Day 628

We decided to buy ourselves some Christmas presents. A pair of matching presents, actually.

Recliners.

We have a set of rocker recliners downstairs in the basement but I worry about us making it down the stairs all the time. So today we headed over to the furniture store to take a look. (That's where I should have taken my picture. Over a hundred chairs and wouldn't you know we had to try out almost every one of them.) We did find what we wanted and even better, they're being delivered the day before Thanksgiving. Christmas is coming early in this house.

As for today's picture, we have road construction nearby that has turned the highway into a one lane road. Sitting in the car forever waiting for our side of traffic to be let through gave me time to look around to find a picture. All I came up with were the metal pieces on the semi in front of me. But the real magic happened when I pushed "pencil sketch" on my photo editing software.

Totally cool. (Although not as cool as it will be when I'm sitting in the new chair later this week.)

Day 627

Only because of this blog did I step foot outside today.

I made juice for breakfast.
I worked in the sewing room on the quilt-in-progress from yesterday.
I worked on hubby's school work.
I worked on my school work.
I played Words with Friends.
I watched the last NASCAR race of the year.
I folded laundry.
I shopped online. (Nothing exciting, just paper towels.)
I scanned, then emailed something for my daughter.
I listened to Casey Kasem's top 40 - from 1979.

And I never left the house. Since not one of those things was worthy of picture-taking I had to venture outside after dinner.

It didn't take me long to find something colorful. The burning bush may have lost all of its leaves but the berries are sure bright.

I say that and then this comes up. Playing Words again tonight and I get the highest score I've ever earned, 111 points. Worth a picture to me.

Day 626

He picked a hobby.

After forever of trying to get hubby interested in something to keep him busy, he finally picked a hobby. It isn't like he had too much a choice in the matter. As the days were winding down for him to get back to work he was getting antsy. Or maybe it was bored. But now with him not being able to return until at least January he had to figure something out.

Cooking. 

He spent the majority of today in the kitchen. He made homemade pizza, cooked up chicken for tacos tomorrow, baked up more chicken for early in the week. Washed and chopped vegetables for my juice. A few times he asked about how to do certain things but for the most part he was on his own. 

I'm sure part of the reason he picked his own hobby was because he's getting tired of me dragging him into mine. He winds bobbins for me, he picked out buttons the other day, and now he's picked out the color combinations for the applique flower blocks. 

Day 625

I'm so mad at myself because of several missed opportunities for picture taking today. If I had snapped all the photos I considered, things would have been a bit more interesting (and varied). But I didn't and they aren't.

So another day of work in progress. More blocks and triangles and applique pieces for another wall quilt I had started years back.

Day 624

Hubby was too excited to sleep last night.

He had a meeting lined up with his principal for this afternoon to talk about school. He was going to make sure he got the elevator key and restroom key so that when everyone went away for Thanksgiving break next week he and I could get into his classroom and get things set up for his return the Monday after Thanksgiving.

He was excited to see staff, excited to get back to teaching, so excited to try out new jokes on the students.

But when we walked out of the kidney specialist's office this morning we didn't have a work release slip in our hands. We had a shall-not-return-to-work slip. All through the day he and I continued to use the same word.

Blindsided.

While we knew returning to work was going to require some accommodations, we didn't expect not returning was going to be an option. Kidneys still aren't there, but even more of a concern for the doctor is the high steroid dosage he's on. The doctor is super-concerned about the immune-system suppression hubby is experiencing right now. Being around other people - especially 170 kids a day (about how many kids he'd have in classes throughout the day), is dangerous to his health. Like being in a petri dish, the doctor said.

Hubby is disappointed, discouraged, defeated. It's for the best, but right now it's not feeling that way to him.

I did get him to laugh a bit today. We were stopping for milkshakes at Arctic Circle and the sign out front read No chocolate 99 cents. I went on and on about what kind of dessert it might be. Only when we got a bit closer did I realize I misread the sign.

While their sign might be a bit off, their shakes sure aren't.