Memorial Day

.Here is a display I put on my piano for Memorial Day. That's my father-in-law, who served in the Marine Corps in WWII. I thought of this too late to get pictures of my father (also a WWII Marine) and my brother (who served in Vietnam), so I have to make sure I ask my mother for copies when we visit her in Ohio.

Thursday

I managed to get in 10 minutes of exercise even though I'm not in the mood. Oh, well, that's about 30 calories I wouldn't have burned otherwise.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up. Mike and I are going to parties on Saturday (after my work) and Monday. There are some who say this should be a weekend for solemn reflection on those who died for us.

I say it's a weekend to celebrate what those brave souls died for--the freedom to be safe in our backyards eating hamburgers and hot dogs. Assuming there's an afterlife and the people there know what's going on, I doubt any of them want us moping around on their behalf.

Spring yard sprucing

Mike painted the deck this weekend. The boys and I helped him move stuff off the deck, then Jamie helped him rip up a rotted board. It looks nice and fresh. We aren't moving everything back up there so it will be less cluttered.

This week I hope there is a sunny day so the roof and sides of the gazebo can go up. I bought new netting a few months ago because last year's got all ripped--probably from the cat climbing up to sit on the canvas roof.

I probably posted this already but I planted 3 tomato plants and a cucumber plant. I have vowed to water them 2x a day if it doesn't rain. Maybe that will be the way to actually get a bumper crop this year. I want to do some canning. I did a few jars last year and no one died of ptomaine so I'm game to do more. I'll just use farmstand tomatoes if it comes down to it.

It is after 12 and I'm still in pajamas. Forgot to do a wash. But I finished the armholes on a vest I'm crocheting, started that wash and put all the dishes in the dishwasher. And wrote on my other blog. So you can do a bit in PJs, LOL!

Mother's Day

Despite a toothache and a weird case of vertigo all day, I had a very nice Mother's Day. Mike gave me a beautiful, sparkly gold chain that goes perfectly with a heart pendant he gave me a few years ago. The kids gave me a jewelry box, a hydrangea plant and some Martha Stewart dishes. I have one set of the dishes set up in my dining room hutch. I had asked for 'every day' dishes, but I think I'm saving these to use on Sundays. Not special occasion. I rarely entertain and want to make use of these, but I don't want them batted around the dishwasher 7 days a week. They are too pretty!

Mike and I (mostly Mike) have been planting a garden in the front of the house with various flowering bushes, so I'll probably move the hydrangea there in a few days. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the petals on it are humongous.

We all went out to Catfish Annie's for dinner. It was nice that all the kids, even Erick, were able to come to dinner. It's rare we can get all 7 of us together. I had shrimp cocktail and a shrimp parmigiana. Yummy. I just got the regular (jumbo) shrimp because it's hard to chew too much. Mike got his with "King Kong Shrimp" which are HUGE. I kept calling them "Kung Fu shrimp since I couldn't remember the name. Katherine thought that was a better name for them.

We talked about a lot of things, but mostly about Katherine and Erick getting a new place, and Jamie joining them. Mike has an idea to buy a small house in our neighborhood and letting the kids rent it from us for a few years until we are ready to move out of here. I think that would work out great. Katherine and Jamie and Erick just have to figure out finances. They were kidding Nicky about joining them but he isn't ready to do anything like that yet. And I'm not so ready to be a total empty-nester. I'm just glad we all seem to be staying near each other. I do NOT want to move to Florida.

Derby Winner

Some friends had a Kentucky Derby party. We all bet on horses. Of course, most of the horses I bet on (actually, 4) had names that referred to animals. "Animal Kingdom" was a surprise winner! I bet $5 on him to Show and ended up winning about $40. I just have to go to OTB to get the money. I told Mike it makes me nervous--OTB seems like a scuzzy place, since I've never set foot in one. I'm sure it isn't. But I'm still going to ask him to get the money for me.

I had to watch the race at work, between making phone calls and filling out forms. I went to the party after my job and the hostess (Roz) was nice enough to make me dinner. Since I'm not only healing from root canal and having a tooth pulled, as well as having a new broken crown on the opposite side (it never rains but it pours) I could not enjoy the steaks Mike brought. But I love hot dogs and the chicken franks were yummy. So was the ice cream cake we brought from John 's store. He made it up shaped like a horseshoe and it had chocolate peanut butter chunk ice cream in it.

We were outside and it was way too cold, but it was still a very nice time.

Blecch: root canal

Last week I had a broken crown removed. It was under the gum and a big production. It also, I think, jostled the broken tooth next to it and gave me a lot of pain. Well, more a dull roar I could control with Tylenol. I went back to the dentist (who is separate from the guy who yanks teeth) and he said, 'yep, you need a root canal.'

Fun, fun, fun.

I should be used to this, as it is roughly my 10th root canal. But I'm happy to have both of these teeth 'taken care of,' since it's been on my to-do list foreeevvvver.

The RC wasn't bad at all, at least compared to the past. It was the Novocaine shots that killed me. And the fact the whole procedure took almost an hour. Now I'm really sore all across my lower right jaw.

Eating on one side of my mouth is annoying, especially since I'm also missing a tooth over there and have yet another broken crown.