Nothing much

Hey, You Gals!

I’ve been telling myself for weeks to assemble some thoughts and words for a blog post.  A few times I even thought ‘that might be of interest’ but, whatever those thoughts were, they’re gone now.  So, I’m taking a few minutes to tell you that I don’t have anything to tell you.

What else?

Spring is here in all her glory.  Spring in the PNW is ridiculously lush.  Walking though petal-storms all the time, streets turned pink, pollen blowing in yellow clouds… you get the idea.  Seriously though? If you ever come to Portland, Spring is absolutely gorgeous.

Today the lilac opened.  :-)

But, I’m not gloating!  Really!  Some of you are getting snow, actual snow (that you didn’t get in the Winter!), when you should be getting flowers.  It’s sad when that happens.  What frequently happens here is that the cherry trees all burst into bloom when a storm front arrives.  Yes, the gutters are pink for a couple of days, but the trees are beaten down and the whole thing is just a soggy mess.  We’ve had a mixed bag of late, but we had nearly a week of sunshine, so I’m not complaining about the rain today.

More?

T is finally selling her house.  It was on the market when we first met, but the time wasn’t right.  She has been renting it to her brother for several years but he can’t afford the amount of the mortgage payment, so T has had to pay every month to make up the difference.  She’s tired of that, and his kids are now out of the 3 bedroom house, so it’s time for him to downsize.  She has spent the last month working on it on the weekends – painting the inside (every room), adding a half bath, replacing blinds, clearing out the garage – and then took last week off work to paint the exterior.  It was forecast to be sunny and dry for 5 days so she had to go for it!  I took off Friday and also spent all day Saturday painting.  Wow, am I out of shape!  I could feel all of that ladder work!

Garden?

Garlic.  Planted late last summer.  Thriving.  But, that’s all I’ve got.  Oh, and herbs.  But that’s all.  Haven’t even weeded yet.  Bad gardener!

Summer plans?

Trailer camping with our friends.  Fun!  Ft Stevens State Park – We haven’t camped there before.  It’s beside the Pacific, at the mouth of the mighty Columbia.  Putting along in the vintage truck and trailer combo, it’ll only take a couple of hours, at most, to get there.  Maybe an hour and a half.  Close.  I hope I get some smoked tuna!!!  OH. MY. GOOD. FOOT!!!  So delish!  We’ve got good seafood on our coast.  Have I ever mentioned the Willapa Bay oysters?  So.Good.

Ok, clearly, I am rambling now.  Time to get back to the spreadsheets.

Cheers, m’dears…

Another Monday

What?!  A blogpost?!  Bet you thought I quit blogging...  nope.  Just...  haven't.

Today is Monday and I am pleased to say that I am at home.  I am not taking this for granted because the new boss at my work decided to take away the option of working four days a week, mostly just because he can.  I had to fight to get it back.  I wish the fight had been physical, but it was a battle of wills and words.  I won some and lost more.  Because, you know, Straight-MiddleAged-White-Man has to win for the world to keep spinning.  But, whatever!  It's Monday and I am at home.

I haven't wanted to mention the weather since it has been so incredibly bad for most of you.  But, you know what?  It's gorgeous here.  Ok, yes, it is a very, very rainy and windy day, but there are flowers.  And, crazy as it sounds, we need the rain.  And snow in the mountains.  So, yay, rain!  (Plus, it's not snow or ice at my house.)

My daughter got a puppy!  A golden retriever puppy, 10 weeks old.  So cute!  Does she really want a baby?  I think so, but she also wanted a puppy, so I am happy for her.  I'm going up there to see her in a couple of weeks so I'll get to meet the new family member.

Actually, my two best friends are also going to Zoe's house.  We are meeting up for our yearly visit and I am really looking forward to it.  It's been too long since I've seen those gals.  They are flying up and renting a car.  They'll pick me up at the train station.  From there we'll head to the Kid's house.  We have no plans whatsoever.  Best kind of trip, I think.  The whole point is just to hang out together.  Oh, we'll probably do a couple of things, but mostly we just want to hang out.  Here is a picture of our last get together, in our team shirts!

What good sports they are!  We went out to lunch in those matching shirts and stopped for booze on the way back to the house.  It makes me laugh to see that picture!  I got us team shirts again, but instead of being all matching they are all similar.  Shades of lavender, with floral prints.  I got one for Zoe, too.  :-)

Well, friends, that's Monday.  I hope you have a lovely day with at least a little bit of sunshine...

Cheers!

Monday on Tuesday

The first Monday of my new schedule was yesterday.  Hooray!  Hooray for .8 fte! The corresponding decrease in income may not elicit such a glad and gleeful response, but we'll wait and see.

So, what did I do with my glorious first Monday?  First, and this is important, I got up early and escorted my partner to her new job.  Her new job with BENEFITS!  What a relief!  I have been providing the benefits for years and since I am going to part time they will cost a lot more for dependents.  So, she needed to get a job with her own benefits and she did.  Whew!

But, you may be wondering, why did I escort her to her new job?  She's a big girl, not a child going to kindergarten.  The thing of it is, now she has to take public transportation.  She has only taken the bus or light rail when I insisted that we use it to go downtown during a heavily attended event.  She has a small town girl's fear of many 'big city' things.  I know, I know, Portland is hardly a big city!  But, she is from a distant, rural suburb (or even exurb) and has simply had no experience.  Plus, her family!  Good god, what a bunch of yokels!  When she was explaining that she would be taking the train in to work, they all suggested that she get a new can of mace or pepper spray.  I laughed out loud at them.  On purpose.  I reminded them that I had been taking the bus and train from my neighborhood for over 20 years and had never had an 'incident'.  Is there crime in Portland?  Of course.  Of course there is, but we hardly qualify as a crime hotspot.  Can crime happen anywhere?  Of course it can, but statistically speaking, it's pretty safe here.  So, she made it work and she made it home from work.  Good.  That's one hurdle down.

The rest of the day went like this:
1. Read some blogs.
2. Look at FB.
3. Have lunch.
4. Actually do stuff!

I wanted to rearrange my sewing room.  It's actually my project room, but since I have the sewing table out, that's what I am calling it.  I needed to move a double bed mattress and box spring out of that room and into the box room.  That meant that I first needed to rearrange the box room so that there was space to store the bed.  It was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle getting things to fit, but I managed it.  I really need to pull everything out of the box room, sort it all, and create some sensible storage solutions.  But, not this week.

I got that done, and then found the perfect fabric to make a tablet cover for T's new toy.    It turned out so well!  I'm pleased with it.  All I need now is a velcro fastener and it's done.  Let me see if I can post a picture.

It is lined with a piece of sham-wow... some kind of cleaning cloth.  It's fairly padded and it cleans the glass while in the bag!  I like it!


Today, though, is Tuesday.  I'm still at home.  Not because I'm having fun doing stuff but because I'm sick.  Dammit!  I've had a run of sinus trouble, due to the wildly shifting barometric pressures I'm sure.  Now it's gone into my chest and I have a deep, phlegmy cough.  And still the sinus junk. Gross.  I woke up with a pounding headache and a racking cough and thought that I would not subject my coworkers to that.  So here's me today:

Yikes!  Why am I showing you this?!?!?  Actually, it doesn't show the mountain of used tissue, the cup of hot water with lemon and honey, or the blanket pulled up high.

Oh, hey!  I got new glasses!

Ok, I'd better stop.  I'm obviously just blathering on at this point...
Cheers!

Still Here!

Monday Update

I've been thinking to myself that I should make an attempt at the Microblog Monday style of posting.  I usually think of this on a different day of the week, and since I am finding it easy to not post, well, yeah, nothing has gotten posted to my poor old lonely blog.  BUT, today is Monday, and here I am.  Woot!  I'mma do a little bullet list... cuz that's easy.

• Sleeping Arrangements: When last we compared notes, T and I were fussing over who got to sleep on which side of the bed.  Well, you'll be happy to find that we have resolved that issue.  We were alternating sides, a month on the right, a month on the left, and that was working well.  But, then, she tweaked her shoulder again and it was giving her so much pain that she couldn't sleep comfortably on either side.  Basically, she needed the whole bed.  Fortunately, we have two beds.  We are now sleeping in different rooms, but both are so much better rested.  I confess, I like it better.  We sleep together sometimes, and not just for sex, but really, it is just so much more comfortable to have the bed to yourself.

• Holidays: Thanksgiving is just around the damn corner.  This used to be one of my favorite holidays.  There would be delicious food, beautiful dishes and silverware, and the best of company.  Besides my daughter and parents, one of my brothers would come, several cousins, and friends who didn't have anywhere special to be.  The house smells wonderful, there's a football game, glasses of wine while cooking... what's not to like?  But, now, it has dwindled.  My mom is gone.  My daughter lives away.  Nobody is calling to ask if there is room for an extra at the table.  I'm probably going to the in-laws for dinner and then cooking a very reduced meal for my dad and brother the next day.  I feel that I have to produce some kind of festive celebration to share with them, or they won't observe it at all.  They are likely to have a cheese pizza.  But, it'll probably just be the four of us, so I think I'll just cook a turkey breast.  I'd like a half a turkey but have yet to find such a thing in my grocer's meat department.  I'm sorry if I sound like I am whining.  I miss my mom.  

• Birthdays: T's birthday is next Sunday.  I already took her out for her big gift.  It was actually pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself!  It was the Big Birthday Adventure!  And, I kept it completely secret and she had no idea what we were doing so that was fun for me.  Especially fun since she liked it.  Would have been an expensive drag if she hadn't.  So, what was it, you ask?  We went ZIP LINING!  Actually, it was more than zip lining.  We went to this place.  Tree to Tree Aerial Adventure Park!  It was so fun!  It's an aerial obstacle course with lots of zip lines.  Wow.  We were exhausted when we got home!  But, it was possibly the best present I have ever gotten her.  She loved it.  So did I!  But, her birthday is still coming up and I have to get her a couple of small gifts to open, just because.  So, yeah, shopping.  Besides T, there are several other November birthdays all clumped together.  My dad, T, T's brother, my nephew, my favorite cousin, my sister in law... November is now competing with April for most expensive birthday month.

So, that's it for this Monday.  I understand that the point of the microblog Mondays is that one doesn't feel pressured to put together a lengthy post.  I like that.  I'll try again.  Really!