Not much to tell This weekend a freeway was closed AGAIN. They are doing needed repairs, but it’s so annoying. Therefore we couldn’t go see Turbo and he couldn’t come see us. Hopefully next weekend!

In good news, I was able to leave the house! I went to Target on Friday and Walmart on Saturday! I even bought a cheap pizza stone, and I very quickly learned why I need a pizza peel (big pizza spatula thing) to get the dough on and off that stone! I didn’t burn myself, but I make a mess of of the pizza. Still I had fun.

Yesterday, my granddog Phoebe came over! It’s her first time here, and Maggie lost her mind. I mean she was a crazy dog. I had her waiting out front on a leash when Phoebe got out of the car, and Maggie turned into a shrill chatter monkey wiggling and baying in excitement. Phoebe was like, “Dude chill,” and did her best to avoid the shrill chatter monkey. I cracked up because Maggie deserves it. She’s either a total snob or a super fan girl when she meets other dogs. She really needs to learn the level middle ground. Even more insane, Phoebe can be dog aggressive, but Maggie didn’t believe it. That surprised me, she’s usually more cautious around bigger dogs. But it was all good, and Phoebe really enjoyed seeing the back yard. The entire time they were here, Phoebe ignored Maggie and for a dog who can be dog aggressive, that is good behavior. I was very proud of her!

Otherwise, I did some boring chores, read a little, watching a movie and began thinking about how to make a monster jam cake for Turbo’s birthday in March. This is probably way beyond my skills, but I’ll try it and see what happens.

How was your weekend?

TGIF!! Let’s dive right into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I forgot to mention, I made pizza dough and bread from scratch last week. Both turned out decent. I’m sure I can get better, but I was pleased for my first attempts at baking with yeast. Now that I know I can make pizza crust, I’m thinking about buying a pizza stone. I don’t think I actually need a stone, but it sounds fun, LOL.
2. I remade the gluten free and dairy free chocolate chip cookies and I think I baked them much better this time. I made them smaller and used regular heat, not convection, and it worked. I happened to just have the ingredients and decided to try it.
3. We are having actual weather this year. We had some pretty strong winds this week, and they made a mess. But the good news is we didn’t have to clean a pool after the winds! Now we’re expecting rain again this weekend, although I don’t think we’ll get as much as the last series of storms, which is good. I’m also really happy that we have all the concrete done, that makes it easier for us taking out trash and stuff, and Maggie won’t track in as much mud.
4. As of yet, we still don’t know why I’m having, let’s just delicately call it pretty severe digestion distress. I think this is the fourth week now, and its like nothing like I’ve ever experienced for more than a couple days at most. Whatever this is, I don’t recommend it. We’re trying different meds to attempt to control the symptoms until we can figure out the problem.
5. My health insurance has a new game — it’s called let’s hold certain medications hostage until the patient pays the entire year’s deductible up front. Since my deductible has several K’s in it, I am not liking this game. This is for the Humira that has controlled my RA for years so that I can do fun things like walk. I’m seeing my doctor next week to see if there are any options. I know I’m not alone, this is happening to a lot of people these days.

So that’s my really boring five. I hope next week I’ll be back to normal (okay I was never normal, LOL!), or at least more interesting. Now I’d love to hear your five! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

So far, this week is on my last nerve. But I do have to tell one story about people actually doing their jobs and how much I appreciate them.

Last week, I ordered some of Maggie’s prescription food that has to be vet-approved each time it’s shipped. Then over the weekend I got a series of emails stating that the dog food company had reached out to my vet multiple times and could not get a response. They warned me I had 48 hours to resolve him or my dog would starve they would cancel the order.

And all this happened over the weekend when there was literally nothing I could do about it.

Fortunately I had an appointment for Maggie Monday morning. I told the two amazing women at the front desk what was happening. They were able to show me a copy of the FAX they’d sent the Friday morning approving the food. But they didn’t stop there. They called the place, and proved that they had indeed sent the FAX, which resulted in Maggie’s food being shipped overnight.

I was AMAZED and very grateful.

So while this and last week have had some significant problems, this one issue was resolved within a half hour by two women ready and willing to do not only their jobs, but also the job of the people who didn’t put her food order through!

Also Maggie made a new from named Goose. He’s the office cat — he’s gray, about her size and very low key and cool. Maggie was pretty proud of herself!

How’s your Wednesday going?

The best description is quiet. But quiet isn’t bad, so I’ll take it. A quick summary:

The guys finished up and phase one of landscaping is done! Maggie has checked every inch of the back and approves so far. Our plan is to do phase two, which is turn and pavers in the backyard in a few weeks. We have some work to do to get things ready before that starts.

Saturday, Youngest stopped by on his way home from Home Depot, carrying a load of wood on the trailer that he built from a kit. Maggie and I went out to see Youngest and his trailer, and Wizard looks over at me, “How did you know he was here?” I answered, “I heard his voice.” Wizard just shook his head, having no idea how I’d heard that from inside the house. It’s a mom thing. Also I figured youngest would stop by to see the concrete and walls so I was probably half listening, but I didn’t feel the need to tell Wizard that.

Youngest’s trailer is really cool. Like I said, he built if from a kit, and got it registered so it’s all safe and legal for him to tow and carry stuff. I’m pretty impressed. Maggie was curious about it, and youngest told her she could jump up on it. Maggie hopped up there and preened. I’m not sure if it’s because Youngest allowed her up there, or she just loved being up there. It was too cute Youngest has been teaching himself how to build, mostly woodworking. He loves it, and it’s a great creative outlet for someone who works with numbers in his day job. These kinds of hobbies and passions are excellent stress relief.

Sunday Wizard went racing, and Maggie and I did a couple walks, and I did yoga — oh! When we put up the new TV, we rotated an old one into our “exercise room.” We had a Roku we hooked it up too. And now I can stream my yoga videos and workout to them. I’ve been doing this on my Kindle previously, which was okay, but this is much nicer! We also can stream anything else we have access too, so it’s a nice room to watch a movie or read a book too. It’s a peaceful space away from the main part of the house. Eventually I hope to get some calming art work in there (I also hope to win the lottery, LOL!)

From B.E.’s recommendation, I ordered the book TERM LIMITS by Vince Flynn. It finally arrived and I started reading it. I really like it so far. It’s been awhile since I’ve read that style of thriller. I see so many books labeled thriller that I don’t think fit in the category, but this one does. It has enough high concept with great tension building in the plot. There are a lot of characters, but so far, they are easy enough for me to keep the sorted. I’ve only read a few chapters but I’m invested.

Today, I’m taking Maggie to the vet for her routine tech visit then we’ll see what else Monday brings!

TGIF!! I hope it’s been a good week for everyone! Now let’s share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Late Tuesday afternoon, I let Maggie out in the backyard, and realized she was out there for a while. I decided to go check on the little troublemaker and found her on the hill eating a chicken bone. Instead of  acting rational with a calm command like, “Maggie, drop it.” Instead, I panicked and yelled, “Maggie!” My well trained (LOL!) dog took off running along the very top of the hill behind part of the retaining wall while chomping on the bone. This wall is just higher than my waist, and I’m not at my best, so I belly crawled up it, got on my feet and bellowed, “Maggie come!” By then she was terrified or elated or just laughing her ass off. I don’t know. But she ran further, while still chomping on the damned chicken bone. I could hear her crunching on it. At that point, I was estimating that damned chicken bone’s value between 10 or 15 thousand dollars, which is roughly what the cost of what the surgery to get it out of her gut was going to cost me (I watch too many vet shows and videos). Eventually she’d finished chewing up the money, I mean bone, and I got a hold of her collar and put her in the house. I was so mad (truthfully I was scared for her — Maggie’s not known for great digestion and chicken bones are notorious for splintering and causing serious internal damage). I’ve never encountered a situation where I had zero control over her, or myself — I flat out handled that badly. However it appears she’s just fine. She’s eating, acting and eliminating normally for two days. So my dramatics were for nothing, except emotionally scarring my dog and proving I’m a very flawed dog handler
2. We assume the chicken bone was from the workers lunch. It probably fell when they cleaned up the trash, as they’ve been very good about cleaning up. Accidents do happen and dogs will find stuff they shouldn’t. Right now, Maggie can’t go outside unleashed because the concrete is still drying so we’re not worried. We’ll check everything before we let her out unsupervised again. But the good news is the workers are finishing up this phase of landscaping today. And we’re deciding if we’re ready to do phase 2 (turf and pavers) in the backyard, or wait. We’re waiting for the final ruling on that from our Financial Department
3. I saw the doctor and that went well. I don’t know why I always expect to be brushed off. But the opposite happened and he demanded payment in blood…I’m kidding, he ordered a lot of labs that included six vials of blood. I got all those done and we should know more by early next week. I started a medication yesterday that’s beginning to help manage the symptoms, so yay! But the symptoms are making me a little tired so things like scaling a waist-high wall in an adrenal-fueled panic as I did in Number 1 would make a hilarious YouTube video. I promise I can normally do it with only minimal embarrassment!
4. Yesterday I was driving, and got behind a white truck and my stress shot up. There were two big dogs unsecured in the back. One looked like a German shepherd, and the other was had bit white markings and looked like one of the herding breeds: border collie, Australian shepherd — something like that. The dogs did not look safe in the truck bed. Maybe in other more rural areas it is, but not here. The white dog was climbing up on the wheel well and leaning over the side, and every time the truck came to a stop, or started up from a green light, he fumbled for balance. I was worried he’d fall and I’d end up hitting him. The German shepherd appeared more cautious, but he was big enough, a sharp turn could throw him over the side. Wizard said he passed me on the opposite side of the road when he was coming home from an appointment, and I didn’t see him. I’m sure I didn’t, I was watching those dogs. The thing that was more annoying is it was an extended cab with short bed truck. There was more room inside the cab than in the bed of the truck. I just don’t understand. If they were my dogs, they’d either be inside the cab, or safety harnessed in the bed of the truck. Maybe if I lived on a farm or a ranch, that’d be a different story. But here in So Cal with faster speeds and insane traffic, it’s not safe in my opinion.
5. I can’t make plans just yet, so I don’t know what I’m doing this weekend. There’s a lot I very much want to do, I’m just waiting for my body to stop glitching and get on board with my plans Wizard is teasing me that I hit the age where my warranty has run out and everything is breaking down. If I laughed, it’s only because I’m dehydrated, not because he’s funny!

That’s my five, now I’d really love to hear about your much more interesting week! Hope you all have a great weekend!

I am weirdly excited about my doctor’s appointment today! I normally go only because I have to. But today, I’m hopeful that he has the answer that will make me do a face-palm and mutter, “Why didn’t I think of that?” And then we will both laugh at my silliness, the doc will go off to see real sick people, while I resume my life doing wild and reckless things like, you know, eating food.

Totally realistic expectations, right? LOLOL!! Wouldn’t it be nice if life came with easy answers and simple solutions???

In other news, all the retaining and planter walls are done! As I’m writing this, the guys are working on the forms for the concrete now. They might be able to pour tomorrow. Wizard is so happy with the progress so far.

Southern California is so beautiful it is right now. I took Maggie out yesterday, which is nearly two days after the heavy rains stopped, and got a couple pics.

This one is the stream coming down the hills. It’s much less water now, but still running.

This section is pretty close to behind our house. There’s a road to the right of this, then our houses.

These are priceless days in terms of beauty here.  No matter what kind of day I’m having, getting out here makes it better!

How’s your day going? And do agree with me that our life problems should come with easy solutions????

So the whole “atmospheric river” label feels pretty accurate. We had a lot of rain on Saturday, a bit of a break on Sunday (while I’m writing this) them more rain moving in overnight and through Monday. It’s been years since we’ve seen this much rain! Maggie, however, is so interested in the changes in the back yard with the retaining walls and planters, she could care less about the rain. She’s out there investigating as much as I’ll let her. Then when she comes in, she gives me a look of utter disbelief that I insist on drying her off and cleaning her feet. As soon as I release her from that particular indignity, she runs to Wizard and sits by him as if he will keep her safe should I decided to assault her again with my unreasonable insistence that she not track mud and cement reside on my carpet.

In some good news, it was dry enough for Wizard to go to Monster Jam with Turbo and his family. The bad news is I’m home writing this while they are there   I haven’t been feeling my best and didn’t want to slow anyone down.  However, I’m sincerely happy that Wizard went. From the pics I’ve seen so far, they are all having a great time. I am not sick, just dealing with some physically crap that’s limiting my ability to do all the things I want to do. I have to see my doctor this week for a boring routine thing, so I’ll bring it up to him and we’ll figure out how to tame it.

And in news I don’t even know how to categorize — one of our Sherriff’s deputies was shot and killed as he answered a call on Friday evening. We, along with all the community, are sickened and outraged. It’s always hard to believe when it happens so close to home, but sadly, it’s happening everywhere these days. We are particularly heartbroken for his family, friends and coworkers.

Oh and my hiking shoes came. I think they’ll work!

So that was my weekend, how was yours?