Toms Diary

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Tom’s Love Quest

Revised Post Count: 204

Tom Hesley

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Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

08:30 AM: I’m up.

09:30 AM: Made today’s batch of cream cheese Jello. Today’s flavor: Strawberry.

11:45 AM: Revised approximately 200 posts on the Tom’s Love Quest blog, to include links to my home page and my full name.

01:30 PM: Heading to DelGrosso park for an afternoon / evening of good food, great rides, and wonderful fun over all. Back later.

10:00 PM: We’re home and heading to the shower to get the layers upon layers of sunscreen off.

01:15 AM: Watched the past two days worth of The Young and the Restless on the DVR.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None yet.

Today’s Diet: 2010-07-29

July 29th, 2010

I keep this food diary to stay aware of just how many calories I’m eating daily, with the hope that it decreases the likelihood that I’ll overeat. It seems to work, so here we go with another day…

Today, I consumed the following items:

Herbal tea throughout the day. 0 calories.
11:00 AM: 1 bowl of orange-flavored cream cheese Jello. 400 calories.
01:00 PM: 1 banana. 125 calories.
02:10 PM: 2 steak sandwiches. 800 calories.
05:30 PM: 1 cup soft serve ice cream. 400 calories.
06:00 PM: 4 slices of pizza. 1200 calories.
10:45 PM: 1 bowl of strawberry-flavored cream cheese Jello. 400 calories.
10:50 PM: Multivitamin. 0 calories.

Total calories: 3325.

Tom Hesley

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.

Log

09:00 AM: I’m up.

09:45 AM: Starting the beef + grain soup in a few minutes. First, I’ll brown seven or eight pounds of stew meat, then, throw the grains, onions and the beef into the roaster and let it cook all day. The roaster in this scenario serves as a gigantic crock pot. By this evening therefore, we should have eighteen quarts of delicious soup / stew to eat. Yum!

10:40 AM: All beef cubes have been browned with Mom’s assistance, and added to the roaster along with the grain, onions, and salt. We’ll put in the beef bouillon cubes later. Gee, I hope that five pounds of grains won’t expand excessively. But, just in case it overflows the roaster while cooking, I have several additional big pots standing by into which to scoop the excess. I’ll check the progress of the stew every hour or so throughout today.

02:20 PM: The grains are tender now and have absorbed quite a bit of water. But we only experienced a small overflow, which we ate for lunch. now I’m allowing the roaster to cool for a couple hours before spooning the grain stew into freezer containers.

05:15 PM: Well I did use an extra slow cooker, because as folks on Facebook suspected, the grains really “exploded” in the last hour or so. Perhaps next time, I’ll use 4 pounds of grains instead of 5. Also, the grain stew has been packed in freezer containers and carried downstairs to the ice box. Now I’m just cleaning up the roaster and slow cooker, and the pan we fried the beef in.

06:00 PM: Cleanup from the grain stew project is complete.

07:00 PM: Watched KDKA TV’s Local News at 6:00 PM.

09:00 PM: Talked with [Ron], who has just returned from camp. He filled us in on how everything was. He said that few campers liked the shorter session (by one day in fact), but that they made the best of it and enjoyed themselves. No long hikes this year — only a two-mile one. They missed my music. But [Rick] filled in, in my absence.

[Ron] said he disagreed with many of my reasons for not going, and he seemed genuinely disappointed that I did not attend. I explained the two nasty encounters I had with [Prism], and how I didn’t like watching the camp experience slowly but certainly erode right before my eyes. He understood, I think, but even after a twenty-minute monologue in my defense, I still got the impression that he didn’t consider my reasons sufficient for opting out of camp this year. Well, to each, his own I guess.

The truth is that he need not understand. But I understand, and I’m the one that I must please ultimately. But I’ll see [Ron] at the alumni convention in August, and that seemed to make him happier. Hopefully he was not insulted at my decision to skip camp.

10:40 PM: [Emmy] and I read more of the Frankenstein book.

11:35 PM: Watched KDKA TV’s Local News at 11:00 PM, but we’re headed to bed now. Enjoy your evening and look for more of my story tomorrow here at Tom’s Diary. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

Mis-directed mail.
$10 coupon from Bed Bath & Beyond.

Today’s Diet: 2010-07-28

July 28th, 2010

I keep this food diary to stay aware of just how many calories I’m eating daily, with the hope that it decreases the likelihood that I’ll overeat. It seems to work, so here we go with another day…

Today, I consumed the following items:

Herbal tea throughout the day. 0 calories.
09:00 AM: 1 bowl of raspberry-flavored cream cheese Jello. 400 calories.
11:00 AM: 1 bowl of cream cheese Jello. 400 calories.
01:00 PM: 1 bowl of beef & grain stew. 500 calories.
03:00 PM: 1 bowl of cherries. 200 calories.
0345 PM: 2 bags of popcorn. 520 calories.
05:00 PM: 1 bowl of raspberry-flavored cream cheese Jello. 400 calories.
07:00 PM: 1 pint of Breyers vanilla ice cream. 520 calories.

Total calories: 2940.

Tom Hesley

Today’s Business: 2010-07-27

July 27th, 2010

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Do all loads of colored laundry. DONE.

Log

06:00 AM: I’m up.

07:15 AM: The drain stopper in the bath tub has broken; it’s gotten loose such that turning it to the right does not tighten it. So I’ll take the entire drain assembly out to see what’s gone wrong. Something probably corroded or something. But I’ll do that later; once we get back from [Emmy's] doctors appointment.

07:30 AM: [Emmy] reports that her wrist is not hurting at all this morning, and she is unable to make it hurt by doing any of the exercises that induced pain in previously. Grrrrrr. Of course, on the day of her appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, it stops hurting. She’s now carrying bags of groceries around the house along with weights in her book bag in an effort to reproduce the problem.

08:30 AM: Heading out now, for [Emmy's] doctors appointment and to do some shopping. Back later.

08:40 AM: We heard Mom’s cell phone beeping, somewhere in the car. That’s good. At least it’s not lost. I’ll re activate it when I return home.

10:00 AM: The orthopedic doctor ordered a new set of nerve conduction tests. He was unable to re create the wrist pain that [Emmy] has experienced almost non stop. He also says that she may have been misdiagnosed but with good reason, won’t commit to a diagnosis until the aforementioned tests are run in early August. The appointment has been scheduled at a hospital in Pittsburgh for these tests.

11:30 AM: Shopping at Wal Mart complete, and we picked up Mom’s latest batch of meds from her pharmacy as well.

12:30 PM: Mom, when asked if she knew how the bath tub drain plunger came to be broken, said that she slipped while taking a shower this morning. Fortunately, she was not hurt. But the drain assembly requires replacement. So, we stopped at Lowe’s to get the necessary hardware.

01:00 PM: We all ate lunch near Lowe’s; cheese steak sandwiches for all. Yum.

01:20 PM: We’re home again and all groceries bought on today’s shopping trip have been put away. But since we enjoyed a big lunch at Dominick’s in front of Lowe’s, we’re going to delay the buffalo flavored chicken breasts until tomorrow.

02:00 PM: Reactivated Mom’s cell phone on Verizon’s web site.

02:15 PM: We considered going swimming again today at the Bellwood pool. But as I got a little sunburn yesterday, and since [Emmy] is feeling tired from not enough sleep last night, we decided instead to stay home and nap, and to that nap we go…

04:00 PM: I’m awake again.

06:00 PM: The customer stopped by to pick up laptop, per the Laptop Shuts Off: 2010-07-15 project.

06:45 PM: Rinsed out our 18 quart roaster, and lots of reusable and seal-able single-portion containers. Preparing to make a big batch of beef grain soup tomorrow.

08:50 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR. However, we skipped today’s rerun episode of Dr. Phil.

09:15 PM: Facebooked throughout today. Friend count: 267. Official Facebook page fan count: 44.

10:00 PM: Watched bits and pieces of KDKA TV’s Pittsburgh Today Live on the DVR. But as tired as we both are due to the early rising this morning, the shopping, and the domestic work, we’re foregoing reading any more of the Frankenstein book tonight. Instead, it’s to bed with us. So have a great evening and I’ll add more to this story tomorrow. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

Weekly coupon mailer.
Talking Book Topics; the July-August, 2010 issue.
Consumer Reports Magazine; the 2010-07 issue.
Referral from Mom’s PCP for her to see a cardiologist in Pittsburgh in August.
Advertisement for free personal checking from First Commonwealth Bank.

Shopping Trip: 2010-07-27

July 27th, 2010

08:30 AM: Leaving now to take [Emmy] to her appointment with a local orthopedic surgeon. Mom’s driving us. After that’s done, we’ll head to Wal Mart for some badly needed food goods.

11:30 AM: Just finished at Wal Mart. I purchased the following items:

Cascade gel for the dishwasher (1 large bottle).
Great Value orange juice (1/2 gallon).
Diet ginger ale (8 liters).
Diet caffeine-free Pepsi (12 liters).
Dial body wash for men (2 bottles).
Fresh Step cat litter (one 25 pound box).
Ground turkey (4 pounds).
Great Value raisins (2 canisters).
Popcorn (24 microwaveable bags).
Cherries (3.48 pounds).
More cherries (1.84 pounds).
Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese (5 boxes).
Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup (7 cans).
Goya black bean soup (8 cans).
Peaches (4.23 pounds).
Bananas (2.61 pounds).
Strawberries (1 box).
Great Value gelatin, raspberry (8 boxes).
Sargento muenster cheese (4 bags).
Flat bread (3 packs).
Eggs (1 dozen).
Stew beef cubes (3 medium packs).

Total cost: $158.45

Then, we picked up Mom’s meds at her pharmacy.

Total cost: $31.00

12:00 PM: Next we hit Lowe’s for the following plumbing parts:

Replacement bath tub drain assembly (Mom broke the one in there when she slipped yesterday).
Replacement bath tub diverting spout (Hard water deposits render the shower diverter useless after a year or two).

Total cost: $20.50

Grand total: $178.95

Tom Hesley

Today’s Diet: 2010-07-27

July 27th, 2010

I keep this food diary to stay aware of just how many calories I’m eating daily, with the hope that it decreases the likelihood that I’ll overeat. It seems to work, so here we go with another day…

Today, I consumed the following items:

Herbal tea throughout the day. 0 calories.
07:30 AM: 1 bowl of lime-flavored cream cheese Jello. 400 calories.
12:15 PM: Cheese steak sub. 1200 calories.
02:00 PM: 1 bowl of cherries. 200 calories.
04:00 PM: 1/2 a steak Stromboli from yesterday. 800 calories.
07:00 PM: 1 bag of butter-flavored popcorn. 260 calories.
09:00 PM: 1 bowl of Cheerios, blueberries, raisins, and skim milk. 500 calories.

Total calories: 3360.

Tom Hesley

Today’s Business: 2010-07-26

July 26th, 2010

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE.
Do all loads of colored laundry. IN PROGRESS.

Log

10:30 AM: I’m up.

12:30 PM: [Emmy] and I walked outside to the benches in the south yard and basked in the intense sunshine. Air temperatures are in the mid 70s but the sun rays are quite warm.

02:15 PM: Heading to the Bellwood swimming pool for an afternoon of hot fun in the summer. Back later.

04:40 PM: We swam and floated around in the water for two hours with a little break for snacks after the first sixty minutes. Great weather, with temperatures in the low 80s and the humidity low as well. The remodeled pool looks nice with a bright blue interior with a row of deep but vibrant blue tiles running around the entire top edge. The shape of the pool remains the same (L shape) and they kept the 12-foot section. However, there are now no diving boards (too much of a liability I suspect). The bath house layout is the same — no doubt still the same building; just the colors of the walls are now blue whereas in the 1970s, they were a pale yellow. No jukebox for tunes. But someone brought a boom box that, surprisingly, could be heard throughout the entire pool area. Not as many trees around for shade, I noticed. But all the grassy areas where I spent hours laying out still accompany that old and familiar, basic layout of the swimming area. Now, we’re leaving for supper.

06:30 PM: We then walked into downtown Bellwood and enjoyed a steak Stromboli at Brothers Pizza.

06:45 PM: Afterwards, we visited Hometown Market and bought some cream cheese for our Jellow dessert we’ve come to love.

07:00 PM: We’re back home and getting showers, to wash the sunscreen from our hair and bodies.

09:00 PM: Watched today’s episodes of The Young and the Restless and Dr. Phil on the DVR.

10:30 PM: Read more of the Frankenstein book.

11:00 PM: Whipped up a batch of lime-flavored cream cheese Jello for tomorrow.

11:35 PM: Watched KDKA TV’s Local News at 11:00 PM.

11:40 PM: Now, we’re off to bed. [Emmy] had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon here in Altoona to get a second opinion on all the wrist problems she’s been experiencing in both hands. The carpel tunnel operation she had back in 2007 has only provided marginal relief, and that’s even after a rigorous rehabilitation and exercise program. Hopefully, she’ll get better results this time around.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

Amtrak train tickets for the trip to Pittsburgh next month to attend the WPSBC Alumni Associatioin’s biennial convention, and to visit some long lost friends.
Promo Only’s Mainstream Radio music series; the 2010-08 edition.
Promo Only’s EADFF music series; the 2010-07-04 issue.
Notice from Mom’s medical insurance company that she’s approaching the “donut hole” gap in her drug coverage. Hopefully, we can make it the rest of the year without spending too deeply into that hole.
Two credit card and / or balance transfer offers. Not at this time, thanks.
Information from Mom’s medical insurance company about their SilverSneakers fitness program. They’re inviting her to participate.

Today’s Diet: 2010-07-26

July 26th, 2010

I keep this food diary to stay aware of just how many calories I’m eating daily, with the hope that it decreases the likelihood that I’ll overeat. It seems to work, so here we go with another day…

Today, I consumed the following items:

Herbal tea throughout the day. 0 calories.
11:15 AM: 1/2 cup of raisins. 260 calories.
12:00 PM: 2 cups of skim milk. 160 calories.
01:30 PM: 1 cup of orange juice. 110 calories.
06:00 PM: 1 medium steak Stromboli. 1600 calories.
08:00 PM: Multivitamin. 0 calories.
09:00 PM: 1 cup of orange juice. 110 calories.

Total calories: 2240.

Tom Hesley

July 2010
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