CountryMouse's Diary

Part 66

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Sunday, October 1, 2006, 4:33am: First and foremost:

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Early Detection CAN Make a Difference!

If you've been around my site much at all, you will know that early detection (mammogram!) caught my breast cancer early! I had surgery and radiation in 2001-2002. I just had something abnormal show up on the other side in June of this year. That was with a mammogram and then an ultrasound. Since they were not sure what it was, and with my history, they did an ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy (not bad at all, y'all). It was (whew!) benign. However I had some lumpy scar tissue show up afterwards, and I didn't really know until this past Friday if everything was okay! I saw my surgeon in July, then again two days ago; and she said I was fine. :-)  I'm to see her again in December, for another mammogram and ultrasound on that side, just to check on things. So ladies:

GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS!


The latest on my mother. She has done as well as she can with physical and other therapy. She got back most of her speech. She only has some episodes of confusion now. But she has not gotten back enough strength in her legs to make it safe for her to go home. After her successful surgery in early August, the doctors recommended she go into long-term nursing home care then. But my sister wanted to give Mama every chance to get back to where she was pre-accident, so my sis opted to have Mama go into a nursing home rehab facility, to see if she could get stronger. It just hasn't worked out. So a couple weeks ago, things were finalized to put Mama over on the long-term care side of things there. It's a very nice place. My sis has researched it well. They treat Mama well, there are TONS of activities for everyone there. The food is good (Mama has said so). So it's the best that can be made of a not-great situation. Anyway, I wanted to thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, energies, and general support.


But on the bright side: it's October ! I love this time of year! But it's going fast already! Savour each moment! Enjoy the turning of the leaves (or the new shoots of greenness, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere!), the anticipation of lots of fun holidays, etc.!

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Monday, October 2, 2006, 8:47pm: I have this year's addition to my Halloween section up! Go see!

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Friday, October 6, 2006, 10:27pm: Whoops! I found some PalmPix photos I hadn't uploaded! They are from a year ago July! Here they are. Better late than never, eh?  :-P

11:41pm: Knitting/crochet news here.

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Sunday, October 8, 2006, 6:19am: So I took the PalmPix along when we went to Hobby Lobby yesterday, so that I could get an Innovations Knitting Machine (please be sure to click on the picture at right for all kinds of fascinating information!) for 50% off regular price! I got it for $20!! They are selling for around $55 online! There were only two left in the store!  Anyway, I hope to get a chance to fool around with it this coming week. But back to the PalmPix. Here are random photos I took on the trip there and back, followed by photos taken outside, around the house. Remember, a PalmPix is a little fixed-focus camera with some ridiculously low resolution. Heh. Still, I like that it's so uncamera-like and easy to take along unobtrusively. I mean, it looks like a Palm device, not a camera. It *is* a Palm device, with a camera attached.

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 1:04am: Cold weather coming! Bunnicula put the plastic up to the windows with duct tape today (no, it's for insulation, not some kind of civil defense thing). We do this every autumn, as it's our only form of storm windows. Anyway, they *say* that we may even see snow flurries Thursday or Friday!

Still haven't started on my crocheted hats yet. I hope to do one tomorrow. As I said in my LiveJournal the other day: "I also need to crochet a couple hats to match a scarf I knit about a year ago. It can go with two different coats, so I need hats in two different colours for them, picking up colours in this scarf." I know I'm going to need at least one of those coats by the weekend, and I do NOT want to wear a pink Spring hat/scarf set with it!  :-P  Well, okay, it *could* be considered Breast Cancer Awareness Pink (for this month). But still.

Sicara special-made the most adorable adoption for Cat'r and me! It's here. You should go check out her wonderful pixel site--The Alley Pixels--too!

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Thursday, October 12, 2006, 5:17am: I completed Level 5 at Malakye's PSP School! Here are some of my results and also my award.  :-)

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006, 7:48am: Today is another one of those Weather Predictor Days (such as Groundhog Day, St. Swithun's Day, etc.). We are actually in:
 

St. Luke's Little Summer

 

It's a spell of mild weather, in which this day, St. Luke's Day, is usually in the middle. Well, we are in a very little St. Luke's Summer here. It will get chillier tomorrow, after reaching approximately 72oF. today. According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, "St. Luke's Little Summer is a period of summer-like days that occurs around October 18, named to honor the saint's feast day. In olden days, St. Luke's Day did not receive as much attention in the secular world as St. John's Day (June 24) and Michaelmas (September 29), so to keep from being forgotten, St. Luke presented us with some golden days to cherish before the coming of winter--or so the story goes. Some folks call this Indian summer, but that officially occurs between November 11 and November 20." (which, by the way, in Europe is called St. Martin's Summer)

1:51pm: Yet another page added to my Halloween section. ::grin:: Go see.

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Sunday, October 22, 2006, 7:47am: Bizzy bizzy. I now have all the BEAUTIFUL gift pages made for me by wonderful members of The Garden of Friendship up on my site! Here are our wedding anniversary pages, plus guestbook, quilt, other gifts, etc. And here are my birthday pages, plus adoptions, sigtags, quilt, guestbook, etc. Wow, those folks sure know how to spoil ya rotten! LOL!

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Monday, October 23, 2006, 4:27pm: I finished reading To Serve Them All My Days a couple weeks ago or so, right when we finished watching the mini-series based on it. I think I liked the book better. The female characters in particular were more well-balanced and three-dimensional in the book. :-)

So now I am back to reading Mitford books (I'm reading A New Song); and Bunnicula and I have totally gotten addicted to the series Dead Like Me (click on pictures left and right to see them larger). We are on the second season. We are well aware that the series was cancelled and that it ends on a cliffhanger. ::sigh::

Bunnicula and I have gotten back into playing Disney's Toontown Online! My highest-level toon, Little Comet Flippendorf, is growing a garden. And doing a Li'l Old Man-style run of tasks to get her Lawbot Suit. My second-highest level toon, Poppy Flippendorf is still working on maxing her gags and is also helping out B.'s second-level character, who is around 51 Laff Points at present. The fun is back! :-)

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006, 8:11pm: Today I finished getting all the parts of Little Comet Flippendorf's Lawbot Suit (see above). Then I grabbed a bunch of tasks involving earning lots of jellybeans! And one to make LCF "colorless" for 30 days! I wanted to look ghostly for Halloween. :-P  Here are a couple screenies (click on them to see much larger, fuller pics):
 

   
Ghostly Comet OVERKILL!

 

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Tuesday, October 31, 2006, 3:44pm: Getting ready for parties, trick-or-treating, and other fun things? Getting ready for one of the most sacred days in the Wiccan year? We are. :-) And may you all have a
 

Happy Samhain
 

Don't forget to check out my Halloween/Samhain pages for this year (in case you didn't get there yet)!

11:40pm: Spending Halloween in Toontown! Lady Marigold (Bunnicula's top toon) and Poppy Flippendorf (my second-to-top toon) spent HOURS fighting the Cogs in a massive Bloodsucker Invasion!! (This, by the way, was one of the longest invasions I ever remember happening in all my years of playing Toontown! I think it was going on all evening, in all districts) Of course when an invasion happens, you get double points for the gags you use successfully. So Poppy was dropping 1-ton weights and safes with abandon, trying TRYING to work her way up to getting to *someday* drop PIANOS! Here are pics of us (click to see them larger):
 

     
In the elevator of a building
in Donald's Dreamland
I threw down dynamite, Lady
Marigold lured them onto it
Our standings in the Toon Platoon
at the end of the evening


We got those jack o' lantern heads a couple days ago trick-or-treating around Toontown--we also got 600 jellybeans each! 

 

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Background by Backgrounds by Marie | Copper buttons by Jelane | Breast Cancer Awareness plaque from Wings of Love and Light | October blinkie from Pinky Blinkies | St. Luke's graphic by CountryMouse | Samhain graphic from Wings of Love and Light