Friday, December 9, 2022

I hope CC is enjoying her company and not feeling too stressed over entertaining and getting a house together.

The decks are swabbed here (aka the bathroom has been cleaned, bedding laundered and replaced, and the place is vacuumed). We have a few errands to do including getting some beer and wine for tonight's guests but mostly Christmas and normal shopping related. The weather is beautiful: warm and not humid. I hope it holds through next Thursday.

We leave early Friday for the airport and our flight north for a 2 week holiday stay. I hope to fit in a bit of alone Christmas with Mike because I don't plan to bring his gifts back home. And of course I already have mine (the rings).

Have a frenzied (or not) Friday!

Friday! Leaving to go to dinner and a show shortly. I'm tired, but hoping some adrenaline shows up. It probably will.

Last night we couldn't resist being royal watchers so we watched the first 2 episodes of Harry and Meghan. They did not say anything too inflammatory about the Royal family (yet). Their foe was clearly the press. More episodes to come.

Happy start to the weekend everyone!

We watched the first episode. A nice love story so far. And some likely true effects of how losing his mother affected Harry as well as the insidious presence of the paparazzi.

Greetings all

It seems like this day never got started because it has been rainy and overcast all day. But after dog care duties and banking I dragged myself to the studio and made some little owls. It's pretty warm there because I have a little space heater plus the furnace for the entire building has a vent into my studio and its rusted into an open position so a lot of heat comes in there. But the kilns in the other part of the studio run daily and further warm things up. I was thinking yesterday about how when we moved here from the midwest and bought this house with a forced air furnace, I thought that the furnace looked like a toy compared to what we had in Nebraska. Lots of people around here heat mainly with wood stoves. It is indeed the wild frontier.

Old Chip got rather frisky this morning but is now sleeping. He has not eaten much. One of his meds tends to suppress appetite (maybe I should take it) but the other is prednisone which makes you eat like a pig. I think he is not eating enough but we will see.

Speaking of meds, DH has to hold Chip on his lap while I squirt medicine into his mouth with an eye dropper. Last night DH was being cranky because his buddy had called him with some colossally stupid computer question and DH was going to have to go over to his house to fix it. I told DH that maybe we should give some of these calming drugs to his buddy and if he was not careful I was going to squirt some of it into him! We had a good laugh with the intended result of putting this minor issue into perspective. My message to the universe: put things into perspective.

I am still on the eat when hungry thing but have already failed on the protein daily. Rationalization: I am not hungry for the protein drink so I don't drink it. I just did tuna salad instead. Eating when hungry is a good thing but I wish I could do it 40 pounds lower than I am. Oh well.

DD glad you are going out to a show. Enjoy.

And CC, we want the full story on this balloon in the back yard! Did you demand a ride? Hope you are having fun.

Crap I have done nothing about christmas gifts. Must make a list. DH has been going around in this hoodie that is too small and I think I will go look for a new one for him at Ace hardware because they have all that Carhart stuff.

Cheers all. Pot roast all around here tonight.

Diane S

Putting things in perspective is a great tool, but unfortunately sometimes difficult to achieve. Great that DH and you can do that.

Such a lovely visit with my friends! I had no need to worry. It was a judgment-free visit. In fact, my UK friend said she was so glad to see the choices I made in both town and house and she was relieved not to have to worry about me anymore having seen me happy in my new environment.

I was exhausted when they got here having worked on getting things livable right up until I had to leave to get them at the airport. They were blown away by the house, which made me feel good that they liked it! We explored the town, took a few hikes (one up the mountain right behind my house), explored the trails that run out of my neighborhood, went to some Native American ruins in the hills down the road (very cool with some petroglyphs from 6,000-10,000 BC!), had fabulous meals, went to the movies which was always our thing aside from hiking, and watched the balloons the last two mornings. This morning's balloon watch was so cool! They floated right overhead and you could hear the burners firing from inside the house. And then, one just landed in my yard! It must happen enough that they have the gate code. I thought it was going to take out a couple of my trees, but they pulled the balloon off of them as it deflated. Then trucks came and carted the basket, balloon, and riders away. Exciting.

Other events included having the HVAC people come to fix my in-floor heating that wasn't coming on. As he was touching the copper pipes to make sure ho****er was flowing through them, he touched one and got 120v of electricity jolting through him! One of the pipes is not grounded, is touching a wire somewhere, and didn't trip the breaker. Thank God he was okay. And thank God he found it as it meant my steam shower was electrified. He shut off the related breaker (unassigned to anything) and said to call a plumber to fix it. On my list!

The A/V people came today to trace all the switches and wires for automating the house. They figured out so many switches I couldn't. It is going to be a huge expense, but will make so much more sense that what they did when the house was built.

As we were driving to the airport today, a HUGE rock hit my windshield and shattered part of it. Thankfully, the rock didn't break through, but I'm not sure how. Scared the heck out of us. I remembered buying some protection coverage when I bought the car and thought it might have been related to the windshield. I dug through my files and sure enough, it's covered. So it will be replaced Tuesday with a new original windshield. I think I just made my money back! They need to do it in the shop as it needs to be recalibrated for rain sensing and camera stuff.

My dad had another UTI last week (just told me tonight, grrr), but they were able to get to the hospital sooner this time so they swapped the stent (had to do it two days in a row as the first was too short), gave him antibiotics, and he was able to go home. He was in a good bit of pain so he got morphine and the infection makes him cough and hoarse for some reason (happened last time too), but he felt well enough to have dinner with friends yesterday. I do worry about him. I hate to see him not feel well. They will start driving here next week.

I think that sums up my week! Missed you all.

Untangling so many things at your new house CC! Thank goodness you are getting the electrical issues sorted out. It sounds like you had an awesome visit with your friends. Wishing your folks safe travels. I bet they'll love your new home too!

Sounds like you have been sorting out a lot with your house. I am not surprised that your friends loved it.