Ballroom Reopens

Solivita's ballroom has been shut down for about three or four months for a big refurbishment.  Today it reopens and is open for visits.  Mark and I plan to go up around 11 this morning and check it out.  In addition to some cosmetic changes that I guess they made like paint or carpeting, they have installed a permanent bar for events instead of the temporary one they kept setting up.  Also they put up new stage curtains, reconfigured the stage to make it a little bigger and squared off instead of rounded (I think I read that, so I'll see if I'm right), a new sound system, and some better backstage facilities that I'm hoping includes bathrooms.  Originally, there were no bathrooms, so performers had to go through part of the house and then into the kitchen area to head to the public bathrooms that the audience used.  A lot of big name performers refused to come here because of that.  It was also tough for our own Guys and Dolls and theater performers.  I am really hoping to find at least small bathrooms back there today.  I think they are showing us a video today about Solivita to show off the sound and also giving free refreshments.  Should be a fun thing to do.

In the afternoon, there will be Mah Jongg at my neighbor's house.  It's probably going to be raining by then, so I'll take an umbrella!  It's already gray outside.  A lot of rain is predicted, again.  We got a big rainstorm yesterday and also Saturday night with loud thunder, lightening, and high winds, but yesterday it only lasted a little while, not even an hour.  The coastal areas are getting far more rain.

Meanwhile that pelvic pain was terrible when I got up this morning.  After breakfast I took my usual 4 Advils, which definitely takes the edge off the pain.  Just walking through the house was hard this morning.  Wow.  Although I fear what he will find, I'm still eager to get to the doctor tomorrow to get the process started.  I was reading up on ovarian cysts yesterday.  Nothing about them is good either.  I am now kicking myself for not following my doctor's directions.  Four years ago, a small cyst on the left ovary showed up and the uterine lining was too thick.  He did a uterine biopsy and nothing bad showed.  He said come back in a year, but I waited two years.  At that point the uterine lining was not thick at all, and the cyst was there but only slightly bigger.  He said come back in five months and have the cyst checked again.  THAT'S where I screwed up.  I did not go back in May of 2014 as I was supposed to.  Now it's 15 months past that date and this cyst is definitely big and causing pressure and pain.  I will be shocked if it doesn't turn up to be much bigger.  I also read that ovarian cysts in younger women are pretty common, come and go with the hormonal cycle, nothing to worry too much about.  Cysts in post-menopausal women are a much bigger problem that do not resolve themselves and can often turn cancerous.  WHY did I not bother to read THAT little bit information in the spring of 2014 and GO back in for that check up???? Well, if this cyst is monstrous, needs surgery, and/or has turned cancerous, I have no one to blame but myself.  I can only hope that a complete hysterectomy would be immediately ordered and take care of the entire problem.  Tomorrow at 3 p.m. the process will be started.  I would like to stay positive that this is a benign cyst right up until I learn otherwise.  I still am talking to no one about this except Mark and the blog, so I realize there are people reading this, but I don't want to discuss it with anyone other than Mark until there is something to actually discuss.  So far it's just my own pain and my own speculations.

No Frozen Fun for us today. Thank you, Erika.

Erika is just a rain storm at this point, but she's coming right up our way all day today and tomorrow.  There will be plenty of rain beginning by lunchtime and continuing through tomorrow.  Doesn't make us want to run over to the Studios for Frozen Summer Fun.   I'm sure the fireworks will get cancelled tonight anyway.  We have now postponed it yet again to next Sunday, which is Labor Day Weekend.  It will probably be crazy crowded, but it's our last chance. 

Meanwhile, we are taking the local weatherman's advice and staying indoors all day.  Mark had no dinner planned for tonight because we thought we would be eating out at the park.  Doesn't matter.  I'm sure we can find something frozen in the freezer to make a dinner. 

So our plan instead is to go back to the Fodor's Tour Book of Old West tours and finish planning next summer's trip.  We spent about five hours on it one day before we went to Hawaii.  We got through the Texas part and had just started the New Mexico.  We like planning these trips.  The book routes us through certain towns with recommendations of what to visit.  Then Mark checks the AAA website to see if there's anything else we want to see or do there.  He also finds us a hotel where we want to stay overnight, although we do not make actual reservations.  It takes awhile, but then I put everything on the calendar including addresses and admission prices and names of all the attractions and hotels.  I know we're crazy, but we find this amusing!

I am also glad we are staying home today because honestly the pain in my abdomen is worse when I'm walking than when I'm sitting or laying down.  The jostling in the car also makes it hurt more.  I got quite depressed about it last night.  I have all the symptoms of ovarian cancer, so it's very scary.  I'm not a doctor, so I guess there can be other things.  Maybe that cyst has grown and is putting pressure on things and is benign.  I guess it could be pelvic inflammatory disease.  I don't really know, but when I google the symptoms of ovarian cancer, it's scary how  many I have.  I am not talking to anyone about this yet except this blog and to Mark.  I will wait until I see the doctor Tuesday to see what needs to be done.  I'm sure there will be the usual check up followed by some additional sonograms or other scans or maybe even a biopsy.  All of that takes awhile.  I'm sure it will be quite awhile before there is a definitive diagnosis.  I'm glad I have an appointment Tuesday to get this process started.  My gynecologist's wife is a gynecological oncologist.  When I had my first appointment with him four years ago, he referred me to her for a follow up.  She was very nice, so he will probably send me to her again if she's still practicing.  When I did see her four years ago, she was newly pregnant!  Who knows if she's still working or had more kids or is a stay-home mom.  Guess I'll find that out on Tuesday, too.

Shabbat Rest

The newest forecast models show that Erika is weakening and will not eve be a Tropical Storm by the time it gets to the Florida area.  It's also tracking farther west with the eye in the Gulf.  We will surely get more rain than usual Monday through Tuesday night, but that's it.  Coastal and low lying areas could get flooding.  Mark and I are not at all worried about anything.  I'm even sure that I'll make my GYN appointment Tuesday afternoon.  Looks like we all dodged another bullet here in Florida.

Mark got his heart monitor yesterday.  Even though the doctor said it would go three weeks, the tech putting it on said it's only for two weeks.  She said the doctors have trouble remembering that the machines have changed.  It has only three leads on his chest, which can be taken off for showers or even to go in the pool for a little while.  There is a monitor attached to the leads and a cell phone which sends info from the monitor to the people somewhere out there who are watching him 24/7.  If he has a symptom of any kind, there's a button to push to alert the crew following him.  When the two weeks are up, he has to mail the monitor and cell phone off in a mailing bag they provided and return the rest of the kit to the office.  It doesn't seem like he's having too much trouble adjusting to it.  He even said he slept just fine with it on all night. 

We got up too late and moved too slowly to go to shul today.  There's a bar mitzvah, so it would be too crowded to come in as late as 11 a.m.  There would be no seats for us to find.  Instead, we plan to take a walk in the track and see how that shows up on Mark's monitor.  He also made a dinner reservation for us on Labor Day for 6:30 at the Grand Floridian Cafe, one of our favorite places.  We've had dinner there twice and ate lunch once with the Herschlers.  The first dinner was for his birthday in 2014 when we had stayed in the Grand Villa on our first use of DVC points.  He was sick from some mysterious virus and had a high fever through dinner and the whole night.  He felt like crap.  The second time we had dinner there was for Father's Day this year.  He thinks he remembers that he had one of his heart episodes that night because it's often triggered by a huge meal, a couple of drinks, and then trying to walk somewhere.  Although I didn't document that in the blog or in the Picasa photo albums, we did go sit on the couch in the lobby for awhile to listen to music.  He said he remembers that it was because he felt unwell.  We really want one of those episodes to show up on this monitor, so hopefully that will do it!  Hey, any excuse to overeat and overdrink in a beautiful location is okay with me!

Hurricane or not hurricane

Erika is out there somewhere trying decide if she will become a hurricane and hit Florida or not.  No one can predict yet.  She's a somewhat disorganized tropical storm that may or may not get bigger.  She's going to dump a lot of rain on drought-stricken Puerto Rico, so if the flooding doesn't get them, it could be a good thing.  She's going to hit a bunch of high mountains in the Dominican Republic, which could cause her to disintegrate, or she might make it over those mountains and pick up steam as she rolls up the center of Florida.  Who knows? 

So, just in case she does become our first hurricane to hit since we moved here, we are checking our preparedness.  Both cars will have full tanks of gas, good for recharging cell phones if the power goes out.  We will take stock of our water, food, batteries, candles, and other supplies they say we should have.  We might even attempt to put up one of the hurricane shutters just to see how they work.

Even if Ericka does hit us as a hurricane, no one is predicting it to be bigger than a category I, so we could lose power for awhile afterwards, but I don't think our house and property will suffer too much damage.  Hope I'm right.

I'm also hoping it's over by Tuesday morning.  They are unsure of the exact timing, too, but it looks like it could be racing up Florida's middle from Sunday night to Tuesday morning, probably in our area Monday night.  My GYN appointment is Tuesday at 3 p.m., so I hope it's over, the roads are clear, and the power is on.  I want that appointment.  Nothing has changed.  I still have very uncomfortable feelings in the lower abdomen that only get worse when the bladder or bowels are full or when I walk or get jostled in a car, leading me to believe that there's something going on in the uterus/ovaries area.  Don't like it one little bit, and won't feel settled until I get it evaluated.

As predicted, I am up two pounds today.  Back to my 273.6  I seem to love hovering at that weight.  The Thai food was good.  I thought the portions were not outsized and the sodium did not seem overwhelming.  Still, there's no real good way of knowing.  The old town of Winter Garden was adorable, far more picturesque than we had known it would be.  There were two little museums there that we'd love to go back and explore.  The old theater was fun to see and the movie was very interesting.  It was the last one shown this season as part of the Florida Film Festival.  All in all, we had a lovely evening, and it didn't even rain at all.

This morning at 8 a.m. I had my annual mammogram.  It went well.  The radiologist looked at the films and said they looked good enough that I could skip the ultrasounds.  That's great news. 

This afternoon Mark will be fitted for his heart monitor that he will wear for three weeks.  That should be interesting.  On the way back from that, we will pick up any last minute hurricane supplies that we think we might need.  Then, except for that doctor's appointment on Tuesday, there is nothing between tonight and Tuesday afternoon that can't be skipped or cancelled due to the storm.

One last thing, I am having a conversation this afternoon at 12:30 with Rabbi Skolnik to discuss the potential dissolution of the SOJC Choir.  Not many people are left in it, and very few come to rehearsals.  I can't really call them a choir anymore, in my opinion, and I'm not sure I want to drive all that way in the dark to rehearse two people who really need more singers around them to be successful.  Should be an interesting conversation.  One I'm not really looking forward to having.

Rainy days

It's been dark, thundery, and raining since about 11 a.m.  It's probably not going to stop, and we are driving over an hour north to Winter Garden for dinner at a Thai restaurant and a movie, Imperial Dream, at the Winter Garden Theater.  It will probably be a horrible storm at that point.  Oh, well.

I ate about 1300 calories again yesterday, but I had no exercise.  Apparently, that means I should gain a pound.  I really believe my set point is about where I am, in the low 270s.  It's not a number I like, but the fact that I maintained that weight on vacation with a TON of eating and a lot of walking makes me believe it's true.  Now I spent several days eating 1300 calories with little walking and not dropping any weight. 

I suspect today I will have around 2500 calories because who knows what will be in the Thai food.  I bet it will have a lot of sodium as well as calories.  I've already had a good breakfast and lunch, but dinner is yet to come.  There will also be almost no exercise.  I hosted 7 ladies for Mahj this morning for three hours.  In another three more hours, we will start the drive up to the restaurant.  Instead of spending those hours exercising, I will probably spend them napping, reading, and watching TV!

Mark had his echocardiogram this morning while I was playing Mahj.  Then he went grocery shopping.  Tomorrow he will get fitted for his heart monitor, which he will wear for three weeks.  I hope it's not too irritating for him.

I'm still having that pain and pressure in the lower abdomen.  If I take the 800 mg at breakfast, it keeps the edge off the discomfort.  I'm glad I have a GYN appointment on Tuesday.  There is a tropical storm that may or may not become a hurricane and may or may not come to central Florida.  If it does come here, it will be Tuesday, the day of my appointment.  Well, hopefully, it's just rain and maybe some wind, but I really want to see the doctor and not cancel that appointment!

Here are a few pictures from the D23 Expo.

Dinner in Downtown Disney at a great Mexican place the night before the Expo.

The Macy's parade Buzz balloon was out for the first morning, but then it was gone the next day.

Got our materials and getting in our first of many lines.

Muppets puppeteers gave a great presentation.

Me with Wall-E and EVE.

At the Archives display.

The Tony award winning Genie from Aladdin on Broadway, James Monroe Iglehart is awesome. We saw him in that role last summer.  What a great singer!

Ashley Brown, the original Mary Poppins, and Josh Strickland, the original Tarzan from the Broadway productions, gave a wonderful performance.

Stan Lee of Marvel comics fame made a surprise appearance.

At the Voluntears program.

Live orchestra playing with the Silly Symphony cartoons running.  Fabulous!

Kristen Bell sang all of her songs from Frozen.

Josh Gad and Olaf!

Some of the original Mousketeeers.

Spin and Marty, aka Tim Considine and David Stollery

Made that appointment

I called the GYN office yesterday.  I was pleasantly surprised to get an appointment for next Tuesday at 3 p.m.  I really thought I'd have to wait a month!  I'm still having pressure and crampy feelings.  I don't like it.  Walking and jolts in the car cause it to hurt.  Staying still is much better!  I hope it's nothing, but I really can't tell.  I almost just wish they'd say it's time for a hysterectomy and be done with all of those body parts!

We went to the pool and I swam laps for 25 minutes, albeit very slowly!  Swimming slowly really didn't hurt my abdomen.  Mark did the aerobic routine, but all that jumping around didn't appeal to me. I was sure it would hurt way too much.

Other than that, we stayed home and I did a lot of little chores in the house.  The biggest thing I did was fill out a booklet full of info for after I pass away.  Mark had gotten these booklets from NARFE.  It's got places to fill out all kinds of information like where your will is located, account numbers, things to do like cancelling automatic bill payments, etc.  It also had a place at the end to put in any other instructions or information you'd like to have in an obituary.  Mark filled his out a few days ago, and I did mine yesterday.  It was interesting.  Mark and I did a lot of talking about what we would like.  These are hard conversations to have, but how much harder would they be if you were sick in a death bed?  Or how much more frustrating not to have it at all and just be guessing after your loved one is gone?  It was an interesting exercise. 

Today I'm leaving shortly to take my car up to All Cars for an oil change.  Then Mark and I will go to see the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie, pick up Mark's comic books, rush home for Mark to make a dinner to put in the freezer for later on, and then go to the Shalom Club meeting at 7 p.m.  Typical day in Solivita!  LOL!

I lost some weight since Monday.  This morning I was 271.4, which made me happy.  I ate only 1300 calories yesterday and logged them all in to Lose It!  There was also the 25 minutes of laps.  Today I am probably eating lunch out, but it should only be Subway salad so no problem.  Otherwise, I expect it to be a good day.

Here are some pictures from our day at Disney's California Adventure.

We started the day very early and went back to Disneyland for a third time.  We had three rides left: Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and the Finding Nemo submarines.  Peter Pan's line is always long and there are no fastpasses for it here.  It's also had some nice upgrades inside for the sixtieth anniversary.

While waiting in Peter Pan's line, I looked over at the Snow White ride and found the Evil Queen staring back at me.  Crazy.  How did I never notice before that she opens and closes those curtains about every minute or two to peek out?  Creepy.

Mark's favorite statue at DCA.

I had a monster blister on my left foot and some pack pain today.  I walked into Disneyland and for those rides, but I knew I couldn't make it the rest of the day on my feet.  This scooter meant that I could enjoy my day at DCA.

The landscaping and themeing at Condor Flats, location of Soarin', has been changed to a national park look called Grizzly Flats.  I liked it.

My initials on the trash cans caught my eye.  Then Mark reminded me that it stood for Radiator Springs!

We also take time for wine at DCA.  This time we each did a tasting of three wines.

They had really cute paper cups for soda and napkins.  Too bad this nice logo wasn't on any merchandise for purchase.

The tractor ride is fun.

Dinner at Flo's in Carsland.

Waiting to get on Toy Story Mania, which never has the kinds of lines that we find in Florida.

The lights on the Wonder Wheel as we waited for the night time show, World of Color.

Health issues

We went to shul, as I said we would, on Friday, and it was delightful.  Then when we got home and I stepped out of the car, my left leg hurt terribly.  It felt like the back of my knee was tight, stiff,  and sore.  Then when I stepped on it, the pain radiated down the calf muscle and into the back of the ankle.  I couldn't figure out any reason for it.  I was barely able to hobble into the house from the garage. I took 800 mg of Advil and went to bed with it hurting, even not walking on it.  When I woke up Saturday morning, it still hurt like crazy.  I took the Advil again with breakfast and tried to stay off of it all day.  I spent the day reading, watching TV,  and just keeping my leg still as much as possible.  By bedtime there seemed to be no difference in the pain level, and I admit I was getting worried.  Sunday we canceled our plans to go the Studios all day and bumped it off to the following Sunday.  I felt there was a small amount of improvement.  I also noticed that when it was worse when I got up from a chair and started walking, it showed improvement the more I walked.  If I leaned on a chairback or counter as I walked, that helped, too.  So we decided to go see the new Mission Impossible movie in the afternoon and stop at Walgreen's to buy a cane on the way.  Once I bought that cane, I felt like a new woman.  Just that little something to take a small amount of pressure off the leg and a little something to add some stability made me feel GREAT!  I used it to walk in and out of the movie theater and felt that I had done the right thing.  I took two doses of 800 mg each of Advil at breakfast and dinner again.  Then Monday morning when I woke up, BOOM, nothing!  Yes, that's what I said.  The leg was perfectly normal as soon as I got out of bed yesterday.  Oh, yes, it's because I bought that cane.  The perversity of inanimate objects always rears it head when you least expect it.  LOL

So Monday I played Mah Jongg in the afternoon and won two games.  It was the first time I had played with my Barcelona Drive group in a month, so that was fun to see everyone and get caught up on the news.  In the evening I went to SOJC for the choir rehearsal.  THAT'S another whole story for later. 

Meanwhile, around dinner time, I noticed a painful feeling in my lower abdomen, pressure, bloating, a heaviness.  That's all I can say to describe it.  It seems to be a GYN problem, not an intestinal problem.  The pain continued all night and is still fairly intense this morning.  I have not been to the gynecologist since January of 2014.  The recommendation now is to have that regular exam about every two years at older ages.  I was going to wait until two years went by and then  try to schedule an appointment in early 2016.  Maybe I'll call today instead and see what I can get.  Both times that I saw a GYN down here in Florida, which was only twice, I had a cyst on my left ovary.  It had not changed in those two visits, so maybe now it's doing something.  Honestly, when I was 14, I had a cyst on the right ovary which made the doctor think I was having appendicitis.  I had an emergency appendectomy to take out a perfectly fine appendix and a ruptured cyst on the ovary.  I have to say that this pressure and pain does NOT feel like what I remembered that other time to feel like.

Meanwhile, my new car, Candy, let me down last night.  I hopped in to go to the choir rehearsal, and a big warning came up on the screen that an Oil Change is Required!  I got out of the car and took Mark's car instead.  So today I need to take Candy for an oil change.  In the afternoon I have a mani/pedi scheduled for the first time in four weeks.  Boy do I need it!  It's going to be in the upper 90s today, so I plan to spend as much time as possible in the pool, too.  After that mani/pedi, if it's not raining, I will be enjoying the pool and ambiance at the Cove!

The weight is staying the same.  Yesterday morning was Weigh-in Monday, and I was 273.4, essentially the same as when we left for vacation.  I did not eat particularly well Friday or Sunday, but Saturday and Monday were great.  I only had 1300 calories yesterday, but I had essentially no exercise for three straight days.  Hence this morning I am up a pound from yesterday.  I don't really know why.  I plan to eat well today, so I hope to see that extra pound gone tomorrow morning. 

I will close today's blog with another set of vacation pictures.  Here are pictures from our second day at Disneyland.

Waiting for the bus outside of our hotel.  This little ART bus was a lifesaver everyday, cheaply and efficiently taking us to and from the parks.

Then we went to the River Belle Terrace for breakfast.  Walt used to have his Sunday breakfast there every week.  I enjoyed watching them make the Mickey pancakes, although I did not order one.

We have pictures of us and the kids out at this outdoor table area.  Now it's just us here.  We do this every time we come to Disneyland, though.

We rode the Storybook Canal, which is unique to Disneyland.

Adorable miniature villages and houses look lifesize in this picture.

Heading under the topiary arches.

Next it was time to go to Small World, which looks completely different on the outside and somewhat different inside, too, than in Florida.

Mark LOVES the Shooting Gallery.

21 out of 21 shots hit the target.  He never misses.

We went to a special Frozen show.  It was cute and unlike anything in Florida.

These two men were very funny and portrayed all the parts in the show except the grown-up Anna and Elsa.  They played the young girls with puppets!

At 6 p.m. we staked out this bench on Main Street to wait for the evening parade and fireworks again.  They were so spectacular that we wanted to see them again.  Mark got us dinner from the nearby Starbucks.

I went out to the Lost and Found and got my pink Minnie hat back! 

Paint the Night is the parade, and we had a perfect view of the other side of it tonight from last night.  We were also right up close to it.

When the parade ended, we went out into the middle of Main Street.  View of the castle was perfect for the fireworks.

The buildings of Main Street are all lit up throughout the fireworks.  Our view tonight was MUCH better than last night.