What are you doing?

[Cooking Goddess]

...It can't hurt as right now I am trying to put the pieces back together that fell apart on Tuesday when my perfect little doxie Zipper died.

I - and my husband - have huge holes in our hearts and lives right now. We did not know he was sick. I'm not sure if it would have made it any better.....

Many hugs to you and your Hubby at your precious Zipper's passing. It's tough to lose a furry friend. Hope that hole in your heart fills quickly with happy memories of Zipper.

 

[Addie]

I have to jump into the shower. I have a massive infection in both kidneys. Either that or I have strained the muscles supporting my kidneys from so much hard coughing. Oh joy! So much pain. I can see this is going to be a lousy summer. And I still have the tail end of the cold. I am contemplating on calling an ambulance to go into the hospital. If it was just one kidney, it could be treated with oral antibiotics. But when both, IV is called for. An old time doctor who was about 90 at the time taught me a trick that seems to being working for the time being. If I bend over as if I am trying to touch my toes, it loosens up the tubes that run from the kidneys to the urethra. Sometimes something as simple as doing that is all that is needed for immediate relief from the pain. Right now it seems to be working. I figure I should start to feel like it is summer right around December 24th.

 

[cave76]

What I'm doing right now: Reading about kidney infections because Addie fears she might have one.

They can be very serious but her thought that maybe coughing so much pulled the muscles around them and caused the pain sounds reasonable.

I'm thinking that if it were me, I'd go to the hospital to get it checked out. But that's just me.

 

[Addie]

What I'm doing right now: Reading about kidney infections because Addie fears she might have one.

They can be very serious but her thought that maybe coughing so much pulled the muscles around them and caused the pain sounds reasonable.

I'm thinking that if it were me, I'd go to the hospital to get it checked out. But that's just me.

Thanks Cave. Right now the pain has subsided. So I am going to take a 'wait and see' approach. I hate calling the ambulance and going into the hospital. This is the worst time. Almost as bad as going in on a Saturday night when you see them rushing all the gunshot wounds past you. Having worked in hospitals, I know that there is less staff on the weekends. And when it comes to getting tests done, HA! Hurry up and wait.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Thanks Cave. Right now the pain has subsided. So I am going to take a 'wait and see' approach. I hate calling the ambulance and going into the hospital. This is the worst time. Almost as bad as going in on a Saturday night when you see them rushing all the gunshot wounds past you. Having worked in hospitals, I know that there is less staff on the weekends. And when it comes to getting tests done, HA! Hurry up and wait.

You start running a high temp, you go...I mean it!

 

[Addie]

You start running a high temp, you go...I mean it!

I hear you. This is not my first bout with my kidneys. It has just been so many years since the last infection. Something like 35 years. At first I didn't recognize the pain. It was when I bent over to pick something up and the pain stopped, then the light went on. Right now I have a quart size glass of water beside me and am drinking that instead of my usual cup of coffee.

When I lived in Tacoma, I had a girlfriend that was on dialysis. She was home run three times a week. Every other week she went into the hospital for a run or unless she had any problems before then. The woman who ran her was moving out of state and she asked me if I would like to do it. So I went for the training and ran her. (The pay was good.) No way do I ever want to go through what she went through. I don't know how she kept her sense of humor through it all. I sure couldn't.

 

[taxlady]

I hope you feel better soon Addie, and listen to PF.

 

[Addie]

I hope you feel better soon Addie, and listen to PF.

Thank you. I am feeling so much better. I don't know what the pain was from, but it is completely gone now.

 

[LPBeier]

Thank you. I am feeling so much better. I don't know what the pain was from, but it is completely gone now.

Glad to hear that but please rest up and watch yourself. If the pain comes back at all, please go see about it.

 

[Addie]

Glad to hear that but please rest up and watch yourself. If the pain comes back at all, please go see about it.

Thank you. If the pain does come back I am definitely going in to the hospital. I just don't get pain like that.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Take care Addie. Maybe it's time to have a daily juice glass of cranberry juice? If you add a shot of vodka (which I know you would never do since you don't drink) it makes a cocktail called a Cape Codder.

*******************

I'm goofing off. If "Goofing Off" was an Olympic sport I'd win the gold medal every time. I should be gardening - the weather is perfect for it. But the stack of magazines and the last of the coffee are telling me to waste the day and settle into the futon in the sun room until baseball time at 7:00 PM. My beloved Indians are the game of the week on Fox and I can actually see how these guys play....on mute. I really want to hear our play-by-play announcer instead, even though the audio will be a pitch behind what we've seen on the TV. Such is life for the cheap and lazy.

 

[taxlady]

I got home from shopping a while ago. I have tried out my new Bodum, burr coffee grinder and it seems to work well. I got recommendations from friends and checked the reviews. Looks like it's easy to clean too. BISTRO | Electric coffee grinder Red | Bodum Online Shop | Canada I got the red one.

I also bought some groceries, including coffee beans, and some booze. The SAQ (provincial liquor store) was having a 10% off purchases of $100 and more, so I got a big bottle of Amarula and two boxes of wine.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Loved my Bodum grinder taxy! I hope you enjoy yours just as much. Unfortunately, I broke the glass grounds catcher. When I contacted Bodum about a replacement it would have cost about $20 or so by the time I paid for shipping and stuff. My BIL has had a Cuisinart forever. It's built like a tank AND it has a plastic container to collect the grounds. I used my BedBathandBeyond 10% coupon, Discover cash-back cards, and got the Cuisinart "free". Meh, it's OK. Grinds alright, but not as precisely as the Bodum. And it isn't anywhere near as easy to clean. Again, I hope you like that Bodum as much as I did Bottoms up!

 

[Addie]

I am sitting here watching Rosie Roomba make her rounds. She just loves under my bed. I think she did a better job the first time I let her out. I think the problem was with the floor plan. I had the fan out in the middle of the floor and she cleaned around it, but wouldn't go past it to clean the other half of the room. I finally sent her back to sleep. But we will work out the problems as they come up. I can believe some of the fault is with me and the way this room is situated. Otherwise, I love her.

 

[taxlady]

Loved my Bodum grinder taxy! I hope you enjoy yours just as much. Unfortunately, I broke the glass grounds catcher. When I contacted Bodum about a replacement it would have cost about $20 or so by the time I paid for shipping and stuff. My BIL has had a Cuisinart forever. It's built like a tank AND it has a plastic container to collect the grounds. I used my BedBathandBeyond 10% coupon, Discover cash-back cards, and got the Cuisinart "free". Meh, it's OK. Grinds alright, but not as precisely as the Bodum. And it isn't anywhere near as easy to clean. Again, I hope you like that Bodum as much as I did Bottoms up!

Nice to read. I was thinking about the Cuisinart. But, ease of cleaning is a big deal to me. I also liked that most of the reviews said there was less static with the glass.

 

[taxlady]

Yay for Rosie Roomba.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...I also liked that most of the reviews said there was less static with the glass.

Definitely less static with the glass. Another hint I picked up along the way was to take a barely damp paper towel and wipe the inside of the glass collector before using. By the time you have it all put together the water has evaporated so that the grounds don't stick to wet, but they don't stick on the dry glass either. I would then use that same paper towel to wipe down the blade and such after I ground my coffee.

 

[taxlady]

Definitely less static with the glass. Another hint I picked up along the way was to take a barely damp paper towel and wipe the inside of the glass collector before using. By the time you have it all put together the water has evaporated so that the grounds don't stick to wet, but they don't stick on the dry glass either. I would then use that same paper towel to wipe down the blade and such after I ground my coffee.

Thanks for the tip. I have found it to be pretty static-free, so far.

How often should I clean the burr? Is it okay to put a bunch of beans in the bean holder and leave them there for the next time?

 

[creative]

Today I finally went to the Taste Of London festival - a kind of Glastonbury festival equivalent for foodies. It has lots of free taste samples, plus small/tapas size meals you can buy that the restaurants there cook e.g. their signature dishes...oh and cookery demos. (One demo I went to said to let marinade food rest a while, i.e. not cook straight away .... maybe that was aimed at the complete amateur! )

The small producers were very interesting e.g. their range of artisan baked breads and organic juice combos. Whilst none of the sample tapa meals blew me away (I guess I was expecting something exceptional), there was so much diversity there.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Thanks for the tip. I have found it to be pretty static-free, so far.

How often should I clean the burr? Is it okay to put a bunch of beans in the bean holder and leave them there for the next time?

I'm obsessive with cleaning appliances (not so much with the house outside of the kitchen ) so I cleaned up after each grinding session. I have a hinged-lock glass container I would use for a few days worth of grounds, then I would clean the Bodum. FWIW, I appropriated my old pastry brush to use for brushing the coffee off the burr and also down into the shoot that leads to the glass container. And I would pretty much wash or wipe down all the working parts when I changed bags of beans because I then change varieties of coffees.

I never left beans in the hopper. Why? Because, invariably, I would forget that the beans spill all over creation if you take the hopper off while the beans are in there!