9th of Av

 It’s been a while. I had hoped to blog more often. Maybe I can now. I guess I’ll go over my most recent things.

I started going back to my ‘diet’. It’s where I try to have a certain range of calories for each meal. That being 240-320 calories. It was a bit hard at first, but I’ve been getting the hang of it. For the whole day, the range is 1200 calories to 1600 calories. I have 5 ‘meals’. 5 small meals, I was told when I was diagnosed with IBD, is better on my gut than having 3 big meals a day. Plus, most of the time you don’t feel as hungry in between meals. I have already noticed small changes. I think it’ll work to help me feel healthier and lose weight. Last time I did it for a while, it really helped. I’ve also noticed how big things are again. I’ve noticed how little I can have for a meal. Having a full serving of my cereal and a little milk ends up being like 230 calories. I can’t really have a banana anymore with breakfast. (If I have the cereal. Might have it as part of a snack instead.) Can’t have the sausage patties or turkey bacon with it either. Having plain frozen pancakes and a little syrup is about in the middle of my range. It’s interesting. I also thought of it as like a game. Like you can only ‘pay’ with 1200-1600 calories. However, the weekend is usually my ‘splurge’ days. Especially for dinners. For those days, I might try to have 1800 calories or just a little more. I’m trying to look at other things like protein, carbs, sugar, and fat. I’m usually low on protein, sodium, fiber, and fat. Occasionally sugar, too. I use My Fitness Pal for it. It’s interesting that they now have a separate thing for water. I drink quite a lot according to that.

I’m still walking on top of the diet thing. I try to walk 3 times a day inside. Right now, each one is 10 minutes. I plan to increase each one. Last time I didn’t do it evenly, and my last walk was longer. That being 40 minutes. I’m thinking it might be better to add more to each one. I’ll have the last walk for 15 minutes. Then, eventually have the second walk as 15 minutes as well. Just keep going with each one like that. I might try doing outdoor ones when the weather gets better. Maybe once I get even healthier, I can try to do sit-ups again. They (my health team) were worried that I might break a bone again.

I splurged a bit and went out for dinner on Wednesday. I feel like I kind of broke it that way. We went to Burrata Bistro/Paella Bar. It’s like 2 restaurants in one. We shared some of their focaccia. It’s always so much. The rest are good for snacks. Had a little of the Marcona almonds. I got their penne alla puttanesca. It was much spicier than I expected. There wasn’t any spicy ingredient listed on the menu. The olives were weird. They had like little pieces of hard things inside. I mostly just had the pasta. I got their key lime tart. It was decent. I liked the crust. I wished they had their nutrition info somewhere, or even just the calories next to things, like some other restaurants do. I tried to add similar things to My Fitness Pal. Turns out, if it’s like what I found on there, that I actually ended up under the 1600 calories all together. I didn’t have my 5th meal. Well other than just having pills and water.

Getting my meds through CVS has been a headache. They say they sent things to my doctors, and yet they don’t get them. (I think they have the wrong address, at least for my primary care doctor.) My primary care doctor had to have one of her nurses call Molina about the ‘prior authorization’. They faxed the forms to them, my primary doctor filled them out and sent it. I had to call Molina in order for them to approve it. Might have to do that every time. I have a lot of meds. I tried to get something from my palliative care doctor as well. I called him about the whole thing. I’m still waiting on it to be approved. Hopefully all of them will go through with the way my primary care doctor had to do it.

I recently figured out a schedule for myself. This way I can try to get done what I want to do. Most days except the weekend, I figured out how to add playing my clarinet into it. I’ve been playing it for the first time in years. I think the last time I played was either in 2021 or 2020. It was close to when I was diagnosed with cancer. I also figured out when to blog, like what I’m now doing. Added my bed bath, and what I can do around it. Also, a little bit of doing my coloring books. It’s fun. Added Shabbat services to it, as well. I’ve figured out a pretty easy and accurate schedule with it all.

We (parent and I) recently went on vacation to Bellingham, Washington. I think it was the first time I was there. I haven’t traveled much since the cancer diagnosis. I got to a lot of things that were on my list. Some of those were restaurants. Those were some fun and good tasting food. We saw deer near one of the restaurants. That was cool.

We went to a 3-level bookstore. That was apparently famous. They had 2 cafes. One that was like a restaurant, and the other had a limited amount of things. It was a nice place. Wished there was more than one bathroom. We couldn’t stay very long, either.

The Marine Life Center was really small and cramped. Not much there. There were a lot of people, mainly kids.

We went to a Serbian/Russian market. We got hazelnut caramels, plum jam, cherry jam, pretzels, kvass, and cherry filled chocolate. I’ve had a caramel and some of the plum jam. They were very good. I was surprised there wasn’t much sugar in the plum jam.

We went to the Spark Museum. It started with electricity info, then things like telegrams or morse code or other earlier ways of communicating, telephones, TVs, radio, and more. It was quite packed with stuff.

One of the nights, there were police vehicles circling the hotel. We had to park near the hotel, because they were blocking the way to it. I’m almost afraid to find out what happened. We just hunkered down in the room once they cleared the way.

I’ve also gotten into reading. I made a top 100 list of classic books. I’m going through it. I got a Kindle that I’m reading books on. That’s been interesting. The first one was Pride and Prejudice. It was kind of boring except for the last 30 pages. It got intense. My 2nd book was going to be 1984. I didn’t want to read it, so I changed it. I tried to get into Crime and Punishment. It's a long book, too. I decided to drop that one. I started reading Hamlet, which was next. It's surprisingly short. It probably won't take me very long. 

It’s been hot lately. It’s affected my health, too. I seem to always be sweating. We don’t have ac, and the house stays warm for a while even when it’s cool outside. It’s been interesting watching the temperature in my room. My parent gave me a thing that shows the temperature and humidity. It’s humid in my room apparently. It also shows the lowest temperature and highest temperature in the last 24 hours, along with the humidity.

I was wearing one of my Jewish Pride shirts on yesterday. It has a big star of David in rainbow colors. It says B’tzelem Elohim. Meaning in the image of G-d. It also lists the congregation that was selling them at one of the local Prides. I went to Central, and someone saw it. They quickly said shalom. It was kind of cool. I don’t get a reaction to it very often.

Pinterest (I didn't make these. Just sharing):

Youtube:

7th of Tevet

I’m still waiting for Social Security’s decision on my SSI. I think they’re giving me until January 11th, but I think they might have finally made their decision before that. I sent papers to them like they asked me to. They suggested I hand the envelope to them at the office or mail it. Mailing it was easier for me. I’m not sure why it’s taking so long, since I sent it a while ago. I hope it gets to them, and they decide to approve me. If not, we’ll have to appeal it. I did recently get another notification that they still consider me categorically needy for health care stuff. That’s something. I think that’s the state, not on the federal level? I called them a couple of times. Each time I would be put on hold for over 2 hours. Too long for me. I don’t think they’d be able to help me either. If they didn’t get the papers, that’s not my fault. Where did it go, if they didn’t get it? It got me so worried at one point, I couldn’t sleep well. Now, realizing I can’t do anything more and they should have gotten it, oddly makes me feel a little better.

I called Access Bus for another ride. This time to my oncology appointment coming up on Thursday. That went smoothly. Except I forgot who I’m seeing. It’s someone who I haven’t met before. I don’t know what happened to Dr. Nik.

Had my CT scan last Thursday morning. I usually get both that and a full bone scan done in Tacoma. This was just the CT scan part and it was at KP’s Silverdale clinic. Much closer. I had to get up a little earlier than usual. (It’s bad enough I usually have to get up early to take a pill.) They told me not to eat 4 hours beforehand. They were going to do some bloodwork, but looked over my info again and apparently they didn’t have to. They wanted me there an hour early so I could drink the contrast before it. They didn’t tell me to take my clothes off this time. I just had to push my jeans down a little. I was really worried they wouldn’t be able to get an IV in. It was a big ordeal last time I had it done there. This time he got it in right away. He said I had rock hard veins, but it looked like a few good ones. I had a hard time breathing during it. We thought my arms would be up enough so they wouldn’t hit the machine, they did anyway. It wasn’t too bad this time.

The results were pretty good. Only thing that showed up were gallstones. No mention of lung nodules,  atelectasis (partial lung collapse), or fatty liver disease. Maybe my walks have helped?   

I was really hungry afterwards. I thought about going to the Oak Table. The parking lot was way too crowded, and it looked like we would have to wait a long time. So, we decided to go to Green Light Diner instead. I got their smoked salmon eggs Benedict without scallions and with hash browns. I was thinking of getting the Oak Table version, so why not try theirs? The eggs seemed almost hard-boiled instead of poached. They have herbed cream cheese along with their hollandaise sauce. There were capers, too. The salmon seemed thicker and there was more of it. It was pretty good all together. The hash browns needed just a little more salt. I ate the whole thing. I was that hungry.

Oncology called me yesterday and left a voicemail. They wanted me to get some lab work done before my appointment this Thursday. So, I had a blood draw yesterday for it. I knew I needed it soon, because it’s been a while. It went well. In fact, they said I had a beautiful vein. I got 2 results back yesterday. My alk phos was high, and my platelet count was high. That’s not normal for me. Makes me wonder what that actually means. Google is a bit scary when I searched for it on there. My cancer marker (which I got today) is the lowest it’s ever been. (Since they have kept track of it.) I think that’s a good thing.

It’s a new month today with my walking plan. My new outside walk is walking out of the neighborhood, to the Mormon church, through the greenbelt, next to the tennis courts and back. I plan to do inside walks occasionally too. Like when it’s too rainy out there. I decided to do 40 minutes inside today. When I know how long the new outside route will be, I can change it. If I had gone out today, the sun would have been in my eyes. I did 137 rounds inside. That’s a lot. Apparently, just over a mile.

I plan to start cooking again. I haven’t done it in a long time. A lot of the recipes I see on Pinterest look great. It’d be nice to try them. A lot of them have either cheese in it, or you can add it as like a garnish at the end. Some are truly without cheese. However, I think it’ll be fun to cook with it. Some of the recipes might last me most of the week. So, that’s also a positive. Maybe I'll do it for Saturday dinners? That sounds like a good time.

I did 6 Spanish lessons on Duolingo today. I usually do 3. I only missed one sentence. I flagged it because I think mine was just another way to do it. They have interacted with me in the past when I flag them. They say things like they added another option putting mine into it, too. I finished all 3 quests. One of the quests wanted me to finish 5 lessons, so that’s partially why I did that. After the 5th one, I got another xp multiplier, so had to use it. I might try to do more than the 3 I usually do. I also got to 2 stories. One they’ve done before and the other seemed new. I don’t like when they repeat. When I was done today, I was 4th in the league. Not sure if I’m still at that spot now.

Rosie’s been using the box often. Sometimes she misses and it ends up on the puppy pads, but she was doing really well for a few days. (Those days doing nothing on the puppy pads.) The happy pills might be helping her. Today, she’s made it in the box most of the time, and a little on the pads.

Had a nice New Year’s Eve at home. We got some snacks for it. Got pickled herring, a cheese ball (thought it would be interesting to try), plain Ruffles chips with French onion dip, dolmas, olives, smoked salmon spread, chocolate covered malt balls, chocolate covered cherries, little slices of rye bread (for things like fish, cheese, etc.), the Hanukkah truffles, and I think that’s it. It was nice. We saw the celebrations from around the world. I fell asleep at some point. We watched the local fireworks too. Had sparkling apple cider to ring in the new year. Kind of like our champagne. Since I don’t drink alcohol. Still trying to eat everything we got, and have the 2nd bottle of sparkling apple cider. Nice to keep it going. 

Pinterest (I did not make these. Just sharing):

Youtube:

16th of Kislev

Rosie had a vet appointment this morning. It was too early for me to go. She apparently is a pound lighter than last time. That could be a good thing, since she was a little overweight. She has severe arthritis in her legs and hips. They think a different type of litter box would help her with that. One that’s more open on one side so she can just walk in. I think one of the sides will have to be up higher to catch when she pees. She’s getting gabapentin for the pain. She was very dehydrated. So, they gave her fluids through an iv. She came back with a hump on her back full of the fluid. Despite having so much fluid already, she came back and started drinking more right away. They’re going to run some blood tests. I think my parent said they might know the results by tomorrow. They want my parent to get a stool sample, too. I hope all this helps her.

Had my bed bath today. I timed it this time. It was 20 minutes with just the ‘bath’ part and getting dressed. 10 more minutes to put everything away. When my home aide was here she didn’t clean me as thoroughly. It was a little less than 15 minutes with her, and that’s not counting the time it took to put things away. I think what I did today was really good. Faster than I thought it would be. Good for someone who has to use a brush for a lot of it (and sock aid). There were no wet spots or cool areas this time on my bed either. Yay!

Managed to go to both markets (Central and Safeway), plus CVS, yesterday. Had to go to CVS for 2 things. 1 I can only find there, but the other can be at Safeway too. I found that 1 thing that I can only find there. However, the 2nd thing they were completely out of. It surprised me. Found it at Safeway, but it was odd.

I also wanted to see if both markets had Hanukkah sections up yet. Central did have it, but the candles were super expensive. I got 2 bags of gelt (chocolate coins). There were a lot to a bag. Safeway didn’t have their Hanukkah stuff up yet. They usually have cheaper candles. Usually the box only has enough for the holiday, so you have to get a new box every year. Maybe I need to wait a little longer. The holiday is a bit late this year.

I had Central’s smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner last night. It’s a little weird that they add butter to it. I always have to heat it up, so I don’t deal with patches of cold butter. It was good. Had cherry crunch pie from them for dessert. It was pretty tasty. I had Safeway’s blackened chicken with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, and broccoli for dinner tonight. There wasn’t very much chicken, small amount of broccoli, and ok amount of mashed potatoes. I had their Chantilly cake with berries for dessert. I had it right after dinner. Usually the prepared meals from the markets are so big, I end up having dessert as my last snack instead. I really like their Biscoff cookie butter cake, but it wasn’t there. That one’s a new fave. The cake I got is usually really good, but it’s quite different compared to that other one.

I also got deli meat from Central. It’s their honey roasted turkey. It reminds me a bit of what ham tasted like in the past. (It’s been a very long time since I took pork products out of my diet.) It’s really good. Got more Colby Jack cheese to go with it. I realized the previous deli meat I got went bad really quickly. Hopefully this one will be better.

I also got 3 of my faves from Amy’s frozen meals. Their cheddar broccoli bake, chili mac, and pesto tortellini. The chili mac reminds me of my mom’s chili mac. Haven’t had hers in a long time, but this one seems special that way. I think Saturday night I did try a different frozen meal. It was Stouffer’s beef and macaroni. Seemed like they would have cheese with it, but they didn’t. I added some parmesan. It tasted like a stuffed pepper, only with macaroni instead of rice. Very interesting, and I might have it again in the future. It was pretty good on calories. Should have checked the sodium, but I forgot. It’s ok if it was a little high. It looked like it was a good amount to me. Very filling too.

I dropped Vanitas no Carte recently. It was getting too sexual for me. The way they depict when the vampires drink blood is over the top. It was kind of disgusting. The story was interesting, but I just couldn’t get past that. It was very artsy too.

I got back to watching Jujutsu Kaisen, Boku no (My) Hero Academia 5, Mairimashita! (Welcome to Demon School!) Iruma-kun 2, Dr. Stone 2: Stone Wars, and Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) 2. All of them have been great! The only ones I haven’t gotten back to are Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (So I’m a Spider, So What?) and Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work) 2. Just haven’t been able to get back to them yet. I found out some of them are on Netflix, which is great. I’m luckily caught up with One Piece. Apparently it’s on hiatus until April.

I've been continuing to do my long walks inside like I mentioned last time. It's a 30-minute walk. I still think this is the best way to do it right now, since I'm not used to how long it is outside. I did about 110 rounds today of the loop I do at home. That's a lot. I feel tired afterwards each time. I think once I really get used to it, I might try to do an outside walk. When I do, I probably should do it earlier in the day. I don't like doing it in the dark.

Pinterest (I did not make these. I'm just sharing):

Youtube:

11th of Kislev

I did my first walk this month yesterday inside. (It's a new month according to the schedule I’m following.) I decided to do it inside, my first time, to make sure I can walk for as long as I think it’ll be for my outside walk. That might be 30 minutes. I certainly got tired about 20 minutes in. I did it though! Yay! Legs were a little sore. Did it again today. I think it’s good to ‘practice’ a bit more inside. Plus, it was already getting dark.

Rosie seems to be getting worse with the bathroom issue. She’ll see a vet on Monday. It’s not her usual vet. That one I think moved out. Hopefully they’ll help us. I think her diabetes is out of control, her arthritis hurts when she tries to crouch (not good for when she goes to the bathroom), and she is aging. (She’s 17 or 18 years old.) I think she’s in a lot of pain in general. I tried helping her yesterday and she attacked my slipper hard. Glad I was wearing them. That night I think Rosie peed a little on the carpet/floor next to her toys. I think she also pooped. I couldn’t see what was going on because I didn’t have my contacts in. I couldn’t move her if I did because it would have gone everywhere. I kind of let her do what she wanted today. I’m too tired to catch her before it happens, and move her to the box. I think she’s peed on the mat today.

I enrolled all 5 of my ebooks on Smashwords into their 2024 End of Year Sale. They’ll be 50% off. I want to see what happens when they’re not free. Probably won’t get any ‘bites’. It’ll go from December 12-January 1st. They were allowing authors to enroll up to the end of yesterday. Good thing I caught it when I did. I don’t know if I’ll try to promote it or not. They have premade social media posts and promotional images to add.

I got the mail yesterday, and found out what the 2nd letter from Social Security was about. It’s telling me that I’ll get a raise in how much they pay me each month. It’ll be $16 more. It’s because the cost of living has gone up. Still not very much, but at least it’s something.

Had the social security interview about my SSI today. Lasted for 25 min. She’ll send an envelope to put my bank statements that had Amazon’s royalty payments in. I have to add my social security number to it. They might take away a couple of dollars for next month’s or something. She called back and found the 2nd bank account that I’m still connected to. She’ll suspend me until I get documentation that I’m off of it. I called my parent about it and she said we’ll figure it out and not to worry. I had a feeling something like that would happen. She was kind of mean, though. So, I’ll have to give her 2 things. Not sure if they’ll fit in the envelope. Have to go to the bank it seems, too.

I finished Zombieland Saga: Revenge (2nd season). It made it seem like it’s wide open for a sequel. I did find out that they’ll have a movie out soon. Maybe they’ll reveal more. Like how did their manager bring them all back to ‘life’? Why did he? (Why the dog and bartender too?) Yes, we know it was partially to revive the economy/tourism of Saga (although it was always struggling), but there seems to be something more. There's a more personal reason for one of the members of the group. Oh, and what was the deal with aliens blowing up something at the end? (They showed a UFO firing something.) At least I think they were aliens. It was for the last second. Didn’t think they’d have something like that. There’s no date for the movie. I’d watch it when it’s available.

I had a broccoli and cheddar bake for dinner. It’s a frozen Amy’s meal. One of my faves! I had a pumpkin walnut cookie for dessert. They also have chocolate chips and chocolate drizzle. Good stuff all around.

With Spanish today, I didn’t miss anything. All of it was correct. (I think it said I’m averaging 97% as a whole recently.) Did 3 lessons. I’m 18th in the league now. Like I said last time, they’re much more competitive in the Diamond League. Probably full of people that do like 10 lessons a day. I get tired after 3, myself. 2 of the quests today were based on doing 4 lessons. I just didn’t want to do that.

Someone on Youtube asked if people were given the choice of the cure for cancer or 10 million dollars, which would they choose? I said even though I have cancer, I'd prefer the money. I could live comfortably by myself for the rest of my life. With the cure for cancer, is it for all types/subtypes of cancers? Or just one? Like, if I got it, would it just be for people like me that have ER+, PR+, Her2- metastatic (stage 4) breast cancer? It gets complicated, because they say cancer in general is really multiple different types of illnesses. If it was for everyone, you have to deal with if people will believe you, too. They might find out I had it after I die, and I wouldn't have any money from it while alive that way. It's complicated. At least with the money it's not as much. Other people might find the cure, and then they'll help me. I got interesting responses. They were all positive, but sounded kind of sad. One said they'd find the cure, so I wouldn't need to. They would take care of me. Another said not to give up and they're hoping I don't die from it. Another gave me a lot of love and referred to me as man at the end. They can't tell what gender I am on there. It kind of felt interesting to be mistaken for a man. I didn't tell them the truth, since the sentiment was nice, and I didn't want to ruin it. I'm always nervous to comment on Youtube. I never know if there will be rude people. 

Pinterest (I did not make these, or the Youtube videos. Just sharing): 

Youtube:

9th of Kislev

One of the bowls I use was broken recently. It was old. I left it in the sink to soak so it’ll be easier to clean in the dishwasher. I had ravioli with sauce (from a can), and it can be hard for the dishwasher to really clean it after that. My parent grabbed a pot from the rack near it, and hit the bowl with it by accident. It shattered. 

Last week was really foggy. I didn’t go for my outside walk one of the days, because of how foggy it was. It seemed dangerous. I did go out there because I needed to check the mail. I get previews of what’s in the mail through emails. It looked like it was a serious thing from the Washington Health Care Authority. It was just a thing that didn’t apply to me since I don’t do taxes. Anyways, I couldn’t see the mailboxes because of the fog. I can’t imagine what it was like to drive in it. It’s gone now. I managed to do some outdoor walks couple of times since. On Tuesday, I plan to do double what I've been doing this past month. If I can't do it outside, I'll have to do around a 30 minute walk inside. I think it'll be around 30 minutes outside with doubling it anyways. I guess I'll see how it goes.  

I finished watching Kai Byoui Ramune. It was just ok. Reminded me a bit of xxxHolic. It was about a doctor (Dr. Ramune) curing people of their supernatural curses/illnesses. I’m glad I finally finished it. It’s one of the ones I started a few years ago. I don’t think it was very popular. I only have one more episode of Zombie Land Saga Revenge (its 2nd season). Sadly, I don’t think there’s another season of this one. I’ve got quite a lot of episodes left of Jujutsu Kaisen and Boku no Hero Academia season 5. Watched them recently. It’ll be great if I can keep up with watching the ones on my current list again. I’ve also been watching Better Than Us on Netflix. Good to get back into watching Netflix shows as well.

I did my bed bath again last Thursday and today. I really do feel cleaner now than when my home aide did it. I didn’t get my bed wet this time and on Thursday. Just a couple of cool areas. I think I have to put the washcloth in a better place when I’m done with it. I managed to get lotion on my back. I put some on the brush and did it that way. It worked well. Got lotion on my feet, too.

Today I missed a sentence in the Spanish lessons from Duolingo. The unit’s on commands this time. I’m 15th in the league. I made it to the Diamond League, and they’re a lot more competitive than in the previous one. I finished Unit 40, and now I’m going through Unit 41.

I finally laundered my bedding. It’s been a long time. It’s been since I did it when I got new sheets. It feels nice and cozy again. I want to try to do it every couple of weeks. Might not do my pillow that often. When I had the pillow in the washing machine, apparently it made it move out of place. I couldn’t move it back myself. (It was really heavy.) My parent helped put it back. It's also been moving with other loads. It's not normal. I thought it was just because of my pillow. Luckily, I've found a way to move it back now.

Managed to go to both markets on Sunday. Also, went to the pet store. We got a low dust litter and a new mat for under her litter box. She’s ruined what was her current mat. The low dust litter might help my parent with her lungs. It’s scented, and I hope Rosie is going to be ok with that. She started peeing outside the box yesterday. I caught her today. Thought she was in the box far enough, but she wasn’t. She peed a little on the mat/floor, but I managed to push her in more after a second. Maybe she thinks she’s in all the way, but isn’t? I’ll try to catch her while I’m awake, but I can’t when I’m asleep. I can't watch her 24/7. My parent did clean the floor and added the new mat today. Maybe if it's cleaned, she'll go in all the way and also poop in there? It's not like she's losing her mind. She still has her wits about her. Hopefully, she'll go back to how she was before. 

We also went to a small hardware store and got a big flashlight battery, a filter for the furnace, and an extension cord (I think). The flashlight I use had dimmed down a lot. My parent put in the new battery for me, and it was nice and bright again. My parent took the old filter out, and put the new one in. Apparently, there were 3 dead mice that made it inside and on top of the old filter. We don’t know how they did it. It was definitely time for a new filter then. At least we’re not breathing in dead mice anymore.

My parent made a pasta and meatball thing for dinner last night. It’s never really the same when she makes it. Good, but different. This time she got the local market’s premade beef meatballs (just have to cook them), onions, green bell peppers, special canned tomatoes that she pureed, garlic (from a jar this time), and fresh fettuccine from that same market. She added fresh parsley to it. The meatballs were huge! I added some parmesan to mine. Tried to mix it up, but it spat sauce at me. It was very good.

I plan to have the local market’s smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner tonight. Their raspberry and lemon cake for dessert. For tomorrow’s dinner, I plan to have BBQ brisket with mac and cheese from Safeway. For dessert, their Biscoff cookie butter cake. That was amazing last time I had it!

I got most of my author royalties from Amazon! Yay! Except for $6 more. I don't know what happened to that. They gave me what they said they would from a letter back in June. Thank goodness the tech team looked into it, and they got it for me.

I got a letter from Social Security. They made a phone appointment for me. They said they’re constantly reviewing my status. They need info from me. I don’t know what more they need. Maybe they saw that Amazon finally gave me my royalties. There’s another letter from them today. I don't know what that's about. I checked the mail earlier and it wasn't there yet. I'll check again just before dinner. 

Pinterest (Again, I did not make these. That includes the Youtube videos. Just sharing.):

Youtube:

2nd of Kislev

I forgot last time to say what happened on getting a new number/card, and more info, on KP. Apparently, they don’t give out new numbers if plans change within KP. Unless you leave the state. All my medical records will transfer over as well. So, no running around trying to get at least my meds onto the new plan. My social worker says it already shows up that I have Medicaid with them. I might not have to worry when I fully change to the new plan. Yay!

I had my last bed bath with a home aide last Tuesday. Normally it’s every Monday and Thursday. She had off on Monday, and Thursday was a holiday. She was planning on trying to squeeze me in for both Tuesday and Friday. I guess Friday didn’t work out for her. She wanted me to friend her on facebook to stay connected. I tried to, but her settings don’t allow me to friend her. So, I messaged her about it. She’ll have to friend me first. It’s a little weird, but she was nice. It’s ok if I don’t hear from her.

I did my own bed bath today. I did it this morning. I used my shower brush for a lot of it. Since it’s hard to reach some areas with my right shoulder. (I broke it in 2020.) I also had wipes that helped. I had my sock aid ready to put my socks on myself. That’s hard to do without it. I still have all the products she used. I ordered them, so I can just order them again when I run out of them. I’ll have to be sure to remember to use lotion. I did remember this time. I’m super dry, and I think she said it’s worse now that it’s close to wintertime. I’m not sure if I’ll do my bed baths more often, or keep it to Mondays and Thursdays. It’s not like I sweat a lot now. Might be different during the summer. I think I got myself cleaner than when she did it. (Got the bed wet in a little area. I'll just try to be more careful and cover that area with the towels more.) I think it took me a little longer. That might get better over time.

Went to Thanksgiving at one of my parent’s friends’ place. It took about 1.5 hours each way to get there and back by car. Kind of a ways. The turkey was really good. The rest of the food was ok. Got to have interesting conversations. There was a couple with 2 children, my parent and I, the hostess’ parents, and the hostess herself. There were supposed to be 10, but it looks like there was just 9 of us. I didn’t know anyone. (Other than my parent, of course.) There was a dog. I think her name was Heart. She had a sweater on that didn’t really fit her anymore. She also had a painful gum issue, I think. The kids were off the walls. Loud and rambunctious. The boy decided to bring his train under the table and play with it. Eventually he started rubbing my legs under the table and put his head out on the side. It was really bizarre and inappropriate. There was also the time when that family was about to leave but the girl got upset, threw her jacket off, and said she was staying. I tried to stay away from them at the end, and gave them as much space as I could. We left so quickly we forgot our utensils for the pies and the bag. (We were leaving the pies behind. We had brought apple and pumpkin pies.) Maybe she can do something up here, and give them to us on the way or something. My parent said we could just buy new stuff and not worry about it. I don’t know if this will turn into an annual thing. It would be interesting if it did. It’s been a while since we were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with friends. It was nice that way.

Managed to go to both local markets yesterday. I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner that night. Cherry crunch pie for dessert. I plan to have a salmon and pesto pasta dinner tonight. It has asparagus and cherry tomatoes as well. I think it’s pretty healthy. I’ll have a Biscoff cookie butter cake for dessert. It’s new and sounds amazing! Didn’t do the lottery tickets because the machine was acting up, and I didn’t want to wait for it to be fixed. Maybe we’ll go back soon.

Didn’t expect to pour cereal all over the floor this morning. I might have enough left in the box for a few days. I tried cleaning it up with a broom and dustpan. Still heard a little crunching afterwards. 

I was going to have a cherry mixed fruit cup with lunch. (I usually have some form of fruit cup.) It was hard to get out of its package. I noticed there was some weird hard brown sticky stuff on it. It was so sticky, I couldn’t open it. The others in the sleeve looked the same, so I had to throw them out. I had mandarin oranges in gel instead. Luckily I have 2 more things of fruit cups besides the orange one. I just feel like I wasted one package of them. It’s not my fault though. There probably was some sort of leak and it got all over the cups. Today’s been weird. 

I managed to get an outside walk in, along with my 2 indoor walks. Tuesday's the start of the last week of my current walk. I'm going from the mailboxes, all the way to the tennis court, and back home. Oh, I also check the mail afterwards, so technically I do go to the mailboxes again. The next one I'll do is twice around that same area. I'm not sure if I can do it twice, but I'll try. Hopefully I can get the last week in with going outside for them. If I don't go out, I do 15 minutes inside. I'll double that when I can't go out with the 'new' way of doing it. 

Oncology called me. I was busy with something so it went to voicemail. They made an appointment for me. This will be to go over the CT scan I'll get done on January 2nd. It's with a different oncologist. The one I was assigned to is Dr. Nik (they shorten it to that), and this will be a Dr. Stephen. Maybe Dr. Nik will be on vacation? (Hopefully he's not leaving too. So many doctors seem to be leaving or moving around.) I hope this one will be ok. Usually they want lab work done like the week before. They didn't mention that this time. I might call them back at some point to make sure.

I plan to get back into anime and Netflix shows. I still have quite a few anime that I haven't finished from a few years ago. The list for what I want to see is long. I have quite a lot on my Netflix list as well. 

Pinterest (again I did not make these. Just wanted to share):

Youtube:

26th of Cheshvan

My nurse plans to discharge me from palliative care (pc) this week. My home aide did my last bed bath today. She might come on Friday, we don’t know. Most likely won’t. It’s usually on Monday and Thursday. She had off this Monday, and Thursday’s a holiday. At least I’ll be somewhat clean for the holiday. I have a plan for doing it myself. I might even get cleaner. My shower brush will come in handy. As my home aide was leaving, she said that I can friend her on facebook. She said she doesn’t normally say it, but that would be nice to keep in touch. I don’t know if I will or not. I searched for her, just to see. (I was surprised I found her.) She’s right, she doesn’t do much on there. She might react to things though. She was nice, but it might be a little strange.

My social worker said she’ll call me sometime this week. It’ll be about being in touch with another social worker who deals with cancer patients on Medicaid, I think.

They told me I can still stay in touch and call the pc doctor, even when I’m discharged from it. He never was very good at communicating. He keeps saying he’ll call me but never does. I don’t really trust him anymore. My primary doctor and oncologist would do a better job.

We didn’t get to go grocery shopping for the week during the weekend. We went to Central yesterday. On Sunday, my parent spent much of the day making a kosher Ukrainian borscht. All the meat in it was beef. There was quite a bit of vegetables, too. I think that was the first time I’ve had borscht. It seemed earthy. That might have been the beets. The only thing I didn’t like were the pieces of beef. They were a little too fatty for me. The sausage was good with it. Despite it being skimmed, it also left an oily film on my lips. That’s not a bad thing. It was pretty good.

I thought I was finally getting all my royalties from kdp/Amazon, but apparently some of it already went to the ‘state’ as unclaimed property. This is all on kdp or Amazon. I did what they asked me to do. I feel like they almost stole it from me. Luckily, there’s a claim you can file with the Department of Revenue to see if you have unclaimed ‘property’ or money. I shouldn’t have to give them the document that kdp gave me. The link will apparently disappear in 2 business days. I’ll download it to my computer just in case beforehand. They said I’ll get $33 from the US market. I’m not sure where they got the $33 from, if all of it went to the ‘state’. I got the royalty from the UK today. The $33 they say will be paid on 11/29. This is so weird. The Unclaimed Property Division emailed me back. They had a document of things that were unclaimed to me. Nothing on kdp. (Surprised they had anything.) I’ll try to upload the document kdp gave me to them and see what happens. I’m starting to feel like it’s not worth it… Maybe if I don’t get anywhere with the Unclaimed Division, I can email kdp back. They said I could use the email to reply back, if I needed to.

For Thanksgiving we were told to bring pie. We might get apple and pumpkin pies. They’ll probably be good. I don’t know what else will be there. Hopefully foods I can have. There will be 10 people, 8 adults and 2 children. That’s not too bad. Maybe it’ll be a new tradition to go to this friend’s place for Thanksgiving. The only downside would be how far away it is from home. (I think she said it's in Lacey, which would be about a 1.5-hour drive.) We’ll see how it goes. It’s nice to be with people for it, though. It’s a different experience when it’s just my parent and I and Rosie. Nice but different. I hope the friends we used to visit for Thanksgiving have a good one too.

I managed to do an outside walk today. The weather was good. No rain or wind. A little cold and cloudy, but nice walking weather. A little kid in a van yelled hello as they went past me. That was odd, and looked like the kid was going to fall out of the window.

Rosie’s been good today, but she’s been peeing and pooping outside the box lately. I looked up, with Google’s AI, how to clean up after a cat's mess in the bathroom. It came up with some pretty good suggestions. We’ll see how that goes. My parent might get in touch with Rosie’s vet to see what more we can do about it.

Went to Diablo’s tonight. I got their Diablo’s fries without onions, guacamole, and sour cream. It was like nachos but with fries. It was huge! (Fries themselves were huge!) Very good, though. The fries seemed to have a slightly spicy seasoning. I think I ate around a 1/3 of it. It’ll be a lot for tomorrow’s lunch. Got churros for dessert. Those were good too. 

Pinterest (again, I did not make these, I'm just sharing them):

(The next 2 are from the same house plan. One's the main floor, the other 2nd floor):

Youtube: 

19th of Cheshvan

I almost forgot. As I was walking through the parking lot to get to Starbucks last week, a car almost ran me over. If I hadn’t started to run, it would have hit me. I had right of way there, and it’s not like I was walking too slow. It was another scary thing. It was pouring rain when we went back out of the café to the car.

We might go to one of my parent’s friends’ place for Thanksgiving. I think they only asked us to get a pie. My parent might get more than just one.

With the previous unit (just started the next one) in Spanish on Duolingo, they’re going over the word si. It’s interesting that with the accent mark as sí, it means yes. Without it as si, it means if. They started putting all the learners learning Spanish in one league this week. Last time I checked, I’m 3rd in the league.

Got my new Molina card. It’s KP through Molina, so they changed the primary care doctor and added Kaiser Permanente at the bottom. (I thought the number was changed, but it’s the same.) I looked more at it. I don’t see the KP stuff in the Molina app. I’m thinking of calling Molina tomorrow about it. I might call KP’s medicaid line as well. I’ll have to make an appointment to see my primary soon. She’s moving to their Silverdale location. They are closing the Poulsbo location. I don’t know how this all works. I guess I’ll find out.

Went to Starbucks again Saturday. I got their new iced pecan crunch oat milk latte and their new dark toffee bundt cake. Both were good. Didn’t get close to getting run over this time.

Went to Kachai Thai for dinner Friday night. I got chicken satay, beef fried rice without onions, and rice pudding for dessert. The pudding was the only dessert they had left. I couldn’t hear our server very well. That was kind of a headache. The pudding had purple rice and sweetened coconut milk. Was better than the last time I had it. No weird aftertaste.

I started a new month for walking. This time, for my outdoor walks, I’m walking all the way over to the tennis courts (starting with the mailbox side) and back once. Apparently, it’s only 1 or 2 min longer than what I was doing last month. I thought it would be more. I only was able to do it once so far. It’s either been too dark and/or too rainy. I’ve decided that when it’s like that, I’ll just do a 14 min or 15 min walk inside. I’m also still doing 2 5-min walks inside. It’s expected to be really rainy and windy today and tomorrow. Weather Underground said the winds will start at 2pm today. It didn’t. My parent said it might be at 6pm. We’ll see. (It already sounds like it's really raining outside right now.) I think the wind will be so strong that the power will probably go out. Since I wasn’t sure when it’ll be windy/rainy, I decided to do a 15 min walk inside. Just to be on the safe side. Don’t want to get out there, and suddenly get stuck in it.

Went to one of the markets (we still call it Central) on Sunday. Got some of my weekly stuff. I was going to get a cranberry supplement, but they didn’t have the one I got last time. I decided to get something else. It’ll last for 50 days at least.

I also got my toothpaste. Apparently they’re the only ones that sell it nearby. It’s Pronamel from Sensodyne, Alpine fresh flavor, and whitens teeth. Good for sensitive teeth, like mine. I’ve been using it as I’ve gotten back to brushing my teeth on a regular basis. Doing it twice a day. I watched a video on youtube talking about when the best time to brush is. (Plus it talked about other hygiene/health things.) They say it’s about an hour after a meal. 30 minutes is ok, but not less than that and it’s not as good. So, I’m doing it an hour after breakfast, and 30 minutes after my last snack, which is kind of close to my bedtime. I also used to use water to rinse it off, but I don’t anymore. Just spit as much of it out as I can. My teeth look the cleanest they’ve been in a long time. Things don’t irritate them much anymore either.

I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner. Also, found out they have turkey dinners now. I grabbed one. I wasn’t expecting to get 2 dinners from that market. I also got cherry crunch pie for dessert.

Went to Safeway yesterday. Got some Drano to help with the downstairs’ bathroom sink. (This was after Safeway and going back to Central. They didn't have it at Safeway. They also didn't have milk, and we needed that too. Interesting mix to go back to get.) It seemed to be pretty clogged. It got much better after last night. I got some more cash for the buses. $20 worth of $1 bills. A lot, and it’ll go for quite a few bus rides. I got a grilled salmon and pesto pasta dinner from there. It also has asparagus and cherry tomatoes. I think it’s pretty healthy. Got a tiramisu cake for dessert. Hopefully that will be good too. Got lottery tickets. Mega Millions jackpot is getting pretty big. It’ll be cool to win. The drawing is tonight.

Pinterest (again, I didn't make these. Just sharing. Thought it would be interesting. Some come from my dream home board):

(This one has a link that has tons of different walk-in closets):

Youtube: