Organizing my Frozen Meals While Recovering from Knee Surgery

Frozen Homemade TV Dinners ready for a quick meal.

While I have been recovering from knee surgery (complete replacement of my right knee), I have not been gadding about, but rather have been confined here at home.  My recovery is going quite well, but I miss getting out and about.  I have been doing some things that I CAN do while confined to the house, especially with the help of Debbie.  Debbie was one of Dan's wonderful caretakers, and she has stepped in to give me some part time help as well. 




Frequently I cook more than one or two people can eat, so I freeze the extras as dinners that I can pop in the microwave or in the oven and have a quick meal. I have three different containers that I use for this. 

These can be heated in the microwave.  I like the "cup" for freezing a couple of servings of soup.

This compartmentalized aluminum container must be heated in the oven, not the microwave.

 If you are like me you find things stashed in the back of the freezer that has time expired or has mummified.  So I used some of my time the other day,with Debbie's help to, organize my frozen meals. 

Frozen meals organized in the fridge in the garage. 

My updated list of what's available in the freezer for a quick meal. 

I keep a list posted near the fridge in the garage so I can mark off meals as they are used. 
And I can add meals as I prepare more.  Sometime the kids or grands come over and grab a meal and forget to mark it off, so every now and then I have to recheck the inventory and update my list.  Debbie and I did this the other day, so now I have an updated list and a pretty good supply of frozen meals which is handy because I'm not doing much cooking right now.

Gadding About With Uber

I'm not allowed to drive because of my surgery 4 weeks ago.  Knee replacement.  Although my son or grandsons have been driving me around I wanted to try my first Uber experience.  So I signed up and it worked beautifully.

Uber will be here in 3 minutes.  Wow!!!!

I arrived for my appoinment with Rana half an hour early.  I requested Uber plenty early.

.

Kent was a good driver and very helpful.  5 stars.

Getting my hair cut at my hairdressers' Rana.

When I was finished I requested Uber to go back home


Back home in 7 minutes.

Safely back home with driver Terrence.  Great ride.  5 stars.

It's good to be gadding about again.  And now I can use Uber just like my young grandsons.  Maybe I should sign up to be a Uber driver to make a little "mad money" and to add a little excitement to my life!

Blogging hiatus for a couple of weeks

Recovering from knee surgery and won't have time or energy enough to be gadding about.  Check back in a couple of weeks.

A Busy Sunday

Light house at Peggy's Cove on a foggy afternoon.

Last Sunday my grandson Brooks and his friend Missy and I flew to Nova Scotia.  The day started early.  We flew out of RDU at 6:00am and traveled via Toronto to Halifax landing there about 1:00 pm.  Immediately we took the shuttle to our motel near the airport where we also rented our car for the week. 

By 3:00pm we were on our way to Peggy's Cove.  Unfortunately it was a rather foggy day there.  I stayed in the parking lot while Brooks and Missy walked out to the lighthouse.  From my vantage point I could barely make out the outline of the lighthouse because of the fog.  But they had a better view close up. 

Lighthouse from the parking lot.

Then we headed to downtown Halifax and the Halifax waterfront.  I had never taken the ferry from Halifax over to Dartmouth so I suggested we do that.  It gave us a great view of the Halifax harbor from the other side. 


Brooks and Missy on the ferry to Dartmouth.

The Halifax waterfront from the Dartmouth side of the harbor.

Dinner at Salty's was good as usual.

Our view while having dinner at Salty's. 

 And then over to Cow's Ice Cream for dessert.

Cow's Ice Cream.

I was disappointed they didn't have my favorite flavor Maple Walnut,  Then we walked on over to the Casino where we had parked the car.  Brooks and I went into the Casino, but since Missy doesn't turn 19 until September, she had to wait in the lobby.


I won $63.00 on the penny slot machine in just three spins. 

 I sat down at a slot machine, put in $20.00 and on my third spin I was up to $83.00.  I said I'm quitting.  So I walked out $63.00 to the good. 


It was a long day.  But a fun one. 

Dan's Zebra Chair

Dan in his Zebra chair in his office with me and three of his former graduate students.

Almost thirty years ago now, I was shopping in Durham with my mother and I happened to see a recliner covered in an African motif in a store window.  I told my mom I was going to get it for Dan's birthday.  Dan's career was spent mainly in research on African lakes, and I thought the chair would be perfect for him.  At first the chair had a place in our den in our Durham house, but when we moved to Raleigh there wasn't a place where it fit, so Dan took it to his lab at Duke.  It provided a perfect place for him to rest in his office or to sit while he had tea with colleagues or students.

Lou in chair in Dan's office at Duke Lab. 

When we cleaned out Dan's lab recently, there was the issue of what to do with his chair.  Although I have fond memories of the chair, I still don't have a place for it here, and one of his last work study students had such wonderful memories of having tea with Dan while he sat in the chair and the two of them had tea that I decided the chair belonged with her. She has told me what an influence Dan had on her as her mentor while she was at Duke.  The student, Dr. Lou, is now a pediatrican at Oregon  Health and Science University Hospital in Portland, Oregon. 


It was quite an ordeal getting the chair to Portland. 

Unloading chair at UPS.

We checked around with various shipping agencies and found that UPS freight would be the best bet.  The owner of a UPS store near Duke went over to the lab and got the chair.  Dr. Lou takes a ride in the chair at UPS.

As it turned out it was going to be more expensive to send it by UPS so the nice man found a less expensive company to ship it for us.

Chair arrived in Portland.

The chair arrived in Oregon with no damages.

The Zebra chair in Dr. Lou's office.  Dan would be pleased.

And now the Zebra Chair resides in Dr. Lou's office in the OHSU Hospital.