Must Be May - 2019 - The Mother's Day Adventure

I've said many times that I am not a pet person.  When the kids were little they clamored for a dog.  My standard statement was "When you can care for your inanimate objects (toys, keeping their rooms clean, chores, etc.) then you can get a dog.  Fortunately for me that worked.  Even though my husband had owned animals in the past, he respected my wishes and we never had pets until about 10 years ago when he brought home a stray cat that had befriended him at work.  That was "Whisper" and I tolerated her because she really didn't need much attention.  She mostly ignored me and while I did feed her, I didn't go out of my way much to interact.  She was around for about 5 years or so and then got sick and we had to put her down. 

Not long after came Tiger (although my husband called her "Puppy" because she followed him around like a dog would).  She was also not a lot of trouble because she was an indoor/outdoor cat so we had no litter in the house and she pretty much came in to eat and sleep and then roam outside during the day.  Again, I hardly had much interaction with her except for the times that my husband was away.  Then she would come and sleep on the end of the bed at night.  Last week we had to put her down too after a mysterious illness/injury.  Suddenly she couldn't walk and her tail wasn't moving.  When she started losing control of her bladder there weren't many options. 

I didn't think that it would matter to me and yet I found myself looking for her on our bed or in her favorite spots in the house and I realized that there was something missing.  I also realized that all the objections I had to having a pet were no longer valid since the kids were adults and obviously handling their own lives.  I didn't want another cat though.  I thought that a dog would fit with our lifestyle now and may even help me lose a few pounds if I had to go walk it so for Mother's Day I decided that I wanted the family to go find a dog.  My husband was still a little reserved but told me that if that is what I wanted, go ahead, he'd wait at home.  Our son wanted me to pick a big dog but I knew I couldn't handle a large, slobbery animal and I didn't want a Pitbull or anything like that. 

The people at the Peninsula Humane Society were so very helpful and let us sit with a couple of dogs to see which one would fit our family.  We sat in a room and had the dogs brought to us.  We liked the first one right away but saw both of them just to be sure.  May I present Benedict Hunter Miles (Benedict for Benedict Cumberbatch because I love his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Hunter for the baseball player Hunter Pence because he is one of our favorite players).

This is a picture my family thought they would NEVER see!

He is a Terrier mix of some sort and is about 3 years old.  He is so friendly and calm (although maybe the fact that he was neutered just 3 days ago makes a difference in that regard).  He came right to us and although the Humane Society had named him Shorty, when we started calling him Benny he reacted right away.  Now he has just about taken over our living room but we are getting used to each other pretty quickly. 

So there you have my Mother's Day Adventure.  Hope you had a great one too!  

Observations in October - #31Things - Watch

Watch - I have a love/hate relationship with TV.  I try not to watch too much nowadays because there are SO many other things I'd rather do.  But, there are a few shows that I really like and I could just spend the whole day watching them, one show after another.  Most of them are on Netflix, so I CAN spend the whole day watching them back to back.  I did that a couple of times when my husband was taking extended trips to take care of his mother in Oregon.  He was gone for weeks at a time so there was no question about who would control the remote.  Plus, I could watch it on my laptop and therefore work in my craft room at the same time.  That was heaven...(Hey hon, are you sure your mom is okay?  Maybe it's time for you to go visit her again???) Just kidding (not really) - am I??

I watched:  Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  I love that show.  You know I am a big Sherlock fan anyway but this series was done so well.  Plus, Benedict Cumberbatch is not that hard to look at if you know what I mean.  Hope they make more!

I watched:  Grace and Frankie.  What a great show.  Love the interaction between the two women and it was hard at first for me to think of either Martin Sheen or Sam Waterston as gay.  I have a few episodes to catch up on with this one.

I watched:  The Crown.  Love the history of the Queen.  I have a lot left to go on this one.  I hate getting behind but...you know, life.


I watched:  Downton Abbey.  I have loved those English series types ever since I was young.  I was able to finish this whole series in a couple of days over a weekend.  The house didn't get cleaned but it was just me so no big deal.  It reminded me of the Upstairs Downstairs series when I was a teen.  This is the one I started with and that's when I understood what binge watching was and why it is so dangerous. 


As far as regular TV goes, Giants baseball tops anything else.  When they are on I'm there.  Sad to say they didn't do as well this year as we had hoped but I never stopped watching.  I'm watching the playoffs now but only to root against the Yankees and the Dodgers.  (Sorry if you are those fans).  The Yankees are out of it now and so I say GO MILWAUKEE!  I also say Joe Buck sucks, but so do a lot of other people.












I like to watch Cash Cab with Ben Bailey.  I think it is good to stretch your mind with these trivia questions.  I like to see the reaction of the people when they get in the cab too.  We've seen Ben Bailey in person a couple of times when he came to Cobbs Comedy Club in San Francisco. 


















If I'm really lazy and bored I'll watch Big Bang Theory reruns and sometimes Family Guy on late night but most of the time I'd rather go to bed and read.  How about you?  What's your "watch" list?  Any other Netflix shows I should put on my queue?

31 Things is an old series from Ali Edwards but it is still available on her site if you think you might want to do something like it.  She also has a 31 More Things which I'm going to give a try in another couple of months.  Ali is really good with helping you to explore your life from all angles.  She did a class I took last year called One Little Word, where you explore your word of the year (if you choose one) in all different ways in order to keep it fresh for you. 

Janet in January - 2017

January 13 - It is Friday the 13th and yesterday was the full moon so I think it is only fitting that today's picture should be about the Sherlock Holmes Tarot cards I found at Barnes and Noble.

Sherlock Holmes has been one of my all time favorites for as long as I can remember.  I loved watching Jeremy Brett play him on PBS and Robert Downey Jr. in the movies.  I also recently really enjoyed the series "Sherlock" on BBC staring Benedict Cumberbatch.  I binge watched the whole series on Netflix while my husband was out of town.  I enjoyed the way they took the old stories and made them new with computers and blogging.  

I've also been fascinated with Tarot cards and have a small deck that I bought some time ago.  I am by no means an expert in how to use them but when I spotted these Sherlock Holmes cards, I just had to have them.  The cards themselves are a nice size and the scenes and people depicted on them are just perfect to represent the main characters and settings of the stories.  

As the guidebook says, there are quite a few analogies to be made between the stories and actions of the Great Detective and the world of the Tarot.  The deck is divided into The Major Arcana, which include of course Holmes and Watson as well as Professor Moriarty and Inspector Lestrade.  Mrs. Hudson is there as well as the Reichenbach Falls, the Hound of the Baskervilles and the 7% solution.

The Minor Arcana is divided into the Suits of Observation, Evidence, Analysis and Deduction.  Makes perfect sense to me!  

The book goes through each card and gives the meanings as well as interpretations for whether the card is positioned right side up or upside down.

It also gives several different spreads to explore, using anywhere from four cards to 10!  I can tell I'm going to have fun using this deck.  How about you?  Do you consult the Tarot?  Have a favorite deck?  Any tips for this beginner?