Continuing 2010!

I think i was up to MAY at my last entry,.... oh my!

Continuing then... May 7th we drove to Michigan with Benny for a Mother's Day visit.  Jim still limping around...   Saturday morning we braved the cold to watch Ayden play soccer.  Tony helped with coaching duties!  

Had lunch on Sunday at Emerson Lake Inn.  Kayla turned 3 while we were there... so sweet!  AND Benny had a seizure at the trailer on Monday morning... his hind quarter seemed to be paralyzed.  Scary for him and for us!  

  

                   Jim's footprints on the beach with his 'cam boot'

                           Chilly May beach... still awesome!

On May 29th (mark the day) which was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend... we stopped at the Troy Ford dealer to look at their Escapes.  Breaking ALL the rules of good car-buying... we bought one!  UGH!  talk about buyer's remorse.  It's been a good vehicle i guess, but we paid about 7K more than we had planned.... due to the high pressure salesman there. Yes, we did it all wrong and learned an expensive lesson!  

The first weekend of June i traveled (alone) to DC for a visit with the kids and to help them with their housewarming party. During the trip we also visited the Sculpture Garden-jazz concert on Friday, and went to the church picnic on Sunday.  Took the Marc train to BWI and was home on Monday by 5pm. (Laney picked me up in C-bus)

                       Eating our "Chop't" supper at the Jazz Concert

                     Ready for guests at the house-warming Party!

Since leaving the Library job in July 2009 i've really enjoyed having my summers free to travel.  2010 was a landmark year for trips to Michigan..... because i CAN!  

     So on June 22, off i went again for a visit in Ludington!
Celebrated Mom & Dad's 53rd anniversary at the Chinese Restaurant.

OK - it's getting late... the Michigan 2010 saga will have to be continued another day...

Catching up....

Well, i'm at least going to make an attempt to catch up... I see that my last post was made in Nov. '10 recounting our March '10 trip to DC!  UGH.  I've found it easier to upload pics to facebook which has left this space sorely neglected.  I'll try to do better.  

Sooooo after our DC trip in early '10 -- moving L&J into their new house -- we came home to Jim's Achilles surgery. We flew home March 30 and his surgery was scheduled for 7pm March 31! 

                                 jim was a pretty patient patient!

                            This was Jim's view of the nursing station...

              Oh yeah, they almost forgot to shave his leg! haha...

Of course, there were delays and i ended up waiting (alone) for hours at Sycamore Medical Center  (Kettering). When i went back to recovery Jim was awake and 'joking' with the nurses.... good meds!  It didn't take long for the initial meds to wear off and he was in a lot of pain.  They gave him a little something and said i needed to stop at the pharmacy (down the street) to get the RX filled!  Well, he was in a LOT of pain going home because i couldn't give him anything until we got there.  I drove fast. 

   Somehow i got him into our bed with his foot propped up (above his nose). I slept on the floor so i could hear if he woke and needed anything. His meds were every 6 hours around the clock at first. This was Wed. night.

The next few days he spent on the family room couch using the 1/2 bath. By Sat. he was on his last pain pill.  Over my objections, he went to work for 1/2 day on Monday. I drove him the first 2 days, but he insisted he could do it after that. He was very tired after working.  It's hard to use a computer with your foot propped above your head!  :-)

 

Benny & Jim relaxing after work

 

Jim was feeling well enough to go to Power House on April 7th and let the kids sign his cast!

On April 12 we went to Kettering to have his staples and first cast removed and a new one put on.

The staples looked a little "Frankenstein-ish" 

They adjusted the angle of his foot gradually to stretch the tendon gently back into place.  








The surgeon said the got some "good experience" piecing his tendon back together since it was so shredded from walking on it for a month!  April 21st was the final trip for his last (orange) cast. Had to wait an hour just to get in. This was the hardest one for jim since they had to get his foot to the 'zero' degree angle. It took 30 mins. of painful pushing down on the knee to stretch out the tendon.

  That cast stayed on until May 13 -- then back to the cam boot and finally a REAL bath! 

DC: the move

Jim and i flew Southwest (for the first time) in March to our favorite airport .... BWI... to visit Leah & Julian and help them move from their apt. in Arlington to their NEW HOUSE (duplex) in Alexandria.
After dropping off Benny at the Countryside kennel, we drove to Columbus and met Bryan on his lunch hour so he could take us to the airport (leaving our car at his place).  This arrangement worked out really well.

We arrived at BWI right on time. Since jim was wearing his orthopedic boot (surgery the day after we get home!) i asked for a wheelchair to meet us at the gate at BWI.  This worked really well as we were allowed to board with the other 'handicapped' people, thus securing a seat towards the front of the plane. Southwest doesn't have reserved/assigned seating: it's on a first-come basis.


Since Jim was wheeled to the baggage area,  we got there in record time! I had packed in a large backpack to keep my hands free.  It was quite heavy!  We had to wait about 10 mins. outside for the shuttle to the Amtrak depot (about a mile away) to catch the MARC train to Union Station. We waited about 1/2 hour for the train and enjoyed the ride. 

Leah met us a Union Station (in her famous green coat) and guided us further thru the metro maze to the Pentagon City stop where Julian met us with the car for the final ride to the apartment. 

We packed and moved things a little at a time.  Leah hadn't got any boxes for the move so many things were stacked up on the dolly or put into garbage bags for transport. We were really tired at the end of a couple days of this. 

HAD to put my feet up for a few mins...

Leah's famous for getting us all to pose...

We moved a lot of things Friday night and took some time off Saturday afternoon to go to a kite festival at the Washington Monument. It was a sunny but brisk day.  We stopped at Chipotle on the way to pick up some lunch to eat when we got down there, which worked out really well!
The kite display was very colorful and cool!  Jim was on crutches and didn't move from our picnic spot much. I walked around the festival grounds and took some pics of the sights. 

Before leaving we decided to go across the street to the WWII Memorial to try to find the kiosk that listed the veteran's names.  

Jim wanted to look up dad and uncle Leno.  We looked all around the memorial but found nothing.  I even called Tia in AZ  to ask where they had found it. Just as i was talking with her, they found the computer screens on the outside of a small building to the left of the area. 

L-n-J walked back to the car -- and got stuck in some construction --- we sat on a cold bench near the bus pick up circle and waited for them. The wind was quite cold! 

We only saw a few of the cherry blossoms from a distance as we were leaving. They were in FULL bloom a few days later...

On our way home we passed the Iwojima memorial and decided to stop for a minute just before dusk...

Palm Sunday we went to the theatre church and were happily surprised to find that pastor Mark was speaking live at their location that day!  It was a wonderful service. After it was over leah insisted that i go to the 'new people' circle to get the 'welcome pack' which included a book written by pastor Mark.... so i did.  ;)

On Sunday night (5pm) Jim and i drove in the kid's car over to Bowie to visit Carol and Bob Jones. Their daughter Angela was there with her husband jim, and their two boys.  Carol had fixed a lovely supper of macaroni and cheese, ham, potatoes, and asparagus with a wonderful salad!  We had a nice visit.... 

  It was raining when we left, and of course, dark!  The kids' GPS took us on a nice direct route on the way there, but for some reason chose another much more convoluted route to get us home!  We ran into construction which wasn't reflected in the GPS directions and made many turn-arounds!  It was quite frustrating... we were glad to get back to their place finally!  

Monday Leah & Julian went to work & we stayed home and 'straightened things' a bit. ;-)
I put the chicken in the oven and we had a nice meal that night to celebrate all our hard work.

Tea Time

My daughter, leah, (the world traveler) brought back some fancy tea from Denmark (?) a while back.  I finally got around to opening the pretty package and discovered another beautiful surprise inside the teacup!

  As the funny little tea packet was steeping in the cup of hot water it gradually began to expand.... opening into a beautiful flower shape!  The tea was jasmine and a bit too strong for me, but the flower was so artful that i had to snap a pic of it!

Well, i just went to the website on the tea tag (dreamawaytea.com) and i see that this tea was meant to be steeped in a POT of water, not a mug.  Oh well, it was still a nice surprise!  :-) 

Spring!

Spring came to our world at 1:32pm today. We had another spectacularly warm (66*) and sunny day!  We went for a walk at Tawawa park with Benny - not too far or fast since Jim's ankle is still mending from the achilles tear. We expect  to get the MRI results this week so they know how to continue treatment. 

On the way home from the park we drove thru 'Chilly Jilly's' (local ice cream place) for the first cone of the season!

I decided it was time for a bon fire tonight.  I've had a pile of twigs and small branches set up for a fire and tarped all winter... looks like a rodent found it to be a nice little hut!  Waited until dusk to start the fire, but it was still a little breezy, so i didn't get all of the brush burned - but it felt good to get rid of at least one pile!

I also got some more leaves shredded (from last Fall) and placed in the flower beds, transferred a few Lady's Slipper flower plants and generally got the gardens straightened.  My hands are not happy tonight.  Ibuprofen is calling to me and then: to bed, to bed, to bed she said! 

Signs of Spring

We've had some rather warm days in the past week for this early in March, although  you wouldn't know it today.  It was 45 degrees, cloudy and damp. At least it didn't rain all day like yesterday.

Last week i was walking with Benny in our subdivision at dusk and noticed the first bat of the season!  I love to watch them as they swoop and soar looking for yummy bugs to devour; i'm sure the bug buffet was a little slim this evening, but that bat was determined to get whatever might be out there! The cul-de-sac near our corner is a prime location for viewing them since it's lined with taller trees.  In the summer i like to ride my bike back and forth as the bats fly overhead... it's exciting when they get close!

The warmer weather also brings out the prowling cats in the neighborhood. Our next door neighbor has a yellow striped cat named Screech. He's from Italy (really!) and is quite bold.  He was sitting in our side yard one evening so i walked in his direction with our dog on the leash thinking we would chase him back to his yard, but he stood his ground and showed no sign of retreat until i waved my foot in his direction.  Don't get me wrong, i love all cats, but with Taz turning 15 this year i want to keep him away from the younger cats who might like to pick a fight with him.   He currently has a very ugly infection in his right eye due to a cat scrap back in November.  He will likely lose the eye. I'll be taking him back to the vet this week.

Another sign of Spring are the flower bulbs pushing up lovely green stems all around our yard. We have prolific daffodils, as well as tulips and hyacinth. The crocus are already blooming when the sun shines!

The past week was a beautiful preview of warmer days ahead; we only have one week to go until the 'official' start of Spring. This is, however, Ohio, and we will undoubtedly have some nasty precipitation before the glorious sun warms our sod once again.

Wicked was Wonderful!!!

One week ago today - March 2nd - we went to the Schuster Center in Dayton for the 8pm show of "Wicked"  !!!   The lead of "Elphaba" was played by  actress Marcie Dodd who also played this role in the Broadway company of Wicked...awesome!  This is her second national tour.  

In case you don't know, the show is sort of the back story to the Wizard of Oz... plus some!  The sub-title is 'The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz.'   This is the official blurb:   "Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch."   

AND:
"The show is a buoyantly creative version of what happens to Elphaba, the supposedly 'wicked' witch and Glinda, the reputedly good witch during the college years. Their buddy story is only one of several storylines and subplots in a carefully constructed, surprise-filled musical adventure."
ALSO:
"Broadway's Wicked musical is based on Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which turned every Oz myth inside out. Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, who adapted Maguire's book, often speak of the genius idea that Gregory had to look at the classic villain of Western culture: the Wicked Witch of The West, and considered writing her life story in a sympathetic way. Both the novel and musical assume that instead of her being Wicked, she is actually labeled "Wicked" by the culture around her while she is actually trying to accomplish something good."

OK - enough of blog-blurbing!  *LOL*!

I adored the show (jim liked it too) from the music to the costumes and dancing and the fast-paced witty dialogue! It was very funny sometimes poignant and I would see it again any day!

 *this shot is from the dorm scene - very cute!*

(photo from WHIO.com's Backstage Dayton blog!)

We were 'strictly prohibited' from using any  photographic devices during the show, so  i took a couple pics of the curtain which had the map of Oz on it  and the theater's interesting ceiling. We were seated in the Loge area - a balcony between the upper and lower balconies... not too bad... glad i took the monocular though!

*this is not a very good picture of the awesome dragon above the stage... it lit up, moved and belched smoke at the beginning of the show!*  
for a better shot of this go to:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/isewcute/4392912330/

**the theater's ceiling detail was very interesting... a stair-step design that ends with 'stars' floating above**
    it's as if looking through a porthole into the milky way....