I'm green but not with envy

you are mediumspringgreen #00FA9A

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Yup, this sounds like me. My personality profiles always come back as idealist because I see people and situations for what they could be and try to help them get there. I like to lead but can follow if that is the role that is needed for a successful project.

It was a great birthday!

The international celebration of the anniversary of my birth has now drawn to a close. The day started with many greetings from Facebook game buddies from all over the world. Never mind that half of them can't remember whether yesterday was today or tomorrow depending on time zone, it was all good fun.

My one meeting was canceled so I gave myself permission to have the day off and lazed through the morning sipping my coffee and reading. Suddenly the doorbell rang and who should be on my doorstep but the florist delivering a gorgeous bouquet of birthday flowers from my son and daughter-in-law. I love fresh flowers, but unfortunately, so do the cats. I spent much of the morning chasing Pippin off of the table, greenery firmly clutched between his teeth! I finally resorted to a couple of quick blasts in the face with a spray of water and he's been less inclined to snack. I did put the flowers on a high shelf overnight.


















Next thing I knew, the mail arrived with an awesome card from my daughter. I told her that tears of happiness are a good thing (and it wasn't just because the card arrived on time :-) She just visited Colorado and went to some great yarn stores in Estes Park. She's supposed to write us a review on her blog someday. We've discussed before the joys of adult children and I had two wonderful reminders today.



















My new business partners took me out to lunch and insisted that I partake in a warm chocolate chip brownie with ice cream, fudge and caramel sauces. Not wanting to spurn their gracious offering, I nibbled on a few dozen bites.

My husband arrived home with a surprise bag containing the exact bluetooth headpiece I wanted for my new phone. It is amazing what sending those Amazon wish lists can do! Now I too can appear to talk to invisible people in public. He offered to take me to dinner but I was too stuffed from my dessert, so have a rain check for later in the week. He ate left over Chinese, which means three nights this week I don't have to cook (what a shame).














I had e-mail greetings and calls throughout the day, which is the best part of the day for me. I didn't think much about being a year older, I thought about the richness of my life and the special people that are a part of it.

I did it again

July and August are good times to be in Arizona. Aside from the blazing heat, most of life slows down tremendously. Parking spaces open up as the faint of heart (or heat) flee to cooler climes. Most organizations and clubs take a hiatus so all those extra activities go away. Unless one has a boat or pool, the summer months are a good reason to stay inside, enjoy movies, read and otherwise relax.

Of course every summer I think I am also going to make use of that time to work on special projects like getting our homes VHS movies on to DVD (I have all of the equipment and even have the movies sorted) or organizing all of our family photos. As one day drifts in to another, it seems like there will be plenty of time until. . . . Suddenly Labor Day is just around the corner and none of those projects are even started.

This year I could say I had an excuse with the school board thing and business start up, but the reality is I just didn't do it. I have gotten in to the slower pace of being semi-retired and love it. I've mentioned before that if it weren't for that money thing, I'd be good with not working. I have meaningful volunteer work I could put a lot more time in to and lots of projects (see previous paragraph) I could do. Boredom is rarely an issue when I'm home.

Life is starting to move at a faster pace (not as fast as Amy Lane's thank goodness) and I can see that the fall is going to be very busy. Then the holidays will be here and we'll be back at New Year's resolutions. Maybe next summer I'll get those projects done. Now I just have to figure out where to stash them until then :-)

Baby it's hot!

No pictures today as I'm afraid the camera might melt. I ran errands this afternoon because I had a meeting to go to and just about had heat exhaustion. I know Roxie wrote about her love of August, but for me it is about the worst month of the year. It is an ugly month heat/humidity wise and we know it isn't going to get much better until October. It is an endurance contest for the hardy folk who stay in town for summer.

Today I sent my school board candidate statement to the newspaper. I still have to do the one for the country superintendent's website. It was a challenge to balance a confident presentation with not sounding like a self aggrandizing, pompous ass. Thankfully, I've had experience in writing press releases, guest editorials and a couple of features for the local paper or I probably would have been overwhelmed. My one personal guideline was that I couldn't use my newly expanded colorful vocabulary (thank you Amy Lane :-))

On the knitting front, I am sort of stalled. I still have one baby monkey sock to complete. I recently had the opportunity to try the first one on a real baby and now know the sizing to be about 9 months - good for creepers and crawlers. I'm plugging away on daughter-in-law's shawl but it is slow going. It is a simple feather and fan pattern so is not terribly interesting to knit. 8 rows per day is my plan until it is done. I'm ready to cast on the Spring Forward socks in Sunshine Yarns Cilantro. They've been on my list to try since the pattern came out and might be done by next spring! I keep looking wistfully at the lovely fall yarn coming out, but people will be wearing tanks tops and sandals here until November. Sigh.

Now I need to go check out my wardrobe and see what I can squeeze in to for businesses photos tomorrow morning. Hopefully my hair will cooperate too, although the humidity makes that questionable. (I know 50% humidity isn't that much, but to us it feels like 90%) Keep a good thought that I find something in my closet that goes with a brown background, doesn't make me look to fat and comes off half way professional. Hopes springs eternal.

Back to Reality

It has been a great two days at our house with my lovely daughter Nicole. This was our last hurrah before she starts school and has an even crazier schedule. We didn't really do anything all that exciting (except decide swimmers and gymnasts are really well built). She did lots of knitting and finished her hat for a friend's daughter - the same family my socks went to. Nicole thinks pink is not her personal favorite for a color and this yarn was difficult to work with but it came out really cute .















We've spent lots of time gabbing, eating out and shopping. We had to get Nicole's favorite fried ice cream and went out for calamari and coconut shrimp last night. We believe in experiencing all aspects of the food spectrum except vegetables.

We were able to find a smokin deal on a laptop for her at Staples back to school sale and got it fired up last night. She also got some fiber love to take back with her thanks to Wool Girl's summer sale (Miss Babs worsted-colorway Iris). Nicole loves those purple and green combinations so if you see a good one in worsted let me know.

Now it is back to reality after two relaxing days. Vacation time is good!

The week in review

It has been an eventful week with lots of progress on the new geriatric care business. We have our business license, so I am now the proud owner of two businesses that make no money! The up side is we may already have a client so are hurrying to get our formal structure in place. Our logo and web site are being developed and we should have insurance coverage next week. Yeah.

The school board candidate stuff is already starting. The newspaper called about sending me a candidate survey so they'll have some background information (gulp). I guess this is really happening!

Nicole is coming to visit us next week from Phoenix, which we are really looking forward to. This will be our last visit before nursing school starts for her and days off become nonexistent. It may be Thanksgiving before we get to really spend time together again.















I uploaded a couple of photos from the Fifth Element's last gig. The bar they were playing has a tiny stage area so they didn't have a lot of room to move around.








Here I am in the spot I held down all night. Yes, they actually have a couch in this bar so I had one of the soft seats. You can't see that I put on make up and jewelry so I wouldn't look too frumpy next to all the younger women in their "club" clothes.














This may be the only picture of me dancing since I started having children (except at my son's wedding)! I was dragged on to the dance floor and made it through one song before collapsing back on the couch totally out of breath. I absolutely need to start doing some exercise before I become a total vegetable.














Here are the pattern books I received from Knittech's blog anniversary contest. There are some really cute ones and I have a few picked out to put on the future knitting list. Thanks for picking me!!














Pippin says it is Sunday morning and time to take a much needed nap. He did already eat breakfast and sit with his mom for cuddle and purr time. How exhausting! Pippin wishes a relaxing day to all fur persons (and their people).

A short yarn

This is the beautiful bamboo yarn I received from Roxie's blog contest. It is soft, silky and such a lovely color. I'm waiting for it to whisper to me what it wants to be.



Merry thinks I should donate the yarn to him for a cat bed. I could barely keep him away from it while I was trying to take a photo. That virtually guarantees that it will be laced with Ragdoll hair by the time it becomes an FO.




I went out to hear the husband's band last night and was forced to dance. Somewhere there are photos (which hopefully will never surface since I was terrible). If I keep going I may have to actually look for some club kind of clothes so I don't look like the middle aged frump mom that I am. Wouldn't want to embarass my hot rocker hubby :-)

Relief

Today was my first baseline colonoscopy, which I've been putting off since turning 50. I could have found any number of reasons to put it off another year or ten, but decided in the interests of health I should get it over with.

I will not share the gory details of the prep (crappy is a good word :-) , but will suffice to say, the procedure was a piece of cake. Went to sleep and woke up with it over - even I can pass that test. It appears my colon is shiny clean and everything is normal. Normal is a word I like when it comes to health.

My husband took the day off work to stay with me, though I've mostly been sleeping and watching tv and was kind enough to drive me to the surgery center at 5:30 AM. Did you know they have one of those in the morning? Amazing!

I got my bamboo yarn from Roxie's blog contest and it is gorgeous! Thank you so much for making us all winners!! I plan to take pictures of the yarn when my blog winnings from Knittech arrive and post my loot so everyone can see. Presents are such great fun.

I'm going to go read for a bit and probably fall asleep again. And to think this is how the cats live all the time.