Birthday

I had the most wonderful birthday. Got to celebrate on Thursday night with my "Bloom'in Warrior" women friends, on Friday night had a wonderful dinner out with my sister and niece at the Melting Pot, and Saturday got treated by Ed. Went to see "Inkheart" which was a fun movie, then went to Twigs for a drink, then to Commelini's for a great Italian dinner. An interesting place — old Italian mafia heritage. Even Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly used to visit there. Also got to see a great blue heron fly into the pond area by Twigs, and saw a deer on the way home from dinner. Luckily it didn't decide to run out onto the highway.

The Melting Pot was also very nice and a unique way to eat dinner as it's a fondue restaurant. My sister treated all of us which was lovely, and it also wasn't cheap so it was very nice of her. But a fun, relaxing way to eat and visit. Took us almost three hours for dinner and presents, and we didn't leave hungry. All in all, I feel blessedly spoiled!

Survived my birthday

It's Friday, and the day after my birthday. I am now officially 53. It was a very nice day. Started out with Ed stopping by my workplace and bringing beautiful red and white roses that smell heavenly, a card, and nice music CD. I had many nice calls and warm wishes throughout the day as well, and a decadent chocolate cupcake my boss bought me at Starbuck's. And as anyone who knows me well knows, it will take a week to for me to eat it! Met seven of the gals from my women's group after work at Rock City, where there were many hugs as we haven't seen each other for two months. We were all having serious withdrawals. We also exchanged birthday and belated Christmas gifts, had wine and food and laughs. When I got home, Ed showed up with copious amounts of cat food and kitty litter for my brood, and dog bones for Harley. It was thoughtful of him to do that. It's not cheap, and it's not light to carry. But it was very much appreciated!

Historical day

This is a day to remember. I think this is the first time ever that I have been so moved by a new president being sworn in. I pray so hard that President Obama can help us turn things around, not only in our country, but in our relations with other countries. It gave me goose bumps to hear his speech.

On another note, I wanted to post the other tree photo that I shot on Sunday. It was so great to walk Harley and be warmed by the sun after so much gray. I could almost hear the trees give a cumulative sigh of relief as the ice crystals fell off of them as the branches were touched by the sunshine. Today they are frosted again and we're back to gray, but the respite was much appreciated!

Sunshine!

Well, I decided that this is a gratitude day. The sun is finally out after some gray, foggy days. This will be a good day to walk Harley, and also go to Snap Fitness to work out. I feel so much more energetic when the sun is out. I also want to shop for belated holiday presents, and do some art. I'm grateful that I have a three-day weekend so that I can get a lot of things done that have piled up a bit. Yesterday I cleaned all day, and that felt great. I love my animals, but they do create extra work. Tomorrow will be another busy day, but I know I'll get all that I need to do done. I'm grateful mostly for the sun today. It just makes everything seem lighter!

Finally Friday

Well, it's Friday. And foggy again. In fact, the trees in my neighborhood look like they've been flocked. I'll take a photo this weekend and post it. I took Ed to the airport this morning at 6 am, and it was so foggy I could barely see to drive myself home. It was pretty scary for a few minutes. But I made it home.

Ed flew out this morning to go to Florida. Without me. What a brat — he gets to go see some sunshine. Maybe he'll bring some back. Actually in all fairness, he invited me to go along. I'm just trying to save my vacation time for a trip in the spring to Utah, so hopefully that will happen this year. And he can rest assured that while he's gone I'll be partying all night long with younger men, and being totally wild. And I said that just because I know he's going to read this. Actually, I'll be having an exciting time cleaning litter boxes, cleaning house, hanging photos at my mom's apartment, and doing some belated Christmas shopping. The most exciting part of my life is waiting three hours for his next flight out of Detroit to Florida!

Chair races

I now know to what depths of despair people can get into during the winter. And also how to get out of it. Today I got to participate in the first ever (at least for me), office chair race and parade. If one can imagine five grown women inching their way across the office and into the boss's office by pulling themselves along sitting in their chairs — first moving forward, then backward. I have to say though, that it's something I should do daily as it was pretty much a total body workout. When one moves forward it works the hamstrings and abs, and when moving backward, the quads. Maybe some of the local fitness centers should implement it into their routines. But the best part was just how stupid we all looked and how hard we were laughing. Better than any antidepressant on the market!

Nice to walk normally

Just a short post today. Went home during lunch today so I could give Harley and me a walk, and it was like heaven. We both got a bit muddy as the roads are wet, but it was so nice to walk at a normal pace for the first time in about a month, and getting to walk without yak traks on my boots, and to wear my tennis shoes versus boots. My spirits feel like soaring today versus hiding in the closet!

Foggy Monday

Well, it's a foggy Monday, both inside and out. Even my coffee doesn't seem to be kicking in very well today. And it was another morning of creeping down the south hill at about 5 MPH. Bumper-to-bumper traffic again, and I'm not even sure why as it wasn't that slick today. I think part of it was the confusion at the bottom of the hill where all of a sudden three lanes turns into two, as people in the middle lane figure out that there is a big snow berm in the middle lane and they suddenly have to shift into one of the two open lanes. It will be nice when all the berms are gone.

It was a pretty quiet weekend. Got a lot done around my house, my partner, Ed, made a lovely dinner for our friend, Harold, and me, and we had a good visit. It was sad to hear all that Harold had gone through losing everything in the fire, but he seems to be doing OK so far. I'm sure part of him is still in shock though. He has much to deal with. Got to see my author friend, Sherry, on Friday night and it was good to see her. I really miss my women friends as I hadn't seen any of them since Thanksgiving. The weather cause almost all of my holiday activities to be canceled, so I didn't get to see any of them this year. They are such an integral part of helping me to keep my balance. So I'm hoping over the next couple of weeks I can catch up with most of them and be more social again!

Sunny Friday

Well, the sun is out again today, but it's colder. I got to creep down the south hill again today with all the other drivers who were inching their way down the slick hill. I'm not sure why the de-icer trucks weren't out last night, but they weren't. So bumper-to-bumper we went yet again.

The new photo was taken last night. I wanted to show my happy lights that once again get to shine. Also to show how much of the snow melted in the last two days. I have probably lost about two feet so far, which makes me happy.

I heard from my friend, Harold, last night, and he lost everything he owned including his kitty, all his photo equipment, and his life's work in photos, in a house fire this week. TWO house fires to be exact, as the house caught on fire two days in a row. The second one took everything. It just breaks my heart for him. It really makes a person think about how long it can take to build a life, and how quickly it can all just disappear. And how fragile it all is...

Spring-like day

What a lovely day here in snowy Spokane. After three weeks of shoveling and wondering whether or not my carport will collapse, we have had a break. The Christmas lights that are on top of my chain link fence finally got to shine brightly last night for the first time in three weeks. I'm going to leave them up awhile longer as I feel they got short-changed over the holidays. Once in awhile they would start to burn their way through the snow just to be covered again by the next storm. I hired a couple of angels three times to shovel the snow off the carport, and once to shovel the snow off my house as it was too deep and too much for me to do. I'll be forever grateful for their help. Today was the first day to go the speed limit, and it made 30 MPH feel like 60 in perspective. By the weekend I may even be able to walk my dog without having to strap the yak traks to the bottoms of my shoes. The warmer breezes and sun breaks feel like a little slice of heaven despite the havoc they're causing in the way of potholes and flooding. The dripping in my kitchen has finally stopped after two days, and the damage was minimal — a little fresh paint come spring should fix things up. I feel lighter today than I have in awhile!