Glu'd Dreamz

I found some joys, out back, too.. The reasons that I garden..

Something is terribly wrong. These should look like this:


They are from seeds planted the same day. They were in the same pots up to the transplant to these tubs two weeks ago. In two weeks, this one tub has flourished and yet the other has done practically nothing.

Both tubs are full of Miracle Grow Organic whatever potting soil. I can't think of the name, off the top of my head.

These are not the only problems that I've found, since I came home. This is the zucchini:


And the yellow squash isn't growing big, but has already produced fruit. wth? Look, the leaves are tiny and the fruit is ready to be picked:

Last Saturday, during my drive from Chesapeake to Richmond, I started this dizzy "aura" that was like a slow motion merry go round. I'm not sure how to describe it other than it was like being on a little kids round about ride, on a playground, where I had to brace myself so I wouldn't fall off.

I noticed that the dizzy episodes were worse when my sinus headaches raged.. so I decided, yesterday morning, to go to Urgent Care for antibiotics and stop trying to treat this infection the natural way. Traveling made it difficult to take the required amount of doses to help me, the way I usually a treat sinus infection.

Being post-gastric bypass, blood was immediately drawn when I mentioned being dizzy. I wasn't too worried because I knew my anemia was getting bad and had planned to visit my hematologist when I returned home, anyway.

(The major hint was my obsession with eating ice.)

I was immediately told to go to the closest Emergency Room and that they would call ahead to announce my arrival. I was told that I needed to be evaluated because my HgB was down to 6.4.

Last August, when I had my last surgery, my HgB had dropped to just above 8.0 and I was cross-typed for a blood transfusion, that I later didn't need to receive.

I have Alpha Thalassemia trait. Although iron supplementation does little to help this form of anemia, I am also iron supplement intolerant.

I headed to the ER after I stopped for breakfast, thinking that this transfusion, if needed, would be performed in the ER.

I was wrong.

After 7.5 hours being monitored, I was admitted and two units of blood were ordered from the local blood bank.

Its interesting how much blood they need to take out of you, after they determine that you have a shortage. *giggle*

The blood arrived around 8:30pm and I was testing Hemoglobin at 8.9 by 6am.

I'm cleared to drive home as soon as I get some rest.

The dizziness appears to be related to both the sinus infection and the extremely low oxygen containing/moving blood.

The dizziness has reduced significantly. It is mostly related to elevation changes or fast movements, now.

Now to endure the side-effects of major antibiotics..

Up next, for me: Probiotics.

I just finished this remarkable book, named in the title of this post, by Camille Fronk Olson.

Camille has always had a way of speaking "to" me. (I've also felt this personal way about President Monson, by the way.)

She touches on many of my hearts ponderings..

In response to the scripture, "let not thy left hand know what thy right hand knoweth," about giving service in secret, Camille so graciously blesses me with, "When our left hand knows what our right hand is doing, the two hands connect; when our two hands collide, we hear applause."

What a remarkable consideration..

She further enlightened me to a different thought of what "secret service" really means. It is not always prudent that the receiver not know of the giver. It is wiser that the giver not be known by everyone.

We do not give service in regard to what we shall receive, or we are giving for the wrong reasons.

At the same time, however, allowing one to be in service, to us, is sometimes the hardest part of the equation. We must allow others the benefit of receiving the blessings afforded, too. This means we must admit that we can't do it all, more in a fashion of we don't need to do it all.

Camille also reminded me of Nephi's declaration, "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23)

In one of the seminary graduation talks, the term "the ists religion's" was mentioned. My personal interactions, of conflicting views, within my family, belong to an entirely different group.. the "arians" have baffled me with their claim to knowledge that they simply are "saved by grace."

I have always felt that I had a bigger obligation for that Salvation.

I am deeply touched by the references, in this book, to Proverbs 31. I have also spent many hours of consideration concerning this favorite scripture of mine.

We all have our own interpretations of those things that touch us so prominently. It is refreshing to hear Camille's versions.

"She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar" (v. 14) became for me: "Put all the kids in the minivan; we're going for take-out."

I don't really think that the ecological footprint of our food is what this means, either.

Camille continues, "The snow that she does not fear in verse 21 could symbolically be sin, or trials, or the need to wait." She goes into detail about this waiting that we are so against, in our "right now, multi-tasking" lives.

I find encouragement in "she leads her family to Christ, who covers them in a way that she never could."

I am deeply moved with this wonderful book that teaches us how to find "That one Needful Thing."

"Girlie" and I arrived in Virginia just about 7pm on Saturday.

We stopped, in Emporia, for gas. I was not comfortable waiting to get gas, because I've often found myself lost in this last stretch of the travel into Chesapeake.

I'm usually okay until we get into the sixty-fours. I-64, 264, 464, 664.. and well... I find it all very confusing because no matter what direction you are driving, the road signs have the same names.. you can get to Hampton going both ways.. not that you want to get there going both ways, right?

There also are no Hess stations here. I almost don't know where to get gas, on my intelligent gas purchase state-0f-mind obsession with Hess.

BP was showing .15/gallon less for 87 octane "Regular" gasoline. How odd, I thought. I was willing to try it, at $3.85.9/gallon.

The first pump didn't have a readable screen. After figuring I'd cancel the process, with the audible "beeps," I moved to a different pump.

It took two attempts of swiping my card to get the pump to turn on. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. The trigger stopped working about that time, too. I tried the whole process two more times before I was simply mad and ready to go somewhere else. This station was very busy and there were people at every pump. I decided to not just drive away, but to go inside and make sure that my card had been cancelled, so the next person didn't have a free fill-up, on me.

I stood in line for a few minutes. The poor man in front of me needed a business receipt and something that had been done ahead of the process, cancelled his receipt in the computer register. In his frustration to try to explain to them that they had to give him a receipt, regardless of the circumstance, I said, "I can get out of your way, I just want to make sure my card was cancelled before I go."

This is where it got real interesting.

This lady tried to tell me that my card was declined. In my confused attempt to try to understand what she was saying, to me, she moved closer and told me that they only had 93 octane gas.

All those people, out at those pumps, were not getting any gas, either. There were no signs anywhere and no one was telling us anything.

No wonder they were advertising .15/gal cheaper than all the others.. THEY HAD NO GAS!

I'm not going to give these dingbats $4.19/gallon because they tricked me to get there!

As I walked outside, it was apparent that everyone was confused and unaware. I shared some disgusted thoughts, on my way to my van, and went across the street to the Texaco.

I paid $3.99/gallon for 87 octane "Regular" gasoline and went on my way, towards Chesapeake.

I was able to find cheaper gas, as I proceeded down Highway 58. I wish I had known.

We met up with my eldest daughter, at her work, and hung out until she was able to go home.. which ended up being well after 1am.

"Girlie" went home with her and I found myself cozy and ready for sleep around 2am.

About this time, this ladies voice started speaking, to me, through my air conditioner, very loud and very clear. Before I could really think about it, the music started. There was a car parked, just below my window. It was a convertible and the stereo, with heavy bass, started to blare into my window a/c unit. It took about five seconds for my a/c to start to buzz and yet it was all over as fast as it started, before I could even think about what to do about it.

After the music stopped, the voices started. Apparently its okay, here, to stand in a parking lot and yell, in conversation, and carry-on at all hours.

I found my television remote control and turned on some boring political talk show.. turned it up a little and let it bore me to sleep.

I woke up at 2pm, in a big blur. My head hurt and I sure wish I had enjoyed the night before, more, to endure that type of agony.

I administered a coca cola IV and checked up on twitter and gmail.

I managed to get up and get going..

I needed to find something to eat, before I headed over to my daughter's seminary graduation, in Suffolk. I headed out and before I could get anywhere, "girlie" called me needing her ear ring cleaner stuff. I thought she had said to bring it to her right then, so I headed back to my room to get it and headed over to her sister/father's house.

To make a long story short.. they weren't there. They were already at the Stake Center. They told me that the graduation was not at 7pm, but at 6pm, so I set out trying to follow my Google maps directions to get there.

At first, with my headache back, I was having trouble following my directions because I drove this one stretch of road for almost 5 minutes and the map directions only said .4 miles. Throwing Faith to the wind, I trudged on and my Google Map didn't altogether fail me.

I made it there by 5:50pm. I texted the girls that I was there and set out to figure out how to get dressed without wearing my jeans into the church. My biggest obstacle was the Stake Center is new and the parking lot is still unpaved. The "dirt" is light gray and would look like chalk on my dark brown skirt.

I managed to get my skirt on, over my jeans and then get back into my van and figured out how to remove my jeans, behind the driver's wheel. It was quite a scene and I'm so thankful that no one was really there to see any of this.

The reason no one was there to see me, was because the graduation was really not until 7pm!

Luckily, the girls were sitting next to a door, that I happened to walk by. I chose the correct hallway up to the chapel. I waited for them to finish the choir practice, to find out that they were not really "done" and that I'd need to sit and wait another 45 minutes.

Katie was the first speaker. What a wonderful talk she prepared. She amazes me and I cried. You knew I'd cry, though, before I said that, right? *sigh*

She shared, "The Tassel is worth the Hassle" with everyone and told everyone that she will be sitting, the first day, in college, in September, crying, because she's not back in seminary class, with her beloved teacher.. and that her friends will just say to others, "Oh, there is nothing wrong with Katie. She's just weird like that."

She is such my child and I am so proud of her.

Another boy gave a great talk and told us that Lehi and his family came here on a cruise ship. *smile* Oh to be witty like that.

I will be heading to visit old friends, in Richmond, tomorrow. I haven't seen these friends in a few years and I am looking forward to this.

I'm not sure what the next few days will hold, but I will be back in Chesapeake by Friday. After Katie's graduation, the girls and I will be heading to a hotel, with a pool, to have a girlie good time, after we find a yummy place to have dinner.

I'm still not sure if I'll make it to the beach or not. I'm afraid that I'll get lost if I try to head there by myself.

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I spotted this on the LowCountry Blogs Aggregator:

Dinnerware?? Setting?? Kitchen?? All those key words tugging on my apron strings! I had to pop over and see what the post was all about.

My excitement was only beginning, though..

The gardener, in me, was immediately charmed. Butterflies.. roses.. and did you see that plate is square? Have I shared my little obsession with square plates with yall? I think they are so fabulous!

What a beautiful table setting.. the colors.. OH the colors.. and did you see the place mats?? What a wonderful scene!!

But, that, in itself, is not why I decided to write this post.

I'm a so touched by the writer that is "Kim Morgan Moss." Her kitchen rules speak to my heart, at a time, when I, too, am reaching deep within me, searching..

Then I discovered another amazing connection..

"It is quite probable that every seafood shack or fine restaurant from the Maryland Coast headed South to the tip of Florida claims to make a GOOD crab cake or the BEST crab cake. I have been lead down the path of trusting a waiters recommendation only to be disappointed far too many times."

I could have written those words. The only thing I would have said differently, is that I've come from West to East, in the South, in my own personal quest to find a non-disappointing crab cake sans gag factor!

It is so true that everyone that has boasted their "perfect crab cake".. has left me eternally insatiable..

except for ONE..

There is a quaint little "sandwich shop," on the water, at Downtown Disney, in Orlando, Florida, of all places.. that spoiled me with a simple lunch that made my soul sing.

This perfect crab cake was accompanied by the best cole slaw that has ever tantalized my palette. Napa cabbage.. light vinaigrette.. celery seed.. beautiful lump crab meat.. crispy.. crunchy.. absolutely divine!

What a delight to find another person, who could relate with me, to this horrible yearning of perfection.. that is seldom found outside of my own kitchen.

Then she kicked it up a notch, with claims that she has found a recipe better than her own crab cakes.

I am a recent convert to Old Bay Seasoning. To learn that anyone would entertain the idea of a temporary retirement of my "new kitchen friend," is serious.

I simply must try this recipe.

I was leery of the first pimiento cheese that I was offered. It seemed too "southern" for my Cali blood. Quite frankly, I was scared. However, I will trust Kim, and I find a great need, now, to understand.

And Kim? If you ever need a partner in crime (with a seafood influence).. please call me.

My recent comments widget is often MIA, lately.

I'm really not sure what's going on with it. I may have to replace it.

With the Flock update, adding Digg to my People Sidebar was semi-automatic. It happened while I was doing something else.

Call me Queen of multi-tasking.

I was in the midst of adding a CopyScape link and Creative Commons License, to this blog, when I happened upon a great post, at Blog Herald, by Lorelle VanFossen, "Does Your Blog Have a Comment Policy?"

At the bottom, there was the handy Digg bookmarklet, or whatever its called. I was so impressed with the precise and explicit post that I clicked it, without hesitation.

The submission process was rather painless. I've only happened upon two other posts that were Digg-worthy, that weren't already submitted, before. I usually get hung up with the category, when multiples would be appropriate. This seemed rather straight-forward, though.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen..
My first successful Digg submission. I'm not the early, confused, bird on this one. I'm not the 8,000th person to find this worthy of Digg Juice, either.

Now I hope I just did it right.

By the way, Lorelle has a great blog about Blogging and WordPress. I found this post about "How NOT to comment on comments" very entertaining. I'll dig further into the related posts tomorrow.

I'll also research further into this need for a comment policy.. stay tuned!

Do you have a comment policy?

Is there a service, out there, that has a "fill in what's appropriate to you and publish" for comment policies, like there is for generating a Disclosure Policy?

Please share..

MyBlogLog sidebar widget did not pass its Finals to graduate, with us, to the new design template.

Or so it seems.

I noticed it was MIA, when I saw a Feedjit hit that usually brings with it, a smiling face of a great blog-friend.

Where are my visitors images??

So, I took a deep breath and stumbled through some help pages at MBL, after I gave up trying to find or search for "widget." I guess that was too simple of a search.

I finally found the widgets, under "My Account."

But where is the visitor's widget?

I tried to take a break and add the Email signature code, but it exceeds Google's 1000 character limit.

I don't want to post the feeds, from MyBlogLog. I want to see my visitors faces again!

*sigh* I guess its not in this section, after all.

UPDATE:
I'm such a dingbat, sometimes. I will blame this on a serious lack of sleep. I seem to fall asleep hard and then only stay asleep for a powernap of about an hour or an hour and a half. *sigh*

Here is where I found it:

See the purple "widgets" between "statistics" and "settings" to the right of the site?

This was less embarrassing when I was Tess. Now I'm "Heidi, The Blogger formerly known as Tess" because Yahoo automatically moved that name, from my Y!Mash Profile, when they acquired MyBlogLog. When I joined Y!Mash, I had recently dropped my non-de-plume, and only my Y!360 friends would have really known Tess, anyway. But it has grown on me.

In many ways, I am still and always will be Tess.

I already did Tweet some Flock Love Juice, so here I am to bring you my latest Fluice (Flock Juice??) or Fweet (Flock Tweet?). Isn't my Fweet cute? Why does that mess with me in a singular and plural way? :)

Where else can you follow a semi-deranged mom of teens who still loves an unemployed baseball player?? I miss you, Marcus!

I successfully upgraded to Flock 1.2.1! Yay Me!

This new release, brings Pownce and Digg features with it. See my little Diggman? Isn't he cute?
After the update, I pondered why I love Flock so much, as I clicked around the update page that auto-loaded.

I believe, now, that there is a part for me, as a Social Animal, Shutterbug, Media Junkie, News Hound, and a Blogger.

Flock feedz my RSS needz! Flock is so EZ! Flock keeps me "with a Z"!



Flock keeps me "IN" the loop. It makes my life easier. So, just DO IT.

Flock with me!

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Summerville Weather Forecast, SC (29484)

(convert to Celsius here!)

Leave it to June to usher in an immediate heat increase. I didn't do any work out there, today. I didn't even water, yet. Not good. But my splitting headache brought me back inside.

Summer usually makes me an indoor girl!

As of the moment of his posting, almost 4pm, it feels like 100F/37.8C!

Dead-Header Needed! Apply Within!

I can't seem to keep up with the Basil. I'm thrilled that the herbs are growing like wild flowers. But I don't want the herbs to "go to seed," so I'm constantly pinching and popping off flowers.

There is also a desperate poblano seedling buried in there, somewhere!

Here's a peek at some more "work" on my "to do" list:

I'm looking for a font suggestion for my side bar titles. I'm not real fond of them, right now.

I'd like something fancier, yet legible. I still need it to be browser friendly, though.

I'd be even more thrilled if someone would teach me how to insert word graphics, in place of the font.

I'd also like to learn what my alternate choices, for the code, for the dotted lines that are around the post titles, and in between the sidebar sections. I don't know, for sure, that I'd change them. I just would like to learn what choices I could have???

I would love to, someday, have a ding type graphic with a black swirled (calligraphy-type) line, to place under blog titles and between my sidebar sections.

Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments..

Thanks for reading!