There have been reunions since and he did go to one, figuring that only classmates would be there (that is what the invitation said), but he was wrong and spouses were invited if they attended his school. Well, that left him as the only one without a date. So he has not gone to any others. They are planning an entire 3 day weekend for the 40th. I don't know if we are going or not. Maybe I will get a headache. I actually have not met a snottier bunch of people in my life.

On the other hand, I attended a huge high school in which I was one of 660. I attended my own 10 year reunion but have not been to another since. I didn't know many people in my class. We had 2 high schools - one for freshman and sophomores and another for juniors and seniors. For my 1st 2 years of high school, I was in band which meant band members had classes at the high school where the juniors and seniors went. After lunch the band members that were in advanced classes stayed at that high school while the others were transported by bus back to the freshman and sophomore high school to mingle with their class for the rest of the day. My junior year was spent with the seniors (we were on split shifts due to space) and once again the only class members I saw were band members. My senior year I elected to do the work program so I was only at school for 2 hours per day, then attended college classes for another 2 hours, then worked for 8 hours. I was never a part of my class therefore, unless they were band members, I hardly knew anyone else.

At our 10 year reunion, a couple of band friends that I used to hang around with actually left the reunion (none of us knew anyone) and went to a bar and had our own reunion. The idea was born that night to organize a band reunion encompassing the years our band director was at our school (he had recently retired after over 40 years of directing). We held the band reunion a year later and we actually drew over 60% of band members and their families for a huge picnic from the years 1933 through 1980. I was in charge of it and we went through yearbooks to designate a member of each class to head up finding the band members from their year. With a lot of help, we were able to do huge raffles and had the whole picnic sponsored free of charge. We had a blast! Those were the kids who we knew. Kids from all years, not just the year we graduated. They meant more to me than any other kid in my school.

I have never attended another reunion from my class. I just don't know anyone. I figure that those I have kept in touch with were the ones I wanted to anyway so why should I fork out money to see people I barely knew then, let alone now.

I was going through the statistics on how many classmates actually attend a class reunion and was shocked that the numbers were only in the range of 20-30%. So curiously, I went back to see who were those who attended. They were from the following categories: 1. the cool kids in the 'in' crowd who want to re-live their youth and once again be where they felt they were on top of the world, 2. the kids who wanted to brag about how great their life is now, 3. the curious who wanted to see how the handsome and former prom queens fared over the years, 4. the kids who are now single and want to see if they can snag and hook up with someone, and 5. the nerds who want to show everyone how far they have come. Pretty sad I felt.

I actually like who I am now. Why would one ever want to go back and re-live their teen years? Especially if you were the geek who had a father as a teacher at the same school? Yeah, not my cup of tea.

Now band trip memories.....bring huge smiles to my face! Those were really good memories.

I. Smell. Old. People.

I swear I can spot an older person a mile away. I can smell them. I should know. I have spent a whole lotta time at the hospital where the youngest person on my FIL's floor was over 80. I remember being way younger (yes I can still remember those days) and thinking that old people have a very peculiar odor....something like a combination of mothballs, fried foods, sweat that is a few days old, urine, talcum powder, and just plain dirt. In those younger days I used to think that while it was not entirely unpleasant, it was still something I swore I was never going to have happen to either my parents or myself. Ahhh.....the innocence of youth.

After spending an entire week with old people, I decided to investigate why they carry that specific odor.

Urban dictionary states that old people smell is the smell of mold, mildew, and perfume. Usually found on people 65+.

So here are a few things I came up with:

1. The sense of smell changes as we age. While most old people have a good nose, it is a medical fact that one smells things the best when they are a child, hits a plateau from the teens to the 50's and starts decreasing after 60 and keeps going downhill from there. An 80+ year old therefore is only able to smell things half as well as a 20 year old. OK....I can understand that. Makes sense. They can't smell themselves. Maybe my nose is more sensitive and instead of my nose aging, it is getting younger....okay I can go with this explanation.

2. Another explanation I found was that it was all about pheromones. Scientists have proven that humans emit pheromones, like pretty much any animal does. And these pheromones attract people to each other. In the case of old people, something has gone wrong with their pheromones. It's possible that their pheromones aged and simply went bad, kind of like milk does. So, this would mean that the old person smell is a result of the elderly emitting rotten pheromones. Makes sense. Makes more sense when you see older people attracting other older people. Doesn't explain cougars though. How do they get past the smell? Maybe they are attracted to old pheromones.

3. Okay, you can blame Ben Gay for some old people smells. There seems to be an increase in the number of people who use the product. Maybe they put a chemical in the product that attracts old people - like a pheromone or something. They have a patent on the ingredient that makes people not resist Ben Gay. Yeah don't think so.

4. Blame it on the Obama or Bush or the media or politicians or CEO's or anything else your heart desires. After all the popular thing to do these days is to blame anyone and everyone else for everything that's wrong. Interesting theory - could be true.

5. Another theory I found while googling was that not all old people smell. Okay, maybe it was just that hospital, my inlaw's home, and just the people on the floor my FIL was on. Nah....don't think so.

6. There was another theory that they get the smell from the medications they have to take, or from their decaying teeth, or maybe they just plain don't bathe enough or wash their clothes enough, nor clean their house enough. After all they are slowing down and not able to do as much as they could even a decade ago. Most can't even reach around and wipe themselves. So now there is a medication smell, decaying teeth, sweat and body odors from not bathing or washing their clothes, or wiping themselves good enough. This could be it.

I. Smell. Old. People.

The odor just does not go away. It seems to have penetrated my pores. I have washed and rewashed and rinsed my sinuses and bathed and I still smell old people. Why is that even an overwhelming odor such as sauteing garlic and onions in olive oil seems to go away after a few minutes but old people smell lingers? Our system is supposed to adapt - that is why garlic and onion smells go away. Our system adapted.

So even after all my investigation, I still can't figure out what makes old people smell so strong and last so long.

Any clues?

Did you know.........

1. that cars that have an anti-theft lock feature built into them, can make a car cease to work when the key breaks? I didn't until it happened to me. I had dropped off MIL and took her groceries inside and helped her put them away. My dear husband had broken his key to the car over a year ago and had superglued it back together. He decided to give it to me and he take mine since he drives the car more than I do. Well, super glue only lasts so long. The key broke. I was still able to get the stub into the ignition and turn the key portion but the car just would not turn on. I called hubs. He didn't have a clue. I called a neighbor next door to MIL who figured out that the key portion needed to be attached to the black part of the key (the part that you point at the car and it opens the car doors and trunk or sounds an alarm - by the way those didn't work after we used the super glue which is another reason I believe that I was relegated to hubs broken key and he got my good key). So we went into MIL's house (who I should mention was saying - "why don't you just stay over") and after an application of a bit of electrical tape wrapped around the key and anchored so the bottom part of the key stayed in connection with the top part, viola the car started! The snow that had started falling an hour before was now accumulating which was going to mean a nasty drive home but no way was I staying another night at MIL's.

2. that old people have this odor about them that makes one smell it for hours and hours and hours later? OMG I cleaned my nostrils with bulb syringe and after 4 rinses, I was still smelling old people. I finally put some carmex under my nose to take the smell away and am washing all my clothes tonight with a disinfectant. Whoever told old people not to bathe but once in a blue moon should be shot. Old Spice or Jean Nate on top of old people smell does not cover the odor. They stink!

3. that just when you are within 1 mile of your house after an hour and half drive in the snow, that something will happen to make said trip longer? No, I didn't get stopped for speeding. No, I wasn't in an accident. But a car (going in the opposite direction) had gotten into an accident and had caught fire which stopped traffic on my side of the expressway. Yep stopped dead. 5 minutes away from my exit and dead stop. I could see the exit. Couldn't get there. Why you ask did my side stop? Who the shit knows. Took me another hour to go the last mile.

4. that spending day in and day out at a hospital with old people causes one to raise one's voice and speak in a slow voice with simple language so you are understood? I didn't realize it until I was telling my husband what happened today and how FIL was doing. I keep lapsing back. I need reprogramming.

5. that I say "you know" a lot when I am tired and am trying to think of what I am trying to say but the words are brain farting on me? I didn't until it was kindly pointed out by a you know......a friend tonight.

6. that one can crochet an entire blanket in 3 days while sitting in a hospital room and start on another? We won't say that the blanket is going to a baby who is now almost 3 months old. I am just a wee behind. The next blanket is going to be plain white but in the soft baby yarn for someone who requested it many moons ago. I didn't forget.

Update on FIL

I got a call from his caretaker at 6am and he had not slept all night at all and was having a hard time breathing. We took him to the er and they admitted him (yeah took them 8 hours to figure that one out). He now has the pneumonia along with congestive heart failure and his lungs are so full of fluid he can't breathe. We almost had to make the decision to put him on a ventilator but the medicine (Lasix) is working for the time being.

Oy....didn't they get the message that the full moon was last week?

Pneumonia in the elderly

FIL has had a cold for over a week but the caretakers at the group home he is in had called me stating that his cough was getting worse. I called his doctor and got him an appointment for Friday along with one for MIL whose sleeplessness and anxiety had resulted in numerous phone calls to us the past 3 days. The doctor changed around MIL's medications and had us take FIL to the hospital for a chest xray and blood work. Chest x-ray confirmed FIL had pneumonia. So since the doctor considered him stable, he was allowed to return back to his group home with heavy antibiotics and nebulizer treatments. He was happy. So were we because this was his first time out of the home and we didn't quite know how he would react to being taken back. But we had no problems at all with him. Quite a difference from a few weeks ago.

So the kids came and we took MIL to dinner then the kids left and hubs and I took MIL home and went over her bills and I rewrote out her medication list. I should have looked at said list BEFORE she went to the doctor because she wasn't taking one of the medicines all week and only half the other one. That was why she wasn't sleeping and was so anxious. We straightened her out and figured out she had overpaid a few doctors so I will be getting her money back from them.

Today we went back over to check on both. FIL is doing a bit better - his cough is more moist and although he isn't coughing anything up, it is looser. He said he felt better and the caretakers said he has been eating better. Hubs and I got MIL 4 - one week pill containers with 4 boxes per day (morning, noon, supper, night). I set up MIL's medicines for the next 4 weeks. MIL has been sleeping and seems calmer. So for this day, maybe we will be able to get some sleep without worrying about them.

I will probably be back there within a day or two keeping on eye on FIL.

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death in the elderly. The reasons are simple actually - they are usually frailer, have a lot of other diseases like diabetes, heart problems, malignancy, weaker immune systems, diminished lung capacity due to age, and even dementia. FIL's health was at least better than a month ago. He has even gained 7 pounds. He is eating better and getting more exercise and better care. But the elderly with any other disease are more likely to develop complications.

It is also harder to recognize pneumonia in the elderly because of the following reasons:
1. only half of the elderly run a fever
2. only a few have any respiratory symptoms (cough, sputum production, difficulty breathing)
3. their only symptom might only be a sudden onset of mental status changes such as confusion
4. they might show also only show a rapid heart rate or rapid respiratory rate.

FIL had a simple cold that within a week went into pneumonia. One could actually hear the rattling in his chest and at least his chest x-ray showed it. Most times that doesn't happen. Hopefully we caught it in time.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hubs and I plan on staying at home and catching up on each other, etc.

5th Photo Meme

5th Photo Meme

Z tagged me for this fun little meme-

The rules: Find your 5th photo file folder,then the 5th photo in that file folder. Post that picture on your blog. Tag 5 others to do the same.



Like Z I didn't realize I had that many picture folders (actually have 5 My Picture Folders). My 5th one was my funny cartoons I have collected over the years. The 5th photo in there was Maxine of course :)

But I really don't know if I want to understand a man any more than this: just let them have the remote and that makes them happy.

Head Cold

Yep those little buggers have invaded my head and are throwing one heck of a party. The actual definition of a head cold is:

A common cold mainly affecting the mucous membranes of the nasal passages, characterized by congestion, headache, and sneezing.

Yep, have all 3 including drippy eyes. I can thank 2 people for giving it to me - my daughter and one of my office girls. So, yeah...huge thanks **insert eyeroll**

I have been using home remedies to get rid of it although with my head super stuffy, my vertigo is going nuts so I am super loopy and glad to stay in bed.

Here are some home remedies I use:

1. Blow your nose often instead of sniffing the mucus back. Blow your nose the right way (press a finger over one nostril while you clear the other one, then reverse). Make sure you wash your hands right after. Dispose of said tissue right away. Don't reuse it.

2. Sleep a lot. You need rest to let your body heal itself and boost your immune system.

3. Drink a whole lot, especially hot liquids. They will help relieve the congestion, prevent your body from dehydrating yourself, and can soothe your nose and throat.

4. To help a sore throat - gargle with a teaspoon of salt dissolved in warm water a few times a day.

5. To stop the tickle in your throat - drink some hot tea and put some honey in it. There are times I just eat a teaspoon of honey.

6. Steam yourself - the steam opens up the nasal passages and moisturizes them. You can take a steamy shower or put your head over a pot of boiling water with a towel draped over your head. Steam opens up the sinuses allows them to drain.

7. Now this is my extra trick: I use Carmex everyday for my lips but when I get a head cold, I grease up my nose with the Carmex - it prevents the 'Rudolph nose' and helps keep the nasal area from being rubbed raw from blowing your nose all the time. The menthol, eucalyptus and camphor in the Carmex will also help open the nasal passages. (I actually can't use the Kleenex with lotions in them - they clog my pores and irritate my skin more).

8. I increase my vitamin intake, especially Vitamin C intake along with sucking on zinc lozenges.

9. Now all of you who know me won't believe this one: I actually freeze when I am sick. So yes, I turn on my side of the electric blanket to high and actually get under it and use it. Yeah, really do.

Today is day 2 and am feeling a bit better although about to head back to bed.

Happy Birthday Honey Honey Honey

"Take every birthday with a grain of salt.
This works much better for me if the salt accompanies a large margarita"

Smoochies.................

Warmup - Chicago Style

Chicago is pretty unique. Us natives always say - wait a few hours and if you don't like the weather it will change. Chicago weather is constantly changing. Take for instance last night - it was minus 18 in the burbs. Today the temps got up to a balmy 25 with a low of 18. We are going to be in for a heat wave this weekend with temps on Saturday reaching 47 with a low of 24.

In Chicago language this means: beware of flooding. The 20some inches of snow we have on the ground along with the higher amounts piled in parking lots and the sides of the streets plus what we have piled on top of our roofs will be melting during the day, then refreeze at night. So beware of falling icicles (especially if walking downtown), black ice, and the famous Chicago potholes that will consume cars and eat tires. Should be a booming business in the local ER's and the body shops and the tire stores.



The question in a Chicago winter - will it last? Well, for at least a week it will hit a high of 52 by middle of next week. For Chicagoans, that means bathing suits and shorts! Chicago weather has a habit of luring us into those temps then slamming us with a foot or more of snow then double digit temps BELOW zero.

We learn not to hold our breath and just let Mother Nature do what it wants.

Parking - Chicago Style vs Burb Style

A lot has been said about the unique way Chicago deals with how one parks on a city street. Chicago has become known for all sorts of things being used to 'save' a parking space you shovel out so when you come home, you have your shoveled space back and thus don't have to shovel another space out. Chicago actually tried to fight this and banned saving spaces but I think that was lifted because all you see on the side streets are inventive ways of saving your spot.


Now I don't live downtown and so I don't have to worry about shoveling myself out. The burbs are much more sophisticated. We snowplow our driveways into the street so the snow plow has to come back down our street and plow again - it's a burb thang! But our problem doesn't come into play with where we are going to park our cars at home, it's trying to park at shopping centers. The snow is piled high - like very very high - and that piled snow takes over spaces that were usually used for parking.


The problem comes in seeing around these now over 6 feet tall piles without hitting anyone, or finding a space.

That was my problem this morning. I went to the beauty shop which is in a small strip mall - 6 stores max. There are normally plenty of parking spaces for all 6 stores - 24 spaces. But with all the snow we have, the piles took over all but 10 spaces. Now usually a parking space has 2 solid lines and you are supposed to park between said lines. That is what we are taught. In the burbs during snow season, it is every man for himself. If you park next to a snowbank, you are allowed to park helter skelter and take as much space on either side of your car as you want, totally ignoring those solid lines. Who cares if no one else is able to park? All that matters is that you got to park and you took up over 2 spaces. Your car is safe and you don't have to walk on snow.

That happened to me this morning. It took me over 20 minutes to find a space and said space was over 2 blocks away. I had to walk in the street to get back to the salon. Nothing like taking a walk in -3 degree weather, dodging cars and snow piles....just so some a-holes take as much space as they felt they needed.

Guess no one ever told them to stay within the lines - lines are your friends.

Breast Biopsy - update

Well, I honestly don't know. The lump they biopsied was negative for 9 cores. However, the surgeon doesn't think they biopsied the right lump since my still open draining area isn't in the right spot according to him. He looked at my MRI and at the ultrasound images and thinks they biopsied the wrong lump.

So since they put a marker into the lump they biopsied, they are waiting for the area to heal and in 3 weeks, I will have another MRI to see if the marker is in the correct lump. If it is, then it is not cancer but should be watched every 6 months because it did have an uptake in the dye. If it isn't, then it's another biopsy only this time they will do it via the MRI which means I get to have it done via lala land.

So we are back in a holding pattern.

Puppy Bowl

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/puppy-bowl/puppy-bowl.html

For those of you who have never seen this, OMG watch it! I told you I don't watch the superbowl unless Da Bears are in it which of course they weren't this year. My daughter turned me onto this a few years ago and just beware: it is a depends show!

This is why I can't go puppy shopping........they are way too cute.

Superbowl Sunday

So who out there besides me doesn't care about superbowl? There have been only 2 times I have ever actually watched the superbowl - both times Da Bears were in it. Otherwise to me, it is just another football game. Hubs will probably watch it but I will just curl up with a good book and put on some good music - probably the new IL Divo CD I got for Christmas. I don't even care for the commercials anymore - must be a sign of getting old.

I do have a pot of pea soup cooking and was thinking of making pulled pork with au gratins for dinner. Then again, might just have hubs cook dinner.