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!

We had a great weekend. Saturday was pretty normal stuff. But while running errands, I stopped by youngest to see the desk he built for his home office. It’s gorgeous! It’s a simple farmhouse design, and perfect for him. I really am impressed with the level of attention to detail he put in this desk. He’s really developing some amazing woodworking skills.

After that, I made dark chocolate brownies for Superbowl. Then I decided they are too dark chocolate for most people, so I froze those, and bought Ghirardelli’s boxed brownies, and made those to take to Middle’s. Yes, I realized that’s a bit over the top, but I do stuff like that all the time, LOL. They all seemed to like them. I passed because they had gluten, and my stomach has been touchy for a few days. I had treats at home so it doesn’t bother me to do that.

Sunday we went to Middles to watch the Superbowl. We had a delicious dinner of tri trip and tons of great conversation while watching the game. It got tense in overtime, and that’s when we left…but Wizard listened to the game on the radio. His team lost. But big congrats to all the Kansas City Chiefs! Truly, we had a lovely time with out son, daughter-in-law, their two dogs, and our dog

How was your weekend?

We’ve had a lot of rain, but so far, no problems for us. L.A. and some other areas have had flooding, mudslides, trees falling, and various related problems. But it looks like the worst is over. We’ll have more rain today, but it should be lighter. I feel badly for the people who’ve had property damaged or destroyed.

In one case, a dog fell in a river and his human went in after him. Both had to be rescued. I probably wouldn’t be that close to a river in a storm, but if Maggie went it, I’d probably go in after her before my common sense kicked in.

The good news for me is I made it to the doctors! Well Wizard drove because he knew I was anxious about the visit The weather lightened up for the two hours we were gone, and we were very thankful. The doctor visit went really well. The previous doctor was uninterested and said all he saw was a little redness. This doctor was a much better fit for me. He looked in my ears and nose first. Then studied my throat. He was able to clearly see what I told him was there. He declared it very weird, LOLOL. He suggested a CT Scan, and said he’d do a biopsy too if I wanted it. At that point, I felt I was in good hands and asked him his recommendation. He suggested we do the CT Scan first to see if there’s anything going on below the problem area. Then we’ll see if a biopsy is need. I agreed. He also wanted more bloodwork, and I agreed.

In this discussion, he looked at me and said, “You’re worried it’s cancer.” I nodded (because–duh, of course I am). He told me that it doesn’t look like cancer to him, but he can be wrong, and therefore the first thing he wants to do is rule out cancer. And once we do that, then we’ll try to find out what’s the root cause of the little spots, soreness and inflammation.

I walked out of there very happy with the plan.

Then, to my surprise, he called me when I was on the way home, and told me, “I’ve been thinking about it, and I think and MRI is a better test for you.”  I didn’t even hesitate, I agreed. He asked if I was claustrophic. I said yes, but I could probably deal with it. He said he’ll call in a prescription and I can decide at the time if I need it or not.

I was impressed. He put real thought, and possibly a bit of research, into my weird case. At this point, I trust his judgement. I feel like we’ll either solve this, or at least rule out anything that needs immediate treatment.

So that was my experience with the new ENT

How’s your week going?

P.S. The server is going down for maintenance so I’m going to try to post this on Tuesday evening before it goes down.

So we are waiting for the bigger second storm to hit as I’m writing this Sunday evening. It’s taking longer than forecast to get to us, which usually isn’t a great sign (slower moving means more rain). The wind is blowing now, so it’s coming. On the other hand, the media has hyped this up so much, it’s exhausting and making me a little skeptical. There are signs on the freeways telling us not to travel until Thursday night. I feel like I’m not in Southern CA anymore, LOL. And it could all turn out to just be some rain and wind. We’ll see.

And on the “Stay off the roads until Thursday night” signs??  Do they know how long I’ve waited for my ENT appt Tuesday afternoon???? Okay, seriously, if I can’t go, I’ll reschedule. But it’ll probably be fine and I’ll be able to make the 20 mile drive. I had to laugh when I mentioned this to Wizard, he said, “Don’t worry I’ll drive you.” I just shook my head. I mean if for some reason I can’t drive there, why would he be able to????? Men.

So my weekend was good. Saturday we went to see Turbo and had a nice time. I enjoyed playing with him, and Wizard got a chance to talk to Oldest for a while. He also played with Turbo, but it was nice for him to have some time with our oldest too.

Sunday we wanted to go to Middle’s house, but we headed warnings about the storm and stayed home. Then the storm was delayed. That’s a little annoying, but we both ran some other errands and got other things done, so it worked out. And I made some cookies. We’ll go to Middle’s next weekend.

One of my errands was to my fun store, Trader Joe’s But I had a bit of sad moment when I saw my beloved dark chocolate chips went up a $1.00!!! But it’s still the best price I’ve found and I bought three bags. One can never have too many bags of dark and dairy free chocolate chips!!

Today it’s supposed to rain, so we’ll be home. I’m going to do some batch cooking and maybe putting my books in the bookcases. I tried so hard in our last house to give away most of my physical books, and not buy more for this very reason. And yet I’m suddenly collecting them again and we’re talking about getting more bookcases in other rooms. I just can’t help it, I love books!

How was your weekend?

TGIF!! I’m back online and it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. The floor installation went smoothly. We love them (so far but time will tell). There’s one spot in our bathroom (the around the toilet) that crackles, which can happen. Since it’s in that spot, I’m not going to stress over it. We’ll just watch it to make sure it’s not a real problem. Overall, we’re really happy. Here’s a couple pics: The first one is the office — you’ll notice we still have more unpacking to do there, and the other one, I’m standing in the dining room (we hadn’t moved the table back yet)  looking toward the kitchen.
2. The cleaning is real, LOL. We still need to unpack books and a few more things. But we have the majority of things back in place. Now we’re cleaning everything — between taking up the old floors, and cutting the planks for the new floors, debris is everywhere! But that’s normal and it’s worth it.
3. Speaking of Maggie — she’s adjusting to the new floors pretty well. We sure hear her toenails clicking now! She can’t sneak up on us anymore, LOL. The funny think is she won’t down on the floors, but she’ll down on the cement — weird. But overall, she’s been fine, and never seemed stressed. Plus she had fun hanging out in the garage and backyard with us while the crew worked!
4. Next week I see the new ENT doctor. I’m hopeful he has, or will attempt to find, answers to what’s going on with my throat. I finally had Wizard look at it, and we took some pictures. Have you ever tried to get pics of the back of your throat? It’s…not pretty   It did, however, startle me a bit to see it that way.  But of course, this could be as simple like an allergy to something I’m consuming. Anything’s possible. Fingers crossed the ENT next week will be helpful.
5. Wizard surprised me and made reservations for dinner for us on Valentines Day. I hadn’t even given it a thought. I love that he totally surprised me.

This weekend, we plan to go see Turbo on Saturday if the rain doesn’t cause problems on the freeways. Anyway, that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! Hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend.