Friday, August 17, 2007

Catching Up

I've been a bit of a bad blogger lately--I've fallen behind in reading all your blogs. I thought tonight I'd tell you a bit about the miscellaneous happenings in my world. This weekend, I plan to catch up on my blog reading.

Speaking of the weekend--Hurray! It's Friday and the weekend's here! I stopped on my way home from work at Trader Joe's to pick up some groceries and I still need to head back out tonight to the "regular" grocery store to pick up what I couldn't get at Trader Joe's. With the diet, I find shopping takes at least twice as long because I need to read all the nutritional info as I go. I'm sure we'll fall into a food routine soon, but in the meantime, it's pretty time consuming.

I don't know if I've mentioned, but we have two large outdoor dogs--mixed breed (Chow/Lab/Mystery Canine), brother and sister, Marley (named for Bob Marley because he has long, curly hair) and Ashley (because my husband liked the name). They're about 12 years old, which is getting up there a bit in age for large dogs. Back 12 years ago, my kids wanted a dog and we were looking for something small/medium sized. One of our senior partners had a dog that had just given birth to a litter, and he swore to me that these dogs wouldn't get too big--maybe knee high. Don't believe attorneys. Ashley and Marley soon grew to weigh 70 pounds each. Recently, they both developed some hip/rear quarter stiffness and weakness, and they went to the vet today. My husband was worried there was something seriously wrong and he'd have to have them put to sleep, but as it turned out, Marley was just fine (or at least showing no symptoms today) and Ashley has some arthritis in her back legs (do dogs have KNEES?). Ashley now has to take some medication, which is alright by her as long as it's wrapped up inside my low fat cheese. Another reason why I need to go grocery shopping. Sheesh!

My work "kids" are coming along just fine so far. I had a project to work on for the "boy" today while he was off meeting with an expert/doctor out of town, and when he returned, he brought me an iced latte from Starbucks. Good kid, huh?! The funny thing is that I really can't figure out how these two know what my drink of choice is. I don't know of anyone at work who really even knows what I drink. How'd they figure it out? Here's a scary thought: Maybe they read my blog?! Nah!

I haven't mentioned my mom for awhile, as if by not mentioning the insanity, it will all go away. Ha! Maybe I'm in denial?! So here's what's been happening. (If you're new to my blog, briefly, my dad passed away in April and my mom, after insisting she wanted to stay put for a year, up and sold her mobile home along with all the contents--without a word ahead of time to me or my brother--and announced she was moving down to Salinas, a town in central California, to live with her best-friend-since-kindergarten, Laverne. Salinas also happens to be the same town where my brother lives. Okay, are you with me on the background here?) Moving day was July 29th. My brother drove his BIG truck up to Oroville on the 28th and loaded everything up; they drove back down to Laverne's house on the 29th.

Turns out Laverne never really invited my mom to live with her. What happened is that my mom sold everything and then called Laverne to let her know she was coming. Apparently some years back, Laverne had said in passing that if my dad went first, my mom could come live with her. You have to be careful what you say to my mom. So this living arrangement lasted about a week before Laverne started looking for an apartment my mom could rent. Here it is, only August 17th, and my mom's move can't come soon enough to suit her or Laverne. AND my mom has no furniture because she sold it all with the mobile home. At least it's my brother's turn now to take care of these problems. They've been out this week looking for a suitable place. The semi-assisted living facility they looked at--the one that will cost $3,400 a month--was just fine as far as my mom was concerned. We figure her money will last about three years, which will give us all time to change our identities and seek asylum in a foreign country.

Finally, I just wanted to say again how much I appreciate your visits and enjoy the comments you leave me. It tickles me to hear from some of you who don't even have blogs, although I wish I could write back to you personally and say thanks! Mostly I write for my own pleasure, but without you reading what I have to say, it sure wouldn't be the same.

Enjoy your weekend, whatever you have planned! I'll be doing some sewing, I'm sure. Gotta relax and rest up while I can, because I'm sure the "kids" will keep me hopping next week.

9 comments:

Patti said...

Hee, hee - you sound just like me! I've been managing to keep up with my own blog but I've had a terrible time finding much time to read blogs this past couple months. I'm finally having time to catch up - at least I'm making some progress. Your blog is next - according to Bloglines I have 46 posts to read on your blog. I hope it's not really that many - that maybe you've been making little changes on posts I've already read. :-)

Carol said...

There's always the witness protection program :)
Yes dogs have knees...our Zack had surgery on his back left knee on Wednesday...he blew out his knee like football players do. He'll be in recovery for about 6 weeks and then we have to have the other one done. He'll be 5 in September. The vet says he'll be better than new.

Shelina said...

My mother has communication problems like that too! There were times where the whole family would load up and drive 8 hours to go to a relative's house to stay for a week or so, and they weren't expecting us! She would insist they had been told, but it happened to too many different relatives for it to be a memory problem on their behalf.

Melzie said...

Sister I think our mom's are long lost twins LOL. I am glad you can somewhat keep your sanity with a smile :) Glad to see you updating I love reading your blog its one of my faves :) xoxo melzie

Anonymous said...

OMG You are hysterical I swear. Hiding out from your mother. LOL!!! Can you imagine someone knocking on your door and saying, hi I'm here to live with you now. Remember when you said I could? LMAO!!!!!!!!!! That's why we dont answer our door or phone these days. You just never know who's on the other side.

Vicky said...

That's so funny about your Mom. Well, I guess it's not really funny, but I did chuckle. Sorry.

My mom came for a weekend one time, and decided to stay for a longer visit. I got home from work one day and she was just pulling in the driveway. Seems she had driven three hours each way to go home and get more clothes! LOL. I miss her.

Anna Banana said...

Your mom and mine are too much alike.

I have been sitting here trying to decide whether to stop reading your blog (cuz I’m scared) or whether to read it FIRST everyday so I know what to expect from my mom.

The other alternative is to sell my house and my husband and I move into a 1 bedroom (sorry, no guest room) but then what would I do for a sewing room?? Oh, the joys of being a member of the sandwich generation.

Paula, the quilter said...

OK. I'm going to be serious here for a moment, because I'm kinda going thru the same thing with Auntie. I found out that Medicare will pay for assisted living if the room is semi-private. Roommate? Ain't gonna happen! I'm back to square one. Only now I'm looking a small, groundlevel apartments. *sigh*

Kairle Oaks said...

If it's not one thing it's another, isn't it? We've been having more saga with DH's brother. I guess on the bright side...your "kid" knows what you drink! :-)