Cookie Time

A Saturday fell between my bladder surgery last week, and a colonoscopy today. A chilly morning sounded ideal to turn the kitchen into a cookie factory. Those fresh, warm globs of dough warm from the oven. Cookies are quite easy, and home made are so good. Only about 10-12 dozen this time. Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Butterscotch, and Peanut Butter. Not much into the rolling, cutting, icing, and sprinkles type.
Be prepared to hand wash a lot of utensils in the process for mass production, making the 2nd batch while the 1st batch is cooking. There's no time to be waiting for a dishwasher if you want to keep that oven full for 2-3 hours. Those ancient pans and equipment still do a wonderful job like when I was a kid. The cookbook is even dated 1936. The old card table is set up, covered with a white cotton flour sack towel for the cooling area.  Then they get stored in the old round aluminum cookie tins my Dad had made. And of course the best part is licking the bowls. SUGAR!!
Still tempting are those little round balls (butter, sugar & flour), rolled in powdered sugar. Yum. A simple sugar cookie is easy. Or a tasty Molasses Cookie. (Remember to set the Mole traps early in the season, for those recipes that call for Mole-Asses.)
I hope your home has a tradition of making cookies for the Holidays. Thanks for stopping by.

Bladder Cancer...the little sneak

Your Bladder. That tiny little organ just below your stomach. A pouch, or, resevior, it holds the
urine waiting to be expelled, the method of exit depending on if you are male or female. Like a balloon, it expands to hold the waste, and signaling the body when it needs to be emptied.

It is also another body part that can be affected by Cancer. The subject of Bladder Cancer seems to be a little discussed topic, yet there are 65,000 cases reported every year. And 12-14,000 reported deaths. It affects more men than women. If lack of awareness is an issue, then that's the purpose of this post. Because Bladder Cancer is a sneaky little devil. It seems to avoid its presence to make a person concerned that something is wrong, and seek medical attention. Symptons can include abdominal pain, discomfort in urinating, or blood in the urine (even microscopic blood, not visible to the eye). The symptons may be dismissed as nothing major, or not even associated with the Bladder. Depending when action is taken, the result may be early detection, removal of a tumor and treatment, or major cysectomy (removal of the bladder).

If any of the above symptons raises questions, your doctor should recommend that you see a Urologist for further evaluation.  This is your starting point to DO SOMETHING. Don't ignore it. The Urologist may recommend a Cystoscopy, an in-office procedure (no sedation), where they actually go up into your bladder with a camera and look around. An amazing tool, to find things that shouldn't be there. You can watch the  monitor with the doctor. They may see spots (tumors) inside your bladder. Now you know, something is wrong, and needs attention. But you're only at the halfway point of identifying the issue. The doctor will probably schedule surgery, usually a one day out-patient procedure. There is no local anethestic for this operation. Using the same Cystoscopy camera, they will include tools to burn away, or cut away the tumor(s). Slicing off deeper samples will also help reveal if the tumor has invaded the bladder walls or not. These will all be sent off for the biopsy report to examine the tumor/tissue. (not all tumors are cancer)

The waiting game will test your emotions, and sanity.  The ugly "C" word has entered your vocabulary, and it is frightening. A common ploy today is to hop on the internet and start searching. Hold off on this if you can, the results will further send your emotions sky high with thousands of sources for Bladder Cancer.

The day of the doctor visit to discuss the biopsy report has arrived. Cancerous Tumors. Not exactly what you wanted to hear. Learn the stage of your cancer, and some of the options. So far, you have done everything right. A problem/sympton prompted further evaluation. A Cystoscopy (or maybe a CT scan) located something wrong. A surgery helped remove and identify the problem. The biopsy confirmed the results. Congratulations for doing SOMETHING.

But now, consider yourself back at Square One. With all this on the table, it's now time to consider what, where, who and why is the best way to proceed with your specific condition. Yes, it can be a big decision. If your case is serious enough, one of the many Bladder Cancer Specialists may be for you. Or getting 2nd opinions on the biopsy report. What are the treamnent options, based on your case? It's time to zero in on YOU, not thousands of others, and determine how to proceed. Remember seeing the word "sneaky" above? They found a tumor, and removed it. You're healed, right? NO. Bladder Cancer has a high rate of reoccurence, and sad to say, you are probably going to be on a lifelong system of monitoring the situation, usually via Cystoscopies and the camera. And, again depending on your case, treatments and follow up maintenance treatment. From early detection to radical cyscetomy, you can stay alive and be a survivor. Death is more frequent for patients whose cancer has gotten out of the bladder and spread to other organs, such as the kidney, liver and lungs.

I am NOT a medical professional by any means. The discussion here stems from being a first hand bladder cancer patient. The searching option drove me nuts, reading all kinds of horrible things, before I even knew exactly what I had. (Wait for those specific results.) But the effort did bump me into a forum. There, I found down to earth, intelligent discussions about bladder cancer, directly from people who had been there/done that. Free to look and read, I kept going back to lurk around, finding some qualified answers. I eventually joined to talk with others, ask questions, and share my story. For anyone entering the Bladder Cancer scenario and seeking support, I recommend the forum. You're welcome to stop in as a Guest and read the various forums topics. Lots of good information.
http://bladdercancersupport.org/bladder-cancer-forum

Sorry to anyone who joins the Club. Hope you get the support, help, and qualified medical attention needed on this journey. It's quite a life altering adventure.

Beef Roast

Finding items on sale always catches my attention, especially if it's FOOD. In fact, I rarely buy items that are not on sale. That makes it easier, and less expensive, when figuring out future meals. Frugal can get you a long ways in this time of crazy food prices.
So back to the subject here. It was good to find a nice beef roast on sale, and, just the right size for multiple dinners. The nice slab of meat was cooked via my favorite method, a pressure cooker. So fast, easy, and tender. Needing a side dish, a pot was loaded to boil up some taters, carrots, celery and onion......and good for multipurpose too. The pan drippings from the meat, and the veggie water, were used to make some incredible gravy. Pan drippings from any meat make a superb gravy. Don't waste it!
So how do you stretch out this bargain and be frugal?  The main course of beef, veggies and gravy will be 2 meals. Some of the veggies slipped over into another pot, for delicious beef vegetable noodle soup, a wonderful cool weather treat, enough for 2 more meals. The remaining veggies and meat, along with an abundant pot of that gravy, will become a tasty beef stew, good for 2 more meals. Being frugal, and resourceful, has produced 6 hearty home cooked meals for $6 worth of meat.All done in 90 minutes.

Genealogy Freebies: Website, Tutorials, Graphics

Family History Research brings up the word "Genealogy". If you get the bug, you'll be chasing them bones hither and yon, burning the midnight oil, trying to put the pieces together for current living family members, and those elusive ancestors. Building a family tree can be done with pencil and paper, or learning how to use one of the Family Tree programs. Your endless hours are now bearing fruit, and you're ready to share it with the world. Your work should not be kept a secret from others. Whether it be printed versions to share with other family, or an online presence, an objective of this time consuming work is to get it into the hands of as many people as possible, which will be preserved for future generations. The next person interested in the family history may be your great-great grandchild. Give them a legacy to go on.
Being interested in sharing prompted the title of this post. Printing stuff was easy, but I wanted an online presence. Finding FREE methods fit the budget just right. The following are intended to help you discover ways to share/improve your data. All FREE.

1) Database: If you would like a database program to store and create family history, consider the one you can download from LDS (familysearch.org) . http://www.familysearch.org/eng/paf/
It is totally FREE. Quite simple to learn, you'll have a professional database in no time.

2) Online presence. I found ROOTSWEB/ANCESTRY which offers FREE web space. Which is unlimited web space for genealogy purposes. Simple (like me), or hog wild (with graphics), its your choice. It's called FREEPAGES.
http://accounts.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index.cgi?op=show&page=freagree.htm
Read the simple rules, but take your time to create a NAME for your site. Select your account name carefully as names of accounts can NOT be changed and you may not close an account and open a new one.

Check your own ISP. Many of them do provide free web space to customers. Mine offers 10MB free. More than enough to create a web site.

COLLATERAL SITES: If you have cemetery/gravesite/tombstone information, consider FIND-A-GRAVE website to share your data. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gs&LGaction=li&
FREE, registration is required. Easy to link your deceased ancestors together, include obits, and make a link to your website. Search the site for people others may have posted to help your research.

2) BUILDING A WEBSITE
Your "free space" does not mean a website of your data will magically appear there. You first have to "create" a web site.. This could mean taking time to learn HTML, the computer language. Using some of the FREE tutorials, and NOTEPAD (on your computer), you'll master this quite quickly. I still use Notepad, and less than a dozen commands, to build my websites.
Tutorial 1: http://www.boogiejack.com/html_tutorials.html
Tutorial 2: http://www.htmldog.com/guides/
Tutorial 3: http://www.pagetutor.com/html_tutor/index.html

3)FREE "EDITOR" to create a website. Too lazy to learn HTML?  One of MANY free editors to download and create a website is Kompozer: WYSISYG.
 http://download.cnet.com/KompoZer/3000-10247_4-10655200.html?tag=contentBody;pop
 DO NOT, DO NOT, DOT NOT, DO NOT EVER use WORD to create a website. YUK!!!!!!!

4)BONUS FREEBIES:
Most of us like to fiddle with graphics (photos, images, documents, self created, etc.) Here's some FREE graphic editor downloads that will do more than you need.
The original PSP v3.12 version, offered as a 30 day trial (clever thinking) , it NEVER expires. A powerful tool to do more than what you need. Mine is now 7 years working.
http://www.pagetutor.com/downloads/psp312-32.html

IRFANVIEW is another free graphics editor to be impressed with. Download from:
http://www.irfanview.com/

Hope some of these have helped you in your Genealogy adventures.
Thanks for stopping by.






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Indiana Sunsets, Lake Michigan

Gosh I miss summer. Those blue sky days with hot sun. Getting off work and hitting the beach for 4-5 hours, hoping to enjoy a Lake Michigan sunset. NW Indiana has some wonderful beaches, and a prime location for spectacular summer sunsets.

  A windy day helps clear the skies. Notice the Chicago Sears Tower in the background?

Somedays the sinking globe is a marvelous sight to behold across the water.

Think I'm counting 120 days til Spring. See ya at the beach!!

Casinos of NW Indiana

Indiana introduced casino gambling, adding the term "Riverboat Gambling". The word "Boat" was a key element. It had to float on water, and be able to move (cruise). Although a cruise sometimes meant being only a few feet from the dock. A floating vessel with passengers, they also had to meet all USCG requirements, quite an investment compared to land based casinos. Passengers had to wait in long lines for the next boarding time. Each "cruise" lasted 2 hours.
Eventually they went to "open boarding", patrons could enter/depart 24/7. The boat no longer had to leave the dock. But it still had to float.
Casinos on water brings us to NW Indiana, and Lake Michigan. Lots of water! Having a shoreline of 35 miles, 5 gaming licenses were issued. Centrally located in a customer market with millions of people, the rush was on. The following map shows the location of the 5 Casinos.

Harrah's Horseshoe is in Hammond, Indiana.

              Ameristar is in East Chicago, Indiana

                                Majestic Star I & II are in Gary, Indiana, side by side at the same dock.

                                                   Blue Chip is in Michigan City, Indiana.

This is an informative post regarding their location, NOT an advertisement to get them business!!

You'll need to do your own homework to find more about the one arm bandits.

Obviously if you're not a gambler, you could care less about this post. Thanks for stopping by.

                             

The Feast: 2012

11/22/2012. The day of feasting and giving Thanks is almost upon us again. Let's hope your shopping excursions for necessities is about over, soon giving way to preparations in the kitchen, filling your home with mouth watering aromas. Some will opt to avoid mountains of dirty dishes that the process creates, and choose to dine out. Also available from various establishments are the fully cooked "heat n' serve" meals. Prices for a complete meal that will serve 6-8 seem to range from $60-150. And of course, thanks to the many charitable/public organizations who provide a delicious free meal to those in need. Being a long weekend for most, there may be long or short travel plans on your agenda. Whatever your mode of transportation, have a safe trip with family and friends.
My place will be a nice home cooked meal, but not overboard with a 16# Turkey!! Cooking does permit enough of those delicious leftovers too. The selection of meat will be a tasty Cornish Hen with a bit of stuffing. Bird is easy to cook, just some seasonings, poke it in the oven (make sure the oven is ON), do some basting, and watch for that crispy brown skin, something worth fighting over. Don't forget those pan drippings for Gravy. Mashed & Sweet Taters. Probably Corn. And an old family recipe for Kidney Bean Salad. Munching condiments will be Celery stuffed with Cream Cheese, Deviled Eggs, and some Jumbo Black Olives. An accompanying wine should be tasted beforehand too. Easy enough. Leave room for that home-made Pumpkin Pie too. One of the simplest to make ....... no peeling anything! Mix n' bake.
Those full bellies will soon tell the body it's time to digest, and snoozers will be spotted in a favorite chair, on the couch, or on the floor. Shoppers will be eagerly discussing plans for the Black Friday adventure, anxious to attack some of those pre-dawn bargains. Good luck in the crowds, that's not for me.
Enjoy your day of family traditions, and Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for stopping by.