Another Weekend Comes and Goes

Nothing is horrible at our house, mostly been worrying about the health and issues of others. Jeff's been sick after taking some "bad" medicine, his mother is in the hospital, and that's just a start. A lot of people I know are having health issues or other challenges, so I am thinking of them all. And I haven't heard much from my parents for a few weeks, which is always worrisome.

At home everything was quiet, because the kids' dad was here so they were gone Saturday and much of Sunday. But, when they were home, Beccano was involved in a project of taking pictures of the canine pets. It ended up being a series of photos of their precious doggie heads. He has a way with the animals and can get them to hold still. Unlike me.

First is Gwynneth, the Welsh Corgi who lost her sight last year. The photo is of her good side, because while we were out of town, she seems to have gotten into an altercation with one of the four other dogs in the house at the time and hurt her left eye--it has healed, but the outer eye has a scar and is shaped funny now. Poor thing. She'd already had one of the dogs bite her ear. She doesn't realize where she is or what she is getting into sometimes. But, otherwise she is good.

Buddy is next. He is so sweet, but so scary when one of the boys walks into the room unexpectedly and he launches into his protective barking. That giant head makes a very loud, scary bark. I wish he wouldn't bark at the residents. But I have no doubt he is sort of confused about where he is and what he is supposed to be doing, having spent most of his life around one person, occasionally two, when he was just Lee's dog. At least his massive shedding season appears over. Wow, lots of hair on a giant dog, too.

Oh look, next is Rose. Beccano had a hard time getting a shot of her holding still. She is definitely full of motion most of the time. She is very well trained now except for chewing on things. Lee says he's never had such trouble with chewing. She digs a bit, too, but that isn't a problem unless she is trying to dig out of the back yard. Lee spent quite some time on Sunday repairing the fence so she will not succeed so easily at that. Rose is so affectionate and loving. And silky smooth.

Finally we have Scrunchy, who I already shared a picture of last week. But I found this one so funny that I could not resise. I swear he looks like a manatee in this photo. Not his best look. But then, he has few really "good" looks.


In other weekend news Lee and I did some music at Ye Olde Spiritual Community on Sunday. I sang "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" along with Lee on bass and Joe on keyboards/synthesizer. I felt sorta bad because Joe is the one who arranged it and spent hours working up the keyboard settings and sounds, but I am the one who got all the praise. All I did was go over the song a few times with them. Well, I did suggest that Joe not play the melody on top of my singing--I suggested he do some fun accompaniment instead. That worked better.

The nicest thing is that we went over to Joe and his wife's house Saturday night, to rehearse the music for Sunday. They live in Lago Vista, and I had never actually driven down in there before. It was really pretty. Their house had a nice Lake Travis view, and the neighborhood was neat, a mix of old regular size houses and those new McMansions. They took us to eat at the restaurant at the end of a pier near their community marina, which was a hoot. There were literally dozens of deer just standing around staring at us as we drove in--people were taking pictures and they were like, so what? The restaurant was a floating one, so we went up and down a bit from wakes. Most amusing were the channel catfish and ducks that lurked around, expecting to be fed. I think they give everyone extra fries to feed them. There must have been 3-4 dozen giant catfish (about two feet long, maybe longer) all in a big frenzied ball. When they had no food, you'd look down and their pink and white mouths would be all lined up, looking like they were about to launch into a choral number. We had a bit of excitement, too, when a strong rainstorm dumped itself on us (then hail) right as we were finishing. Just BOOM it began raining, no drizzled warning. It was fun jumping to shelter. And Joe and his wife moved pretty quick for retirees. All in all it was fun. I don't get to socialize as much with church people as I used to, since the Bad Times, so this was a special treat.

(For example, there was yet another couple marrying at the church that I was not invited to--so far, I was invited to one out of the 5 I know of. Oh well, it's probably because I am not very friendly.)

By the way, I must really love Lee because I made green bean casserole for him. A dish I usually avoid. But, we put fresh mushrooms in it, and used canned mushroom/garlic soup for an extra zing. Well, he DID buy me some lovely pink roses with cream edges. Aww.