Snagged this little gem off of a box of something. Probably pasta who knows but it’s fricken delicious.

1 lb Italian sausage, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
2 cans (14 oz each) chicken broth
1 soup can water
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 cup rotini pasta, uncooked
1 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook sausage, onions, and garlic in oil in a large saucepan 10 min., stirring frequently.
Add chicken broth, water, beans, and tomatoes. Bring to boil. Stir in pasta until cooked. Remove from heat.
Stir in spinach, cover. Let stand 5 min. Top with cheese.

Now I didn’t have spinach on hand so I dumped in an extra can of beans and used Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano in place of the stewed tomatoes, because, well, I don’t like stewed tomatoes. I didn’t have rotini and used curly extra long macaroni. I also don’t like cheese on top of my soup so no cheese for me. Yummy to the core. The next time I make it I am going to toss in some squash and zuccinni.

So my boss was ill on Monday and could not get anyone to cover for him in clinic. I was with him all day Monday. I caught his illness :/ It started coming on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and by Wednesday night I thought I had been run over by a truck. I’m spewing brown phlegm now so hopefully this means it is going away. Just wish the coughing would stop because I feel like I have to pee every time I cough now. Nothing like being sick over the holidays *not*

I’m not sure the weather is helping any either since we have been having high 70s. Yesterday was actually 79. I had the back door open all day long. I opened the back door up this morning too when the dogs wanted out again around 9 AM. It’s still open and I don’t fore see it closing until it gets dark either. I’m staying housebound again today as I still feel like crap although I really want some orange juice so I may run out one time to pick some of that up as well as milk.

Hope you guys don’t get sick over the holidays.

Merry Christmas!

I’ve always hated shoving pills down animals throats when they need to take them. It is way easier on everybody if you hide it in food or biscuits. Since one of my dogs needs an allergy pill on a daily basis I was using cheese as the cover up while I searched for soft biscuits to shove it in. I swear soft biscuits are hard to come by for dogs. Soft cat treats no sweat but I really don’t want the dogs to have diarrhea from eating cat treats. I mean if they get diarrhea eating cat food why not cat treats.

Anywhoo, I finally found some soft and chewy dog biscuits. Milk-Bone to the rescue! I opted for the beef and filet mignon flavor. I swear the dogs think it is crack. I grab the bottle for the Claritin to open it and the dogs are all over me because they know it is biscuit time now and I need to be pretty damn fast getting my hands away from their mouths when they grab the biscuit because they essentially inhale them. I got the big container for about $15.00. I’m going to try the chicken flavor next but I have a feeling it may not go over as well as the beef flavor but we’ll see. It is a win win situation now though, one dog gets a free biscuit while the other one gets her medicine.

The downside is when I grab the bottle for my Zyrtec since Claritin doesn’t work anymore on me they think it is more biscuit time which it isn’t. You hear that dogs, one biscuit per day only!

Recently one of my coworkers has had a rash of her family and extended family die from either natural causes or accidents. Makes you wonder what it will be like when you become older, if not ancient, by the children’s standards of age. Will there finally be those flying cars? Will there be a cure for cancer and any other disease out there? Who knows but it will be an interesting time to say the least.

Back to my coworker though. I have to wonder, as some of them were fairly old, if they had Medical Alert Buttons. You may have seen some of the commercials out about them. They might look silly to some of us but I know they do work well. One of my other coworkers father had one before he started becoming senile and needed a sitter with him during the day. He ended up using it a couple of times when he fell and could not get to a phone because they called me first to track down my coworker. Just makes you wonder if any of the elderly take for granted that they can live by themselves without a full caretaker. I know when I become old I will probably need one of these because I am not one who likes people coming to visit me all the time. I am a loner, have always been a loner, and always will be one. So this will help in case I fall down and need help. I can totally understand why some of the elderly get so ornery now because it is almost like losing some of your freedom when you end up having a caretaker of some sort even if it is for your or our own safety and health.

Is there such a thing? With all of the medical advances in the past centuries one would think this is possible but alas it is not so. I don’t know about you but for me personally I’ve gained weight as I’ve aged which I go to the gym to keep down now and watch what I eat. Then there are those dark circles under the eyes and age lines on my face. Not sure those can be fixed without plastic surgery which I refuse to have done. Then I have bulging disks in my lower back as well as arthritis in the same place which doesn’t help the situation. I can almost see myself when I’m old and decrepit with the onset of Alzheimer’s falling somewhere with my poor back and no one to help me. Sometimes it is a fact of life when you are bound and determined to be independent.

I could see myself like this woman with the walker and a bull horn on the walker to get the people to move out of my way. I’d be bent over because of my back and eventually probably fall somewhere either at home or out. What to do then? Well hopefully I’m not lazy and obtain a medical alert systems. I can’t see the animals calling 911 to help me and I actually know/known other people who have this system or have had as they have passed away and it really is a comfort to know that someone will come to help if something happens when no one is around. It is a comfort to the elderly person and for the family who cares for them. Don’t be afraid to ask for something like this in your home.

I am not sure if you have been keeping up with the tax deal that has been trying to get passed. It is not that we will get a discount of sorts but to actually keep the tax rate the same as it is now for everyone. In this deal though there is something called the estate tax or death tax as it were where over and under a certain amount of money the families are dealt a tax rate to pay on whatever items are left to the families from the deceased. Now what I cannot understand is this: We pay taxes on everything now. Why must the recipients of the deceased accounts have to pay taxes again? It is just not right. You’d almost have to start selectively dividing everything up before you go to maybe avoid some of the taxes but you would have to have a crystal ball to know when that is.

Elderly people have enough to worry about including obtaining burial insurance for seniors. I’d want to make sure that once I am gone that I have plans laid out for what to do with my body so I would not have to burden my family. They would already be distraught as it is. At least I would hope so once I’m gone. Sadly, this could happen even before I reach that senior age and I should make sure I contact Allstate or go to BurialInsurance.org and obtain a quote for some insurance to make sure all of this would be covered after my demise. I’m betting quite a few of us are out there have not even bothered to think about any of this because we think we have years before anything will happen to us. Hopefully that is true but one cannot account for a freak accident. I mean I have life insurance but does that really cover anything once I’m gone? I have no idea because honestly I have never read it. I just signed up for it when I started at the hospital 20 years ago. I couldn’t tell you even how much it is worth at this point which is sad.