Visit Recap

As I mentioned, since Mom fell before my brother's visit, we definitely went low-key and didn't push to "do" too much while he was here. He's always glad to soak up the warmth (he's from northern California), and balance relaxing on the lanai with walking on the beach. Here are some pictures I took while he was here.

Saturday night, post-sunset and the crescent moon.

Sunday, bird on a lamp post.

The view from dinner. We both enjoyed sitting outside and watching the end of the sunset.

The restaurant is on the water, and they have some lights underwater that mean you can see the fish going by. For some reason, there were tons of them that night.

Which meant you could look up and see this peaceful view:

Or you could back a little and see the otherworldliness of the catfish.

Another night, another dinner with a view. To the side:

And straight west.

For Thanksgiving dinner, we again got a meal from Fresh Market, as we did last year, and then I made our family-favorite recipe, angel salad. I like to have cider to drink with the meal, and I noticed the top of the lid  had this messaging:

I didn't take a picture of the meal, or the table, but I had leftovers for lunch on Friday, so here's the recap:

And here's Newman, doing his best turkey-leg impression.

We had lunch outside on Saturday, before taking my brother to the airport. Another beautiful day.

With sailboats going by.

A party was getting back on their boat after lunch, and the shape of the dog's tail caught my eye.

And of course, what post would be complete without the many faces of Newman? One picture isn't enough!

He discovered the base of the scratcher condo:

And then realized it has an upper level:

"What? Is mine."

One for the Hockey Fans

I saw this online and it made me laugh:

Obviously, right?

For the non-hockey fans, well, have a Newman. Or two.

My Hands Hurt

TL,DR: My early Christmas present to myself is not going to be so early anymore. Also, ow.

In the middle of this nice blog post by Suzanne about bookish gifts, I was struck by the bookcase her husband got her to hold her TBR books. There's an awkward space next to where I sit in the living room where such a case would fit nicely, and who doesn't need more shelf space? I considered it for a while, and ended up buying it on sale.

It arrived on Saturday, and fortunately I knew it would be some assembly required:

The good news is that it feels like it's going to be very sturdy. The bad news is, that's because the shelves each connect with 2 screws that have to be strongly hex-wrenched in, and I am finding it very, very hard on my hands (reminder: I have arthritis, and while my hands are functional, they aren't as strong as they used to be). 

On Sunday, I connected the first piece to the second, and then the second to the third, and that was enough for my hands.

On Tuesday after work, I connected another shelf, and then later in the evening, did another. And on Wednesday morning, my hands ached. It looks like this is going to be a shelf-a-day endeavor. At least for the main part: a screwdriver was also included, so there may be less wrenching and more screwing later on. So to speak. We'll see if it's any easier on my hands.

It might not take until Christmas, but I'm looking at a week or 10 days, based on the number of pieces. Maybe two weeks.

But I hate hurting even more. No shelves today!

Readjusting

My brother left Saturday afternoon, and I've been trying to get myself back into the groove ever since. Not that his visit was a problem! But to go from 10 days off to working again, that's never going to go smoothly for me.

Ugh, alarm...

I'll share some photos I took during the week later, but here are a couple from today.

One, I saw this cyb3rtruck today and absolutely wheezed laughing.

The color of tomato soup! Ha! That might be better than the baby blue one.

I also saw this lovely great egret, bobbing in a bush in the wind.

And, of course, plenty of Newman being adorable over the last few days.

He has discovered the top of the little cat tree on the table, and he likes it. Which is nice to see.

I'm looking forward to getting my holiday cards in the mail. I got my first one yesterday: thanks, Nicole!

Happy Day to All

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans in the crowd! May your day give you what you want of it. I am hoping for a food coma later, something like this:

Pre-gaming Thankfulness

Mom was released from the hospital yesterday, and is very happy to be home again. Today I picked up a pie at a local bakery, and tomorrow I'm getting our meal from Fresh Market, plus will be making the angel salad. It's beginning to look like Thanksgiving-time!

Newman has been here a month, and seems pretty thankful for it. Here are some views of his day today.

Shopping and Prepping

With my brother due to arrive Saturday afternoon, I took Friday off work, and Mom and I had a long list of things to do on Friday and Saturday up to going to the airport.

This was complicated when Mom fell in the night, and I found her on the floor Friday morning. She did not appear to have broken anything, but I called for an ambulance anyway to check her out. She reluctantly agreed to be taken in to the hospital (“But my son is coming in on Saturday!”), and they decided first to admit her, and then to keep her for a few days while they try to figure out why she fell, or more to the point, why she keeps falling. She isn’t too happy about it, but is not currently demanding to leave against advice.

So I have been doing what I can to get ready. On Friday, I ran a bunch of errands, including to the Grove for oranges to juice. Today was the grocery store, and I told myself as I pulled into the parking lot, “It’s going to be a madhouse, have patience.” It helped that I immediately got the first parking spot in the row (thanks, Dad, my personal parking spot ghost), but it was indeed crazy in there. Especially in the deli, where there were at least five employees but only one handling the walk-ups. The others all seemed to be doing the sandwich side or other orders, which made for a long wait. But overall people were good about it, and there are worse problems in life these days.

Now I’m taking a break before heading to the airport. I will probably post while my brother is here, but if not, happy (American) Thanksgiving, and I’ll catch you later.

Last: What I Brought Home from NY

Finally wrapping up my trip to NY last month, here is the overview of what I got there. Overall-haul photo from Apple Festival:

Close-up of cute sheep ornament:

Yarn that my aunt bought me for my birthday, with the accidentally coordinated knitting in the background:

This apple is painted on a stone. Can you believe it? Penny for scale.

This sign at their booth with more on this art:

Three tiny "quilted" wood magnets, again with penny for scale.

Two lovely-smelling soaps.

This cute bowl cozy; we love these for warming things up in the microwave.

And here it is in the background of another purchase, the easy-to-apply Happy Feet Balm.

My heels get so dry sometimes, and I dislike the mess of applying some treatments for it. This way, it's on my feet where it belongs, not mucking up my hands.

Other than consumables (mmm, maple cotton candy), that's it! A very good time was had.