low key memorial day weekend

We are going to have a very quiet Memorial Day weekend so we can look after our little patient, Smokey.  He was acting very down and quiet, not like himself, on Wednesday* and seems to have pain and weakness in his back legs.   We've already been to the vet once and everything they could see looked good so we are hoping to treat it with pain killers and rest.....poor little guy.

We did joke last night that he may have figured out he can milk it, we are definitely pushovers to help him when he's hurting.    He also may have super low pain tolerance...

Side benefits of low-key weekend, we can watch the show we've been looking forward to on netflix -- Bloodline Season 2.   We watched one episode last night, very conflicted between savor them and WATCH THEM ALL AS FAST AS WE CAN......if you have netflix streaming, check it out!

*His change happened so suddenly that we even called the maid service that came out on Wednesday to see if they'd noticed anything happen, they didn't but did describe him as 'triste' (sad) while they were there.......very much not his usual mood.

The Cure

While I can't say I have a bucket list, if I did have one I checked off an item last weekend --- seeing The Cure perform live!    I've been listening to them ever since college, and when I saw they were coming to town I knew I had to go.... Kevin is not a fan, but luckily some friends are, we made plans, got tickets and I have been looking forward to this concert for months.

screen during Lullaby

Unfortunately travel plans didn't work out, so my friend Delena couldn't make it into town, but my college roommate, her husband, our friend Mimi and her two cousins made a great group to see the concert.    Jay outdid himself on purchasing tickets -- floor seats, row 22.    I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to see from the floor (super short as I am) but I was able to stay off at the end of the row, not too far out since the ushers were keeping the aisles clear, but enough that I could see around - spent a fair amount of time on my tippy toes.   They played for three solid hours, and we had the best time!  The sore feet (we stood nearly the whole time) were so worth it!  They did many of my favorites and FOUR encores!!!

easy life hack

I've always worn glasses/contacts, and cannot see a thing without them.   This is especially annoying in the shower since I often can't tell which bottle is shampoo and which is conditioner ( I should know by the shape, but I never remember).  My cheap and quick solution -- write "S" and "C" on the bottles with my sharpie.....seems dumb, but makes my morning easier.

When I finally thought to do it, I had to really wonder why didn't I do this years ago?

RIP our a/c

our ac finally bit the dust....we'd known it was likely since we bought the house but it finally did it. Oddly it broke in stages.  Kevin got home from work on Thursday to find it not working, we were able to get someone to come out that night who got it working, though he's not really sure how, he didn't do anything but maybe shake it....but it worked for the night and we scheduled to replace the furnace the next day.   It got replaced Friday and we thought, oh good we got off *relatively* cheap......we should know better by now......Saturday comes and the a/c doesn't seem to be working, at first we think its the zoning (each floor is a zone) but nope its the whole thing, so again we wait for someone to come out...this time its the whole thing -- the fan in the outside unit literally FELL OFF......we were really lucky we were able to get it scheduled to be replaced on Sunday (also Mother's Day) but did have to make some quick hotel reservations, and needed pet friendly place so we could bring Smokey.   We had not one but 2 trucks come on Saturday with the needed equipment (and guys) to fix it -- you know its bad when it takes TWO trucks....

it was hot but he was still happy to be home

The hotel was ok not great, and we learned that Smokey is NOT a fan of elevators, also -- note to self -- confirm if hotel has pet fee or not, website didn't show it (we'd ruled one out because it showed it) only to get there and find out that our 4-legged friend was the most expensive of all of us.  Kevin says I shouldn't have mentioned a dog at all, he's pretty tame and well house broken, but I thought we'd end up with a room where we had to walk right by the desk to get to it (dog, what dog?)    our summer rental is only $25 for the week for a pet, this place $100 for one night....bah.....oh well, live and learn...

we were oh so glad to get working a/c yesterday, and slept so good last night...here's hoping our new ac does make the bills go down since it should be more efficient.   and new gadgets for K --- wifi thermostats, do we need to be able to change temps on our phones?  probably not, but we can!

i did still get to have lunch with my mom for mother's day, and so glad we only had 1 night in a hotel.....here's hoping my house is done with things breaking for a while (earlier this year was the water heater).

wall of jasmine

It has taken about a year, but our wall of jasmine is really filling in.  when we moved in it was just a blank black fence, but we wanted some greenery and privacy.  I'm still trying to thread the jasmine to fill in a few holes, but it looks (and smells) great!

I do not claim to have a green thumb at all, but with this we really just plant it and go -- and try to remember to thread it as it grows....hard to keep up with as its had so much rain this spring....

90s Nostalgia Friends

Good bye April and Hello May!

I know that many in Houston were happy to tear that page off the calendar.  Here's hoping May is not as rainy (a tall order since last year's flooding was in May).

I had a great last day of April, I spent it at a Friends' trivia quiz with my sister put on by Geeks Who Drink.   We met our goal of not coming in last (26 of 36 teams!), that was even our team name - The One Where they try not to come in last - and had a great afternoon of catching up and testing our knowledge of the tv show. We each did some studying (aka binge watching) of the show ahead of time, but got nowhere near getting through all the episodes.    Some we knew as soon as they showed the answers, others I just never knew....it was all for fun, and I'd recommend their quizzes, only $5 to play (plus cost of food and drinks at the venue --- we purchased some food and drinks, gotta keep waitstaff happy since we basically took up a table for 5 hours - couple hours early and 3 hours for the game).

The MC wore a wedding dress the whole afternoon and the 90s music soundtrack they had on breaks just added to the fun!

Now that the quiz is over I don't need to watch more episodes and yet I probably will (psst all the seasons are on netflix!).