I got my Claim number. And I left a voice mail for the Case worker personnel. Hopefully I'll get q call back.

I made potoat salad several years ago and just improvised. I know I used whole small red potatoes and I made a dressing that had pickle juice in it as well as pickles, mustard, and I don't know what else I mixed up the dressing and then put the potatoes in while it was still warm and tossed them around and then seasoned to taste. I don't think there was mayo.

I think I was working off an existing recipe but who knows from where.

I do recommend adding potatoes to the dressing while the potatoes are warm so they can absorb more of the flavor.

I agree there should definitely be cranberries to cut the other foods.

Thankfully the five minute voicemail was not nearly as batshit as I feared—more “my side of the story” (thoug that was drama llama enough) and less what I feared (angry rant about me visiting or my friendship with her gf or whatever)

I am going to cautiously say I think I'm seeing some improvement. After dealing with workers comp and resting some I called Spectrum and canceled cable and just have the internet.

And I could talk mostly coherently and I haven't slept since I got up at whatever time that was. 11 maybe. Feels l Ionger ago.

Tomorrow I may try to tackle seeing if Geico can get me cheaper car insurance.

Or maybe not.

Matt, I am intrigued and would like to hear more about this orange pie of which you speak. I like oranges. I like pie.

I really liked taking as much time as we took around the holiday. We went from Monday-Saturday, and we were able to see DP's family multiple times while staying with my sister. It was nice. Now, it was also small and quiet, too, so I'm guessing that had a lot to do with it.

We went to Longwood Gardens on the way home, but it was daylight, so we didn't see the outside lights; we just went to the conservatory. It was pretty, but I think more than half the fun is the outdoor lights. I hadn't been in more than a decade, though. Glad we did it.

I would need to sample all the cranberry varieties to give an educated opinion on which was the best.

I am sorry it has been such a fraught visit.

Thanks. Just like my visit in July, it's difficult negotiating boundaries when we're still in the pandemic and I'm the one who's the most stringent. But I'm still testing negative, so I've got that going for me.

I would need to sample all the cranberry varieties to give an educated opinion on which was the best.

I'm all about the Cranberries cooked with Port and OJ with tiny slivers of orange zest. By far my favorite, and now Matilda knows how to make it.

I'm about to make more stuffing because it's already gone before the other leftovers and it's everybody's favorite, plus I can offload some to our friend Maggie. Also, I just like making muffin sized strata with leftover stuffing as a quick morning bite.

Yeesh, you guys, aging parents are stressful. At some point this week, Tim's dad should be moved from the rehab center to the long-term nursing care wing of his assisted living community. So he won't be in the super-swanky part any more, but the buildings are attached, which means his buddies can visit him, which will hopefully be good for his state of mind. And it will be a familiar setting for him, which should also be good for his state of mind.

His doctors have said that a significant amount of his physical decline is, basically, because he stopped getting any physical activity like 6 years ago. Including (pre-assisted living) not going to the grocery store *with* Tim and just staying home and letting Tim go for him, so he didn't even walk around Kroger once a week.

And while I'm not too fussed about turning 50 this year, seeing Tim's dad's physical decline has really hit home about how important it is to stay active (in whatever capacity a person is able to, of course), because it's not a magic wand that wards off everything, but it sure helps. It's motivated me to stay active.*

My own train wreck of a dad is still having hallucinations -- he apparently called my brother last week and recounted a long, vivid hallucination to him (I don't know what it involved, because I didn't ask). My brother called the geriatrician's nurse practitioner about it, and she just called and left a message for me, because I'm the only family member she's authorized to talk to. Honestly, I took a big step away from this entire thing with my dad and his hallucinations in September, because he thought it was appropriate to share something with me that was very genuinely triggering (in the clinical sense of the word) and disturbing. And that's why my brother took over, but I guess my dad has to give the geriatrician's office permission to share information with my brother. So I have to fucking deal with it right now, which is not what I was expecting.

*(Re: me, staying active -- I still don't have the cardio endurance I had before Covid. And when I say "cardio," I mean brisk walking. I'm at maybe 2/3 the capacity I was before. My therapist gave me some grief about not seeing Awesome Doctor about that, but seriously, there's nothing he can do except make a note in my chart. If this is part of long Covid, there's no magic wand to make it go away. Literally the best we've got for long Covid is "Well, give it some time." So I'm walking as much as I can, and trying not to beat myself up for my reduced capacity.)

Timelies all!

Regarding aging parents, the new rehab center my mom is in seems to be helping with getting strength back in her legs. It's still play it by ear as to when they'll get down to Florida. My dad visits her every day. He's still pretty lonely as far as I can tell.

It is good to hear that she is progressing, Sheryl. I'm sure your dad is lost without her company.

Teppy, I had the same type of epiphany a number of years ago when my mom in her 90s insisted in no uncertain terms that my elder years would be a whole lot easier if I got my health act together earlier. Do I wish I started a decade ago, indeed, but better late than never!