silly stuff

I'm having one of those frustrating annoying no good days. I was on the phone with a company this morning for an hour OUCH going round and round, then calling a store that promised my refund would be processed a week and a half ago and it hasn't shown up on my account yet, then writing a letter to a medical billing office because the billing clerk would not answer my three phone calls about her not sending my insurance carrier the required paperwork along with my claim and my claim was then denied ARGH, calling my doctors office asking them to send the inept clerk what she needs from them, then sending other necessary unfun emails and somehow it's three in the afternoon and I'm grumpy. grumble grumble snarfle snarfle

Oh! And I forgot that Google wouldn't allow me to access my blog today too. GRRRRR I was adding blogs to my blogroll, over and over and all of a sudden a message appeared with a verification code box and I had to enter the codes that came up about FIFTY times. What the hoohah?! So many times that I stopped and went and posted on the Help Forum. Finally they believed I wasn't a robot and returned me to my blog. 

That calls for silly stuff!!! Some more paper stuff I found at my parents ...

LOL at first I didn't get this at all
and then I realized it starts on the (top) front of the card.
Still kind of a groan ...

 

I'm not sure if this is some sort of ad or
a calling card or a postcard or?
But it's cute huh?!

Something to entertain the kiddies!

Fun crafty thing from long ago.
It's sealed - can't tell if it's been opened
and resealed or never opened at all?


All better now - banished that no good day!

out and about

Out and about the past few days with errands and doctor appointments and yesterday, a lovely lunch with hubby's brother and his girlfriend, down from Northern California on a combined work/pleasure trip. Thankfully the heat wave broke for a couple of days ... supposed to be back in the triple digits this coming weekend though drat drat drat ARGH ... and we were able to enjoy a pleasant time outside on the patio.

Yup, I've got quite the skunk line going!!! I can't do anything about it until my eye trouble is all over. Genevieve has lovely gray hair - perhaps it's time to just stop dying it???

Happy Monday!

its (sort of) a dogs life

Missy Gracie loves her tummy rubs more than anything! She runs outside and promptly lays down on her back and starts happily wiggly around, asking "please please please, surely it's tummy rub time NOW"?!

She had a trip to the vet yesterday - she had to be knocked out for dental work. WAH! I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to anesthesia for anybody!

Missy has always been a ravenous eater until recently and now she's really really picky.  And worse. To the point of refusing to eat. Unless you give her biscuits. She'll eat those by the bushel. ARGH.  

 

She has terrible allergies and has to take Cyclosporine for them - otherwise she chews on herself to the point of injuring herself. 

If your doggy has allergies you may know about Atopica and Cyclosporine - Atopica being the brand name and Cyclosporine the generic. Atopica costs a Kings Ransom and cyclosporine is about 1/3 or 1/2 the price? They are supposed to be the same and yet, the generic has problems that supposedly Atopica doesn't have.

One of the problems with either is an overgrowth of the animals gums, good googly moogly. And a problem with the generic can be loss of appetite, change in appetite, etc. 

Oh! and also tremendous hair growth ... Missy looks like a clydesdale or a hobbit now, she's got so much hair bwahhahahhahaha ... but then that's what you want in a Golden Retriever. She's Miss Fluffy Feathering now.

On top of her allergy meds possibly being the source of her eating problem, she has Cushings Disease and she was just tested and it was found her current dosage is way too high. WHAT?!

And the vet eyeballed her teeth while she was there for her Cushings test and found that one tooth looked problematic. So yesterday she went to be knocked out so the vet could ascertain what all was going on with her teeth. Turned out the one tooth that he thought was a problem, wasn't. But she had two other teeth that her gums had completely grown over. So she had to have her gums cut back and those two teeth removed ACK! She came home with antibiotics and a much lower dose of her Cushings meds.

So there are three things that could be causing her poor appetite - the wrong Cushings dosage, the Cyclosporine and her teeth and gum problems. Poor baby! 

Makes one feel like a horrible doggy parent and we take her to the vet (she has two vets now since she has a dermatologist too ay yi yi) at least four times a year. sniffle sniffle hanging my head ...


Still sick over here but inching towards better. Was supposed to go to the eye doctor for follow up today but changed it until next Wednesday, wanting more time to feel better for myself and not wanting to give my eye doctor this lousy bug. 

 

Doing a little bit of light puttering around the house since boredom is running HIGH.

Reading "Olive Kitteridge" ... fantastic writing but oh good grief this book is bleak. Don't grab this if you want a feel good book. Holy moly.

Loved binge watching "The Honorable Woman" over the weekend!

And loved Emma "Hermione Granger" Watson's speech at the UN assembly and He For She Campaign. Speech on You Tube here. Full transcript of speech here. No one, no one, should be thought of or treated as less than, ever.

eighteen years

Still sick over here ... and worse, coughing and sneezing and bobbing one's head, do little to aid in the healing of a wonky eyeball. No sirree, they add to the problem.  WAH!

 So hard to believe it's been eighteen years today since 

my mom passed away. Missing you Mom!

sick as a dog

The hubby brought home the latest dastardly bug going around the elementary school circuit and gifted it to me. WAH!  Going back to bed with my TBR pile of books - catch up with you down the road.

 

Stay away from low down meanie bugs,
Happy Hump Day!

tidying up

Photo op, age 12
Just your basic goofball -
dusting off the neighbors cherub with frond of some sort.

Happy Monday!

roy williams the big mooseketeer

(image source)

Hey, look at what I found! A drawing for me by the one and only Big Mooseketeer, Roy Williams, during a visit to Disneyland when I was little. (It's not dated so sadly I have no idea how old I was??) So much fun. Somewhere I have one signed by "Zorro" too from another long ago visit.  Summer always meant at least one visit to Disneyland, usually more. 

we old people took selfies too

Polaroid selfie of me around about 1989

I had the hubby pull down four boxes this morning that haven't been gone through in years. Oh good grief! Not quite sure what prompted my taking of this Polaroid selfie of myself in 1989?!

Look! There's those HUGE glasses, making another appearance. I have so many photos of me, with an inappropriate finger, pushing them back up my nose LOL.  (I'm really narrow through my eyeballs and glasses never ever fit me right, and big ones were completely ridiculous!)

And I had a hairdresser who insisted on cutting my layered bangs, wayyyyyyy toooo short. I look like I have one of those poodle pompadour things going on.

Trying to remember the sweater I have on here - obviously not a fave as I don't really remember it and that's not possible. Clothes Horse was my middle name. It appears to be some early failed attempt at ombre dying hahahahhaaha. It is my favorite color though, turquoise - teal - blue green, whatever you call it. 

I do love this photo so very much though because I can see my brother in my face! I've never noticed a resemblance before. I always thought I didn't look like anyone in my family and now I see them all in me. sniffle sniffle.

in rememberance

In memory of all those lost on 9/11/01 and all those that were left behind, to somehow go on without them. Wishing you peace.

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

 ~ Christina Rossetti

I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love. 

~ Leo Buscaglia 

thinking out loud

wishing I still had a pool 

loving the words gobbledygook and balderdash

smiling over this video

wondering when I started seeing my moms aging face
look back at me in the mirror

still feel 15 inside

hatching creative ideas for an upcoming swap

trying to live with more intention

reading this



What ya thinking about this Tuesday?

heavenly and potato

On the best names ever front ... Our new next door neighbors have named their rescue puppy, Potato - best doggie name ever in my book. Potato has an older rescued doggie mate named Moose. Thoughts of Potato and Moose make me happy this Monday.

We went out to breakfast yesterday and took our Missy along for her very first visit to a restaurant. She was a bit apprehensive, unsure of what she was supposed to do and all the goings on but finally laid down. The place we ate also makes doggie biscuits for their furry clientele and I do believe I heard Missy say that it was a very good biscuit and she'd like to come again.

While we were driving around my husband was telling me about his new bunch of students. One little girl is named Heavenly, how great is that?! I love that her parents looked upon their precious baby girl and found Heavenly to be the most fitting of names. 

The biggest smiles are sometimes found in the little moments that make up life.

Happy Monday!

who am I to be blind? pretending not to see their needs?

ETA: For some weird reason unbeknownst to this computer-know-nothing, the video I've linked to is not visible on an iPad - here's the link to the you tube page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IoFKzxGE9Y

("With all of the negativity and violence going on in the world right now, I felt the need to do this video. I worked extremely hard on this song and changed a lot to make it my own. My goal is to bring attention to the viola and hopefully inspire other kids to learn an instrument since many schools in America have removed it out of their curriculum. It would really mean the world to me if you all could please share this with your loved ones. I wish we lived in a world where everyone could just love each other instead of fighting one another. One day we will get to that point in life where we can finally live in peace. We all just need to "make a change." I have always loved the message in this song and tried to deliver the meaning to the best of my ability with my viola. I truly believe that if we really want to make the world a better place, it starts with the "Man in the Mirror." I hope you enjoy my cover." Jeremy Green, published on Aug 23, 2014)

Man in the Mirror

I'm gonna make a change
For once in my life
It's gonna feel real good
Gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right

As I, turn up the collar on
My favorite winter coat
This wind is blowing my mind
I see the kids in the streets
With not enough to eat
Who am I to be blind?
Pretending not to see their needs

A summer's disregard, a broken bottle top
And one man's soul ( and a one man's soul)
They follow each other on the wind ya' know
'Cause they got nowhere to go
That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

I've been a victim of a selfish kind of love
It's time that I realize
That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan
Could it be really mean, pretending that they're not alone?

A willow deeply scarred, somebody's broken heart
And a washed-out dream
They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see
'Cause they got no place to be
That's why I'm starting with me

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

~ written by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett
for Michael Jackson

miss gracie has a baby

When we adopted George and Gracie from the rescue we were told that Gracie had many litters - that she was a puppy factory. Makes me so sad. Gracie missed out on all the fun in a doggies life - she was busy being a good mommy, over and over.

She's always been quiet and perhaps even more so after losing her lifetime companion, Georgie, last year.

But something's afoot over here. The past few months she's started to come out of her shell and become Miss Personality. She asks for rubby-doo's all the time, she wiggles all over when we wake up or come home to her, she wags her tail like a windshield wiper on high, from side to side.

She was never interested in more than a couple ball tosses at a time and she wasn't interested in stuffed toys at all. So it came as a huge surprise when she trotted into the den one night last week all happy, with a mushroom softie in her mouth a friend had made me.  (It had fallen off the shelf in my craft room and I had gotten distracted and completely forgotten to pick it up.)

So I decided she needed a "baby" of her own - that's what we called all of the sheep wool animals for our other Golden's. Golden's love to carry things in their mouths and we'd ask them "Where's your baby?" and they'd all go get them --- except for George and Gracie, who had such sad lives.

We went to two pet stores over the weekend and everything was too small or had multiple squeakies or ugly material, etc... I apparently have a demanding eye when it comes to doggie toys LOL.

I did find this one group of over sized softies that were natural colored and barnyard animals - I've always liked the sheep wool toys - and besides the pig and goat, there was a third one ... I think it's a sheep??? It's the size of a Golden puppy.

I laid it down on Missy's bed and after sniffing it all over, she very gingerly, laid down face to face with it.  And then yesterday I stood it up on her bed and she came over and sniffed it all over again AND licked it!!!

again ... heartbreak

The news is saying that another journalist has been beheaded by ISIS in Iraq, Steven Sotloff of Time Magazine. Overwhelming sadness and despair. Words fail. How to process the ugliness of the human soul? How to live in a world gone mad? 

All I know to do is be kind and pray for an end to this insanity. 

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
~ The Dalai Lama

Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

~ unknown, circa 1915