Friday Randomness
How is it Friday already? I have no idea. This week was back to work, which somehow went really quickly anyway. A week and a half off was really nice though. Do you like my house horse, Clip Clop, above? He’s darling.
Anyone want to do yoga with me? Yoga With Adriene has a new practice every Saturday in January. I know we’re one week in already, but if you’re at all charmed (like I am) at the idea of us doing the same practice on the same day, let’s do the Saturday practices! Search for Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. I’m not sure what time the new practices will be posted, usually pretty early. Not sure if I’ll try to manage the live stream or not, I’ve never tried to figure that out.
These sweet brothers are the current residents at PetCo, where I volunteer 2 days a week to clean their kennel while they await adoption. They are very loving and sweet, but they made me cry a little, because they made me think about my mom. Why? Because they are here for adoption because their mom died. Which reminds me of my mom’s sweet Hooligans, Merry and Pippen. (Link is to her post about the same thing.) How confusing it must have been for them, when she left for breakfast with friends one Saturday, and they ended up taking her to the ER, and she was whisked off to Anchorage for care and they never saw her again. My brother and SIL could not take them in, as they had cats of their own at the time, so they were surrendered to the no kill shelter. I hope they were adopted together. SIGH.
In more cheerful news, I put these little gummy bears in the little free library yesterday. I bought them on Christmas Eve at the Chevron station when I panicked about stocking stuffers. Then I walked over to 7-11, and found gummy worms, which Maya likes more. So these are extra and will not get eaten. As I was walking with them, I thought back to my time in Junior College. There were a group of us that would sit on the brick steps and chat between classes, watching the world go by. In the hot (HOT) days of August, we discovered that if you lick the flat back of a gummy bear, it will stick to the side of a brick, and you can then watch it melt like a bad LSD trip. Ah, to be young, right? Notice the copy of Moby Dick a few books to the right of the gummies.
I took this picture back when Mulder was almost 1. He’s thinking maybe he can get the squirrel on the fence, but there’s no way that’s going to happen. See the little tree/bush in the background? I liked it like this, short and kind of bushy. It’s out of control now, and we don’t have the right tools to trim it ourselves.
See how it’s gone straight up as we’ve badly trimmed it over the years? We can’t reach the top, and I don’t want it to get worse. Actually, that angle doesn’t look that bad. Look at this one.
See how it’s all leggy and reaching over like a crazed plant? I don’t like that. I mean, we could call a gardener, but who is going to come out for such a small job? Good news! Our friends’ son has recently gotten into landscaping, and is going to come and trim it back this morning. He said it’s the perfect time of year for a ‘hard pruning’. There’s another plant that could use some similar help. I’m hopeful for a prettier plant this summer/fall. (Does anyone else find the big eucalyptus tree in the background menacing? We live in constant fear that it will drop a branch on our house, mainly because they are old and have dropped branches on our fence and our neighbor’s yard in the recent past.)
Yesterday would have been my first husband David Bowie’s birthday, and our favorite radio station, KEXP, played all Bowie for their morning show. When Life on Mars came on, it made me laugh, because when we had COVID a couple of years ago (last year?), Maya lost her voice and enjoyed testing it out by singing the high part, “Is there life on Mars?” LOL.
Today’s plans, aside from gardening help and my regular exercise, will include taking care of the cats, and then linner (late lunch, early dinner) with my friend Neva. We usually get together in December to celebrate Christmas and my birthday, but this year our dates didn’t mesh, so we postponed to now. Excellent, actually, because I like stretching it out a bit. I always make fudge for her and her family, and this year is no exception. For packaging, I bought a little cookie box from the bakery at the grocery store, then I used the front of a lovely Christmas card we received this year as a decoration. Nice, huh?
How about you? Have you ever watched gummy bears melt? Do you have garden challenges? Are you watching the new season of The Pitt? If you haven’t watched yet, the first episode is NSFD (Not Safe For Dinner.)
42 Comments
StephLove
Now that Beth is retired, she is thinking of volunteering with cats at a shelter.
I have to admit, I have never watched a gummy bear melt, but when North was in middle school, for homework they had to put one in water and watch it swell– it was a lesson about osmosis.
I used to make fudge at Christmastime, but I haven’t in years. Yours looks scrumptious.
J
I hadn’t thought to put one in water, what a fun idea!
Jenny
Wait- are you sure you don’t want to adopt two sweet cats??? They might be the perfect fit for you! They look adorable, and how sad for them to have lost their mom.
I’ll check out the Saturday Yoga with Adriene! I do like her, I need to do yoga and I keep not making time for it. I’ll try to do her new one tomorrow and report back.
J
Aren’t they sweet? If Ted weren’t allergic (like, REALLY allergic) we would certainly have adopted at least 2 cats by now.
Whether you do yoga tomorrow or not, I’m going to imagine that we’re doing it together! Yay!
AC
Eighteen years ago: I see that I read and commented on that post. It makes me a bit sad, for both her and the cats.
J
Yes, me too. Sigh.
Birchie
Well I know what I’m doing the next time that a pack of gummy bears comes my way!
Life lessons from Mulder: always dream big.
J
I hadn’t thought of that weird experiment in years, and then it suddenly popped into my head as I was walking yesterday. Funny.
Margaret
My cat doesn’t tolerate other ones, or I wouldn’t be able to resist a couple more. I don’t have the streaming service for the Pitt or I would watch it. As it is, I watch two medical shows already! That’s probably enough. David Bowie was your first husband? Mine was George Harrison. 🙂
J
Oh, my mom was team George too!
Nicole MacPherson
Oooh I would totally eat those gummy bears. I got Jake a bag of Frank’s Red Hot gummies for his Christmas stocking and yes, that sounds super weird, but they are GOOD. Also they are naturally portion-controlled because you really can’t eat more than a couple at a time. We all ended up eating them so I just picked up another bag at Costco this week.
J
Red hot gummies sounds delicious. Cinnamon?
Diane
Ooh I saw Adrienne”s January series and was tempted, but I feel like I barely get 15 minutes of yoga in a day; 30 + miutes would be a stretch for me. (Pun!) Maybe I can pick and choose and do her shorter practices when they come up. I managed to do Yoga almost every day last year (I think I missed one or two days in December when life was really full.), and I want to keep that streak.
I lvoe haribo gummy beears – they are the perfect gummy bears, IMH. Although these days we are really into Haribo Twin Snakes – sweet AND sour together!
J
I schedule shorter yoga for days when I don’t have enough time to do 20 – 30 minutes.
Lisa’s Yarns
I’m finally watching season 1 of the Pitt. My brain could not handle the intensity when I tried to watch it last fall. I am loving it! Noah Wylie is sooo good!
Everything is covered in snow here and then we got rain so now it’s slick and awful out. I hate rain in the winter!!
J
Oh, season one was crazy.
nance
Mulder would love my house in the morning when all the squirrels raid my peanuts on the front porch and the one I call Short Stack (she’s missing half her tail) climbs up the screen on the front window to get a peanut off the top of the window frame. Of course I would let him on my couch to see all of this, along with Piper.
What the heck, bring ClipClop too. It really is a big couch.
Rick is always admonishing me about pruning. I like the shrubbery less manicured and more free and easy looking (within reason, of course). He likes things tight and tidy and shaped. Somehow, we coexist.
I used to buy a 5-pound bag of gummy bears from the warehouse club solely for Rick. I don’t care for them. He finally asked me to stop buying them and I didn’t ask why, but we no longer have gummy anything in the house.
I love your gesture of putting the candy in the Little Free. I’m sure it made someone’s day, which is more than I can say for Moby-Dick. LOL
J
We used to have a squirrel nearby that we would see with part of a tail. Maya named him ‘Stumpy’ and became very attached to him. Mulder would not sit on your sofa and quietly watch, he would lose his shit and YELL. He was an alarmist for sure.
I like my plants to look a little free and easy looking too, which is possibly how we got here.
Now I’m going to watch and see if Moby Dick is still there next time I pass by!
Daria
Aight, Julie, we’ve been through this before- David was MY husband. LOL Isn’t he amazing…
I would love to do Adrinne series, but cannot add any more things… You know we joined the YMCA? So now I can do classes there- yoga, pilates, cycling (did it today, survived), strength, and swimming. I can swing by after work for a short sesh or a longer stint on weekends. I think I finally- FINALLY- broke my hate of exercise.
We have a bunch of Little libraries in the neighborhood and beyond and I have left books there many times. Also, took books out. I LOOOVE the fact that you did that- so cute.
The Pitt… We watched the first season and omg, so good, but I was crying many times, especially during the scenes of father dying and the two siblings deciding to put him on life support or let him go; and the scene with a brain-dead high schooler. OOOOOFFFFFF.
J
Since you’re younger than me, I’m assuming you are his ‘post Julie, pre Iman’ wife.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the YMCA! That’s wonderful, and so many options, right?
Yeah, the Pitt hits hard, right?
ernie
Do we have gardening challenges? Hell yes. I can barely keep the inside of the house ‘trimmed’ and thriving. Tank is an excellent landscaping dude. When he has time in the summer, he will pitch in wherever possible. I think we still own two lawnmowers because of him. He was instrumental in taking down the dead tree that tried to fall on me over the summer. Hooray for friends with sons who know about these things.
I love that horse meme. What a riot. You always have the best memes.
I do think you did a great job with the fudge box.
I admit, I literally paused and thought – Oh, first husb . . . ? Oh, wait a minute! Bah ha ha.
The cat story broke my heart. So sad. I’m glad they have each other. That’s why we adopted two kids – wanted them to have somone who knew where they’d been and what they’d experiences. Also, we’re a little cray cray. 😉
J
I feel like more plants die around here than thrive. SIGH.
I never used to be into memes, really, then in 2020 I saw so many good ones, I started collecting them. So when I see a good one, I just grab it for my blog.
Amanda
I love the horse pic on the couch. I had a good laugh. Thanks. Garden challenges? Keeping up the water is my biggest problem living in Australia.
I love that you left the gummy bears in the free library.
Cheers from Amanda
J
Keeping up the water is rough around here too. I would say we get rain for about 5 months a year, some of that being very little, so the rest of it is from the hose. I’m negligent, so yeah. Lots of things die.
BTW, Welcome Amanda!
coco
those two cats are so cute! if i show them to my daughter, she’s want to adopt them! her dream job is to take care the animals!!!
I am doing yoga few times a week to unwind my mind, i find it super calming.
J
I was intermittent with my yoga until 2024, when I started doing it every day. I made it about a year and a half without missing a day. Now I do miss occasionally, but it’s always the exception. My plan is always to do at least 15 minutes of yoga daily.
PocoBrat
Gah, I was in a mope and missed reading this post in a timely manner… I’d LOVE to do Saturday yoga with you, J! I remember doing January yoga with you last year 🙂
The kitten stories and the connection with your mom… I’m sorry that is so hard and sad… the things that remind us are sometimes so random. Also, just an ordinary day that went bad is PTSD material.
A and I DID settle in to watch the first episode of _The Pitt_. We loved the first season, but this one ep seemed meh? was it just us?
Another reason to yearn for summer–so I can try your gummy bears trick!
J
Oh Maya…life can be full of emotional land mines, can’t it? I have said this to you before I think, but when my mom died, and again when my dad died, and honestly again when Mulder died…I could muddle through, but it took almost nothing to throw me into a spiral. A long line at the grocery store, having to make a phone call that I didn’t want to make (like for a dentist appt or whatever), someone cutting me off in traffic. I had exactly enough energy to squeak by, and not one more drop. And look at the things you’ve managed. You went with your students to Paris and somewhere else I’ve forgotten, somewhere warm. You’ve gotten through the holidays. You’ve been there for your kids in their own grief and adventures, you’ve cared for Big A with his mystery illness. You’ve blogged and written and been supportive of our blogging community. You’re doing SO WELL, because you are strong and resilient and you have a great support system holding you up. I am sure you are barely managing to do some of these things (oh yeah, your job too!) but you’re doing them. Yay you!
Melissa
That meme—I love it! At the moment, I don’t know what my garden looks like because we have been away since Christmas. I hope it hasn’t got too out of control. I split my purple flags in the Spring, and most of them look like they did not survive. I hope some at least will show signs of recovery over winter. I think your tree/shrub will respond well to a hard prune.
J
Thank you! I’m going to try to be more aggressive when letting it come back, and see if that help.
San
I want a pet miniature pony, just sayin’ 🙂
That gummy bear story took a funny turn. They’re great runner’s fuel btw!
J
Mini horse, perfect pet, right? (Ted says no, they will poop in your house, but I say THIS IS MY DREAM)
LOL on the melty gummy bears…
NGS
Okay, I’m late to this post, but I’m going to start wtih the Yoga to Feel Your Best video and do them as I can! Yay!
J
Yay! Team Yoga!
Gina
Our movers broke our television so I have not watched anything! 🙁
I have found I cannot do yoga well at all! 🙁
My backyard is currently a dirt pit that awaits spring for us to plant things. We only have so much money at one time to do so many things, and the yard was one thing we decided to wait on. 🙁
Wow, I am not the bearer of great news today!
J
Yes, it’s one thing at a time, right? Your yard is a blank canvas awaiting your imagination. You live in a part of the world where most things will grow though, so you can do something nice with it.
Sarah
I DO want to do the yoga challenge, but it is very hard for me to start in the moddle. Can we do a February yoga challenge? I’d be all in for that…
J
Absolutely! Every month she posts a calendar. We could do every Saturday of that calendar together.
Sarah
Yes! I am aaaaall in!
J
Yay! I will post something, we can vote!
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I am so late in catching up. I had to think of you and wondered if you start the year with yoga again. I remember I joined you last year and really enjoyed it. So I have set out to do yoga every day in January and I am enjoying it so much. Maybe I pick Adriennes video for today.
The fudge looks yummy. Having some chocolate cravings. Sigh.
J
I love that you are doing yoga every day!