The last couple of months I've been really busy. Had my 50th and we managed a party one week before the date. Turned out perfect, we had it at a park and the weather was just right, not cold or hot, just comfortable and there was a beautiful lake view there. Little tribute to my Mom with yellow roses on the tables, they were her favorite. My sister did the decorations, made Mom's macaroni salad and brought a big chocolate cake! She also gave me an HD TV for a present. That was literally a jawdropper of a gift! There were about 14 guests, mostly my friends from chorus. We got so busy chatting that I forgot to ask if we could sing something for my sister, she's only heard them sing Happy Birthday, which of course they sang again for me.

On my actual birthday I was in Appleton, WI at Harmony Inc.'s Int'l Contest and Convention. It was the day of the chorus competitions and Randy got the whole place to sing Happy Birthday to me! That's a memory I'll treasure for years to come, that about 1,000 people sang to me for my 50th! Randy said she knew the MC (and the MC was a bass, which Randy is too). We found a fab Italian restaurant a few blocks down the street. I also acted as the chorus' delegate for the meeting and learned what is coming up and in the works for Harmony. I did attend a class for section leaders. I also watched the finals of the quartet competition and all of the chorus competition.

Since then our chorus has done 2 Holiday shows, within one week, which we did last year too and both times it wiped me out. I am just now coming down with the cold Don has had for about a week. Zicam is a big help. There are other performances at retirement and convalescent homes, but I only signed up for the shows, the fibro hits hard and fast of late. I want to take a leave of absence, but Randy is worried I won't come back. She wants me to just drop being the asst. section leader. I'm going to talk to Lisa about it, I'm her assistant and she would have to find someone else. To me it seems logical that I am doing too much if it doesn't take much to push me into fatigue. I have given up SCA because it was hard for me to do the camping and to maintain a persona. I wanted to hang with the bards, but wasn't really a bard myself; I didn't feel like there was a place where I fit.

I also did NaNoWriMo n November and finally finished over the 50,000 words, although it wasn't all from the novel I wanted to work on, since my muse deserted me after one plot twist. I did most of my niece's story and also threw in my sci fi spy story. It was hard because Randy didn't want to see me sitting around at the convention, etc. That was a change, since normally she's very supportive of my writing. But she had bought my All Events Pass and wanted me to take advantage of the opportunity. It was an amazing time!

About 2 weeks ago on Saturday our Skittle girl went missing. She's always such a bright spirit and the house seemed too quiet. Don felt terrible, because he had let her out, but that could have been any one of us. We continued to try calling her over the next few days, I know I felt like she was out there and that hearing us would give her the heart to try and get home. Randy was afraid she was giving up late that Sunday night, so we went outside and sent her love and energy. After that we both felt better. On Monday we began calling the shelters. She and Don had the neighborhood plastered with signs! Randy actually went to one shelter, because one cat sounded as if it might be her. However, it turned out that the cat was a male. She came back home and was about to check one more time in the garage, when Skittle came flying around the corner of the garages! We think she got shut in somewhere and couldn't get out until Monday. She had a scuff on one ear where the fur was worn off, but otherwise not a mark on her. Thank you God! She was as happy to see us as we were to have her back! She was torn between getting pets from Randy & I and eating as fast as she could gobble. The only one who wasn't upset over her going missing was Tyler and she has been snarling at Skittle even more than usual. Too bad Skittle is so observant of cat etiquette, because she could knock Tyler into next week if she wanted to and Tyler deserves it!

Memorial Weekend

It's strange, because I really hadn't thought about this in particular for years, but this year I am acutely aware that this is the time of year my mother passed away. I remember all the flags on the other graves, at the gravesite. Last year I was at Potrero War for this weekend, but we are talking at least 20 years or more ago. Okay, I just figured out the math; she died in 1983, so it was 24 years ago! So why now? No idea, guess I have to wait and see if there is a reason.

This year I'm home with the cats, while Don & Randy are down in Potrero; it's their first trial run with the new pavilion for The Open Arms Bardic Hall. No one was signing up for the performance time slots; hopefully they signed up once they got there! I've just had so many weeks of late where I ended up overdoing it and then losing the rest of the week to exhaustion.

So far Tyler has attacked my arm when I reached for the TV remote and Skittle has bitten me about 5 times when I've tried to discipline her. I used arnica salve on the scratch/bruise from Tyler and it already seems to be fading some. I love our cats, but I sure do hate the scratches and bites. With Skittle I figure it's a kitten thing and she is possibly a feral baby. But Tyler never used to do this. She almost bit my nose the other day; I just managed to pull my head back far enough for her to miss. For sure when my settlement comes in, I need to have her seen. A lot of the attacks seem to relate to her paws being touched or moved, so maybe she is getting arthritis in them. With Amanda we used to give her Rescue Remedy. She would wobble around, I think it made her a tad tipsy, but she stopped her constant complaining.

I went to a group mtg (my first) for Project Dulce and asked Lisa about going on to phase two of the South Beach program, since I can't seem to manage to get through the first phase. She said that's fine, so now my eating is easier now. I also got pre-cooked chicken from Henry's, for this weekend.

My plan for the weekend is to work on my bedroom and I also want to make a few phone calls, to Sherrie and to Carol, my friend in TX. So far I've not done much of anything but watch TV and eat! Now I need to do some dishes! That won't be fun, it gives me a terrible backache. I guess I'll do it in short spurts. Don was just too tired from packing for Potrero to do it before they left. Anyway, I'm just blathering on about stuff that no one else probably even cares to read about. So I'm out of here.