I'm Back

12/19/2017

You may, and I hope you have sort of, noticed my absence in the last few days.  My computer was getting an in-house service call to fix or upgrade or something like that, so I wasn't able to access the computer during that time.  But, thanks to Scott and/or perhaps "Computer Ken" (a long-time family friend), my computer is back up and running again.  I didn't realize just how much I would miss having the computer.  While if I stood on one foot, and swung my arms around in a circle (an exaggeration obviously), I could get to Amazon, a necessity at this time of the year and have access to my calendar in outlook, etc.

All of that is behind me now, so it's all speed ahead.  Where to begin blogging?  I think I should go back to Friday, the 15th.  Stacey arranged, and I am most appreciative, a birthday dinner for me at a local steak house.  Dinner was very good, and afterwards, we came back to the house to have birthday cake and open presents.  Yes, I said presents, and, no Christmas wrapping paper/bags in sight.  It's not every day that a gal turns 68 you know.  Jeff bought me curlers, and yes I still use curlers, doesn't everyone?  Unicorn socks, which are so cute, pink earmuffs, three Murano bangle bracelets, a small insulated unicorn bag, which will be useful to hold things when I go for doctors' appointments.  If I'm leaving anything out, my apologies to the gift giver.  

Stacey and Benjamin made a rainbow layered cake.  It was then iced and decorated with flowers, eyelashes on the front of the cake, and a Unicorn horn stuck in the middle of the cake.  With that dessert, I had my often asked for - rainbows and unicorns!  After eating the cake, we ladies retired to the living room, Benjamin and Elly (Wendy's daughter), took empty wrapping paper rolls and went to the upstairs hall to have a "sword" fight.  Yesterday, Auntie Kim came to see me, and she brought me three miniature, but oh so tasty bundt cakes and a book from a friend of hers who self-published her book.  So, you can see that I liked turning 68 so much, that maybe I'll be 68 again next year on my birthday!

Most of the packages I've ordered from, you guessed it, Amazon, have arrived and require wrapping.  Initially, I actually used wrapping paper and wrapped the gifts.  What consists of my wrapping presents, shouldn't be considered wrapping at all.  Oh, I do get paper, lots of paper around each gift, try and tuck the corners in, use more tape as well as more paper than is needed and voila I have a wrapped present.  And, then I got/get lazy and started using packing tape to secure the Amazon boxes and use a magic marker to write the to and from names.  The men in my life don't care about fancy wrapping and/or bows.  Actually, maybe they do, but over the years have gotten used to me doing less wrapping.  I'm happy to report that there are no dreaded "shirt boxes" this year.  That doesn't mean, however, that I didn't need/want them, I just found a different way to wrap certain presents.

And, because my life wasn't hectic enough with keeping track of the packages I have received and those I didn't, I lost a tooth!  I was walking down the stairs, which by the way, actually had nothing to do with the tooth coming out.  I felt something odd in my mouth, and the next thing I knew I had pulled out a tooth that had come loose.  Due to my advanced age, the tooth fairy didn't visit me.  Jeff is taking me to the dentist this afternoon, to put the tooth back into my mouth, hopefully.  Of course, the tooth that came out is in the front, which does absolutely nothing for my looks!  Not that I care much about my looks these days.  I'm home 99.9% of the time, and the girls don't care whether I've showered, dressed, etc., 

I received a call from my ortho surgeon this morning.  Can you imagine a surgeon taking the time to call a patient to explain again the procedure he is planning to do in my back.  If, nothing else, the surgery should elevate the pain I have in my back when I've walked or stood too much.  Will it fix the numbness in the foot?  He's hopeful, which makes me hopeful.  Because I had spinal fusion surgery in 1999, I am having trouble pulling the trigger on a surgery date.  It's not a question that I need the surgery, it's just that I will admit, am scared.  

In a nutshell, this is what's been going on during the last few days that I wasn't able to blog.

P