Meet Rita

I bought a 2009 Audi Q5 in 2012.  I've loved the Audi for over three years and hoped to keep loving her for many more years.  In the last year, I've incurred some expenses that I felt were unusual and excessive.  In October, I was getting an oil change and asked the dealership to check on a noise I heard when locking the doors.  A latch had to be replaced to ensure the vehicle locked.  That little repair was $750.  I had enough and decided to replace Audrey.

Enter Rita.

I can assure you this wasn't a spur of the moment decision.  I had been researching a replacement for Audrey for a few months and the Acura RDX was at the top of the list.  I wanted something reliable and not terribly expensive to repair.  I've owned Honda Accords in the past and figured Honda's luxury brand, Acura, would be as reliable.  My mother and sister both have Acuras and both are very happy.

I visited the Acura dealership (while driving the Audi loaner car) and test drove the RDX I'd had my eye on.  I went back to the dealership and talked numbers with the salesman.  The vehicle was a service loaner and was in great shape.  It had just over 7,000 miles on it and was still under the original warranty.  It was also considered a certified pre-owned vehicle, and Acura's CPO warranty is even better than the original warranty.  I decided to buy it.

This is the first vehicle I've bought completely on my own.  It felt good.

The exterior and interior are both black.  It is a very smooth ride.  The steering is also very smooth.  I'm still getting used to that since the Audi's steering is more stiff.  I kind of like the stiff steering, but I know I'll get used to the smoother steering.

The photos below are from a Google search and are not of my vehicle, but the vehicles in these photos are identical to my Rita.

I need to get Audrey cleaned up and sold since I have three vehicles in my driveway.  I refer to them as my fleet.

Blue Apron - Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish

I've seen blogs that had posts about Blue Apron but I never tried it until recently.  My sister ordered her first shipment a couple of months ago and raved about it.  She sent photos of her food and it looked tasty.  After receiving a couple of shipments, she got three free shipments to send to friends or family who might be interested.  I was the recipient of a free box.

You can choose a 2-person plan or a family plan.  I chose the 2-person plan and got three meals for two people (six meals total).  Each box costs about $60 and that includes shipping and nearly everything you need to make the meal.  The only items not included are olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The first meal I prepared was cornmeal-crusted catfish.

This photo shows how the food arrives.  Each meal includes a bag of "knick knacks."  For this meal, the knick knacks were vinegar, mayonnaise, mustard, pickle relish, and cornmeal.

The recipe card includes step-by-step instructions and photos.  I appreciate that the recipes tell you to prep everything before beginning.  This is how I cook even when I'm not using the Blue Apron recipes.

The recipes take about thirty or thirty-five minutes to prepare and are around 600 to 700 calories each.  This is a little high, but the food is fresh and doesn't have preservatives, so I can overlook the slightly high calories.

One of my favorite parts of the meal prep is actually plating the food.  I've never really made an effort to make my plate pretty, but I do when I'm cooking the Blue Apron meals.

These two photos show the recipe cards.

Because I'm only cooking for myself I have enough food for two meals each time I prepare something.  I had the catfish on Sunday night a couple of weeks ago and ate leftovers the next night.  It's kind of fun to prepare two meals at once and then be able to eat a decent meal that isn't fast food two nights in a row.

I've been pretty pleased with the food this far.  There are a few meals I enjoyed more than others, but overall, everything has been quite tasty.

I post photos of my meals to Instagram and tag them with #blueapron.  It's so much fun to see all of the other photos of the same meal to see how yours looks when compared to others.  Pretty plating makes a big difference!

Allergy Shot Update

I mentioned a couple of moths ago I underwent insect venom allergy testing.  The doctor determined I am allergic to yellow jacket venom and suggested immunotherapy to help reduce the likelihood of another anaphylactic reaction.  I began allergy shots about two weeks after I had the testing.

 

The first three visits were separated by a week and each visit included three injections.  I received a shot, waited for fifteen minutes, received another shot, waited for fifteen minutes, and then received the final shot.  Each shot was progressively stronger.  I always have to wait thirty minutes after the last injection to make sure I'm not going have a severe reaction.

 

The first two weeks weren't too bad.  I had some itching and a little swelling, but nothing life shattering.  The third week was worse, but I have to take the blame for some of the discomfort.  When the lady who called me about scheduling my first injection mentioned pre-medicating, I thought it was just for that visit.  I didn't realize I should take an anti-histamine before each visit.  I did it for the second visit for good measure, or so I thought.  I forgot to take something before the third visit, but I wasn't too worried.

 

These three injections hurt more than the first six, but I rationalized that's expected because the venom is stronger.  The woman giving me the shots seemed to have placed them too close to a muscle because I was bleeding more than usual at the injection sites.  I also ended up sitting in the waiting room with an ice pack on each arm due to the swelling, itching, and pain.  This is gross, but the ice packs had frozen blood on them when I returned them to the nurse.  No worries - she sterilized them after I left!

 

My arms were pretty uncomfortable that evening.  There were red, swollen areas on the back of both arms.  These sites were very warm, too.

 

When I woke up the next morning, my arms were still very warm, red, and swollen.  They were also itching like crazy!

These photos don't really show the swelling.  I could place my hand over the swollen area and it wouldn't be completely covered.  The skin was tight, too.

I was afraid I was having a slow, delayed reaction to the injections, so I went back to the doctor's office.  They checked and said it was a local reaction and was expected.  The woman looking at me said it was kind of bad, but expected for someone who is as allergic as I am to the venom.  She also said the placement of the injection likely got too close to the muscles in my arms and caused the venom to get into my muscle.  Sounds lovely, no?

I got to work and showed a couple of coworkers and they were somewhat horrified.  "Oh, wow!" and "Geez, that looks mad!" were some of the comments I got.  As the day progressed, I noticed the swelling was moving toward my elbow, almost like a wave.  The area didn't get larger, but it moved.  Once it was centered over my elbow, the pain was worse.  It was like the venom was in my joint.  Uncomfortable is an understatement.

I told the lady who handled the next injections about the reaction.  She was very careful to not get too close to muscles.  These injections weren't as bad, but there was some localized swelling and heat.  The swelling started getting better the next day, so that made me feel better.  The next six visits (one per week) include two injections.  After that, the visits will include one injection and will begin being spaced out by a couple of weeks and then three to four weeks.  After that, I'll begin getting monthly and then bimonthly injections.  The injections will continue as long as I'm at risk for being stung.  That could include many, many years.

The injections seem to be a little more painful as the strength of the venom increases, but they're still very bearable.  After the first week, I began standing for each injection.  I figured if the five and six year old children could stand for the shots, so could I.  Yes, I'm being competitive with babies.  Don't judge.  This is a huge deal for me since I used to nearly pass out when I got flu shots.

Plant Killer

I've never really had a green thumb.  I have killed boxwoods (yes, multiple), rose bushes, and even an aloe plant.  I eventually gave up trying to have house plants.  It was cruel to the plants.  I'm sure my paternal grandparents are looking down on me with disgust and shame.  They owned a plant nursery for many years.  They also owned a successful daylily business and had a yard that was full of daylilies and irises.  Both of my parents worked at the nursery and could grow most any plant.

 

I was determined to plant something and keep it alive for more than a few weeks.  I'm likely moving in a couple of months, so I didn't want to plant anything in the ground.  I've always enjoyed containers of plants and had many containers beckoning for plant life.  Memorial Day weekend turned out to be a good time to fill the planters.

 

I headed to Home Depot and purchased about $75 worth of plants and soil.  Once I unloaded the goodies from my car, I got to work in the courtyard.  I started by cleaning my planters and then finding some stones and things to use for drainage.  I had a broken flower pot that I broke into more pieces and used in the bottom of my containers.  This allows the soil to drain and keeps the roots from rotting.

 

I bought a few plants that enjoyed the shade because I wanted a planter near the backdoor and the area is fairly shady.  I wasn't really sure how to decide which plants would work together, so I just grabbed several that had the shade designation and hoped for the best.  I filled the planter with soil and added the plants and then finished with a heavy watering.

 

This photo was taken right after I finished.

I made sure to water the plants every few days.  I was shocked I kept them alive!  They even grew!

This photo was taken a week later.  Look at how much the plants filled in!

I need to get another photo.  The plants don't seem quite as full as the week after photo, but they've continued to get larger.  I'm pleased with myself.  I really don't enjoy watering the planters because I also feed the mosquitos while I'm outside.  Annabelle also feels it is her job to drink the water from the hose while I'm watering the plants.  She does whatever she can to get to the water.  I try to position the sprayer so both Anne and the plants get water.

I filled four other planters that day with sun-loving plants.  I'm not as proud of those.  I don't know why, though.  I think I may not like the flowers in them as much as the shade flowers.  They're still alive and doing well so I'm pleased.

I appreciate a nicely landscaped yard.  I plan to make my next yard a lovely plant filled oasis.  I cannot wait!

Office Lamps

A couple of years ago, I bought two lamps for my office from HomeGoods.  I liked the lamps and they served me well for nearly two years.  Recently, I noticed they were beginning to look a little sad.  By sad, I mean terrible.

 

The lamp bases are glass and it looks like the inside of the glass was painted with turquoise paint.  Cute, no?  Well, the air conditioning in the building where I work is turned off on the weekends.  This means my office can get a little warm.  The paint inside the lamps started peeling and falling off.

 

This is one lamp.  You can see where the paint was crackling and peeling.  This looked terrible.  On a side note, you can see the lamp matched the walls quite well.

 

 The lamps were really bothering me, so I searched online for some options.  The most appealing options were those lamps wrapped in jute twine.

 

 

I decided this was the way to go, so I bought a hot glue gun, glue sticks, and two rolls of twine from Amazon.  They arrived quickly but I was in no hurry to get started.  I'm not a crafty person, so this was a little outside of my skill set.  I did a little research online and decided the Memorial Day weekend would be when I tackled this project.  I went back to the office on Friday evening to retrieve the lamps.  I didn't want people to see me taking the lamps home on a Friday.  That's not usually a good thing.

I started by wiping down the glass to make sure there was no dust.

I then heated the glue gun and got started by wrapping the twine around the top of the lamp base.  This was a little tricky until I started wrapping down the side of the lamp.  Once I got started, it was pretty easy.  I would wrap a few times and then put a drop of glue to keep everything in place.

I continued with this for a while.  The thin part at the top of the base went quickly.  Once I got to the fatter part, it took longer.

I had to use more glue to ensure the twine didn't start "shimmying" up.  Once I got to the fattest part and then began going to a less fat area, things got a little harder.  I had to use even more glue and eventually had to turn the lamp on its side to keep everything straight and tight.

I finished about two hours after I started.  I think I would have liked having another roll of twine, but I decided I could accept it as-is.

Before and after:

I'm pleased with the final result.

Later that evening, I began working on the second lamp.  I used the same method for the second lamp.  For some reason, the fatter section was a little harder for this lamp.  I don't know if I didn't keep the twine tight enough or what the problem was, but the twine was sliding around a little.  I kept having to adjust the twine to keep it in place.

I was not sad to see the "chip" go.

I'm very pleased with the two lamps.

I know they'll look great on my desk!

I should also mention that I'm pretty sure I don't have fingerprints on my thumb and index finger on my left hand.  To ensure the twine was firmly in the glue, I used my fingers to press the twine into the glue.  I would occasionally have to peel the glue from my fingers:

Allergy Testing

Many people in the world are allergic to insect stings, including me.  I've always had a slightly stronger reaction to biting and stinging insects than most people, but never had one bad enough to warrant going to the doctor or hospital.  That all changed in June 2011.  I was stung by what I thought was a bee, but it was actually a yellow jacket.

Since then, I've carried EpiPens and tried to avoid being outside as much as possible.  I had to stop doing yard work and hire someone to do this for me.  EpiPens expire and I needed to get a new prescription for them.  I originally scheduled an appointment with my internal physician, but a coworker recommended I go to an allergist.  I researched this a little and decided this was probably the way to go.  I didn't realize you can get allergy shots to possibly "cure" you of your allergy.

I had my initial appointment with the allergist and he prescribed new EpiPens for me.  He also recommended I have allergy testing to confirm exactly what I'm allergic to.  I agreed and scheduled the allergy testing.  That took place on Monday, May 18.

I checked in and waited.  I was nervous, but not like I am for blood draws.  I should have been nervous.

The lady who was going to do the testing walked me from the lobby to the exam room.  She took my blood pressure and checked my pulse.  My blood pressure was high, but it was only because I was getting nervous about the upcoming needle sticks.  She explained what was going to happen and she asked me to sign some documents.

She left the room to get the syringes with the venom and we got started.

The first thing she did was the histamine test.  She injected some histamine under the skin on my right arm to see if it reacted.  Within a few minutes, it was swollen and itching.  She said that's what they want to see.  We could proceed with the other testing.  Yay me.  This part stung about like a shot.

The next step was to perform the scratch test.  This was to make sure I didn't have a severe reaction to any of the venoms.  If I didn't react, they would proceed to the next step.

For the scratch test, she used a marker to write the initials for the various venoms - HB-Honey Bee, YJ-Yellow Jacket, WFH-White Face Hornet, YH-Yellow Hornet, and W-Wasp.  The line on the left was the control.  They use a water control each time to have something to compare the venom spots to.

She then used a syringe and dropped the liquid on my arm (there was a needle but she didn't inject this - she just let it drip onto my skin).  She then used this little device to "scratch" the skin to get the venom liquid in my skin.

The scratch device looked something like this.

This is my left forearm just after the lady put the venom on my skin and scratched me.  The scratches hurt.  That's the one I figured wouldn't hurt that much, but it was more painful than the histamine injection on my right arm.

Fifteen minutes after the scratch test was started, the lady came back to check.  She confirmed there was no reaction, so we proceeded with the next step.  The next step involved her marking my left upper arm similarly to how she marked my left forearm.  She then injected each of the venoms just under the skin.  That was about as painful as a shot.  There were five venoms plus the water, so six injections total.

I waited for fifteen minutes and she came back to check on me.  No real reaction, so we repeat the last test with more potent venom.

After fifteen minutes, she checked.  No reaction, so we repeat this last step again, with more potent venom.

This time, the yellow jacket reacted a little, but not enough to not use that venom again.  Had I had a strong enough reaction, they would have stopped with that venom but continued with the other venoms.  She asked the doctor to check it and he said to keep going.

We did this again with even stronger venom.  These injections were getting old at this point.  The closer to my elbow she got, the more painful the injections were.

After fifteen minutes were up, she checked and determined the yellow jacket was the only real reaction.  There was a little reaction near the white face hornet venom, but the doctor decided that was from the yellow jacket venom reaction.

I was so glad this was over.  I was bleeding a little from many of the injection sites.  I also had marker on my left arm.  I looked like a mess.  I received twenty-five injections under the skin and six scratch text "scratches."  Those felt more invasive than the needles.

The doctor spoke with me about allergy shots.  He recommended I get immunotherapy to help reduce the reaction to any future stings.  They have to order my venom, so in two weeks, I will begin the weekly shots.  For the first three weeks, I'll get three different injections.  Each will be fifteen minutes apart and will use progressively higher venom dosages.  After that, I'll have one or two injections for six weeks (I can't remember if they said one or two).  After the first nine weeks, I'll go every other week for a while and then eventually go to monthly.  After five years, we'll retest.  If there is no reaction, I'll have allergy shots every two months after that.  I'm assuming it will be for the duration of my life or until I decide to stop.

I'm not excited about the prospect of getting shots, but I'm tired of being scared of going outside.  This is going to be an adventure!

Blood Draw

If you know me at all, you know I'm terrified of needles and absolutely hate having blood drawn more than anything in the world.  I don't know what it is, but it scares me.

I went for the first time by myself three and half years ago.  I haven't needed to have blood drawn since then.  I needed an physical, so I had to go have blood work a week prior to that appointment.  Of course I was dreading it in the days leading up to the lab appointment.

When I arrived, I was terrified, as usual.  I checked in and told them what I was there for.  I needed to see the physician's assistant for some shoulder pain, so they took me back for that first.  I took photos while I waited.

This is me about to throw up.

This is me trying to be optimistic, per my mother's request via text message.

This is me somewhat relieved I had a few more minutes to spend with my blood while getting my shoulder checked.

After my shoulder was checked, they sent me to the lab.  I told the lady who was going to work on me that I needed to lie down.  She took me to an exam room and I got ready.  My left arm is the best one to draw blood and of course the bed was up against the wall with no access to my left arm.  I offered to turn around on the bed/table.  The lady from the lab agreed that was the only way.

Imagine a thirtysomething year old female on this bed.  With her head where your legs go.  With her feet stuck up in the air.

It was as ridiculous as you might imagine.  The lady and I kept laughing at me, which I think helped take my mind off the blood draw.  The procedure was over in about twenty seconds and it didn't hurt.  I know it doesn't hurt.  It's all psychological.

I flipped around and started the recovery period.  It usually takes me about fifteen minutes to fully recover.  I was up and walking around in five.  That's a record for me!

I took a photo to share with family to show it was over and I was still alive.

I had my visit with the doctor and completely forgot to ask about my lab results.  We started talking about something else.  I'm sure all was ok, but I'm going back for a follow-up visit in a month and I'll ask about the lab work then.

Yay me!  I'm on my way to giving blood.  Soon.