ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz.... not!

          

WARNING:   the following posting is probably not for the weak of heart, plus it violates a few of the (remaining) Bottom Feeder’s rules:

A rule: Don’t talk about yourself or your medical condition; I am.

Another rule:  don’t publish “Selfies”; I am

Yet another:  don’t put ugly things in the blog; I did

Okay, with profuse apologies, and a claim of “I’ll never do this again” I will proceed and you may now click away if you wish..consider yourself forewarned!

So….

(Breaking Rule No. One) In this long journey with Pulmonary Hypertension, various physicians have said “you know, it might be a good idea to get a sleep study”, and I generally ignore that.  I may indeed have sleep Apnea, I do snore (ask MFO), but, as far as I know I never completely cease breathing unless this is the afterlife.  I’m sure I’m uninformed, but it just seems to be in the category of “Hey, we could do this, so what the heck!”  Plus, it is just another (perceived) reason to have another piece of gear on your face going to bed… Night, night, sleep well!

So after months of medical nagging, I finally agreed to have the sleep test, er, I mean Study which sounds better.  I even rescheduled a couple of times, but finally last night I reported to our Bean Center at 8:45 and was let in by the “night tech”, and led back to the Sleep Center.  Now my helpful friends conveniently posted the cartoon that led this posting off for me, and I thought:  “ha ha, that’s funny”.  Yeah, Right...read on.

Having had a tour of the renovated sleep center at another local medical facility, I was expecting similar conditions, or a room that looked like a suite at the Marriott.   Well, it turned out to be more like Motel 6

Spartan accommodations to say the least. And (maybe understandably) no TV and reliable internet.  Oh, just game 7 between the Bruins and Maple Leafs, what the heck.  Anyway, the techy guy says "well, let’s go get you hooked up".   Great! (visions of two or three EKG like sensors glued on).  Well, about 40 minutes later, the guy in the cartoon has nothing on me.  Mr. Tully, I am you!

(Breaking Rule No. Two)

Which also breaks Number Three!

Before I “turn in” I was admonished to “be very careful” if I would like to roll over.  I don’t think I can.  So me and my harness climb carefully into bed, which looked like a instrumentation hook up for a GVT.

“Sleep” did not come until well after midnight, and awake about 3:35, about 45 minutes before the “wake up” call came.  Thank God I didn’t have to go to the potty during the night.  They want you out of there by 5:30 and it is a good 35 – 40 minutes to reverse the instrumentation process, and because I was the “second patient”, MFO was to arrive at 6:00

They need about 3 – 4 days to peruse the data, and come up with some conclusion (and most likely a sales brochure for a CPAP device).  What a (pun intended) nightmare.  It was awful.  Maybe valuable info for somebody half my age, but a 76-year-old codger?  As far as I know, that completes all the diagnostics anybody can think of.  I go back up to Hopkins next week for a follow up.

I was going to rant a bit about selfies, but that can wait for another time.   Thanks for listening if you’re still here, it helps.    And tonight cocktail hour will not be obviated by a 24-hour ban of alcohol.

DFD

One of these days....

I’m sure this has happened to you.  You’re driving from somewhere to home, and you pass a restaurant and say: “we gotta stop there sometime!”, and you just keep driving.  Well upon returning from Johns Hopkins yesterday we came upon one such place that has always haunted us:

Situated just before the bridge (southbound) over the South River to Edgewater. Have heard some fairly good reviews on FB from some reliable sources, so by golly we stopped!  I had my first followup since Hopkins, and by the time we finished, it was a bit past lunch time, but after sitting in waiting rooms, getting some blood drawn we figured, “what the hell, this time we DO stop” and we did.  As a quick aside, I have to admit the only good thing about my medical adventures is that I qualify for a blue hang tag, and get to park close so my walking is limited.  And i also hasten to add we do not abuse it.  

So we hung the tag, on the MOMSTER, and went inside.  It was about maybe 1:30 and the place was in between the noon and evening rush.  That is really a nice time to be at a restaurant.  I used to feel funny, but now it is very pleasant.  Often you see the staff have their kids there, relaxing and maybe having a meal together, and it’s fun.  No hustling, pushing tables, “are you done with that?”. Very calming which at this point was useful.

The interior is pleasant and open overlooking the river.  They have some very nice fishes on the center divider which MAY be a buffet, but maybe not.  White tablecloths are always proper.  The menu offered a good selection of stuff both sea and land. Including those Naan pizzas.

 I got a richly deserved glass of chardonnay (Canyon Road, as it turned out, but who cares at this point), and then began my search through the menu selections trying to guess what might be a lower sodium choice (passing up the four cheese bacon flatbread)  Sigh.  Finally decided the crab cake had a pretty good chance as it was sided by wild rice and grilled beans.  MFO selected a “Caprese Salad”.

Meanwhile we enjoyed the nice view of the marina and the boats there.  All of a sudden we noticed a fog bank advancing (maybe on little cat feet)

It crept up the river (on its feet) and even tried to invade the land

Must have been pretty rare as all the staff rushed to the windows with their phones.  Like we always say, there’s always something going on on the water… About this time, the food came out, my cake of crab and its friends.

As you can see, it was very nice lump crab meat, however I didn’t think it had an over-abundance of flavor.  But hey, I wasn’t canned corn and food like material from Hopkins and I rather enjoyed it.  Amazingly, the beans were good, I guess the Feeder will have to learn to love vegetables.  BUT, I hasten to add, if you ever find me extolling the virtues of Spouts, call the home, I’m off my rocker! MFO’s salad did contain the necessary ingredients to be called Caprese, but not quite in the guise expected.

Service remained attentive but not intrusive, maybe evidence of the lull.  Was kind of fun to see the server and barkeeps kids running around, pretty well behaved.  Family stuff. 

I think the venue is worth a visit, prices are not punishing, although two 6oz. crab cakes ask $40, for dinner, and would not be worth it to me.  Oh, and I would ask for the wine list, not just a “glass of…..” not real smart.  But as I enter the world of dietary restrictions, I have to get used to maybe not the Béarnaise sauce.  Maybe I can splurge once in a while. 

A learning process.

The project:

No, the Lunar lander did not get confused and wind up in the Feeder’s living room!   For my Christmas, the family combined resources and with a little personal help, I have my long wished for weather station!  It is finally assembled but not yet powered.  That should happen in a couple more days.  It is a Davis Vantage Pro 2, and provides more data than you can imagine.   Heat index, relative humidity, rain data, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction and on and on.  Once it is sending data, the console will be activated to receive same.   For another “few” quid I can get software to have it also talk to the computer.  I’ve done a little reading, and I may be able to become a station on the Weather Underground!  Have found people that are willing to install it on the roof of the digs. 

My home visiting nurse (another story for another time) after I told her what it is, she said, “why would you need that?  You can just look outside and tell if it is raining”.  Some people just don’t get it..

Medical corner

Many people have been so kind to think of me, and wish for the best, which is much encouraging and appreciated.  I think I am doing better, can do more around the house but am still wed to the oxygen source(s).  the pulmonologist is working on the meds and dosages, and hopes for more improvements as time goes by.  I am constantly reminded that there are people with far more serious stuff than I have at present.  Certainly is life altering, but one can adjust..apparently will never “be better”, but can live a relatively enjoyable existence.   Just not much sodium… arrggghhhhh!

And despite trailing hoses and puffing oxygen concentrators, I will endeavor to

DFD

Connecting

Hello there, remember me??  it’s been a long (strange) two weeks since we’ve gotten together.   Not that I’ve been sitting around munching bon bon’s and vintage wine (not a good pairing, by the way unless the vintage wine is port and….. but I digress).  Far from it…but you deserve a quick update for heaven’s sake

A week ago today was the 51^st annual U.S. Oyster Festival in St. Mary’s County and the 38^th annual National Oyster Cookoff.  Being the Rotary coordinator of that Cook Off, it is always a busy time leading up to the event.  That kind of kept me busy with LMI’s and then helping out on the day of the cook off itself.   It actually went very well this year, and the grand champion winning dish was a Miso Mayo Oyster Gratin prepared and presented by chef Hidemi Walsh

Of course all nine recipes were outstanding and can be found in our cookbook. 

On the “shucking” side, Honor Allen, last year’s winner repeated and will be once again heading for Galway, Ireland to compete in the International Oyster Opening Championships next September.  His shucking plus penalty point time was the lowest recorded in recent history for our festival.

Above Photos courtesy of Reid Silverman

He is an engaging character and makes heavy use of Facebook, so if you would like to follow him, do so.  He did a great job while there this year. 

We also benefited from a new emcee, the gentleman who is the Director of Seafood Marketing for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, who prepared a press release for us, that is a great overview of the festival. You can check it out here

*****

So that was one draw on my time and with apologies, another was we now have a new house pet we are dealing with.

It sits in the corner and hums…. No that’s giving it credit, much louder than that, like a small generator, it somehow sucks oxygen out of the air, and shoves it into that green (50 foot) tube off to the left, which is connected to (sorry…..) my nose.  24/7. It was prescribed to alleviate my shortness of breath issues.  Helps some.  Upon leaving the digs, I am one of those people you see with that bottle slung over the shoulder in a bag.   Yippee..   I’ll try not to dwell on that, we all have our little tribulations to deal with…  “Hi’, I’m Brittney, and I’ll be staring at you tonight”  

Okay, we have to get home from our trip.   Remember that?

The next morning after our lovely dinner at Kellogg Center we had to face reality and head toward our coast.  Our goal was Morgantown, West (by God) Virginia.  So we started out toward

Eventually leaving Michigan and into  

with it's (infamous)

Those glowering skies did give us a little shower at a rest area

But it eventually cleared and we passed interesting stuff...

And the shrine to our Holy Sport

And eventually found WBGVA

I don’t know what it is about that state, whether laws are more lenient or what, but it seems (to me) that very soon after you see the former sign, you always see one of these

But finally we got to the home of the mountaineers (who just put on a miserable display of football).

Based on a recommendation of a good friend who was familiar with the place, we secured a dinner reservation, but it will take another post to do that.   This is getting long enough.

MFO is leaving tomorrow for a conference on protecting collections from water rise.

Not sure if she’ll have to be

DFD

Here and Gone

Company:  “Glad to see them come, glad to see them go”; “house guests are like fish, after three days they get old”…. We’ve all heard them.  Well FOJTE and wife left last Friday, and believe me, none of those applied.  We had a wonderful time with them from start to finish.  Not getting maudlin here and I know many readers share the experience, but it leaves a big hole when they leave.  Makes the distance between Maryland and STL seem long.  Nothing beats being with family.

While here, we had a great time.  We participated in a special wine tasting, got a private tour of a local flower farm, and with clever planning on our part, we never ate “in” once, except on the final evening when FOJTE manned the grill and cooked up a wonderful stuffed pork loin for dinner.  And, poor thing, he had to struggle with Kingsford charcoal and a common Weber Grill when he is used to the Big Green Egg and genuine hardwood charcoal at home.  But with his culinary skills he pulled off a great dinner.

During their stay, we hit all the important local (independent) restaurants (In chronological order):  Elements; The Ruddy Duck Seafood House (St. George Island); The Dry Dock; and The Front Porch. All were very good, but of course (in this case) the food was only a supporting actor to the company, with the food just enhancing the experience.  Good times.  I suppose the tug of family (together with crumbling body parts) will ultimately drive us from the digs to St. Louis.

And while we’re on the subject of restaurants (we never stray far), there was an interesting article in an older (April! – with “new” eyes, I can see comfortably again!) issue of Bon Appétit, on (gasp) a restaurant chain.  It was penned by their deputy editor Andrew Knowlton who used to go by the moniker of “The Foodist”.  Anyway, it concerned the Hillstone Restaurant Group, which owns forty-eight restaurants under 15 names in 15 states.  In the introduction he does admit that “In my world, there’s no more pejorative word to describe a restaurant than chain”.  We’ve kind of kicked around what exactly constitutes a “chain” and won’t rehash it here.  This group kind of is in that gray area, between what most people think of as chains (Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and Quick service McDonald types) and one off independents (Elements, Dry Dock, etc.).   Anyway, he says that Hillstone properties are some of his favorite places to eat in the country.  They range from (2) Hillstone’s in NYC (Hillstone); (3) Houston’s in Atlanta; Rutherford Grill in Rutherford, California; (3) R&D Kitchen in other California locations: Santa Monica, Yountville, Newport Beach; to name a few.  He includes description of meals in some of those places.  What raises them above other venues is the quality of the food, and service touches like each server only has three tables (all venues have numbers of tables divisible by three);  each table is screwed to the floor (no rocking); and a Martini glass that was replaced with a cool one half way through.  Stuff like that.  I peeked at a few of the dinner menus of places above and while they are not identical, they do have many dishes in common. Apparently Spinach and Artichoke dip are common throughout.  Chicken Waldorf salad, Hawaiian Rib Eye steak are also favorites.  Every Hillstone “I had learned, is mind bogglingly consistent, because you know what every great chef strives for, more than a creation of a ground breaking dish or Michelin stars?  Consistency”. 

Anyway, there are photos of the food which of course looks great.  When travelling you might keep your eye out.  Interesting article. 

And while not exactly related (hopefully) a couple of observations on….. Doctor’s Offices!  As we advance  in age, and increase in frailty we tend to spend more time there.  Generally not a place you want to go to, more often than not you’re there because you have to be.  So, here’s situation one:  what do you do when you come across an acquaintance?  Not necessarily a good friend who probably knows your issues anyway, but say somebody you usually see at some social function all glammed up, and here you are sitting in an oncology, cardiac, or endoscopy waiting room and there they are…what do you say?   Hi!... a) what are you doing here?  Bad, bad; b) how are you?  well, you wouldn’t be in the damn doctor’s office if you were fine; c) nice to see you?  No, it’s not, you’re both are very awkward; d) think we’ll get rain?  Stupid, but safe.  Tough situation.  Better to avert eyes and hope no contact.

And that carries over to the staff.   After you spend your twenty to thirty minutes reading years old People Magazines with some inane TV show blaring the nurse finally comes to get you. This procedure varies also.   Some open the door and shout “MOODY”, some use both names (I always get “William” and people turn and stare).  Rarely, they use first names, which I think is nice, or at least better.   And once headed toward the inner sanctum what’s the first question they ask?  How are you?   See b) above.   And lastly when you’re in the exam room their last words are inevitably “Doctor will be right in”.  Next time you hear this, start your stop watch.  If “right in” turns out to be less than 15 minutes, I’ll buy you a drink.  Next time I see you outside of a medical facility.

Meanwhile, enjoy the “heat dome”.   And you may have to adjust how you

DFD

Richard the Third..

To paraphrase Dick, this is the summer of (at least my) discontent.  Although the cataract surgery is over and I’ve completed my visits to the doc (for three months) with glowing results I still find I have some issues going back and forth between close and far vision which results in stability issues.  So, I have been limiting my close up work, such as writing a blog.   And, hopefully this will be the last time I will indulge in self pity.  So, a few brief food restaurant snippets..

Kevin’s Corner Kafe (sic) seems to be headed for the old “Willow’s” spot.  I wish him luck.  That place seems to be hard to maintain a business since Mr. Nucci closed it.  Traffic pattern is pitiful.

Leonardtown:  I STILL have no clue who is going into the corner spot on the other end of the block from the “old Café” who will morph into La Rive Breton soon.  Word there is that wending their way through the liquor control board has delayed opening, and maybe the 14^th of this month.  We’ll see.  I have run into a couple of the servers from before, and they say they will have their jobs, or at least were promised.  Hope so.

Speaking of Leonardtown, MFO and I were over there on Saturday for haircuts, and since our appointment was relatively early (for us), we decided to have breakfast before returning home.  And, eschewing the golden arches near the hair cuttery, we ventured up in town to “Ye Olde Towne Café” up in town.  Options for a “real” breakfast are few over there.  Anyway, we went in and were seated at one of the tables.   There were several other folks there, a lot of families.  The Café features a buffet on weekends, but as is my wont, I avoid buffets if at all possible.  While they may offer a bigger variety, they sometimes offer things that have sat there a while, plus I have sort of an aversion to paying them money to let me get my own food.  So, we ordered off the menu, and I chose whatever they call their standard breakfast, two eggs, choice of bacon, sausage, and maybe ham, home or hash browns, and mercifully they asked if we wanted toast.  I always feel bad when it comes and I never eat it.  I selected two eggs over easy, bacon, and hash browns.  Although I heard another server deliver the speech “Hi I’m…” ours did not, she just stuck to business. 

            The buffet was doing good business with one table making at least three trips..  Our food came soon enough, and was what you might expect.  The bacon was less done that I would prefer, but I didn’t ask for “crispy” which I might have.  Hash browns were from a bag, some strands cooked more than others.  Eggs were okay except there was a black “thing” in the middle of one of my eggs.  I suspect it was from the griddle; at least it didn’t have legs.  I placed is prominently on the edge of the plate, just didn’t want to send it back.  At least the yolks were runny still.  MFO’s eggs same sans black speck, and her turkey (link) sausage was, according to her, quite spicy.

            While I would not yet make them a candidate for “just right” status, they might be headed there.  Décor and atmosphere, if you can call it that, has no character.

Still staying in a “Most Convenient Place” (LT), the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise has opened.  I would suspect that might hit the BTB coffee shop (old Brewing Grounds) a bit.  Still no place over there to sit and gab over coffee, at least conveniently. 

And almost lastly, on one of our trips up the road to Charlotte Hall for the eye doc, I spotted this place in the little strip mall just before Golden Beach road.

One wonders the concept.  Be interesting to see what it becomes.  At least the “now hiring” sign has replaced the most popular sign in the County:  “Coming Soon”.

And Little Caesar’s near us, sports the third most:  “Now Open”.  Eee hah.

Oh, another visit to Cow and Fish (I seem to have a strange fascination with the place), resulted in reinforcing “Good Food/Uneven Service” opinion.   That seems to be a common comment among my foodie friends.

Although I have some feelers out, i do not know what's going in next to the Cracker Barrel on the corner of 235 and Shady Mile Road.  Looks like something with a drive through capability.  Maybe they's put up the favorite County Sign soon and we'll know. 

Okay enough.

DFD

My Book

There is a book you might remember called “How Starbuck’s Saved My Life” which I started to read, and quickly got bogged down and never finished it.  My version would read “How UEFA Helped me get through”, a less intense version.  As most people are probably (painfully) aware I finished my last cataract surgery last Monday.  Okay, Jackson, I can see clearly now....

As MFO (and several of my good friends) would (be more than happy to) tell you, I don’t handle these situations well.  I am definitely NOT a “glass half full” guy, I have rather more of a “glass is smashed” outlook.  I think about this a lot.  Why can’t I be an everything will be fine, no worries, and just be happy person.  I’m not. I can’t help it, I worry and fret.  The only rationalization I can think of is that my years of training as an engineer have always revolved around figuring out (say with an aircraft design) what are the failure chances, and where are the weak spots.  A mind set of what can go wrong and if it does, how do we fix it?  Hence that translates into worrying about somebody taking something out of my eyeball.   I did take a lot of comfort from the many people who responded on facebook with good wishes.

So I had my first surgery on the port side eye a couple of weeks ago and of course (half full people) everything went fine.  Spent a lot of time looking at

Once in the operating room, the drugs do their thing, and you wake up with a patch.  I'll spare you an image of that! Then, when home just keep putting in drops (and drops, and drops, and drops, and....0, no lifting, which led to some dead time (bad choice of words) on the couch.  As it turned out the whole week was filled with almost continuous coverage of Soccer games between European teams vying for the: 2016 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016, is the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by UEFA (borrowed from Wiki).

Now I never have been much of a Soccer fan, but by the end of the week, I got kind of hooked.  I have a much better understanding of the game (except for the “off sides” rule despite help from my referee BIL).  At first glance it reminds you of the youth version, kick the ball go get the ball, kick it again, hope for the best.   But after you watch for a while you start to see some form and the talent involved.  A kick from one side of the field to the other that lands neatly at the feet of a team mate who brings it effortlessly to a stop.  Try that at home!  The announcers began to talk about passes that should go to either the right foot or the left foot, how they lead a sprinting team mate who picks it up on the dead run.   Pretty neat stuff.  And I even learned the term “set piece” which is a play resulting from a corner kick.  And then we got treated to see an Iceland “side” that toppled some of the most talented teams (England for instance).  And you gotta love those fans..

And before we leave, after watching those teams play it sure was a letdown to see Argentina carve up the USA…USA… USA! team who couldn’t even manage a shot on goal. Argentina has Messi, who is considered one of the best players in the world (besides Renaldo).  I hope you got to see Messi’s free kick during the (USA) game, and then the humiliation of missing the goal entirely in the game against Chile.. and his “retirement” from international play.  So did Brett Farve.

So the EUFA helped me gain a new appreciated for “Futbol” through some (I suppose) self inflicted hard times, and now things are clearing up in the eyeballs.  Despite a better understanding of the game,  I will however, never understand the propensity of players when barely touched to fall to the ground, writhing in pain, and when it doesn't engender some colored card on an opponent, they either get up for the free kick or trot away.  which means we can apply more attention to

FOOD

Keeping up with this place is difficult to do.  Just today one of the members of the “just right” team sent me this picture of a sign now displayed in the “Jerk” chicken place (where I never saw a single customer) in San Souci, next to China Harbor II

I would think there would be a larger market for Bay Dogz than the Jerk stuff..BEV, I’ll just bet you can get one with Old Bay.  We’ll see.

And I happened to be over in Leonardtown today with MFO who had to pick up some cleaning so I looked into Le Rive Breton (old Café Des Artistes)  it isn’t quite ready for customers

Oh, which reminds me that I talked to what became one of my favorite serves in the Café, and she said her job is still waiting for her.  So i can't wait to

DFD