My Better House

A little update on me, cancer and stupid work emails.

Recently, I was at my wit’s end. We have a project where the Planning Department is holding up the Final Occupancy Permit for a home that’s completely built and signed off by Building. All Planning’s concerns are addressed and approved and they can’t figure out how to ‘close out’ the process. >sigh< And there’s a homeowner waiting to move in to the house. So, our client asks me to send an email…

Yes, that’s right, I have 3 new tattoos. I got a tattoo when my husband bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.  He had said many years ago that he’d own one and I said OK, you get a Harley and I’ll get a tattoo. So, after he bought the Harley, he dared me to get a tattoo.  So, really, its his fault cuz he dared me. I’ve always wanted to get another one.  But I couldn’t decide on the…

physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury That’s simplistic, and let’s not get carried away with all the shades of pain that exist – except where it applies to me, naturally! I’m having pain all the time, when a person has sciatica you get used to it and are mostly able to push it away to a place you can ignore…mostly. But this isn’t about me having pain. But on that note,…

There’s a pony in here, somewhere

Let’s see now, where were we?  Oh, right, waiting for the dental appt to do the root canal. Apparently, I completely misunderstood what the oncologist said about the biopsy.  The root canal was going to interfere with the timing of the biopsy.  I have to have the root canal in order to have the radiation (since the radiation will affect the jawbone’s ability to heal).  Thus, I postponed the…

PET + Dentist =

Yesterday I had a PET scan.  Basically, they inject a radioactive serum into one’s bloodstream and leave the room, turning off the lights.  In an hour, after the serum has coursed through your body…’coursed’ is too active-sounding a word since you aren’t allowed to do a thing, not one thing, not read, not text, no phone calls, nuthin’.  So perhaps the word would be sauntered, yes, sauntered…

Dammit, I have cancer

Late 2019 I had a ‘beauty spot’ appear on my face.  Sure, it looked cute, after all, they aren’t called beauty spots for nuthin’.  In fact, they used to be a thing, way back to the Roman Era…more fascinating info on that here. There were even meanings assigned to the placement of the “beauty patches”. https://hair-and-makeup-artist.com/beauty-patches/ But… It grew, so I contacted the…

What are your favorite meals?  What food have you had in the past that you still, to this day, recall how good it was? For me, there have been 3 times that I count as memorable, food-wise. 1 = sushi, every meal with sushi – even that place in Nevada had great sushi, but don’t ever go too late in the day or it won’t be fresh enough 2 = Kobe beef burger at the Sugar Barge on Bethel Island in CA…

What I learned by watching Firefly Lane

Have you watched Firefly Lane? Its a series on Netflix with Katherine Heigle and Sarah Chalke, two actors I really like anyway. If you ever watched that old (hilarious) show Scrubs you’ll recognize Sarah Chalke. The story is about 2 girls who meet when 1 moves in across the street from the other. The story takes us through the various moments of their lives through adulthood. It is captivating…

Yucca Fries with my new air fryer

Look!  I made yucca fries! OK, not quite…more like mashed yucca… Let me back up a bit. While in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago, we visited the Spice Island Grill and I tried their yucca fries, which were delicious! Since I’ve been seeing so many posts about the fabulousness of Air Fryers and Dehydrators, I finally decided to buy one.  It’s a Chefman product.  I looked at reviews and such…

Roll up your sleeves, we've got work to do!

I’m 1/2 way through the 40!50 Program of prayer and fasting to heal our nation of racism.

Today I listed to a video featuring Drs John & Sara Barton. Dr John is a professor and Dr Sara is a Chaplain at Pepperdine University. They’ve been married about 30 years and lived in Uganda as missionaries for 8 years early in their marriage.

They discovered when they arrived in Uganda that God was already…

Changing...not diapers, not places, not socks, not you...changing me.

I haven’t felt a blog-post press on me for months.  It was weird to see so many people doing creative things – songs, videos, posts, comedy, makeup tutorials, you name it! – and not feel an urge to do something myself.

Other people were learning languages, musical instruments, baking bread…I was working.  The world stopped but we were working.  It felt surreal.

It still does.

We are working. …

Visiting Colorado Springs recently, we stopped to check out Ivywild School, remodeled into a gathering place with a couple restaurants, brewery, shops and areas for special events.  The owners retained the original floors, lots of the brick, some of the chalk boards…it looks fabulous and my BLT was sooooo goooood.

 Therein, I discovered an Art-O-Mat made from a vintage cigarette vending machine. …

9 years ago outside Needles, CA, a terrible thing happened. Today is the 9th anniversary of that car accident.

On the last day of 2010…THIS happenedIts been on my mind a lot lately,  its only been NINE years?!?  It feels like much longer than that, 15 years, maybe, or 20.  I keep counting it out on my fingers, 2010, 2011, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.  Nine years. Our lives were changed forever. Nothing like what happened to the driver and passenger of the other car, but still, our lives were changed. …

Lowering our truck - the whys, how's and wherefores of getting a new truck lowered. Photos! Opinions! Humor!

We have a white ‘contractor’ Ford pickup.  No bells, no whistles – rollup windows, even – uses CNG fuel (compressed natural gas) and has over 200,000 miles on it (thanks to compressed natural gas burning so cleanly) and 2 mechanics have told us that the truck is tired and the engine isn’t really fixable without major work, which means Rick’s been on the lookout for a new pickup.

Rick is very…

My Epiphany - Rush Hour traffic. It can make you crazy or you can think of a game-changing app, like I did.

Epiphany!   The other day I was driving the freeway, going home.  Its pretty much a slog.  And some driver made a bonehead move which made me think, what if I could tell bad drivers just by looking at them?  What if I could tell their driving chops BEFORE seeing them prove how horrible a driver they are?

 Like, a number above their license plate, or even better, a hologram above the roof?!? …

The real question isn’t ‘over or under’ its ‘do you replace it’?  I’m taking about the roll of toilet paper.

Let’s be real, here.  We don’t honestly care if its over or under as long as there is enough to accomplish the task, amiright?

  Why are people still concerned about that, anyway?  The over/under question has been asked and answered long ago.  Its supposed to be OVER and so says the…

Happy New Y’Arrr

I pulled into the supermarket parking lot and pulled out my bag o’ bags from the trunk of the car.  I had not been in the grocery for awhile.  I truly hate going and my hubby will frequently look at my pathetic puppy dog expression and do the foul deed without me.

As the bag o’ bags was pretty fat and my list was pretty short, I fleetingly thought about removing some o’ them bags, but didn’t.