The Aluminum Asylum

The Aluminum Asylum
Our home on wheels

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Just another Sunday...

That is what I wrote a week ago...

What a week. I was still quite ill and finally went to the doctor on Monday morning as a walk in. We were there almost three hours. My Doc thought that I had C diff colitis. Tests proved negative at the follow up on Wed afternoon. She plopped my tush in the hospital for tests. I had a CT scan of the abdomen, an endoscogy and then the most awful of tests, the dreaded colonoscopy. I recall my first scope and I felt nothing...was out. This time was different...I was NOT asleep and felt gosh awful pressure and real pain. A very ugly experience really. I then got dry heaves from whatever so called knock out drugs they used and thought I was having a heart attack. I just hate the hospital. The gastro doc took biopsies of my colon, said it was quite inflamed and called it "colitis". Hmmm. Guess we may have some answers early this week. I hope we can find something so I can get with a diet or medicine regimin that will help. I am still on flagyl and keeping my fingers crossed as I write this, have not had a desperate trip to the bathroom today.

We are now way behind schedule on cleaning out the remaining stuff from the mobile home and getting the stuff we no longer use out of the motorhome. OH,we did get kicked out of this park...it was all my fault. I brought Lucy home three weeks ago and there is a one pet limit per unit. Oopsie. My bad. I really don't care, we were only going to be staying here for another month or so and then we were heading to Florida. I guess I just don't get the rule, it's really stupid. But, I must confess, I broke the rules and must suffer the consequences....oh woe is me lol!!!!

Well, that's about all I can write for now. Still very weak and want to rest. Take care...

dennise

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Just another Sunday...

We closed on the house today. Well, Paul and grandpa did. I once again, was confined to the bedroom and the bathroom. Stomach woes strike again. This is one persistant dragon I am dealing with. I do think I bring on the dragons sometimes myself. I let that ol' geezer get under my skin and then I pay the price...no one else, just me.

Not too much else going on here. The Bears got blown away today...so what else is new. At least cousin Neal's team won, LOL!

later

dee












Saturday, November 07, 2009

Moving day...

We moved the rest of grandpa's stuff today. I shouldn't say "we", I did nothing. Dorothy tried to hang the curtain rods we purchased, but the most she was able to do was put two new holes in the wall...oh well, it wasn't me...

I would not put anything away. I was itching to organize the kitchen, but was able to keep my seat. I am tired of hearing that "I can't find anything" whine from the geezer that I am determined to let him screw it up himself. He is never pleased with anything, so I figure, go at it old man.

He decided to take his new toy, his electric wheelchair (don't ask...he is worse than a kid with stuff and it makes me totally nuts...)downstairs to supposedly help Paul get the rest of the stuff out of the car. Like Paul needed the old fart to tell him how to unload a car...! He comes back up to the apartment out of breath, grey faced and visibly upset. (How someone can change their face color is totally beyond me....) hollering "Somebody has stolen my scooter! This is KILLING ME! Someone stole my scooter." He goes back down the hall and finds some poor maintenance guy and tells him that somebody took his scooter. The guy comes into the apt, looking all around, and then both he and goofy go back downstairs. Paul comes up, assesses the situation and heads out to look for the scooter. Goofball is sitting in his chair, looking like he is gonna die right there and then. Paul calls, he found the scooter. This geezer suddenly perks up, his demeanor totallly changes and his normal pasty color is back. All I can do is grit my teeth and bite my tongue. How can you lose a wheelchair? Apparently he stopped at the door near the loading dock, got out and looked for Paul. He claims he turned around and the chair was GONE! OK. Sure. It rode itself away. Paul says he found it right at the door to the loading dock, still on...apparently he had gotten off and TURNED down the wrong way into the hallway. For heavens sakes, this man will kill me and Paul and laugh as we are lowered into the freaking ground. He is now THEIR problem...he couldn't open the door to the apt, and had to get someone up there to "show" him how to unlock the door....the wheelchair incident and a ton of other things...Dorothy said he didn't know how to get to his apt. Like I said...HE is THEIR problem now!

Dorothy and I made his bed, but of course, the bedspread was not to his liking. After this I left using the excuse that my furbabies were in the kennel and needed a potty. I go home, walked the kids, and then sat in my recliner doing deep breathing excercises...I did a cleansing of my mind...I had to rid my poor brain of all thoughts of murder, thoughts of slapping and thoughts of screaming at him. It took a LONG time to do this, you must understand.

I am home alone this evening, both of the males are playing poker. I hope they both lose.

later
dee












Friday, November 06, 2009


Dancing with Dragons....

Today I finally found out what is wrong with me.  No virus.  I am once again dancing with the dragons in my life. I found my go to "bible" for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue while packing.  Reviewing the possible symptoms or should I say, the onset of symptoms I found my anwer.  Usually I think of a flare as pain issues.  Boy, I don't know how I missed this chapter, but all the things I have been experiencing the past 11 days are right there in black and white.  Chills, severe sweats, headache, acute and severe diarrhea, intestinal cramping, ear pain, increase in overall fibro pain, extreme fatigue, increased coughing, shortness of breath, having the itchies, reduced tolerance for noise...

Everything I have listed, I was experiencing or had experienced. It knocked me on my proverbial tush. My dragons continue to harass me, and after 10 or so years of disability, I am still learning the steps to this "dance". The problem is the steps keep changing. Unfair says I!

Discovered the camera is in the motorhome, so I guess I need to put in some fresh batteries and snap some photos...

later...

dennise

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Anyone who is not a liberal stop reading now....
The earth revolves around the sun.
The earth is billions, not thousands of years old.
Fox News is neither fair, nor balanced - nor news.
Evolution happened and is happening.
Torture does not work.
Bush did not keep us safe.
Markets do not regulate themselves.
Fascism is not the same as socialism.
The world was not with us with regards to the Iraq War.
Iraq never attacked us and was never a threat.
Trickle-down economics is extremely insulting on its face. More so if examined.
Obama is not a socialist, or a communist.
A weak public option for a fraction of the country does not spell doom.
Prayers in school did not avert any wrong doings. Nor are prayers prohibited now.
There is no correlation between religiosity and morality.
The world can be and is over-populated.
Supply-side economics makes no sense, period.
Lying to soldiers about why they are fighting is not equivalent to support.
Supporting any war for any reason is not equivalent to patriotism.
Tax cuts for the rich are not a fix-all. In fact they hurt after a certain point.
Gays are not asking for special rights. They are asking for human rights.
An economist from Exxon does not equal the entire peer reviewed data from the world’s climatologists.
We really don’t have the #1 healthcare system in the world, and pretending we do only hurts our chances of improvement.
The fact is, now there really is a Northwest Passage for the first time in human history.
Facts are facts and do not have an ideology. Pretending that an impassioned denial is equal to established facts is extremely harmful. And the number of people sharing your particular delusion is irrelevant to its status as a fact.

STILL sicky.  No posties today.  Sorry dee

Thursday, October 29, 2009


Still feeling lousy...did manage to get a quick snapshot of Lucy on my camera...and no, geez I wasn't choking her, she wouldn't stop wiggleworming all over the place.


She does have a tear in in her eye...but it's NOT from my hand around her neck HONEST!  She is part POODLE, yanno they have real tears...so does Mack...

more to follow, with my camera, not the phone camers

dennise

Wednesday, October 28, 2009


Pictures of Lucy will have to wait...I have been deathly sick.

 Paul took Lucy to the vet and he is concerned that she may have distemper.  Asked Paul if we got a health guarantee...um, no, we live in Mexico, dufus. The seller indicated that she had had her first  "shot" (distemper) and three wormings.   She does have a wet nose, and a bit of tears in her eyes, but nothing else I found on line that would appear to be distempter symptons...no fever, no lethary, no diarrhea (see my problem below.)

Now here is my story...have lived in the bathroom for like 36 hours
Here is the Uban Dictionary decription of my malady...

"Explosive Diarrhea



Not always from eating too much of the wrong foods which is usually relieved and ends with 1 incident of it.

Can be a prolonged horrid condition that usually comes about from a bad bacterial stomach/intestional virus. A violent exploding stream of liquid that feels like hot foamy lava shooting from your poor tush along with mild to severe abdominal cramping. A frothy water that will range from shades of dark brown to a pale yellow. Depending on the cause it can last from just one incident where you get immediate relief, to 3 to 4 days until a doctor has to give you an RX to stop the awful stuff. The stream is so forceful it blasts against the toilet water forcefully causing a violent splash sending the soiled stinky water up all over your poor butt cheeks, and underside of toilet seat. Usually always accompanied by a very putrid pungent odor that you feel the need to grab the nearest towel while you are still stranded on the toilet bowl, or if not available, a wad of toilet paper to cover your nose until you can hurridly leave the bathroom.


The (danger) of this condition is DEHYDRATION. It is important to not let it run on and to sip on water thru-out the day until a couple of days after it subsides. Also accompanied by noisy bowels sounds as if a war is going on inside your poor lower abdominal area along with excessive very LOUD blasting explosive gassed up farts, queasy stomach discomfort, and severe weakness if it goes on for over 24 hours.


Gosh! While I was sick I had that awful exploding diarrhea that left me feeling so weak I could hardly move!


by Cathie Feb 27, 2004 share this "

So, now you know and I gotta run back to the throne.

More on Lucy and some pictures of her and Mack soon I hope.

dennise

Monday, October 26, 2009


Hmmm, my Friday post just appeared.  I know not what the universe has against me, but I musta' done something horrible in my past.  Well, we won't go there.

It is now Monday, and we have sold the mobile home in Weslaco.  The couple from Houston visited twice today, the second trip were the "negoations".  I always make myself scarce during this intense Paulie thing...don't want to be around when he gets down to brass tacks as they say.

We have a new family member...her name is Lucy. Lucy is a yorkiepoo just like Mack.  She was born on September 1st so that makes her 8 weeks old tomorrow.  As soon as I can find my camera, I will shoot a few photos and post them. Lucy's parents are almost identical to Mack's. 5 lb mommy poodle and 3.5 lb daddy Yorkie. She is coal black and at night you can't see her at all. We will have to get a blinking or glow in the dark collar. There were two males and two females.  Figured I wanted a female not to have dueling alpha males...and I loved her color(which may actually change...) so she will look great in pink!

We had a buzy weekend.  Saturday night Paul's cousin Maryann and her husband Russ came over for dinner.  Paul made some pretty wicked bbq chicken(normally he makes burnt offering...).  I made a salad and opened a can of pork and beans.  Mary and Russ are here for only a few days, taking some of her dad's stuff back to St. Louis.  So on Sunday, we went to their place and had Uncle Ben's special recipe for red sauce and pasta.  Delish!  The sausage was "imported" from St Louis and was really really good.

Sunday was reorganize and first pack up day. We were up at 7 am vaccuming and moping floors. I cleaned the Texas Room.  It was packed with "stuff" like tubs of photos, all my caking supplies and just a whole lot of junk that went into the trash.  It was so dusty all I could do was sneeze.  Worked our tushies off.  We are both exhausted.  I think Grandpa must be exhusted too...he hasn't shut up for four four days!  Get's on MY nerves...jeesh, and I have only been back two weeks!

More tomorrow.

dee

Friday, October 23, 2009


Thursday, October 22, 2009


News from the Valley


As promised, I have big news. Grandpa has visited the John Knox Retirement Village here in Weslaco and loves the place. He has signed up for a medium sized one bedroom apartment. Knox is a unique type of retirement village that includes independent living facilities, such as apartments, townhomes and cottages; personal care or an assisted living wing; and a nursing facility. Once the resident buys in (prices range from $30k way up to $200K) they are assured of care until they pass on. Each unit that is part of the buy in has different monthly “fees” which cover the gamut of things such as meal(s), cable TV, all utilities except land line phone and other amenities. The main meal is dinner, actually lunch. It is the largest meal of the day and has the greatest variety. Supper is a soup and sandwich type menu, but the residents do get to enjoy a glass of wine with supper! Gene was most impressed with the ratio of ladies to men…like 5 to 1! At almost 93, he still believes he is a real Romeo. He was able to pick out his carpeting and the apartment is almost completely renovated. New wiring and light fixtures, new ceramic tile in the bath and kitchen, new appliances. He has tons of storage space and both the living room and bedroom are light and bright. The pool and Jacuzzi have just been revamped. There is a library, wood working shop, computer lab, arts and crafts room, exercise classes, dancing, cocktail parties, karaoke, and countless other activities.

We will need to get him a small microwave, he wants a lift recliner, a bed, small dresser and some end and night stand tables. He can’t decide if he just wants two recliners or a loveseat and recliner. Paul promised him a LCD wall mounted TV and he will need to pick out some curtains and a bedspread. He has plenty of towels and sheets and we can take whatever kitchen stuff he needs from the house. Yep, the mobile home is for sale. We have a potential buyer coming down from Houston on Monday, and another lady from the park looked at it. However, her husband is recovering from a serious infection that necessitated a replacement of an earlier knee replacement.  Gene still feels that he wants his car, however the Village has shopping trips to the grocery store, WalMart and other shopping places. 

Well, I am falling asleep and my mind was racing with all we have to do.  Once again we will be getting rid of personal stuff we parked down here in the house.  I believe we will need a storage space, as we have stuff that I am not ready to part with just now.  And, I just got all my cake decorating stuff purchased and organized...NOT willing to give that up yet either.Perhaps in a year we will reconsider, and maybe by then Zack will be a bit more settled and we can have him take some of our "treasures".  Needless to say, this is the best possible solution to the problems Gene faces as he becomes more dependent, and it gives us peace of mind while traveling.  We still plan to spend several months in the RGV in the winter to escape the cold, but now there won't be as much worry and guilt leaving him. 

hugs

dee


Here are a couple of things that made me laugh...
YMMV


Grandpa and I voted Paulie out of the kitchen.  He lost interest in doing decent dinners so goodby lousy chef!

gee for Jr. things never change...he said he took this picture so I could see the name of a really good beer....suuuurrrreeee Zack....



This may offend some of my readers....hmmm, and do I care?????


this is for one of my favorite sisters.....


whomever snapped this photo during last years debate should get a "gee whiz, when did this happen?" award.  I still get the giggles when I see this photo...and I really really admire Sen. McCain.  This just tickles my funny bone...no offense intended to the Honorable Senator!

Here is!
Here is!


When our son Zack was just learning to talk and put together sentences, he would respond to our asking where he was with “Here is! Here is!"

So my title today answers the question so many of you have asked. I’m here, just been off the web “grid” for awhile. Well, it’s been 10 months which is really scary that so much time has passed without posting my glib and self-centered musings.





We left the RGV mid-June, heading for St Louis, Springfield, Illinois and then Muskegon, Michigan to spend the summer months in a cooler environment. The Texas RGV is a killer in the late spring and summer with the heat and everlasting UV rays from the sun. We were escaping temps in the 95 to 105 degree range that we had borne since mid April. We spent two wonderful months in Michigan, enjoying not only Lake Michigan but the local eateries and the abundant farmers markets. From Michigan we returned to Illinois to see friends in Chicago and our remaining family there. We had a wonderful visit, having not been up north in several years! We traveled back to Central Illinois to see Mom and Cecil, and our FMCA local chapter, Cenois Prairielanders for a great rally in the Champaign area. We were also able to visit with a cousin in Danville before we were off to Celina Ohio for the Escapees Class Reunion and the Gypsy Journal Rally immediately following. Another great time, visiting friends and meeting new ones. We left a day early as we needed to hustle down to Kerrville Texas for the RV Dreams Rally, the last leg of our summer travels. We were able to visit one of Paul’s FedEx co-workers who has also retired and moved to the Austin area. Jackie was so very sweet to make us a hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausages for our trip into Kerrville. The RV Dreams Rally was great…good people, good food and entertainment and the best seminars on the full-timer lifestyle. Paul went into San Antonio to have his hip rechecked at the VA as he is still experiencing some problems since his surgery at the beginning of the year. Nothing found, just to keep up walking and doing some exercise. After the rally, we stayed an extra day at the RV resort to gather our thoughts and ready ourselves for what we needed to face getting back to Weslaco and Paul’s dad.

Before anyone becomes alarmed, we just needed to visit with Grandpa and tell him our concerns about him remaining in this big home in Weslaco when he is starting to feel his age. More on that in tomorrow’s blog. Good news all around. Lots to do and lots to think about in the next few weeks.

Hugs,

dennise




Friday, January 16, 2009

My shinning masterpiece...


...for this week anyways. Here is the cake I made for a wonderful lady who is leaving the park to live nearer to her daughter in NC. She loved the cake.





This cake was a lot of fun to make...three torted and filled layers. Bottom layer was chocolate cake with twinkee filling (I love that stuff so I make it alot!) The middle layer is white almond sour cream buttermilk with chocolate chip whipped ganache(Oh, it is heaven...like the middle part of a truffle...!) and the top layer I carved into the beehive shape. The cake was also the white almond sour cream buttermilk but with strawberry filling. All of the cakes had buttercream base icing and then were covered in fondant. This is my first stacked or tiered cake and only the second time I've worked with fondant. I made my own fondant which was also a lot of fun to do. It is very sweet, kinda like eating candy corn. Many folks don't like it because it is so sweet, but it is a decorator's dream to play with on a cake. All the bees and flowers were also made of fondant. All handmade and modeled by moi. I had pictures to reference. The bees are so cute. In the next picture, I did change the color of the bow on the "big bee" and replaced one of my ribbon roses that in the pictures anyway, looked like a specific part of the male anatomy...and I don't DO those kinda cakes!


Here Lola posing with her cake.


As you can imagine, the cake was a huge hit with the partygoers. I was very happy and Paul said it was a "work of art...nobody will eat it...". Well, they did smarty pants. They all liked it too!
I will have to make a tiered "wedding cake" for my class final. I think I am going to invite everybody over for cake and coffee the day after so I can get rid of the cake. To say we are all "caked out" is truly an understatement.
Next week is the park's luau party and Dennise got suckered into decorating the table...guess what folks....CAKE! I am going to do a tiki guy head and a bunch of palm tree cookies. Thank goodness I bought that palm tree cookie cutter when I saw it a couple of weeks ago! I will do a hot color table cloth, buy a boogie board and make some fake palm trees out of rice crispie treats and use fondant to decorate them. An all edible centerpiece! That should get me a few points in the judging! I'll post the pictures after the 22nd...
Not much else going on. Zack is getting depressed not finding a job. Poor kid. Worst economy in freaking history and he is now out on his own. He has put in many many applications and sent out lots of resumes. He is still looking at going to the UK to teach in the spring. We'll see.
later...
dee

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Well, it's been a hectic couple of days. After the New Year and taking down and packing all the holiday stuff, I tore into the laundry room. There is a small closet that is jammed with stuff from the previous owners. Let's see...two, yes two(!) waffle irons, a smoothie maker thing that has never been used, a tortilla holder made from stryofoam, a box of wipes for only God knows what kinda dispenser and a miriad of other useless crap. Plus the tops of the washer and dryer were lost among the stuff the two other residents of this house can't put away...well, now its CLEAN. Next stop...kitchen cabinets. We need another storage cabinet in here for the liquer...it's all over the darn place...when you open a cabinet here, there's bottles and more bottles. People will think we are achololics for goodness sakes.

We had some more parties to attend this weekend...is it just me or is finger food the bane of a human's existance? I can eat meatballs, cowboy salsa and other crap and feel fully satisfied and then turn up my nose at a good salad. No wonder there is weight gain during the holidays...I eat crap! On Monday, I was going to my first meeting of Brushwackers a local decorative painting group...the meet once a week on Mondays and work on projects, have seminars and graze..you know...EAT. Great...a grazing club. I bought a bunch of stuff to add to my clutter stash as the club's annual auction and only fundraiser is held at the first meeting of the year...yeah! Food and stuff to buy. What can be more fun than sitting around eating all day, buying craft stuff? I made two cakes for the meeting and they went over very well. Here is a picture of my first fondant cake. It was supposed to be a winter white cake. No color. But is really looked blah so I painted it with gel colors mixed with vodka. No, didn't drink the vodka! Used it to thin the colors. I was not happy, but everyone oohed and aahed anyways.













The second cake was a piping practice cake...I did some stringwork, called cornelli lace on the top then sprinkled it with glitter. The red roses are made from red candy melts...called candy clay roses...ugly but effective I guess. Here is a picture.
I was happy with this one...except for the leaves...didn't like the color but it was too late to change. This was a strawberry filled yellow cake with buttercream. The fondant cake was a double chocolate with twinkee filling...hey I LIKE twinkee filling! Under the fondant was buttercream. Both cakes weighed a ton! I had originally intended to do a tiered cake but they were too heavy...I torted both so they were four layers and all that filling made them so heavy. I don't know how the pro's can do that!

A couple more pictures....

On Tuesday, after an appointment with the VA in Mcallen, we headed to San Antonio for the Prince's pre-op stuff at the VA hospital. What a long boring drive that is! We got in around 7, bot checked in and went to bed. Paulie went to the hospital at 8 and got three of his four appointments like xrays done. Doc is only at the clinic in the afternoon so we had to wait until 2 to get in. This turned into a nightmare of more xrays and stuff and we didn't leave until after 5. Then the long boring trip made worse in the dark...we finally got home at 10. Paulie's surgery is scheduled for January 29th. We have a reservation at the Travelers World for the RV. This way I can bring Mack and relax in my house on wheels instead of a hotel room for four to five days. Thank goodness I talked him in to letting me take the rig. He doesn't think I can pull the electric cord and dump the tanks...geez, I am a college graduate...how tough can it be for goodness sakes?
Well, I guess I should ring off now. Hugs to all.
dennise