A few forumites enjoyed similar posts in years gone by.  Here is what I am up to:

I enjoy building toys for needy children, distributed by the US Marines "Toys for Tots" program.  In the past I have made various toys, but lately I have concentrated on biplanes.  These are not the cheap "throw away" toys that this charity usually receives, they are hand made from solid oak.  For me, the hours spent in my workshop are absolutely the best way to get into the Christmas spirit. 

This year I started with only a half squadron, and mistakenly ruined one of them.  I'm down to only two toys to donate, but at least it's more than zero.

Photos to follow; without photos it didn't happen.  I am not going to touch them until the top coat of varnish dries (tomorrow).

I had hoped to limit my posts to uplifting topics.  Reality intrudes.

We have a loose gunman roving our town, someone with military training and quite likely weaponry to match.  He has killed at least one person.

We are safe and sound.

We were told to stay home and lock the doors.  Barricade.  Our door is not only a work of art, it's also thermally efficient and bullet resistant.  Turn the key and it's a barricade.  My lovely bride is a big fan of having an Engineer on staff.

Enough of that.  Let's talk about new music and cooking ideas and toys!  Uplifting is good?

- Andy

I had become too predictable.  Shame on me.  Every year I would deliver a small tray of baklava (the good stuff, from across town).  Since my lovely bride always shared with her coworkers, everyone came to expect it.  I had to change things up.

As soon as my lovely bride fell asleep the night before Valentines Day I went downstairs and started cooking.  By morning she had a basket overflowing with pralines.  Some were vanilla bourbon flavor, others were Kahlua.

When we woke up she noticed the basket.  She tore open one of the wrappers and was skeptical.  It was a praline.  The pralines from the praline shops are really terrible.  She took one bite and exclaimed that this was home-made!  How?  When?  There was much kissing.

She took the basket to work and offered pralines to coworkers in her department and others in every meeting throughout the day.  There were plenty to go around.

In December we had shepherded some of her coworkers around the French Quarter; we knew where to get good food and music while avoiding the long lines.  We also introduced them to good pralines, not the ones in the praline shops.  They really didn't mind having some of the home-made ones.

- A

I did a rather inadvisable Firefox upgrade and it toasted all stored passwords.

Can you hear me?  Is this getting through?

Please respond, to anyone at all.

We shall see what level of effort this will require.  Most likely (God willing!) not a Katrina level response, but I am told the food banks are running on empty and refugees have a habit of getting hungry.  Another benefit concert is in order.

Seriously, I can do more good playing music with a little help from my friends.  We shall see what we can do.

Have you ever had an opportunity that was just so much the right thing to do that you could not possibly turn it down?

Our fiddler is out for the next month, playing festivals hither and yon.  At the same time, a good friend has need of our services.

We had discussed this within the band.  My friend (a violinist) has been taking care of her shut-in mother for many years.  Her mother has never heard my friend playing with other musicians.  Egads!  This is not right!

Her mother had a nasty slip-and-fall in which she broke her tailbone.  She has been released from the hospital and is now in a rehab center.

My friend would like to play some music for her mother, and would like to play with us.  How could I possibly say no?  This is the right thing to do.

This might not be considered "medical advice", but it's the next best thing.  This is not my first rodeo.

Always, always follow the doctor's instructions.  If they say no food after midnight the day before an operation, they really mean it.  Rich food, not after 8:00.

Surgeons always want to operate on a strong and healthy patient.  They have a better success rate and recovery time is reduced.

In the case of kidney stones, there is much pain and here in the US it might be more than a month before the operation takes place.  Pain medications are wonderful, and you should not skimp on them, but everything has a side effect.  They kill the appetite when she needs to maintain her strength.  A month of starvation will really play havoc with the immune system.

During that month (maybe more) I try to cook things that would make her hungry in spite of the pain medicines.  Let your creative spirit soar!  Cook some of her old favorites.  Cook something that fills the house with an aroma so delightful that the neighbors salivate.  Punch through the side effects of the medicine; make her hungry!  She needs to eat.  Something about having a strong and healthy patient . . .

Do not violate the doctor's orders.  If he says no food or water for however long before the operation, so be it.  He knows what he's doing.

Post-op is a different story.  She will have an upset stomach but she will be very hungry.  Cook some very plain but very fluffy scrambled eggs, but not more than two or three eggs.  She might want more, but her eyes will be bigger than her stomach (the food will come back up if you serve more).  Serve with one slice of lightly buttered toast.  This is seriously not the time or place to show off your cooking skills, except in how to make the plain scrambled eggs extra light and fluffy.

Do not expect thanks or compliments for the cooking leading up to the day of surgery.  Let's be reasonable.  She was on massive pain medication and does not remember it.  This is not about you, except that you can take some small degree of personal pride in helping her through it.

- A