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

1. Wizard is sick with a cold, again. That’s twice in less than two months. I’m not happy with his immune system. Poor Wizard is a little worried what kind of witchcraft, I mean meals, I might conjure up to assist his immune system
2. This week, I did a bunch of small, boring chores around the house. Even Maggie is bored, LOL. But it feels good to get them done because they were bugging me. I have about 10 more I could do, but I don’t want to get carried away, LOL.
3. I’m finally steadily reading Onyx Storm. I’m more than 80% through it and I like it, but for me, some of it is tedious. However, I still love the characters and they pull me back even when I get restless.
4. I have Jury Duty next week. For us in CA, we call in each day of the week to see if we’re needed. Then once we go in, if we’re excused, then we’re done. It’s an okay system. Doesn’t mean I’m super excited, but I’ll do it.
5. I so hope I don’t wake up with Wizard’s cold today (remember I’m writing this on Thursday night to post Friday morning) because I have plans to go to see my granddaughter! Wizard will stay home. My daughter in law is fine with it as long as Wizard isn’t running a fever or seem to have the flu or Covid. We tested him for both, and he’s negative so it’s a cold (it’s acting like a cold). I’m still going to err on the side of caution if I feel “off”. But I really want to see Baby Girl, her mom and their two dogs.

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

Over the weekend, we were talking about books. Youngest son, myself and Wizard were talking about some non-fiction we were all reading and talking about loaning one another, mostly biographies of successful business types. And my daughter-in-law said, “I’ve just been reading fiction.”

I stopped her immediately. “Fiction is important and teaches us a lot. It is not “just fiction.'” And she agreed, because she’s smart and all the things I could hope for in my son’s life partner

Quick story here: Just weeks before my 14th birthday, my dad suddenly died, we moved states, lived with my sister, I started high school where I knew no one, and I was very lost. But I found fiction. In that fiction, I came to believe there was a future for me out there, I just had to work for it. Become the person who would earn and deserve that future. In short, novels saved me. They gave me a safe place to go when I was drowning in the world.

Fiction taught me to value myself and choose a good life partner who would value me too.

Fiction taught me to value that life partner, no matter how hard life gets.

Fiction also taught me that Happily Ever After is fiction, but character, patience and determination will take you through in the real world.

Historical Fiction brought history to life and taught me the human toll of tragedy as well as that the human spirit that can triumph.

I believe Fiction teaches us both the value and the costs of choices we make, so that maybe we can make better choices, or at least, have a better understanding of the cost of the choices we do make.

I believe Fiction has so much to teach me, and to teach all of us.

It’s not “just fiction.”

What do you think?

Another weekend came and went dumping us into mid-February and speeding toward March Our weekend was good.

Friday, I got my hair done, and came home to the coffee table being delivered. And…the coffee table is not warped! We are very happy and glad to have that done. Full credit to the furniture company for taking care of this, it’s much appreciated. Back to my hair — my hairdresser and I made a plan to do a heavy weave in six weeks (when the gray is grown out enough for her to weave it), beginning a process of growing out my gray. Right now, I’m excited about that, but we’ll see how it goes. After all that I made cupcakes for BLB. I resorted to simple gluten and dairy free chocolate ones because I could not get an ingredient I needed to make the S’more Cupcakes.

Saturday, I made the frosted and iced the cupcakes. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that Youngest chose. Then youngest and his wife came back to our house for gifts, cupcakes and dairy free ice cream. They were both very happy with the cupcakes so that’s good. Youngest took a box of extra ones home with him. Overall we had a great time. Oh and youngest loved the new tables which was nice to hear after the all the drama,

Sunday tested my frustration but it was just normal stuff annoying me. On the upside, I did get my freezer cleaned out so I got to cross one item off a much longer to-do list. Sometime we take the small wins!

How was your weekend?

TGIF! Happy Valentine’s Day! Lets get right to sharing five random things about our week. Full disclose — I didn’t do much worth reporting this week, but I’ll give it my best shot

1. It’s raining! That’s good. Hopefully no mud slides, but at least we’re getting rain.
2. I made a Cashew Chicken recipe and was pretty happen with how it came out. Shockingly, Wizard and I both agreed it could have been a tad hotter (spicier), and we normally are not into heat in our food.  I made a note on my recipe.
3. I’m in the process of making sourdough pizza dough. It’s a two day process so we’ll see how it comes out.
4. Due to the rain, we cancelled our Valentine’s dinner plans because the restaurant is 50 miles away. So today on Valentine’s Day the plan is homemade pizza. We’re both happy with that — no one would be happy in 50 miles of rain soaked traffic
5. Today I’m supposed to get my hair cut and colored — we’ll see if that works out. And the third version of the coffee table is scheduled for delivery. I may be gone when it’s delivered so Wizard will have to handle it.  And Saturday evening we’re going to dinner with Youngest for his birthday and I’m probably making some S’mores cupcakes so I assume we’ll come back to my house after. I should probably tell him I’m making the cupcakes and make an actual plan, LOL. I’ll get on that soon! Unless maybe he’s suddenly developed the skill to read my mind.

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

I’m not reading anything, and I’ve mostly been listening to podcasts rather than books. I was really enjoying Onyx Storm, then Wizard and I started watching movies at night when I would normally read and I haven’t picked it back up. I will soon, especially with rain potentially starting today and possibly lasting through till Friday. So far, each rain forecasted this year has fizzled to a heavy drizzle in our area, but we’ll see what happens.

What are you guys reading or listening to?

Happy Wednesday!

It was a good weekend. I’m writing this while Superbowl is on TV (on Sunday…obviously) so I have no idea how that ends

Friday was a nice day because I didn’t have to be somewhere for the first time that week. My hairdresser had canceled by hair appointment after she had a reaction to a necessary medical procedure. We rescheduled it for Saturday, so no big deal. I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to take to my nephews on Saturday and then, I scored eggs for half the price I usually pay at Trader Joes. I was weirdly excited by that, LOL.

Saturday, my hair appointment was cancelled again. I’m getting less than thrilled although I understand this is out of her control. But it would be nice if they’d offered to have someone else step in…oh well it’s just hair. And resembling like a skunk is a look, right? Saturday afternoon we went to my nephews to have tacos and celebrate his birthday. It was a nice evening! I enjoyed it.

Sunday, Wizard went racing and I did a bunch of stuff, including a two mile walk with Maggie, washing floors and baking bread. While running errands, I got a text picture of youngest and his wife on my front porch. Sigh…if they’d warned me, I’d have been home! However once I finished everything, I went over their house and we hang out for a while. Youngest’s birthday is coming up in a week so we talked about doing something Saturday night for that. He’s deciding where he’d like to go to dinner (or have me make dinner). Then I came home to find Wizard home from racing and watching the Superbowl and now you’re all caught up!

How was your weekend?

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

1. Monday Wizard and I went to a running shoe store to buy shoes. It costs a tad more, but we found it worth it. Ordering stuff online is convenient and all, but sometimes, in-person is the better option. We both bought some shoes.
2. The coffee table saga goes on. They brought the new one Wednesday and it was warped worse than the one we have. The delivery guys noticed it first and they called to tell the office they’re returning it. Customer Service called me, and they are delivering a new one a week from today. The customer service person swears they will check it at the warehouse first. I just keep telling myself people deal with real problems every day and this is not one of those real problems. This is just an annoyance that will get sorted out. But man I’m tired of endless phone calls, emails, texts and four hour windows for deliveries — I just want this done.
3. In the Success! column, Wizard and I hung a TV in our what we humorously called our “Media Room.”  It’s a spare bedroom we use for everything — working out, wrapping presents, doing little projects, chilling out by ourselves with YouTube or Movies or read, just all kinds of things. The hardest part of that was finding the right TV bracket for our older TV. The rest went fairly easy and now the TV appears to be securely on the wall and doing what we want it to do. We are super happy about it. There’s more to be done in that room, but the house is a process that we enjoy and do as we can afford it.
4. We took some Manicotti over to my sister and her husband’s yesterday (we just wanted them to know we are thinking of them as the deal with losing a family member). We visited for a while, then Wizard got antsy and was ready to leave. I wanted to stay longer but traffic sucks so we went home. On the way, Oldest called, and while I was on the phone to him and distracted — Wizard got off the freeway and started winding into the hills where we’ve never been. I told oldest this and said that he might be the last person to talk to me, and that this was my last known location. He’s like, “Cool, Mom, this is how all the best mysteries start.” Frankly, he sounded more amused than worried. It’s like he trusts his dad or something
5. We saw Baby Girl yesterday. She’s delightful, super chatty and engaged. She turns five months old on the 9th! When I see her now, I barely remember that tiny helpless newborn. It sure is hard to leave when she’s mastered the art of being adorable, full of smiles and babbling.

This weekend, we have a family birthday party Saturday afternoon. Sunday Wizard is torn between racing and the Superbowl, and I’ve got a list of things I could do so we’ll see. That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours!