It's Monday and people are making my day!

So first thing I do is check my mail and my sister has some wonderful pictures of my niece sitting in my mail box. Her little girl is stunning! I can see her having problems when she's older keeping the boys away! I cannot tell you how much she looks like her mum when she was her age. It's definitely strange for me to watch her grow up I can't believe she is going to be three next year, I think a lot of it has to do with me not having children of my own. Not that I'm complaining.

Then I get an email from one of our friends wanting our address for a wedding invitation. Course the last time I saw him was at our own wedding last year! Guess I'm going to have to go shopping for an outfit! Provided of course the dates work :)

Then to top it all off I'm checking out my blog, given I try to put in something a couple of times a week and lo I spied a comment from the Mighty 'Mur Lafferty' wow, talk about well yes. I don't want to sound like a little school kid (I'm surely not that) but it did make my day. Thanks for putting a smile on my face on a Monday morning that's hard to do! So just because she said something nice I'm going to give the link again for her book, you can also subscribe and download from podiobooks the link to which is at the bottom of the page. Seriously help support these guys they do a great service.

So for anyone actually out there reading this blog, and clearly there are people are other than just our close family, go check out the links are in this blog. I'm constantly listening to podcasts and looking for great stories out there and when I find one worthy I'll post what I think about it.

Which I guess is about time I posted about the latest one I'm listening to Daughter of the Son, definitely compelling and a great story weaver. I have a feeling at the end I'm going to be left wanting more.

And if you need a good book I recommend 'The Sharing Knife'. I so rarely recommend books but I managed to finish off the first volume over the weekend (yep I actually found time while cat sitting to sit down and read). Wonderful characters and a great sense of humor, I was chuckling my heart out and kept having to explain to my poor husband just why I was laughing so much.

Is it really Friday tomorrow already?!

This week is going past at lightening speed I am floored that it's Friday tomorrow already and we haven't done that much really.....I mean a little golf and a little socializing and suddenly the week has just flown by without as much as a hello. End of next month we will be doing some house hunting in earnest. Something also tells me this weekend is going to go by far too quickly as well what with doing the pet sitting and plans I think my g'friend is concocting.

Oh and while I'm at it anyone what a cat or two? They are house trained em purr good company..? The downside is the playing with cupboard doors, and windows in the middle of the night...I was certainly wishing I had a water gun at some point last night.

And I will mention here what is the attraction to my legs?! I go to sleep on the bed with Lani and Jagr, she's curled up against my leg as per usual he's just happily sleeping...I have to get up and I realized I had cold feet and Lani was sleeping on the covers in such a way that I was getting no foot cover. So I moved to the sofa mostly to warm up, leaving both of them on the bed. I must have woken up about an hour or so later only to find Lani has moved from the bed ignoring Jagr completely and come over to the sofa and is back down by my legs again...course now I have no room to stretch out again so back I go to the bed...and back she follows me and curls up with me Jagr moves to the sofa and she won't even give him another thought preferring to curl up between my legs, I guess I get to have a constant bed partner even when he's busy off working /sigh. I love them dearly but sometimes!!!!

About time I checked in

So I lost miserably last night at "Pirates of the Caribbean Game of Life". It's a little different from your normal game of life and we all had fun picking on the person with the Black Pearl. Personally I just acted the banker let other people spin the wheel for me and kept giving my money back and forth with my friend's son, I was trying to be nice really.

Totally forgot that my friend cannot handle pepper's so showed up dutifully with three dishes all containing peppers one of which was nothing but peppers. Ooops! I'll remember that next time, at least she can eat and will eat the dishes containing a small amount of peppers. All the left overs will be recycled for tonights picnic at the concert in Livermore, should be fun.

The flood waters keep rising in UK, wow I don't miss that. Although the weirdest thing is I seem to remember as a child more rainy days than I had as a teenager. Then again there is rain and then there is RAIN. I think the folks back at home have had more than enough. Guys I'm thinking about you and well you can always pass some of that water this way we didn't get any where near enough rain fall last year definitely a little on the parched side.

Spare me the Potter hype...

Ok, I admit it I am looking forward to getting my copy of the final Harry Potter. Thank you to the in-laws that was one of the books I choose for my birthday gift. But the last week it's been constantly in the news this one has shipped it early, the review is out early...it's just a book! Ok so it's the end of an epic series but purlease. I'll ready it I won't post the ending it's not fair on other people we all know that 2 of the characters are killed off, I will not be another killjoy I will not.

So I was listening to an audio book on my way to work this morning I had to laugh. The author had been able I guess with permission to incorporate another podcaster's characters into her book. Talk about hilarious, again I won't spoil it but listen to Heaven by Mur Lafferty for a surprise, I certainly was.

For all those guys out there creating podcasts putting your books and writing and works out on the web thank you! You have no idea how much of a difference you have made to my commute.

New Stuff Can't Wait!

So Jagr's new hot sauce of the month arrived today, that stuff looks lethal! I actually searched on the bottle for a warning. It reads....
'The Thinking Man's Pain'
if that doesn't make you stop and think about trying this nothing will. We will let you know how it actually tastes and if we survived.

Also in the mail was the oblivion expansion cd and the guides to go with it. I think I'm in for a lot of fun over the weekend, I actually can't wait. But I will not give into temptation. Playing any kind of computer games during the week is a bad combination with work, it's far too easy to get caught up in what I'm doing and not get to bed on time, and I cannot stay up late and get up at 5:00 am and actually drive safely.

Any ho the next weekend is going to be pretty busy. I have a hair apt, and I must make sure I am prepared for a long week next week. Monday night I think is going to be golf night, which means golf for Jagr in the afternoon followed up by dinner round at my g'friend's. Then Tuesday I'm making him prepare a picnic for the evening outside with live music and wonderful company. Should be fun albeit a bit knackering, once in awhile tho it's work forgoing a little sleep just to enjoy wonderful company. If I think about it I'll try to remember to take the camera with me and take some snap shots.

And we are already halfway through another week closer to being able to think about moving. Yay! We can't wait!

I also apparently miss all the fun stuff with the cats. Josie yesterday decided she would have one of those days, Jagr swears she is going senile. For 3 hours yesterday they were both acting loopy. At one point Josie was up on the bookshelf howling at goodness knows what, at another point Lani was hiding in the laundry basket waiting to pounce out at Josie. Course as Josie walks by instead of her pouncing out she managed to tip the basket over clothes and all, which ended up with cats laundry baskets all on top of each other. Add to that Lani was just yelling and mewing trying to get some attention from him. Never think our lives are dull!

All change (again)

Eventually my husband is going to make up his mind which shift he's going to work on I think. He's changed his mind so many times over the last couple of weeks about switching off the graveyard to the swing shift it's not even funny!

Of course most of this has been due to the possibility of a promotion or not... We agreed longtime if the promotion came up that he would stay on the graveyard and take it because it would benefit us greatly, then it looked like the guy wasn't going to retire for another 2 or 3 years. Well what would be the point of staying on graveyard? Then the guy turns round and says oh no it's ok I can still retire in a couple of months. He's part of a different union so he won't have to pay the large cobra medical payments that would have eaten up most of his pension. Not sure if this is good news or bad news, it means for the next few months he's going to have to put up with the lousy schedule. On the bright side it means more overtime which in turn means the more money we can put aside for moving and other expenses and so forth. The downside is we have to continue to put up with the neighbour from hell and interrupted sleep until we can move. Then again we are already halfway through July one more month after this and we can do some serious looking around for a new place to live. I want to be out of our current place during September. I think given the savings we have we can afford at least to do that. Overall financially we are better off with him on the graveyard. Ok so the hours are unsociable he's going to be stuck on that shift for a good 5 years or more but long term that benefits us. We can get out of debt a lot quicker and then start to actually save up for our own place. Oh and replace eventually his car. I do want to at least get rid of one of our debt payments tho before we replace that car. Unless of course we manage to save up the full price of the car at which point it won't be an issue. Then again we need a vacation damit!

An evening with Friends

If I have never mentioned it I will now I LOVE my hometown. Yep, after all these years in the states I can finally say this is my hometown and I really sincerely love living here, no really I mean it. I was driving home last night and I get a call from my girlfriend telling me to come down to the town center and sit outside and listen to the free open air concert. I was tired and almost didn't but something just compelled me and I'm so glad I did. I left early as James wasn't expecting it and we already had plans for dinner. But I met up again with another friend and we just sat on the grass sipping wine, watching the kids and having a good time. It was also not too hot last night so I had no fears of sunburn :) Anyway we have plans to meet up again in 2 weeks for that concert, I'm going to get Jagr along and I'm thinking of having him do a picnic fare for us seeing as it will be his day off. Must call my girlfriends later and tell them that.

Who needs kids....

My sister is routinely woken up in the night by her daughter (left). We don't plan on having any off-spring but do have a couple of pests (er I mean cats). I love our 'daughter's dearly' but at 1:30 am I do not appreciate one of them demanding attention. I hear you saying throw her out! Well they are indoor only moggies so the alternative of throwing them out of the bedroom at night, means sweating on the bed and then! I have to put up with her clawing at the door instead of romping around under the bed covers trying to get me to pet her, and walking over me if that doesn't work. I love her sleeping with me but this middle of the night pay attention to me I'm not sure about!

A dinner to remember, English Pea Salad, Smoked Pork Loin Chop followed up by the Chocolate and Raspberry Dessert. Not to mention the sweet verse given to me by my husband for the occasion (I managed not to cry at the table). Got to say just eating that meal brought back memories. I haven't had an English Pea since I was a teen still living back in my Native homelands. I remember my sitting outside on the patio of my parent's home shelling peas for Sunday lunch (wow that was an awful long time ago!). Then the raspberries that were to die for, again my parent's had a patch of raspberry plants in their back garden the taste just brought back vivid memories of standing in the patch picking off the ripe raspberries and eating them. Such wonderful old memories and such beautiful new ones being with me wonderful husband.

Then of course to top it all off I had a phone call earlier in the evening from one of my friend's. This person is such a warm wonderful person she just touches your heart, always has something nice to say about you. I love spending time with her and in her company, and she always makes me feel wonderful but humble at the same time. These are rare qualities in a person and I want to never abuse this friendship. I will greatly treasure the jewelry set she gave to me. I will have to find a way to thank her properly I think.

Lets see, I know I haven't written much for a few days even with the holiday in between. But then again it's not like we have done much either. The temperatures went up and we stayed in...camping that ac like there is no tomorrow. At least it cooled down overnight enough to be able to sleep eventually. Of course I have a day off and still feel like poop the next day.

Bday time again

Ah well it's that time of year again a time to realize you are not getting any younger. However what an amazing year it's been. I am enjoying my job. Oh and must not forget that I got married again this year to a wonderful man, who I know is very much in love with me and I with him. We have our cats we are trying to get healthier. We have lovely friends. Now if only we can get Jagr's work schedule sorted out so that we can spend time other than week nights together that would be the icing on the cake.

We have our dreams and our hopes. And this birthday I at least get dinner at my favourite restaurant unlike last year :) If you are ever out in Livermore and want to indulge our choice is Wente. I love their menu's and the atmosphere at the winery, and tonight it's supposed to be a lovely evening as well not too hot just the way I like it!

Let's just hope I don't have to work overtime tonight to help my boss catch up. I can see that now honestly. Accounts payable is a mess, and it's the end of the month and I don't have half the stuff I'm supposed to yet. It's going to be a long week accounting wise I can see that now.

Anyway I have my cards and I'm looking forward to a quiet romantic evening with my husband.