Birthday Fun

We celebrated Jeannie's birthday on Saturday.   Her choice for cake was German Chocolate.  Here's the cake and the baker!  (Click on a picture to enlarge.)

The best present Jeannie could have received was to have all her family present - husband and 3 daughters.

Joe with Amy's daughter Stephanie.  Steph and Ara planned her trip back when we were in Baltimore, and Steph was the only person who knew she was coming for her Mom's birthday.  She picked her up at the airport and drove her to Jeannie.

Sarah:

Amy:

Donald and Martha, his Mom:

Today, Sunday, we celebrated Keira's 5th birthday at their new house.  One of the fun things they got was a bounce house for the kids, and Ara finally gave in to her "kid" persona.  Of course the other kids jumped all over her:

And then, as always, there is the cornhole game:

It's been fun celebrating the past two days.  Ara is here until Tuesday, I believe, and then comes back for Christmas vacation and Autumn's birthday on the 18th of December.

Joe and Sarah just recently moved into their new house, and still have furniture and a couple of appliances to buy.  It is beautiful and the lot is large enough to add a pool, which they intend to do.  They also added a gate for an RV on one side of the house, although no one in the family has an RV so far.

Steve and Meg just moved into a new house in Sacramento, and I haven't seen it as yet.  I understand they also have a huge yard (by California standards), and I'm anxious to visit them.

I'm exhausted, but it sure has been a fun weekend for me - I am happy when I have my kids and grandkids around me.  I also know how much it would have meant to Bill (my ex) had he lived, as he was also very family oriented, especially in his later years.  I hope my grandchildren continue the trend and stay close to one another.

Surprise visitor

I went to Jeannie's this evening to help celebrate her birthday, and got a big surprise.  Ara flew in for a few days, and gave her family a big, big surprise.  Stephanie picked her up at the airport and delivered her to the house.  Jeannie was ecstatic!

I tried to get pictures of all of us this evening, but I'm too tired to even look at them to see how they turned out.  Tomorrow I will be going to Joe & Sarah's house for Keira's birthday.  We have a lot of celebrations in October and November, including Joe's birthday on Nov. 25th.

I haven't been out for so long and it was great to be among people again.  I'm still not feeling all that great, and the heartburn is driving me crazy.  I found online a long list of foods to avoid, and last night baked a cod fillet to go along with some vegetables.  I felt so much better than after my previous meal which was a hamburger.  I'm going to avoid meat for a while and see what happens.  One thing on the list to avoid is caffeine, but coffee has never ever bothered me, which is a good thing.  I don't want to even think about doing without it, and I still love it with half & half.  The heartburn came on so suddenly and i wish I knew the cause of it.

I think I'm just falling apart, a little more as each year goes by.

 

In the Neighborhood

I had planned to walk at Mather this morning and then stop at a Rite Aid or Walgreens to find something for my heartburn.  It's driving me crazy and appears a couple of hours after meals.   I decided at the last minute to just walk around my neighborhood, and quit after a mile.  It's much more difficult walking on the paved road than at Mather where at least half the walk is on packed sand or dirt.  But I finished it, then got in my car and even turned the ignition on.  I decided to just try some peppermint tea when hit with heartburn and see if it helps.  The tea, while still in a sealed package, has been on the shelf for a while.  I may have to resort to Tums or similar.

During the first half of my walk I had to listen to a firestorm of yappy little dogs.  Even when their owners try to shush them, they still bark even louder.  I definitely could not deal with that behavior.

Having been pretty much immobile for the last month, I have resorted to watching a lot of television.  I figured out how to deal with the DVR and record a lot of shows I want to watch, but want to fast forward through commercials.  I mostly like the science and history programs, but have noticed that there are an awful lot of WWII documentaries and I'm getting pretty tired of hearing about Adolph Hitler!

The science and pseudo science programs lean heavily toward alien visitation and presence on the earth.  I have an open mind about it, and have little doubt that there are many other worlds with civilizations, and surely some of them are visiting ours.  But some of the stuff on TV is ridiculous, especially the theory that ancient man had absolutely no brains in his head and had to be taught everything by alien visitors.   On the other hand, there are a lot of humans today without a brain in their heads and could use a little alien tutoring!

The above paragraphs show how desperately I need a little human contact rather than the substitute of media.  Tomorrow is Jeannie's birthday party and I'm looking forward to being among lots of happy people! 

Another nice walk

I went back to Mather Field this morning to walk.  I quit after a mile because I was getting really warm.   After a beautiful week in the mid to high 60's, this week is in the mid to high 70's; that extra 10 degrees makes a big difference.  And since most of the walk is in the sun it feels a lot warmer.

I found the skateboard area vacant, which is really unusual as I have never seen it without at least a few skaters.  I took advantage and got a couple of photos.

The skaters usually wait their turn in front of this wrought iron fence; can you make out the sculpture on the other side of the fence?

I thought I could get a good shot of all the ramps, jumps, bowls, etc., but since it's all concrete there isn't much definition in the photo, but I'll include it anyway. 

I really like this sports complex and it is such a good use of part of the former air force base.

It is so wonderful to feel good enough to venture out every day, to get some exercise, and to hope I will soon be back to normal.  I just wish the damn cough didn't linger on and on.  It's mostly gone but of course comes back when I'm in a check-out line somewhere.

I'm going to a party at Jeannie's house on Saturday, to celebrate her birthday.  I'm eager to get out and be with family and friends, and especially my grandchildren.  It's been ages since I've seen them.

Life is looking up again!

My laugh for the day

I'm not feeling well as you can tell from my recent posts, but I did get a huge laugh from one of the comments to yesterday's post.  Normally when I get ignorant and rude comments I delete them as soon as I see them and was going to delete this one, but somehow it struck me as funny and I wanted to share it with anyone who reads the comments.   Just this once it's funny, but if this joker enters another ridiculous comment like this one I will start moderating the comments before they are published.

I've had a difficult day with the UCD Med system today.  I tried to get an appointment with a specialist I saw a few years back.  I got a response from one of the nurses in her office, and traded a few emails with them; then this morning I heard directly from the doctor who gave me the phone # to make an appointment.  When I called, the person who makes appointments insisted I needed to have my primary doctor give a referral.  I said my primary has resigned and now I have no doctor, but the scheduler kept insisting I needed a referral.  I wrote to the doctor that I was just going to deal with my problem on my own and that I decided not to see a doctor.

It seems the rules over-ride common sense and sensitivity to the patient.  I don't need that at all.

This morning after breakfast and several cups of coffee, and checking emails, reading new blogs, etc., I headed over to Mather Field and walked.  I only walked 20 minutes on a loop I consider to be a mile, and then headed back home.  I've been so inactive since I came back from NY that I didn't want to push myself too hard the first time out in weeks.  Next time I'll try to walk the loop twice, for 2 miles.  I'd like to do that tomorrow - maybe walk at least 4 days out of the week.  I sure felt a lot better after today's walk.

 

Still Laying Low

Just checking in to say not much has changed for me.  I'm feeling better and would probably do well to get some exercise.  I think maybe I'll go walking at Mather Field tomorrow and see how far I can walk.  Walking from the house to the car is the hardest part.    I made a quick trip to Target today and did ok except that I started coughing when I got to the check-out.

I'm sure sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!

You just never know . . .

. . . when something will come along to brighten your whole day.  This morning I drove to the farmers' mkt.  It is held rain or shine throughout the year, and the one closest to me is in one half of the parking lot for the light rail.  Parking is always abundant and easy in and out.

There are a lot of markets in Sacramento, and every one I've been to seems to have a middle aged man and woman singing dismal folks songs.  Don't get me wrong, I like most folk music, but some of it is plain garbage, just as some of any kind of music is garbage.  When I got out of my car this morning I heard the voice over the microphone, but something sounded different.

There was a woman with a gorgeous voice singing and playing a tambourine, another woman playing a guitar, and the best part of it all, a young boy about 8 or 10 who had a drum on his lap and was providing an exotic beat.  I don't know drums so I can't say what kind it was, but this young kid was the most endearing little thing.  He also was very good on the drum.  They played some of the better folk music that I've heard before, and some I haven't.  They looked Mexican but not really, but of course that's kind of a stereotypical statement and I'm not sure it matters what their heritage is.   As I said in the beginning, you just never know when something will come along to change your attitude - I have always wished these markets would just forget the music, but this small group changed my mind and my mood.  I'm going to have a very happy day!

I want to thank all those who have written me such encouraging comments.  Your kind words are lifting me out of the mood I've been in the entire month of October.  To have spent a wonderful 3 weeks in New York and then come back to being ill ever since is not conducive to writing, and I apologize for the negativity.

So I've spent $10 on produce this morning (and come away with all I could carry), plus $1 I threw into the flower pot in front of the singers, and now I need to decide what I'm going to use in which dishes.  I'm definitely going to make my own tomato sauce!  Not too much of it at first because I'm not sure how I will like it.  Tomatoes don't agree with me since my gallbladder removal, but I can eat heirloom tomatoes with no problem so that is what I bought this morning.

We had occasional periods of heavy rain yesterday and throughout the night, but not enough to even put a scratch in the drought, much less a dent.  Anything we get will be good.  I'm a bit jealous of the folks in the southeast this morning when I think of the snow they are getting.   Too bad I can't be in the Smoky Mountains right now.