VEGAN SAUTEED ZUCCHINI WITH PINEAPPLE BBQ SAUCE

 I sauteed some zucchini and drizzled on some of the pineapple BBQ sauce and it was fantastic. The BBQ sauce is a bit sweet but the chipolte sauce is spicy so it has a kick. 

Today was an interesting day. I went to the cardiologist office to get a EKG and get checked out. I haven't really written too much about it but I have been having chest pains. Not a lot but enough that it is concerning. I went to my regular doctor and saw his nurse practitioner. She seemed to think it was nothing. I made an appointment with my cardiologist for a video appointment. That is when it started to spiral. My video appointment became an in person visit and the in person visit became "see me tomorrow." That was the appointment today. 

At the appointment today, the first thing that happened was my blood pressure was low. I mean really low. The machine was beeping low. Not just once but twice. Then the head nurse came in and did a manual blood pressure and it was still low but a bit higher. 80/66. Everyone was going in and out concerned. I felt fine. 

Once they got over the blood pressure issue, then they did the EKG and it was fine. I had a few chest pains while I was there. They decided I need a stress test (hey, hasn't the past two years been a stress test??)  and then maybe a heart monitor. 

I put my emergency plan into action in case I was put in the hospital but everything was fine and I was sent home. The emergency plan worked so that was good. It was like a fire drill. 

Until tomorrow...

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE OF COOKING COURSE

 The landscaping project took a day off. The worker had a previous commitment today. It was horribly cold and windy today. At 9 am it 56 degrees. Hard to believe a week ago it was 100 degrees. 

I had time to cook since there was no backyard work being done. I made Vegan Nuggets and Pineapple BBQ sauce. I had a few little issues: the vegan medallions ended up being sort of "popcorn" sized. So I made vegan "popcorn" nuggets. They tasted really good and I ate about 18 of them. 

Then I accidentally pulled pineapple out of the freezer instead of mango. The BBQ sauce was supposed to be mango. I made due and made it with pineapple and chipotle and molasses. It tastes amazing. I bit spicy and sweet. 

That is about all today. I just worked.

Until tomorrow...

VEGAN FRIENDLY SNEAKERS ARRIVED

I am so excited that my vegan friendly made for rheumatoid arthritis sneakers arrived today. Because of my rheumatoid arthritis I have all sorts of foot and ankle problems and need special sneakers. These are great. I took them out for their inaugural walk around the block and I felt like I was walking on pillows. My old sneakers are so old they could probably walk themselves. 

I am not thrilled about the color of the shoes but they didn't have the color I wanted presently. If I like them alot I will get another pair in white. 

Until tomorrow...

DAY SEVEN OF THE LANDSCAPING PROJECT

 Today was another day of the backyard. I was so happy I finally found a place to order my eco-fencing. I have gone around and around with a couple of places about whether they can order it or not. I finally called a distributor and the woman was so nice. It will be shipped in two weeks. 

Here is the latest on the backyard. 

As you can see in the first photo: the fence is gone and the area is cleared. He has been digging out the old posts but that has been a challenge.  Photo 2: He picked up the slate pieces and made them all flat and even. So Nice! He will clean them later in the project. Photo 3: He dug more dirt from under the deck and made a two tier area. The top tier holds my extra chairs and grill and the bottom tier will hold my table in the winter. He made a ramp to get the grill up and down. The extra dirt is filling in under my trees where the dirt has eroded. 

My yard looks so much bigger now. I just can't believe it. 

I made a vegan cheesy pasta with peas and chikun fingers for dinner. 

Well that is all today. I don't have much to say. I spent all day finding fencing. 

Until tomorrow...

HAPPY PRIDE 2022!

 Today is the Pride celebration. I did not attend but I watched some of it on TV.  Lucky got all dolled up for it. 

She wanted to walk the neighborhood and show her pride. She does not like people clothes or dog clothes so it is hard to get her to wear it. She is a dog's dog. Not a pocket dog if you know what I mean. She doesn't even really like being picked up except in crowds where she thinks she will be stepped on. 

I watched a bunch of shorts in the LGBT film fest on-demand. Some were good and others I fast forwarded through. One was really good: The Sixth Reel. It is about a group who have a friend that passes away and they think he might have a very old movie reel in his possession. This movie reel would be worth a fortune. There are some big named actors in the movie: Margret Cho and Tim Daly. Pretty big for an independent movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it could be a commercial hit. Two movies from last year's film fest made it to commercial semi-fame: Summerland and Stage Mother. I saw Stage Mother on Netflix and I heard a family member was watching Summerland on some on-demand channel. I hope The Sixth Reel goes the same way. It was good.

I have a number of other films to watch before Thursday when my subscription ends. I will report if any others are good.

I also bought a pair of vegan friendly sneakers to see if they will help my foot problems. They didn't have my color but I didn't know when my color would come in so I got another color. If they are good, I will get my color when they are available. I wear sneakers all the time. I should have more than one pair. 

That was my whole day. Happy Pride 2022!

Until tomorrow...

HOMEMADE VEGAN ZUCCHINI PIZZA

Last night I watch the new Downton Abbey movie "A New Era".  I thought it was very good and kept the story going. All the characters were back and it had a good story. It was on Peacock for free for one night. 

This weekend I am watching a bunch of movies from the GLBT film festival. I bought the package so I can skip any movies I don't want to see and won't feel obligated to watch them because I paid for them.So far I have seen a couple of good ones. 

I made a homemade vegan zucchini pizza tonight. I had a pre-made dough so all I had to do was spread it on the pizza pan and put on the sauce, vegan cheese and zucchini. Then I popped it in the oven for 13 minutes and I had pizza. It tastes fantastic. 

My neighbor works at a tofu company and she came over today and gave me their new product to try. I am excited to give it a whirl. Their stuff is super expensive so I usually only get it when she gives it to me for free. LOL. 

That's it for me. 

Until tomorrow...

BLOOD TEST AND RESULTS

This is a sad day for women's rights.  I have fought for women's rights for more than 30 years and today made me cry.

This afternoon I went to get my blood drawn. It was step two from the virtual doctor visit yesterday. I went in the early afternoon and tried to have as little contact with people as possible. I had my blood drawn by my usual phlebotomist. 

By 5pm I had the test results from one of the vials. Two things came up out of normal range. One of them seem concerning so I called my friend who is a doctor of pharmacology. He assured me that although it was concerning, there is medication that can "fix" it if I do have something wrong. I won't know anything until Monday or Tuesday so there is no reason to get too worked up about it. 

Until tomorrow...

I HAD TO RUSH TO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE

 Okay, don't get too excited. I had a virtual doctor's appointment today and while I was on the appointment with the physician's assistant I mentioned that I have white spots on the back of my throat. She got very concerned that I have strep throat. I guess it can be very serious in people who are immune compromised. So it was 4pm and I rushed over to their office. It was almost empty and I walked up the stairs and avoided all people. But I had to take my mask off twice to show my tonsils and to get the test done. The test came out negative so now they think I have oral thrush. I get oral thrush every now and then from antibiotics. It has never presented like this before. So, some oral rinse has been called in and I need to see if that takes care of it. 

But she also wants me to go tomorrow and get blood work done so it means going back to the same location. I think it is good to get the blood work done although I had it done in March in the emergency room. 

She was unable to find a solution for the original reason that I had set up the virtual call which is my feet so I am going to buy a new pair of sneakers and see if that helps. 

She also does not know why my lymph nodes are swollen on the left side of my neck. I am supposed to give it another few weeks and see if it subsides. 

That was my crazy afternoon. 

Until tomorrow...

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY OF COOKING COURSE

 I heated up a cheese burger on the grill and heated up some mac & cheese in the microwave. It was a great dinner. 

The backyard is moving along. There are more plans on how to make it more functional. A bunch of dirt was moved, a pole was almost dug out. No work until Monday.

My guy was very nice and ran an errand for me to take a fed ex to drop off. 

The weather was so much nicer today. The wind came in and made the temp drop. 

Oh, my doctor wrote the letter so I can not go to jury duty this summer. It would have been very hard with my not feeling up to par. I am really relieved. It was stressful thinking about it. 

I am tired and I am going to watch TV.

Until tomorrow...

DAY TWO HUNDRED NINETEEN OF COOKING COURSE

 HOT! HOTTER! HOTTEST!

It was in the high nineties today. I took two pictures of my thermostat today. 

Late morning The thermostat is on the side of the house in the sun. The top is inside, bottom is outside.

Late afternoon around 3:30 pm. It was HOT. 

 It was too hot to cook anything. In fact I barbecued my dinner. 

I made this yesterday but I am posting this today. Vegan Beer Mac& Cheese. It is really good and tasty. I had to ask someone to buy me a can of ale to make this. I needed 4 oz of ale. I over baked it a bit but it still tastes good. 

Poor Lucky is walking around panting. She hates this hot weather. 

Luckily the workers were not scheduled for today. I would have had to send them home. It was too hot to work.

I just want to stay downstairs where it is subterranean and cool. 

I forgot to mention that yesterday was Sunny the bird's 13th birthday!  I took him out of his cage for a little walk around and some how his injured his feather on his wing. All I could think about was "it is your birthday and I messed up your wing!" But he seems fine today. Poor guy already has an overbite and a broken toe. He is a trouper!  

 Until tomorrow...