May Days

Today is the last day of May. Life has gotten really different since my hubby had surgery on his hand. We've been home every single weekend, all the plants in the container garden are thriving and I've almost finished reading a book.  Today I had a fleeting thought about going on a road trip but the idea didn't really take root ... yet.  I'm thinking a trip to Vancouver B.C. would be just the ticket for a sweet road trip with my guy. Anything to get away from these high maintenance dogs!

Last weekend, we took them for a 2 mile walk. It's never been an issue before we adopted "Remi".  Remi is a horrible walker.  The worst. At points along the way I just wanted to unbuckle her lead and if she decided to follow us home, so be it.  But I didn't. That dog pulled the entire walk and I can't wait to never take her for a walk again. Love her to pieces but she's gotta get some schoolin' on proper walking etiquette. Before "Remi", we thought the border collie was a poor walker. Perspective is a good thing.

My cousin, Lil P, pictured above, was here last weekend. She's a free spirit and shows up occasionally to hang with us. I don't believe we've ever had an easier house guest ... although we decided this trip that we can't really call her a guest anymore. She's more like a frequent flyer. I hope she hurries and comes back soon. She needs to just get a job here and stay!

 

Gene's youngest daughter sent some "lunch" money for my birthday so I think we're going to take a road trip tomorrow to Naches to our favorite out-of-the-way eatery for lunch. It's been far too long since our last road trip.  I'm scheming up some other road trips and I'm sure rolling tomorrow will get the ideas flowing.

 

Hope you had a good May!  Here's to June!!

love, susan



Dirty Birds

I'm seriously hanging on to the end of a runaway train.  I know I've said that before but it hasn't felt more true than right now.

 

Last night hubby and I went out to a friend's house in the country for a lovely dinner. After supper, my hubby drove down the road to visit other friends who live in the area while I got to visit and take some country photos. I haven't really had my camera out much lately. Last night really trumped sitting in front of the 40" flat screen. If every night could be like that, I'd get rid of the damn thing. 

 

There are so many distractions it seems.  Early in the week I told my husband "I'm turning off my phone Friday night and I wanna go on a date."  The truth is that Friday nights I'm about as tired as a working person can be but I'm gonna girl-up today and try to get a second wind by the time he picks me up from work.

 

In the meantime, I'm relishing the time I spent out in the country last night. I love going to my friend's place in Finley. She has her very own bird sanctuary right in her back yard complete with a bird bath that has a water dripper to draw in all kinds of dirty birds looking for a cheap bath. She also has giant containers of bird seed that she scoops feed out of for those dirty, hungry birds.

 

So last night, I was watching these little chicks poke their beaks out and could never really get a good pic. We got closer to the bird house and because it is up about 7 feet I couldn't see in it. I got the bright idea to turn on my flash and just blindly snap. I felt really horrible subjecting these babes to such rudeness but my friend assured me they would survive.

 

Gotta go step into my jeans now and get to work.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE jeans day!

 

Hope you have an awesome day wherever you are.

love, susan

My Mad Scientist

Happy Sunday! We are having what I can only describe as perfect weather this weekend. In the 80's, a slight breeze to keep us cooled off and the sky is the color of energy. My batteries, having been depleted by a long winter, are being recharged.

So, with my hubby's hand being casted and pretty much rendered useless (the hand, not him) we've been hanging at home a lot more.

We decided to try starting some seeds on dining room table which we pushed in front of the big window to catch afternoon sun.  I bought a new bright red spray bottle and asked him to spray those starts every time he thought of it.  They were going sooooo well for about the first 10 days.

And then ... he spotted some aphids on a couple of pepper plants I had purchased at the store. My "mad science" hubby decided to make up a home concoction of water and borax to spray on the the leaves. Not sure where he found that idea on the internet (or if he just made it up!) but he forgot to tell me he had put Borax in the water bottle and I used it to spray my new baby seedlings that were, up to that point, coming up great.

No bueno. The nasturtiums seem to be riding the chemical storm but the other seedlings are looking really sad and burned.

I could only laugh.

Hubby and I do not have a great history of growing a garden together. The first spring we moved here we planted over each other in the beautiful garden that used to exist. For most people, this would be most irritating but it's a common theme in our lives. Life is far too short to get mad about such silly stuff. It actually provided a good laugh!!  So, I just went to RiteAid and bought some nice starts.

He got the topsy turvys down for me and I'll be replacing the dirt in them today and get these 'maters going.

Mostly, this has kept his mind off the ever-present dull ache in his arm since he had surgery. He starts physical therapy next week, which may not be very pleasant. I'm glad we have something to laugh about and truthfully it's just nice to be outdoors and doing something besides thinking about how we won't be riding motorcycles until it's so hot we won't want to ride! 

I'm enjoying just putzing around the house. I haven't really done that since we moved here 5 years ago. We are usually rolling somewhere and nothing much gets done at the house all summer. 

I actually read almost a whole book yesterday.  I putzed awhile and then made a pot of coffee & sat in my lounge chair to read. Took a 2-hour nap. Gave myself a mini-pedicure. Played with the dogs a lot. Watched an old movie. Made cookies.

Life is good. And it's funny. And I love my mad scientist!

love, susan



Truth and Justice

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day.

 

I got to be present while an attorney in our office who just passed the Washington State Bar exam was sworn in. Her grandma, a friend and her mentor had driven 3 hours from Spokane to arrive just on time for the swearing in at 5:00pm. I've never witnessed a ceremony of this type and I have to say it was really moving. It reminded that justice isn't just for the beautiful people, or the rich, or the connected.  Justice is for everyone.  Truth. That's what it's about. Truth and justice.

 

I caught this image as I was walking out of a building last night.  A perfect ending to another good day.  Love that.

 

love, susan

This is Your Life, This is Your Month

Happy May Day!  We woke up to freezing weather this morning so it's kind of hard to believe it's spring.

 

I love changing the calendar that I stick up on the fridge. When I take the old one down, I look at it to see where the time went last month. I try to write down upcoming events so I'll know what my choices for entertainment will be but April was full of doctor appointments, surgery for the hubby and a haircut/hi-light for me and a very nice surprise visit with a high school buddy who breezed into town.  The big event was the cow round-up I wrote about in my last post. It was not a bad month, just different.

 

May's calendar went up this morning completely blank. With hubby's hand casted it will definitely change how we spend our off time. I'm totally okay with this. No plans yet but we've got some container gardening goin' on and that will require some time and effort on our part. I'm thinking a trip to the dog park and I wanna make time to go see the Dock Dogs of Tricities practice on Monday nights. For those who don't know what that is ... it is simply throwing a floating object off the end of the dock and seeing how far your dog can fly before it hits the water. They've made a competition out of it and I'm very interested in seeing it done. I have a border collie who is part bird and I think she'd like it.  Thing is, I don't know if she can swim ... (laugh out loud).

 

One of the lawyers at work retired yesterday. It was literally his last day of work. At the end of the day, we had a gathering for cake & cookies. A lot of folks showed up and gave him a nice send off. He had worked every day for 38 years. Imagine that.

 

This is your life. This is your month. How are you going to spend it?

 

love, susan