It's been a while...

OK, so what have I been up to for the last nine days...hmmm, let me think.  Well, I thought about it, and the answer is "Nothing of any import."

I've been to two physical therapy sessions; that's always a good thing.  I've been to two Weight Watchers meetings; another good thing.  I did our 2011 taxes (yea!), though I haven't submitted them yet.  Mark and I spent the weekend running errands and doing chores around the house.  We've taken the dogs for a few trips of running around in the field by Mark's office.  I had a meeting with my Weight Watchers territory manager, and we also went to look at a potential new meeting site in Tumwater.

I've done lots of meal planning and grocery shopping.  We have one friend staying here from last night through Saturday morning.  We have two more friends showing up tomorrow night and staying through Monday morning.  Then, on Saturday night, we've invited two more friends to join us for dinner, as well as the sister and brother-in-law of one of our friends staying with us.  Whew!  Last night we had shrimp creole.  Tonight we're having chilies rellenos with black bean & corn salad.  Tomorrow night is puttanesca with halibut and a green salad.  Saturday's party dinner will be Cincinnati chile and corn bread.  After that, everyone's on their own for eating.  Oh, we also have fresh farm eggs from a friend for our breakfasts and two nice quiches.

I did not make it to my yoga class on Tuesday.  For the first time in many months I woke up in a 'funk'.  Since I didn't want to spread my mood around, I decided to just stay home, curl up on the couch with a cup of tea, and read a book.  I sat down with my book at 9:00 a.m. and did not finish reading until 6:00 p.m.  I have not done such a reading fest in years and years and years.  It felt really good.  I was able to concentrate, and retain information, and thoroughly enjoy myself.  It was wonderful.  I hope I can do this again, though without the 'funk' leading the way.

Today is a special friend's 75th birthday.  Happy Special Birthday, Special Jon!

Well, it's time to start prepping items for dinner.

So, that's it for tonight.

Yoga day

I went to my first yoga class in Olympia today.  I chose to attend a class for folks living with cancer.  There were about eight of us there.  Most are currently in treatment.  One woman is two years 'out' from diagnosis.  Another is ten years out.  I am twelve years out now.  Two of the women are Stage 4 breast cancer, and one woman has rather severe melanoma.  All were in good spirits, even though two were given not so good news very recently.  Everyone goes out to lunch after class.  I wasn't prepared to go with the group today, but I will go with them next Tuesday.  I really enjoyed the class.  I needed it.  I also need to get my home practice back on my daily schedule.  I feel a little more motivated to do that after today.

For the first day of Spring, it was a really cold, gray and rainy day.  Oh well.  It's still not bothering me, though I, along with everyone else I've talked with, am ready for warm weather, hopefully with some sun thrown in.

I took the puppies to get their nails trimmed yesterday, and the three of us did really well together.  I don't normally try to take the two of them somewhere together by myself, but now I feel like we can do some stuff together in the future as long as it's not too 'involved'.

I got really tired after I got home from yoga today and ended up actually falling asleep on the couch.  Every so often I get these 'attacks' of the sleepies and just have to stop.  This was one of those days.  And I've been pretty tired for the rest of the day and evening.  So, I think I'll call it a night and go upstairs, curl up in bed, and read for a while.

And that's it for tonight.

Fun addendum

I forgot -- our good friends, Des & Judy, brought us a wonderful housewarming gift when they were here last weekend.  It is a wild bird call clock.  Now, this clock is waaaayyyy unique!  The box it came in is perfectly correct.  However, the clock itself is quirky.  The 3 o'clock bird is a (get this) Red-Necked Pheasant!!!!  Yes, it really is.  And the 2 o'clock bird is a Morning Dove (so it can't tell you that it's 2 p.m.).  And the 5 o'clock bird is an American Bob White (I wonder how Bob is doing?).  Also, the 12:00 bird is an American Wild Turkey, only he gobbles at 11:00.  We absolutely LOVE this clock (it's in our kitchen/family room).  It is just as unique as the friends who gave it to us, and we love them, too.

A terrific day in Portland

We drove to Portland this morning to visit our special friends, Jon & Joyce.  It was wonderful.  Joyce recently celebrated one of her "0" birthdays.  They were supposed to celebrate that special birthday here in Olympia with us and some other friends of theirs here, but the weather did not cooperate, with anyone on the West Coast, that weekend.  So, we celebrated today in Portland.  Jon will be celebrating a special "5" birthday in two weeks.  We threw the puppies into the back of the truck and headed out about 9:15 this morning.  It's only a two hour drive, so it's perfect for a puppy day trip.  They love riding in the truck and going fun places, so this was close enough for us to go, then turn around and bring them home for the night.  Joyce took us to a dog park about two blocks from their house where the dogs had a great time -- lots of mud.  Yea!

Yesterday I had a marvelous day with one of my new Olympia friends.  Jules picked me up at 11:00 a.m. to go get a cup of coffee and become better acquainted.  Five and a half hours later she dropped me off back at home.  We had a wonderful time just yakking and laughing at the coffee shop.  Obviously, she is a friend I love spending time with.

We had snow again this week.  Yuk!  I was totally taken aback by it, too.  I woke up Tuesday morning, came out of our bedroom onto the landing, and noticed that the front yard was totally white.  It took me a moment to figure out what it was!  I did not remember the weather person saying anything about snow on the broadcast the night before.  Fortunately, it did not stick around and by noon I was able to go driving around Tumwater again to do some additional reconnoitering for a meeting space.

I'm really enjoying living here.  Mark and I have been talking about places to retire when the time comes.  We love Wenatchee, so that's an option.  Mark likes Spokane because of the great and cheap golf, which I enjoy, too (the golf, that is, not the Spokane winters).  But, we're also giving Olympia 'a chance' because we do like it here.  Of course, we're waiting to see how well it dries out in Spring/Summer for golfing!  (Tee hee)

So, life is an adventure, again.  And, so far, this time it's another good one.

That's it for tonight.

A good week

Last week was busy.  I drove around Tumwater two days to look for a WW meeting site.  It was fun.  I'm starting to get my bearings around town and don't always have to use the GPS.  I got some stuff done around the house as far as continuing to move into the new house.  There is still lots to go.  And I got some office work done.  I had an appointment with my new lymphedema therapist.  I really like her.  Yea!  We also got our new Sleep Number bed on Saturday.  So far, so good.  It's quite comfy.

Our friends from Snohomish came for a weekend visit.  While Mark and Des were watching basketball on TV, Judy refreshed me on how to play Cribbage, so all four of us played after dinner.  It was fun, though I have a great deal of difficulty adding up cards to 15!  Mark and Des went razor clamming on Sunday while Judy and I had a lovely, lazy Sunday.  It was very nice.

I had a good time with the puppies last week, as is usual.  They do such funny stuff.  It is amazing how they totally understand what we are saying to them, react to what we ask them to do, and yet we are not intelligent enough to know what they are saying or always what they want.  Who's the more intelligent mammal here?  Ty is now channeling our first Lab, Bart, in that he starts to whimper when we get close to the place where we take the dogs to play by Mark's office.  He is so funny.  His new favorite thing is to go to the paper recycle box in my office and take paper out to play with.  He continues to love cereal and tissue boxes best, though  He thinks they are pretty cool.  Brenna just watches him with a look on her face like 'puppies are so dumb'.

The weather has been usual -- some really nice sunny days, and mostly gray cold days with drizzle.  But, I'm handling it.  It's not really bothering me.

And that's it for now.

It snowed and other stuff

It did snow a little last week; there was about an inch or so on the ground Wednesday morning.  Fortunately, it went away quickly.

I got to work another Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday.  It was fun.  Friday was a WW staff meeting, so I got to meet a lot of the folks that work in Olympia.

Saturday Mark and I ran errands.  Sunday we went to Mass at the Abbey at St. Martin's.  It was pretty cool.  Monks and all.  Nice church.  Good vibes.  Then in the afternoon our friend Barb from Ephrata and her daughter Emily took us out to lunch.  I had a really delicious pizza -- pesto with smoked salmon, goat cheese, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan.  It was awesome.

Today I drove around Tumwater looking for a place to hold a weekly WW meeting.  It was fun finding places and discovering things around town.

Life in Olympia is sort of starting to settle in.  I like it.

Where have the days gone...

It's Tuesday night, and I can't really remember what I've been doing for the last few days.  I went to Ash Wednesday service at a Lutheran church last week.  I liked it.  Then I went to Sunday Mass at a Catholic church this past Sunday.  I didn't get that 'this feels like a fit' feeling.  Mark got home Sunday afternoon and we took the puppies for a run at his office, which is on the campus of St. Martin's University, a Benedictine school.  We stopped by the Abbey there and I think we are going to try a service there this coming weekend.  We're still looking around for a place as comfy as St. Joseph's in Wenatchee.

I haven't been up to much.  I cleaned house Friday and Saturday, put some more stuff away, did some paperwork, etc.  Just sort of the usual.  I have been cooking more, though.  Like almost real cooking.  I'm following recipes and making meal plans and that sort of thing.  It takes a lot of time, though, which apparently is not a bad thing.  I recently read that Americans spend less than 30 minutes a day cooking.  So, my spending two-three hours making a real meal is ok with me.  Plus, we're eating well.  It's fun.

We may get snow tonight (1-4").  I hope not.  It was very cold today, though.

And that's it for tonight.