March Madness

I don't know if it's age or lack of practice, but we've been going full speed all of March and it surely has kicked our behinds. 

It started with Pablo's 30th' birthday dinner celebration:

Then followed our awesome friends Kerrie & Eric's wedding weekend. Correct. It was not an evening, or an afternoon. It was a whole weekend, from Friday afternoon all the way through Sunday. Weekend involved wedding, dinner, followed by drinks, followed the next morning by brunch and then pork butt barbecue and Norm's famous and out of this world bacon-leek dip and Pam's potato casserole as well as a game of football (which they all played barefoot as I observed) followed the next morning by taking Eric's 87 and 92 year old grandparents to Mass and back for brunch before heading home.

Right after that it was time to get ready for my Sistah's wedding shower the following weekend. I threw it along with another girl from school. One of the things I was in charge of was the favors. So I went from this mess:

To this pretty travel candle all by myself!

In the midst of all that, Norm and I were able to get out to enjoy the Cherry Blossom Festival (the number one attraction in Macon, GA).

Then it was time to get in the car and head over to Aiken to see my Sistah and throw her a Travel Shower before she becomes Mrs. Alrubaiy in May! (Alrubaiy and May rhyme!!)



Of course wherever the Trezzas are, so is good food, beer, wine, cookies and great company. So naturally, the shower also became a weekend celebration - the shower was followed by dinner and family time at the Trezza's house where we (my mom came along) were able to catch up with Nicky's relatives (my mom got to meet them) and chat about the upcoming wedding in Denver. This is a sampler platter of Mrs. Trezza's cookies...

Stick work and keeping up with the dogs - and the yard - and getting home at 6:00pm every evening (sometimes later), Norm working late and you have the recipe for getting our behinds kicked by the month of March BUT I wouldn't trade it for a thing! All the festivities were absolutely beautiful and we had an awesome time sharing with our friends and family.

Tonight March comes to an end and my house is clean (just about) and the bills are paid (just about on that one too) and tomorrow Norm is off and we will get to spend the day poolside with Mr. & Mrs. Fulkerson followed by planting flowers on our front porch.

So long March... welcome April...

Red on the Floor

I was on the phone with my friend Nicky tonight (over an hour ago) when I suddenly noticed that there was a red dot on the floor next to the dogs.

"I have to go, one of the dogs is bleeding"

"Have fun with that" were her words

I slowly approach them (because if you approach them fast they think you want to play so they run the opposite way) and there were smaller "red dots" on Cali's leg.

Keeping my cool, I walk over to the laundry and grab a stack of rags and go back to Cali to try to find the source. She has blood on her paw, but it isn't bleeding. She has blood on her mid-leg, but that isn't bleeding either. Finally I get to her face - which is looking pink - and it appears that maybe her jaw or her cheek is bleeding. Come to find out, the very edge of the floppy part of her ear is the source.

So I put pressure on it and it stops bleeding. Then she shakes her head and blood goes everywhere (as in, I found blood on the treat jar... that sits on the counter...). So I put pressure again. Then she shakes again and more blood goes places it should not be going.

Keeping hold of her collar with my left hand, we go over to the medicine cabinet and I put wound ointment on the wound while it had stopped bleeding. Then I send her on her way outside... Maybe it'll heal on its own, was my thought.

After about 5 minutes, she comes to the door.... blood dripping from her ear.

I either need to keep her ear still (impossible) or cover it up (more achievable goal). So I let Pellet outside and Cali and I go back to the medicine cabinet. Still holding her still with my left hand (which involves my wrist twisting and turning in abnormal ways as well as Cali laying flat on her back with all four feet up in the air), I proceed to open Band-Aids with my right hand. Well, have you ever tried doing this? It's nearly impossible because one side of the Band-Aid sticks to the other side. Then I manage to separate them but now it sticks to my arm - after removing the Band-Aid from my arm I finally put it on Cali and quickly move on to opening another Band-Aid (because one is not doing the trick). Same scenario from above, except now the thing is sticking to the counter. By instinct I put the Band-Aid on my lip (I know, bad idea in retrospective) to free up my right hand to be able to grab her ear. Finally I get the ear situated and quickly pull the Band-Aid from my lip. Yes, ouch is correct, there is blood everywhere and now the source is my lip.

So now my lip is bleeding - profusely - and Cali has managed to shake her head, send the Band-Aid contraption flying, pull herself from the collar and has taken off into the living room - bleeding. Need I mention that Pellet is outside BARKING? Yes, Pellet is outside, barking while all of this is happening.

In the midst of trying to make my bleeding lip stop, bringing Pellet in from outside and sweetly luring Cali back to me, I manage to come up with contraption #2:

Now I eat dinner - which involves a bowl of cheerios with an aftertaste of blood!

Note: the whole time this fiasco was going on, Cali's tail never stopped wagging. She never once wailed or flinched. What was the cause of this? Rough housing....

Highway Meeting

Today I was driving down the highway on my way home - traffic was a bit heavy. As I quickly approached the car in front of me, I realized that it was a white Jetta and a dirty one at it.

So I thought "that car is so dirty! Just like Pablo's car" (Pablo drives a dirty white Jetta). As I kept getting closer, I had a mini mission to figure out what county the car was from - if it had a Columbia County tag, it had to be Pablo.

In seconds, I was on the white Jetta's bumper and it had a Columbia County tag and Pablo was driving. I flashed my lights, passed him and waved! He waved back and then we called each other on the phone.

What are the odds?

Back Into Business

Finally (after I don't know how long) we have a new camera. Our old camera died a slow death (just like the one before that) so we had been relying on my phone. Which, don't get me wrong, has a great camera built in, but it's just not the same (call me old fashioned). 

So in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day (not really, it's more like in the spirit of "the green camera is like $15 cheaper than the black and silver cameras") I am pleased to introduce our grasshopper green NEW camera!!

I'm so excited to finally be able to take and upload good quality photos!

30

One thing that's worst than turning 30 yourself is (no, not necessarily referring to turning 40) your little brother turning 30. My turn came 18 months ago and tomorrow is Pablo's turn... 

So the whole family got together last night and we celebrated at one of the best restaurants in Macon - Marco Ristorante Italiano. 

It's quite a fancy place and service is excellent, so therefore, we must behave in proper manner. So I was only able to sneak one food picture and that was my meal! I had the special which was Rissotto with Duck and Shiitake Mushrooms and some other Mushrooms.

Yes, I ate it all and then some (some = caprese, frito misto, tiramisu, chocolate cake with ganache (or as Pablo pronounced it: gAh na kie....) and dark chocolate semifreddo):