Icey the amazing shaved cat in all her glory. Seems to feel much better with all those nasty mats out of her fur. Not bad for 21 years old!

Real work for a change

Thanks for all of the comments on my last post. Obviously I'm not the only one that likes a little diversity in my neighborhood. Em does have a good point about the garage band though. I don't think upscale retirement communities allow that kind of thing (though they do have a bagpipe group)

Since last week I have been actually been really busy doing work that pays our business (as opposed to work that is trying to produce pay). It is even possible that we might actually get to take a little money out of the business for the first time ever. It still means we are working for about 10 cents an hour but we did it all on our own. A little extra cash right before Christmas wouldn't hurt a bit.

Thank you for giving my a break from all of my client charting. I was boring myself silly.

Why I don't want to live in a retirement community

Roxie raised some good questions about what my issue is with retirement communities. The big one we visited is full of beautiful homes, sculptured golf courses, clubhouses and flowers changed out 4 times annually. It is largely populated by people roughly my age (55-65) who retired early and have time to play and socialize to their hearts content. It isn't the "heaven's waiting room" that some of the Arizona retirement communities are.

It isn't the rules and fines or even the homeowners association checking for open garage doors that bothers me. What sets my teeth on edge is the lack of diversity in the population (read no one under 55). I live in a community that originally was advertised as a retirement destination. The people who migrated to Lake Havasu were of a different sort than those who reside in retirement communities. Our retirees wanted to live in a traditional town with children! They wanted to read in schools, help with programs for teenagers, work with young parents, provide their knowledge to new business owners etc. In short, they wanted to contribute to their community.

Retirement communities feel a little too homogenous for me to be comfortable in them. So there you have it.

Lazy blogger

Yes, I am back home and just being a lazy blogger! We survived the week with my inlaws and got lots of reading in. I have determined that I do not want to live in humid Florida and do not want to live in a retirement community. Guitar Guy agrees so we are good to go on that.

We arrived back home on Saturday after a long day on the road. Daughter and her boyfriend drove back up with us as Guitar Guy had a gig that night. I made it through two sets before my eyes totally stopped focusing and I had to go to bed.

Merry has fully recovered from his gastritis and is happy not to have that awful medicine anymore. He has to go back for a follow up visit this week and his annual shots so won't be happy about that.

All is good. The weather is getting cooler. I'm trying to wade through my "to do" list and am making a little progress. Onward and upward.

Traveling again

Off to Florida this time so blogging will probably be at a minimum. Spent the day with my lovely daughter today. We did pedicures and went out for Indian food. I made a good dent in my Weight Watchers bonus points but it was so worth it.

Our minor trauma for the week was Meriadoc (our youngest cat) getting gastritis. He had diahrrea for 3 days and then vomited all over. After an emergency x-ray (showing nothing but gas) they decided to dose him with antibiotics for 10 days. This meant I had to quickly find someone to wrap a fighting cat in towel twice a day to give him his medication. He already seemed to be feeling better by the time we left.

Life is always interesting!

Chinese food and a fat cat

I'm not sure where time has gone, but it hasn't been blogging. I'm sitting on the couch after a full week. I'm waiting for Chinese food to be delivered to my door so I don't have to cook. Pippin feels this is the perfect opportunity to "help" me write my blog so we are having some cuddle and purr time. I haven't told him I'm headed off on another trip soon. He really doesn't want to know. He's already had enough trauma after having to have a catheter inserted for a urine sample this week. Poor guy.

Since getting back from Iowa I've been very busy. You all know how it is when you come back after a trip. Everything you put off is impatiently waiting. I've plowed through most of it and still have a week to finish up before I head off to visit my in-laws. Thank goodness for great business partners who keep things going while I'm flying around the country (plus they take care of my cats!)

Yesterday I got to help make a marketing visit to a physician's office. It was a very strange experience. We got to stand in the hall and wait for the physicians to pop out between appointments and approach us for a 30-60 second spiel. A couple of them asked good questions and seemed to understand the whole geriatric care management idea. Hopefully, we'll see some referrals out of it.

I'm still liking having our own business, but not liking the lack of income. We've decided to commit some funds to advertising and keep moving forward. A true benefit of our slowish start is that I've had the freedom to spend time helping my dad and visit my grandson. That is truly a gift.

I think I hear the delivery guy coming up the walk. Mongolian beef and shrimp with garlic sauce - Yum!

Family photos

Home again from a great trip to visit all of my family in Iowa. Dad and I ran errands every day and got much of his list done. We still had time to eat lots of sweet corn, talk for hours and just enjoy spending time together.

Baby Rowan is almost 4 months old and can finally wear his rock and roll t-shirt we got him. The Guitar Guy wants to make sure Rowan starts out right!

Rowan's new sweater on the model. It fit well and I think he looks very handsome in it. Unfortunately he kicks off all the socks I made him even with the ribbing. If you have a good pattern that really stays on, let me know (Amy - yours stay on!)
Rowan dressed as a shark. It's kind of hard to see the shark on the back but the hat has eyes and a fin on the back.
Here are Rowan, Dom, Dad and me celebrating Dad's 92nd birthday. Had a great time! If you look at the painting behind our heads, the little girl with dog is me :-) A friend of my mother's painted it and included my dog, Fritz, and I from a photo.

I think Rowan and Great Grandpa have a mutual admiration society. There many smiles and lots of love. A great time was had by all!