So, did you know that when you freeze egg yolks they get all frozen and then you can't use them until they thaw? And you can't thaw them in the microwave like chicken or something. Epic fail.

I'm making a cheesecake for my friend's birthday. I'm tired and grumpy and I don't really want to right now. But this is the only time I have to do it and Todd deserves an awesome cheesecake because he's an awesome dude. (Ladies, he is really sweet and thoughtful and smart and single!) So right now the cream cheese is sitting and warming up on the counter.

Today was a month end Friday. I don't care for Fridays much and month end Fridays are especially annoying. Everyone has to have their job before the end of the month so it can get billed. What usually happens is that we have nothing to do all week and then Friday about 3:00 everyone comes up with these problem jobs that they need right now before everyone else's rush problem job. And they are mostly mailers. We only have one cutter and one mailer. So we get a job at 3:00 that needs to be at the post office by 5:00. It has to wait in line to be cut, then it probably has to be folded or something, then it needs to be tabbed, or stamped, or both like the one today. So at 3:30 we get the job on the mailer, tab it, then we set it up to be stamped and addressed. Well the tabber isn't behaving. Of course. So they address it and we get to stamp it by hand. About 4000 of them. By 5:00. And then people wonder why I hate Fridays and why I'm grumpy today.

Most of the time I really like my job. Some days I love my job. But today I didn't like my job very much. And it wasn't the actual work. I like working on the mailer a lot. But today was just one of those days. And it's over now. :-)

The cheesecake is in the oven. DH's movie is about over I think. I can watch yesterday's dance show when he's done. Also, I ought to make nobake cookies for tomorrow.

I'm going to visit my family tomorrow. I like visiting my family. We sit and talk and work on our respective crafts. This is my mom and her sisters and that side of the family. We have aunts and cousins visiting from Texas right now so that is cool.

But before that I'm going in to work for a while. Not all of the mailers got out today so a few of us are going in to finish them up. If I'm lucky I might get leftover breakfast goodies from the managers' meeting they're having.

I think DH's movie will be done soon. I'm going to go work on my knitting for a while. I have been trying to learn to knit for forever and I keep giving up. This time I'm using a book that Froggi learned on. So far I've knitted 3 rows and I haven't exploded. I think the trick this time is I'm not trying to learn to purl at the same time. Purl is hard for me. So I'm going to knit for a long time and get comfortable with it before I try the purl again.

This week was pretty busy. On Tuesday I had the ultrasound for the spot they found with the MRI. They're pretty sure it isn't cancer. When I go back in January for my mammogram they'll do another MRI and ultrasound to see if it has changed any. On Wednesday I went to the endocrinologist. He believes I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis; an autoimmune disease where my immune system attacks and kills my thyroid. The hyperthyroid spell I had last summer was the beginning of it. He did an ultrasound and saw more differentiation in the tissue than normal and also it is enlarged a little. My levels are still normal and I am not showing symptoms at this point. But it is only a matter of time before my thyroid is unable to produce enough hormones. Then they'll supplement with meds from that point on. The bad part is that during the time that the thyroid is dying, it is constanly producing different levels so keeping the meds right will be a constant battle. I won't feel good a lot of the time. I don't know if that will happen soon or several years from now. It just depends on how fast the disease progresses.

Today I went to see my family. It was a lot of fun. We all hung out at my cousin's new house that they just moved into. I got a little work done on the afghan that I've had in progress for forever.

I'm tired. Maybe I'll write more tomorrow. I have to make an apple pie and maybe some cookies so I'll have a little computer time.

Doldrums

The excessive rain has left us and been replaced with excessive heat. You know it's gonna be bad when the low is 81 and you already have an excessive heat warning because the humidity is so high.

My vegetable garden has exploded again. The crabgrass (or something) took over while it was flooding every day. It exploded last year too but I still got some produce out of it. So I'm going to wait until it stops being productive and then take strong measures against next year's weeeds. First I will Roundup a couple of times. Then I will cover the whole thing in either weed fabric or plastic. Then I will cover that with 2-3 layers of cardboard, staggering the seams. Finally, I will mulch the whole thing. Maybe next year I can stay ahead of the weeds a little better.

The front beds aren't quite as bad. I am going to go out there and weed as soon as I finish my tea. The pattypan squash are in the front and so far I am winning the war against the squash vine borers. I have to imphale them with a bamboo skewer. I'm having trouble with some of my flowers not blooming. I have two plants of cosmos and one has flowers all over it and there are none on the other. THey are right next to each other. My tithonia isn't blooming and it's 6 feet tall. I have one volunteer marigold that has produced one bloom the whole summer. Not sure what's going on there. Maybe too much nitrogen in the soil? None of my beans are doing anything either. At least my houseplants are doing well. LOL!

This week I had some doctor appointments. I tend to cluster all my appointments for some reason. This week was Dr. K, the primary care. She's awesome! She gave me some stuff to help my skin behave better. It has been acting weird lately. I always have trouble with acne but this stuff lately is different than usual. Hopefully the meds will take care of it. She took blood too. My cholesterol has always been borderline so she likes to keep an eye on it. Same with the thyroid. It does wacky things now and then.

After Dr. K was my boob MRI. Since I have a 41% risk of breast cancer they do mammograms in January and MRI's in July. THis was my first MRI. It was mostly non-painful. The IV stung a little but that's to be expected. I go back on Tuesday for them to ultrasound a spot. I'm not worried though. They ultrasounded a couple of spots after the mammogram and they were fine. They're just getting a baseline. It's kind of funny. Most people freak out about cancer, I suppose with good reason. But in my family we have a lot of cancer and we don't die from it normally so it has become not a big deal anymore. The doctors at the Breast Imaging Center like to ask me what my concern level is on a scale of 1-10. In January it was a 1. I made it a .5 this time. Then they ask me what I think my chances of getting cancer are. That's still 80%. But I'm really not concerned about it at all. If I do have cancer, I get a lumpectomy, they put in a little radiation bag, radiate me for 5 days, and I have restricted lifting for a few weeks. Done. Maybe 2 weeks off work for the whole thing. And only that because the radiation makes you tired.

Thyroid cancer is pretty much the same. They take the thyroid out, radiate you, and you take a pill for the rest of your life. Done. Since I'm being watched so closely the chances of a later stage cancer are very slim. You don't get chemo for Stage 1 and 2 cancers normally. I think most peoples' fears are from not knowing what's going to happen. I've seen it so many times that it's old hat to me now.

Work is still fairly steady. Lots of days we're standing around or doing a few little jobs and waiting for some big job to get printed so we can work on it. Usually in the summer we go for weeks with hardly anything to do. So this is good. We've been having some fun too. Rubber band wars make the day go by a little faster! I've also been organizing under the counters in my down time. It's amazing how chaotic they are under there. When we're busy we just throw stuff under the cabinets and then we're moving stuff around to try and find what we need. It's a mess.

Today DH and I are going to the mall to get the first of his suits re-tailored. He lost 35 pounds on hcg! We're in the maintenance phase now. We are both happy to have more menu options!

Ok. Out to the garden! The thermometer says 84 but I'm sure it feels much hotter out there.

Yesterday was my birthday and it was the best birthday I've had in a long time. I'm pretty sure it's because my perspective on things has changed recently. I am now able to feel appreciation when people show love toward me. Before, I tried to shove it off because I felt so uncomfortable and undeserving.

I think that life doesn't change. The circumstances we're presented with may change but life itself does not. The rules of life only seem to change when we ourselves change; either from a paradigm shift like I've recently experienced or from a change in our status of being in or out of love or depression. Being depressed and being in love are two things that change the shape of our brain (not physically) and cause us to experience the world very differently than before. Neurochemicals are powerful things. I wonder what the world would be like if all humans who were dissatisfied with their life attempted to change themselves instead of changing their circumstances or those around them. Think about it. I haven't thought about it yet because it just popped out of my fingers. I will mull it over and I want you to as well and let me know what you think.

Many people who want to change something in the world actually want to change other people. But if those other people also became something better, their actions would also be different. Would they no longer need to be changed (attacked) by others? So many things are connected.

Anyway, back to real life. Mark (well, his wife Suzanne) made me a flourless chocolate cake. I had asked Mark last week to make me the cake he made for Suzanne for her birthday back in February. It was the best thing I have ever tasted. When I bake for others' birthdays I want them to have their favorite thing. So I asked for my favorite thing. (Change #1: before I wouldn't have asked anyone for a cake and just been suprised with any cake I got, if I got one at all)

Mark had an early flight so he dropped it off at work early. Suzanne used a different recipe but it was just as good! From about 9:30 on I was on a caffeine high from my tea plus the cake plus the coffee I decided to drink. Whee! I slipsheeted most of the morning, which I enjoy doing, then I did posters. I enjoy posters too. I went to sushi for lunch and 3 other people came along. We had a nice time! There were so many posters on Friday that I worked on them for most of the afternoon too. One of the stores made me a birthday card! It was sweet!

Toward the end of the day I saw people talking to each other in groups that normally don't interact much. Hmmm... Then a little later Matt gave me a $50 gift mastercard!! The people in the shop love me $50 worth!!! I was blown away! I didn't realize I was that important or well liked! Most people don't get money for their birthdays. Most people get a baked good of their choice. I guess everyone felt the need to give me something even though Mark/Suzanne took care of the baked good part. I feel very appreciated!! I made a thank you note and put it up by the time clock.

And to top it all off, I got to go home at 4:00! DH and I hung out for a while and I took Tuvk for a walk and then we went to the inlaws for dinner. FIL made me a filet on the grill and a baked sweet potato. They got my favorite kind of chocolate cake from the bakery (not homemade but the best they can do). I got a very generous check from them as well!

With the money that DH and I got for our birthdays (his was the 5th) we ordered SureFit slipcovers for the couch and the loveseat so Tuvok's nails don't tear up the fabric any more. We each have $100 to play with after that. Well, I have $150 because my coworkers are so generous. I don't think DH has decided what he's doing yet, except $10 went to a Netflix subscription. I'm spending $100 on two new pairs of earrings.

A couple of years ago I stretched my ear holes to 12ga to accomodate some beautiful earrings I found. 12ga is still small enough that when I take out my earrings, my holes look normal; also I can wear normal earrings should I so choose (which I haven't). But I also can wear some really beautiful and unique pieces of jewelry in my ears.

Here are my Shortys:


Here are the Ichthys I bought:



And these are made from abalone shell. I thought they were gorgeous! I've been wanting jewelry by this company ever since I began stretching.



Ok, the links didn't work so I just put the pictures in.

So to recap: AWESOME BIRTHDAY!!!

11th Annual 3rd of July Party

Here are some fireworks pictures from the 3rd of July party that my production manager puts on every year. This is the 11th year. We almost got rained out because of the hurricane but it cleared up just enough to have the party. Turnout was low- only about 200 people showed up. But we still had a good time. I made 4 batches of cookies and they were all gone by the end of the night.

This is my first attempt at shooting fireworks. Well, actually it's my second. But the first time was many years ago. I found an article explaining what settings work best and it gave me pretty good results. There's quite a bit of experimentation and I am really glad I have a digital camera with instant feedback.

Opening these photos in a bigger window will increase viewing pleasure.