The Last Day Of The Year

2015 has been one hell of a ride.

It has been a year of grieving, of change, and starting over.

Its been a year of insanity.

I said goodbye to two of my kitties in 2015

I moved into a new house

I've tried to keep up this blog, but as you can see, I've mostly failed at that, and I don't know why.

It has been an interesting year. I can't believe it will be the second New Year's Eve that I'll be spending without my dad. and the 7th without my grandmother.

Where does time go?

I'm 41 years old and I feel everything slipping away from me.

Here's hoping 2016 will be more stabilizing.

I wish you all a joyous New Year!

Merry After Christmas

I hope all of my friends had a lovely holiday yesterday. Yes, I've been MIA for a bit, but holidays are always crazy and I don't think sleep happened a lot in the last week.

Here's what I've been doing. My cats, have a good sense of humor!

More Decorations

Tree

Getting Ready To Make Cookies

I'm still not sure how I feel about doing cookies this year. Cookies were my dad's favorite thing. He ate more cookies than anyone, I swear. We used to call him the cookie monster.

I didn't make many last year, as my heart just wasn't there.

I'm going to try this year.

I'm going to make about 4 or 5 different kinds, depending on the time I have and depending on what the cats will let me make without pulling out my hair too much.

Pictures will be forthcoming

What cookies do you have at your holiday gatherings?

Making Meal Plans

Trying to find ways of making economical meals that everyone in the family will like is damn hard. It is also hard to find things that are economical that aren't related to pasta.

I have so many pasta dishes that I could make, but eating noodles every day is pretty rough.

So far I know before Christmas I can make

Tuna casserole or tuna patties

Fish tacos

scrambled eggs with noodles

bacon ranch mac

pasta bake

Still trying to come up with some other cheap dinners

~sigh~

Merry Minions!

If this doesn't make you smile...well...I don't know what to say.




I freaking love minions!

The Crud Has Found Me Again

I have gone years without getting much more than a sinus cold. This year, I've had two bouts of the crud in less than a month.

Blech

Blergh

ARGH!

I am totally miserable and nothing I take is making it any better.

I think I need to sleep for about 48 hours, not that even 12 hours of sleep is possible

Starting the Decortating

I'm hoping the tree will be up next week, but this is what I've got up so far.

Its Been A Rough Week

I'm depressed.

There, I've said it.

Its out there.

I'm having a rough time coping with my dad's death, even though it has been a year. People tell me it is time to move on, but I'm really having trouble with that.

Then there's mom. She's beginning to like the hospital as much as my dad and that really scares me. I was close with my dad, but my mom is truly my best friend. The thought of her not being around scares the crap out of me for many reasons.

I guess with everything that has been going on lately I've been finding it hard to do much of anything, besides the care giving that is part of our daily routine.

I really just need a break from everything.

Surviving Leftovers

Thankgiving always brings a lot of leftovers. I hate getting sick of turkey so quickly after the holiday.

The secret is to shake things up a bit and don't overdo it.

The day after Thanksgiving I refuse to make anything with turkey for a main meal. if anyone wants a sandwich, that's fine with me, but I won't do the turkey thing two days in a row.

I always make stuffed shells, because since discovering that simple recipe, it has been a bigger tradition than the main dinner itself.

Today dinner is just mom and me, so there will be an absence of leftovers.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do turkey pot pie, coz I'm not not a fan of tetrazini. (did I even spell that correctly)

The secret to surviving leftovers is to not force feed your family them every day. If you need any of my recipes, just give me a holler and I'll share.

So Much For The 30 Days Of Blogging

Tuesday night mom had a CHF spell and that just sent me into a tail spin. I don't know how I managed to get Thanksgiving done.

It sure as hell wasn't easy.

I'm still so tired from all the running and work I did in the last few days.

I just hope this is the last time for a long while that I have to deal with hospital stuff. I'm getting too old for this.

Stupid Cough

About a week ago I ended up with a cold. I was totally miserable. I had a cough, but it seemed to go away.

Until this weekend.

The cough is back with a vengeance.

I have always been a person that gets a cough that lingers and when I cough so hard that my head feels like it is going to explode.

Yay for misery.

Especially when I've got a big dinner to cook this week. Not that it matters, since no one comes for Thanksgiving anymore, and they never did even in the past years.

It is lonely.

I enjoy cooking, but I only cook for the same people all the time and no one comes to visit.

~sigh~

Found In My Sink

This is the first time since we moved into the new house that one of my cats found their way into the bathroom sink.

I'm surprised that it took so long and even more surprised that the cat that decided to nap her was Midnight.

Isn't he a cutie pie?

Home At Last

We brought mom home this afternoon, but not after a huge curfluffle with the wheel chair van. After we got her settled we went over to the old house and started to bring stuff over.

So much stuff.

I swear we'll never have it all out of there.

Almost all of my CDs have made it over and are hiding in the basement. There's still so much to bring over and much to get rid of. I don't know that there will ever be enough time to do it all.

It's been a busy day and I'm totally exhausted now. I feel like I could sleep for a week  or more.

Quick Update

I've spent most of the day in Jefferson Hospital with mom and my sister.

The surgery was done almost an hour late, but all went well and that's all that matters.

So now we can breathe a sigh of relief and take a nice long nap.

YAY!

30 Day Writing Challenge

Today's topic is turn ons and offs

Is it a horrible thing that this isn't something that I think about anymore. How sad is that? I think that over the years I've become totally asexual.

I don't know that anything turns me on anymore.

OK, David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch and Peter Capaldi turn me on....but that's just on a general hotness scale.

However when it comes to turn offs

Hatred, bigotry and asshattery turn me off. In fact, if you display these types of qualities, I'm probably not going to want to talk to you let alone anything else.

30 Day Writing Challenges: Concerts

Today's prompt is concerts that I've attended.

Oye, I've been to a lot of concerts, but since my father got sick, I haven't been anywhere let alone concerts.

But let's see here are some of the artists I've seen over the years.

The Monkees, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Poison, Stevie Nicks, Elvis Costello, The Moody Blues, Nick Lowe, Ron Sexsmith, Rockapella, Gordon Lightfoot, Lady Antebellum, Deni Bonet, Sarah Marince, Love and Rockets, The Devlins, Cheap Trick, Michael Crawford, Peter Noone, The Grass Roots, The Turtles, Davy Jones..I'm sure I'm missing a few...

Boy do I miss concerts

30 Day Writing Challenge: Places Ive Lived

Today's prompt was actually yesterday's prompt.

Where have I lived?

Charleroi, PA

That's pretty much it.

I've only lived in two houses though. This is my current abode though. Isn't it cute?

1 Year Has Passed

Nov 16 marks one year since my dad passed away.

Anyone that says that things get easier lies. Each day that passes hurts more and more.

The other day, I could hear the sound of my father crying in my head. I wanted to sit on the hospital bed or anywhere and wrap my arms around the man that I've loved all my life, but I can't, because he's not there and he never will be again.

In the year that has gone by, so much has changed in my life. I've bought a house for one. I've left behind a huge part of my life when we left that old house.

My dad was such a huge part of my life. We were together almost every day of our lives and life without him is just so empty. It is very hard to go on. I don't know how my mother, who spent over 60 year of her life with him is holding up as well as she is.

I can offer this advice to those of you who still have parents to hold on to.

1. Never miss an opportunity to say I love you.

2. Don't hide from the illness, some of the best times I had with my father were in his final years. I will always cherish the times I sat on his hospital bed and held him.

3. Have patience. They don't always know what they are doing, and yelling only makes it worse. I know how hard this, especially when the illness is progressing rabidly or that their is dementia involved.

4. Take a lot of deep breaths.

It has been one year since my daddy left us, and the pain is still very very real.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Doctor Who...How I Love You

Doctor Who is the TV show that I've become addicted to. I didn't start watching until the third series of New Who, and that was after falling for Torchwood. I had caught several episodes of the classic series on PBS back in the 90s when it aired after Red Dwarf.

What to know something?

It scared me then!

Tom Baker scared the crap out of me, and yet I love him and Jon Pertwee to pieces now.

As for the new series, I refuse to claim a favorite as David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi have all been brilliant in the part. I like Christopher Eccleston but he only had one series, so he's not quite in the same caliber of love for me as the others, except maybe Paul McGann, who is just too damn awesome, even though the tv movie wasn't.

So yeah, I'm a proud Whovian!

30 Day Writing Challenge: What will I be when I grow up

Today's prompt is basically what do you want to be when you grow up. I wish I knew. I hope when I'm older I'll be a lazy old women with a dozen cats.

I would love to spend more time baking or taking photographs. I would love to travel, but I don't pretend to think there will ever be money for that.

I wish I could think of some spectacular thing that I could be doing 10 years down the line, but I imagine 5 or 10 years down the line I'll still be living paycheck to paycheck, only I'll be doing it without any help from my family and that makes me fearful that I won't be living in a cardboard box somewhere.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Its The End Of The World As We Know It

Today's prompt wants to know what I'd do if I knew the world would end tomorrow. Some people would try to get so much packed into the day, but traveling wouldn't be worth it. I'll have seen all that I was meant to see. It wouldn't be a memory anyway.

I think I would spend my day telling everyone that I loved, just that. That I loved them. There's nothing worse than never being able to say that last goodbye to someone that means the world to you. I've had to do it twice, first with my grandmother and then with my dad.

No matter how much you want to see or do things, your family is precious, well at least mine is, and I'd hate for any of them to think that I didn't love them.

There's nothing else I could do that would make any sense to me.

30 Day Writing Challenge

Today's prompt is to post a photo of someone I fancy. Other than celebrity crushes, there is no one that I fancy right now. My life is too complicated to even try to fancy anyone. It isn't worth the aggravation anymore.

I'm fat, I'm ugly and I have too much baggage.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Celebrity Crushes

Oh my, today's topic is pictures of 5 celebrity crushes. And it's hump day! What a perfect topic for the day.

So here it goes...5 hump day hunks! Benedict Cumberbatch, cos who doesn't love him! Elvis Costello, cos he makes geeks sexy! David Tennant, just because! Matt Smith because I'm a cougar! Peter Capaldi because he's just damn awesome.

And yes, I think most guys who have played the Doctor have a certain appeal...I could add Peter Davison, the young Tom Baker and Paul McGann to my list.

30 Day Writing Challenge: 3 confessions

I didn't do the print screen of my desk top because there is nothing on my desktop. My desktop is boring, hence my post of my too eventful weekend.

Today's prompt is three confessions

Confession 1:  I'm not a huge fan of turkey. Each year I find myself liking the bird less and less.

Confession 2:  I hate doing dishes. It is my least favorite household chore.

Confession 3: I've watched very little Classic Who and I'm terribly ashamed of that fact.

Another Weekend From Hell

Some people actually relax on the weekends and they get things done.

I was doing great on Saturday until supper time when my sister's dog decided to go all apeshit on my little chihuahua.

So Sunday morning was spent driving to Castle Shannon with a dog who had a scratched cornea and wasn't too happy.

$439 later she's doing much better and Powder is banished from our house. Poor thing, but I'm not taking any chances that they won't get into another scuffle and Scratty is a tiny little shit of a dog, who thinks she's a big shit of a dog.

We are so lucky she wasn't hurt any worse.

Of course, brat that my Scrat is, she bit the vet tech causing me more problems. She also took a chunk out of me when I was trying to put her eye ointment on later in the evening.

All this a few days after my mom got out of the hospital with a bout of congestive heart failure.

Oh and the little dog also doesn't like the cone of shame and has managed to take it off at least 3 times since she got home.

ARGH!

30 Day Writing Challenge: Favorite Quote

Favorite quotes..I have a few but this one is my absolute favorite


“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” ― Francis Bacon

30 Day Writing Challenge: Food for Forever

OK, so I already failed at this, because yesterday I made supper and after we ate I fell asleep for the rest of the night. I didn't watch anything on tv or do anything.

The day 10 prompt is a pretty bad one but I'll give it a go. If I could only life off one food and drink for the rest of my life, what would it be?

Yikes!

I like food a lot, hence my fatness, so that makes this a difficult question. Plus it isn't healthy, not that I'm good at eating healthy. Plus it is damn boring.

I think I'll eat crepes and juice for the rest of my days...the crepes filled with either cottage cheese or nutella and banana and topped with a fruit syrup.

Now I'm hungry for crepes. Anyone want to take me to ihop or Later Alligator?

30 Day Writing Challenge: Pet Peeves

Hmmm Pet Peeves


1. People that can't park ANYWHERE. I have a stronger desire to kill at my new home, because people really don't know how to park here at all.

2. Infomercials. I wish cable channel would stop with these things when they hit certain times of day. Seriously, no one buys this shit, air something else.

3. People who blame you for things that they did wrong.

4. People that use their phones for all forms of communication except talking. People cannot carry on conversations anymore.

5. Cliff hangers: These things annoy the crap out of me, especially with books that you have to wait a year or more to learn what happens and tv shows where you have months to wait...unless its Sherlock, then you have years and years and years.

6. Doctors who don't listen

30 Day Writing Challenge: Things To Say

Three things I want to say to different people.

I'm going to have a conversation with people I don't know because that's more fun. Plus, it would cause less trouble too, if I actually said things to people in my life...if ya know what I'm saying.

Justin Hayward: For the love of God, please please please record one final album with The Moody Blues. As much as I love December, I hate to think of that album being the band's swansong of original material. Please don't hit me for saying that.

Peter Capaldi: You are the most brilliant Doctor of the new series.

Steven Moffat: Would you do a reboot of Coupling or revisit that series, it was damn awesome.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Reading

The challenge for today asks, Do you read and what are your favorite books.

The answer to this one is obvious, a resounding yes. You just have to look at my book blog, A Chick Who Reads to know exactly how much I love to read.

As to my favorite books? That's a question that is really as hard to answer as what bands are most important to me.

I'd like to say that my favorite books were by classic authors, but I really can't. My all time favorite book does count as a classic, but it was really almost a penny dreadful, and that's Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. I've read that book at least 5 times. It is also one of the only books that I've re-read. Another favorite classic is Les Miserables. I was forced to read this book in high school and I hated it then. I read it again a few years back and my opinion has changed. I'd love to read the full unabridged version one day.

I love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. They are super silly and funny. I also love Jean Plaidy's novels about the royalty in Europe.

I think I have more favorite authors than favorite books. I'm not much of a re-reader as there's always something new out there waiting for me.

30 Day Challenge: Most Important Band/Musician

Asking me who the most important band/musician is cruel and unusual punishment. They don't call me the music whore for nothing. There have been so many artists that have been important to me over the years; The Beatles, The Monkeess, The Moody Blues, Duran Duran, Erasure, Elvis Costello, Oingo Boingo. The list goes on and on.

Each band represents a certain part of my life. The Beatles and The Monkees were part of my growing up. Duran Duran, Oingo Boingo and Cheap Trick were my high school years.

I could go on and on. Let's just say that I've always loved music of many genres. Right now, I'm still loving Celtic Thunder and Keith Harkin. I love me some sexy Irish men.

30 Day Writing Challenge: 5 Places You Want To Visit

Today's topic is 5 places that I'd like to visit. I'm going to stick with places I stand a chance at seeing. Sure I could say London or Paris, and I wouldn't be lying, but unless the money fairy visited me, I'll never get there, so let's stick with places that are more feasible.


1. Put-In-Bay, OH: I read a book that took place in this town a few years ago. It is part of the Lake Erie shores and islands. It also has a cool boardwalk, and I love a great boardwalk.

2. Thousand Islands, NY: I have long since wanted to see Boldt Castle. This is one place I'll probably never be able to afford to get too, but a girl can dream.

FYI this is what Boldt Castle looks like.

3,  The Serpent Mound: This is an Ancient Alien thing.

4. I would love to spend a weekend at Landoll's Mohican Castle. Can you sense a castle theme here?

5. The New River Gorge Bridge in WV. How could you not want to see something so beautiful