Random notes from the Sandwich Life: January 31, 2025
It’s been kind of a lost week. Ernie’s had an absolutely wretched cold, on top of that he had his treatment at the cancer center yesterday and a colonoscopy and endoscopy today. My poor sweet pea. Owen’s with him at Carle. I can’t wait until they get home. Evidently they had to abort the colonoscopy as he seems to have poop of iron but the endoscopy seemed to go ok. He is home now, utterly exhausted though, and a tad demoralized. My poor sweet pea.
I was both dreading and looking forward to the visit to the Cancer Center yesterday. This is the first time I’ve been since my surgery (coming up on five months). It felt so familiar that it was oddly comforting. I was dreading it just because there’s a good bit of walking to do. I managed it but it was the first time ever that I was happy to be in Pod Two instead of Pod Four as I didn’t have to walk as far. Of course I was delighted to see our beloved Vasireddy.
A somewhat dreary, rainy afternoon, but the Keytruda infusion is pretty quick.
We were both tired when we got home and then poor Ernie had to immediately start his colonoscopy prep. Poor guy. I had leftovers, watched the end of All Creatures Great and Small and tumbled into bed. One Norco and some melatonin proved to be the magic elixir for sleep. I don’t take much Norco anymore…generally one, maybe two a week, so I was weirdly grateful for the pain last night.
Melatonin gives me strange dreams. Tom Mason was in this one. He was leading some kind of cooking competition and I almost won for salt and pepper on vanilla ice cream except that I was disqualified because Ernie hadn’t passed on relevant information regarding chocolate sauce. I suppose he was in my dreams because yesterday, as I was waiting for Ernie to pull the car up, I was looking at the big guitar that we always had folks sign. Some of the signatures are fading but not Tom Mason’s. Tom was not the kind of guy to ever fade.
He brilliantly and boldly went for the sound hole for his first show.
And then, with that inimitable Tom Mason charm, he wrote ‘Great to be home’ in November of 2016, and followed that up with ‘Home Again,’ in December of 2019.
They say April is the cruelest month, but I'm none too fond of February.
I’ll get through it though.
In completely unrelated news, Olney has been attacking Sack, trying to bite her in the middle of her back. I don’t like this. He also seems to have a bit of a cold. I worry, I worry, I worry.
Our favorite leftover dish is now a quinoa/rice combo. Quinoa alone can be kinda umm, meah, and rice on it’s own can be a bit soft even if it’s cooked correctly. It turns out that you can cook rice and quinoa together—takes the same amount of time, same water ratio. It ends up with a delightful texture and a bit of nutty flavor. So after we make one of our favorite one pan dinners (which I have mentioned ad nauseam no doubt) of chicken thighs, smoked paprika, sweet potato (or turnips) and kale, the leftovers get chopped up, added into the pan with the rice, quinoa, maybe a teaspoon of curry powder and the water. Cooked just as you normally would cook rice and there you have it.
Lastly, I have a very scratchy throat. I fear that Ernie’s cold has made the journey over to me. We shall see. I hope you are all well.
Onward.
Love,
Cynthia
Good idea on the rice/quinoa!
The only good thing about February usually is that it's the shortest month. Except this year Mary and i will spent ten days of February in Italy. That will help.