Work is crazy busy this week, so I’m just going to jump on in, OK?  Here are a few random thoughts buzzing around in my brain. I have been hearing some of the coverage of the 20th anniversary of the assassination of JFK.  Interesting tidbits…there was a story on NPR yesterday, where they were discussing how much the rest of the country HATED Dallas afterwords.  People having polite conversation with a nearby table in a restaurant, and when they said they were from Dallas, people would get up and leave.  That kind of thing.  I can’t imagine.  I think nowadays we’d be more sympathetic to the residents of a city…

I’m reading the new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and at almost half way in, I’m loving it.  It’s the story of a Nigerian girl who comes to America to get an education, because the colleges in Nigeria keep closing down due to strikes.  She’s getting ready to go back to Nigeria, many years later, and see what the world there has for her…but right now we’re in flashbacks, her college life, trying to live as an American African (different from an African American), trying to pay for tuition and rent and so on.  Trying to overcome her self hatred at some of the things she has done. I’m adjusting…

Here it is, Friday morning.  I’m feeling both happy and sad today, and in a bit of a rush, so I’ll quickly tell you what’s going through my brain, and then move on. Sad.  My best friend’s grandma died this week.  She had a stroke a few weeks ago, and either something else came up, or she had another stroke.  One of my grandmas had a stroke the same week, and is doing fine and fully recovered.  Strange how life is.  (Also, they caught my grandma’s stroke while it was happening, I think, which makes a huge difference.) Happy, because I’m going to Stockton today for the funeral.  I’ll get…

OK, it’s been awhile, so let’s just dive in, OK? Last weekend, we went to a party that was held at the clubhouse of a fairly unique condo complex. I was in love, and Ted was in love on my behalf. This particular condo complex includes about 80 townhouses, 2 to 3 bedrooms, right on the border of Mt. Diablo. What makes this complex different is that they have stables right there on site, for approximately 40 horses. They also have people hired to clean stalls, and they feed the horses. They also have 4 riding areas, one covered, and an area where you train your horse on a lead.…

We decided to start our weekend early, and went out to dinner, and then to the new Star Trek (link is to Ted’s review on his blog) movie on Thursday evening.  I like it when we do something like that during the week…though it can make for a tired Friday, it makes the weekend feel a bit longer.  I enjoyed the movie, and I’m glad we went to see it, but I didn’t LOVE it.  I think they did a really good job, but there was a sense of retreading an old story, rather than going in a new direction. Saturday I decided to get my butt in gear and…

Happy Birthday to my wonderful super amazing husband, Ted!  I got confused last night and wrote, “Happy 38” on our calendar.  That’s 10 years ago.  To celebrate his birthday, Ted likes to go for special birthday rides on his bike.  One year over the Golden Gate Bridge, another year over near Benicia.   This year he wants to ride up in the Marin Headlands.  So I’m playing hookey from work, and I’ll drive in with him.  I don’t even have a bike, so I won’t be riding, but I’ll drop him off on the SF side of the GG Bridge, then I’ll drive over to Sausalito.  I’ll have a nice walk…

This week was Spring Break for Maya, and I decided to take the week off from work as well. I’ve been with my company for 12 years now, with one 5 month hiatus when I was laid off, and I accrue vacation time pretty quickly, but we’re not allowed to have a lot on the books, so I take a random Friday off here and there, but once in awhile I need to take a week off. The week started off busy busy busy. Friday I had errands galore to run, as we had a houseful of teens coming over on Saturday to help Maya celebrate her birthday. Then we…

Happy Friday Everyone!  We finished watching Season 3 of Downton Abbey this week. Agggghhh! How can it be over already? I know, you’re probably saying, “But I’ve only seen 3 episodes thus far, how can you have seen all 7 plus the Christmas Special?” The answer my friend is that I donated money to my local PBS station, and they sent me the DVD. I will not give any plot spoilers, but I will tell you that the LOOK of the show is much better on DVD than it is on broadcast TV. This was a big season in many ways, but I recommend not googling anything, since those in…

Jumping right on in here…. I enjoyed my time off from work.  Sunday we had some friends over that we haven’t seen in ages.  There’s something about having kids who are in school and sports and trying to support them, that doesn’t leave one with much time, so it can be hard to get together.  Then there’s work, which is also a huge time suck.  So between the work and the commuting and the kids and so on, we haven’t seen them in awhile.  Finally we did.    I made a huge meatloaf, we laughed and ate and relaxed.  It was excellent. Also, went to Stockton to see my Grandma.  She’s…

Friday already?  Wow.  That’s crazy.  OK, here we go. I adore the fact that Obama won.  I keep hearing how our economy is on the mend, things are getting better, all of that.  I want Obama to get credit.  I don’t necessarily think that the President actually has much power to make jobs and fix the economy.  But if Obama is in the White House while it happens, then he gets credit, and hopefully the next election will also go well.  If Romney were in the White House, he would get credit, and the next election might go his way.  I don’t like that.  Then of course there’s the whole…

Did anyone notice that it’s November?  Thinking maybe I’ll try for NaBloPoMo this year.  A few years ago, it was more difficult for me to restrict myself to a post a day, and now it’s crazy for me to post two days in a row.  So let’s see if I can rise to the challenge.  We’ll start with some randomness, shall we? Maya took her written driving test on Tuesday, and passed, so now she has her permit.  I don’t know what the laws are in your state, but here, that means she has to take 3 driving lessons (2 hours each), drive at least 50 hours for practice, and…