A Day at the Opera

And a night in the Ukraine! Ok, maybe not a night in the Ukraine. Still, mom and I are going to see Il Travotore on the big screen simulcast from The Met in New York. Yes, we have to drive to Rochester (Victor) but that is better than having to drive all the way to NYC! I hope I don't sleep through a lot of it. We shall see.

Yesterday was pleasant, though chilly here in the Finger Lakes. We didn't break fifty degrees Fahrenheit!

More errands. I like errands. I really, really do. Yesterday we went to mail an envelope for Karl and then to Walmart to get tools. I wanted to get the $88 comprehensive set but I settled for spending $10 and got five screw drivers and two pairs of pliers! Great stuff. After coming home, I repaired the lamp, only to realize that I had forgotten to put three pieces on. I will rectify that either today or tomorrow. It was just too cold for me to redo the entire thing yesterday. And a little disheartening. Oh well. And I thought I was doing so well, as well. Well. (A deep subject, according to Alice from my bridge group.)

We also had haute cuisine last night at Ling Ling Chinese Buffet. One of the women there has been at Ling Ling off and on for 10 years! We recognized each other but didn't speak any Chinese. I was feeling reticent. And replete.

Pictures from April 29, 2011:


Ta dah! This is the completed, ish, porch.


The lamp before it got mostly fixed. Sigh.


I just don't eat enough to really make buffets worth it. Though Cici's is so inexpensive that I probably break about even there...

Post Royal Wedding Friday

Nope, didn't watch it myself. I was slightly tempted. Just because I think that Kate is pretty darn pretty. Instead, I slept . Well, after setting my alarm to wake my mom up. She seemed to have enjoyed it. Made her want to go back to England for a visit. We shall see if we can get her to actually do it. Take a trip, that is. Anything is possible.

Yippee! Got the porch together yesterday. Everything except for the lamp. Turns out that the fixture is broken. So I got a new one, only to find that all of the tools in the house have gone away. Yippee! More shopping! I need a fillips head screwdriver and another pair of pliers. That ought to do it.

We went on more errands yesterday. Library, to get me a book - another one by the founder of eHarmony. It looks like the same information that is in the other book, just arranged differently. We shall see. I never did finish the one that I started but I have requested it. I like to finish things I start. Sometimes. Then we went to the bank. I opened a little checking account there. One, because it is good to have bank accounts. Two, so that I can have a statement sent to my mom's house and I can use that to get my own library card. Yippee!! It didn't take too long to open the account and I got a free gift. A pizza stone. Mom will get a free gift too, for referring me! She is going to wait and get the collapsible bowl set. Woo hoo!

Canandaigua. I like the name. We headed there, because I wanted to go to the Naked Dove brewery. It is a brand new brewery, open about 6 months. They don't have bottles yet, though they have a bottling line. Maybe I will go volunteer there or something. Hmm. Anyway, they have four beers currently - an Amber (which was ok) an IPA which was decent, a porter which I enjoyed, and a berry wheat that was pretty good. I got a growler of the porter to bring home. Yum!

We also went to MacGregors, probably the closest thing to a Saucer that I will get around here. Mom and I shared a shrimp cocktail that had probably 20 shrimp! I had a Southern Tier Porter. Yum! Met a very nice woman who has a massage business. If I can scrape together the $60, I might have to get a massage. I really do like to get massages at least once every four months. If I were well off, it would probably be once a week. Oh well.

Anyway, it was a fun day yesterday and it is a good day today!

Here are pictures from April 28, 2011:


This is a picture of the porch when it is asleep - that is Ginger in the background, washing the floor.


Our nummy shrimp!


Mom's emerald ring which we found in her safe deposit box.


Naked Dove Brewery sign. Had a fun time in their tasting room - despite the guy talking really, really loudly!

More Errands

One of the great things about this house in Geneva is the screened in porch. Today we started the process of putting it back together for the season. Yippee! Pictures of that will appear on tomorrow's blog.

As for yesterday, it rained a lot in the evening. Well, not a lot, but pretty heavily off and on for a bit. I didn't get too wet, which is a good thing. I did go out for my first solo adventure since I came up here. I went to the newest addition to the Parker's family of places. Unfortunately, my friend Carol was not there. She is taking a well deserved vacation! I will go back next Thursday and visit with her. I had a pleasant time anyway - chatting with the bartender, Wendy, and a loud man named Bob. And his fourth wife Michelle. Weird.

Oh, mom and I went shopping at Walmart and Wegmanns. And we also went to the bank and the library and Edward Jones. At the bank we went through mom's safety deposit box. That was not as exciting as I thought it was going to be. There was a bit of jewelry, a few old documents like birth and death certificates and a deed to the house, and a letter from the Civil War. No, the Civil War didn't write to someone - it was a letter written during the Civil War. I didn't read it just then. I will someday. And maybe scan it too. There's a thought. I have those occasionally.

All in all, a pleasant day.

Ok, pictures from April 26, 2011:


I guess there is a month for everything?


Civil war stuff from mom's safety deposit box.


It is getting springy here!


Dinner of spaghetti with pesto, garlic bread and a salad! Oh, and an Ithaca Nut Brown to wash it all down with!

From now on, some of the pictures are going to be from my iPhone. Yippee!

Happy comments!

I love getting comments on my blog. Yippee! Thank you all (you know who you are) who comment on here! If I were standing up, I might even do a little Snoopy happy dance. Ok, I probably wouldn't. I am dancing inside, though.

I have a weird cut or puckle or something on my finger and that isn't fun.

Yesterday mom and I went to a local winery. There are only maybe 20 within 20 minutes of here. :) This one was called Three Brothers. Pictures below. It was fun! We got big rain which kept us trapped for a few minutes. One of my favorite things about having a smart phone is being able to see up to the minute weather maps. I could see that the storm would last about ten minutes and then we would be ok.

I love talking to people. I know, weird, right? One of the people at the winery was not very communicative (Mack) - or maybe I didn't figure out how to bring him out very well. Two others, Mickaela and Kena, were a little more chatty.

I tasted 5 beers, all mediocre, and five sweet and semi sweet wines. I might go back sometime and buy their tasting passport - 20 tastes for 8 dollars. Still pricey, but a better deal. We shall see.

Mom did an amazing amount of sorting yesterday. The dining room table is almost empty! Eeek! She is finally getting the hang of "one pile" sorting. Not everyone's method, I know, but it works pretty well in my opinion. I don't mind sorting and resorting and making piles slowly become smaller. I prefer it to the multiple pile sorting method - unless I have places for all the piles to go immediately. And mom does not. Oh, one pile sorting goes like this - start with one pile/box/container/whatever. Touch each thing once and decided keep or trash. Pretty easy, right? In the long run it might be more work, but it gives a better sense of accomplishment which keeps me motivated. Yay motivation!

I have ordered some things from eBay and the sellers are being remarkably (hence the mention here) close mouthed and slooooow! I want to know that my things have shipped. Have they? Who knows? Grrr. I bought a used xBox - I know, crazy. And I bought a birthday present for someone. Speaking of which, I know more birthdays are coming up. I am really not good at the whole birthday thing. I like giving gifts, more so when I am fiscally loaded (though when I am liquorly loaded, I apparently am generous (ish) as well) but not necessarily at birthday time. That takes planning and forethought. Gurp.

Today, we have more errands to run. Yay purpose!

Ok, pictures from April 26, 2011:


Three Brothers had four tasting places. It was waaay touristy, but I don't get sucked into that. Much. Anymore.


Big rain - thunder, lightning, the whole shebang!


I almost stepped on these little guys. They sure were enjoying the wet weather!


Fog on Seneca Lake! This was between storms. I love looking at fog from a distance!

Tuesday

Seems like I have been here, in Geneva, for months, yet I haven't even been here for a week. Time moves oddly here. Mom is constantly in a fog: doesn't really know what time of day it is precisely (or even close sometimes), doesn't know what day it is, and certainly doesn't care about the year. And it rubs off a little.

I got the kitchen shelves sorted, well, mostly. Two parts of three. I threw away a lot of stuff and emptied a lot of bottles. I do want to do more stuff in the kitchen. My next task is another shelf. And maybe the linen drawers in the kitchen. Mom spent many hours yesterday sorting papers and managed to go through at least one pile. One down, over 300 to go. Yippee! At this rate it will take a year to get through her accumulation of crap.

Did I mention that I bit the bullet and bought an iPhone? No, I don't think I did. got one. The inexpensive one - the 3GS. I am still working on getting it set up how I like it. It is way cool, though. I can't get Foursquare to work and I don't know why. It keeps saying "Server Error." So I am sure it is actually user error. I haven't gotten a lot of apps yet. I love that there is a compass built in. How the heck Apple did that, I don't know. I resent the data plan costs, but will survive. I didn't buy a text messaging plan - so please, don't text me. Not that I know that many people with whom I would text. But please don't. Thank you. Anyway, it is fun and so far pretty easy to use and understand.

It is supposed to be 70 degrees today here in Geneva. I will believe it when I see it. So far, it looks gloomy and cool outside. And I just looked up the weather (on my iPhone) and it is supposed to be wet all day. Yippee.

Pictures from April 25, 2011:


Mom hard at work sorting a box of papers and other stuff.


Mom has a penchant for Friendly's. I am not really sure. The food is always ok, not great. But she wants to go there whenever I come visit. I bet she goes there with Karl (my brother) as well.

Monday is Monday

Not Tuesday or Thursday. Weird how that works.

I do want to make something perfectly clear. I am not in NC because I currently don't feel needed or wanted there. Normally, I go where the wind blows me. And for the longest time, I didn't feel blown anywhere. So I stayed in NC. Recently, forces conspired to blow me out of NC. Does this mean that I will not return there? Or that I don't want to return there? Nope. Doesn't mean that at all. Should the opportunity arise or the portents appear, I would head back there in a second. I love my house. I enjoy NC. I am here because it is relaxing, sort of, and because I know that my mom appreciates my existence and assistance in her life.

Slept oddly, dreams of jigsaw puzzles amongst other things and people.

One of my goals while I am here, is to get my mom to help neaten up her house a bit. Sort a lot of papers, clean off a lot of surfaces. If we get past that, we might even start into deeper cleaning. That would be nifty. Yesterday, we both got in neatening mode. First step, the kitchen counters. I have been making some food in the kitchen and was surprised that I had barely any room to work. Turns out that the counters were covered with crap! Not literally, luckily, but figuratively. Just lots of things that needed to live in other places. A few things did find their way into the trash, though.

We watched Wall-E again last night. What a fun movie! I hope that they do end up growing pizza plants!

Pictures from April 24, 2011:


The messy dining room. It is a work in progress. My goal is to have a neat dining room by the end of the week.


Mom's lovely centerpiece made from flowers she cut in her yard.


A clean and neat counter. Ahhh.

Hip Hoppy Easter!

Not doing anything for Easter. I think our Easter dinner is going to be curry chicken salad sandwiches. Yum! Mom helped me by taking all the chicken off the bones last night. I didn't save the bones to make my own stock because mom has three boxes of chicken stock lying around. I do need to make some soup. And I need to clean out her refrigerator. Goodness. I don't trust anything in her house. There is some food on her shelf from when she was last in China (1995 I think). Weird, for some reason I think that 1995 is recent, but it is 16 years ago! Eeek!

We watched Earth last night. Ok, not great. Got it from Netflix.

Ooh, cooked salmon with dill sauce and green beans last night for dinner. Yum!

Got all of the errands I wanted to accomplish done yesterday. The ATT guy took about 5 seconds to pair my earpiece with my phone. Apparently for the iPhone, the earbud needed to be in "pairing" mode. Who knew? Well, apparently he did. The library errand was not so successful. I got the pin reset, but I still can't get online to look up or reserve books. I now have an errand for Monday. I did get my passport pictures taken. Now I need to finish my renewal application and get it in the mail. I wonder how much the fee is...Holy Poop! It is $140!! Eeeek! Well, I can sell my other kidney, I guess...

Oh, exciting news! Well, I think it is exciting. The local foodstore, Wegman's has one of the rice popper cake machines! Yippee!!

I am debating posting a blog about my stealth relationship. Any thoughts? Feedback is always appreciated (though advice is not always heeded...).

Pictures from April 24, 2011:


Poor sad tree. This was our Christmas tree. It is not doing well. It really needs to be planted. This is one of the few times that I wish I had a pick-up truck...


Pretty Library building.


Salmon with dill sauce and green beans!

Errands and such

Happy Saturday! It is more errands day today, though I think I am going to be foiled here and there. What I would like to accomplish is: library to fix the online login issues, make an appointment for a passport photo shoot, get my ear piece working with my new phone, food shopping for curry chicken salad and tonight's salmon dinner, and I keep thinking there is one more thing, but I can't think what it is. We shall see.

Yesterday I managed to accomplish a good bit. Not as much as I would have liked, but life is, it seems, frequently thus. We refilled the bird feeder, which gets emptied in about one day, greedy starving birds! I managed to stop one of mom's clocks from blinking. Gotta love the internet - found the manual posted someplace! Reset the chimes on another of mom's clocks. Replaced some light bulbs in her bedroom overhead fixture. Two had died. Then we went shopping. I wanted to get her new slippers and some new sweat pants. Failed in both those endeavors. Instead we spent way too long getting me a 3GS iPhone. What a fiasco that was! Went to the Apple store and the guy there, pleasant though he was, couldn't get me hooked up. So I went to the ATT store. They had to go to the Apple Store to verify that the guy had messed up my account. Sigh. Eventually we got out of there. And headed to find Oreck vacuum cleaner bags. Who knew that they would be so hard to find?! But we got them and headed home. So, two out of four isn't bad.

Dinner was a store bought rotisserie chicken - ok, not great, and steamed asparagus, which did not turn mushy! Hurrah! Then, later, we went to see The Big Lebowski. I hadn't seen it since it first came out. Very enjoyable!

All in all, a dandy day. This weekend, I am really going to get some work done on the Diary of a Plate Addict website. Heather hasn't given me a date for a new draft. And still no word from the Saucer Home Office. Oh well.

Pictures from April 22, 2011:


Aha! Found it! Little hole in the wall in an old mall in South Rochester. Ha! Go GPS!


This is, apparently, part of the original curtain in the Historic Smith Opera House, where mom and I saw The Big Lebowski and might see the Glenn Miller Orchestra in May.

Shopping!

It looks like it is going to be a shopping day. And maybe a movie later. Mom likes to go to the movies, but doesn't like to go by herself. Sigh. So, we went to see Rio last night. Lots of fun. Not worth $9 a piece, but maybe that is just me. It would have been worth maybe $3.50 per person. It was in 3D which really makes no difference that I can tell. It is nice when movies are in 3d, just not exciting. Oh well. Cute movie - wait for it on Redbox is my suggestion. Tonight we might go see The Big Lebowski in our local second run theatre. We shall see.

We did laundry yesterday. There is some fun to be had doing laundry. And I made mom walk two blocks to check out what was at the movie theater. You would have thought I was trying to kill her, the way she carried on. Eeek! Other than going up and down the stairs a few times a day, she doesn't really do much in the way of moving around. Sad.

I cooked tacos last night. They even had a box that contained both hard and soft tacos! Yippee! We have left overs for Saturday's lunch now. I am excited.

Hey, does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the Saucer home office to respond about my book? I figure if they don't get their act together, I will drive there in May and talk with them face to face. Sigh. I really don't want to drive all the way to Texas, but I will do what I have to do to get their buy-in.

Pictures from April 21, 2011:


See, aren't I a good packer! Ok, sometimes I am, just not this time...


There are several murals in downtown Geneva. I like this one!


Mom has these little blue flowers all over her lawn. Good thing it hasn't been mown, otherwise they would be gone!


Tacos in a box. Easy peasy! Cate makes nachos and calls them tacos. Weird. Anyway, these turned out well and we have leftovers! Yippee!

Good night's sleep

I had a wacky dream, though. I was working with some drug dealers who were under seige - maybe it was watching the news about what is happening in Libya that stimulated this dream. Who knows whence dreams come?

Hey, I was told yesterday that I was an energy depleter, at least in this person's experience. What? Really? Hmm. Just a couple days before she called me a cheerleader. I have never known a cheerleader who was an energy depleter. Whatever. If anyone else out there thinks I am an energy depleter, please let me know. I have lived the last 20 years of my life doing my best to lift people up and give them energy whenever possible and to find out that I have been doing it wrong would probably be a good piece of information to have. This is, of course, not to say that I am not at times desirous of other people's energies. I just don't think that, overall, I am an energy sucker.

Moving on. I am safely ensconced in my mom's house in Geneva, NY. I upacked last night and I think I did ok. I must admit to just throwing things in the car. I even brought my Roombas. Roombi? I have no idea why I brought them. Maybe just to show mom? I did not bring my mandoline (pronounced mandolean - thank you Jimmy!). I did bring my food processor though. I plan on making a lot (maybe 100) eggrolls for my mom to put in her freezer. And maybe some other stuff. I would like it to be so that she doesn't have to use the stove. Scares me to think that she does...

I looked at my passport and discovered that it expires in July. I am going to go to the post office and see what I need to do to get it renewed. One never knows when one will need a passport.

Locks of love - I think it is about time to go that route. We shall see. There is a salon downtown and if they know anything about it and are willing, I might just have to cut off all of my hair. Change is good.

No exciting plans for the near future. Just some detoxing and doing things for my mom. Yippee!

Sorry that my blog was down for a while yesterday or the day before. There was some suspicious activity on it apparently. I have no idea what that was, since they didn't tell me. Thank you Ellen Beck for letting me know that there was a problem. I will eventually migrate off of here (in the fullness of time).

Pictures from April 20, 2011:


My hotel room from Limekiln Road outside of Harrisburg, PA. I think that was my second time staying there.


Ouch! I wonder how this happened...

Who can tell?

I am safely arrived in Geneva for a stay of unknown duration. My life is in a bit of flux just now and who can tell what will happen in the future. I certainly can't. I didn't envision coming here until May for my mom's birthday, but here I am anyway.

Next on the agenda, figuring out how to bring a little bit of money in while living at my mom's. We shall see.

Bridge club was fun, but my mind wasn't really on cards.

I am exhausted. I drove until 4 in the morning this morning. I slept decently, got up and drove another 6 hours (one hour stuck in construction traffic on I-81 in PA - has to be one of the most consistently backed up roads in the country). I did get an interesting picture or two, but you all won't get to see those until tomorrow.

Pictures from April 19, 2011:


I decided to treat myself to a lunch at the Saucer on Tuesday, since I was leaving town for a while. Cat poured me some tasters! Yum!


One of the great things about traveling by car, and even more better by oneself in a car, is that packing isn't quite as economical. I just threw a lot of stuff in the trunk. I hope I have everything! Oops, forgot the kitchen sink! :)


The bridge spread at Pat's house! I could have dined all night... :-)

Life is weird

Isn't it? Don't you find? Yesterday, when I woke up, life seemed to be one way, and now, today when I wake up, it seems to be a completely different way. Yippee! Not for the different way in which I am finding life, but yippee for the fact that life is.

So, what to say and what not to say. I don't really want to air my laundry in public, but I also like to write about what is happening in my life. Hmm. Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... :) Anywho, moving on. What the heck did I do yesterday. Oh, right! It was Bojangles/Saucer/Juggling day. Huzzah! What fun that was. Bojangles was yummy. Saucer was pleasant. And I threw up a lot at juggling. We did one of my favorite patterns which seemed to work really well with five people, though it can be done with a lot more. And I am sure there are variations. Then I dropped Daniel off at the house and headed out again. I spent the night at a hotel. Garg, they are expensive. Oh well. It had to be done. I needed a clear head and space in which to think. My poor mom is about to get a house guest! Yup, I am leaving the area until at least the end of June. I may pop back for a visit, but other than that, I am out of here for a while. Here, of course, being NC. I am not really excited about heading North since it is still winter up there, well, early spring at best. But it will be good not to be here.

Bridge night tonight, which means I will be getting a late start on the drive North. I do hope to make it past Washington, DC tonight. Good thing that I have gotten into a bit of a late night sort of schedule. I would blow off bridge, but since it will be the last time I am playing for the foreseeable future, it just didn't feel right.

The car is packed - just waiting for Cate to appear so we can chat.

Here is a picture from April 18, 2011:


Our food at Andy's. Yum!

Monday's Blog post

Here we are again. What the heck? Seems like we were just writing about Monday a week ago. Weird...I don't really have anything too exciting to say about Sunday. Or Monday. I mean, I did have lunch with my friend Mardia. We went to Andy's. That place has undergone a re-framing. It used to be a Cheesesteak place. Now it seems to be moving in the direction of a fifties burger joint. Mardia had hotdogs, I had a cheesesteak. I still think the one I made at the house was one of the best I have ever had. I am pretty sure I blogged about it...

Now I am safely at the Saucer, typing away on my computer. Having my three beers towards my 19th plate. I think after today I will have only 25 beers left to complete this one. Yippee!

And now, pictures from Sunday, April 17, 2011:


Despite the high winds, these tulips managed to continue to be happy!


One of the things I love about going to other people's plate parties, is meeting the new to me people. This time I met Brian and Heidi and had a really fun time chatting with them both. Oh, and Chris.


Relaxing post plate party!

For those who are interested, I will, eventually, post more pictures up on my Facebook page. Some of the pictures will go in my Saucer party album, some in other albums. Yay pictures!!

Sunday's Blog Monday

How exciting is that?! Wow! Aren't you all the luckiest people?

Welcome, James, number #19! Happy to have you aboard. I hope I don't disappoint. Not too much, at least.

So, where was I? Oh yes, sitting in the Flying Saucer catching up on my blog posts. Again. Not that far behind, but still.

Nice days, Sundays. Much better than when I was forced, as a child, to go to church. Ok, forced might be too strong a way of putting it. Truthfully, I did enjoy going most of the time. Not the getting up early, but the singing in the choir. I did so enjoy that. For most of two or three years. From the age of 10 till about 13 I think. Yay choir singing!

So, I didn't get up and go to church. Instead I woke up and read. And read some more. I am reading a few things. The Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card is one thing. I read most of Journeyman Alvin yesterday. And also more of Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons. That book is written by one of the founders of eHarmony and isn't the best relationship book that I have read. Interesting enough to finish, but not scintillating. I do have a thing about not finishing books. I just don't like to not finish books that I start. This does mean that I have read some really crappy things all the way through. Oh well. I did just return a collection of fantasy stories about wizards unfinished. It was very uneven. One story would be great, the next would be dreck. So I got about halfway and decided that I had too many books in my reading pile anyway.

Sadly, I didn't end up doing any blogging yesterday. At about 4 I headed out to run errands (library, dollar store and something else that escapes me just now) and then headed to the Saucer. 5 plate parties! Eeek! I had my three beers which was good. And not much more beer than that. As I was leaving, my housemate physically attacked me. And I will leave it at that for now. My head still hurts a bit. Anyway, I went and hung out at a friend's house after that. Life is like that sometimes, sadly.

Oh, while at the Saucer, I met two very nice young women - Kate and Paige. They even gave me one of their rocket tots! How cool is that? I took their picture with the proviso that I wouldn't post it here or on Facebook. I mostly took the picture for my own memory banks. If I don't take a picture of someone that I meet, I am more likely to forget them.

Just a few more words about Saturday. Apparently, there were 65 tornadoes sighted in the Raleigh area on Saturday. There sure was a bunch of damage: trees down, power lines down, houses and businesses messed up to varying degrees. I didn't even realize how bad things had been. True, I did see a car spin-out for no apparent reason while driving on Route 40. And there were lots of traffic lights out with some of them manned by police. Still, the scope of the damage didn't make itself apparent to me. Sometimes, I can be oblivious.

Ok, pictures from Saturday, April 16:


This police presence was my first clue that things went worse for Raleigh than they did for us down in Clayton. I sat there for about 5 minutes before I just started across the intersection 'cause the officer hadn't even glanced my way. Poop head.


I had been wondering what to do about food. Since I had to take an alternate way to the Saucer, I went right past Baja Burrito, always a fine food option in my book. In the same strip mall, I saw these two places - an Ethiopian Restaurant and a Hookah bar! Definitely need to add them to my list of places to experience. Well, experience again for the Ethiopian place...


Tim was having his fourth plate party. Probably his last here, since he and Andi and Mitch and Nate (their kids) are moving to Nashville later in the year. I wasn't invited to the plate party. :( I did, though take a good picture of their whole group!

Three blogs, three beers

See how that works out! One beer per blog post. I was going to try and read some of my book, but that didn't happen much. I was graced with the presence of Mr. Chris Telesca for a large part of the afternoon. And my Saucer friend Tim and his family were here for his fourth plate party. They are moving to Nashville, so I might have a place to stay when I go there in the future. Maybe not. In any case, I haven't had as much time to myself as I would like. Ah, the pressures of notoriety.

Keith Schlabs did get the copy of the book that I sent him. That is a good thing. Now if only he loves it and they buy 100,000 copies, that would be great. Maybe they will at least let me sell copies at the various Saucers. I know that life is uncertain. That sucks a good bit, though. I would like things to be as certain as they could be. Closure, or definition are good. Sadly, despite my self actualized status, I do, at times, need a little reassurance. Especially where relationships are concerned. I did the languages of love quiz again recently, and was surprised to find that words of love was not overwhelmingly the first of my ways of feeling loved. Oh well.

Not too exciting a day, all things considered. Very pleasant, so far, which is always a great thing. I spent most of the day reading. Then drove through the icky weather up to the Saucer. And here I am as I type this. Yippee! Soon, though, I am leaving here and heading someplace else.

Pictures from April 15, 2011:


Maybe I should have rotated this picture. Anyway, I just thought it was cool.


This woman loved her dogs. And they were great - very sweet and gentle. Great pyrenees.


Our Indian dinner. The yummiest was the vegetable dish - I will, one day perhaps, look up what it was called. We were both surprised at how delicious it was! Yay Indian food!

Friday, Friday, Friday

Friday dawned a beautiful day. I was feeling much better than I had the night before. On Thursday, my sore throat had moved up to my nose so I was sneezing and snuffly. Not fun for anyone. And I must admit to having a bit of an issue where tissues are concerned. I tend to leave half used ones all over the place. And new and fresh ones. Just in case I might need them. But it can get a tad overwhelming at times.

So Friday arrived and I was feeling much better - about 90%. Yippee! It was an errands day. ATT store, grocery shopping and dinner. At the ATT store I found out that I was eligible for a new phone. And with the Apple 3GS for only $50, I am sorely tempted. Still tempted. We shall see. It would cost me about $20 a month more than I am paying, so I guess I kinda have to wait to see what happens with income. Sigh. Money. Poop. Moving on.

Dinner ended up being Indian, which was good. A place in Mini-city in North Raleigh. This was after we had explored Lafayette Village on Falls of the Neuse past the Raleighwood mall. Lots of cool places, but pricey! The spice shop was really cool. And at the Market they had popped things - can't think what they are called off hand - but I know that I like them a lot!!

Then, a brief stop at the Saucer for one beer and to say hi to the people who were there for the two plate parties. When I got there, there was only $35 left on the combined tab, so I had a beer and left the rest for whoever else still needed more beer.

All in all, a very nice day.

Yippee!

Pictures from April 14:


I finally got around to open the cool present from my brother Ernst. 50 eggs filled with boodle! Or is that booty? Anyway...


The contents, arranged as they lay - hardware, a couple of unidentified things, a 100 piece puzzle, some toy soldiers, some lightbulbs (?), balloons, gummy bears, a map of something that I have yet to figure out, ping pong balls, some shot glass like things, some weird little critters reminiscent of erasers, and the numbers 5 and 0. What a cool gift and idea!


One of the Azalea bushes looking pretty.

Still holding at 18 followers. I have faith that 25 followers by the end of the year is doable! Power to the followers! :)

The day before yesterday

Hi there, blog readers! I hope your day has been a pleasant one. I have had a couple of very nice days. And now it is time to catch up again. Sigh, Life seems to be that way - either catching up or just keeping up. There is so much to do and time just keeps on drifting onward. Kind of inexorably. Yippee?

So, where was I when I was so rudely interrupted? Right, trying to catch up again. Wait a second. Am I three days behind? Shoot, how does this happen? Glarg even. Oh well. There's nothing for it, but to continue on.

Thursday, frikkin' Thursday. What happened on Thursday? Hmm. I am sure it was fun and exciting. Oh, ok, part of my trouble is that I have kinda lost track of time. Not working, as I am doing, does tend to help that along. Thursday. I know I got up. I know I puttered around. I know that I went up to Raleigh. Oh right, I spent time with a friend just hanging out. She did her stuff, while I say around and did my stuff. Like reading. I read a lot of a book that I got from the library. The Necromancer - fourth in a series of young adult fantasy books. They are pretty action filled and tie in a lot of mythology which to me is always interesting. The Percy Jackson books were also cool. Anyway, we eventually had dinner. And that was about it. Yippee! One day down.

And now for pictures from April 13:


This is the outdoor view of the clinic. A friend asked me why I had written about the STD thing. My response was that I just thought and think that it is important to think and talk about STDs now and again...



I love this little mug. I got it from a beer club I joined in Greenville, NC.

Trash Day

I am so excited. I collected a huge pile of cardboard and the trash people are coming to recycle it tomorrow. That means tonight or tomorrow I get to put out the cardboard and get my garage-let back. For those who don't know, the two car garage of this house was converted to a playroom. That is one of the major reasons I bought this place. Room enough for my pool table. The people who had the conversion done, left one of the roll-up doors functional and left a small, 8x8 maybe, space that I call the garage. The other space is the basement. Though sometimes I get confused and call whichever one whichever one. Oh well. In any case, that is where we keep all of the gardening equipment - including the mowers. And that means that Daniel, Cate's son, will get to mow soon! I can tell that he is just chomping at the bit to get to it! Maybe not.

So, I sent off the draft and revisions to Heather on Monday. Yippee! She says she will look at it this weekend, because she has been really busy with her real job. I am very excited. I think this next draft will be another great leap forward. I also sent a hard copy to the home office and asked for feedback. I hope I get something. I gave them a deadline of April 22. Ha. It is probably below their notice and I probably won't hear anything. In which case, I don't know what I will do.

I really don't know what I am going to do after Saturday. If I even get a last payment from this week. Unemployment payment that is. Sigh. I did toy with the idea of going back to school to get my doctorate in psychological counseling. We shall see. I haven't called the Argosy University people back yet, though they have called me several times - and haven't bothered to leave a message.

Feeling a little under the weather. My throat is sore. I haven't been sick in years - I think it might have been going to the clinic. Maybe it is something else. Hopefully it won't last long in any case.

Remember, the goal is 25 followers by the end of the year!

Here are the pictures from yesterday, April 12, 2011:


The building in which Clinc A was found!


Jeanie buying her ticket to India! Well, she didn't actually do it at that point but has done so subsequently.