Love
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Home from Alaska!
We flew home from Alaska last night, we had a wonderful time. 11 days, and we went to Fairbanks, Anchorage, Homer, and Juneau. I have a lot to say and am still figuring out how I want to write about it here. I think I will end up making a lot of smaller posts, to avoid overwhelming with a ton of pictures and so on. For now, here is a picture I liked, from Homer. Loved this little otter just hanging out near the boats.
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Babysitting Theo
This is Theo, a Keeshond that we babysat over the weekend. He is a foster dog at the rescue where we got both Mulder and Genevieve, Bay Area Keeshonden Rescue (BARK). His foster dad was going out of town for the weekend, and the rescue knew how much we have been missing Mulder, so they asked if we might want to babysit Theo. Theo is 18 months old, and has moved a few times. He came to Northern California from New York, and apparently his most recent family had two other dogs that didn’t adjust to him, so they had to give him up. He’s a very sweet boy, though…
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Miscellaneous Monday
My company extended our 4 day workweek through 2023, so Fridays are my ‘me’ days. My Friday morning walks are more relaxed and meandering than the other weekdays, since I don’t have to be back and at my desk by 8:00. I enjoy them, but not as much as I did when I had Mulder to accompany me in exploring our town. Le Sigh. This last Friday, I had an appointment at 11:00, after which I took myself to lunch, where I enjoyed a lovely grilled asparagus salad with a delicious biscuit and a glass of Sancerre. I finished up my chapters of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for Engee’s…
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This is Us – 30 Years In
Ted and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary today. Sometimes I cannot believe it has been that long, but then I look in the mirror and realize that we are getting older, and I guess it makes sense. We met in 1987 at San Francisco State University. He was a Film major, and I was an International Relations major, and we were taking one of the required classes, Speech 150. It was not love at first sight, he thought I was a spoiled rich girl, and I thought he was full of himself. As time went by that semester, we got to know each other a bit more. I met…
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Songs About Relationships
I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here before, but my husband Ted has a music podcast, Planet LP, which has morphed over the years. When he first started as a way to entertain himself and stay creative in the early days of the podcast, he talked about music and books. Then he took on a cohost and the format turned to music only. Eventually, his cohost realized that he was too busy for the commitment, and is now an occasional guest. At one point Ted’s podcast was once a week, but when he started at his current job, he realized he had far less down time than his…
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Land Mines
This morning I woke up from a disturbing dream. I was sitting at an outdoor cafe, and my friend Katie, along with some family and friends, walked past on the sidewalk, pretending that they didn’t know me. I caught up with them, and asked one of the friends what was wrong, why was Katie mad at me? “Because you didn’t bring a gift to her funeral.” Oh. Rats. I should have done that. Wait, I DID bring a gift…I brought a framed photo of Katie and Janet and me. Perhaps my card with the gift had gone missing. I was so sad to have Katie mad at me. Later, her…
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Wordless Wednesday – Missing my Boy
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Mulder
Mulder Asregadoo April 6, 2015 – May 19, 2023 You all know that Mulder’s lymphoma came back in April, soon after his 8th birthday. He deteriorated pretty quickly, and on May 2nd, I took him to the vet to try to determine his situation. His spleen and many other lymphatic organs were very swollen. She said that if we gave him an injection of enzymes, it would help, perhaps for a month or more. So we went ahead with that. It did help. It was miraculous. He felt amazingly better within 15 hours, all of the inflammation went away, he was playful and happy again. It was fabulous. Unfortunately, only…
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Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day turns bittersweet when your mother dies. A day to celebrate her when she is not here, it is difficult. I miss my mom every day. When I had Maya and became a mother, I felt a different bond with my mom than I had had before. I understood her more. She gave me such grace and understanding, laughed with me, gave me guidance. She was proud of the mother that I became. I don’t think there is anyone in your life that will love you as unconditionally as your parents, with the possible exception of your child or your dog. I am very thankful to have had the…
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Wordless Wednesday – Feeling Good
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Friday Randomness – Catching Up
First off, Happy (belated) Birthday to my wonderful husband, Ted! I shared this picture last year too, but I like it, so I’m sharing it again. His birthday was Wednesday, and he and Maya both took the day off from work. I worked, but knocked off a little early. Maya took Ted out for breakfast, and then they went bookstore shopping, which is something we all love doing. They came home and watched Dune, which they both enjoyed. Ted had seen it when it came out, but Maya hadn’t. I worked for the first hour, so I came in too late and didn’t really pay attention. We went out for…
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Changing the Subject (Mostly)
This is Ted looking cute at a local restaurant in our town. We went downtown last weekend and had a snack and some wine, then went to a bookstore. Some of my favorite things: Ted, food, wine, books. Excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon on a beautiful day. This is one of the dishes we had. I did not take a picture, this is from the restaurant Facebook page. It’s asparagus, labneh, blood orange, arugula, and a ‘perfect egg’. The picture has spring greens, but ours was just arugula, which is fine by me, because I love arugula. When the menu said ‘perfect egg’, I assumed that was going…
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Discouraged
This is my beautiful boy, darling boy on our walk this morning (Friday). On Tuesday, both Maya and I separately found enlarged lymph nodes on Mulder’s neck. They have only grown since then. I fear this means that he is no longer in remission, and his lymphoma is back. Shit shit shit. We have an appointment with the vet on Monday, but I know what the answer will be. He had 5 months of chemotherapy, and at first all was well. But as time went on, it got harder and harder for him. He had probably 3 bad days every week, where he would walk around feeling like crap, throw…
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Miscellaneous Monday
I don’t know what to write about today, so I’m going to just throw a bunch of stuff at you. Here goes. Regarding the meme above, this is how I felt when we were in France last year. The names of the towns we stayed in were pronounced completely differently than they looked to my American eyes. Mougins is pronounced ‘MOO-jan‘ with a soft j, short a, and a soft n. Click the link to hear. Vincennes is a little closer to how it looks, VA-sen, with a short A. One of the stops on our train ride between Paris and Vincennes is Nation, pronounced NA-si-on, with all short vowels.…
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Intention vs. Accountability
There are things that I intend to do, or not do, but then things fall apart when faced with reality, and I fail on my intention. I have an ongoing issue with my love for potato chips. I do not intend to eat them practically every day. I don’t keep them in the house, usually, because if they are here I will eat them. Especially if they are Salt and Vinegar Kettle Chips, or sometimes, Doritos. So I start out my day just fine, but then I go to the grocery store on my lunch hour, and I get to the check out line, and there they are. Somehow, magically,…
