Well, it's not going to kill you

Marissa Elena

It's that a beautiful name.  Marissa or the Dancing Queen as I call her is 16 today.  She's beautiful, smart, funny, talented and STUBBORN.  Also tall and slender I sometimes call her my little string bean.  We're heading to her favorite restaurant tonight so she can eat tofu. 

I missed most of her babyhood because my sister and her ex-husband lived in Texas and Kentucky.  He was in the army so they went where they were told.  Fortunately he left the army and they moved back here to California when she was 4.

But I did get to visit a few times.  One of the visits was just after she started walking.  There was no holding this kid back.  She was going to walk no matter what.   If you tried to pick her up when she didn't want it she would make herself so stiff as a board and slip through your arms.  I trick she learned from her mother by the way.

She's been dancing since she was 3, ballet, tap, jazz, etc.  She's now up on pointe  with her height, long slender legs and arms it's an elegant thing to see.  Yes we've sat through many a dance recital over the years.

Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie

Missing in action

Five pounds gone, just gone.  I stopped getting on the scale daily because it was beginning to frustrate me.  Friends mentioned on Friday night that I looked skinnier.  My jeans have been feeling more loose lately but I didn't really think much about the fact.
This morning I hopped on the scale and wow.  A total of 35 pounds now!

The joys of landlording and why the phone is being held hostage

We have several rental units on our property which when all updated will support us (mostly) in the style we'd like to become accustomed.  Today one of our tenants informed us that she had plumbing problems.  The search led to a full septic tank, bummer, that was causing the problem.  LR called a 24 hour plumbing service about 2 pm.  It's now 8:30, we haven't heard from them and so the phone is being held hostage until they return our call.

This reminds me of the time the Golden Gate bridge was held hostage.  We were on our way to San Mateo to spend the night because we had an early morning flight to somewhere.
There was a man with a gun.  WHAT a gun, we have no problems with guns in our country.  Anyway there was a man with a gun threatening suicide, hello most people jump off the bridge,  so they CHP stopped all traffic across the bridge.  OK I admit that was rude the man was in obvious mental pain.  There is more to the story, they did get the guy before he could shoot himself, but it's not very interesting.

Don't ask me how I got there but I did.  It was interesting leap.

blogger & blogspot.com

Does anyone hate these sites as much as I do?  I've spent have the day trying to post comments on both sites and they BOTH keep rejecting my password.  It's extremely annoying.

That's it for the day just extremely annoyed.

In other news today

I saw the ever wonderful Charlie today so he could examine his handy work and remove one lingering stitch.  He pronounced everything just fine so I'll probably just be seeing him and BCC meetings and events.

We then drove to Los Altos to attend the funeral for the father of a dear friend of mine.  We were roommates almost 30 , gasp!, years ago.  Her father was one of the most kind and patient people I've ever known.  My favorite memory of him is the painting of my bedroom when I moved in.  I wanted a certain shade of blue.  John patiently added white to the blue, I kept saying not the right shade yet.  We continued in this manner until the correct shade was conjured up.

His death has brought up a few issues.  Carol is now an orphan, if one can be an orphan at 54, her mother died 12 years ago.  This means that when my mom, a very healthy soon to be 80, dies I'll be an orphan.  The brings the question, can you be an orphan when you're a grown up?  Any opinions?

The Chair is in charge

Today was my first Council meeting as Chair, the power people, the power!!!

Ok, so it's just a little power and mostly involves keeping the meeting moving.  But I can dream.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

Today is the one year anniversary of my LAST chemo treatment.  That's what I call an anniversary.

The People I love

Among them are both my sisters but right now one of them is pissing the absolute hell out of me.  Our Mom and her twin will be 80 in December and I just found out my sister and cousin are heading to Italy in December.  My first thought was "that bitch!'  however Mom was at the table so it didn't leave my mouth.

I love my sister, she's kind, loving, and supportive to ME, not so much our other sister.  The two of them had a falling out 9 years ago and while the feud has lessened to a point, it's still in place mostly on this sister's part.

I still cannot believe it.  I haven't talked to her because it's just not worth the effort to deal with the situation.  She'll have her justification because she always does, because she and her immediate family come first damn anyone else.

So I guess my younger sister and my aunt's remaining children will put something together but what the hell!

Christopher

Christopher or Kerkistopher as his younger brother called him for a while is my nephew. He is my sister Joan's oldest child.  He turned 19 on Saturday!  How did this happen?  Bear with me as I reminisce.

I remember when he was 6 months old crawling across the floor as we decorated for my sister Jan's wedding. And when he did this neat trick before he could talk, although I swear the child was born speaking in sentences, he would point to himself then to the person he wanted to hold him.  Very clever for a 6 month old.

When he was 2 we were having Easter brunch at his parent's house.  The computer had been moved off the table so we could load it with food (we're part Italian there's ALWAYS food).  We're all sitting on the floor and out of the corner of my ear I hear "no, bad" repeated several times.  He was dying to use the computer but knew he wasn't allowed, apparently he was reminding himself.  Shortly there after he was and to this very day is addicted to computers.

When he was 3 he called and informed us that he was having a dinner party for his birthday.  Then there was the time that same year I was tempted to drown him.  Fortunately Larry should up before I could complete the act (it's a joke people).  I could go on and on but I won't.

Suffice it to say the he has grown into a most delightful young man.  Sweet, smart, loving, and giving.  He will do anything to help anyone.  The bond he has with my mom is absolutely incredible

Happy Birthday Chris, I love you very much
Aunt Cathy.

Another thing I forgot

My mind is missing for lack of sleep because of hot flashes. While I was having my six month check-up Friday we were talking about said flashes .  As I said before the more weight I lose the worse they seem to get.  Even though my cancer was hormone negative I still can't take hormones because it may increase my risk of recurrence.  The ever wonderful Amy came up with a drug, at low doses,  that's been shown to decrease hot flashes !!!  It's an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drug, who knew?

I took my first dose today and am waiting for a science to happen.