Mom and I have started to walk together -- now that she is retired!! I have a membership at the zoo, and she mentioned joining the zoo for when the family comes in July for Dad's 60th bday. And when she mentioned joining she talked of walking there and I jumped on that. I said "I'll go walking with you at the zoo!!"
So this past week on Tuesday she picked me up and off we went -- we did 1.2 miles in about an hour (slow pace but it was our first time and also we walked around areas where there are many monkeys and you just gotta stop and see the monkeys!).
Thursday morning she picked me up again, and this time we did the "North America" route -- (monkeys were all in Africa etc.) and saw bears, some sort of elk, otters! (soo cute -- the otters come running over to greet you and swim alongside you as you walk) and then we went up into the Asia Quest area -- where the tigers are. As we got to the tiger area, we went into the building -- the tigers were both very near the glass area. It looked like the younger one wanted to wrestle and play but the older one was grumpy and snarling and growling at her. (both females) The zookeeper explained to us that the older tiger is new and that she has never been in an enclosure with another female before so they are "getting to know one another". Mom was standing several feet back and at one point was telling me to "pretend I was in the wild... watching them" -- I was standing right up next to the glass, transfixed.
The younger one finally gave up her taunting of the older one and went for a long drink at the pool right in front of me (and YES I WAS KICKING MYSELF FOR NOT HAVING BROUGHT MY CAMERA!!!!) -- and then she stopped drinking and began to stalk me.
I froze.
Even tho there was 4 inches at least of glass in between us.
I just froze.
She got closer and closer.
Finally her nose was right next to my elbow -- I was afraid to make eye contact, and I was petrified -- all the hairs on my arms were standing STRAIGHT up -- she sniffed my elbow and then began to walk away.
By this point I regained my senses and remembered that my cell phone was in my pocket and that there's a camera on it -- so I pulled it out and got two shots, one of her walking away, and one of her lying down on the ground near where I was standing.
Soooooooooo amazing. Just absolutely amazing.
When we got back to the car I asked how far we'd gone -- and Mom said we'd done 1.99 miles -- so I said "quick -- around the car til we get to 2!!" so we started walking around the car until we hit that 2 mile mark (was only about 3 steps!) -- how funny did we look!!!
So second walk we did 2 miles in about an hour. We also went on Friday and did 2.18 miles in about an hour. So getting more in each time. Pretty soon it will be 4 miles! *grin* I dunno -- but we're increasing it each time... and I feel incredible after each time we walk. The zoo is the perfect motivation for me -- and it's an interesting place to walk around, not flat, lots of shade and interesting paths. Plus with the motivation of seeing the tigers and otters and monkeys... well I'd go there every day! Yes... I *am* such a big kid. I don't even deny it!
Last weekend my dad and I pulled of the ultimate surprise party for my mom -- she retired from working at the Dublin Library and Friday was her last day and when she arrived home, a dozen of her closest friends and Dad and Andy and I were there to shout "surprise!!!" and have a little party in her honor.
I was so stunned that we'd managed to pull it off so successfully -- she's telling people now that she can't even think of a time in the last few weeks that she felt suspicious or even felt an inkling of what was going on!! shhshh-shhshh!! (that was my code with dad -- it comes from the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and in my family when we do it, it means either we're being very sneaky so shhh, or it means that there is a squirrel in the back yard that Alpine needs to chase after!!)
For the party I made eggrolls and homemade pasta sauce with sweet italian sausage in it -- I browned the sausage and then added it to the sauce and cooked them in the sauce for HOURS. It was soooooo good. I was glad the eggrolls turned out well -- they almost didn't get made! The Tuesday of the week I started a new medicine (that I knew had a side effect of nausea) and I was terribly nauseated -- so decided to start the med another time -- b/c if I'd stayed on it, the smell of the grocery store and of making the eggrolls would have made me so ill.
Dad made a couple bowls of salad, and we'd gotten some shrimp from Sams club -- and he also got a cake from Sams and had them write Congratulations on it -- well that's what they were supposed to write. It had Congratulation because the daft girl ran out of space!!
I got some balloons and a banner and some "Happy Retirement" napkins for decoration.
Everyone had a very good time and it was so cool to see that we'd actually surprised Mom and that she didn't want to kill us for it! :D heehee! I'll post some of the pics from the party soon as we get them downloaded off the camera.
I saw these in a magazine that turns up at our house occasionally... and fell in love with the bathroom of this house... It's probably bigger than our current living room, but may I present to you, my dream bathroom!!! The shower is actually a two person shower -- so if you were looking at it from the front, there are two sets of each level of head, about 4 or 5 feet apart. How romantic is that bathtub!
The other day I noticed that my fish, dear sweet Polamalu (of course named for the Pittsburgh Steelers player because when we got him, he had quite a bit of black on him -- and his fins were long and wavy and black -- a bit like Troy's gorgeous hair) -- anyhow the other day I noticed that he was no longer swimming up near the middle of the bowl, as is his usual fashion. Instead he was kind of lying down next to the rocks at the bottom of the bowl. I have never seen him down there before, for more than a second or two before flittering back up to the middle of the bowl. He stayed there for hours. I didn't watch him for hours, but I was sitting there watching a dvd and would intermittently look up and think with great sadness "oh nooooo I think my poor fishie is dead!!"
So I asked Andy to "dispose of the deceased" (because apparently the Helsbys are fantastic pet undertakers -- long story -- but ask Andy if you want to hear it for a really big laugh)... so he takes the bowl to the kitchen. He's about to reach in and pluck out the deceased, when he sees that the fish is now floating at the top (still not moving) and figures that the water moved around a bit when he picked up the bowl and therefore dead fishie floated to the top. So he reaches in and is about to grasp dead fishie when dead fishie pulls a Holy Grail "I'M NOT DEAD YET --- I THINK I'LL GO FOR A WALK!!!" and SWIMS OFF!!
So yep -- Polamalu is NOT dead... and he's a very happy fishie because he now has a nice clean bowl with lots of fresh water. Which makes me very very happy because we've had him for almost a year and a half now -- a long time I know for a common goldfish but I've grown quite attached to him. He has outgrown his black patches... only has a tiny bit of black left on his top fin that hasn't gone yet... (just a lil fyi -- goldfish are born black and become gold over time -- also If you leave your goldfish in the dark , it will turn almost white. Goldfish have pigment production in response to light, which is almost like our tanning in the sun.) Interesting stuff eh!
Well I went in for my followup appointment with the surgeon yesterday afternoon and he said they found cancer in both sides of my thyroid but that it was only a couple of millimeters big and that in both cases, it was completely surrounded by the thyroid tissue, and therefore had not spread. So I don't have to go through any further treatment unless he hears otherwise from the powers that be. (He said he's have to talk to "them" and find out if I still needed to do the radiated tablets or not -- but he didn't say who "they" were!)
So I am GREATLY relieved!!
I still have very low energy levels (I feel very old right now -- the smallest of things takes all my energy) but he said that's normal and it's not all because of the thyroid levels, some of it is just my body recovering from surgery. He mentioned again that my thyroid was the size of an apple and I told him he should have taken a picture of it! He was telling me about how after he'd made his incision and they saw things inside, that one of the nurses asked him if he was going to make his incision bigger! Let me tell you I'm soooooo glad he didn't. :) This incision is much smaller than I thought, and I'm soooo thankful for that.
He was also pleased with my voice -- he said he was surprised that it wasn't more hoarse and that I had a good range of tones and that he was sure he hadn't nicked the nerve and that I'd be fine. He said it will take 4 to 6 weeks for things to calm down and for my voice to be consistent again. I told him I find it kind of exciting that whenever I open my mouth I have a different voice!
So great news! Thank you again so much for all your prayers and good wishes!! Praise God.
yesterday my voice was vacillating between a high pitched squeak set and a medium set and in the evening it was nearing my usual tone.... but today it's much much much deeper.... kind of barry white "how you doin' baby" deeper....
how exciting this unexpected bonus is.... i'm kind of having fun with it... maybe jonathan is right -- we should be recording my voice on a daily basis just to show how much it's jumping around!!