A Road Less Traveled

Wednesday I took Kramer for radiation.  Before his regular appointment his docs sent him for a head MRI.  Kramer’s been having lots of headaches that don’t always respond to meds….so, that’s reason to wonder if he has a brain tumor so, time for an MRI.

His appointment was at 1:45pm.  We got there in the right amount of time and he was called back at about 1:40.  The gal at registration told us it would take about 45 minutes so I settled in to cross stitch.

I ended up having another hospital visitor stop and talk to me about cross stitching.  It was a very nice interchange and in the end I found out she knows the gals at Forest Mills Quilt Shop and had heard of me in a roundabout way.  Ha!!  Small world.  I immediately knew I’d love her after only talking to her for a few minutes.  People who create with their hands are often kindred spirits.

After she left I looked at the clock.  Hm..  I had about 10 more minutes to stitch.  Then I looked at the clock and hmmm.  55 minutes had passed….and then 65 minutes passed..then 75.  What?  I was starting to worry.  It was only supposed to take 45 minutes.  I started to think they did find a tumor and had to do more testing or they called people in to look at it.  UGH.  95 minutes after he went in, Kramer finally came out.

It turns out that mid scan Kramer fell asleep.  He started twitching and a portion of the scan had to be repeated.  I was shocked he could fall to sleep but I do know he had a LONG miserable night the night before…so being he’s so exhausted, I guess I can believe it from him.  AH..I sure was worried though.

After radiation we were off…this time we took a road less traveled.  We went down the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River from Lacrosse and crossed the bridge at Lansing Iowa.  It was what we needed…new scenery-something new to talk about about.  The roads through southern Minnesota are getting old.  We’re 23 trips in and it’s all getting old-including the scenery.

Part of my reasoning for going this way was because I wanted to stop at Horsfalls in Lansing.  I’ve not been to the store but just from the outside, I could imagine the inside.

I was right…see??
There are about 4-5 stores all in row, owned by the same person…and they all look like this!

I heard they had DMC embroidery floss and there were a few numbers I needed.  Supposedly they carry a full line…but the problem, how do I find it??

I went in the wrong store, sent to another, waded through and finally found this display.

It was 49 cents each and they were FULLY stocked.

After I got the tread I peaked around….

WOW…$1.79 each.  That’s a good price.

Oh my…all of this was stamp embroidery!!  WOW.

…and yarn!!

$4 of thread later, we were back on the road headed towards home.

On the way home we got a call from Kalissa….she had news.  The FAMOUS Kramer cake holder met its’ end.

Shucks.  It has severed our family well over the last 10ish years.  It was a sad day for all Kramers.  We have been making cakes for this like no other family makes cakes.  At one point when Karl was in high school his friend said, “Is that a real cake?”  I couldn’t understand why his friend said that and then the friend said, “well there’s always a cake in there”.  That’s the truth.  95% of the cake stands’ life with us, there was a famous Kramer cake in it.  Here’s the recipe.  I’d like to thank the stand for it’s fine service to our family.

Happily Kalissa has one at her house that she is passing on to me.  She never uses it as she eats all her cake at my house anyway!!

My evening ended with this….a walk.
…and happily just before bedtime we got good news.

“No MR evidence for intracranial metastasis.”  Kramer’s results came in.  NO TUMOR!!  We couldn’t be happier.  We needed good news and thankfully we’ve gotten some this week!!

I’m off to bed…it will be an early morning.