Yesterday, I was at loose ends and had something on my mind, so Maggie and I went for a walk. We followed a road until it literally dropped off into a wash for rain runoff:

It’s amazing what the force of water can do! It’s a lot steeper looking in person, and I never get too close to the edge (or let Maggie get close). What’s funny was years ago a housing track swore that the was going road would go through to the freeway that is on the other side of some of the land you see here, plus there’s a rock quarry back there. We laughed at them. Sure it was possible, but unless that housing track was going to pay for it — including buying the rock quarry, it was highly unlikely. It would take years just to get the funding  and do all the studies for that. I don’t remember who told them that, but they were trying to sell it to us as fact. We still laugh about that. It’s been about 27 years since then, and I feel pretty confident that we were right.

And this one is Maggie thinking: Yesterday you took me to the vet as an emergency, and today you take me out for a second walk that turned into a mile long hike?  Humans are not logical! LOLOL!

She has a lot of gray these days, but she’s still beautiful to me! She also clearly feels fine, she was excited to go for the walk. By the way, if anyone recognizes the martingale collar I use, that is for her safety. We are in an area that could be dangerous, and if she somehow slipped her flat collar, it could cost her her life. The collar never bothers her. If fact, when I pick it up to leash her, she gets excited.

How’s your day going?

I’m back! It feels like 9 weeks since I’ve been here!

Thanksgiving went well. It was the usual chaos when all my kids are together, but that’s how holidays always go with us Unfortunately, Biker Witch and her Biker Hubby couldn’t be there, but we all understood. All I can say though is these days, I couldn’t do it without all the help from my daughters-in-law! My middle daughter-in-law is an amazing cook so when she starts cooking, we get out of her way! And all the girls brought a lot of the food, which made it really easy on me. I made the turkey, potatoes and had three kinds of cookies in the freezer that I thawed out for various dietary needs. I had things on hand like whipped cream and ice cream for the pies and the girls pretty much did all the rest.

Friday we went to the car show which was in Los Angeles with CPA Boy, Special K and Turbo. Special K and Wizard both suffer from eternal car fever, so this was for them We did, however, run into Officer Turbo:

They were letting kids sit on a one of their fleet of motorcycles. And they gave him a badge sticker — he was thrilled.

Saturday I tried to rest, which somehow included two walks because I’m so good at resting, LOL! My side was annoying me, but it was somewhat better yesterday.

Sunday…frustrating. My chairs came, YAY! (right after Thanksgiving, LOL). I checked everything but whether they reclined. So of course, I can’t get them to recline. It’s probably just that they are tight because they are pushback manual recliners. Wizard will look at them when he gets home (I’m writing thoi Sunday afternoon when he’s at a radio control car race). Otherwise, I love the pattern and I think we’ll be happy. If we can’t bet them to recline, the store will send someone out to check them.

Then yesterday my microwave shorted out, and the lighter on my cooktop stopped working (likely shorted too). I need to contact the housing people today and push to get that fixed ASAP. I use my microwave and stove a lot, so I’m sort of at a loss without them.

Today, we are on standby at the vet’s office — they are going to try to work Maggie in for a swollen lymph node. It’s one of those things that could be nothing, could be something like a bad or infected tooth that I just can’t see, or could be more concerning. Overall, Maggie is eating and acting normal which is good.

But that’s enough of me, how was your Thanksgiving and weekend?

On Tuesday, the two long hallway mirrors we’d ordered were finally delivered. Yay! We can get the pictures up before Thanksgiving! Hanging the mirrors was a little tricky as our long hallway has two sections on each side. We wanted to hang the mirrors side by side on one section.  After repeated measuring and remeasuring, we got the first one up in about an hour and a half. Progress! Finally we got the second one up, and realized it was a bit higher than the first one. Okay…we pulled out the measuring tape, and Wizard bent down to measure from the floor to the bottom of the mirrors to find exactly how much to move it when…

We found a crack in the bottom right corner of the second mirror! Both of us just stared at the crack in shock. We had scanned the mirrors looking for obviously cracks, but neither one of us looked that closely or we’d have found it. Picture us both slapping ourselves in frustration. Then we snapped out of it, and spent another hour taking the mirror down and repackaging it. And then more time the next day hauling it to a UPS store to return it (I didn’t want to store this mirror while waiting for a pickup during the holidays). Now we have one mirror hung and it looks, well, awkward and annoying. But the house is a work in progress and that’s okay.  It certainly wont affect Thanksgiving and it’ll give the kids one more thing to tease us about

To everyone celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow I hope you have a warm and wonderful time with those you love!

Quick Programming Note: I’m guessing I won’t get a chance to post on Friday, but I’ll be back Monday.  

Hey! Sorry for the late blog! We had a later than usual night on Sunday, and the blog slipped my mind until the morning when I looked at my phone to see if the blog posted. That’s when I remembered I never wrote it, LOL! Then the morning made Monday-like demands, and here I am. Finally!

So it was a good weekend. Friday night, I got the good news that my CT scan was clear other than a partially distended stomach which is not a big deal right now and not a surprise given all my symptoms. That news is a relief and pretty much tells us what the pain is likely from — which is a functional problem not an illness or something else more worrisome.

Saturday was chores and errands. Part of those errands was feeding my grand dog, Phoebe, her dinner while her parents were out. Boy did I get an earful when I went in the house. She met me at the door and told me exactly how her parents had left her alone! If I hadn’t showed up, she might have starved to death or had some other equally dramatic misfortune. This dog is 100% goofball Golden Retriever. She cracks me up. She’s also perfectly fine by herself. When I left, I am confident she slept until her parents got home then told them a story of how she’d had to fight off scary villains or forage for her own food like the abandoned dogs she once saw on a TV show. The one thing I’d love her to tell me is how she knows it’s me at the door??? She doesn’t even bark when I come over anymore, yet I’ve seen her bark fiercely when a “stranger” comes to the door. Can she smell me? Does she recognize my footsteps? She’s not at the window, so how does she know????

Sunday we got to see Turbo!! They came out late in the day and we had a great time. I took Turbo on a walk on a group of empty lots that have piles of dirt. His dad and I were trying to take him to a parked tractor, but Turbo was way too distracted by the piles of dirt. We did eventually make it to the tractor which he also enjoyed. When we finally got back to the house, grandpa took him out back for more playing in the dirt. But grandpa one-upped us by building a ramp down our hill for his monster trucks I had no clue grandpa had saved wood for this project! I was highly amused.

And…guys…they brought us a housewarming gift! Wizard and I were beyond thrilled! This is like a dream come true. A Roomba!!! I know, I know. Other people dream of vacations or whatnot, but we have a robot vacuum! We would definitely not have bought it for ourselves and certainly never asked anyone else too, but they did it and we LOVE it! We hugely appreciate it too. Of course we’ll still vacuum and sweep, but this will help so much.

So it was a good weekend for us, how was yours?

Can you all believe it’s Thanksgiving weekend (if you’re here in the U.S.)???

TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week:

1. Wizard has finished the building portion of the garage! But man, his hands are a mess. Most of his fingers have cracks in them. Do you think that stops him??? Please a few bloody cracks in his skin are not the same thing as a Man Cold He’s done a great job! He has more organizing to do but the bulk of it is done.
2. My brother-in-law is home now, and we’re hoping he continues to feel better. Fingers crossed!
3. Turbo and his family have mostly recovered! They are planning to come out Sunday. Turbo wants to make chocolate rice crispy treats. Easy and fun!
4. On the baking front, I found a non-dairy and gluten free chocolate cookie! They are meringue cookies, but very rich which is almost an oxymoron since meringue cookies are usually light. I froze them to see how they defrost. This cookie was just a personal challenge as I know someone who can’t have dairy or wheat, and I limit those items in my diet. Then I went to make vegan white chocolate macadamia cookies (which people seem to really like!) and realized I didn’t have any dairy free white chocolate chips. Now this is a problem since they are super hard to find in my town. Long story short, I’m hoping they ones I ordered arrive tomorrow as promised by Amazon, then I will make those. But all this is fun stuff. Eventually I’ll make cakes again. Cookies are just easier to freeze and get one or two out when we want them. I also have a half batch of regular and very good chocolate chip cookies in my freezer Unless Wizard ate them all when I was gone yesterday, LOL!
5. My CT scan was yesterday and I did everything right because I sooooo want to be done with all this. I arrived an hour early, drank the contrast stuff (no idea what it was, but I was determined to get this done!). Waited an hour, got all set up in the room then drank even more mystery solution. Then the tech put my IV in. I started to get worried just because she kept cautioning me not to bend my arm so as not to pop out the IV. Okay…so they do the first two scans, then tell me the machine will put the contrast in my IV. Liquid spurted everywhere but into my vein. Two people came running, they thought I was having a reaction when actually something in the IV line spouted holes or a connector failed. I couldn’t really see from my position, but I know the needle in my arm was in fine. The next try shot contrast into my hair and the two techs were pretty flustered by them. On the the third they “think” some contrast went in, but I can barely feel it. What I should have felt was a sweep flush of warmth that makes me question my bladder control. But what I did feel was a tiny trickle of warmth a few inches up my arm then nothing. I have serious doubts about whether they were able to shoot good enough contrast scans. I so don’t want to have to redo this scan. We’ll see.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a terrific weekend!

Yesterday was one of those days. But I don’t want to get into life’s frustrations — we all have them, right? Instead, I’ll tell you a small win. I ran to a discount grocery store to buy some roasted, salted macadamia nuts for cookies. I found the nuts…but then I accidently stumbled across something else.

A cutting board!

We’ve been looking forever for a big cutting board to replace my old one that resembles an ancient crime scene. I couldn’t find one the right size or at a bearable cost. Yet on this day, I found a perfect sized, bamboo cutting board with the well around it (for drippings) for only $11.99! Sold!

Today the food grade mineral oil I need to condition the board should arrive and I’m weirdly excited about this cutting board  But you know what’s even better? I found this board while out buying ingredients to bake cookies. So what’s the moral of this story?

Clearly cookies are good luck! We all need more cookies in our lives!

Happy Wednesday!

This weekend was packed with errands. It was all small stuff at probably 10 different stores over a couple days. Because of our location, sometimes, those little errands can end up taking a ton of time because we have to go so far. I bought two “extravagant” item that’s going to irritate Wizard. One was another set of four wine glasses for $7.99, which is a steal. I probably won’t need them for Thanksgiving, but if I didn’t buy them, then for sure I’d need them. Also, I don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty good at breaking wine glasses while washing them. So that’s one “extravagant” purchase that will bug Wizard.

The second purchase is my one and only fall decoration. It’s late since we’re careering right into Christmas, but it was only $15.00!

I think he’s cute and I have a whole plan to make a table scape for Thanksgiving with him. I’ll have a second table and I’ll do something with that one too…I’ll know it when I see it Of course, I’m using cheap paper tablecloths, so I don’t think Martha Stewart or any other decorating gurus are feeling threatened. Decorating is soooo not my forte. I’m just do what makes us happy.

My brother-in-law is now in the right place that has the expertise to treat him and hopefully get him well soon. We are relieved about that. None of this has been easy for him, but he’s powering through.

So how was your weekend?