Just getting started...

Sunday morning, a time for reflection. A time to stop and plan for the next week. A hot cup of coffee, birds outside the window, nobody else up...

Last week was crazy hectic. First, it was a pre-Memorial Day cookout at our "other" son's house. We call him that because he's been our sons' best friend for about 20 years. Anyway, we went over to his place on Sunday for a cookout. While we were there, he and our youngest decided they were going to spend Memorial Day cleaning out our garage. Sounded cool to me, since Rick and I are just not able to do it.

I was surprised when they showed up Monday morning with their wives. I love the girls, but my expectations of supervising the garage clean up from my couch vanished. Since they were here and we have the whole extra-bedroom/storage room issue, they decided we would clear it out while to guys were outside.

I have plans for rearranging, but I have a lot of stuff to move. I was using our sitting room as a sewing room, and it was overflowing with fabric, etc. First we cleared it by boxing and bagging up everything that was loose and then moving it to the living room for staging. Then we dug out everything that was in the "junk" room and staged it in the sitting room and living room.

Along the way, I found stuff for the kids' garage sale. They were looking for donations to the sale to raise money for nursery furniture. Although it may look like it, I am NOT a hoarder like those crazy people on TV -- I happily gave them lots of stuff. Ultimately, they wound up with a flat-bed trailer full of stuff from the attic, garage and house, along with a car full of boxes.

I'll admit there was a lot of stuff, especially in the garage, that was ready to be thrown away. They filled up a pick-up bed full of wood and stuff and several trash cans. Just to keep motivated, we had the "Hoarders" show marathon on tv all day. Thank goodness we did not find any dead animals nor have to resort to shoveling stuff out!!

However, as the day drew to a close, we realized that some things would not get completed. We wound up with a good start on the garage, and a wreck in the house. We had boxes and stuff stacked around the living room. Frankly made me stressed to look at it and know we have to deal with it now.

Every time we start on this project (and we've tried before), Rick overdoes it and winds up sick. Although he had to work all day on Monday (car dealers are open every holiday but Christmas Day), he came home and helped with the final stages of the garage. On Tuesday he went to our son's house to work on a deck they've started. Unfortunately, it was about 95 degrees. Exhaustion and heat triggered Rick's faulty immune system and he got very ill.

After 7 months working contract, the employer had finally decided to offer me a permanent position where I've been working. That started Tuesday (well, officially Monday, so I get paid for the holiday -- something that you don't get when you are working contract). After work, I went to the theatre board meeting. About half-way through it, my oldest son sent me a text to say that he had been at the house and was leaving, but was very worried about Rick. So, I ran home and, sure enough, had to take him to an urgent care center.

Rick has Rheumatoid Arthritis and takes Embrel, an injectable immuno-suppresent. Since RA is an auto-immune disease (your body's immune system attacks your own healthy tissue), the treatment is to suppress that response. However, the treatment is generalized, so that you are also unable to fight off infection. Which means, if you get strep throat, you get it bad. Even with two doctor visits, two injections of antibiotic, and the strongest oral antibiotic he could take, he still missed 4 days of work. And the house is still all packed up and sitting around.

He was able to get around on Friday enough to consolidate some of the stacks and make a path. Then he went to work on Saturday. It just makes everything take longer when you have only one day a week off together.

In the meantime, I had a busy work-week, month-end close and Payroll on the same week. Thursday night we took the oldest son and his family out to eat, since I hadn't seen the baby in a week. You know what happens with newborns -- one week makes such a difference.

Friday night we had our oldest grandson, as usual. Saturday Rick went back to work, and I started out to run some errands for the party. I wound up at my parents' house late in the afternoon. My two-year-old nephew was there. I waited for my son to come over with the grandsons, then we went out to eat after my brother and his family left. While eating, Rick called to say that our "other" son's wife needed someone to sit with her youngest who was in the hospital with an eye infection while she went home to pick up her older son. It was 9:30 by the time we got home, so nothing was finished that I had planned.

Here we are at Sunday. The plan today is to work on the empty spare room, installing hard wood flooring (that we've had in the garage for several years, waiting on installation). I got the paint yesterday, but I don't know if I'll get it painted today. And I have plans to build a shelf unit. All that must be done to setup the room as my sewing/craft room. Then I have to move the stuff into there. Then move the day bed out of the boy's room into the sitting room along with the computer desk from the dining nook in the living room. Then set up the cradle and baby bed in the boys' room and move the assorted baby things (car seat, bouncer, stroller, high chair) into that room. Ultimately, everything will have its place and we will have less stuff.

We won't finish it all today. And next weekend is getting ready for the party and having it, too. A couple of weeks to live with the boxes, but maybe by 4th of July I can relax.

We're having a party...

We are planning a party/rock concert for our 35th anniversary. Rick has always been a guitar aficionado. He recognizes guitar players on recordings. We've always known people in bands, and have several friends who are guitar players.

We recently went to see Blue Moon Fever. The guitar players in this group are people we've known forever. They've played in various bands over the years. The bass player was in theTexas Moon Band. The lead singer in that band, B.J. Hilliard, was Rick's cousin. We followed them around for several years and really enjoyed the whole "Outlaw" music scene. (We even went to one of Willie Nelson's 4th of July picnics, but that's a different story.)

Anyway, Rick thought it would be a great idea to have a party for our anniversary. One of our friends has 7 acres that he lives on, and he volunteered his place. We hired Blue Moon Fever. I'm trying to hire Land Mammals, my nephew's band, as an opening act. We made connections for cooking barbecue brisket. One of our long-time friends is a beer distributor, so we may even have a sponsor, just like a real concert! A lot of our other guitar-playing friends want to come and jam. We've arranged for a portable toilet and are booking a bounce house for the kids.

I think it will be a party to remember (and I don't even have to clean house!!)

New life's a coming...

In my last post, I introduced my newest grandson. We are so excited! Who knew having a grandchild would be so much fun? We've had such a blast with our oldest, that more can only be better!

What I forgot to mention is that we've got yet another grandchild on the way. Our youngest son and his lovely wife are expecting their first child around the end of October. They don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet, but they are sure it's a boy, mostly because we seem to have a run on boys. Even before they were married, we warned my daughter-in-law that her chances of having a girl were low. She says she'll adopt if necessary!! She's a very girly-girl, and it would be a shame if she didn't get a daughter along the way.

My son is also excited, especially now that his brother has two kids. Do brothers ever stop competing?

Time has flown...

Everyone knows the "time flies when you're having fun" homily. In my experience, time flies regardless. It just goes by so quickly. Three months since I last updated this blog -- what has really happened? Anything? Everything? I can't tell if its been too boring to update or too busy.

I was the assistant director and stage manager (as well as set construction foreman and props master and set decorator, et al) for The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. The director was fun but crazy. I don't mean kookie, I mean bi-polar. Very interesting person, retired from medical practice due to mental illness. Apparently able to function on meds, but so hyperactive made me a little crazy. He's very open about it; in fact he lacks some social barriers so his behavior is almost too open. In the theatre, you meet all kinds of people and get very involved in their personalities. A very interesting experience.

Decorating the set was fun. It was supposed to be an upscale New York condo, a "jewel box of an apartment". The colors were very Mediterranean, so I used some nice textural pieces. My dad, who helps with set construction a lot, made some floating shelves. I enjoy scouring the thrift stores and dollar stores, looking for pieces that can work together. I also made some lighting fixtures. I made a chandelier by taking two inexpensive thrift-store, shiny brass, 5 light fixtures and putting them together. Turned the lamp holders up, spray painted the whole thing with hammered pewter spray paint, strung some clear faceted beads, and added chandelier bulbs. I also used some lamp parts we had and some of the unused shades from the chandelier to make to over-the-bar pendants that turned out well -- made the set designer happy.

Furniture is always a challenge on a set, especially in a theatre like ours with a small stage. The director works at a local national-chain book store and they just happened to decide to throw out a blue leather couch and some blue and brown leather arm chairs while we were hunting for furniture. They were worn and had some tears, but the were workable on stage.
We didn't have any dining table chairs that were up to our standards and couldn't find any that would fit our frugal budget. I had some that were a good shape and size, so I made chair covers for them. I lucked onto some compatible upholstery-weight fabric for only $5 a yard and I had a lot of gold fringe that I had taken off of something in a previous show. I was very happy with the result. I can highly recommend chair covers if you need a change of look or want to spruce up some inexpensive chairs.

Set decorating gives me a chance to use some of the tips I've seen on TV and to try things that might not work in my house. I get to see colors together without risking my own rooms (plus there are usually other cast members to help paint). My dad says he might make some floating shelves for his house now that he's done these.

Unfortunately, just before we opened the show, the allergy season came down on me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I got my "hacking-up-a-lung" cough, along with itchy eyes and stuffiness. I used some of the cough syrup the doctor had prescribed back in the winter when I had the same cough, but I decided the weird dreams weren't worth it. Although I have fairly mild hypertension, I'm sensitive to decongestants and such, and the ones that are safe for HBP aren't strong and have to be taken more frequently. After about 3 or 4 weeks, it suddenly turned into a sinus infection, so I finally went to the doctor for some antibiotic for that. Then, one day, the wind blew really hard all day. Apparently, whatever I was allergic to got blown out all at once because my symptoms just stopped. The people at work were relieved, since it sounds like I'm choking to death when I get a coughing fit.

April was complicated because during the second weekend of the show, the community chorus formerly known as The Musical Feast (now the Lewisville Civic Chorale) had our last concert of the season. I had planned on this and had scheduled a substitute stage manager. My new grandson was scheduled to be delivered the following Friday, but decided to show up on Sunday, April 21! I missed the second concert performance, but they had enough tenors for this show. I was a little disappointed because I really enjoyed the music and the chance to get back to the tenor section (had to sing alto for a couple), but a new grandson takes precedence.

My new grandson is too sweet. He weighed 8 lbs 7 ozs and came with much less trouble than his brother. It's been three weeks now. I finally got to keep him for a few hours last Friday. He just looked at me, like he needed to remember me. He didn't cry or get upset. I think he's going to be laid back, like his dad.

More has happened, but I wonder how blog-able it is. Do I need to record that my older grandson learned to catch a baseball? That he made three outs in row playing third base in a tball game? That I got my puppy groomed for the first time and he looks so different now? That my weird "temporary" job has now passed 6 months and they terminated the controller that they had brought in, leaving me in a strange limbo position? That I'm determined to get my sewing room setup but between Rick's RA and my allergies, it's slow going?

Regular life just flies by...

Record snowfall and more...

I must confess to putting off blogging for a couple of weeks. I have been waiting on some pictures of a suit I made for my friend's Bar Mitzvah party. Looks like they aren't going to be ready for a couple of weeks from now. I took pictures of the jacket after I finished my part, but it doesn't show to its best advantage. I did all the structural work, making a fully lined man's jacket, in the style of a Civil War uniform (McCalls' M4745). Truthfully, I'm not sure I've ever made a fully lined jacket. But it came out well. I put bias tape trim around the the front edges and collar -- using my cool new sewing machine foot. I glued the fringe on the bottom and the cuffs. The friend's dad did all the other decorating. I can't imagine many 13 year-olds have Beatles-themed parties these days, but it was fun. We took our grandson to the party and he had a great time, too.

This week we've had record snowfall in North Texas -- 12.5 inches!! I stayed home Wednesday with my grandson, and it snowed big, fluffy, wet flakes non-stop all day. Rick came home at lunch and they made a snowman. I just couldn't bring myself to get out in it. When Rick came home after work, it was still light, so they went out and built another snowman -- and had a snowball fight. See, I was right not to go out in it.

My little dog, Ivan the Terrible, went out like a good puppy, but the snow was deeper than him. Not that it stops him. He is fearless. But I had to keep a towel handy, because he was so wet and cold everytime he came in. Buddy, our sheltie-mix, is bigger (a lot bigger) and has a double coat, so he didn't get that wet. Poor Ivan has a maltese coat and he gets very wet. I have an electric heater we use in the living room when it's this cold, to offset the doggie-door draft. Ivan basks in front of it.

Speaking of Ivan, he had his sterilization surgery a couple of weeks ago. He was so pitiful in the "cone of shame" (cultural reference to the movie "Up"). He's so little and the cone was so big, he had to walk with his head held up. He got used to it pretty quickly though, and was able to go in and out the doggie door himself. We left it on for about 8 days. He still has a stitch that hasn't dissolved that is worrying him a lot. Our grandson said "he was licking his junk". Funny comment from a 5-year-old. I couldn't figure out if it was better or worse than using the clinical term. It's a procedure you have to be careful explaining to a little boy -- don't want to traumatize them!

Back to the snow, I was right not to go out in it. This morning I went out to get in the car to come to work -- drove the Honda since my GMC pickup is iffy on wet roads and scary on icy ones -- and, naturally, slipped. Sat right down. Thank goodness for the 6 inches of snow, but there was still cement underneath. I've had a rough day, apparently bruised those "tailbone" vertebra. Great. Since the arthritis in there was already a problem. I just hope it didn't crack or something. A true pain in the, well you know.

New show at the theatre opens tonight -- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. Three-man, improv-style comedy retelling of 36 plays in about 2 hours. They haven't needed much help, just some costume repair and some prop work. Had to make a head baked in a pie (I don't know if I've ever even read Titus Andronicus). The director had used spray foam insulation to rough out the shape in a pie pan. Rick carved it into a face and then we covered it with a bread-and-glue dough. Looks pretty good, but doesn't carry very far in the house. Fortunately it is a brief scene. We went to the preview, since our regular preview audience was a no-show. Rodger & Eden came, too, and they both enjoyed it, thought it was very funny.

The next production is The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. The only traditional "play" we are doing this season. I'm going to AD. A very interesting script, featuring a 70-something woman with a propensity for vulgar language, a 50-something in mid-life doldrums, and a mysterious bi-sexual woman who initiates a menage a trois with the woman and her husband. That part is implied, but there is a same-sex onstage kiss. You never know about our audience. We sold out Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it had simulated sex acts, both hetero- and homosexual, on stage. I guess we'll see how it goes. I keep telling people that the retired people, who make up a large percentage of our audience, aren't as old-fashioned as they used to be; if you are 70 now, you were 25 in 1965. Even the 80-year-olds were there at the birth of rock-n-roll. Gives you a different perspective, huh?

I hope it won't be so long between posts. This is why I never kept a journal -- I get pumped up at the start and then my interest wanes. C'est la vie.

The cough that lingers...

I'm done with it. Coughing. Hacking. Choking. Gahhh! What a horrible allergy season this has been. Dry, hacking cough for weeks then actual bronchitis for about 10 days, with little relief from medication. Back to sinus drainage and the hacking cough. And I'm so easily tired out. I manage to go to work, but come home and go straight to bed almost every night.

I've been trying all day to work on a sewing project with limited success. I just can't get into it. I'm making a lime green satin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Club Band costume for my friend's son's Bar Mitzvah. I've got the jacket cut out, tomorrow I'm going to sew it up. I will.

I bought a new pen mouse and took it work. I'm trying to take some of the strain off my right thumb. I think it is a little better than it usually is by Saturday, but it is still giving me grief today. That's part of the reason I can't keep on the sewing. Everytime I pick up the scissors, it starts to hurt again.

I've been reading a lot. I got a gift card for Half Price Books for Christmas and picked up 5 or 6 books already. Except for one Sooky Stackhouse book, the rest are more short story anthologies. The Sooky was the 8th of the Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire Mystery series, "From Dead to Worse". I read the first 7 last year, and then had to wait for the next one. By the time it came out and then went to paperback, I had almost forgotten. Now there's another one out, due in paperback in April (just in time for my birthday). The books aren't very long, usually around 300 pages, so I'm usually done in a day or two. It's like eating potato chips, you keep thinking you'll stop for now, but you just keep snacking (reading).

We've been keeping up with the latest blockbusters. We saw "Avatar" this week, in 3D. I liked it but it was VERY long, and I kept thinking it was so like another movie -- "Battle for Terra". Except for the occasional actual person thrown it (the bad guys), the animated story elements were so similar it was distracting. We saw the new "Sherlock Holmes" recently, too. Again, beats watching reruns of CSI, so not all bad. It was ok, but ultimately disappointing in the casting (other than Robert Downey Jr & Jude Law). I spent most of the show trying to get a better look at the costumes. AWESOME costuming, worth seeing the show for.

I've been stressed this week over the earthquake in Haiti. Our friend's mother owns a company there that makes home decor items. Her house is on the same street as the national palace. A couple of his brothers and their families live there, too. He didn't hear from them for 3 days; my empathy was running on high. What would you do -- you can't call them, you can't go there to look for them, all you can do is sit and wait to find out if they are alive or trapped or whatever. What a relief when he found out that they had survived, although her 4-story house was a total loss.

OK. Tomorrow will be better, I can tell.