Exhausted!

No photos today. I have been out of the house all day, and am so tired, although I didn't realize how tired till about 3 minutes ago!

I had to report to the court center place at 8 a.m. this morning. It was a long day, but I don't really think there is a fair way to improve things any. Some of the potential jurists suggested just taking people as they come, for the juries, rather than asking questions, etc. I really think that the questioning and weeding out is a good thing, as it can be hard enough to find a somewhat impartial jury as it is, and it wouldn't be close if they had to just take them 1, 2, 3, ...you are a jury. Anyway, I was there till almost 6.30 p.m. It was longer than they like to go, but they picked two juries for two trials, so it was good. Also good, I wasn't picked for a Tuesday trial, so I can take Anne to pt tomorrow. Also good, I was picked for a Wednesday trial, so am not available for the jury pool tomorrow. So, I can take Anne to pt. It has been interesting so far, and will be interesting on Wednesday. All to the good. I haven't been bothered by scents or anything. Maybe most people manage to NOT put them on for jury duty? I won't complain!

Well, I am going to go relax, and I think I will be having an early night tonight! Take care and more tomorrow!

Busy Weekend

It has been a much busier weekend than I had anticipated. Oh well!

I will have to report for jury duty on Monday. Rats. Not that I mind, it just isn't a good time. I guess most people say that, right? But in my case, it really isn't. Oh well, I might not get picked, and that would be more than okay, this time around. Next time might be better timing, etc.

Anyway, yesterday Mike checked the bags of grapefruit and found that some were molding--horrors! He went through and tossed the bad ones. I put as many as I could in the fridge--after mostly emptying the crisper drawer. We then juiced the rest! It seemed like a good idea, and Mike will have the yummy juice to enjoy for a while! Some of it is in a pitcher in the fridge, the rest are in tupperware containers, in the freezer. It works!

Today I have been busy trying to get things caught up and taken care of in advance, in case I spend more than one day at the jury duty stuff. I went ahead and paid bills, got some laundry done, etc. I will probably go do some more laundry--better safe than sorry, right?

It is gray and cloudy, and pretty windy, today. We have had rain off and on all day. The last time I looked, there was about a half inch of rain in the rain gauge. It is only in the 60's and is to be the same tomorrow. Oh well....

Not much else going on, have been watching the Olympics while it is on, and will watch at least part of what is on tonight. Time to go back to the knitting, I have one more little sock to finish up!

TGIF!!

I know, it seems silly to be so happy to see the weekend, when I don't have a paying job, don't have kids in school any longer, etc. But, the weekends are much more relaxed, I don't usually have to go anywhere except out for dinner once, I have an excuse to do almost nothing (except read, knit), etc!

We had some rain yesterday evening, and some during the night. I am guessing not a whole lot though, as there was only 1/2 inch of rain in the rain gauge this morning. We have had some more rain today. It started up while I was on my way home from the base--just a quick trip to pick up a few things. I don't think it has added much more to the rain gauge though!

Now that I have mastered the knack of taking photos from the camera and putting them on the computer and into blogs, I am risking becoming a nuisance. I popped out this morning, in the midst of the gray and cloudy morning (but no rain at that time!) and took a photo of the bougainvillea in the front of the house. Here it is!






Isn't it pretty? It looks so nice with the blooms on it! It sure makes a nice bright spot when it is cloudy out. I wonder if the one in the back is a different kind---it has no blooms on it at all. Go figure? Don't forget, you can click on the photo to make it bigger!

I have been busy on the computer since I got home, looking up info on sock heel techniques, printing out the ones I like, and also printing out some more sock patterns. There is so much nice free stuff online! I guess it is time to go put some dirty clothes in the washing machine, and then I can do samples and try out all the heel techniques I printed out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!!

Another year has come and gone. It is amazing to think that Anne and I were in California with you all last year at this time. We had a great time, and were so glad that we were able to make it out there!

Here are some e-flowers for you, by way of a photo of some flowers on the pink hibiscus! It is the one that was put in to replace the one lost to Hurricane Frances. Wasn't it nice of it to have three nice blooms, all right near each other and handy for photographing??!!






I took the photo yesterday, while I was out photographing the newly-righted grapefruit tree!

Well, not much news yet today, so will sign off. I hope you have a great birthday, Mom! We all love you oodles! Hugs and kisses from Sally, Mike, Anne, Brian, Christine, and Michelle!

Totally Awesome!

Yep, our lawn guy Joel is totally awesome! Anne and I were getting ready to leave for her pt, when she noticed Joel and the guys out in the front. I went out to talk to him, as I haven't seen him in a bit---he often ends up being here while we are out. I wanted to let him know that all the grapefruit are off the tree, as he had told Mike once that he was waiting for that, before resettling the tree. It just kept leaning further and further to the side. It was all started by Frances, worsened by Jeanne, and the one this past summer didn't help any. Add to that, that most of the fruit seemed to grow on the side that it was already leaning to! The poor tree looked like it might just fall right over. Anyway, he said that was part of the reason he was here--to deal with the tree. He was glad to hear that the fruit was already off, so they could get right to work on it!

So, I took Anne to pt, and we stopped at the base after, as there were some things we needed to get at the commissary. We came home and checked in the back first off, to see how the tree looked. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! You would never know it had ever been leaning/practically falling over. It is straight, level, has been trimmed, and looks absolutely lovely! It is all the more amazing when you realize that one really big root used to be on top of the ground, greatly exposed. There is no sign of it now, it is back in the ground, hidden, as it should be!








Doesn't it look great? It is hard to believe that the branches on the one side almost touched the ground, because of the tilt and the weight of the grapefruit. It looks a little dry back there, they kept saying it was going to rain, so Mike turned the sprinklers off. Then, we didn't get the rain. Oh well. Anyway, you will notice, it is bright and sunny out, almost too sunny for photos. We did have haze/fog again this morning, but not as bad as the fog the past two mornings.

It Was Fog!

In my first post on my knitting blog yesterday, I mentioned that it was cloudy. It turns out, it was fog. I did wonder, as by the time I finished on the computer, it was bright and sunny outside. We had fog again this morning, but it is slowly clearing out.

Not much going on around here. I have been knitting a lot, for the Knitting Olympics, which runs the same time as the Olympics in Torino. I more than completed my self-imposed task of knitting my first sock. I have finished the pair now. They are made of wool and are destined to warm the feet of an orphan!

I took the time yesterday to do my occasional walk around the house, checking on the plants, etc. All seems to be fine, despite the freeze we had last week. Was it just last week? Amazing. Anyway, they are fine. Some of the hibiscus look a little sad, but I think it is mostly still carry over from the hurricane. At least we know they will recover. Despite being a bit under the weather, the hibiscus all have blooms on them! So pretty! The bougainvillea in the back is lush and full, but no flowers. The one in the front is smaller and not nearly as full, but has a good number of flowers on it. Go figure. The jasmine on the trellis is recovering nicely, after being crushed a little when the trellis got knocked down. It seems like there is always something, eh? I am just so glad that we got so little of that last hurricane!

Otherwise, nothing new. Mike still walks, I still nordic track, Anne still tries to recover from the mono and so sleeps a lot. I guess we are pretty boring sometimes! I have been enjoying the Olympics! I saw the end of the Women's Ice Hockey gold medal game, and saw the Canadian women get the gold! And some of the ice dancing last night---it was great to see the US couple get the silver! I think one of the best things is watching part of The Today Show in the morning, and seeing all the local color, etc, as they broadcast from Italy. It sure takes me back to our time there in the 70's. Well, our time in Italy, I mean, not Torino, as we were not there!

Oh! Be sure, if you don't already know about it, to check the new link at the side. Brian and Christine are doing a "Moving back to the States" blog. We sure hope things go smoothly for them!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRIAN!!!!

Happy Birthday to our Olympics baby! I'll never forget your arrival on the last day of the Winter Olympics 1984--after the closing ceremonies! It is amazing to think it was so long ago--haha!

Have a great day, Brian! We all love you!

Mom, Dad, Anne, and Meggie and Mickey!

To The Beach!

A rare photo of Anne! Anne really wanted to get out of the house on Friday (Mike was off work, and so we didn't do any errand running, etc), and she felt like a run to the beach. You see her holding the sock for me, to record said sock's trip to the beach.

Sadly, it was late afternoon when the photo was taken, so the sun was right in her face. You might have figured that from the slight scrunching of said face, and the very dark shading of her glasses---I don't think I have ever seen them get that dark before! If you click on the photo and look behind her in the water, any little dark spots you see are surfers (just their heads showing, as the only ones in this photo are down in the water). They were out in force, and more coming in as we were leaving. This time of year, they are all still wearing the wet suit things, to keep them warm.

We had a nice time, sitting at the beach and watching the waves come in. I worked on the sock and made some more progress on it. The beach didn't seem as humid as usual, which was really nice! There were a number of snow birds out getting some sun, and getting burned, too. The beach has restabilized itself, the big shelf of sand/beach from when the beach was renourished has evened out and there is only the smallest bit of a shelf now to remind us that it was ever there. It makes the beach much nicer again! The sun was getting pretty low in the sky and it was getting chilly, so we didn't stay too long. It did make a nice break in the day though!

What's New?

Not much that I can think of! Our weather is nice again, thank goodness. It is nice and sunny out today. I was going to ask Mike to turn the sprinklers on again, and forgot. Oh well. We didn't get any rain to speak of when it rained the other day, so the yard will be getting thirsty soon.

Anne continues with physical therapy twice a week for her wrist. It seems to be coming along well. She is knitting again, and seems to be knitting longer. A sure sign that her wrist is getting better. Thank goodness! I know she was going crazy when she couldn't knit!

Mike continues to walk quite regularly! That is one lovely benefit of the days getting longer, he has time to go walk when he gets home from work. I got him a stopwatch and a new pedometer, and he has had some fun playing with those.

Brian and Christine, and baby Michelle, are all doing well. I have talked to Brian a couple of times on IM this past week. Not much new there.

I ended up talking to some German ladies (3) in the commissary yesterday! It was fun, as they would be speaking in English, switch to German, then back to English. Thanks to watching "Six Feet Under" in German with Anne so much, I understand a lot more than I can speak. It is amazing how much I understood when they were speaking in German. They did know that I spoke some German, they weren't trying to exclude me! Anne would have loved it! The one lady gave me her card, so maybe we can get together sometime. The funny thing was, two of the ladies were together, and they didn't know the third lady! I would have thought that all the Germans here with US military ties would know each other.

I can't believe that Brian is almost 22, his birthday is on Sunday! An early Happy Birthday to you, Bri!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!

Another photo of our littlest Valentine! She is so cute!

I hope you all have a wonderful and lovely Valentine's Day! I love you all, "FAMILY"!

It really did get down to 29 degrees during the night, according to the weather reports this morning. Brrrr! I am so glad that we weren't out in it, although it would still have been pretty darn cold when Mike left for work this morning. By the time I found a weather report at about 8.30, it was still only about 34 degrees here in Melbourne. That is rapidly changing, thank goodness! As of about 11 a.m., AOL says it is 46 here, and Mike's weather guide on his blog says it is 53. Quite a range there, and hard to say which is correct, or if it is something in between.
In any case, it does seem to indicate that we really do have a good chance of hitting 60 today as predicted. Not that I am really complaining about the cold, although I would rather not have it! Anne talked to a friend in OH on the phone yesterday, and heard that it was 18 degrees there. I am guessing that was not the low?

I haven't gone out to look at the plants for freeze damage yet. I didn't see anything from the windows, but I don't imagine there would be enough damage to be that readily visible? The only good thing is that the below freezing temps were only to hang around our area for an hour or two.

Brian says that his Beetle will be shipped off next Wednesday. A sad time for him, but on the other hand, an indication of how short their time in Germany is, and his car will be waiting for them when they get back to the States!

We have been enjoying watching the Olympics. Anne watched some curling yesterday, really for the first time. I am sure she has seen some in passing, but it isn't something that I enjoy enough to spend much time looking at it! Although, I have long remembered it from when we were in Watertown, and got all those Canadian TV stations! I know that was my first exposure to curling, along with some very interesting Canadian commercials, etc!

What a Cute Baby!

Be sure to check Anne's blog for another photo!

Well, it is up to 50 degrees now, after being below freezing at some point. I was up really early this morning, as I had a doc appt at the base at 7.50 a.m. Mike came in and told me there was ice on the car windows. Yikes! He scraped all the ice, thank goodness---I don't think I have an ice scraper any more! It is supposed to get even colder tonight, into the high 20's. I hope it doesn't get as cold as they think it will. I know it sure won't do the plants any good. The plants look okay so far, those of them that I have seen.

So, I saw the doc about the allergies. He did comment that I could do nothing and get out of jury duty, but didn't offer a note when I mentioned that one would have been needed. And really, I would rather have some more help with the allergies than not get the help and skip jury duty. Oh well. I imagine he would have written a note for me if I had specifically asked, but I didn't. I am still hoping that I won't even have to go in, but I won't know that till the weekend before the 27th, my potential reporting date. Meanwhile, he put me on singulair, to take along with the claritin. Anne takes the singulair for asthma, but it is also used for allergy sufferers too. I was really glad that he put me on this and not one of the nasal spray things. After smelling the flonase when Anne used it, I don't think I could handle that! Anyway, it will be interesting to see if this helps and how much. I killed a little time (waiting for things to open!), stopped at the post office and credit union, Bx, commmissary, and then CVS on the way home! What a morning!

I think a nap is in my future! I woke up almost every hour last night, I guess because I knew I had to get up earlier than usual this morning. Till next time....

Falling Behind.....

That is what I have done with this blog, I see--fallen behind. So, just a quick update.

Anne and I got our hair trimmed on Thursday, for the first time in months and months. Things are looking much better now, and the hair all feels great! haha

On Friday, Anne had pt for her wrist. She is still pretty sore in the wrist, and isn't at all encouraged yet. I hope that will change! We made a couple of stops after that---her appt was at 9.30 a.m.--horrors! Then we came home and she helped me with buttons for my knitting blog. She enjoyed a nice long nap after that! I experimented with different cast-ons, etc, for my knitting olympics project, and finally got a good start.

I have talked to Brian on IM several times the past couple/few days. They are so excited about coming home! As are we all, of course! Yesterday he and Christine put Michelle in the baby cam field so I could see her, as it has been a while. She is moving around so much in her little "army" crawl---shouldn't there be an Air Force crawl for her????---that she is rarely even in line with the baby cam's eye. Oh well, we have to be glad that she is growing and doing all the usual baby things! So, Brian reports that a tooth is starting to come through. And, Mitch is giving up baby bottles, she prefers a sippy cup! She is so precocious! I am going to try to put in a photo from the baby cam, not sure if it will work? Nope. Oh well, I am hoping that Brian will put photos out soon, and we will all see her!

Our cold front came through, so we are currently at 46 degrees, with a projected high of 54. This is after a lovely day yesterday, with a balmy high of 79. Oh well, this isn't supposed to last too long. We had a good rain last night, so the lawn will be happy!

Well, I must go, and update my knitting blog too. Take care and all that!

Busy, Busy

Well, I have been busy, trying to get caught up on things. I made some phone calls this morning that needed to be made. All okay there.

I talked to Brian on IM today. He is off TDY, but was wise enough to take the laptop with him, and lucky enough that the hotel has internet connections! Hurrah! He is at Grafenwoehr, which he says is in Bavaria, near the Germany/Czech border. He says it has been very snowy and blah there. They were scheduled to return home on Friday, but will probably leave Thursday instead, as they will complete the work sooner than expected. I am sure Christine and Michelle are really glad about that! Also, he should have orders when he gets home! For Texas, so everyone is happy. It turns out that it is pretty well centrally located as far as all the far flung family is concerned. Oh, also, he told Anne the other day that he hit a deer while driving the van. Fortunately, he only broke a headlight. I don't think I ever mentioned, that Anne reports that deer in Germany are very little animals, more the size of a large dog. They look exactly the same as ours, just much smaller. We figure it is an adaptation because of reduced grazing and feeding areas there?

I took Anne for her appt at her family docs today, and as you will have read on the Brain Blog, she does have an enlarged spleen. She isn't in the acute stage of mono, but is in the recovery stage. The nurse-practitioner is recommending that the disability be extended for at least another month, and she will see Anne again in a month to check on her and re-evaluate.

I called and made an appt to see my doc, and I now have an appt for Monday. I have been really worried about the jury duty, because of the allergies--which seem to continue to get worse and worse. Whereas I can move to another seat in a movie theatre to get away from perfumed people, and can physically hold my noise to avoid smells while shopping, etc, I will be quite "stuck" if I were to get picked for jury duty. I really do feel that it is more than time to actually be seen specifically for the allergies and see if there isn't more that can be done for me. So, we will see.

I am still keeping up with the nordic track and stretching, and I feel a lot better for it all. I am actually a little bit more limber, which can't hurt! Mike has been walking a lot and is doing a great job with that.

Not much else to report, except that Brian says our little baby is "Army" crawling (on her belly!) these days, and is sitting a little bit by herself. What a little trouper!

Life Goes On....

That is what they say, right? For us, it goes on and on, and there seems to be no end to the continuing saga of Anne's health. And it sure isn't her fault. It isn't like there was anything she did that brought on any of the things happening to her. I figure we were just lucky that each and every one was found, and in a timely manner. You hear such horror stories sometimes, of people with medical problems who go months and years without them finding out what the problem is. So, we are very thankful!

The rain is gone for a while, thank goodness! Don't ask me why, but in the Orlando area on Friday--the first day of the big rains--there were over 100 accidents on the roads. Between the speeders and the tail-gaters, it is a wonder there weren't more accidents, I guess. We are having below normal temps all week, which means it is still really nice out, just not as warm as it usually would have been. We have no complaints.

Today I got the 60 CD's that will fit into it put into the CD changer! I had them sorted and a list made, and all printed out too, but we hadn't gotten the CD's installed yet. That is now done! It is amazing to think we have enough to fill it, and we actually have a few left over. I remember back when the CD players and CD's first came out, and you could barely find anything on CD. Back when they weren't sure if it was something that would take off, or if it would fizzle. Now the old albums are collector items, or only fit for the trash, depending on what it is. Changes!

I talked about Anne's visit to Dr. Greenspoon's office today on the Brain Blog, so I won't repeat any of it here. Just be sure to go take a look, I updated it first.

We made a trip to the base after that, did a little bit of shopping, put gas in the car---$2.33 at the base gas station, got my new prescription for migraine meds (eventually!), etc. Oh, stopped at the post office too, and mailed a box to Brian's!

Oh, Mike and I picked all the rest of the grapefruit on Sunday. I am glad, as while it was raining cats and dogs Saturday morning, I had visions of the tree falling over. We have 3 half-filled brown grocery bags full of grapefruit. I will put some in the mail, and the rest will go in the fridge, off to other people, etc. Now Joel and his elves can come and reset the tree, and hopefully it will put a stop to this leaning stuff!

I am glad we will have a day of no scheduled activities tomorrow, it will be a chance to try to get more done around the house. I have plenty of sorting, giving away, putting away, etc, to do in the few weeks before the bookcases are to arrive!

It Was a Cold and Rainy Night.....

Well, it is rainy anyway! It is in the 60's, so it does seem chilly. It was supposed to get into the 70's---the mid 70's even---but I doubt that it managed it. There was/is a big storm system coming through and it still isn't done with us yet. We were under a tornado watch for hours, most of the morning, and on till 3 p.m. I didn't hear of any going through! Maybe we all got lucky?

I made a trek out during a lull in the rain this morning, and went to order more bookcases! Finally, we got around to it. I had measured and made sure that all would fit in the places we wanted them, etc. I found the receipt from last time, so we could get exactly the same all over again. It really did make it easy. It was interesting too, in that when I got there, I was helped by the same guy who did up the order the first time, and he even remembered it. It was all very easy, and we will have more bookcases soon! Well, some weeks down the road, but soon is a relative notion, isn't it?

On the weather front, when Anne and I came out of the commissary, I noticed thunder rumbling. Great fun. At least the rain wasn't horribly heavy, at that time! It sounds like it has really picked up again, and I am glad that we are safely home, in for the night, and can relax!