Thursday, 22 July 2010

Life Goes On, Even When You Don't Write About It

I'm sure this is no surprise to those who aren't interested in blogging, journaling, keeping a diary or even contemplating their navel. Life goes on, the sun comes up, goes down and we get on with daily routines. Time passes, events happen and usually you can't remember what you did last week. 


I guess that's the two-fold purpose of keeping a blog or journal. You not only can share and pass on news or things you're doing to absent or distant friends and you can also go back later and re-read what you were doing or even feeling at a particular time. This is why I get so frustrated with myself for not being more faithful at keeping a record or writing new posts. I have a little organizer that I keep in my purse for quick notes when things happen but I wish I were better at keeping a record of events. 


There for a while I was pretty good at weekly or even monthly posts. I see here that my last post was in April! April! Shame on me! I really don't have an excuse other than lack of focus, laziness, ennui or whatever you want to call it. That, and a small voice in my head telling me no one wants to read what I write so why bother? Oh boy, that last sentence sounds really whiny--or, a good word over here is "whinging" which I always think is a cross between whining and making the other person cringe. Anyway, I guess I'm still asking please to keep up the comments and emails back all you out there!


The summer here has been up and down, weather-wise and my emotional life-wise. We've had some beautiful sunny days and then all of a sudden the weather feels more like October and it's raining and cold for days. My poor roses don't know what to do and finally have a few buds. I've only planted impatiens (they call them Busy Lizzies over here) and geraniums in my pots but they're doing well. I also have a thriving herb garden in a box with parsley, cilantro, basil, chives and thyme. My mint, however, doesn't seem to have survived the winter which is odd because mint is usually hardy and hardly anything will kill it. 





I had my 55th birthday in June. The celebration, such that it was, isn't what I would have wished for but it was really nice after all. 




My balloons and cake
Robbie got me two 5-year-old balloons "for the birthday girl" to make 55 !
I decided I wanted a mocha cake with mocha icing because what's better than coffee and chocolate?
Candlelight can always be flattering!


I ended up making my own cake and dinner that day because Robbie was busy getting his auntie moved into her new assisted living apartment. We are so relieved that she now has company and is in a more sociable place where they can sometimes keep an eye on her and she can be with people or participate in activities if she wants to. Also, on my birthday we had the plumber in to see what was still causing the flooding in our bathroom. So with all that happening on one day my Robbie didn't really have time for baking cakes or cooking dinner. We couldn't go out because the plumber was due to come in the evening so I just made up some boneless pork chops, fried some potatoes and cooked corn. It was very tasty and easy (and pretty typically American!).


Luckily, Robbie had the week off work and two days later he took me out for lunch at Tony Roma's. We had noticed it had opened last fall right next to the McDonald's we usually go to and I'd been wanting to try it out for a while. I've never gone to a Tony Roma's in the US but here I'll try anything from home! Before we went I checked out their website and was SO excited to see that they had RIBS!! Not only that, but the you could choose 4 different sauces on your ribs that had names like Sweet Carolina or Blue Ridge Smoky. YeeeeHawww! I haven't had ribs since I left the US and these were heavenly! I decided on the Blue Ridge Smoky sauce and it was marvelous, just what you want from ribs and just what I love and miss so much Mmmm Good! So, the birthday lunch I finally had was just what I wanted


Also just what I wanted was an Amazon gift certificate from my Mom and I was in heaven being able to buy some of the books I've been wanting. I think I finally was able to get nearly 10 books because some of them were used and since they weren't all shipped together it was like opening multiple birthday presents over the next 2 weeks. Fun, fun, fun! I also ordered myself one of my favorite perfumes, White Shoulders,  from Robbie. He knows just what I want (wink)!


Here lately, Robbie has been on the computer every chance he can. For the last 5 or so days he's been working almost every minute he's home to finish up his Open University web design course. Unfortunately, also for those last 5 days, I've noticed that when he's been writing code something messes up in my computer. Tuesday night he completely lost MS Explorer. He was up until almost 2am trying to see why it wasn't working and couldn't figure it out so he did a system restore back to last Friday. When I got up the next day I found that 3 programs I'd downloaded were gone and I still had no browser so I couldn't get on the internet. 


Luckily, he had loaded Google Chrome for his course so for the last 2 days I've been trying to figure out, work with and get comfortable with Google Chrome. I actually think I'm beginning to like it. I'm a traditionalist and I won't usually try something new unless pushed so I guess it's a good thing to have to try a different system but I like my technology set so I can understand it and just go to one or two buttons and get things done without having to think or explore. I'm not really interested in the newest bells and whistles unless they help me do what I need to do. Still, I do think Chrome is faster than Explorer and a bit cooler. We'll see. 


I also set up a gmail account but I'm still not sure if I want that or my Yahoo to be my primary email address. If I decide to change it I'll let everyone know the new address then. Like I said I've now spent 2 days doing nothing but work on the computer and try to figure these things out and also fix and download again all the stuff I lost. I've put my foot down with Robbie too, that from now on he work his OU assignments downstairs on his computer. He has to get a newer version of Windows for it and he's been dragging his feet not wanting to spend the money for that but after this latest fiasco I'm insisting!


Tuesday before Robbie messed with my computer I had spent most of the day writing again. It really felt good. I had promised God that I would write and so I sat down and prayed and before I knew it it was 2:30 in the afternoon and I was still in my pajamas! So here I am again, almost done with Google Chrome, my computer's almost back to normal and I've finally written a blog post! And I'm still in my pajamas! Tonight's my clinic appointment so I better get up from the desk and get going.  


Thanks for reading, let me hear from you. Love & Hugs to all my friends.
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