You Swine!

I just read that 21,000 college students are sick with swine flu! Well, our family definitely contributed to the statistics.

We were visiting our daughter two weekends ago. She had gotten up really early to attend some fraternity events. It was the boys' Pledge Day. She met up with us at lunch and just kept telling us how tired she was. We all went our separate ways and we met up with her again at a fraternity tailgate just before the game. She was having fun and seemed great.

My husband and I had amazing seats on the upper deck. Unfortunately, we had to walk up about ten sets of ramps. By the time we got to the top, I was huffing and puffing. We found our seats and within minutes we were smack dab in the middle of A Bug's Life. Huge ones were dive bombing everyone. Medium ones were flying down my shirt. Crickets were flinging themselves at people. Tiny, buzzing ones flew in my ears. We had a screamer a few rows behind us, as the bugs were pelting her. Definitely annoying and yet highly entertaining. By the 3rd quarter of the game, I told my husband that if one more bug touched my body anywhere, I was done. I got up to start the treck down the ramps after some huge bug landed on my head.

We were at the bottom of the ramps, when I heard my cell phone ring. It was my our daugter, telling me through tears that she felt horrible. (She had texted me just before halftime to tell me she and her friends were leaving. She commented that it hurt to stand so long. I texted back, Oh, good grief! I was thinking what a lightweight she was.) She asked me to come to her house as soon as I could. She said that her legs hurt really bad and she had a terrible headache. I told her it sounded like the flu and to take some Motrin, get a cool drink, put a cool cloth on her head and get in bed. When the game was over and our friends met up with us, we walked to the car and they dropped me off. I walked in to find her laying on top of her comforter, not having done anything I had suggested. She said she just couldn't move. There were no clinics open that night so we had to wait until the next morning. We took her to the doctor who immediately said she had H1N1 (swine flu). They swabbed her throat and said that a study was being done and they would have the results in a week. No Tamiflu was given. He wrote a prescription for Naproxin (for the aches and fever) and for Musinex D.

I have since learned that the swab tests for influenza a and influenza b. If you test positive for influenza a, you have the swine flu. If you test positive for influenza b, you have the flu. The nurse called with results this past Saturday, and she did indeed test positive for influenza a.

So how was it? The initial aches and fever made her feel pretty bad. This child has never had any flu before. After the Motrin kicked in the first night, she actually didn't feel quite as bad. All in all, it was much less symptomatic and shorter lived than the flu. It hit her like a ton of bricks on Saturday and she was feeling pretty good by Tuesday, and had been fever free for a day and a half.

Thank you, God, for the Special People in our Lives!

Friday evening, I received a call that someone very dear to me was in the hospital and not doing well, and was not expected to make it through the night. We went to the hopsital and sat with the family. She was my next door neighbor for my first seven years and the "other mother" of my childhood. I cannot even begin to express how terribly sad I am for all of us that she has passed away. One by one, I am losing my beloved friends of that generation. My mentors. The godly women that I have known my whole life, since I was little, and who have loved me, taught me, and thought of me throughout my life. Oh, the countless memories!

Saturday afternoon, our daughter drove home to attend a party. She got picked up at 5:30 P.M. and had been gone about ten minutes when we walked out the door and drove two and a half hours to College Station to attend the Ring Dunk of a very special young man and his roommate. We literally snuck up there (to surprise him) because we wouldn't miss it for the world. The boys "dunk" their senior rings in a pitcher of beer (4 beers) and race to see who can get the ring between their teeth first.

The winner took 36 seconds and his roommate took 38 seconds. Success! Some burping but no vomiting! The actual Ring Dunk was followed by the father of this young man, his uncle and his brother-in-law (to be) "dunking" their rings, but in only two beers each. The two Aggie dads creamed the Sooner! So, like father like son...they were both the winners of their respective dunks. LOTS of LOUD burping! There were about one hundred people attending this Ring Dunk party and we were thrilled to be part of this great tradition! We drove home and walked in the door literally one minute after our daughter came home.

As I am going to sleep, I am reflecting upon the fact that I am now becoming that woman in my younger friends lives. They will watch me grow old. I want to make every second count. I want to create memory after memory.

A Stye in My Eye

I feel like a cyclops... a one-eyed giant (in Greek mythology). I look like I lost a battle. I have a stye. In case you've never had one, a stye is basically a pimple on your eyelid caused by staph. S-t-a-p-h! Who knew that we all have staph living on our eyelids all the time? Well this nasty little pimple is now huge and purplish - red and is causing my cheek to swell. Yes, it hurts.

How do you cure a stye? A friend told me that her father was a doctor and he always told her to rub her 14 k gold ring across it. She said she did and the styes always went away. I tried it. It's still there. Someone else, who is a physician, told me to heat a sterling silver knife and hold it on the stye. (What is it with metals??) I tried it. It's still there. I read somewhere to put triple antibiotic ointment on it. I tried it. It's still there; and not only that, it seems larger than life!

I may not know how to get rid of it but I found out what caused it! I went to the door today when someone from our insurance company stopped by. I apologized for looking the way I did and explained that I had a stye. She laughed and said, "Oh, you know the old wive's tale... you must've watched a dog pee." Well, yes I have and it must have been the beagle peeing on my oriental rug that caused this horrible affliction in my eye!!

** A side note....I went to the doctor today. It is a stye and a staph infection abcess! So, that's why it hurts!! Bottom line: Don't ignore a stye (or watch a dog pee)!!

*** Update....I went to my opthamologist today and I have a chalazion. A chalazion is a bump in the eyelid caused by a blockage of a tiny oil gland. My doctor said I will have to work hard to avoid surgery. I have to use a Q-tip a rub an ointment on the eyelid at night, after a warm compress. In the morning, I have to use a scrub on the eyelid. She told me it could take as long as three months or so to go away and that if it hasn't in three months, I will need surgery. Why do I NOT want surgery? Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmX2w6EOZ0M

Ring Tum Ditty

Southern comfort food from the recipe box of a southern cook. Just the name intrigues me. I had never heard of it and when I researched it, I found many recipes call for it to be put in a baked potato instead of over a piece of toast.

RING TUM DITTY

1/2 bottle ale, beer or porter
3/4 - 1 lb. sharp cheese, cut up or grated
1 can tomato soup
2 beaten eggs
1 large chopped onion
Mustard, salt, cayenne, tobasco, Worcestershire - to taste

Bring the ale or beer to a boil; add cheese, stirring as it melts. At the first sign of stringiness, add the soup. Then add the onion and the beaten eggs. Now add the seasonings. (Some like it hot....some, not so.) When onions are cooked, serve over hot toast.

What To Do When Your Husband Complains That You Don't Cook Very Often

My mother and grandmother were both fabulous, southern cooks. Either one of them could've been the Paula Deen of their day. Unfortunately, I did not inherit their talent. I was moving things around in my pantry this evening and accidentally knocked my grandmother's recipe box on the ground. The recipe cards scattered everywhere. I began picking them up, one by one, to place back in the box. Two of them happened to catch my eye. Are you ready? Brussell Sprout, Tongue and Cheese Sauce Casserole and Prune Whip. I can assure you I have tasted neither and I'm not exactly sure why she took the time to even copy them onto recipe cards. I am so fascinated that someone would actually make either of these recipes, much less serve them to guests, that I am sharing them with you, as written. It dawned on me that if my husband ever complains again about my lack of cooking, I do believe I will whip both of these up and serve them at the same meal. I assure you he will NEVER complain again!! (If you ever make one of them, please let me know what you think!)

BRUSSELL SPROUT, TONGUE and CHEESE SAUCE CASSEROLE
2 packages frozen brussell sprouts
3 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated sharp cheese
1 cup diced, cooked tongue
Dry mustard for cheese sauce

Cook the brussell sprouts until barely tender. Drain. Sprinkle over the tongue, already in a shallow casserole dish. Make white sauce. (I am assuming that you use the flour, butter and milk to make the white sauce.) Put in grated cheese. Pour over tongue and brussell sprout mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly hot, about 20 minutes. (I might wait and tell him what's in it AFTER he eats it!)


PRUNE WHIP
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cooked, pitted prunes
1 Tbsp. prune juice
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon rind, grated
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Place egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in large bowl and beat for 2 minutes, or until the eggs are very foamy. Continue beating and add 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time; beat for 4 minutes ot until egg whites are stiff and glossy. Place the prunes in a small bowl and mix for 2 - 3 minutes until prunes are well-mashed. Add fruit juices, rind and nuts; mix for 1 minute. Add the prune mixture slowly into the egg whites, and mix for 1 minute. Pour into a lightly buttered 1 qt. casserole. Place in pan of hot water and bake for 45 minutes. Serve with whipped cream. (Like THAT will help!)