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

1. Maggie has quite suddenly become an outside dog. She just wants to be out back and resists when I tell her to come in. Maggie resisting any of my commands is a little weird, but right now I’m chalking it up to age-induced stubbornness. She also has a new thing of wanting to hang out with Wizard in the garage — that I’m very happy about. He has always wanted her to hang with him outside. Maggie is fine otherwise. And after dinner, she only goes out to potty then stays in the rest of the night. So…as far as we can tell, she’s good, just deciding to live the outdoor dog life for awhile. I’m assuming the summer temps with change her mind
2. And speaking of summer…we finally hired a place to make and install a motorized outdoor shade for one side of our patio that is large, like a 16 foot width. We looked into it last year and were a bit shellshocked at the price and we didn’t find the solution we wanted. This year we did and at an acceptable price. It’ll be weeks before it’s installed, but Wizard especially is happy about this. He BBQs out there and needs the shade!
3. Speaking of expenses, I guess the Shelby was feeling neglected. We went out to dinner last night, then came home and…the power seat broke. Unfortunately it broke in the pushed all the way back position that Wizard uses to get out of the car, so now he can’t drive it. As I’m writing this yesterday afternoon, he’s on his way to the specialty car shop to see if there’s a power seat replacement available, or maybe even a manual seat. Wizard knew the power seat was breaking and has been searching for a replacement for a while, but I guess they are hard to come by.
4. This kind of stuff is the cost of having a car like the Shelby, which we both knew when his brother left it to him. So last night, I was trying to make sure Wizard didn’t think I was upset over the cost of this car, and I jokingly said, “The Shelby is your expensive hobby and Maggie is mine.” I really should have known better than to open that can of worms with an accountant — Wizard then told me the exact figure it cost us for Maggie’s food, medicine and vet bills for last year. Sigh…yeah, Wizard keeps spreadsheets on all this stuff, and obviously, remembers the exact numbers just in case he wants to make a point. Fine, point taken. Maggie is expensive but she’s worth every penny! For the record, he never truly complains. I mentioned that at the end of this year I want to get her teeth cleaned again, and all he said was, “Get an estimate next time you’re at the vet’s office so I can plan it.” Totally reasonable.
5. Turbo and his mom our coming over tomorrow. Turbo’s dad and Youngest son will be out of town, and Special K asked if it was okay for her and Turbo to come over and hang out. Of course it is!! I’m not sure what Sunday will bring.

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

Wow, so I haven’t had so much fun reading a book in a long time. We all know humor is subjective, but for me, STORY OF MY LIFE by Lucy Score, was a just what I needed. Fun, sexy and it played a bit with tropes in romance since the heroine is a romance author. This book is written in first person so that will be a nonstarter for some readers. For myself, first person is an “It usually depends on the author’s skill” for me.

Right now, I’m hesitating starting another book to let that hangover feeling subside. But next, I’ll probably read the nonfiction, politically-adjacent books Wizard just finished. It involves first hand experience with the UN, and that’s something I’m happy to learn more about from someone who is has been on the ground there.

So what are you reading?

Yep the weekend happened

Saturday we went to Turbo’s game, where he got two hits and scored two runs. He also scooped up a ground ball and threw it to first. His aim was slightly off, but I was proud of the play! After that, we went to his house and where I gave him his Easter basket, then he and Wizard played with his RC truck while I had fun looking at kitchen makeover plans with Special K. My son emerged from the dungeon CPA’s live in this time of year, and told me that his clients have shared with him that they like giving their kids their inheritance while the parents were still there to watch the kids enjoy the money. I laughed and told him nice try trying trying to soak his elderly, retired parents for the kitchen renovation. Then I went right back to finding way to make my daughter in law’s new kitchen as expensive as possible.

Going back to the baseball game, I was the blazing idiot who forgot to put sunscreen on my arms before I went to the game and burned my arms burned. I’m so irritated at myself over this. I’ve been trying hard to protect my skin, and this was just dumb. Also not fun. On the upside I had a great sunscreen on my face and neck that I wear daily so I guess it could have been worse.

Just for fun, CeeGee’s mom sent me a pic of CeeGee  wearing the outfit I got her. She’s with her dad, my middle son, in this pic.  Personally, I think she pulls off that outfit fabulously, but I could be a tad biased

Sunday, I was so tired. That is also my fault because I was reading and forgot to go to sleep It’s been a long time since I lost track of time while reading, so I didn’t mind that. Anyhow, I stayed home Sunday to avoid the sun until the burn calms down. Well I did run to Target to get some aloe vera gel, which does help. Otherwise, I spent the day cleaning my pantry and searching for possible pet friendly hotels if we go on a 4th of July trip with Middle son. I’m annoyed, but not surprised, already by the prices. We’ll see what we decide to do.

That’s my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF!! Time to share random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. It’s hot this week. But I am not complaining given what other states (like Kentucky and Tennessee) are going through. I feel for all the people suffering from the flooding.
2. We all know Maggie hates having her picture taken and always looks like a goofball. And to prove it, here’s one I took yesterday. I can’t explain why she makes these weird expressions. Maggie is just gonna be Maggie!
3. This week, I’ve been into pretending I’m a gardener. For the record, I’ve been known in the plant world as a serial killer, so this faze won’t last. But I’m trying! We’ve gone through six large bags of potting soil, filled four barrels with plants and flowers, plus some assorted pots I had (because I’d murdered the last residence of those pots). And I lost count of the trips to Home Depot and Lowes. But I feel we’re making some progress on the paver patio. So called, because it’s has cement squares that are sort of pavers. Our regular patio is normal poured cement and therefore called “the patio” or sometimes if I’m feeling fancy, “the wine patio.”  There’s no real reason to call it a wine anything, except that once in a while we’ve had a glass of wine out there Back to the paver patio, it’s a bit of an odd space, but we’re tackling the challenge.
4. Speaking of the paver patio, I was showing Wizard a couple patio chairs on my phone and asking if he liked them. He responded, “We’ll need to have someone out to build a gazebo to make it usable for more than a couple hours a day.” Then he frowned and asked me why I was blinking like a hostage under a bright light. Umm…because I had a two hundred dollar idea that he just turned into several thousand dollars!!! He laughed when I point that out. What I didn’t say is that the a couple of the palms we planted in barrels will give us some shade there in a couple years.
5. We are planning to go to Turbos game Saturday if it works out. It will be hot, so we may go for the last half the game then go to Turbo’s house afterward for a while. Today I told Wizard I’d make pizza for him and he’s pretty excited about that He’s not hard to please.

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

I needed something light and funny, and this fits the bill for me: STORY OF MY LIFE by Lucy Score. Humor is so very subjective. Stuff one person finds funny another can find stupid, insulting, annoying or plain boring. But I find this book funny in this moment where I’ve been listening and reading way too serious stuff lately.

And a Wizard update, he went to Barnes and Noble alone and bought three books. I mean…weird. But I love it for him! And this slew of books looks interesting to me so it’s also a win for me But I will wait until he’s done. He bought the books so he gets first dibs on reading them.

Still…if you’d asked me years ago if Wizard would turn into a “real reader” I’d have said no — not like me. And then, like a good husband, he proved me wrong!

So what are you reading or listening to?

It was a good weekend.

On Friday, Wizard had a low key birthday. Youngest’s wife was under the weather, so we didn’t go to dinner. I was going to take Wizard out anyway, but he wanted to stay home. He did enjoy the lemon cream cheese cookies

Saturday, Baby Girl and her parents came over. For now, I’ll call her CeeGee. So they came over, and Maggie wanted to see CeeGee before she even got out of her car seat.  I sat her up on the couch, and to our surprised Maggie jumped up there twice. That’s just weird since she only goes up there when her blanket’s out. CeeGee found this all hilarious. She was bouncing and screaming (boys laugh, girls scream, LOL).

However, I made Maggie get down and give her space. I saw possessiveness in Maggie — I think for CeeGee because she was focused on her and loves kids. But I couldn’t be 100% sure it wasn’t about me, and that can be dangerous. I mean I have never seen any kind of aggression in Maggie, but she’s getting older and I never want to be the owner who says, “My dog would never…”  because kids and dogs will almost always prove us wrong. Either way, we established some ground rules. Then Maggie was very good and had so much fun with her. And later in the evening I let her up on the couch with her, and she was well behaved with no problems.  CeeGee also loves Grandpa and helped make his birthday special. We all had a great time, enjoying good wine, a decent dinner and both the lemon cookies and some of the fudge filled chocolate chips ones I took out of the freezer.

At one point, I gave CeeGee a small silicone whisk and my son came in the kitchen, saw her and was so confused. He asked her “Where did you get that?” Did he think almost his seven month old daughter rummaged through my kitchen drawers and found it herself? I finally assured him that I gave it to her and she was perfectly safe. She played with that little whisk through dinner. It doesn’t take much to entertain little ones. Then her mom fed her some homemade baby food. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing with my kids

While we couldn’t go to Turbo’s game, we got some videos of a two of him at bat, and he got tow hits! He is doing well and having fun!

Sunday was our first quiet day, and we had a discussion about starting to fill in a small patio off the sun room. Two trips to home depot later we have found big pots that were a two-for-the-price-of-one deal, and two pygmy palms that I love! They are so tropical looking and I hope they can survive in the part sun part shade of that area! I was surprised that Wizard likes them too — I always thought he didn’t. More than four decades together and I learn something new about him! The  moral of this story is we can turn any day into a busy day by inventing projects our of thin air, LOL. That section of small patio is a work in progress but that’s part of the fun. And for the record, Maggie supervised but she doesn’t do much actual work.

How was your weekend?

TGIF!!! Why am I always surprised by Friday? Seriously, it shows up every week, so after many decades, I should be used to it! Anyhow, it’s now time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Today is Wizard’s birthday! It’s a bit of a lowkey birthday but still hopefully he’ll be happy. He doesn’t want a cake this year because he says he’ll just keep eating it, LOL.  But we’ll probably go to dinner.
2. I found my packaged seasoning for stew! I’m making it for Thursday night, and to celebrate, I’m making breadsticks to go with it. But I need to learn to build the flavors in stew myself without the aide of my packaged seasoning that has stuff in there I don’t really think is ideal
3. On Wednesday, I went to my granddaughter’s house to take her and her mom for a mini girls lunch for my DILs birthday. Baby Girl was so good! Here she is dressed up like a Little Lady with her sweater and necklace (and no socks because she takes them off, LOL)
4. Yesterday was a marathon and today looks busy too, but it’s all good. But I was pretty impressed that yesterday I walked a couple miles, lifted weights, went to Trader Joes and Costco, washed floors, made stew and breadsticks. Now we’ll see if I can get out of bed today
5. Saturday, Middle Son, his wife and Baby Girl are coming over. I’m planning to make Balsamic Flank Steak for an early dinner. It’ll be really nice to see my son. Wizard saw him when I had the cold, but I haven’t seen him in a while. We will miss Turbo’s baseball game, but we’ll get to the next one!

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