Woman in the Middle

It is the last day of the 9th month of the year. My goodness, 2016 has flown by! And now comes the busy months, the crazy months, the months that will fly by even faster!

In our house, October through January are the really busy months. We will celebrate three birthdays and four holidays before it is over. Then we have a month break, and then the fourth birthday arrives. Then I can go “Whew!” and plop down on the couch and relax for a while, or at least a few weeks until Easter arrives!

This year I have an election to deal with as well. I am looking forward to November 8th getting here and getting over with.

I find the January birthdays particularly stressful. Stores do inventory in January. They tend to not restock much after Christmas until the inventory is over. I have to do most of the January birthday shopping before Christmas if I am to have any selection what so ever. So, I am actually doing shopping for two birthdays AND Christmas all at the same time.

Psst….I have a little secret…..I have already started Christmas shopping! Nothing organized. I just pick up things when I see them. I don’t see them a lot as I haven’t been going shopping a lot lately.

Are you gearing up? Is this the start of a busy season for you?

Hubby’s phone gave up the ghost while we were in Hawaii. He came home and ordered one online, to be picked up at the local Verizon store. They sent a confirmation email, and said they would send another email when the phone was ready to be picked up. The email was supposed to come in about 2 hours. It never came. He called the store but the number of the store went right to the call center. The call center couldn’t help him and suggested he call the store…you see where this is going, right? He went into the store the next day and they did have his phone ready. He got it home, turned it on, and discovered a text message from Verizon, telling him his phone was ready. Sigh. Needless to say, Hubby is really looking forward to that customer satisfaction survey….

Facebook can be a real hornet’s nest. Other than checking posts from my real live friends, I am taking a Facebook vacation. My area’s community pages have been taken over by people who must have been bullies back in the day or really wanted to be. And then there are the people who create fake Facebook accounts so they can say what hey want without revealing their true identity. Wow!  Life is too short to put up with all that nonsense!

Blackie was back to being a picky cat when it came to his food. I would try up to four different things and he would either reject them completely or just give it a couple of licks. I finally went and got his favorite (for now) Nutro smooth style made from duck. He is now gobbling down his meals with gusto. Annoying animal! However, it does give me the excuse to say “Duck Duck Goose” several times a day.

I hope you are having a great Wednesday and enjoying the last few days of September!

I wanted to show you a few more photos of Hawaii. These are just random pretty shots (which I got totally by accident because I am no photographer!). Think of it as a little vacation, without ever having to leave the house!

Aloha!

This weekend was very warm. Yesterday was 99F with a Santa Ana wind blowing. Santa Ana’s are very dry, so we were running around watering to give some of our more vulnerable plants a fighting chance against the wind and heat.  Sarcasm Alert- nothing better than dry hot wind!!! Today is hot without the wind. So it is a bit better, I guess.

It has been so warm that Youngest Daughter actually went to the beach yesterday!

People are posting on Facebook about putting up their fall decorations, but I just can’t get into it quite yet while summer is still hanging on. Fall usually doesn’t break summer’s hot grasp until the middle of October around here. So, two more weeks or there abouts, and I may be able to feel like fall has arrived!

However, heat or not, come October 1st I will be putting out Halloween decorations. I wait until then for Hubby’s sake. When I start putting out Halloween decorations in September, he begins to twitch a little bit.   But, then, he isn’t exactly a holiday decorations kind of guy!

Do you have fall decorations out yet? Are jack o lanterns and witches starting to creep into your house?

There are a few other things we did in Hawaii which I haven’t told you about yet, but wanted to.

The first was the Green World Coffee Farm on Oahu, which was conveniently located on the way to Dole Plantation.

In addition to being able to buy delicious coffee to drink at home, taste free samples of coffee, and buy coffee drinks galore, the reason we stopped here was because  they had actual coffee trees we could see. On their seven acre site they have 2000 trees, and you are allowed to go out and walk among them. Since certain people in our home drink lots of coffee (not me and Hubby!) and all of us are just curious people, we found this stop to be very interesting.

Coffee beans growing on the tree.

Rows of coffee trees.

Another adventure was going to see the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team play at the University of Hawaii. The uncles follow them closely, so we said let’s go to a game! The uncles got us all team shirts, so we would be properly outfitted, and off we went! We had a great time, even if the Wahine lost against UCLA. I wonder how many other college games start with both the Star Spangled banner and the state song? And if they did, would everyone in the audience (except for visitors, of course) be able to sing all the words to both?? They can in Hawaii!

Here we are in the stands with the Uncles.

Uncle Maka took us up into the Ko’olau Mountains to an overlook where you can see all of Honolulu. If it had been a bit more clear, he said  we could have seen some other islands. 

Diamond Head, from the overlook. Some where down there is our hotel as well.

Another stop we made was to the Bishop Museum. It is the place to go to learn about Hawaiian history and culture, as well as the culture of other Pacific islands and the natural history of Hawaii. The museum was founded in 1889.  I could not post my photo, for whatever reason, on here. It just would not download. However, mine included scaffolding, so the photo below, by Stan Shebs, is much better anyway.

the Hawaiian Hall is filled with beautiful koa wood cases, displaying all kinds of things related to Hawaiian culture and history. You can see some of that in the background of the photo below.

Hanging in the hall is one of the original museum displays, the skeleton of a sperm whale, with one side covered in a papier-mâché body, the other side open to display the skeleton.

The Bishop Museum should definitely be on your list if you want to get beyond the tourist places and  learn about Hawaii.  

My last post was titled “Oh What a Night.” Today’s could have been called “Oh What A Day.”

Youngest Daughter works a 40 hour week but they arrange the hours so they have a half day on Fridays. She and i decided to meet at the DressBarn about half way between home and her work to go shopping. All went well until we returned to our cars and I saw that her right front tire was flat as a pancake. Oh no!

AAA came out and tried to fill it with air but it had a failure in the sidewall and the tire was declared dead. Unfortunately, the car also had no spare tire and no fix it kit. Thank you so much, Car Max! It was the one thing we didn’t look for when we bought the car.  Unfortunately, when I called AAA, I didn’t commit to having the cat towed if the tire couldn’t hold air, so they just sent a truck. We then had to wait for another 20 minutes or so for the tow truck.    (Note to self – don’t do that again.)

But, now to the good news. Youngest is an adult and had a full-time job. The extra miles cost of the tow truck and the two new tires are her burden to bear. Hallelujah! I was supportive, I was helpful, but my wallet was able to rest in my purse undisturbed.

I also had somewhere to be last night and needed a shower, etc…..So I sent Eldest Daughter off to pick Youngest up when the tire shop couldn’t get the new tires on her car by closing time. Again, pure heaven!

In additional good news, I bought myself a new RED jacket and two pairs of pants at DressBarn. That helped take the sting out of the somewhat disappointing afternoon.

In other news, it is going to be warm around here this weekend so Hubby and I have decided to take one more dip in the pool before the heat officially leaves and the pool goes back to being a decorative golf ball catcher.

Last night, when Hubby and I went to bed, he dropped right off, as usual. I did not, as usual. Then this weird sound started up. It sounded like a bumble bee in a metal container. I lifted my head to get a better idea of what the sound was and where it was coming from. It was coming from our ceiling fan. Oh no!

Summer may be over where you are, but, just because pumpkin spice is bursting out EVERYWHERE, doesn’t mean summer is over in my neck of the woods. We can assume warm weather will be here until about the middle of October.  We need that fan!

So, as the bumble bee kept buzzing, and Hubby kept on sleeping peacefully (how does he do that?) I gave up and went for the couch. After feeding Blackie several times, or just setting him up by his food bowl to remind him that he still had delicious food if only he would take a look, I settled on the couch. Of course, Blackie settled in with me.

I know he didn’t want to sleep with me. But by hanging out on the couch with me he could instantly know when I woke up and would be available to feed him again.  After 17 years, I know how Blackie’s mind works. On one occasion I apparently slept too long and he began touching my face with a paw.  Excuse me for trying to get a little sleep, Mister!

I hope your night was free of buzzing and cat paws in your face!

September 11, 2016, over a year after he came into our lives, is the day that Lumos took the last step to becoming a real cat!

With three cats and one dog, everyone gets fed in a different spot – Honey the dog in the kitchen, Elderly Blackie the cat on a little table in the den, and the two young whippersnappers on the counter in the master bathroom. Unfortunately, all this time Lumos has not felt like he could jump up on the bathroom counter. We always had to lift him up to eat his food. This was annoying for him and us. We knew he could do it if he tried, but he just didn’t have the confidence.

The morning of September 11th I was cleaning the counter and everything was moved, leaving a big landing area. Before I put all the normal counter stuff back, Lumos jumped up on the counter!. But, after i returned everything to the counter, he stopped again.

But, the next morning, I was in the bathroom and he reminded me that he needed some dry food. I reached under the sink to grab the food and, lo and behold, Lumos jumped right up again, ready for his food the second I put it in the bowl.

It made me feel like the mother of a toddler. I was proud my baby made such a momentous step, but a little sad, too.  I will miss the cute way Lumos would jump up and run to the entrance to the hall, look back and make some chit- chatty noises, to let me know  he would really like me to go that way. Then, as I approached, he would run a little father down the hall, stop, turn, and chat a little more. He would keep doing this until he was certain I was putting out the food, Then he would sit on the floor, looking up, until I put him up on the counter to eat.

I am glad Mr. Hefty can now get on the counter himself, but I will miss our chit chats.

Sure, I can jump up on the counter now. But did she really just call me Mr. Hefty?

The big city next door has a lovely old hotel that, through accident, luck, hard work, and lots of money, is still standing today after more than 100 years. I was a volunteer docent there, leading tours, for many years. But, never ever was I a guest at the hotel. That finally changed on a recent weekend when Hubby and I and another couple took advantage of an online deal and stayed a Saturday night at the Mission Inn Hotel.

Our deal came with a $25 voucher to use at any of the hotel restaurants and another voucher for two treats at Casey’s Cupcakes. We decided to eat at the hotel’s Bella Trattoria  Italian restaurant. I had the Insalada Mista, in other words an entrée salad. It was delightful. It included mixed greens, strawberries, oranges, chicken, goat cheese and an orange vinaigrette that was very nice.

One friend had the Raviolini Capricciosi that included cheese ravioli in a spicy cream tomato sauce with pancetta and asparagus.  She said was excellent and based on the way she made sure to get every last drop of sauce with her bread stick, I have to believe her.  Hubby and the other friend had the ??. Hubby said, because it was in a bowl, all the sauce sank to the bottom and that made it hard to get a bite of pasta with sauce. Otherwise he said it was fine.

Our cupcakes from Casey’s were delightful as well. While I can’t say they were the absolute best cupcakes I have had in my life, they were quite good, were decorated beautifully, and came in interesting flavors. Hubby had an apple pie cupcake. It smelled divine and he said it had apple pie filling in the middle. It made my lover of apple pie very happy.  I had a peanut butter cup cupcake and it was tasty as well, but did not happen to have filling.

Our room was very nice. The king sized bed was comfy. Because of the hotel’s age and the way it was built-in sections over the years, very few rooms at the hotel look like any other room. That gives them some interesting angles and quirks and decor. If you are expecting a cookie cutter room, this is not the place for you. But if you appreciate a sense of history and don’t mind the occasional quirk that comes with a historic building (like the light switch in the bathroom not being quite where you think it should be) then you will love the Mission Inn.

The best part of straying there was being able to have full run of this fascinating building. Back in the day I went on a basement to tower tour when I worked for the city’s historic preservation officer. Then there were all those tours I gave over the years as a docent. And yet I STILL saw things I had never seen before. Besides, going up and down stairs and through corridors was a good way to work off a few of those cupcake calories! Here are some photos we took. The first four are stained glass windows, the rest just various things we saw or views from the top floor.

One of my next door neighbors and the neighbor across the street are both undergoing extensive reservations. This means, Monday through Friday for a while now, I hear the constant sound of saws and jackhammers as well as men’s voices. Yes, this disturbs my normally peaceful neighborhood, but I know it is only temporary (at least that is what I tell myself when I want to take a nap and can’t).

But there is another problem living in a renovation zone – it gets those renovation juices flowing. Maybe we could redo our kitchen, or bathroom, or backyard…..Goodness knows all three of these places could do with some help.

Maybe we will….or maybe we won’t, at least for now. We shall see…..