bold as love’s Neighborhood

I worked today, so no time for pictures.  I did make a unique cake this afternoon, but I had forgotten to take my camera with me today.  I'll have to make another one tomorrow.  We received three new kits in today for new Disney designs.  I'll have to try them out to see if I like them or not.  One of them is iCarly which we have gotten several requests for. 

No real news on the medical front, but it looks like my hubby is leaning toward keeping the quality of life that he has now and taking a chance on living for at least a few more years.  He read a lot of information today that our daughter had given him, and all of it regarding the operation was depressing.

Since I didn't take any photos today, I decided to go back to this time last year and see what I was doing.  In addition to making pot holders and table runners, I was still outside taking pictures.  This is an edited version of a spider's egg sack.  Last year I took lots of pictures of spiders and praying mantis, but I hardly saw any of them this year. 

It's in to work early again tomorrow morning, so I'd best get myself off to bed.  5:30 comes early for me.  There should be three of us, but I think someone is going to have to help the donut people, so that will slow us down.  We made most of the Friday cakes today, so we should be able to make a big dent in the Saturday orders tomorrow.  I'll still try to get a couple of pictures.  Toodles! 

`

Do you ever wonder what might have happened to people who are essentially strangers to us?   

Next door to my office building is a retirement & assisted living place -  it used to have the word "Alzheimer's"  in the name and we joked about just trading one place for the other as our minds went; usually with the assumption that too much work was going to cause such a decline.

Anyway - over the last couple of months every morning, as I've walked past, an elderly man has been outside hiding behind a pillar enjoying a cigarette.  Every morning I would say "good morning how are you?" and he'd respond with a loud and cheery: "Good morning to you and I'm great"   

The last few mornings he was not there and I wondered if he had died or been caught.  It crossed my mind that I might never know -  I don't think I would've gone inside to enquire about the health of a man having a forbidden cigarette.   

I was so relived to see him back this morning that I almost said "oh thank God you are ok"....    I really had been quite concerned about someone whose name I don't even know.

*******

The bike below used to appear near the office during the day and then be gone by evening.  Then it arrived and stayed.  And stayed and stayed.   If this had been anywhere near I live, it would've been stripped within a few hours.  After more than a month the rear tyre is flat but no-one has stolen the helmet or attempted to steal spare parts from the bike.  

So,  where is the owner?   Did they die at their desk?  Did they walk to the shops at lunch time and get run-over crossing the road?   Or perhaps they developed Alzheimer's and forgot they owned a bike.

I hate not knowing.....  and unlike the missing elderly man, where I could've enquired if I'd wanted to, there is no-one to ask about the bike's owner.  

October 16th -  I had walked past it for a week before I started wondering about its missing owner.

November 6th

• 20:03 @meghanthefox that's terrible! #
• 20:04 @christinaheart haha that's how I feel some nights. #
• 20:21 @meghanthefox my mom is the exact opposite of your dad in that she thinks that if people say anything about my weight I'll stop eating. #
• 20:26 I ate too much again. I seem to have lost my self control. A bit depressing. #
• 23:00 Kind of thirsty. But way too lazy/tired to go get water. #

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No time for photographs today.  This is my leaves in the bird bath from last week with a couple of filters applied.  It makes it look like an abstract painting. 

I went to the city with my hubby today.  I watched the grandkids so our daughter who is a doctor could go with her dad to his doctor's appointment with his surgeon.  They didn't get good news.  He has had esophageal achalasia for more than 20 years.  At it's basic level, it means that the lower esophageal sphincter (muscle) fails to relax and allow food to pass into the stomach in response to swallowing.  He has had various proceedures over the years, but now his choices are down to just two:  an espophagectomy (removal of the esophagus) or just living like he is now and waiting to see what will happen.  Both have disadvantages and no advantages.  If he does nothing, he risks cancer or a complete blockage and emergency surgery on an older and weaker body.  If he opts for the surgery, there are all the complications from the proceedure itself, then a complete change in lifestyle.  There are no good choices. 

If I were in his shoes, I think I would opt to keep living with the quality of life that I have until something changes.  He is getting along pretty good right now.  He has more energy.  He has gained a couple of pounds.  He is sleeping good a night.  So far, the food that I have been fixing has been really good.  The only down side for me is that it is more time consuming.  I make almost everything from scratch.  I will try to share some of my ideas and recipes as we go along. 

Being gone all day wears me out.  And I have to get up early in the morning.  I need to put some stuff away before I go to bed tonight, too.  Thanks to everyone who has expressed concern for us.  It won't be an easy decision for him to make.  I'll keep you posted. 

• 21:14 applying for jobs.... definitely not my favorite activity... #
• 21:24 @meghanthefox oh i know. though i'm just looking for a parttime job right now. not a fulltime "career" job at the moment. those are easier. #
• 21:24 @christinaheart you don't want to mess around with the eyes, that's for sure. #
• 23:49 @emmaandbear are you getting married? #
• 23:51 @meghanthefox haha well that would be ideal, but for now not possible if we want to get our own place anytime soon. #

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After looking through old photos of myself and my sibs when we were kids, I have come to the conclusion that we must have worn the most ridiculous, daggy swimmers you could ever hope (not) to see.

Now I myself only saw my mother sew once, when she sewed my bridesmaid doll a dress and cape. But these definitely have a home sewn look to them. And we seemed to wear them for years.

Take me here for instance. Determined to get to the beach. And nothin', not even those baggy daggy swimmers is going to stop me. I mean mother, you could've taken in the legs a little. I bet if I keep looking I'll see one of my sisters wearing these before I got them. Probably both of them.

 

 

And one of my favourite photos. Emjay, the oldest, with our brother and sister. Sporting a very unfashionable blue suit with a matching home done fringe trim.

 

 

And here she is again, what maybe a couple of years later, still wearing it.

 

 

Move forward another couple of years and my other sister is now wearing it and Emjay has a much nicer, yet still loose fitting pair of swimmers on. As you can see I'm still wearing the same pair I had on in the beginning. Because I had penty of room to grow into.

 

 

OMFG. And I was right. Even though I was only half joking. Here is Min, wearing my baggy pink swimmers. I wonder if I ever owned a new pair.

 

 

 

I have this vision of my mother, searching through her wardrobe every year the day before we went on our summer holidays, pulling out a bag full of atrocious old faded swimmers and handing us each a pair. Mind you it wouldn't have been a very full bag. We seemed to last through our childhoods with three of four pairs between us.

This my my version of a cake with teal, lime green, and brown flowers.  It didn't get picked up before I left on Monday so I'm not sure if this is really what they wanted or not.  But I'm happy with it.  Brown flowers are hard, but I like the way these turned out. 

 

This is my favorite cake from Monday.  My directions on this one was yellow and peach roses. I made another one almost exactly like this one to put out in the cake case. 

We had a cloudy, cool, windy day today.  I didn't go outside except to water the dogs.

I spent most of the day today cooking.  I did take a nap and wash a couple of loads of clothes, and catch up on some computer stuff.  I finally took time to check my iStock account, and was happy to note that I had sold another photo.  It was one of the tomato worm from last year.  I haven't uploaded any photos in a long time.  Too time consuming.  I should go down to my sewing room and do some sewing tonight, but I don't know if I will make it.  I will more than likely go to bed early.  There is always tomorrow!

`

With us all diligently slapping hand sanitizer on our hands to kill 99.99% of everything that might make us sick.....   where do all the killed germs  go?

These have nothing to do with dead things on hands - I just thought they were pretty.  Taken on walk around the neighbourhood next to ours on the weekend:  

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• 22:55 Thinking that taking a nap with the husband before he went to work wasn't the best idea. I'm wide awake now. And hungry. #

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