Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Three Beautiful Things 09/17/18: Getting Blood to Baltimore, Lamb Chop Debut, Wild Poker

1. Each month the transplant center in Baltimore sends me a letter regarding the status of the monthly blood sample I have drawn and sent to them. The letter I received Saturday informed me, without alarm, that the blood sample they received during the third week of July was, on the day they sent the letter, over forty days old. That means the sample I had drawn and sent out in August didn't make it to Baltimore -- for whatever reason. The same thing happened in June: my June sample never got to Baltimore.

So, first thing this morning, I zoomed up to the clinic, blood sample kit in hand, and had my September blood draw taken and talked with Tracy, the phlebotomist, about my samples not making it. Like me, she was bewildered, but she is determined to do what it might require to see that this doesn't happen again -- including making a visit to the post office herself -- and gave me an idea or two about what I might suggest to my transplant team in Baltimore.

The people I correspond with in Baltimore are really good -- and, they, too are bewildered that two of my samples didn't arrive. If this September sample doesn't make it, I'll talk with them about figuring out a different and possibly more reliable way of sending the transplant center my blood.

2. I thawed a couple of small boneless lamp chops to fix for dinner tonight. I'd never fixed lamb chops before.  I subscribe to the website at America's Test Kitchen, so I looked at some lamb chop recipes. One caught my eye. Now, this recipe was for grilling the lamb chop, so I let that part of the recipe go, but I liked the looks of making a garlic, rosemary, and olive oil paste for the chops. So, I got out my trusty mortar and pestle and smashed a couple cloves of garlic, added some rosemary leaves, crushed those together, stirred in some olive oil, applied the mixture to the lamb chops, put them in one of our permanent zip lock bags, and let the chops sit in the fridge for nearly two hours. I fried them for a few minutes on each side and they turned out really tasty, as did the roasted Brussel sprouts and cole slaw the Deke whipped up.

3. I settled in to watch the Astros and the Mariners, but, alas, the game was blacked out because of where I live. I decided to look at other options for television viewing on our very smart tv and, on PlutoTV, I found a channel that broadcasts replays of final tables of different WPT tournaments. I watched a thrilling duel between Olivier Busquet and Jeremy Brown as they battled heads up for the 2009 WPT Borgata Open in Atlantic City. In case you ever decide to watch the conclusion to this tournament, I won't divulge the results. It's entertaining. That's all I'll say.

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