This week started off with some shocking sadness. I suspect the rest of the week will hopefully be better, but I’ll talk about that on Friday. Right now, let’s ignore the sad stuff, and talk about Maggie instead

Here’s Maggie when I try to make her pose for a picture:

She’s looks old and dejected. She is old, but she’s still her cheerful, sweet self and that usually shows through. Unless I pull out my phone and open the camera, LOL.

Here’s Maggie in her natural happy state of lizard hunting. If I remember right, she was stalking something in his shot:

To me, it’s a huge difference. She looks more fit and engaged. Her age shows, but who cares, she’s doing what she loves!

Which means we should be doing something we love! What do you think?

Happy Wednesday!

It was a pretty good weekend.

Friday, we went to my brother in law’s to power wash the outside of the house. Wizard always underestimates how much time it will take. He assured me it’d be no more than two hours…Bwhahahaha!! I think it took five hours. We were exhausted when we got home, but happy to get it done. My brother-in-law had been sick for a while, and some of his house is north-facing, so there was a buildup that needed to be cleaned up. Middle Son’s powerwasher was up to the job! He’d told Wizard and I exactly how to do it, and he was right! But nothing Wizard and I do can compare to all the work my sister-in-law has done in the house, and that’s while enduring harsh grief. Her strength and resilience are amazing.

Saturday we did some cleaning, then I made these mini chocolate chip Bundt cakes filled with chocolate frosting:

I have some things on my mind, and baking keeps me occupied. If I can’t pawn these off on Youngest, I’ll free most of them.

Sunday, I took Maggie to Petco to pick out a surprise. She hasn’t been anywhere in a while, and I wanted her to have a little fun. While waiting in line to pay for her surprise, three people commented on what a happy dog she is because she was doing her happy-silly-girl-dance. I just shook my head at her ridiculous antics. I should have made her sit and stay but I just let it go. Even though I’ve been walking her two miles daily, she needed to get out and socialize a bit. A little attention was good for her. Then she came home and chewed her stick. Now I just hope it agrees with her. I don’t let her have things like that often.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF!! The weeks seem to be flying by. Now it’s time to share five random things about our week, here’s mine:

1. I got a call from my medical group that my Humira medication has been authorized. I’m really surprised it happened that fast. I’ll call the specialty pharmacy today to see if the authorization has shown up in their system. If all goes well, I’ll get it next week and only be roughly a week late, which usually doesn’t cause me problems.
2. I found a way I like sweet potatoes. I don’t hate them, I just don’t really like them and will usually choose something else if I can. Anyway, I roasted them in some olive oil and taco seasoning, then I use them to build a taco salad. I loved it. I still prefer russet or most of the other potatoes over sweet ones. And don’t even make me look at those yams covered in marshmallows I don’t even know what that goop is supposed to be — a starch or dessert!
3. With this house, our great room (kitchen, dining and living area) is in the back. Maggie has window to the world in the front of the house, and has taken to alerting us if she sees someone coming to the door, often to drop off packages or leave flyers. She just barks a time or two and comes to get us, wanting us to check it out. I’m not sure if it’s age, access to a front window or just the layout of the house making her feel she needs to alert us to people walking to the front door. Dogs are interesting! We always check and tell her she’s a good girl. She doesn’t harass people walking by, so it’s a behavior I like.
4. I’m listening to Kristin Hannah’s THE WOMEN, a fiction about an army nurse serving in Vietnam and her life after that. I like it. I just started reading Larissa Ione’s THE LEGACY: A Demonica Birthright Novel. I’m not far into it, but really like it so far.
5. Today the plan for Wizard and I is to go to his brother’s house (his widow’s house now), and do some power washing on the outside. We borrowed Middle Son’s power washer and then the rain keeps delaying getting this done. I don’t think Middle needs it back soon, but Wizard and I want to get this done and return it soon anyway. Otherwise, the rest of the weekend is up in the air. We have some ideas but no solid plans yet

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

It’s been rainy but nothing huge here in our area. Some places have been hit hard, so I’m not minimizing this. But dang, in our neck of the woods, it’s just wet, muddy and dreary. Maggie and I are used to more activity. However I did get my MRI for my throat approved and scheduled, so that’s good news. The scan is in March, and by then it’ll be 8 months since I started trying to get help. It’s getting worse, but still more annoying than causing any real problems that we know of so far. I can eat and swallow, and that’s kind of important At least, we’re making progress and I’m happy enough about that.

The sigh-and-wait thing is my Humira medication. This is a once a year challenge to get this — we seriously play the same game every single year. Just imagine me rolling my eyes as I’m making endless calls between the specialty pharmacy, the doctors office, and my insurance, and begging them all to contract the right people with the right information to get the proper authorization. It’s bureaucracy at it’s finest. I guess it keeps my busy? And I’m always grateful when the rest of the year goes smoothly too.

Back to the rain, I’m amusing myself by thinking of absurd or fun plots Still not writing, no real plans to write, but making up plots is fun! Although,  a quick aside, Youngest suggested I write a cookbook or cooking/baking website — but I think that’s because he wants all my recipes

How’s your week going?

Eh, it was a weekend. I spent time prepping food for having Youngest and his wife over, but they weren’t able to come over (through no fault of their own). Since I had so much food, I dropped some enchiladas, Spanish rice and cake for them. Life happens and we’ll reschedule.

I made the gluten and diary free cinnamon cake — I think it needs a bit of work. I have some ideas

Otherwise, I read “VERITY” by Colleen Hoover. That book was a surprise! It turned out to be a bit of a psychological suspense with a dark twist, and I inhaled that book. I don’t read many of Colleen’s books (though I know who she is and I’m happy for her amazing success!) but this was NOT what I was expecting. So that was fun and slightly disturbing, LOL.

We have more rain on the way, although I’m not sure when it’ll start as I write this late Sunday afternoon. The clouds have moved in, and the air is getting heavier so sometime in the next 12 hours maybe? We’ll see.

So my weekend was uninspiring weekend, how was yours?

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

1. One morning this week, I read an article that a mountain lion had been spotted in our area, and saw the ring camera video. Then I went out for an early morning walk, and was stopped by another walker with a big dog who’d seen the mountain lion the night before right outside his back yard. He lives about a block from me. And that was when I cancelled our walk and took Maggie home   It was full daylight and I was probably safe, but I’m pretty confident that if I have to wrestle a mountain lion for Maggie, I will lose. Mountain lions don’t normally come down from the hills/forest to our area, but it can happen. I’m as careful as I reasonably can be.
2. I finally unpacked and put away our books in the bookshelves. I’ll probably be packing them again soon to paint, but then who knows when that will happen since we have other things going on (just life stuff). I don’t want to look at stacks of boxes anymore, and it’s only takes an hour to pack them up anyway.
3. Wizard and I went to dinner for Valentines Day, and had a fabulous meal! We both got the steak and lobster special and I was surprised how good it was. I had to bring half my steak home, and that was my lunch the next day so it’s a double win for me!
4. I made sourdough bread yesterday and will probably bake it today. I’ve never had it fail, but I’m wondering if one day I will??? Sourdough starter is a living thing, and it could just decided it didn’t want to work one day, or have a premature death
5. Today is Youngest’s birthday! He and his wife are coming to dinner on Sunday — they’ll be the first to see our floors. But the important thing is Youngest and I brainstormed what kind of cake he’d like. It all has to be dairy and gluten free so it’s tricky, but we decided on a Cinnamon Roll Cake. We’ll see if it comes out — youngest doesn’t mind being my taste tester I’m also making enchiladas, Spanish rice and maybe a salad.

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

I’ve been reading a biography about John Belushi — “Wired: The Short and Fast Times of John Belushi” written by Bob Woodward. John Belushi was a comedic star who rose to fame on Saturday Night Live and went on to make many movies before died of a drug overdose. I think I was about 19 when he died so it had an impact on me. I thought the book would be interesting.

For context, this book was published in 1984, so it’s an old book, written by an old school journalist. And it shows in the writing!!! The book suffers ( by today’s standards and my humble opinion) from way too much detail and backstory of every person mentioned. I know the author did a ton of research, and in the time this was published, that level of detail was considered reasonable and admirable. But I often find myself struggling in a new scene trying to find out how it relates to Belushi. I will say this, though, I’m more than half way through and I haven’t DNF’ed it, so it’s compelling. That’s a compliment to the author that he managed to cram so much detail in there and keep my interest. These days I’m brutal about dumping a book that I loses interest in

But still, in my opinion, the old school journalist could take some lessons from modern authors (and their amazing editors!!) on how to tighten a story to a razor sharp reading experience.

What are you reading?

Also, Happy Valentine’s Day!