#2876 family time

We bought ourselves a new toy today: a ginormous TV.

Last night we were sitting here watching the NFL playoffs, and our TV had a dark band across the top third of the screen. I looked over at MT and T, and they were kind of squinting at the screen, and I noticed that my face was scrunched up, too. We tried different channels, just to make sure it wasn’t something with the program, but all the channels we checked were like that.

This morning when we got up, we turned the TV on to see if the dark band was a one night thing, but no. The dark band had advanced, and was now taking up about half the screen. This would not do, especially as we get deeper into the playoffs. 

The three of us piled into the truck and headed to Costco. After looking at every TV in the store, we chose an 85” Sony. We also had to get a new wall mount bracket, and we added a Sony soundbar to enhance the sound for movies. 

MT and T spent a few hours putting removing the old TV and wall mount, then installing the new mount and TV. It took awhile for us to log into our streaming apps and to figure out what remotes to use to access the cable, but we’ve got it now, and we’ve been happily watching football all evening. It’s been rare for us to all sit together and watch TV. T is really interested in football this year, and you know, it makes my sports-loving heart happy to watch the games with my son. I think the dogs like it when we are all in the same room, too. 

Really, this new TV is almost unreasonably large. It takes up most of the wall. I kind of got a little headache when I first sat down with it. I think I can get used to it, though. LOL

~~~

Let’s talk about art for a little minute. Here are some things I’ve done recently. Jill Badonsky, aka Jill the Artist, supplied the prompts.

I drew this carousel horse with my left (non-dominant) hand, then I painted it with my right hand. I like to draw with my left hand. I kind of feel like it takes the pressure off my brain because I know the drawing will be wobbly, and I accept the wobble.

This instruction for this next drawing was to do something to welcome the new year. I immediately thought of balloons. I added a wilty little balloon with a “3” on it to symbolize the old year going away. It made me giggle.

The prompt for this one was owl. Harry Potter’s owl, Hedwig, popped right into my head.  I like to draw owls. This owl is kinda chonky. 

The next prompt was to play with light, and Jill suggested using fruit. I knew I wanted to paint lemons, because they are pretty. I didn’t draw the lemons first. I got my paintbrush wet and drew a lemon shape (roughly), then added light yellow paint, and successively darker shades of yellow to show light. The paper was still wet when I took the photo, so it looks lumpy.

This final drawing is prompted by the Spanish painter Joan Miró. When I think of Miró, or see his art, I immediately think of Barcelona, the painter’s (and my mama’s) birthplace and my favorite city. I wanted to make a picture that honored both Miró and the city, and this is what I came up with. 

A couple more little projects that were fun…

For Christmas, I gave my mamacita a couple of photo albums. One contained photos of our May trip to Paris and Barcelona. I made a little graphic title card for the cover. I like the way it turned out, and I had a fun time making it.

I also made a photo album with pics of our trip to Yellowstone in October. I found this little graphic online and thought it was adorable and really wanted to try it myself. So fun to do! I probably could have done a better job editing this photo, also maybe with the spacing on the card stock. I still like it. 

That’s all for tonight. Be safe out there!

#2840 the return of Ted Lasso and a little art time

I’m taking a quick break from watching TV while MT is helping T. MT and I just finished watching the final two episodes of Ted Lasso, season two. When he is ready, we will watch episode one of season three. I cannot overstate how much I love this show. 

This evening has been fun for me because I did a creativity workshop with Jill the Artist, and then participated in book club. I was a little late to book club because of art, but it all worked out. After book club, I cooked a meal for the first time in a few days. I just haven’t been into it, the cooking thing, lately. Tonight, though, I decided to go ahead and cook up some pasta with shrimp in it, and it really hit the spot. 

Let me share a couple of things I did in the workshop this evening. This first one is a blind drawing from a photo. What that means is that Jill put up a photo of a person and I drew the face without taking my eyes off the photo or the pen off the page. The result is sort of loose and wobbly, then I slapped on a little watercolor and called it a masterpiece. Check it out:

We also did this little village. The purpose of this was to notice where lines intersect. Jill put up a pic for us to work from, gave some tips, and away we went. I thought this was fun.

BTW…just watched the new Ted Lasso episode. How in the world is Nate going to come back from the dark side? What a jerk!

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

XO

#2839 watching the Oscars

It is Academy Award day. I have long enjoyed the Oscars because I like movies. I like movie stars. I like to see the beautiful gowns, and exquisite make-up and hairstyles. I'm interested in learning what movies and performances the Academy will award with an Oscar.

It used to be a goal of mine to watch all of the films nominated for Best Picture. It was a lot easier to do when there was only five nominees. Now there are ten films nominated in that category, and I think it is too many. Of this year's ten nominees, I have only seen three. I may be interested in a couple of the others, but I haven't made the effort to watch them, even though they are streaming. I have seen Top Gun: Maverick, which was a fun movie, but Best Picture - worthy? No. I saw Women Talking, which I didn't care for at all, and regretted spending movie theater money on. Not Best Picture worthy in my opinion. The other nominee I saw was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once which I saw because my sister raved about it. I felt entertained and confused by the movie, to be honest. It was inventive and entertaining and strange. I'm okay with it's nomination. 

This morning I was talking to T. He was going to his girlfriend's house to celebrate a little kid's birthday (her niece or nephew.) I asked if he'd be back home tonight, and he said that he would because they wanted to watch the season finale of The Last of Us with MT. I said, "But it's Oscar night." 

He shrugged and said, "It is the season finale of The Last of Us. Who f-ing cares about the Oscars?"

My response in the moment was that people care, and he asked if I was one of those people. I've been thinking about that all day. Am I one of those people? I certainly used to be, but now the thought of spending three plus hours watching people thank God, their agents and publicists, and oh yeah, their families, just doesn't seem that appealing. Twitter will be full of the hairstyles, gowns, and winners, so maybe I'll re-watch season two of Ted Lasso. Maybe I'll read or draw or write. Maybe I'll go to bed early to fight off the inevitable Daylight Savings Time weirdness and psyche myself up to go to a cycling class early tomorrow morning. 

Speaking of drawing, I combined my Pinterest project with the art group project this week. From Pinterest, I've been fascinated by zentangle art recently. If you don't know about zentangles, GTS (Google That Shit) and look at some of the cool patterns. The art prompt for the group was to do a selfie, but not the usual kind. My take on it was to close my eyes and draw the profile, features and hair. Then I opened my eyes to do my own take on zentangle for the hair. I'm looking at my drawing in my book right now, and from far away, it looks kind of cool  My version might not be as clean and beautiful as what you find online, but I kinda dig it. What do you think?

#2836 mid-week check-in

It is Wednesday, and it is...

One of my very most favorite things to do is flip the calendar page. It's a simple thing, but you know, I always feel like a new month holds such promise for doing some cool things. Turning the calendar page kinds of symbolizes that for me, I guess.

I have four calendars in my house: one from the insurance guy that is in my office. It is nice national park landscapes, and it is just fine for this office room. Two calendars I bought for myself. There's a wee small one in the bathroom:

Adorable! Every morning after I put in my contacts and brush my teeth, I look at this little calendar and say the day of the week, the number, and the major points of the day ahead. I also name my daily intention. For example, today I said, "Today is Wednesday, March 1. I am working in the office today. T needs a ride to work at 1:30. The one thing I must do today is pick up my meds at Walgreens." It's a simple little ritual that is grounding and mindful. Plus I get to look at the super-cute paintings, and I think, "Maybe I could draw that, too." 

I bought a wall calendar for myself that hangs in my bedroom.

I bought this one, and the little one, off Etsy. This wall calendar is from SimplyKaty. I wanted a travel calendar with illustrations. There are many cool options, and this one totally captured my imagination. Katy does all her art on a Mac. I think it looks pretty; I like the colors, and the cities she has chosen for the 2023 calendar are great (including Barcelona!) Another thing I like about this calendar is that it is European style, which means it goes from Monday through Sunday.

The calendar that is hanging in the living zone of the house is the one Lizzie made for us. It is chock full of photos of my favorite people. I love it so much! 

March is T's birthday month, so he is in all the photos this month. I like that the spaces are big enough to write stuff in, too. It gives me a lot of pleasure to see the smiling faces of my loved ones on the wall.

Speaking of smiling, I watched some TV tonight. Lizzie told me to check out The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy on Apple TV. She specifically recommended the Costa Rica episode, but I was intrigued by the series, so I watched the first two episodes, Finland and Costa Rica, tonight. Both episodes are great. Eugene Levy is pretty relatable, at least for me, because although I enjoy traveling, I am not very adventurous, so I enjoyed watching his discomfort and eventual enjoyment of both places. The Costa Rica episode in particular was wonderful because he stayed in the same area where Lizzie and I stayed, near Arenal volcano, and he went into the town of La Fortuna. I yelled out at MT, "I've been in that park! I have seen that church! I walked on that street!" I especially understood Eugene's coffee epiphany, because I certainly had my own coffee epiphany there. Yes, I smiled a great big smile for a whole hour as I watched those two episodes. Six more to go. I am excited to watch them all.

Enjoy the rest of the week! Plan something enjoyable to do this month, won't you?

 

#2822 Wednesday vibe: horror movies

This week on the Vibe Check podcast, one of the things the guys talked about was the new movie M3GAN. You have probably seen the commercials. A creepy-ass AI doll is created for a little girl, then the creepy-ass AI doll starts to do scary, murderous stuff to protect the girl. The film is doing huge box office, and the Vibe Check point of the story was that horror movies are universal. Comedy might not play the same in another country as it does in the U.S., but scary is scary no matter where you are. The fellas also say that the best, and maybe the only place, to watch a horror movie is in a movie theater where you can share your fear with other movie goers and laugh about the jump scares with the crowd. 

I have never been a big fan of horror movies, or at least the slasher flicks. I don’t know that I’ll trot over to the theater to see M3GAN, even though Sam and Zach totally recommended it. Maybe if I was with Lizzie and she really wanted to go see it, I would go with her. I don’t think MT would be into it. He doesn’t like scary movies, either. 

What’s been keeping my vibe right this week is Emily in Paris, season three. I watched all ten episodes over the course of a couple of days. Let’s be honest - there is nothing intellectual or highbrow about this show. It’s total mind and eye candy. Paris looks incredible in every shot. The people are all beautiful. They wear interesting, over-the-top clothes and do interesting, over-the-top things. It’s total escapism, and I am here for it. I have loved every season. 

With MT being away from home, and T working in the evenings, I have been hanging out with the dogs and taking it easy. Tonight I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t even fix anything to eat. I’ve been taking the time to lay on the couch and read a book. Sometimes I have a YouTube background on, but like right now, it’s just quiet. Even the doggos are chillin’. Maybe I’ll go to bed early, or maybe I’ll watch a show on Netflix called From Scratch.  The thing about that show is that I read the book and I know it’s a tear-jerker. It’s a limited edition series, and I watched the first episode. Yes, I cried. That’s why I’m not sure if I want to get involved with it. I don’t know if I’m in the mood for crying. I actually feel pretty good and maybe want to keep it that way for awhile. 

The journal prompt today is: If you could live inside any movie, what would it be? For me, the first movie that popped into my head was Something’s Gotta Give. Erica’s beach house is so dreamy, and she’s a playwright, and she goes to Paris. Really, just about any Nancy Meyers movie would be great to live inside, right?

Okay, I’m done here. I’m going to draw something, then I think I’ll go back to the couch and read a little more before I go on to bed. 

Listen to Vibe Check! It’s fantastic!

#2790 Saturday with Sandy

This morning started out with pancakes. MT and I have both been wanting some. He wanted to go out, and  I wanted to stay home, so I made some delicious pancakes right in my kitchen. It had been awhile, and boy, did those pancakes hit the spot!

MT had big plans to do some remodeling/fix up in his bathroom today, so he went to Lowes to buy some stuff. While he was gone, I did some art. Jill the Artist sent out a prompt in her recent newsletter to create a fall wreath. I set a timer for about 50 minutes, put on some music, and lost myself for a little while. Here’s what I came up with:

I know wreaths typically don’t have stuff in the center, but I just kept on sketching. I guess that kind of makes the wreath more of a frame. Can you spot the wee hedgehog? I like the owl, too.

After all that drawing and painting, I felt like cleaning the floors and surfaces downstairs. I’m sure I’ve mentioned how much hair and dust gathers in the house because of my sweet doggos. MT actually swept a lot of hair up while I was making pancakes. I used a swiffer and got a lot more hair and dust with that tool. I also dusted and vacuumed the kitchen rug. It was truly amazing how much dust and hair was sucked up by the Dyson. 

With the downstairs looking about 73% better than it had, I was ready for lunch and TV time. I watched an episode of the limited series From Scratch on Netflix. I read the book when it came out a couple of years ago. The show is a little different, but the author of the memoir by the same name is a co-creator, along with her sister, so it’s okay. The first episode takes place in Florence, so I really loved it. I’ll watch the rest of the series, hopefully in the next week. 

This evening, MT and I went to the cinema to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It was long and had kind of a slow start - not counting the opening sequence which made me sob. I even made noises. It’s not a spoiler to say that the opening sequence is a funeral scene for King T’Chala, who was, of course, played by the late Chadwick Boseman. 

I was absolutely crushed when Chadwick Boseman died. I remember sitting out in the parking lot of Petsmart and sobbing. His death came at a time in my own life when I was going through some crap, and I think his death was something that just released all the grief and sorrow I was feeling at the time. The opening credits of this movie were all photos of Boseman, and it triggered the memory of sobbing in the car, and I was weeping, tear-y mess.

Now I am home watching the Utah/Stanford football game. The Utes are up 34-7 with a minute left in the third quarter. Utah is a good football team. I’ve done a lot of watching today!

Good night!

#2763 musical Monday: the state of TV entertainment

Happy Labor Day! I hope that y'all are having a good day.

I was listening to the Vibe Check podcast last week, ("The Girls are Cashing Checks" episode), and the fellas were talking about TV, specifically the decline of the streaming services. One thing that got me thinking was when they talked about how they missed knowing what was going to be on Thursday night. Remember back in the day when you had Must Watch TV on Thursday night? There was Friends, Seinfeld, and a couple of other shows, then ER? I was thinking about how much more likely I am to watch a scheduled show, like Survivor. I know it is on Wednesday night at 7. Yellowstone is on Sunday night at 7.  I know what time the football, basketball, or baseball game starts. I am more likely to plan my time to watch a show when it has a certain time. 

I realize that I could tell myself that on say, Thursday at 8, I will watch x show. I could schedule that for myself. The thing is that there is so much content, I suffer from analysis paralysis. I simply can't decide what to watch. Everyone is full of suggestions, and I listen to what people say. I watched all of  Gilmore Girls and West Wing based on my sister's recommendations.  I've watched both seasons of Ted Lasso twice (almost).  You know I've watched all the Harry Potter movies over a dozen times each, easily.  

I think I tend to watch more TV in the winter, maybe?

In the early '90s, Bruce Springsteen released one of my favorite albums, Human Touch. He had a song called "57 Channels (and Nothin' On)" that was totally on point back them. We had all these channels on TV, but it didn't feel like there was anything worthwhile to see. Now we still have a jillion channels, and there is worthwhile stuff to watch, but it's so overwhelming to me! 

This TV thing has been on my mind a lot lately, for some reason. Co-workers talk about shows they are watching, and ask if I've seen those shows (I haven't). Lizzie watches shows and tells me about them. MT almost always has the TV on, whether he is actively watching or not. I used to be into pop culture, and now, when I browse through People magazine at the checkout line or when I see things online about current celebrities, I rarely know who the people are. {{shrug}}

On a slightly different, but similar note, last night we had Family Movie Night. The three of us went to see Bullet Train. It was highly entertaining: super violent and freaking comical. Yes, I cringed at some of the violence, and I also laughed out loud at the comedy. Besides, Brad Pitt is in it. He is still extremely good looking and awesome. Thumbs up from me and my menfolk on this movie.

Getting back to today's musical theme, here is the aforementioned Bruce Springsteen video for "57 Channels." The production values are significantly different today than in the early 90s. Enjoy!

#2699 weekend wrap-up

Now when people ask when we are leaving for our trip, I just say, "On Wednesday."

Although some trip prep happened this weekend, I'm going to tell you that mostly I have been taking it easy and not spending as much time on getting trip stuff ready. I spent Saturday morning finishing up my book club pages for the meeting that afternoon, then I started watching Season 2 of Bridgerton. I got through six episodes, so there are only two left. Season 2 is definitely not as full of sex as the first season, though the heat and chemistry between Kate and Anthony is palpable. 

Last night, MT and I did trip stuff. We downloaded and completed Spain's health app. MT downloaded Princess's crappy Medallion app and I tried to do a couple more things on the app, too. We booked an excursion out of Genoa to the Cinque Terre. I don't know if that tour will be cancelled like the first one we booked. I guess we'll find out. We also bought our skip-the-line tickets for the Uffizi Museum in Florence. I spent a bit of time messaging with my cousins in Spain, working out where and what time to meet on Friday. 

Today I cleared out all the photos on my phone, making sure all the photos were saved to my external hard drive. I considered taking a regular camera with me, but I think I'll just stick with letting my beloved iPhone document our travels. I offloaded some apps that I won't be using to free up some space on the phone as well. I went to the day spa for a mani/pedi. I won't be wearing sandals, but I will know that my toes are pretty! I took T to the grocery store to make sure he had food and beverages for a couple weeks. 

I did fit in episode 7 of Bridgerton today. I'll watch the final episode tomorrow night. I did a bit of laundry today, too. I'm going to take the next few minutes to make notes on my credit card accounts that I will be out of the country and potentially using those cards so there are no questions. Tomorrow, of course, I will work, thankfully from home. In the evening I'll take my first shot at packing and pay some bills. I do need to zip over to the CPA's office to sign our taxes, and I'll likely do that at lunchtime tomorrow. 

A final thing I want to do before we go is create a list (of course!) of things I'd like to see. There are plenty of obvious things: the statue of David in Florence, "The Birth of Venus" in the Ufizzi, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but there are other, maybe less obvious things to look for, too. I have some ideas in my head, but my head is not a good enough place to store thoughts. I worry that I'll leave a place and realize that I didn't see something that I'd wanted to see, like the statue of the man holding the bridge in Monterosso, or anything Cezanne-related in Aix-en-Provence, or a particular statue in the Vatican museums. I'm sure there will be things that I will miss seeing. You always have to leave something for next time, right?

#2674 Saturday with Sandy

I decided to switch out my no-task/lazy/lounge day this weekend from Saturday to Sunday. I want to watch the NFL Championship games tomorrow, so I did some stuff today. Not much, it's true, but some.

There were a couple of things that I felt were the most important tasks. One was to take my car to the shop for an oil change and tire rotation. Thankfully, MT was building something for a client at our house today, so he was able to follow me to the shop so I didn't have to sit around there while they worked on my car. The other most important thing was to finish my pages for the book club meeting this afternoon. I was a little bit behind, but it was easy to catch up because the book is very good. I still dislike the title, Cloud Cuckoo Land, but the writing is phenomenal. 

Confession: in the past couple of days, I've purchased four new books, three ebooks and a physical book. Well, one of the books was free, an Amazon First Read for January. Two of them were inexpensive, less than $3 each. One of the books is The Prince of Tides, a book I have read multiple times (back in the day) and that I couldn't resist having on my Kindle. I think that makes eight books I have acquired this month. I need to be stopped. Also, I see from the library app that I will have a book arriving early next week that I've had on hold for awhile, so I'll start reading that book next week when I get it. 

Another thing is that I am kind of curious to re-read All the Light We Cannot See. I read the book six years ago and I only gave it three stars on Goodreads. I remember not liking it very much. It is written by Anthony Doerr, who is the author of Cloud Cuckoo Land, which I am really enjoying. My book club friends mostly all loved Light and say that if I like the storytelling and writing style in CCL, I might want to try Light again. The question is when will I have time to re-read the book when there are so many new books to be read? 

Sigh

I vacuumed, swiffered, and dusted my house. We haven't had a lot of rain or snow and my backyard is a lot of dirt since the grass is dormant. The dogs run in and out in and out all day, shedding their hair and bringing in dust. It's a constant battle. 

Lately I have been interested in the late Andre Leon Talley. I've listened to a couple of podcasts with and about him, and today I watched the documentary The Gospel According to Andre on HBO Max. Talley was a fascinating fellow. For most of his life, he was interested in fashion and style. He worked for Andy Warhol's magazine, Interview. He worked for Women's Wear Daily. His last job was as the fashion editor for Vogue magazine. He knew all the designers. He was incredibly influential in the industry. I'm not really into fashion, but I am interested in people who live their dream and break the mold. It was a wonderful documentary, and I'm glad I took the time to watch it. 

And tomorrow there will be football! Two games will be played, with the winner of each game moving on to play in the Superbowl. The first game will have the Cincinnati Bengals against the Kansas City Chiefs. The second game will be the San Francisco 49ers against the Los Angeles Rams. I don't know that I'm rooting for any particular teams. I hope the games are as good as the games last weekend. I don't see how they could possibly be as good as last weekend, but I'll watch anyway. 

And I'll read. 

#2665 weekend wrap-up

I was on my own this weekend, because MT went to Idaho to visit his parents. T was technically home, but he is still sleeping quite a bit, so I didn't see much of him.

On Saturday, I didn't leave the house except to get some breakfast. Other than that, the car was parked in the driveway and my bum was parked on the couch. I binged the second season of Emily in Paris. It is a silly, cute show full of good-looking people and a gorgeous location. I've got this fascination with France and Paris in particular, so this show checks a lot of boxes for me. The episodes are about 26 minutes long, and there are only 10 of them, so it was easy and fun. I did take a break to walk the dogs and eat dinner, then, when the season was over, I went to bed. 

I didn't really sleep great, though, I am sad to say. I've been trying really hard to not sleep on my left side so I don't mess up my shoulder any worse than it is. The trouble is that I flop around a lot in my sleep, and I found myself on the left side a couple of times. Actually, the pain in my shoulder from laying on the left side is what woke me up. Overall, though, I am doing well with Lance's (my physical therapist) three mandates. I'm doing the exercises twice a day. I'm taking care not to use my neck when I reach up with my left arm. (Mostly, I'm not reaching for anything with my left arm, so that keeps my neck out of it.) And, as I mentioned, I am being very conscientious about not sleeping on my left side. 

Today I was a lot more active. I was up pretty early, took the dogs out for a walk, then crushed my to-do list. T went to work at noon, so I dropped him off and went over to Jordan Landing. I wandered around Old Navy, but didn't see anything I couldn't live without. I then walked down to Barnes and Noble - man, I love a bookstore! I didn't have anything specific in mind when I walked in, but then it occurred to me to look for travel books about Rome. I ended up with two book about walking around in Rome, and one book all about Barcelona. I do have a Barcelona book, but the one I got today by Fodors is much cooler. 

My real reason for going to Jordan Landing was to have my eyebrows groomed at Soulstice Day Spa. A lady I hadn't seen before groomed my brows, and I think she may become my regular groomer. She was cute and fun, and told me I had great eyebrows. Weirdly, I have heard that before from the eyebrow groomers there. They say I have a good natural brow shape and good eyebrow hair. I don't know. They probably say that to everyone, but who doesn't like to hear that something about them is great?! I left 15 minutes later feeling really good about myself and my eyebrows.

A  trip to the grocery store was next on the agenda. After shopping, I came back home, put the groceries away and had a snack. That's when MT got home. He had a nice visit with the fam. I took the dogs out for their evening walk, did the shoulder exercises, then prepared croquetas for dinner. They were really good, if I say so myself. 

After dinner I cleaned up the kitchen and spent a little time paying bills and making sure everything was right for the coming week.

So, there was plenty of good, fun things and a bit of chores thrown in, too. (I did some other little things around the house that I left out of this narrative. It was just regular weekend stuff.)

What I'm looking forward to this week is going to see Hamilton on Sunday! Squee!!

#2501 the January cold

The January cold made a strong come back last week. I went to work on Monday, even though I wasn’t feeling great and didn’t get a lot of sleep on Sunday (a week ago today). Tuesday I worked from home and I was very congested and kind of miserable. I had another COVID test - again negative - so I knew it was the blasted January cold. Wednesday I took a sick day from work. I took cold medicine and slept most of the day. Thursday I felt better and Friday I felt much better. This weekend I have stayed home and continued to rest. I’m finally feeling like myself.

This weekend, MT and I watched the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit. I’d heard from a few people that it was a good show and that we’d enjoy it. It started out slow, but picked up steam as it went along. Both MT and I ended up really liking it. The ending was superb. I recognized right away that the guy who played Benny Watts was little Sam from Love, Actually. As a young man in this show, he kind of reminds me of a young David Spade.

Cosmopolitan.com

And with that, January is over and it’s time for February. I have sometimes referred to February as the armpit month of the year because it is so blah, except when I go on vacation. I won’t be going anywhere this year in February. There must be something to look forward to, though. Let’s see, there’s Valentine’s Day, which is fine but nothing we really do anything special for. There’s President’s Day. The office I work for doesn’t have that Monday off because we take a day in July for Pioneer Day. Red Butte Garden opens back up tomorrow, so I’ll plan to take a stroll through the Garden sometime this month. Other than that, I don’t have any big plans. 

I hope you had a good weekend! Talk to you here on Tuesday!

#2500 a big number, but not a big post

WOW! This is my 2500th post?!? I wish I had something really cool or interesting to say, but I really don’t. I missed writing on Saturday because I was very busy watching Bridgerton on Netflix. I watched five episodes on Friday - they were an hour long each! - and finished the final three episodes on Saturday. I liked it. It’s set in London in the 1800s and is about society life during that time. The guy who plays the Duke is a straight-up, stone-cold hottie. 

His name is Rege Jean Page, if you are interested. That’s his real name. On the show his name is Simon Bassett, Duke of Hastings. 

I’m not sure what I will watch next. Maybe Lupin. A lady in the book club said it was good.

If you are interested, I am not over my cold. I slept terribly last night and felt like trash today. I hope that means that tonight I will be so tired that I’ll have no choice but to sleep very soundly. I might hedge my bet with a Benadryl just to be sure.

That’s all I have for tonight. I’ll leave you with this pic of my doggies being best friends.

#2412 three things: expensive backache, hangry dog, and sports

1. I don't think that's what it was. On Monday morning I went to the ER because on Sunday and overnight I had the worst pain in my back. I couldn't get comfortable at all. I was miserable most of the day on Sunday and didn't get a good night's sleep. I thought for sure I had a UTI that had gone into my kidneys. The doctor said I had traces of blood in my urine, but no bacteria, so no UTI. He thought I had a kidney stone, so I had a CT scan so we could see what was going on. My kidneys were clear. No stones. The doctor, who seriously looked just a bit older than my son, said I had probably passed a stone and had leftover pain. Wouldn't I feel it if I passed a kidney stone? He prescribed some heavy-duty pain meds and a muscle relaxer and sent me on my way. 

It's been a few days and my back feels better, but still tender. I can mostly move freely, but there is still a twinge every now and then. I just don't think it was a kidney stone, though. I must have twisted my back at some point on Saturday (that's when I first felt the pain), but I sure don't remember anything in particular. I already know this is the most expensive backache I have ever had.

2. The dog gets HANGRY. Oh my dog. She's super energetic, borderline annoying, and quite entertaining.  I don't have a problem with the energy level. I think it's fun to watch her play and to play with her. What I don't like is the way she behaves when she gets hungry. She gets kinda mean. She barks and leaps and nips more than usual during the hungry times. I think she is going through a growth spurt because I can't seem to get enough food in her little body. It's a fine line, though, because the other night I must have given her too much because it looked like she had an explosion on the rug. She's been good with the house training, so I know she must have been miserable.  I'm learning to read her cues and figuring out how much to feed her to keep her healthy and satisfied. She's growing so fast!

3. I'm watching sports! Today is Opening Day of baseball season. I am watching the Washington Nationals play the New York Yankees. There aren't any people in the stands, but there is crowd noise LOL. At 6:00 I am going to change the channel to the Utah Jazz scrimmage against the Phoenix Suns. The NBA season will start next week. A bit later tonight, I will check out the other Opening Day game, the SF Giants against the LA Dodgers. I have been okay without sports, but I'm excited that they are back. 

#2403 bike ride, Hamilton, and fireworks

This morning, the first day of my three-day weekend, my puppy decided we should wake up at 5 AM. She had been pretty steady with a 6 AM wake-up, but MT got up to use the potty and that woke her up and then we were up. MT went back to sleep. I took her outside, then brought her up on the bed, hoping she would chill and lay in the coolness of the fan. It didn't really work out that way, so we were up and moving around by 5:30. We went outside and it was breezy and nice. 

MT and I decided to go for a bike ride by 8 AM. We went out to Farmington and rode south on the Legacy bike trail. We had our longest ride of the year - 17 miles round trip. It took 90 minutes. That's about five and a half minutes per mile average. I felt like I had a pretty steady pace, but I struggled at times. I was shifting gears a lot. The last quarter mile, I was shifting back up to third gear when my chain de-railed. I had the bike serviced recently and it was shifting a lot better, but for some reason, the chain just jumped off the sprocket. I tried to put it back on, but it was quite oily and I couldn't get a grip on it, so I just walked that last little bit. MT was slightly ahead of me, so he didn't see me stop. It wasn't a huge deal. If I'd been further away from the car, I would have kept trying until I got the chain back on. I can do it, I just gave up on it today. I wasn't that far behind MT, so it wasn't a big deal. 

This afternoon we watched Hamilton on DisneyPlus. Rather, I watched Hamilton. The menfolk were there, too, but not wholly engaged. T likes it a lot - he was the one who got me interested in it. MT doesn't really love musicals, I think, but he did watch a big part of it and at the end was suitably impressed. Me, I'm totally in love with it and looking forward to seeing it again and again. 

Mac is not enjoying the noise of the fireworks. She has crawled under my bed. She's getting pretty big. I hope she can crawl back out! (She can and she did.)

It's only the third and it feels like thee are pyrotechnics exploding right over my house. I am not a fan, and I never have been. I don't think fireworks should be sold to regular citizens. Earlier this week, fireworks caused a massive 1,000 acre fire in the Lehi/Draper area that involved evacuating 42 homes. It is very dry here, and an errant firework can cause a lot of damage. Probably around here in the neighborhood it isn't as dangerous, but it is super annoying.

What are my plans for tomorrow? Well, I certainly won't be shooting off any firecrackers! I'll be hanging out at home, reading. I bought a couple of new plants that need to be re-potted, but I don't have pots, so I will have to go to a store to get some. I don't really have any plans, to be honest. Read, eat, nap, repeat is my favorite weekend plan these days. 

Enjoy the weekend! Be safe!