Yesterday...

all my troubles seemed so far away. I know it's bordering on corny to quote a Beatles song, but that's how yesterday was.
I took Ian and Jordan to lunch and we had a good time just eating and talking. We had a view of the restaurant's outside door and saw a bird's nest above it filled with fuzzy baby birds. I had a moment of panic when I thought one was going to fall out, but it settled back in with the others. After lunch I went to the public library and checked out some books, then I ran to the grocery store for a few things. I treated myself to a bouquet of mini-carnations - assorted colors - and they look great on my kitchen table. I did some laundry and started reading one of the library books. It was just a nice day.
Today, well, I still have a stack of bills, the economy still sucks, a friend has been diagnosed with a bad disease, Ian doesn't have a job, Hubby is still a workaholic, Austin is still in Iraq, there's more laundry to do, I still have this case of the damned shingles - back to reality. But the flowers on my kitchen table still look great.
The book I started (and finished at two in the morning - I was in a reading mood, OK?) is/was "Definitely Dead" by Charlaine Harris. It's one of her Sookie Stackhouse novels, the ones the HBO series "True Blood" is based upon. And, as we all know, "True Blood" is one of my newest guilty pleasures. Anyway, it wasn't a "serious" book by any means, but it was entertaining and easy to read and I enjoyed it. I liked it enought to want to read more by this Ms. Harris.
Watched a new show on TV last night - "Warehouse 13" on the SyFy channel (which used to be the Sci-Fi channel, not sure why they changed the name since Science Fiction is not spelled Syence Fyction but...whatever) and I liked it. Just what I need, another show to keep track of! I'm such a TV addict. But (Silver Lining Alert) I am getting a lot of knitting done on the current baby blanket. Speaking of TV, I have the latest installment of "Grey's Anatomy" from Neflix to watch this afternoon - I'm at the start of the third season now.
We have nothing special planned for the weekend - Hubby and Jordan are working and I have (never-ending) Susie Homemaker stuff to do. Sigh. I need to go and look at the flowers on the kitchen table again. :o)

Summertime...

and the livin' is easy. Actually a better word is probably "lazy". I've been busy doing a whole bunch of not much, and I don't feel a bit guilty. :o) I haven't been a total slug: I've done the laundry on a regular (daily) basis, I've cooked meals and kept my kitchen (relatively) clean, and I've been organizing my hobby room. But I don't answer to my alarm clock and I don't have a schedule.
Speaking of my hobby room: I am such a packrat!!! I have enough yarn to open my own store, I have three shelves of gifts waiting to be given, I have so many picture frames in assorted shapes and sizes that when I finally get pictures put in them they will cover every available surface in my house (and some will have to go on the walls!), I have an entire storage tub full of gift bags and gift wrap (good for the shelves of gifts, right?), there is entire cedar chest full of fabric (I thought at one time I might take up quilting, and maybe sew some wardrobe items), I have enough cards to start a card shop - you get the picture. Maybe I have that hoarding disease. I won't worry about that until I start stacking newspapers all over the house. I have to admit it's been kind of fun going through all that stuff. Anyway, I'm almost done sorting through all that stuff and then I'll start organizing my cookbooks and recipes. I've been sporadically going through my closet and getting rid of old stuff and stuff I haven't worn (or can't fit in!!!) - I donate all my stuff like that to a charitable place here in town.
Hmmm. I've been doing more than I thought. It's my vacation - I need to slow down! :o)
Next week my friend Lori and I are taking a road trip to Ohio. I'm going to see two good friends from high school and she's going to visit family. That's one of those funny life coincidences - we met and became close friends here in Colorado but we both grew up in Ohio.
I've also been watching "Grey's Anatomy" from Netflix - I'm about to start the third season. And while I watch, I knit, so the baby blanket is coming along. I have some balls of cotton yarn that are destined to become dishcloths shortly. I've decided that this year, most Christmas gifts from me are going to be either knitted or from those aforementioned shelves. It will save me money and give me something to do with all that yarn. A win-win thing.
Austin called from Iraq a couple of days ago. The connection wasn't that great, but it was wonderful to hear his voice! He's doing OK and is due to come home the end of the month. I can't wait to see him and give him a big hug. He said there's been a lot of sandstorms there, so bad that for three days no planes could take off or land. (After he called, Hubby looked on the internet and it said that the sandstorms were the worst in Iraq's recent history.) Bottom line - he's doing fine. I'll still feel so much better when he's out of that country and back home. During our 4th of July cookout, we all stopped for a moment and raised our glasses in a toast to all those who serve and who have served.
My shingles are still here. The right side of my face is still puffy and this morning I noticed a line of blisters coming up around my lip. The creepy-crawly feeling is almost constant and drives me crazy!!!! So I take my meds, which helps somewhat, but I wish it would just clear up and go the hell away. I'm not whining, I'm just sayin'. :o)
OK - I'm off to check my mailbox for my next installment of GA.

Notes from outer space..

not really, but all these drugs make me feel pretty spacy! :o)
It's a little after 11 in the morning and I've been awake since about 3:15. My face woke me up, so I popped a pill but still couldn't sleep so after about an hour of tossing and turning I gave up and got up.
Not much going on today - I've done some laundry and if I get in the right mood I may sort through my closet to get rid of stuff I don't ever wear. We're not doing anything special for the holiday tomorrow, we'll be cooking out here with the family. I need to make something for dessert, so I suppose I should rummage through my cupboards to see what those options are. To be honest, I'll be glad when the 4th is over - I have this nagging fear that Iraqi insurgents might like to make a statement by doing something to the big airbase where my oldest son, Austin, is right now. I know I probably don't have anything to worry about, but that thought keeps floating around in my head. I'll breathe easier once the weekend is over.
I'm keeping one eye on the TV - Michael Jackson's memorial service arrangements are being announced. I confess I'll be watching every minute of it on Tuesday. It still makes me sad that he's gone. Nobody has said yet where he'll actually be buried; maybe Neverland would make a good place - it's beautiful and he seemed to be happy there. He talked about a tree where he would go to write songs and Larry King said last night that it's a really beautiful one, so it would be fitting, IMHO, to bury him near it. Of course, I'm just talking - I have no idea if that's even possible or something his family would even want.
OK - I'm off to take my meds - my face is starting to hurt again. Sucks to be me, huh? :o)

Getting back to normal...

I think.
This herpes/shingles thing has just kicked my butt. I give up. Finally got in to my doctor here and got the great news that this can last for months and then come back at any time. WTF. Seriously. Anyway, he gave me a bunch of meds - steroids, anti-inflammatory, nerve pain, other pain killers - and I do feel better and can sleep through the night now. But there were a couple of new, but small, blisters today. This just sucks.
OK - enough whining.
Here's some good news: I found another reality show to get me through the summer - America's Got Talent. It's awesome!!! A good number of the contestants make total fools of themselves (and, sadly, don't even know it), some contestants are unbelievably good, and the rest fall somewhere between. I like the judges, but the harshest judge is the audience - they boo and yell and are totally mean to the bad acts. I love it! The fact that I love it probably says something about me, but...oh,well. Nick Cannon is the host and I just love him, too. I remember tuning in once last year but Jerry Springer was the host and I can't stand him so I never watched again. The best act this week was this guy from Tennessee (I think) who came out in jeans and a flannel shirt with his hat on backwards and a beard stubble, who talked like a total hick, and then blew everybody away when he played his guitar and sang "Tomorrow Never Comes" (a country song). I'm not even a country music fan, but it brought tears to my eyes. He was unanimously passed through to the next round.
I've watched a lot of the Michal Jackson stuff that's been on since he died. The whole situation just makes me sad - I'm sad he's dead, I'm sad for his children and his family. I also find it ironic that he's (probably) made more money in the week since he died than he did for the last few years. He's on top of Billboard and ITunes charts again and everything of his is selling like crazy. I did my part - I bought his Number Ones CD today.
On the knitting front - I finished another strip for my sock-yarn blanket and have been working on the baby blanket. I need to make some more dishcloths for gifts in the next couple of weeks.

Goodbye, Michael

I am truly saddened by the death of Michael Jackson. I wasn't a rabid fan, but he and his music have been in my life for what seems like forever. My teeny-bopper friends and I danced to Jackson 5 records in my best friends basement, "Thriller" remains one of my favorite albums, I applauded his humanitarian effort with "We Are the World", and I thought Neverland would be a cool place to live. And, in my opinion, the "Thriller" video is the best ever made. Yes, he became reclusive and strange. Yes, he altered his appearance in bizarre ways. Yes, he was accused of terrible things. But in spite of all that, I always thought he seemed just....sad. Sad and alone. It seemed that the older he got, the younger he acted. He lived most of his life in the public eye and who knows what that does to a person. I myself continue to battle demons from my childhood, so I am certainly not going to sit in judgement on someone who obviously had his own childhood issues to deal with. Or maybe it was because he never actually had a childhood, just a job. Granted, it was a great job - performing, making tons of money, that whole star thing, but it surely wasn't a traditional childhood. He could sing, he could dance, he could write beautiful music and he gave all of that to us and for that I'm grateful.

Rest in peace, Michael. You've earned it.

Alive and (almost) well

I'm back!!!! The vacation was wonderful and relaxing and everything I wanted it to be right up to the last two days when I broke out with some form of the herpes virus and the entire right side of my face swelled up and blistered. When I started running a fever, Janie decided I should see a doctor and the resort was kind enough to have one come to me. The doctor was very nice, and between her English and my Spanish (both somewhat limited, I must admit) I learned that either this virus has been dormant since I had chicken pox and for some reason decided to visit me now or someone I came in contact with had an outbreak and passed it on to me. Either way, it pretty well sucked. She gave me shots, antiviral meds, antibiotics, and pain meds. During her first visit, the pain wasn't really an issue so I wondered about those pain pills but a few hours later I was glad to have them. She came back the next day and repeated the whole shots/meds thing before I had to come home. I made the trip home looking like a victim of bad plastic surgery - especially my upper lip. It looked like those movie stars you see who get too much of that stuff injected into their lips. Janie said I looked like a poster child for Botox gone bad. Friends - what would we do without them? At least I made it home before all the blisters got way bigger and started exploding. Since these icky blisters were also in my mouth, I couldn't eat solid food. I'm craving meat - an entire week of milkshakes, sherbet, and the occasional scrambled egg just sucks. I took some chicken out of the freezer this morning to cook for dinner and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll actually be able to eat it. Today is better - there's still some puffiness around my eye, but most of the blisters are gone and now I'm just scab-covered. Plus, between the virus and no food I've had zero energy so I haven't done much since I got back. Frustrating! I have summer projects to do!! Hey, if I consider watching Grey's Anatomy and X Files DVDs as one of those projects then I'm accomplishing something.
One final word today about this: apparently I had an outbreak of shingles, but I've always heard that's something old people get, so I refuse to call it that. I'm old, but I'm not that old.
I'll talk more about the vacation next time.

Next stop...

Mexico!

I don't know if I'll get to post while I'm on vacation, but I'll try.

This time tomorrow we'll be at the hotel near Denver International Airport, ready to leave at 6 am Thursday for Mazatlan (via Phoenix). The weather here was so cold (not quite 60 degrees in June -oh, please) and cloudy today I'm definitely ready for that tropical weather!

My pile for my suitcase has grown, but it's not excessive (so far). Tomorrow I'll sort through my sandals and flip-flops - two pairs of each should be enough. Plus my Tevas, of course, for beach walking and seashell hunting. I am taking some knitting stuff - nothing large, just some sock yarn to make strips for the sock-yarn blanket.

Today I did some more laundry and have one more load of Hubby's stuff in the morning and then I'm done with that for awhile. I had my friend Lori trim my hair - I wasn't in desperate need of a cut, but in another two weeks it would probably be a little out of control. And if it's one thing I don't need on vacation, it's out of control hair. Don't need a color treatment right now - the sun is going to take care of that!

Pick up times for my cohorts have been coordinated, reservations have been checked (and rechecked!) so I think we're good to go.

So - hasta la vista!