in lieu of clutter

Because I really do not need any more stuffed animals (Seriously. I am 46 years old and sleep with at least 2 already), I did not buy the cute chicken.

 

I settled for a photo of me with the chicken.

It is indeed chicken love, though.

some updates

This is post is probably way too much information for most of you, so if things about the body gross you out, I urge you to just move along.
I'll post something fluffy tomorrow.

My finger.
It's improving. The splint is off most of the time. But I've had to cut away a bunch of dead stuff and what is underneath is tender, and there's sort of a chunk of my index finger missing that I have been assured will grow back. It's usable, but sensitive, especially if I bang into something.  Which I do often. I am a wheelchair user.

James.
He's a bit of a mess.  He went into the hospital for a bladder infection. It had to have been bad, because they admitted him to the ICU for it.  Two days later, he was having his gallbladder removed. They're also keeping a close eye on some infection in his foot (and I should say, his only remaining foot...because he's an amputee already).  It's really hard for me to get specifics.  The hospital isn't really allowed to give me details because I am not related, I am a volunteer.  At the same time, they were really glad to see me today to help calm him down. He's getting really stressed out because he is about to cross that line where the his medical coverage can cover the hospital stay, but can't hold his room at the convalescent hospital. This has happened a few times now. One time they boxed all his stuff up, kicked it to the curb, and they lost a whole bunch of important information like identification, safe deposit keys, and his birth certificate. It took us over a year to get it all back in order.  They wont let me go pick his personal items up though...because I am not family. 



I am a little bummed out (about James and a few other things) and I can't even knit all that easily due to the finger!  Cooking isn't all that much fun either (I'm afraid to do too much chopping...it's my dominant hand's index finger that is out of commission).  I don't have too much to keep me distracted!!

as if i needed another hobby

I took a soldered jewelry class at Stained Glass Garden in Berkeley today.

front and back of the same pendant

I think this is something I could really get into.
Uh oh.

snaps on saturday

Second verse, same as the first!!

Another Saturday announcing at the high school band competition thingy our school is hosting. The campus actually has three announcer in three different venues for these things. I got lucky today. I got the jazz ensembles.  What you are seeing above is one school's "Saxophone Society" ensemble performing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

I have 3 more weekends of this to go!

working on thinking happier thoughts

A quote from a book I flipped through today on the used book shelf:

Yeah, well, I've got a dream too. But it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And, well, I've found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And it kind of makes us like a family.

~ Kermit the Frog

and a cherry on top!

I had just wrapped up a particularly nice dance class. What a perfect way to end my day!

Then.

At 10:45pm, on the drive home, I get a call from Kaiser Hospital that James (my convalescent home buddy of 8 years) is in the ICU.
Not.
Good.

When I finally get home, I walk in the door only to see all 4 of my animals (2 cats, 2 dogs) sitting together in a small circle and playing some sort of hackey-sack toss game with each other using a dead gopher.


*sigh*

when you almost lose a finger just folding laundry....

....it must be Teeny.

my night

Yarns on Tap Knitting Group
at Oxbow Public Market
celebrating Mz.SincereSheep's birthday
food, drink, cake, craft!!

i think perhaps it's just gonna be a perpetual drumline season for a few years

MyFavoriteKid has decided to go for it where drums are concerned. He's asked his band director if he can audition to be a snare drummer in next year's Fall Marching Season (letting go of clarinet for the Marching Band, but instead he'll play clarinet in the Jazz Band and Concert Band).  Come winter he's going to audition for Winter Percussion again, but he's going to make a run for it next year and try out to be the Center Snare.  And MyFK has also now decided to start gearing up for next year's Blue Devils auditions.

He's asked for private drum lessons. MyFk did the research himself in finding a teacher to work with,  and as of last week is now having regular lessons with former Blue Devil Adam C. Clay (who just recently aged out of the Blue Devils).
Adam is quite the inspiration. Check him out.


I did myself the favor of asking that the lessons take place over at TheNewDiggs. Doing so gives the guys more space (although I now realize they are sort of standing it one place! ha!!), but what it really does for me is to build in a little time over at the new house. While they practice, I get to hang out in my craftroom!


So there's been a lot of tap tap tapping going on over here, and I don't think it's going to let up.
For years.
And that's okay!
It is a realllllly realllllly good thing that I like the sound of drums so much!

i have no pictures!

Had I taken out my camera today, I'd have a little photo album for you!
But I didn't take out my camera today, and therefore I have no pictures of:

~ 7 of us sitting by the pool at TheNewDiggs
~ knitting and chatting and nibbling

I can't show you:

~ Teeny the chihuahua getting loved on by her favorite guests
~ the food we ate
~ the knitting some of us were working on
~ the cocktails we made using Kimberly's fabulous blood orange liquer
~ the bracelets Kimberly was working on for her etsy store
~ the bracelet she gave me! (thank you!! love it!!)
~ the quilt Sandy made for TheMostImportantGuy


Those last two need photos!
I will take them asap.

snaps on saturday

Crappy fuzzy pic, but it's all I got.

Just when you think band season is over and you are going to get a break, you realize that it is Winter Drumline that is over, and that means the beginning of concert season.

Our school hosted a judged music event today, and I was the announcer for the entirety (1pm to 9:30pm). That's my perch. I'd announce at the little table there with the mic, then roll back to where my knitting was during the performances. Finger is killing me, and so hard to knit without an index finger. I only managed to eek out a few rows. But the music was good.
Well, most of it. LOL

I have several more weekends of this to go. Hope the finger heals faster so I can knit may way through all of it!

snaps on...every day!! lol

Finger hurts, thwacked it good twice today, not helping matters.  Got rubber gloves on so could wash dishes...yay me!

Tonight. Mexican & Margaritas (no mariachi, though)...but then on to the local comedy night here in Vallejo.

Laughed so hard, I was hyperventilating :-)

(and forgot about my finger)

let the photo roll begin

Pics from last night....
Dead Can Dance at the Uptown Theater in Napa. The first pic was taken by TheMostImportantGuy on his cell phone. The rest were taken by me with my stupid little point and shoot camera, but they look so good because, hey.....we were in the second row (squeeee!!!!).

This was my 4th time seeing Dead Can Dance. The first time was at The Greek Theater in Berkeley, a very long time ago. The second time I saw them was when TheMostImportantGuy and I took his parents to see them at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. Then last summer I took MyFavoriteKid to see them back at The Greek again. I only went to that show because a friend of mine who had tickets couldn't make it, so she sold me her tickets (I felt so bad that she missed them, but she saw them this past Monday in San Francisco) .

Being that they were just here in August, I was surprised to see that they were coming back again so soon, bu how could I pass it up?! The Uptown is so close to me, and it's so small and intimate! (under 900 seats)   Very special venue.



Would you like to know how long it took me to type this post without using my index finger??
28 minutes!! Holy crap!
hahahahaha <----typing i="">that
part was easy though ;-) 

dont hold your breath

Waiting for a reply from me via email?
Or for me to follow up on something we discussed? (and that includes you, mom & dad)
Waiting for me to wash those dishes?
Or post something?
Or knit that....that....thing???

Well, don't hold your breath.

I nearly took off my finger tip this morning when I shut the clothes dryer door on it (and my ol' skool dryer has quite the sharp edge in there!)

A trip to the ER for a little sympathy, some skin glue, a butterfly bandage, and a finger splint....have no fears, my loves.
I'll be fiiiiiiiine.


Probably pics with very short captions for a few days though!!

boy, am i slow? or what??

Duh. What I was avoiding was tuning in to more coverage than I had already seen of the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

MsAmpuTeeHee can only handle so many re-tellings of people losing their limbs....



...and then she has to turn to her happy place.

i'm not quite sure what it is that i am avoiding, but i'm having an awfully good time avoiding it :-)

FAR too much time spent watching dance videos tonight on YouTube.

Sometimes I watch videos of stuff that I already do, and sometimes I watch videos of stuff I might like to do, but in the end, I always end up watching some Les Twins (and what they do is not even remotely close to what I do or what I might like to do...but oh my gosh, they do what they do better than anyone else doing it).



AND. I have been wanting to go back to Paris again for ages. Not for the dancing, but for all the other Parisian goodness, but hey....could you just image running into them while they are filming a dance tutorial in front of the Louvre?!!
Why imagine??!!
WE CAN.





(but I'd still like to get back to Paris LOL)

snaps on sunday too

The fused glass class and the improvisation class...

photos taken while waiting for each one to start.

Way too much sensory input this weekend (but it was grrrreat!).
My brain and my body are exhausted, but my creativity is buzzing!

snaps on saturday

Me, TheMostImportantGuy, and an old co-worker of his sipping margaritas tonight, waiting on some seriously good Mexican food.

Not the picture I wished to share with you. I wanted to take a few pics and the dance studio today, but that class is so full of things to do and think about, I couldn't find the right time for it!  Perhaps tomorrow (the last day).

yah! what SHE said!

It is day two of a four day workshop I am taking with Ruth Zaporah, the founder of Action Theater.  It's blowing my mind wide open, and because this work of hers is so radically different from any other type of movement work I do, my synapses are firing all over the place like crazy. I can almost audibly hear my brain trying to process all the new information.  My brain is busy. Downloading.  I am overstimulated. In the best of ways.

IT'S RAD :-)

But! It does put me at a loss for words tonight.

So I am going to direct you to the wonderful Snarkland blog. Remember the other day when I posted about my lunch date with Haldechick?  Well, she's posted the flipside. So click! Enjoy! 
She is wonderful :-)

you have no idea how happy this makes me

Excedrin (AKA the only thing on this planet that consistently and completely knocked out my headaches)....is baaaaaack.

Tickled. Pink.

my brush with fame

Today was verrrrry special.   After years of reading each others' blogs and sending each other little packages of goodies from time to time, I had a Skype date with Haldechick of Snakland !!

She's in Florida, I'm in California, so we had a lunch date (for her, a breakfast date for me).  There's us taking pics of each other on the webcam...hahahaha.  I got to see a tour of her studio and learn about about her method of making ceramics (I have several things of hers...the owls in our bedroom, the baby heads in our livingroom, the barfly dish that catches my keys, my coffee cup with the birdie on it....and let's not get started about the yarn and lip balm of hers I have, too!).    Do check out her shop-- HaldeCraft!

I was a little nervous!  We planned it a few days prior, so I had several days to spin my wheels and wonder what I might wear, what I'd eat for breakfast that I wouldn't be picking out of my teeth, and worry that maybe she'd not like me quite as much once I opened my mouth. It was sort of like a blind date! Only not. LOL (for the record, it was my 9am tshirt and yoga pants with a hat to cover up the bed head, no make-up, a smoothie and a hardboiled egg, and I don't think I made a huge ass out myself... LOL).  By way of her blog and Facebook I've come to know her as hilarious and snarky (Snarkland, go figure) but insightful and serious about things dear to her heart. She was all that and more in person, and absolutely even more fun live and in-action.

All of our pets made appearances, and her hubby strolled through at one point.  It was so much fun to "meet" her (as close to meeting as we may ever get, given the distance), and I hope we do it again!!

cat haz...

...a good situation.

oh the things that make me giggle

Infiltrator!

Just prior to landing on this image, I somehow landed on some other page that was showing a trend on the internet of pics of dogs wearing pantyhose. 

WTF?!?!

Clearly I am into mindlessly wasting time tonight.
Nice every once in awhile!

cuts n zzz's

Sometimes I can't believe I went to culinary school. 

I cut myself in the kitchen tonight.  Not badly, just a knick.  But I do this knicking thing far too often, and I'm good enough at it that I always get it somewhere really pesky, like a knuckle joint or the most used fingertip.

I know why this happens.  It's because when I really learned how to use a knife back there in Food 101, I was standing every time I cut something.  Years later, I now only sometimes cut standing at the kitchen counter (balanced on one leg)....and it's usually only when I really need some leverage, like into butternut squash or something.  If I'm cutting softer foods, and I'm tired, I'll cut while sitting in the wheelchair, but at that same counter.  And that is when I slip. My elbows are wrists are misaligned for solid knife work, and why it has taken me this long to figure out that this is problem is beyond me.  I will definitely be thinking about this over the next few weeks and am dead set on figuring out a better way of doing things, in both house/both kitchens.

As for tonight...
I was dicing onions and cut my thumb in just the right place to make knitting a little bit of a pain in the arse....I while I was playing nurse-maid to myself and getting the bleeding to stop, I almost burned the dang house down (ok, I'm exaggerating just a tad).  See, right before I cut myself, I had put a stockpot on the stove over medium-high flame, and had added some olive oil, then turned to dice an onion.  And then spent the next 5-10 minutes trying to get the bleeding to stop, while totally forgetting that I had a pan on burner. Until the smoke alarm went off, of course ;-)  (thank goodness for smoke alarms, right??!!)


The rest of my day was good :-)
The whole household slept 9 hours last night.  MyFavoriteKid got to spend some time with friends, TheMostImportantGuy and I ran an errand in San Francisco and grabbed a nice lunch. We stopped and delivered James a balloon and a piece of birthday cake because it's his birthday today. We divided and conquered in the afternoon and I cleaned up a bit at YeOldHouse while he headed over to TheNewDiggs to do some yardwork.  We didn't have soup for dinner. Hahahahaha.  But we did eat a little something, and then we watched Game Of Thrones.   Not a bad day, I'd say.  And no drumline practice tomorrow, so we don't have to get up until 7am! I'm going to go try to and take advantage of a few extra zzz's.  G'night!

snaps on saturday

No more drumline rehearsals or performances.
This was the very last one.

Until next year ;-)

ouchy

Posts have been brief lately, haven't they?

Well, there are pretty good reasons for that.  For starters, I am in a tremendous amount of pain!!  I woke up with it last Friday.  Mid-back pain along the left side, and I am pretty damn sure I did it pushing myself into a yoga shoulder stand during dance class a week ago Thursday. 

I feel like I need someone to walk on my back! Or hold me upside down by the ankles and shake me. It feels like I have a rib out of whack. And no, I do not have a chiropractor at present.

I spent some time on the foam roller on Wednesday, and yesterday was feeling much better.  But then I had to teach dance class last night, and we had a new student, and KarenTheDancingLurker was out for the week so I needed to be a good role model. I cut out a few of the exercises that I knew would be a problem for me, but even still I demonstrated a few moves that I probably should not have. And as of this morning I was hurting again. 

It's hurting enough that it's almost all I can think about, and this is bad news because, guess what?!  I HAD A TON OF S%#$ TO DO TODAY, DANG IT!!

~sigh~

Well, I missed the Friday knitting group this morning :-(  That's a big huge bummer because being there is a huge mood lifter.  But I was moving soooo slowly this morning, there was just no way I could get everything done that needed to happen today.  And I can't put stuff off until tomorrow, because tomorrow is HUGE.

Tomorrow is the very last competition of MyFavoriteKid's drumline season, and I'm going. It's almost 2 hours away. The call time for the kids is 6:40am!!  And they don't get back until 11:30pm!! And I am going, too!! (what was I thinking)

Good news is that this will be it for drumline for the year.  Not for all of band, of course (there is still  concert season on the horizon, and not that far off), but this is it for drumline. At the very least, this means no more getting up at 6am to be at school by 7am stuff.  Nope. It's up at 7am to be there by 8:30am. Woohoo!  More relaxed mornings, even though there will be no early bird catching those worms.


I am off to bed. Me and my deep heating muscle rub.
g'night!

you know you're getting old when...

...someone new comes to take your dance class

....and you know her

....because she went to elementary school with your teenager!

an amputeeheeism

The thing I miss most about being a professional chef is...

having a professional dishwasher.

absent minded

Apparently enough years have passed.

I got through most of March without thinking about the anniversary of the car accident. In fact, I had to look at past years on the blog here to even remember the actual date.  This is very different from earlier years when it would either be right at the forefront of my consciousness, or it would be lurking in my subconscious and I would just feel anxious but not know why.

This year? Nothin'.

I only thought about it in late March because some stranger was asking me how long it had been.



I am inclined to think that this type of forgetting is a good thing ;-)

heh.