I'm in a bit of a sandal quandary.

I'm having a bit of a hard time with the sandal thing this year.  I've been on a "no heels, no sandals (flippy kind) and NO! FLIP FLOPS" decree from the doctor since October.  I've been obedient.  The other day, I had to go see Dr. W for a smile and a wave to get orders for cholesterol blood work and he asked about my foot. 

"It's good.  It tweaks and twinges every now and then, but when I ruptured my ACL, I also broke a bone.  That did the same thing.  It's just going to take a while."

"A long while," my darling doctor says.

So goes the part where I was going to ask about flip flops.  I'm on a flip flop and any other shoe that isn't "securely strapped to my foot" ban until at least August 31.  I have particular parameters I need to fall within for sandals.

1.  Must be strapped to my foot.
2.  Must be comfortable.
3.  I like some toes to peek out, but I hate it when the sandal front begins an inch before your toes do.  Yikes.
4.  They can't look orthopedic.
5.  They can't look like they came from my grandmother's closet (though I have no grandparents left at all).  Yes, that request is different from #4.
6.  In the spirit of needing to keep my 5th metatarsal which is still on the mend happy, it needs to be practical.  This is why I bought the Keen Balboa sandals in lime green.  Practical.  Fits the bill and kicky.  Sadly, lime green doesn't go with absolutely everything in my wardrobe and frankly, I don't want to have two of the exact same pairs of shoes in different colors.  Yes, I realize that lime was slightly impractical, but my feet have to be firmly attached to a foot bed and I am an artist.  You've got to give me some room to play with.
7.  I will not wear Crocs.  To those who love them, God bless you.  I just can't do them. 
8.  I tried Earth shoes (the Imply sandal) and it rubbed so badly on my heel that I sent them back right away.  Yikes. 
9.  I have and love the several pair of Birkenstocks that I have.  They are elfin, but they are comfy.  I do have a pair of t-strap clog/sandals that I wear a lot. 

K- and I stopped by DSW and TJ Maxx today.  I probably tried 30 pairs of sandals on.  If it was cute, it rubbed in a weird place and was dead to me. 

I might add that while I am money conscious, in our house, we don't wear cheap shoes.  Really, I'm willing to pay decent money for something that I WILL wear and WILL love.  I just can't find them.

Any suggestions?

I know it is off.

I'm frustrated and must dump the redesign project to allow Hubs some sleep for a big 4 AM wake up tomorrow.  I'll fix it.  I promise.  I think.  Can't figure out why my headers aren't long enough now.  If you know why, tell me-- please!

When the stink is so bad that you have to break out the good incense.

Y'all, I made dinner for my in-laws last night.  I made steamed broccoli then did what everyone hates to do-- I steamed the pot dry.  I caught it in time for the broccoli to be fine and even saved the pan. 

My Lord, the stink. 

I came in the house today from one of my three volunteer trips to school (a long day) and my house smelled like a garbage dump.  Between the broccoli being steamed (stink #1) to the burnt pan (stink #2) to the meat wrapper left in the garbage (stink #3), I had to break out the Root Tangerine Lemongrass candle and the good incense.  One candle and two sticks of incense have basically made it go away.  It is still hanging in the basement, so I'm going to burn a stick of incense down there.  Sweet love of all, don't want my house stickin' to the high heavens.  Sheesh.

In other news that isn't so nostril offensive, bread at the bread store (Hostess/Wonder thrift) went up exponentially. The sales clerk warned me when I went in to be certain that I was checking prices, since things had changed.  Redline box cakes went up from $1.00 - $2.00.  Loaves of bread that I buy for us (while on sale today only) went up to $1.99 and they are usually $1.00 a loaf.  (Regular retail is $4.00/loaf.)  Mom asked about 3/$1.00 cakes.  Those don't exist any longer.  They are now 4/$2.00.  Inflation I get, but having things increase by 100% is kind of ridiculous. 

Dunlap, the resident goldfish, has officially taken the dirt nap.  He has been replaced by Rainbow Fish, the male Betta fish.  It is nice to skip the hum of the bubbler in the tank.  For now, he appears to be happy and alive-- both things necessary in a fish to keep an 8 year old happy. 

For now, my husband is home about 2 hours early.  Have a great day!

What the cable company accidentally giveth, they taketh away.

While taking a walk to the garden, I found a note hanging from my door.  It stated that the cable company had been through the neighborhood doing an audit of services.  It was found that we were receiving "unauthorized service" and we needed to phone them within 24 hours, so as not to be charged.

Really?

8 months ago, I was in the studio working on something and accidentally found that we had the Weather Channel.  I cruised on through and found that there were channels up to 70.  None of these channels were premium movie channels.  We checked, the service hadn't been changed and the charges were the same. 

When I sat down to eat a bowl of cereal for dinner (it's been a long week, y'all), I noticed that all of the cable channels except for VH1 Classics were gone.  G.O.N.E. gone.  That was prior to the finding of the note.  (Which had been mingling with the parsley.)  Drat that note.

I phoned the cable provider.  The lady was bubbly and nice.  That was good.  "Ma'am, I want you to know that you did nothing wrong."  "I know that I didn't do anything wrong.  We scanned the TV, found extra channels, knew that we weren't getting charged, but also knew that we weren't getting stations like HBO or anything like that.  I didn't scale the pole!"  She said that there would be no charge, but wanted to know how I wanted to change my cable service (meaning, not low-as-you-go cable.)  "I'm good right where I'm at."  Apparently there was "leakage in the line" giving people in my neighborhood cable that they shouldn't have been getting.  Drat at it being fixed, though.

So, what the cable company giveth, they taketh away.  It's okay.  It was nice to have it, but I'm not willing to pay more for more channels that don't necessarily have more programming on them anyhow.  It's summertime.  I need to be out.  It will unlatch my child from the box.  I had a summertime plan in place for that anyhow, but the lack of big boy channels doesn't hurt.

Less than 24 hours later . . .

My father-in-law was released from the hospital today.  I'm amazed, since he spent the overnight in the ICU.  He was unable to move even a twinge until after midnight.  At the time that my mother-in-law texted his message of freedom, it was 1:30 PM.  The day before, he was in surgery until about 3:30 PM.  They cruised a heart cath device around the interiors of his heart muscle to remove scar tissue and to cauterize the bits causing disruption of electrical impulses. 

It was a 7 1/2 hour procedure.

If they were trying to do the 23 hour hold like I had when I had my ACL reconstructed, they managed that quite nicely. 

Wow. 

The report is that he is doing stunningly well and we continue prayers as such.  Modern medicine truly continues to astound me. 

Thanks for the prayers.  Keep 'em coming!  :)

The waiting room.

I am sitting in a rather packed waiting room waiting for my father-in-law to return from his procedure. He is having scar tissue in his heart removed through heart cath and it is due to take some time. It is a bit of a risk, but I suspect that anytime that you have someone digging around in your heart, it is a bit of a risk. I am not a fan of the waiting room. Call it having spent far too many hours in them as a child as I waited to hear how my grandfather, grandmother or aunt were doing. Mom taught us to tidy the waiting room and to make it look far better than it did when we got there. We would straighten magazines, put pillows and blankets away and toss away garbage. Todays waiting room has a different feel. There is a gentleman cruising around on a mobility scooter, a lady behind me playing a game on her phone with the volume turned way too high, my mother-in-law is trying to close her eyes for a bit of sleep and Hubs is tweaking a bit with the hemline of his pants. It ia a busy place. People are in and out, and it seems to be a pick-up place for people to be shuttled off to surgery. The beep and ring of pagers fill the air along with low chattering, the ring of the desk phone. The TV is operating just a touch too low to hear. That's okay, there is some scantilly clad girl on there anyhow. Plink. Plink. Plink, plink goes the phone game. The clicking of a metal crafted cane hitting the industrial low pile carpet People in rooms with doctors, getting the update on their loved one. Eyes closed. Coughs belted out. People who forgot to put something other than pajama pants on when they left the house this morning. People talking with their hands. A man is playing a thumb piano. The sound is a pleasant one that doesn't annoy. The wait. Oh my heavens, the wait. ETA: My father-in-law got out of surgery and did well. He was in from sometime after 8am - 3:30ish pm. Currently, he is in ICU, but probably only because of the detail of surgery involved. He may come home on Wednesday, if my understanding is correct. I'd like him to remain where they feel he needs to be for the length of time they want him there. In the end, all looks well and we are certainly pleased with that. Pray on, my friends. P.S. It is one big blob because I typed this on the Kindle. Sorry for the bad form!