RIP, Etta James...

                                                 When I am silent,

                                            I fall into the place where everything is music...

                                                                         ~~Rumi

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   Another loss in the music world...fly, Etta....you will be missed....

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    Ah...winter has descended on us with a vengeance.  The Irishman and I went to Litchfield for a late lunch and then a matinee.  We ate sushi at the Chinese buffet and then moseyed on over to see We Bought A Zoo with Matt Damon. It was a great movie and full of laughter and tears and beauty--as a movie should be. 

  We came out of the theater to find that an ice storm had happened and we slipped and slid to the car and were (luckily) able to get the doors unlocked. We sat in the parking lot for over half an hour waiting for the windshield to defrost enough so that the Irishman could scrape it.  The 22 mile drive home went at a snails pace...no where could we travel more than 25 mph.  Our road was of course the worst....and that's where I nearly lost control of the car twice sliding into the ditch and me doing everything I could to keep that from happening. (BTW--the Irishman was very impressed with my skill. lol) You know the drill...turning INTO the slide, then turning out of it when it started sliding the other direction. I pulled it down into first gear for the remainder of the road and crawled down the hill and then up the hill into our driveway.  I can't tell you how relieved I was to be home!!!

   It's warmed up to 21 now...and there's no more forecast after midnight tonight. 

    I wound up not going to bed until after 3:30 AM last night/morning.   I didn't get up until 10:30 this morning...but I felt better.  Thanks everyone for your kind remarks yesterday...and I know that I have always been guilty of being a do-er and staying ridiculously busy to avoid things of an emotional/moody nature.  Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's a bad thing...maybe everybody gets to find their own way of dealing with life on life's terms.  I always kind of operated on the premise that if you go fast enough, the s**t storm can't catch you.  lol

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   I have connected with an old junior high school friend on Facebook. I've thought about her a gazillion times over the years, wondering what she was doing, where she was living...you know--regular stuff. Because I moved away from here and was gone for over thirty years, I have few connections with anyone. One friend from high school, Cathy, hunted me down and we see each other for lunch now and again.  At the end of the 9th grade my parents moved us out to the country and I started a different school district and I never saw my friends Randi or Joan again. Randi is a school teacher (I always thought she would be).  I thought I would be a teacher too, for years. But it never happened.  While she was graduating and going to college, I was running off and living in the Rocky Mountains, and then on to California...having the adventures of a lifetime... But we were girls of the 60's and she and I were a lot alike in the way we thought and looked at the world.  Little hippies in training.  lol   We are emailing and I hope I get the chance to meet up with her someday soon. 

   Life is funny...the way it dips and dives and curls around your feet.  The way the years rush by at a maddening pace and  you don't know where they went or why things happened the way they did and what if?? Always what if??   Sigh....

    Just for today, I am grateful to have lived the life I've had.  I've been places and seen things  and done things that I never would have guessed.  I've known people and I've loved and I've lost and I've loved again.  I've stood at 3 different ocean's shores and been humbled. I've been at the top of the Andes at Macchu Picchu  and been blown AWAY.  I've climbed Diamond Head in Hawaii  and I've sat at the top of Pike's Peak and watched the little hail and lightning coming down around me like a movie.  I've walked through San Francisco China Town and I've been in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County and seen the way the Amish live. I've stood at the southernmost tip of the United States and looked at Cuba. I've driven through Idaho's Hells Canyon on the Snake River and I've visited the Outer Banks on the eastern coast of the Carolinas.  I have snow camped in Yosemite  and been face to face with a grizzly bear. I have seen up close and personal the beautiful waterfalls and Half Dome and all the things that Ansel Adams brought to us through the lens of his camera.  I have been to Canada and I have been to Mexico and  I have played naked and pregnant in a field of wildflowers.  I have helped people learn to read and write, I have sat with friends until the last breath escaped their bodies, and I have helped bring puppies into the world. I have grown my own food and I have learned to survive on almost no money or assistance, and I have danced until the sun came up. I have listened to music that made me cry and I have looked at art that has touched my heart in places I didn't know existed.

  There are a lot of things I could have done differently in my life that would have made for a more...comfortable retirement, more respectable history. lol  But I have lived this life of mine with GUSTO, baby. I have wrung out of it every ounce of pleasure and beauty I could find. And  I don't regret one single minute of it. If I die tomorrow, I can only say thank you--it's been a helluva ride.

  Namaste.

  

A strange day...

  It started out strange and it got stranger still in the middle, and now it's ending up...well, strange.

  I woke up tired. I was up at the butt crack of dawn, thanks to sundry and assorted animals whining and meowing and squawking.  I stayed up and cleaned the kitchen and came in and got on the computer. I was out of sorts from the minute I came out of the bedroom.  I cleaned up 2 pee spots and had to fill the dry-as-a-bone water dish in the kitchen, before cleaning up the dishes from his majesty's breakfast. The toaster was out, the butter was out...oh, YOU know.

  And it just was downhill from there.

  At about 10 AM, I decided to watch television.  It was so cold today, about 17, that the dogs didn't want to stay out for very long, so they were in and out, in and out.  I watched a very good movie starring Timothy Hutton called Multiple Sarcasms...all about a guy who is married and has a child and is an architect...wakes up one day and realizes he hates his life.  See it if you can find it...it was good.  When it was over there was nothing for me to do but go back to bed. I had nothing on my agenda except a 4 PM appointment at the vets office for Molly to get her shots. I was in bed at noon and slept until after 2:30. I got up and got dressed and took the dog to the vet (60 miles round trip). The 4 o'clock appointment got hijacked by a woman with a very sick cat, who took up WAY more than her allotted time slot. The vet didn't see us until almost 4:45.  I spent that time walking the JRT (Jack Russell Terrorist)  around the building, through the rooms where the feed and supplies are stored, --basically anywhere to keep her away from the other dogs in the waiting room.  She was actually being good, for the most part, but she really cannot be trusted. Plus, there were 3 little yapper/Yorkie kinds of dogs, which are way too tempting for her. It was after 5 by the time we finished and we lit out of there like our ass was on fire. I still had to stop by the market before getting home to make supper for the Irishman.  Vegetarian meal night and I had no idea what I was going to do.

  We made it home with no vomiting or too much of anything extreme happening, except that the dog was whining and wanted me to pet her constantly the whole way home.  Not easy keeping your hand on a dog while you drive through rush hour traffic. (OK--rush hour traffic might be a bit of an exaggeration for Litchfield, IL...but people were going home from work....)

  I came home and made big fluffy vegetable omelets for supper with a nice mixed green salad on the side. A little raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing and we were in business.  Then, about an hour after we ate, I went back in the kitchen and cleaned up. Then I made big soft buttermilk sweet biscuits to use for peach shortcakes for dessert. Opened a jar of home canned peaches and dumped them on the warm biscuits and topped with whipped cream. It was delicious. 

  We watched tv for about 3 and a half hours...too long for my old crippled body to sit in one place. My back aches and my shoulders are tight and my neck is getting stiff again. (BTW--3 or 4 days ago, I had a BAD stiff neck and shoulders for several days running...husband had to rub me down every night. Then there was an earthquake about 50 miles from here in a St. Jacob. It was small, as 'quakes go...only a 2.5. But when it was over, the neck and shoulder pain went away. This is what happens to me when there is a change in the earth's magnetic field, I think.)   Anyway, I'm stiffening up and wondering today if I should see about getting checked for RA...my joints and bones hurt all the time it seems like.

  And now, here I am.  A group of people I know and have gotten together with and had out to my house on numerous occasions...are all together down in Key West.  And I couldn't go. And I am feeling sorry for myself tonight. And lonely. And in a mood. And I hate when I get like this, because it colors everything.   The shit that starts running through my head is poisonous and deceptive and irrational. And I feel like that little girl from the wrong side of town that nobody picked for teams and never fit in and always did and said all the wrong things.  The one that never had the right clothes and never had the right toys and could never quite stack up. Never tall enough, or smart enough or good enough.  And I think nobody cares if I got to go to Key West or not and my one friend here doesn't really care about being my friend enough to even call before she leaves town for 3 months.  And I don't know how this happens. That I can go from 0 to 60 in a few short hours and suddenly nothing in my life is right.  And I sit here and tears trickle down my face and I wish things were different. 

  Boo Hoo.  I can almost hear a whispering "This too shall pass".  I know that I need to be a little more compassionate and honest with myself about some things.  I am tired and my body hurts and the cold makes it even worse. Living with chronic pain is no picnic. Ten and a half years ago my whole world shifted.  You'd think I'd be used to it by now.

  Tomorrow is a new day and things will probably look a lot better.  Being in this place is a hard thing for an optimist. Pollyannas like me have a worse time with fleeting depression than you'd think.  And maybe it isn't even depression--maybe I'm just sad. Or tired.  Or not spending enough time in a grateful spiritual practice.

  When I do take the time to look for the things I have to be grateful for, and not spend so much time cursing all the things I DON'T have...I am a pretty happy girl.  Feeling sorry for myself is like sitting in a pool of ICK...I don't like the way it feels and the longer I sit in it, the harder it is to get out of it.  There was a time when I used drugs and alcohol to change the way I felt at the drop of a hat.  These days, I have to sit with it and feel it and watch it walk  on through.  I have to deliberately live my life in a manner that creates an attitude of gratitude...if I want to be happy.  It's not hard.

  But today has been a strange day and it feels as though the planets are in retrograde, or my neurons aren't firing in the correct order.  And I am powerless to stop the backwards regression of my otherwise sunny personality.  LOL  So off to bed I will go. Sleep, hopefully, will put me out of harms way and cause this nasty mind of mine to stop the torment for a few hours.  And when I wake up to another cold morning, full of love and critters and aches and pains....maybe I'll be able to see things through a different pair of glasses. 

  Or maybe I'll just pull the quilts up over my head and refuse to come out.

  

   Namaste.

New Look For A New Year? We'll see...

  Okay, okay...I know we are already wayyy into the new year, but it's only today that I played with the look of this bad boy.  I don't know if I like it or not.

   Been a quiet morning here at Honeysuckle Hill.  Warmed up enough finally for the dogs to go out.  17 when I got up and about 25 now.  And sunny. With blue skies.

   So, the sick plot thickens...now, not only have my brother, his daughter, my sister-in-law been sick, but about 9 more people for sure that were all at the Memorial Service for my aunt have turned up sick too. All within hours of the service..all with the same crazy symptoms. Diarrhea, vomiting, chills...very flu-like, yet not. My SIL came up with the idea of a Norovirus from the restaurant, but over half the sick people didn't eat there. My brother and I and my other brothers wife who did are the only 3 of our group not sick. It must have been someone who came through the service, hugging and kissing everyone.  I was probably the least social of the group. lol  Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed that I don't come down with anything...eating extra kimchi and taking my vitamins.

  I found a small package of 2 or 3 chicken breasts (boneless/skinless) in the freezer, and am trying to decide what kind of simple supper to make with them.  Thinking maybe a kind of a primevera pasta dish, with egg noodles maybe?  I've only got an hour and a half before I have to leave, and still need to take a shower too...so I'd better get on the ball.

  I came on to see if I'd be able to get on the computer today....wasn't sure what the big guys were doing exactly. Mozilla is one of the ones taking part in the blackout.  Whatever that meanhs. lol

  The stew turned out good...the Irishman loved it, even if he did get a mouthful of peanut butter that wasn't quite dissolved completely. lol It surprised him more than anything...It was seriously filling and satisfying...

   I'm not sure why I'm posting here today...I really don't have anything to say, and there's not much happening here on the old home place. The chickens are out happily scratching the dirt, the pond is frozen over, the skies are blue. The dogs are out front laying around in the sun,. and little Roxie is here in the office, lying in a pool of sunlight.  I'm thinking that in my next life, I want to be a dog...sleeping and playing, eating and pooping...and doing it all over again. No responsibilities, no worries...just a good quiet life. Get plenty of pets and snuggle up to someone when it's cold.  Be amazed by everything, every day.  Love unconditionally.  Lie right on top of the heater vent on the floor if you feel a little chilly.  lol  

 

   Maybe I'll finish this tonight.....later, taters...

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  Okay, so it's later...much later. After midnight actually.   The chicken breasts (2) turned out to be sweet and sour chicken that went over the top of the leftover brown rice. It was magnificent, if I do say so myself. Simple, with only a few carrots, and onions and multi-colored bell peppers in it. And pineapple, of course. And Chinese 5 Spice and ground ginger, and soy sauce.  And celery seed.  LOL  But you can trust me when I tell you it was as good as any I've made.

   I am tired tonight, the end of my week, and am so looking forward to being home. I do have to take Miss Molly the Jack Russell Terrorist to the vet tomorrow at 4, but that's okay. It's time for vaccines again. But the whole rest of the day is mine...woohoo!  It amazes me that I used to work 65-75 hours a week for years and it never fazed me...I must be all used up.  Getting old ain't for sissies, as my  buddy used to always say....he was right.

   Going off to meet the Sandman now...sending sweet dreams your way too....

Namaste.

  

A Tenacious Tuesday

...it's noon.  I am still in my pajamas.  The world has not ended. (Yet.)  lol

    And just in case you were worried...

  I have been (no, not curled up in a fetal position on the couch), but in the kitchen...scrubbing and chopping and olive-oiling a butt load of vegetables for the making of a grand stew for supper.  These are getting ready to go into the oven for a light roasting, to bring out the sweetness.  It's a melee of carrots and turnips, and onions and garlic, and sweet potatoes and celery and parsnips.  Most things from my garden, a few things not.  I also have this going on, on top of the stove:

My favorite cast iron skillet full of my favorite vegetable...braised Brussels sprouts. They will go into the stew as well. At the end. If I don't eat them all first.  I just cut those little babies in half and put them cut side down in  the skillet of hot oil. O.M.G.  They are so good, topped with a little sea salt and cracked black pepper. I will cook a pot of brown rice and serve the stew over that, and it will be a yummy, comforting meal on a cold winter night. The stew will also have a spoonful or three of organic peanut butter in it, pushing the protein up a little more. And lulling our taste buds into Nirvana.

  My house smells so good...I cannot tell you.  Yesterdays high temps of 70 degrees have come to a crashing halt. A gigantic thunderstorm last night brought in a cold front and it was 37 when I got up and has dropped at least 5 more degrees now. Maybe more. We are supposed to get snow by Thursday. It was a serious storm, with tornadic winds and blasting rain and lightning like you can't believe. It woke me up from a dead sleep about 1 AM and I ran here to unplug the computer and my phone.  :)

  I smell veggies starting to toast...better go check....Mmmm...time for stirring. They are just about done,.

  I got out the new rice cooker (remember?? The one the Irishman got at their company Christmas party??)  It's big- a 16 cup cooker. And I just opened the box for the first tie and it is a steamer as well!  Very cool.  I washed it all up real quick and will get the rice going here in a minute. Then I will head for the shower, as I have to leave for MissB's by 2:30.

  It's cold and blustery and the dogs have all gone in and out and in and out. They don't want to stay out too long...not even little Caylee the snow dog. She says snow is one thing, but this bone chilling cold is something else entirely. lol  Even the chicken, who were dying to get out of the coop, have gone back in.  I wish I could just stay here in my little coop today too...but...today and tomorrow and then I can stay home for 2 days in a row. And not even get dressed at ALL, if I don't want to.  lol

  I will put the recipe for this stew on my food blog, once it's all done and I have pictures of the finished product. It's really  satisfying meatless meal...and we're trying to do that at least 3 times a week. As well as eat out of our pantry.  I do need to stop at the market for toilet paper and butter, lol...but other than that I haven't bought anything in about 2 weeks. (Can that be right??)  goody.

  If I had more time, I would make a loaf of artisan bread to go with this...sheesh....why didn't I think of that this morning??  lol

  A quick FYI--my nephew (thank you all for your loving thoughts and prayers) is doing well...had another surgery on the lung and they siphoned a lot of fluid off the other one. He is off the ventilator, I think, and is trying to talk and has kissed his sweet wife. The cat scan looked good and the other things are healing up nicely.  Again--thank you from the bottom of my heart for your thoughtfulness.

  Namaste.

A beautiful sunny day...

...on the heels of bitter cold and snow. We are down to icy sludge mostly now, although our yard is always one of the last ones to see the snow melt away.  The hill in front of our driveway is still a little treacherous, but it will be cleared by today if the temps reach close to 50 like they're saying.

  A little sunshine goes a long way.  lol

  Been a long week. I got home Friday evening, after making the trip down to the memorial service for my aunt and my niece's birthday too. I got her her first "real" jewelry box (i.e. NOT one with Hello Kitty on it) and a pair of birthstone earrings  (garnet) that are dragonflies.  She loves dragonflies. After all, she IS 9 now....lol

  It was a bittersweet trip...a blessing to see so many of my aunt's friends turn out to say their goodbyes, and a lot of family members as well. I was taken aback by the sudden (to me) descent of one of my aunts into Altzheimers..she couldn't think of who I was...and it broke my heart, watching her struggle, trying to pull something up out of her memory.  Something in me hated that it was me she couldn't remember, and not either one of my brothers sitting next to me.  On a brighter note, they had several picture boards and I got to see some great pictures of my parents and all the brothers and sisters of my dad's family, and most of them I hadn't seen before. Pictures of the 3 sisters as cheerleaders at their high school...must have been in the 40's. A picture of my uncle Will in his paratrooper uniform, right before he was shot down and killed in WWII. A picture of my grandmother and her brother as children, that no one but me seemed to know who they were, or had seen that picture before.  (I have that picture too).  All in all, a wonderful trip down memory lane.

  The snow came later there than it did here and we drove into the worst of it on the way to the funeral home. But it all worked out okay, and I went to dinner with my brothers and their wives after the service. That was nice. I forget sometimes how funny my brothers are...The next day, I stayed at my youngest brothers for most of the day and decided to leave in the afternoon so I wouldn't have to drive too much in the dark,. They were predicting a little more snow, and I thought better safe than sorry.  It was a pleasant and uneventful trip, both ways. 

   My nephew is holding his own. They had a big blood drive in Florida yesterday to help repay the blood bank for all the 15 pints he was given and I guess they had a great turnout. He is waking up and he kissed  his wife when she asked him to. He is on a lot of pain medication still, so a bit wonky, but the other drugs they were using to keep him fully sedated are gone, so that's a big deal.  I haven't heard a word from my own sister about anything since the first day it happened, so it's a good thing I can keep in touch with my niece.  This is nothing new on her part. She said she would stay in touch and she didn't and that's pretty much par for the course. She is how she is and that's all I can say about it all. I tell myself it's a tough time and it is..but she calls others and talks to them, so....nothing new under the sun, as they say.

  I made the Irishman a big breakfast this morning of Denver omelets and fresh fruit and biscuits. He has a District Meeting today (he is now DCM--a promotion from Alt. DCM when the regular guy had to have his work schedule changed). His home group meeting ends 2 hours before the District meeting, so he won't drive all the way back home, and I won't see him again until after 8 tonight when I get home.  Sooo...it's just me and the critters here lazing around the house. 

  This place is such a mess, I almost need to hire help to get it cleaned up. (Or get off the computer and get busy).  Nawww....  lol   I am going to do some stuff today, but not kill myself with it. I have some laundry to do that I might start. And maybe run the vacuum...just to freak out the dogs. lol  Then tomorrow I could take the vacuum to the shop, because it is not running right...it's not the motor, but the rolling wheels or something. It likes to hang up on the carpet...and the whole thing needs a tune-up and a cleaning.

  The weather is doing a crazy upswing and supposed to be back in the fifties tomorrow.  (Shaking her head...) This is just so wrong....

  I can't find a suitable picture for the blog this morning, and I guess if that's as bad as it gets, I'm gonna have a good day. lol  Nothing just seems right, so I guess I'll go back through and look again...

  Hope everyone has a peaceful Sunday.

  That's MY plan....

  Namaste.

Tickled PINK...

  May I get a drum roll...please ????  Here she is... the Apple iPhone 3 GS...not the Cadillac model that # 4 is maybe, but nonetheless....I purchased her this morning for the outrageous price of NINETY NINE CENTS,  people. Of course, I had to re-sell my soul to AT&T, but still...  lol

  I did actually answer a call today on it and send a text message.  It's a start.

  It has a weather app that follows me wherever I am and tells the temperatures there. Detailed weather reports too. It has google maps and mapquest and facebook and emails and games and a camera and ...lions and tigers and bears, O,MY!!  It has iTunes and Youtube,and clocks and calendars and newspapers and magazines and videos.  Can you bake a cherry pie?, Billy Boy, Billy Boy ??? Can you bake a cherry pie, charming Billy??  It can keep me from getting lost, it can keep me from getting lonely...it can help me remember, it can help me forget.  

 And I feel like a fookin' eejit with it.  I always said I would never have one of these...but then, I said I'd never have a dvd player either. lol   It's going to take a while to learn all the stuff, I know. And I will probably grow to love it. 

  Maybe.

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   All in all it was an interesting day. I rushed down to the store in a city about 35 minutes from here around 9:30 and got there just after they opened. I flounced through the double doors and said, dramatically,..."Hello boys!!  Grandma's here !!!   They all laughed and the young man who took care of me (Aaron) was a doll. He patiently explained everything to me and a couple of times I had to interrupt and say--hey, sonny--I was born in 1953, not 1853... 

  Come on, now.

  All in all, it was a good experience there and they were extremely helpful and I came home with a $375.00 phone that cost me .99  (How the heck can they POSSIBLY do that?????)  And I'm really tickled to use it and start figuring it all out.  I kept the boys laughing and a stranger came up and asked me if I liked Texas Roadhouse. I said, sure..and he gave me a card for a free appetizer.  I don't know who he was, an owner maybe...looked too old to be management.  And then Miss Roxie and I came home.

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  I made a big skillet of bbq'd ribs for the Irishman for supper, with quinoa and a skillet of sauteed cabbage with shredded carrots and chives in it. It was awesome.

  Tomorrow I will make a pot of chili and some kind of a casserole so he'll have easy food while I'm gone. I also want to make him a couple of veggie burritos for Thursday after work...I won't be here, and he has a class, so needs some mobile food to go with him.

  Heck. I might even bake him a pie...I think I have an unbaked pumpkin one in the freezer, as well as an apple. That would be easy enough.  I have been invited over to my neighbors for breakfast in the morning and then need to pick up some pay and come home and get this house cleaned. I haven't really done a darned thing for several days...I'm pretty sure that if you looked under my dining room table, you find enough dog hair to build a Sheltie or two.  I do have the laundry all done and caught up. I need to pack and figure some things out and get ready for the southward trek.  I paid all the critical bills this afternoon.  

  Geez. I may actually be able to do this with a minimum of discomfort and madness.  LOL

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  Well, I am tired and have to get up early for breakfast at the neighbors (8:30). Time to see about a little shuteye, and dream of Steve Jobs and Apples and confront my nightmares of being adrift in a sea of technology. 

  Wish me luck. 

Namaste.

You don't bring me flowers....any.... more....

Remember that song? I think about it when I think of the movie The Way We Were, with Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford.  I was pretty young when that movie came out, 1973. The song itself was actually recorded in 1978, 5 years later. But those years are all a bit fuzzy and glopped together in my mind...maybe that's why. lol

  Anyway...I thought of it today when my darling husband brought me a dozen long stemmed roses. Just because. Now, don't ask me why I thought "you don't bring me flowers" when he does and did today bring me flowers, because if I think too hard about it, my head might explode.

  Hard to get a good picture of them...the vase and roses are so long...and it's after midnight and the light is bad.

  But I was so touched by this amazing man I love....when I said hey--my birthdays over, he said--they're not for your birthday. They're just...for you.  Just because.

  A lot of the time, these days, I think I must be living someone else's life.

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   So it was chilly today, still warm for January, but not 70. LOL  The sky was sunny off again, on again. I took Miss Roxie to the park when I went into town to go to the market. Thankfully, it was on again then. I went to get some lettuce and tangerines for a big salad I was making us for lunch, as I didn't have enough romaine and hoped to get more, but alas, all they had was iceberg. So...I only got tangerines. I fleshed out the salad with baby kale from the garden and it was awesome.

  I didn't take a picture of that gorgeous thing, but it was made of romaine and baby kale, frozen chives from the garden, reconstituted dried radishes and carrots (FTG),  sunflower seeds, dried cranberries (yup--I dried 'em), tangerine segments, pecans,  and chunks of chilled chicken. Dressed with a poppyseed dressing, it was magnificent!  I woke up this morning, hungry for salad. It made a great lunch and I took some with me to MissB's for my supper too. Then we had a slice of cheesecake with fresh frozen raspberries from back in August.

  All in all, a meal fit for royalty. 

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  I have a busy week ahead and have laundry going right now to try to stay on top of things. Tomorrow I am driving 45 minutes south to meet my sister-in-law for  lunch. She's taking me to Olive Garden where we will probably pig out on their soup, salad and bread sticks.  If we don't succumb to something really decadent, like the portabello mushroom raviolis with the smoked cheddar sauce. Or something equally rich and wonderful. LOL   On Tuesday I have a dr appointment and on Wednesday I am taking off work to go down to my cousins old home for the Memorial service which will be held on Thursday for my aunt. I'll stay the night with my brother down there and celebrate my darling niece's birthday that night and Friday. I have a massage scheduled for Thursday that I am going to call tomorrow and reschedule [hopefully] for Wednesday morning. Then sometime Friday night I will head back home to my fur babies and that adorable Irishman of mine. He's going to stay home and caretake the critters. Then I have a sponsling coming out on Saturday morning to start some step work.  Then it's back to work on Saturday afternoon. 

 Man. I'm tired just typing that.  Somewhere Tuesday-Wednesday I have to try to get this house cleaned up a little. If I don't it will be a disaster by the time I get back.  Also need to get some kind of food made for this man to eat while I'm gone.  Maybe a casserole and a pot of some chili. That should take care of him. Not that he can't cook for himself....because he can. I have just gotten him so spoiled that he doesn't. 

  I need a wife.  lol

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  I have some bills to pay too and get in the mail tomorrow...most of them I pay online, or EFT, but there are a couple of floaters out there that I have to actually write checks for. And use STAMPS on.  lordy...it's like the dark ages.  lol

 I am going to buy a new phone this week. It's time for an upgrade and I have decided to step out of the cave and buy an iphone.  I have dug my heels in and refused to do it for the past few years, but I think the time has come.  I can get the phone for almost nothing and I think it's another 15 dollar/month  charge for the internet service. I need to do a little more reading and make sure I have the facts right.

 God--what's next??

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  Alright my dears...I am going to hit the hay here in a bit. It's after 1 AM and I have been doing a pretty good job of not staying up so late all the time. The past few days I have been in the sack before midnight. I'm not sure I really feel any better, but I have got to do something about this sleeping thing.  

  I am hurting pretty bad tonight. When Roxie and I went to the park, we walked the perimeter of the place all the way around without stopping to sit once!  (That may not sound like much to you, but for me it is. Between this bum knee and my general bone damage, it's a deal.)  I want to try to walk her there at least five days a week as part of my new and improved rehabilitation/physical exercise routine. I have a set of Zunba  dvd's that I want to use, but my body is not quite ready yet. Soon...

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  Adios, friends.  Until tomorrow....

Namaste.