Aug 11 is also the day Jonathan died one yr ago. My sweet, sweet Jonathan. I went to the cemetery today for a while & took a bottle of Coke for him. There were lots of things on his grave. Made me smile to know that so many people came to visit him. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about him & ache to throw my arms around him.
Yesterday when Lewis got home from playing tennis, I made breakfast. When I cracked open one of the eggs, 2 yolks came out. TWINS ! I noticed there was 1 other egg in the carton that was also over-sized. Figured that was also twins so I saved it to make for Alex. As soon as he got up I had him watch me crack it, & out tumbled 2 yolks. He didn’t seem nearly as excited about this as I was. Guess I’m easily amused these days. I do remember about 6 or 7 yrs ago, we were all at mom & dad’s for breakfast on a Sunday. Dad was making scrambled eggs, potatoes, & onions for breakfast. He was cracking all of the eggs into 1 bowl. Every single 1 of the 12 was a double yolk. We were amazed. I had never seen that before or since – until yesterday. Life is truly amazing. (again, easily entertained.)
My camera came back. It was delivered last Thurs. You may remember it stopped working while Lewis had it in Israel in June. I just got it in December, so it was still on warranty. No charge. And it’s good as new.
This morning, since it was Alex’s first day of high school, another milestone in my mind, I went into his bedroom to take the annual “first day of school” pictures that I do every yr. He was still asleep & didn’t have to wake up for a while because school started later on the first day, but I had to leave for work so I woke him. He wasn’t happy & covered his head with the sheet. He would not let me take his picture. I told him it’s a tradition, he should be used to it by now, we do it every yr on the first day of school, yada yada. He didn’t care. He wanted to sleep. So I told him if he would cooperate & let me take his picture without covers on his head, I would not force him to look through his baby album this yr on his birthday. Well, that did it. Off comes the sheet, & I got 2 good pictures out of it. (Every yr on his birthday I sit him down & we go through the baby photo album. I tell him the story of the night/morning he was born & show him pictures of how cute he was when he was just a few hrs old. He doesn’t care. And he’s tired of having to go through this bizarre ritual every yr.) So this yr he gets a reprieve. But ONLY this yr.
My brand new iPod had to go to the Apple store this past Sat. It was skipping & cutting some songs off. I figured I only had about another month of warranty on it so I’d better do it as soon as possible. The Apple guy did something to it & sent me on my way. No charge. But before that, he checked the serial number & told me the warranty doesn’t expire until April 3, 2009. That was good news. The person I bought it from said the warranty expires in Sept 2008. That was a nice surprise.
The really bad thing about the Apple store, aside from it being so far – at the Biltmore – is that it is right next to a Haagen Dazs ice cream store. Coffee Haagen Dazs is my favorite ice cream in the world. But as I walked by the ice cream store this time, I felt strong enough to just keep on going to my car. No ice cream. I actually felt pretty good doing that because I have no motivation or self-control when it comes to food and/or dieting.
Aug 12 (Tues) Alex got Lewis & me hooked on the Kiefer Sutherland show, “24”. I can’t believe we’ve never watched it. It’s an amazing show. We haven’t ever watched it on TV; We’ve been renting 4 episodes at a time from Blockbuster. It’s now my favorite show, taking the place of “Lost.”
For anyone in Scottsdale/Phoenix, the semi-annual McDowell Mountain Ranch yard sales will be October 4. 7am to 11am. Don’t miss it.
Aug 16 (Sat) Lewis & I went over to Cathy’s house at 7:45 this morning to help them walk through various neighborhoods in her district to distribute fliers regarding Cathy’s re-election. There were about 15 firefighters & volunteer firefighters who showed up to help. Lewis & Dennis went together. Cath & I stayed with the signs & fliers in the parking lot until they all returned. That meant we got to go inside the grocery store & sit down with a cup of coffee & a bottle of water in air conditioning. It worked out very well. Cath has been running around like crazy with this re-election campaign. She is very motivated though. We’re invited over to her house on Sept 2 with a bunch of other people who helped with her campaign to watch the election results.
Aug 17 (Sun) Went to dinner & a movie last night with the chavarah. It was also a little celebration for Jonathan & Shannon who just got married on the 3rd in Calif. We saw “Swing Vote”. Kevin Costner. Cute movie.
Lewis & I have been going through all of Alex’s clothes – drawers & closets – to get rid of clothes that don’t fit him anymore so we can give them away & get him new ones. I ended up with 6 huge plastic garbage bags of clothes he can’t wear. He grows way too fast. I already have to look up to talk to him. He started high school, & to rub it in, I have to see how many of his clothes are too small for him. How did my baby grow up so quickly? !
Aug 18 (Mon) Just found out my Aunt Marie died. She had been fighting cancer for a while. She was always a lot of fun. She & Uncle Carmen were always fun for us to play with when we were younger. Uncle Carmen is my dad’s younger brother. My sister, Terri just told me that her best friend’s grandmother died a few days ago. Her friend is Casey. We’ve known their family since Terri & Casey were about 7 yrs old. I used to play tennis with Casey’s mom every week. Last August Jonathan passed away. Casey’s mother-in-law’s funeral was the day after Jonathan’s. This year it’s Casey’s grandmother & my aunt. August sucks ! August is now “officially” my least favorite month of the yr. We’re worried about my uncle because Aunt Marie did everything for him.
Today is also one year since Alex had his bar mitzvah. Very strange month.
I just made a vet appointment for Sparky. Sparky is a west highland white terrier. The word “white” is in there for a reason. She is so bright white that when she is sitting in the sun I have to have sunglasses on to look at her. I’m not kidding. She is a very shiny white dog. But when we picked her up from her hotel after our vacation, we noticed her front paws were brown. Also her nose & beard are brown. We gave her a bath & tried to clean her up, but the brown isn’t something that comes off. How could she just turn brown on those areas? The vet assistant that I spoke to said that could happen if she licks her feet a lot due to allergies. So I’m taking her in later the wk to see why my beautiful pearl white princess is now brown.
Once when we bought her a new pink collar with little “diamonds” on it, Lewis gave her a bath & forgot to take the collar off of her. The pink bled onto her white fur & she was pink down half of her body. A very bright pink. When I came home & saw her, Lewis explained what happened. I said, “Poor baby. Did your daddy die you pink?” She just wagged her tail. But we couldn’t get the pink off of her for a few days. Had to keep shampooing her. Same thing happened once when she jumped in Cathy’s pool with her collar on. She came out with more pink on her. Silly little girl.
We watched 3 more 1-hr episodes of “24” last night. We are so hooked now that Alex introduced us to it. We kept telling him we just didn’t have any time for another TV show in our lives. We have 3 shows that we record & watch on wk-ends & that’s enough. But he was persistent, as he always is, & we told him we’d watch 1 episode. The first episode of season 1. That’s was all it took. That show grabs you from the very beginning. Now we keep renting them so we don’t have to ever see it with any commercials in.
Lewis is taking Alex to Sylvan (Learning Center) tonight. He goes twice a wk for extra tutoring. This is my time alone tonight. Just Sparky & me. I will take Alex on Weds. We alternate.
I sorted the songs on my iPod by several genres plus my favorites. I’m playing my favorites now. I can’t believe what great songs these are! I just sit at my desk listening to music all day long. What a great job this is. I do the payroll recording for about 80 people, but I’m still focused with this great music. So many great songs!
Message for Shannon - - I never finished telling you at dinner on Sat - - I still have 1 pair of shoes to exchange. Still waiting for that other pair that I exchanged to come. But my new black pumps are too small. I tried them on once & thought they were okay, but they kind of squeak, so they’re going back. And that is the shoe update of the week. The next time you get an update, I expect it to say: All is well with all of my new shoes ! Finally.
Poor Lewis – He just keeps asking me how many more boxes of shoes are going to come to the front door. I think they’re finished, but I return them, then the exchange comes & he thinks I’ve ordered more. He thinks this will never end. I’m starting to think that myself.
Eric R. – I think I need to look through your CDs again. I need to add some more music to my iPod. Your Pablo Cruise is incredible. “Ocean Breeze” is one of my favorite songs. By the way, you should go to the Oct 4 yard sales & see if you can find anymore CDs. Usually 50 cents to $1. If you start early, you can get some really good ones – fairly new. Brandon may be interested too. I went to a house last time at 7:10 a.m. & got about 10. I don’t think I gave them to you yet, have I?
When I got home from work today I changed clothes into something comfortable. I have this layered tank I wear around the house that I would never wear in public, but it’s really comfortable. I grabbed it & noticed it had turned itself inside out in the washer. I sat there for about 10 minutes trying to put the white shirt inside the pink shirt. I just kept making it worse. This might be as bad as my 2 necklaces that were tangled. I may have to have Lori on retainer to untangle things for me - - necklaces, clothes, my very strange life. Anyway, I threw it on the bed & grabbed another shirt that I wouldn’t have to fight with. Lori?
I am sorry that I have not been able to post anymore pictures of me with aging rock stars. I do have Jimmy Messina's & Kenny Loggins's autographs. When I worked at Fender Guitar they came in for a day & I spoke to Jimmy Messina for quite a while. I wished I had my camera with me. I didn't realize until they had left that everyone in the office, including me, had a camera phone. I was flustered, getting to meet my favorite band from the 70's, I guess. Wasn't thinking straight. All I could think of after they left is: "I am a 50-yr old woman. I have GOT to STOP this groupie thing. It's embarrassing." But I will continue to get pictures & autographs of aging (& not-so-aging rock stars). Kenny Wayne Shepard was at Fender too. He signed his picture for me. But I am not in that picture either. One of these days . . . . . . .
If you're interested, I also have an autographed picture of Def Leppard - the entire band, & Alice Cooper's autograph. And if you're old enough, you may remember Little River Band. I have a CD signed by the whole band (the cover is signed). Lewis got Alice Cooper's for me. He used to have seats at the Diamondbacks games really close to ours. Every now & then we would see him, or Lewis & Alex would see him, but we were hesitant to bother him. One day Lewis & Alex ran into him in the lobby, alone, so he talked to him & got his autograph for me on the Diamondbacks program. That was so exciting for me. I am such an autograph hound!
I guess that’s all the truly exciting info for now.
Hugs,
Candace
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