Love
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Y is for Yes Please
My N post was about items that I will say ‘No, thank you’ if they are offered to me. Being that it is a holiday Friday, and I am lazy, here are a few items that I enjoy, and if they are offered to me, I will say, ‘Yes please’. In no particular order… Potatoes. French fries, potato chips, latkes (Happy Hanukkah tonight!), hashed browns, baked potatoes, whatever. I love them. Salads. So many different salads are delicious. Green salad, pasta salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, arugula salad, Caesar salad… Pasta. So many pastas that I love, but my personal favorite is the mushroom pasta at a restaurant in Oakland,…
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T is for Tree
Our first trip to Hawaii was in 2005, the same year that I started my blog. There are no pictures of that trip here, because we went to Hawaii in June, and I started my blog in November. One thing that amazed me was the Banyan Tree near the Waikiki aquarium. California is not tropical, and I had never seen a Banyan Tree. Banyan trees are not native to Hawaii, they were brought from India, where, according to this site, Banyan is a derivative of the word ‘Banya’, which means merchant in the Gujarati language of India, where Banyan trees provided much needed shade for merchants selling their wares. …
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S is for Smokey
When I was very small, my brother Richard was my hero, and he was my curator for what was good and interesting in the world. What Richard wanted, I wanted. Then my mom and my Great Aunt Flo went to Yosemite for a little vacation, and my mom wanted to bring us gifts home. She saw some tom-toms that would be perfect for Richard, but there was only one set at the gift shop. She looked around, distressed, not sure what to get for me. She settled on a stuffed Smokey Bear. I never looked back. Smokey was my absolute Best Friend. I took him everywhere. I was, however, very…
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Q is for Quote – (Semi) Wordless Wednesday
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H is for Horses
I’m not sure when my love for horses started. As a small child I loved all animals, but at some point I fell especially in love with horses. Perhaps it was the influence of my friend Aimee, who lived across the street from me in Fairbanks and was a big fan of horses. She lives in California now, and she has horses. Look at that pretty face, the soft gentle eyes. I just want to pet this beautiful horse. Who knows, perhaps this horse is an asshole, but it looks like it would be so very affectionate and loving. My friend Nikki has horses, and when she goes to visit…
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F is for Free
My readers know of the free tickets that we were given on our flight home from Portland in June, and that we used those tickets to travel to Maui last month. I was so thankful for the opportunity to have a real vacation…traveling to Portland for a long weekend is always lovely, and I was thrilled to see my family there, but it doesn’t really feel like vacation, especially since our main purpose for going up was to scatter my father’s ashes. As I’m sure you have guessed, ‘free’ doesn’t generally mean ‘free’. The tickets were for the cheapest possible seats, and on Alaska Airlines these days, that means you…
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Meme Monday
My brain has been very distracted lately. In late August, my 97 1/2 year old Great Aunt fell. She lived alone, but was able to call 911, and a neighbor was able to let the paramedics in, and off she went to the hospital. She said her ribs hurt, so they did an X-Ray of her ribs, found no problems, and sent her home. They sent her home even though she could not walk without collapsing in extreme pain, and even though she lived alone. One of my cousins, K, took her back to her house, where she stayed for almost a week, until her follow up visit with her…
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Catching Up….
I’m not sure if you will be able to see this video or not…it shows for me. It’s just the view from the house where we stayed last weekend, and the delicious rain outside…not so delightful to those of you not in the midst of a drought. But delightful for me to be sure. It’s been a busy time around here. Or not around here, actually. Last weekend we flew up to Portland to see my family, and also to scatter my father’s ashes, as was his wish. I was simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the trip. So do I tell you about it sequentially, or start with the…
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Meme Monday
I haven’t found a way to weave this meme in with the content below, but it speaks to me. This weekend was another of easing back into normal. Saturday, I got my hair done. I’ve been pretty comfortable getting my hair done during the pandemic, ever since I heard of a study done on two hairdressers who both tested positive for COVID, and had been seeing a lot of clients (I think maybe they worked at a Supercuts or something like that), and they did not pass it on to a single client. They were able to do really thorough contact tracing and no one got sick. Thanks to masks.…
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Friday Randomness
Today’s post is one of those potpourri type posts, where I have some ideas, but haven’t gotten around to putting them in their own blog posts, so I am going to lump them all together. Ted and Maya were away last week. Ted’s aunt, who lives in Salt Lake City, had a stroke last year. His mom wanted to go visit her, but of course she could not, due to COVID restrictions. Earlier this year, his mom fell and fractured her foot. It is mostly healed now, but Ted and his brother weren’t thrilled with the idea of her traveling alone. She is nearing her mid-80s, and is extremely active,…
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Wordless Wednesday – Bath time edition
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Meme Monday – Snaily Edition
Again, I am using a cartoon instead of a meme. Is that wrong of me? I don’t know. When I was 9 or 10, I was playing outside on the lawn, when I stepped on something that went kind of crunch. I didn’t step hard, but hard enough to hear and feel it before pulling my foot back. My brother said that it was probably a snail, and that I had cracked its shell. I was horrified, and went inside to ask my mom what happens when you step on a snail and crack their shell. She said she thought they died. Wrong answer. I was a sensitive, tender hearted…
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(No) Meme Monday – Happy Birthday Ted!
Today is Ted’s Birthday! We had a wonderful weekend….Saturday some vaccinated friends had us over for a very small (there were 4 of us) get together, and gosh it felt great to not wear our masks and be around people and see their faces for a change. They made Ted a special birthday treat that was low carb, no sugar, no dairy, so he got to have some sweet for a change. We watched the Kentucky Derby, and for once I actually bet online, which was a mistake because I lost. It was a great day. Then yesterday, we had another small get together with vaccinated family, just the same…
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Meme Monday – Karma
Many years ago, when Ted and I were dating, we found ourselves with his family, out in the suburbs, playing miniature golf. I don’t remember why. One thing about Ted and his brother is that they love to tease people. His brother especially gets a kick out of pushing people’s buttons. Not really in a cruel way, but also not in an especially kind way. He loves to see people’s reactions. So here’s the scene. I’m trying my best to play miniature golf, but I have very little skill and I’m missing quite often and getting frustrated. It’s not fun to fail. Ted and his brother are pretending that they…
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Meme Monday – Golden Birthday
April 6th was Mulder’s ‘Golden Birthday’. Your ‘golden birthday’, also known as your ‘champagne birthday’, is when your age matches the day of the month you were born, so Mulder turned 6 on the 6th. Due to the lifespan of dogs, and poor planning on the part of those creating our calendar, a lot of dogs never reach their golden birthday. Anyway, we decided to celebrate by giving Mulder his own hamburger for dinner. He loves hamburgers, and he loves carrots. Lucky for you, Ted took a video. If you have a dog in your life, do they took treats to their bed to eat? Genevieve used to do this…