Oh yeah…what a great game! I was beginning to worry during the first half when the Lakers were down 17, but Kobe came to the rescue and scored 39 points. I am so excited for the Lakers to be going to the Finals once again. Now we just have to see who they are going to play. Let’s hope the East ends tomorrow night.

I’m spending every night watching basketball. Of course I’m rooting for the Lakers who are now up 3-1. But I’m also rooting for the Celtics ’cause I think a Lakers vs Celtics finals would be great–just like old times. Right now the Celtics are up 3-2 over the Pistons, but they play on Friday in Detroit so I wouldn’t be surprised to see that series go to 7 games. The Pistons are vicious and nasty, so it’s hard to tell who will win.

Meanwhile, back to the Lakers. There were a number of crummy calls (and non-calls) by the refs last night and it’s a wonder the Lakers won. In fact, the NBA actually made a statement today saying the refs made a mistake in not calling a foul on the Lakers with 2.1 sec left in the game. But they also missed another call at the end of the game where the ball hit the rim of the basket but they neglected to call it. That one would have gone the Lakers way. So I guess it all evened out. Tomorrow night is game 5 in LA, so I’m hopeful the Lakers win that one and end this series. Going back to San Antonio won’t be a good thing. Plus it will be very fun to win the Western Conference in LA.

Between basketball and working from home, I’ve had virtually no time for much else. I need to do lots around the house but, unfortunately, I will have to work all weekend to prepare for the 2007 audit that begins on Monday. I’ll be so grateful to have this damn audit completed and hope to have a bit of normalcy at work for at least 3-4 months. I am so busy right now that I don’t even have time to use the ‘comp time’ that I’ve accumulated for working from home. I’m also supposed to take a couple of ‘floating holidays’ this summer, but don’t see how that will happen either.

Speaking of work, gotta head off to bed in order to rise and shine at 5:00 tomorrow morning. Have an early morning meeting at 7:00. I hate these damn early meetings.

Tomorrow’s the first big holiday of the summer, but you certainly wouldn’t think that it’s summer here. It’s been overcast and rainy since Thursday, and the temperature is still in the high 50’s, low 60’s. I’m glad to be off work tomorrow, but don’t plan on doing much other than sleeping in.

Have spent a good chunk of the weekend working for my job. Still have more to do tonight and tomorrow, but at least I’ll be somewhat caught up when I head back to work on Tuesday. The 2007 audit begins on 6/2, so I’ve got to get ready for that next week. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like to have a ‘normal’ month once again. Don’t expect that will happen until sometime next fall what with taking time off for vacation.

Took a bit of time off this afternoon to finally get my hair cut. I needed to go about 2 weeks ago but kept running out of time what with jury duty, dental appointments and veterinary appointments. What a relief to get back to short, manageable hair. It will be so nice to take a shower in the morning and have my hair dry 20 minutes later.

Getting ready right now to watch the Lakers play game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. The game is in San Antonio, so who knows what will happen. I’m just hoping it will be a good game…and, of course, that the Lakers win!

The gang consisted of just about every kind of weather episode you can imagine: hail, rain, wind, thunder, lightning, mudslides, flooding, tornadoes, and snow in the mountains! I’ve never seen anything like the weather we experienced today…and especially at this time of the year. Fortunately we just watched the tornadoes, snow, flooding and mudslides on TV even though all of them were occurring here in So.Cal.

When I got home tonight I found Murphy running around in the rain in the driveway! He was sopping wet, so he must have been out in the rain for awhile. Either the gardener let him out, or he got really scared from the thunder and lightning and somehow squeezed out under the gate. He’s never done that before, but he hasn’t been home alone before during a big thunderstorm. At least he doesn’t wander off when he gets out.

What an exciting 4th quarter! Prior to that I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be a total blowout for the Spurs. As the grumbling was heard among the crowd at Staples, it was apparent that most of them were beginning to feel this game was a lost cause. But that was not to be, and the Lakers and Kobe finally got their shit together and came back from a 20 point deficit to win the game! It was amazing and unbelievable! Hopefully they will get it together sooner in the next game.

Then there was the finale of American Idol. I wasn’t happy with the results. I really wanted David Archuleta to win. Oh well. It doesn’t really make much difference who wins. Last year’s winner made an appearance on the show and she just wasn’t all that good and looked terrible. And I don’t think she’s done all that well since winning last year. I think I’m done with getting hooked on these shows. I’m really glad all the season finales will be done with this week. I need to quit watching all these shows. Besides, I need to have plenty of time available to watch the Lakers!

The heat has let up and the temps were very comfortable today in the 70’s. However, the winds started up around noon and blew like crazy all afternoon. I came home to lots of leaves in the pool and all over the yard. Unfortunately the pool guy came this morning. Fortunately the gardener doesn’t come until tomorrow.

I think the upcoming holiday weekend will be nice, but certainly not hot pool weather. That’s ok with me. Last weekend was just too hot too soon. I’d rather ease into the warm weather. Plus I want to do some outside work, and the super hot weather just doesn’t allow for that.

Went shopping at Kohl’s on the way home last night. Got some pants and a few tops….and lots of clothes for Robin! I just couldn’t resist. Plus I had a 30% off coupon. What fun it is getting to buy all these cute little baby clothes. Now I need to ship them off to Seattle before Robin outgrows them before he gets them!

I am not ready to go back to work tomorrow. I should be since it will at least be cool at work which it hasn’t been here at home. It’s not terribly uncomfortable in the house, but it’s brutal outside. Temps have been in the high 90’s since Friday and possibly it got up to 100 on Saturday. As a result, I got very little accomplished around the house.

Spent Friday night watching the Lakers game with Vanessa who was here for a few days. The game was great and it looked like the Lakers were going to run away with the game…until the 4th quarter when the Jazz realized they needed to start hitting 3-pointers. Fortunately all went well and the Lakers won the game and are going on to the Western Conference Finals this week.

Patrick and Veronica came by today bearing steaks and other goodies. The pool is still too cold for me, but both of them went swimming. I’ll be glad when this hot weather starts to warm up the water enough so that I can begin using the pool in the evenings.

I can’t believe that Memorial Day weekend is coming up at the end of this week. I guess that means that summer is here. What happened to spring? I will be glad to have a 3-day weekend though.

What a Lakers game that was…and thank God they won! It was evident that Kobe’s back injury was really bothering him since he took no shots (other than freethrows) in the 4th quarter. Hopefully he can get treatments between now and the next game so that he’s in better shape. It’s going to be a rough game 6 since we have to go back to Utah again. Yuk! The Lakers so need to win that game. I’m going to have to start taking extra b.p. meds if this goes to game 7.

What crazy weather we’re having. It feels like it’s mid-August with temps in the 90’s tomorrow and forecast to be approaching 100 on Friday. And, my night-blooming jasmine is blooming! I noticed the wonderful smell while watching the game tonight and was grateful for the warmth so that I could leave the back door open. Murphy is enjoying the warmth as well and has been lounging next to the pool all evening.

Still don’t know what is wrong with Honey after two trips to the vet, numerous tests and x-rays. They put her on pain meds and the vet did an acupuncture treatment. While the treatment seemed to relax her, I really don’t see where it did much else. She’s still peeing and pooping on the floors and refuses to jump up on beds, sofas, etc. I’ve spent $450 so far and all the vet can say is that all the tests show nothing is wrong with her. I’m ready to find a new vet and am hopeful I can get her records transferred so that I don’t have to spend tons of $$$ getting the same tests run again.

Kevin called tonight to report on Robin’s latest visit to the doctor on Monday. Can you believe Robin is 9 months old?! He weighs 19 lbs and everything looks good. He’s on the verge of beginning to crawl…and then their problems really begin! I can’t imagine how much he will have changed by the next time I see him in August.

For awhile.

It started off great. Vanessa and Rick showed up around 9 am with a bouquet of flowers and a beautiful silver pin with an amethyst colored stone. Just as they left, Patrick and Veronica arrived with a rose bowl vase filled with pink and white baby roses. We headed out for breakfast where I enjoyed stuffed blueberry french toast, hashbrowns, ham, sausage and bacon. It was yummy! And then I got to talk on the phone with Robin!

Then things went to hell as the Lakers wound up losing game 4 of the playoffs in OT. It was a good game until overtime. Kobe hurt his back early in the game and seemed to have lost his ability to elevate. I am so glad they are getting out of that pit in Salt Lake City and coming back home for the next game. Hopefully Kobe will be back to his old self by then.

It turned into a nice day here once the cloud cover burned off, with temps in the 70’s. My house is relatively clean, so I’m going to relax tonight and do very little. Have a dentist appt on Wed and a doctor’s appt on Friday so that will make for trying to squeeze lots of work into a shorter period of time. I’d better relax while I can.

And then the phone rang and I got a fabulous gift from Kevin and Soula–new pictures of Robin! Check out what a cutie he is: http://picasaweb.google.com/dreamfarmer/MotherSDay08 What a wonderful gift Robin is!

Everyone in LA already knew he was but now its official: Kobe Bryant is the 2007-2008 NBA MVP! And the Lakers are 6-0 in the playoffs! It’s so exciting watching the playoffs once again. The past few years have been rough without a great Lakers team and I really couldn’t get very excited about the playoffs. But this year is great! Good thing I have Tivo cause I won’t give up my Lakers for any TV show.

I expected the votes to all be in by now as it’s almost 10:00 pm, but we’re still waiting for the votes in Indiana. It’s rather boring watching all these political pundits and campaign managers. Hillary’s people are declaring it a victory for her and Barack’s people are declaring it a victory for him…and the pundits seem to think the numbers will ultimately lead to a victory for Barack. I look for this to be a precursor to what will happen in November.

I watched Hillary’s speech to her supporters in Indiana tonight, and it appeared she was on the verge of conceding. She used words like “whoever the Democratic candidate might be” and I’ve never heard her say anything like that. She just wasn’t as forceful as in the past when it was clear that she had won a particular state. Maybe it’s because she is not an overwhelming winner in Indiana.

Now the mayor of Gary, Indiana is being accused on CNN of voter fraud due to the late reporting of votes. 99% of the votes have been reported with a gap of 22,000 votes in favor of Hillary. She currently has 51% and Barack has 49%. They are finally predicting Hillary as the winner, but it may still be closer than what shows right now. Hillary gets 37 delegates and Barack gets 35. Meanwhile Barack got a huge win in North Carolina.

I am sooo ready for this primary crap to be over.

Patrick and Veronica came over today for handyman/computer services and swimming. It took Patrick all of 10 minutes to fix the leak at the side of the house. Thank God I didn’t call a plumber! He just took off the connector for the pipe that goes into the ground for the pool refilling pipe and reconnected the faucet. Then he did a bit of work on my computer to reconnect the printer. Somehow the settings weren’t accurate after he put in the new power supply earlier in the week.

Later in the day Patrick and I went to Target to try to get a few more pieces that match the new furniture I got for the family room. Of course they were out of the pieces I wanted since they were on sale. I picked up a couple of fluorescent bulbs for the kitchen ceiling light that hasn’t been working all week. When Patrick tried to replace the bulbs we realized the lights weren’t burned out, but the fixture is broken. Of course. Going to look for a new fixture rather than fixing this old one that I have never liked from day one in this house. Meanwhile I have a shop work light hanging from the fixture so that I can see in the kitchen. It’s a pain to turn it on and off since I have to literally pull the plug to turn it off. But that’s better than no light at all which is what I’ve had for the past week. Thanks for the suggestion, Patrick.

It seems that either the house or my body continues to fall apart. Every time one part of my body starts to feel better or one thing gets fixed with the house, something else goes wrong. So far my body seems to be doing ok at this point *knock on wood* so maybe I’m finally getting over the body aches and pains. Now if the house will just cooperate….

Well, we couldn’t reach a unanimous decision. So we are a hung jury which equals a mistrial…and a waste of an entire week. I will absolutely NEVER put myself through this again. It was literally the week from hell. I don’t know how people do it when they are on a jury for a really big trial. I was so exhausted every night…and then I had to spend 2-3 hours working for my real job. And absolutely nothing was accomplished at home.

The case had to do with an illegal alien who was in prison for a felony. He came across something on the internet called the 10/5 Law. His mother was born in the United States and he was born in Mexico. The 10/5 Law says that a child born in another country is a US citizen if one of his/her parents lived in the US for 10 years prior to that child’s birth, 5 years of which had to be after the parent turned 14 years of age. This guy demanded a jury trial to prove he was a US citizen and shouldn’t have been deported 4 times previously. Not sure exactly why he wanted to do this since, as it turned out, this would not have allowed his release from prison. Who knows.

The reason I voted not guilty had to do with the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution. We were instructed to make our decisions based on the evidence presented, not our feelings about the defendant. The evidence was incomplete regarding dates and could neither prove nor disprove that his mother was here for the requisite amount of time. All the dates were subject to speculation in order to disprove the mother’s time in the US, and we were told not to rely on speculation. No one was willing to change his/her mind, so we were a hung jury.

As it turned out, this was unfortunate in that another trial will now need to be held. We found out after the fact that this guy is a real asshole. He’s been convicted of 12 felonies beginning when he was 13 years old! He’s now 44 and has spent probably at least half his life in jail. He also murdered someone but was not convicted because the only witness was afraid to testify. I still wouldn’t have changed my verdict, but I really hope he eventually gets convicted.

Some of us talked with both the prosecution and defense attorneys and told them what they needed to do to get a conviction or vice-versa. They really seemed to appreciate our comments. So now it’s up to the next group of jurors. I feel sorry for them and wish we could have reached a verdict. However, I still feel comfortable with my decision. Also, am grateful this guy won’t be out on the streets anytime soon.

For some reason, I am getting dumped on by the powers that be. This morning I got up and did my usual of getting my first cup of coffee and then going to my computer to check my email. Only my computer was off. Didn’t know why that was the case, so I turned it on. Nothing. Great. Called Patrick who said he’d stop by on his way home from work this morning. Turned out to be a dead power supply that he could easily fix by replacing it with a new one from Best Buy. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to have a computer geek for a son?!

I’m still on jury duty and I am so sick of it. This is by far one of the most boring trials I could ever have imagined. We expect to deliberate all day tomorrow and I am so hoping we will reach a verdict early.

Still have the water turned off to my house due to the leak at the side of the house. It’s really wonderful going outside at 6 am in my nightgown to turn the water on so that I can shower, brush my teeth and flush the toilet. And I need to do laundry and dishes. This has got to end soon. Thank God Patrick showed me how to turn off the water.

Not a lot of time to write tonight, ’cause I have to get up at 4:30 am tomorrow. I have to report for jury duty tomorrow morning at 8 am in downtown LA. The timing on this sucks. It would probably suck no matter what, but tomorrow is really one of the worst days possible.

Got an email from our neighborhood association saying it was possible that a portion of our neighborhood might be evacuated tonight due the Sierra Madre fire. I don’t think it will affect me, but you just never know.

This morning a water pipe outside my house burst so I had to turn off all the water to my house until I can cap off this pipe. Couldn’t deal with it tonight and don’t know when I’ll have time to do it until I finish up this damnable jury duty. So I’ll turn the water on in the morning to take a shower and flush the toilet and then will turn it off before I leave the house.

On top of everything else, I have to go to work after I finish up with jury duty because my admin asst is leaving for vacation on Wednesday and will be unable to process all the checks that are due at the end of the week.

I will just shit if I get selected to serve on a jury.

Finally got to sleep last night at about 2 am. I was sleeping well when I heard the phone ring early this morning. A ‘friend’ who lives in Maryland was calling to find out if I was OK. She had just seen the news about the fire and, not knowing where it actually was burning, she heard the mention of Pasadena and felt the need to call. Only problem was that she called and 6:45 am Pacific time. While I appreciate her concern, her timing was certainly not all that great. I wouldn’t have answered the phone, but I imagined it might be Patrick calling saying they were being evacuated.

After being awake and having a couple of cups of coffee, I figured I might as well stay up. Patrick called to say they were OK and that the fire was being contained by the helicopters that began dropping water around 6 am. The Forest Service is using a large plane that is filled with fire retardant that is being dropped all along the top of the ridge to keep the flames from jumping over and coming down the mountainside to the homes below. He said he and Veronica were coming over later to use the pool since the temp was already up to 80 degrees and it was only 9 am.

He asked about the air quality in my house, what with all the smoke and ash, and then I noticed Honey, my cat. She was gasping for air and had water droplets coming from her nose. I grabbed her and took her to my bedroom where I held her right in front of the a/c and put water on her tongue and face. I held her there for 1/2-3/4 hour, thinking she was dying. She finally came around and spent most of the rest of the day either sleeping on my bed or next to me on the couch. She drank some water on her own and I’m hopeful she’ll eat a bit of food tonight. She probably doesn’t have much longer for this world, but I’m not ready to give her up just yet.

Patrick and Veronica spent the afternoon here, with Veronica hanging out at the pool and Patrick and I inside out of the sun and nasty air. Spent the rest of the day talking to my sisters and brother and am now ready to crash. Just heard on the local news something about the ‘growing’ Sierra Madre fire. Oh God. I’ve noticed a lot more helicopters flying overhead, so I hope the damn fire isn’t taking off again. I need some sleep tonight.

An area just north of Sierra Madre (where Patrick lives) known as Chantry Flats is on fire. I’ve been able to see the smoke since early afternoon and the water-dropping helicopters have been flying back and forth over my house for 6-7 hours. The helicopters have stopped now that it’s dark outside, but I don’t think the fire is completely under control. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be large (about 50 acres) and no homes are in danger. One of my friends lives right up at the edge of the mountains in Sierra Madre and can see the flames from her house. That is just too scary.

Before the fires started–and while it was still cool enough to work outside–I got a good deal of yard work done. Trimmed roses, camellias and Dusty Miller. Dug out a huge big jade plant and put in the gardenia that Veronica’s mom gave me for Easter. It’s in a relatively shady spot (of which there aren’t many in my yard) so I’m hoping it will do well. When the temps started rising, I decided to quit with the yard work. Besides, the Lakers were playing game 3 of the first round of the playoffs.

While I was happy the Lakers won, the game really wasn’t all that good. The Denver Nuggets are one of the most unsportsmanlike teams in the NBA. They weren’t playing well and were quite frustrated, so they took it out on the Lakers players by committing some really nasty fouls. I’ll be glad when this series is over and we don’t have to deal with the Nuggets again.

Flying to Seattle on Saturday, 8/9, and returning on Monday, 8/18. Almost made the reservation on Southwest which appeared to be much cheaper than Alaska, until you got to the bottom line. Southwest was only $36 less than Alaska. And for $36 I’d rather fly non-stop on a 2-1/2 hour flight than having to stop in Sacramento and have the total flight take around 4 hours.

Got an unbelievable deal for the trip back East for Mickey’s wedding. I’m flying to Dayton and will then drive to North Carolina with Sally. Am flying on United non-stop to Chicago and then transferring to a flight to Dayton. Same thing coming back. I have to fly out of LAX, but the price was unbelievable…$248 round trip! That’s less than it’s costing me to go to Seattle! Will be leaving on Sunday, 8/31, and returning on Monday, 9/8.

Total cost for both flights = $590. Thanks to the federal tax rebate, both trips are basically free with $10 remaining to tip the baggage checkers at the curb.

I slept for 7 hours straight last night and have had no pain all day today! I can’t believe it. I’m almost afraid to think that this back/hip/leg pain might actually be ending. I got some Dr.Scholl’s gel pads for my shoes on Wednesday, so possibly that could be helping. Or maybe it’s due to the deep tissue massage that I had at the chiropractor’s office on Tuesday. Or maybe a combination of both. Who knows. I do know that I’ve not had to take any ibuprofen or any other painkiller today. I can’t wait to see how I feel tomorrow as I have sooo much that needs to be done around here.

I’m finally getting caught up at work which is good since I have the 2007 audit coming up the first of June. I am hopeful that everything is in really good shape at that point so there is very little stress. I’m looking forward to a restful summer this year compared to what I went through last year dealing with the audit that seemingly would never end.

I received both my state and federal tax refunds over the past few days. Will get online and try to find a decent airfare for my trip to Seattle in August. And will also check to see if I can find something reasonable for a trip to North Carolina in September for my brother’s wedding. I didn’t get as big a refund as I did last year since I adjusted my withholding and expect even less next year since I made another adjustment recently. I don’t want to have to pay next year, but I’d rather have more $$$ each pay than let the feds hold my money.

It’s going to be exceptionally hot here this weekend, so I’ll be headed off to bed soon so that I can get up early and get started on some yard work. I need to fertilize all my roses and mulch them. I’m also going to try to build new boxes around the rose beds. The wood that is currently there is rotted and deteriorating. Probably won’t get all of that finished, but hope to at least get a good start…if my back/hip/leg cooperate.

Woke up at 4:20 am today. Tried to go back to sleep but only wound up being able to toss and turn for a little over an hour, and then it was just too painful to stay in bed any longer. So I got up and started the coffee early and spent about 1/2 hour walking around the house until my right leg and hip stopped hurting. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and he confirmed the problem has to do with my lower back. I need to get x-rays done before he is able to make a complete diagnosis. He put me on a deep massage machine for about 10 minutes and that really seemed to help…at the time. This morning, though, I felt worse than I’ve felt in days/weeks. So I don’t know that what he did actually helped. I also slept with a pillow between my knees. While this helped initially in getting to sleep, the benefit seemed to wear off at about the same time as the ibuprofen that I took at 11:30 pm last night.

Going to try to get in this week at the urgent care facility that I visited a few months ago to see if I can get x-rays of my back. Don’t think that will happen until the end of the week though due to payroll deadlines at work. And then we’ll see what the diagnosis is. I am really tired of medical problems.

On another topic, I will never, ever shop online with Kohl’s again. Ten days ago I was finally able to get wedding gifts purchased for my nephew, Brian, after spending nearly 2 hours online trying to find items that were available. Yesterday I received an email from Kohl’s telling me that one of the items (the largest and most expensive one) is now unavailable. I’ve given up. The rest of the items have all shipped according to previous emails, so they will get some gifts from me. However, I’m just not going to try to get anything else. I might have tried to order something else if Kohl’s had not waited 10 days before notifying me of the item’s unavailability, but the wedding is in 3 days! Just hope the other items get there in time.

The good news this week is that I didn’t have to report for jury duty! I called in Monday evening and was told it was not necessary for me to report all week and that I should call in again next Monday night. I was shocked since the state and municipal courts require that you call in every night. I don’t mind so much if I have to go in next week since work deadlines will be minimal at that point. I’ll still have to do some work after hours at least one or two days, but not nearly as much as would have been required if I had to serve this week.

Well, the pain has subsided a good deal after being up for almost 2 hours, so I’ll get myself ready and head off to work a bit early.

It started today with the Lakers beating the Denver Nuggets overwhelmingly in the first game of the playoffs. It was great! It’s been a number of years since I’ve been excited about the NBA playoffs. Kobe’s had great years, but the rest of the team just hasn’t been that great since the Kobe/Shaq years. It’s fun to have a great team once again.

And, on top of the Laker win, I’ve had very little pain today! I was able to sleep until 9 am after only waking once during the night. Then Patrick stopped by and mentioned something about the way I’ve been sitting at my computer. I mostly sit at the edge of my chair rather than all the way to the back of the chair. And I sit at my computer a lot, both at home and at work. I made a point of sitting all the way back in my chair today while working on the computer and have been almost completely free of pain! While I don’t think this will be the end all cure for my problem, I think it may be the reason the pain is worse some days. I had stuff to do for work and was at the computer for 3-4 hours today, so this was a good test. I need to keep remembering to sit back in the chair. Also, I’ve only taken ibuprofin once this morning when I got up and have taken no vicodin. I’m almost afraid to think that this godawful pain may finally be on it’s way out. Thank you, Patrick!

I’m still on the list for federal jury duty beginning on Tuesday. I’m supposed to call an 800 number tomorrow night to find out whether I have to report Tuesday morning. I’ll be getting up at 4:30-5:00 am if I have to go in order to get there by 8:00 am. I am soooo dreading this. I’m just hopeful it will only be a day or two and then it will be over. Possibly they’ll just let me go when they find out where I work. Depending on the case, an employee of All Saints Church may not be their top choice as a juror. We live in hope.