"I Just Want To Go Home."

Cheryl had to go back to the hospital on Thursday night.
She was having difficulty breathing. Thinking the doctors would just change her medication, she was upset to hear she had to stay until Monday...at the earliest.
She has a blood clot in her pulmonary artery and a touch of pneumonia in her left lower lobe.
We have to look into whether or not she will be able to fly for our vacation in Sept. It looks like it's not gonna happen and we'll have to postpone the trip.
While that's disappointing, we would rather her be healthy when we go. We can wait.

Happy Birthday Eva

I wanted to wish my friend, Eva, a very happy birthday.
So, I am sharing a couple of pictures from our trip to the Grand Canyon.
I have many fond memories of that trip.
Like getting up at 3 AM to make the drive to Arizona before the desert started to heat up.
Like when it started to pour rain after our rain dance on the rim of the canyon.
Like how hard it was to get up at the crack of dawn to start hiking down that trail towards the bottom of the canyon.
Like making Eva, Marcy Darcy and Richard think I actually knew the names of the rock formations simply because I had taken a geology course in the early 80's.
Like how dang hard it was walking back up that same canyon trail, in 110 degree heat,carrying about a bizillion gallons of water in our packs.

Like getting up early to see the sunrise over the canyon. Wait...I didn't do that. But the rest of them did. I slept in. But, I heard all about it. Therefore, I feel like I saw it.
Like being so sore, I literally had to be helped out of bed the next day.
And, for 3 days after.



That hike was about the hardest thing I have ever done.

But, all in all, it was a great time, with good friends.

Thanks for the memories, Eva.
I miss you! Happy Birthday!

Hot Enough For Ya?

Man, it was hot here this past weekend.
How hot was it?
Hot enough to have to run to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream.
Here, my favorite boy shows off his multi-colored tongue.
They say Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors.
But, if you ask Dylan, he'll say it's 48. ;)

Can You Say "Salsa"?

Fred graciously loaned some of his land to grow tomatoes for me. These are the 12 plants I bought for the project. Six better boys (or were they early girls?) and six celebrity tomato plants.
This is the plot of ground that he cleared for my plants. I live in an apt. So, every year, I have to beg and plead with someone to grow tomatoes for me. I never expected someone to give up this much land for my homegrown tomato addiction.

OK.
So, I had to twist his arm a bit.
I may have even had to blackmail him a little. What's the harm in that?
A small price to pay for me to keep his secrets from being posted on my blog.

Aren't they looking healthy?
Getting taller and taller. It's that inland empire soil (or the miracle grow) that keeps 'em happy.



And, look at this......
One of the plants is already bearing fruit!
You have no idea how happy this makes me.
Briana and I were just discussing yesterday all of the ways we are going to use these little red jewels. She likes to refer to them as "our" tomatoes.
Since she shared her Lompoc strawberries with me, I will share my early girls (or was it better boys?) with her.

With 12 plants, there should be enough to go around!
Thanks to Farmer Fred for all his hard work!

McCain's Double Talk Express

How can you possibly trust this man?

Goodbye

We had a goodbye lunch for Lydia last week. She is leaving the Rehab Unit for the Palliative Care Team. We will miss her as much as we miss Carmen. She left us to go to another unit in the hospital. Good luck to both of them.

Bonus: Where's Fred??

CABG

My sister, Cheryl, had double bypass surgery last Thursday. She came through it fine and went home today from the hospital.
She had been having chest pain since around December.
She said the only reason she went to the doctor in the first place was because of me.
We are planning a trip to Greece in the Fall. She said she didn't want me to get mad at her if she had to walk slow or take a lot of breaks.
I guess this is one time being the bitchy younger sister finally paid off.
If she had not gone to the hospital, who knows what could have happened?
Now, she is on the road to recovery and we're looking forward to a great vacation in the Mediterranean.

War For Oil

And, I thought we were there to liberate the Iraqi people.
Weren't we going to show those backward people what democracy was all about?
Weren't we told we were going into Iraq to root out evil terrorists?
Weren't we there to destroy those weapons of mass destruction that were surely going to be released on us by that madman, Saddam?

Nope. Turns out we were there for oil, that is. Iraqi Tea.
And, I'm still paying $4 a gallon.

Napkin Man

Last year, Ryan became Napkin Man. Dylan was really upset by the transformation. He was just a little too young for the gag. He didn't understand it was just Daddy fooling around.
This year, he seems old enough to realize that Napkin Man is really just his old man with a napkin and glasses on his face.
Thanks for the laugh, Ry!