TGIF! Now it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Monday was amazing! I got my teeth cleaned, that was not amazing, just normal But then I went out to see CIGI and she made my day! As soon as I go there and  picked her up, I must have shaken my head (like we do to indicate no), and this set her off. She laughed and shook her head no. Then we played this game for five or ten minutes, totally cracking her up. Her mom and I were cracking up too.  The best we can guess, she liked the way my hair swished around my face when I did it. From then on it was nonstop play time until she ate and fell asleep. That was the day Jett had his minor procedure and last I heard, he’s doing great.
2. Tuesday was a total Brain Drain day. It involves other people so I’ll just leave it at that. Let’s just say that I’m glad that day is over.
3. I have to take another two pairs of shorts back. It’s possible that all my exercise stuff has changed my body enough to make find a good fit difficult. But more likely, this once trusted brand name, resized their sizes bigger. I hate when they do that. It’s a stupid trick to make consumers think they stiff fit into whatever size. But how can we trust their sizes when we have to order most things online these days? I mean I really want to believe I’ve changed the shape of my body, but I’m pretty sure that’s not really it
4. Yesterday, Wizard and I followed followed directions to remover our freezer doors to clean out a drain that’s causing ice buildup. It went great until the last screw we couldn’t get out. We could see the drain but couldn’t read it to fix the issue. Wizard was getting so frustrated, and I called a halt before we stripped that last screw. We put everything back together, and now we’ll have to call out a repair person. Annoying and a waste of money since we should have been able to do this ourselves. It’s probably a flaw in the freezer/ice maker system we’ll have to deal with forever too. On the other hand, the fridge, freezer and ice maker work so we no time pressure there — at least that’s a bright spot. I just have to keep cleaning off frost/icy buildup. I miss old appliances that, you know, worked.
5. Today I’m supposed to get a another weave in my hair to blend the gray. I have the appointment but I haven’t received the normal reminder and I’m nervous. Last time that happened, the appointment had vanished from the system. This particular appointment is important and time sensitive. I’ll call to verify later and I will practice reminding myself — it’s just hair! The sun will still rise tomorrow even if I don’t get the weave color done today.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tuesday was a mentally draining day. They happen to us all — it’s a life thing. But the bright spot was definitely seeing Cigi on Monday! And today is a new day, with (hopefully) renewed energy. Now let’s talk books!

I stumbled on a nonfiction,  THE SCIENCE OF STUCK: BREAK THOUGH INERTIA TO FIND A PATH FORWARD  by Britt Frank. I’m not big into pop psychology but I liked what I read about this book, so I’m giving it a try. So far…it’s not bad. I’ve read about a fifth of it so far, and find it easy to read, pieces of it resonate, other pieces feel a bit simplistic or pop-psychologyish, but overall I’m liking the message of this book so far. I was curious if this book had any useful tips or tools for writers to get over “being stuck.” I’ll have to get back to you all on my conclusion.

I just bought an audiobook, GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Emily Henry, who is an author I like, and has a narrator I really like. But I haven’t started listening to that yet.

What are you reading?

The weekend was mixed.

The good parts:

I made cookies for Youngest. Gluten and Dairy free sugar cookies with a brownie inlay, then frosted and topped with chopped chocolate. He liked them! Saturday, he was at the house all day working on the deck. I did a few things to help, and I’m sure the cookies paid him fairly for all his labor, right? This deck is going to be exactly what we want. But dang, the digging and leveling is going to take a couple months of Saturdays. Here’s a pic, hopefully he won’t care that I posted it.

Sunday Wizard went to practice racing with Turbo. And I stayed home to do stuff. By the way, Turbo is doing awesome and Wizard thinks he’s ready to race now. I love this so much for Wizard and Turbo.

The mixed bag in the weekend is some other stuff in one of our families. We all have families and know about worry. Especially when it’s hard to really see the future…where’s my powers when I need them?

Today I’m going to the dentist for a routine cleaning, then I’m  leaving from there to go hang out with my granddaughter, CiGi.  One of their dogs needs a procedure done, so I’m going to keep CiGi entertained while my daughter-in-law takes care of that. I’ll stay as long as she needs help, and I’m also happy to hang out with the dogs too. They have two dogs, so Hazel my be concerned that Jett’s gone getting treatment for a while and I can reassure her. I expect it all to go fine.

How was your weekend?

I got nothing on reading today. I’m still trying to finish a book I like, but I keep falling asleep when I try to read at night. That probably has something to do with waking up around 4am lately And all that will resolve on it’s own so it’s not even a problem, just a reading bump at the moment.

So let’s talk about this: I’ve been following this trial via a few YouTube lawyers that I like who are all covering this case. The defendant had one hung jury already and as I write this blog, the jury is deliberating the second trial. To be clear, I don’t know this defendant or anyone involved. At all. But I am invested, and evidentially thinking I’m now a lawyer and a justice warrior, lol. I mean… this isn’t a TV show, this is real life, and someone died (the whole reason there’s a trial).

But I’m still invested. And really want what I think is the right verdict.

Anyone else get caught up in online stuff like that?

Or do you have books you want to share and discuss?

What ever happened to weekends being for rest? LOL!!

Saturday, Wizard went to the race track with Turbo to practice and learn how to race on a track. Turbo did great! He’s learning super fast, and they had a great time. Here’s a picture of him on the stand, running his car on the track. Grandpa is right there helping him. Oh and Turbo was excited that Grandpa had painted his car to match the car he built for Turbo. They are pretty cute together

Meanwhile, I stayed home. My web guru had sent me a cloned blog site to see new themes (how the blog is laid out), and I couldn’t access it. I was pretty sure I was doing something wrong, so I tried every trick I knew and failed. Then I sent her everything including screenshots and it took her no time to realize I was not Admin on my own blog. Um…oops. Back when I was writing, I never realized it as I had her fix and adjust everything due to time pressures. Anyhow she fixed it and I can now see and play with this site to figure out what I want.

And then youngest came over to work on the deck. Guys — let’s not talk about all the hard work he did digging, leveling and anchoring in the 100 degree heat. I mean…whatever. Instead let’s talk about all the brick I moved for him! I helped move it his trailer to the back, then later moved it all by myself to a better storage spot. Yep I’m amazing. Okay, not really, aside from moving bricks I mostly brought him drinks and fetched tools for him, LOL. He worked for hours. It’s going to take a couple more weekends but it’s coming along and will be perfect in that once dead zone.

Sunday I called Middle since this is his first Father’s Day to tell him how proud I am of him as a dad. He later sent me this pic of CiGi when they went out to lunch.

I also took Wizard to breakfast, where we talked so much we had trouble eating all our food in a reasonable amount of time. Then I spent the day polishing up a real blog (not the stream of consciousness I write here!). It didn’t take me long to recall just how hard real writing is with the work it takes to get that first draft out with all the points then the endless editing to make it better.  And I have some grand plan of having 10 written before I launch the new blog. We’ll see. After that, we went to youngest’s for dinner. I’m sure it was great but I’m writing this before we went because I’ll be tired when we get home.

Today I’m meeting a friend for lunch — it was the only day we could make our schedules align, which is pretty funny since we’re both technically retired. Grandkids and life are keeping us both busy.

How was your weekend?

You know what I forgot? How impatient I am while waiting for others to do their jobs so I can make decisions This is zero reflection on the person I’m waiting for, but a 100% a reflection on me — yep, still impatient!!! Another example, after discussing my choice with a few people including my tech savvy (she worked in the industry) I realized I need to slow down and do a bit more research…and maybe grow up, LOL????

Okay, now onto reading. For myself, I’m slow-reading THE BETWEEN OCEANS by M. L. Stedman. So I read the first few pages and right off didn’t care for the narrator. I set the book down for a week, then I picked it back up one evening when I was bored and started enjoying it. The narrator grew on me in an unexpected way. I don’t feel a need to consume the book, if anything, it has a lyrical flow that I feel should be experienced in slower bites.

That’s all I’m really reading at the moment, how about you?

Happy Reading Wednesday!

It seemed like a busy weekend…

Friday, we looked at laptops, and I think I know what I want (we will both use it). We happened to get lucky, and talk to a really knowledgeable guy who really outlined pros and cons and spent as much time as we needed even though we made it clear we were not buying at that moment. I love good customer service. We will make a decision this week or next week. We also stopped by my hair saloon so I could make another hair appt for the end of the month.

Saturday I took Youngest his brownie cookies. When I pulled up to his house, he was in the garage working on the frames for our new deck. I was surprised he was already working on it! At this pace, it’ll be done in a few weeks. Later, we were in his backyard, and I saw him getting antsy. I told him to go work, I’m hanging out and talking to his wife and mom in law. He happily returned to his man cave AKA garage. Then I stayed like another hour and half chatting with them while he worked on my deck. That sounds fair right? LOL! We appreciate all he’s doing, and he really enjoys doing it.

That afternoon, he brought the frame over to our house. Maggie was thrilled to see him! We got the frame safely stored, and talked for a while.

Sunday, Wizard and I went to breakfast, then we (mostly me) moved a bunch of rock to begin prepping the dirt area where the frame will go, then Wizard went with Youngest and Wife to watch some local car racing. Now…Wizard’s thinking about racing the Shelby. It looks like a fun thing, not a dangerous one, so I’m okay with it. But I kind of doubt he will, I mean the Shelby isn’t allowed out of the garage if the weather isn’t perfect. Even light fog or a stray could keeps the car grounded where the elements can’t touch it. So, yeah, I doubt he’ll race it!

The rest of the day was normal stuff and gathering info to ask my web guru for a quote. I’m also trying to learn about 10 new things, and suffering from trying to do too many things at once. So all is normal here. I’ll learn in time.

Oh and I haven’t murdered any plants this week! That’s always a win.

How was your weekend?