What's on your Tuesday Menu?

Good Morning everyone. Well, it's been a very tough few days for me. Grim was away, and my Dad ended up back in the hospital. Apparently he caught COVID on the plane with me last weekend and he's not doing too well. His oxygen dropped so low that it caused a heart attack. He's in the ICU and they are monitoring him closely. It's so scary and awful. I will just go ahead and admit that I comforted myself with some crappy carbs this weekend and I turned off my phone and just tried to ignore the world. I am really scared -- not that he's not going to pull through, but that his body is becoming too fragile for him to live safely without assistive care. I went ahead and bought some new things for my parents to help make home safer for him, but I don't know if this is a long term solution or not. He's been in the hospital more than not over the last 4 weeks :(

But on the plus side, Grim came home after I went to bed last night and it was nice to wake up with him next to me this morning. Back to work today and hopefully a normal day will help whip me back into shape.

QOTD: What are you looking forward to this fall? I feel like I missed summer because I never made it to a beach and barely saw the sun. So I am determined to take advantage of some autumn joy. I want to pick apples, carve pumpkins, go up to the mountains to see the leaves, and do all the things.

• protein coffee
• 1/2 breakfast burrito
• cauliflower crust pizza
• mushrooms & turkey meatballs

Good morning everyone - happy first taco tuesday in SEPTEMBER. September people! Wow

QJB, nothing wrong with checking out for your mental health, in fact, it's probably a healthy occasional coping mechanism. I hope your dad gets sorted out and if he needs to move into a care facility, there are good ones available that are convenient for you and your mom. Maybe there's a home heal care step that will be available first though.

QoTD - I have a couple of concerts this month, homecoming for one of my nephews, a long weekend in Nashville with a girl friend and of course getting my halloween decorations up, trick or treaters and Thanksgiving. I love fall.

I tried to reply/post a few times but was blocked from South Africa; but I read a bit when I had availability. I don't think I will go back and try to recreate replies over the last 2 or so weeks though.

Back to work today and ready for some normality, our last 4 days I don't think I broke 2K steps any of the days and I need the exercise for my mental state. Somehow, I came home 2.3 lbs lighter than I left, and I found the solution for sleeping on long haul flights (2 glasses of wine, a unisom and my malaria pill) and slept for about 7 of the 15 hour leg, can't beat that.

Yesterday, I did get in a short walk and some stretching but my steps and activity level were low so back on track today. I was disappointed that while I was diligent to get my 1X a week workout with my on-line program, only one of the sessions registered so my 126 week streak came to an end, technically. Back to week 1.

Today is getting a walk in before I start work, work, running to the UPS store at some point to mail my sister's bday present and laundry.

I did have a grocery delivery so I'm set up for the right choices this week!

coffee plus half and half X3

greek yogurt with granola

salami and cheese

polish sausage

I will bore everyone with pictures for a few days, even though it's not Photo Friday.

Baboons at the Cape of Good Hope

Elands (which are the largest type of Antelope) on the Cape of Good Hope

An Ostrich on the cape of good hope (all adult male ostriches are black, immature and female ostriches are this grey)

Penguins at Boulder Beach near Simontown

The view from Cape Point lighthouse (the southeastern most end point of Africa) and the sign at the Cape of Good Hope.

Welcome back Jen. I knew you were having exciting adventures but really missed your posts. Glad to see you and your amazing pictures.

So good to have you back posting Jen, you've been missed. Your pics are amazing! Looks like such a beautiful and interesting place.

Great pictures. When our kids were young I used to try and pass off the baboons as monkeys because i hated the smell of the monkey house and the Baboons lived outside. They didn't buy it.

African painted wolves smelled the worst. But were cute enough to almost make up for it.

They are cute!

Welcome home!

Love these photos! Welcome home. It's nice to get back to regularly scheduled programming isn't it. No matter how fun the trip was!

Glad to have you back.