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 |   Nadanother blog...sheesh, I guess I DO blog. Completed. |
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I've had a rich past, yet am making a new one with plenty of life's experiences to draw from! I invite you to come along and see what trouble I get into. I'll blog about my life, present, past... whatever comes to mind at the time. I'll try not to be too serious most of the time, heck we get enough of that just living. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Happy New Year! For the mirroring blog series we do on Saturdays:
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| That’s a laugh. No really, I am thinking, and if you know me, you’ll know I am easily distracted. I’ve had one of those good days, partially do to the fact so many of you participated in the memoir entry I did yesterday. All of them are really excellent. The other part is because I had a good night’s sleep, and the other reason is because Hubby went to work today!  I have to laugh, by the time we got him all showered and dressed and Cesar got here to drive him, I was exhausted! After I got him out of the door then I had to do it all over again, this time for me. Good grief, I don’t know how you mothers of several children do it. Anyway, I was out of here by noon-ish! Wahoo! Didn’t have a clue what I was going to do, so I did what I could... to help stave off the recession; I went shopping. The truth be known... because I have been gaining weight my jeans aren’t fitting. Fitting...that’s a laugh, can’t even zip them up. So now I am beginning to know what people go through, especially the women I’ve heard complaining about weight gain. I am looking at clothing in a whole new light, and appreciating the baggy tops and shapeless dresses I see in the shops.  Well, to say shapeless wouldn’t be entirely true, because once you slip one of them on they do take on a shape. Notice I didn’t say what shape. I got two pairs of jeans and a sundress, though now I have to go through my closet and take out all of the clothes that do not fit anymore, including the gowns I wore just a few months ago. This is a first...I mean I have a muffin top for goodness sakes! I actually jiggle when I walk now.  No, I am not exaggerating. Now you know why no full length photos grace my blog anymore. Moving along now... I saw in Debi’s blog yesterday, those photos of the pets and their owners who look like them. It was pretty amazing! I thought maybe I should put photos of Niles and Frasier here, let you decide if Niles and I look alike now that JoPaulo has redone my hair. Mind you, he has not seen my dogs. Niles ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Frasier ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Awwwwwww....how could you refuse Frasier anything with that look? He licks so much his black nose has worn off. Have a nice night! Don't do anything I wouldn't do! |
| I was reading a magazine the other night and there was an blurb about doing your memoirs...in SIX words. Only six. Apparently there is a book of them, "Not Quite What I was Planning": Six Word Memoirs by Writers and Famous and Obscure. Here's mine: Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty! No...I did submit mine: Making, breaking, taking, faking, shaking, waking.The one quoted was: "Revenge is living well, without you." By Joyce Carol Oates. Okay, they are going to publish another book, and you can send yours in to: www.smithmag.net/sixwords I'd love to see what you come up with...come on... |
Beginning this Saturday, Scarlett   and I will be trying out something new. Both of us will be doing what have been called mirror blogs...in other words we will be writing about the same thing, except our twist is we will be detailing memories we have of a certain times in our lives. We are going to unify them by using the same stimulus for our writings, songs.We have titled the series, ““I Second that Emotion”, by The Miracles, we hope you will enjoy the series and join us every Saturday! I was going to make the announcement yesterday, however since it is not an April Fool’s joke I changed my mind. Two minutes ago our water came on! It is music to our ears to hear the sputtering of the toilet tank as it is filling up. For those of you who wondered why we so frequently do not have water, it is because we live in the middle of a 2,000 acre ranch, and a large portion of it is planted in avocado trees, thus irrigated. The PVC pipes have a way of breaking, and until that leak is found and repaired, and the glue has 24 hours to dry, we are without water. The last time it was on my property, not so this time. Yesterday Hubby took his first “bucket shower”, as he needed to go to the doctor, and had not bathed since Saturday. It took all of two gallons of our bottled water reserves, which impressed him enough to say, “I think everyone should limit their showers...two gallons per person”. Oh yeah right, he bitched and moaned through the shower, as I was the one who controlled the flow. If it had been up to him, he’d have been out of water in the first minute. I hurried to get everything I had to do done this morning, because I had an appointment for my annual mammogram. I rushed around to get Hubby fed, dressed and then myself, made sure he was ensconced in the dining room with internet access and off I went. The drive to our hospital takes about 12 minutes, but then figuring in the paperwork it’s about a half hour until the appointment time. No problem, I had the full half hour, so I didn’t rush. They took my co-pay, did the paperwork and sent me to the radiology department, where I got to fill out another couple of questionnaires. Every year I answer the same darn questions...and I asked the receptionist, “Don’t you have the last 19 years of my questionnaires?” She laughed and said yes, but that they are required to have it filled out each time. My gawd...that is a whole bunch of trees....seems to me they could help out in the reduction of our carbon footprint by just making a form that would allow for additional signatures or initialing on the last page....if they choose not to do it electronically. Hmmm, since we are donating to our hospital (I mean besides when we pay to use it) I think I must have a way to contact them and make this suggestion. After I did the form filling she told me it would be a few minutes. I was thumbing through a magazine when a gal called my name. I started to get up when she said, “Your mammogram appointment is for tomorrow.” My smile faded as I thought to myself, not again! “Oh, I’m sorry.” “Well, we could squeeze you in today, if you can wait 20 minutes.” Oh yeah, I could wait. After that was done I needed to drive to Ventura to the Mac dealer, my poor laptop battery had given out. It was a nice drive, and I was there by noon. I slid into their parking lot and went inside. “Do you have a replacement battery for the PowerBook G4?” “The 12” Titanium model?” “Yep.” “Nope.” “So I need to order it online?” “Or you could call Thousand Oaks and pick one up.” Oh great...about a 90 mile drive roundtrip to get a $130.00 battery...I don’t think so at $4.00 a gallon of gas. “Nah, I’ll do it online. Thanks.” I was walking out when he held up a box and pointed to the writing. “Look.” I squinted to read, “PowerBook G4 Replacement battery.” Huh? Smiling he said, “I just was unpacking a shipment I got ten minutes ago, and here was the battery!” “My lucky day, I should get a lotto ticket.” I laughed. Guess who forgot to buy a lottery ticket? Gawd. |
| Whew! Finally we have just about gotten this month behind us. I don’t usually celebrate the passing of another month for all kinds of reasons, not the least being it marks yet another chunk of time that is gone. But this one seems like a very long one, and I'm ready for April! After a week of lovely weather and all of those beautiful wildflowers, today is downright cold! Okay, I know a Californian complaining about the cold doesn’t do much but rile up those of you who awoke to real snow and such, but I assure you that if you lived in a house with no heat it wouldn’t much matter whether the temps were freezing or just in the 50º range inside your home. Cold is cold. Add to that no running water and it’s compounded, no hot shower to warm the bones. When I came online this morning I had a few emails, and one from Acme  asking me to do her a favor. I don’t know how many of you know Acme but if Acme asks a favor, no way can you turn it down. And so it came to pass that I was pressed into service as the one interrogated in “The Interrogation Room” feature of the Writing.COMedy Lounge Newsletter released today. You can click  "Invalid Item"  . Please visit if you have the time! Thanks for the lovely “News” MB.  Hubby is now able to stand up from the bed or his cart on his own! You have no idea what a big milestone that is...less than three weeks since his open-heart surgery! Most people who have had the surgery are able to get up and walk about day 2 or 3. It’s more difficult with Hubby, but I’m so proud of him and his, “Can DO” attitude. He’s done it all on his own, with no physical therapy, as they don’t know his abilities as well as he does. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor in L.A., and the final three stitches will be removed. I trust he’ll be getting a kudo from his doctor. Hubby’s next milestone will be taking the few steps with his cane, as he was able to do, prior to his surgery. Under the “Its about time heading”, the US Army has now decided to let married couples serving in Iraq together live and sleep together. Previously in wars they couldn’t, but now, with approximately 10,000 married Army couples in the service together and an unknown (to us) amount of them are serving long stretches together in Iraq, so the commanders saw fit to allow it. They get a small trailer, a mere 120 square feet, with two pushed together single cots, but they get to be together. One spokewoman for the Army said, “The only downside of married soldiers sharing sleeping quarters, she said, would be an increased risk of pregnancies.” Well, if that is the only downside, I think they can live with that. Well, time for me to go see what’s going on with Hubby, he’s been working in the dining room way too long today! |
it just wasn’t my Mama. I often wonder what advice my mother would give me today? If I told her I was feeling low I wonder if she’d give me a hug and say, “Everything is going to be just fine” ? No, she wouldn’t...she’d be more likely to say, “Buck up.” Isn’t it funny how our parents shape us. They give us the clay, in a mold, and we add to it, and sometimes take away from it, but always, there is the precious core. I hope yours was as good as mine. Actually, I’m feeling really uplifted tonight, Hubby has taken some huge strides, considering it’s not been three weeks since the surgery, and I had a 75 minute massage and some laughs at Brett’s hairdo. Then I had dinner and despite the fact we have had no running water today....life is good! I hope you all have gone over to read Scarlett’s blog...it’s so very clever and upbeat you can’t help but feel that way when you soak it up. I didn’t make it to all of your blogs, but I will...this is a short entry, and now I’m off for some relaxation. Hope you have a good night too.  |
| Oh yes, it’s definitely that time of year again! Spring must be in the air, because all of a sudden the activity level on MySpace has heated up again! I know, I know...why bother being there, but many of you have a space, and I tried blogging there a few times. I couldn’t keep up two blogs. Now, on occasion I do read a few blogs, and communicate with some of you when I pop on, but it is largely unused for me. When I first signed up about a year ago I was inundated with email from men, of a very wide range of ages. At first it was flattering, in a weird sort of way, but that lasted about five minutes, before I realized that this was the equivalent of being in a public chat room, where you get hit on constantly. Hey, I don’t mind being occasionally hit on, I’m married not dead...but my gawd, the things men say when they are in some hormonal state of horniness. There is a distinct difference in how men approach a woman they feel attracted to...at least visually. Visually isn’t all bad, but for goodness sakes, couldn’t they at least read the profile I so painstakingly filled out? They could save themselves a whole lot of trouble. They apparently don’t care about my age, my marital status, my astrological sign, my interests or anything else. Only the fact I have my photo in my profile. I got messages from men from 26 to 69. Mind you, some of then have memories about the length it takes them to copy and paste their little emails to... gawd knows how many women at a time. I call this the “scatter” dater. Oh, and how do I know these guys are doing this? Because they are so smart they haven’t bothered to even glance at my “friend list” either. One day I was Im’ing with my buddy Scarlett and I mentioned to her that this one man had contacted me...he was from California, and though his email was nice enough, explaining that he was married, an artist, and blah...blah...he was looking for a penpal. I merely mentioned it because this was the second time he had sent me the same email. I remember I wrote him back the first time, saying sure, I would be agreeable to being a penpal, and telling him a bit about me. It was about two months before he replied, saying “his wife had been ill and blah-blah.” I replied saying I understand, and asked him a question about the artwork in his profile photo. That was the last I heard of him....until I got the exact same email which I mentioned to Scarlett that day. Then she mentioned she’d also gotten an email like that...sure enough, the same guy.We had a good laugh about it, and I told her I was going to say something about the lack of originality of his approach. I did, telling him not to bother with approaching me for penpals again, twice was enough, he obviously had a very short....ummm...memory. Well, turn out this is a common practice, the “scatter dater”...although I hardly am disillusioned to believing they want dates, or to be penpals. They want sex...period. Hey, I’m hardly against someone wanting sex, but when each time I change my photo, and my hair changes color, H-E-L-L-O-O!! It’s still me...still my name, my profile, etc. I don’t want to chat with you, married or not, meet you for dinner, or be your Mrs, Robinson. Springtime or anytime. Now I'm fending off the ardor of someone who wants to be my "diversion". Oh yeah, I really need a twenty-six year old diversion, who says he's a film star in town for a movie, and I'd be worth the drive. Gawd, all of this based on my age and photo. Granted, he said he likes "more mature women"...he'd take me to dinner so we could get to know each other and "take it from there." Uhhh, excuse me, but wouldn't you want to get to know me first, before you drive for two hours and take me to dinner hoping there would be more? He is rather confidant, but I just have to laugh, this kid has no idea who he is dealing with. He's lucky I'm not into some game playing, or worse. I’m thinking maybe this blog belongs over there. Of course assuming these guys can read...... |
*SMACK* She should have had a V-8! What am I talking about? My niece. Yesterday as I was blog reading and doing an IM with my buddy, my father called. He wanted to know if I was sitting down. I was. Just a little background quickly: 1. Niece has three children. 2. Niece moved to Oregon. 3. Niece is divorced. 4. Niece left nice guy to live with ex-in-laws. 5. Niece told us she had her tubes tied after the third child. Okay, so dad calls to tell us Niece just had a baby boy on March 17th. None of us even knew she was pregnant! We had a farewell dinner for her and her three children in November before she moved too. HUH??? Granted she was a little heavy, but then she had been for a few years, the thought of her being pregnant never even crossed our minds. We are still shaking our heads. We just cannot fathom why she would not share this news with us. Well, besides knowing we would be disappointed. Now she’s not married, not working, not keeping in touch...not...not...not anything! In fact, as it turns out she only called my father because it seems the storage facility she has had things in is about to sell her things, you know, unpaid bills...gawd. She doesn’t ask for help until it is absolutely a last ditch effort, ridiculous and irresponsible. My son reminds me that it has nothing to do with us when she behaves in this manner. He’s right, since we have done nothing but support this young woman, emotionally and financially since my brother passed away. It does annoy me that she left it up to my father to inform us, and didn’t even tell him until after the fact. It really hurts Hubby though, he felt like a father to her. In fact, she had no idea that Hubby was ill and in the hospital for surgery. I call her behavior selfish, on many levels. Behavior like hers confounds me. I know that one day, in the near future she’s going to call us...because she needs something, and it will be very difficult for us to behave as though she did not hurt us. Just so I don’t end this blog on a down note, I’ll let you all know Hubby is doing very well. His recovery is swift, and each day he grows stronger. In fact he’s has me cooking him breakfast each morning, something I never have done, has Cesar cooking him lunch each day, and if I’m not careful he’ll not want to go back to his office once he is allowed to drive again. Yipes, that’s a very scary thought! Oh yeah, got a new hairdo from JoPaulo. Maybe I will change photos so you can see it...  |
| Yep, that just means I'm liable to switch topics and be all over the place, never zeroing in on one target. Oh well, it's that or manage another black day on the calendar! I wanted to say I thought the various articles in The Blogville Newsletter were really interesting, and funny! I'm enjoying all the parts of it...and ya'll should check it out if you haven't done so. Scarlett has done another wonderful job of putting the various components together. Thanks! My son spoke with Cesarella this morning to find out where he could meet her to take the items she "left behind". You'll never guess where she asked Mike to meet her. Chuck E Cheese! I told you there was something wrong with her. No adult willingly goes to a screamingly loud, kid filled, bad food, bacteria infested so-called pizza joint. I had to go buy Hubby some easier to get on clothing today, which meant a trip to Mervyn's™ and Target™, two of my favorite stores. Since he can't stand for more than a few minutes, and even that little time is precarious, nor can he easily raise his arms overhead for long, getting dressed enough to be able to be out of bed and be seen by our housekeeper, Cesar, his secretary or anyone, requires some creative dressing. Actually it requires lots of shorts and Henley or Polo style shirts. No problem. Well not much of a problem, except how am I supposed to go into those two stores and not look at the girly stuff too? It ends up being, one for him, two for me, one for him, o-o-h three for me. Ordinarily this kind of shopping wouldn't be difficult, however trying to sneak in the extra bags is something that requires planning akin to crossing the boarder with a car full of immigrants. Either you employ the diversion technique, such as making an extra stop at the market for a pint of Hagen Daaz Chocolate Ice Cream then phoning ahead to tell him to be in the garage so he can take the bag in an hand-off maneuver and rush it into the freezer....or there is the tried and true, leave my stuff in the car until he is not in or near our room. You know, I don't know why I don't want him to see my stuff, he could care less, and is going to see it when I wear it anyway. He always likes it, and just because he doesn't ask if it's new doesn't mean he didn't know it's "this season". Gawd, how ridiculous of me. Oh well, maybe that's half the fun of getting it. I have to tell you about a good laugh we all had last night. After a wonderful dinner last night, Cesar came into our room to help Lance into bed. He uses that belt thingy to help lift him to a seated position on the side of the bed. Then, he always says to Hubby, "Was that good?" I completely busted up laughing...mind you I'm kneeling on my side of the bed, hubby's back towards me. I was laughing even harder knowing than in a few seconds Cesar would put one of his arms under hubby's legs, another around his back, then lift him into bed. What Hubby and I call the "goodnight kiss" move. Cesar looked confused, but Hubby knew I was laughing at the unintentional use of Cesar's question, and also laughed. Of course then we had to tell explain to Cesar...and boy did he  . Don't think he'll be asking, "Was it good for you?" anymore. I inadvertently learned a very good lesson...do not attempt to lift or try to adjust Hubby without first making sure my bladder is entirely empty. Gawd, I learned this lesson the hard way...and I thought it was only when I sneezed unexpectedly, or laughed really hard. Oh...I don't know if you have seen the Chicken Fries at Burger King™, but I thought I'd give then a try today for lunch. They were okay, however I would make sure you get something to dip them in, or they seem a tad dry. I got the order of six...they really do look like a french fry...with a mildly seasoned batter, but they were not filling enough on their own for lunch. I can see why they are not called chicken fingers...that would be creepy, as it is they are already a kind of trompe l'oeil, fooling the eye into expecting a potato flavor. Get some Ranch or BBQ dipping sauce...or ketchup if you like the stuff. Time to end this blog, but not without telling you the wildflowers are at their peak right now, Ojai is absolutely amazing! |
| ...why the heck should I be now? Actually, I do feel sort of bad about the Cesarella bashing I did last blog. Sure I do, now that she is gone. Yep, we had her in for a few final lessons and then sent her packing. But bear with me here. If you will imagine a crash course in body transfers....I’m talking with a live body, just so ya’ll are clear on the image, led by the esteemed semi-literate Cesarella. Her pupils? My son, Mike and Cesar, with me observing (well, it is MY bedroom too). The boys are all lined up, as are a wheelchair and two electric carts. You can never have too much equipment on hand. Oh, and then there is the remote controls for the bed and the tv. She showed Cesar how to do a few different transfers, then Cesar tried. He did well, considering the fear factor of lifting your boss with his arms hugging you. Then Mike tried. I say tried, but actually they did pretty darned well, considering Hubby signs the paychecks. We decided to have Cesarella come Sat. morning to help Hubby through the morning routines while the “boys” observed technique, as well as show us how to handle getting into and out of the car, since he can’t drive for 6-8 weeks. But since Hubby had been “thrown around” (so to speak) several times already, I figured I would volunteer to be the victim patient. HUGE mistake. I knew that we had a belt which is used to help keep the person stabilized when being lifted, an ugly white, webbed number the hospital gave me years ago, but I didn’t think about putting it on first. So I wheeled the chair out to the passenger side of the car and advised Cesarella that I would be limp, dead weight so it would be closer to his weight. (Hubby weighs 125 to my 106.) Getting a limp person from out of the wheelchair up into the SUV is not the easiest task, so she grabbed my pajama bottoms and hoisted me up, and slammed me into the car, where I proceeded to fall over to illustrate she needs to put the person straight on the seat. We did the in-and-out lift twice, and as her payback, I’m absolutely certain of this, the second time she did it I got a wedgie that gave me an additional three inches of length in my legs! OUCH! Great farewell present. We told her she could go afterwards, we’d handle the weekend. So, she’s now officially “let go”. However, I noticed she left the “Hubby File” and one of her sweaters here. Gawd. I just hope I can have it delivered to her...and I do want to have the gate combination changed. She was creepy. Anyway, we survived the weekend, Hubby is doing quite well, except for the aches and pains from being lifted and tossed about several times a day. But, we enjoyed our weekend semi-alone, and I made a pork roast for Easter Dinner, which was yummy.I’ll see if I can do a little better in the blogging department, but time is the problem. Oh...speaking of time, he loved the watch! Have a lovely night my friends! |
| That was the thought crossing my mind while driving hubby home from the hospital on Wed. The very sight of him slumped in the passenger seat, sound asleep made me laugh out loud. I’m talking belly laughs, loud and long enough to wake the dead...errrrrr...a sleeping Hubby anyway. He woke up for a moment then immediately fell back asleep as I had images of being pulled over by the police and being accused of driving with a body in the Diamond (carpool) Lane.Okay, so I am starting to exhibit some “black humor” but hey, it’s survival mode. Hospitals suck for getting some quiet time, so we were really looking forward to getting back to the ranch....until we discovered that the private nurse we needed was....another Cesar! OMG...I’m not sure who is looking out for us, but they sure have a whacked sense of humor sending us Alma...or Cesarella as I have dubbed her. Yep she’s a female Cesar. And I thought we had a one-of-a-kind. This gal has some good qualities, like physical strength and....ummmm, okay that’s good enough and basically what we were looking for, someone to be able to do transfers. What we weren’t looking for was another blabbermouth. Gawd, I’d just gotten Cesar trained that he didn’t need to chit-chat with me, and to be quiet when we are having dinner so it wasn’t intruding on our privacy. Well, Cesarella came directly into our bedroom, got Hubby into bed, sat down in a chair and began telling us all about the time she wanted to get a puppy....yada-yada...then about how she had a friend with a green parrot...yada-yada...then about her son’s allegies...yada-yada...until Hubby and I looked at each other and gave the “had enough eye roll”. “Ummmm, Alma, this is all scintillating, but I think my husband needs to rest now, it has been a very long day. If you’ll go to the kitchen I’ll call you on the intercom when we need you.” Gawd, I had to tell her that she needs to bring a book or something to help fill her TWELVE hours a day here, because we really only need the transfer ability. I can do everything else. Today is day three of her time here and she has managed to drive my housekeeper crazy with her non-stop yakking on Thursday, and talked Cesar’s ears off to the point when she starts in he leaves the room. Revenge is sweet. Oh, but she did bring a book today, The Bible...an abbreviated edition, whatever that is. I saw it, but have yet to see her with it. She much prefers to lay stretched out on our lawn, under the oak tree in front of my bedroom and bathroom, talking on her cellphone, eating my tangerines and talking on the phone. She has yet to empty a urinal or give him his meds. All this at the bargain rate of $27.00 an hour.Hubby already figured a way to not pay...because she is so clueless, she actually brought some herbal stuffage for him to start taking/drinking....strictly a no-no, especially without a doctor’s consent and when he has had such a major surgery and all kinds of drugs. Tsk-Tsk. Of course he won’t take that stuff, nor not pay her, but it sure makes you wonder about people and what they are (or are not) thinking. Gawd, the liability. This morning in addition to Ceasarella, we had a “visiting nurse” to come draw blood. This was one of those really professional ones though, you know in the uniform, the blue permed hair, with the pins on her chest, a blue sweater with pockets and funky nurse shoes. I was especially impressed with her bag of nurse stuff and the brief case full of questionnaires. I mean, wow, she had actualSTUFF! She even took Hubby’s temperature...a first in three days. So now, the question we have, is can Cesar and Mike now replace her? Heck yeah! GULP. I hope to get caught up with everyone this weekend...this endless cheerleading to keep everyone’s spirits up is kinda tough, but ya’ll have been helping immensely...heck he’s home and one of these days I’ll be saying...”WAHOOO, he went to the office!” |
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