Lost & Isolated

It’s not that I’m not spiritual, its that I don’t purposefully think about it on a regular basis. I wish I did. Maybe if I were around others who were, more often, I would. I remember when my friend Leah still lived here & how much my spiritual side was an active part of the rest of me. She had a metaphysical shop for a couple years where she had weekly ‘meeting’ nights. She also was a personal friend so we got to hang at her house anytime. I miss her.

When we did that move to Florida thing last year (2010) it was kinda nice to be near my other Pagan friend, Krista. She is very much into the whole witch thing. Was nice to be around her for that. There were a few others around down there as well ...

Now, back here, living alone with just my man, I feel kind of isolated from all of it. Sure, I can go online & connect with other like minded folks. But somehow that’s just not the same. We do have a pagan yahoo group for our area that I started years ago. But again, we’re spread out & not very active. Out of sight, out of mind it seems.

I miss my pagan connections. I miss paying closer attention to the calendar & all the little pagan holidays. Perhaps with this being the beginning of the new year on the pagan wheel, I can make a better attempt to get back to my spirit side …

random update

 Since the last real (personal)entry, we’ve gone down to visit Dad & Neva. It was a nice visit. We had not gone down there since they moved so it was cool to see their new home & a bit of the area. They have a nice house, newer than the one they had here & it seems to fit them. Dad took us to an area winery that he & Neva enjoy going to. We had lunch there in a beautiful setting. The food & wine were both good too. I look forward to going back in warmer weather when they have the courtyard open & fountains running. That part looked so peaceful. The roads around there tho are insane to a newcomer. We were so lost trying to go somewhere on our own. In all, it was a nice visit.

I keep thinking about the gym. I think I’m about ready to just go. I hope they have some sort of help to get you going & set up on a routine of sorts, or something. It would suck if we had to pay extra for that. Guess I got spoiled with the last place. We’ll see where it goes. I’ve thought a bit more on who to ask to come with me since the daughter is working nights & doesn’t really have the time to go with me. It may take more thought than I first thought. LOL

My life is pretty boring these days. I keep the house clean, food cooked, laundry done, etc. Other than that, I’m not doing much. I am working on getting coupons organized to better share with people. Exciting huh? I watch my soaps, look for work, surf the internet. I need some more human interaction. But I don’t wanna be around depressing people. I certainly don’t need that.

Now that I’ve gotten a handle on our changing food & the coupons, & the group, I need to get our taxes done. More exciting stuff. Not. I guess the biggest reason I’m not looking forward to it is the fact I did not keep the most organized records for the bit of business I had. So I have to gather all that before I get started. The basic stuff is easy, that one form is the booger. Then I also have to see about the daughter. Since she lives with us, is a full time student & all that, we may be able to claim her one last time.

I got to talk to my boyfriend down in FL night before last. It was so nice. We chatted for about an hour. He had just gotten out of the hospital, again. 2 weeks this time. They found a spot & he wasn’t taking any chances so he told them to take it out. Now, there is nothing left in him that even remotely looks like it could develop into another spot. Cancer sucks ass. He sounded more like himself while we talked. When we visited in November, it felt like that might have been our last time ever seeing each other. I know we all cried afterward. I love that guy so much, it would tear my heart apart to lose him to such an ugly disease. I have kept him in my good thoughts for years now. I hope that someone has heard me.

Today

Today… our nation watched a new president take his oath to finish the legalities of getting into the white house for the next 4 years. Those who know me know that I am not a fan. We’ll see what happens.

Today… I spent some time going thru bills to pay, filing papers away & tossing out stuff that has outlived its purpose. Well, by tossing out I actually mean tossing into the recycle pile. 95% of what I went thru went there. Now I have a few neat piles that need attention on the side part of my desk. A sales tax form for Nicole’s Visions, the sales records to go thru & add up, a jury duty form the hubby has to finish filling out & a growing pile of coupons. It looks much better than it did this morning.

Today… I did another load of laundry. It seems never ending anymore. One of the things on the list of going natural is to find out what works to gets clothes clean. And soft too. I’m looking forward to getting into a house so we can see about having a clothes line. I’d like that. I miss the smell of line dried clothes. Especially from spring to fall.

Today… I feel better in my mind. I’ve had days where I feel like I have no purpose. Like it doesn’t matter if I do anything. Today was a bit better. Maybe it was the sunshine the other day. Maybe it’s the fact I get to see Amy Wednesday & Cindy on Thursday. Maybe it’s because after doing the bill stuff it doesn’t look as bad as we thought. Maybe it’s because I’m slowly moving forward in several directions. Maybe it’s because after cleaning up my desk I feel more in control of my life. Or… Maybe it’s just because I know I have such a loving & devoted hubby who always knows just when I need to hear I Love You.

Plans, plans & more plans

So here I am again. It’s after 10 & everyone is in bed but me. My soaps are on & I’m listening. The dog is set for the night. Kitchen is clean, hubby’s lunch is made, & coffee is ready for in the morning. I have a mug of hot spiced cider to enjoy. So what should I ramble on about this evening?

How about I start with the wonderful phone call I got about an hour & a half ago. My younger daughter who is still in Florida is engaged. Yup. And yes, mom is super happy. This is just too cool. They called me right after he asked her & she finally said yes. So, I was officially the very first to know. That was cool. I hope there is a way for me to go back down there if they decide to have any sort of actual wedding. Knowing Jen, it wont be anything lavish, which is cool my me. Yup . . . one happy momma here.

I’ve planned a get together for everyone from the mall for this Saturday afternoon. Granted, we all know there is no perfect time to get everyone together at the same time. I guess I’m just a little disappointed in the turnout so far. Of the 7 I have heard from so far, 2 can make it. Someone pointed out something. Everything happens for a reason. Perhaps there is a reason just the 3 of us are meant to get together. Guess I should look at it that way.

Saturday evening hubby & I went over to hang out with friends Randy & Carey. It was really nice too. Going to their place is the only time we end up staying out late. Before it had been like 1am before we got home. This time? It was 3am!! What the heck? It was really weird. None of us were tired & we all just chatted & talked like it was only early evening or something. We talked about so many different things too. It’s fun to talk with them as we have different views on many things but we can all talk without getting crazy or angry or something stupid.

Anyways, Carey & I got to talking about exercise & making changes in your life. She said something to me that I do believe I will try to implement. Make no more than 3 changes at a time. Your mind can’t grasp more than that at once apparently. And do each for 3 weeks. I knew that part . . . the 21 days to make something a habit. I really like this idea. So say I want to start going to the gym. And work on a price book. And work on figuring out what it will take to get a store opened. And work on getting more organized at home. And totally organize my photography stuff. And. . . And . . . the list goes on. What I need to do is pick no more than 3 of those things to start with. Ideally I should start with one thing for a week. Then I could add another. Then after the second week, I can add another. This makes sense to me. And makes things more attainable I think. Of course I have to learn a bit of patience too since I wont be able to do everything at once. That will probably be the hard part. Or, deciding what order to put these things in. At any rate I think I’ll make a list & give this a shot.

I’m tired now & losing focus on what I was gonna write. Guess that means it’s time to stop.

what a dreary day outside

I see I missed a few days. Not much tho. Not much exciting happened either. Last night tho, we went to Joy’s for the group meeting. It was nice. We caught up a bit then got into talking about 2012. The topic provided for much conversation as there are many views on what may happen when the time comes. I put out feelers for the group I want to get going & some seemed interested so that’s cool. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to learn in a group environment.

So hubby got his paycheck that covered his time off. Yuck! I have no idea exactly how we’ll make it until the next check, but somehow we always do.

I mentioned my daughter getting us a gym membership for Christmas. Well, it was purchased before she went on nights. Since then we’ve tried to figure out how we can go together. It’s just not working out. We talked about her seeing if she could get her money back & we’d put it towards home gym stuff instead. She is not one to confront people, so that went nowhere too. She knows that I would love to go to a gym, but hey, I’ll be flexible & do whatever. So the latest mention was for me to see if one of a couple friends would wanna go with me. I had 2 people to choose from. Amy & Cindy. I approached Cindy first because she deals with depression & my thought was maybe something positive like this would help her. And she wants to lose some weight too. She has said yes, so we’ll see if it works out. If something falls thru, I’ll be asking Amy. I was really torn in who to choose. I want to spend more time with Amy. I am really enjoying our friendship. But, I also want to spend more time with Cindy. I miss our friendship as we don’t see each other as much. So, I guess choosing Cindy was the right choice. Especially if we get to move forward with the combining of our households with Amy.

*insert break for breakfast, then some out & about time with the hubby.

Hubby is now over at Joe’s for a bit. I’m just kinda here. Sitting around with one of those ‘eh’ moods. I hate those. I should be doing several things, but don’t feel like doing any of them. I think part of it is the gloomy day outside today. And it could also be the fact I’ve been off my pills for some time now.

Our herb order came the other day, but I have not sat & made more pills yet. I think that is because it seems to be such a daunting task since I’m all out. I’ll have to just make some every 2 weeks or maybe even every week so it’s not so big of a task.

I changed our sheets. Oh yay. I stood looking at the bedroom for a bit. It’s messy because things get piled in there. And I was looking at moving things around again too. Mainly to get the bed off the shared wall with the daughter’s room. That way, if the bed . . . ‘ahem’ . . . moves, it wont be hitting her wall. I opted to just leave things alone for the moment tho, since several things don’t belong in there & I should get those moved to a better place before tackling moving everything.

Well, guess I can see what I can find to occupy my time in front of this thing for a while.

just more chatter

Wow, I’m maybe getting the hang of writing again on a regular basis. I’m still getting used to being home & having time. It’s odd. Nice, but odd. I spent a fair amount of time today sorting thru coupons to share. Kinda feels nice knowing that the coupons I send to folks are ones they will actually use, since they are both from wish lists & weekly requests.
This afternoon my friend Amy came over. She picked up her check from what she sold at the mall store. We also got a chance to just visit & catch up. I always love talking with her. She is the wealth of information I wish I was.
One of the things I brought up to her was my thoughts on forming a local group to share info with & learn with. I’m loving all I’m learning about food, chemicals, organics, natural things, recycling, etc. I want to share it with the world! Well, ok, at least people I know. I thought it would be neat to have a group of like-minded folks get together once every 2 weeks or so to share info & learn. Amy thought it was a good idea too. So this is something I’ll work on putting together.
This Friday evening the hubby, daughter & I will be heading over to another friend’s house to talk about 2012. Joy has worked to keep the group going that started back when we had our Pagan shop with Leah. I’ve not had a lot of opportunity to go in the past, but it looks like maybe this year will be better. I was either going to bed early to be at the Farmer’s Market or I was running the store at the mall. Well, the mall is over & I will not be at that market this year. It already looks better!
It looked so weird outside today. And it felt almost like spring. That is just wrong for January! I really miss the snow. Especially since we had just gotten such a nice bunch of it. The weather patterns are really strange around here. Not totally surprising, just weird. I can just hope it gets cold & snows some more soon. Right now, it’s raining.
I think that’s enough for now. It’s 10 & I wanna try getting to bed earlier. I’m not quite ready, but by the time I get this posted & turn off lights & wash up, I’ll be ready. That is, if I can get the thoughts to turn off in my head.

Look at me updating 2 days in a row!!

What an interesting day, weather wise. We’ve gotten quite a bit of snow as of late. And had some cold-ass temps for much longer than usual. Now, we’ve got a storm system moving thru that has our overnight lows, above freezing. And comes with 30-35 mph winds with gusts into the 40+ mph. Oh, and rain. I’ve watched our beautiful snow blanket shrink right before my eyes. How sad. I took the daughter to work tonight & the parking lot was a sheet of ice with puddles of water. Yuck. This weather stuff is gonna bring some crap to various areas too. With rapid melt like this, & mountains & rivers, it’s not a good mix. I already heard one of the mountain passes was closed tonight due to an avalanche.

And to think I was sooo enjoying the beautiful big flakes of snow this morning as I ran a couple errands. Sigh . . . I know it sounds silly, but I want my winter back. This wind crap can stop anytime.

Oh, & we lost power this evening too. Just long enough to get everything situated. Hubby went & turned things off & grabbed the monster flashlight. I grabbed the 2 oil lamps & lit them, along with a couple well placed jar type candles. Then I went & grabbed the phone with a cord (!) in case the power stayed out or any cell towers got knocked out too. Hubby grabbed the wind up alarm clock in case he needed it in the morning. Yup, we know what to do, where it’s stashed & all that. After all, we lived in FL long enough. Ya get the hang of t after an outage or two. The daughter & I were talking to one of the ladies in the deli at Safeway when we stopped by there to grab the recycle stuff. She was amazed at the thought of a corded phone & wind up clock, with a “oh, I didn’t think of that” kind of comment. When you are without technology, you have to go back. Some forget how to go back. My family doesn’t.

Of course, it all came back on just as we had everything together & got ready to settle in for the evening. Figures.

I spent some time today organizing little things. In the big picture here, it doesn’t look like I did much, yet I was busy all day. You can’t exactly tell by walking thru the door that I worked on organizing pictures on the hard drive, or began to clean out my email. You can see that my desk is looking a lot less cluttered. You can see that I picked up here & there. The place is nowhere near where it should be, but give me another week or so & it’ll be MUCH better.

The hubby started his what sounds like pointless coughing again tonight. The bronchitis. Not again. So I told him to go use the dang inhaler. And he took some of the codeine laced cough syrup before bed too. I don’t hear him coughing. That’s a good thing. Neither of us needs him being sick again.

Christmas Day the hubby, the daughter & I went out tromping in the snow a bit & explored along a river. Of course the camera came along. I had her take a couple pix of me & the man so we could get a holiday card done finally. Well, they are ok but I don’t like them. And what sucks more, is I don’t see a timer option on my Canon 40D. Yes, my costly new upgraded camera. WTF? Totally pissed me off. I’ve “kinda” looked in the past. Never really looked hard for it. I figured it should not be hard to find. But no. I totally don’t see one. So, we had to have someone else take the pictures if we both want to be in them. I think we’ll have to do it again maybe over this weekend if the weather cooperates. Dangit!

So, whenever we get a photo I am happy with of the two of us, I’ll get some Winter / New Year cards out. And with that, I really should get to bed. I could sit here for another hour or more, but I’m trying to slowly shift my sleeping schedule so maybe I can go to bed with & get up with, my hubby.

And so it begins again in a new year

So the hum-drum of daily life is back. Hubby went back to work. Daughter spent most of the day sleeping since she works nights now. I spent most of my day … in front of this thing. I wrote out the final checks for everyone from the mall. I also wrote out nice little thank you notes to go with them. They’ll all get mailed Tuesday. Exciting huh?

We got dumped on big time with snow last night. Probably the biggest one time snowfall so far. No idea how much we technically got. It was about as deep as my hand if not a bit more. With all the snow, I figured the roads & people would be a mess. So, I stayed home. I should have gone to the store & post office. Guess they’ll both wait till morning.

I began going thru some of my digital picture files today too. I know there are tons I can just delete because they are almost identical. So I started. Felt good to clean out more of my life. Really good. Clearing out the various areas of my life of clutter & unneeded things is going slow, but well. I love the feeling of being able to let go of more & more material things. It’s one small step in the bigger quest to simplify my life.

One of my things has been to remove chemicals from my life. Chemicals are bad. Yet we put them into & onto our body’s everyday in so many forms. My big step? I went thru most of my toiletries. Lotions. Makeup. Facial cleansers. They are full of stuff that seeps into our pores, into our skin & blood stream. Well, not so much into mine anymore. I gathered up quite the pile of stuff & posted it on Freecycle last week. Even tho it was money, it felt so good to know I was taking a step towards something that means a lot to me. I didn’t let go of everything, but about 80% or more. I’ll have to find suitable replacements for things like body wash/shower gel. And shampoo. I kept the pencil eyeliners, but let go of the lipsticks. I let go of all the lotions except for 2. I want to make changes in my feminine stuff, but that’s expensive so it’ll have to be in baby steps as things get used.

Can you tell I’m trying to go more natural? Not just in food, but all areas of my life. And as long as you read, you’ll be along for the journey.

For the first time in months I popped back into the natural living community on LJ. Found a post about facial cleansing & using oil to clean your face. Sounds odd, but I’ll be looking into it. I will be enjoying getting into all the fun stuff of going organic & natural. Besides, it’ll give me something to blog about besides boring everyday life.

A sort of update & attempt to catch up

1/1/2009 Thursday 6pm
Wow, here we are already in January. I am amazed at how fast the last year went by. I guess many of us say that every year tho huh? I know I’ve said it in the past, but 2008 certainly went by faster than years past. I grew so much, learned so much & have eyes & a mind that are more wide open than ever before. I love it.
I made new friends, whom I cherish & hope will be in my life for a long time to come. I reconnected with someone that means a lot to me. I met & left behind relations that were only there to serve a purpose. I gained personal confidence. On a personal level, I feel more love for & closer to my hubby.
My business focus changed. I successfully put together a co-op of women who opened a holiday mall store. I again managed to keep us fed & the bills paid on basically one income. Of course that was made possible with the help of our daughter, who became gainfully employed this year too.
And that was the end of my writing for the day. It’s now Saturday evening. See, time just flies by!
1/3/2009 Saturday 745pm
I never thought it could be so tough to give things away for free. I specify in my post that contact is via email, & basically tell them up front that if they really don’t want it, don’t bother. Geez. Some people, no problem. Other people, geez. Is it so hard to make a commitment to go get something someone else is willing to let you have, for nothing? Apparently so. Maybe one of the lessons I am supposed to learn this lifetime is patience. I may have to repeat the lesson in another life.
So anyways, maybe come Monday life will go back to some sort of normal, or routine. Monday the hubby goes back to work. Finally. The next paycheck is gonna suck tho.
*insert pause to check & see what I’ve written about*
So, I have not mentioned the whole lay off thing. First we find out that Xmas Eve day they are only working a half day. This of course means only getting paid for a half day. Then they get told . . . the whole shop is being shut down until January 5th. Unpaid of course except for Xmas Day & NY Day. Which means it’s just long enough to not be able to try collecting unemployment to help cover the gap. At least all the guys who get laid off can collect. We can’t. Neither can any of the other guys who were left. Lovely. So the most important guys get screwed.
1/4/2009 Sunday 6pm
Again time gets away from me; I get distracted with life so now its Sunday evening already. I hope this is not a sign of how the year will be. All scattered & not being able to finish things. I’ve had my share of those times. It’s time for me to be able to focus on things, get them done & all that.
I know this writing will be disjointed too. I’m cooking dinner while I type. The hubby is talking to his dad & the dog is sniffing for anything I may have dropped while cutting stuff in the kitchen. The child is still sleeping.
Dinner was pretty good. We’ve made the effort to go back to eating at our table as often as possible. Now that the holidays are over & the mall store is closed, all my crap is off the table. It can once again be used as a dining table! Gasp, imagine that. We even turn off the TV. It’s been rather enjoyable. Funny how such a simple thing can make a difference. That short time of having the TV off & being focused on the task at hand is nice. My next effort will be to not snack while sitting here as much. If I want something, I need to get up & go get it, then eat it either at the table, or at least away from here. So far it makes me think twice about eating since it means I’m supposed to get up from here. Like last night, I had some sherbet which I enjoyed in the living room with hubby & watched some TV.
So life over the past 6 weeks or so has been all over the place. I have no idea what else to write about so I think I’ll start with a clean slate for the year. If something doesn’t make sense, I can add facts or stories as needed. Sounds good to me.

What a fun & full weekend we had

What a fun & full weekend we had.

Friday evening we went over to our friend Joy’s house. She hosts a get together once ever other week or so for all us like minded folks who have felt kind of lost since our local Pagan store closed last year. We got to chat, visit, play show & tell… it was allot of fun. We watched a bit of The Secret & chatted briefly about what we watched. In all, it was a great evening. I now want to learn more about vortexes, RFID tags, & a few other things that slip my mind now (figures).

Saturday we did end up going to the falls. It was the 3 of us along with my girlfriend, her 3 kids and one of her girls, girlfriends. Was a long ride to get there, but so worth it. We all had a great time, broke the rules, took many pix & made a great day of it.

When we got home, Tim & I changed & headed over to Leah’s for a birthday party for her boys. We didn’t stay too long since we were both pretty worn out from the day. Was nice to go & relax a bit & visit tho.

Sunday we ended up going to Chelan. Chelan has a spiritual store called Spirals. We had talked about going when we were at Joy’s on Friday. Joy wanted to come along if we went. So did 2 of the other people there, whom we are friends with. So, a few phone calls after breakfast, & we were gathered & ready to go. It was a beautiful day to ride up there. It takes about 45 minutes riding along the river for most of the trip. We had a wonderful time browsing thru the store. Tim fell in love with the various singing bowls, as well as the drums & wind chimes. We both got our first pendulums. How totally cool to actually see it work in your own hands. I found a gorgeous necklace that was just perfect for me (only $10) too. Joy, Cliff & Krystal all enjoyed finding treasures to take home too.

Afterwards, we stopped at a fruit stand, then at the dam and finally at Krystal’s grandma’s house, before heading back home.

The Dam was a total impromptu stop. Joy mentioned she had never been there. So, we stopped for a short look-see. She enjoyed it. We’ll have to go again when we have more time & energy to enjoy it all more slowly. The gardens they have are so pretty & full this time of year.

Krystal’s Grandparents house. Wow. It was built back in maybe 1900 or so. Not past 1915 for sure. It is for sale, but in sad shape. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to take on the love work it would take to return it to all its glory while enjoying living there. Was awesome to be able to see it tho, & hear her tell stories of when she was growing up. I may have to have her take me back thru so I can take some pictures. There is a good chance it will get bulldozed instead of renovated by who ever buys the property.

After everyone left, we ate, & just relaxed. What a fun & full weekend. Monday turned out to be a good day too. I’ll write more on that after I sleep, it’s already almost 1230 now. *y*a*w*n* I think it’s time for bed.

plans foiled by weather suck

Another week is gone. I meant to sit & write several times this past week. One thing or another has gotten in the way, or just plain old distracted me.

I don’t even know where to start. I guess where I left off? Might be good. That was last Friday evening. Wow. Saturday at market was ok. Not super exciting, but good. Visited with some of the vendors, & a couple friends. Tim went up on the foot bridge & took a few pix looking down on the market. I’ll get those posted … somewhere. We were supposed to have a board mtg afterwards, but since we were missing a few board members, it got postponed until this week. Right now, I don’t even remember what we did the rest of the weekend. Sad huh?

The beginning of the week was … not very memorable either. I usually jot down stuff in my planner, just for this reason, to help me remember. It’s blank until Friday. I slacked. I did some cleaning around here. You know, basic stuff & plant watering, vacuuming, dusting. Fun. Right.

Oh, I know… Tuesday Connie & I went out & about. It was her day off. She went & got her food handler card, while I took the dog to get her nails trimmed at Petco. Then I wandered thru the mall. Stopped in to get my hair trimmed & talked to my girl about my perm. I got it right around my birthday & it’s pretty much fallen out already. Well, the girl I let do my hair last time, didn’t use a strong enough solution. So, we’ll do it again, but I’ll have to pay again too. At least this time I know it’ll last.

Wednesday I went into Fred Meyer to pick up a couple things. I saw Leah there. I don’t know who recalls me talking about her last year & especially last fall. At any rate, we have been actually chatting a bit when ever I see her working in there. Well, this day we started to actually get into some conversation. Then we decided to get together Thursday since it was her day off. Well, we never did. Dunno what happened either. I’m hoping we connect next week tho.

Friday I went out to the Dam to bring Colleen some of my stuff. I brought her note cards, book marks & a couple smaller prints. It’s a start. Over the next month, I’ll work on getting her a few other things too. Then I need to do a bio for me, & a nice price list too I think. After I dropped the stuff off, I went out to the garden area & took a few pictures of flowers. I hope they came out nice.

Friday morning tho, I made some money. I got a call Wednesday from my realtor girl. She liked the pix I did for her just back on the 8^th, but hated her hair & the top she wore. So, we needed a retake, at her expense of course. AND … she was bringing a friend. Works for me!! So we set things up for Friday morning. I spent about 30 minutes or so, & made $70. Then, there is the editing time at home, but still, not bad money for a quick shoot.

Friday evening the weather here was crappy. We hesitated even loading the car for market. So, we didn’t. The forecast was for icky morning weather. Teach me to listen!! Tim woke me at about 530, to take the dog out cuz he was hurting. What did I wake up to? A friggin blue sky !!!! I was pissed. I took the dog out. It felt so nice out. I told Tim if I hustled, I could get there, but I didn’t wanna do it alone. And I didn’t wanna ask him to help since he was hurting. We opted to play hookie. Oh well right? He tells me I made money Friday, so it was ok. It felt weird. We ended up going down there, since Connie had not been yet. So, we stood around & visited with some of the vendors, got some rhubarb, and left. We stopped at a couple yard sales on the way back, but didn’t find anything good. Followed that by getting gas at Costco & then lunch. That was after doing some sampling of course. And they worked too, we bought a couple things.

We headed home, Tim went off to Joe’s, & I turned around & went to my meeting. Connie headed off to work while we were gone. I went to Joe’s after the meeting, & hung out there for a bit with the family. Afterwards, Tim & I went out to eat. It’s nice just us two, doing whatever.

Since about the 14^th or so, Lorie & I have been going back & forth again with emails. I cant see our friendship being saved. I wont bore you all with her endless ramblings either. I am seeing a whole new side to her, & seeing it is certainly not just me who has hurt our friendship. Wow. It still amazes me at the things she wrote. I’m sorry to see this happen too. But, we all move on. It just saddens me that it seems she wont be part of my life anymore. Too much has been said between us. If things change, I’m sure I’ll make note.

So, other than this boring babble, not much new here. I’ve been working to make my site better again, with Connie doing the actual online part & me giving her the content. I have a long way to go, but its going. I’m trying to see what online groups are worth my time & effort for networking, & which I can do without. I’m also slowly trying to get various things organized around here. Both in real life, on the computer (like my endless photos) & with business stuff. I might be getting somewhere, but I wont say that too loud just yet. But now, I think it is time for me & my honey to go take a shower, & go to bed …..