The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow

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Warning! Do not read while eating...




Good Morning!
We are in Minnesota- Away from the maddening crowds of Flintville!

I took a few pics before we left.
Of the 5+ inches of rain we had...
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Which is very good for the trees.  And all those apples still left.
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I imagine that Sue and Glenn will fill that pickup truck more than once yet! Hopefully will be stopping by even in my absence, and take a bunch of leftover squash for their deer too.
(Gritter, they are in the fields behind the old garage).
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Now y'all know that I have a bit of a mowiss problem come Fall and its falling temps.
So I had to get the rodent killer out.
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Ok, most people call it a mousetrap...

I set it up in the attached garage-
I'd hoped that the teeny tiny bit of cheese would prove lethal for a few of those varmints.

Little did I know that the trap would set itself off almost immediately!

Since my back sucks, I grabbed a can from the recycle bin instead of carrying out each one to the dumpster. I used that to hold my little dead guys.

If you're eating, & have ignored my previous warning, do not look at the pic below.
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The first three dead bodies.
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Before we left I unplug everything. I have a little fan atop the piano that I run constantly to circulate the air in my living room.
Given the fact that it is 29' long, the air does not always get moved in the NE corner. So I use that fan...

As I reached down to unplug it, I spied one of Sputnik's little catnip toys on the side of the piano.
I was going to grab it for him until the dang thing suddenly grew legs and disappeared behind the piano.
I jumped about 5 feet, and still had to unplug that fan. (Damn. I've got another one in the house)! And triple damn!
So I brought the trap inside to set by the piano.


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Casey didn't seem to care that something could jump on her at any given point in time.
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What would YOU do?  
We did what anyone with half a brain would do, and left home!  hehehe

Of course our first stop was good old Ringle, WI for Punk to do whatever she needed to. And we get to stretch our legs too.
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Sure is pretty this time of year!

In order to get as far away from that mowiss as I could, we loaded ourselves back into the car and were off once more...

Seeing a trailer that carries "Caution Horses". 
(I have never heard of that breed?! hehehe
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The trailer with the buggy on the top!

We'd left late, so were treated to the sunset off I-94
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Sorry for the blur...  Nearing Minneapolis.

Yesterday morning, the sun came right back up!

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Heading to the campus for Casey's appointment with Dr. Sutherland
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Self explanatory where we were.
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And one of the grounds...
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After a long appointment, Dr. Sutherland has ordered more than a few tests, beginning with the bloodwork from yesterday. 
Her liver tests are consistently high- And remembering that there is a cyst on her liver (which has been there ever since her very first CAT Scan), he has ordered now 3 more tests as an outpatient.  (Lord, she does NOT want to be hospitalized, ever again).

At ten this morning we are to be back for her HIDA Scan.
This stands for  hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid scan, (so I will use HIDA from now on)...

Hopefully this will be done by the time she has her EGD at noon.
The EGD is called an Esophagogastroduodenoscopy, (I will use EGD from now on). An examination of the lining of the esophagus, stomach, and upper duodenum with a small camera (flexible endoscope) which is inserted down the throat... (Click for more)...

Tomorrow will bring its own round of tests, one being another CT, and an ultrasound.

After she had been poked for blood, (much), she was hungry. We stopped at Arbys- She got some kind of taco.

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Punk wanted that taco too!
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Instead she was turned into a towel headed dog...
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Casey is still asleep.
Since she cannot eat or drink anything this morning, or tomorrow for that matter, she gets to sleep as long as possible... I would want to too.

She did wake to take Punk out early this morning. My back was being very uncooperative to say the least, (and here, it is not a matter of sending the dog out the back door to take care of herself).

It is gloomy outside- Cloudy, and the last time I looked there was frost on every car. (I did find my ice and snow scraper and made sure it was in the car for our trip). It will clear itself by the time we have to leave though.

Hopefully Kelli is not having too much fun with the mouse s(h)ituation at home. Am thinking Randy might have been there too. I'd explained to him that Kelli doesn't mind live mice, but is bothered much by the dead ones. (Perhaps she was Minnie Mouse in a prior life)...

I'd better close for now. Time to get out of my baggy sweats, and look alive for the day.

Love to all.

XOXO
Me

PS
For those of you that are diabetic or know someone who is, there is a nationwide recall of all Accusure® Insulin Syringes.
CLICK here for that info. http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm188137.htm

Bovines, Backs, and Islet Cells

  

A hole in the cloud...
Near Menominee, WI

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Good Evening All;
I am not sure I remember how to blog anymore... hehehe
I may have to apologize, in advance, to the good people of Ringle- I do not ever mean to offend, just having fun...

We are home from Minnesota once more- Highway 29 is the east/west route across central Wisconsin. I have always hated Highway 29.
When my sister Mary was married to her first husband, Paul Cotter, they lived in Apple Valley, Minnesota-
(A hop, skip, and a jump from Burnsville and The Mall of America). Not a shopper, I have never been there...

Anyway, my 3 oldest girls and I made the drive to Apple Valley many times-

I had an old AMC Hornet in those days, with a Standard "H" transmission.
The hills on 29 really tested this old car of mine, yet the Hornet never gave me any grief away from home; though it gave me plenty of troubles in its little spot in the parking lot. (Odd that way).
I ended up shooting that car. True story.

But I digress...

Highway 29 has changed a great deal in the past 25/30 years. it is now a 4 lane route to 94, and much much safer that way.
What was once called "Bloody 29" is now a decent flowing highway.

Maybe so.
Know that my freakin' back did not take the trip so well. CaseyAnne did most of the driving. After we had left her place on Tuesday morning, we got stopped by a train on Packerland Drive, not even out of Green Bay.

At that stop, we changed drivers. Punk thought it hilarious, (as I am sure a few other drivers around us did).
I joined the dog in the back seat.
Forgetting my Sobakawa at home, I used a roll of paper towel, covered with one of my t~shirts, for a pillow. Punk was then sent to the front seat, and I actually fell alseep! (Small miracle, that).

I resumed driving the last 90 or 100 miles. We did basically the same on the way home. Just that the drive back was a little rougher on my back.
Happy I had that appointment this morning. Unhappy that all that got done was a change in meds. Grrrrr.......
Scared I am, to take what he prescribed, so will just deal with it all from here on out.
(I hope to be able to do that anyway).

Suffice to say I have NO idea how Casey got through almost 4 years of intense pain. I admire her fiercely for that. She is brave. I am proud.

Her own doctor appointment went much better- Dr. Sutherland is amazed with her progress, and was elated to be able to tell her that she no longer should need her insulin.
HOW COOL IS THAT?!
I am ever so happy for her! And for him also. He even had to take a photo of his little success story- Said he keeps a board of everyone he has done this surgery on- (Since the late 70's that board must be pretty full)!

It doesn't matter what picture he has of her, because THIS is my favorite.
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He said he will do about 60 of the TP/AIT and TP/ICT transplant surgeries this year; (which is almost the same as he did last year, by the way).

And so, it was a rough trip, but a very happy one too!

These miles were made even longer by Punk.

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Punk was constantly asking...

"C'mon, are we there yet?"

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Of course we HAD to stop at her favorite little town of Ringle, WI.

You may remember our favorite pitstop this way...

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But it has changed SO much in the past 3 months.

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Amazing what a little green assorted foliage will do...
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Do you remember the truck Casey wanted for her own?

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Looks quite green around there too!
hehehe

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And somebody even threw in a few trees!

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Remember the "maple syrple"???

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I think it's stored in big plastic vats now...
eeee~youoooo

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hehehe

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Added to our favorite rest stop are a few bovines...
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(They put a "C" on the 1st ones forehead so they know it's a "cow").
hehehe

By far, she is the most unique cow I have ever seen!

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And their home...
hehehe

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I am getting a bit slap~happy here, and time for sleep-

Will be keeping an ear out for my weather radio to go off tonight as rain, and lots of it, (IF it comes) is predicted.

I hope this finds everyone well, and enjoying Summer.

Love to all!

XOXO
Me

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Friday July 10, 2009 - 01:47am (CDT)

Saturday's Assorted Thoughts

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Happy Spring!
FYI... The egg trick does not work.
It is just an old wives tale.

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Good Morning Everyone;
As some of you already know, Casey's little roller~coaster ride continues...
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CaseyAnne -Skinny as all get out...
03/18/2009
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She had a doctor appointment yesterday (Friday) at the clinic here.
Dr. Szabo will speak with Dr. Sutherland on Monday.
I do like Dr. Szabo. He is not arrogant, and is not afraid to say when he isn't familiar with some things. There have been many times since Casey changed doctors that he has said, he would find out for us. (He is also not afraid to say "oh really?").

• He listens.
• He takes notes.
• He cares.
• He doesn't treat her like an imbecile.
• AND, he has a great sense of humor to boot..

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She had her testing last Monday at Sutherlands office- (If I were rich, I might have my own little helicopter, or a camper for us).

Anyway...
... having driven back to Minnesota last Sunday, we had to stop and let The Punk go potty.

Seeing an exit in the middle of nowhere, I chose that one as I had seen a little dead end road running almost next to the highway. And separated by the highways fence.
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And so off we went!

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I spied a few things on that little dead end road, but Punk had to "GO" first.
("First Things First" applies; especially when a pups bladder is involved).
Taking care of that business, and turning around, I had to pull over and snap a few pictures.
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Someone was harvesting Maple sap.

Many maple trees with bags attached for collecting the sap.
These are only a very few of what they had tapped.

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A close up of those bags...

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Pa made our Maple Syrup- (Or as I have always called it, "SYRPLE").

Daddy didn't have fancy bags in those days. He used a spigot to tap the sap, and hung an ice cream pail on it. To that bucket, he added the cover with a slit in it to keep windblown debris (and bugs) to a minimum. (~Smart. ~Very smart).
***If memory serves right, it takes about 40 or 50 gallons of the sap, slowly dribbling out of the trees, to make one little gallon of syrup.

We had an old wood/cookstove in the basement where Dad would 'cook' it down. ***What comes out of the trees looks like little more than ordinary tap water, and is barely barely sweet.
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Our old stove was very much like this one,
though ours was white and had a larger 2nd oven...
Photo from HERE.
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My friend Val (aka Mrs "G"), has written about how Maple Syrup is made today, newfangled contraptions and all.
Read about her outing to Proulx Sugar Bush and Berry Farm, and The History of the syrup- From the native Tribes to the present
CLICK HERE for that story.

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Back to the little pit stop of "Ringle"

Driving up the road a spell, we saw what Ringle was really about.
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Casey now wants this truck for her own.

Gee, maybe I could park it right next to the old tiller I have.
(That won't be tilling the garden this Spring unless I get really lucky).
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"WELCOME TO RINGLE"?!?!?
(Must be Ringles own "Sugar Shack")!
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Reminds me of this from an email...

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I think I love these guys, syrple or not...

Maybe they are "The Maple Mafia" hehehe

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And so we are back home once again. If you have not yet commented on Casey's blog about her next surgery, please CLICK HERE

She should find out on Monday or Tuesday when her next surgery will be.
(Back to dreaming about that camper).
But the people have been SO good to us at the hotel too. They don't remember me specifically by name when I call, but when they ask "for how many people?" -I say "for myself and Punk."
With the mere mention of "PUNK" they know exactly who's coming! hehehe
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Here we are, living the first full day of Spring.
Thank God it has finally arrived- Winter was TOO long for many of us. While I am not looking forward to the 'hot and muggies', I welcome the arrival of warmer weather.

Before Casey's appointment yesterday I even pulled out a few weeds, (my leftovers from last Fall that I must not have had the energy to deal with).

Punk played around for a bit, sniffing everything and sneezing too- (In the Spring there are just so many important smells that must be attended to ya know)...

I had brought my soda out with me. And in my haste to leave, I had left it sitting outside.

I spied it this morning as I left Punk out to take care of her business earlier...

I came in and grabbed the camera because I knew if I didn't, simple "words" sure as heck would not describe it all...

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Yeah I know. Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor.

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Have a "wunnaful" and 'warmish' weekend!

Love to all.

XOXO
Me

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Posted to my Y! 360, Saturday March 21, 2009 - 12:43pm (CDT)