wittenlover

So yesterday was "May the 4th be with you" and today is "Revenge of the 5th" for us Star Wars nerds. Mew (kitty in my picture) goes in for her semi-annual checkup this morning. We check her thyroid and bp twice a year since she's a senior kitty and is taking daily maintenance meds for both. She's not happy with me right now because, in order to safely handle the drive (we've discovered her heart rate spikes badly on longer than about a 10 minute ride), I have to give her a dose of gabapentin 2 hours before we leave. I know she hates the way it makes her feel, so I feel terrible giving it to her, with my only comfort being that it's better than the alternative for her. [If we could draw her blood remotely somehow, I'd totally spare her the "fun".] The gaba takes 8-12 hours to wear off after I administer it to her, so I do my best to set her appointments on my work from home days to minimize disruption to my work while allowing close monitoring of her to keep her safe and to make sure it actually does wear off properly. When she's feeling good otherwise, it does tend to wear off closer to the 8 hour range than the 12, thankfully. In other news, my "sister from another mister" mom's celebration of life has been scheduled for 5/24. This will be while us other two of the 3 musketeers are local, since that's Charlotte race week (this was not intentionally set up that way - just happened to be the best date for the family overall) so we will be able to be there for/with her as she says her last goodbye to her mama. In the meantime, we told her to keep us posted on how much of the race week stuff she wants to join us for, as we've committed to making the drive between her house in SC and Charlotte (roughly 2 hours each way) multiple times as needed. It'll be worth every minute and every penny we spend on gas to support her any way we can while we're that close.

As any race fan knows... This. Is. May. Bring on the annual Memorial Day weekend run to Charlotte with a helping of watching the Indy 500 on TV before we take our seats at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 600 more miles of racing. One of my "sisters from another mister" unexpectedly and tragically lost her mom to a heart attack yesterday morning. She is one that is always with me in Charlotte and is now VERY much counting the days until we are together. Our group of "three musketeers" are all feeling the loss today.

At this rate, I'd need a full on brush mower if I did a no-mow May... The dandelions are as big as my cats already!

Anyone else have "fun" trying to get a Switch 2 preordered last night/today online? I tried to grab one on Best Buy site last night but got white screened when I reached the "front" of the line the first time and they were gone by the time I got back to the front of the line the second time. Oof. Accomplished in-person pre-order at my local GameStop on my lunch break today. The location I went to had 45 total pre-orders available, 30-ish MK World bundles, the rest plain consoles. I missed the bundle by a few people but got a plain console and went ahead and ordered the physical copy of MK World to go with it. Once mine was reserved, only three plain console preorders remained. Crazy.

Started the week with the news this morning that a dear friend has passed away. She's been in hospice at home for the last couple of weeks. She was like a mom/grandma to me, as she was roughly my dad's age (80+) so, while not a shock, still a loss. Doubt very seriously that we have enough room in our church to hold all the folks that loved her dearly. As I told another of our friends when we got the news today, that is a great "problem" to have (to be that loved). Her name was Linda. I was blessed to call her a friend for over 25 years.

Oof... As if last Sunday in my store wasn't wretched enough (we were supposed to close at 6 and be gone by 6:30 - last customers finally left store at 6:30 and we didn't clock out till after 8). I saw the email about the Torrid Cash "after party" going on this weekend and just wanted to punch a wall. smh LOL

Watch out for the fools today! My birthday month has begun (and that's no foolin')! The birthday reward emails have begun rolling in so I am starting to plan which ones I can (and want to) take advantage of. Aside from that, as the weather warms, I am starting to plan out what I intend to plant/try to grow outside this year. Romaine, leaf lettuces, spinach, dill, and parsley are back in the plan, as all have done well in my garden boxes these past two years. Cucumbers have been a struggle, as I've battled fungus attacks. However, I am enclosing part of an existing tubular structure behind my house to turn it into a greenhouse of sorts and will try again to grow some cukes, knowing that the dang fungus is airborne and the enclosure might help me fend it off better. (If anyone has any suggestions on the battle front here, I'm listening!) As for flowers, I had some solid luck with what I called a "red, white, and blue corner" last year - I intend to repeat that with similar color scheme this year - maybe reverse color order. Last year, I did short (height) red, mid white, and tall (stalk flower style) blue. Thinking short blue (purple), mid white again, and stalk red this time around. Front porch will once again get hanging baskets - not sure what flowers just yet - just going to see what strikes my fancy when I make my trip to my local greenhouse. Hope my GDer family has been surviving the severe weather that's been crossing the country lately. I know we're due for another round here tomorrow. Color me thrilled (not).

March came roaring in with an $800 plumbing repair for the house. Blah. On the other hand, I leave for Vegas next week for the annual sojourn westward. Looking forward to the week with my "sisters from another mister". I bake the pile of cookies for our pit crew guys this Saturday. May have to have them start forking over moolah for those eggs... LOL

We were thrilled to hit 20* here today...

Most around me are closing. I don't hit Joann's often but I will miss them still for the times I did find stuff I needed there.

Happy early birthday! I have a dear friend who is also a Valentine's baby. Baking him his fave cookies and shipping them his way later this week.

Yes. SOOOOO many people don't realize just how much you can do in Vegas without it involving gambling (or drinking, as our group chooses not to partake of alcohol). There are so many interesting things to do, including some that we -still- haven't gotten around to (like the Neon Boneyard/Museum) that are truly worth the time if you enjoy those kinds of things. For an aquarium lover like me, Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef is a must visit every trip, for example.

We go out west for a week. Tuesday-Tuesday, usually.

Happy February, y'all! Some might recall I got rear-ended right before Thanksgiving (can't remember who all I told at this point). Well, I decided to not go the insurance claim route for a number of reasons. Instead, I am using a trusted small business auto repair shop (owner's name was given to me by both my dad and my insurance agent - though they don't know one another, so had no way of knowing they were recommending the same person to me - ha!). Since my car was drivable with the damage, I had the flexibility to wait until he could accommodate the needed work in his schedule. Well, the time has finally arrived! My car is in his capable hands as of this past Saturday morning and he expects to have the work done before the weekend. Good stuff. I am excited to have Blue (as I call her) back in one piece and looking good again soon. In other news, I am counting down to the annual Vegas run, coming up here in about a month or so. We've got all of our travel arrangements booked and can't wait to get back out that way for our first race trip of the year. That also means it'll be cookie baking time again soon for my pit crew buddies. Good times. Typically when we go out that way, we take one day for a "field trip" that alternates between the south rim of the Grand Canyon and the greater LA area. This year would have been an LA year but, with the recent fires and resulting devastation, we're heading back to the canyon. We know we'll enjoy it and the last thing we want to do is be in anyone's way or end up in a bad spot ourselves by trekking anywhere near the fire ravaged areas there in CA.

Same. While not quite to felony level with my job, similar legal limitations exist for me as well.