6/19 - Wednesday Wonderfuls

I think I mentioned last week that I had lots floating around in my head that I wanted to blog....its just a matter of thinking it through and writing it down in a post here rather than some sort of a quickie Facebook Status.

But lots of really good things have been happening, in fact the word "wonderful" came to mind and then I thought its Wednesday today, so why not take advantage of a bit of alliteration.

First off - my petsitter is experienced with diabetic animals and administering insulin - she and her husband are coming by next week to reintroduce themselves to the furkids and make sure they know where everything is.  It's wonderful that I won't have to board poor Jezebel.

Then there's my upcoming trip to British Columbia.  I'm really excited to be getting to visit Carol and her family again as well as seeing Lisa and John.  Its such a wonderful accident that we met in the first place considering we live on opposite ends of the continent.  Credit goes to the internet for bringing us together, but keeping us that way is due to my two amazing friends and their efforts to keep our friendship growing (including bribing me with lots of gifts).

We are all hoping to meet up with Lady Expat - our online friend Nancie who lives in Korea but coincidentally will be in BC for a couple of the same days that we are.  And it is truly wonderful to meet online friends in person.....I've never had a bad experience - it seems that all the time we spend learning about each other online moves pretty seamlessly into face to face contact.

Next on the list is aerobics class which has started back up this week.  I know that's an odd thing to consider wonderful because I don't particularly like exercising - but its the people and the way I have so much energy after I've struggled through the routine.

And the weather here- which has been wet enough to help my garden grow  without watering - I had to stake the tomatoes over the weekend and there's a good chance I'll have some ready to pick in just a couple more weeks.  At the same time, its been wonderfully sunny when I needed it  - got the grass cut, some bushes trimmed, and its looking good at Chez Em.  The grass is in a lot better shape than it was this time last year - still with some clover and other weeds, but I tell myself baby steps.

There's more...but I'm typing this on my lunch hour which is just about over - so I'll just go with the best for last.  This morning my boss came in to see me with good news - he'd put me in for an award based on the work I've been doing facilitating a couple of programs here....and here our achievement awards are given in CASH.....can you say "wonderful"?

Hope things are going well for you this week...I wish more of my friends got back into blogging because its a bit lonely clicking link after link and seeing no updates.....but then again, we've always got Facebook.

6/13/13 - Thursday Thirteen

Its been a wonderful and busy week so far, and I thought the easiest way to remember it all would be to do a list....

1.   Sunday I went to Ocean City  to pick up my best friend - she was staying at her parents condo so we spent the night and came back the next afternoon.   This is the beach that practically every parent in Maryland took their children too for vacation.....and I have many memories of the place - some of which probably deserve their own blog., and I'll get around to that one of these days.

2.  Things change, but OC remains much the same - high rise condominiums along the beachside shops and restaurants in the middle, and more condos/townhouses/mobile homes along the bayside.
I'm kind of embarrassed to say I didn't walk the beach or even stick my toes in the sand this trip - but to be fair, the water is COLD until August, and once you've been to the Caribbean, or even Florida....its just not "all that" any more. 

3.  What I loved most was being able to sit out on the balcony smelling the salt air and listening to the waves....it reinforced my thoughts about retiring to a beach condo somewhere.

4.  With a bit of luck I can make "retiring" a possibility in  six more years.......not that I will - it would just be nice to have that option.

5.   My BFF is delightful company......we had a great time and the only disagreement we had was about who would pay for what - she kept trying to pay for stuff and of course, I was as well :). 

6.  She got me good though - at one point she borrowed my car to go meet one of her friends - when she brought it back we headed out to meet up with her nephew and I discovered it had a full tank of gas.  She blamed that on the "gas fairy".

7.  If you've read me for a while you might remember my "watch guy" - the man who had been replacing my battery for years and years.  They tore down the mall where his stand was and he disappeared....I bought my own tool to change my own battery.....but when I was in Adelaide the back fell off somewhere and I ended up having to buy a replacement watch.  Anyhow - I noticed an article in the paper about someone taking over a jewelry store....my BFF and I headed over there - and it was my Mr Lee....and he remembered me.  I didn't need a battery but I had several rings to be resized and an earring to be repaird.....and I likely will eventually take that old watch of mine back to him and see if he can put a new back on.

8.  Speaking of old friends - as we were driving through town, I noticed my old mailman sitting on his borch.  I'd noticed his car had disappeared sometime last year and I never saw him out so I thought perhaps he'd gone into a nursing home or even passed away.  (Our local paper now makes you pay for an obituary - so many folks no longer have their family members listed).  I was so excited to see him I had to stop...and since BFF used to live a few doors down - she was remembered by all the neighbors and it was a reunion of sorts....one of those awesome random moments.

10.  We also went to visit a couple of pet boarding facilities-  one at my usual vet and one at the vet up the street.  I have to say I was really sad because neither measured up to my expectations.   I was thinking I'd find something similar to the space given to rescues at Petsmart but these cages were much smaller.  One was a wire cage facility associated with the grooming room...so the positive part was that Jez would have people and animals to watch during the day....but there wasn't any place for her to climb or perch or run around.  The other was a taller cage - plexiglass instead of wire, with a perch and the litter box kind of hidden beneath a shelf.  The tech said that if it wasn't a full house they'd let the animals use two adjoining cages which gave them a bit more room.  But the cages looked out at a blank wall and the room was closed off so there was no one to watch except when the staff came in to feed/clean the place.

11.  The experience has convinced me that if I can possibly let Jez stay home when I travel it would be the best thing for her.  So I'm experimenting just giving her one shot a day to see if she can manage OK .  If it works, I can just have my regular petsitter come in and give her insulin and feed them both their canned food - they can have dry inbetween.  Hope this works out.

12.  Vacation - its only two and a half weeks until I'm off to Seattle and BC....I'm really excited not just to have an adventure, but to get to spend some time with my friends Lisa and Carol.  It was such a lucky accident that we met online in the first place.....and they are truly amazing women.

13  Hmmm - what to finish with?  How about the storms we had today.....which turned out to be not anywhere near the big deal that the forecasters were predicting.  And apparently it wasn't just local forecasters - I had a couple of people ask if I was OK after they'd heard of a tornado in my town.  I honestly have no idea where that tornado was - as far as I know we had one tree hit one roof a couple miles away from me.  But its nice to have people who care about me.

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week and weekend.....

6/8/13 - Saturday Stuff

Goodness, its been almost a week since I blogged....but my excuse is that between work and actually having a life I haven't spent much time at the computer.

Yes, I do seem to have a life.....and as always I'm having a bit of anxiety over it.  There should be a Couch to 5K for introverts so that we can ease our way into social activities over an eight week period :)

But its all good...without the folks who (generally unknowingly) drag me into the world....my life wouldn't be much fun.

Lets go backwards....today is take Dad his laundry, run errands, and clean house a bit more than usual because I'm having a houseguest.  My BFF is at the beach with her parents, and I"m heading out to visit them for an overnight, then bringing her back to stay with me for a couple of days.

If you have visited me or even if you've seen a lot of my photos, you know I'm apparently a bit of a neat freak.  I say apparently because I don't notice how other people's houses look except perhaps marveling at a planting bed, or an architectural detail, or a picture or something similar that catches my eye.  But I've had comments from friends about how tidy my place is - and perhaps growing up in chaos has led me to overvalue order.

 So I shall be vacuuming/dusting/changing the linens in the guest bedroom and giving a thorough scrubbing to the downstairs bath at some point today.  I need to make a wine/liquor store run as I'm out of rum which just won't do since its Mojito season.

Last night was bowling - we're bowling duckpins only this summer (its an east coast thing that you can google if you are thinking huh).  The games were unusual - one game was a version of no-tap where an eight count on the first ball was marked as a strike - one game everyone was automatically given a strike in the third, sixth, and ninth frames - and one that was a version of scotch doubles.  Each of us rolled a ball - and then we decided whose shot we'd use - and their partner would shoot the second ball.  A bit confusing, but definitely different - and I think we did quite well.  I've kind of gotten the hang of the game - as long as I manage to keep my arm straight - I hit what I aim for.

Thursday night I went out to dinner with one of my old neighbors to catch up - we had a great time and declared that we need to do this monthly...I hope we manage to do that.

And then last weekend was another great lunch with a friend who was up from Myrtle Beach - I was thrilled she called me to say she was in town and again we had a marvelous time.  You know the kind of friends where you can just pick up wherever you left off the last time you saw them?

I'm especially glad she came up because I had been planning on coming down to visit in the fall, but with all the other things I have scheduled, and a diabetic cat, I don't think I"ll be able to manage it.

Oh, that's right - I'm overdue for a Jezebel update.  She's doing well....I had to skip a shot when I went to a concert last weekend....and her blood sugar level made it clear that really does need insulin twice a day.....but nothing terrible happened.  That's good because when I head out to the beach tomorrow, she'll miss a days worth of shot.  I just couldn't see trying to board her for one day....and I've found some low carb dry food that they'll eat....so I'll do what I did before her diagnosis - leave food and water out and I've no doubt they'll both be fine.

I am going to have to board her when I go away the end of this month - I know she'll hate it, but not only is it really expensive to have someone come twice a day - I think its better if she is somewhere being watched.  So, one of next week's projects is visiting a couple of the local vet boarding facilities and deciding where to leave her.  Generally you can have two or more cats boarded together, but I really think Batcat would be happiest if I just leave him home with food and water and have someone come in and check a couple of times.

You can probably see that I've become a lot more laid back about feline diabetes.  For a while I was obsessed with the Feline Diabetes Message board and testing and trying to find the perfect dose so perhaps she'd be cured .....but I realized that I'm not "that" pet owner.  I love my cats and they add a lot to my life. But for some people their pets are their lives.  Imagine getting laid off and not looking for another job because you've been convinced that you need to stay home and test your cat every two hours.  The experienced advice givers had me quite upset for a bit thinking I was a bad pet parent because I couldn't do exactly what they wanted me to do....but I eventually realized that their approach is based on a single study performed by German cat owners on a total of about 60 cats over an eighteen month period.  That's a pretty small sampling considering there are probably a million cats worldwide with diabetes.  So, I've come up with something that seems to be a good compromise between following the various recommendations and having a life.  Jez is eating well, looking good, and enjoying life....and so am I.

There I go rambling on and on and on again (anything to avoid actually having to start cleaning, I'm afraid)...but I do need to go get cleaned up myself and head over to Dads...hope all of you are having a great weekend.

We had SUCH a good time.....

didn't we?  I mean it will take at least a week to remember all the things we did and the places we saw.

I don't know about you but its rainy here, and so it seems like a good time to start the reminiscing and brighten things up a bit.

Of course, we've sailed before, but this was the first time out of Tampa - for me at least...and it was nice to be the only ship docked.  Didn't you think the Port of Tampa was lovely?

The room is cozy but nice.......and its up on the 10th deck so its close to the sundecks and pools.

Since we took our luggage on board there was no waiting or worrying about things arriving.  That meant we could unpack right away and after the muster drill we were free to hang out on deck for sailaway.  I really liked that we started out heading west into the sunset.

One of the really cool things about sailing out of Tampa is that there is a bridge across the bay, and of course we have to go under that bridge to get to the sea.  Its a rather close squeeze and one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  Wish I'd thought to take pictures - but fortunately someone else did about a year ago - and this is pretty much exactly what we saw.

By now it was well after seven and I was starting to wear out - it was a very long day and as always I don't sleep well the night before a flight because I'm afraid I'll miss it.  Between my friends flight on Thursday morning and this one Saturday - I just didn't have it in me to go to dinner....instead I grabbed a bite from the buffet and called it an early night.  Hope you guys had fun - and thanks for not waking me up when you came in.....

OK - speaking of nights - its bowling night so I'm going to wrap this up - tomorrow we can remember Key West together.

9/13 Thursday Thirteen

In the constantly changing internet world, its a relief to find something that remains the same.  There is still a Thursday Thirteen website and meme.

And so, I will use that fact to sanction today's list of random bits and pieces from the week just past.....and perhaps at some later point I'll expand on one or more of the items ;)

1.  I called my XX back - got an automated attendant that gave a different number and hung up - not realizing until a bit later that he probably has calls transferred to his cell and so I could have left a message  But no matter - he'll see my # on the caller ID.

2.  Which brings me to how easy but at the same time difficult it is to stalk someone these days.  Sure, if they haven't blocked FB you can see all sorts of things, but I "think" there are widgets that let the page owner see who has viewed them - just as caller ID lets them see who has called.  There are surveillance cameras everywhere, so you can't get away with following them.

3.  None of the above is meant to suggest that I've ever stalked someone.  I did have a stalker once (well actually for a number of years and some pretty scary encounters)  - but that's its own blog someday.

4.  Work is actually pretty easy at the moment but I'm frustrated with all the drama - if people would just spend their time doing work instead of complaining about it - they would discover its not such a burden after all.

5.  Last night there was an actual herd of deer in my backyard - five of them - tonight only two - and they didn't come up close enough to get a good picture.

6.  That's actually a positive as the spray nozzle on my deer repellent seems to have broken so I can't properly protect my hosta - and because I'm a neat freak - I don't have any empty sprayers laying around - I'll have to pick one up tomorrow.

7.  I'm fighting a mole who has taken up residence in my yard - ironically right next to the Solar Mole Spike I installed a couple of months ago.

8.  Why is spellcheck questioning my use of the word "hosta" in #6?

9.  My summer bowling partner apparently had a seizure last week - his son says he stopped taking his medication.  If that's the case- its the fourth time that I can remember this same sequence of events - stop taking anti-seizure medicine - have seizure.   What is it with people who keep doing the same thing over and over thinking this time the result will be different.

10.  Which is perhaps a good segue into my XX.  We had great physical chemistry and made some great memories - but it was always me pushing him to go out and do things....he'd just as soon sit at home and get drunk.  I've told him a number of times that I just couldn't be in a relationship with an alcoholic but in hindsight, that really wasn't and isn't the problem/

11.  The problem is that in the 11 years since we broke up, I've gained the confidence to be able to do what I want on my own, instead of waiting for someone to join me.  Granted, I'm still not much for going to sporting events or concerts alone (witness me skipping Richmond last weekend) - but each time I overcome my fear and just do something - its a good experience that helps moves me forward.  I don't want to be held back by a partner that only shares my physical, not my mental passions.

12.  Back to shallower thoughts.  I had an appraisal this week - hopefully it will come in high enough that I can refinance - the lower rate means I could spend the same each month but pay the house off much sooner. The appraiser mentioned that if I added heat to my enclosed sideporch, it would count as living space and increase the value of my house a good 5K if not more.  All that would involve is cutting a hole in the wall and flipping existing ductwork outward....something I might even be able to do myself.

13. Which reminds me - wonder if XX is still handy with gas engines?  My lawnmower hasn't worked since early spring and I'm not comfortable taking it apart to try to figure out the problem.

Hope all of you are having a good week......I'm off to Kerfuffle with my friend Steph on Saturday, and then Myrtle Beach with my BB and another close friend on Sunday.......life is sweet these days.....

Carnival Splendor, January 2012

Sorry I haven't been around - between school, work, and getting ready for my Mexican Riviera cruise with my BFF - life's been a bit hectic.

But now I'm back and I'll try to do better......

1/14/11 - Weekend Wine - PromisQous Red

Forgive me blogger for I have sinned - its been almost a week since my last posting ;).

Goodness - I have to say that I'd forgotten how much work goes into living.  First off, there's my new years resolution to indulge in some form of exercise every day....even if its just Friday night bowling.  I'm pleased to say that with the exception of Thursday night (where I ended up in bed at 9 pm because I felt like crap) - I've managed to either go to aerobics class or pop in at least a miles worth of Leslie Sansone. One of those things where it is tough to get started, but I do feel much better (and less hungry) when I've finished.

I've been doing pretty well at tracking my foods on MyFitnessPal too - and although I haven't lost much weight yet, I'm paying attention to what's going in my mouth and there's a lot less bread and a lot more vegetables going on.  Unfortunately, there's not much room in my diet for wine and beer - so I've moved to an every other night approach.

 Then there is school.  This is the next to last class for my MBA, and it involved four papers, with the first one due tomorrow.  Sometimes things flow, but this time they didn't until today...when I find myself at the required paper length and still have two topics to address.  I don't want to find myself rushing through the end of this thing, so I thought I'd take a break for an hour or two and then go back with fresh eyes.....part of the reason I'm here.  Fortunately there are no papers due while I'm away on vacation, so I'll just need to check in at least twice and contribute discussion comments - and with three sea days on the Splendor - I should be able to find the time for that.

I'm quite excited about the trip - not just because of the ship and its incredible spa and my first experience with a balcony - but because my best friend will be coming along.  I'm a bit concerned because she hasn't cruised in almost 20 years  and things have changed a lot since then.  For me, they've changed in a good way - less formality, more flexibility, and a younger crowd (although at 50something we aren't really considered part of that crowd anymore, sigh).  But I'd hate to see her expecting the formality (and three fork place settings) of the past.

But then again - there's the spa - and that alone is, IMO, enough to make anyone happy.  I have now been on all three Carnival ships with the expanded spa and this one is my favorite.  On the other ships, I feel as if the area was shortchanged to put more cabins in, and that definitely made the place more crowded.  The Splendor was actually a Costa build, so I've thought perhaps I should try one of their ships - but then again, considering what an unlucky Friday the 13th it was for the Costa Concordia - perhaps not such a good idea.

Hmm - I guess I had more to say than I thought....but I do need to get back to my paper, so let me discuss the wine.....

I picked up a bottle of PromisQous Red because of the catchy label, which says in part


For 10 bucks I couldn't resist.

And it's not bad - out of the bottle it looked  thin like a cheap Pinot -but it tastes like a Zin - not the BIG ones, but the dark fruit with just a bit of pepper ones.   When I looked it up - indeed it is Zin based - and 42% Lodi at that.  At this price, I prefer Sobon's Vicious Red or Sexy Wine Bomb's Red Blend but this is definitely something that would please the majority of folks looking for something to bring to a party.