Rough night. Currently having a d-itis flare and the pain was sharp enough to wake me at 2:30am. My innards were achy on and off Friday and Saturday, but it was constant ache last evening and knife-like pain overnight. I'm going mostly liquid/low fiber diet today, and I hope that resolves it. The surgeon said 24 hrs on liquid, if that doesn't help, then call my dr for antibiotics. Such a fun disease to have. Not. Once the worst was over, I finally found a less painful way to lay in bed, and fell back asleep around 4.

I was in the middle of a very vivid apocalyptical dream before the pain woke me. We were holed up in a college campus bldg. For some reason, I refused to wear a shirt. The post office was still operating and people were mailing food to their destinations. I was trying to get people to stop, explaining that the govt was just taking the food for themselves, but no one would listen to me. Honey was busy building something. There were armed roving gangs of white young men in their 20s that we had to hide from.

The Valentine card from honey was homemade this year.

I give him an A+ for spending time on it. I'd rather have this than any store bought gift. (There's more to it on the inside.)

I had contacted daughter early Saturday morning to see if I could swing by to drop off Valentine goodies for the kids. She said i could come by late afternoon, but she'd let me know a time later. At 7pm she finally texted that the brunch she had went long, how about Sunday? Okay. So she texts me when to come and I arrive and they're eating lunch and the TV is on. It seems like every time she invites me over, they're eating. It's so stupid, because I sit there on the couch waiting, because they don't have enough chairs for me to also sit at the table. Why she doesn't give me a time after they've eaten is beyond me.

Both Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous days, with temps approaching 50, so I took dog for a walk each day and we soaked in the sunshine and warmth. The snow is slowly melting, although not fast enough for me. Still a lot more to go. Lots of big puddles to attempt to walk around. And we're not close to being done with winter. We still have to get through March which always brings some big dumpings of snow with it. I will just enjoy these warm days as I can.

The neighbors across the street tapped their two maple trees on Saturday. I think it is a little early, but whatever.

And my next door neighbor is annoying me. I haven't really talked with him since his ignorant response to the thug tactics and first murder and his insistence that they were going after the worst of the worst and that MN is a sanctuary state. I have told him TWICE that isn’t the case, that sanctuary decisions are made at a city level, but he keeps insisting, because that is what his right-wing algorithm is feeding him. When he didn't seem to care that the thugs murdered people, I started ignoring him. I'm pretty sure he knows I'm ignoring him now, because yesterday he finally called me and said they were putting a beef tenderloin in the smoker and did I want some? He is always trying to give me food. I don’t want his crappy food. When I first moved in he offered some ribs from his smoker. Awful! He had added BUTTER to them. Butter!! to an already greasy piece of meat. I have also thrown an incredibly salty soup from him in the food compost because it was too salty to eat it. So I told him, yet again, that I don't eat beef but thanks anyways. Everytime I turn his food offers down, he says "Okay, whatever." like I've offended him. How about you quit offering? And I don't really want to be your friend anyway, take the hint.

I'm trying to find a substitute for sunflower seeds as a snack, because I'm pretty sure they are the trigger for d-itis flares, because I ate them all last week for the first time since I was hospitalized. I tried roasting garbanzo beans over the weekend. Meh, not impressed.

It occurred to me in the middle of the night that if the Republicans get their way and pass the SAVE Act into law, PFKS wouldn't be able to vote because she changed her name when she married the second time, and her married name doesn't match her birth certificate. Haha! The SAVE Act is an attempt to disenfranchise the female vote, as females tend to run more Democrat than Republican. And it plays into Christian Nationalism and Project 2025, that wants 'the man' to place one vote for the entire family. Mentally I feel better having sent the letter. I've been stressing about it for 3 weeks. This way she'll know it wasn't written in the heat of the moment.

Honey texted with his brother, and we still don't understand what is going on. His brother can't talk because there is a tumor pressing against his vocal cords. But we were told lung cancer. So it's very confusing. Did it spread from throat to lungs or vice versa? And if it is throat cancer, is it from HPV???

Today's paper had a story of a Vietnamese Hmong woman with no criminal record, here legally and in the green card process. The thugs came to the door and her 11yo son unknowingly opened the door. The thugs went in and dragged her out of bed and kidnapped her even after she had provided them with ID, social security card and immigration papers. She ended up in TX for 2 weeks with no interpretor. Her family was finally notified she was being released on bond, even though she had committed no crime. The family drove for 2 days. They were 8 hours from Houston when she was released with only her phone. She had no idea where she was and she took pictures of her surroundings so her family could find her. She is back in MN but is in hiding, because the thugs returned two more times since her return, staking out her house. The thugs also never returned any of her documents oe IDs. And this is only one story of THOUSANDS.

My walk this morning was very painful. My abdomen aches and is distended.

Dinner this week is gumbo made from scratch, my annual nod to Fat Tuesday. Found some chicken andouille sausages that are a third of the calories of regular sausage. Fortunately gumbo is not very high in fiber.