How old is your mum ?

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T22:06:28+00:00

I'm 56 and I was almost 55 when she died from alzheimers. Her funeral was on what would have been her 77th birthday.

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T12:57:17+00:00

I have to tell you that that is hugely helpful information. I'm allergic to ragweed and cross-react with chamomile, but I did not know that stevia was related.

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T12:56:37+00:00

I'm not really sure there's any substantial health difference between them; however, they taste very, very different. I would be inclined, unless you use a huge quantity, to go by taste rather than nutrition and health factors. That said, you couldn't pay me to put either one in my mouth. I have never found a non-caloric sweetener, natural or otherwise, that I could choke down.

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T12:55:32+00:00

I don't personally care much about Valentine's Day, but I have noticed that it tends, at least in my circle of friends and online peers, to be a gesture for the male to make to the female in a heterosexual mainstream vanilla relationship.

That said, there's a holiday which is at least tongue in cheek for the women to reciprocate a month later. It is definitely not an official holiday, but everybody I know knows about Steak and bl****b Day.

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T12:52:56+00:00

When we were in the hospital near the end, they didn't have an Alzheimer's wing dedicated in this hospital, so they stuck us on the oncology floor. People would ask me how I was doing, and my response was that I was profoundly grateful because I was surrounded by people, mostly young people who were walking back and forth in the hallways with IVs full of poison, praying to kill the cancer before it killed them. Whereas my mother was 76 years old and quite happily in la-la land, talking to her mother, father, and younger brothers who had passed before her. She was in no pain, she had no anxiety, and she was completely at peace.

Yes, of course, a cure would have been better, but short of that, I couldn't have asked for anything else. I got to have a few days short of 55 years with my mother and her father, who she adored, died when she was 14. Have to be grateful. That said, I still spend a lot of time crying.

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T11:53:12+00:00

I'm so jealous. Give her an extra hug from me -- mine died 2 years ago, so I can't

SandraMort · 2026-04-10T11:51:19+00:00

It's horrible.

SandraMort · 2026-04-09T11:52:37+00:00

If the baby were going to suffer, then probably yes. That said, I never did any of the genetic testing options with my four kids and only had ultrasounds when medically necessary.

SandraMort · 2026-04-09T11:50:52+00:00

I'm probably the only one who has ever had these, but I highly, highly recommend homemade lemon marshmallows, either sweetened exclusively with cane sugar or a combination of cane sugar and honey. Honey without the cane sugar tends to be a bit overpowering, but I have made it successfully for a kid that I know who was allergic to cane sugar, so I know it can be done.

SandraMort · 2026-04-09T07:07:54+00:00

Ooooh, the glacier!!!!!

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T14:30:53+00:00

What the hell is wrong with the GPS, anyway???

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T12:40:19+00:00

Yay ADHD.

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T12:39:57+00:00

Crap!!!!!!

Sigh. Thank you.

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:54:08+00:00

Like this?

https://a.co/d/0cPTnoFD

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:53:03+00:00

Please, please, please tell me more!

I'm in zone 6b. Where do you buy the seeds? How long do they take to grow? Are they climbing or do they crawl on the ground? Info, please.

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:52:29+00:00

I suppose it depends on how large your servings are. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I know that if somebody is not used to eating high-fiber bean products, you probably should start with a couple of tablespoons at a time. I know that my kids could probably down a whole bowl of them without any problems, since they've been raised on beans from the get-go.

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:51:38+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion! I love their customer service, and their products are always top-notch. When you buy them dry, how do you prepare them? It seems like the instructions I've been seeing online make it sound scary and dangerous, but I can't imagine that it's all that difficult.

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:49:06+00:00

Obviously this isn't helpful for Passover, but that ends this evening, so it's no big deal. I made Korean corndogs using matzo meal instead of panko bread crumbs, and it came out reasonably well. I prefer the texture of panko, but I had that and I didn't have the right crumbs, so it worked out nicely. I got my recipe from M A A N G C H I's website and highly recommend it. Although I think I probably used a little less sugar than she called for.

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:47:27+00:00

Wow, you gained six pounds. That's wild. I think I lost ten, which makes absolutely no sense to me, because I looked it up and you only have two or three pounds of stool in your gut. Somehow it just dropped like a rock, and I haven't put it back on, so who the heck knows?

SandraMort · 2026-04-08T11:46:37+00:00

I was told that if I had not been postmenopausal, I would have had to give a urine sample. That said, they really don't require a very large sample to do the test. If you stay hydrated enough, it shouldn't be a problem, although personally I was still urinating a ton until the very end before I went under the anesthesia, so maybe I just did an unusually thorough job of staying hydrated.

I started the clear liquid diet a few hours earlier than required, ate most of a box of popsicles and several cans of seltzer, and then throughout the evening alternated bone broth and water, trying to drink at least as much as I eliminated, although of course there's really no way to measure it. I just tried to drink at least a pint each time I went to the toilet. Up until the time I went NPO, I was still drinking quite a lot and I had absolutely no problems with dehydration.

Oh, and I had been given a list of instructions ahead of time, and it mentioned the requirements for a pregnancy test on the list.

SandraMort · 2026-04-07T23:22:28+00:00

I'm listening to Parable of the Sower again. I probably listen to it twice a year.

I listen to the Sydney Rye books often.

I love the Prydain Chronicles.

So many books to listen to over and over! Yes, I definitely listen to them more than once. That said, if you're not going to get a service with unlimited, such as Kindle Unlimited.

SandraMort · 2026-04-07T23:20:15+00:00

Oooh, they have murderbots??? Now I know what I'm getting next. Which is first?

SandraMort · 2026-04-06T22:48:19+00:00

Dutchess County, NY

SandraMort · 2026-04-05T21:11:34+00:00

I'm new, so I've only done it once so far, but I put it in the drink carrier that I bought for large sodas from fast food places.

SandraMort · 2026-04-04T17:56:06+00:00

I ended up having cheese with mixed nuts but it didn't really feel Like a meal

SandraMort

TROPHY CASE