First Warmth

Today's plusses:

• Eating lunch outside on the balcony IN THE SUNSHINE at work while reading a new Scandinavian thriller. Plus, I got half a donut because there were leftovers from a meeting earlier that day.
• Our first barbecue of the season (pictured above): mojitos, grilled Moroccan lamb brochettes with tomato and cucumber salad and Syrian bread. Thank you sweet cook named Derek!
•  Hearing that the health problem of a friend's husband isn't as dire as it could have been.

Blog Reborn?

I pretty much gave up on this blog, since it seemed like for a while, it was just an outpost of my complaints, and no one wants to read that. But I have a new idea.

I recently finished a book called Radio Shangri-la by Lisa Napoli, and early on, before she journeys to Bhutan, she participates in some sort of self help group where the leader tells them to write down three good things that happen to them that day, every night. I've been having a hard time lately, (OK, more like for the last several years) and often get stuck in a "poor me" attitude. But, if I'm being objective about things, I'm not actually doing THAT badly, and need to remind myself of that. So I've decided to try to write at least three nice things that happened each day, every day. Thus, blog reborn. We'll see how long this lasts, but whatever, it's a good exercise for me.

So here's the inaugural list (in no particular order):

1. It's team appreciation week at M Financial (where I'm working as a temp), so today they gave us all ice cream in the afternoon. There was even chocolate sauce.
2. Had a nice chat with Daphne, the other temp, about Hawaii, Asian food, Spam, and restaurants while eating aforementioned ice cream.
3. It was still light out when I got home from work.
4. Since I get most of Friday off due to team appreciation events that temps can't participate in, I made an appointment to get my taxes done. Relief.

I Blame the Raccoons

So much for post-a-day. Oh well. But here's the latest (oh, yes, this is exciting). My lawn chair is missing. For a barbeque I had a while a go, I bought a cheap resin patio table and four matching chairs. Note that there are only three chairs in the photo. I just noticed that yesterday. At most, it's been missing a week. Why would anyone steal a cheap lawn chair? Seriously?

Chief Inspector Daye's theories on what happened:

• Someone stole it, either because they wanted it, or for a joke.
• They're pretty flimsy, so possibly someone, such as the gardeners, was rough with it, it broke, and they threw it out to hide what happened. (Unlikely.)
• It blew away. (Unlikely.)
• Food was spilled on it at some point, which attracted raccoons who wanted the food, so they tried to dip it in the pond to wash it--raccoons like to wash their food--but it just fell in. (I'll poke around in the pond later to see if this happened.)

That's the big excitement over here. Yes, I know you wish your lives had this much intrigue.

Pilsner-Post A Day #7

Also last weekend, I took care of my friend Alex's puppy Pilsner. The first couple of days were a little rough, as he's not well trained as far as potty-time goes, and he had a nasty cough. I was a little stressed out. But once I figured out his routine, and got his cough under control, he was a sweet little guy.

He loved laying on my lap watching movies, napping in the sun, playing with rotten potatoes, and falling asleep in my bed. On Sunday, Derek and I took him to The Lucky Lab Brewpub, where he had a great time getting everyone's attention and stealing bites of Derek's Garlic Gorgonzola pizza slice. I love this photo. I seriously had perfect timing.

Frederick--Post #6

When I woke up Sunday morning, my 6-year-old goldfish, Frederick was dead. He had been perfectly fine the previous day, so I have to assume it was just old age. I'm sad about it, but he had a long, full life.

He has lived in four different places in three different quadrants of town, outlived two other fish, encountered five cats, and liked listening to Falco. My boyfriend would do impressions of Frederick speaking with a German accent, because obviously, Frederick was German (or possibly Austrian like Falco). I don't have any particularly good photos of him because it's kind of difficult to take pictures of a goldfish, but he was always so cute swimming around.

I buried him the backyard here at the McConachie's house in SW Portland, next to some flowers and vegetables I planted. His little funeral was attended by Derek and me.

Goodbye Frederick.

Weekend (Post-Every-Other-Day-Apparently #5)

I actually have quite a bit to write about, as well as illustrative photos, but I need to go to bed, so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Sorry.

Post-A-Day #4

This should be post #5, but I wasn't able to write anything yesterday. This has been a draining week. Pilsner (and his cough) arrived yesterday, and he peed on the rug at the office. My super-great job has not been super-great this week, when one person decides to be extremely rude to everyone else, screw up jobs, and micromanage to the nth degree. I now understand what one of my co-workers warned me about long ago. All of this has been compounded by lack of sleep, which causes me to get melt-downy about dog cough and job and not be able to rise above the nonsense as well as I could with a full eight hours.

But things are turning around (knock on wood). Tonight, I talked to poor sick Derek (he probably has kennel cough too) about my week and felt a little better, and then watched a British crime drama, which always makes me relaxed, all the while non-coughing Pilsner was asleep on my lap. And tomorrow, Pilsner's going to the vet, so hopefully they will cure his cough once and for all. I really, really, really hope that next week will be better and less stressful.

I already have a couple of things to look forward to: Preservation Jazz Band (from New Orleans) is playing at the Blues Festival Friday, and Saturday is the Timbers game.

Goodnight.