Groundhog Day

It was beautiful today, and it is supposed to be like this at least through Monday.  Yea!

I have been working on getting routine into my life.  So far, I have managed to work a light yoga program into my day, and I'm working with weights to build up the strength in the arm I broke last summer.  I'm going to my Weight Watchers meeting each week, too.  The other things I want to incorporate are dog walking/training, meal planning/cooking well, and house caring-for.  Small steps, small steps.

When I re-started my yoga, I realized right off the bat that I had lost my God-spot.  This is a little, hazy, purple spot that I would always see when my eyes were closed and I was in the zone.  It really bothers me that it's not there now.  I have seen hints of it coming back, so I'm working hard to find it again.  Today there was quite a bit of ambient gold light coming in from the sides, but I'm hoping that goes away as I refocus.

I made a birthday cake for Brenna today (she'll be 10 years old tomorrow).  The puppies thought it was pretty fun -- they got to lick the beaters and have some little treats that I used for decorating the cake.  I still need to find the party hats we used for The Girls' first birthday party ten years ago so that Brenna and Ty can wear them tomorrow.  This is a picture of Brenna at her and Sweet Pea's 1st birthday party.

 
This is a picture of Sweet Pea at the party.  The toys were gifts from their vet, our friend, Courtney.  They were enjoying rawhide chew bones.

 

This is a picture of all four puppies -- Bart, Chip, Brenna and Sweet Pea in the back -- right before the birthday festivities began.

It's getting late and is time to clean up the kitchen and make Mark's lunch for tomorrow.  So, that's it for tonight.

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.