An Award

My good friends James who has a very interesting dog named Dennis that Daisy is quite enamoured with, gave me this award a few days back. It is called the Arte de Pico award.   I wanted to thank him for thinking of me!!!!  I will put it on my cyber -mantle for all to see.  here it is:

There are some rules however. They are as follows:

1) You must pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, based upon creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogger community, no matter what language.

2) Each award must have the name of the author with a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Award-winners must show the award and put the name and link to the blog that awarded it.

4) Award-winners and the one who has given the prize must show the link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) These rules must be included in your post.

So I will select the following Blogs to award this Arte de Pico too; They are:

1) Ciderpress Hill cuz she always comments on my commetns.

2) Kitchen Logic cuz she has a new dog that she rescued!

3) Special K cuz she has flying monkeys (shhh don’t tell anyone).

4) 2 Barking Dogs cuz she has 2 barking dogs, and I love dogs.

5) Any other of my readers who would like to receive this leave me a comment and I will list you here!  That way I didn’t leave anyone out!

Smooches to all, and thank you smooch to Dennis and James!

 

Sigh of Relief

Well the crazy, busy, hectic, emotional weekend in now over. Thank God. By the end of the day SaturdayI was just beat.  When I got home I called the relay people and decided not to go, I had already arranged for someone walk my time at 5pm since I knew I couldn’t get there by then, and raised about $200, everyone understood and so I put my feet up and watched TV.  Of course it was sad movie night and I ended up with Terms of Endearment and continued my crying jag until quite late. 

The funeral was very nice I suppose, I delivered the sandwiches, I did my reading as arranged,  I socialized with people I had not seen for years, and I was polite. I burial was very emotional, since he was a vetran there was a color guard and a bugller playing taps. Boy,  that will tear you  up for sure.

But now its over and I can look forward to next weekend when I will do nothing.  Well,  at least not anything stressful.

Weddings and Funerals

Well I have probably been so mopey these last few days because this past week not only did work suck but three distressing things happened. First a long time Friend of the family dies. he was 90, and I have know him for probably 20 years.  He was like a grandfather to the kids after my sister died.  He wanted them to have music so paid for private music lessons for all of them for as long as they would take them  they all did for a while, Nat for a year Jake for about 3 years and Candice the longest at about 5 years.  He was a fixture on holidays at any celebration of happiness or sadness, and was there for us when I was going through the hardest time of my life.  I am sad he is gone, but he did live a long full life. Tomorrowis his service I am making 100 sandwiches.  I am stressed about some of the people I will have to see there and deal with, but tha is another very long post.

I am also on a relay for life team, and have been working with the team captain on the whole event.  Of course the funeral and the relay are now pn the same day on opposite side of LA.  But making Luminaries and seeing the dedication and love that these survivors and families are doing is very touching.  I thought I was going to walk early and avoid the ceremony, but now with the funeral I probably wont get there until later. 

Then I found out the girl, now woman, who used to nanny the kids is getting married.  She has stayed close to us and loves to spend time with us.  But now she is in Alaska, has been for a couple years. I should be happy for her, she is smart pretty and involved. But instead I find out he is a control freak and she is already in his trap, they are not meant to be together and I am sad for her and her mother. I wont go into the gory details, but suffice to say it is a co-dependent bad relationship. *sigh*

I jsu twnat to go to be for 2 days until its all over. Someone wake me up ok?

Tears

Somedays I just want to cry.  I don’t even know why, whats going on in my head but I feel sad.  Lately this has been happening alot, I think that it is part of the reason I can’t get motivated.  I will think about Natalie, and my divorce, bear my wonder lab who has been gone for 7 years, almost any thing will suck me into this place of despair.  Then I worry, I worry about any animal I see that isn’t being properly cared for, I worry about the animals in the shelters, the baby birds that fall out of their nests,  then the polar bears and the penguins.  Should I go on?  I even worry about my dogs if something were to happen to me.  And I want to cry but alot of times the tears don’t come, or I am afraid if they do that they will never ever stop. 

Lately I have been having dreams, almost every night about my ex-husband.  In the dreams I am always trying to get him to come back to me.  He never does, sometimes I have to wake myself up just to stop the pain, the sadness, the desperation that I have in the dream. The problem is when I wake up its still there.  I keep telling myself I am happy, that I am lucky, that everything is fine.  People ask me why would you want that man back? he was awful to you!  I guess because loneliness is almost as bad.   He would never come back anyway.  He left me emotionally  a long time before he actually left.  He is gone forever.  It is best. I need to pick myself up and get on with my life.

I scheduled my surgery for August 7.  Keep your fingers crossed. No pun intended.

BBQ

This is not my Tri-Tip I borrowed this picture from Google images

Now that I am eating meat once again I have been craving making a tri-tip on the grill, so yesterday I did just that. It came out just right.  When I was married, I never manned the grill. I did all the other stuff and the ex handled all of the grilling. Well now that I have been on my own for over 2 1/2 years I have finally mastered the art of the BBQ.  Tri-tip, 15 minutes a pound, indirect heat for med-rare.  I also made a yummy potato salad. I have a cookbook called Homeland Recipes, and they are recipes from all over the mid western sates.  Iowa has a wonderful recipe for potatosalad.  So today we make french dip sammies with the leftover tri-tip.  I am getting hungry thinking about all this

It was a low key fourth, D came over and we played scrabble and BBQ’d.  Had a few beers and went outside to see if we could get a visual of any of the fireworks over the valley.  We saw lots of shows, but they are so far away it really isn’t very spectacular. That’s ok, there were enough boom-booms to keep the dogs a little nervous. 

Tomorrow I am going to attempt ribs on the grill. I have never done them. I am thinking of a couple hours in the oven very low, then finishing them off on the grill with a little sauce.  I went to the farmers market today and got some yummy corn on the cob and green beans. Should be good. I figured out that Jake will eat green beans if I cook them with onion and a slice of bacon.  I know they are not as healthy that way, but at least he is eating something green.

To Do

I just realized that I have not put up pictures of the newly painted room. Oops!  It is probably because now that the weather is so warm I hardly go into that room since it does not have an air conditioning vent.  So my office newly painted with a new computer desk and file, has not been organized. its on the to-do list.

Speaking of to-do.  I have been putting off having a fourth surgery on my finger now for months.  If you remember back in September of 2006  when I accidentally was bit by the dog and got a bone infection. The story continues into October if you are so inclined. In any case I was left with a crooked finger because a piece of bone was removed because of the infection.  My doc wants to straighten the finger back out by cutting of a piece on the other side which will make my finger straight once again.  however it is about a 6 month recovery with pins sticking out of the end of my finger during that time. So as you might imagine, I have been in no rush to do this. 

Not only will I have to have surgery (outpatient) but the pain is quite bad for a while. So I will miss some work, maybe a week, and be one handed for 6 weeks. The idea was that I would do the surgery this summer for 2 reasons. My doc is about to retire and he is the only one I trust after the fiasco I went though (see Sept -Oct archives), and Jake will be home so that I have some help for my one handed self.  So my appointment is Wednesday, and I will be asking him to finally schedule the surgery.  I’m scared. 

The distal interphalangeal joint is what will be evened out. Right now that joint is frozen straight, and will be forever, but at least it won’t be crooked. So when I type and hit the letter A it actually hits S, etc for every key that is supposed to be hit with that finger.  Makes me very happy there is spell check.

Tagged!

I hardly ever get tagged, which is probably a good thing. But K tagged me so I feel very special, K, get it!!! 

1. You just received too much change. What is the most that you would feel obligated to come clean about it..if at all?

I would return even one penny if I received too much, and if i find money on the street, I  taught my kids that it does not belong to us, so we donate it at church or to some organization.

2. What is the last present you regifted?

I try not to regift, but I did receive a gift card from Ikea as a  bonus for buys a certain amount there.  It was for $30.  i gave it to Candice as part of her Christmas gift.

3. You’re puking your guts up from the flu and are delirious, who do you call to take care of you?

Daisy

4. It is 4am, you’re at Dennys (or any 24 hour diner like establishment) after a night of drinking. What did you just order?

Hmmm, I have not been in this situation for a very very long time!  I probably would order sausage and eggs over medium with hash browns, toast and orange juice.
5. You were just handed $2500 and must spend it going away for the weekend. Where are you going and are you going to ask anyone to come along?

Wow, I would probably go to a spa and ask Candice to join me.

6. Who shared your first ever romantic kiss and do you know where that person is now?

My first boyfriend in high school, it was at Disneyland on the Mark Twain Paddle boat. I have no idea where he is, I think he is a plumber and lives in Arcadia.

One or Two?

Well I survived the 106 heat this weekend.  I basically did nothing. Ran the errands that I had to run then holed up inside and read.  I didn’t even cook Friday or Saturday and had sushi and Mexican those two nights. Last night I finally broke down and made a piece of fish, some steamed potatoes and spinach.  I was tired of eating out, plus I was alone and I don’t do restaurants by myself, just take in. It is supposed to be a bit cooler today,  I am not happy that summer arrived so early.

One of my errand on Saturday was to pick up some meds for Sprocket at the Vets office.  Of course they had more kittens, the vet techs often will rescue litters and mommas, or feral litters when they can.  Two years ago this is where I found my Memmo.  Anyway the first litter that I thought about all got adopted, I was glad, but now there are two more.  So I asked to see he kittens.  Well they had lost their mitten’s and I thinkI found them.  I was smitten.  One litter was all white the other all black.  I thought I will take one of each! 

So I spoke to the tech,  I think I will take Daisy in to meet them and see how she does. She is my main concern, being such a big girl and a bit jealous.  I think she will do fine, since my memmo was around a couple months with Daisy, but I want to make sure before I bring home a fluff ball or two.

That is my next question, one or two?

What’s Going on?

So I will get some pictures up of my paint job this weekend. I still have not organized the office, but that is also on the agenda this weekend. 

Last weekend I went to see a small theatre production of Fahrenheit 451.  The production was ok, but the highlight of the event was that Ray Bradbury himself was there.  He is in a wheelchair, but spoke briefly  and signed books. I was really in awe that he would attend such a small production.

Well the weather finally got hot.  I have had the air on at home for that last couple days, there are supposed to be record breaking temperatures today through out the valley areas.  Yuck, I really hate summer.  What to do this weekend in the heat?

This week has been hectic at the office. I feel like I am babysitting people sometimes, these are grown adults, but they act like snarky teenagers. Thank God today is my Friday. 

 

Mission Accomplished

Well the painting is done, the bookcases moved and given away, the new computer desk almost put together, the stuff has all been moved back into a newly painted office. Now I just need to organize and throw away.  Maybe today.

Right now I am being lazy.  I did not go to the farmers market, which I thought I would do this morning.  Now its almost noon and I have not done anything but read blogs and eat grapefruit.  Meh.