Beautiful Day

Well, it would be if it wasn't spring....

Yet another day hubby decided I had to be up early (no sleeping in for me this week! Sleeping in, BTW, means till 0800) and tomorrow I will be up early to get labs drawn and then my mammo.

Started putting together the little cabinet and found that we bought the wrong hinges......drat.

Helped hubby a bit. Then I soaked and blocked n entry for the Country Fair (the I-Dont-Like-It Cowl) and a gift for a June birthday.

Then we started earrands. Picking up his paycheck.....driving to Berkeley to get the veneer for the risers on the stairs. While he was doing that I poked around Urban Ore. Found lots of goodies but didnt buy anything. Of course this time they had lots of granite and I didnt have the measurements I needed for the dough table. Murphy's Law.

Decided to stop in San Ramon for lunch and the diner is long gone....so went to Habit. Must be a new one because boy things were not working well!

Back to Home Depot to get another hinge, and some more paint. And then over to pick up the milled stair treads.

Finally home. Put the new hinges on and now the door doesnt fit the same. So we need to put a little board in it which means more painting - but now hubby cant remember where he put the brushes! So we are done with that for awhile!

I hear 2 of the boys are going to spend the night Friday (I work Thurs, Fri and Sat this week) so that hubby can take them to track over here at GHS Saturday morning. No upstairs! So they will either sleep in bed with PaPa, on the couch, or maybe we will get the cots out!

I Was A Good Girl Yesterday

Actually went in for my annual physical.....which is a laugh because I think my last one was a decade ago! Got questions answered - got caught up on my preventative tests (almost - came home and made my mammo appt for Thursday).

Did not get the slap on my hands that I deserved for letting things slide for so long. And found that I have lost about 5 lbs since the last time I weighted myself - which I knew I had lost weight because my most recent (and most expensive) pair of jeans are looser on me! And this is all without getting out and walking because of my enemy Spring!

Will do my lab work on Thursday morning too - pick up my RX that I am desperately going to try to fix my ugly to. Turned down a consult on my hand because MD is sure it is what I am sure it is - arthritis. And it is not bad enough to undergo the only treatment that either of us can think of that the hand specialist would try. So will jsut keep on using my Salon Pas as long as it works.

Of course I am dreading my mammo and having to explain why I let it lapse for so long (no excuse really). And am dreading the lab tests - cause I am pretty darn sure my cholesterol is going to be bad......and then I will have to have montly labs while I am taking the drug for my toe (as long as I escape any side effects that is).

Part 2

Because I forgot a few things.....

the most amazinfg thing to me.....standing in the dining area at the house where the reunion was ( either belongs to the father of a classmate, or the family of the classmate, not really sure) there was this HUMONGOUS hand written geneology chart on the wall. Was just glancing over at it when I saw hubby's last name on it! WHAT????? Yeah, back I dont know how many generations they are related! The only thing was, it must have been completed before he and his brother were born....and his mom's name is mis-spelled. His uncle is listed only by his nickname but still....

And I forgot to follow up with the * in the title of the previous post.....

At one point I said something to member of the class ahead of me about "the diploma I never recieved". One of the women looked at me and said "You mean you never graduated from high school???" (Trying hard to remember if she was blonde or not). Luckily everyone else knew what I meant and we were all laughing. Someone looked at her and said "Remember....the school closed right after we graduated? She is from the Class of 1971"

So this was the reunion of the HS class that did NOT graduate from JMHS....about 4 or 5 of my class graduated with the class of 1970.....the rest of us went on our seperate ways - Carmel HS. PGHS, MHS, Notre Dame/Palma HS, Santa Cataline and RLS.....

HS Reunion of the HS From Which I Did Not Graduate*

So the JMHS class of 1970 had a reunion and invited other classes to it. Drove down to Pacific Grove to spend the night at a friend's house, and then out to the reunion.

The day was semi cloudy and chilly to start with but got sunny and warmer as the day went on.

I remarked to hubby on the way that I find it very odd that I remember so many more people from the HS I went to for my senior year - than I do from the previous HS and even 8th grade. So I was a little apprehensive but decided to go with an open mind since it was only for a few hours and actually we could leave whenever we wanted to!

Thank goodness for name tags!!! And I have found with going to reunions for hubby's HS and the HS I graduated from, that the older we get the more enjoyable the reunions are because there is less and less clique-ish-ness!

My comment on this reunion:

• The nice people were even nicer
• The men REALLY aged ....far more than the women
• And the guys that were all that in HS???? Oh my goodness, not even close any more......old, bald, fat, thin, looking rough.....wow!
• Most of the women looked older, of course, but so much better! Makeup, I guess, really helps!
• The food was not very good at all. The appetizers were some burchetta (ick) and olives, and bowls of ruffles potato chips. The BBQ chicken was not thoroughly cooked (the nice crunchy skin was, but the meat was pink and red).....the trip tip was ok.....the potatoes were some sort of au gratin that tasted odd.....the chopped salad was, well, a chopped salad. But the garlic bread was good!
• The Class of 1970 had the most people there - our class of 1971 had the second most (altho there were many people who werent there which was disappointing) and there were 9 people from the class of 1969!
• So sad to hear about the deaths of classmates.....all of them since 2010 I believe it was.
• One girl in our class who I swear I only heard speak a few times in HS.....was a chatterbox now!

Got back to our friend's home and sat around talking. Watched a beautiful sunset and the stars coming out and then sat around his firepit drinking some wine.....it was lovely.

Today we had breakfast with other friends and headed home. So funny to have a hosue without dogs. They will be so mad at us tomorrow when we pick  them up!

This Weekend

This weekend is my annual Bras For The Cause Walk. Use to be on Mother's Day but last year they moved it up to April. Not sure why.

This weekend is also a high school reunion - the HS I almost graduated from. Oh dont worry - I graduated from HS! But Junipero Memorial High School in Monterey was closed by the money grubbing bishop at the end of my junior year. They kept accepting classes and decided to just clsoe it down....rather than stop admitting classes and let the last classes graduate. We protested - and demostrated - all to no avail. It was supposedly a cost management thing....yet the Bishop still maintained his hosue out in Pebble Beach. So what was my HS is not the elementary school that use to be across the street.

So several people in the class had enough credits that they went ahead and graduated early. The rest of us dispersed across the community. My parents chose to continue my Catholic education and sent me to the Catholic HS in Salinas, Notre Dame. And I must say I had the best year of my HS career. Not the least because it ended up with me having a new car to drive back and forth! Not the car I wanted....but it was a car and we had some great times with that car and I made some great friends!

So the last class to graduate from JMHS is having a reunion and they opened it to anyone who went to JMHS. There have been other reunions but I have not gone to any of them. This year I happened to have the weekend off to do the walk.

Weeks of decision making - and weeks of horrible allergies! - and I decided what the heck, lets go to the reunion. I know I will know 2 people there - they have promised to attend! Otherwise - I am not sure I will remember anyone which is interesting to me since I spent at least 3 years with these people. But I was part of the nerd crowd, not the jocks, not the popular ones. So this will be interesting and yes, my anti-social self is quivering in fear.

But the other part of me - the part who at my 50th birthday decided I would never turn anything down ONLY because of fear says - hey what the heck, it is only a few hours out of my life. And I will either hate it or enjoy it, and maybe a combo of both!

The bad thing is the dogs have to go to the kennel. And we had Bella to the vet yesterday about her granuloma which she continues to lick.....have ordered another style of cone for her and we are trying laser therapy - which the vet says may or may not work but she, being a skeptic she says, has been surprised at the things it helps. We will have to see if she can eat with the new cone (which doesnt arrive till Friday) before we decide what to do about her being in a stressful situation for 2 nights.

Easter Photos

 Every year we try to get this pose.....they were not very cooperative this year....and neither was the sun!

 And yes they all wanted to do an Easter egg hunt.....competitive like their mama's?

 I cannot believe how tall these two are! On the left is Owen, who will be 13 this June. His mom and especially his dad are very tall. On the right is Connor who just turned 15 in November. Taller than both parents but he has grandfathers who are tall and other family.

 The dogs werent too happy about this photo - maybe Ralph is complaining about the pink ears and Bella about the blue?

 My lilacs were in all their glory for Easter. I just wish they would last longer than the do. They are really getting beaten down by the rain today. This year we really have to figure out how to cut this back a bit.

The prettiest daffodils I have ever seen....got them at the Pleasanton Farmer;s Market the day before Easter and they are still looking lovely

I Hate Spring

Spring is so decieving.
You think it is beautiful - kind - a nice exit to winter and entrance to summer.
No it isnt....sure all the flowers are beautiful, the grass is green again, and the trees have leaves coming out and maybe beautiful flowers.
But it is a mean and hateful season.
You see - every year spring tries to kill me.
Sneezing and congestion - coughing - itching ears and eyes.
Spring hates me.
Maybe because it knows my favorite season is autumn?
I hate spring and cannot wait for it to be over - seems like it is starting earlier every year.

So the other night we decided to have pasta for dinner.....
Side note: when I was growing up, it was spaghetti, The long thing noodles. That was the only spaghetti I knew about. Well, that and the macaroni used in salads and in mac and cheese.
Then all of a sudden a new generation came around and spaghetti became "pasta" with hundreds of different shapes! La de dah! But that night we had spaghetti - the long thin noodles.

And so we decided to have a glass of wine with dinner and hubby chose red wine.
Side note: we are both learning to appreciate red wine. He has always had some sort of reaction to most red wines, and I just dont really like the taste of red wine. But he has learned to try it, has learned a trick or two about it, and I am becoming more appreciative of some.

So we found an open bottle of cab and decided we would finish that off. I poured two glasses and we sat down to eat. Before I was even 1/2 way thru my glass I felt my face catch on fire - whoomp! From my jaw to my forehead it was steaming hot! DH asked what was wrong - I told him and turned towards him - and he said my face was bright red. By this time the skin all around my eyes was starting to itch - not the eyeballs themselves - just the skin. So then he started to lecture me on how this was karma for all the times I would not respond the way he wanted me to when he was having the flushes and all from the red wine.

I waited a few minutes and the heat was starting to subside so I pushed the wine away but continued to eat dinner. And after dinner I fed the dogs. Then I went into the bathroom - no heat coming from my face anymore and my face was not flushed - but I looked like a demonic raccoon!

The skin all around my eyes was bright red and they looked like skin that was swollen and is starting to return to normal looks.  About an hour later my eyes were fine......maybe just a teensy bit itchy still but not red and swollen/deflated looking.

Needless to say I am not drinking any more of that wine!

So the question remains - I had partaken of wine from that bottle before without any problems - was it because of my allergies? Because of my allergy medication or the other supplements I take? It didnt appear to be the garlic/basil/tomatoes that were in the sauce on the spaghetti because this happened after several drinks of wine - not many bites of food plus I was able to finish the food without issue.

Probably be something I will never figure the answer to - and I dont know that I will ever have the courage to try that wine again!

Side note: many years ago we went out to dinner and I had a glass of my usual white wine. After several drinks of it all of a sudden my lips were numb!! That was the first time I had a reaction to any wine. And for a long time I remembered the name of that wine and made sure I didnt have it again. Alas, I have forgotten the name of it but even when I order the house wine I ask where it is from now....

Going into a 3 day stretch - Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Was hoping to have Saturday off but no, I got call last night. All because of a schedule switch ..... when I am on call I have two choices: get some sleep or try and stay on my night schedule and stay up all night. Unfortunately I get sleepy while at home.

And last night I was barely able to keep my eyes open past 2330 so went to bed and.....yuppers, wide awake! Finally must have fallen asleep because I was wide awake at 0222.....and 0435.....and 0530.....and 0617.....and 0730......finally gave up and got up at 0830. Every time I wake up I have to check my phone to see what time it is, and to check and make sure I did not sleep thru a phone call (which has never happened - knock wood! but I still have that awful feeling it might have happened!). I gaurantee I will nap well this afternoon - but now I dont think I can afford to ask for call on Saturday night darn it all. But the good news it - I only have 2 nights in a row to work now.....until next week.