COOKING DISASTER!  Well, I had them before this all started so why should anything be any different now.  Decided today I would make soup so dug out a couple of recipes, one for asparagus soup, the other for a soup my Mom used to make called Old Fashioned Oxtail Soup.  Started with the asparagus and all was going terrific until I put it in my Vitamix and blasted it on high.  I am sure you have a vision of this because I think everyone has made this mistake at one time or other.  If not, good for you.  I myself have done it several times.  There was a mini explosion out the top of the vitamix and asparagus soup everywhere, including all over me!  S#&!......Got that mess cleaned up and moved on to the Oxtail Soup which I have never made but have kept the recipe for years with the best of intentions of making it because we all loved it when Mom made it.  It is a pretty involved recipe and took quite a lot of time and lots of steps but all was going well.  Decided to take Boomer out for a quick walk in the ravine and left the soup simmering on the stove.  Well, maybe a little more than simmering!  The minute I walked in the door I could smell the aroma of BURNT soup.  Gross!  Totally wrecked it!  One thing's for sure, the holiday from cooking hasn't eased my failure rate in the kitchen!

Feeling quite a bit better today.  Have laid off drinking anything today and am hoping like heck that this vomiting thing isn't because I'm aspirating the liquid I'm taking in.  That would be a total bummer.  Guess next weeks test will be the telling tale.

Had another couple of emails from my friend that I talked about in yesterday's blog.  An email from her is the biggest treat of my day.  Everyone tells me that I am positive and inspirational (which I don't get because I really am not positive all of the time) but this lady really has her feet firmly planted on the good earth and meets each challenge head on with the attitude "it will be OK".  She expresses herself so eloquently that I must share a couple of her thoughts with you because they are so well expressed.  Her family has been through so much and she told me that as a family, their first step to building resiliency was to make "hope their home."  Through each trial they focussed on the possibility of a positive outcome and did not go to those dark places we sometimes want to visit.  My friend and her family live life to the fullest.  She told me for them it is not about the "Bucket List" but about living a full life with both feet on the ground with your eyes wide open.  That's how I view things too but I know I could never express it as beautifully as she did for me.  I know she reads this blog and I want her to know how much I appreciate the fact that despite her own problems she still takes the time to write to me.  I have learned many things over the past months, one being that the world is full of interesting, talented, compassionate people.  Too often we get caught up in our busy lifestyles and we lose sight of this fact. It seems easier to engage in petty gossip and to focus on things that make your cross.   Perhaps because I have more time to sit back and watch I am reminded that we all need to stop and take stock of what we have.  Enjoy your life, appreciate your spouse and your family (mine have been rock solid), do not take anything for granted because it may not be there forever, take time to give compliments, smile at a complete stranger because who knows what's going on in their life, enjoy the little things, the smell of grass, the beauty of a blooming apple tree, a gurgling creek, the smell of a puppy.......Love your life!  It can change in a blink of an eye.