I’m slowly reading Nikki R Haley’s biography, “WITH ALL DUE RESPECT.” I’m a hair under half way through.  My next biography that I plan to read sometime this year is on the other side of the aisle because I read widely depending on what catches my interest. I don’t have to agree with people to learn about them and how they think. It’s interesting to see how people’s opinions are formed, and how flexible and adaptable they are in their thinking and decision making. I especially like seeing how women navigate some of the areas like politics where men traditionally dominated.

I have set aside the book I was listening to on Gulags. It’s not bad, it’s just dry and requires a level of focus that I don’t usually give audiobooks. I really wish I’d bought it in a hardcopy. Next up on my audio listening lineup is “THE GUILTY ONE” by Kiersten Modglin. I don’t think I’ve ever read this author, so we’ll see. I listen to so many podcasts now, it’s seriously cutting into my audiobook time!

What are you reading or listening to?

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

We had a grandkids weekend!

Saturday, Turbo and his mom came out. We had a great time! We went to lunch, Wizard began teaching Turbo to drive RC racecars (it’s different than his RC truck). After that we went to the park to play baseball and soccer, and Maggie was thrilled to go too. Everyone but Turbo was worn out after that, LOL! Still charged up, Turbo was examining Wizards Lego Ship he’s building and discovered the solution to a problem Wizard was having. Turbo is something of a Lego’s expert, and also, he has younger eyes that could distinguish between red and orange on the directions We really appreciated Special K bringing Turbo out, and we loved spending the day with her too! I love that she will go out of her way to support our bond with Turbo.

We also got regular updates from Turbo’s Dad and Uncle Youngest — they are having a blast on their trip. I’m quite sure they are decompressing after surviving another tax season. Although, Oldest did send out an alert that the hotel is charging $25.00 per person to use their gym (all my son are obsessed about committed to working out.)

Sunday, we didn’t do a big thing celebrating Easter. Instead, we went out in the morning to visit CeeGee (granddaughter) and her parents.  She was wearing her very first Easter outfit her other Grandma got her and she looked so cute.  CeeGee is just getting more and more fun now. She sits, plays, smiles and chats. She also loves to bounce and is getting super busy– that’ll girl is going to be on the go soon! Wizard and I were playing with her on the floor in her room, and I knew the second her dad came in behind me. CeeGee’s entire face lights up and she gets super happy when she see him. It’s so sweet to see as Middle’s mom. The only bummer is my daughter in law is battling a cold, which they had told us beforehand. Although even while sick, my daughter in law found an Inn for us to hopefully stay at over the 4th of July at a much better price than anything my two days of searching hotels could find! I just need to verify we can get a downstairs room for Wizard and I’ll book it!  Then we beat the worst of the traffic. By the time we got home, the other side of the freeway and the road out of our city were gridlock. That also gave us the rest of the day to relax a little.

How was your weekend and Easter?

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?

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!