UPDATE and left at the bus stop

UPDATE: Slept well, doing OK today. I am still surprised and thankful at this turn of events. Feeling this strong allowed me to go to my sweet friend Casey's wedding. She married Cristina in lovely Woodlawn Park in Northeast Portland yesterday late afternoon--the rain stayed away for the entire ceremony! The wonderful reception after the ceremony took place at The Village Ballroom, complete with family toasts, great food and lots and lots of dancing to the music CD that Casey made for the celebration. Everyone had a great time, smiles, joy, and laughter all around! Lamont and Leland took me; we had a great time and are happy to have shared this with Casey and Cristina and their families and friends.



Tomorrow I'll be at the bus stop in time to catch one to work, for the first time since June 23. I won't be leaving anything behind when the bus arrives. I'll work four hours (10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) and then take a bus home. I'm looking forward to getting back to some sort of routine out in the world, that is, until the next chemo treatment. We'll see how soon I can go back part time after it.

UPDATE and, yes, I'm posting photos of eating out again, at 3 Doors Down Cafe and the Bijou Cafe. One must have achievable goals when going through chemotherapy. Mine include dining out where I know the food is perfect, along with the service. Just like I always have at the Blue Diamond, too.

UPDATE: Slept a bit better, for longer periods of time in between waking up with some peripheral neuropathy humming through my lower legs. I'm thankful for any periods of sleep during these nights. So far today, the anti-nausea meds continue to work, hallelujah! I don't feel very well overall, like I've got the flu, achy here and there. However, no nausea is such a gift that I can deal with the aches and the humming. Oh, there has been some success in the area of "plumbing difficulties," too, for which I am grateful.



3 Doors Down Cafe, the third place that Mama and I ate out in Portland, back on our first visit in the summer of 2004. I took this photo on July 19, 2015, a little over eleven years since that first meal. Included on the menu as Pearl Bakery Bread with white bean spread, you see here the long-time-neighborhood-favorite-restaurant's popular lead-off dining delight.



Sunday's a great day to dine at 3 Doors Down Cafe because of the Happy Hour selection. I love these mini meatballs with marinara and mozzarella. A perfect consistency to the house-made meatballs combined with the taste of the equally house-made marinara, and that fresh mozzarella--gosh, I really do love this dish! And that Pearl Bakery Bread makes for the best way to finish off the marinara, for real.



My other small plate, an appetizer that I also love, anything that involves duck confit. Here you see bruschetta of duck confit, honey-herbed whipped bellwether jersey cow ricotta cheese, arugula, grilled black plums. Totally mesmerizing with every bite. I well remember my first ever duck confit. I walked back to the kitchen and announced to one and all, "Now I know why ducks have legs!" Sounds mercenary, sorry. It's the truth. (At that time both of my sons cooked at 3 Doors Down Cafe, so I got away with walking to the open kitchen and saying hello and laying on the praise!)



The table's set at the Bijou Cafe, downtown Portland, Oregon. The second place where Mama and I ate out on our first trip to Portland--the first place, hardly memorable so as not to be named here. Bijou Cafe, outta sight wonderful ever since, mine and Mama's favorite breakfast/brunch place throughout the years.



My Bijou Cafe breakfast on that spectacular day, Thursday, March 15, 2012, when I went to the NCAA March Madness games, an entire day of college basketball. This omelette, salad, and pancake held me for hours and hours. I knew that they would, from years of experience.




Chicken, black bean nachos. Perfect. They prepare the black beans at The Blue Diamond PDX, y'all. They are so good! As are the rest of the ingredients on this smooth-tasting treat. I never eat all of them at one sitting. They warm up very well in the toaster over inside a foil pouch that I make. Yummy out the wazoo!



The only place I've ever had a French dip is The Blue Diamond PDX. Why mess with a good thing?

Before too long, I'll feel well enough to dine out again. I've got some great places to choose from, including Killer Burger which you saw on Wednesday's post.

UPDATE and a break from The World . . .

UPDATE: Yesterday afternoon Dr. Steiner went over the first pathology report from the needle biopsy and then what our plan would be based on the pathologist's final report which is expected early next week. The final report will reflect what may be learned from a stain being applied to the tissue; they felt this was necessary in order to get a better look.

So, it may definitely not be cancer, it may definitely be cancer, or there may not be a definitive answer either way. If it is not cancer, all of the plan we made will be cancelled and I will be followed closely in two months with a CT scan. If it is cancer or we don't know for sure, I will have surgery to remove the lymph node(s) and any other suspicious tissue--next Thursday, June 25. Dr. Steiner will control the robot's 3-D camera and, as she put it, its little hands. Her nurse Naomi says Dr. Steiner's a champ with that robot!

If I have surgery, I will be off work for six weeks. If it turns out to be cancer for sure, not only from the pathologist report before the surgery but also from the one they will get after they examine the tissues removed during surgery, then I will have radiation and chemotherapy. I don't have any details on that right now. It's a wait-and-see thing, of course.

I so appreciate your prayers, love and concern.

Now for today's break from The World.



My Saturday morning breakfast--a toasted Fred Meyer Crispy English Muffin, some grape tomatoes, and some blueberries. I drank water. After I ate, I sorted some photos from iPhoto into Flickr, put a load in one of the washing machines downstairs, and went for a six-block walk. In a little while, I'll get those clothes out of the dryer and get them put away. Leland called and he and Rachel invited me to go pick blueberries later on today with them, up on Sauvie Island. I've never done that! It sounds exciting; I've already got my sunhat hanging on the door knob and some plastic containers with lids ready, too. I think I'll take my folding lawn chair with me, too.

A break in covering Schreiner's Iris Gardens to show you how I'm dealing with my lunch and break food, now that I'm back at work

I'm trying to eat in small amounts at my two 15-minute breaks and lunch hour, small amounts of fruits, vegetables, cheese, nuts, boiled eggs, Ritz crackers, etc. I'd been eating like that while off from work recovering from surgery on April 24. So, on the day before I returned to work on June 1, I shopped at the Dollar Tree and found a package of 10 round containers with lids and another package of 10 rectangular containers with lids. These are small containers--a Ritz cracker fits perfectly in the round container while three grape tomatoes fit nicely into the rectangular container. I need to lose weight, so I decided that if I'm thinking about what I'm eating, I'll pay more attention to how much I'm eating. Also, I decided that if I'm opening lots of containers, I'll eat slower. However, I knew that I needed an organized way to get those containers back and forth, so I went to Joanne's Fabrics and bought two craft storage containers. I'm using the blog and Facebook and Instagram as ways to keep up with how it's going, to reinforce my efforts. Thanks for indulging my efforts. Here's my food for Wednesday, June 3.



One of the craft storage containers, the Art Bin. I have a small plastic bowl with a lid that fits in there, plus several of those small containers.



The contents of the Art Bin: I already had a small bowl; in it I've got the last of my cooked vegetables: carrots, turnips, new potatoes, and somewhere in there, bits of zucchini. Three small containers hold slices of strawberries. One has a hard-boiled egg in it, one contains four Ritz crackers, and the last one has mixed nuts, a quarter cup.



The other craft storage container--two of the trays are full size, one is split into two equal sections.



Top left, a slice of fresh strawberry. The other three containers hold small pieces of a wonderful sheep cheese from Italy--I can't remember the name of it, but my older son knows, so I'm A-OK for getting more of it.



This section is all cherries. So delicious!



The split section holds grape tomatoes on one side and a combo of blueberries and raspberries on the other.



My frig and microwave, both important in the scheme of things.



My morning break, along with some cold water. I always get the cheese out in time for it to get to room temperature--that makes it taste even better, makes the texture more enjoyable.



My lunch. I heated the veggies in the microwave and enjoyed the rest of it cold, along with a glass of cold water.



I almost ate the entire afternoon break's portions without taking a photo. More room temp cheese and cherries. Yummy!



I did eat everything for supper without taking a photo. I had one Hebrew National beef hot dog cut in half with each half placed in a King Hawaiian hot dog bun with a bit of mayo on each bun, plus a few Juanita tortilla chips, and the leftover blueberries, raspberries, and cherries. For dessert, one Popsicle stick's worth of sugar free Fudgsicle. Afterwards, I wondered about a small container of leftover cheese which I hadn't opened at supper time. Had I eaten it earlier and forgot about it? Hmmmm. I planned to leave some of the nuts for the next time.



When I went into the kitchen to wash and dry the lunch containers, I discovered those last two bits of cheese. I enjoyed eating them with strawberries as I packed the next day's lunch and break goodies. There will be variety, but there will be repetition until I've finished an item, then I'll have an equally good substitute.

Vacation, Day 7, 10/27/2009, Part 6

Continuing to ready the toy hauler for our comfortable living space, Milton pulls out the awning--we're certain rain will return.


Ian and Milton continue to secure the awning's support system. Without these arms, we'd have to crawl beneath it and into the door.


The final step, from atop the stepladder which rode over to Talladega beneath the golf cart in the back of the toy hauler.

Standing in the bed of the pickup, Ian handed one of the gas tanks to Milton. This gas will be used for cooking while we're camped here.



To keep us from tracking bits of grass and/or mud into the trailer, Milton puts down a tarp.


Ian opens one of the collapsible trash cans.


Ian's working on his sleeping arrangements, up in the roof over the back end of the toy hauler.


Kay's a Jeft Gordon fan--#24!


Ian and Kay setting up one of the tables in front of a built-in couch.


The table is ready now. See the line to the left of the table legs? That is actually the same color as the rest of the carpet, as well as being a bit higher than the regular floor. It is the floor of the slide out, the one with the two built-in couches in it.


Wrapping up some Corky's ribs, readying them for the oven. We ended up eating ribs, shrimp and barbecued beef for supper.


Shrimp for later.


Kay had made this barbecued beef at home. It tasted great in Talladega!

After I downloaded some photos onto my thumb drive and plugged in the battery charger so that the used battery would be ready for the next day, I hit the hay. No photos of that, though.

Christmas Day, 2009--My Loved Ones, My Nuclear Family in Portland, and My Christmas Cooking Saga

I took this photo after we'd been together for a few hours, enjoying good company and good food. The kids and Ginger were about to go when I remembered that I hadn't taken a photo of everyone. You can tell from this photo that Mama's not back to her pre-heart-attack-self. Even with the continuous oxygen, her strength and stamina are not what they were. We're going to see the lung doctor on New Year's Eve. I hope that woman can give her some help.

Back row, Kailey, Ginger, Leland.
Front row, Mama, Duncan, Lamont.

Now for the Christmas Cooking Saga--I had me some F-U-N!.

I started on Christmas Eve night. I called Lamont, and asked, "Would it be OK for me to chop my onion and peppers and squash tonight, put them into plastic bags, and then the frig? I want to saute them in the canola, olive oil mixture tomorrow." He said, "Sure. That'll work." So I stood at the counter for almost an hour, chopping a whole sweet onion, a whole yellow bell pepper, a whole orange bell pepper, two small zucchini and one small yellow, crookneck squash, putting each vegetable into a separate little lidded, plastic container. Next I scrubbed five sweet potatoes, dried them with paper towel, wrapped them in foil and baked them in the oven until soft. About 10 p.m., I began baking two packages of Toll House Cookies, those ones that have the little chunks you break apart. I had a good time making them, even if I didn't do scratch Toll House cookies like my darling husband LeRoy used to do. I set the timer every time I put the cookie sheet in the oven and sat down to watch some more of "Meet Me in St. Louis," one of my all time favorite movies; it went off at midnight, right after I finished baking cookies.

Christmas morning, bright and early, I made some biscuits from scratch. Dismal failures they were, too, in the area of rising--they didn't--though they tasted pretty good. "Oh, well, I'll have to try this again," I thought. I thoroughly enjoyed eating those flat but flaky biscuits with Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup which our friends Milton and Kay got for us down in Mississippi and then mailed to us. It was at Talladega that I rediscovered the smooth, unique taste of this good-memory-evoking breakfast favorite of my Daddy and me--more about how the discovery came about when I get to that day in the never-ending tale of vacation, promise.

That's some Tyson bacon that I fried and ate with the biscuits--I didn't eat all of the bacon or the biscuits--I saved some for Mama. I have to report that I don't like Tyson bacon as much as I do Oscar Mayer bacon, nope, Tyson's doesn't get as crispy as Oscar Mayer, in my estimation.

Once fueled with syrupy biscuits and so-so bacon, I began to cook in earnest, starting with browning the beef roast in the aluminum Dutch oven. I sprinkled some sea salt on both sides of the roast, added a bit of water to the Dutch oven, turned the heat up to get the roast good and hot all the way through, put the lid on, then turned it down to slowly cook on top of the stove. I scrubbed and cut into chunks five good-sized white potatoes and three medium-sized carrots, then put them aside for a while. I didn't want to put them into the Dutch oven too early and have them turn into mush. Later on I turned the roast over so that both sides could get nice and brown and put the carrots and potatoes in, sprinkling a bit of sea salt on them, then putting the lid back on the Dutch oven.

I opened the box and unrolled the Pillsbury pie crusts, putting one into the bottom of a 13-inch square glass baking dish--I don't have a round one--filling it with a can of apples, then topping it with the second crust. I put that into the oven to bake, according to the recipe on the can. Later on I got it out and and set it on the table to cool. I wasn't too sure about how it looked, but I figured it was worth the try.

I poured the tea we had in the pitcher that we use to make tea into a different pitcher and put it back into the frig. I made another pitcher of tea and set it into the frig, too.

I prepared six Brussels sprouts by washing them, trimming the stems shorter, and making an X in each one. I put them in a boiler filled with cold water, set it onto the burner and put the knob on high. In a little while the water rolled, and I set the timer to 4 minutes. When it went off, I put them into a bowl of ice water, then drained them on a paper towel.

I boiled six eggs, let them cool, peeled the shells off and made deviled eggs with mayo and sweet pickle relish, set them into the plastic deviled egg container and then frig to chill.

I washed and trimmed seven broccoli crowns, making sure they would fit into the steamer sections that I got out of the cabinet. I figured if I had left over steamed broccoli all week, more the better.

I washed the boiler and used it for the butter beans and okra. Some folks call them lima beans, remember, but we call them butter beans. Both the butter beans and the okra come frozen in bags at the Fred Meyer--the only problem, and it's a small one, is that the okra is sliced, not whole. I got them into the boiler, covered with water, and sprinkled in a bit of sea salt and a squirt of the oil combo. Once they started to boil, I turned them way down and set the lid on the boiler, at an angle so that the possibility of boiling over was negligible.

I got out the Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix box, followed the directions about what to add and greasing the baking dish, and started to make the rolls. What a good time I had kneading that dough, turning it towards me over onto itself, mashing it down with the heels of my hands, turning it a quarter turn, and doing it all over again! I know how much my whole family loves a good dinner roll, so making these meant a lot to me. Before I knew it, I had 15 balls of dough rising in a 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish. Whoopee!!

As the dough rose, I put the broccoli into the steamers, put both of them atop a big boiler full of water, set the lid on it and turned up the heat on the back burner.

I got one of my great big, heavy saute pans out of the cabinet, squirted in some of the oil combo, set the heat on high. From the frig I took my collection of little, lidded plastic containers and pulled the tops from each one. Once the oil was hot, I poured in the onion, stirred it around some, making sure all of it had oil on it. I let it sit for about a minute, then I poured in the two containers of peppers and the one container of squash, stirring it all together. While it heated, I cut the Brussel sprouts into quarters and tossed them into the mix. I then sprinkled some sea salt on the whole mixture and covered the skillet with its twin, turned upside down.

When the timer went off, I put the rolls into the oven, to bake according to the instructions on the box. After a while they smelled pretty good!

By the time the rolls were ready to come out of the oven, everything else was done. A major miracle, let me tell you. I don't even remember the last time I tried something like this. For some unknown reason, I had decided to go crazy, cooking all of this stuff, like I was trying to make up for lost time, not having cooked a holiday meal in three years. And I wanted my sons, who cook all of the time to have a total day off from cooking, to just help their plates and eat. Boy, did they ever do that! It was wonderful, fulfilling, just what I wanted. Mama, Kailey and I did our part, too, enjoying our family Christmas dinner.

The apple pie, the Toll House cookies, the deviled eggs, and a store-bought, Fred Meyer, pecan pie.


The rolls, Leland cutting the roast and putting a roll and some roast onto his plate.


The broccoli, the potatoes and carrots still in the Dutch oven.


My plate--the guys filled theirs much fuller, but I was too taken with watching them eat, watching them enjoy the food that I had prepared to even think about the camera. I guess you could just call me goofy!


Mama and I are thrilled to still be eating left overs. I'm throwing out the apple pie, though--it's awful, not even good heated up with a scoop of ice cream, pitiful pie.