Thursday Mah Jongg

 I can't promise this week has been all I wanted, but it's almost over, and there have been good times.  

Yesterday the girls came over for just a small amount of time.  Graysen had a band concert that night and needed to get ready.  Elise and I wanted to go, but it didn't work out.  Emily sent me one video that's funny.  Gray made a face when I showed it to her and said, "We were SO bad!"  I thought they sounded like a beautiful orchestra myself, but I did enjoy the little funnies - the false start that everyone tries really hard to avoid.  It was cute, and they went right ahead and started over.  I'm still trying to find the composer for this short piece that I recognize from a hymn from childhood.  So pretty.  G is the 3rd from the right on the first row.  

I have little faith it will work.  I can play it fine on my phone and in my files, but getting it here is somehow beyond me.  Maybe there will be some Facebook pictures from the school soon.  

She said they were playing Hey, Jude, and when I found out I couldn't go and hear it in person, she promised to play it for me.  

Kate had been begging to play Mah Jongg Wednesday, and we had time for only some quick messy games.  She's getting really good at recognizing what is a good hand and what she doesn't want.  And lucky too. 

I knew getting out today would be good for me, and I had Thursday Mah Jongg to lure me out.  It was a really pretty day when I left with just a few gray clouds appearing as I drove to the Y.  For 2-1/2 hours, we were completely oblivious of the weather or anything else.  I love our group.  We are sticklers for the rules but still add some levity and fun along the way.  I won two games today, which is better than I have been doing.  On my last one, we got to test one of the rules.  We were down to the last maybe 10 tiles, and everyone was giving up hope and thinking we would have a wall game (no winner), but the very tile I needed was discarded, and I called for it.  But so did Sharon across the table. I think it would have given us both a MJ - the details get fuzzy - but I would have had the next turn, so I won by default.  Both of us had already won a game, so it was fine all around.  We are doing so well that even the losers are within one or two tiles every game.  

We've learned we can talk a little bit while we play and tease each other and still usually remember whose turn it was next.  Usually.  Sometimes we sit there with blank stares and have a long discussion of what the last play was.  

I'm so glad the Y gives us one of the nice rooms to play in and furnishes the sets.  On Tuesdays, we have a couple of tables, and I go if it looks like we'll not end up with an extra person or 2.  One group has been playing a lot longer than us, and we're a little intimidated by how fast they are.  We kind of like to sit and savor or frown at how the latest tile has affected our plans, but we got in four games in 2-1/2 hours today.  And learned there is an upscale-sounding store in Bellevue that we need to visit. 

When I got home, Elise said Graysen had come after school and had been doing homework, and Kate had just walked in from her school.  Lots of mac and cheese making and cold drinks, and I even put out a veggie plate with buttered sourdough bread for the girls.  I still seem to be the only one to like hummus.  

Kate made me get right back into MJ since the tiles were still out on the table.  We went through the whole process of building the wall and picking our tiles and then doing the Charleston.  She's getting the idea of the ritual of starting, which is fun for me.  Elise and Graysen steadfastly refuse to participate.  They could make our Charleston so much more exciting if they would.  I don't know what's wrong with them.  Kate did some more drawing and discarding and making a hand, but then she wanted to build walls, and we got pretty silly, making a fence from the Bams, cows from the Dots, and birds of course.  Even a horse and then a giraffe.  Who knew we could be so artistic. 

They headed home at 5:30.  It's always so sad to see them walking up the street and trying not to yell "BE CAREFUL"  They know I'm thinking it.  

Tomorrow is early release from school - Gray at 12:30 and Kate at 1:30.  I do hope they have some interesting plans for the afternoon.  They're usually tired after school and don't want to do much, but they need to get out and enjoy the warmer weather.

Noreen and I are scheduled to take a one-hour class on AI next week.  I do need to get a little understanding of how it works before I get in some sort of trouble with it.  I'm tired of new technology and wish I could just enjoy the things I know without new and potentially dangerous stuff coming at us constantly.  

The BLT I had for supper was exceptional tonight with my Crisp Apple Bloom, an energy drink that I'm obsessed with but have received no energy from yet.  It just tastes good.  Unfortunately, Gray feels the same way and is unhappy about limiting it because of the caffeine in it.  Kate is satisfied with the Capri Suns and has a few pouches every time she's here.  

I did have enough energy to wrestle my duvet into its cover after washing - all by myself - so I guess that's something.  

It's Going to be a Good Day

 I hope I'm ashamed of myself if I don't enjoy this day.  Temps are predicted to reach the 80s before it cools down tonight and goes into the usual bipolar spring rain and coolness.  

I don't have any plans, but I went to bed so early last night that I was up about 4:00 and greeting the day with a few games of Mah Jong.  Online.  I won two of the ones on the new card I have been wondering about - both using a sextet of flowers.  That put my percentage up to 67% of the 2026 card, but I still feel like I've just learned to play, according to my last week's in-person performance.  

I set up the pink set and my new mat so I could practice a few solo games.  I feel like I learn better by touching the tiles and getting in practice saying the names of the tiles.  We can't just throw one out on the board without announcing what it is, and sometimes I'll just be blank:  2 BAM - ugh Dot - or whatever that one is called.  Sometimes we'll mix up a flower and the Bird Bam or the 5 Crak and the South wind.  I enjoy looking at the table, but it's a lot of pastels.  I plan to get clear acrylic pushers soon and retire those colorful ones.  I might get some wooden ones for my traditional tiles and dark mat.  I'm not sure I care since I can't attract anyone to play on my sets.  When we play at the Y, we just use the tiles they furnish.

I got these artificial blooms some time ago from Amazon.  I think they're cherry blossoms and feel like they are pretty enough to display to get in the mood for warmer weather.

My goal for today is to seriously work on the porch since I ignored it yesterday.  I'll wait for the first sunshine and get out there and wash the windows and sills and water the few plants that made it through the winter.

I made 12 egg muffins yesterday and made a huge mess doing so.  I want to have something for breakfast that I can prepare ahead, and I'm tired of the berry muffins I sometimes make.  

The video included on this page makes it look like a piece of cake to make, but not me! 

https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/keto-egg-muffins 

The only thing I did remotely resembling the video was turning on the oven.  Then I looked for my rotating cheese grater that makes it so much easier to grate cheese.  I found it in the hall closet/storage pantry along with a few pieces that didn't fit but made me wonder what they were part of.  Even though it's easier, the cheese done that way is messy.  What way of grating cheese is NOT messy.

I decided to use some salami I already had and just cook a couple of pieces of bacon.  While the bacon was cooking in the microwave, I broke 12 eggs into a big measuring cup and seasoned them.  

The video shows putting butter into the muffin tins instead of spraying them or using paper liners.  I should have known that was too easy.  The liquid of the egg mixed with the butter and ran over the tops of the tins.  Luckily, I had an oven liner on the bottom of the oven, but that didn't keep it from smoking and smelling like a fire.  I can't imagine why the smoke alarm didn't go off, but it didn't.  

After getting it all done and cooked pretty much in line with the directions, it took forever to coax each muffin out, and a nice coating of eggy mixture was glued to the bottoms of the muffin tins.  Elise ended up washing them, although I told her I would do it, and now we both vote for throwing them away and getting some new ones.  

Luckily, they're just for me and luckily they're delicious, because there's nothing about the way they look that resembles the pictures in the recipe.  The only problem is that with all the gunk stuck to the muffin tin, two was not enough for breakfast.  I'm going to have some cottage cheese and strawberries this morning to add something there.  A little slice of avocado helps the looks and the taste.

My Mother's Day gifts are drifting in.  I got the roses from Elise yesterday, and Emily says I have some gifts arriving today.  Yesterday Elise answered the door to hear Ida (with Linda peeking around the corner) saying Happy Mother's Day and delivering a delicious candy that I've never heard of before.  

I almost didn't want to share half with Elise, but I did and then was glad I did.  Four squares was just about enough - but of course I ate my whole portion before the night was over.  I'm glad to know this brand.

Last week, Ida was an early morning visitor while her parents took her sister Carly to a doctor's appointment.

She prefered playing hide and seek, but after several rounds of that, we (I) ran out of places to hide, so she played with my Mah Jongg tiles and had a nice kiss from Wuffie.

It brought back a lot of memories to be back at Rooster Valley where we had so many pickups and drop-offs over 4 years.  I wish I had had time to hang around and watch the sheep shearing.  For some reason, I never got to watch ones when the girls were there.  

It's taking a while to warm up, so I'll get another cup of coffee and waste some more time.

Mother's Day, Quiet Weekend and the Beginning of Spring

 I love days like today when I don't need groceries and don't have anywhere to go, so I just putter around and do a lot of small stuff.  

I don't think it's going to work, but I had a NYT charge on a credit card for $250 for a year's subscription to the digital newspaper - which I do NOT need or want.  I don't even do Wordle and the other games like I used to and don't read articles unless someone sends me a link.  Turns out I was subscribed for $25 a year with an auto renew, so I might not can get out of it legally.  I've contacted customer service but haven't heard back.  I can try contacting Chase and seeing if I'm liable.  I really hate auto renews and never keep them if I remember to cancel - except, of course, my rent and other necessary bills.  

I walked to the mailbox to mail my dental bill, which I am so glad to have.  It was Mike's plan through PCC, and it passed on to me.  In the whole 10 years I've been here, I haven't had to spend a penny on a dental procedure - except for that rogue wisdom tooth that was supposed to be hiding but came up and cause all kind of havoc a couple of years ago.  It did cost money but not a huge amount, and it turned out so much better than I thought it would be.  I had already started worried about bone damage and biopsies and things I didn't need to worry about.  That was the same summer I had cataracts removed from both eyes, so it was a busy time.

I saw Dr. Muni, the cardiologist, Wednesday and got some med refills for my afib and had an EKG.  All the words on the report sound scary, but my favorite sentence was "no change from last time? which was 5 years ago.  Now I have my Medicare Well Visit Dr. Gil's first on her first available appointment - September 7th.  I could be healthier, but I could be worse off too, so I'll be content with that.

Elise got some roses when she bought groceries last night and brought me one for my bedside table. Not sure what kind of rose it is - not the usual kind.  Emily called it "dramatic" with it's hair blowing in the breeze.

On the way to the mailbox, I took some pictures of the rhododentrons near Noreen's garage at their peak.  They're amazing - every color from white to dark pink - and huge!

The shady walk between mine and Noreen's dining room windows.

This hydrangea pot got a good soaking while I was out.  It's a strawberry-vanilla panicle hydrangea.  It did very well last summer once I got it out in the sunshine.  This year, I placed it out back early where it gets sun every day, and it really looks healthy now.

This is the way it's supposed to look.

I wish we were allowed to plant things like this in our front beds, but we aren't.  We're lucky enough to have landscapers who landscape, but they don't seem to have any plan, and it looks scraggly this time of year.  My returning hosta will soon change the looks though.  It's probably big enough to furnish 5 or 6 good-size plants, but I don't really want to take that one by myself.  I'll just enjoy it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a pretty warm today, and Sharon is not going to Mah Jongg.  I'll look and see if I'm needed to fill up a table.  If not, maybe I'll go out to Mount Si Nursery and see what pretty things I can find. 

For now, I'll finish my laundry and maybe go outside and work on the porch a little.  It needs some cleaning and new plants in anticipation of warm weather.  

New Title, Same Blog

 I forgot I had changed the old blog (Keeping it Going in Alabama) a couple of years ago, which says a lot about my memory.  I've worried about changing and losing all the old posts, but I think I'll take a chance on that.  Here is a link to the old blog just in case I lose it - and I probably will.

https://keepingitgoinginalabama.blogspot.com/ 

Those years cover some of the saddest days and some of the happiest days of my life, and I don't want the girls to miss these moments of their childhood.  

There's something interesting that happens every day, but I just got out of the habit of recording it, so it seems like my life just kind of disappeared for 10 years.  I might not get it done, but my hopes are to change the appearance and try to post more pictures and memories as I go along instead of having to play catch-up and get discouraged.  

Changes have happened but nothing earth-shattering.  Believe it or not, I'm still living in the same place Mike and I moved into in January of 2016 when we packed up all the possessions we could and moved across the country.  It gives me so much pleasure to go back and read the way our life was from 2009 to 2016 - pleasure mixed with sadness and some regrets but overall a good decision.  

I still live here, but one change is that Elise now lives with me.  It's not ideal and not exactly what either one of us wants, but we are plodding on and making it work somehow and hoping we'll we able to find a larger place we can afford.  We're locked into a 1-year lease right now but with hopes of a 3-bedroom apartment opening at the end of that lease.  Or something else.  

The girls are still the most important things in my life, but they are quite different now.  One teenager and one preteen!  After living near and having them off at Cascade View Elementary - one block away - this is the last month of either of them going to that school.  So sad to me, but I think there's some excitement from them about once again being in the same school - Snoqualmie Middle School - for a year.  Then Graysen will move on to Mount Si High School in 2027 while Kate has 2 more years at SMS.  Luckily, both schools are fairly close but not in walking distance any more.  If they have after after-school sports, the activity bus will bring them to the old school - right between my house and theirs, so they can come here whenever they want to.  And they will ride the bus on regular days to within a block of their house.

It's going to take a lot of time to make this space like I want it, but for now, I'll just try to remember to post my thoughts every few days and try to keep up, since that's been my theme for 17 years.  

I'm lucky enough to have good friends here in Snoqualmie, in addition to my family, who keep my spirits up when life gets real.  

Learning Mah Jong and being dedicated to playing with a group of fun people has been one of the nicest things I've done for myself.  On good weeks, we play twice and usually at least once a week with some combination of people.  We're serious about the National Mah Jong League Rules but not so serious that we argue or fail to laugh at ourselves.  We want to KNOW the rules even if we sometimes let our mistakes go.  

The good thing about a group like that is that there are so many different ages and interests.  I love hearing about their lives and families and I'm sure I bore them with mine.  One of the conversations about quilting just MIGHT turn into my getting back to sewing a little bit.  Here's keeping my fingers crossed that Sharon doesn't lose patience with me.  Some of them play bridge, which I retried and remembered that I'm no good at that and dropped it again, but I could play a non-stressful game if I had to!  Mary and I play Scrabble and MJ sometimes, and a couple more play an interesting-sounding game called Hand, Foot, Toe that I also might explore one day.  I do love my alone time though and can't get too involved and neglect to waste my usual amount of time.

I have friends in the neighborhood that I'm so thankful for.  Noreen and I catch up every other day or so and have some marathon sessions over her dining table where we try to solve everything wrong that we know of and laugh a LOT.  We're counting the days until it gets warm enough to head over to the pool to sit and watch our kiddos swim - or just take our coffee over there in the mornings to get some fresh air and quiet time.  

I took this picture of her beautiful Japanese maple on the way to have breakfast with her one day this week.  Such an inviting view, and the eggs and sausage were just what I needed.  

If I find some pictures to go with this post, I will include them, but I don't have much time today.  I'm not sure whether the girls will come here after school or not and what will happen for the rest of the weekend.  

Below are the last pictures of Graysen and Katherine.  I just don't take hundreds of photos like I used to.  They'd rather take pictures themselves than be captured in my computer, but I catch them sometimes. 

Graysen comes in reading and keeps right on going for a while.  She laughs at herself for not being interested in the Harry Potter books when everyone else was but is totally immersed in them now.  I think she finds his world a little more exciting than hers right now!

Katherine spends a good bit of time redoing my computer - without telling me.  She puts cat cursors and all kinds of surprises on there that make her laugh at my confusion.

Gray is also very interested in ancient history, and we're looking for some study guides that are interesting for the summer.  Most of the ones we've seen in the library look dull and textbook-ish, so we might find some home-schooling workbooks that will be fun and interesting.  

These girls are the very center of my heart, and I can't believe how different their lives are from my life at the same age.  My summers consisted of reading and being bored and too hot and walking to the library and reading more and going to the city pool in the afternoons.  Not exactly exciting, but it taught me to handle boredom, and I can't say I'm ever without something to entertain myself. 

This is how my online MJ game looks when I open it to play a game.  It took me a while to learn how to move the cat off the tiles, but it always comes back and sometimes chases my cursor.

So that's my Friday.  We had higher hopes for May being warmer, but then we always do and have to remember how beautiful it's about to be.  Maybe I'll get out and walk around with my camera this afternoon and capture some of the rhodies starting to bloom.  

Here's hoping I don't lose both blogs in this endeavor.  😕