Week 52 - Sis

A weekly theme for 2011 seemed like a much simpler idea than daily postings in 2010, when we started this insanity. In actuality it turned out to be more difficult when we had weeks with a boatload of pictures to pick from and had to edited them down and hopefully keep the blog interesting. This last post of our final week of 2011 was one of those problematic editing of a very full and busy week while in California. So here's a large smattering of that time period. Hope you had a year that wasn't dependent on us filling your time but did get some enjoyment from visiting our contributions here. Get settled this is going to be a long post to finish the last long, week of the old year! Here we go: Christmas Day was different for Lisa and I as we spent the day preparing for the following day's tamale making. This included, boiling, shredding the pork meat and getting husks cleaned and separated by size. Monday, the 26th, had a long productive day filled with some really great laughs with my daughters and nieces. Tuesday I fixed a pasta dinner for my son-in-law and daughter who had to work. We ate bucatini all'amaticiana, with a substitution of shrimp, instead of guanciale. Fortunately it was a success, with Steve taking leftovers for lunch the next day. Wednesday joining Lisa and I were my niece, Monica and her son, he's also Lisa's Godson, as we headed to El Cerrito to a museum, Playland Not at the Beach, filled with objects, pictures and miniature collections of the history of amusement parks on the West Coast of California to Oregon. You could spend hours there, much to enjoy, you can play some boardwalk games along with huge assortment of pinball machines. Left there for Jack London Square for lunch. All four of us were very happy with our orders at Kinkaids, of course mine included some Dungeness crab. Then it was off to an Oakland park with some of the 25 Champions of Humanity statues, dedicated to famous heroes who made huge differences with their work for a better life and rights all over the world. Beautiful work of art. That evening a new group of nine joined us for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Thursday, a day in SF, joining the party of four from Wednesday, my sister Judy, daughter Kellee and granddaughter Autumn. Two kids, one 11 and the other 6 years old, spent a long day with five adults and were absolutely fun to be with and well behaved. Started the day at AT&T park for a tour, next Union Square where we had lunch at Macy's Burger Bar. Good but really could have bought three burgers for the price of one there. Atmosphere was a bit stuffy for our group. Left there for a one hour bus tour as the evening was approaching. A fun way to end the the tourist outing, cable car ride. Finishing the day with "some" folks having and Irish coffee in a local establishment. Friday, packing and a visit to my cousins, closest to my age all week! The two who joined Lisa and I for this one was, my sister, Madeline and my daughter Yolanda. Are you still with me? It was a jam packed week which meant some relatives didn't get in a visit but we made the best we could to see and enjoy as many as possible. 

Week 52 - Lisa

So long 2011.  Here's to hoping 2012 brings some stability and peace to my and my mom's life.  The last four years have been very hectic and stressful but also sprinkled with many of the best adventures of my life!  We spent the last week of 2011 in California with my sister and some family.  I am very grateful to have gotten to spend so much time with my Godson.  Here's a few picture highlights;

Here's our day touring AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and being touristy in the City!

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http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150510073234668.393607.756824667&type=1&l=a72fc32a80

Week 51 - Lisa

I was really sick leading up to Christmas.  Story of my life.  I was determined to get well for my trip home but work projects, long hours and other factors were not making it easy.  We flew out to Cali on Christmas Eve morning.  I was pretty tired but excited to get back to familiar sights and sounds.  My dog-niece Maria was so excited to see us, I think more than her human relatives.  ;>  My sister bought us this bottle of wine to enjoy.  I'm not sure whether to be offended or laugh.  Ok, fits like a glove, I laughed.  I was excited to share the aprons I made my cousins the day after Christmas.  As we are training a new Tamale crew.  ;>

Week 51 - Sis

This was the week of preparing before flying home to the Bay Area for our, Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve, holiday. Preparation included holiday food training for the marathon eating while home with tamale making and consuming, being a part of it. Then there was my packing and oneeya's, because she would be boarded and enjoying time with her canine mates during our trip. She would also be enjoying a Christmas dinner that was served and consisted of chicken, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Yes, she would be suffering so while we were gone, sigh! Christmas Eve started with an early flight, that we almost missed due to a gate change, (36 to 32), that neither Lisa or I heard announced. Twenty minutes before our take-off I noticed there were very few people in the area and a group of passengers boarding not for San Francisco but New York City. I made Lisa aware which made her open her "resting" eyes and immediately tapped her iPhone to see what departure gate was ours. Nothing like a morning sprint, before a five hour flight with an upset stomach. When one person is half groggy from lack of sleep and bronchitis, the other is wondering if she will be using the barf bag or toilet, running the distance of four gates isn't recommended. Panting and praying we beat out the last five passengers boarding for a very, very packed and long plane ride. Mid-afternoon California time we arrived in SF, picked out the gutless rental SUV and got on the road to the first stop, Hayward, at our favorite Chinese restaurant. We had placed our dinner order while on the San Mateo bridge and picked it up to share with our family in Livermore. We were staying at the home of my daughter Yolanda and son-in-law Steve. As we entered the empty house, family was out shopping, first thing I was thrilled to see, a real, fully decorated, beautiful green,Christmas tree, but couldn't smell the pine scent. That was probably due to warmblooded Steve thinking anything over 57 degrees is too warm! I swear they could probably unplug the fridge during winter and still not lose any perishable food. After turning up the thermostat to a toasty 70 our blood started to circulate again and we ate our first meal of the day. So we ended the day full, a pleasant visit with the family, welcoming bedtime with open arms.

Week 50 - Sis

This week has been a mixture of good and bad. The good part was the package from my sister Chickie, (Judy). The salami I have written about before but the second, Del Monte dill pickles was the best part, another thing you don't see here. I've partaken of both in the past few days and find them still the best. Part of the bad, a very bored dog who follows me around letting me know she's bored. No park for her this week because her driver has been too busy at work and too sick after work to provide that service. Yesterday, the second bad thing was finding that I'm starting to lose my multi-tasking skills. Seems I'm not good at taking on-line surveys and boiling beans in the same time period. See I take great responsibility and am serious when I'm answering questions about which crackers, wash soap, junk food, etc.,that I find the most important in my life. So I concentrate- hard. Since I've boiled beans numerous times in my life, the "add the water" part to them is almost instinctual for me. But since in the past couple of years I've seemed to have developed Senior Adult Attention Disorder, SAAD, (very saad it is), I have to admit my instincts have begun to drift. Alright, maybe drift is not the word, try flow, run, stampede, hell just plain disappear. Which found me during the survey losing track of time, however, my sense of smell is still acute and I recognized the instant those little pinto beans were sticking to the bottom of the pot, acquiring the black burned, spotted, skins. Sigh, too late to soak and start another pot. Drained, rinsed four times, picked off the burnt skin as much as possible saving enough for the servings I needed to make refritos. Added enough Monterey Jack and salt to get by and make with the dinner of enchiladas, rice and salad. I'm not cooking today after yesterday's results and because I'm trying to watch the Red Zone and keep track of my standings in two football pools. Just hanging out with John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed. The scores are depressing me and I know as far as the music goes, blues, I'm not on my way to a great Sunday.

Week 49 - Sis

Not much happening in the past week due to Lisa's workload at her job and projects at home. What's funny is, well to me, I had a doctor's appointment Friday morning. No that's not funny, I will explain. I have a been bothered for over a month with pain in my hip and wanted to have it checked out, also was out of refills for one of my meds. Since I would have to have bloodwork to renew my presciption I told Lisa to just drop me off and go do what she needed to do and I'd text her when I was close to being done. She was fine with that and we planned to grocery shop once I was finished. Well, guess what? Yep, doctor was running behind on appointments and I had to wait, and wait and wait. I texted Lisa that she would need to fill her free time with, let me suggest, return home, dump the garbage and possibly walk the dog? Oh I was at the doctor's office from 11 a.m. with an appointment for 11:20. Around noon they called me in, took info and vital signs, told me I was next in line to see doctor. Doctor appeared at 12:30 p.m. apologizing profusely for the delay and explained he had an emergency. Went through the drill about my hip. Told me I would need an x-ray, of course, why not? Texted Lisa again. Had the x-ray and it showed arthritis, whew, no surgery, maintain pain with anti-imflammatory medicine. Back out to the front desk so I could sign in for the needed bloodwork and fill my prescription. I could see from the lobby windows that Lisa is parked outside and was actually out of the truck walking my dog. Nice!!!! Finally done, pills in hand, bandage on the blood draw spot, in the truck, time-1:38 p.m. We didn't go grocery shopping and Lisa was beginning to feel ill. That's what I thought was funny, I mean in an ironic twist. You know, I go to the doctor, she gets sick, well that's kind of funny right? Oh never mind. So we returned home, she collapsed in the recliner, snoring and wheezing in no time. I kept myself busy. My dog, oneeya hung out while I entertained myself with computer games, a puzzle and turning the fridge temp down since even these olives were frozen.:-/ Lisa is still sick and making all those disgusting noises from the bronchitis that has developed. Hoping I'll have a day tomorrow of not having to hear those sounds. Yes, yes, I do also hope she's feeling better in general. God, I am afterall her mother!

  

 

Week 49 - Lisa

The highlights of my week were stopping into the CVS store and finding this little Charlie Brownish Christmas Tree and the light up pine and berry sticks for $5 bucks.  Need to make sure we can fill up tote 43.  That was followed-up with scoring the Christmas cookie cutters and Cuisinart Electric Cookie press for 50% off.  I was off to a very merry weekend until the nose started flowing and chest started tightening.  Oh well, can't have it all.  All my plans fell apart and I ended up watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer in a hallucinated induced state from my cough medicine and a few other bad Christmas movies.  I think the farthest I walked was from the the bed to the recliner all weekend long.

Merry (snnnnnnnnn) Christmas! Here's another victim of sunii's Christmas fascination.

Week 48 - Lisa

Not sure what my friend Trish was drinking when she decided to our annual Christmas Card Exchange and she chose "Christmas Zoo" as the theme. I tortured myself for about 2.5 weeks trying to think of what to create. I finally came up with the below safari card.  Just "screams" Merry Christmas I think?!  <rolling eyes>  I've mentioned how much I hate to bake in the past but man I was jonsing something sweet to eat so I busted out my wanna-be artistic skills and created a Charlie Brown Christmas cake.  Man I am on a roll this year and we still got 20+ days to go.  ;>

Week 48 - Sis

It was a week of trying to get that Christmas spirit in gear. No gift or tree shopping makes it a bit harder but needed to try at least. Easy part was writing the cards and stirred the spirit up a bit. In the past I've always loved to decorate and at least one of my daughters is as insane as I am about decorating. Fortunately I live with that one. My other daughter thinks about it and becomes so weary from the thought she just gives up. I mean, no kidding, one year we arrived at her home, joining her family for Christmas breakfast finding a beautiful tree, with one decoration on it and a strand of garland half on the tree and the rest just dangling. I wondered if she had narcolepsy. I mean, in everyday living, my house walls were pretty bare, some might say I am a minimalist. Apparently my second daughter is even more so, taking it to another level and is a Christmas-minimalist. Sigh. So this week Lisa and I headed over to the hobby shop and picked up a few things to add to the apartment. Having (again, no kidding) 42 totes of Christmas paraphernalia in storage, now by our past standards, we decorated minimally. Although as I was walking out I saw, what I felt like, something to fill the apartment with the spirit. I too, do believe!

Week 47 - Lisa

My mom landed Thanksgiving morning at 5:20am.  We stayed awake talking for quite awhile.  I started dinner around 9:30am, we ate around 3:00pm.  It was just a lazy day in our pj's after two stressful weeks.  As you can see below the pets were REALLY happy to have mom/grandma home.  No wonder my mom suffers from shoulder and back pain.  LOL!  In other news; sunii captured her first Christmas ornament of the season and I do not like the new white Coca-Cola cans.  It's important for me to share that.  ;>  We went to the Holiday Lights/Garden Lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Saturday night - FANTASTIC!  It was beautiful weather and display wise.  Just clink on the link below to my pictures.

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Week 47- Sis

Post Thanksgiving and I need to re-adapt to my normalcy and so does my dog. Being gone for two weeks has left my dog's allegiance a bit uncertain. See in those two weeks Lisa was her caretaker. She took her for rides everywhere she went, to daycare during the week and made sure she spent time playing with her while I was gone. Wonderful! Big deal, as I reminded oneeya that I'm the one who has sunk the moola into her healthcare, food, bedding, toys, rescuing and giving her a loving home. Also walking her everyday, giving her nice rubdowns, treats and lots of playtime. " You know little girl loyalty is one thing dogs are known for and is key in our relationship. You might remember oneeya that there is another animal in this household. Here kitty, kitty, oh sunii you're such a beautiful CAT!" Hey guilt and jealously worked for me when I raised my two human daughters.;-)