A little of this and a little of that

Thursday was another beautiful, warm, sunny day in the Pacific Northwest.   I was off...did not have to work today and I don't have to go back to work until Monday.  But then Monday is going to be a 12 hour day ( another seminar Monday night).  At least it's in town and I don't have to cross the Narrows Bridge to get to it. This one is on "foot & ankle" problems.  I did get some errands ran today but haven't managed to accomplish all I wanted to here at home.   Oh well, there's still a few hours until bedtime.

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Friend Bob was finally able to fly out of Seattle-Tacoma airport Wednesday morning.  He called me at work as he was boarding a Delta airplane for a non-stop flight to the JFK airport in New York.  He was happy that they had assigned him to a first class seat for the cross country flight.  After a two hour lay over in New York, I got another call as he was boarding another Delta plane for Amsterdam.  Again..assigned to first class for that long flight over the pond.  He's really going to miss these flight priveledges when they go away the end of October.  Going to Europe was one of his dreams when his daughter first went to work for Delta.  And now that she is not going back to work after a long leave of absence...he's finally realizing his dream.  I figured that he'd arrive about 6:30am Thursday (Amsterdam time) which would be about 9:30 pm Wednesday here in Washington.   This morning I was sitting here at my computer about 8:30am and my phone rang and there was the "World Traveler" calling me from the Amsterdam Holiday Inn (it was 5:30pm there.) He'd rented a car but still had not slept since he left Sea-Tac Wednesday morning, so at this point he'd been up over 24 hours.  His plan was to sleep, then take off driving to Munich, Germany for Octoberfest.  He took a duffle bag with a tent & sleeping bag in case he ended up having to camp out.  Anyway, he plans on traveling around over there, coming back to Washington about October 12th (or this weekend if he chickens out & catches a return flight right away.)  I have to say...I admire his courage, I can't see myself takingoff  like that by myself, not speaking the language or knowing anyone in those foreign countries.   I wish him safety, I hope he takes lots of pictures and remembers to bring me back a small delf windmill.

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Daughter Julie asked for a recipe that has gone missing from her kitchen.  It's a recipe for a yummy apple cake from our long time friend Ginny.  It's quick and easy and a good way to use that last little bit of coffee that's always left in the pot.  So I've decided to share it with all of you.   Thanks dear Ginny for passing on this recipe so many years ago.

Ginny's Apple Cake

1 1/2 cup sugar,  3/4 cup shortening, 2 eggs, 2 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 3 cups peeled & diced apples, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup warm coffee, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream sugar & shortening, add eggs & beat mixture.  Combine flour, soda, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon & salt.  Gradually add to sugar,shortening & egg mixture, alternately with coffee.  Fold in diced apples & nuts. Combine brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over top of mixture.  Bake in greased & floured pan at 350* for 45 minutes.

 

 

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I've had this funny little spot on the top of my right hand for many years.  Many times my doctor has "frozen" it and it seems to go away but then sure enough it comes back.  Sometimes it would get all red & inflammed and even bleed, then it would disappear only to return again.  Several moths ago she "froze" it again and at that point said that if it came back I should see a dermatoligist.  When  I was on the cruise, it flared up again, so I called and got an appointment on September 18th with a skin doctor.  He numbed it and took a scapel thingy and sent a piece of tissue in for a biopsy.  This last Wednesday, the nurse called to tell me that the results had come back as basal cell carcinoma.  So now I have another appointment Monday morning (yup before my 12 hour work day starts) to have the rest of it removed.  I'm not looking forward to this...the spot where he took the biopsy is still not healed completely and it hurt something awful !    I wasn't going to even talk about this in my journal but decided I should... as a public service.  I guess what I want to say is.....if you have a weird spot, anywhere on your body...have it checked out.   You just never know what it might be.

 

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I think Barbara and I will will probably go to a movie Friday, we'll have to check the movie section of the paper Friday morning first but I'm sure we'll find something to go see.  We still haven't seen "Little Miss Sunshine."  We had planned to go weeks ago but I was still coughing so bad, I felt uncomfortable going to a movie theater.     So that's all for now...until next time  Linda