Karen

The View From My Cubicle

On the days that I work the morning shift at the entrance station, it can be pretty slow in the early hours of the day. On those days, I like to watch the flowers grow.

These little asters are in reality, only about four inches tall. But, they can seem like towering plants, depending on your perspective.

Yes, I was practically lying on the ground, in my spiffy uniform, hat and all, trying to get a good shot of them. And while most of them are pathetically out of focus, I still like the feel of the photos enough to share them.

I can only imagine that this is the what a bug or a ground squirrel would see on their little journey through that patch of weeds.

And while there is no picture of him, one of those little ground squirrels did come by, and peek his head in my door that day. I just wasn’t fast enough to capture him. The view from my cubicle is great!

0 Shares

Remember Whensday

Karen · 7 Comments

Back in 1992, when FabGrandpa and I were newly married, we decided to take a weekend trip to the mountains of Tennessee. We reserved a cabin in Sevierville, left the three teenaged girls at home, and took off for some much needed R&R.

We got to the cabin, unloaded the car, then took a drive over to Cherokee, North Carolina. On the way back it started snowing. We pulled over on a scenic overlook and watched the snow falling for a while.

When we got in bed that night, and looked up, we discovered that there were mirrors on the ceiling over the bed. I don’t think we have laughed so long and hard as we did that night. Every time we looked up, there we were! It was far from romantic, but it was just what we needed that night.

For more Remember Whensday posts, click here.

0 Shares

Shrimp Stir Fry

Karen · 4 Comments

When we were in Flagstaff last week, I bought a refrigerator full of veggies, including some bok choy. I have never bought or eaten bok choy before, that I know of, but it always looks so good in the store. So, when I got home tonight, and wanted something quick and easy to cook for dinner, I thought about that bok choy in the fridge.

I also had a bag of raw shrimp in the freezer, so I decided to make a shrimp stir fry. To make this, I used :

1 whole red bell pepper, cut into strips
2 small zuchinni, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small bok choy, sliced thinly
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled
salt and pepper to taste
1 package bean thread noodles, cooked according to package directions

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, add all the chopped veggies, and stir fry until they are done to your liking (I cooked mine about 7 minutes). Add some salt and pepper, a couple of shakes of some gluten free soy sauce, and 1 pound of shrimp, peeled. Stir and cook about 5 minutes more, until shrimp is done.

I served this over bean thread noodles, with more gluten free soy sauce. It turned out very good. FabGrandpa said for me to put bok choy on the shopping list more often.

0 Shares

A Soapmaking Day

Karen · 6 Comments

I wouldn’t exactly call this a hobby, because I don’t make soap every week or every month. I only make it when we need some more bars. I started making my own soap in, I think, 1996. FabGrandpa’s skin itched all the time, and we had tried every brand of soap available in the store. So, I learned how to make our own at home.

It is really easy, once you get the hang of it (and all the proper equipment to do it with). Yesterday, I made seven pounds of lavender mint soap. (I wish you could smell this picture) This should last us six months or more, even if I give some away as gifts. It is now in the back of the truck, where it will sit for a week or two to dry and cure, before I put it all in ziplock bags and store it in the bathroom. I’ll have to make another batch next week, with clary sage and cinnamon in it, then I’ll be done for another year.

0 Shares

Scenic Sunday

Karen · 8 Comments

This is the view from the entrance station on Friday, July 24, 2009, where I work. A thunderstorm was approaching from the north. The rain and the breeze it created helped to cool the temps down to 70 degrees. Nice!

For more Scenic Sunday photos, click here.

0 Shares

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old…

Karen · 5 Comments

(Me and my sister, circa 1964)

Anyone who has ever been a Girl Scout will know that song…..One is silver and the other gold.

This week has been busy, and full of friends, both old and new. Last Saturday, FabGrandpa and I had a little dinner party to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Our guests included Curtis and KJ, a couple we met here at the North Rim, and have been trying to get together with since the end of April. Our schedules finally clicked last weekend. I had so much fun getting to know them better, and hope we will be friends for a long while. Curtis is an electrician here, and KJ, his wife, is a law enforcement ranger.

On Tuesday, I had my appointment with my new musculo-skelteal doctor, Dr. Monika Radloff, in Flagstaff. In my opinion, she is a very good doctor. She spent lots of time, both listening to my description of my symptoms, and in explaining to me what is wrong with me and telling me how to get better. While I hope I don’t have to visit her very often, I am glad that I met her and would recommend her to others with similiar problems.

On Wednesday, I got a phone call from a long time friend, who I have not seen in ages! She and her husband were in Las Vegas, and wanted to come to visit the Grand Canyon. Gloria and I go waaaay back–to 1982 when I was a Girl Scout leader, she also was a Girl Scout leader. The girls in her troop were just a couple years younger than the girls in my troop, so sometimes our troops did things together. Gloria is now the older girl program manager for the Girl Scout Council in Atlanta.

I managed to get four and a half hours of leave time, so I could take Gloria and Byron on a private tour of the North Rim. I took them up to Cape Royal, where I discovered that Byron is afraid of heights! We had a wonderful time, but no pictures because I forgot my camera!!! Oh My Gosh! It was like I had just seen them last week, except now we talked about our grandchildren instead of about our Girl Scout troops!!!

And, you know how sometimes, even with the closest of friends, the ones we call sisters, we can come close to blows? Good thing I am in Arizona and my sister is in Georgia, or that probably would have happened. We had a huge sibling fight, through about 15 emails back and forth. I have kept it very private, but I want my sister to know, I still love you. While we probably won’t EVER agree on politics, religion, child-rearing, best place to live, or even choice of sodas, we WILL always be sisters and I will always love you. You are the GOLDEST of the GOLD, my seester!

0 Shares

Remember Whensday

Karen · 7 Comments

The last year that we owned our house, a pair of flickers chose a dead tree near the deck to build a nest and raise their young. We got a “bird’s eye view” of it all. The couple began by coming to the tree for several days in a row to check it out. Next, they pecked an almost perfectly round hole into the tree.

They flew in and out of the hole for several days, bringing nesting material with them. One day when I was home in the middle of the day, I saw a starling go in the hole while the flickers were away. The male flicker came home to find the intruder. As I watched, I heard a lot of squawking and saw black feathers flying out of the hole. The starling managed to escape, and he never tried that again!

Soon, there were baby bird noises coming out of the hole in the tree. I borrowed a 35 mm camera with an extended lens and a tripod, and sat out on the deck for hours, waiting for a good shot. I was rewarded with several photos of the flickers feeding their babies. All too soon, the babies grew and fledged, and it was over. What an awesome summer that was!

0 Shares

And The Diagnosis Is:

Karen · 8 Comments

(Me, not a happy camper at the doc’s office today. Fabgrandpa said I looked like a prisoner. I told him I feel like a prisoner of my pain.)

Medial Epicondylitis. Dr. Radloff asked lots of questions, pushed and pulled on my arm, pushed on and felt of the swelled up part of my arm, took x-rays, and generally spent a lot of time with me during my appointment with her.

At one point, she said that to get the best treatment I would have to leave the North Rim, and I was very unhappy about that. But, she explained, that is because there are no medical facilities up here, and I really should do physical therapy.

So, other than physical therapy, she offered me two choices today:

1. Get a shot of cortisone in my elbow

2. Do exercises for “at home physical therapy”, use ice for theinflamation and take Naproxen and Lortab for the inflamation and pain, and come back in a month to see if I am improving. If I don’t improve, then she will go ahead with the shot of cortisone in my elbow.

I opted for number 2, only because I really don’t want that shot in my elbow. I have heard other people talk about how painful that can be. I am already in pain, and have been for quite a while, so I am just going to do the exercised and see what happens. If I played golf, this would make sense to me, but I really can’t think of what I am doing that would cause this to happen. Y’all think good thoughts for me, ok?

0 Shares