I finally made it back over for tea. I know it's not tea time, but it's surely time for my morning cup!

I'd love to see pictures and help with the bathroom. I am so behind on my "new" (new, as in I've owned it less than a year. It was built in 1926) home, I haven't even hung all the window coverings. Or painted. Or???

And it won't get done any time soon as it's marching band season. My son is a junior in high school for academics, and marches across town at another high school. There is a lot of driving. Ugh. Well worth it. Marching band is one of the greatest memories of my life, best friends, learned so much about myself and about being a good citizen--he is too. I would say I'd give it all up for him to get to do this, but I have. I have no life outside of it when it's in full swing. I even work volunteer for the band, and work a "part time" job (not really, it's through the band and funds are only added to his account) to raise the money for his budget. I work full time as a medical research administrator, but the band job is parking cars for Tennessee Titans! and for the place where I am a medical research administrator (the university football games). I love parking cars. It's really hard, hot, and sometimes rained on work. Come October and November, it'll be cold work. I hope to get a raise (I was promised months ago!) that's large enough to pay off the band budget without parking cars though, as I've been doing it for two years now and the thought of two more is hard on these old bones.

Drinking a very nice Earl Grey and herbal Orange Spice mixed together....with a few Orange Milano cookies. So good!

It's raining today and it's so nice to have a reason to stay in and NOT have to water the yard. The garden is really looking nice, but we still have a lot to do. The fence posts are in and hopefully we'll get the fence up this week.

I have a webinar at noon to get instructions on applying for a $10,000 grant. It's for fictional writing for Washington State authors, not currently in college. It's the Gar Lasalle award with Artist Trust if anyone else is interested.

I doubt I'll win, but at least they'll be reading my stories! : )

We just got home and I fed us. Very tired. No rain here yet. Darn. I am going to have to go out and hand water. It is cooler and cloudy but I can not wait for the rain that might come. It is windy.

I am still drinking my Harneys Hot cinnamon Spice with green tea. It is so good iced. I would love a nap. Fat chance of that. Off and running before my eyes slam shut. I just have too much to do.

LL your writers grant would be wonderful if you got it. Think positive.

Debbie- It's so easy to be overwhelmed! When my husband was sick, I would feel that way a lot.

So, I'd just stop, take a few deep breaths and think what is one thing I can accomplish today? Even if it isn't a big thing, something I can say.....there, I did that today. It really helped.

Rob- Tennessee Titans! I love football. Although my husband and everyone else here is a Seahawks fan, I'm a Lions fan....but Titans is one of the teams I route for, when they're not playing our teams. How fun to be in the stadium! Although I can see why it would be a lot of running around parking the cars.

And congrats on having such a well-rounded son. My brother loved band and it was so good for him. He was kind of shy, when he started and he really grew out of that. Kudos for being such a great mom!

Shades- I am going to be more positive. Still a lot of competition, but maybe only 100 applicants...so the odds are better than I thought. It will be a good experience, either way.

I hope you get time for that nap! It's cloudy and rainy here. A friend just called and told me it rained three inches in Spokane. Hope the water is coming your way!!! : )

It's heading for hot and humid here again. I did turn the air on this morning although I think I could have gotten by today. I'm just that much ahead of tomorrow!

I'm going to pick tomatoes and whatever else is ready in a little bit. Planning to make Mike's Manna Mash tomorrow. I was sure I had a couple more bags in the freezer but I can't find them.

My printer might be worn out... I'm going to buy ink for the wide format printer and see if the Brother is truly done for. If it is, I have new ink left over :-( I don't think I can find that same printer again but I'm trying.

It seems like there's always something broke around here. My truck's life was saved. Almost $600.

Today my tea time was a cup of Trader Joe's English Breakfast and a few of the Trader Joe's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I enjoyed my time out on my deck with my dog.

I've been sick, so mostly in bed the past 3 days. I can be awake for a few hrs and then I'm done and have to sleep for a few. sometimes it's only 1 hr but then I'm awake for a few again. I mostly check or read things online then or reply to emails. I don't get many. I spent time weeding out old emails and ads. cleaned that up.

I did do a load of laundry yesterday. had to wait a few hrs to hang it out. some is still out there. will get it when I next take dog out.

I got dishes rinsed and ready to wash last evening and in sink of hot water, then I tired out. they're still out there in the water. will try again later with fresh water...

I'mhappy - I put new ink in my printer a month or so ago and it still didn't print. I tried again the other day and it still didn't print. it does print out one line - something about the printer, not the doc I tried to print. I hate the thought of getting another printer - especially after just putting in 3 new cartridges! I really don't print that much. 10-15 pages a yr maybe. I do have a number of them I need to printout for my son now and the thing dies on me!

I'm glad you could get the truck working for not much money (tho, that's a lot!)

my old car needs work too. my driver's door doesn't open from the outside. I have to crawl over the front passenger side seat and open from inside. then I back out and go around to get in the driver's seat. (after I put more power steering fluid in it). such a process to go anywhere. tires me before I even get going... I had that door handle replaced a few yrs back!

yep, things always breaking down here too.

Having tea very late today...along with a sweet slice.

Oh Audrey, that cake looks so scrumptious!!! I have been away with friends since last Thursday. There are 4 of us and we went to Springfield, Illinois, the land of all things Lincoln. This was our 30th trip! We used to work together starting in the late '70's and have been friends ever since. We had a lot of fun, drank a lot of wine and had some wonderful conversations and saw lots of fun things including the Dana-Thomas House which is a Frank Lloyd Wright house. It was amazing.

So the animals and I are reunited. I'm tired but only because of the relentless heat. We need rain but only got thunder. I guess I will have to water tomorrow. I drove to Springfield, so since I had my car, I could bring home a black-eyed susan plant as a souvenir and I planted that today. I also brought home about 8 wine bottles because they didn't have recycling at the house we rented and I do. LOL

Anyway, good to be home and glad to see you all seem to have stayed out of trouble while I was gone.

Harney Teas is having a great sale on tea sachets that ends at midnight tonite. I've ordered from them for some years now, esp. loose teas; but I decided the Earl Grey Supreme sachet price was too good to pass up. Along with those I ordered another one lb. bag of loose Cranberry Autumn.

Been cold brewing alot of iced tea lately with the Smart & Simple brand of tagless tea bags since I use quite a few bags in my brew. It's cheaper. Iced tea taste just fine. I also drop some dried Spearmint tea leaves in the pitcher too.

The upside down pear cake looks delicious. I usually make a pineapple upside down cake but may have to give the pear a try.

robb333 Welcome back. Your car parking job sounds very interesting.
Also sounds like a very active job. How great for you to be able to do
this and keep your son in Band. I was in Orchestra and the chior in my
school days and I do think music and the interaction with the other
people is such a good thing. So many kids now a days miss out on this.

LL Had some Constant Comment tea at the chemo lounge. Hot this time. Was delicious.

Im-Happy The printer issue sounds daunting. I just have a cheepo HP
but it is wireless so that is nice and I will continue to have a
wireless printer. Afraid to say anything good about it because it will
probable quit me then. It is several years old. I do not do much
printing now. Mostly GoodRX prescription coupons. We do not have drug
coverage and this really helps keep the cost down.

Eld English breakfast tea really is delicious. Hope your foot is healing well.

Steph I am so sorry you are not feeling well. I wish I was closer so I
could come help you. I know when my psoriasis was really in a flair it
laid me low and I slept several hours during the day. It was miserable
to feel the need for sleep like that and still awake not rested. I hope
this gets better for you.

AAA your cake looks luscious. And that Tea Cup is to die for. So pretty.

Murrays Mom you had me laughing hauling 8 wine bottles home to
recycle. Yes it is a good idea. I have seen them turned upside down in a
flower bed as an edging and they were lovely. Glad you are home safely
and had a good time.

llucy so happy for your Mom's clear pet scan. I am sure it is a
relief for all of you. Me too. We get what we call scanaxiety here. It
is miserable. Your mind can really leave you at times like this.

shcoolhouse Thanks for the heads up on the Harneys. I will be
checking it out for sure. Love the Harneys. What a lovely setting for
your tea.

This morning I am feeling much better than when we got home yesterday. No idea why chemo days wipe me out so much. Course I do dash around before we leave getting all the days chores done so I do not have to do as much when we get home and I am exhausted. Last night this was not the case and I had lots I HAD to do. Mostly hand watering. We never did get any rain. I finially finished me evening chores at 9:30PM. Had a cup of tea again then went to bed. Slept hard and feeling refreshed today.

Progress report on my hallway wall project. Still a long way to go. Next step is to build the top part of the arbor and bracing so I can finish filling in the background. This is really hard to photo because it is so long and tall.

Oh Chris, that wall is GORGEOUS! Envy, envy over here.

Scanxiety. Makes sense. Perhaps my recent anxiety flare-up is the result of subconsciously processing all the medical things that have been going on this summer. I feel okay about things as they progress, - positive -but maybe there is some internal churning happening that is popping out. Thank you for your support and know that you have mine. (((Hug)))

I ordered a new printer. I was sure my old Brother would start working again as soon as I hit process this order but it didn't. I'm still fiddling with it. It prints gray and lots of white "lines" through the words. I put a new cartridge in thinking maybe the other new one was the culprit but no, still doesn't print. Color prints so...?? Back in the olden days, didn't we clean the printer head with alcohol? I'm not sure if I can do that with this printer. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It's already broke and the new one will be here tomorrow. I ordered cheap ink for the wide format printer, too, since I was spending with abandon.

One thing about the new one, it will automatically duplex. Or so it said. We will see. I've been printing out all the information I have on my compiled ancestry. Hundreds if not thousands of pages. The bonus was that I found some relationship errors and some other things that needed fixed. I plan on doing my paternal side this year and my maternal side next year. It will take that long to do it.

murraysmom, Inquiring minds want to know if those wine bottles were empty when you brought them home to recycle ...

Chris, you are far gutsier then I am. That looks like a PROJECT. How many hours do you think?

AAA, good to see you posting stuff again. You must be feeling better? That pear cake looks good enough to eat. Mine will be ripe next month. Maybe I'll try the cake after I translate it into American. Do you suppose a box cake would work?

WHOA Chris. That is gorgeous! Love the 3 dimensionality of that.

Sparkling Tea; Stash coconut mango oolong teabag dunked in a glass of cold fizzy water.

Schoolhouse, what a lovely picture you have there. Looks nice enough to pull up a chair and join you.

Shades, your wall is tremendous!! What a talent you have. I hope it is therapeutic for you to work on.

Imhappy, those bottles were indeed empty when they got in the car with me back in Springfield. So 4 women, 8 bottles, 4 nights. You do the math. :) LOL Oh and the two beer bottles. They belonged to just one person and it wasn't me. I had my beers at the bars.

For the past several years my favorite tea from Harneys has been "Paris". But you know the tea from this last lb. bag I bought seemed to give me stomach distress the next day i.e. diarrhea. I would quit drinking it for a couple of weeks, then would try again and the same thing happened. Did this several more times just to see if it could be the tea. Switched to the Harneys Cranberry Autumn I also keep on hand and had no ill effects. Perhaps it's just my imagination as I'm not sure how or why tea could do this. Maybe I drank too much of it? Unless it was contaminated somehow? I had a notion to report to Harneys, asking if anyone else had commented to them about a problem with a recent batch. I have a half of a bag left and am afraid to drink it. Really miss it too.

I would definitely contact them. I am sure they will make good on it and by comping you a new order.

I LOVED the Paris and hoarding back a few bags of it for special occasions. I too wold contact them.

Schoolhouse- Great picture! I would contact them, too.

Im Happy. I have no idea how long this has taken me. I have been working on it on and off for two years. It is such a big project I tend to get board with it and walk away for awhile. This is my therapy so time spend is healing for me. It is a huge project though. The largest I have done so far. I did get the top of the arbor built and grouted and need to clean and polish it then put the goodies on it and install once they are set up really well. I do not want them to fall off on some ones head.

I have been gone half the day after spending the first half cleaning the house. I am exhausted. Resting drinking ginger lemon iced tea right now. Thinking about food. My mornings chicken thigh has run out.

Shades- I think your hallway is gorgeous! I'm so excited to see it all finished, but I know what you mean about it being a therapy for you.

Just stopping by for a quick "hi" and to let you all know I have two books for FREE on Sunday with Amazon.com. If you get a chance, please read "To Share a Dream With You" and let me know what you think.

It's a pretty short story...and I am going to enter the first five chapters (scenes really) for the grant ($10,000 for fiction) and I hope they'll think it's good. I wanted to have the books for free, so you all and my Facebook friends could give me input : )

My secondary 'work' is the last three pages of that Robin and Jamie book (3) also free on Sunday. For now, I'm working on the application and introductions to my stories for the grant. Thanks in advance!

I just called Harneys about my last shipment of Paris not agreeing with me and asked if any other customers had complained. She said not that she knows of and it's a mystery as to why I would become ill from the tea. There are all natural flavors in the tea, and she suggested maybe the natural vanilla was something that my system didn't care for. Also some people are sensitive to bergamot, but then that is in Earl Grey Supreme which I have no problem with. We talked awhile about it and she offered to replace the tea with another whenever I was ready to order again. According to her my last order for Paris was last August. I didn't think it was that long ago, but then I had stopped drinking it so maybe. Anyhow that was nice of her to offer. Mostly I was just curious if I was the only person having a problem. In fact I may brew a pot of the leftover Paris today just to see what happens.

Schoolhouse- Maybe the tea was not stored properly at the warehouse? Or other people just threw it out without calling?

I don't know if I'd use it again. Maybe try another type of tea or a new batch of the Paris?

Take care and have a great week! : )

Rob, great to see you! Your life sounds full, hectic, but gratifying. I second everyone's kudos in the mom department for you! We seem to have a lot in common. I'm a researcher/writer/editor/teacher/historian by profession (it's so hard to explain what I do, haha!). And music is a HUGE part of my life. I worked for 12 years as a professional musician before going back to college to do whatever it is I do now. My parents were so supportive of me and my music growing up. I didn't realize until I was at least in my 30's how exceptional they were. I cannot remember one single time them asking me to stop practicing or even goofing off with my friends on the piano, drums, guitar, trumpet, whatever...and I didn't know for a long time that other kids' parents weren't like that.

Lass--we are lucky here in Washington (state) to have several excellent writing grants available to us. Think positive! If you don't get it this year, write and ask them how you could strengthen your writing to be competitive for next year. Then follow up and apply again! Also, check out Jack Straw. It's an amazing fellowship where they have you share your work on NPR and other venues. IIRC, the deadline is usually in October. And thanks for the encouragement! I'm celebrating small successes. If I do a little each day, it will eventually get done. :-)

I'mhappy--have you tried opening your printer on your hard drive and making sure it's properly installed? Sometimes a printer can go offline even after it's been fine before. One easy check would be to uninstall it from your computer and then reinstall it.

llucy-- I'm glad things are OK with your mom, but sad that you have been experiencing anxiety. I don't have first hand experience with that, but definitely second hand, as my daughter Joy has a lot of anxiety issues and full on panic attacks. I understand how frightening it must be. You're in my prayers.

Steph--so very sorry you've been sick!! This heat sure doesn't help! I know you feel internal pressure to get stuff done every day, but remember your health is job #1 and getting the rest you need to get better IS doing something! Laundry and dishes aren't going anywhere. They'll wait until you're feeling up to it. :-)

Audrey--that cake looks amazing, just like your name, lol! I swear if I didn't have diabetes I'd bake, then eat, that entire cake, hahaha!

murraysmom--how cool is it that you have such wonderful friends to vacation with!! That sounds delightful!! And YAY for recycling! Shades, if you ever line your entire yard with empty wine bottles, I'm driving over the state line to have a serious chat with you, hahaha!! ;-)

Schoolhouse, let us know if you try the tea again and how it turns out. Maybe it was just something different about your digestive system at the time and it will go down like it's supposed to now.