Hurray! The weekend has started. I really don’t have any plans other than my little gathering to celebrate the 4^th. I’m not sure what’s with me lately but peace and quiet has become very appealing. Okay so maybe I’ve turned into a hermit? I ventured out on to Facebook this morning and it looks like many of my friends are either on a trip or about to go on one. Yeah for them.  By the pics it looks like they are having a great time-by their blogs looks like they are in anticipation fever. I have my own summer traveling plans that include a little get-away to Florida but nothing as grand as NYC, DC or Europe. Hey I’ve got a new patio.  Today I have the fun task of running and errand to the air conditioner store. It’s actually a place where they sell parts and it’s a warehouse but they are the only ones who sell the filter I need, at the lovely price of $30 a piece. Had I known when I purchased the furnace several years ago that it took only a special kind of filter I would have said get me another one. But knock on wood it’s been good to me and I only need to switch it out twice a year. I have a few more things to follow up on that are work related and then I’m going to spend the rest of the day writing, reading and of course wiggle in a nap. Happy Friday.

I had one of those moments-well maybe one those couple of hours, at work yesterday where I could have just laid my head down on the desk and been in dream land. A little yawn at one o’clock then droopy eyes by two. I got up and walked around the building-I could have fallen asleep midstep. But I wasn’t the only one. It seemed everyone else was fighting the mid-afternoon sleepys. The heat was back too and I wonder if that had something to do with it. I’m looking forward to the three day weekend. Having indoor cookout on the 4^th. Going to look for patio furniture too.  Maybe someone will have a sale.  Other than that not much to blog about. Now if I can just get the piggy away from Sherlock when he isn’t looking. It desperately needs to be washed.

I’m not sure what to blog about this morning other than I feel kind of weird. After the hubbub of last week’s new puppy and new patio things seem oddly quiet. Sherlock and I are settling into a routine and he can now go outside like a big boy, not having to be carried. The patio is much easier for him and he can navigate the backyard pretty good now.  He’s moved on from the blue bear to a pink stuffed pig and carries it everywhere around the house. He even grabs it when ready to get up on the couch. When he gets off the couch he grabs it. When I’m fixing his dinner he brings me the pig just to make sure I see it. It’s really cute until I try to take it away. That’s when the pressure full grown alligator jaws clamp down on one little pig from a 10lb pup. Hum…I think I’m going to have to watch episodes of dog whisperer.

Well I had one of those Sundays on the couch. You know the kind where your intention is to sit down for about thirty minutes just to unwind, and before you know it, six hours has gone by. But I did see some interesting shows on the Smithsonian and Nat Geo Channels. The Da Vinci Detective had me engrossed.

The dinosaur mummy was fascinating, and then I watched something about a wooly mammoth being unearthed in Siberia-but I can’t remember what station to provide a link. Anyway when they unearthed this prehistoric elephant they found prehistoric plants underneath it that were still green!

So absolutely nothing accomplished since eleven this morning after my return from Walmart.  Sherlock has a blue stuffed bear he now carries around with him. It’s so cute to see the body of a dog with the head of a blue stuffed bear prancing around the house. I think he uses it like a little Seeing Eye cane because he does run into as many things. J And that’s about it from here. Everyone stay cool.

Oh my goodness. I do not like this heat. It’s like walking into an oven every time I step outside. Yesterday it was officially 103 at the airport but I know in my city it was several degrees hotter. The trees and plants are wilting, even the weeds are having a hard time staying alive. The birds have their beaks open all the time, trying to cool themselves, and wavy lines hover over the street and anything else that is made of cement or stone. It got a little uncomfortable in the house in the late afternoon because I have skylights in the living room. Sherlock and I had to move to the third bedroom which has only one window and outside wall. It was so much cooler in there. It’s been several years since we’ve had a heat wave and I’m certainly out of practice.

I made one trip yesterday and that was to meet Cherie and Jackie for lunch. I decided not to run any errands because I was miserable.  So I did the next best thing to cool off when I got home and make pasta salad. <g> In my defense this was after the sun went down but boiling the pasta was my downfall. I petered out from there. Today I’m making a fruit salad which is what I should have worked on yesterday. I also moved some plants from the living room into the sunroom, disassembled Bentley’s old play-pen, and got some clothes and shoes together for the charity truck. This usually happens to me when it gets real hot. I have spurts of energy followed by urges to nap. We are supposed to get a cool front moving through tonight and Monday which is supposed to give us a break for a few days. Boy do we need it.  Today I think I’m just going to stay at home work and a couple of projects for work and do some writing. I’m sure Sherlock will enjoy that too. Happy Sunday and hope your weekend has been great.

Michael Jackson, I can’t believe he’s gone. What a shock yesterday, when at work I hear a co-worker say that the king of pop was dead. We all couldn’t believe it so we Googled and sure enough the articles started appearing like ants to a picnic. I grew up with his music, first with the Jackson Five, then the golden age of Thriller.  The world has lost a great entertainer for sure.

In other news the patio is amazing. They’ve finished most of it and now they are working on the next piece which is to wind it around the house even further so it carves out the flower beds next to the kitchen.   After that’s complete Cherie is coming over to design what will go in there based on the amount of sun/shade it gets. I know it’s going to be awesome and my backyard is going to look like something from House Beautiful.

I didn’t get home until late so the light wasn’t the best for taking pictures, but I’ll be sure to post more soon. What I love about the people that are building my patio is that the woman who sets everything up calls me everyday to ask if it looks good and am I pleased. And the answer is yes, yes, yes.

I haven’t been able to blog much lately because work has me super busy. I’m in at eight in the morning and out usually around six in the evening. I’m looking forward to this weekend. I have so much that I want to get done. I need to vacuum and dust. I need to find something to cover a little pipe in the backyard so Sherlock won’t bump into it. I think it was the gas pipe for the old grill that I had years ago that came with the house. I remember one year I opened the lid and the whole grill fell off the stand. So I had it removed but the pipe remained. Since Bentley could see it wasn’t a problem, but with Sherlock, he uses sound and his nose to get around it’s a concern. Yesterday he was heading straight for it so I intervened during his wanderings and picked him up. Then I’m going to write. I don’t plan to work on anything work related this weekend. I also have to run some errands. Sams is first on the list. I have to get coffee and water because you can never have too much of that.

I’m also going to make up meals for the week. I have to cut my spending since I depleted a little of my savings for the new patio. I’m so happy to have saved enough that none of this went on credit!

And that’s about it from here.

Oh boy did I ever sleep in this morning. I heard my alarm clock-several times in fact. I did my morning exercise of rolling and hitting the alarm too, but nothing was going to pull me away from the strange dream I was in, which included swimming with dolphins off the coast of Panama. Don’t even ask, I couldn’t tell you why/where that all came from.

Mr. Sherlock is getting along splendidly and I’m getting to know his little behaviors, and certainly knows mine. He knows every night like clock- work I hit the sack at 10:30. In fact he was telling me it was past my bedtime when I stayed up late night. He was nudging my leg when I pulled down the bed covers, walked to the closet with me when I got on my PJs. Walked back to the bedside and sat looking at me as if he were thinking are you ready yet?  I picked him up, put him in bed, he curled in a ball-and that was it. He was out for the count until I woke him up this morning. I wonder if he was swimming with dolphins too? <g>

Welcome Sherlock Bones!

Sherlock is a three year old rescue dachshund with a little bit of eye trouble, some crooked teeth and a heart as big as Texas.

All is good in the house again and my belief is that Mr. B sent him. In fact he has the same missing eye as Bentley. What are the chances of that?

Because of his poor eyesight, yes he’s almost blind, I’ve decided to get the backyard deck not only repaired but ripped out and replaced with a patio. I’ve needed to do it for a couple of years but I never could find anyone that didn’t charge an arm and leg just to replace the wood-never mind that I wanted a railing. Anyway a friend of mine had a patio put in last year and I thought why not go with stone? If I’m going to pay out the nose might as well get what I want right?

Well it pays to get a bunch of estimates and wait for that right person to come along. And I’ve found them! They will be delivering the Oklahoma Flagstone today and begin ripping out the old deck that took the shape of an ark since the wood was so weathered.

Can you believe this heat? It’s like spring was kicked back up to Canada. The summer cap that prevents us from getting any rain has stubbornly settled over us, and he isn’t going to move until October. Oh joy. It wouldn’t be so bad if at least it cooled down at night, but there’s no mercy. Pretty soon they will be reporting 100 degrees as the current temp on the ten o’clock news.

At least it’s shady in my backyard. I wouldn’t want the patio people to melt.   

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. Haven’t felt much like doing so lately. There’s been incredible sadness in my life, and beyond that there just hasn’t been much to say. At least up until now. I’m waiting for a new little friend to join me this week. His name will be Sherlock Bones, and he’s a rescue pup. He has eye sight trouble but that doesn’t stop him from getting around and little guy is just a joy to be around. Thanks’ God for sending him my way.

In other news seriously wicked storms passed our way last week complete with 80 mile and hour winds, lightening, and 6 inches of rain. A huge branch from a big tree in my backyard was no match for Mother Nature’s fury. Thankfully it fell back on the tree and not on my house. The tree service is coming out later this week to take care of it. I love this tree trimming company because they are also arborists which mean they don’t mutilate the tree when they trim it. They shape it and make the cuts only healthy to the tree.  My neighbor was without power for almost three days and during that time I was coffee provider extraordinaire. Early in the morning I’d make coffee for anyone on the other side of the street who wanted it. Unfortunately once she got power back her refrigerator decided it was still on hiatus so she and I went out to dinner last night and had our fill at the Asian Super Buffet. Since Sherlock Bones was coming over for a house visit I decided to clean up the backyard and get rid of all the flower pots, both ceramic and plastic that at one time were going to hold beautiful multi colored flowers but instead held just dirt. I gave the ceramic ones to my neighbor and put the plastic ones out at the curb. A couple other neighbors asked if they could have them and I said help yourself. I also threw away an old picnic table umbrella that was lying beside the house and a BBQ cover that had seen better days.  I hosed off the deck and washed down the windows in the sunroom. Then I vacuumed the house. When I was done I swore tom myself that I had lost 10lbs just in sweat. But I wasn’t done. Nope. I opened the hall closet and decided to clean that out too. I got rid of some old blankets and sheets that Goodwill wouldn’t even take and now I have some extra storage space in the house.

All in all, it’s been a pretty productive week!

This was a weekend of shopping for me. I get in the mood about two times a year to update my wardrobe and certain things around the house. This time it was my computer monitor. I don’t think there was really anything wrong with it except that it was over five years old and the picture was not as crisp and clear as the stuff out on the market today. So I headed to Best Buy to see what I could upgrade to and found a nice 23′ LG flat screen. And I couldn’t beat the price. It would have been a crying shame to walk out of the store without it. It was one of the quickest trips to Best Buy ever-I was in and out of the store in 15 minutes. Then it took me the better part of the afternoon to learn how to adjust the screen resolution and download the new driver, but I eventually prevailed. I should have known it was going to be difficult when the instructions were on a .pdf file and printed out in Japanese. Yes there was an English version but that was of no help. I ventured out on my own and figured out that I had to adjust my Mobile PC settings to get the driver and adjust the screen size. Whew glad that’s over with. The following day I headed to Kohl’s and JC Penny to get new shirts for work. I hadn’t bought new clothes in a while and really needed some new shirts that were summery and more stylish. I must have tried on 30 shirts and a few pants too. My shopping excursion lasted all morning and only yielded one pair of pants and one top.  Now I remember why I don’t like shopping for clothes. It’s a lot of work. Needless to say I’m wearing new outfit to work today. Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.