Sunday, 7/4

I just made we what I'll call a chili pepper frittata and boy did it turn out good!  I've always wanted to attempt chili rellenos, but making the "batter" sounds like a real pain in the ass - especially just for myself.  Plus it's fried in oil, which makes them not-so-healthy.  Anyway, so this was inspired by the idea of chili rellenos.  So I started out by baking a large Anaheim chili in my little convection oven at 425 for about 20 minutes, until the skin started to darken.  I wrapped it in foil and let it steam for about 10 minutes, then the skin peeled right off.  I sauteed onion, diced tomatoes (grape tomatoes halved) and some pre-cooked sausage I had in the fridge (diced up as well).  Once all that was good and hot and the onions translucent, I pulled them out of the pan, put the chili flattened out in the hot pan, put all those ingredients back on top of the chili, then poured eggs (prepared as though I was going to scramble them - whipped with a bit of milk, salt, pepper) over the top of the whole thing.  So the chili was on the bottom, frying as the egg cooked above it.  Put the lid on the pan and let it cook a few minutes, added a nice portion of shredded Mexican style cheese over the top, cooked a couple more minutes then shut it off and let it sit for 5 minutes with the lid on.  It turned out AMAZING!  I wish I had taken a pic as it was pretty, too!  So much better than McDonald's would have been - I had hoped to inspire Mark to eat by going to get an egg mcmuffin meal for him, but he wasn't interested.  This was better for me, but I really would rather he have eaten...

Which brings me to where Mark's at.  **SIGH**  Not well.  He hasn't been upstairs at all since Friday when he came home from the doctor's office.  He occasionally says something like, "I think I'll come upstairs for awhile."  But when it comes down to it, I think he's feeling too wobbly to even try.  I'm having a stair lift put in on Wednesday, so maybe after that's in, he'll be more inclined to come up.  We'll see.  I would say something like, "I hope I didn't waste my money!", but to be honest, he's got me going up and down the stairs so many times a day, when my knees start to hurt, it will be a godsend for me as well!  I don't know how I can go back to work at this point - he can't even hook and unhook his... well, I'll call it his "pee-bag drainage tube."  At night (or let's say when he sleeps, because it's probably at least 16 hours a day!), he hooks up to a jug so he doesn't have to wake up and drain his bag every two hours, so that's the tube I'm talking about.  He keeps having intestinal issues, too, which is a problem.  He's radically constipated, then without any warning, it cuts loose and he has a mess.  I just have a feeling his body is failing across the board.  Last night, he said something like, "I need to start working out."  Huh???  I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that will ever happen.

Anyway, when he went to the doc (that was Thursday, not Friday...) they did the routine pre-surgery checkup because he's having surgery to fix the huernia this next Friday.  I fully expected the doc to call and say he's in no condition for surgery.  I talked to a nurse on Friday and she said the doc hadn't had a chance to review the results yet...  I'd really like to know what his labwork looks like...

 

Tues., 7/6

Sent out the 7 plants I sold last week.  I was telling Marco I netted about $462 after PP fees, but I got to thinking about other costs... the boxes cost me a little under a buck apiece.  Packing materials - everyone collects the little packing pillows for me, and sometimes I used grocery bags or newspaper, but I do also use the bio-degradable packing peanuts, which aren't cheap - I may use 50 or 75 cents worth of those on many packages. So I'm going to say between pots, soil, boxes, packing, printing out shipping labels, tape, etc... I can probably figure about $2 or maybe even $2.50/plant.  Still makes them a pretty profitable "product"!

 Today, I was perusing my plants out back on the shelves. These are Hoyas that either have a very short growing season, like macgillivrayii and onychoides, or those that are just being stubborn about growing at all, like deykeae and one I want to talk about, polystachya.  I put it outside last year because I don't think it grew hardly at all the year before.  It did put on some new growth last year, but not a lot.  I've been watching it pretty closely this year and today, I found all kinds of new growth!  Here are a few pics that point out all the fresh growth...

I count TEN!  Damn, that's a lot to get excited about!  But notice some of those gnarly joints.  I just learned (and yes, even after this long, there's stuff to learn I guess!) that those gnarly joints I see on a few Hoyas (that look like it keeps trying and trying and trying to produce new growth) are actually caused by a "broad mite".  So I got some spray that's supposed to kill them and as I find Hoyas with this issue, I'll give them a good spray down and see if it stops that problem.  It's something I've noticed a few times over the years... It must not be a problem that easily spreads because it's not something I see on a lot of plants.

Obscura has been blooming even though I've grown it this year in the north window in my bedroom.  Not loaded with flowers like in the GH, but several.  And lo and behold - I never really noticed it before, but it's VERY fragrant!  Had to move it to the kitchen for a couple nights as it was too powerful to sleep.

 I've been slowly getting the GH walls cleaned.  I've got the whole east side done now, and one south section.  I get up very early and do a section every few days.  I'm hoping when I'm done that the windows glide a little easier.  The south window is the WORST, and after getting the first half of it done, it opened back up easier.  It was HELL getting it closed so I could clean the track!  I hope when I get the other side done, it will glide easier in both directions.

Well, the rest of the week will be crazy.  Tomorrow, they come to put in the stair lift.  Thursday, I take Pearl down to Plattsmouth for her summer 'do, and while they've got her sedated, I'm going to have them take an xray of her bladder to see if they can see any of the crystals/stones developing.  While I'm down there, I'm going to go see Karin from the cactus club, one of my cohorts in Hoyas - see her critters (she has 5 dogs, two of them shepherds, cats and chickens...) and how her plants are doing.  Then to lunch with Mom and Merry.  Thursday night, I need to help Mark take a shower to get ready for his Friday surgery, then he needs to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m.!  YIKES... I'm hoping they'll keep him for a few days, but I guess overnight is about the best I can be sure of.  I talked to a nurse today and told her how terribly wobbly he was last time he came home after his carotid artery cleanout - how he seemed somewhere between drunk and brain-damaged for 3 full days after, and she said to tell the docs and maybe they could keep him another day or two.  I'm hoping they'll keep him until Monday because on Sunday, the cactus club is going to Lincoln for a field trip and I'd like to go. But if he's home, I don't know if I'll feel like I can go...

Well, I have things to get done before they come tomorrow.  More as soon as life settles down a bit...