Good Health news!

Biopsies came back clean as a whistle! Nothing even the least bit suspicious. Still awaiting decision re some basic surgery, but the crucial finding is a huge relief.

Now, let's talk about the Oscars! Was I the only person watching who adored the entire production? Watching that gorgeous Aussie Hugh Jackman as he sang and danced, seeing groups of former Oscar winners make comments 5 at a time, the settings, the beautiful crystal 'curtain,' and surprise presenter after presenter...I loved it when Tina Fey and Steve Martin came to the podium together, said their comic remarks, and then as Tina gazed in respect at Steve, he turned to her and said: DON'T fall in love with me!

That was fall on the floor funny.

I usually watch the Oscars, but in the last several years they have been boring and draggy, saved only by the 'dresses.' This year's dresses included the usual hits and a few awful misses. Angelina Jolie wore a striking long black dress set off by large brilliant green earrings and a matching ring. Brad Pitt wore a 20's style tux.

Yes, Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars, and I haven't seen it yet, but it appeared that everyone in the huge theatre was supportive of their wins.

OK, that's my take on the whole production; I hope they've already signed up Hugh Jackman for next year...

Book Review: See You in 100 Years~

I just finished reading See You in A Hundred Years, and loved it. It's nonfiction; Logan Ward, who writes for the New York Times and other major publications, decided in 2000 to move with his wife and baby son from NYC to Virginia, ending up on some acreage near Staunton, in a tiny rural town. They decided to live there as if it were the year 1900: no electricity, no indoor plumbing, a horse and buggy for transportation (with an occasional need for a bicycle). Raising their own food and cooking it on a wood cookstove, learning to can food to see them through the winter, and trying mightily to resist kind neighbors' attempts to assist them by offering to drive them somewhere.

Logan had to learn how to manage a 2,000-pound Percheron, how to milk two goats and make goat cheese, and how to keep 1-year old Luther safe from snakes, burns, and other dangers.

Day by day, you read about their struggle to stay in the year 1900, and their major discovery becomes the closeness they find with their neighbors. The neighbors themselves find a sense of community that had been disappearing from their lives.

I highly recommend this book. I found it at the Moneta branch of the Bedford Library, so libraries must be able to get it on intra-library loan. It is also on Amazon.com of course.

My maternal grandmother was born in Virginia just before 1900, so I found it fascinating from that aspect, realizing how she was living as a child.

Gaining strength

Thanks, everyone, for the kind thoughts and prayers. I've actually been grocery shopping some, and am now able to eat a regular diet after weeks of IVs and then soft foods. I'm planning to get to church tomorrow to see if the Praise Choir, and the Chancel Choir, have been missing my alto.

Doctors' appts and medical tests are continuing in the next few weeks, so everything isn't entirely solved as yet. It would be SO easy for me to turn into a recliner-potato, watching movies on the big flat-screen TV!

Another alto has been out as well; she's had double vision and biopsies and tests. We've shared with each other our gratefulness for Kroger's rotisserie chickens! And Applebee's Meals to Go. She can't drive yet, but has friends from church helping her out.

It is sunny and warm as I write this today, and I soaked up the warmth on the sunporch while I ate my lunch. I guess I've been needing iron, because I was craving liverwurst spread on crunchy whole grain rye bread. With pickles. Heck, when your diet has been medically restricted, EVERYthing tastes great. So far, I haven't regained any of the 8+ pounds I lost, but it'd sure be easy to do that.

Time to read Blogs and get myself back on track. Sorry to digress into all this health stuff!