Back from the gym and prepared to share incidentals:
EXERCISE
I have discovered something I CAN do even with my bum back -- I can do the stationary bike. You know, the one that you sit down and have a back rest. I did it this morning and had a really good workout. And, even better, I could actually read a magazine while biking. This isn't a bad deal at all.
ENGAGEMENT
Well, just when we think we'll have a break from weddings, JB's younger sister Katie announces that yes, her and Eddie are engaged. CONGRATULATIONS! Katie currently lives on Catalina Island in California. I have no details but am hoping for at least a year off between my brother's wedding and John's sister's wedding. After Katie's wedding, there are only two Kits remaining to be wed, and hopefully Robbie, who is a senior in high school, plans to wait at least a few years.
TRAVEL DOCTOR
We are meeting with a travel doctor next week to discuss the possibilities of me going to Nigeria on infertility meds or possibly (hopefully) pregnant. Please pray that all of this works out. I really want to make this trip with JB, Ajit, and Tara. We also do want to proceed with our transfer in January. I got an email from Lesley this morning (who happens to already be awake and wanting me to post the "incidentals of life".) David's sister is a missionary in Africa, and she is currently not taking any malaria medications but just being overly cautious against mosquitos. So, I will have to see what the doctor says.
EGLIN?
We are still waiting on word from the Air Force as to where we will spend the next three years of our life. We have been told to expect "word" sometime around December 15th. It's kind of a strange experience to be at the mercy of someone else's opinion and feelings as to where you will live, but I guess that is what each of JB's classmates is currently dealing with as they travel around the country on interviews. JB actually has an interview with Mayo on Monday of next week -- our first choice if the military gives him a civilian residency. Tomorrow evening is a dinner at a very "posh" (that's a Lesley word) restaurant in Rochester which we haven't been to yet. I haven't been eating dessert lately, but I checked out their menu online and they have something called "Death by Chocolate". I'm not sure I am physically capable of saying "no" to anything with "death" and "chocolate" in the same title.
INTERVIEWS
If you haven't been reading Tara's or Lesley's blog, you should really check them out (links at right). The Jones and Tara are now on the "interview" road. Well, actually, Tara just left this morning, but Dave and Lesley have been on the run now for quite some time. Quite a scoop of adventure in our otherwise plain-Jane lives. And Lesley is now updating regularly, not like, once a year or something.
BOOK REVIEW
I just finished a FANTASTIC book called GOD'S SMUGGLER. This is an absolutely fantastic book, and I thoroughly implore each of you to take the opportunity to read it. It is about a man who smuggled Bibles into communist country before I was born. Don't miss this one folks. I suppose, on my Aunt Janet's advice, that I should write a whole post on a book review for this book. However, all I can say is: FANTASTIC and READ IT! It really doesn't need anything more than that.
POLL QUESTIONS
So far, my dear husband has been very dissapointed with the poll results for the Polar North. He cannot believe that spring and Cranberry Sauce did not win! In fact it was fall and turkey and stuffing that "took home the bacon". (Bara, "took home the bacon" is an expression that means: "won the prize"). JB is fiecrly dissapointed by the results. He does not understand how anyone can like fall more than spring. I think the problem is that all our Florida folks are voting. They think seeing the leaves changes is glorious. However, I don't think they understand that seeing the leaves change is nothing more than a WARNING that they are going to fall off and die and that the ground will soon freeze! Spring, on the otherhand, is a warning sign that summer is around the corner and a promise that it won't freeze for at least, well, in Minnesota, like two months. So, I think the poll was biased by so many Florida votes.
COMMENTS
Please don't hesitate to comment on my blog even if I don't know you!!! Please remember that this has become an online journal for me, and years from now, I will be able to look back on a date and read what people have commented. So please share. I would love to "meet" some of the anonymous visitors that stop in regularly, so please leave a comment. If you don't have a blogger account, you can just sign in as anonymous and sign your name in the comment. And, I know some of you don't speak English as your first language, but we don't care!!! Gasps from the audience if I tried to write this blog in another language but you would probably appreciate my effort.
All right, so that's the extent of my incidentals. Lesley, how did I do?
11 comments:
Wen, two thumbs up on the incidentals! That sounds like a great book - I'll have to check it out. I agree with JB, but perhaps only people who live in the polar north can appreciate the beauty of SPRING. What posh restaurant are you going to that you haven't been to before? I couldn't think of any in Rochester that you guys haven't been to yet! (Posh restaurants that is.)
Well, Wendi, please tell JB that I am the "other person" who voted for cranberry sauce, and I live in Atlanta, GA.
As a matter-of-fact, I love cranberry sauce SO much that I have a story behind it from THIS past Thanksgiving:
In my family, I am known as the "Queen Kitchen Clutz". I am NEVER allowed to perform ANY tasks that require a knife, (and I am 31 years old!). This Thanksgiving, I was appointed the job of making the green bean casserole and cranberry sauce - no knives, no disaster - everyone breathed a sigh of relief that I would not be able to hurt myself performing these TWO menial tasks.
Flash forward to Thanksgiving Day 2006 - the parade was over, the turkey was over-done, all that we needed was the table to be set and the cranberry sauce to be opened...
Now, let me just interject here, that the usual person delegated for cranberry sauce duty is my brother-in-law's wife, and she decided (along with my brother-in-law)to go to Ohio for Thanksgiving this year to be with HER relatives. Normally, SHE makes the MOST delicious concoction of yummy warm berry goodness from fresh cranberries that she washes and chops - Did I say chops? Oops. That's out for me. So, I had decided that I was just going to open the can of cranberries that you get from the grocery store. No fuss, no muss - no one else likes cranberry sauce as much as I do ANYWAY, so what did it matter to them, right?
Well, I am at the sink in my sister's house. The ONLY thing that we are waiting on is for me to fork up the cranberry sauce from the can so that it appears to be "natural" and not the gelatinous mold that looks exactly like the inside of the cranberry sauce can.
The regular can opener was not reachable, because the turkey was getting a few last-minute carving requests, and the turkey was sitting directly in front of it. I asked my sister for the hand-held can opener, and she passed it to me. I began to cut around the can, making pretty serated edges all along the top. I turn the can over and - nothing. The cranberry sauce is stuck. It won't move. My mom comes over to me and laughs. She says to me, "You have to cut around the cranberry sauce outer edge with a knife to get air to the bottom of the can so that it will fall out on its own. It will never come out that way, dear." What? My banging on the can was not satisfactory? O.K. But wait - didn't she say "cut"? How was I supposed to loose that cranberry sauce from the edges of the can with a knife??? That wouldn't do. Suddenly, my sister hands me a large spoon. Whew! I was saved.
"PLOP!" Out comes the cranberry sauce into the pretty crystal bowl that my sister gave to me for the presentation of the cranberry sauce. I gently fluffed it with a fork. But WHAT is THIS? The bowl is only half-full of yummy tart and yet sweet cranberry goodness! (Don't you love my positive outlook? The bowl was "half-full".) What shall we do???? "Sister!" I exclaim. "Do you think that we need more?" She is nowhere to be seen. The choice is up to me. Do I add more sauce to the half-full bowl and watch as it shimmers to the top, waiting to spill over? Or, do I leave it as it is and open another can later? I chose the former. "Pass me another can of cranberry sauce, please". Those were the last words that I remember.
I opened the second can, but I stopped the can opener just shy of being able to perforate the final serated edge of the can. I then did the UNTHINKABLE. I didn't pass the can to someone else. I didn't put the can opener back on the can and try to close-up the imperfect circular opening. Nope. I reached for the lid with my own thumb and forefinger and sliced my thunb 1/4 inch deep all the way around my fingerprint. Blood immediately started to spurt out of my thumb and then shortly thereafter, the kitchen counter looked like a prop from the movie, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". I stood in shock. It was a CAN. A CAN!!! Not a knife, not a gun, not an ice pick - A CAN! It had been fool-proof, and I had single-handedly fooled the fool-proof can.
UGH! My clothes were stained. My arm was stained. The cranberry sauce was beginning to have a topping in a contrasting shade of red. By the time that I started to feel a little light-headed and woozy, my aunt came to check on my progress in the kitchen. "OH MY!", she shouted.(We don't use the Big Guy Upstairs' name in vain in our family. We are a family of preachers and teachers.)Fourteen people rush in to see what caused my 61-year-old aunt to scream. People stand there and debate about calling 911. My aunt, Peggy, grabs a thousand paper towels and tells me to put pressure on my thumb using the paper towels, and to hold my thumb above my head. I do. Then, Peg runs to her car and gets her comprehensive First Aid kit. (She happens to teach First Aid and CPR. I am glad that someone like JB was around.)
My aunt comes back in with gauze and butterfly bandages. We can't stop the bleeding, and we know that I should probably go to the emergency room, but we don't. The blood trail around me is so terrifying that we move all the medical procedures to the porch outside. (In Atlanta, the weather was around 75 degrees Farhenheit on Thanksgiving Day, so the blood wasn't going to freeze out there, LOL.)
We TRY to blot the wound (pretty futile) and put butterflies around the deep cut. My aunt wraps it over and over with the gauze and tapes it shut. I look like a permanent hitch-hikker with Casper's thumb. I look ridiculous. I am holding the thumb above my head as my husband FINALLY emerges from the basement where he has been watching some sports show on the large projector screen image. He looks at me and LAUGHS. "What did you do NOW?" he asks, not really wanting to know the answer to the question that will eventually be the brunt of every family joke for the next 20 years.
When we finally moved back into the house is when I noticed the excruciating throbbing pain. Up until that point the adrenaline was enough to make me not feel a thing, but after that wore off - man did that thumb hurt!! I took a couple of Tylenol. I held the thumb up as I ate the Thanksgiving dinner, listening to the jokes of:
"May I cut your ham for you?"
"Please pass "thumbs" the potatoes"
"May I pass you thumb-thing?"
"Your highness, wouldst though like a serving of cranberried THUMB?"
The list goes on and on. Insert your favorite thumb pun here:____.
I was correctly told not to take the bandage off for 24 hours. My thumb actually didn't stop bleeding for two days. I haven't been able to use my thumb since the incident. The bandage has been changed everyday since the 24-hour waiting period, and I am happy to announce that although there is going to be a very large "frowning" scar on my thumbprint, that my thumb is going to be fine, even without stitches. (It probably will just take a lot longer to heal than it would have if I had gotten stitches.)The most horrible part about this whole ordeal is keeping the thumb dry when I am taking a shower. That is SOME feat, let me tell you. I have to wrap it in a ziplock bag and rubber band the end. I am completely open to other suggestions at: kpwhitley@hotmail.com
So, my poor thumb suffered a Grand Canyon opening for the sake of the cranberry sauce, which I LOVE more than anything at Thanksgiving dinner. (And still do!)So, JB, I can totally relate to your love of cranberry sauce.
Challenge - can anyone out there top my "Queen Kitchen Clutz" tale?
Kristina in GA
Well, I voted for stuffing, but cranberry sauce is a VERY close second to me. My recipe is amazing and VERY easy. (No chopping for your friend above to dismember herself!) :-)
Mix 1 cup sugar and 1 cup Grand Marnier in pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add 1 bag of fresh cranberries and return to boil. Boil very gently until berries "pop" - usually 7 - 10 minutes. Do not overcook - cranberries turn bitter if cooked too long. Cool and refrigerate. Makes 2 cups.
Lesley, I think it is called Prescotts (or Prestons?) over by Gander Mountain (Tara's favorite place for adventure!) I have heard mixed reviews so I will let you know.
Kristina, that story is HILARIOUS!!! My husband and I were rolling.
And Weatherbees, I need EASY recipes -- gracias!!!
I hate to tell you but I voted for Fall and i love this winter wonderland...so i think your reasoning is wrong about why Fall wins...Chicagoans do love Fall! :) and because we're not from Floriday we're not thinking about the leaves dying being a warning of winter...we love the crisp air, the remembered smell of leaves burning and jumping in them as kids and the beauty -and getting out our sweaters and hats !:)
Tante Jan
PS -
cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes! were my close seconds after stuffing -so i loved the easy recipe too! actually i nearly couldn't vote as none of them except turkey can be omitted from Thanksgiving in my opinion...!!yep, cuz in Indonesia we roasted two little chickens next to each other in the oven and it tasted like turkey...
Jan
Wen have you heard of a song called something like Keep standing in the Rain...is it by Christian Chicks or something like that? :) obviously i was driving early morning with my coffee not totally concentrating til this awesome song came on -but i don't know the name or who the singers were...maybe it could be a contest to find it !:)
J are you Jan?
I think this is the song you were looking for:
http://www.lyricstop.com/s/standintherain-superchick.html
JB loves superchick. I'll see if I can get it on the webpage sometime soon for you!
I thought the restaurant might be Prescotts... Dan & I went there once & we really liked it. And the "death by chocolate" was very rich, but excellent (and I can handle a LOT of sweets without flinching). You'll have to tell me what you think of it.
Yep J is me_ :)
Jan
Angie, big bummer. They moved it to Victoria's because the group was too large!!!! Ugh!!!
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