Doin' better

It was a quiet Christmas around here - well, except for the hacking and sneezing and blowing noses. We're starting to recover - Dorothy is well enough to get out and hang with her buddies (Alanna is back in town for the week, and I think they're trying to make up for lost time!) and the rest of us are back at work.

New Years will find us here at the house with Dorothy and her buds. A houseful of 17 and 18 year olds. I can't think of anything I'd rather do!

Sick as a dog

Well, what a way to end the year. Bob, Dorothy & I are all coughing up a storm, losing our voices, having ear-aches... this cold is a real doozy. I'm sure that Brighton is going to catch it - too many loose germs in this house for him NOT to. Poor Tyler and his girlfriend Annalisa caught it a couple of weeks ago, and right before finals. So they had to keep studying, which meant lots of late hours, and they both got REALLY sick. I invited them to come home for a couple of days of 'mothering' - I don't know if it helped, but it made me feel better. They stopped in a for a few minutes on their way North for the holiday a few days ago, and they seemed a little better. I just hope Tyler makes it back home for Christmas!

Dorothy also caught it before finals, and since she's already Miss Mini, didn't have much reserves to work with - she's still very sick, and has been spending much of her day time hours in bed with a new video game that a dear teacher-friend made possible via a gift card. Thank you! You know who you are... It's the only way we can get her to stay abed...

My cough seems to be improving somewhat this morning, but my head is now spinning, so apparently my balance centers are now involved. Isn't that fascinating? I feel bad for the opera company - I should be there - but can't drive, much less think.

I have to say, though, that there is one ray of sunshine in this otherwise cloudy holiday - the driver who caused Dorothy's accident was finallly sentenced, and the court agreed with what Dorothy wanted, within the strictures of the law. So at least that part of our lives is at last coming to a close.

I don't know if I'll have the energy to do another post before Christmas, so I will wish you all a wonderful and Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! My Christmas letter this year closed with these words, which I extend t0 you as well...

"There is a saying : 'May you live in interesting times.' Not something I would wish on others….
It’s really hard to believe this very interesting year is almost over, but here we are – so with this, we wish you a wonderful 2009. And may it be boring."

December already

We've been having fun putting up Christmas decorations and planning our holiday. First we were going to do a day in Disneyland with at least part of Bob's family, like we did last December. Then we weren't. Then we were. Then we weren't. All very confusing. The upshot is that Disneyland has become too expensive for us this year - once 'things' settle - and we are out of the huge debt we've accumulated as a result of D's accident - we can do splurges like that again. Something to look forward to.

Dorothy is busy planning her annual New Years Eve party - this year's theme is "A Potpourri Christmas" - Halloween costumes, a Thanksgiving dinner, and a Christmas gift exchange. Sounds like FUN! I would say "I wanna go!" except that I will be going. As a boring chaperone :-)

Both Dorothy and Tyler are in Finals over the next two weeks - boy, that is one part of their youth that I would NEVER envy.

The opera company continues to suck up every daytime moment. Love the job. Hate the stress. But hey, that's LIFE, right?? At least I love the job!!

Morikami Gardens & Museum

Another really fun day was the day that my cousin Rebecca and I went to the Morikami Museum & Gardens for the day. It was a long drive, but so very worth it!

The gardens were so beautiful - many different styles of gardens, running throughout Japanese history.

They also have some of the best Japanese food I've ever had!

The drive to Delray Beach from Palm Beach was in itself very fun, as Rebecca and I chatted our way there.

Thrift-storing in Florida -

(I'll bet you didn't know that was a verb, did you?)

One of my favorite parts in visiting Florida is in the great and numerous thrift stores in the greater Palm Beach area. There's this one store where I always have excellent luck finding work clothes, including the formal gowns I need for the opera. And every time I go to Florida, I can't remember which one it is! I remember that it's very close to the airport - but there are MANY in that category, so we end up visiting a lot of stores.

The good news is that this year was no exception - we finally found it - it's a Salvation Army, and I got their business card this time! - and I got two formals, 6 pairs of nice slacks, 4 shirts, a pant suit for work, and more - Ann Taylor, J.Jill, Sag Harbor, Liz Claiborne, and more, for $65. Yup. Easily over $1,000 worth of clothes. Score!

Walking in Mosquitoville... or We should have paid better attention.

Our last day in the Everglades included a trip to go for a hike in a nearby state park. We had a nice chat in the parking lot with a ranger who told us where the nearby trails were, and what we might see.

As we were going into the brush, Tam & I were slathering up with mosquito repellent, which prompted the ranger to comment that Johnson tests their mosquito repellent at their park. "Isn't that interesting?" was my only thought at the time. Big mistake.

On our first trail, we made it about 10 yards down a rather mucky trail before the mosquitoes started swarming. We beat a hasty retreat and headed out for a drier trail. We drove about 1/2 mile and tried again - with more repellent and high hopes.

We enjoyed the slightly different flora for a few minutes, trying to watch each others backs for the ever present skeeters. By this time, we're not talking a few - no, there were swarms following us - swooping in for landings.

We made it about 1/4 mile this time, and saw something that made it all worthwhile - a mama turtle laying her eggs in the soft, dry sand of the trail. We decided that was good enough, and beat-feet back to the protection of our car. After that, we decided the City of Naples was the best way to spend the rest of the day.

Spiders for chocolate (Post 2 of 2)

An addendum to our adventure through the mangrove swamp tunnels by kayak...

As we came out of the final mangrove tunnel, our guide Mary said to the male friend (boyfriend, husband???) of our spider-phobic kayaker: "You're going to have to do something big to make up for this one."
To which he replied "Yeah, this might require a chocolate brownie."
And my comment to him: "To heck with a brownie; this calls for chocolate mousse."
And his reply? "Chocolate mousse? Oh....."

I'm thinking perhaps he didn't understand just what it took his friend to make it through those spider-infested tunnels without a case of the screaming-meemies.

Posting backlog! (Post 1 of 2)

Returning to work has made it hard to get back into posting - I flew in to SFO last Thursday the 20th, having traveled PBI-ATL-Cincinatti-SFO. The flights took all day - leaving PBI at 10:30 a.m. and arriving SFO 6:30 p.m. After retrieving my luggage, Bob met me and we drove home to Atascadero. Ahhhhhh. Home. 11:30 p.m., to bed.

Now for most people, 11:30 is nothing - but for me it can put me in danger of a migraine, so I was a bit worried, but Friday I woke up raring to go, and put in a full day at work. Got up Saturday and did some housework, started the laundry, went grocery shopping - but felt kinda queasy by the time I got home. I managed to get a dinner stew started, along with a spaghetti sauce for another day, cut up some meat to freeze for stir fry dinner another night and put away most of the groceries before it became clear that this queasiness was getting bad. Went to bed.

Woke up 12 hours later, sick as a dog with a headache as bad as any I've had. Achy all over. I'm thinking flu, because it started with the upset stomach and achy muscles - but after suffering for another 5 hours, I got up the courage to take my migraine pill (I have to wait until I'm pretty sure that I will be able to keep it down - especially since that was my last pill!) - and low and behold an hour later, my headache was tolerable. Oh my. Last thing I need is a new type of headache onset. So I came out and watched Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth one), then Pride & Prejuice (Keira Knightly one) and then Sense & Sensibility. Best way to get over an illness!

Anyway - all of this long story to tell you why I haven't finished posting about the trip! I have several more stories I want to share and soon some photos, too.

Taking the long way home…

Today we left Everglades City to return to Palm Beach Gardens, where we’re staying with Adele, our Dad’s friend. A very special lady, that Adele.

Anyway, we had a leisurely breakfast with a long chat with the host of Ivey House, David Harragan. He really knows the Everglades, having led tours there for quite a few years now. We enjoyed chatting with him about his adventures and travels, his family and their vacations. Great host. Great inn.

After leaving, we stopped by the Everglades City Chamber of Commerce, where we picked up a few little shells for Tam’s artwork. She has had some really interesting ideas about where her art may be going, which I look forward to seeing as they develop.

We took a different route home, so as Tam was looking over the map, she spied something called “Flamingo Gardens”, a non-profit botanical garden and small wild animal rescue place. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go check it out, and boy are we ever glad we did! We really had fun – the Gardens had several mini-habitats from all different parts of Florida, and many animals to represent them. The birds were usually there because they had been injured and were not able to be returned to the wild, or because they had been raised by humans and then given away – also unable to go into the wild because they had no skills to fend for themselves. Anyway, the cages were large and clean, and the animals seemed uniformly content and healthy. There were also two BIG gators, several turtles, three playing otters – and I think there was a panther, but we weren’t terribly motivated to go see him/her, and we ran out of steam anyway. We arrived at the otter pen right after they had been given a fun treat – sardines frozen into large chunks of ice, so they could play with the ice while getting their food. We really enjoyed watching them play and eat – they really seemed to be having a good time: just like otters usually do!

I think my highlight was the fact that they let us feed the flamingos! There were little food dispensers, and the flamingos came right up to the edge of their pen and ate right out of your hand! Did you know that flamingos are as gentle as hens are when they nibble up the food? I was so surprised! And just like chickens (which of course, Tam and I are very familiar with, having raised them for years), they all seem to have their own personalities. There was this one really large one – we think it might have been the grandma – who everyone else deferred to. And if you tried to offer her your empty hand, she would check it out for treats that might be stuck between your fingers, but then she’d knock you hand away! What a funny girl.

Mikele in a BOAT

Yes, it’s true; the most seasick person I know (ME) went in a boat yesterday! We were checking out the Everglades National Park office/store and decided on the spur of the moment to do one of their boat tours. The boat was wide and sturdy, and the water looked just as smooth as can be. And wow, am I ever glad I did. We went out into the open waters around the mangrove forest, into an area called the 10,000 islands. Lots of different birds, a few dolphins and a lot of learning about the mangrove trees. Did you know there are three kinds of mangroves, and they each handle the salt of the estuary waters differently? One type takes the salt in, and then excretes it in a few of its leaves – the ‘sacrificial leaves’ that die when they reach a certain level of salt. Another type uses a type of reverse osmosis to exclude 80% of the salt. I can’t remember the third off-hand, but I found it so interesting!

We actually went almost out into the Gulf of Mexico – it was really amazing. The breeze was enough to keep us cool (and me, not seasick) in the warm sun. We watched rain showers out over the gulf – big black clouds extending all the way down to the ocean. Fun!

Addendum to yesterday’s trip: the adventure of the spiders…

One thing about mangroves that I didn’t know is that spiders really, really love the mangrove forest – and one of the other kayakers really, really didn’t like spiders! Luckily for her, there were several kayaks before her, taking down the webs as we went. That included me. It wasn’t too bad, though – the spiders were higher than us for the most part.

Another aspect of the trip was that since I have a bum right shoulder, Tam had to do nearly all of the paddling for us. And therefore we had to use a two-person kayak, which has a much longer turning radius than the single-person kayaks. So we ended up with our nose in the mangrove roots at every single sharp turn – mangrove roots which were full of spider webs. Oh yeah, that was fun.

I have to say that the positive attitude of our arachnaphobic fellow kayaker was so brave. I would have been a screaming meemie by then, I think.

At the end of our trip, our leader found a HUGE wolf spider crawling on her boat. And by huge, I mean three inches across. ::shudder:: Good thing it didn’t fall on anyone else’s boat!!!

Sunset kayak trip

Okay, imagine this. It’s late afternoon, and you’re out on the water in a kayak. You enter a mangrove tunnel – the roots and brush catch your paddle each time you miss a turn – and if you look up, you can see the most amazing groupings of spiders and webs you’ll ever want to see.

From time to time, herons, egrets, osprey and kingfishers fly by on their way to new fishing. You can hear the occasional cicada amidst the birdcalls, too.

The water is smooth and cool, with bugs flying in the air and on the surface of the water. A little ways off, you see a silvery fish flipping itself up into the air for some reason known only to itself.

The only sounds are those of the paddles, dipping, dipping. There is a break in the mangrove, and you join the other kayaks in a large lake – at the far end is a large tree where you see many different types of fishing birds landing to roost for the night. The kayakers gather to watch the sunset and slap mosquitoes. Dark falls, and the guide hands out headlamps, and attaches glowsticks to the back of each kayak – you follow each other back through the tunnels with only headlamps lighting the way. Spider webs brushing your faces – mosquitoes buzzing – and a full moon occasionally peeking through the clouds to light the waters before you.

I think I’ve just had one of the most memorable experiences of my long and adventurous life.

Greetings from the Everglades!

Otamay and I are having a marvelous time! We just got there this afternoon, and after getting settled, spent the afternoon wandering around Everglades City, one of the sweetest little towns you could ever imagine. We ended up at a little restaurant with a deck hanging over the water. We sat facing the water at the rail, and watched as a gater slowly swam by. Amazing.

We've been enjoying all the waterbirds too - gazillions of 'em! We hope to get up close and personal with some tomorrow...

We're staying at Ivey House, a very nice, and eco-friendly, B&B. Free Wi-Fi - woo hoo!

Wow. Where did October go?

Amazingly enough, it's almost the end of October. Whew. No sooner did I get back from my nice weekend away then I drove head-first into getting ready for my first opera without Jill (Jill Anderson, founding General Director of our opera company). While I was confident of my abilities, it is still always a little nerve-wracking to try something as big as this for the first time.

I can safely report that so far, all is well! It's been a very busy, very exciting couple of weeks. Lots of late evenings, but no major bumps in the road! Not that this is a ME thing! Putting on an opera is a BIG team endeavor- it's just my honor to be able to help oversee it.

On the home front, Dorothy has been having some difficulties coping with the 'residuals' from her brain injury - problems with short term memory, etc. I don't want to go into it, but we have hired tutors to get her through this period, and I'm so thankful for the assistance they've been giving her. I say this just so it can be understood that we aren't done with this yet. Although Dorothy is her cheerful self (Thank you, God!), she is still dealing with things.

You should see her adorable haircut, though. Sweet.

A weekend away!

I finally get to have a little mini-vacation weekend. My friend Carolyn & I are heading to San Fran for an Arts Marketing conference today, and will return in a couple of days. We're going up today even though the conference doesn't start until tomorrow so that we can have a play day! Of course, it WOULD be raining today... But since I love the rain, I think it's just fine.

Dorothy gave me strict instructions to stop at our favorite bakery in Chinatown, the Mee Mee Bakery. Hopefully we can make it over to that part of town!

All sworn in

I had the joyful experience of accompanying Brighton to his swearing in. So proud. We went together to the notary, and, just the three of us, watched as Brighton took his oath.

The official ceremony isn't until December, but in the meantime, his paperwork has been submitted, and we're just waiting for his license number. A wonderful day -Brighton achieves his dream.

Adventures in Yosemite

I got back from Yosemite last night - what a lovely weekend that was! Brighton and I drove up on Friday early, and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon wandering the valley floor. Saturday a.m., he & I spent shopping for hiking boots for him. Although it's a pain finding shoes for his feet (like mine!), in the end we were successful. So Saturday afternoon we decided to head up to Vernal Falls. A wonderful hike, but I haven't climbed so many stairs since Rome!
Saturday night Tyer, Annalisa & Bob arrived, & we enjoyed a couple hands of gin rummy together before bed. Sunday we got everyone packed up and I dropped them off at Tenaya Lake for their trip back to Tuolomne Meadows.

Here's the adventure part - Bob just called me - there's a fire in Yosemite, and everyone has been turned back. Oh well. It was still a lot of fun!

Another milestone for the Family

Well, today is a BIG day for us - Brighton just got word that the very last delay in getting sworn in to the Bar is complete!! YEAH!! So now, as soon as they're doing a swearing in ... he's IN! Yippie! As soon as he's sworn in ... PARTAY! (And if you don't know what that means, you don't get to!)

Labor day weekend

It's so nice to have a 3-day weekend at long last. Brighton and I had a shopping trip yesterday to get him some work clothes now that he's working in the office. I scored big time on cute tops for Dorothy - a risk, since she wasn't with us, but she seems to like them. Yea! I even found her a really beautiful formal. I'm hoping she'll be willing to help take Marketing surveys at the next opera, but even if not, I'm sure she can use it for one of the school formals. I even found some things to bolster my work wardrobe - since most of my wardrobe is second hand, things are wearing out.

It's nice to be looking foward to a day with no huge house cleaning agenda. I do have a few things to do, but I can also do a few things I've needed to do for a while... find my Girl Scout materials so I can return them, clean up my office, putter in the yard...

Two posts in one day.

This is a first.

I just remembered that my blogging audience (how arrogant is that??!?) would be very interested to know that Dorothy is almost caught up with her school work!!! Yes, she reports that she's finished English and Math, and she's taking it to the HS today to drop off. Yippee! She is still working on History, but reports that she's more than half done.

Today she and her friends are going over to pick up their schedules, which should be interesting. I can't wait to see how the school decided to deal with her situation. She's prepared to negociate with the counseling office - which I find pretty mature on her part.

Her friend Kelcie is now legal to drive friends, so yesterday they had quite an adventure. They drove into San Luis for a shopping trip, and today it's school supplies day. Fun!

In retrospect...

Well, it would appear that what I initially thought was just a bad case of aching muscles was in fact the onset of a virus. I've had a real case of icky-tummy all week - one of those weeks you can't afford to take off work. I definitely wasn't incapacitated by this, but just felt lousy. But today it seems to have really caught up with me, so I think I'm either going to go in only for the afternoon, or stay home altogether. Thank God we have Julia in the office who can hold down the fort!

Oh, and the Board of Directors for my company voted unanimously to hire Brighton as a stop gap because he's willing to work basically full time even though we can't pay him full time. Which is pretty much what James was doing in office, bless him. I've had the wonderful experience of spending lots of time with Brighton - re-discovering how much I enjoy his company. Hopefully it will only be for a short period of time - his admission to the bar shouldn't be held up for too much longer (administrative snafu, of course). And of course we're hoping that our contacts with the opera patrons will result in some employment fruit.

Well, I'm off to the TV set for an hour of zombie-like watching. Good thing the weather is so nice today! Maybe I'll zombie on the front porch swing for a while too...

Oooo those aching muscles

Yesterday I worked out harder than I have in a while, and somehow managed to work myself into a full-body owie.

It was great being home for the first Saturday in a while - although I didn't get nearly enough done. How is that? I feel like I'm working so hard, but when I get to the end of the day, there's still more laundry to do, more weeds to pull, more furniture to dust. I guess it's just cause I'm so far away from being caught up...

Already August...

Where in the world has this summer gone!?! I feel like I've been going 90 miles an hour since the day I stepped back into the office full time. Fun, though! No complaints here.

Nephew Don came down for another week, which was great. Bob took the week off this time, so they got to do some hiking, went to the local little (4 slide) water park. And of course, Don & Dorothy hung out playing video games. Unfortunately, this week has been really nuts - I have already had to work three evenings, and we have a major fundraiser coming up for tonight.

Brighton is helping me in the office at PRO (Pacific Repertory Opera) these days. You know, it's so funny - it's been years since we did any work together, and I'd actually forgotten just how smart he is! He's been coming up with good ideas for the opera, things we hadn't even thought of.

Dorothy only has a couple more weeks to finish up her school work, and from what I can tell, she's making pretty good progress. She may even finish! Yea, Dorothy! I gotta tell ya, if she does get this work done on time, it won't be because I hung over her shoulder nagging - although I did try to give piercing reminders from time to time - but because of her own hard work.

Tyler has a couple more weeks of work, then it's back to Cal Poly for his final year. He is scheduled to graduate next June - although time will tell - and it sounds like he'll be carrying quite a workload.

Bob's work continues to be a challenge, but it sounds like he's really making some of the strides he was hoping for at his job. That can be so rewarding, just to make changes that are making a difference.

That's all for today folks. Have a good one!

Mid-State Fair

For the first time in several years, I've enjoyed more than one visit to the Mid-State Fair this year, thanks to my friend Carolyn. Last night we took the opera's new Artistic Director Robert Ashens to the fair to introduce him to the other half of SLO County. We had a great time - he did one of those old-fashioned photos where you dress in costume, and I ate all those fair foods that I miss during the year. Frozen bananas, cinnamon roll. You know. Part of the fun was going with a group - there were seven of us, and yes, we lost each other more than once. That's another part of the fun!

But alas, the lights of the fairground at the carnival area, plus the immense noise, set me up for a migraine today. My own fault - should have brought my own car! The good news is that I'm still having trouble with light and nausea, I am otherwise functional in terms of work, and have been catching up on work stuff that I put off. Important stuff! Feels productive, anyway. Ah, the life of a migraine person. I know that in comparison to MANY, what I have is minimal. And so I am very, very grateful that I am able to know exactly what to do (almost always) to avoid one. If I feel the tension behind the head during major lights and noise - it's GO HOME NOW. And NO red food coloring. NO msg. NO coffee (but tea is okay for some reason). At least 8 hours of sleep, preferable between the hours of 9:30-6:30. It's limiting, but not nearly as limiting as living with migraines! And I'm also lucky that I seem to have found a medicine that works.

Well, it's back to that catch-up work now. Have a great day, and don't forget to have fun!

Daily grind

Work is fun like usual - busy, challenging, rewarding. Opera Camp starts Monday, a concert the following Sunday, and a fundraiser the Saturday after. Wheee!

Dorothy is plugging along on her homework - it seems to me that she's making real progress, which is a huge relief to me. I have taken back the responsibility for tracking her medical appointments, but Bob is still responsible for getting her there - that works for both of us. There are still several things we need to finish up - dental, of course, getting the final report from her Speech Therapist so that her Rehab Doc can clear her. Checking out why her voice hasn't come back - we really hoped it would come back on it's own, but it's still raspy and weak. We just need to make sure we understand all the ramifications of the choices we make - what will happen if she chooses to not get her vocal chords "scoped" and there is an injury there, etc.

The kids had a GREAT time at Six Flags the other day. I have this wonderful photo that Tyler's girlfriend Annalisa gave us. Between Bob and I, it was a "I have first dibs!" kind of thing. I get to look at it all day at the office now. I'll give it up next month. Maybe.

Brighton is still looking for work in his field. If anyone has any leads on a job in the field of law, please let us know! It's a weak market right now, but Brighton is brilliant, and I know he'll do incredibly well once he gets started.

That's all for tonight!

A quiet weekend -

Last Thursday was the first concert in the opera's summer concert series, so I feel like I can finally take a breath... Bob and the kids headed down south for some fun, but I just felt like a very quiet weekend at home would help restore my frazzled nerves.

The kids headed down for a day at Six Flags-Magic Mountain to ride the scary roller coasters - the kind that I won't even TRY. Bob stayed in Lancaster for a visit with his brother, and hopefully his sister too. It was fun having nephew Don here - I wish I'd had more time with him, but it's just so special that even though we don't get to spend much time together, he feels just like one of the kids.

Dad and Adele called today, and they're definitely not coming to visit after all. Adele's doctor just does not want her exposed to smoke - and we certainly have smoke. We had live ashfall just three days ago, and our sunsets and sunrises are very red.

We've had a couple of interesting pet things lately. Thursday night, the kids all went to see "Dark Knight" at the midnight showing - and after having so many kids here, their leaving left Scamp just SO LONELY... I was awakened at midnight with a very sad puppy-dog howling - wooooo woooooo - from the back of the couch. Once he realized I was still here he felt better, but it was so cute. Except for the part where I had to get up at midnight to go get him.

And a couple nights ago, we were watching a movie here at home - we have a 'surround-sound' system - when I heard the sound of a squeaker toy coming from the back speakers. Squeak! Squeeeeak! I said "What IS that?" - it just didn't make sense in the context of what we were watching. Very strange. I puzzled it over for a bit, but when it happened again, I said "Wait a MINUTE!" and looked over the back of the couch... sure enough, Mika the kitty had brought in her OWN squeak-toy. The live kind. And it was not very happy. Well, Mika let it go (of course) and so I sicc'd the dogs after it. Last I saw, Sparky was headed for the doggy door with a tail hanging out of his mouth. Poor mouse, happy me.

I don't know how many of you who read this know that my very first cat was "Shadrach" and the first dog I remember was "Meshach" - well, they had a system. Kitty (Shadrach) would catch the gophers, and Meesh would eat them. Seems history is replaying itself here. Mika is an indiscriminate hunter - lizards, snakes, worms, mice, moles, , crickets, beetles, gophers, full-grown blue jay (how she got that one, I have no idea - it was bigger than she is.). But at least we are rodent free again! It had taken a while for the local rotentia to realize that Wild Thing had gone to kitty heaven, and they had just started taking over the lawns again. Mika grew up just in time.

Our little Franken-Sparky's hair has started to grow back! We were pretty worried, since the patch where he had been shaved to have a cyst removed last year never did grow back. I did some research, and it seems that the primary cause of hair loss in dachshunds is hypo-thyroidism. So as a test, I added a 1/2 mid-day dose of his existing meds to his daily schedule, and his hair started growing back in about 3 days. It's not a huge amount of hair, but it's better than nothing.

Well, I guess that's all for now! Enjoy your lives, friends. Live so that you regret nothing.

The queen of baking

I forgot to mention that she's still at it. She's currently teaching herself how to make tarts - she started with strawberry and has progressed to apple-butterscotch. Oh my word. I tasted one the other day and they are really killer.
My hope is that she'll decide to branch out to dinner-type foods and I won't have to worry about where I'm going to buy dinner. Yes, it's true. I've pretty much given up making dinner. Especially since I am getting home well after dinner these days... Praise God that Bob is willing to take care of it.
I am very much looking forward to figuring out a way to delegate more work so that I can have somewhat of a normal homelife again. Suggestions anyone????

Work, work, work

It seems like all I do! But at least last evening we had some fun - My nephew Don is here for a visit, so when I asked Brighton to do a work-related chore for me in SLO, I suggested that he might bring Don down and they could walk the Farmer's Market after. I bought them dinner and we had a nice, if quick, pizza dinner at Woodstock's. Yum! Love their cinnamon dessert pizza. Yup, three pounds on the scale guaranteed! Ah well, what is life, if not a series of ups and downs (on the scale and otherwise!)
It looks like my sister and I might be going to visit my Dad in November. It's the first time that work will let me get away, and the last time we went, we had such a great time!
Dad is going to be coming to town next week - right in the middle of our Summer Concert Series, and it's going to be hectic, I'm afraid. Won't be as relaxed as I'd like, but oh well. It will be great to see him and Adele again, and I do believe it will be their first visit since Dorothy's accident. My Dad has been so supportive during this time - something I'm sure I've neglected to mention. He's helped us financially as well as with his love.
Well I'm getting "crowned" today - found a bad crown at Tuesday's dental check-up. Wah. But our new dentist seems very kind and capable, so I'm at least not nervous about that aspect of things. She's the same dentist doing all of Dorothy's fix-it work.
I'm off! Wish me well - it's still never fun sitting in the dentist's chair when you have HUGE deadlines handing over your head!

Baking-mania

Dorothy has taken to baking like crazy. Every morning I wake up to a new batch of something - and here's the kicker - a CLEAN kitchen. Hooray!

Of course, then there's the problem of resisting the temptation... Dorothy may be Miss-Skinny-Minnie underweight, but the rest of us aren't! And she doesn't even eat most of her own creations.

My bad

Well, yes, it's been busy since we returned from Colorado. Work is intense - lauanching our summer concerts, preparing the season brochure for printing, etc. Home is busy too - we've made several changes to the house, and there's Sparky's adventure as Franken-Sparky. His stitches are out and he's doing great. No hair growth yet. Bob has taken to calling him Patches. And just yesterday the kitten injured her eye, so now we have turned my office into a kitty-hospital to try to give her every advantage in recovering.

Brighton was unable to find work in Davis and has moved home to try to take advantage of local contacts in finding something. We are renting a storage unit for all the extra stuff, because Tyler brought home a bunch of stuff too, because he moved to Goleta for the summer. I really like getting rid of all the junk. Storage bins to the rescue!

Dorothy is having fun this summer. She's doing some of the work she needs to do to catch up, but I worry about it. Not that my being here would help. She has to figure out she wants this on her own.

Tyler and his girlfriend took off for San Francsico to get away from the big fire down in Goleta. I don't know where he lives exactly, but he didn't seem concerned that the first would endanger his place. Most of his stuff is here anyway...

That's the news, boring as it is...

Home again

It sure was fun while it lasted. Back to work - which is fun in it's own way. Everyone has their own plans now - Tyler in Goleta, Dorothy here, and Brighton somewhere in between Davis and Atascadero. Back to the grind!

Vacation!

The whole family is in Colorado now, and the real vacation's about to start. We spent the better part of the last two days helping Sumner and Kristan move many years of belongings into their newly refinished basement. Before they finished it, the basement was just a big open space filled with boxes and boxes and more boxes. Filled. And how it's been finished into the most beautiful space - offices for each of them, a guest bedroom, and a fair amount of storage space. And amazingly enough, it seems that everything is going to fit!

For the kids it wasn't much of a vacation, but for me - disengaging my mind from the pressures of life - it is the perfect vacation. I get to help organize things - my brain's favorite activity - and help my adored brother at the same time. What could be better?

The kids are enjoying each other's company I think - they spend their non-work hours in their living space in the basement (yes, there's even room for three air mattresses and the junk from three grown kids in the basement AFTER all the boxes were moved back in!) on the two laptops we brought.

Today is fun day for them, though. Elitch Gardens - BIG roller coasters. I'm not a roller coaster fan for the most part - the Disneyland California Adventure rides are about as challenging as I can get between my motion sickness and a tweaky back. So my plan is to stay home and unpack boxes - fun for me, too!

Yesterday I spoke with our housesitter briefly, and she tells me that Sparky is doing really well. Yea!

Poor little Sparky

I'm in Littleton with my brother this week, attending a conference for work. Bob called me to tell me that my dachshund Sparky escaped from the yard and got into a fight with something. Bob and Scamp spend hours trying to find him with no luck. The next morning they found out that Sparky had been picked up by Animal Control at Atascadero Lake! He NEVER goes beyond the next couple of yards when he wanders, I just can't imagine what happened unless he ran away from something and ended up there. In any case, the angels at Animal Control took my Spark to the vet and he ended up "looking like Frankenstein" with two drainage tubes. Poor puppy!

The difficult thing is that Bob and all three kids planned on joining me here for a real, true family vacation. We have a housesitter planned, but it's so hard to ask someone to take on a chore like that, when you know it should be you. We're hopeful that if we pay our housesitter what it would cost me to change my flight plan, we can have it taken care of.

This might sound silly, but I sure would like it if you'd please pray for my little Sparky. And maybe even for my sad heart...

The latest from the D

We just found out yesterday that she's going to have to have a massive amount of work on her teeth. Not really surprising, considering. But still icky.

On a fun note, she's on another baking kick. The other day it was chocolate chip cookies. Then creamy chocolate pie (a family favorite) and today when I got home, Snickerdoodles!! Of course, she never actually eats any of them - still a size O - but the temptation Bob & I suffer.... She's decided it's going to be something different every day through the end of school.

Now if she would only learn to clean up her own messes...

House updates

Bob is having a lot of fun making some changes to the house. A while ago he put in a new air conditioning unit, and then this week we've having a proper ceiling installed in the living/dining room. Those of you who have been here will remember the exposed beam ceiling we've had; what you may not have known is that the ceiling you saw between the beams was also the bottom part of the roof. No attic space, nothing between. There were insulating batts (hard backed insulation, basically) under the roofing materials, but that's all. In some places, there wasn't even plywood over the insulation! Well, now we're going to have insulation in the living room and a proper ceiling. Should really help keeping the house warm in winter and cool in summer!
I've been working like a maniac this last week trying to get ready for the new season. Securing venues, coming up with themes for the concerts... of course, our new Artistic Director will be working just as hard coming up with singers to fill all these concerts! I can't tell you how much I look forward to our vacation, which is coming soon. We're going to have a house-sitter for the dogs/cats/chicken so they won't get lonely. But it's going to be fun! First I get a four day Opera America conference - in terms of intellectual stimulation, it doesn't get much better than that! Then Bob, Dorothy and Tyler will join us and we'll have a proper vacation away from home. Yea!

Memorial Day

Bob and I have been watching a PBS series on World War II - it's an interesting perspective the filmmaker has taken. He is tracking the course of the war through the eyes of four towns in America.
Every time I watch a series like this - and since Bob & I are both history buffs, it's more often than you'd think - I am particularly struck with how America turned over her entire being to the cause of that war. Every piece of every life was affected as we struggled to not only maintain our freedom but that of many other countries.
Every time I watch how different families were affected differently, some with so much loss, some with deprivation, I am struck with just how differently we are reacting to this new type of war in which we are now engaged.
If our country today was asked to fight that same kind of war, I don't know how we would react. Could we accept the rationing, doing without, the wholescale fear of loss?

Our parents did so much to preserve the life we now live.

A Saturday morning

A three day weekend, and I barely know what to do with myself! Saturday is always laundry, clean house, yard work and work-out day, Sunday I finish what I didn't get done Saturday. Now I have a Monday! Maybe Bob & I can actually do something fun...

Although ... today I'm joining Carolyn and her daughters for a fun day at the AG Strawberry Festival, something I haven't done since the kids were really small. I'm not even sure that Dorothy was around then! Street Fairs aren't really Bob's thing, but that's okay. It's just really nice to have a buddy to do them with...

Tyler recently got a summer internship job offer for a firm down in Goleta. I won't give you the particulars, but I can tell you that if this salary is typical for an internship, Tyler is going to get his childhood dream of having lots of money once he graduates. It's really neat that his life is going so well! He's working so hard, and he really deserves it. I'm so proud of him.

Dorothy is looking forward to a school-filled summer, as she works to catch up in time for fall. I don't envy her, but it has to be done. I'm glad we're at least going to have a nice vacation at my brother's place in June.

Listening to good music

One unexpected benefit of working in this room next to Dorothy's is that I get to listen to her good music through the heater vent. Right now she's listening to Sufjan Stevens, so mellow. I'm so jealous of her and Tyler - they're going to see Deathcab for Cutie in June. For those from my generation who read this, have no fear... Deathcab is a great band. I have many of their songs on my iPod, and enjoy them often.
Work today was rather interesting. We're planning a new Summer Concert Series - something our company hasn't done before - so I'm running at full tilt trying to get it scheduled in time to get the materials out. So many people are away during the summer that it will be interesting to see how successful we can be. A lot of long days lately.
I love the longer days of spring. I haven't had a chance to take Sparky and Scamp for a walk lately, but at least we can hang out for a few minutes every afternoon on the front porch swing before the mosquitos settle in for a feast. Oh, and Mika the cat left a full grown bluejay on the carpet yesterday. My word. It was half her size. A few days ago it was a big ole' gopher. Good girl!! He had been leaving big dirt piles in our back lawn, so I'm not sad to see him go. Although I did have to fight Sparky for him. Sparky was absolutely determined to eat him for a nice meat snack. I was determined to put him in the trash. Well, I may have won that battle, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm losing the war because for the last few days, Sparky has had the stinkiest dog farts in the world... and a smug look on his little doggy face...

How time flies...

How do these days get by me so fast!??! It must be a function of getting really old...
Work just keeps ramping up faster and faster - good thing that I love it so much. And it just keeps getting better. I keep saying that one of the best things about my job with the opera is that I learn something new every day; and it's true. We had a board meeting this evening that went rather late, and it really didn't bother me. I had several proposals pending that the board approved, so that feels really great.
Home is more problematic. I find myself so frustrated with my inability to help Dorothy. I am either totally passive or I lose my temper - there just doesn't seem to be any middle ground lately.
Dorothy just completed a project for French class - a short movie - that ended up with huge technical issues due to an overwhelmed and under-memoried computer. I just have to keep telling myself that she's 17, and so close to being an adult that she has to learn to deal with these things herself. Bob is great about helping her, he's so patient and good. I'm a lucky woman.

HALLELUJAH!!!

BRIGHTON PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kids and their laundry

I had a fun chat with an old friend yesterday - someone I've always considered a friend, anyway - about adult children yesterday. How we as Moms always end up doing their laundry even though we know that perhaps we shouldn't. After some thought, I've figured out that it's because we love to. We love to feel needed as they grow up and away. We love being able to do whatever we can without crippling their ability to continue to grow up and away. Laundry seems like one of those things...

A day in the life

Today was fun! My co-workers and I had the opportunity to visit Hearst Castle on business today, which included a tour that's not open to the public. It was very fun! We had time to work on a couple of good ideas for next season, and we made some really good contacts - fun and work don't always go in the same sentence, but today it did.

Dorothy and a couple of her friends are working on filming a short project for French class. Dorothy wrote the script in English, and then the members of the project team shared the translation duties. Now they're filming in the living room, and I'm relegated to my office - enough motivation to get me to blog, in any case! It really is amazing how much better their French has gotten in just a couple of years...

Brighton had an important interview today, and thinks it went well, which just makes me so happy for him! And I believe that this Friday is the day he finds out if he passed the Bar Exam or not, so it's a big week for him.

And today when Tyler dropped off his laundry (yes, I'm one of those moms) he told me that he and his new girlfriend are going up to Sacramento so he can meet her Dad. So apparently he and his girlfriend are going to try to get together with Brighton and his girlfriend for a date. I think that this might be the first time that both guys have had a girlfriend at the same time...

On the topic of laundry, Tyler knows that I will do his laundry (as time allows) for a hug. Cheap labor. :-)

Bob is on his way back from a business trip to Napa. HOT! From a week of mid-sixty degree days last week to mid-ninetys today - quite a change. It was even hot in San Simeon up on the hill at Hearst Castle. Did you know that William Randolf Hearst loved weiner dogs? Anybody who loves dachshunds can't be all bad.

Well, I think this is all that's new. We have exciting things coming up soon, so I'll try to be better about blogging!

Post #1

Hello everybody. While I've let go of Dorothy's recovery, and she's asked me to not blog about her anymore, I've found that I enjoy blogging and have missed it.

So this blog is going to be my own personal blog. It will be about the rather boring process of being me, but will also have peripheral updates about the family for those of you who care.