Oscar whiners

Best actress: last week she hit her head and only a bag of ice would make her happy

An hour after this, all the snow was gone due to the heat wave

A new home for the fat lady: in our main hallway leading to the kitchen. I asked for the Moms' input: too small for the living room (only 10x14).  Too cool to be hidden away in one of the bedrooms though one mom found it to be disturbing. Steve thought down in the basement. This work is unsigned and there are no clues on its back I tried to Google-image: stylized nude fat lady tile but came up only with porn

OMG! Would Chris Rock shut-up already about the lack of diversity in this year's Oscars. They hired him..they hired an African-American music director. What we noticed is that American performers seemed to be a minority especially with the Aussie film grabbing the lion's share of the awards. Anyway, Chris Rock was not the least bit funny. He was very annoying and boring.

 

The Moms all came over to watch the Red Carpet and the Oscars while we snacked and drank wine. We wanted to see dresses, not hear boring life stories. Prettiest dress by far was Cate Blanchett's turquoise feathery number. As for the awards themselves, watching the film clips was fun; listening to Chris Rock was not. Even the commercials were better than him especially the Kohl's commercials with individuals giving Oscar -like acceptance speeches such as the 8 year girl who finally was allowed to sit in the front seat of the car.

 

When was the last time I saw a movie in a theater? Argo 3 years ago? I did see The Martian and Spotlight on the plane to and from San Francisco. And Spotlight won. Yay. I thought it was well done about the power of the press to deal with the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

We thought the cameo of the Grizzly bear from The Revenant was funny. What movies do I want to see now? Room and The Danish Girl. I assume The Revenant is great but too violent for me to stomach.

 

Well past midnight before I went to bed and then up at the first hint of light. Again it is very windy. Steve is angry because one of the guests didn't latch our front door completely and it blew open wrecking the frame and breaking off the door stopper. He thought I should be monitoring the door all night anticipating this.

Spring for a day

Finally got my shelf installed so some of my glass pretties are out of the grasp of children. The artist,
Rosalee Tyge,
 lives in Traverse City MI

We have a small patio in front that this should fit perfectly in

new tile from the same artist that made my fancy shelf above

hand blown glass pretty

Sunny and sixty! How this makes my spirit soar if only for a day. Back to winter by mid week. It comes with strong winds making bicycling difficult at least in one direction. Allie enjoyed playing with the 'cars' again (our assortment of Little Tyke toys) outside. New running shoes to bring an extra spring in my step.

They were having 'an estate' sale in the house down the street. Did someone die? Who knows. But I got to peak inside this neighbor's house and buy a few things.

 

In less than our hour, my friends come so we can watch the Oscars.

A wall of grandkids

I recently added canvases of Tess and Maya to the family roomwall. I have canvases of when they were much younger in other rooms

glass pretty for the flower room

Find of the month: ceramic tile nude unsigned. It is very heavy. Sort of looks like me before reconstruction surgery. Haven't figured out where to put it

The sun finally did show yesterday as it was setting

Maya wanted to wear a dress when she was over yesterday even though it is 2 sizes too big. Shanna had looked so cute in it. I don't think Naomi ever wore it

Shanna wearing the dress

Things are melting. Yay! It will be close to 60 Sunday. Maybe before I throw my Oscar party for the Moms, I can go biking. Official snowfall: Ann Arbor 8.1; Plymouth:8.9. We are in the middle. They had plowed one of the bike lanes of the big road near me so I was able to run. As I haven't left the house except to run or bike since Sunday, I went to the thrift stores though where I bought the above pieces, it isn't too thrifty there. The super thrift store was just too junky.

Snowed in

view from my back window

lots of snow

Tess the other day

grape tile

As the sun was coming up yesterday, it started to snow. There was still enough salt on the shoulders to melt it as it came down  for the first 10 minutes but it was coming down so hard, it soon was sticking. Fortunately it was not slippery as I went for a run.

 

Twenty eight hours later, it still hasn't stopped. Schools are cancelled but as Naomi has to work, we get Maya.

 

My dreams of getting my teeth fixed next week are dashed. This is what I get for putting things off. My health insurance will cover fixing my teeth only if I use a provider in their network, which my dentist is not. They gave me some names of oral surgeons that were in the network. Problem is, these oral surgeons don't do crowns. Numerous phone calls later, I told the insurance to find me a general dentist in Michigan in their network (my insurance is based in New Jersey). They finally admitted there were none so I can use my dentist but it will require a week or two of paperwork and redtape to get approval so I had to cancel my dentist saying I hope to use him soon. Meanwhile my dentin is exposed and hurts when I drink hot things. I do have dental insurance but they provide one crown a year and only at 50% as they consider crowns cosmetic. So it is useless in this case. I must have been on the phone 2 hours.

 

I finally persuaded Steve to use the snowblower so we can get the cars out. Why does he think he is doing me a favor. I hand shoveled the sidewalk.  My feeders are very popular with the birds as everything is covered with a heavy blanket of snow.

Winter redux

I've been scanning again. Steve in front of the Columbus statue in San Juan PR

Shanna hated her short hair but I thought she looked cute

Josh at Moonlight Beach, Encinitas CA

In the late 80s: ice cream

 

Jumbo Rocks: Joshua Tree

Naomi and Josh Disneyland

missing teeth

Orange Crush soccer team I coached. Maya will start soccer this spring

I love this of Steve and his brother

Me on top of a mountain in Joshua Tree

Me taking prom photos

Naomi and her cousin. They look the same size but Naomi is 2 years younger

Coba: the tallest Mayan pyramid. Yes, I climbed it but had a panic attack climbing down

These photos were all in one box. I separated out ones that clearly were 20 years later but I am finding it impossible to sort these things. Most of the photos, excepting the ones in which Josh and Shanna are clearly not teenagers, are from the late 90s.

I had my children in three separate decades.

Big winter storm arriving tomorrow! You wouldn't know it to look outside as it is in the 40s, sunny and calm. I did bike some today as I think I've been running way too much too soon.

Try to explain why you are depressed and you quickly feel silly. This is what happened when I was talking to Steve.

As with most things, it passed.

We had a belated birthday dinner the other night with Josh, Julie and Allie as I finally can chew. Today we had Tess and later her mom.

My friend with leukemia will be hospitalized at least a month. I was supposed to visit her in Detroit this week but she is under quarantine as she contracted a C. diff infection, along with a third of her unit. The spores are very hard to kill. She is un able to eat now and is fed just through iv. I feel so bad for her.

 

Recent finds

 

Along with many dysfunctional aspects of my life, Blogger is being a pain and not letting me edit my photos. The first is a frame that I tried to match with one of our recent surfer shots. The second is a tile that looks nice in my master bath. The 3rd is a 3 dimensional piece that is in my flower room along with the botanical water color below.

Yep I am having a pity party. I almost left the Mother's group last night early in tears. I felt marginalized. Was I being rational? Probably not. Suck it up Buttercup.
Overnight the temperature dropped 30 degrees. I thought a run would make me feel better until I noticed how much I have declined in the last 2.5 months.

Later we visit Josh and Allie. This too shall pass.
 

Let's experiment

Tess encasing herself in a bubble

Let's see how long our magnetic chain can be

the kids were together only briefly inside the ambulance. All sorts of buttons to push

fishing magnetic fish

Rerouting water pipes. She spent a lot of time here

turns out Maya went to a science center too up north with her father

 

With different interests and individual rooms having different age limits, Shanna could not take the kids by herself to the Science Museum and have everyone enjoy themselves. I kept Tess company while Shanna had the boys. She would be fixated on a single activity like rerouting water in a series of pipes. Should I encourage her to move to a different activity (so much to see) or let her experiment on her own without interruption. (although given that all the schools were out, plenty of kids kept grabbing her pipes but she would stand up for herself and yank them back). Two hours passed quickly. She did not want to leave.

 

A brief respite from winter. Two days of sunny 60 degree weather but with very strong winds. The road through the woods was impassable due to falling limbs. Our mailbox was blown over. I did bike early in the morning before the winds became too strong and almost was run over by a workman backing out of a driveway. I raced up to him knocking on his truck.

 

Sorry I didn't see you.

 

You didn't see me because you didn't look!

 

I also told him to please clean up his construction site. The trashbin is way over the top with construction debris that ended up being blown all over the neighborhood. We had insulation strung out over our bushes. At least they aren't trying to burn it.

 

Finally my hands healed enough for a manicure (they were shredded in the accident). I now have candy pink shiny nails.

 

Mom's group tonight. Peach melba pie will be my contribution.

Scan crazy

I was always trying to take a good X-mas picture. This is 1995 or1996

The boys,1996 or so, taking a break on our 6 day bike ride. Josh has the sun glasses

My brother and I hiking in Anza-Borrego St. Pk. Compared to him, I am short

my twin nieces, now 30

Shanna and Josh NYC

Either our first or second Michigander. I took Josh when he was 10 (then 4 more times) on this. Very grueling on the first year as the distances were longer and the trails very rough

Bring your Daughter to work. I sponsored Shanna

Badland cliffs in Torrey Pines

My SIL and new husband at their Vegas wedding in 1995. We went there in record heat

Naomi and her cousins. It is the shark holder's birthday today. I was present at her birth

Naomi and our neighbor. When they were 16, I took both of them on the bike ride. Unlike the boys, they never wanted to take breaks, not even for lunch. They wanted to get to camp as quickly as possible where they were queens. As they were both 5'10 and very athletic, it was hard to keep up with them.

Naomi and her favorite parrots at the Tropicana in Vegas

What to do when I can't go out? Sort through the many boxes of photos. I was good at sorting through them and putting them in scrapbooks when the kids were babies but then I seemed to look at the photos once and then throw them in a box. Well I was very busy.There were doubles of many. Also thrown in, photos that the kids, mainly Shanna, had taken. Digital photography has at least cut down on the closet space the photos require.

My goal was to condense 2 shoeboxes into one. The boxes were labeled 1994-1996 but I see some photos that are earlier and later. I had photos in 4 piles: to throw out, to give to Shanna, to scan and just to file. First impediment: Naomi who wanted to see everything to prove that I must prefer the older kids as judged by the number of photos. Well not in this time period. Little girls are cuter than teenagers. I gave her the doubles of photos of herself. All my piles were scattered. Start over. The next day, I was distressed to find all the piles condensed into 2 boxes again. Grrrrrr. Steve's handiwork. Start over yet again slowed down by Steve going through the trash to ask for each photo found there, am I sure I want to throw this out?  Well yesterday after my run, I got busy again and for at least this time period, things are organized. Many more boxes though.

This has been spring break for the kids. Today we battle the crowds at the Hand-on Museum dividing the kids according to age and interests. And it will be warm out! More photos:

San Pasquale grade. I rode from the coast to Julian CA and back. A 120 mile round trip (2 days). Not far in linear miles but lots of climbing

The girls at the wedding. Shanna looks like my SIL's mini-me. The girls are 12 years apart. Naomi now towers over Shanna