Practicing

I may have mentioned that this is mental health week. I'm trying not to beat myself up too much, if that's possible. I've been high anxiety and low capacity. But I'm also kinda practicing for retirement. What's going to work for me? What do I need in order to be able to enjoy it?

I need to do one productive thing per day. That allows me to enjoy the other things. So this is my yesterday:

• Hanging with mrguy, drinking coffee and talking about politics and cancer
• Genealogy research
• Making organizational schema for family documents
• Estate stuff / Important Mom Docs
• Real estate: past real estate information
• Real estate: tenants, subtenants, floor plans, money stuff
• Family trust stuff

• Office supply store for clear bins
• Sorting, sorting sorting
• Office supply store to swap broken clear bin for an unbroken one

Why would I do this on my week off? Because I want to sort these documents into categories that I know I can discard without worry as soon as possible. I have ten boxes of family stuff in my garage and two empty file cabinets that I want to get rid of. I don't want the emotional burden and the physical space that it takes up. Maybe I'll look at the jade fruit and stuff next. I want to know what I have here at my house.

Then I rewatched the D.A. Pennebaker documentary "'Original Cast Album: “Company'”. I have had "Ladies Who Lunch" stuck in my head for days. Then I looked up where I could listen to the digitized Frontera Collection, and listened to some recordings by Marta Triana and Manuelita Arriola.

A good first weekday.

A Day Off

I had decided to take a weekday off work, yesterday, and it was lovely.

The bad news is that I sprained my knee last week while taking out my frustrations by stomping on a bag of brussels sprouts. But it should be fine. So I had *modified* Pilates with my friend and trainer.

Then I had a lot to say to my new therapist. Then I went down the hill to a chiropractor appointment. The first one. She was super nice, and she unlocked my upper back / neck and that was exactly the thing I was hoping for. Her office is on a street that I never casually walk down, but want to. I stopped in at the pretzel store that I had heard about, and there was no line. OMG!! Pretzel rolls! Suddenly I am magically transported to Lufthansa business class, where I had my first pretzel roll and Yogi Tea's Bright Mood blend. So delish!

I also went into one of the two Nepali clothing stores on that street. Then to the rice triangle restaurant, where I picked up our dinner (two salmon and rice plates). I was home by 11:53. I iced my knee, and took a nap with the boy kitten in the afternoon.

At dinner time we fed the kitties, ate our bowls, and went outside to the upper deck, where the air was cool and delicious and so clear that we could see every bit of Oz, and the lights of the city on the bay.

Then we watched the two saddest episodes of Mythic Quest and a It's Always Sunny. I failed to notice for the last 17 years that this show existed. It was only when we started watching Wrexham that I leaned who Rob McElhenny even was. It's Always Sunny is pretty horrible -- or at least the characters are. And the situations and...yikes.

But it was a lovely day.

Mrguy woke up with a migraine :(

You Know That Thing?

That thing where your caregiver randomly asks to borrow 1500 clams by Friday until the end of November, and that you need to keep it a secret from her mom who is your other caregiver? And that thing where her mom asks to borrow 400 clams, until who knows when, for the same important church tithing thing? Yeah, I guess you probably don't. I love our caregivers, but we are also helping them care for the Tongan church. Don't get me started on the pyramid scheme that they contribute to, where everybody gets paid every once in a while unless someone who is contributing dies, in which case their heirs get the whole pool and everybody loses a turn. Our caregivers are super smart and upright ladies, and I don't like to think of what would happen if it didn't pay off for them. I guess they'd come to us for help and they'd be ok. Haha

We are so into one another's business that we should just all adopt one another.

Or you know the thing where your dear brother-in-law who has undiagnosed and untreated ADHD mistakenly takes a wrong turn into Canada on the way home and is pulled over without identification (I think) and is just high enough to get his truck impounded and can't figure out how to get it back? The thing where your sweet husband has to figure it out and explain it to the brother who then doesn't have the money to get the car back but *also* can't tell you how to get the money to him. No PayPal or Venmo, no place to cash a check. Where do his SSI checks go every month? That has to be a bank, right? 

You know that thing? Happens to everybody, right?

We are super happy to help. Super happy that although we've known lots of super broke times we are now people who can provide for others. But mrguy says that sometimes he feels like the big cartoon pork chop walking around surrounded by cartoon wolves licking their lips waiting to gobble him up. I get it. 

mrguy's family has no-money and mental illness problems. mrsguy's family has money and mental illness problems. We are doers of favors and providers of clams, and sometimes he and I feel like we're huddled together, secure, in the middle of a shit blizzard. We want to take the kitties and get in the car and drive to the moon.

And with that, welcome to Staycation 2023, which is better than no 'cation at all, but still.

Vacation in the Zip Code

Mr. Guy South came to visit! The misters guy took a ferry to the city, went to a gallery, saw the rock music, and came home. I took the next day off work so that I could have breakfast with the misters guy and catch up. It was blissful. First, nobody in my family knew I was off work and they left me alone. When I don't get texts I know they're cooking something up, but I ignored the signs.

We drank coffee and ate beaucoup de toast and I am the only one who will beg to see someone's vacation photos, so I did. Mrguy South had been to Japan and we have similar sensibilities so we feasted our eyes on dreamy shots of architecture and fall foliage. So good.

Our bellies were empty, so we went down the street to the new Guatemalan restaurant. So good!

Before I even ordered anything I perused the cold case and found Guatemalan grape soda. Omg. Completely frosty and delicious.

This beauty was a chow mein tostada. It consisted of a corn tortilla on the bottom, some veggies including chayote, and chow mein noodles tossed in an unidentifiable mild red sauce. I had to have it, what with them not having ostrich. Mrguy South and I shared it.

I had these little tasty bits which were huge considering they were an appetizer. The green puree that came with it was so 'ono! Muy 'ono, even.

Guess we liked it. The people were so nice and they were playing perky kine marimba music that Siri was unable to identify. After our meal, more coffee and our friend hit the road.

A super relaxing day, nay, an island of lowered blood pressure, in the ocean of doggie doo that is my life.

Hawaii 2022 Day 4

After our morning swim, Mrguy found us a new place to eat, in walking distance from our hotel. They had a weird homemade veggie burger, which made so happy that I ate it on two different occasions. Super tasty -- with flavors in the curry palate.

After lunch we went to see some friends play at the local ukulele festival at the Waikiki Shell, also walking distance. It was sparsely attended, and mostly keiki were playing, but it was fun. 

Since we were halfway there we walked up Monsarrat to Diamond Head Grill. Nothing inside really spoke to us but our usual shoyu ginger wasabi ahi did *not* disappoint.

We took it back to the shack and had a beer on the lanai and then our ahi.

Hawaii 2022 Day 3

The previous post was a combo of day 1 and 2. 

On Day 3 we went swimming in the morning. Then we headed out to do some sculpture hunting. One of my ideas for this trip was to go in search of some of the sculpture listed in a book called Sculpture in the Sun: Hawaii's Art in Public Places. This book, which I'd bought about ten years ago, documents some of Hawaii's artists and artwork funded by the state's public art program. And my thought for the trip was that we could go find some of the art in person, which would lead us to go places we hadn't been before.

So we headed up to Leeward Community College, in Kaneohe. But before we could get to the freeway our path took us past Haili's Hawaiian Food, which is a favorite spot to pick up poi and other taste treats. We stopped and had a sit. They chopped up some dried aku for us, and packed up poi and served us chilled water while we chatted about how they'd fared during the hardest parts of the pandemic. They were a little surprised that out of towners made plans to visit them, but we're kinda used to surprising people.

On the way to Kaneohe we got the idea that all is no well when it comes to man and automobile:

Shiro's Saimin Haven

It doesn't take long to get to Kaneohe from town, and we were hungry so we stopped at a very old strip mall that we'd passed many times before. 

Our bellies full, we went across the freeway to Goodwill. I was still recovering from Covid and seemed to have an allergic reaction to something in the store that drove me out into the parking lot with a need for 800 kleenex and some cough drops. I recovered pretty quickly but WOW that was intense.

And then on to Leeward CC! Not sure why, but the campus was empty. The day was gorgeous. 

The brutalist design of the buildings was so lovely. We wandered around in search of architecture but there was none to be found. But when you turned around you realized that you were right there on the water with big big ships in the harbor.

Still on the hunt for sculpture we went back to the art department. Front doors weren't open, but I walked  around the back of the building and found some people sculpting outdoors. "Excuse me -- I'm looking for some public sculpture..." One person spoke up "I think it's outside the library. And inside the library."

Sure enough, the Satoru Abe sculpture we were looking for was outside the library. Thanks, sculptors! It was kinda awkwardly placed, and oddly monumental but tiny. But you could see how it was very cool at one time. None of my photos did it any justice. And I now see that we missed an exhibition by Tadashi Sato that was on at the time. Argh.

Outside the library was a lovely oculus, lined with mosaic, showing off the brilliant sky and a lone cloud:

Inside the library was some cool artwork by Kahi Ching.

A nice sunset awaited at the hotel.

We wrapped up our day at Stand Up Honolulu, a fairly new club on Cooke St. We met up with our old forklift friend, Ms T. One of the fun things about coming to Honolulu is that Ms T. lives here but she and we have none of the same points of reference. So we can take her to places she's never been. And she's up for everything and it's always a blast. So she met us at the club. She texted that she was scared to get out of her car, which was adorable. Anyhoo, we met in the parking lot and went up to the club. 

I like their bathroom keys!

We saw Andy Bumatai, who was fabulous. And it was a local crowd, but he didn't single us out like he did when we saw him back home. There was, however, a bit of a thing with a wiry guy in fatigues who came in late. He seemed to be altered, wiggly, and Andy couldn't resist dragging him into the act a bit since everyone had seen this guy enter the small club in the middle of his set. He was definitely walking the knife's edge a bit with this guy, and at more than one point I thought "This guy probably has a gun and we're going to die." But that didn't happen and we all had a good time. Except maybe for that one guy. 

I hope he's ok.

It Happened -- Hawaii 2022

Travel was unexpectedly uneventful. Our Lyft was cushy. Three years of miles accrual meant that we went first class, which was fine. I got to watch Everything Everywhere all at Once, which was super weird and neat. We went to La Mariana for lunch and had our first taste of the 2022 holidays:

Our local market has what we need, so we just ate out of the refrigerator case, bought some bottled mai tais and sat on the lanai. Mrguy, recovering from a migraine, had some hypervigilent moments. They only bother him.

On my birthday we went to Sea Bear Beach (what we call it), which you get to by snaking through the parking lot. The area where you can swim is a little smaller than before, but you have a shaded beach with very few people on it. I have felt sooo unlaxed since I got here. It's amazing to realize that dealing with my mom has a physical component. I felt my stomach drop in a good way immediately.

Then off to the museum, which had some of the best traveling exhibitions I've seen there in years. The theme was flowers, and there were paintings from their own collection, like this Paul Wonner:

Also I'm totally in love with the butt grain parquet in the gallery and had to take a photo:

We saw a really cool show by Noah Harders.

And a fantastic piece: Soundsuit 8:46 by Nick Cave:

and then we stepped into Rebecca Louise Law's Awakening, an immersive exhibit that was filled with local and non-local dried vegetation strung on wire and crafted into ;aths within space. The interplay of the objects, shapes and depth of field was tremendous.

I have no idea whether I can load this video into the blog, but this is what it was like to experience the piece:

After touring the galleries, we had lunch at the cafe, and then took in the Sundance Indigenous Short Film Program.

It all went to plan.

While I was rolling around in my bed with Covid I planned out some things for my birthday, including finding a restaurant, Senia, where we could have a great meal. We usually don't do this (eat a fancy dinner) but this sounded really special. And while I was too sick to get out of bed, I'd think "Maybe tomorrow I could get up the stairs by myself so I can grab my credit card and make reservations". Eventually my wish came true.

Dinner was delicious. We had an appetizer that came under a smoke-filled dome. We ate the world's richest risotto. We had scallops that were so good that mrguy decided that he might even *enjoy* scallops.

It was just a great great day, and a good way to usher in a new decade of life (depending on how you count it).

Sorry if the video doesn't load. This has been an experiment. 

Countdown to Vacay

Sunday was mama day. The night before she'd been restless, but in the morning she was up and attem. Until I got there, of course. She was sweetly sleeping again, and could barely keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds. "Lovely to see you," she'd say. And then zzzzzzz. She asked "How's mrguy?" about a dozen times. And at one point she gently cupped my face with both hands, and looked so lovingly into my eyes that I felt like I, myself, could die of love. It's hard to reconcile the fact that the night before those same sweet hands were slapping someone (who she had already bitten twice).

It is countdown to vacay. We leave tomorrow. On Saturday we had mrguy south over for dinner, which was delightful. I miss cooking for friends, so this was great. He's off on an adventure in Japan.

And yesterday I dropped keys and a Christmas cactus off at #1 nephew's house. He's taking care of the babies tomorrow. Then I got gas, and sold some gold. A horrible elephant charm that came with a necklace that I bought last year. The charm brought me $394! 

Made an appointment for a haircut, dropped stuff off at Mom's (gotta make sure she's got paper products for the week!), made clam dip for a certain sumo loving friend -- wooooooo!!!

Now it's starting to look like vacation. Clam dip and I watched some sumo last night. And before that mrguy and I took in a pretty stupendous sunset. See that hump down there? The mama now lives a few blocks away from it.

Boy kitten enjoyed watching the sumo recap when we went to bed.

Tomorrow we fly. We had enough miles for first class round trip flights, so I hope to make the most of it from the moment we board. I *will* turn off my work email. I *will* turn off Slack. I have a friend who is on notice to text me if anything momentous goes down at the factory that I shouldn't miss.

Leaving Town

I haven't gotten on an airplane or even been away from home for more than a few hours for the last three years. And my oldest neph and sister made it possible for me to blow town for days. Admittedly I'm working a convention and it's really tiring, but I desperately needed to fill my eyeballs with something different for a while.

My role? To be a charming representative of my people at a trade show. To help them take photos of themselves for Instagram. To give a presentation.

My hotel room had a super gross feature: a leak. I washed my hands, went to dry them on a towel and realized that it was fully saturated with water. And that it had a green streak down the middle, that was the same verdegris color as the pipe hole above it. Grossss. Second room (king suite) also had pipe hole, and dripped cold water on me while I was bathing.

These things have also actually happened:

• I have touched hundreds of strangers' phones
• I gave a presentation this morning that was lightly but enthusiastically attended
• A woman in costume was so intense with us that three of us simultaneously stepped backward out of our own booth to get away from her
• I walked 2 miles home from a restaurant at night in my platform clogs
• A woman heckled me in the hotel hallway for how I was walking to my room. My feet hurt so badly at that point. It wasn't really funny.
• I met hundreds of really nice people
• I had a good time
• My uber boss said he loved me and that I'm a star

I am super grateful to my sister and neph for their encouragement and filling in for me with my mom. Now that I've had some time away I'd like to figure out how to have a life again while still making my mom happy, because since she's moved I haven't had any time with mrguy or much to myself. 

Work in progress.

Odd Vacation Activities

Relaxing also means reading the obits. Robert Pritikin, recently deceased, had a very full life. Among his many accomplishments? Recording an album that I actually own, called "There's A Song Inside My Saw".

I can't find it on Youtube, so you'll just have to imagine it. But while we're discussing Robert Pritikin, and while I was looking for the video, I found this:

Anyway, here's to lives thoroughly lived. To Robert Pritikin, and to Tom Gonzales, a lovely young colleague who left behind a wife and young children, and had so much more left to do had he been given more time.

Hawaii 2019, Day 1

Last year we went on vacation to Hawaii. It might have been the most relaxing vacation ever. Like I kept saying to mrguy "I am so FUCKING relaxed". But I haven't felt the ability to write it up. Today that ends.

It had been several years since we'd gone to Hawaii, and it felt like it was time. It also happened to be my birthday, so we went.

As all vacations begin, we put the Ka'au Krater Boys on and took a drive.

 

a drive from the airport to La Mariana Sailing Club for lunch.

Things were a little more spruced up than usual. We asked our waiter how things were going, and she said that business is great and that they were featuring La Mariana as a set in the current Magnum P.I. reboot (season 2). They came to do a bunch of exterior shots and then for interiors built a restaurant with a fake marina with half sailboats stuck onto the floor for shots looking out from the inside of the restaurant. We will have to check this out. We heard that this all starts in season 2, episode 2.

That evening I found a film at the Hawaii International Film Festival about The Band, which is a favorite subject of mrguy (he played briefly with Garth Hudson). Cause as readers of mrsguy are aware, that's what we do in Paradise. We watch movies indoors!

So ends day 1.

Bear Update

Remember Brutus, the bear that walked into our dining room while we were on vacation a few years back? He is no more -- killed in a legal bear hunt last year.

I feel bad for him. And now I know that two years before he invited himself for dinner he was officially weighed, and came in at 575 lbs. Good grief!

Here's the link about Brutus. Do not click if you do not want to see him after he was hunted. 

So sorry, guy.

Talking About Vacation

Can we never do this again in this same fashion? I love my people so much. I love to be with them and eat with them and laugh with them. But it's too much. We are two days post vacation and I'm starting to feel normal, like when you've had a very bad cold and have most of the symptoms still but they're starting to simmer. In a week or so I will suck it up, reach out to my sister and say that I can't do this any more (the family vacation thing).

Let's set the stage. The mama loves being with her family. It's the only thing she cares about. Where are her people? Are they together having fun without me? Why aren't we together? Why can't we be at the vacation place right now? As with her friend's funeral earlier in the year, there was much anticipation and then when she got in the car she didn't know where she was going. She thought she didn't pack. She thought that we were having a party and then coming home. Sometimes she knew where we were and sometimes she didn't.

In the last few weeks she's suffered a setback. She's weak and barely able to walk. It took 32 minutes for her to walk from my front door to her car the other day. On vacation she was floppy like a noodle, and getting her to the bath was challenging. Also the bed in her room was about three inches too high, so we had to almost lift her into bed each time.

My vacation week consisted of:

• 1 day cooking
• 1 day kitchen cleanup
• 1 day as Mom's daytime concierge
• Several mornings helping siblings get Mom dressed, showered, etc. (it's now a multi-person job) 
• 4 nights sleeping with Mom, waking up 2 or 3 times a night for a half hour to take her to the restroom
• 1 night sleeping in the den so special guests (who were really lovely) could stay in a bedroom
• 1 3-hour discussion about Mom's health
• 1 4-hour discussion about Mom's health with all of the siblings
• 1 20-minute talk about Mom's future with one sibling.
• 1 apology conversation after my own personal misery made me act out and hurt my sister's feelings
• 1 5 1/2 hour drive
• 1 4 hour drive
• 1 morning of cleanup and packing out
• Endless maudlin toasts to the Dead at dinner
• No bears

I want to say that I did not work harder than my siblings. I feel awful complaining, for that reason. In addition to most of the same tasks above, one sister also did all of the shopping and hosted our 92-year-old cousin for several days before and after the vacation proper. The other took care of the mama before and after the trip and took her to the doctor.

All of this begs the question of who this is for. The mama? It does give her something to look forward to and agitate about, but it was too much for her and the air at that elevation is super thin. The next generation? Maybe. My generation? Definitely not. Again, as of this year I am done. I love my family but not enough to take a week off of work so I can work non-stop and be unhappy with myself about being grumpy and ungrateful.

Thanks to mrguy, I have ideas about turning our week-long misery-fest into something resembling a true family reunion.

Hawaii 2014, Day 1

While organizing photos recently I realized that I had half-written a blog for a trip to Hawaii in 2014. Not wanting to waste it, and missing Hawaii, I am reconstructing the blog for that trip.

+++
The ride over was uneventful, except for the guy behind me, who hadn't been on a plane in awhile. He sneezed and snored and snapped his fingers in time with his music. When his big toe would gently poke my rump through my seat back, I'd grab it through the cushions and move it aside. Then he brought down his tray table and shuffled a deck of cards for about 5 minutes. Ffffffft! Clack clack clack.

Somehow that stuff, which would usually infuriate me, didn't really bug me. The miracle of vacation.

It's our first trip to Hawaii in two years. It's raining like crazy. I don't really care that it's grey and rainy. We're having a drought at home and it's nice to at least visit the rain.

We visited the La Mariana Sailing Club for lunch. The menu has changed. I was looking forward to my retro shrimp Louie salad – pink cold shrimpy fingers on a 1000 Island Iceburg wedge. Instead I had a sandwich with sprouts. Miss the Louie, but perhaps it was for the best.

After a nap, Chiba-ken. Very loud, but just right.

I love you, Honolulu.

Tahoedad 2018, Post 1

We're 4 days in, now, but Tahoedad 2018 got off to a rolicking start.

Nose, the 22-year-old cat, had a seizure at the vet as mrguy was checking him in to board. We learned that he has hypertension, needs his subcutaneous fluid intake increased, and that he has anemia. Most of those are also problems mrguy's mom has, so that's a little trippy. Nose has many fans at the clinic, so everybody came running to see him and make sure he was ok as the doctor was treating him. The founder of the practice came by. "Is that Nose? He must be 23 by now!" Pretty close, doc! They think that he will recover.

A few minutes after I got the initial phone call about the cat, my sister-in-law called to say that his bro-liness is in the hospital. Blood clots in the lungs, but he has been treated, is out of the hospital and is supposed to join us tomorrow.

Then the mama's fave caregiver's sister died in New Zealand, so we're figuring out scheduling around that. Poo. So sorry for her. Of course it's remarkable that her sister passed away when the mama was on vacation and didn't need her.

Here we are at Day Four. The mama, the frenchman and D were playing gin rummy. I was in the kitchen making sandwiches for mrguy and I. He was upstairs busying himself with fancy book learning. D, who missed Bear Night last year, looks up from his hand and says "Bear!" Yup, the door to the porch was open and there was an adolescent bear on the porch, lumbering toward the dining room. Really, Dude? The boys closed the door to the porch and siblings shouted for the caretaker, who was away from the house. His friend apparently heard us and called him to let him know there was a bear on the property. The bear went down the hill the same way Brutus did last year, and the caretaker walked around with his rubber bullet-filled rifle. 

Tahoedad: Glorious 2018 Planning Edition

Family vacation begins soon, and I believe we may be happy to see one another after a really rough Spring. In the last few days I've figured out sleeping arrangements, made the schedule for cooking, kitchen cleanup and the mama's day concierge and night care, and now I just have to pack and shop. And pack for Mom. She and I are carpool buddies.

During our vacation the youngest nephew is having a birthday. I made several passes by the free table at work yesterday, and at the end of the day saw some funny stuff on the bottom shelf -- elements for a Star Wars-themed birthday. Not enough wookie and white guy masks for all of us, however, so I've asked one the other nephs to bring his British Royal Family masks. I think the birthday boy will appreciate it, and his girlfriend will either love it or run away and hide.

A Bayor!

It's the guy family reunion. 

As usual, we have too much to eat, some Balderdash, card playing and general merriment. 

Last night there was a little twist.

15 of us were at the dining room table yakking it up and finishing dessert and we had a little one upstairs asleep for the night by himself. All of a sudden the youngest at the table said loudly "BEAR" and we turned around. There was a very large bear (locally known as Brutus) heading up the stairs to the dining room. For one beat each of us thought it was a joke. And then we realized it wasn't and split.

mrguy grabbed our elderly cousin and carried her down the stairs to the deck. One nephew grabbed the mama and got her into the den. We, the daughters, all gravitated toward the mama and barricaded ourselves behind a piece of furniture in the den. By then the bear was in the living room trying to figure out how to leave. Everybody on the other side of the table from me ran outside and closed the door.

But there was a bear trapped in the house and a three-year-old sleeping by himself upstairs. My neph, the father, scaled the outside of the house with my brother-in-law quickly behind and got in via the balcony. They arrived just as the bear was retreating from the second floor (where he visited my sister's bathroom). One of the men barricaded himself in with his little one. The other grabbed a piano bench and brandished it at the bear. The bear went downstairs, back through the dining room, into a back bedroom and broke a window to exit. The caretaker shot rubber bullets into the air to scare him off.

It's going to be a bad day for the bear when he's trapped. There's a giant device there for bear catching, larded with sweet rolls.

A few shots from after the incident:

Mrguy's chair. I was in the folding chair next to him. At first the bear was scratching at the window below, but quickly turned around and walked up the stairs.

The bear was too big to exit via that tiny window, and there are gouges in the paneling underneath. He kinda wrecked things all over the house while trying to get out. 

He entered via the door below, and tried to exit that way but wasn't successful. He dragged a Costco pie out onto the drive and ate it there, along with the gigantic platter of spaghetti left over from the other night.

He is apparently not a coffee drinker. That would have been a real tragedy if he had eaten the coffee.

During his visit he took a poo on the ugliest chair in the house.

And he eventually blasted out the mama's bedroom window (now boarded up).

The next day we are *still* talking about it. So's everyone else in town, apparently. Our 7-year-old grandnephew will have the story of his lifetime, about how he saved his entire family. Could not be prouder of him and of each of us.

Really? Really???

Japan take two was great, but there is a series of complicated life events surrounding us, and we leave for Hawaii day after tomorrow:

• Mother-in-law wants more opiates than her doctor wants her to have and is pitching fits
• Mom's best friend of 75 years is in hospice
• Mom's caregivers are flaky (this item seems small by comparison, but I've filled in by spending every day with her since I came home, and I'm beat)
• One of our favorite cousins had a major stroke yesterday
• #2 cat is violently ill and is puking and drooling
• Middlesis isn't speaking to me

Should I stay home to deal with some of this?

Argh.

Fear of a Black Planet

Fear of a Black Planet cake was topical, delicious and favored by the people.

And a new puzzle by Ravensberg is the right mix of challenging and beautiful, without being infuriating. I've done a little of this today, as well as reading a book about Madeleine Albright's brooches.

People who like football are watching the final of the European Cup.

Last night one of my grandmother's ugliest paintings, which she painted when she was 17, found a new home with one of the nephs. I decided to bring this painting with us in order to get at least one item out of the garage. Much is right with the world.