An anecdote

Monday was a hot day. I had to go do some shopping and put gas in the truck.

I went to Sam's and got toilet paper and paper towels. Also some ink for my printer. And some other stuff.

Then I went to Sprouts to get London broil for Marv's lunches. 15 slices separated in groups of 5.
I was getting a little hungry but didn't know what I wanted. I thought maybe a sandwich from the deli, or some soup but it was too hot for soup. So I just asked the deli man to give me a sample of Havarti. I thought I'd munch on it on the way home and maybe think of what I'd want for lunch.

He gave me a very nice slice of cheese :)

When I got on the truck I put the cheese and the London broil in the passenger's side, got in, started to back up and reached for the cheese.

It wasn't there!  I stopped, got out and looked, maybe it fell by the mid compartment, not there, looked on the floor, no cheese. Looked in the back of the cab where the stuff I got in Sam's were, but I just couldn't find it. I was annoyed because I was wanting to taste it  :(

So I just drove home. I didn't even feel like stopping anywhere else for lunch. I would eat something at home.

I got home, stopped the truck, got the London broil, and got off the truck ready to get the stuff in the back. Something felt funny.

I touched my behind and there it was! THE CHEESE SLICE! kinda melty. I had sat on it and had stuck on my butt!!!

I felt dumb.

It reminds me of this cartoon LOL

Gnomes

Let me start by saying that I have never thought about gnomes one way or another. I remember some fairy tales  that had gnomes in them, when I was teaching Kindergarten, a favorite story to read to the kids was "The Three Billy Goats Gruff"  in it there was an evil gnome hiding under the bridge, but actually it was a troll (gnomes live in the forest, close to mushrooms, and trolls live under bridges or rocks and turn to stone in the morning.

Anyway they are mythical creatures, and of course leprechauns is a close relative of trolls and gnomes. But for the purpose of this blog, I'll only will write about gnomes.

One Christmas, my oldest daughter gave me a whimsical gift, it was a gnome carried by 2 trolls? they were made of metal but the gnome was painted ceramic or resin. I thought it was a garden decoration so I put it outside in my garden. We had some rains and the metal trolls rusted badly, so I put them inside.

This past Christmas, my daughters got together to give me stuff to make a fairy garden. There was a book with ideas, a heavy square stone to put the garden in, and some  other things, like a little bridge, a little gnome etc.  I actually had been thinking of making a fairy garden but  wasn't sure how to start.

Anyway I have been experimenting and buying some stuff. Big Lots had an fairy garden area and I bought a few things there. But my focus now is gnomes. I have bought stone gnomes, different sizes and put them around the garden, sometimes they visit the fairy garden too. It's an ongoing thing.

Can you find the gnomes?

Fairy Garden

A gnome and his mushroom house

Smaller garden

Something funny

Last Friday Lizzie came over to spend Father's Day with us. After talking and getting something to eat, it was bed time. Marv went to sleep and so did Lizzie. I stayed up and played in my computer.

That night, there was some music and noise next door but I didn't think much about it. Around 1AM I started hearing lots of talking, music, noise etc. I looked out my bedroom window and my neighbor's son was having a party. His parents were gone for the weekend (I guess) and the 21 year old son decided to invite some of his friends over. Up to now they had been inside and came out once in a while in the front yard, but after 1, they were outside all the time, singing, drinking etc.

Around 2AM it got very noisy and they  went out to the street and get to their cars some of them, but mainly just being really loud and silly, there were about 25-30 college age guys and a few girls. They were noisy, and the lights came out in the houses around the street. Then a lot of honking, cars, semi racing, there were about 8 guys in my driveway jumping around. I turned on my porch light and looked out and it was semi entertaining. By 3AM they all had left and I went back to bed and tried to  fall sleep.

About 3:30AM I heard a loud knock on my door,  a bright white light shone on my house, my room and living room were all lit up. I was wearing my nightie and I put a robe on and tried to decide  whether to open the door. I looked out and there were 2-3 police cars and a car parked right in front of my house shining the bright light on me as I opened the door. 2 policemen were at the door a male and a female. I asked them what was going on and they in turn asked me how many people were in my house, I said my husband and daughter and a dog . They asked me how many other people were inside hiding, I said none that I knew of! They told me somebody in the neighborhood called them saying there were lots of people around my house in my driveway and yard and said I was having a party.  I sort of laughed a little , I said there had been a party next door but it sure wasn't me having the party. They wanted to know if I was OK, and if the people inside were OK, I said yes. Then they left. And I went to bed.

The funny part of the story is, Lulu was sleep in her pillow and didn't wake up. Lizzie didn't see or hear anything. I went to Marvin's room when they knocked at the door and asked him if I should open the door, but he was also fast sleep and didn't answer and never heard  anything.

It was something different :)

Tomatoes

In February last year I planted 6 tomato plants, 3 heirloom 1 beefsteak and 2 celebrity. Around June they started to ripen and I had a pretty good yield. The snails and slugs ate some though.

When the crop ended  the gardener cleaned the area and I planted some flowers. Then around October I noticed some volunteer tomato plants coming up and I decided to let them grow to see if they would bear fruit. We had a lot of rain and they grew and had a lot of tomato flowers but they didn't set. I didn't take very good care of them because I didn't put the tomato  towers until they were pretty big, I think in March.

This time we had a  big problem with snails and slugs, and maybe some kind of rodent or birds, that would eat the tomatoes. For every 10 tomatoes about 6 were inedible with holes and bites :(    Regardless of it I picked quite a few, and I must say they are some of the juiciest, sweetest tomatoes I have tasted.

The mother of one of my ex students from Kinder, who is a FB friend, saw the pictures of the tomatoes and asked me if she could buy some. I told her she could come and pick them of course no charge. So yesterday she came with her kids. My kindergarten one is now a 9th grader and is taller than me!  They picked a whole bunch of tomatoes, more than i thought they were left, they also took some oranges. It was fun talking to her and to Jacob :)

Tomorrow the gardener will take the vines out and clean the area .  I will use the tomatoes to make salsa and pico de gallo. I will roast some with garlic  and some basil and will save them for soup or sauce. I will make gazpacho for lunch tomorrow, and also salmorejo later, and of course pa amb tomaquet! If there are any left, I will chop them and freeze them.

A quiet weekend

Saturday I was supposed to go to HB, but there was a miscommunication with N so I ended up not going. I just went to the Library and grocery shopping.  Then I went home and made  chicken soup from scratch, and picked some more tomatoes.

Yesterday the PT came and did some exercises with Marv, also practiced getting in and out of the bath bench. Next week was supposed to be the last week for home health care but they said they would probably come an extra week because he's still not at a 100%

Today when I woke up I saw it had rained last night, it was cloudy and cool all day. I made breakfast, bacon and eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy. In the afternoon he had his first full shower since he broke his hip. The bench worked well :)   We had some more soup for lunch. He's still not feeling too well, he has a stomach ache.

For dinner he said to order from Panda Inn and I went to get Panda beef and fried rice, but he was not feeling well and didn't have any.

I hope he feels better in the morning.

Introspection

I usually don't write about my emotions and feelings, I just keep those things to myself.

Well I should change the title of this post, because I realize it's true. I don't want to write about it.

May Recap : Books and Movies

That's what I watched and read in May

BOOKS

MOVIES

May Recap

I talked about the first week in May on my previous post. So here's the rest of May:

May 8      Marvin's computer had a meltdown. Some online  hackers pretending to be Windows people screwed up the system. Had to call a technician to come and fix it.

May 11-12    In advance to Mother's Day, I got a yummy box of chocolate covered strawberries from Sandy, and a lovely flower basket and chocolates from Lizzie. Love my girls!

May 13     Coming home from dialysis, Marv  used his right foot to push the door open a little in the truck. In the evening he said he felt some pain.

May 14     Marvin was feeling pain most of the day, We said if he didn't feel better we'd go to the ER in the morning.

May 15     Still in pain, we decided to go to ER. Trying to get in the truck was awkward and painful to the point that I called 911. The firetruck, and ambulance came to the house. I said I needed help getting him in the truck. They tried but it was too painful, so it was decided they would take him to the ER and I would follow them. Luckily they agreed to take him to Kaiser Downey.  He was in a lot of pain, 8-9 out of 10. Was given morphine and in Xray they found his hip was broken. Was admitted to the hospital.

May 16    He had dialysis in the hospital in the morning, and surgery to repair the hip right afterward.
A very very long day.

May 17     After spending so many hours in the hospital, and feeling very stressed out. I kept my hair appointment. Frank was super nice and I had 3 glasses of wine, had my hair colored, cut and styled. It was nice to feel pampered. I think it was one of my best haircuts :)

May 18     I was surprised and frustrated that after dialysis at the hospital, he was discharged to a rehab place!

May 19     Rehab at Southland Home in Norwalk.   After  spending some time there on my way home I stopped by the school next door. One of my Jersey friends is the Principal there and she was so happy to see me, it made me feel good :)

May 20-26   In rehab.    Had dinner with Jennifer  5/23. It was very nice.

May 28-29   Lizzie came to visit. Told us all about the vacation she and Sandy had in Savannah, Georgia.  Showed me lots of pictures. It seems like they had a great time! :)

May 29        The Physical Therapist came to the house to do some exercises with Marv. They'll come  3 days a week.

May 31      Back to Kaiser for a post op visit with the Orthopedic doctor.  Marv is doing better but still has pain and needs to use the walker. He's learning to get dressed etc. by himself  :)

Tomorrow I will post the books I read and movies I watched in May.