Will Start Posting Again Soon!

Tomorrow, Joe starts his senior year of high school, so it’ll be back to waking up earlier, and more time for a daily blog. I’ve picked up a couple new hobbies lately, so I’ve been spending a lot of free time relearning old hobbies (guitar) and learning new things (bo staff martial arts). Two songs I’ve learned on the guitar that I like to play so far: Eight Days a Week, and Take Me Home, Country Roads. I think James is sick of them both. I bought a cheap acoustic and also a cheap electric guitar for starters — a far cry from the 12 string acoustic/electric Takamine I had in college, but still they sound okay.

The bo staff is very recent, and I bought it after James bought the custom light sabers. I can do a basic twirl on the light saber (I am SO very nerdy), and I’ve learned a couple really good twirls on the bo staff. A martial artist who is also a nerd recommended learning the staff before attempting stuff with the saber, so that’s what I’m doing. I bought one for James, too, and I’m hoping he’ll fight me soon. Lol.

I also got a Fitbit Alta unexpectedly in a gift bag from Amazon from an anonymous sender. So, thank you, anonymous! I love it. I’ve been wanting to track my sleep and my workouts for a while now, but had forgotten that Fitbits exist.

Joe is still working on pics from New Zealand, but I hope to have some ready to post soon.

Work is going well, and I think I mentioned I’ve been given some extra responsibility to help me get enough hours during the slow season to maintain my health insurance. So, I’m happy with that and am basically answering voicemails and calling patients when they have questions about upcoming surgeries. Since I have experience in surgery-related stuff, it’s easy. And it really helps out the staff in our other offices—they can’t keep up with the 2200 voicemails they receive every month.

James’s birthday is Thursday. I don’t really know what to get him since he has pretty much everything he wants. But I know we’ll have a nice dinner and cake. And I’m still trying to figure out something special to buy him...maybe some ear plugs so he doesn’t have to listen to Country Roads all the time. :)

I have some recent pics to post, but I’ll have to post them in a bit when I get on my computer.

Happy Tuesday!

Back Like a Boss

Well, sorta like a boss.

Joe brought back literally hundreds of pics from New Zealand. He had an amazing time. Everything went just as planned and even better than expected. He loved his host family, and his favorite part of the trip was living in a Maori tribe for a week, learning about their daily life, their celebrations, their politics, and all the little aspects of their culture that have made them thrive for so long. So we're trying to get all the pics off his phone and onto Google Drive, but our internet has been a little slow and wonky lately (Comcast sucks and still hasn't figured out the problem), and I don't have pics yet to post, but will soon.

Callie's visit went great, but was too short. Our coast has been having a terrible red time and algae problem, so we decided against renting a boat at this time. So, we spent time at home, watching movies, playing some guitar, swimming a lot, and doing things like escape rooms. I think I mentioned on a previous blog that I swam with my contacts in one day, and because of the scar in my cornea from the last infected tear, my contact on my right eye doesn't fit right and I got another infection. That put a damper on things for a few days, with a doctor visit every other day. It's still not completely healed, but it is better.

Here are a few pics from Callie's visit:

Here's what Callie has learned after a month or two of guitar lessons. I just got that guitar, and when I was her age, I self-taught myself guitar and I love that I can relearn it now. I'm trying to practice about thirty minutes a day. I can play Eight Days a Week and a few other songs. Instead of just learning chords, I'm also teaching myself how to actually read tabs and music. 

Here's a pic of James with a parrot. The Bird Gardens were really cool. It's a privately owned "Bird place" that gives free tours of their gardens and the hundreds of birds they have. It seems like they all talk, and it seems that their owner just loves them. Many of them were abandoned by their first owners, so it's good they have a home. 

The gardens at this place were really cool, I thought. Like a secret garden in a jungle. In October, when the humidity lowers and the temperature cools, this place will be amazing to visit. 

We bought a couple custom light sabers and after sparring with them, hung them in the movie room:

And not sure if I mentioned it, but our theater room couch arrived. Its so much more comfy than the old one. 

And it's already time to get ready for work. I have a light schedule this week. Oh yeah, between patients, I'm helping out with surgery coordination stuff, since I know how to do it. I'm probably doing too good a job, because the surgery manager loves me. I like surgery scheduling and am thankful for the extra work, but I don't want too much extra work so that my primary job as x-ray tech suffers.

Anyway, have a wonderful Monday!

I’m still here...

Just busy. Callie’s off to NYC for a short time with her cousins. Joe is home! So, just lots of stuff going on—school starts on the 14th, and that means lots of busy-ness. I’ll post a good recap of Callie’s visit and Joe’s return as soon as I get pics organized. :)

I'm Still Here...

Will post tomorrow...hopefully, lots going on!

But for your entertainment, here's a bird that says an incredible "Good Morning."

A Quick Hello

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've been busy experiencing life. Oh, and Donald Trump is an idiot.

Callie is here, of course, and we've been having some really good quality time. It took her a couple days to make the adjustment to Florida time, but Saturday we spent some time in the pool. We have this cool two person float, and after a swim, we got into the float, listened to music, and just talked. Talked about her dreams and goals, her past boyfriends (she doesn't have one now), our memories of loved ones that have passed (like my mom and "Grandpa Jim,") and memories in general. We talked about the University of San Francisco where she'll start college next month. Her grades in high school earned her a private dorm room, and she's excited about that. When we got out of the pool, we made dinner together--bbq chicken and her favorite--mashed potatoes. She peeled the potatoes for me while we sang to my playlist on the Bose.

Sunday, we went to the zoo, which was really hot and humid. It was an interesting place, like a jungle, but would have been a lot more interesting in October, when it's cooler and the animals aren't hiding in the shade near the back of the enclosures. We really liked Athena, a year old Florida Panther rescued when her mother abandoned her, probably because she had three other kits and didn't feel like she could handle them all. The keeper standing nearby told us that Athena was probably the runt, and the weakest, so the mother abandoned her. Since Athena's mother was collared, the people keeping track of her learned that suddenly one cub was missing, so they went out and found Athena in the den, alone. You can find a really nice video with Athena's story here.

I haven't really liked seeing animals collared in the wild, but this time, I'm glad Athena's mother was, because Athena, who would have died, is now thriving. The zoo is getting ready to introduce her to a male in the hopes that they will help to grow the population of the endangered cats.

Here are some pics from the zoo:

Here are some cute baby coots...the momma is in the shadows:

Callie in front of a giant rubber tree:

I have an interesting story about this guy, which I'll add later...

This reminded me of Randall's hilarious video about the honey badger:

I see these every day on my way to work. They're usually lounging in the sun on the beach of a neighborhood pond:

After the zoo, we went to the Cheesecake Factory and had a good lunch. When we got back home, we went swimming again, then binge watched "The Handmaid's Tale," which Callie recommended, and is REALLY good. And sorta scary relevant.

Here's Callie relaxing on the couch:

Monday, on the way to work, my right eye started to hurt. When I got to work, it was fiercely red and painful. I took out my contact, and since we didn't have morning patients, I made an eye appointment with the eye doctor across the street. So, I found out that the scar on my cornea from the last tear has made it so I can't really wear contacts anymore, and the humid heat at the jungle-like zoo followed by forgetting to take my contacts out before swimming caused another infected ulcer on my cornea, and this one more serious than the last time, because it will be another scar, and there was an aneurysm that ruptured too, making the area around my cornea swell. So, I'm trying to stay in the dark as much as possible, and wear two pairs of sunglasses when I drive. I go back to the doctor Friday to assess the damage and decide on a plan. He prescribed me some drops with three different antibiotics, and they seem to be working. My eye feels a lot better today.

Anyway, I'm not letting that stop me from the fun we're planning for the weekend. Or from work, which is busy for the rest of the week. Today will be a looonnnggg day, but Callie has her friend over from NSB, so they'll go to the beach or the movies.

Anyway, it's time to get ready for work. I'll add more pics to this blog post in a bit! Happy Wednesday!

Exhausted

So, Callie’s flight was delayed and didn’t arrive into Ft Lauderdale until almost 1:00 am, and then we had an almost two hour ride home, then I couldn’t wait for Callie to see the photo album I’d made for her, so we sat on her bed as she looked through it. She loves it, and it was a nice surprise for her. So, I got to bed at about 3:30, and slept til 5:30, but rested in bed until about 6:00.

Yesterday was a busy and bizarre day at work. We had one patient who brought in a service dog like I’ve never seen before.

Because it wasn’t a dog.

It was a mini pig piglet.

And we didn’t quite know what to do about it, but eventually let the patient keep it in a box, but not before it ran amuck around the lobby for a few minutes, delighting the other patients in the waiting room.

The staff was delighted too. When I went to call the patient back for an X-ray, I saw the pig in the box, and I ran back and said, “I’ve seen everything now. There’s a baby pig in the waiting room.”

The girls snapped to an instant giddiness. “A baby pig?!!!!” And they all practically trampled each other to the lobby to get a look.

It made for an interesting morning. Lol.

Today will be long and brutal, but just because I’m tired. We have a busy schedule, so I probably won’t be home until after 5:00. But tomorrow is a half day, so I’m looking forward to that!

I’ll try to post some pics later. :)

Have a great Thorsday!!

Two More Days!

Callie will be here in two days! I can't wait! This weekend, we did some sprucing up of the pool area, and I made the guest bedrooms all nice and cozy and clean. I steamed the wood floors so they shine.

We bought some cool solar lighted decorations for the pool area, and they should be here today. Our new couch for the movie room should arrive any day, too.

I told Callie she could invite a few friends to stay here for a few days so she won't be spending much time in New Smyrna Beach. How could her friends not want to stay in this beautiful place, with a pool, pool table, ping pong, darts, axe throwing (lol), and laser tag? :)

I'm making a SB of photos for each of the kids. As I was making Callie's this weekend, I found this picture of me and did a double take. Callie looks a lot like I did around her age! I texted it to James and his first thought was, "I thought Callie was 18?"

We also went swimming this weekend before the afternoon storms. I love the pool...it's very relaxing to go outside, turn on the music, and just glide through and under the water. James bought this cool two person raft and we tried it out, too. It has a cooler, cup holders, and a center console for chips or cell phones. Lol.

We also kept tabs on the story of the boy's soccer team stuck in the cave in Thailand. I just can't imagine what those parents must be going through. It would be very hard for me to sit on the sidelines and just wait. It would be hard for me not to go in there myself, but of course, I realize how foolish that would be. If a former Navy Seal died in there with scuba equipment, I wouldn't stand a chance. I hope they can use Elon Musk's pod so that the boys won't have to worry about becoming expert divers and swimmers overnight. I pray that they all make it out safe.

Anyway, time to get ready for a long day at work. Busy is good! Happy Monday!