10 days til full PANIC

So, Thanksgiving is coming! Are you ready?

I'm here to help you with one really really great reminder - it's about how to cut the bird once you get it out of the oven or off the smoker. 

More often than not, I've witnessed the complete destruction of beauty when some novice starts sawing away at the turkey with no skills and a bad knife, so here's how to stop the madness before someone in your family wrecks the Holiday.

Martha Stewart photograph

As a public service: Get to www.marthastewart.com immediately and download the instructions for HOW TO CARVE A TURKEY. It's going to keep you sane - trust me.

You're welcome!

Road Rage

This dipshit hit and ran my car this morning on the way to work. He came blazing into my lane without seeing me, without using a blinker and without a brain! I layed on the horn, hit the brakes, and and....and....and......boom, he almost missed me, but sigh, the back end of his big stupid truck hit the front end of my pretty pretty car.

I had to then speed up to follow him, thinking that he would pull over to the side of the road to exchange info. Nope. He turned off the road down a side street. So, I thought, well maybe he wants to get off the road to exchange info. Nope. He's totally trying to dodge me. I followed him for a while, honking and gesturing for him to pull over. He gave me the big NO, the hand and possibly the finger and kept driving, ending up back on the road we originally turned off. Then I gave up because what if he was a big aggressive douchebag who might punch me or pull out a gun or who knows what.....obviously he had no interest in exchanging info or talking to me at all. Probably uninsured - why else would he act like that. Creep.

So I got out my phone and got the pic of his license plate and his truck. What a dick! I'm pretty sure karma is coming for him.

I'm now waiting for the insurance company to come see what the damage looks like and if they require it, I will fill out a police report.

Happy Wednesday!

Another delightful little Seattle drinking spot

Last night I met my friend Kristie for a little dinner at Le Caviste! It's at 1919 7th Avenue, right up the street from where I live in downtown Seattle.  Here is what their website says:

Le Caviste is a bistrot-à-vins, a wine-bar, located in downtown Seattle offering a broad selection of wines from France, along with wine-based apéritifs. It is a warm and inviting refuge in the bustling heart of the city, where wines are chosen with care and priced to drink every day, accompanied by charcuterie, AOC fromages, and a few specialty plates from its tiny kitchen 

Le Caviste also offers wines to carry out & drink at home 

The wines are selected to faithfully represent their regional character and reflect the good practices of their makers. Whenever possible we prefer to source wines produced using monitored organic methods and sustainable farming techniques.

And here is what the Stranger says:Le Caviste is Paris in the Spring

This is the kind of neighborhood wine bar that I love, and the article in the Stranger pretty much says it all. It's just a cozy little spot with a great wine and food menu, simple, french, not overly done. And the decor is sparse, lots of wine boxes around, perfect for drinking wine and having a good catch up! Love this place - so glad it's nearby, can't wait to take Kit over there. The photo's below are from the internet - I didn't take a single one so no credit to me. If you haven't stopped in here - get over there asap! 

interior

Photo credit: The Stranger
David Butler - we met him last night - very nice fellow!

We ate this - best thing ever - mushrooms, egg, bread crumbs! Yum!
Photo from Bin Notes.

We ate this pate and meat extravaganza too - excellent! Photo from Yelp.

The rainy season

This morning the commute was the rainiest ever. REALLY! In almost 18 years of commuting - it was raining harder than my windshield wipers could keep up. It was AWFUL. But.... I'm at work now and everything is A-ok! Just a little weather. 

I took a couple of pics (while I was stopped at a light people - no, not while I was driving ...... I'm not crazy!!!!) Hard to see just how bad it was by these photos - trust me - it's ugly out there. Have a nice day. Be careful!

Reconstruction/Remodel

Do normal bloggers write posts when they get boob jobs? Well, this one is! After the year I've had, let's just keep the full disclosure going, shall we. After my lumpectomy I was scheduled for reconstruction surgery - because, as my doctor described it, nobody want's to look like a sharkbite was taken out of their boob. Right you are, sir. 

October 22nd was my surgery date. I was sort of worried that the surgery team would look at my post lumpectomy boob and say "ah, you look fine - we're cancelling the surgery!", but my doctor reassured me that while my right boob might look ok now, in about 6 months swelling and liquid filling the void would dissipate and I would be left with a big indent, so surgery was still on and I would be happy about it later. Great. 

But that's not even the best news - the best news is that in reconstructing the left breast to match now with the right post lumpectomy breast - I was getting an overall breast reduction at the same time. SO EXCITED - yet scared at the same time. More surgery, more anesthesia, more anxiety....

Fast forward to today. Surgery went beautifully, I'm healing very well, everything looks great despite dressing for Halloween as "FRANKENBOOBIES", I'm all good and walking around with smaller and lighter boobs - so nice. I had my post-op follow up yesterday with Dr. Said. Now I'm on the hurry up and heal process, and doing everything I can to encourage it because I start the last step of my cancer journey (radiation) in a month or so. Because radiation is sort of an ass-kicker for my good cells, I really need to get as healthy as I can before we start. I'll do radiation every week day for 6 1/2 weeks - and then finally we will be done with almost everything. I don't know if I mentioned this in past posts, but people who get a lumpectomy and then don't follow it with radiation have a 30-40% chance of cancer reccurrance in the first three years. Even people with a "complete response" to treatment. People who do get the radiation after lumpectomy have about a 3% reccurrance rate - I like the sound of that much better. So I'll keep you posted on how that goes, should be fairly uneventful, the only bad part is that it keeps us home in Seattle over the Holidays, we won't even be able to be at the farm since I'll need to be close to SCCA the whole time. 

On another note - I'm having anxiety about my hair. I really really want my old hair back, not this super short mostly white salt and pepper version. Despite being super grateful that I'm healthy, I have this lingering hair thing that makes me feel bad. I guess I would feel ok to either have super short hair in my normal color, or my old length with s/p hair, but introducing both at the same time is a little harsh. I feel like it might make me look unusually OLD or bad. I decided that I need to see my hair gal and get her thoughts on what to do. I'm considering coloring it back toward what it was, then over time while it grows I can gradually introduce more and more of the "salty" color. The "not as shocking" approach seems a little easier. Kit has been so nice that I can't get a read on what he really really thinks, and we all know that friends always want to be nice and say "oh, I really like it" but what they really mean is " it's fine for you but I would NEVER do that to my hair!"  I need a neutral opinion - I'm going to see my hair gal on Friday at 4. And, she's going to cut my wig too - just to give me something new for the next month or so before I just give it up and go short. Does any of this make sense? I know, these are the weirdest things to be talking about - but right now it's my life - ugh!

I promise to talk about how excited I am for Thanksgiving and Christmas in my next post. Whopeee.

Oh, ps.... here is a shout out to my reconstruction doctor, Dr. Said at SCCA/UW Medical Center. He's awesome, and don't you think it's kind of amusing that in a year of cancer dealings, the only male doctor I've seen happens to be the one that is building my new boobs. Makes me chuckle. hee hee. But, super pleased with his approach and he's an excellent doctor and has made us feel really comfortable about everything from the first time we met him. He's given me some of the best information about what will happen before/during and after radiation and we feel very lucky to have had him on our team. (By we I mean Kit and me, not my boobs and me!!!)

Dr. Hakim Said

Bench seat

I must be feeling better because I finally crossed a long overdue project off the list. Our bench seat by the door at the farm was about to fall completely apart. Look at this thing. Hideous. Whoever covered it with this fabric in the first place made a big mistake in using some super flimsy cotton - they should have used an upholstery fabric. It was pretty scraggly and ugly - really needed a make-over.

I found this fabric at Joann's. Pretty cute for right off the rack. And it was on sale. I measured the foam pad on the seat and bought the fabric and then got some extra at even more discount because it was the end of the bolt.

Exhibit A - the scraggly old cover

The fabric for the new cover - love it!

Here it is splayed out on the dining room table.

 Note: I didn't use a pattern - I just made it up - which is my usual way - because I just think "what the hell - I'll figure it out". When you do projects this way, be sure to think through it all the way. Don't just start cutting - you'll screw it up for sure. I measured several times. I've learned something about myself over the years. It is SUPER easy to measure wrong. Even when you think you've measured several times already - measure everything again. Then start cutting pieces. And you'll find that the measuring and cutting is not necessarily the fun part. It takes forever and is boring.... so so boring. But then you can get on with the sewing....

Old things sometimes break.

 But then this happened. The sewing machine crapped out. I tried not to panic. The motor was working but the wheel wasn't spinning which seemed to be a belt problem - and hmmm, when was the last time I changed the belt. Uh, never. So it seemed reasonable that the belt being more than 30 years old could probably use a change. I raced down to the Joann's again, but alas... they don't sell parts for machines from prehistoric times. What? You modern computer techy project runway seamstresses - bite me.... I had to order a belt online - so I got 2. Project on hold - one week delay. Got back to the farm this weekend with new belt (and a spare) in hand. Put everything back together and .............nuthin'. No worky. DON'T PANIC. DON'T PANIC..... oh, think through this. Motor works, belt moves turny thing - turny thing moves belt, but something else is wrong. I got out the flashlight and looked through everything like I thought an old sewing machine repair guy would do. And lo and behold, deep in the dark backside of the turny thing that the belt attaches to...there was a screw loose. Teeny tiny - requiring a super teen tiny screwdriver. Couple of turns later, and we are back in business. Putting that on the resume for sure. Sewing machine repair, check!

Decided velcro was the correct closure for the long backside.

I decided to sew the back side panel first and that velcro was a better solution than a zipper because the zipper would have been 8 feet long - that's too much. So velcro it was, and I found the iron-on stuff - which worked great. So i hemmed an edge, added the velcro, attached the other side to another piece, connected them as if they were one piece of fabric and got on with the sewing. 

Iron-on velcro works great.

Other piece that the velcro opposite will attach to

Both pieces of fabric with vecro holding them together

Sewing top to side to bottom to side - then ends.

 Once the whole business was sewn together, I just unvelcro'd the back side, turned the whole thing inside out and shoved the foam padding inside and worked the fabric around it so that it fit nicely and lined up correctly. Then i reattached the velcro and called it done. It was a lot like alligator wrestling. I was sweating by the end of it.

Final product

So, here it is in it's final resting place. I have enough fabric left to make a pillow or two which might be a nice add to the area. Hopefully this heavy fabric will last longer than the other stuff - plus, a darker background will work much better to hide dirt. I thought it turned out pretty well, and just in time for Thanksgiving. Done and done. 

Parenting is exhausting

Kit and I spent Friday afternoon with this little whirling dervish. I would have more pictures to show but the kid never stopped moving and therefore every photo was a blurry mess. We checked out MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) at their new South Lake Union space - it was fabulous. Actually, we didn't see all of it because certain little people gotta keep moving, man - so we let her lead. It was her day. We had agreed for her birthday present that we would have a date with her and she got to choose what she wanted to do and where she wanted to eat. 

After MOHAI, we went to her favorite restaurant Burgermaster - yes, seriously. Her favorite. Cheeseburger - no bun, and a chocolate shake. She couldn't have been happier.

After dinner we hung out at home for a while and did some drawings and used our "imaginations" and then it was time to take her home. 

Then fell into bed EXHAUSTED. Not kidding - EXHAUSTED. I don't know how you parents do it. This is one kid, and she's good. No fussing, whining or bad behavior. She's fun to have around, she likes to chat and tell stories and is quite easy for an 8 year old - but they never ever ever stop moving and talking - so it's pretty tiring. But super fun. Having nieces and nephews is great - and partly because you can give them back when you're beat.