The 'lost' week

Well, I did not manage to keep up with myself for the past week.  It was a normal week.  The usual -- errands, moving in (still), working in my office, cleaning (yes, I really did do some real cleaning), laundry -- the usual.  Still no real cooking, but I'm not sure that will ever happen, even though we got our new Cuisinart 10-piece anodized cookware today, courtesy of Wells Fargo Mortgage.  It is very cool.

We went to a really good retirement party last Saturday night for the guy that Mark replaced.  There was a roasted pig (though I ate chicken) and lots and lots and lots of really good side dishes and desserts.  Beer and wine was imbibed by all.  Also, there was live music provided by a woman from the office and her band, including her 11 year old daughter, who also is a really good Caller for square dancing.  Fun was had by all.

I'm trying to overcome the 'stigma' of joining a 'Senior Center.'  There are yoga classes at the Olympia and Lacey senior centers that are taught by two yoga teachers from Wild Sage Yoga.  While at Wild Sage the class costs $10 per class, it's only $5 per class at the senior center.  I'm trying to deal with the 'age' thing in contrast to the 'money' thing.  I'm going to mull it over for a few days and figure out what I want to do.  I look at the pictures on the senior center web site and the folks really do look like they're in their 70s or 80s, so it's hard to make that choice.  Of course, it might be a totally different reality at the center...  Who knows.  This aging thing is very weird -- the mind of a 12 year old, the body of a woman who is ageless...........(ha).

And that's it for tonight.

E.T. is home!

My beloved little E.T. car is now home.  Yea!  Let's hope the new distributor will fix his problem of not always wanting to start.

It rained pretty good today, so a lot of the snow melted away.  Another yea.

Yesterday and today were very productive office days.  I managed to get a lot of paperwork done and feel like I'm getting things organized.  I have almost everything I need pulled together to do our taxes.  I created the necessary 2012 files for various and sundry things.  I got all the papers on the floor filed away where they are supposed to be.  And I managed to get three loads of laundry done, the upstairs vacuumed, the laundry room vacuumed, a load of dishes done and put away, and just a bunch of odds and ends stuff done. Tomorrow will be another office day, but  mostly reading papers that need responses, and then doing the responses.  Things are beginning to fall into place.  Now I am hoping to get some sort of routine going.

One thing I did figure out how to do today was add a photo to my blog, so here's a photo of the puppies -- Brenna (with the white face) and Ty (the puppy).  Now that I know how to do this I may go back and put photos in some of my other blogs.


And that's it for tonight.

Roof fishin'

My most clever husband figured out how to get the puppies' rings off the roof -- he went fishing.  He got out one of his fly fishing rods and some kind of lure and managed to hook the rings and bring them down from the roof.  Yea, Mark!  The dogs were very happy.  Ty shook the rings for a long time.  He is so cute.

Now, you have to realize that our two dogs are Labrador retrievers -- water dogs.  And this afternoon, I sent the two of them outside to do their thing, and the silly young puppy, Ty, was standing under the patio table so that he wouldn't get wet in the rain!  Sheesh....  He would be such a good Dock Dog because he loves to leap over things, yet he's afraid to get wet.  I cannot wait to get him out into real water this spring.  Brenna will show him what it means to be a water dog.

We're still dealing with unpacking and putting stuff away and not cooking (I love not cooking).  It's kind of like an adventure, and somewhat fun.

There are still many, many people without power tonight, and I wish I could give them electricity.  I know how hard it is for me to deal without power, because I am so very much a wimp.  I just want everyone to be warm and comfortable, again.  It's amazing how much damage was caused by the snow, and now the wind.  Spring cannot come soon enough.

Sleep well.

Saturday

It was pretty much a day of just trying to get reorganized in the house.  We didn't really do anything except watch the ice on the trees melt.  Fortunately, we did not lose any trees or big limbs to the snow and ice.  The big rain and wind storm that was predicted did not happen, which was really good.  There was enough damage done just by the snow.  Many, many people are still without power.  Fortunately, the temperature is relatively warm (in the low to mid 40s).

It felt good to shower today, and have a lazy, luxurious morning.  Mark made pancakes.  Yummmm.  The puppies enjoyed their pancake, too.  No, they are not spoiled.  Not at all.

I'm really enjoying our house.  I still have a lot of stuff that needs to be put away, so I'm searching for hiding spaces.  I need to get some storage bins/boxes for a lot of it.  That will make putting it away easier.  But, I still don't have my car, and the weather has been so bad, that I have not been able to go get stuff to get organized.  Hopefully, maybe I'll get E.T. back this week and then I can tootle around and do what I have to do to get the house set up right.

Our friends from Portland were supposed to drive up tomorrow morning for brunch for Joyce's birthday.  However, Portland is struggling with flooding and our roads are still too much of a mess for travelers, so we are postponing the party until spring.  Just a little bit longer for anticipation to build.

And that's it for tonight.

The power's back on

Yea!  It's always nice to have electricity.  We fared well.  The house stayed relatively warm.  We dressed in layers and wore hats and gloves.  Thankfully, it was only out for about 36 hours, and we have gas for cooking.  There are still many, many people without service, so we are feeling quite fortunate.

Mark played in the snow with the dogs today and managed to throw their favorite ring toy onto the roof.  It will be up there until at least spring when he can get out the extension ladder and get on the roof safely.  Poor puppies.  (Actually, I am going to go buy them another set of rings as soon as I get my car back and get to the store.)

So, because of the snow and power outage, it's been pretty quiet around the house, which meant I actually got half a book read -- by flashlight!  I'm going to finish the rest of it this weekend.

That's it for tonight.

It really snowed

Well, it's Wednesday, January 18, 2012, and Olympia broke it's 57 year old daily snow record, which was 4.5".  Today we got 13"!  Yes, 13" of snow.  Now I am really ready for winter to be over.  However, it was beautiful.  And the puppies had a wonderful time romping and jumping and playing.  They love snow.

It was a pretty lazy day all around.  Mark had three conference calls this morning and got finished up about 12:30.  Then he knocked snow off trees and bushes.  After that we watched a movie (Vicki Cristina Barcelona).  We hadn't watched a movie together in a very long time.  It was kind of like going to an afternoon matinee, only we forgot to make popcorn.

We did manage to get a lot done on Mark's Monday holiday day.  The stereo is put together, shelves are up in my office, things are getting put away.  It's nice.  I'm looking forward to getting organized sometime in the next 6-12 months...

I'm enjoying our kitchen, still.  I haven't changed my cooking (non-cooking, really) habits, but I still like the kitchen.  It's kind of cozy and fun.  We got a rug for the TV area in the family room on Monday and the puppies are very glad.  They were having a bit of trouble getting traction on the hardwood floor.

And that's it for tonight.

It snowed

Yes, it snowed last night and all day today.  A lot.  Not as much as we were used to in Spokane, but a lot for here; a lot for me.  We have a couple of inches or so in the back yard.  So, I'm really over winter now.

We did get up and go to church this morning, only the church was cancelled!  However, we met the priest for the church (Father David) and had a really good meeting with him.  We attended the first half of the service for the Church of Christ that shares it's space with Emmaus ECC.  Then Father David took us over to the Sacred Space room and talked with us about ECC.  I really like him, but I'm still wobbling.  I will give myself more time to think about this.

Nothing much went on today because it was football playoffs weekend, again.  Mark watched football; I cooked spaghetti sauce.  I read the paper (all eight pages) while enjoying some cups of tea.  And that was pretty much it for the day.  Lazy, lazy.

Tomorrow is a holiday (MLK Day), so we are planning on doing a big bunch of nothing.  Plus, we are supposed to have more snow.  I may try to get some shelves put together in my office, and Mark says he is going to put together my stereo.  We'll have to wait and see how the day develops.

And that's it for tonight.

Another lesson learned

It was gray and raining when Mark and I headed out with the dogs late this morning to do some errand running and take the puppies for a run in the field.  By the time we were done it was really sunny and the sun was reflecting so hard off the pavement that you couldn't see.  The Lesson: never leave the house without sunglasses.

It also snowed this afternoon.  The first snow of the season.  The flakes were really big, and it came down pretty hard for a while.  The ground was covered with about half an inch of snow.

I managed to get more paper work done this afternoon.  I didn't get anything unpacked or put away, though.  Perhaps tomorrow.  I'm kind of at that point now that I am just going to deal with stuff as I feel like it.  I want to get things put away and organized, but I'm not going to stress out about whether or not it gets done.  We can cook, take showers, get dressed, sleep, watch TV, work on computers, watch movies, and play with the dogs.  That's good enough.  Everything else is just icing on the cake.  Hmmmmm....wait a minute -- that might be a problem.  I like icing.

Tonight was Miss America watching night.  We have been doing this for 25 years now.  We started watching beauty contests by watching a local contest in Lubbock.  It's mean to admit, but we got hooked watching the local contests for all the flubs.  And then it just grew into watching all beauty contests.

Now it's time to watch a really old X-Files on BBC America!  The truth is out there.....

A good Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th has always been a good day for me, and today was a good day.  Our friend, Susan, came over and took me shopping at Trader Joe's and World Market.  Then we went and had pho for lunch.  It was really tasty.  And tonight was a retirement party at Ramblin' Jack's for a guy from Mark's office.  It was good, too.  This morning, though, E.T. had to go back to the car doctor.  He's going to get a new distributor and, hopefully, this will fix his little starting problem.  All in all, a good day.  Yea!

Dental visit

That was today's highlight -- going to the dentist.  Her name is Tammy Nguyen and I really like her.  The first thing that happened was getting my head x-rayed!  So many times in my life people have told me I needed to have that done, and now I have.  It was almost like being on some theme park ride.  It was pretty cool.  The cleaning part was terrific.  I love getting my teeth cleaned, and Katy, the tech, totally understood where I was coming from, so she did it just right.  The GPS wouldn't register the address when I was leaving the house, so I got a little lost trying to get there.  However, I had Google Mapped the address, so I had sort of an idea of where I was going.  It was kind of a mad dash to get to the appointment.  They called at 1:40 to see if I wanted to come at 2:30 instead of 3:30.  I said sure, brushed my teeth, put the dogs up, and then jumped in E.T.  Well, guess what -- E.T. finally decided to do his not starting thing.  Fortunately, the truck was here.  I called Mark and told him to call the car guy, who now is coming out tomorrow morning to see if he can figure out what's wrong with E.T.  And now I'm going to go curl up in bed and read for a while.  I really haven't had a chance to do that in a while, so it will be nice.

Good night.

The boxes are gone! The boxes are gone!

Yea!  The movers came today and took away all the boxes.  We have now reclaimed the entry hall and the living room.  I also managed to get the master bathroom sorted out and put away, so there is room to move around.  Another yea.  And last night I got the CD case put together and the CDs put unpacked.  More yea.  Things are slowly finding their ways to places.  There is still a lot to put away (somewhere) and then comes the cleaning up and getting into a new routine.  I'm looking forward to all of those things happening.

Very little went on today

I went to WW in the morning and then made a quick stop at Macy's for face stuff.  Came home, ate some soup, and then started in on computer stuff.  There are so many things that have to have address changes.  I'm not sure I've gotten them all done, yet, either.  I can only do what I'm reminded of or alerted to, so I just keep hoping that I'm keeping up.

The movers are coming tomorrow to pick up the boxes.  Yea!  Then starts Phase II -- really finding places to put stuff.  At least I will be able to have more space for sorting and categorizing.  It's falling into place.

And that's it for tonight.

Great surprise visit tonight

We had a wonderful surprise visit from a friend and her daughter this evening.  We thought the family was still in Italy for the holidays  Susan and Mark went to school together in Fairbanks many decades ago (getting old is fun now that we're speaking in decades and not 1/2 and 3/4 years like elementary school).  And now we live only a mile or so from each other.  I'm really excited about having friends this close.  Life is starting to pull together here.  I like it.

Well, I missed that goal, too

So, I totally forgot I was planning to go to church this morning.  Nothing new there.  I have really bad CRS.  Oh well.  I'll try again next weekend.

I managed to get all the artwork unpacked today.  Yea!  Now, everything really is pretty much unpacked and in disarray, but at least I know what's there and can start figuring out where it goes.  I will be really glad when all the 'debris' is gone.  I need to put together some shelving in my office, and I need to get a vanity for the master bathroom.  As for the flamingo collection -- it will probably stay boxed in the closet for quite a while this time around.  We do not have any place to put all those items.

Something on national news tonight made me think of an old friend from high school days.  I Googled his name and found out that he died Dec. 14, 2011.  The weirdness of this is rather disconcerting.

I think I'll just 'give it a rest' tonight.

Getting my bearings

I am beginning to get oriented to my new surroundings, though I still get lost a little.  I'm glad we bought a GPS unit.  We took the dog's to Mark's office this afternoon for a good run.  They had a lot of fun.  I'm thinking about going to an Ecumenical Catholic Communion service tomorrow morning.  Of course, it will totally depend on whether or not I get up on time, and that always is a real battle for me.  I just kind of feel like it's time to start stretching out and meeting some folks, even though it really has only been three weeks since we moved in here.  I'm hoping to start going to a yoga class very soon, too.  Most of the unpacking is done.  It's going to take a while to actually organize and put away all the stuff we have.  But, in the meantime, I don't think it's a good idea to not get out and find out what's going on in Olympia.  So, that's kind of my plan for now.  We'll see how it rolls out.

And that's it for tonight.

Friday

Yesterday and today weren't terribly 'eventful.'  In fact, I can't remember what I did yesterday, so it was probably just more box unpacking and errand running.  Today was computer and phone day.  I spent all day working on bank accounts, bill paying, looking for a yoga class, talking to account representatives for our utilities, health insurance, internet, phone, etc., researching doctors in Olympia, fixing computer accounts, etc., etc., etc.  I felt unproductive at the end of the day because I hadn't done anything physically noticeable.  However, I really did get a lot of stuff done.  I still have a huge pile of materials to read in order to get up to speed on a bunch of things I need to deal with (retirement accounts, Weight Watchers training, yoga information, etc., etc., etc.).  Most days, it can seem overwhelming, so I just ignore it and keep moving.  "God willin' and the creek don't rise," I'll get to it all in due time.  And, if I don't, well, the world will not come to an end because I didn't.  I mean, after all, I am not like my friend, Paddy, who is a Rocket Surgeon and Brain Scientist.

And that's it for tonight.

The sound of rain

It rained softly for most of the day, and it sounded nice.  We have a 'garden' window over the kitchen sink -- one of those glass windows that sticks out away from the wall where you can grow plants.  I don't have any plants in it yet, but the way the rain was hitting it today and making that wonderful rain sound was nice.

My two water dogs, however, do not like going out in the rain.  They stand at the door and stare out into the yard and indicate to me that they'd rather 'hold it' than get wet.  It is becoming obvious I need to take them swimming to get them over this "I don't want to get wet" phase.

There are no more boxes upstairs that need to be unpacked.  However, all the stuff that was in boxes is now on the floors of several rooms.  Tomorrow is going to be a sorting/putting away day.  It now is becoming a personal challenge to get things relatively liveable within the next ten days.  We shall see....

I made veggie soup and naan bread for dinner tonight.  It was good.  It is nice finding time to cook, simple meals as they are.  It's just that it really beats eating at fast food joints.

And that's it for tonight (this may be my Dan Rather 'sign off').

Out and about

I got up 'early' (for me) today and went to a Weight Watchers meeting at 9:30.  I miss working for WW, and I miss going to meetings.  So, it was fun to start back into that routine.  I sat with a nice woman who reminded me of my Spokane WW friend, Janice.  This woman's name is Mary.  I look forward to seeing her again next week.  I want to attend all of the meetings in order to figure out which one is best for me, and to meet all the people that work for WW here.  I want to get back to work soon.  I really like the people that go to WW meetings.

I drove home through downtown Olympia and didn't get lost.  I found the Jewish deli I was looking for, but I didn't stop in.  I need to read more about how to operate the new downtown parking kiosks.  Apparently, they are driving many folks crazy -- don't work right, aren't close enough to each other, etc.  It seems like every city is plagued by parking issues.

I got my 'piles of paper' in order this afternoon and now feel like I can deal with a lot of stuff during the rest of the week.  There are still many boxes to be unpacked, but there also are other things that need to be taken care of.  The movers will be here sometime next week to take away the packing 'debris.'  I can't wait to see the floors in the house.

Ty managed to make a fort out of the five dog beds on the floor of the family room tonight.  He was really enjoying himself.  He is such a goof.  Brenna is tolerating him, again, which is good.  We played fetch the rings this afternoon, which made them very happy.  Unfortunately, they tear up the water-logged yard.  I think we are going to take them over to the field by Mark's office for their daily run.  It's much more tolerant of use and dogs.

And that's it for today...another good day.

Day 2 was good, too (also?)

Yes, it was a good day, this second day of January 2012.  I got to do a Costco run today, which meant I got to have a Mocha Freeze (yum).  And that was pretty much the highlight of the day.  It's amazing how 'simple' things can make a day bright.  We didn't do much today -- just the usual -- unpacking of boxes and football game watching.  We had left-over Hoppin' John for dinner (another yum).  Life continues to pull together and sort out.  It will be lots of fun when moving in is done and things fall into a routine.  I like routine.  It's quite Zen for me when all flows well and in order.  It is calming to my spirit.  Yea!

January 1, 2012

Today is the first day of The End Year.  I don't know.  I think I'm just going to plan on going on forever.  It sounds like a lot more fun.  Of course, the End Time could just be the beginning of a new Age, an Aquarian Age, an Age of love, peace, kindness.  I like to think that The End is the end of bad stuff and the beginning of good stuff.

Guess what we did today?  Unpacked boxes!  Whodathunkit...  We also ate the new version of Hoppin' John, and it was really delicious.  However, we decided we like the 'traditional' version better.  I think it has something to do with the pepper vinegar, ketchup, and raw onions.  The cornbread turned out good, as usual.  Just gotta love bein' Suthun.  Yea!

I haven't felt the holidays this year.  I'm hoping this is solely because of moving during this special time.  I feel discombobulated, time-wise, and am totally lost with regard to what day of the week it is.  I think if I could find my calendar I might have a better idea of what's going on.  But, who knows if that's really the 'problem.'  It might just be I'm terminally discombobulated.

I am looking forward to 2012.  I feel excited, and upbeat, about the coming year.  Really, things can only get better than they were in 2011, right?  It was a hard year for everyone.  But, I do think it was the nadir, and things will only go up.

So, today and everyday, I wish the whole world's people a good, safe, healthy and, especially, peaceful New Year.