TGIF! We are nearing half way through the first month of 2023! Okay, let’s get right into sharing five random things about our weeks. Here’s mine:

1. The weather. So parts of California have been hit really hard with the rains. I think the number now is 18 people killed, which is very sad. There’s been some very dramatic mud slides and scary sinkholes. But our area so far is okay. Our neighborhood is at the base of the National Forest, but fortunately, we’ve had several years of growth there since the fires that savaged that forest. That should help to keep those hills stable. Before this housing track was built, they put in significant drainage, I know because I watched them do it. It’s also helpful that we are getting about four days of dry weather before the next in the series of storms expected to hit. The upside of all this is the hills are so pretty. I’m enjoying the rain more with the nice breaks.
2. I ordered a pair of hiking shoes. I opted not to get boots, I don’t do serious enough hiking to need that. But these are waterproof and designed for hiking.  I hope they work.
3. We are getting the hardscape portion of our landscaping! This crew is so danged hardworking! I’m always impressed by good skilled laborers. They are building the retaining walls, all the drainage (we added more and better drainage than what the housing track put in) planters and will pour all the concrete. The rest of the landscaping will come later, but having this much will be great. They’ll get as much as the can done before the predicted rains on Saturday, then return once that has stopped and the areas are dry enough to continue.
4. So yesterday I went to buy some oat flour, but the store I went to didn’t have it, so I bought a “gluten free” flour made of rice flour and various other substances. I was an idiot to buy that, it’s not what I wanted. But I also did NOT want to go to Walmart in the afternoon to get the oat flour Now I’m unhappy with the chocolate chip cookies I made. We’ll see when we taste test them later, but just trying to get these things to bake enough without burning was a challenge. It’s my own fault! I do think the oat flour would have worked better, and I also think I need to reconsider the recipe I’m using for gluten and dairy free. I prefer real butter and flour cookies, but my stomach has been having some epic toddle tempter tantrum for two weeks now and I’m trying to appease it with cookies because how else down you calm uber cranky toddlers????
5. This weekend we’re supposed to go to Monster Jam with Turbo but probably not if it’s raining. While they will probably still run and be awesome to watch, sitting in the rain doesn’t sound like fun. We’ll see.

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

I just finished listening to “Carrie Soto Is Back” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She’s one of my favorite authors I discovered in the last few years, and this one did not disappoint. It’s about a retired female tennis star trying to make a comeback to defend her record for winning the most Grand Slam titles. I’m not a huge tennis fan, but I really enjoyed the matches in this book. At times, Wizard would hear bits of the book, and he kept getting sucked in, LOL. I was surprised how engaging all the tennis matches were, especially on audio where it can be easier to lose track.

Sometimes authors really piss me off for being this good Okay I don’t really get mad, I admire their skill and work. I’ve always believed that any insecurities I feel in my own skill and talent is my problem. If I ever write a book just for fun, it’d be either a women’s fiction with this kind of emotional insight, or another fun, yet emotional cozy-like mystery series. I say cozy-like because I can’t color within the lines on cozy mystery. It’s just not in my author’s “voice” to do it. But my Samantha Shaw Mysteries broke the rules and did pretty well despite that.

Total aside here. Wait this is actually the second time I’m off topic of reading, but who’s counting? Anyhow, I hired my agent after I published my first Samantha Shaw Mystery. I arranged a meeting with her when I was in New York to see if we were the right fit, and she said something along the lines of, “I read your first book, you can actually write.” I spurted whatever beverage I was drinking, and pretty much once I could stop laughed and wiped away the tears, I hired her. I’d hire her again if I needed representation. I appreciate that kind of bluntness.

But I’m not writing at the moment so that’s just a passing thought on genres I’d write just for my own enjoyment.

In other reading, I read nearly all of the cookbook I recently bought. The author had a lot of stories of his own life in there (all somewhat related to cooking) and I enjoyed those. Plus I like reading recipes that interest me. I plan to try the pizza dough recipe in there this week. I’ve never made pizza dough so who knows what will happen.

I haven’t read any physical books yet, but I pulled three out of a still packed box and hope to read them soon. By the way, we’re keeping those boxes packed until we redo the office some day long in the future.

That’s my reading this week, what are you reading and/or listening too?

The whining for Wizard is over — his TV is on the wall and fulfilling all his dreams Middle, his wife, and their two amazing dogs came over. Maggie was overjoyed. It’s her very first house visit by other dogs. And then…just to make her world complete, Youngest came over!

Maggie thought the surprises were over. But nope, daughter-in-law and I took all the dogs on a hike. This daughter-in-law is the only person I’ve been able to get to do this with me. We went as far back into the hills as the trails went. All told, daughter-in-law said it was more than 2 and a 1/2 miles in total. It was so pretty and great for the dogs. Maggie had no problem keeping up with the bigger dogs, even though we’d done almost a mile walk earlier that morning. The cool weather really helped too.

I didn’t take any pictures, in fact, I’d forgotten my phone, but daughter-in-law had hers. Plus I’d shown one of my son the trail we were going on, so they knew where we’d be. I was so happy to have a hiking partner, and to have the two bigger dogs with us to discourage any animals seeing Maggie as prey.

But here’s the hilarious part — these two dogs are the sweetest, most loving dogs. Chances are, they’d try to make friends with a coyote Here’s a pic my son took of me with the dogs:

Hazel is on the left, and Jett on the right. I was petting Hazel when Jett got in on the action, LOL. That’s why my son took the pic. They are big, powerful dogs  but they are absolute lovers. Hazel is whip smart and likes to problem solve — like getting Maggie to trust her. Her patience is quite amazing. By the time they left, she was getting Maggie to trust her more and more. Jett was born brimming with confidence and always looking for the party. If you look at him in the pic, he’s trying to sit in my lap. He has no idea of his own size or strength. These dogs go camping and hiking all the time, and pretty much believe (like Maggie) that everyone — person or dog — is their friend. I’ve never seen the mean side of either of them.

Middle, Youngest and Wizard hung the TV while we were out on the hike. I was amazed how fast they did it! It’s been fun seeing the family room take shape. It’s going to be a work in progress for a long time, but that’s okay.

Next weekend, if it doesn’t rain, we are going to Monster Jam with Turbo and his parents. That should be so fun! Oldest son and daughter-in-law insist that it’s grandparents day and grandparents get in free. This is an ongoing discussion But so far, Wizard and I are not winning this debate, even though we can’t any evidence of it being “grandparents get in free day.” It’s an ongoing joke now.

Today, after a long delay, they are supposed to start on our retaining walls and concrete. Fingers crossed that nothing else gets in the way. All that is going to be an even bigger work in progress, but getting this part done will make the outside spaces more functional. The pretty parts of things like plants, turf and pavers will come later…probably much later 

How was your weekend?

TGIF! The first week of January has zoomed by and it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. So it’s rained a lot, but not as much as forecasted in our area. Up in Northern Cal they are dealing with a lot more. But our weather people are freaking out over what is basically rain It’s both funny and ridiculous.
2. The rain kept me inside yesterday, so I dusted, did laundry, vacuumed furniture and tried out my Christmas gift of a vacuum mop. That mop is great! It saved my back and side. I’m really happy with it.
3. My stomach is a big, fat, annoying jerk. That’s really I need to say about that.
4. The entertainment center we ordered for the new big screen TV came yesterday. It’s now spread around my living room in roughly a million pieces. So far we’ve managed to successfully assemble so many different things for the house, let’s hope our luck holds. The TV will be mounted on the wall, this is a console that will sit below it.
5. Today is supposed to be dry! Maggie and I are looking forward to walks after being housebound yesterday. We probably can’t go on the trails but it should be so pretty even from the sidewalks. On Wednesday when we had a break in the rain, we went over to the empty lots (houses to be built soon) walked over the rain-soaked lots. I was slightly surprised that Maggie was willing to tromp through the mud and puddles, but she was having a great time tracking smells churned up by the rain. But wow, the ground was so saturated and sucking at my shoes. I really should get hiking boots Maggie is basically a goat and has no problems. When I got home, I was trying to clean my shoes, and Wizard restrained himself enough to watch for about one minute, before he took over. No idea why he thought I was doing it wrong, but who am I to argue if he wants to clean all the mud off my shoes????

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

Monday evening, Wizard had turned off the football game to do some paperwork. I don’t generally watch football, but on my phone, I stumbled onto the news that a player had gone down on the field and they were administering CPR. I ran into the office to tell Wizard and the two of us followed the coverage for the rest of the evening and Tuesday until I’m writing this in the early afternoon. At this point on Tuesday, Damar Hamlin is in the ICU in critical condition. He’s 24 years old and I’m praying his youth and physical conditioning works in his favor. This whole thing is so tragic, and from what we (Wizard and I) understand, caused by a rare set of circumstances. Truly tragic, and I hope for the best outcome while being painfully aware he may be fighting a very uphill battle.

But what I am today, is proud of what I saw on the field. All the players shed their competitive skins to protect their colleague while he, and the team of medical personal, fought for his life. They surrounded him with a wall of love and protection. Those players know very well how intrusive cameras are when you’re on that field. They sign up for it in the game, but not while suffering a critical injuries. I am so proud of each of them. It was a moment when I saw right through their game bravado to their souls. It’s not a moment I’ll forget.

Yeah, I know they didn’t run into a burning building like the hero’s of 911, but they are still true heroes in my book. Our actions in a crises, no matter if it’s saving a life or taking a knee to protect someone’s dignity when they can’t do it for themselves — they all matter. They all make us better humans.

This whole thing touched me deeply and I’m not a “football fan.” So for all of you who are fans, I know it probably affected you even more. Be proud of your sport, they took a knee for their downed colleague not out of monetary gain, or attention-seeking grandstanding, but because it was the right thing to do.

I can’t honestly say I didn’t think I’d be here one day saying that two teams of football players are my heroes, but today, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

We made it through another year! Happy 2023!!! I’m ready to put the holidays behind us for another year!

We had a good weekend. I did a little baking:

Thumbprint cookies with raspberry and lemon curd filling.

Pistachio cookies with brown butter icing.

But the good news is: I haven’t baked a single thing since last year   And I’ll likely take a break for a bit and focus on cooking for awhile.

We finally put all our Christmas stuff away, and we went to the neighbor’s New Year’s Eve party. It was fun to meet so many of our neighbors! We had a great time for about two hours at about 10p.m. We just aren’t night owls, but we really did enjoy ourselves.

It poured on New Year’s Eve and I think that helped reduce some of the fireworks. We still had some but not as bad as past years.

New Year’s Day, I’m writing this before dinner, but we’re making steak and lobster. I’m looking forward to that! I also spent hours on the computer researching some things we need, something I haven’t had time to do since Thanksgiving. I still have more to do, but I can’t stare at the computer screen much longer!

It’s on and off raining today, but when the some came out, it was stunningly pretty here with gorgeous views! Those days are rare and we love them! It’s raining the the late afternoon and more is coming in the first part of the week. We need it so I won’t complain.

So how was your weekend?