Ittie bittie bits…

Sun!  I woke up to sun!

Oh, Red Sox…you’re breaking my heart…

Hus LOVES the rotisserie I got for his beloved Weber grill…

Ticks…ICK!  I break down and put gross chemicals on my cats and still the ticks come in.

I am lovin’ my latest Dirk Pitt/Al Giordino adventure on audiobook…this one is Treasure of Khan.  These books are comforting because they are so predictable.  No sex, just tough nice guys who always win in the end.

OK, could some loyal reader please tell me how to insert hyperlinks into my WordPress blog posts?  I know it can be done, I just can’t figure it out.  I see an Add New under Links, but ????

34th anniversary approaches…a long, hard road with lots of great scenery along the way…

Brain fluff…

I’m falling into the trap of being hyper-focused on the weather.  It has been so rainy and gray that a day of sun, even an hour of sun, seems noteworthy.  But today, at least this morning, it is just plain dull.  Gray and not raining.  Don’t know what to wear…cheery and bright to counteract the gloom or black to give in.

I just set off the smoke alarm with my essence oil lamp…oops!  Gotta love these sensitive, hard-wired systems!<G>

Every time I pass the swamp where live the family of herons I think of Ragtop Day, one of my favorite blog friends.  I have never been able to get a photo because there are no pull-off places over the swamp.  Yesterday, three herons of equal size were sitting side by side (or is it wing by wing) on the edge of one of the nests…I think the babes are mostly grown now and are just enjoying the comforts of home too much to leave just yet.

Had to love a conversation with my son the other day.  He and his girlfriend spent 4 hours shopping in Ikea, furnishing the apartment they are moving into next month.  He sold his super gaming computer and used part of it for “splashing out” (gotta LOVE BBC’s Cash In the Attic <G>) on matching bedside lamps and a dining table…he said it is a major step on the path to growing up.  Love it.

The whole subject of Michael Jackson is so volatile, I won’t touch it, except to say  I have really loved all the old photos, old videos and the memories they evoked.  I didn’t get to watch or listen to anything live yesterday, but enjoyed 48’s MJ special last night.  A supremely talented man with a supremely weird path from childhood to adulthood.  Gotta love the music and the dance.

Little bits again…

Hus says I have to stop calling them “the kids”…my “children” are now 26 and 29…harrumph…they will always be the kids to me.

Loving a half day with son and his girl…they came down from VT for a Red Sox game (boo hoo, they saw Smoltz drubbed and the Sox with only two hits; YES, they helped give Nomar his enormous welcome home from the Sox fans).  I’m taking them out to a deli (”their place”) and then they leave to go home to VT.

Amazing how three days of sun changed my outlook…it is supposed to rain for the next couple of days and I don’t even mind!<G>

Puck and Phoebe turned 1yo on July 4.  They weren’t allowed outside until after they had healed from their “female” surgeries, so this summer has really been their first in the outside world.  As they tramped through snow piles three times their height last winter, Hus promised them that they would LOVE spring and summer.  And they do.  They come with me when I weed or pick raspberries, they love to roll in the garden dirt and they especially love to hide in the lushness of our plants and garden beds watching the world go by.  Two very happy kitties…

Phoebe in the catnip

Let there be SUN!!!

And there was sun…so much was waiting for sun!  I finally got a coat of Kilz on the reconstructed window casings at the front of our house.  Next comes the stain and we are done with those windows…on to the next…

Son and his girl are here…they made the long drive from VT to catch a Red Sox game, visit Ikea, load up the car with a few more of son’s possessions and to eat dad’s pulled pork and smoked ribs.  Too bad Dad wasn’t here to share it all…work called and he hopped a plane to LA last night.  Didn’t take a camera because there will be so many photos taken over the next three days in LA.  At least he’ll enjoy a REALLY nice hotel, good food and….hmmmm…no offense to my CA friends, but there’s not that much to enjoy on a three day working trip to LA…

Daughter is a constant source of inspiration…despite 100+ degree heat, she runs and bikes faithfully…the swimming part becomes a treat!  She sends me phonephotos of her gorgeous tiny tomatoes and other yummy food that goes from her new garden to their plates.  We have yet to harvest anything from the garden, but are enjoying burstingly ripe raspberries from our rampant bushes.

Made the most incredibly delicious smoothie yesterday…strawberries, two frozen bananas, dark sweet cherries, vanilla kefir and the last of the fatfree milk.  Ohmygosh, it was like drinking heaven…

So, because there is sun today, I have to dig deeper into the closet than my long black pants and jeans and long sleeved tops to come up with something sunny…wonder if I even own anything sunny anymore?

4th of July…

For some reason, this year’s 4th of July seems a bit odd…July 4th is a Saturday in the midst of what has been a very rainy and overcast spring and early summer…today, the sun and clouds have been battling and we’ve enjoyed a nice breeze.  We took advantage of early sun and worked outside until noon.  Now we are lounging and watching the Red Sox play the Mariners.  Later today, we will give the hub’s new rotisserie a first try with chicken breasts (all we have)…he can’t wait.  I don’t think we can see any fireworks from here, so we will just listen to the neighborhood kids shoot off whatever it is they shoot off.

We are currently picking asparagus (still, can’t believe it has lasted this long) and raspberries…blueberries are plumping but are still green…lots of tiny baby grapes, which bodes well for later in the summer.  That’s it, so far.

I have added a few new young lady bloggers to my Google Reader and it has changed the way I look at food.  I don’t know how to add links within this post, but Carrots ‘N’ Cake, Eat, Live, Run, Hangry Pants, Kath Eats Real Food, The Inner Workings of a College Graduate and LoveIn My Tummy all blog about healthy food…lots of photos of what they eat.  Interesting…interesting young ladies.  I already eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, but they’ve got me thinking.  And, of course, I owe this all to darling daughter who recommended them to me.  I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of them at the Healthy Living Summit later this summer.

Here’s to enjoying the holiday in whatever way you most enjoy…and here’s to all of us who are the United State of America.

Life without color…

Here in New England, we have had a spring that has been largely gloomy, dark, foggy, rainy andgray.  H owever, in those moments of sun and light that we have enjoyed were all the gorgeous colors of spring…green, green grass (which always needs to be mowed because we have to wait until it stops raining to mow), red raspberries, shades of purple iris, blue skies with puffy white clouds, red, yellow and blue birds on the feeders…beautiful, vivid colors.  I know this sounds silly, but today I am thankful for a life with color…life without would be sad.

For my friends who are selling and buying houses right now, if business in our office is indicative, houses are starting to move again.  Getting financing might be a little more tricky, but don’t despair, it is out there.  Your attorney can probably direct you to lenders who are active right now.

I have my annual physical this month and I am dreading it even more than I usually do.  I have gained a few pounds when my doc wants me to lose a few pounds.  I have a persistent ache right below my ribs/above my stomach, diaphragm area, probably because I gained a few pounds when I should have lost a few.  I’m thinking my thyroid levels are out of whack because my normally abnormal brain processes are more abnormal than they normally are.  Depression that is normally held at bay with meds is wriggling to free itself.  I’m fighting back.

I have added a little exercise to my life, though.  The first two days of the week, I walked around the neighborhood, about a half hour each evening.  Last night, I spent 10 minutes on the treadmill set pretty fast.  Wonder what I’ll do tonight?  Maybe a yoga session On Demand?

Work continues on Prelude To a Kiss.  I read it and imagine it and take notes and make lists and dream…I want it to be simple and beautiful, with all the attention on the actors rather than the set.  I have a producer and a sound designer, but am still looking for a stage manager.  Slowly, but surely it takes shape.

My three dads…

I have been blessed with three wonderful dads.  Michael is technically my step-dad, but in reality he is a good friend and a great dad.  Joe Henderson is my father-in-law…I have loved that man since the day we met.  Last, but by no means least, is my dad, Al Pallas.  As I am the oldest of four girls, I introduced my dad to fatherhood.  We have been so lucky that our communications have improved as time goes on.  We don’t wait for holidays to tell each other how much we love the other.  Dad has a computer!<G>

Happy Father’s Day to the dads in my life.

Michael

Joe (my father-in-law)

Dancing with my Dad at my daughter's wedding

Golf…

My husband plays golf.  He grew up playing with his parents on incredible courses in exotic world locales (my beloved f-i-l was with the State Department and my husband and his brother lived in Brazil and Mexico and London, with home stays in VA in between, plus my beloved m-i-l is Australian, a WWII war-bride).  Twice I have given him travel cases for his clubs for Christmas so that he could safely transport his clubs wherever he was traveling…golf and baseball games are the his diversions when he is on one of his long work trips.  Obviously, golf is an integral part of his life.

That said, certain golf tournaments are treated as national holidays in our home.  This weekend, it is U.S. Open weekend and our lives revolve around it.  My husband is home for this one, so I don’t have to run around like a crazy, trying to be sure that I set the DVR correctly to record every moment of the tournament.  The good news is that chores around the house get done, as we have TVs in almost every room of our house.

This U.S. Open has been quite an adventure for the world’s best golfers.  Pouring, soaking, drenching rains have stopped play and have thrown the order of things into a mess.  It took two days for the players to finish one round.   They have started the second round now and are hoping to get that in before the next surge of pouring, soaking, drenching rains blow in.  My Tiger is so far off the lead, he will be hard-pressed to catch up.  Phil Mickelson is up there, riding the wave of sympathy and love from the crowds, in support of his wife’s battle with breast cancer.  The amateurs are making a good showing, with one of them currently on the leader board.  This one should be interesting.

P.S.  No, I don’t play.   My father is a really good player but I was a tennis player and a swimmer…never felt the urge to pick up the sticks.  Then I met my husband and allowed him to talk me into playing with him and his family…I even took a couple of lessons.  I am a natural, have a good swing and occasionally hit a really good shot.  But then there are the ten shots inbetween each good one that make the game intolerable for me.  I am too ADD to think that hit walk walk walk wait wait hit walk walk walk wait wait is any fun.  I’ll hit balls at the range, but otherwise, I go shopping when they all hit the links.<G>  I do, however, watch golf with my husband.  People think I’m nuts, but…

More bits…

Rain, gloom, humidity…days at a time…the weeds are starting to outpace the beets and onions…but it is too wet to even weed much.  The good side is that everything is bright green and lush.

The baby herons are growing up.  A while back, I wrote about the three huge heron nests that fill each spring with parents and then eggs and then chicks.  Those chicks are now HUGE birds, still in the nest, but definitely not for long.  Two days in a row I was greeted by the sight of two big chicks standing tall, beak to beak, playing together like my kittens do.  It was a wonder to behold.

Our kittens (now young lady cats) are LOVING spring.  My husband told them all winter that they would love spring.  Now he reminds them that he told them so!<G>  Anytime I am out, they are out with me.  I weed, they grovel and roll and look entirely fetching.  It is hard to stay focused on weeding.<G>

OK, it is Friday…love Fridays because they become Friday night.  I have a date with my husband tonight to go to dinner with another couple and then on to a staged reading of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.  A show that is presented by my group but for which I have done almost nothing…a treat.  Knock ‘em dead, fellas!

Rainy little bits…

It has been a gloomy, dank and sprinkly last few days, but today it is pouring!!!  The gardens, the lawn, the new pear tree…they are all drinking in the liquid gloriousness.  The down side is that the veggie garden is looking totally weed-choked…I guess that’s where I will be spending what non-rainy moments there may be this weekend.

I have a new Thursday night date with my daughter on Twitter.  Thursday nights, 9-10pm, tweeters from ’round the world log on and join the #ageop chat…the focus is on issues of interest to 50+ Boomers, but all ages are welcome.  My daughter, the executive producer of GrowingBolder.com, started the tweet chat and it is now the highlight of my Thursday evenings.  I participate through tweetchat.com, which makes it easier to follow, but it is fast-paced and interesting and fun and a real brain-stretcher.  Even better is to go back after it is all over and read everything that flew past so fast the first time around!<G>  That hour passes in the blink of an eye.  If you tweet, come try it.  You’ll find out more at http://growingbolder.com/ageofopportunity.  And, no, I am paid nothing to express my appreciation for #ageop.<G>

I haven’t talked about the cats lately.  Puck and Phoebe are young cats now; they turn 1 on July 4.  They are such a joy.  They are fun to watch and snuggly (when they want to be) and make us laugh.  I LOVE our cats.

Snuggle cats

Love hearing good news from family…son sounds so happy with life, it is a joy.  He and his girlfriend are enjoying the wonders of Vermont in the spring with lots of camping and hiking and fresh food.  I like it when my kids are happy.

Theater stuff is wearing me out…I need a change of attitude…a change of something, anyway.  All I ever wanted to do is act and direct…I wish that’s all it was now.  That said, I don’t know what I’d do without it, so…

I’m directing Prelude To a Kiss (by Craig Lucas) in the fall; even though auditions won’t be until August, the fun starts now as I work on the script and figure out my plan.  As much as I would LOVE to audition for the second show of our season, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, I don’t think I have the stamina it would take to even audition for the part of Martha.  My plan is to audition for our third show of the season, Nuts (by Tom Topor), as I haven’t acted with our group in a while.  Steel Magnolias was with another group…kind of a trip to be JUST an actor.<G>

I guess this does qualify as little bits…what a collection…