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...