Headed up the 101 Saturday morning, enroute to Paso Robles to celebrate Vanessa’s 30th birthday. After a lovely trip up the coast on a beautiful day, we checked into our exotic digs at Motel 6. Since I was to be the designated driver, I took a test run in Patrick’s Mazda to run an errand to the liquor store. I needed a bit of a refresher since I haven’t driven a stick shift in many, many years. But it all came back to me after only a few blocks.

Then, after all of us got dressed up in our fancy duds, we headed just a bit north to the Eberle Winery–a beautiful winery on a hillside overlooking the vineyard fields. Spent the evening with 50+ guests enjoying wine tasting, wonderful hors deourves (sp?), and then a fabulous dinner in “the caves” underneath the winery. It was great seeing lots of old friends and meeting many new ones and celebrating with Vanessa. Partying went on into the early hours of the morning but I chose to head to bed around midnight.

The next morning a bunch of us met up at The Cowgirl Cafe in downtown Paso Robles for an old-fashioned down-home breakfast. And I got to visit a small antique shop a few doors down from the restaurant where I found a couple of items that I just had to have! After an afternoon trip back down the coast (again, gorgeous weather and scenery), we arrived home around 6 pm. All in all, it was an absolutely spectacular weekend!

Thank you so much, Vanessa, for inviting me to share your 30th birthday with you! I love you so much and am so happy to have you as my friend!

Went today for the final test, the abdominal MRI. I arrived at about 4:20 for my 4:30 appointment. The receptionist said they were running late by about 30-45 min. I wasn’t thrilled since I had to fast 4 hours for this one and hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since 12:30 pm. That would still mean I would be finished by 5:30-6:00 pm. Not that bad. At about 5:00 a technician came out to let me know that they were running even later than they expected and that it would be another hour. She also said that this test didn’t require fasting, so I could go out and have a snack or something light and should come back at 5:45 pm. Great. Nice of them to give me the wrong instructions about fasting.

I got back at about 5:30 pm. At 6:10 pm I found the technician and the receptionist talking. They agreed to bring me in next, much to the chagrin of some other woman who was bitching her head off saying she was there before me. Nonetheless, they took me in and I got yet another IV inserted–this time in my right arm, since the left was still bruised and swollen from the IV for the CT urogram on Wednesday.

At about 6:45 pm they took me to the “tube room” and gave me instructions. For 1/2 hour I was to lay inside the tube and take deep breaths, breathe out, and then hold my breath for 20 seconds while the booming of the MRI was happening. When the booming stopped I could breathe normally for about 5-10 seconds and then it would all start again. I lasted for about 10 minutes before squeezing the “panic button.” I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe at all and almost passed out.

I think it was a combination of having to wait for over 2 hours to begin the procedure, being inside the tube and having to do the controlled breathing that got to me. It’s bad enough having to lay perfectly still and listen to that ungodly noise in your ears, but at least you can close your eyes and kind of zone out. But having to do this breathing bullshit was just too much. They asked if I wanted to try again (since they hadn’t yet injected the dye), and I said no.

The technician said he did get some good images and I told him I would talk with my doctor to find out if we really needed to go any further with this test. As far as I’m concerned, there had better be a damn good reason to do any more of this. I’ve had it with tests and am ready for some results and decisions.

Today I had the CT Urogram. Again, not real painful but more uncomfortable. Had to have a dye injected into my veins and then some drug that speeds up kidney functions. And then a saline solution was pumped through my veins to flush everything out. And then I had to pee, and pee, and pee! The peeing was the worst part since my kidneys were in overload mode and were trying to push things through at a very rapid pace. Finally I seem to be getting back to normal after about 8 hours since the test.

Also have a very sore arm from where the IV was. I bled out a bit under the skin and have what looks like a large swollen bruise. The injection of the dye caused my body to become extremely warm all over. Once everything started to be pushed out of my system I became extremely cold, so cold that I turned on the heat once I got home! Plus, the temps tonight are in the 40’s, so it could be a combination of both. Anyhow, glad I haven’t had Patrick turn off the pilots on the heaters yet!

Now all that’s left is the abdominal MRI on Friday. Am extremely glad to have a day off tomorrow from testing!

Had the pelvic MRI today. Everything went well and it wasn’t too uncomfortable. On the way out, I thanked the radiologist and said I would see her again on Friday. She seemed puzzled and asked why I would be coming back on Friday. I told her that my doctor had ordered an abdominal MRI. Her comment was, “For a fibroid?” I said that I guessed he just wanted to cover all the bases.

I was absolutely thrilled with what she had said! It seemed obvious that she believed that what she saw was a fibroid–which is the most common type of tumor and also the least likely to be malignant. No guarantee until it is removed and tested, but I’m feeling far more confident tonight than I’ve felt since all this started. I’m really anxious for all this to end, though.

All the approvals from my insurance company have been received for the upcoming barrage of tests. I’m scheduled to have a pelvic MRI next Tuesday afternoon and an abdominal MRI next Friday afternoon. The hospital no longer performs IVP’s so I’ll be having a CT Urogram instead. I had to get some kind of a blood test today to be sure my kidneys and/or liver were in good enough shape to handle the stress of this test. Provided all goes well with the bloodwork, I’m hopeful I can get this test done next week as well. And then I’ll meet with the doctor.

Today I’ve been in lots of pain. Came home and took a vicodin and a hot bath. The vicodin seems to be working somewhat and the pain is not really too noticeable. If it’s still there in the morning, I’ll be calling my doctor. I’m hopeful I can get through this round of tests so that they will have clear pictures of what we’re dealing with. But I can’t live with this pain for another week and a half.

It’s really sad that I’ve had to wait for a week just to get the insurance company to agree that I need these tests.

While I’m only doing taxes for 5 people (other than myself) this year, it seems that I always wind up putting off my own until the last minute. And now, as a result of getting a new laptop this past year, I can’t find a spreadsheet that I need to complete my return. Either it didn’t get transferred over from my old computer or I can’t find it in all the logical places on my new system. I have an SOS email out to Patrick.

Additionally, Patrick installed something called “Open Office” rather than “Microsoft Office.” He said it would work the same as the Microsoft product. I tried to open some old spreadsheets that were attached to emails but couldn’t get either to open. I forwarded both to myself at work with the hope that I can get them open so that I can reconstruct everything. And I absolutely must get the “real” Word and Excel programs if I’m going to be able to work from home after my surgery.

I know it’s my own fault that I waited till the last minute to do my taxes. I’m just damn frustrated when I can’t get them finished. I can always do an extension since I’m getting a small refund, but I’d just like to get them filed and get this over with.

Went to the ob-gyn specialist today, Dr. Ebeneezer Ajilore. I was really impressed with this doctor and feel confident in his ability to take good care of me. He agrees that there definitely is a tumor in my abdomen, but can’t be sure exactly what it is without further tests. He is recommending an abdominal/pelvic MRI as well as an IVP where they take pictures of my kidneys and bladder after injecting a dye into my veins. After the insurance company approves these tests, I’ll try to get them scheduled asap–hopefully sometime next week.

While I’m not looking forward to abdominal surgery, I’m anxious to get it done and have it over with. If I can have the surgery completed sometime in April, I should be back to normal and all healed up by Memorial Day…with a whole summer ahead of feeling good. That would be the best scenario. I can only hope that the tests don’t find anything unexpected.

Meanwhile I’m trying to figure out how to get things accomplished at work while I’m off. Will be training a coworker tomorrow to take over the payroll. Will also be working with another person to take over paying the bills. Most of the other tasks will have to wait until I get back. I’m just hopeful that I won’t be gone more than 2-3 weeks. And I can always do some amount of work from home. Will just have to wait to see how things go…

Had a great trip to Seattle…except for the weather! It was cold, rainy and windy almost the entire time I was there. I think there were one or two mornings when we saw the sun, but those days were still very windy. It did feel good to get off the plane in Burbank and feel the warm air and see the clear blue skies and sun.

I absolutely LOVED getting to spend time with Robin. At age 2 yrs and 8 mos, he is now a little boy and is extremely happy and very smart. He counts into the teens on his own (and understands the concept of counting objects), and last night was able to count to 100 with me saying one number and him saying the number that would follow. He is also able to recite the entire alphabet and knows all the sounds that each letter makes. He can spell his name and simple words–star, dog, cat, etc. He’s beginning to understand that words on a page in a book are how Kevin is able to read the books to him. His drawing skills are amazing as he draws complex objects and understands tracing using objects as stencils. He is speaking in sentences and repeats anything and everything that anyone says–meaning you have to be careful what you say within hearing distance of him! He also has his own keyboard and mouse and is able to use both extremely well.

While we were out shopping on Saturday, Soula bought him his own plastic wall clock which was the hit of the trip as far as Robin was concerned. Every night he has to sleep with his clock next to him in bed. There was a picture hanger in his room and he wanted the clock hung on it. Only problem was that the hanger was very high up and he couldn’t reach it, so someone else had to hang it. And then he wanted it back down again. Needless to say, that got old real quickly. So Kevin put a hook lower down where he could reach it. When he left his room, the clock was up on the high hook. I took him up to his room and said “Robin, where’s your clock?” He looked up high, then looked down on the lower hook, then looked up high again, then down low. He got a big grin on his face and said “Yeah!” Now he can take the clock down and rehang it himself and is totally thrilled.

I can’t believe how much Robin changes each time I see him. I probably wouldn’t notice this as much if I lived closer, but only getting to see him 2-3 times a year means he’s a completely different child each time. I certainly do appreciate seeing him far more than I think I would if I saw him more often. Nonetheless, I do wish Kevin and Soula lived closer so I could see both of them and Robin more often.

And now it’s back to my regular life. Nate and Hayes are thrilled to have me back and have been smothering me ever since I walked in the door, rubbing and purring and demanding that I pet them. It is nice to be missed! I’m heading off to my bedroom to unpack and get everything back in place so that I can get up tomorrow and get ready for work once again. While the futon at Kevin’s was comfortable, it will be nice to sleep in my own bed once again…and I’m sure the cats will be happy to snuggle in bed with me once again.

It’s been a long week and it’s only Wednesday. And my emotions have gone up and down over the past three days.

On Monday I had a pelvic ultrasound. The facility where it was done was absolutely state-of-the-art, a brand new place adjacent to Huntington Hospital here in Pasadena. I was impressed with everything about it, including the fact that I had no wait time for anything! The technician who did the ultrasound told me I would get the results in a few days, after the radiologist reviewed them and sent everything back to my doctor. I went into work and got a call from my doctor about an hour later with the results. I have a large mass on one of my ovaries. It is probably a fibroid tumor but, of course, no guarantees. I believe the feelings I was experiencing can only be described as shock.

I have an appointment with an ob-gyn specialist on Thursday, 4/8. They wanted me to come in on Monday, 4/5, but I will be in Seattle then. Told them about my trip and they agreed it was ok for me to go. I sort of thought there was something going on inside me and kind of dreaded finding out what it was. After my sister, Jean, developed a tumor on one of her kidneys, I was fearing the worst. So maybe this isn’t so bad. Yet I’m still concerned.

Chances are good that I will have to undergo a hysterectomy. Won’t really miss my ovaries and am hopeful that, if this is the case, they can do all the removal stuff via a laproscopic procedure–meaning little or no cutting!

So after a day of trying to come to terms with all this as well as trying to recover from all the poking around inside me (part of the ultrasound was the use of a camera in places where cameras don’t normally go!), I started getting back to “normal” on Tuesday. Started doing laundry and made a run to the grocery in preparation for my trip. Also started the planning at work for how my work can continue to be completed without me there to do it. I have no real backup person who can just step in and do my job. There are a few people who know parts of my job, but no one who knows it all. And, since I normally plan my time away so that no one ever has to fill in doing payroll, that is my biggest concern. I do the payroll twice a month for close to 75 people, 35 of whom are hourly, 12 who are contractors, and 38 who are salaried. It’s complicated to say the least. I also have to monitor all the hourly folks to make certain all their hours are entered accurately including holidays, vacations, sick time, etc. And that’s only about 1/4 of my total job!

Tuesday went well, though, and I got a lot accomplished both at work and at home. I was beginning to feel better about everything and got so much done at work that I determined I could take off the entire day on Thursday to finish up last minute trip prep. And then I went to work today and had all of that go right down the toilet. Somehow, even though I did everything right, all my hourly people at work were paid hours from the previous pay period rather than the current one. So I spent 9-1/2 hours at work today figuring out who was owed additional $$$, who was overpaid, and all the taxes associated with same. And tomorrow I’ll be going in after all to issue checks to those who were underpaid and writing notes to the others letting them know their overpayment will come out of their next check.

I had planned to do all my laundry, packing, and straightening up the house tomorrow. So, it appears that won’t happen. I’ve started in on all that tonight even though I’m exhausted. Will try to go to work early tomorrow so that I can leave at a reasonable hour and have at least a little bit of time at home before leaving.

My flight to Seattle leaves Burbank at 6:40 pm, so I won’t have to leave the house until about 4:15-4:30 pm. I’m parking at the airport (thankfully!) but still have to allow for rush hour traffic. And that timing may change if we get the rainstorm they’re predicting. Hoping to have the entire afternoon at home so that I’m not rushing at the last minute. Keeping my fingers crossed…

I’m feeling good and trying not to focus on what will await me when I return home. I’m looking forward to seeing Kevin, Soula and Robin (especially Robin!) and enjoying my trip. Hope everyone has a very Happy Easter! Updates will follow next week about my trip and my doctor’s appointment.

Went to the doctor today for my annual visit. Also have been having a bit of a problem with my bladder filling up rapidly and then having a urinary retention problem during the night. It is literally a real pain to wake up in the middle of the night with a full bladder and then not be able to empty it for 5-10 minutes!

After the doctor’s visit I headed down the street to the lab where they drew blood for who knows what tests and also had me pee in a cup for some other test. On Monday I go in for a pelvic ultrasound where they tell me I have to drink 32 oz. of water an hour before the ultrasound. Right. My bladder will be ready to burst with that much water in my system. We’ll see how that goes.

After that I need to schedule a mammogram (no problem, just a normal test). Then I’ll go in to meet with the doctor to discuss all these results. And then, barring any unforeseen problems, I’ll get to go in for my 5-year colonoscopy–whee! Can’t wait.

Tomorrow is the official first day of Spring and I am thrilled! The daylight is here until about 7 pm now that Daylight Saving Time has started and I’m outdoors most every evening. The cats now go out with me. Hayes hangs around wherever I am and Nate goes off and does his own thing.

Tonight I started tearing out the iceplant that’s been growing on top of the concrete retaining wall along the north side of my house. It’s gotten a bit out of control, requiring lots of trimming and it is growing through the wood fencing and into my neighbor’s yard. It will only be a matter of time before he starts bitching about it, so I decided to get rid of it now. Also, I found lots of sections of snakeskin while tearing it out–another good reason to get rid of it! I got about half of it out tonight and will try to get it finished tomorrow. Then I’ll get some brick colored wall toppers to cover over the concrete. I’ve already done this on the portion of the wall in the backyard and like how it looks.

Will be getting up early tomorrow to head out to Home Depot. They have all their 6-packs of annuals on sale for 89 cents each! A cheap way to add some color to a few bare spots. Also will be trying to pick up some rose bushes to replace three that seem to have died off this year. All of a sudden it seems I’m going to have lots to do in the yard! Would like to put in some other plants, but I really need to pace myself and not try to do it all this weekend!

Think I’ll wait until I get back from Seattle to put in my veggies. While I’m anxious to get them in, I want to be here to do the constant watering to be sure they survive! Also, need to plan how I’m going to keep them safe from the predators this year. I’ve got two “topsy-turvy” planters that will allow me to hang two tomato plants upside down. Not exactly sure where I’ll hang them, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

And then there’s taxes…yuck. I haven’t even started on any of the six returns I have to do this year. Will probably do a couple of returns this weekend just to get them out of the way. And I need to at least get my stuff sorted. Shouldn’t take that long to do mine once I have all my info organized. Every year I say I’m going to get my taxes filed early, and every year it seems I wind up waiting until the bitter end. Taxes are the only bad part about this time of year. At least I’m not doing as many returns as in the past.

Well, the Lakers game is over (a good one–they won!) and I’m going to try to get a few things done around here and then head off to bed so that I won’t have a problem getting up early tomorrow. Looking forward to a fun morning at Home Depot!

At 4:04 am this morning we had a 4.4 magnitude earthquake! While it doesn’t sound all that strong, it certainly felt strong. It woke me up and the cats were no where to be found. I called them both, but they wanted no part of coming out of hiding.

There was no damage anywhere and the only thing I noticed were the doors ajar on my china closet. It certainly is a rude awakening, though, when you are shaken like that at 4 in the morning! Seems the majority of our shakers happen during the wee hours of the morning. Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come…

The kitties are now both about 7 months old and are now looking more like cats than kittens. Hayes is absolutely huge and will end up being a very big cat. He is very meek and mild, though, and mostly wants to lay around purring while he’s being petted and loved. Even when he goes outside, he just wanders around meowing. I hope he starts getting a bit more active or he’s really going to be large!

He’s been very interested in water since he finally figured out that the pool is full of water and that he can drink it. He’s fallen into the pool twice, so I think he’s learning that he can’t walk on it. Tonight both of the cats came running into the bathroom when they heard the water running for my bath. Both sat on the side of the tub waiting for the water to reach up high enough so that they could drink it. I can’t imagine why they like to drink warm water, but they both seem to like it. While I was drying off, the water in the tub was draining and I wasn’t paying attention to the cats. Next thing I heard was a splash–Hayes had fallen in! I guess he either thought the water had drained out or was still up closer to the edge. Certainly an error in judgment on his part!

Nate, on the other hand, is a scrawny little guy who is a real wild one! He attacks everything and thinks he has the right to jump up onto anything, including me! I was standing in front of the tv the other night and didn’t realize he was on the coffee table behind me. He decided to jump onto my shoulder. Only problem was he missed. I felt unbelievable pain in the back of my legs where his claws sunk in! Last night he decided to jump down from the headboard on my bed. He landed in the middle of my stomach resulting in more severe pain for me.

Both of the cats are now venturing out into the backyard. Hayes stays in the yard while Nate has discovered he can fit through the lattice fencing in the back as well as climb both the wood fencing on the sides and the citrus trees. He’s wandered into the yards of two of my neighbors so far. Fortunately he doesn’t stay away for long. Even though I’m not excited about him wandering off, I know there is really no way of stopping him. So I let him go and hope for the best.

I’m still trying to keep both of them inside most of the time. I’m sure that’s going to end in a few more months when summer is here in full swing. They seem to know that this is their home, so I’ll just have to hope I am as lucky with Nate and Hayes as I’ve been with Puto, Baby, Loki and Honey.

I’m so happy that it’s Friday…and that Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday…and that it’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend here! Even though I don’t have lots to do outside, I’m going to clean the leaves and other residue from the front flowerbeds just to have an excuse to be outdoors!

I took the cats out in the backyard tonight and let them run around for a while. Then I asked them if they wanted some food and I came inside and left the screen door open. Amazingly, they followed me in and came into the kitchen, waiting while I opened the canned cat food. I’m hopeful this will continue and that I can convince them to come inside in the evenings. I’d like it if they would go in and out all summer, meaning I could leave the back door open for quite a bit. No doubt there will be more outside time this weekend.

Otherwise, not much else will be happening this weekend–which is a good thing. It’s amazing that I don’t have to sit around waiting for a cable guy to show up. I think my cable system is finally working (knock on wood). I need to get my hair cut, but that’s the only must do for the weekend.

I’ll be heading up to Seattle in a little less than 3 weeks, so I do want to get a few things done around the house before leaving. Also need to start in on tax returns sooner or later. I have 6 to do this year which includes my own. I just am not motivated to deal with taxes right now, though, even though the deadline is only about a month away. Keep trying to whittle down the ‘friends’ who rely on me to do this each year and the list is getting smaller compared to past years. Would love it, however, if all I had to deal with were the taxes for family, meaning me, Kevin and Patrick. Maybe next year…

Guess I’ll head off to bed so that I can be up tomorrow morning to enjoy the nice weather. The cats have not been cooperative about settling down and sleeping when I go to bed. We’ll have to wait and see whether they get kicked out of the bedroom once again tonight!

So Kevin convinced me to play a game called “My Tribe” on Facebook, and I am addicted now. It rained here all day yesterday which was a good excuse for me to park myself in front of the computer and play this damn game all day! I vowed from the start that I wasn’t going to get hooked on any Facebook games and have been hiding/blocking all of them the minute any updates showed up from friends. Kevin knows someone involved with the making of this game, however, so I decided to try it. I’m not posting updates to my FB wall so I don’t have to burden others with all that garbage. But it is a fun game and I’m hopeful others will try it and will visit my ‘island’ since that benefits my play of the game. It’s not a requirement, though, and I can still play without visitors.

Fortunately, all games are blocked on my work computer. I say fortunately because it would be very tempting if they weren’t blocked!

The Oscars pre-show has started and, since there are so many “stars” that I don’t know these days, I will probably watch off and on and play this game while kind of watching. And we’ll see how long I continue playing the game as the challenges start requiring more effort.

Today is Kevin’s 35th birthday. I can’t believe I have a son who is 35! I can actually remember lots that happened in my life when I was 35 and, at that time, I never thought that my 7-year-old son would be my age one day. I thought that he would always be a little kid. How quickly things change while you’re not looking.

Unfortunately, it was not a very happy birthday for Kevin. He and Soula had to put their dog, Hannah, to sleep today. Half of Hannah’s body was paralyzed about 2 years ago and she has had many medical problems since then. Finally, her problems caught up with her and it was time to say goodbye. It’s never a good day when you have to make this decision and I was sorry it had to happen today for Kevin. They’re going to dinner tomorrow for a bit of a belated celebration. It would certainly be hard to celebrate tonight.

Turned out to be a great Sunday. The weather was in the high 60’s and sunny, so I decided to let the cats out in the backyard to wander around. I used some boards and bricks to block the area under the back fence so they couldn’t squeeze through to the yard behind me. Not anything permanent, but just enough to keep them in the yard for now until they get more used to being outdoors.

Both of them seemed amazed when I opened the back door and left it open. They were a bit cautious heading out, but then realized they had this giant play yard and started exploring. Nate tried to push himself through the lattice fence almost immediately. He’s going to be hard to contain. The rest of their time out was uneventful and I brought them in after about 1/2 hour so that I could watch the Olympic hockey game and the Lakers game.

US lost, Lakers won. While I would have liked to have seen the US win, I think the closing ceremonies tonight would have been a lot more subdued and not as much of a party had Canada lost the hockey game. So it really wasn’t that bad. And after seeing the US lose, it was really nice to see the Lakers beat the Nuggets!

Since I still had a few hours of sunlight remaining after all that, I went out back and pulled the weeds in all my flowerbeds. Have a bit of trimming to do as well as cleanup along the sides of the house, but the backyard is ready to plant for spring! Hayes sat at the backdoor watching while I did this, so I decided to let him out when I finished. He wandered around and then got curious about the pool…and then took a step forward. It shocked the hell out of him when he started to sink! He steered clear of the pool from that point on, being very careful not to get too close to it.

All this time I thought Nate was asleep in the house since that was the last place I saw him when I went outside. I did think it was odd that he wasn’t at the backdoor trying to come out when I let Hayes out, but just figured he was tired. All of a sudden Nate appeared, coming around the side of the house! I later discovered he had pushed the screen out of the front window and went out on his own! And somehow he figured out how to get to the backyard from out front.

Then Nate decided to do LOTS of exploring! He checked out the pool and took a drink from it. He reminded me of Puto who used to do the same. Then he decided to climb one of the tangelo trees, but didn’t go up much higher than about 4-5 feet for his first climb. No doubt he’ll be the first of these two to get onto the roof once he figures out how to climb the tree in the front yard. And then it was time for them to go indoors for the night since I still needed to clean up all the weeds and leaves that I had cleared out of the flowerbeds.

Got everything cleaned up, started a load of laundry and gathered up the trash since tomorrow is trash day. At that point Nate decided he wasn’t done being outside, and squeezed out the front door as I headed out to put out the trash cans. Now this was happening at about 7 pm, and it was no longer light out. In fact, it was pitch black out! I decided it was pointless to try to find a black cat when it was that dark, so I figured I wouldn’t worry and that he would probably come back at some point. As I finished up with the trash he came back across the driveway and onto the porch. I scooped him up and took him inside, much to his dismay. I still don’t want the cats out at night, but feel a bit better since Nate didn’t go too far away this first time.

And now I’m watching the Olympics closing ceremonies and trying to type with two cats nestled in my arms on my desk between me and the keyboard. Glad to be heading off to bed at a normal time tonight!

OK, I’ve really enjoyed parts of the Olympics but I’m ready for it all to end. I feel compelled to watch every night, even when there’s an event that I don’t really care about. Tonight I’m watching the four-man bobsled race because the United States had a chance to win the gold for the first time since 1948 (and they won it!). Normally I just don’t give a shit about bobsledding. Also all the figure skaters are doing exhibitions which are pretty cool. Again, normally I don’t watch figure skating–except during the Olympics. Tomorrow I’ll watch the US vs Canada gold medal hockey game. I HATE hockey ’cause I just can’t figure out which team has the puck and is able to score. It seems like there are no rules. Just try to get the puck in the goal. But tomorrow I’ll watch because it’s a big deal event. And then, of course, I’ll watch the closing ceremonies tomorrow night since I’ve watched everything else. And then it will be over. Finally.

And then I can choose what to do each night and I’ll have my weekends back. I’m so ready…but it really has been a great Olympics!

I’m going to be grateful when the Olympics are finally over. Not that I’m not enjoying watching them, it’s just that I can’t continue to stay up until 12:30-1:00 am every night! I don’t understand why NBC has to run them so late, and especially since they are all pre-recorded/tape-delayed. Start them at 7:00 pm instead of 8:00 pm, for God’s sake! And why do they have to run the events that we *really* want to see at the end of the show? I know, it’s to keep us watching the entire show. I can’t wait until Friday when I know I won’t have to get up early the next day. Only two more days of not enough sleep.

Nate and Hayes are growing like crazy–especially Hayes! I weighed them both this morning by holding each while I got on the scale and then weighing myself separately. Nate weighs about 7 lbs. and Hayes is almost 10 lbs! Both are just a little over 6 months old, so I can just imagine how big Hayes will be at one year. He’s almost as big as Puto was right now.

Both have healed well from their “snipping” and are back to normal. Hayes is turning into a cuddly teddy bear while Nate is a trouble-making little rat! Both now know when it’s time for me to come home and are waiting in the front bedroom window when I pull into the drive. Then they run to meet me at the front door and are all over me for the remainder of the night. I’ve never had cats who want to be with me the way these two do! They really act more like dogs than cats.

Last week was a wonderful break to the winter weather with 80 degree temps and lots of sun. We’re now back to normal with highs in the 50’s and 60’s and chilly temps at night. Not like back East or in the Midwest, but chilly for So.Cal. And the rain is back. It started raining on the way home tonight and will continue through tomorrow. Then another storm is due on Friday night through the weekend. We do still need the rain and, since I’m indoors watching the Olympics, it really doesn’t affect me much. I am looking forward to the nice warm temps that will stay for awhile, though.

Am finally getting motivated to get busy around this house. I’m not sure what did it, but possibly it’s because things finally got bad enough to spur me on. I’m also almost out of silverware and lots of dishes. I’ve been washing everything by hand since I think my dishwasher is going out. It’s still somewhat operational, but is making really weird noises when the water is pumping into it. Don’t know if it’s a problem with the hoses or what, but I’m reluctant to use it. I really do need to get a new one since this dishwasher is probably about 20 years old. Will probably get a new one come spring or summer. Meanwhile I have dishwater hands.

It’s supposed to be chilly outside tomorrow with rain starting late in the day, so I’m going to try to keep the motivation going and really work on cleaning. Still have time to get a lot more finished tonight, but have lots more that needs doing.

The Olympics are a big distraction, though. I’m hoping there’s not a lot on tomorrow that I care about so that I can just have the TV on in the background. I know there’s one of the hockey games on and I really don’t care to sit and watch hockey. I just can’t ever figure out who has the puck at any one time. It’s just not clear like basketball. So if that takes up a good portion of the coverage, I should get a lot done around the house.

My neighbor to the north finally hired someone to trim back his ugly-ass tree. He did about 1/5 of the tree himself two weeks ago and I guess he figured out it was too much for him to handle by himself. Only problem is that whoever he hired just did the trimming and didn’t haul off anything. They just left it laying in his yard. Now I really wouldn’t care except that the wind has started blowing tonight and I expect I’ll have lots of loose stuff blown all over my driveway and yard tomorrow morning. It seems that everything this guy does impacts me somehow. And his tree looks absolutely hideous! Sort of like a big huge trunk with three nubs on the top of it. The only good part is that I won’t have leaves, seeds and branches all over my property for another year or two–once he gets all the branches cleaned up, that is.