At last count there are 14 fires burning in Southern California. So far none of the fires are nearby to me but, at the rate they are starting up, I am starting to get worried. I’ve decided to start taking digital pictures of everything in my house and am getting a few things ready in case I need to evacuate. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but we did have a fire in the foothills above our house back in the 90’s that came extremely close.

I stayed home from work today and think I’m finally over the flu/food poisoning/whatever that I came down with over the weekend. Have had the tv on all day watching the continuous fire coverage. They recently announced that more people in So.Cal. have been evacuated than the total number of people evacuated during Hurricane Katrina! Fortunately the property damage hasn’t been even close to the Katrina damage at this point.

They also just announced that one of the fires in Orange County is for certain an arson fire. I don’t understand why anyone would do that. Even if no one is hurt and no homes are destroyed, the burned areas are there for years. And blackened hillsides are not very pretty.

Started having stomach pains last night so took a hot bath which helped a little. By the time I went to bed, the pain was back again and I had a restless night, waking up every two hours or so. Woke up this morning at 7:30 am with intense stomach pains that just won’t go away. Additionally, the temps are in the 80’s and I’m freezing. Just took my temperature and it’s 100 degrees. Don’t know what I’ve got, but it feels lots like stomach flu. I’m going to go back to bed since staying up seems to make me feel worse. However, going to bed doesn’t help all that much either.

Keep trying to come up with some reason for all this and, thus far, I can’t. I had some salad Friday night, but was careful to wash the lettuce. I just can’t come up with anything else that might have caused this.

So I’ll go to bed and watch tv. There’s a huge fire in Malibu right now that’s being covered on all the local tv stations. They are having lots of winds in that area, but we’re having nothing here. It’s very calm and I’m hoping that’s the way it stays.

I’m taking a break from work right now–at 8:20 pm. Have been bringing work home almost every night, spending about 2-3 hours reconciling accounts so I can finally finish up this damned audit. Had to stop for a bit while Nader takes down the system to do some maintenance. We’ve been having lots of problems, resulting in a very s–l–o–w network. And that means it takes me 2-3 times as long to get some things accomplished. So I’m more than willing to take a break tonight if it means that the network will be faster tomorrow.

I know I shouldn’t have to bring work home continually, but I just don’t have enough time at the office to get this finished. The auditors will be back on 10/29, and I have to have all this finished by then. I probably should have been working nights all summer, but spending summer nights working in front of the computer just didn’t cut it for me. It would be nice if I could take a day or two off after I finish all this, but I doubt I’ll have time to squeeze in any time away other than the 4 days vacation I have yet to take this year. Oh well, maybe I’ll get a nice raise next year…

Decided to watch the ALCS baseball game tonight while working. That was probably a bad decision in that Cleveland is currently losing 7-1. Thus far Cleveland has won the games that I haven’t watched. Maybe that’s a sign?

The weather here has been very fall-like for the past few days with highs in the high 60’s-low 70’s. It seems all that will be changing soon as the Santa Ana winds are expected to start blowing this weekend and the temps will rise into the 90’s by Monday. I have a bit of yard work that I’m going to try to finish on Saturday before the winds and high temps start. I think my yard will then be ready for winter. I still need to do some work at the side of the house but will wait until I schedule the unlimited trash pickup before tackling that. And I MUST remember to get that scheduled soon!

Well, Nader just called (8:50 pm) to let me know the system is back up. Break time is over.

Robin went to the doctor today for his two-month checkup. He now weighs almost 12 lbs and is at the 50th percentile for both weight and length. The only problem he has is a small hernia at his belly button which the doctor feels will go away by the time he reaches one year of age. Robin also got his first shots today, and boy was he pissed! Somehow he couldn’t figure out why someone did something to intentionally hurt him and shrieked and cried quite a bit. Poor little guy…

Kevin says Robin is also beginning to recognize faces. I guess he was crying a lot when Kevin walked up to him. When he saw Kevin’s face he stopped crying and started smiling. What a good feeling that must have been for a new dad.

Went to breakfast today with Patrick and Veronica at Green Street. Patrick’s friend Mike works there and told Patrick he’d take care of drinks if we stopped in. Good thing we decided to go today as it was Mike’s last day there. He got a job subbing with LAUSD which pays quite a bit more than Green Street I’m sure. Breakfast was very good and Mike gave me a stockpile of zucchini bread to bring home…yum!

We had hoped to go to the PCC Swap Meet but, due to construction of a new building on campus, it wasn’t open today. So we’ll have to wait until 11/4 to go. Instead we went to OSH. I got some pansies and alyssium for the front flowerbed where the summer heat took a toll on a few plants. Patrick and Veronica got some hanging planters, potting soil and some plants to put on their balcony. I got my plants in the ground and they should look quite nice in a few weeks when they begin to grow and fill in.

Talked with Kevin a few times this weekend as well. Things are going fairly well with Robin. He goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 2 month checkup. It seems like he should be a lot older by now as it seems he’s been around for a long time. I find it hard to remember the time when he wasn’t with them. They took him out hiking on Saturday. He fell asleep right after they started out and slept most of the trip. They took him to the grand opening of a new Target store near them today. Once again he found this to be a great time for sleeping. Still not sure when I’ll be going up there again. Have to think about it and figure out a good time for all of us.

My sister, Kelly, has been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and Fibromyalgia. She’ll be having numerous tests over the next few weeks to determine the method of treatment and to be certain the diagnosis is accurate. Right now she’s on a medication that is relieving the acute pain she’s been experiencing for the past few years. Since she’s diabetic, treatments that work for others often result in increased sugar levels and other side effects for her. All we can do now is wait and see what happens.

Some good news is that Kelly’s daughter Mandy is pregant! She’s had a few problems but, at this point, it looks like the baby is doing ok. She sees the doctor on 10/22. Her due date is 5/24 which will make it nice for her not to be pregant during the heat and humidity of summer.

My car seems to be fixed. I picked it up late Friday afternoon and it seems to be running fine. They had to replace an electrical part of the ignition and service the throttle body–as if that means anything to me. All I know is that it cost me an additional $321. Somehow they must have disconnected the battery during the work ’cause my radio’s anti-theft code needed to be reset. Aarrgghhh! When this happens the radio refuses to turn on and you have to punch in a code that is available only through a Honda dealer. Fortunately this happened to me once before and I kept the printout (and actually know where it is!) showing the numbers. I did without my radio for almost a month the last time and, as a result, made sure to put the code in a place where I wouldn’t lose it in case this happened again. Foresight is good.

I had hoped to spend lots of time this weekend doing office work. As it turned out, I did none. I just couldn’t get motivated. Friday night I went to an event All Saints held at the newly refurbished City Hall across the street from the church. It was very nice with great food, drinks and music. However, it still meant that I didn’t get home from work until 9 pm. No matter how nice the event, I still felt like I was working. And I have a real problem working that late. Additionally, I worked from home numerous nights and had no down time at the office last week. I really needed to get some of the office work done, but I also needed to recuperate and rest.

I decided to try it today. Had my car towed to Whitie’s and then notified all who needed to know that I’d be working from home today. And it worked out great. I was even able to work with my admin assistant and print checks on my work printer. And I got tons of work accomplished, too. I wouldn’t want to do this everyday, but it worked out well today and I can see the value when I need to focus on a project where I don’t want continual interruptions.

My car still isn’t ready so Nader will be picking me up tomorrow morning. Provided all goes as planned, they expect the car will be ready tomorrow afternoon. I hope all goes as planned.

The ‘Check Engine’ light came on in my car on Monday. I got on the freeway ’cause it was Columbus Day and I figured there would be very little traffic. I decided to switch lanes and felt I had plenty of time since the semi approaching was far enough back. As I headed into the second lane, I accelerated…except the car wouldn’t. And the semi was almost on me. I kept pushing the gas pedal and telling the car to move, and then finally it pushed into the next gear and started moving. And then the damn ‘Check Engine’ light came on. Everything seemed fine until I got off the freeway and then the car began stalling every time I came to a stop. Well, shit.

I asked people at work about what had happened, and Nader told me about a device he had that he could plug into a spot under the dashboard that could pull the CEL (check engine light) codes and then we could get online and figure out what was wrong. We did this, but I still wasn’t sure what was wrong even when I knew what the codes meant, so I made an appointment at Whitie’s.

Had to wait until Wednesday to get the car in since I had to attend the staff conference all day on Tuesday and knew I couldn’t be interrupted with phone calls from the mechanic. So I took the car in today and was told I needed an O2 sensor–whatever that is. Apparently it has something to do with how much oxygen gets into the fuel. So I had it replaced and had an oil change.

I picked the car up tonight on my way home and everything seemed ok, except that I was $350 poorer. When I was about a mile from the mechanic’s the car stalled when I stopped at the first red light. I kept going home, thinking this would stop as I drove a little bit more. The car stalled at the next red light. Finally I managed to get the car home and into the driveway after a few more stalls.

I turned off the engine and then noticed the smell…and then the smoke pouring out from under the hood. I ran in the house and called Whitie’s and (thank God) they were still there. The result is that they don’t know what was causing the smoke and the chemical smell and I will be getting the car towed back in to them tomorrow. I’m afraid to drive it even though they are only about 2-3 miles from my house. And that’s why I have AAA after all.

I’m thinking I’ll probably stay home from work tomorrow. I brought home a bunch of work stuff, so it’s not like I’ll actually be taking a day off since I have plenty to keep me busy. It would be better if I went in, but then I’ve got to ride with the tow truck driver to the mechanic’s and then have them take me to work. And I have enough paperwork here at home so that I can get probably more done here than what I’d be able to do at the office. So I’ve just about convinced myself to stay home and work here.

And I’ll be hoping that whatever is wrong with the car won’t cost an arm and a leg. I have a bad feeling though.

I totally screwed up and didn’t bring home one report that I needed to do as much work as I had hoped to do this weekend. I got some stuff done, but had to quit when I didn’t have the report. I was still able to spend a couple of hours on work stuff, but not near as much as I had hoped for. I did try printing to my work printer, so we’ll see how that worked out tomorrow.

So, since I couldn’t get lots of work work done, I spent time in the backyard finishing up what I started yesterday. I filled up the yard waste can and that always makes me feel good. I also hosed down the decking around the pool since the pool guy cleaned the filters and left tons of earth residue everywhere. Next time I’m going to tell him to let me know when the filters need cleaning and I’ll do it myself. It took me longer to clean up the mess he made than it would have taken just to clean the filters myself. And for that I have to pay him $50!

After getting the trash out, I finally went to the grocery. I haven’t been grocery shopping since before I went up to Seattle…and I was out of everything! I should have gone days ago, but just kept putting it off. So now I have enough food to last for a few weeks and can come directly home each night knowing there’s something to eat in the house. Oh, there was food here but all of it meant that I had to actually cook and there seemed to be one thing or another that was missing from anything I thought about fixing. So now I’m all set and will only have to stop at PetSmart later in the week for cat & dog food.

Even though I wasn’t able to get lots of work stuff done, I did have a fairly productive weekend and actually feel good about going to work tomorrow. Lots of people will be off since it’s Columbus Day so there will be little traffic and no mail to sort through. A good day to get lots accomplished.

Had originally planned to spend the day working inside the house, but it was so nice outside that I decided to work in the backyard. Don’t have lots to do out there since the new gardener is doing such a good job, but I still had a bit of weeding and trimming to do. I took down a hanging basket on the back fence that contained a spider plant that’s been hanging there for a year or two. It also contained a huge nest of ants! I sprayed it down with bug killer and then threw the whole thing in the trash. I think there were more ants in there than there was soil.

Had to stop when it got dark around 6:30, but I got quite a bit finished. Still need to clean out the big flowerbed at the end of the yard, but I think that will have to wait until next weekend. Even though I’d rather be working in the yard (or even in the house), I have to spend Sunday doing office work. If I don’t get started tomorrow, I’ll never get it finished by the end of the month. And I just can’t let this go on any longer. The good thing is that the accounting program I use was just upgraded and has a much better bank reconciliation module than previously. So maybe it will go faster than I anticipate. Let’s hope.

Finally, I took a bunch of pictures of all my fall flowers and decorations and have uploaded them to the New Photo Gallery. Check them out. Sorry you can’t smell the night-blooming jasmine, but at least you can see how full of blooms it is right now. The scent is still continuing and I’m still loving it! The cape cod honeysuckle is the plant I bought about 1-1/2 years ago with the gift certificate Kevin and Soula gave me for Christmas. It has gotten huge and is absolutely gorgeous! A totally great plant for fall with those beautiful bright orange blooms.

I kinda liked the last theme, but it was more difficult to read. And I didn’t like how it abbreviated all my posts. So Patrick helped me load this new one that seems much better. (Thanks, Patrick!) Only thing that seems to have a bug is the comment section where something about the site not being found comes up on my end. I can still comment, though, so I guess everything is working.

Watched a new tv show last night called “Pushing Daisies” and I think I’ll keep watching it. It’s about a guy who has some weird power where he can touch dead people and bring them back to life for one minute. This helps him and his detective friend in murder cases where they collect rewards when they ask the dead person who killed him/her. There’s more to it than just that, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who happened to TiVo the first show and hasn’t seen it yet. It’s very cute and funny…and a nice show to watch when you’re looking for something relaxing. It will be on again Saturday night at 8 pm in case you’re interested.

I got very little done at work today. Nader installed our database/accounting program on a new server last night and it refused to update on my computer the way it should have. Even when Nader finally got things running around 1:30 pm there were still a few bugs that needed to be ironed out. What with interruptions, problem solving and a couple of meetings, all of a sudden it was 4:30 and time to finish up for the day. Somehow I still wasn’t able to leave until 5:30 and felt as though I accomplished nothing. Lots of people are off on Friday, so I hope tomorrow will be more productive.

I brought work home, but decided I’d rather surf the net and watch tv tonight. So I’ll see how much I get done at work tomorrow and then work on office stuff this weekend. I’d rather not, but I need to get this office stuff done so that the auditors can finish up. And I really want to get rid of these auditors!

Gotta go to an all-day staff meeting/retreat type thingy next Tuesday. I hate going to these things. They’re giving us breakfast, lunch and a snack, but it will still be a wasted day. I’d rather do without all the free food and stay at the office and get some work done. The purpose of the meeting is to let all of us know about the new personnel policies using “fun” little skits contrasting the old with the new. I’m so excited.

Then I have to go to a party next Friday night in the courtyard at City Hall across the street from the church. It’s an annual thing where they ask all the parishioners for their contribution pledge for the upcoming year. I got out of attending 3 different events while I was up in Seattle last month, so I really don’t think it’s possible to get out of this one. I so hate having to stay after work for these parties. All I want to do when work is over for the day is go home. The good part is that the party will be at the newly refurbished City Hall which is absolutely beautiful. I am looking forward to seeing it all lit up at night.

Time to relax and forget about work for awhile…

The weather is very strange right now. It feels like a wonderful summer day where I can open all the windows and doors in the evening. And the night-blooming jasmine is filling my house–and the entire neighborhood–with it’s wonderful scent. Can you tell how much I am loving spending every evening inhaling this fabulous aroma?

But this isn’t supposed to be happening right now. It’s October. The night-blooming jasmine has always bloomed in August and September in the past. So what’s up with this? There was a big rain storm while I was up in Seattle. Maybe that’s it. Maybe the bush was just really thirsty and needed a good soaking before blooming. Or maybe it has to do with the cooler evenings. Perhaps the temps of 90 degrees at midnight when it should have been blooming back in late August resulted in the bloom delay.

So far the fall tv schedule has resulted in one and sometimes two shows each night that I like. Actually that’s a good thing. I don’t want to get hooked into spending every evening in front of the tube. At least there doesn’t seem to be anything on between 8:00-9:00 pm that I care about so far. I can get a few things done each night before collapsing in front of the tv. Now if I can just stay awake for those few shows that I’ve decided to watch…

I just did a major poop scooping in the backyard. Since I’ve been gone since mid-September, there was a lot to be scooped. Additionally, there have been at least 3 different dogs pooping in the backyard since the last scoop. As I was scooping, I realized there were lots of different categories of poop to be addressed.

First there was regular old Murphy poop. I know where to find it and there are generally no surprises. Then there was Pixel poop (Vanessa’s dog). It was spread around in all kinds of locations. I really had to hunt to find all of it. Then there was Floyd poop (Patrick’s dog). There is no mistaking Floyd poop due to the shear volume and the fact that Floyd only likes to poop on the side of the house.

Finally, there was the cat poop. The cats have decided to use a flowerbed on the side of the house where there’s nothing but dirt as their outdoor litterbox. Scooping outdoor cat poop is like digging for buried treasure. You never know whether you’ll just find bits and pieces or whether you’ll hit the motherlode.

Finally, there were the stragglers–bits of poop that you discover just after you’ve sealed the bag and put it in the trashcan. I expect I’ll find lots more stragglers as I continue to work in the backyard. Gloves are a must today.

And now both the front and back (and even the inside) of my house looks like Fall. I stopped at Michael’s yesterday and picked up some silk fall flowers. The hanging baskets and fence baskets in the backyard held nothing but dead plants at this point. They weren’t doing great, and the 100 degree heat for over a week in late August/early September did them in. No amount of watering would save them. Rather than replanting with new plants, I decided to make Fall flower arrangements with silk flowers and plants. It’s getting dark earlier, and it’s hard enough to keep what plants I still have watered at night when I get home. So, I’m going fake for the Fall and Winter.

I’m pretty good at putting together these arrangements, and they all look quite fabulous with a mix of all kinds of Fall flowers. I had quite a bit of stuff from previous years, and the new flowers allowed me to make up 10 different arrangements: Two hanging planters and three fence planters out back, three hanging planters in the front, and two arrangements inside the house.

I spent most of the day today making up all these arrangements plus I did a lot of trimming and cleaning of the flowerbed in front of the house. Dug out a bunch of spider plants that were beginning to take over. I potted a few of them and put them out next to the pool, but wound up throwing out most of them. They grow like weeds and I’m tired of half the front bed being filled with them. I cleaned off the front porch, as well, and put up some Autumn leaf garlands around the windows and above the door. It really looks nice.

Tomorrow I’m going to dead head roses, geraniums and dusty miller and do some poop scooping out back. Fortunately I don’t have to trim any bushes ’cause the new gardener has everything done and it looks great! I’ll put up a few Halloween decorations when that gets closer, but that’s really all that remains to be done until after Thanksgiving as far as the yard and decorating.

The inside of the house is in pretty good shape, too, so it’s really just routine maintenance that’s required. OMG, I can’t believe everything is finally coming together! However, that means I’ll have no excuse for not getting started in the garage…shit. It’s not that I don’t want to do it, it’s just such a monumental task at this point. I’ll have a fairly empty trash can by next weekend, so I can at least get started tossing out some stuff.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the great Fall weather that we’re having (mid-70’s) as well as the night-blooming jasmine that’s in full bloom right now. I think the extreme heat a month ago delayed the blooming ’cause it’s never been in full bloom at this time of year. I thought I’d miss most of it while in Seattle, but it seems to have waited for me to return. Plus the Cape Cod Honeysuckle with it’s bright orange blooms is also in full bloom, adding another bit of wonderful to the backyard. What a great time of year this is!

So what do you think of the new look for my blog? Patrick upgraded things and I now have the ability to change the look. And Soula’s been bugging me to make a change from the very plain look that I’ve had for 3+ years. So here you go.

Only problem I noticed with the upgrade has to do with some funky ‘A’ symbol that’s been randomly inserted all over the place within every old post. Being the anal being that I am, it’s driving me crazy and all I want to do is go in and delete this symbol from all my old posts. I went 2 months back last night before heading off to bed. I don’t really think anyone goes back through my previous entries, so I don’t think I will spend my evenings ‘cleaning up’ ancient blog entries.

Also not sure I like how things look when going back through archived entries. But, again, not many will be looking at old stuff.

I’m at home this morning waiting for the cable company to show up to convert my phone from the old company to the new one. This is the third time I’ve tried to get this conversion accomplished. They are supposed to be here sometime between 8-10 am. It’s now 8:40 and no sign of anyone. I asked to be first on their list after all the previous problems with getting this done. Apparently that didn’t happen. It is certainly no wonder that people hate cable companies.

Have just spent about 1/2 hour working on my computer at work….from home!!! Installed a program at work called ‘Log Me In’ that allows me to remote access my work computer as well as the database on our server from my home computer. This is really good (and kinda bad) ’cause I can now do everything and anything from home that I would do at work. The good part is that I can do some account reconciliations for the audit from here at home in the evenings and on weekends. I have so little ‘free’ time available at work to do this kind of stuff, so I’m actually looking forward to being able to spend some uninterrupted time here at home getting caught up on some of this stuff.

Additionally, I can now prepare and send payroll from any computer anywhere, meaning I can be more flexible with my vacation time. For the past 10 years I have had to schedule my time away from the office to coincide with payroll. Now I could feasibly take time off anytime, provided I have access to a computer and internet hookup. This is a HUGE relief as I have always worried about what would happen if I got sick or had to be away when payroll was due. For over 10 years I haven’t missed being at work to do payroll. While I’m proud of that record, it’s been somewhat scary knowing that I’m the only one on staff who is adept at getting out the paychecks twice a month for over 70 people.

I know it sounds weird that I’m happy about the probability of taking on additional work from home but, in the long run, it will make my life much, much better. I no longer work for private clients so doing some additional work from home won’t be all that bad. It won’t be all the time. Just when I have special projects like this damned audit that’s been hanging over my head for months. Right now I’ll do just about anything to get this completed and out of my hair!!!

Haven’t reported much on my trip, other than news about Robin. The trip up to Seattle was great and flying out of Burbank was uneventful. Only bad part of Burbank is that there is only one small coffee bar type restaurant. I had planned to eat lunch there and had hoped for something like McDonald’s. Had to make do with some kind of a crappy, expensive salad but at least the coffee was good (Seattle’s Best). Coming home was another story. I got to the airport in what I thought was plenty of time, arriving at about 10:50 for a 12:20 flight. I checked my bags in about 5 min. and then headed for the gate, and that’s when I hit the security line. I waited in a line behind hundreds of other travelers for 45-50 min. just to have my boarding pass and id checked–and I still had to go through the security checkpoint to have everything x-rayed! Made a quick stop at a restroom after clearing security and arrived at the gate just as they were boarding my flight. This was worse than I’ve ever experienced anywhere, including LAX. Next time I fly out of Seattle I will be absolutely certain to arrive 2 hours ahead of time.

We went shopping at Ikea and Costco on Saturday before leaving Seattle. I picked up a few things (of course!) that I brought home. Got a small lamp for the family room to put on a bookcase as well as some kitchen linens, a mirror for the bathroom and the new Barry Manilow cd. I saw lots of other goodies at both places, but most were not even a consideration due to size limitations. Better purchased here where I can haul them home in the trunk of my car.

Vanessa did a fabulous job of taking care of the house and the pets while I was away. I walked into a nice clean house with happy animals that were glad to see me. Patrick stepped in when Vanessa wasn’t there and took Murphy back to his place in the evening. This was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken as far as having no worries about the house and pets. Thanks guys!

The new gardener has been doing a great job. My yard looks terrific! I’ll spend a bit of time outside this weekend doing some removal of plants that have seen better days, but not much else needs to be done in the yard. Amazing! So I’m going to spend part of Saturday getting the front porch decorated for fall and Halloween.

It seems like it’s been months since I’ve had a relaxing weekend where I didn’t have tons of things that had to be accomplished or where I had guests or was traveling. Wait a minute, it has been almost 2 months! While I’d love to be back in Seattle visiting with Robin, I’m glad to have some normal time at home for a change.

Finally I’ve figured out how to get pictures transferred from my camera to my computer to this website! Click on the link on the right side called new photo gallery. Then click on the Seattle trip gallery and click on the first picture to enlarge…then click next to see all of them. If you already know how to do all this, disregard all the instructions and just enjoy seeing this adorable baby! Also, remember when seeing me that I had been up since 5 am and the pics of me were taken late at night. In other words, I know I look like shit! But the pictures are for you to see Robin, not me.

Sadly, my life with Robin has ended for awhile. I returned to Pasadena today after hugging, cuddling and kissing him for as long as I could before we had to leave. It’s good that I’m back to my real life, but I sure hated to leave that little guy. Don’t know when I’ll get back to see him again, and I know he’ll have changed lots by that time. It’s going to be very difficult not seeing him as he grows up. I think I’ll be making quite a few trips to Seattle in the future.

I’m exhausted tonight. I’ll be getting pictures up for all to see, but just can’t do it tonight. Sorry. Hopefully work won’t be too crazy tomorrow and I’ll get the many pictures up for all to see by tomorrow.

Spent some time outdoors today.  It was a beautiful sunny day so I decided to trim Kevin’s & Soula’s rosebush in the front yard.  Also pulled a few weeds and gathered some twigs that had fallen into the yard.  Between today and Wednesday, I’ve managed to fill a trash can with yard waste.  Hopefully they’ll have room to dump this in their regular trash can over the next few weeks.  It was nice to be outside working in the yard for a short time.

Robin has been a bit cranky today.  He has been doing a LOT of pooping, so I’m assuming that might be the problem.  He cries, strains, stiffens up and turns red when he’s pooping.  I checked online and this seems to be normal for some babies until their bodies get used to pooping.  Hope he gets used to it soon as they are going through a shitload of diapers (pun intended!) right now.  Gotta say, I’m really not going to miss the poopy diapers!

Am reading a book called The Poo Bomb by Jeff Vogel.  He went to Harvey Mudd College and now lives in Western Washington State.  He and his wife had a baby a few years ago and he wrote a blog detailing his experiences with her first year.  It is absolutely hilarious.  He reminds me of Kevin in many ways.  Read it if you get a chance.

Well, it’s finally begun to rain a bit tonight.  We really haven’t had much rain except for a brief spritz or two.  Apparently it is also raining in LA tonight.  Hope it rains enough to water my flowers.

Probably won’t get a chance to write much more from up north.  We’re going shopping tomorrow and then I’ll be getting home Sunday afternoon.  Will try to get the pictures loaded early next week so you can all see just how adorable Robin is.

Now I know why it is primarily young people who have babies. They are the ones who are physically able to deal with these little sweeties. My back is aching and my right knee/leg is in pain, and all of it is the result of carrying Robin up and down the stairs from the nursery to the main living level of the house. Plus, this getting up every 2-3 hours is not something I could handle for more than a week or so. In fact, it will be ever so nice to be able to sleep through the entire night when I get home next week.

Today Robin was ever so crabby. Don’t have any idea why, but he just doesn’t want to settle down. And, he seems to be constantly hungry. I just fed him an entire bottle (4-5 oz) and he still acts like he wants more and, even though I can see that he is tired, he refuses to go to sleep. He’s in his crib right now listening to bird sounds but, just as you think he’s done for awhile, he starts up crying.

I’m almost ready to hit the sack myself, so he’d better calm down. I can’t stay up with him now and still be able to get up at 5 am! Soula and Kevin have been really good about dealing with the feeding and changing up until around 2-3 am. That way I really don’t have to be up all night. They’d rather do the early, early morning shift (when I want to be asleep), and I’d much prefer just getting up a few hiours earlier.

But right now (10:30 pm) I’m ready to crash. Even though I love this little guy and will miss him dearly, I will be grateful to get 7 hours of sleep uninterrupted.

I’m sick.  Somehow I’ve picked up some kind of a bronchial bug that kept me up a good portion of last night coughing and hacking.  I just hope I haven’t passed it on to the baby.  Fortunately I had a packet of Tylenol Chest Congestion pills in my purse which calmed things down a bit, but I need to go to the drugstore sometime before tonight just in case.

Robin is beginning to sleep for longer periods through the night, ranging from 2-1/2 to 3 hours.  He does seem to be a night owl, though, being wide-awake around 11 pm to midnight almost every night.

The weather is beautiful this morning, but there seem to be a lot of clouds moving in and it is fairly windy.  Right now it feels very crisp outside, typical of a nice fall day.  It’s going to seem kinda weird to go back home to summer.  From my many trips up here, I think August through October is the prime time to visit Seattle.  The trees haven’t started changing colors yet and I’d really like to see that at some point.  But right now is pretty nice.

Robin is downstairs chirping away, so gonna go check on him.  He is such a cutie!  I’m so going to miss him when I have to go back home.  We have to talk about webcams…