It Could Always be Worse

Oh, I've had the most annoying last couple of weeks. It began when I noticed an odd yellow bumpy "thing" on my right eyelid. At first I thought it was a stye - ick! - because I've had those before. But then I decided "the bump" wasn't behaving like any previous stye that I've had, so I called my doctor's office(where I have been a patient for years, I might add). That's when the annoying part began.

Whomever answered the phone at my doctor's office immediately determined that I wasn't dying, so I got the brush-off. "We are totally booked up; why don't you go to our "Quick Care" facility?"  Where "quick care" means sitting for hours waiting to be seen by a physician's assistant instead of by my doctor, for whom I was willing to wait for hours to be seen by in the first place.

I work during the day...so eventually...after a few days...I make my way to the "Quick Care"(ha,ha) facility...where I'm seen by a physician's assistant who thinks "the bump" looks like a stye and suggests applying a warm, wet compress to my eye several times a day...which I have already been doing. And I work in an office all day, so there's that problem.

Back to phoning the doctor's office for some serious whining that it's not a stye(see first paragraph) and maybe I need a specialist to see me. I figure I'm giving an opening for me to be passed off to a regional teaching hospital with a certified Ophthalmology department. They take the bait!, and I'm referred to a physician's assistant in Family Practice. At least this woman agrees with me, so I get another referral to the Ophthalmology department.

Finally - today- I make it to the genuine Ophthalmology department...where the doctor tells me that I have a "chalazia" and it's too close to a tear duct...so...I NEED TO SEE ANOTHER SPECIALIST!!!

AND THAT'S NOT THE WORST PART! They may decide to make an incision in my eyelid to remove the chalazia, so afterwards I WON'T BE ABLE TO WEAR EYE MAKEUP TILL IT HEALS. FEH.

The good news is that my problem could be worse.
I could be the guy with the worm in his eye.

How high can my weeds go?

For all the complaining about how I'm killing myself with working in the garden....apparently I overlooked a weed at the edge of our property. There's a place where my garden sort of blends into my neighbor's garden and has become a sort of no-man's land. We're both too polite to pull up something that might belong to the other one...especially if we're not sure if it's a flower or a weed. I'm pretty sure this is a weed...

I'm a smidge over 5' 1", so this weed must be 8 feet tall. And it was surrounded by more weeds, so after digging out the weed, I spent half an hour picking burrs off myself.

The wonderful thing about a garden is that there is always something beautiful to make it worth all the work.

...and these pictures are from last weekend, because this weekend has been all rain...feh

I'm not a foodie, just a wacky...

I stopped by Chef Dennis's blog More Than A Mount Full, and saw a guest post by Brian of A Thought For Food. Now I am not a "foodie", but I appreciate food bloggers that post uncomplicated recipes that don't require exotic ingredients and produce simply delicious food. I got really excited over this recipe from Brian, and, honestly, how many of you are really excited at the thought of brownies made with chickpeas?
...I didn't think so.....

But after a hard day at work last week, I needed some comfort food...which for me means something with chocolate. Now I'm not one of those fearless guys on tv that will eat anything. But I will try just about any fruit or vegetable if it's surrounded by butter, sugar, flour, and baked. So I made these Decadent Chocolate Chickpea Brownies. (unfortunately, I didn't have any dried cranberries on hand)

I love them! They are delicously fudgy! And high in fiber!
....AND HERE COMES THE WACKY PART.....

I topped a brownie with fig-infused, locally-made, soft goat cheese. It tasted just like a brownie with ice cream! Hubby Meester shook his head and said "you're not too normal, are you?", and walked away.

Swimming is more appealing than slithering

We went to a wedding in the Chicago suburbs last weekend. We had time for a little shopping and then had dinner at an Islamorada restaurant. We ate grilled grouper fish for the first time - 1400 miles from the ocean! A HUGE saltwater fish tank spans the length of the restaurant. We could have watched those graceful tropical fish for hours.

Shopped for shoes but couldn't find the right pair...not that I can wear heels this high anymore. So many shoes with snakeskin design - why?

image from RaeBerlin on Flickr

How many of us really like snakes? Do you really want to look down and think you just stepped on a snake? I don't - I won't wear anything that looks like snakeskin. I think the latest fad of putting pom-pom bows on shoes is getting a little overdone, but I'd rather look like a cheerleader than look like a snake is eating my feet.