Two years ago when the first knee surgery happened I tried "stepping down" from oxy to tramadol, and found that the tramadol was difficult to just stop, I felt it in an uncomfortable way. The pharmacy had changed their phone system and I couldn't get through so I finally got a ride over there to stand in line to ask the pharmacist if I could safely cut the tablets to taper off of them. Thankfully, he said yes. This time I skipped the "stepping down" part and just worked my way off of the oxy. The best tool to have in a house where you're taking multiple complex medications is a pill-splitter. That's what I'm doing with the flexeril these days, 1/2 a pill a day and then every 36 hours, till I'm off of them and hopefully no more leg cramps. I was off of the oxy last weekend and as Steve says, they weren't helping the knee pain anyway. The knee now hurts mostly because of positional issues - trying to get comfortable and how it rests on a pillow. And trying to not get another case of bursitis in the hip.

Last night I decided I wanted to cook a real meal so I made an eggplant and pork dish (with onions and tomatoes, served over fried or mashed potatoes). It came out great. I ate a little and the rest is in the fridge and my ex will be over for lunch or dinner today. I gave everyone in the family a copy of the cookbook it comes from (I've discussed it here before - Tess Mallos' The Complete Middle East Cookbook). So when I was telling him about this dish (I thought he'd eaten it here before?) I told him what page and he looked it up while we were talking. Most of the family has the hummus recipe memorized, and there are others that everyone enjoys. Which reminds me, I wonder if I sent this to my sister? She might have our mother's copy. The funny thing about this book is that new editions are paperback and are about $60, but you can find good hardback editions for under $10. I always have a couple extra copies of this book in the kitchen and on impulse have given them to friends and neighbors (and coworkers before I retired. We often times had international students working in our department and talking about food was one of those conversations that really brought people together. This book was handy at those times. I gave my office copy to a coworker when I retired.)

Today I took a good look at the house and it's like the inside of a goat's stomach. A month of recuperating and not having people in (at which time I tend to pick up) has left stuff sitting everywhere. I have an audiobook I want to finish by tomorrow so I'll put the headphones on and just quietly work my way through the house as I listen to the murder mystery in Three Pines.

I dread seeing my electric bill this month. It's going to be a whopper. This week hovered around 102^o, next week it's up around 106^o. Over the course of the last month I lost another 4 pounds without even intending to; it's the heat that makes the prospect of eating very unappealing. Yesterday's cooking was simply because I had thawed a pork tenderloin and didn't want to waste it. I've gone through a lot of fruit this summer.