SHORT ‘N SWEET GODDESSES. — 2019. — January

Sue, I had told Gary before you came that I could not imagine your being out of the city and away from your sister and nephews and parents. Having been to NY so often now, I can see how living in the city is so very different—really handy if you are in the right area—like having a little town at your disposal but more diverse and full of everything cultural.

I have DGS15 this weekend as DD and her BF are having a Staycation down on the strip—we had such a good day. He and I went and got the dog and walked to Peet’s for coffee, then came home. A quick trip to Costco for flank steak and some mangoes. Then after lunch he and I decided to do a handbuilding lesson—so we each made Christmas candle holders—his has three trees and mine has two trees and a snow man (because we ran out of slabs big enough for another tree. Actually both are cute—his is made with a tree cookie cutter (large) and mine are freehand cut. He did really well—follows directions, sticks with it—it took us about 3 hours.

Then we had a special dinner—got crab legs at Costco—huge ones that were super tasty—one for each of us—and one for crab cocktail tomorrow. We just took the dog home and fed his cats and are going to watch some tv I think.

Holly, I’m glad you are finally going to be able to move forward with the house!

Oh, so heard back from Dr. about blood tests—do not need to do the bone marrow biopsy they were threatening and had scheduled—turns out my WBC count came up slightly—almost within normal range but my iron is way, way low—ferritin very low as well. She scheduled me for an iron infusion—4 hour IV drip of iron—have to have three of them—the last being 2 1/2 hours. I will start the 16th. So last night I touched it out and ate some grass fed beef—oh man, my stomach did not like that—had tightness in my gut all night and today—just beginning to go away now! I think I’m not used to anything that hard to digest any more.
But this must be why I’m always cold, feel rather tired even tho I don’t give in to it, and am paler than I used to be. Will be interesting to see what happens after. Hoping JoAnne has some experience with this—I didn’t even know they gave iron that way.

If I’m not back to post before Thursday, I want to wish all of you a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!! I am so thankful to call each of you friend and every day appreciate each of you so much!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Very thankful to have you guys here all these years.

Jojo, glad you are feeling better now.

Holly, very happy for you

Joan, you'll feel so much better after the infusion

Busy week here coming back from LV. Volunteered, and also bought an apple pie from my volunteer place. They make about 10,000 pies for thanksgiving to sell and profits go toward making free thanksving meals for their clients.

Cooking my spatchcocked turkey now and making gravy to bring to my sister's house. Also bringing some hors d'oeuvres.

Just sitting and sort of taking it easy today—what was going to be a very quiet, sort of downer in some ways, Thanksgiving, turned into a blast—on Wed when I walked in from being at the gym, sitting in my family room were four people—my DD from Sac and DGD15 and DS from SLC and his SO—OMG, they planned this for two months—both drove down to Vegas and DH and I knew nothing about it!  DH met them at the door and they had videoed him—it was so funny—he was in such shock.  Then they both videotaped when I came in—it was so crazy—I couldn’t wrap my head around it for a minute—this bearded buy who looked like my son was sitting on the couch—and then I realized it was really them!  They brought a couple pies (DD), dips they had made and soup homemade (DH) and we had a way better TG.  I asked DD here to come by so I could talk to her a minute during one of her breaks between clients—she thought someone had died and then saw her sister and niece—was so funny to pass on the surprise.  

So I never got to clean my house, hurried up and got beds made up and we had Thai food out that night and visited while I cooked pumpkin pie and prepped veggies the next day.  We had late dinner as everyone had to see another family earlier—we played our crazy gambling game with quarters DH had gotten from the bank and DGS19 won all the money—24.50.  That was neat.  Jordan came to and DD’s boyfriend and DGS’s girlfriend.  I had never gotten around to making or getting a centerpiece for the table but Cam the girlfriend brought me a pretty centerpiece so it was perfect.  

That is the first time I’ve ever been totally surprised—was such a wonderful thing!!

Holly, did your mom take iron as well?  Glad to hear stories of the infusions working.

Sue that is a lot of pies!  Wow, how many people does that take?

Wondering how JoAnne survived dinner for 20!  I understand about the crowd—it gets harder with large groups the worse the hearing gets—I know that now I am missing things.  DGD talks so fast like other teens—hard for me to catch it all.  I think I’m going to schedule a booth test again and see if my ears are getting worse.  

Sue your days on land are numbered!!  Hope you catch all good weather on the water!

DD drove back to CA this morning—lots of snow but she got over the high passes just in time—started hailing on the other side and was moving toward the pass.  DS is still here—he is nervous about the roads today—lots of rain here and all over—there are a couple bad spots for snow between here and SLC.  He is caulking my kitchen backsplash today—yea!— as it was cracked and combing out behind the sink.  I am so happy as I hated the look of it.  

So Holly, assuming you can cook now?  Are you going to have Christmas at your house this year?

Sue, have you been buying new clothes for the cruise?  I don’t know how I’d pack for nearly 3 months away!
How many suitcases do you think you’ll take?

JoAnne, are you both back to feeling healthy?  Hope so.  Are you having another big family dinner at your house for Christmas/

Last night we finally had the studio Christmas pot luck and party and mug exchange.  OMG, the studio is just beautiful and huge—separate large rooms for wheels and hand builders , beautiful windows in the wheel room.  And huge skylights in all the other rooms so we have some natural light which is wonderful.  There were about 80 people at the Christmas party and nearly 60 mugs brought for the white elephant style mug exchange.  Out of all those people my name was last to be pulled—I stole a mug I really liked and then as others stole from others someone stole it back to me—and I stole a beautiful mug from a guy I often do handbuilder classes with—he’s very skilled and this is an awesome mug—white porcelain clay with a Matt finish on the cup part and a shiny glazed handle and inside—in a beautiful muted acqua==with carved winder leafless trees—it reminds me of Montana on a cold winter evening—in the winter when the sun would start to set the sky sometimes had a bluish almost sort of misty yet blue-ish look to it—anyway, I love my mug and no one stole it as it had been stolen the maximum amount.  DH went with me and I think he enjoyed meeting lots of the people he’s heard a lot about.



Today I took the handbuilding class and moved my things back to the studio—clay and some supplies—and turned in some glazed items for firing.It was so fun to be back at it again.  and see everyone again.



We went to fundraiser for a friend who takes St Judes Rance kids out school shopping every year—she spends about 50,000 on the kids every year so now has to do occasional fundraisers to help pay.  We bought some raffle tickets but didn’t stay—really just a donation anyway.  We went to dinner at a asalad place and then played to games with BF’s—left there early as I was so, so tired.  No actual plans tomorrow—hope to see a movie. 

Joan, I did finally get the stove hooked up. They’re painting the kitchen now, so I have to work around that. I did get a Hello Fresh delivery set for this weekend, so hopefully I can get back in to cooking regularly.

Sue, where are you going for this cruise? I remember that it is a global cruise, and you’re doing sections of it. Will you get to see some of the people that you met on the last ones? Haha about the shoes. I’ve been wearing the same ones everyday.

By the end of this week, the painting will be done and the semester will be over. Now just to hang on until then. I’ve finished grading final projects for one class, and need to do the other.