March 29, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

I had an exciting birthday yesterday!  But first the week began with me being determined to start working on letters owed.  I can wear the eye patch now without adding pain since my eyelid isn't painful to the touch anymore.  So I could get the eyepatch on and see how long my swollen hand would last.  I often wrote letters in segments, anyways, so now I just had more than before and took more breaks.  Regardless, I started.  I used to be able to write several letters in a day.  Out of the seventeen letters I want to write I finished three this week.  Not as long as usual, but...whoohoo!!  I do so love a nice paper-chat!  My hand is hindering me more than my eye anymore, but I am finally writing letters again.  I am very slow, but thanks to all of you who have been so patient.  Some of you have mailed me cards and letters more than once even!  Thank you so much.

But since I am working at handwriting letters that means I am using up good hand-time doing that and haven't been able to type comments.  Still reading all your blogs, though.  Like today is blogging and that will take hours and not much hand time left over after that--even with an ice pack--lol!  I am so used to having to prioritize my physical time for anything and everything the past couple of decades with fibro that this is just another area added, I guess.

BUT--Dr. Kessler did refer me to a rheumatologist so we'll see what she has to say.  I went to one for years, but that was over 20 years ago now.  They may have other meds or methods to help with pain and inflammation now.  Who knows?  I had tried almost everything available 20 years ago.  The only thing I could use for pain was Darvocet just to take the sharp edge off on bad days but they quit making it.  Nothing had any effect on my inflammation back then...but it also wasn't as bad as it is now.  I can't take Ibuprofen anymore because of my hand/wrist injury back in the 90s.  The doctor prescribed mega doses of it for so long I think it was eating out my stomach--lol!  If I take it for very long at all I get bad heartburn from it--and similar meds.  Anyways, wish me luck.  I actually got an appointment for April 14th--shock!  It can take months to get an appointment.

I finally took down the few Christmas decorations I had up--lol!  I had a small tree on either side of the TV up on the taller dressers...and a winter garland across the dresser under the TV.

Okay--I was going to show you why I can't do anything about the studio on my own and what is left to do to finish up around here.  The Billy bookcases aren't finished.

See these pegs on the top...there's another level to be added on top...and they need to be attached to the walls.

There are sections around here and there...

...that will make up the top level on the bookcases.

There is also other furniture across the hall in the storage room.  

Drawer units--I can see two of them to thr right...and that brown big set of wall shelves off to the left.  There's a second set of those brown and black wall shelves somewhere to be assembled and hung, too.

There are also additional regular shelves to be hung and additional shelves to be ordered for the kitchen cabinets (they were made locally).  After all the boxes are out of the storage room (all my supplies for the studio are in there still packed away in there)...then there are shelves to be brought in from the garage so we can actually use that as a storage room again.  There are things like vent covers that need to be attached (holes in the ceiling), hooks to be put up...all kinds of little things...before we can get to my peel and stick wallpaper for the kitchen and pretty knobs for the hutches and artificial plants in pots and the like.  So there you have it.  

Anyways, I got a beautiful azalea plant for my birthday from Janie!  (Yes, I took the stick out--lol!)  I had attempted to set it up by the window and Allie went for it right away to eat a flower!  So I moved it up next to my only other live plant--the Christmas cactus.

Allie was not happy!  LOL!  But she's not agile enough to leap up an across to get over there.

I watched three Oscar winner movies: One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Weapons.  All I could think was--what in the world!!  How did these movies win Oscars?  Maybe you really liked them...or one or two?  I was so disappointed.  Dark, violent, depressing with no redeeming qualities to me.  I went in pretty cold, not knowing there were horror movies with vampires and an evil witch...or an ongoing, hopeless, endless political situation where even the supposedly "good" guys were definitely not good people and were just as violent.  I was not in the mood to try any more Oscar winners on streaming for a while--lol! 

I am definitely not against violence in the movies, but I like to see some morality of some kind, I guess.  Like I watched Dead of Winter with Emma Thompson and I really liked it!  Have any of you ever seen any of those movies and what did you think of them?

My Alexa is several years old (probably 90 in tec-time) and bit the dust.  At least she showed me by going red.  Even Leah couldn't fix her.

While I worked on letters...

...Allie watched CatTV on YouTube quite a bit.

Friday morning the repairman came to check out the water softener.  Allie was a bit freaked out.  She is not like so many of my cats who ran to the door to greet visitors.  She's like several of mine who have been afraid of new people.

The repairman thinks with a new part it can be fixed.  Coming back Monday.  Hoping so...because their washer quit also upstairs.  Dagan and Leah have been down using mine for the past week or so.  A repairman is also coming to try to fix their washing machine on Monday.  Hoping that can also be repaired and doesn't need to be replaced.

Yesterday--on my birthday--Dagan and Leah came down and said they were going to put my new kitchen/dining room table together for me!  Moved things out of the way.  They found the three IKEA boxes that table came in...

...and worked away all afternoon.  The table is heavier and more substantial than expected.  The legs are meatal even!

Leah has always said she didn't think this table would fit.  I told her I only would probably use one of the two leaves but I was sure it could be opened all the way if I needed it for a sewing project or a larger art project.  Well, here it is with both the leaves in it!

Can still get around it okay.  (Leah was filling my ink cartridges for my printer.)  You can see the one leaf is a bit lighter than the other one...

So we put that lighter one underneath the table where it is stored.

Perfect!  And not too big!  :)

Still need room behind it to let the lounger/lift chairs lean back.  Plenty of room!

They stuck the two little rollie chairs at the ends of the table.  (Which will probably be living in the studio one day.)

A bit more tweaking.  I did put Allie's big memory foam cushion behind the red chair.

Moved her carrier--one of her favorite hiding places at the old apartment--over next to her cat tree.

Everybody left.  Allie desperately needed to try to catch up on her missed all-afternoon naptime.

In the middle of the night last night Miss Allie woke me by using my chair as a way to get up and over on to the new table!  And she did it again this morning!  With me sitting right there with the chair upright!  Leapt over from the high back of my chair and then clumsily also managed to leap back!  Goodness!  Crazy cat!  I hope she gives up on that route!  I guess I should maybe leave a rollie chair pulled back for her when I go to bed--LOL!  She doesn't like that rollie chairs move, but she also seemed quite genuinely shocked the back of my chair wasn't where it had been during the night.  Took her a long time to make the decision to jump from that height, but cats don't like to appear foolish in their decisions--ROFL!

Well, that was my exciting birthday.  I am sooo happy to have my new table!  I have always been one who needs to spread out.  Whenever I am writing, making crafts. or creating art I have stuff spread all around me.  I remember when I was writing papers in college as an old lady of 48 going to Concordia college up here...had a big L-shaped desk with an additional double wide file cabinet and I still often had a couple of TV trays set up beside me, too!  Books, papers, post it notes all over the place.  That's when I am happiest.  When I have space around me to put everything I need or might need--lol! 

Thank you for each card, ecard, email, and good thought this past week.  Greatly appreciated!  I do love my blog family...my correspondence family in all forms!  You all have kept me going all these years.  How surprising to be 75!  LOL!  Till next week.

Note: I was going to do a wild card every week, but sometimes my hand can't take any more.  I'll try to do one next week.  :)

March 22, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

After blogging last Sunday I started on a project that took me till Thursday to finish.  Was sooooo sick of nothing to do.  If I could do laundry I could move some things, right?  Warning--more pictures again this time.  :)

But first, Leah was with me to see Dr. Kessler on Wednesday.  She ordered more bloodwork and x-rays of my hands.  So happy we could have both done right in the same building.  Dr. Kessler was also concerned there might be some other underlying reason for all the inflammation.  Don't have rheumatoid arthritis.  Have regular inflammatory arthritis.  She suggested I try giving up dairy.  This has been a challenge for me, but I am trying it.  Aso trying--limited diet and only adding any new food once every week or so to see if anything obviously adds to my flares.  No real results yet, but it's an ongoing process.  :)

Okay--the project for last week.  Only have a lot of pictures because I do everything in baby steps a little at a time...and then I get so excited about any progress I am snapping pictures as I go--lol!  I did forget to get a before picture, but the two folding tables were piled high and were also packed full underneath all this time.  I was thinking Dagan and Leah were going to be working on the studio and wanted to keep as much stuff out of their way in there as I could.  Been seven months.  Things keep delaying finishing down here.  Like where they work has decided that the people who work from home (like Dagan) have to come in to the office Tuesday through Thursday now.  This has thrown their routine totally off the rails.  Dagan and some other people have put in requests to be excluded from this new rule and are waiting to hear...but if they won't make exceptions to the new rule (a new hire's new rule) Leah may have to look for another job where she can work from home.  School is going to be out soon.  Always something, right?

Sadly, I am not currently in healthy enough shape to watch the boys all day...which makes me feel terrible, to be honest.  They never expected me to...but still.  I really wish I could.  Makes me have to face the truth of how frail and weak I have become.  It is more obvious since the move.

Anyways, living in chaos and clutter drives me nuts, as you know.  Therefore, I decided that since there is no endgame yet on the studio and all the rest...I am not going to worry about clutter in the unfinished studio.  I just started moving something off the tables every time I was up. 

Just piling stuff on the floor in the studio.

Took four days to empty those two folding tables.

And underneath, too!

One of the things that was underneath was a big donation box.  I drug it outside the door and Leah took care of it.

All those empty pots are for a bunch of fake plants for my bookcases or wherever that were purchased from IKEA years ago.  Not a lot of light down here for plants but I do love some greenery around.  :)

Eventually I moved the tables end to end and cleared off the glass table with the red legs and folded up the small glass table I had been using, too.   
Looks funny because I pulled the tables forward really far.  The old desk chair I have won't roll over the rug.  Plus the new kitchen table I got is large and will probably be that far forward anyways.  :)

Allie was following me about when I was moving things.  I had to reassure her we were not moving again--lol!

More things got put in the studio over the week...paint brushes shoved on a shelf...

...and piles on the floor.

Was getting clearer and clearer in my main room!  Felt wonderful!  Not so much body-wise, but lifted my spirits considerably.

My hand hurt too much to unscrew the red legs off so I drug that table into the studio.

So much space back there now.  I did later decide to move Allie's big orange pillow under the far table again.

Even moved the two rust-colored rolly carts... 

...that were in front of the hutches into the studio where they will end up anyways once it is done in there.

Keeping them close to the door because they hold the art supplies I do have available.

My birthday present to myself came, too!  Funny how the front pen looks so much bigger but they are the same size--lol!  The bottles have ultramarine, turquoise, brown, and pine green.  The pens are navy and turquoise with a matt finish.  

I am just now trying to get back to actually jounaling daily again.  I can finally wear the eye patch without pain.  Even touching my eyelid was too panful to keep it on before.  I still get eye pain from eye strain, but the worst hurdle to writing and typing is my swollen hand.

It is still funny that I regularly miss when I try to cap a pen and get ink on my left hand.  My depth perception hasn't improved.  Still miss my cup when pouring coffee sometimes.  Shouldn't that have improved over these months my eye hasn't worked?  lol!

The water softener has quit working.  So I also wanted all the stuff on the floor in there moved for when a repair person comes.

Bad enough there's a wall of bins they would have to contend with back there.

I was WAY too sore to deal with that, so the boys came down and moved everything off the floor for me.  Took them like 20 minutes.  [Yes, I could have asked them to help me with emptying the folding tables but I was feeling rather useless and my stubborn-Swede side wanted to do it on my own so I wouldn't feel that way.]

The studio is a mighty mess...but now the laundry/maintenance room feels better, too. 

Then things settled down.  Allie was glad, I think.

When I can get to where I can write more than one paragraph in my journal without setting my hand off...I have so many letters I owe that I am chomping at the bit to finally get to!  Haven't sent a letter since Christmas!!!  I do have ice packs Leah brought down for me back when my hand first swelled up and I do try Aleve every now and then, but nothing seems to make much of a dent, you know?  Maybe giving up dairy completely will do something?  Never know.  It's something I have never tried.  

How's my eye?  Well, the film is less foggy-gray and maybe more foggy-clear than it was, but I still can't actually see through it.  Might be progress.  I don't like to guess anymore.  When I thought it was getting better they found it to be worse--so, unless I can actually suddenly see through it, I will wait and hear what they say on the first. 

Excuse blogger for messing with my picture and paragraph--lol!  Too sore to try to fix it. Time to close and get the ice pack--lol!  Till next week.  And I will be a year older (28th).  75 years!  Man!  That happened quickly!  :)

P.S.

I just saw the next No Kings Rally is on my birthday on the 28th!  Nice!!!