Little bit of work, little bit of dad day. Wondered if I’d see my guy downtown this morning since I was there at the same time of day but I didn’t see him. Hope he got what he was hoping for, maybe it is better that I don’t know. Anyone who knows me knows… I can’t handle when someone else is disappointed. It wrenches my heart. Another unseasonably warm day, when I got to my dad’s, Shirley was ready to go – weeding the gardens. I’ve never met anyone who loves to be as busy as her, she said they have lots of appointments on their calendar coming up (and she sounded excited LOL) My dad had a cavity filled yesterday and he did great. He was in a fine mood when I got there, he was up following Shirley around and he gave me a big good morning hug. I was telling them a story about helping my friends at their great aunts house and I saw an old Lady Remington electric shaver in a really fancy pink case and I said “for when husband’s didn’t know their wives had hairy legs and needed a shaver” and my dad laughed, I saw his old regular face at that moment, his eyes. Definitely a chill 4 hours. Then I went to Wegmans to get my liquid diet, vegetable broth, apple juice, sprite and I did get some apple sauce for my dessert tonight. I have to drink 10 oz of something tonight, liquid diet tomorrow and then the big jug tomorrow night and a little more at 5:30am on Friday. Yes I’m writing all of this out because as Mike pointed out, I’m a little psycho about thinking I’ll get something wrong and mess everything up. Amelia was up pretty early and texted us she was brewing beer today as part of Pink Boots RVA, an organization for women in beer that she is a member of. She sent some cute photos one of her co-members took. Since the only photo I took today was of a few plants outside of Wegmans, I asked her if I could use some of hers.
I’m glad she is keeping busy and doing things she enjoys, she is such a supportive and appreciative person. She’ll always be my tiny tooter. Today was my peaceful day… and the start of my ‘prep’ got a last minute sub for my sub tomorrow at dragonfly not realizing my ‘prep’ started a whole day before I drink the ‘stuff’. Be nice, bye for now!
DAY OFF day! I woke up around 5am but made myself go back to sleep because it is my ‘no alarm’ day and I wanted to catch as much shut eye as possible. Not that I had a ton of plans or anything, just wanted to let my mind and body rest. We had two records to mail and Mike wanted to add the post office to his morning errands so I hopped up and packaged ’em up! Got the bird feeders topped off, water refreshed and decided to rake up the little bit of leaves on the lawn. While doing so I was mentally putting an area together for a garden area that we can put two of the red Adirondack chairs in, the spot of the yard where the grass just never really stays each year. So 2 chairs on the deck and 2 chairs in the front yard.
I started to clean some of the leaves out of the gardens but since it is still early March I left them to protect the baby plants that are making their way out of the ground. Lots and lots of Obedient Plant coming up, I’m fine if it takes over the spot where I planted it. It is from Kevin’s farm upstate from when I visited with Caroline and Bobbi in September 2021. I intended to a blog post about that trip back when I took it but never did. It was so much fun, we were farmers! We farm!
After sweating like crazy since it was like 80 degrees, took a nice shower, did my hair and a little makeup and then Mike and I got our VISA photos taken at Walgreens – we need a VISA to travel to Vietnam so this is the first step in the application. After seeing the ingredients on the counter I re-read my colonoscopy prep paperwork and realized I couldn’t have raw veggies so we pivoted for dinner and picked up General Tso’s Tofu after getting our picture took. LOL. Came home and enjoyed a little time in my “treehouse” (our screened in porch) with Uli. Being out there really restores me, I did my NY Times games, listened to all of the different birds – watched a couple of Red-Headed Woodpeckers flying around and doing lots of calls, I wonder if they were marking ‘their’ territories.
I noticed that the Eastern Phoebe couple is back, this would be the third year they reused the next under the screened in porch (if they decide to use it) I saw them flying in and out but didn’t notice any differences, I’ll keep an eye on it!
Once the sun got lower, Uli and I moved to the deck and I sat in my chair and moved his ‘bed’ over to where I was sitting. He looked so comfy and handsome, I asked him if he wanted mama to come lay with him and he said yes, so I did. I lay their with him, rubbing him and telling him what a good boy he is and how handsome he is – Mike captured that sweet moment as he went to pre-heat the oven for dinner! Have to share it since it is something that I have always loved to do, I can remember doing it with Madchen when I was little. I love laying with a dog and watching their eyes – closing as they get sleepy and loving the rubs, eyes opening but not moving their head because they recognize a word or hear something off in the distance. Some of my dogs throughout my life didn’t mind me all up in their business, some of them minded, all of them were loved and I accepted their boundaries haha. I’m happy that Uli doesn’t mind me laying like this with him.
So peaceful, just like my day. Be nice to everything, bye for now.
My (sister’s HAHA) Brooke and Lexi turned 25 today. What a joy it has been in my life to be their aunt for 25 years.
Beautiful weather for early March so after working at Element at 6:30 and then over to Dragonfly at 8:30. I was a little early (meeting Susan so she could take over the shift and I wanted to support her on her first day there) so I walked down the block and sat on some steps so I could get the early morning sun shining on my face (it helps your circadian rhythm stay on track). I guess I was sitting there smiling (not unusual for me) and as people were walking by, I’d say good morning (not unusual for me). I saw a man walking up the sidewalk towards me, he had on a shirt that Mike has and a pair of jeans, a nice haircut and was carrying two notebooks under his arm. I said good morning to him and he said “what a nice greeting with a big smile” and I said “just enjoying a few moments of sunlight before I have to go inside to work, without windows” and he said something like “hope you have a nice day” and continued on. He was half a block down, turned around and called something back to me that I couldn’t understand so I said “I can’t hear you” he walked back over and started to tell me about what HE was doing out that morning. In December he and his wife had an argument “over money” and she kicked him out. He lived with a couple of people since then, utilized Micah Ministries (I volunteer there providing vegetarian meals for the Respite House) and was currently in a tent outside “it’s getting old, I’m not in the Army anymore” I said “man, I am sorry, that really sucks, I have a banana if you want it, it is a little bruised” and he said “So am I, but I’d love it, thank you. I didn’t even have to ask you for anything, thank you so much for offering” and I said “of course, it’s all I have to share this morning but it is yours!” Then he said “I am meeting with Michele at the VA (veteran’s administration) this morning and she said I have a 50/50 chance” (I”m not sure at what but I’m guessing some sort of support to get him back on his feet) he said “My daughter is getting married in October and I want to walk her down the aisle, my wife and I were at her graduation in May and I need this (I’m guessing the positive outcome of the VA Meeting) he quoted the bible (I assume since he said like John 1.1 says…) and I said “I’m not religious but I am sending as much positive energy into the universe that you have a great outcome, that you and your wife can work this out and that you walk your daughter down the aisle” He asked me my name, told me his (I’ve forgotten it) and gave me a fist bump and said “Thank you so much” and was on his way. I asked Mike (came to pick up the yoga studio trash LOL) and Susan to offer up some positive intentions/prayers for him, man, I hope it worked out. 51 years old and he could have been one of the yoga students, you never know what someone is going through and you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
I came home and visited Gracie (there she is doing my favorite pose), chatted with my neighbor, filled up the birdfeeders, charged Bird Buddy (it had been so cloudy the last few days the solar charger couldn’t maintain) I suited up Uli for a walk at the battlefield next door. Since the dog seat was still in the Pathfinder I figured I’d utilize it rather than walk in the neighborhood. One of my favorite walks over there is what we call the Gravel Road. It is a road that goes from the NPS paved road all the way to Brock Rd, it is cut through thicker tree coverage and creeks. I did take Uli down the grassy path that – if the creek wasn’t in the way, or had a bridge – would be a continuation of my favorite walk in the neighborhood that I call “in the woods” I think it is Uli’s favorite too because whenever we walk towards the back of the neighborhood, he always heads that way. When it is early spring its infested with ticks so I try to get back there before that happens. I think it may all be part of an old logging road or something since it crosses over to the farm that is next to our neighborhood and I’ve seen a clearing that seems to match up, next to Mary and Joe’s old house. Anyway, I haven’t ever walked down it on the battlefield side so we did. Until I started seeing signs that said no trespassing, fishing, hunting, etc. Not that I was in the part of the land that the signs were referring to, it just made me uneasy to be there alone. Plus, I was nervous Uli or I would get bitten by a copperhead and we were so far away from the car. Thankfully, nothing bad happened and we got back to the gravel road, went as far as we normally go and turned around. I brought water because it was unseasonably warm and Uli happily drank all of his when we got to the car. Saw lots of little butterflies and heard a ton of birds.
I couldn’t get over how clear and beautiful the sky looked, soon enough all of these trees will be thick with leaves and the sides of the road blooming with ferns. I am so thankful that I live here, when I was in Jordan I would imagine being back in the Park walking the paths and enjoying the foliage. Bird Buddy was hopping all day, I had some bluebirds, goldfinches, nuthatches, finches, and when I was ready to really rest and sat on the deck, I could see cowbirds and cardinals in the backyard trees. I think our ‘under the deck nest’ is going to be used again by the Eastern Phoebe’s – I saw a couple in the trees flitting back and forth, I’m so excited to host another family and look forward to seeing the babies learn to fly. Today was my peaceful day, I hope my smile and chat helped my bro get the outcome he was hoping for. Be nice to people, animals, the planet — bye for now!
Lumping the weekend together again, I may just start doing this since I work kinda long on Saturdays and if I don’t have much going on I may not have much to write about, good thing I am my own reader.
3/7: Saturday I worked at Element for Jesse from 9am-7pm, it wasn’t THAT busy which was good because I was a little nervous the night before. All in all, it was a great day. True to form, my biometrics showed me present and accounted for up in the top tier of physiological stress. I am not sure what I was doing during that dip down (probably folding towels, my favorite thing to do!) but yeah, this all tracks and I am fine with it. I did wake up to “Major Signs” which is something the Oura Ring shares when resting heart rate, respiration rate and body (skin) temperature are elevated overnight to a degree that the ring is alerting the wearer that you may be coming down with something. I did end up with Covid one time I had that so I am always super mindful when I see it. In this case, I was nervous because I was on the train x2, the flower show, and the big market with so many people. But in the end, I got it all back on track on Sunday.
3/8: On Saturday night I got a text from my neighbor that let us know if we wanted to go down to her dad’s and keep Gracie company we were more than welcome to. Well Sunday morning we did – between 3 of us neighbors I think we can keep her from being lonely while her man is getting better. Mike and I walked in, called her name, saw her sleeping on some blankets and then we sat down. She did a meow and walked right over to my chair for so much love, cuddles, rubs and my most favorite thing that she does – lay right on my chest with her head just under my chin. I tried to get lots of photos and videos to send to the girls, this one is me so happy she came right to me. I told Mike that when he was overseas for his two posts (1 year each) that Gracie truly was my emotional support animal, she was communicative and gave me just the right amount of physical contact. In bed she would lay right up against me and when I was sitting in a chair, she was like a weighted blanket on my chest. Something about that feeling is so comforting, like a baby sleeping on me. Iris is not at all like that! Linking to a blog post that has Gracie’s origin story with us here. She is around 15 years old and still plays with her toys like a kitten, drinks her water off of her paw dipped in a bowl and licks you first before she rubs her chin on a part of your body. I love her so much, I love what an excellent companion she is to George and wish I could take her to the hospital so he can feel her love on him. She went into his bedroom to drink and did a big meow/growl/call, I think she wanted to wake George up, sweet girl.
Despite what my ring said, Saturday and Sunday were my peaceful days. I really focused on trying to just chill, my ring said I had 10 hours of inactivity LOL okay. Be peaceful and kind, bye for now!
My day went sideways – I did remember to be peaceful when I woke up had peaceful thoughts, oh the last few days my sleep and all that remained normal! YAY I was concerned that I’d get off my good eating, drinking lots of water, drinking too much caffeine, eating too much cheese, I did none of those things, not that I normally go off the rails when I’m not at home but there haven’t always been good choices haha I did get that grilled cheese yes I know, but if it is once in a while I’m generally okay so I wanted to risk it haha so glad I did. ANYHOO someone didn’t show up for work and that just put a kink in the morning. I was able to do the earlier blogs, feed the birds, take the pups out, meet Evan with Stella and I did end up going out to my dad’s for a quick visit since I missed one on Weds since I was on my trip. He was good, Shirley went for a walk with her neighbor and he and I chatted I asked him what is the secret to a long happy marriage and he said “Yes, Dear” lol like he ever said that (unsarcastically haha). Weird, today is my parents wedding anniversary, they were only married like 18 years I think and my dad and Shirley are coming up on 40. Strange to think how something so huge in my life as my family of 5 time together was such a blip in their individual lives and they had three kids out of it. Mike said he washed some orange rind that was in the pocket of something that made it through the wash and the dryer, I said what was it in? and he said “you always have things in your pockets” and I said “oh my gosh I am just like my dad!!!” Should I say that to my husband hahahaha (my dad did pull a grape out of his pocket today, I didn’t tell Mike that but if he is reading…now you know how honest I was being when I said that! hahahahaha
Here I am doing the grandparent hand off back to the parent
She’s so funny, she is always so leery – we love her so much! Glad they are back from their little trip, it looked amazing. Off to eat my jersey mikes, Mike delayed it for me!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!! Bye for now! Be at peace.
I’ll do these together since I took a little trippie with friends to the Philadelphia Flower show. This was such a fun trip, catching the train in the morning where C and M got on in Richmond. They saved us two seats so we sat facing each other! The trip went by so fast and without a hitch. We ubered to the AirBnB which was a super cute top floor apartment in a row house. Headed straight out to go to lunch (tacoteka – delicious and lots of Comcast Bros) then to the show – we walked like 12,000 steps once all was said and done (the trip to buy bobbi’s bourbon certainly added to those steps) The flower show was just more than what I could have even thought it would be. Totally taken over the Convention Center, there were floors of events, talks, vendors and the big room where all of the installations were. They were just stunning in their creativity, artistic vision and obviously the choice of plants and flowers. There were award winning plants of every variety, art made with plant materials, dresses, front door designs – it really gave me a lot of ideas for what I could start doing off to the side garden where all the obedient flower is. Just gotta do it, Dianne. Plant the plants and see if they work – you have to let it goooooooo not everything is a waste. If a plant doesn’t make it, you can move it! you can let it go back to the earth to help fertilize another plant?
3/4 Here are pics from the flower show:
3/5: we all got a good night’s sleep, some of us in a bed and one of us on a comfy couch!!! We emptied some coffee pods into the drip coffee maker so we could all at least have a cup of coffee and then we packed up and ubered to the train station to store our bags for the day ($20) so we could galavant. While waiting in line a guy was behind us who took a call and then said “I am in the middle of something, can you call me back later after 3 but text me first to let me know you’re going to be calling. Okay thanks bye” and I was just like “OMG NICELY DONE OWNING YOUR TIME!!!” and we all just started talking and our new friend Kyle heard us looking at restaurants for lunch and Mary asked him where would he go for a Philly Cheesesteak and he said Woodrow’s Sandwich Shop so off to South Philly to get our lunch! We were dropped off on a cool little artsy part of town that I pointed out is much different than the downtown scene we had yesterday at lunch (Comcast Campus is right in the middle of downtown) I think most of the people near the sandwich shop were still sleeping at lunchtime because they work at night on this cool street!! (In my imagination it is like a little goth villiage where they start getting up around 3, and starting to get out and about around 7pm,) Okay there was a goth store across from the sandwich place that gave me that thought haha store was closed of course because it was early!!! They probably don’t open until like 9pm!!!! I’m just glad Woodrow’s was open because I had the freaking best grilled cheese. Parmesan herb crust, american and taleggio cheese and pear!!!! Delicious, so thankful for Kyle!
Then back in an uber after checking out the store nextdoor (old OLD vintage t-shirts, records, clothes etc.) we talked music with the owner before our ride arrived to take us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art! Up the Rocky stairs, we saw a cheer squad with their parents do the rocky run. Got to the ticket counter and Caroline asked if a VMFA membership got her any discounts and they asked “how many of you?”… welp we all got in with the VMFA membership! So generous!!!!! Everyone who worked at the museum was so nice. Caroline had asked if we could go to the Noah Davis show and I said ‘of course’ sight unseen and didn’t look up anything about him so I could absorb what I could while standing with his art. When I say simply stunning, I mean stunned to tears! It was a gorgeous exhibit, but reading and learning about this bright young artist, I was brought to tears a few times, sometimes because of the loss of this fantastic man but the parallel to my brother in law’s life. I would have tears streaming, it was so touching. I hope I remember this work and not have to rely on the museum to keep the page up forever but I’m gonna link it. https://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/noah-davis
Got to visit my favorite statue, Diana who used to stand atop a ball on the old Madison Square Garden.
Then we walked from the museum to the train station and got our ride home. We had so much fun on the train, talking, meeting people, getting little glimpses into lives we will never know anything about ever again. These ladies, we are just a good group of yin and yangs, a lot alike and a lot not and it is the best smashup. I 1000000000% forgot to say Today is my peaceful day when I woke up today – I did remember it much later but my first thought when I woke up was “Where is Caroline?” hahahahaha today (the day I’m typing this) is my peaceful day and my trip to Philly was OMG just what I needed – my phone was on Do Not Disturb the whole time. I loved that, I’m going to do that more often. Bye For Now!!!
Tuesday day off, futzed around and got things done before my overnight trip to Philly! Got my rain boots styled for my two outfits. (Jillian approved) it was mostly the pants I wanted to get right.
Did some meaningful work on my SPCA volunteer project, set up an intake process and then asked the PM some questions to make sure I had it set before I moved forward. Had my monthly ladies dinner at Vinny’s – I got capellini and spicy marinara sauce (YUUUUMMMM) so that I could feel good on my trip (no cheese) and it worked out very well. Just a party of three this time.
It was my peaceful day. Too much time has past since I’m now writing this on Friday YIKES but from what I remember it was a good day. Little drizzly, little cold, I got good sleep and that set the stage for my day!! 🙂 Bye for now!!
I’m a YouTuber haha, I was surprised yesterday after I posted the video of the squirrel linked in the blog post – I had 143 viewers! I looked just now and I had 1.4K viewers and two comments haha. Crazy. Today was my peaceful day, great night sleep, Uli and Stella joined me for bed time since I don’t have work today. Iris was upstairs sleeping in Uli’s big boy bed (his dog bed) Here are my bedmates looking into the backyard! I’m sure there was a squirrel or vole or some little thing in the woods. Got a record ready to ship while Mike was at yoga and sauna/cold plunge. I bought a pair of low rainboots from DSW and Mike picked them up for me on his way home YAY. Amelia and Evan got into the air and to their destination without issue. She said they made an announcement on the plane that someone has a severe peanut allergy and could everyone refrain. She cheered, advocate for yourself peanut allergy sufferers!!!
Got my Dragonfly weekly and Element monthly emails out after having a big long think on the schedule – which is all worked out, for this month, but it is firming up nicely. I didn’t have time to work on my SPCA project today, I’ll do that tomorrow. Once Mike was home and we’d had something to eat we took the pups to the battlefield for a freezing cold walk. Listening to Whisper Wednesday on Radio Andy had us cracking up. People are funny and live such crazy lives sometimes. We’d forgotten the record, so he will mail that tomorrow. Came home and went back to bed to read, my ring asked me if I was taking a nap haha I just needed to get into a relaxed state (which I did) read the latest Vanity Fair, I didn’t know anything about Bianca Censori other than she was married to Kanye West, but the article was her first time speaking out so that’s why I didn’t know anything else about her! Couple of days and I’ll be on a train to Philly with my Moss Sisters. Looking forward to gal time, my fun friends!! Be peaceful, bye for now!!
If you go back to February 2nd’s post you’ll see the beautiful view of the moonlight on the frozen snow in our front yard, the photo below is what is still here after an entire month!! I took the 2/2 photo from the big arched window next to the front door. Today was my peaceful day, the pets joined me in bed for reading. I charged the little chainsaw I borrowed from Shirley so I could saw up a big tree branch that fell sometime in January. Uli moved onto the deck. The weather was warm. I sawed the branch and carried the lumber LOL to the firepit that I use to store branches to use in the nice firepit. I raked up leaves and sticks off the grass. Took a hot shower, went to the deck to talk to Mike and admire how handsome Uli is (I admired how handsome Mike was, too) I’d read this morning that lying on one’s belly is good for our spine – so I did that on the deck and it felt so good. Then Amelia and Evan showed up with our house guest for the week… STELLA! Our granddog! She is such a good girl, they are going to Florida with Evan’s parents for vacation. My ring says 1 hour 45 mins stressed and 1 hour 15 min restored – Sunday’s really are my peaceful day, most days are 5-8 hours in Stressed haha. Thankfully it isn’t mental stress it’s just your body doing what it does. I am not a ‘rester’ haha I go go go and then I relax. I like to go! Bye for now!
Thursday, Friday, Saturday – the last moments of February and the first month of Di(A Day) for You!
2/26: I didn’t take any photos on the 26th. I went to work and had a great day at element. After work I did a quick contrast cycle of 15 minutes in the sauna, 2 minutes in the 60 degree tub and 10 minutes of rest. Then to Wren & Sparrow (the bird store) – after getting this video notification off of my Bird Buddy, I knew something had to be done! Back when we lived in Stafford I tried getting the spicy bird seed for my birdfeeder to dissuade the squirrels from eating all the food and destroying my bird feeder – and it didn’t work. I read on the Bird Buddy reddit that using spicy bird seed was the way to go so I decided I’d give it another try. The bird store sells Lizzie Mae bird food and I like the Songbird Mix. I asked Amy if Lizzie made a spicy one so I could try to keep the squirrels out of the feeder. YAY Lizzie does so I bought a smaller bag of that, and my big big bag of Songbird Mix. I really do like to watch the videos of the squirrels, they’re funny but I can also see them starting to chew on the house and they can destroy this thing in no time if they get frustrated wanting more food. So hoping the spicy mix keeps them out of the house. Then… after a year of not getting one, I went to DermEnvie and got a hydrating facial w/dermaplane! Oh my gosh how I have missed this, I say it every time I get one “I’m going to make this a priority” lets see if I do. Home just in time for our weekly celebration – Jersey Mike’s Night! Those sub makers are the best, they are a quiet bunch of young people that we see each week and it’s really sweet when they see us and say “Gregory!” haha if Jordan had Jersey Mike’s they’d say “Mr. George!” Today is my brother in law Chris’ 57th birthday, it is really hard to think of him that old – he will always be young to me. FUCK Cancer. I miss him and I love his kids across the universe and back, they are amazing humans and he would have continued to be, the best, most interested and loving dad – just like Mike and just like Greg and just like Big Daddy.
2/27: Shirley had an appointment in Springfield so it was Daddy/Daughter day out in King George. My dad was in a good mood and so was Shirley – she was probably happy she was getting out of the house for so long solo haha. She made potato soup (Kartoffelsuppe, wie mein Vater sagte) for lunch and I brought some delicious mandarin oranges that I’d gotten at Lidl! (a German supermarket) anyway, before lunch I offered my dad the orange and he said ‘sure’ – we are doing really well keeping him hydrated (I can tell by the ‘color’ lol) and he loves fruit. He ate it so fast, I took a video of him and he was almost done by the time I got my phone. When I said “you must really like it”, he said “I love it” so cute… had lunch, took his midday medicine and then I said “okay time for our walk” and I helped him get his shoes and jacket on and out we went. Not very far but far enough to stretch his legs, get him some sun (he had his hat on) and breathe that fresh country air. I noticed he was really walking well, fast-ish for him, it felt like his coordination was really good. I remembered to tell Shirley that when she got home. All day, the only notifications I got from Bird Buddy were of BIRDS!!! I put the spicy food in Bird Buddy and the regular food in the Yankee Flipper (no squirrels, if they try to touch the perch it spins around and spins them off) and the other birdfeeder (that the squirrels can eat from). Lizzie Mae’s spicy bird food is the winner of the week! I hope this is the trend!
Beautiful day on the Potomac
2/28: My usual Saturday at Dragonfly with my little coworkers (the plants), the teachers and the students! After work I went to Dan and Heather’s great aunt Betsey’s to help organize, research and price some things for a yard sale. It was great to help Bobbi, she and Heather have done a great job. I love a task. Came home in time for dinner yummy meatless burgers and fries! My life is perfect right now. Goodbye February, you came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. I think you are drunk, Feb.
DiForYou 