TGIF!! This month is sure in a hurry just zooming by. At least for me! I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving already next week! But let’s focus on now and share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Tis the season and Monday I trudge to another town to hit some stores for wine glasses and decor. Surprise! I was not the only one to have that idea…it was so crowded. And then I stood in massive lines so long they wrapped around aisle an didn’t move. After 15 or so minutes of this — I heard an employee tell a customer the lines were long because they had to manually put in each and every bar code. When the lines didn’t move for five minutes–like didn’t budge at all–I left. This was a craft store and people had carts piled crazy high, and I just couldn’t stand there for an hour or two to buy a few things. I went home, ordered some stuff from Amazon and will do without have fancy Thanksgiving decorations. I’m sure my smile and sparkling wit will be enough Plus…we have wine so there’s that! If I’m super ambitious, I might even get some flowers to make the tables look prettier.
2. Tuesday we did grocery shopping. Whoa! We have had super small groceries bills lately, and this week we more than made up for it! It was shocking and the selection of produce and meat was frustratingly bad (but of course, there were plenty of cookies, chips and soda!) This store was not making me happy. Then I went to Wal Mart, and guys, it wasn’t bad at all. I found a turkey, got a few other things, all the lines were open and moving and I was out of there in record time! Color me shocked and pleased!
3. Wednesday was my Happy Day! I got to see my granddaughter! She’s delightful! Her mom went to Costco then took the dogs for a walk (normally my son walks the dogs but he was out of town on business) while I babysat and we had a blast! Right now Baby Girl likes everyone, but I choose to believe she especially likes me She’s full of smiles and babbling now. At one point I put her on her tummy on her playmat, and watched in shock as she rolled over. At ten weeks! Turns out she’s been doing that for a week or more. But the point is, she was the absolute highlight of my week. I also very much enjoy seeing my daughter in law, and she’s a huge help to me when I’m doing the holiday meals, which I so appreciate.
4. Thursday I got a small start on Christmas shopping, and trying to organize Thanksgiving on paper. I like to have a working list and any recipes organized to keep me focused.
5. Today I have a tele visit with my doctor to follow-up on my tests. It was supposed to be in office, but they called yesterday and asked if I’d do it by phone. YES!! It’s a long drive so it’s a win for me. The rest of the day is just stuff and maybe I’ll bake some cupcakes. And this weekend I think I’ll stick close to home and keep it productively boring :-).

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

…And Maggie is winning!

So she came home from boarding refusing to take her pill in the pill pocket. Why…no one knows. Seriously. The boarding lady is great with Maggie, it’s not her. It’s allllll Maggie.

Last time when we went to Hawaii, I got her back on track in three days.

This time…Maggie is making me bring this pill into a powder, and use wet food to roll it into a meatball. Wait…she loves a wet food meatball in her dry food. Is Maggie….manipulating and controlling me? Bwhahahaha!!

Happy Wednesday! And do you have a story you want to share about your pet controlling you? Or is it just me????

This weekend was pretty boring. I cleaned the oven, washed all the sheets, dusted blinds, cleaned the outside of my kitchen cupboards and pretty much managed to do nothing interesting Well I did order a couple pies for Thanksgiving. Normally I’d make them, but there’s a lot to do with all my family coming, so I’m managing my time in order to actually enjoying T-Day. I may make some cupcakes for Turbo and anyone else who loves chocolate but that’s pretty easy and a fun project.

Otherwise, I guess the highlight was a movie Wizard and I watched, titled “THE COUPLE” It was about a wealthy Jewish family trying to survive the Nazi’s in Poland. Both Wizard and I really liked it. One thing I particularly liked is it was very suspenseful without showing violence. We understood the violence, we just didn’t have to see it. I thought that was skillfully done.

Oh and another highlight: I started reading Silver’s book, MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON.  I’m only a couple chapters in, but really enjoying it! I’m looking forward to reading more!

This week, I have Wednesday booked for babysitting my granddaughter. Otherwise, it’s just more mundane life stuff. That’s okay though, I’ll take mundane over drama any time!

How was your weekend?

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

1. I lost a day this week for sure. Aside from the holiday, we were traveling so I guess it’s understandable.
2. I did my last of the latest tests on Wednesday and I felt great about it! It’s just bloodwork, and easy to do, but it still feels good to have that battery of tests over. But of course, something will be weird in one of them because, well, it’s me, LOL!
3. Maggie likes to bring a new trick home with her from boarding — spitting out her pill from the pill pocket. Normally she takes these for me with no problem. I have no idea why she does this after boarding. But when she does that I then grind it up and put it in her food. She’s hating that. We’ll see who wins this battle of wills! Spoiler alert: I will win. Otherwise, Maggie came home her normal happy self. They take good care of her there.
4. Yesterday was awesome — we went to see our granddaughter! She was so happy, smiling and playing with us! She tries to talk now it’s so cute. She’s 9 1/2 weeks old now. Her pediatrician said she’s thriving and very strong. I’m a preening Grandma! It’s nice that I got to spend time with Turbo over the weekend and her yesterday, even if I had to share her with Grandpa Wizard
5. This weekend I need to start some deeper cleaning stuff. It’s not fun but, surprisingly, no one else has volunteered to do it. I guess that leaves me! Probably because I’m the only one who is going to care whether or not the kitchen cupboards are cleaned or the blinds dusted, LOL. And I barely care…so we’ll see if having company for Thanksgiving motivates me!

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

I’m back!! I didn’t intend to totally disappear, but I guess I went into vacation mode and didn’t surface until now I also no longer have a laptop and hate trying to do it on my phone…so my laziness played into that, too.

The trip was good! We had fun, and I love being at the beach. We got to spend some time with Turbo, but also, Turbo and his dad are best buddies. Here’s a pic of Turbo and his dad:

My daughter in law isn’t in this pic because she took it.

We had some good meals, but the best was at Robin’s in Cambria. I ordered the New York steak and devoured it. I asked for my steak medium well (yeah, yeah, all the foodies are aghast), and it came out perfectly cooked while still tender and flavorfull. I loved it.  The whole meal was lovely. My family was all, “I’ve never seen you eat so much.”  That’s ridiculous, of course. I eat a ton (I’m serious, I eat a lot of food). But I often adjust my eating according to what we’re doing, so to others it can look like I don’t eat much. Follow me around my house in my daily life, and people would be amazed. I wasn’t worried that night, so I ate it all and had dessert! Honestly, I’m surprised my stomach didn’t act up.

Wizard and I took a side trip to one winery we both liked, and bought some. We really enjoyed that. While we went there, Turbo and his family went to a farm to pet goats. He had a great time! I love goats, but the farm would have been difficult for Wizard and I wanted to go to the winery too.

Otherwise we did some shopping, (of course I took Turbo to a candy store because I’m a card carrying grandma),  walked on the beach and some trails, ate lots of food, and did all the normal vacation things. Oldest brought their bikes, and they road them all over the town. I wanted to rent one, but Wizard was concerned I’d fall. I doubt it, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep up with The Biking Family, so I didn’t.  Plus if I did fall, I’d never hear the end of it!

The drive — I drove roughly half way both ways. The first time we changed places, we’d pulled over at a gas station. Wizard started in on me, “Make a U Turn. Why aren’t you going? Just make a U-turn and go back out to the street.”  Um I didn’t make the U Turn the second you said it because I didn’t want to whip around  in front of the semi truck that pulled in!  This back and forth went on for a minute while I waiting for the truck until I turned to him, and said, “Wizard, We haven’t even left the gas station and you’re starting.” He stopped. And surprise, I got us all the way to Cambria and found out hotel with no trouble.

We also had a power outage on Sunday night. Trust me, it’s pitch black at the beach. And now I have a massive bruise on my leg where I hit the wood bed frame while trying to change clothes in the dark. But I’ll take the bruise because when I hit my leg, it felt like it had split open. I had visions of trying to find a place to stitch it up during this big power outage on a Sunday evening. When we got some light on it and saw it was just a bruise, I considered that a win. It barely aches so it’s fine. I even took Maggie for a walk and did a mile. All good there.

That’s a bit of our trip. As always, I’m happy to spend time with our kids when they ask us.

How was your weekend and how’s your week going?

One of the funniest (to me) books I’ve listened to in a long time: The Starter Villain by John Scalzi and read by Will Wheaton. I totally bought this on impulse when I was on Audible to look at the ones recommended by Silver. I, um, got distracted! I don’t want to give anything away, but if you like weird twisted humor and aren’t easily offended (by dark humor or salty language) give it a try!

Since then, I haven’t tried to listen to another book because I’m not ready   Also, keep in mind, I was listening to this during a high stress week, so the humor was exactly what I needed.

And in reading on Kindle, first I dumped the last book I was reading. It started strong and then got lost in endless descriptions, pointless encounters and too many characters. Maybe I’ll go back to it later. Right now, I’m reading “Working Stiff” by Judy Melinek and TJ Mitchel which is the biography of a Forensic Pathologist. I can’t remember how I stumbled onto this one. This book is, for me, delightfully well written, although sometimes starkly graphic. Also, this is normal reading, right? Not weird?

And I have a book on nutrition/diet on order. Now I happen to know exactly why I bought this book — I love the author on podcasts. I could listen to him all day. And so, I ordered his book to see it more critically through reading a physical book, rather than being hypnotized into blind belief by his voice and manner on podcasts. Also totally normal…I think

Okay, maybe my reading selections aren’t precisely normal, LOL.

So what are you reading, intending to read, or recently read?

Wow last week was a wild ride! So I know I did a quick Friday Five, but this round up covers the weekend and some of last week.

Most important is Baby Girl — our new granddaughter!! (I’ll come up with a nickname soon).

She was about 6 lbs 9 oz when born, and I think 20 inches. She small but mighty! She’s super engaged when she’s awake and either looks into our eyes or follows voices. This pic she’s obviously sleeping And no they don’t leave the necklace on her in case anyone is worried. She makes the most hilarious faces, including one dubbed “Grandpa Face” by her dad (he’s evil — he gets it from his dad, LOL) I love her so much! I’m waiting for a chance to get a pic her of her and Turbo together. Her parents are doing great. My son took the week off from work and is not looking forward to leaving her to go back. My daughter in law’s mom will be staying with them for the week and that will help my daughter in law. I’ll be available too.

Then the fire: As of yesterday afternoon, it’s 19% contained and we are safe enough for now. Cooler weather with overcast mornings and evenings has helped too. But also — fire crews are amazing! They are inserting Hot Shot crews deep into the terrain to help with the fire lines too. Here’s a couple pics:

This is a picture a few days ago from my back yard.

And this pic below is one I took when we were coming back into town after storing The Mustang at my sister’s house. Our house is a mile up the road, and then we turn right to weave into our track of homes. Also notice the sun behind the smoke in the upper right side of the screen.

And a fun break — this is Phoebe when I watched her. Keep in mind, she’s 14 years old!! And very happy that I came over to hang out with her

Over the weekend, we took food out to Middle and his wife so they didn’t have to cook while taking care of their baby girl. Then we spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up and catching up from the wild week. I did manage to get out to Trader Joe’s but going anywhere requires getting around road closures and dealing with traffic from a major highway closure. But that should ease up this week or early next week and it’s all for a good cause.

Oh and in the middle of all the chaos, UCI scheduled my endocrinologist appointment for this Friday. I was amazed they got it approved and scheduled so quickly! I know my surgeon wanted me to get in somewhat urgently just to make sure I’m adjusting well, and due to some genetic markers, but I didn’t think it would happen this fast. I was happily wrong!

How was your weekend?