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!

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!

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!

TGIF!! We blinked and it’s Friday again! You know what that means, time to share five random things about our week:

1. My brother in law has been unwell this week (Biker Witch’s Hubby). He’s getting the care he needs and so far, is feeling better. But these days, I like to worry about everyone. And Wizard has his hands full doing what he can for his mom who is dealing with the issues of aging.
2. Wizard got his TSA Pre-check clearance! He was starting to get a complex about that, LOL. He’s thinking about taking a trip to his brother’s house (he lives in Oregon). I’m nudging him to do it. And, I’ve been looking at vacations for us, but that was mostly window shopping at this point
3. Okay, guys, I did it! I got the weave done on my hair, so now silver is threaded through the brown, and it should blend as the gray grows out. So far, I really like it! And I won’t have to get it colored every four weeks now. I will probably want to add low lights over time as more gray comes in, but right now, I’m happy to try something lower maintenance and see how I like it.  Here’s a front and back picture from the back to get an idea (Ignore how I look — these were quick pics Wizard took for me outside in the wind):
4. I made sourdough bread this week. I only mention that because today I tried a new stew recipe that’s still simmering in the crockpot now as I write this. It’s a long recipe and I mixed up measurements on two ingredients and now I’m worried it won’t be good. So see? If if I fail with this recipe, at least we have fresh sourdough so it’s not a total loss! And I don’t have to feel like a total loser, LOL. But okay, even if this version doesn’t come out, I should be able to figure out how to make it better next time. I always had a standby packaged stew mix that I used for years because it was relatively fast and easy and Wizard liked it — then the company changed the packaged formula and it’s not good. So I’m experimenting.
5. Today I have a quick tele-appointment with my endocrinologist in the morning. I expect that to go pretty well. This weekend, I don’t have any big plans as of yet (I’ve kind of held off making them to see how my brother in law is just in case my sister needs something). Next week though I’ve planned to take my daughter in law to lunch (with Baby Girl!) on Wednesday for her birthday, and then they are all coming out that weekend for a visit so we can see our son too. We may go to Turbo’s baseball games on Saturday, but we’ll see.

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

TGIF! This month is speedy by for me, how about for you guys? So now that Friday has arrived, let’s share five random things about our week.

1. We reshuffled the week because a lot was going on. So I went shopping on Monday when I normally go on Tuesday. It was not exciting, but at least I got it done.
2. Tuesday was a day Wizard stole from me   He schedule the mustang to get new shocks. This is all fine, except that required both of us to drive separate cars to another city far, far away. Okay not that far, about 30 miles one day. But still….we dropped then car off. Then waited around all day until it was done to them go pick it up. The upside of all this is Wizard found this garage that works specifically on cars like the Shelby, and he’s really happy. Plus we got to see a race car there, so that was cool.
3. Biker Witch and I went to lunch. I managed to jump on the wrong freeway…which sounds stupid and it is. However, I genuinely thought we were going that way because I was going that way for the next two days. My brain was a little ahead of schedule. Biker Witch and I had fun — we haven’t had a lot of time to talk lately, so it was nice to catch up.
4. Thursday we went to see Turbo (our grandson!), who is on Spring Break.  We went to lunch then took him shopping at Target for his 7th birthday. Turbo picked out a bunch of Monster Trucks — one of his favorite things Thankfully his mom and dad don’t mind. We honestly don’t spoil him often, so they let us indulge him on his birthday or for special things. Here’s a pic of me with him yesterday, he’s growing up so fast.
5. Today we have to trek out to another city for an appointment to hopefully get TSA precheck. We don’t have plans for air travel at the moment, but we’re doing this in case we fly somewhere to make it easier for Wizard. He has some mobility issues these days, but he sure doesn’t let that stop him.  That’s in the morning and we should be home in time for me to do some laundry and other tasks that I just couldn’t get to this week. And I think since we’ve put on 100s of miles on the cars this week, we’re going to skip Turbo’s game on Saturday. On the other hand, we could change our mind and go. At least we can take Maggie and she won’t be left home for the third or fourth day in a row. We do enjoy his games.

That was some of my week. Overall it was good, just a busy week. Now it’s your turn to share your five random things. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

TGIF!! It sure feels to me like Fridays arrive faster and faster each week! Okay, let’s get right into sharing five random things about our week:

1. My website, or rather, the hosting site had some maintenance this week which made trying to post and answer on Wednesday a bit challenging. I’m impressed anyone was able to comment!
2. Lots of rain this week, which we need. The sunny times between the rains with piercing blue sky and cloudscapes has been truly stunning. Maggie and I enjoyed a few walks when we got the chance. I try so hard to appreciate those small moments of joy these days.
3. Speaking of joy — we babysat Baby Girl yesterday and she was fun! It poured rain and high winds all night before that, and some rain on the way there, so we left early. Turned out to be not too bad a drive. And our drive home was decent too — we got lucky! But the best part of all, is Baby Girl and her smiles — she played with us for three hours. I tried to put her down for a nap once when she was rubbing her eyes from fatigue and fell asleep, but her eyes popped open, she grinned and started chatting away. So we got her back up, played for another hour, gave her a bottle and she was out. She’s gonna be mad when she wakes up and we’re not there to keep playing. This is another moment in time we’re trying to cherish! We love her as much as Turbo, and it’s fun to see how similar and yet very different they are!
4. By the way, Baby Girl is six months old now, here’s her six month photo that her mom took.
5. The plan this weekend is to go to Turbo’s game on Saturday. He’s turning seven on Monday! He’s having a kid party, but we’re holding off a family celebration until after tax season. We’ll figure it out — lots of moving parts going on in our family these days, LOL. All good, just busy people trying to coordinate schedules. It’s Baby Girl’s mom’s birthday on Sunday, but they have a their fundraising camping trip (for childhood brain cancer) over the next week and that requires a lot of work so we’re going to celebrate after that.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours. I hope everyone has a fun, safe and if desired, productive weekend!

TGIF! For me, I’m glad to get to the end of this week All right, let’s share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I made breadsticks this week and this time I was happy with them. That’s a win. They were pretty easy if a little time consuming. And they went well with two of our meals — stew and spaghetti.
2. Tuesday we finally saw a specialist for Wizard. It was really touch and go if I’d be well enough to go, but I made it! And I really needed to be there (Wizard agreed with me on that). This doctor’s office was pretty far to travel, but turned out to be a good decision. We both really liked her, and she has a good plan to determine exactly what’s going on. Then fun related story — we were driving home and Wizard accidently took a ramp on the wrong freeway that ended up being a toll road we were stuck on for miles. This is funny because Wizard is basically a traveling Google map in his head, and he doesn’t make these mistakes. This was more of a distracted mistake, but it still counts! Fortunately there was no traffic and it just cost us a few dollars and a bit of extra time.
3. Wednesday — it started pouring rain. Good. What wasn’t good is that I had a 4pm ultrasound of my neck at UCI. Wizard wouldn’t let me tackle that drive myself, so he went with me. The ultrasound was late and traffic was horribly snarled when we were done. We went to dinner out there, then made the drive home that took two very long hours. It was a battle but it’s done, and the report on my ultrasound is good so it was worth the pain of it.
4. Thursday I took Maggie for her vet tech visit. She was a very good girl and made me proud. When the tech told me that, I confessed that Maggie is just an easy dog and I’m lucky. And then I did a marathon of laundry and bathrooms, and set a up a plan with my daughter in law to baby sit my grand daughter next Thursday. I love that she asks me (and of course, Wizard. He’ll go if he doesn’t have other things he has to do). I truly don’t take for granted that our daughters in law trust their kids with us, and know we’ll do our best to do things their way. And later today (still Thursday as I’m writing this), I’m going to start making sourdough bread because this weeks is a lot of catching up after being sick. I’ll bake the bread tomorrow.
5. Today I have a phone visit with my surgeon and expect that to go very well since the ultrasound results were good. Then our week of appointments is done. Saturday we’re going to Turbo’s baseball game unless something unexpected happens. I might even take Maggie, we’ll see. She would love it, but it depends if we’re going to make any other stops while we’re out.

That’s my week, and it’s nice to be 90% over the stupid cold. Now I’d love to hear your five! I hope everyone has a happy and healthy weekend!