Catching Up . . . Again!

I can’t believe that it has been so long since I’ve done any blogging. What a shame as I enjoy the opportunity to write and keeping this updated was on my list of New Years Resolutions (smile). Rest assured, that despite my lack of attention to getting things documented, we’ve kept very busy!

David took over as Seneschal for our local SCA group in July and I’ve been doing the Rapier Marshal for the group since February 2010. These keep us busy! Additionally, I served as autocrat for the 12th Night Event in January. It went well, but I would want to make a few small changes next time, but that is probably always the case. The group has a demo coming up for the local College in April and I’m looking forward to it and wondering if I’ll have anyone to help me with the rapier demo .,.. hope so! David is going to try to take the day off work for it which means they will have an armored combat marshal as well.

I’ve been volunteering a lot with the local Spouses’ Club and we’ve just recently held our annual charity auction. It went really well. We purchased a new software program this year to help us track everything and the program seems to work really well. It was a big change for some though because the program documents things at a deeper level than they had been before and sometimes it seemed ridiculously deep for most of us (me included), but it was all for valid reason and we learned some things a long the way so next year it will go even better!

This weekend we should be enjoying one of our favorite American Civil War events in the area, St. Catherine’s Military School, however we will need to temporarily vacate our home for a few days so they can fumigate for termites. The termites are not in the home but instead in the garage, however the two building share conduit and there is a chance for the gas to come into the home so we need to leave the home and bag everything up as if they were fumigating the home. Sigh! Since we can’t come back to the house for a few days (Sunday – Thursday) I’m wracking my brain trying to think of everything I might need across the next week.

As I’ve been busy with the auction (and then catching up on some much needed sleep and other tasks) we’ve not finished the paperwork to get our taxes in. David is getting anxious, and rightly so. As the place we’re staying in while the fumigate likely doesn’t have internet, I’m taking all the tax information with me so that I can get that done during the hours of “nothing better to do”. I know I should keep up with the paperwork throughout the year (deductions) but somehow I don’t get around to it for the last 8 months or so of the year so I always spend the month before we go to the tax accountant digging through receipts and entering them into the appropriate worksheets. Unfortunately, David cannot help me with this, much to his disappointment as he would love to do anything to make it go faster!

The day after the Auction we held the annual BBQ party for our American Civil War group here at the house. That was SO nice!!!! We have so much space here and rarely have the opportunity to entertain so it was wonderful to do that. David and I have been with this group for 1 year and so we were given CW ID tags – NICE! Due to one thing or another we’ve not had an opportunity to reenact with the group since July of last year and I’m glad they haven’t given up hope on us yet. We were so looking forward to this event this weekend since it is done primarily for the school and the kids all come out – it reminds us of the school talks which is where our focus is! I’m bound and determined that we WILL be going to Prado next weekend even if we can only go for a day because I’m missing my CW season! Although that brings with it another complication since Ashton, our cat, has diabetes and needs shots twice per day . .not sure how we can camp and still get her her medications unless we take her with us….hmmmm.

Well, thanks for reading my procrastination. Now I’d better get back to packing up and out. More later!

Just saw the cutest play

Some of the neighborhood kids had worked hard all week after being cast in the Missoula Children Theater’s travelling production.  I couldn’t believe how well they did.  There was 48 kids of all ages and every child had a part.  The production was not only a play but also a musical and they performed it tonight in front of a full audience after having only 4 days of practice.  Absolutely fun and fantastic.  If you should happen to have the opportunity to see one of these plays I would highly encourage it. 

No time for sight-seeing today. Today my friend returns to the Midwest. Bummer!! This was my first time driving to the LA Airport. I'll admit that I was originally nervous but it turned out okay and somehow I think I'll be making the trip to pick up visitors in the future. I'm hoping that ARP enjoyed her visit as I know I enjoyed having her here.

Due to requests

Upon popular request, I've taken today to take some pictures of the place for posting here. I hope you enjoy!

2010-0407 Officers Road

If you click on the above link you will see pictures of every area of the house.

This is our home in California. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath with dining room, living room, large entry and (a rarity in CA) with a basement. The house was built in 1918 and is on the National Historic Register. The home has always served as officer's family housing. The building itself is a duplex with a mirrored image of the house on the left side (as you face the house) but that portion is currently empty.

I'll admit the basement still needs some work so please don't look too closely there but I think the rest of the house has come together rather nicely.

After a trip to the doc today and then over for some x-rays, it's been confirmed . . the only thing permanently hurt by my fall was my pride. There is no fracture evident in the x-rays so it appears that the pain is just bruising of the muscle and bone. The doc says to ice it twice a day and keep taking ibuprofen every 6 hours for the next several days. I'm hopeful that it will do the trick and get me back to the semi-active lifestyle I was enjoying.

I just wrote K to see if she wouldn't mind a shorter and more leisurely walk tomorrow to see how it goes and get me out of the house. Besides, I don't believe in favoring injuries longer than necessary and now that I know I didn't actually break anything it's time to whip the muscles back into shape before they forget which direction they were heading. (laughing)

Off to Council meeting shortly . . I should probably gather my thoughts for my report. But I'll probably spend the last few minutes I have at home this evening working on the fabric shelves since I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in their organization (as well as what I have on hand) which is inspiring me to do some sewing this week. I didn't take a "before" picture but I may just post an "after" picture.

Happy Easter!!! He is Risen - He is Risen Indeed!!

Today was a nice day. A little bit of relaxation mixed with just the right amount of stuff we needed to get done.

We started by going to the Club for Easter Brunch. It was really nice and we saw some of the people we know also enjoying the opportunity. On our walk back home we walked along the gate and looked down to the beaches nearby. The day was beautiful, sunny, warmish with a breeze to chill everything back down. When we arrived back home I rested by bum leg with some ice packs while David enjoyed some time gaming on the computer downstairs.

Around 3:30 pm, I had been dozing, when I felt something strange. When I opened my eyes I saw the blinds swaying slightly as well as the chandelier in the dining room swinging. I made the only assessment I could - I must have been experiencing an earthquake. Although there have been 3 or so since we moved here, somehow I've never felt them before this one so it was quite the experience. David didn't feel it because he was in the basement and evidently if you are below ground you don't notice things like earthquakes.

We put up the new shelving unit in the garage and did some reorganizing out there. We weren't able to get everything up off the floor and onto shelves but we certainly did clear a lot of floor space. David used the opportunity to swing a stick at the pell in the newly cleared space and now we have room for those drills that we're both promising we're going to be starting. Of course my leg has to get better before I do anything resembling a lunge. I think I'll be going to the doc for x-rays on Monday . . which reminds me I need to email K that I won't be able to walk tomorrow.

After garage organization we took some more downtime and then I worked some in the back room with the fabric. I've emptied almost all my fabric tubs onto the shelving units and David put the third up for me tonight. I've found that separating fabric by type on the shelves is a good idea but I'm going to have to do some rearranging of the shelves as some of the types are full and I just ran across a couple of tubs that contain a little bit of everything. Given that revelation I decided that I was done for the time being.

Dinner tonight is an exciting frozen pizza since we had decided not to do an Easter dinner since we were going to do the brunch thing and I totally forgot to plan anything for dinner by taking something out of the freezer.

So I'll leave this as I started it - HAPPY EASTER!

Organization, a twist, and some site-seeing

This past week I realized that this weekend was one of the few that we were going to have at home and asked my dear husband if we could go so some local site - anything - just as long as we "checked something to see off the list". Of course his response was the same as yours probably is, "You have plenty of time left in this location to see things." However I know how these things go . . we get busy with life and forget to do the site-seeing portion. (laughing)

With the knowledge that we were going to go see something this weekend, I spent yesterday working in the back storage room of the basement. I've gotten almost motivated to sew but all my fabric was in bins and it was impossible to see what I had and to find what I needed even if I could remember what I had. Sigh. To remedy this problem, we found some industrial shelves at the local Lowe's and so I set myself to putting together shelves and emptying bins. Before I could undertake this though, I had to move the stuff I had stored on top of the bins when the communications company was working in the basement out to the garage for storage (for lack of anywhere else to put it). Have I mentioned previously my propensity for being a clutz? On my second to the last trip out the door I misjudged the stair and fell. Somehow I didn't end up with a black eye from the box or a broken nose from the sidewalk. When I picked myself up I decided that my shins and knees were bruised and scraped and my ankle twinged but that seemed to be the worst of it. I decided I was done doing stairs for a bit and sat down with some ice on what I determined was the most painful of the bruising. After some time I did make it back to the basement to start working on those shelves and that fabric but I didn't get to far as I was limping everywhere I went.

We went out later for dinner and a movie and, while I was limping, it didn't seem the damage was too bad. This morning though my ankle twinged just right to make me think I might have done something more serious, but then after some time I got back to the favorment I was giving it yesterday and it seemed no worse than before. What was additionally clear to me this morning though was that I had pulled muscles in my shoulders and jambed my wrists as my arms had gone forward to catch me, successfully. After taking some ibuprofen, on we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and then a short exploration of Redondo Beach Pier. We ducked into some shops and found me a hat made of sea-grass so I can avoid future California sunburns during my morning walks. We also played a game of Air Hockey (which I won - again - that's 2 game sets in a row which is a rarity).

When we'd made the circuit once we headed for home, stopping along the way at 2 Lowe's until we could find the one that had the shelving we needed for the garage in stock. The shelving itself weighs 200 pounds and so, while we were able to slide it from the cart into the car at the store we ended up opening the box and taking it out in parts when we got home. Of course the one corner where we want to put the shelves is where we've been putting everything else since we arrived so much re-arranging needs to be done before we can assemble this unit and hopefully put some order to our garage again. David joked when we opened the garage door to put the unit in for storage, "I thought the garage was half empty not a week ago or so". Which was true but now we've been actually deciding what needs to be stored out there and with the knowledge that the new shelving unit was coming eventually we've been more liberal in our storage decisions.

Once we got home I put my leg up and put the ice on it again. It's doing okay but I need it to recover quickly as Antina is due out for a visit very soon and I know we'll be doing a lot of site-seeing inclusive of walking.

Well, off to bed for now. Happy Easter everyone!!!!

Now that the house is mostly settled and we are mostly moved in (the only remaining boxes are in the basement and they are things that we need to "deal with" in one way or another), I've had the good fortune of realizing we are in a neighborhood of great people.

A couple of months ago, K (one of the neighbors) asked if I wanted to get some exercise and do some talking by walking with her one morning. Well, that first morning was great fun and she showed me the route that she took with some of the others that walk on Saturday mornings which went down by the Cabrillo Beach. Now, I'm not likely to go on the Saturday walk because it starts at 7 AM and I'm just not the kind of person that wants to get up that early on a Saturday to begin with, let alone be social (laughing). But during the week, K and I have been doing an 8 AM walk that works out pretty well for both of us. Now there have been the occasional day where we've needed to cancel due to rain - maintenance visits - other appointments - illness, etc. but it's been good for both of us health wise and it's been especially helpful in making me feel more acclimated to the neighborhood. I think this week will be the first week since we started that we won't miss a single day - fabulous. I mapped the walk out and we're walking 2.6 miles or so and we've noticed this week that we are doing it in a little shorter time than our previous hour. I can't say that I've lost any weight because of this extra exercise but I'm hopeful.

Since we arrived, I've gotten involved in the local "Spouses Club" and it's been interesting. We recently held an auction to raise funds to give away as scholarships and it was a huge success. David and I attended and bid on 4-5 items actually winning the 2 we REALLY wanted. We both had to agree that it was more fun than we had anticipated we would have. But then again I should have known better since the people around here are pretty fun and energetic. I don't know where some of them find the time and energy to do all that they do but I admire them for it.

David and I bought some solar lights to illuminate the path from the back door to the patio area we have. They look pretty good and we're debating some more. We have a lovely patio area here but it's not lighted at all. One of the neighbors put Christmas lights on the fence in her area to light it and I have to say that it worked pretty well. When I put away the Christmas decorations I kept some lights out to do just that and with the solar lights I think that we'll have an area that is illuminated subtly but beautifully. At this time there isn't any huge rush since we're not using the area at the moment .. but in a few weeks we're getting a grill and I think we'll enjoy spending some nights out there cooking on the grill and/or entertaining. I must say that I'm considering hosting one of the "Neighborhood Parties" but I think it must wait until there is guaranteed better weather because we'll need that outdoor seating (smile).

Since we moved in, we'd been slowly adding to a pile of stuff to give away in the garage. A week or so ago I scheduled the pick up and we have space in the garage to park a car again. . once we get done doing more rearranging. But theoretically we're going to be able to park a car in there and still have some stuff stored out there. I'm very excited about this possibility. We actually had a night home last night and went to the local hardware store to get the shelving that we figure we'll require - only to find they were out of stock of what we needed. Sigh. So we have to check back with them this weekend to see if they have it. Exciting weekend plans eh? Rearrange the garage and the camping stuff. I would say that I feel like spring cleaning except we're not really cleaning and we're not really clearing out anything additional . . so does that mean I'm feeling like Spring Organizing? Hmmm. . .

I'll admit that I've been holding off on pictures of this place until we have all these last items taken care of. Then again I suppose I shouldn't hold off too long or we may end up moving before I get pictures out to any of you to see what it actually looks like. I know several of you are convinced that we are still living in England since we've not felt any of the recent earthquakes and our house has not been buried in the mudslide but I guarantee you that there is more to California than those tragic items. Rest assured, we miss our friends and family in Iowa and Illinois and we miss our friends and the home we enjoyed in England.

The first of our visitors arrives really soon as A comes out from Rockford for a good visit. Speaking of which, I have a tentative schedule and a list of stuff she wants to do so I guess I'd better start looking at the planning of this wonderful time of fun and exploration.

In the recent weeks we've had the pleasure of attending several SCA events in the nearby areas. As we've driven to events I've seen the snow capped mountains on the horizon and was awed by their beauty. They almost seem surreal since the are the background to such an industrialized area. I commented to David just yesterday that they looked like a painting since they were so majestic and we couldn't quite see where they met the ground through all the industrialized city in the foreground. I keep meaning to take a picture of this kind of view so you can see what I mean.

We've also seen quite a bit of rain. There are some areas, luckily not ours, that are flooded or in danger of landslide and so have been evacuated. Additionally there were a couple of small tornadoes that touched down here or there in the LA county area doing some damage but luckily no one thus far has been hurt. With the great amount of rain we've had our SCA practices have been non-existent because they all take places in parks here and the parks are very swamp-like with this weather. We were lucky enough to avoid the rains tonight so we could have practice . . we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Catching up

It's been so long since I last wrote in this blog that I feel the need to convey everything that I've been up to. If you want to, read on and bear with me . . if not, I totally understand!

All the shipments have arrived and all of our stuff is successfully in one house for the first time. We're still going through and deciding what to keep and what to give away or throw away and I figure we will probably be still going through that for the next couple of years at the rate we get bored with it. (smile) I know some of you have asked what the house is like and also asked if we could post pictures . . I'm thinking that I should be able to be able to do that in the next month or so.

I think the coldest it has been here is 64F in the day and 51F at night. I feel guilty when I keep reading of all the snow, ice and cold weather that Illinois, Iowa, England, and Iceland are getting (although the weather is really just been uncommon for England). Everyone tells me that we will experience cold weather here but I still don't think I'll have any use for sweaters and turtlenecks . . so the debate comes, should they be some of what I dispose of? I've not needed such warm clothing since I left the bitter winters of Illinois behind and continuing to carry them around as they most assuredly go out of style seems silly so perhaps I should revisit this thought as I go through my closets again after having been here a full year to experience the full range of "weather".

Starting the beginning of December I made a variety of Christmas Cookies (as is my usual custom). The first batch was, of course, the chocolate covered cherry cookies. I enjoyed taking these to a cookie exchange party here in the neighborhood and all the girls seemed eager to try them. I also made a variety of other kinds and sent trays upon trays of cookies into the office with David so that I would have the pleasure of cooking them and tasting them but not over-tasting them.

Originally for Christmas Dinner we had anticipated having some of David's office-mates over (those who didn't have family in the area) but they all headed somewhere else (mostly home) for Christmas . . and who can blame them . . therefore Christmas Dinner was a quiet affair with David and myself and it was very nice. Although I must admit that I did miss my Heinrich Family Tradition of big meal with family, church, and then back for snack food and conversation. However, new location and therefore new traditions so we'll see what we can figure out.

David has been lucky enough to obtain from work some of the free game tickets sometimes available to the LA Kings Hockey Games at the Staples Center. We had both really enjoyed seeing the Ice Hogs play in Rockford when we lived there and neither of us had seen an NHL game live before so our first game was such fun! We were thrilled a week later when he was able to get another set. The Staples Center doesn't seem to have "bad seating" anywhere so even though we were at the top of the rows we could see quite well. Although the Kings didn't win the 2nd game we saw we still enjoyed being there and hope to have the opportunity to go again.

Today we got together with the Southern California 1st USSS Company C (American Civil War Berdan's Sharpshooters Reenactors) which is our new unit and had the annual meeting. We looked at the calendar and as a group picked 1 event a month to attend. Of course the weather out here means that you can attend events ALL year round so that was quite a concept. David and I were also impressed that there didn't seem to be a lot of months were the events were stacked back to back making it more difficult to find 1 to attend for that month . . they were all spread nice and even. We also though it was nice that this group gets together other times during the year outside of the reenacting hobby. They try to do a couple of live firing events, just the group at a target range. They have a pot luck picnic type of thing early in the season and a pool party or other get together in the middle. They even discussed doing some group meals for some of the events. I think we'll enjoy reenacting with them over the time we're here. We seem to be slowly building ourselves a reenacting home no matter where we travel, which makes us both smile.

We've been able to be active in the SCA quite a bit since we arrived here. There is a practice almost every night of the week in the local area, however we've narrowed ours down to the 2 within our Barony. We go to the College on Mondays to try to get more college kids involved and enjoying the hobby and then to the Baronial practice on Wednesdays. We have made it to 2 events so far. We attended Dreiburgen's Anniversary and enjoyed having the opportunity to fence some new people as well as getting our local authorizations out of the way. At Coronation we enjoyed visiting with Mary when she came over to visit from England at that event. Mary was kind enough to introduce us to other previous Drachenwalders now residing in the area which means that we'll know even more people in the area and have a common ground with them. Of course David has been out here before and so he knows some people already but I'm starting fresh and knowing someone AND having a common ground with them is a bonus! This past week I went and visited the local Tattershall Study Group and I know I'm going to have fun at their classes on Thursdays!

I guess that about sums up what's been going on here. I'll try to be better about writing more often in this blog. Funny, when I started this for family and friends in Illinois and Iowa it made sense and now I know that some of our friends in England check in on us here too which is lovely. More later . . Promise!

Cookies so far

Well, it's 3 pm and so I've been baking for about 4 hours with a quick stop for lunch. My body is telling me it's time to take a break so I thought I would account for my progress so far . . all I have to show is 3 different types of cookies.

From top to bottom:

• Brownie Crackles
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies (made with my Dad's Homemade Wild Grape Jelly)
• Chocolate Chunk

Not too bad for a few hours!

Christmas Prep

Ever watch paint dry in anticipation? Probably not . .but I get ahead of myself.

We had to have some plaster and painting work done here at the house and they were relatively quick bout it (only a little over 1 week) but it's been frustrating especially since 'Tis the Season and I'm ready to work on Christmas Decorations and more importantly Christmas Cookies!

The painter has been here the past 2 days working in both the Living Room and the Kitchen and I've done my darnedest to stay out of his way because I would be the one who would accidentally brush against the wet paint and make him therefore have to redo it, thereby taking more time. I'm a klutz that way. So yesterday in my effort to stay out of the way and still do something Christmas oriented I worked on Christmas Cards. They are all prepped, addressed, with their Christmas letter included and signed by me waiting neatly for my husband's signature so they can be sent on Friday.

But that left me with, what to do for today while the Painter is here and I found some SCA notices to work on to keep me busy. But, I'm thrilled to report that the painter has departed with the caveat that the paint won't be dry until this evening. Since he only painted the ceiling in the kitchen, that means I can start working in there on getting things back to normal and start the baking process! Yum - Christmas Cookies!!!! And with it only being 10 AM here, there is a chance that I can have some done before David gets home for lunch which means that he can potentially take some back to work thus alleviating us from eating them all ourselves. I do so love this time of year!

Although there is one downer to the Christmas Cookie scenario . . as so aptly put by a friend of mine in the SCA last night, I need a Cookie Baking Buddy! For those who are not familiar with this tradition of mine, let me explain. It all started several years ago when my Stepmom wanted to find something for the two of us to do together and so we picked a Saturday and baked a variety of different cookies all day and then split them up after the day was through to take to parties or give away as gifts. The tradition continued for a few years even after she was no longer my Stepmom, but just my friend. However, as life always does, the tradition was disrupted and we just weren't able to find a time that the two of us could agree upon anymore. On to phase 2 of the tradition . . I looked to my cousins and asked them if they wanted to participate on a Cookie Baking Day and so we did that for a couple of years with much entertainment. But alas, time grew short for everyone again. So on to phase 3, where I turned to friends which expanded to the SCA friends and we did that for the past couple of years. But now I've moved away and so I find myself in need of a Phase 4 of Cookie Baking tradition . .finding a new Cookie Buddy. Although I'm proud to announce that Phase 3 still get together (as they did this year) and enjoy their time doing the same Cookie Baking Tradition.

But enough rambling for this post. I've got cookies to bake!!! Here's wishing you all merry holiday traditions and preparations.

Thanksgiving for 3 please

This year I was a bit excited to celebrate Thanksgiving. Although last year David and I enjoyed all the fixings for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, there was only the 2 of us and so there were a LOT of leftovers. Needless to say, we got tired of leftover turkey and stuffing rather quickly, although previously I had thought that impossible.

This year we were excited to hear that Mom was going to join us for the holiday of binge-eating. Off to the store we went dutifully the week before Thanksgiving to gather all the wonderful things that we were going to enjoy on the Holiday. David had to work, of course, but that allowed Mom and I plenty of time to just enjoy preparing the turkey, stuffing and fixings as well as each other's company.

While I prepared the trimmings, Mom felt this urge to vacuum my house. Not that I minded one wit because I hate vacuuming but it sure did feel odd to have her working away while I cooked.

In the early afternoon, we had some down time and so I prepared us some English Breakfast Tea in the new Teapot and cups that Mom got me for an early Christmas present. I've found that I've really come to enjoy the English Breakfast Tea while I've been here and wanted to introduce her to it since she claimed she'd not had it previously. As we sat down to tea, I was giggling inside because it was like being a little girl with a little tea set and preparing tea for mommy . . but I was a "big girl" now and so this seemed somehow odd. Then again, this was the first time that I'd prepared tea for anyone else and it was the first time I'd used a true tea pot decorated with pretty flowers and such and everything being such fine and delicate pieces. The tea having been enjoyed, we parted to finish the last of the food preparation or desired cleaning.

When David came home from work we all sat down to enjoy a 9 lb Turkey with sausage stuffing, real-mashed potatoes (I so would have preferred boxed, but my husband and mother like the real ones, so there you go), buttermilk biscuits, and gravy while the apple pie baked away in the oven.

Later on in the evening, we all enjoyed warm apple pie with a scoop of ice-cream to complete our Holiday experience.

Everything tasted really good and there wasn't too terrible much left over, thankfully! All in all a very memorable and enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday!!!

Shopping!!

Okay, so today Mom and I didn't venture far but instead checked out the Mall at Cribbs Causeway. We went with a goal . . it has gotten cold here and so Mom needed to be able to add another layer of clothing between shirt and coat.

First stop was Evans which provided Mom the extra layers she needed. Now we could shop for the fun of it.

Mom was impressed with the Mall and the variety that it offered. We didn't have too long to shop and Mom found several things she wanted to think on so we are probably due to go back at some point before she departs.

Very Behind

Okay, so as I go to put new pictures and posts up I note that I've gotten REALLY behind in the month of October. Needless to say that in an effort to catch up, I'm going to do the most recent stuff now and post the older stuff later. Sorry for those who have been waiting for all the older stuff . . I really am . . but I'll get to it (perhaps in the month of December when life should settle down for a little bit).

Thanks for your understanding and for continuing to read.

Wonderful Surprise

Today is David and my first anniversary (or at least the one that we agreed ahead of time that we would celebrate). It's hard to believe that it's been one full year since we had the big wedding and started living together as a married couple. The time has gone by so quickly and has been filled with so many adventures and new experiences. It's all be quite wonderful.

David, being extraordinarily wonderful, bought me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers for our anniversary and brought them home at lunch time. He snuck into the house and placed them in the kitchen and then after he'd been home a bit, asked me to get him a bottle of water. I was so very surprised to see the beautiful flowers sitting and waiting for me. He was so happy with himself that he'd been able to surprise me.

While I can't capture the wonderful floral smell that currently exists in our kitchen, I thought I would (at least) share the color and beauty. I placed the arrangement in one of the vases given to us for a wedding gift. While this isn't the first time it's held flowers, as I had cut some from the rose bushes earlier in the year, it is the first time that it's held a full bouquet! I'm hoping that these lovelies will last at least a week, but I know their memory will last with me longer.

I am so very lucky to have David as my husband!

How far is too far to go to satisfy a craving?

Okay, so I'll admit that this is not a sight seeing blog. This one has more to do with the day to day life . . okay it's not even that . .it's my stubborness. So, with your indulgence, let me relate . .

About two weeks ago, David suggested we have steak in our favorite place, which is TGI Friday's. We never even have to look at the menu anymore we know exactly what we want when we go in-the filet mignon with burgundy sauce for me and peppercorn sauce for him and for sides a salad for both of us might with ranch dressing and his without dressing and cheesy mash for both of us. It tastes beyond compare and we always leave the place satisfied. Going there for the steak is our special treat. Much to our surprise this time however the filet mignon had been removed from the menu. We chose one of the other cuts of meat available, but it just wasn't the same. The waitress was spectacular and provided me with contact information so that I could register my menu concern. I have a sense written an e-mail which has been answered with a generic will look into it.

So as a preppared for dinner tonight, I looked in the freezer and saw that we had some small eye of rounds which are similar to the filet mignon. I promptly took them out of the freezer my thoughts turning towards dinner already.

Let me preface this by explaining that we have reached the fall of English weather. The weather for the past couple of days has been rainy and often on with heavy clouds in between the rain. My dinner plan meant that I would have to grill, outside. This did not concern me at first because the weather today had been only spots of rain lasting no longer than 10 minutes at any one time and really only being light showers.

The time to start dinner came and I went outside in the damp weather, no rain, to start the grill. As soon as I started the charcoal chimney, the rain started and it proved that it was going to continue for the next 45 minutes to an hour.

This is where we come to my question-how far would you go to satisfy a craving? Migrating saw me standing outside with an umbrella protecting, not myself, but the charcoal chimney so that the charcoal would actually catch fire. After babysitting the charcoal chimney in the rain for more than a half an hour I had what I considered good enough coals to start the steak. Now while I cannot simulate the cheesy mash I have provided our mozzarella sticks and a biscuit in lieu of the other sides. I write this as I wait for the steaks to finish cooking, they are taking longer than expected due to the dampness on even the hot coals.

I can only hope that my dedication to satisfy the craving will meet with success. I don't know why I felt the need to share this with you all, perhaps because I thought myself ridiculous and thought you would all enjoy the laugh.

Here's hoping that you meet with success to satisfy whatever craving you have.

FYI . .the steak turned out fabulous and the craving was satisfied. Later on this evening I heard a terrible downpour of rain for a good half hour and was glad that we had eaten earlier.

Travel Arrangements

It's Sunday night and David and I are finishing up last minute tasks at home in anticipation of our latest guests' arrival. Mike & Antina are due to arrive at 0855 in Bristol on Monday and we're looking forward to seeing them. Not to mention there is a heavy schedule of things to see and do during their visit so we need to be able to pick them up at the airport and head out immediatly to try to fit in both Bath and Salisbury on the first day they are here.

As we finally finish hanging things in the house; the office having been the only room we had not decorated as of this time we receive a call from our guests. As they explain and I watch on both the check-in for their flight as well as the weather channel, there is massive storms over Newark, NJ and their flight into NJ has therefore been delayed to the point where they will miss their connecting flight to arrive in Bristol as anticipated.

They do some quick thinking and with the help of the ticket agent at the counter secure another flight into Bristol on a different airline and completely missing NJ. Their new flight itinery has them going to Charles DeGaulle Airport (France) and then into Bristol. The upside, they get to kind of visit France . . the downside, they won't arrive into Bristol now until 1455.

They hang up to make their boarding call and David and I look at the schedule to see what is feasible for their first day. Things will work out . . we're sure of it!

Our little resident

After first spotting the little ones in the backyard, I kept an eye on them more out of curiosity than anything else. They ended up curled up asleep under the bamboo leaves for that night.





In the morning the smaller of the two was gone but the larger one was still sleeping. During the morning he/she moved out into the yard for a sunbathed nap. And proceeded to move about the grassy area for more naps.




Today I started to do some research (http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/) and it seems that the one that remains is possibly unwell. They are evidently nocturnal animals and any sighting of them during the day is not normal. This breaks my heart since both David and I have enjoyed watching out for the little guy. After my research I went down to check on him and found him exploring the garden looking for lunch. This was the most energy I'd seen him exert in days and his eyes were looking beady like they are supposed to so I am hopeful. However, I realize that he probably still needs care beyond what we can do for him and so I will most likely call the Hedgehog Preservation for a carer to come help him. I'll be sorry to see him go.

Once David got home we discussed it more and watched Herbie (because that was what David has decided to call him) explore for a while. When explorations went out of the garden and across our driveway and even out into the road of the cul-de-sac we started making those calls for his safety. The Hedgehog Preservation provided a number for a kind lady, Pauline, down the street who does Hedgehog rescue and she had us collect the little guy until she could get here. I went outside with a hand towel and gathered the little one up and put him in a box and we waited for our rescuer. Pauline was so kind and told us that we had a baby on our hands and then we went looking all over the garden for a nest. Pauline assured us that we didn't have anywhere that there could have been a nest and she wondered how they had wandered into our garden. Problem was that Pauline didn't have the experience or equipment to take care of Herbie since he was so young, so we needed to find someone who could give the little guy the care he so needed. This little one needed mom's milk or as close as we could get pronto.


So we climb in the truck and Pauline directed us to the veterinarian that she knew was good with hedgehogs. His Winterbourne office was closed, so we went to his other clinic in Yate. But he wasn't in there either so we called Pauline's husband who provided us with Hedgehog Rescue's phone number and off we went to find her home base in Yate.


Yvonne with Hedgehog rescue was so kind. She had several hedgehogs of various ages that she was caring for and that gave us the opportunity to see a full sized one . . . which was about the size of an American football. Hmm, our Herbie was tiny which means the other one was even smaller. Yvonne looked over Herbie and saw that he did have some fly eggs which she diligently removed with tweezers. Evidently if the fly eggs were left to hatch, the maggots would have eaten poor Herbie alive which would have been just awful. Upon further inspection it was noted that he had a shallow wound in his neck which had eggs and just hatched maggots which Yvonne cleaned out as well.


That being done, Yvonne put some medication on the owie and then used a syringe (no needle) to feed honey to Herbie to help with sugar levels and shock. He liked that!! She then mixed A/D pet food with water and at first he turned up his little nose. She took a syringe (again no needle) to feed him some of that as well. The goal was to get the little guy rehydrated. Last, but not least, before she put him to bed, she gave him some fluids intravenously . . that he didn't like. And then he was tucked into bed for the night, Safe and Warm.


We dropped poor Pauline off at her home so she could salvage what was left of her evening and hopefully her dinner with her family and we headed home having missed the opportunity of making it to practice for the evening but feeling ever so good about having rescued poor Herbie.

Hedgehogs in our Backyard . .oops, I mean Garden

I heard thunder, I was sure of it, but thunderstorms here are fairly rare and so I wandered to the kithen windows to look out and be sure. The skies were fairly gray to be sure and it was definately thunder. As I glanced across the backyard, er, I mean garden, what did my eyes see but a little prickly brown lump while I wondered what that was my eyes caught a smaller one moving further in the back.

I was amazed, they were hedgehogs. We actually had hedgehogs in our back garden. I stood just watching the one sleep while the other explored for the longest time before I remembered I had a camera in my phone (on my person) and so I snuck out to see how best to photograph them without disturbing them. I then sent a photo and text to David's phone to let him know of my discovery.

Hmm, they were so oblivious to my presence that I decided to go and fetch my camera and hope they were still there when I returned. By gosh, they were!!

The bigger of the two still hadn't moved and appeared to be sleeping soundly.

The smaller of the two had wandered all the way across the garden and was now exploring the new treeline along the fence.

They were both so cute. I can't believe that they were both still oblivious to my presence as I photographed them. The phone rang and it was David checking in on our newfound inhabitants about the time that the rain started. The heavy raindrops woke the bigger one and he started waddling toward the cover of the back trees. The smaller was still exploring while I talked to David indoors. Once the rain remained somewhat constant, the smaller one also decied to take cover and I lost track of him in the mulch and tree branches.

What a wonderful experience!