Bob and I have finally returned to the homestead with our dogs. We are tired out, but had a good time. The convention was a blast, and Ash seemed to relish being at the lake. Willow had everyone at the Con twisted around her little paw. As usual. I will never get her back from being spoiled!

Because everyone else will do it, and I'm avoiding packing. Who would have guessed that my hubby would turn into a Wolf?... Bob and wolfs, I never would have looked there.

Your result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Black

Your perfect HP man is Sirius Black.

Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy

Gee, guess I'm boycotting the Olympics. Why? Because I managed to schedule a vacation over them... At least my morals and my obsession don't have to fight it out. I just hate to miss the Equestrian events, and the gymnastics, and the opening ceremonies, and the track events, and, and, and... *gulp*

Thanks to kimberlychapman for posting this article about the possiblity of Lead in your Crockpot!

http://www.kutv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=f8eb08d7-f588-462b-a113-447426ea4816

so, Noiseinmyhead came over around 11:30? On saturday, to help finish the decorating. I had them all frosted, and we just needed to do the second hard part! The painting! And piping, and, and, and.... after a couple hours of frantic activity, we actually managed to put out a couple of cool looking cakes. I named the Orca George. He promised me that if the squid started to climb up the stairs, he would alert the dogs. Noiseinmyhead did an amazing job painting the squid, while I worked at the arctic cake. She also ended up painting the fondant animals to go on the cake. She did a great job. The Squid turned out looking well, terrifying. The arctic cake I thought was just adorable, and I would have loved to have it for a birthday cake myself. I promise, pictures are forth coming, but I can't upload them on this computer, and my other one is down, since I'm leaving for two weeks next weekend, it might be a month or so before I get them up, but I promise to put them up so you can either oh and ahh... (in which case it was all Noiseinmyhead, and kimberlychapman... If they look horrid, It's my fault.)

Giant Squid is not a happy Squid. I think that Giant Squid hates the world. Luckily, he will be eaten tomorrow at 2pm by a bunch of 6 year olds... Justice!

Valkyrie_Kitten does not like 'Leather Lady'. Valkyrie_Kitten does not like designers who talk in third person. Valkyrie_Kitten wants you to know that if you don't understand what she means, that you should watch more Project Runway.

I scored a great find the last time I visited my Dad's house. I walked away with my maternal grandmother's recipe box! In the last of her years, my mother had been using the front half of it to store "favorite family recipes". She would give out a small recipe box with about 20 or so recipes nicely typed up, all favorites of my immediate family. These would be give as extra gifts as showers, house warmings, just about anywhere. The really great part of the find though, was the back half of the box. It still has my grandmothers recipes. Recipes from before I was born. Things that my mother never made, but I can barely remember from Sunday dinner. (Grandma died when I was in 6th grade) Now the challenging part is reading hand written recipes on old scrap paper from the 40's and 50's! I was really confused about am abbreviation that kept showing up. About half the recipes called for a teaspoon to table spoon of "GSB" WTF??? I finally remembered that grandma would make a spice mix that she would keep in a small canning jar. (General spice blend?) It got added to everything, then other spices were added as needed. Do you think there is a single person who knows what this blend was? Or even a note somewhere written down? Nope. I even called my dad, and made him search the 10 or so other boxes of recipes that are still at his house. None of my mother's generation are still living. So I'm afraid that the secret is gone. I am going to write to all my cousins, second cousins, and odd relatives on that side of the family to see if any of them have any idea, or memory. I know some of Mom's cousins were cooks whe used things other than caned soup to season food. (and you wonder why I took over cooking in our house at the age of 8?!! I wasn't any better at first, but I didn't burn the cookies.) *grin* I'm so happy to find this connection to my grandma. It even has several of the recipes from her Wedding cake business... with lots of unreadable notes... but hey!! (the butter cream icing that takes three pounds of butter is terrifying! but actually looks good.... hummmm... I can feel my arteries hardening just reading it!)

My first thought was to call my husband and say I love him. (and not tell him I'm dying)

But really, really, deep down inside. I would take the change to call my evil Uncle on a stick. Who Accused me and my mother of killing my grandmother by having her babysit me. (like you could stop her) to tell him that showign up on my mothers death bed does not make up for the years of mental torment he put her through, nor does it make up for the way he deserted his own mother when she was dying and pleading with him to come visit with him. I would feel good knowing that I was going to my grave finally saying what the whole family feels, but never voices. I would then probably chicken out and say I forgive him, but I've never told him how I feel. I don't want to poison the few remaning working relationships in that generation of my family.

I am glad to say that I have the rotator cuff of a sissy? And yes, my PT is a sadist. He's not at all ashamed of it. "We'll just keep doing this until it doesn't hurt" Oh joy. On the other hand, I am not in pain the way I was after the evaluation. On the other hand, the actual massage/stretch HURT! A lot. I had to giggle when we got to the exercise portion of the session though. They gave me cute little tiny weights to work with. Anyone want to guess what color? You got it! Purple! The must have known I was coming... (I did make an appointment) Ok, off to do my PT homework.

Just to clear up from my last post. My Therepist was quite clear what he was doing was going to hurt. He was going around come muscles to get to others. Or some such thing. On the other hand, using a tennis ball on the wall to self massage the back of my shoulder sooooo works! I just hate going because of my agoraphobia. I knew I would have pain from the massage, and will not be given deep massage every time. Thanks for the support!

Oh, horrors. Today I was introduced to deep muscle massage. I love physical therapy. NOT! But hopefully they can make the original pain go away, Stay away, and never come back. I'm really tired of injuring this shoulder in the exact same way every 3-4 months... On the other hand, It is showing me new levels of different pain in different places from my treatment today. Great. Three times a week for a month. At least the Therapist and Tech are cute. The Tech looks like a dark haired young Obi Wan.... Can't really complain about that!

I actually made my 10% goal Saturday. Wheee! I have a life time goal that I've set up with my doctor of 150. I figure I can break that down into two or three steps. I'm pleased with this, since I feel like I can get down to that if I keep active. For me, it's not so much the food, it's the exercise. I am such a couch potatoe! Living in a neighborhood where nothing is within walking distance is what put most of the weight on. Dancing for myself in the evenings to Bagpipes seems to be taking it off.. Go Celitc Rock!

Ok, I am right now heading for my car. Driving up to Iowa. If I'm not back by August, someone send a boat! Wish me luck. It will be Willow's first depolyment, so it will be easier on me, but interesting to seee how she copes. Miss you all.

Odd. My collage that I went to (University of Iowa) gets flooded, (along with where I grew up, where all my friends live, and just about everything within the state of Iowa) and I get a message from my volunteer organization (EARS- Emergency Animal Rescue Services) to deploy. So it looks very likely that I will be leaving for home in the next few days, to help set up emergency animal shelters in the flood areas. I've done this before, but doing it where I grew up, and found my life is going to be odd.

Ok, odd request.  I'm trying to put together a list of positive things I want in a new job.  I can only come up with two.

1)They are happy to have Willow there.
2)I am intellectually fulfilled by my work.

There have to be other positive things that can be offered in a job space!  Help me with positive thinking please!

1.  Birthplace - Newton, Iowa
2.  Current Location - Home in Austin, Tx
3.  The Shoes you wore today - So far, pink ballet slippers while I was dancing for exercise
4.  How old will you be in five years? - 45
5.  When is the last time you saw your mom? - Sept 6, 1993.  4:37pm when I held her hand as she died
6.  Do you wear slippers? -nope, I'm a barefoot gilr
7.  Where is your favorite place to be? - With my dogs
8.  Do you tan or burn? - Burn, then I tan
9.  What did you fear would get you at night as a child? The dead I couldn't even watch commercials for zombie movies with out having night mares (ironic yes?)
10.  Do you use a laptop or desktop computer for personal use? Both when the work
11.  What color are your walls?  Which ones?  Most are white, guest bed room is light blue.   Changes planned for the future.
12.  How many pillows do you sleep with? One for me, one for Bob
13.  What is your favorite season? Fall
14.  What do you like best about fall? - Colors of the leaves, and the smell
15.  What do you like best about winter? -New 'virgin' snow... The kind that squeaks when you walk on it.
16.  What do you like best about spring? - The wildflowers,
17.  What do you like best about summer? -The wind that blows in the evening.
18.  What states have you lived in? - Iowa, Texas, California
19.  Have you ever tried escargot? - Yep, pretty good
20.  What is your favorite ice cream flavor? - Why choose?
21.  What is your favorite dessert? White cake with white butter cream icing
22.  What kind of jelly do you put on your PB&J? - Strawberry.  And sometimes odd mixes that catch my eye in the store.

Wow, just saw on the news that the Scout Camp our Church would rent out was badly hit by the Iowa Tornadoes.  Bad enough with the flooding up there.  The camp was supposee to be full.   I don't know what to say.  I just feel sick.

Some one help me... Please?  I'm so bored, I just watched "celebritie Circus?"  OMG    What has me worried, is that I actually like 2 out of the 6 performers.