Schmooze / Mother's Day 2023

This past week the trend of taking care of family members continued. On Wednesday Vivi and Margot went for grooming. We have been taking them to Furbabies Resort & Spa which is only about 5 minutes from home. They do a superb job which is saying a lot because Margot does not have the best reputation. The two of them have been collecting these little round plant pods on their beards and legs from going on walks. Margot is OK with me carefully removing them but Vivi just will not have it. If she even sees me removing them from Margot, she quietly leaves the room. Margot was free of them when she went to grooming but Vivi had a lot, plus they were both matted.

This groomer cuts no corners - many groomers would just shave them and start over. Not Furbabies! They do charge extra for de-matting but two hours later the two of them looked like show dogs! I should have taken a photo but photos just do not capture how good they looked. I am trying to keep up with brushing so they do not get so matted next time but neither of them is crazy about being brushed. I think it really helps Margot to go with Vivi so she is not as scared. Kuochun has been adamant about taking Margot to the place in downtown Mount Prospect but they really do not do a good job. Margot is adorable and deserves to look nice. It is further away from us but The Barking Lodge in Arlington Heights does a great job on Vivi. They were not taking new clients so hopefully when we return they will not only take Vivi back, but take Margot too. If not, I have heard about a place near us with rave reviews.

On Thursday, I took Mother to her CT scan which is one of the tests to take in preparation for her pulmonologist's appointment on the 24th. She does not like tight spaces and the doctor gave her one pill to take to help with anxiety. She made it through the test just fine. One more to check off the list!

Mother was hungry after the appointment and since it was early and the weather was quite a bit cooler Thursday than it had been, I thought it was a good time to try Schmooze. We stumbled upon the restaurant when we went to The Herb Box for Easter, it is right around the corner. I picked Kuochun up from home and we headed over there. Luckily we found a close parking spot. The setting of the restaurant is lovely, mostly outdoor dining in a lush, garden-like patio. Since it was our first time there, we were not familar with the procedure. There was no host stand so we assumed it was seat ourselves. After a bit of wandering around, one of the food runners confirmed this. There are also no servers - the runner told us to scan the QR code on the table and place our order. I have seen QR codes to see menus but not to place orders. It was fine - if it helps to keep the costs down we can deal with it. The orange juice for Mother and Kuochun came first - we found out that water is serve yourself inside the restaurant. The food arrived some time after that - Kuochun selected the everything bagel with lox, Mother had a Mediterranean omelet and I chose the breakfast sandwich with bacon. I like bacon but usually choose sausage. Schmooze only had Italian sausage which I was not in the mood for early in the morning. I was not bowled over but it was pretty good. I think the potatoes were deep fried which I thought was not needed for breakfast. The setting was lovely and it was the right day to go but I do not think I will be in a hurry to go there again. I am more of a pancake or waffle person which they did not offer. I am very glad we gave it a try though. Old Town is so popular it is difficult to get a table at any of the restaurants. Since we are here past the normal "snowbird" time, I am sure that helped. Of course though, they want a 20% tip!

Friday it was time to take Mother to Tempe, where she had a follow-up visit with a physician's assistant after her hospital stay. Since we missed the prior appointment with a primary doctor, she technically does not have one in Arizona yet. The consensus was Mother's blood pressure was too low and that she should stop taking the water pills because it may be causing this. We are going to wait until the appointment on the 24th though before we start making any changes to the medication she has been taking. The PA also wants her to take infusions to increase her iron level and we will make a call to be sure that is what we should be doing. This was my first experience with a PA and she simply asked if Mother wanted refills on any of her prescriptions but then later asked her to drop or change medications. Everyone was very nice and kind but I am not so sure we will go back there. It did not feel the same as seeing a doctor and these are important decisions. If only we knew we would still be here and could have taken the June appointment with the primary doctor to replace the one we missed.

Mother's Day was low-key since I had a lot of estate sale paperwork to do. We would have taken time to go out somewhere but Mother's choice was to order a thin crust and tiramisu from Lou Malnati's, which has a carry-out location only 6 minutes from home. She customized her own pizza, avoiding the sausage and pepperoni we normally get in order to reduce the salt level. She loved it! I also decided to forego posting a jewelry lot and watched American Idol live with her. She said it was the best Mother's Day ever!

That will do it for this week. I keep saying to myself I have another month to go, there is still time to polish and price the jewelry but now all of a sudden we are approaching less than a month to go. I only have two estate sale packages to do next week so even though it is no fun, I will make it a priority to tackle some of those shoeboxes. It will be a happy day when that project is done and I can spend more time with online selling. This past week I sold pieces through the Facebook groups, Poshmark, eBay and Etsy. My favorite squash blossom necklace ever sold on Etsy Sunday. This is such a flattering necklace, I was very tempted to keep it but it is a bit heavier than I am used to and it is hard to get Kuochun out of athleisure wear and into something nice enough where I could dress up too and wear this. The buyer happens to be local so we are going to try and meet up so I do not have to ship it. I will miss it but the sale will help pay bills.