The worst day of my life...

Christmas was really nice. My cousin Rich and his family came over to celebrate with us.
Friday evening my brother and his family from Modesto came over and they stayed until Sunday. We had a KILLER prime rib roast that I got from Costco and Heather told me how to cook it. Corinne stayed here for a couple of days, her mom is coming to get her tonight.
Yesterday was one of the saddest days in my life. Corinne and I went to see Marley and Me and I pretty much cried through the whole movie. After that we went to Mobo's and bought home some sushi because Brodie had a doctor's appointment. They took an x-ray and told me that Brodie has bone cancer. If I have her leg amputated and put her through chemotherapy she might last a year but they strongly recommend I do nothing and they will keep her as comfortable as possible until she's not comfortable any more. I can't remember the last time I have been this sad. Every time I look at her I can't stop myself from crying. I always try to cry when there's nobody around but this time it's just not working.
Heather has been so busy but she came by tonight and made an awesome dinner of sea bass with a macadamia nuts, tangerine and avocado salsa she also made some basmati rice and asparagus. The other day she made seafood crapes, eggplant and my favorite roasted potatoes.
Susanna called in sick this morning so I ended up stuck in bed, Corinne and I were going to spend the day at the boardwalk because she's leaving in the morning. I like to stay in bed and rest once in a while but when you hear bad news it gives you WAY too much time to think.

A spa day for Brodie...

Today was kind of a low-key day. Brodie and TueTue had a spa day and that usually takes several hours. It was too cold to go outside so I just hung out and watched a couple of movies.
Last night Heather brought over a lasagna and garlic bread that she made for my lunch today, do I even need to say that it was the best lasagna I have ever had? She made it with spinach, artichokes and zucchini. This afternoon she brought over some truffles that her Baker made, they were so awesome they just melted in your mouth. My aunt came over with Luana, her nine months old granddaughter, and she gave her a little bite. You should've seen her face light up and her eyes got huge and she kept grabbing for my aunts arm for another bite.

Christmas in Santa Cruz...

My aunt called last night and said that it looks like I'm not going to be able to go to my cousins for Christmas. He did a lot of work at his house to make it accessible and I was really looking forward to seeing it again, he redid since I lived there 20 years ago. It looks like were going to have Christmas at my uncle and aunt's across the street.
This morning I had Susana take pictures of my Christmas windows.

A really good weekend...

I really had a good weekend but I am exhausted. On Friday Teresa invited me to her company Christmas party at the Santa Cruz bowling alley. It brought back a lot of good memories, my boss and I used to go bowling and then have sushi every Monday. A lot of people I knew from seeing them around the Dominican building. I had just seen by Dr., Dr. Owens, Friday afternoon because I have a really bad UTI and she gave me some antibiotics. It was so cool watching the kids bowl, apparently was the first time for a lot of them. The scoreboards are automatic and next your name you mark whether you want the bumpers up or not. They had a lot of really good "bowling food" and it was a really nice group of people.
Saturday evening I went to a surprise birthday party for my old neighbor Liz. Jerry e-mailed me and said that they were going to spend the weekend in Aptos and he was going to surprise her at this really nice restaurant with some of her friends, she really was surprised. I hadn't seen them since I moved away in June and it was really great to see them both. They stopped by on Sunday to see the house and Jerry set up my Nintendo Wii game, I'm so excited because now I can start playing tomorrow.

Dogs are so funny...

My Mom's dog, Tue Tue, is always taking over Brodie's bed. TueTue will lay with Brodie but Brodie WILL NOT lay with Tue Tue so Brodie will just go and lay on the floor. Theresa felt really bad so she brought over a small bed for TueTue so Brodie could have hers back...

Pictures of my tree and my Xmas spider...

Resting and watching movies...

Today I ended up staying in bed. Susana was supposed to be here for three hours but she woke up late so she was only here for two hours, it's really cold outside anyway so I'm nice and warm and watching movies on pay-per-view. For some reason I woke up this morning with a sore neck so I took a muscle relaxer and it really wiped me out. Heather and Cassie came by so I did have a little visit from the outside world.
Whenever I see business windows painted for the holidays I always think how cool it would be to have my windows painted, there is always a name in the corner with a phone number so I saw one and I liked at Jack's, a hamburger place downtown, so I called. The lady called me back and said that she would do private homes so she is going to come out the next nice day that we have, probably Thursday, and paint my windows... I'm so excited.

A really nice weekend...

Sunday I got up early and Theresa and I went to breakfast at Zachary's, I had heard a lot about it and it was supposed to be one of the best places in Santa Cruz so I wanted to try it, I had a spinach, bacon, avocado and garlic omelette and it came with homestyle potatoes and bread that they make there fresh. After that we went to petsmart to get a hat for the Halloween spider that was left hanging on the porch, I decided instead of putting it away I would just buy a Santa's hat and put it on, it looks really cute. While we were there they told us that we could go and have Brodie's picture taken with Santa so we did and then we went and got TueTue, my mom's dog, and took her back to get her picture taken with Santa also. We drove over to Costco but it was WAY too crowded so we decided not to stop.
We put some bells around Brodie's neck and one on her paws and she looked so cute that we decided to go across the street to show Uncle Dick and Aunt Kathy, Brodie was not amused. My uncle was talking about how much he disliked Christmas so we decided to get a bell, tie a bow around it and hang it from his rearview mirror because I knew that they were going out for their yearly Christmas dinner with friends. My aunt called and said that he grabbed it off the mirror and threw it in the back of the truck but then realized his mistake... they had to listen to the bell rolling around in the back of the truck all the way there. Heather and Linda came by for a while and we had a really nice visit, Linda works so much that I hardly ever get to see her.
Today I decided to take Brodie for a walk through the lagoon, it had been raining in the water was really high. I left her with my mother and went to Costco to pick up my meds, it was way too long of a trip for her and it took me about an hour and a half but would have taken me probably twice that if I had brought Brodie along, she has to go really slow.
When I got back a WONDERFUL aroma was coming out of my kitchen, Heather must be here I thought and sure enough there she was. She brought me part of a prime rib and smothered it with mushrooms, sautéed spinach and garlic and garlic mashed potatoes, I thought I was in heaven. She also made some egg plant with fennel and bell peppers and a chicken, spinach, artichoke and avocado wrap for my lunch tomorrow.

Cleaning up the clutter...

This has been a real busy week but I think that we are finally ready for Christmas, except for the lights along the rails of the ramps.
On Monday I had a doctor's appointment to discuss the options for my back, I am so ready to see what they can do about that so I am eagerly waiting for my primary care doctor to talk to my rehab Dr. and see what they can come up with.
On Tuesday I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned, it is a long trip but very scenic so I enjoyed a long slow trip, I have to go slow for Brodie.
Wednesday and Thursday were just regular days. The weather was nice enough so that Brodie & I could go for our regular stroll. it usually starts to cool down about 3 p.m. On Thursday they deliver the Cabinet for my computer system, it is gorgeous, I could not believe how beautiful it was and I could not stop smiling... I can't wait for my brother to visit so we can set it up.
Friday I left Brodie here and went down to Claudius shop to get my manicure and pedicure. I usually don't answer my phone when I'm with somebody or in a building but I thought that it might be my mom so I answered it and it was my ex-boyfriend. I felt really bad because the earpiece was falling out of my ear and my fingernails were wet, I was having a really hard time hearing what he was saying so I asked him if he could call me back later but he didn't so I hope that I didn't hurt his feelings.
Today we got a lot of the clutter in the House picked up, it makes the crazy... er when the house is cluttered.

I'm not getting the flu, I'm not getting the flu...

The last couple of days I have been feeling a little sluggish so I decided to stay in bed today and rest, although I did take a bath with Dr. Bonner's eucalyptus soap. Everybody around me has the flu and I really do not want it. I always think that I'm going to stay in bed and relax and watch movies but it never happens, the phone starts ringing and people stop by.
I'm sure that by tomorrow morning I will be so restless from staying in bed that I will make myself do something, maybe go to see a movie. Friday I have an appointment with Claudia to get a manicure and a pedicure, that always makes me feel better.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today I finally did it. I have been afraid to turn left the end of my street and go up the hill because it's pretty steep but it is the shortest distance to a lot of places so I just decided to do it and I made up the hill no problem. Part of the sidewalk going up the hill is always wet so I assume that there would be moss or something slippery there but there really wasn't. I had a doctor's appointment up that way and I didn't really want to go through the lagoon because Brodie is still limping. The doctor's appointment went great. I talked to the doctor about my spine curving while I am in the chair and she's going to talk to my rehab Dr. and decide what my options are. I have a lot of skin tags on my neck and they keep getting pulled by my turtlenecks and sweaters and that is very annoying so she pulled some of them off and she froze others, she said in about two weeks I will never have known that they were there.
Heather came by tonight to set me up for a couple of days because she's going to be very busy at work. Last Saturday Heather, Teresa and I went to see a movie called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and then after Heather made rack of lamb, couscous, and we have some red wine... it was delicious. I had a lock of Brie cheese from Thanksgiving so she cut up some apples, found some kind of fig something, Brie cheese and she wrapped it up as big square dough and cooked it and it was so good I could not believe it. She made it again last night but we did not get the chance to try it so I cannot wait to try it tomorrow night. She also made a killer sausage and bean soup, a hamburger with Swiss cheese and avocado and a salad, some squash with Swiss cheese and some kind of fish... I will definitely not go hungry until she comes back.
Teresa came by after work and hung up the lights on the tree but a lot of them were not working so it's going to be a little bit more involved than we thought so she's coming back tomorrow or Thursday. When we get finished it is going to look so awesome. I really need to take some pictures.

Getting ready for Christmas...

My uncle and aunt made a HUGE pot of Turkey noodle soup after Thanksgiving with the leftovers and it was so good. They invited their good friend Ellen, her daughter and their family and my mom and I over to have some. Later on my uncle brought the pot over with some more noodles, he didn't think it have enough noodles. We had some more and it was even better. Thursday their water heater broke, of course on the holiday and they won't be able to get it fixed until hopefully today. They left the pot of turkey soup here for Teresa to put in the refrigerator in the garage. The soup was so nuclear hot that she decided to put it outside the garage door to cool down before she put it in the refrigerator. When she was getting ready to leave she went to take the dogs out and came rushing the dogs back into the house, she said there was a HUGE raccoon coming up the driveway to get our turkey soup, they really have an incredible sense of smell. She said it was the biggest raccoon she had ever seen and she has lived here are whole life.
The last couple of weeks have been really busy trying to get everything ready for Christmas. Teresa helped me decorate and it looks really awesome. Last weekend we decorated the inside and this weekend we put up the lights outside and got the Christmas tree and set it up in the living room, tomorrow we're going to decorate it. My cousin Rich is building a ramp at his house in the mountains so that I could go there for Christmas, I am so excited because I haven't been able to see my cousin and his family or the house for a very long time... I practically grew up in this house and from what I've heard it is totally changed.
Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Owens. My spine is starting to collapse a little bit and I going to see if anything can be done about it. I had my spine x-rayed and it's not scoliosis which I thought it was at first it is just that my torso is so long as the muscles around it are getting so weak from not be used... that's what I think anyway. My left arm is always hurting because I've always leaning on it and I really hope that there's something we can do about it.
Tuesday I have a dentist appointment to get my teeth cleaned, I have them cleaned every three months because sometimes it's hard to do a good job.
I've heard from my old neighbor/friend Jerry yesterday. He is having his 50th birthday party in Aptos towards the end of this month and he invited me so I asked Teresa and she said that she would take me, it will be so great to see Jerry and Liz again.
Jeff, one of the guys who built my house, was over helping my uncle and aunt all day yesterday and before he left he came over to say hello. He is such a sweet man and it's always great to see him.