First off, no migraines to speak of. I mean, there are twinges, most every morning. But there's been no big full-blown migraine. I've downed a couple of Excedrin Migraine tabs over the past few weeks, but so far, the "detox," if you will, is proceeding.
What I am having trouble with is the plethora of side effects. Woolly-brained (nothing to do with knitting!), sleeping trouble, intense hot flashes (different from menopausal hot flashes by about 10 degrees or so!), mood swings, sometimes an unquenchable thirst, depression... I'm having a hard time with all of that. It's impacting areas of my life that I don't want it to impact, and I don't know how to explain it to anyone.
In fact, last Tuesday, I had a major melt-down. I mean, everything went wrong, at least in my head. I was headed to my women's group meeting, but when I got there, I was hit by a wave of depression so heavy that I almost couldn't get the words, "I can't stay for the meeting because I'm not feeling well" out of my mouth. The tears threatened to overwhelm me. I dashed out of there, got into the car, and actually shuddered with sobs. It was an interesting ride home. I got home, sobbed some more, and finally, eyes gritty and jaw clenched, I stopped. I felt like my insides were being ripped out.
Yeah. It was awesome. The cloud hung over me for a few days. I had thoughts that I hadn't had for a long, long time, and they scared me. I'm hoping that once all of this is done, my brain gets back to normal...or "normal" for me, at least.
Next week, I go down to 500 mg at bedtime... So now, I'm at 500 mg twice a day; then I go to the bedtime-only dose for 30 days. Then, if that lasts - if there are no major migraines, which is the criteria I'm using (twinges don't count), I go to "every other day" till the Rx is done. Then I'm finished. Hopefully off the Keppra forever.
It's nice contemplating being 60 and GETTING OFF a prescription, rather than adding more. Now, I suppose, I will need to get myself to my primary care doctor - it strikes me that I haven't been in 2 or more years. That's not like me, but I've been busy.
Yes, I know that's no excuse. But it's what I have. My next thing will be to change my MedicAlert bracelet - which I'll still wear, because I think that it's a good thing to have in an emergency. And as far as I know, I'm not sure that the tachycardia will be relieved when I'm done with the Keppra. My cardiologist thinks the Keppra is "contributing" to it - but we won't know how much of it is Keppra and how much is the result of the PVI I had done. We have to wait on that.
It would be great to get off the beta blocker. And it would also be great to get off the GERD medication - that's the NEXT next thing. Whole 30 starting April 2.
Lenten Fish Fry...
The Croatian Cultural Club in town has one of the best fish fry dinners imaginable. We're a big fish-fry town. There's the Knights of Columbus, Cro-Club (as it's known locally), The Elks, and a few church halls that do them regularly during Lent. For our money, we love the Cro-Club. The fish, a lovely whitefish, is done nicely, there's buttered parsley potatoes, and a salad with a basic sweet vinaigrette. And 2 slices of "Italian" bread. You can buy a piece of cake or pie if you want dessert, but as you can see, there are two very nice slabs of fish - you'll be full after you eat this dinner.I always steal Hubby's tartar sauce, because he uses lemon juice on his.
You have to pick up the dinners by 4:30 or you're going to be standing in line forever. You can eat in, but I've never done that. Maybe it's just me - I kind of like eating at home.
Hubby and I did go out for dinner tonight - it's been a long, long time, and it was nice to get out. Went to Hamburgerseria - yes, that's a restaurant name! I've linked it here - you'd love it. If you have a chance and you're in the area - stop by. I had the "Grilled Cheese Burger." Hubby had a basic cheeseburger with bacon.
This weekend, we have a fundraiser dinner to go to. I'm sure it'll be chicken of some sort. It usually is. Dessert will likely be the best part of the dinner. It's an annual function, but somehow, this year it crept up on us both!
Easter Potica...
So this time, we did 4 poticas. I used the old family recipe, but I doubled the filling. I shouldn't have doubled the filling... I had a lot left. The dough behaved beautifully, and rolled out very even. The single batch makes 4 large (almost 3-pound) loaves, using my grandma's long pans. Hubby bought me Pullman Loaf pans, but honestly, they won't work. Our table is 52" square and I'd need a bit longer of a rolling surface so that the loaves would have more rings.
I have two "pretty" ones and I've sold one of them. The other will stay in the freezer till Christmas or till someone says they want one. I use the "not so pretty" ones for the family because my family doesn't care what it looks like. They want the taste!I got to use the copper bowl that The Kid (#2) bought me for Christmas. It's beautiful, and has the rounded bottom that allows you to whisk by hand.
I started whisking by hand and by golly... The copper bowl really DOES work more quickly. The caveat is that you need to have the egg whites at room temperature, which I did.
Usually, I use cream of tartar to puff up the whites more easily, but honestly, with the copper bowl, I didn't need to. I ended up going to my Little Red Kitchen Aid hand-mixer, and I'm telling you - those egg whites were whipped in under 2 minutes! Granted, it wasn't the usual amount - normally we double the recipe which means 3 times the filling.
I'm pretty sure that the "regular" amount we make won't fit in this bowl. I wonder if they make a copper whipping bowl for a 5-quart Kitchen Aid mixer. A quick Google search seems to indicate that the answer to that is a confirmed "No."
Anyway, I felt a little bad making "mixer marks" on the bowl, but I don't care - it's a bowl to be used, not just sitting there looking pretty. I want to make sure it's well-utilized as I bake and I'm not going to "save it for later." Time to use things now.
So, I said that I made too much filling. Well, it doesn't freeze, and I had no more dough. Hubby made his Grandma's "Never Fail Pie Crust" recipe and we stuffed mini-muffin tins full of it, and used up all the filling for "potica pies." I thought we'd have enough for church for coffee hour, but we've been munching on them steadily... We didn't even roll out the dough - just pulled knobs of it, tamped it into the muffin tins and baked for about 25 minutes. Only because of how thick the filling is. They freeze nicely, which has enabled us to have them for a few more weeks.
I may see if I can snag a few for my mom - when we did this for Christmas, I thought I was going to have enough of them for the cookie trays. Except that Hubby ate them.
All of them.
Granted, there weren't as many then, but still. He ate them all. And I can't say that I blame him. Had I been home, and not working all day, I'd have eaten 90% of them all... So, in explanation, Hubby works - but he works at home. I work outside the home for the most part.
It's probably safer for my waistline and my snacking habit that I do.
Knitting...
Sorely lacking in the knitting department - as you can tell, there's been a lot going on. The Close to You shawl is coming along, though I did have to tink back one row. Somehow, I screwed up the 14-row repeat and was merrily doing TWO 14-row repeats in a row. Not cool. But I caught it and fixed it. I can tell you it wouldn't have been "merry" if I hadn't been paying attention and had done most of the blasted thing before tinking it back. This yarn, while yummy, definitely has a different feel to it than my own version with the sock yarn. I think my friend will like it, and I'm anxious to see how it blocks up. I think hers will be quite a bit larger than mine.
That's ok. I can get more yarn like this if I want to do one in purples for me.
I might do that. Or at least try it in another sock yarn. Or maybe Cascade cotton - it would be kind of heavy, but I know that their Pima cotton yarn drapes deliciously - and the colors are so saturated that they just glow. Potential, potential, potential!
Oh, and I'm having a little fun with the unicorn bowl. I wear this chalcedony bracelet a lot, and every so often, like when I'm working at the laptop, it "clacks" because it hits the base of the unit and it annoys me.
I had to stick it somewhere, and the unicorn's horn seemed to be a logical place. I may make this my profile picture in Facebook! Or maybe this blog, but I love my picture of my adorable, much-missed husky River.
The yarn bowl is working nicely, and is certainly heavy enough to take the tugging I'm giving it. However, tomorrow I'm putting felt dots on the bottom; it's got an unfinished ring on it and it was scratching up the Arlo table. I have it balanced on that notebook where I keep my sock patterns, but I need to put the felt under it so that it doesn't scratch, and doesn't slide off the notebook.
Tomorrow I also have to work on the...
Baby Tomatoes...
My kid's friend AJ let me borrow this catalog and gave me some of his leftover seeds from last year. No, those aren't altered by Photoshop -- they're heirloom tomatoes, and while those aren't the seeds he gave me, I'm going to get my own copy of this catalog and get those for next year!They're called "Atomic Cherries," and they look amazing. I'm growing, from seed, 3 different varieties - and I've set aside 2 of the little grow-pods for Kid #2 - he can put them in pots and grow them on his front porch.
I'm hoping I have better luck. I think this year, we'll make sure the vines don't go nuts. Lately, we've been having these 12' tall tomato plants - seriously - you've seen the pictures - but no fruit. Or what fruits we get are small. I think the plant puts so much into trying to reach Heaven that it has no energy to produce tomatoes!
So we'll see (a) if these seeds germinate; and (b) if they do, we'll pinch them back to keep them bushy rather than rangy.
Random Pictures...
It's a two-fer tonight. And both are sunsets. The one with the two houses is across the street from me. It was a stunner. I ran out in the snow in my house slippers to snap this one. The other is outside the studio on a Sunday evening. Lately, we've had the most amazing sunsets, and I've tried to get each of them when I can.
I know - seems like I'm trying to live life through the lens of my camera (phone...), but I really just love the incredible colors. Each of these sunsets are a reminder that one day ends and another will begin. It's a reminder to do as Emerson says, "finish each day and be done with it."
The whole quote goes like this, and it's a good thing to contemplate, especially when you feel like things are beyond your control:
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