Just need to talk to my friends (217)

I started this post yesterday and never got back to finish 😜

HB, the round trip is 4000 miles according to BIL’s spreadsheet.

I’ve cooked once so far- crockpot chicken tacos and fixins. We had leftovers one night. We have a fridge stocked with proteins for breakfast for DH. I have a pot roast defrosting to cook tomorrow while we galavant around Monument Valley Utah. We usually have lunch out wherever we are for the day. SIL is somewhat critical of everything so I try to review menus before we choose 🙄🙄🙄

Loving the photos Iris. Beth, your flowers are so gorgeous!

Ron, glad you were able to get settled down. Are you sleeping with your head elevated? Or are you restricted due to your surgery?

@GothicGremlin Gigi had her baby yesterday and they both are doing fine. Don’t know the sex yet because she won’t let Grandson near the baby. But these are the pictures he sent this morning. Daddy is black with a bit of dappled coloring so I guess that accounts for the brown legs and ears .

And then yesterday afternoon Big Red had her baby!!

Grandson goes to the house before and after work every day. The great grands show up with their Mom after school.

Time to get the pot roast in the crockpot. A srray puppy showed up at our camper yesterday so she will eat well tonight 😋

Have a great day everyone! TTYL

Good morning, Russ. That's a great picture. It would make a good book cover.

Good morning

So with all this talk I am sharing what is in my go to bathroom. Clarisonic cleanser, Ordinary Hyurlogic (sp)., Cerave sunscreen 30, Jergens lite-medium self tanner, Ultrasure deodorant. In the shower are Dial soap and. Jojoba oil. DoI have some kind of routine? Nope.

Iris…the marble pic…wow. Ditto the breakfast selection!

Ron…how is your wound coming along? No photo needed…I am TOTALY non medical.

Exercise…went up stairs 3 times in row.

Rusty gnaws a hole in the walnut shell with his sharp front teeth. We have lots of walnuts and squirrels here and I've seen them do it.

Carl and Lorita, I don't have any squirrels but it takes me a strong wack with a hammer to open my black walnuts. Their teeth must be incredibly strong. Maybe like a beaver they have to wear their teeth down as they continue to grow?

Iris, this looks delicious. The pastries in Europe somehow are just different than here. Not necessarily better but certainly worth a 2nd serving. Thanks for sharing

Iris….somewhere on that plaza is a Gelato store that is beloved by Florintines…Gelateria La Carraia In Santa Croce

Good morning. It's sunny and headed for the low 70s on my end of the porch. So, yay!

Judith— When you say Clarisonic do you mean the battery-operated device or a cleanser made to go with? When mine died after about 18 months, my derm told me she did not recommend them at all. I always thought it was great. I loved it.

I'm more of a maximalist. I have so much "product"— styling products upstairs and down, same with skin stuff, and all manner of hairstyling devices including a fancy Dyson stick thingie. And don't get me started on makeup.

Ron— It would be fun to have a Porch Family Reunion and meet everyone in person. I did that with a small group of moms who were raising young sons with what used to be called Aspergers (now ASD). Twenty-five years on, one of them is coming to Philly for the day for us to hang out— our "boys" are in their 30s now.

I hope you're feeling stronger every day. Do you feel the surgery was a success or can't you tell yet? I commiserate with you on the driving. I didn't drive after my TKR for about 6 weeks. It was hard.

Lorita— I thank you for running a place where we can all be different in our outlooks and lifestyles and still be and feel free to be who we are. It's the beauty of this place that we get to "meet" folks who are not like us.

I thought of you yesterday as I was driving to the train, I passed the dairy where I get my milk. Both herds were out in the pastures. This place has brown and Holsteins. They're only ever out when the weather is ideal it seems. Both had a fair number of calves hanging near their moms.

I wonder if Rusty breaks his nuts by dropping them as seagulls do with shellfish. Once when I was driving across the causeway into OCMD, a seagull perched on a streetlamp dropped a clam on my windshield to get it open. I don't know if he cracked the shell, but he got the windshield. When I called my insurance agent to make a claim, he could barely compose himself he was laughing so hard. Over the time I had it, I had to replace 2 windshields and a side window in that old Cherokee. Ice off a semi on the turnpike destroyed the windshield which was terrifying and a tech at the tire store had a tire iron slip out of his hand than through my passenger window. I think the car was cursed.

Zetta— What sort of things will you be cooking on the BBQ when the rains finally stop?

Iris— Thanks again for the pictures. This is the first food you've posted that made me hungry. The bread looks amazing. Most of the Italian places here also do the EVOO with their bread service. I had to laugh; the can of oil on the table is labeled in English. That's kind of odd.

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I got my hair cut yesterday. It's been since early December, so we took a lot off. Maybe a bit too much but my hair grows fast; in 6 weeks I'll be complaining it's too long. The weather had cleared up, so I walked from the train station to a coffee shop and then to the salon and back to the station after which was about 1.5 miles roundtrip and the knee held up really well. Before my surgery, I would have taken a bus and then an Uber back. I think I may try the park over the weekend; I'd love to get back on the trails. I have mom stuff today and tomorrow. Hair today at 12:30 and she'll probably want to go to the grocery store. Tomorrow is the endo to talk about osteoporosis. I really don't think this is a great idea but mom does love to see doctors.

I hope all have a pleasant and safe day.
HB

I'm kind of a minimalist when it comes to makeup. I do have a skin care routine that includes Cetaphil gentle cleanser, hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, moisturizer and at night, differin gel. For makeup I use brow powder, mascara, lipstick and sometimes sunless tanner and powder foundation.

Ron, hope you are healing well.

HB, I hope the endo appt for your mom goes well. As you may know, there are many options in terms of bone meds. There are the antiresorptives which decrease the amount of bone breakdown, and the anabolics which build new bone. These meds are not without side effects, some severe such as atypical femur fractures and osteonecrosis of the jaw. You all will look at benefits and risks and make the decision that works for her. Hormone replacement therapy is another treatment too. Some say age to start it doesn't matter; some drs strongly disagree.

Iris and JeriLynn thanks for the travel (and goat) news!

Have a good day everyone. Beth

we’re off on a tour with Navajo Spirits- locally owned by Native Americans who were born and raised in Monument Valley. I’m looking forward to this part of our trip.

Hope everyone has a pleasant day ❤️

Black walnut shells are really hard. You can crack pecans by holding two in your hand and squeezing and you can crack English walnuts with a nutcracker, but a black walnut requires a hammer and a nut pick. One of the uses for black walnut is polishing metal. The shells are crushed and sold as a polishing medium. I lost a thumbnail once cracking black walnuts. I was hammering on a walnut and my brother stepped on the board I was using as a base, moving it just enough to cause me to strike my thumb.

Carl, I was wondering about why is was so easy to sell black walnuts, never knew about grinding to use for polishing. Here, they have two and one growing. I was told that someone around here buys them, now that my grandson is driving maybe he will have more of an incentive to pick them up.

Ron