It's a New Day

Yesterday was Father's Day.  Here's a picture of my Dad, and it's been twice now that I've been unable to celebrate him on Father's Day.  Some things will never change, like all the memories I hold of him.  I don't particularly remember his declining memory as much as I remember how utterly silly fun I always had with him.  From the time I was a little girl, it was Dad's lot in life to be the funniest person possible.  If it took a pratical joke to make us laugh, then that's what he did.  I take great comfort in knowing that he is again with his beloved "Granny", resting peacefully.  It seems appropriate that I post a picture of the the two of them. 

Let's see, the last time I blogged was Tuesday or Wednesday.  Well, here's my exciting life.  To make my health insurance provide happy, I had to go to a neurosurgeon to get a second opinion on my back pain.  He agreed, I have quite a bit of arthritis in my back, but nothing that would require surgery.  He had sent me to 4-6 weeks of upcoming therapy (physical.... though I could probably use the mental type).  If that doesn't give me relief, then I'll do injections again.  The injections are what I stopped.  Oh well.....

Thursday, I got really bored and went over to watch Joyce do water aerobics.  I am such a good influence, she ended up not doing them.  We basically sat around and visited with Sheila.  I'm sure I made their day. I came home, then Gary and I joined Angie's clan in attending an open air concert put on by Chloe's Oboe Reed Rehab group.  Ok, I'll explain.  That's where they teach her to make her own oboe reeds. Angie is happy, cause she has to have them custom made, and it does get expensive. She'll attend that camp for a couple of years before she gets good enough to be able to make her own all the time without help. All the students that attend build reeds for 2 hours, then play their oboe for 1 hour. Chloe played a duet, a trio, a quartet piece, and one group piece. It was a LONG concert. See what I mean?



Afterwards, they had snacks inside. We left quickly and went to Allen to eat at Gloria's. Food was good, but the service wasn't. They were just too busy. The manager comp'd us our most expensive meal to make up for the slow service, then 2 of our 6 orders were wrong, and they had to be served after the other meals were already eaten. Afterwards, Angie let Morgan play in then fountain while the rest of us went touring the center. We met Angie and Morgan later and watched some of the water show. It was a good evening.






 Friday I got up and went to my primary care doctor.  Again, all these doctor visits at the request of my health insurance provider, United Health Care.  Here's the reason I have the best doctor in the world.  She told me to quit worrying about losing any weight.  I've basically weighed the same thing ever since she's known me, and it's not that I'm obese... just a little over weight.  Now how's that for a boost?  It may have been that she was in a great mood cause I took her and her nurse lunch from Cafe Max.  They just love it when I do that.  Course, to be nice to me, she gave me tons of free drug samples.  Yup... best doctor in the world,.

After that, I went back to Cafe Max and picked up more food, but this time it was for Sheila, Joyce, Mark and me.  Friday was Mah Jong day.  I bought their chicken (it's some sort of oriental taste, Sheila and I really couldn't figure out how to describe it), Caesar salad, and fresh fruit trio salads, rolls, butter, and brownies.  Of course, there was about double the amount of food needed, but hey, they can have left overs.  Anyway, we proceeded to play Mah Jong.  Well, I guess I should say I proceeded to play Mah Jong.

(Dang, it's not my day.  I uploaded a video, then finished blogging, and IE crashed and I lost everything I had written after this.  Now I'll redo.... but dang it!)

Ok, where was I?  Oh yeah....I won every hand except one.  Well, there was one hand that no one won, but I won the carry over game, so it was no big deal.  I don't know if it was Sheila or her Mom that won the one hand, but it doesn't matter.  This was all about me and my skills.  Here are a couple of pictures of the trophy.  One to show what it looks like, the other to show how I've got it displayed.

Every time someone enters the room, I'm going to point it out and tell how great I am.  Sheila has won it more than anyone, but this is my second time in all these years,  Honestly, I'm pretty pathetic at Mah Jong. My $8 win was the most I've ever won.

Saturday was do nothing day.  Gary worked on a project at Angie's, and I hung around home and got ready for my Saturday Firewheel Couples Tournament.  Angie is redoing her patio in pavers, so she conned Gary into helping.  Guess he showed her..... he accidentally let the truck tail gate slam on her knuckle, and it broke her finger.  They set it at the ER, and told her to go to a hand specialist in a week or two, once it's had a chance to start healing.  Wow.... it looks painful, and shes swears it is.  I ended up taking Chloe with me.  We had a pretty good turnout, and Chloe and I hit golf balls for a while during the tournament.  Then, Chloe got to drive around the course.  She feels so important when she's behind the wheel.  We got out of there around 9:30.  She didn't get to spend the night.... boo hoo.  I do enjoy her.

Sunday, Gary spent the day at Angie's again, and I cleaned house.  Well, my part....dusting and cleaning my bathroom, and washing clothes.  Today, Gary is supposed to vacuum.  We'll see if he remembers.  Anyway, around 5pm, I joined everyone at Angie's house for dinner.  Oh, because of her broken finger on her right hand, she can't do too much.  So, I grilled.  I made homemade hot sauce with my homegrown jalapenos, and it turned out great.  I also made grilled shrimp, grilled salmon (for Melissa), grilled portabella mushrooms (Eric), sliders (the girls), grilled zucchini from Angie's garden (everyone), big boy burgers (Eric and Gary), and finally corn on the cob (everyone).  I was pooped, to say the least.  Angie had her black bean burger.  Melissa (Gary's daughter by a previous marriage) was there.  She comes around for holidays.  All the dogs and cats were there too.  Melissa had one cat, one dog, Angie has two dogs, one cat, and finally Stella.  The dogs munched on dog chews while we ate, then the entire cast had cake and ice cream.  Way too much food for everyone.

One note worth reading.  I marinated my shrimp in Weber's Tequila Lime Marinade, and it was to die for.  It was one of the best tasting shrimp recipes I've ever eaten.  Perfect for shrimp fajita's.  Keep that in mind.

I left shortly after dinner, and Gary stayed and play ping pong with his two grand daughters.  They fight over who gets to play with him.  Those two girls live to argue with each other.  They drive me crazy, but he doesn't seem to mind, as long as they are with him.  He had a great day, and I think Eric enjoyed it also.  No, the patio did not get finished.  I'm figuring since Gary is doing it, it's probably going to be a month or more like a year before it's done.

I'm washing one last load of laundry, and Gary is cooking his breakfast.  I did manage to go for a walk already.  Mentally, I'm glad.  I feel guilty when I don't get my exercise.  That's it for now.  Tomorrow night is outdoor concert night with the Cole's Clan.  That should provide me with lots of good pictures to blog.  BTW, I didn't proof read this, and it may be redundant.  I was so aggravated when IE stopped working and I lost all my posting I'd slaved over.