Hi all, Near the middle of October, I went away for a little while, and was pretty sick when I came back. I've been fighting this thing often on since then, and finally feel like I have rejoined the human race. I have been reading this whole time, but just didn't feel up to answering many posts. So for those of you who enjoyed the quiet from my corner of the world, so sorry. It feels good to be back among the land of the living.

I can't wait until it is my lunch hour. I have two exciting options to pick from. I can either take a nap because my Apple Watch gave me a sleep score of 30 and I feel like crap on a cracker, or I can get a shower because that's when I will finally have hot water again. Apparently, the pilot light went out on my hot water heater. So how's everyone else's Thursday going?

Sometimes, the best way to celebrate the almost end to a chaotic and unpredictable week is an emotional support pizza! Good stuff!

Good morning. Does anyone know of an app that teaches ear training: chords, intervals, etc., that is usable with VoiceOver? I tried two apps last night, and couldn't use about half the features in either one. I have a Flashcards app, and I could essentially create flashcards, but it would be quite a time intensive thing, so if I can find it already done, that would be great.

@pawpower has inspired me. I got the Walk the Distance app, and just signed up to do a trail through Shenandoah National Park. This one is 106 miles, so will take me a bit. When I am back up to 30 minutes a day of exercise, I will pick something more ambitious, but this looks interesting.

I forgot to say that my dad is in the hospital, and she mentioned this on her post, which is why I am concerned for my mom's safety. I feel like a group text to a few family. Friends would've been much better than something so public.

This is therapy for me, disguised as what I think is good advice for anyone who needs it. My sister just posted a message to Facebook, saying today is my dad's birthday and giving out his cell so that people could text him. This not only opens him up to all kinds of scammers and creepers, but it lets anyone with evil intent know that my mom is home alone. Please, think about what you post, especially if you are playing fast and loose with someone else's information. It may come from a place of caring, but that's not going to help if they are compromised because of your actions. End of lecture. Have a nice day.

I haven't been posting a lot lately, but I am here. I'm still dealing with the steroid taper after my tooth extraction. I'm finally getting to the point where sleep is a little less broken, so that is a good thing. My dad was taken to the hospital Thursday. Long story, but meds built up in his system, his kidneys were not filtering them, and he got pretty confused. He is doing much better, and I am grateful. Their plan is to send him to rehab tomorrow. Ironically, this is his 84th birthday. I'm sure he'd rather be home, but this is a step in the right direction.

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers for Gracie when she had her trip to the emergency vet about 10 days ago. My regular vet saw her today, and all looks good. She suggested I start her on a supplement to hopefully prevent this from happening in the future. It has been ordered. Now, we shall see if her majesty will actually eat it.

Happy Friday to me, except not really. This morning, I went and had a tooth extracted. For about an hour, I felt very foolish for taking off the entire day when I really could go back to work. After the hour past and some of the good stuff started wearing off, I was glad to have the entire day. I waited to try and nap after my prescriptions were delivered, but could not get comfortable. I've got two hours until my next Tylenol, and I am feeling it, so I guess it's time to put the dreaded ice pack back on my face. Two years ago, I had two teeth extracted, not just one like today. It must've had something to do with the location or some other factor, because I don't remember the previous extraction being nearly this uncomfortable. Thanks for listening to my whinefest.

For the last couple days, Gracie has expressed some discomfort. At first, I thought she was having an issue with anxiety, but it just got worse and worse. By this morning, she kept circling, could not settle, and was basically kind of screaming. So, we are at the emergency vet. Her anal glands were overly full, and have now been taken care of. She is getting an antibiotic injection and pain meds to take home. I would love to know what caused this so that maybe it can be prevented. This is the first time she has had an issue like this. My poor baby! I hate when they are in pain and can't just tell us what is wrong.

In a few days, I think I will have some plain goat cheese I need to use. I also have empanada discs in my freezer. I'm trying to figure out what to add to the goat cheese for a filling. Any thoughts?

Good morning from my house, where are things are looking pretty good. The coffee is strong, and I got a Wordle in four. I didn't post my score yesterday because I had to cheat and look up words that contain one letter in the position I needed it, so I did get it, but not fairly. Anyway, my produce baskets also came this morning, and they fit beautifully right in the place where I had planned. It will be nice to get the onions and such out of the bottom of my cupboard and hopefully avoid any more exploding produce.

Gather 'round, friends, and I will teach you the wonders of the lowly sweet potato. It does not last as long as regular potatoes, and new research findings indicate it loathes being stored in a plastic bag. If you are foolish enough to do this, it will disgorge its displeasure *everywhere*! #Eewww! In my defense, I don't really care for sweet potatoes. I buy them when I want to dry them for dogs or make a casserole for a family thing. I bought one, thinking I would cook it and try again. Needless to say, I had a rather unpleasant surprise when I opened my cupboard, which is now free of liquid sweet potato displeasure.

Good morning all. I got the Wordle in five today. Not bad, considering that my first attempt did not yield any correct letters.

I got today's Wordle in four. Not too bad for my half awake state of mind.

I really don't enjoy calling tech-support. Often, I feel like the solution they suggest is something I should've thought of myself, and probably would have if it was not my equipment that was malfunctioning. This morning, I talked to Matt at American Printing House, and after going through a couple steps, he suggested I try uninstalling NVDA again, and then searching for anything it might have left behind. This was actually quite a bit. Once it was gone, I was able to reinstall, and braille came up near the end of the install process. I have been using it a lot more than I realized, so don't remember ever being quite so happy to see those dots pop-up.

Well, my mantis and NVDA are still not playing nice. I have tried resetting to factory defaults, doing an accessibility repair, and completely reinstalling NVDA. Still no dice. I am back to using jaws for the time being. I can still hear the audio, but it's taking more work to decipher some words. I don't think I realized how dependent I had become on braille, especially when the word I think I heard makes no sense in context.

What fun! My mantis is working fine with jaws, but stopped working with NVDA this morning. I have tried restarting both the mantis and the PC, but no luck. When I try to change to the Baum driver, I get an error that says it cannot be loaded. Fun times! I think something overheard me saying I probably would cancel my Jaws subscription, and it forwarded that Intel to the powers that be, and this is why the braille display is not working with NVDA. :-)

I have decided to get back into playing Wordle. I got today's in three. I'm calling beginners luck. :-)