Woman in the Middle

It has been a warm January this year. The last few days in particular have been on the warm side and next week it is supposed to get even warmer. Here are some real life actual things we have said around our household the last few days of January.

“I decided to wear short pants, too.”

“Should we eat outside on Super Bowl Sunday?”

“Next week it is supposed to be over 90.”

“We should have opened the windows tonight. It is warm in the house.”

“Are you hot? I’m hot.”

“I am not cooking anything in the oven!”

“I really need a pedicure so I can wear sandals.”

Rumor has it the city where the Super Bowl will be played this year will be 7 degrees on Super Bowl Sunday. Bet the players wish it was being played out here. I have a feeling they think sweating is better than freezing.

Meanwhile, I look with yearning at my sweaters and sweatshirts. Ah, winter. What a crazy concept! Here is hoping it comes to my neck of the woods one of these days. OK, I mean our Southern California winter. Lets not get ridiculous!!!

Courtesy Clipart Library

Eldest Daughter turns 28 today. it was one of  most momentous days of my life because it  was the day I became a Mom. While I had always wanted children, I had no idea what that would mean to my life going forward. Of course I knew there would be feeding and crying and diaper changing, but not all the rest.

I had no idea I was giving birth to a person I would enjoy so very much and who would bring so much laughter to my life.

I didn’t know there would be about five years, while that little immune system got a work out, when living with my child would be like inviting Typhoid Mary into my home.  Lord, Hubby and I were sick a lot during those years!

I didn’t think about all the people my children would meet and bring into our lives who would also be a joy to be around. Just the other night I found myself at a nightclub with a group of girls celebrating Eldest’s birthday. Looking around the table were, among others, a girl I had known since she was seven and another I had known since she was 13!

I never thought about all the new information that would come my way about their interests and their jobs. Right now I am learning so much about substitute teaching and makeup of all sorts,  among other things, thanks to Eldest.

Eldest was such a delight I had another baby two years later! LOL! I also never thought about what a delight it would be (when they weren’t fighting as kids) seeing my two children have a relationship with each other. That was both one of the hardest things to deal with (that sibling fighting I mentioned) and the best (seeing them enjoy each other and support each other).

So, on the 28th anniversary of the day she changed my life forever, I wish my dear daughter a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Below, my curly headed moppet and my darling adult daughter.

After a few days of cooler weather, we are back to warmth once again. I was out and about at 10:30 this morning and my car said it was 81 degrees F. To give January its due, we usually have at least one two or so day stretch every January that is quite warm. But 81 degrees before noon? I may have to break out the sandals and short pants again!

Along with our warm weather the wind returned the last two days. I made Hubby put the hose on the orange tree yesterday morning. I didn’t want the poor thing to get any more wind burned than it already is.

Our vacation at the end of March is all set. Plane tickets are bought, rooms are reserved, schedules are coordinated with the friends we are going with. Now we enter the best part of the vacation – the anticipation!!! I so looking forward to seeing all that we will see! We will be flying into Raleigh, North Carolina and flying home from Philadelphia. In between will be early American history in all kinds of ways, with a short side trip into the early 20th century at Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first managed to get off the ground in an airplane.    We will also visit five more states in our effort to see all 50. Yay! Meanwhile, if anyone has any advice on what to see or where to eat on the Delmarva peninsula, let me know!

Eldest Daughter managed to get a nasty cold, just in time for her various birthday festivities. I feel for her and pray Hubby and I don’t get it. I am happy to report it is not the flu. Meanwhile, I am downing Airborne and washing my hands a lot.

Hope your week is starting out well!

The one park I never told you about at Disney World was Animal Kingdom. We went there on the second day of our vacation.  We enjoyed it. It was like a cross between the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Disneyland, in a good way.

At the center of it all is the Tree of Life. From a distance it looks like a real tree. Up close you see it is a Disney tree, with a trunk craved with the images of all kinds of different animals. Definitely worth spending a few minutes looking at and enjoying.   

Us with the Tree of Life.

Our favorite ride was the Kilimanjaro Safaris. It is an approximately 18 minute ride into what they call the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. Below is the open air bus we rode in.

We got to see all kinds of animals. Some were pretty darn close. All were easy to see and get photos of with the good old telephoto lens on my point and shoot camera.

We went on the Expedition Everest roller coaster ride, located in the Asia area.  Oh my! The photo below shows Eldest Daughter and me in the back row.   If  the photo was bigger and you could see my face….you would not be seeing a happy camper. This is not a ride for folks like me who suffer from motion sickness. Exciting for everyone else, however.

We took the Maharajah Jungle Trek which is a  self-guided walking tour of Southeast Asia—home to tigers, dozens of bird species, a flying fox and a Komodo dragon. I wanted to see this area because it seems to have several unusual animals, including two I really wanted to see.

The Komodo dragon was out getting some sun. I don’t get to see one of these every day!

Wasn’t it nice for the tiger to pose for me?

We got to see the Malayan flying fox, one of the largest bats in the world. So cool!!! It was daytime, so they were asleep. They can have a wing span of up to 6 feet!!! But don’t worry, all they eat is fruit.

We had a late lunch at Harambe Market. We tend to eat what is close by, and we were hungry and this was close!  It was busy, and we had to stand in line for a bit and sit for a while waiting for our food. But we were tired and sitting was a good thing! We had to lie in wait for a table (as anyone who has been to a theme park understands) but there were quite a few tables so we didn’t have to wait long. This quick/window service restaurant was in the African area of the park and it had an interesting menu with choices that were outside the normal hot dog and hamburger box, which was nice. Below are photos of our meals and descriptions. We enjoyed all of them, although not everyone liked every side. I seem to remember one of mine was a bit spicy, which I have to stay away from.

Grilled Chicken Skewer  - Wood-Grilled Chicken Thighs marinated and rubbed with African Spices, served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea Salad – $9.99 

Tikka Masala Chicken – Marinated Chicken in a spiced Curry Sauce, served with Basmati Rice, Black-Eyed Pea Salad and Grecian Flatbread – $10.99

Beef and Pork Sausage- Fried in Curried Corn Batter served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-eyed Pea Salad – $9.99

African Spice-rubbed Ribs with a Barbecue Glaze, served with a Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea Salad – $13.49 (If I am not mistaken, Hubby got the children’s version of this which was a little smaller and came with a side of raw carrots.)

And, with this post, I have finally finished off our trip to Disney World. Hope you have enjoyed a little arm chair travel!

Can you see the snake in the upper right hand corner of the photo? Added with Disney Magic.

I remember when I was young and the year 2000 seemed so far in the future and so WEIRD. I mean, a year that didn’t start with 19???? Now it is 2018. Eighteen years passed that incredible turn of the century. Wow, the years keep chugging along, don’t they?

On a visit a month or two ago to Room 8, I ran into an older kitten with the most amazing orange color eyes. I was mesmerized by them, and I want to show you as well. Cats have green eyes and blue eyes and yellow eyes, but I don’t see too many with eyes as orange as these.

Rumor has it it is going to rain again today. The sun was out this morning but it is overcast now.  I would not mind a little more rain. It rained a week ago and if it rains a halfway decent amount again today, I can get away with leaving the sprinklers off again for another week. I save money and time and water all at once! Whoo hoo!

I hope you have a wonderful January weekend!

Absolutely everything we do around here is for the cats. At least they certainly think so! From getting up in the morning to all the things we do before we got to bed, it is all about the cats.

The latest thing we did, just for them, of course, was move the stove. We had an electrical problem in the kitchen last week and the stove had to be pulled partially away from the wall in order to access the outlet behind it. When the time came to push the stove back in it was being stubborn. Hubby had to remove the broiler drawer at the bottom in order to see under the stove and figure out how to coax it back into place. When he removed the drawer, all kinds of cat toys were revealed! He pulled out a little worm toy and several bright fuzzy balls.

Lumos was in cat heaven! Who cares about that basket of toys! These are all favorites, which is why they ended up under the stove. They got played with and played with until …ooops! And there it went, never to be played with again, until we moved the stove, of course.

Lumos has rarely stopped playing since the treasure trove was revealed. He eats, drinks, sleeps and PLAYS and PLAYS and PLAYS. Silly cat! But, happy cat, happy life. So we are all very happy right now, watching Lumos be so happy with his rediscovered toys.

On Hubby’s Christmas/Birthday list this year was one very simple thing – grey t-shirts with a pocket. Well, hey, that ought to be easy, I thought. After visiting two stores, one of which didn’t have them and one that was out of them, I decided to turn to Amazon. Even though the listing said I could get some grey t-shirts through Amazon Prime (which was important as his birthday was coming up shortly and I need them fast) when I went to check out there was no free one or two day shipping. For once, Amazon failed me! I visited two more stores, and, once again, it appeared one didn’t carry the grey t-shirts and the other one was out. Sigh. Hubby did not get grey t-shirts with pockets for Christmas or his birthday! But I told him I would keep an eye out for them.

Night before last I must have had one crazy dream, but have no memory of it what so ever. I woke up about 5 am to use the restroom and noticed that the blanket on the bed was pulled waaaaay up, leaving about two feet at the bottom of the bed uncovered. I am surprised my feet weren’t cold! Then, last night, Hubby told me how in the middle of the previous night I gave the blanket a big old tug my direction, leaving him with only the bottom half of him covered. Just as he was thinking how THAT had never happened before, I gave the blanket another BIG tug, leaving only his feet and ankles covered. At that point he admitted defeat and retreated to the couch!

I can tell Christmas is over because visits to my blog have plummeted. At Christmas time, I get a lot of visits from people looking at my “Fun Christmas Game” post. Feel free to tell your friends what a great blog I have! LOL!

It is turning in to one of those days. Today is Hubby’s birthday. We celebrated as a family yesterday (more on that later) but today is the official day and Hubby decided to take it off from work. Good thing, as something went wrong on one of the circuits in the kitchen last night, making both the microwave and stove unusable. Oh boy! I told Hubby this was karma’s way of making sure he knows that at 58 he is still a useful member of the family. He just grunted.

So instead of doing whatever he wanted, Hubby has been trouble shooting the situation, consulting with a friend on the phone (Thanks Ross!) and otherwise trying to decide if it is something he can fix or a problem for an electrician.

Meanwhile, it is raining. This is not a bad thing. We need the rain! It did make my hair go wild, so not one of my better days for photos. Thank goodness, no photos need to be taken! LOL!

On the plus side, Dax seems to be feeling better after almost a week of ear drops to treat his ear infection. He is shaking his head less and just seems a bit perkier. Here is hoping a few more days of the medicine and he will be right as rain. Because, if all is well with the pets, then all is well with the world, right? 

Anyway, as I said, today has turned into one of those days. Hope your day is going better! 

Today was January 2nd and we were off to the veterinarian. So, starting the year off as usual for  us, with pet problems. Dax has had ongoing issues with his ears and it isn’t going away. He has been treated for ear mites three different ways, so it was time to do further investigation. Sure enough, the doctor took a swab and looked at it under a microscope. Two types of bacteria and yeast as well. No ear mites at all.

They gave him a shot and gave me ear drops for him. Eight, yes eight. drops in each year two times a day. I just laughed and asked for a syringe. I figure I can put the eight drops in the syringe and squirt all of the medicine at once into an ear. Can you just imagine me trying to count eight drops into each of Dax’s ears? “One, two,…oops, and there he goes!”

The doctor said if the problem comes back, he would suggest treating it once more and then, if it persists, we will have to assume it is a food allergy and go from there. Oh goody!

We hope this makes poor Dax more comfortable. All we want is for him to lead a happy life at our house. Instead, it had been three months of annoyed ears!

My ears are pink and itchy!