The Junk Drawer & An Award

I don't really have a junk drawer. My sister forbid it years ago. She pulled open the catch-all drawer in my kitchen gasped and said something like, "You can't have a messy drawer like this. You always have everything so organized." It was a call to arms hidden in an intervention.

Anyway, I told you that just so I could say, I don't have a junk drawer. BUT, if I did, this particular post is the equivalent of what my only imaginary, not real, junk drawer would look like.

See how messy things are already and I've hardly started. So FWIW, here goes.

Remember that saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"? My good intentions were to keep up with the posting and blogging once I returned from RWA. Apparently the universe had other ideas. I came home from RWA and promptly had the mother of all flare ups with my rheumatoid arthritis. Well, a mother of a flare up for me. Anyway one swollen & drained knee later I'm "fit as fiddle and ready for love".

(Don't you just love Singin' in the Rain?)

However, it did throw a major crimp into my good intentions seeing as how I had a leg propped up and was a sleep for at least half the week last week. For a brief moment Wednesday night I did throw myself a bit of a pity party imagining that I wouldn't be able to wear this dress...

or stand in these shoes...


What do you think? Should I go with red shoes to match the dress or stick with the silver?

Anyway, I chased those blues away because the knee is good. Mostly. New meds, good knee. I should be all kinds of awesome by August 15th when I will stand for approximately 20 minutes straight in those killer shoes to marry my niece and her fiance. Promptly following the ceremony I plan to change into something that won't cripple and disfigure my feet for life.

You know why?

Dancin' baby! Dancin'! It only takes a little coaxing and a few lurid false promises to get GG on the dance floor. What can I do but take advantage of the poor man? He just plain likes it so much.

Oh, and now that I feel better, I'm out in Romancelandia again too. Feels good. Mucho good. So, you know, HELLO EVERYBODY!

I'm lifting a glass of my favorite bar beverage to Ms. Lisabea who gave me an award in the guise of yet another call to arms disguised as an intervention.

Here's to you LB. Mwah!

Le Award

The Kreativ rules state that: Once you receive this award you are to list seven of your favorite things and then nominate seven other blogs.


1. Chocolate cake - it has to be moist and not be slathered in frosting.

2. A bright sunshiney day without wind. You have to live where I do to appreciate this.

3. Swimming. I feel so powerful and strong moving through the water.

4. Coffee. Slightly (a lot) addicted.

5. Buying presents. I love the feeling when I know I've gotten just the right thing for someone.

6. That moment every night when I lay my head on GG's shoulder and sigh. We just fit.

7. Books, of course. They've brought so much joy into my life not only in the pleasure of reading, but now with all the friends I've made.

I'm okay. Are you okay?

Were you wondering where I disappeared to? I hadn't intended to sort of vanish like that but the holiday weekend sort of obliterated all my free time and I use the weekends to try to get a jump start on my blogging week. So didn't happen this weekend. I have, however, declared a moratorium on my cooking. No more cooking in April.

Easter was great. It started on Saturday with GG and I doing the Bunny Walk/Run. GG ran the 10K and I walked 5K with friends from work. It was a cold a blustery day, but the time and the 3 miles slide by quickly when you are walking and talking with friends.

In the afternoon we went to my brother's house for fried turkey and ham. I made appetizers and my cheddar cheese onion bread. That made for a full day and I was pretty tired when we got home. Beanie came home with his girlfriend late Saturday night. That's always fun. Bean still loves his job at Disneyland and always brings so much energy into the house.

On Sunday I made some homemade bruschetta and this stuff...

It's called Insalata Caprese. We just call it good eats. Fresh mozzarella, basil and plum tomatoes with some ground pepper and balsamic vinaigrette on top of a baguette or cracker. It's very yummy for your tummy. Anyway, we had a great conversation over appetizers and were almost too full to eat, so we waited a while. More and more we find ourselves getting away from the more traditional meals for holidays. This time we opted for steak and chicken breast with green beans, my parmesan potatoes and salad. It was just right for us. It would have been nice if Shmoo's GF could have joined us but she was with her own family celebrating.

I have been doing some reading too. I really enjoyed the second SEAL book SEALED WITH A PROMISE by Mary Margret Daughtridge. It's a stand alone, but once you read it you'll probably want to read the first one SEALED WITH A KISS. On impulse I also picked up EDGE OF HUNGER by Rhyannon Byrd. It's the first book in a new series by Ms. Byrd called Primal Instinct.

A visit to category books had me reading the SSE April release of THE BRAVO BACHELOR by Christine Rimmer. It was pretty good too. I always forget what a quick read those books are.



The last couple of days I've had some issues with my back again. Who knows why I'm having these flare ups. I vacillate between anger and moping. I'd send invites, but really, who wants to RSVP a pity party?

It will probably take me a week or so to get back in the swing of things. Until then, let me know what all of you have been up to. How was your Easter weekend? What have you been reading?

Bad Day at Black Rock

This is the laziest Saturday I've had in sometime. This is also the worst my RA has been in awhile. In fact I'm always reminded how good I feel most of the time when I have a bad day. A bad day as in, I'm in one hell of a piss-y mood.

I'm thinking it's probably not the best time to be writing a post, but whatever. I'm here. I'm typing. What could happen?

There's one ray of sunshine. Beanie's home for the weekend. Yeah, gone two weeks and home already. I wish I could say (well not really because that would be sad and pathetic) he's home because he missed us. However, he came rolling in yesterday afternoon with a car full of laundry. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking free laundry and no clean skivvies had more to do with the visit than anything else.

Someone at work asked me if I was going to be "doing it" for him. I refrained from cupping my hand around my ear and saying, "What, huh? I can't HEAR you." I miss the kid. I do. But two weeks of stinky boy laundry? Not so much.

Flash to this morning. GG, the ALWAYS INDUSTRIOUS, gets up goes running and tosses a load of Bean's laundry in. Me? I'm reading and trying not to bitch incessantly about my ribs crushing my lung on the right side. Yeah, that's me no restraint when it comes to the complaining.

Anyway, after I finish my book, GG comes in and says the clothes are "done". Meaning, you know, time to fold and hang and stuff. So I start industriously folding Bean's stuff because the kid worked last night (10 PM to 7 AM) and is sleeping. Yes, that means I caved.

Although it was a whole new experience to fold his boxers and then a couple of his GF's thong underwear. (I tried to type just 'thong' but it needed the word underwear after it. Am I wrong?)

Holy crap. That was unexpected. Of course, Bean's GF is a real sweetie (and HUGE Nora fan) and would be mortified if she new some of her stuff got mixed in with his. So, I guess it's sorta WRONG of me to be talking about it on my very public blog. But I'm just trying to convey the surprise of teeny tiny girl stuff mixed in with my big boy's stuff. Bean is 6'4" for cripes sakes! Weird moment that.

So all in all it's been an oddly quiet Saturday. I didn't even swim this morning. Damn rib and good book combined for lazy morning. Shmoo's new sweetie is coming over this evening. We might all go out for a movie and pizza. That would be nice. And fun. We'll see how I feel. Maybe pizza and movies at home. Maybe.

Enough of the sitting up for me. I'm going to dose up and try to relax and see if I can kick the rib ache. GG offered some remedial carnal course work that he seems certain will 'make things feel better'. *eye roll* Yeah, like THAT will happen. It's the GG version of chicken soup. The end all...be all...cure all.

You gotta love an optimist, don't you?

The News

I'm being lazy about the comments for yesterday's post about the fitness test and decided to give you the scoop here instead.

Thankfully I got mostly good news starting with the overall assessment being "it's better to be overweight and fit than skinny and unfit." So, I'm on the overweight and fit side of the room. Huzzah! Although that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to me. But whatever. A good grade is a good grade I always say. A bit pathetic, but ya takes 'em where ya kin git 'em.

I know you aren't going to believe this but I've never had a treadmill test before. I did fabulously well. No, really I did. I didn't get past 5 on a scale of 1-10 for degree of strenuous exercise. I did great on the incline. So, I was a pretty happy camper. I recovered rather quickly too. Of course, it was only 5-6 minutes on the treadmill never getting past a brisk walk (3.2 miles per hour) so that was pretty easy.

I have way toooooooooo muuuuuuuuuch fat in my body. So much so that I'm too embarassed to share the number with you. However, my cholesterol was good. Blood pressure good. Heart rate excellent. Heart risk for my age and gender is considered excellent if you are at 5% risk or less for heart disease. I was at 4%. Yeah me! Good heart health.

Now the not so good news. My blood work showed an elevated liver enzyme. Got to follow up on that. And, both my blood tests (work and rheumatologist) were done in the same week and show a high score for my thyroid. I saw my rheumatologist on Tuesday and he's already prescribed synthroid. *sigh* Another damn pill to take.

I keep reminding myself how fortunate I am to live in a period of time where there is treatment for these things and a pill is a small price to pay...a very small price. But it still sucks when you look at the palm of your hand twice a day and see 6 pills, not counting my vitamins, that I have to swallow. Did I mention I have to do this twice a day. Every day? Oh well. I'm going to be strong, stalwart and courageous like one of the fabulously tough but compassionate heroines in the books we read. Think? Yeah, tongue firmly in cheek right there.

Thanks for all your good thoughts and prayers. They helped. They really did. Hey Dev. Our Fire Chief took cuts in line so I was actually on the treadmill at around 11:40 to 11:45 a.m. It just might have been your prayer that did the trick. ;-)

Flare Up

Warning...I'm about to do a bit of a whine. You won't hurt my feelings if you run for your life right now.

I'll make this short and sweet but after feeling pretty fabulous for several months my rheumatoid arthritis is apparently in a flare period. I say "apparently" because I try to talk myself out of it and tell myself I'm just having a bad day, or I didn't get enough sleep last night, or my latest reason is that I've over done the swimming. But since the weekend I've just been achy all over all my major joints are sore and swollen. My back and ribs feel like someone has been playing the xylophone on them.

Consequently, I feel tired and cranky. GG is so sweet to me. He made me hot tea last night. Earlier he told me I was crazy to sit in front of the computer when he would make me a nice hot water bottle for my back and tuck me up in bed with tea. My boys know the signs when I'm feeling bad. Shmoo asked me right after school yesterday if I was feeling okay because I was so quiet. Obviously I'm not the reserved contemplative sort of Mom. I'm the Nosy Nora loud "Wass Up!" sort of Mom. This could be why Shmoo tells his friends I'm crazy. Maybe?

I'll probably read this later and wish I'd shut my yapper. What the heck. That's what 'Edit' is for. Am I right?

Completely off subject and my whine fest... Shmoo was home yesterday afternoon with a new girl. Not "the girlfriend". I'm not sooooo out of the loop that I don't know that dudes and babes can be friends. There's a lot of that going around. I'm not completely clueless. However, I still know the difference between friends and, well you know, the other stuff. And believe me, there was plenty of the other stuff going on yesterday. So, I'm thinking maybe that's why he's not going to Homecoming with the GF who goes to the other high school. The cute little chickadee who was here yesterday goes to his school.

Since I'm posting this at midnight I haven't had a chance to have a talk with Shmoo on ethical behavior. It won't be the first conversation we've had on the appropriate way to treat a young lady, but I want to be sure he's not being a jerk to the other girl. That would not make me happy at all. ::sigh:: Maybe I can talk GG into having that chat. I'm feeling so ornery that a conversation with the ever-contrary Shmoo might not be a good idea right now.

I think I'll take GG's advice for once. But don't tell him it was his influence okay? Besides, I managed to make it through and write a post didn't I? Bed, a hot water bottle and tea sound really, really good about now.

I'm not proof reading this. God knows what it says... See you on the flip side.

All I wanna do is

...read. Today I read a grand total of 10 pages. Ten. Ten pages. If you want to get technical about it I re-read five pages to get back into the story and was able to read five more in the waiting room of my eye doctor. Can you believe it? All those appointments with Shmoo over the last six months and we waited a half hour or more. So what happens today? They call me to get my eyes dilated right away. I was ready to read damn it!

Tonight I had to go to a Board meeting of our fire district and be introduced as a new employee. So work, doctor appointment, dinner and Board meeting. Note there is no time for reading. Of course, I guess I could have skipped my blog hopping and writing this post and that would have given me some reading time. At least that's what GG reminded me when I was wanking about it earlier. It goes without saying (doesn't it?) that as things go to complain about lack of reading time is a pretty luxurious one. So time to shut up about it. Besides tomorrow is Friday and then we have the glorious weekend.

Now I better drag my tired butt to bed.

Oh, one final observation of the day. So I confess online, and you can't get much more public than that, that I've been reading two books at once. You can guess what happened right? I'm no longer interested in the other book because I'm getting impatient to read the Brockmann book. I can't remember her last release that I didn't read in a day. So, for now, I've set aside the other book I was reading and am concentrating only on FORCE OF NATURE.

Now I really got to go to bed because my eyes aren't dilated any more but everything looks blurry. That's got to be fatigue and NOT my age. :) My rheumatologist told me that a healthy 50-year old woman (that's me) can now expect to reach the age of 90 if she does two things: stays on top of preventative medicine that is available AND exercises. Yippee! Works for me. I need to keep exercising for flexibility or I'll turn into the Tin Man anyway. By my game of LIFE calculations that's double bonus points for me. I get flexibility and longevity just by exercising. Besides, who needs to be creaky and stiff? Anybody got an oil can?

Happy Thanksgiving and some other stuff...

I'm exhausted! Yes, exhausted. I just spent a couple of hours catching up on all my favorite blogs. Almost everyone had posted something since I last looked on Sunday. That'll teach me to be off my blog hopping routine for three days. There are so many things I want to do and get organized online yet. For one thing I haven't tagged all my older posts before beta. *sigh* Someday soon I hope.

This is just a quickie to wish you all a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We seem to all be busy and not much (for the most part) in the blogging or reading mood. My absence now and in the coming weeks will be less about having the blahs and more about just having lots of extra things to do. Also, inconveniently, my arthritis has flared up. Maybe it's stress related because I have so many things I want to do and projects started, maybe it's just the luck of the draw. In any case, I wish it would hurry up and go away because it makes me pretty tired.

Enough with the complaining though because I have a life filled with love and blessings. I often think of my life in review since my mother's death. I do this because I am trying to live my life and make choices so I have no regrets at the end of my life. Sometimes it's scary, but it is also fulfilling.

Well I'm off as our family festivities start today with my niece's 18th birthday party this evening. Two days of family fun!

For those of you who asked, seeing Steadman in Vegas was fabulous. I just adore the minx. We are going to try and get together next month for our birthday weekend too. It's great having a friend who works for an airlines...she can travel free to come see me! Love you Steadman.

The Countdown Begins!

17 calendar days and 13 work days to go. Yes, I know I've said I quit before, but that was before "the diagnosis". This time I really, really am quitting. November 18th is the goal!

I'm crossing the days off the calendar one by one! One would have to wonder why I've stayed at a job so long that I'm so eager to leave. As with most things in life it is a mixed bag. It hasn't been all bad. I think my greatest challenge and difficulty at work is the work environment itself.

On another subject, completely unrelated to work, I've missed posting the last couple of Sundays. As a result I haven't done my health update and attitude of gratitude thought. It's sort of a cleansing experience so bear with me and my meanderings. While I would like to do this on a specific day of the week so I have a good comparison...that hasn't exactly worked out well for me so far has it? : ) I hate when that happens. Anyway, here's my update.

My eating has been pretty good. While my walking had been excellent, it has sucked the big one this past week. No walking at all. My Catholic guilt is now relieved...I've confessed. Now all I need is some really good penance and I can be cleansed and guilt free.

Of course, since my last post and my sister's comments about that new HBDS (Husband By Default Syndrome) I could always lay blame at the altar of the guy I live with. His dry reply is usually, "Yeah, it's me. I know it is." Of course he doesn't REALLY believe it is, but come on, we all know that they plot and plan while we are sleeping to come up with things to drive us crazy. GG says he finds it amusing to get me "all worked up" and then stand back and watch.

I know what you're thinking. No, I'm not sooooo stupid that I haven't figured out what he's doing. It just usually sends me into a rant that he finds it so amusing to try and get me to rant. I don't usually take the bait on whatever subject he's using to yank my chain. No, I'm the dork who gets worked up because I know that he's trying to set me off which usually ends up with me in a rant anyway. Pretty picture isn't it?

What was my point? I hate when I have to scroll back in the post and figure out what it was I started out to say. Free associating is better. Right? It's how I talk most of the time. I have to concentrate to stay on subject.

Which is...oh yeah, what I'm thankful for. Let me digress for one more momemt. I love the few seconds before I actually type what I'm grateful for because just before I actually type something I have one more second to remember that I had a list of things to chose from and I'm filled with a feeling of gratitude just for the fact that I have so MUCH to be thankful for.

But this week I'm particularly thankful for my sister Mary. Now I love all my sisters dearly, I really do. And, lucky, lucky me I have some wonderful friends. Each of my sisters has her own special place in my life that is for sure, but Mary Angela is my happy place. She is the sweetest, most precious of friends. I don't know what I would do without her. Of all my sisters there are the most years between us...17. She was born when I was a senior in high school. Yet, she and I, of all my sisters, have the most in common.

I don't think I have another friend or family member who would send me a greeting card with a free pass to whine and complain about my spondylitis...but she did.

So, Mary...here's to YOU... the champagne in a family of fine wines. I love you and am so grateful to have you in my life.

BTW, thanks for the free pass.

TIME'S UP!!

Hear the clock ticking? I DO! Here's the way it goes. I'm 50, I'm overweight, I have a great husband, two great boys and I have rheumatoid arthritis.

To help you sort out what that means exactly--uh, um, well...what I'm trying to say is, I'm running out of time. I'm running out of excuses. It's time. It's time to actually DO something. I mean REALLY do something about getting healthy. Not thin...not a diet...a life change for the rest of my life. A way to live fit and healthy.

The guy I live with says I have one more week. That next Sunday, the day after he runs the St. George Marathon we would start--together. He's awesome, I know, but I decided today I'm out of time.

Last year when my doctor told me I had to lose weight especially now that I have RA I told him I wasn't ready. I wasn't. Yeah, it sounds lame, but I'm one of those people who have to convince themselves they can do the task before actually giving it a go. So, it's been a year. My Mom would be kicking my butt big time. My sisters already do. Time. Is. Up.

So I'll devote my Sunday blogs to bitching and complaining about how I'm doing. I figure it will at least cut down on how much I bitch about it in my real life. Those of you who are near and dear to me beware. I didn't say it would ELIMINATE the bitching, just pare it down...some.

Oh, and one more thing. It is helping me, so I'm going to be writing my graditude attitude thought for the week on Sundays too...maybe...if I remember. Oh hell, I'll just throw them in whenever I feel like it like I already do. : )

Graditude attitude thought for the week: I'm thankful I live in a time where we have the science to warn 3 million people to flee a catastrophic hurricane.