Endings and beginnings and in between....

Today is the Kentucky Derby. 

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, a totally American holiday that parades as a Mexican one. 

Monday is my daughter and her husband's first anniversary. 

A week from tomorrow is Mother's Day. 

A great niece graduates soon from High School.   

It's a busy month.   

A year ago this weekend. 

Aren't they darling?

Also, this coming Wednesday, I leave for Florida and then to Saint Thomas. Traveling with both daughters and the son-in-law, we will water taxi to Saint John and board a catamaran that will then take us through the British Virgin Islands. I joke that the SIL is taking his "harem".   He knew when he married Belle that he was getting a "sister wife"-the little sister that comes along for everything. Bless his heart, that did not deter him and he has graciously (mostly) included her in many trips, parties, meals and more meals.  I got a text from him saying it was "my turn in the rotation" to come along for a trip. Wait! What? There's a rotation? If I had known, I would have signed up earlier.  Anyway, I'm spoiled/fortunate/lucky AF.

This will be "home" next week

But. This trip also could not come at a better time. After a lovely trip to Texas to see the eclipse (where apparently we were in the only cloud covered area of the U.S.), I made the decision to end my five year long distance relationship. Love the man dearly but we had opposing agendas and there was no way forward. We wanted different things. It was time. I knew it. But still, it leaves a void. 

Texas was beautiful but clouds everywhere. 

Then last week Mina Kitty quit eating. She started hiding in the corner of the office. The kitty box was intentionally missed. Weight was obviously lost.  

A visit to the vet gave me all sorts of options.  She will be 16 in July which is a ripe old age for any cat, even more impressive for a kitty that has been in renal failure for the last 3 years.  I went with Plan B which was treat the symptoms and see if she recovers. She spent a few hours getting antibiotics and IV fluids along with some pain meds and came home much perkier. She even ate a bit last night. This morning she isn't quite so chipper.  She licked up a bit of baby food and is doing her best bread box impression here in the corner of the office.    

Mina with a captured catnip toy

Plan C was multiple diagnostic tests and labs, not feasible for a kitty of this age. I have opted for "above and beyond" in attempting to keep animals alive before and it isn't fair to them. Never again.

Which leads me to Plan A.  Plan A is euthanasia which I'm afraid is where we are headed. This is complicated by my impending departure. Do I put her down possibly a week sooner than needed to spare the house sitter the worry? Is that fair? Am I giving her enough opportunity to recover?  Or do I leave her with the nice house/petsitter who will possibly have to make that decision?  But that isn't fair to Mina either. She deserves to have me with her in her final moments.  

Using up one of her nine lives? 

Is she in pain? Some, I think.   It's hard to tell with cats. I know she is feeling off. SHE knows something is wrong.  So does Carlos who is also getting older, himself. His eyes are clouding with cataracts and his hearing is fading. He sleeps like a dead dog and sleeps a lot. But Carlos, who has always been afraid of Mina, has been hanging close to her.  When she walks by, he sniffs her head.  I've seen him do it multiple times. What can he sense that I can't?  

Six months ago they wouldn't be in the same room, 

much less this close.

You can see how skinny she is under all that fur. 

Six pounds, down from nine.

Hard decisions. 

And Mother's Day. It's coming up and I'm realizing I no longer have a mother. Cards are everywhere. Gift lists are everywhere. As my brother says "We are orphans".  As such, I'm feeling the loss of my mom who was a steady presence for almost 68 years of my life. 

Me with JeanMom-probably on a Mother' Day

So. An exciting week coming up for sure. But I'm also feeling a lot of loss. 

Which leads us to this post.  My SIL (How fun that is to type! Trying to come up with a good nickname for him...) has requested that I blog about our trip every day. A document of our adventures, like an old fashioned diary or a travel postcard home.  I must admit he was/is probably my most ardent blog reader.

I'm starting here. I'll get through the kitty dilemma and hug Carlos goodbye and hop on a plane.

As they say, when one door closes, another opens.

Can't wait to see what is beyond that doorway...

No. 90: Twelve New Restaurants for 2017

No. 90: Twelve New Restaurants for 2017
Here's No. 2 for the Year  (Yikes! I'm already behind.)

Last weekend would have been my parent's 68th wedding anniversary. Sadly dad didn't quite make it to celebrate. But I felt the day needed commemorating so mom and I went to dinner.

I was looking for someplace quiet since mom's hearing isn't the best. That's hard to find in a restaurant these days.

We ended up at a small local restaurant called Off the Vine Bistro in Missouri City.  Tucked away in the corner of a tiny strip center, this little bistro was a delight.   While the decor was a little plain, the food and service was excellent.

I did snap this pic the next day. 

Very tucked away- we almost didn't find it.

I was so enjoying the evening out with mom that I forgot to take any pictures. I wish I had gotten one of the two of us. Guess we will just have to do it again....

Anyway,  the food was super fresh and yummy. I had a sampler of bacon wrapped dates (my favorite), bacon wrapped shrimp (amazingly fresh) and spiced meatballs served up with a side salad of some of the freshest greens around.

The interior- plain but friendly.

Mom had a turkey, bacon, cranberry relish sandwich and some home made chips. I didn't taste her sandwich but some of her chips certainly migrated onto my plate. Not sure how it happened. And they were good.

A sandwich pic stolen from their website.

Look at that yummy salad of greens. 

Dessert was a rosy lemon cake which was so-so...the only near miss of the night.

They also have an extensive wine selection and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights they have live music out on the patio.

We both 100% enjoyed our meal and mom even mentioned going back this weekend when she will be treated to a birthday lunch by my nieces. (I may have to join them.)

Ten more restaurants to go this year!!

Happy...

A Wonderful Happy Birthday ....

to my mom.

She's 91 today.  (I hope she doesn't mind my telling her age but I'm thinking if you are lucky enough to make it to 90 or beyond, then you might want to shout it from the rooftops! I certainly would.)

And she is still as beautiful and intelligent as ever.

I know this because I spent last week with her and my dad.

They also celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary last week, a number that completely blows my mind.

Recently ...

41 years ago on their 25th

 and 66 years ago.

Pics of just me and my mom are few and far between. I could only find this one.

I took a selfie with her last week, but because I really want to stay in her good graces, I won't post it. She didn't "have her face on" and really didn't want me to take it.  But this one from 2008 is a pretty good one. At least we both look decent.  

And I think I need to work on getting another picture with her. One every 8 or 9 years? Not enough.

Happy Birthday JeanMom!!!

Happy!

HAPPY!
Happy SIXTY FIFTH wedding anniversary to my parents.
and…
Happy Spring Break to me and the girlies.


Today is my parents 65th wedding anniversary. Imagine.

They were married in 1949.

Here's a few fun facts from 1949.

On January 1 KPRC Channel 2 began broadcasting in Houston.  (There were lots of firsts in the TV broadcasting industry this year.)

January 31: The first daytime soap opera, "These are My Children", aired.  No relation to "All My Children" and Susan Lucci was not involved.

March 2: The first automatic street light came on in New Milford, Connecticut.

June 3: The first Negro graduated from the US Naval Academy. (Yep, Negro.  That was the word back in the day.)

June 23: The first group of women graduated from Harvard Medical School.   See? Equality all around was in the works.

August 14: There was a military coup under Colonel Sami Hinnawi in Syria.
Just proves that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Syria is still in the news.

August 29: Russia tests and explodes its first atomic bomb.

September 23: President Harry Truman announces that there is evidence Russia detonated its first nuclear device.   Guess everyone didn't have Smart Phones. News travelled s.l.o.w.l.y.

October 4: The American Contract Bridge League voted 58% to keep Negroes out.    Equality came in fits and spurts. One step forward, two steps back.

October 26: Harry Truman increases the minimum wage from 40¢ to 75¢. Geez- that's almost doubling the minimum wage. WTG Harry.

December 12: The American League votes to reject legalizing the spitball.  Baseball players rejoice. Or not.

And on March 25, 1949 Jean Boyd and Stewart L. (Roy) Nelson got married.

Awwww.   First kiss. 

So we are celebrating.   As we should.


And…..

It is Spring Break for the girlies.
In a momentary lapse of common sense I agreed to fly to Texas with my two girls PLUS THREE of their  Colorado friends.   One of the friends has never flown before.

Should be a total blast.
I have a special surprise scheduled for the airport.
They are planning on going to the beach and who knows what else.

Mostly I imagine these Colorado girls are going to be overwhelmed by going from a town of 6000 people to a city of about 80,000 people which is on the outskirts of the 4th largest city in the United States. (A little over 2 million people)

Once we are in Texas I will be abandoning my family for a couple of days and heading to New Orleans for a girl's weekend with some friends from High School.   There I am going to accomplish No. 21: Go to brunch by heading to Commander's Palace on Sunday.

My traveling partners for New Orleans.

And then we will be back in Colorado next week.

Sooo….
This will be the last post for a bit until I am reunited with my cabin and my big computer.

Have a wonderful week.
Pray for me.

(And I had a horrible realization. Those tiny seedlings that I managed to sprout will be left unattended for a whole week. No one around to water them. What a horrible mother I am. I'm going to try making a little terrarium but I'm not too optimistic. We'll see.)

Doomed to die?

Please don't call CPS.

(Or would that be PPS? 

Plant Protective Services)

And don't bother to try breaking into our cabin. I've put the neighbor on alert and he is packing heat most days in addition to being on pain meds for a bad back. Some days he likes to save up his meds and take them all at once. He is very protective of us. 
Fortunately. 

One year!

Happy Anniversary to Project Sixty by Sixty.



O my goodness. I have no idea how this happened.
One hundred thirty six posts.
One year of writing this blog.

I started out with 55 of the 60 challenges that I wanted to accomplish, an idea and a desire to write.
I've always loved to write.

(When I was about eight I wrote a book titled "How to Become a Queen". That was my goal at the time - Queen. It was pretty practical. First, buy an island. Get a crown. I had it all figured out. Or not. I'm not a Queen yet.)

And after one year I have completed 23 of the items on my list and worked on 3 others. So I am right on track...a little over one third of the challenges completed in one third the allotted time.

In a little over a month I will be 58. Eeek.

2011 Birthday cake.  

Look at all those candles.

I have to say this past year  has been one of the more interesting years I have had in a long time. And that was the whole point. I was tired of letting days and weeks slip by, doing the same ol', same ol'. No challenge, no excitement.
In the last 365 days I have reconnected with people, reconnected with myself, and reconnected with some hobbies.

So far, so good.

I feel like I need to honor my first year in some way.  Maybe a little give-away to thank everyone (all three of you?) for reading.

A gift card to somewhere challenging?

I spent a month drawing, so maybe a personalized drawing for the lucky winner?
Or would that be considered a booby prize?

A book? Or a selection of books?

I'm not sure what, but I'll be thinking on it.

Leave me a comment if you have a suggestion.

I'll have a decision by the 20th- my actual blog anniversary.

Can't wait to see what year two will bring!