Pinetop

Escaped the heat to Nana and Papa's place for the weekend for some coolness, some rain, some pampering, some patio lounging...

Citizen Segal House

Beautiful private table at the Public House for a, thankfully, everything's back to normal dinner.

Salina - Seattle

There definitely wasn't a Starbucks in Salina when I cruised into town back in nineteen ninety something. I had driven in from my office at a children's in-patient psychiatric hospital almost halfway across the state in Kansas City for a business meeting. It was the farthest I'd ever gone for a meeting. I met with a judge in his chambers and told him what I thought about one of my charges, little Daniel. Bright. Adorable. Loving. Violent as hell. Nowhere near ready to go live with his dad. Later on, I made it back to Kansas City, probably with a Diet Coke from McDonald's along for the ride, way before the words "tall soy no foam chai" were regularly crossing my lips. Daniel and I worked together for another year. He even progressed enough to make it to the group home across campus, Kiley House. I wonder about him sometimes. I wonder about several of the kids I used to work with. I even seriously considered adopting a little girl back then, a 10-year old named Chelsea. But my own little girl was so young and I wanted to pour everything into Shana that I could, keep her safe, keep her away somehow from the horrors those kids had experienced.

No longer a little girl, Shana headed off today on her first out of town business trip. After just one year with her company, they sent her to Seattle, Starbucks' mothership, to drum up some more biz. Plus, it seems she's already created such a good relationship with her Starbucks contacts she's skipping an evening Fifty Shades of Gray tour because the coffee peeps have invited her to dinner after the meeting.

I know for just a few bucks, she could have driven herself to the airport and I could have slept in, but I got up early for the drop-off anyway. I thought I may still have something left in the mom cup to pour in, a little business trip advice on the 101 southbound, possibly. Watching her this morning, all dressed up and rolling her bag behind her, I realized she would have done just as well no matter how many troubled kids I brought home.

Now, hopefully, she'll bring home a chai.
Tall. Soy. No foam. Thanks.

Book Club - The Interestings

Loved the book, but those Interestings have got nothin' on The Divas. Starting with a pre-game wine tailgate at Chicken Little's, staring at a bunch of downy baby chicks, trying to gather up enough farm frau info to figure out which came first - the chicken or the egg - before heading to Jaye's where we put the Visas away in the cranked down air with the cosmos and the salmon and the lemon squares and the top of the head guys/gals (who cares?), the 70s station, the reunion shenanigans, the never ending GPS story, the next ex-husband, the medical reports, the grandbaby pics, the furniture rearranging ideas, the chic new mini-me haircut and the floor wriggling with Love To Love Ya, Baby.
Now that was Interesting.

also got through this month...

Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls

still the funniest guy around - roll your eyes, shake your head, laugh out loud

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake
Seemed like a good-bye, but oh, does Ms. Quindlen have a lovely way with words

How to Lose an Old Bathroom in 10 Days

Get a new calculator...

I just realized that when my tile guy said he could redo the bathroom in 10 days, 

he didn't mean
10 days

in  -  a  -  row.

Plumbing Problems

Day 20 of a 10 day remodel and I'm starting to wish I was one of those ladies with decorators and contractors and blank checks that snap their fingers and jet off to Europe for a month while all the nitty gritty takes place.

But since I've got more time than money at the moment, I'm doing a lot of the smile-n-nod. Done in 10 days? Uh huh. Here in an hour? Uh huh. Oops, extra hole in the wall? Whatever. 

Put off for as long as we could, the bathrooms were falling apart. Shana's shower stopped working. Our shower head fell over somehow and for months we had been squatting down, doing half backbends in order to rinse our hair. The hot water faucet in one sink didn't work. The cold in the other turned the wrong way. The tub faucet leaked.  It was time.

So, now we're showering outside while we wait for the tile guy, a la Gilligan's Island. Who knew this thing worked?

I always wanted to be Mary Ann, all free and easy, shaking out my wet hair in the wild, hoping Mr. Howell (or the pool guy) didn't walk by at the wrong time. 

(Just saw her last month in Love, Loss and What I Wore - she's just as cute as ever).

So, slowly, we're getting there. Out with the 80s ceramic tile and brass fixtures, in with the black slate on the floor to finally match the rest of the house, plus some awesome tumbled black marble found for a smokin' deal for the tub and countertop.

Still dusty, dusty, dusty, but hopefully the last week of what was supposed to be a three hour cruise. A three hour cruise.

Oui oui oui

Instead of a vacation in France, Old Wildcat checked into the five star St. Joe's in a lovely suite, overlooking Rue Thomas for a no-day-at-the-beach fixer-upper, complete with tiny cameras, wifi monitors, rolling robots, special delivery ice creme, incision decisions, chips and sips and enough Dbacks innings to last 20 seasons, which is how many more years this quick roto-rooter will buy Mr. Foodie.  Checking out today!

The not so Greatest Show on Earth

Bored with summer, Shana, Heather and I headed to the circus. They must have been just as bored since they agreed and, used to my typical antics of finding the weirdest, smallest, most out of the way things to do, were totally surprised when I said, no, really, the circus, the actual circus. 

I didn't remember it being so Vegas-y. All glitz and glitter and hardly any animals. Or clowns. Send in the clowns, people. Maybe I just wanted the old days back. Like looking at the circus with wonder as a little girl, or watching Shana's little girl eyes take it all in. 

Pigtails and all.