Purty Zion Nat'l Park Pics

Minus any identifying-family shots [so sorry, but those don't happen here], here are some of our favorite non-family-featured pics from our camping trip this past weekend with the angel boy-O!

I don't know what these are called [UPDATE: Indian Paintbrush, but it looks slightly different from the kind I've seen in Northern Utah & Southern Idaho - Thanks, Don!], but they and several other kids of wild flowers were everywhere!!!

A gnarly tree! (duh!)

Another gnarly tree, nearing the top of Watchman trail...

The end of the 'Temple of Sinawava' trail
After hopping around the mid-river rocks, I sat n' watched the angel boy-O practicing how to skip rocks on water...
More from the Temple of Sinawava trail...
How I wish I had had something to indicate the scale of this!?!
Beneath the Weeping Rock

Beneath the falls found at the Lower Emerald Pools
From above the Lower Emerald Pools

Some balanced rock art [UPDATE! This lil' pile of rocks is called a CAIRN - Thanks again, Don!] we found along the trail to the Upper Emerald Pools, along with a spectacular view of the Zion canyon...

The lil' waterfall above the upper Emerald Pools...

And down below... (the boy-O for scale)

The view from the Upper Emerald Pools trail
View from the bridge at Zion Lodge

And this moment at the Virgin River was amazing - -

There were about 10 mule deer and the boy-O was absolutely mesmerized.

The gargantuan tree at Zion Lodge (again, the boy-O for scale)!

Watchman Campground:
Along the line of tents seen here, just right of center, the light green one with the purple bottom was us.

Wees Iz Goin' Campin'

Bright and early tomorrow morning, we'll be off to Zion National Park with the angel boy-O in tow! Our first camping trip of the year! I'll be posting purty pictures by Sunday! Yes! I will! With lots more exclamation points too!!!

Eastah Sunday Flowahs

This one's a little late in posting: For the last four years, I've spent my Easter weekends in Burbank, CA ~ And for the last four years, we've gone to the somewhat historic 'Smokehouse Restaurant' for their FABULOUS Easter Brunch buffet with the angel boy-O and his mommie, Wendy and her lovin'-man. There have also been a few others who have joined our lil' party in the past, including one particular regular, Wendy's niece, who lives only a few blocks from the Smokehouse. Sooo, for the last four years, post-Easter brunch, we've walked to her house as our after-brunch gathering place... And the walk there has always featured a number of gorgeous flowers along the way! Here's this year's collection ~

Everythin's Comin' Up Something Daisy-Like

Saw these on my way out to my car, having finally left work after 6:30pm... I had my arms full of stuff, so I first placed my coffee cup balanced atop a barrier post, I gingerly placed what I could around me on the ground, camera already in hand, car keys between my teeth, and my purse wedged between my knees...

Three different people, who were each about to walk right past me, each stopped to see what I was up to, and consequently, each stopped to also admire these lil' sunny blooms.

When She was Thirty-Three

Hi Mum, *Big sigh*

How's it been going these last 21 years? Can you believe it's now been 21 years? And I had thought 20 years, just last year, was well enough time to have lived without you. Of course, I realize the time just gets longer and longer, compared to the 12 years I did have with you... I know.

As a child, I had believed you'd live to be 65, just one year beyond "When I'm Sixty-Four." No one set me up with this expectation. I made it up on my own, and although I did not share this with others, I had convinced myself that you would last that long. See, I had figured that by the age of 65, my children would have all been born and would have all had the chance to have met you.

I think I may have mentioned this before, but when I was 24 years old, I had thought that that year would have to be the very worst, realizing it was the 'half-way point' of no return; having lived half of my life without you, and that from there on out, my time with you would be forever growing smaller than the time I'd continue to live without you.

This year though? Well, this year may actually be the worst thus far, although I don't think I can bawl my eyes out for hours like I did when I was 24.

I'm 33 years old, newly and happily remarried for 6 months now, working full-time while contemplating another masters program (?!?) on top of my MPA, and I'm an absentee step-mom with no other babies, except furry lil' feline ones, and my hair is short by choice, and for the time being, it happens to be hot pink. In stark contrast, when you were my age, you'd been out of college since you were 21 years of age, and you'd never worked full-time since your teenage summers. You had been married for 13 years and had a 12 year old daughter, and you'd spent over half of your life sick with Hodgkins disease. You were experiencing the third regrowth of your hair, post-treatment. You were 33 years old, and you died 6 months before your 34th birthday.

This year will be the beginning of my outliving you.

I really miss you, mum.

Love,
Your Squirreleta oxo

No News Yet...

I've had a few friends call/write in the last week, asking if we've gotten our HIV and HEP test results. My honey-man should receive his soon - - we'd thought he'd have his back last week though.

One other thing, while we're on the subject: Even if we both test negative for HIV and HEP B and C, we have to test again in 6 months to a year... and Then? If we both test negative on the second tests, we'll still have to test again a year from then! Overall, we'll have to keep this 'chance of infection' in mind for potentially the next 5-10 years. No joke. See, some don't understand this part... I could test negative, but be a dormant carrier for years until either virus - HIV or HEP - were to become an active infection.

Ohhh yeah, and here's another lovely perk resulting from this whole ordeal ~ [BEWARE: THE FOLLOWING ADMISSION HAS OVERBOARD 'TMI' POTENTIAL] ~ Because either one of us could be a dormant carrier of HIV, HBV or HCV, we have to use 'protection' from here on out in order to avoid potentially exposing the other, were either one of us to move from 'dormant carrier' to a positive infection, undetected between blood testing. So yeah, when the time comes to get pregnant, hypothetically, we will be required to test on a regular basis to monitor the chance of infection.

Oh then there's this general question: "What if you're infected and you're preggers?"
There are soooo many "If this ______, then _____" answers to that one. Go Google it!

The chances that either one of us will be found positive are pretty slim - - but then read this (8 positives) and this (71 positives).

P.S. Happy St. Pat's!

Just in Time for Easter!

Soooo, my hair has grown out [over 2 inches] since my last hair cut in December. I have done a bit of maintenance trimming here and there for the last month or so to keep it manageable (also in order to maintain my ability to see!), but I plan to get a real haircut in the next week. Soooo, I had my friend, Daly, come over to add some spice to my hair before it's too short for her to get a grip on it!

We were aiming for a deep 'crimson' red, but instead?
We got FLAMING HOT PINK!

These pictures DO NOT capture just how freakin' HOT PINK my hair is...
And what does my honey-man think? - - He says he likes it!?!
(I think he's just a good actor, frankly!)

Daly will be coming over again tomorrow, and we'll see if we can tame these flames before I have to go to work on Monday!

P.S. I went to a team penning event in Boulder City (my honey-man's first event!?!) right after my hair was done, and lemme' tell ya, I got several dozen triple and quadruple takes!!!

Denial Transforming into Anger

I went to get my blood tests for HIV and Hepatitis C and B. SEMI-RELATED TANGENT: The plebotomist I had this morning, I'd had her before a few months ago, when I went in for the required blood work for my colonoscopy, and I was so thrilled to see her again! No joke. From here on out, any blood work to be done, I'll be at that same lab location and will call in advance to ask for her by name! She was fabulous ~ absolutely no digging around for a vein! She gets it the first try, every time, which is big deal for someone [that'd be me] who's been repeatedly told she has the veins of a child. END OF TANGENT.

So, having finally been called in after waiting for over two hours, I sat down, Xochitl did her magic, and I watched each glass vial fill with my blood, and I began to space off, wondering which movie my Grams and I would try to see together later tonight. Once it was time for me to press the cotton ball over the point of needle entry on my arm, I glanced left and the printed blood work order was there for a thorough look over. There was all my contact info. and some technical mumbo- jumbo that meant nothing to me, and then four particular lines detailing 'HIV' and 'HEP C AND B', written in ALL CAPS and some notes typed about the endoscopy clinic closure as the reason for the ordered blood tests... At this point, my eyes began to well with fat tears and my throat began to tighten.

With great enthusiasm, I then thanked Xochitl for her fantastic skills and smiled broadly and thanked her again, and I told her I'd be asking for her next time 'round. I then got up, walked out of the lab and into the lobby, and out the front door, striding fast as I could toward my car - - there was a feeling of hot anger surging through me, and the tears began to pour.

I'd like to write Dr. Dipak Desai a letter. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

"How 'bout we develop some healthy coping skills, eh?"

Last Friday, I stayed up all night long despite trying to settle down for bed four different times that night... I wasn't fretting over anything I had in mind; I wasn't thinking about anything in particular at all; I was just feeling it - - I was absolutely ridden with anxiety, simply wired outta my mind and could not settle down! And Saturday, although I laid down to sleep two different times, both kitties ready for me to finally get some sleep, I just tossed and turned and wound up staying awake all day long... I didn't get to bed and actually get some sleep until 1:30 a.m., Sunday morning.

I'm pretty sure this is not a good thing.

Out of Nowhere

Over the last week, I've had all these posts about last weekend with the angel boy-O that I've wanted to share, and a few others, but they've all taken a back seat to the one I'm about to write.

Have you heard at all about the multiple endoscopy clinic closures in Las Vegas? and the 40,000 patients potentially exposed to Hepatitis C and B and HIV?

Both my honey-man and I will soon be receiving our written letters of notice in the mail from the Nevada State Health Division that because of our recent visits for pre-op measures and colonoscopies, me in December, and him in January, we both now have to be tested for Hepatitis C and B and HIV.

The endoscopy clinic I had gone to was the very first one closed for gross health violations, responsible for this whole mess and now the general health scare in our valley.

Wish us luck.

P.S. I'm trying not to get upset until after we've tested and there's actually a reason to be upset.

"Silly Yet Bright Highlights" or "Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 23"

My honey-man can be soooo silly sometimes! AND I SOOO LOVE HIM FOR THIS, sooo very much!!! See, I am often quite silly, and it's absolutely necessary that I be with someone who can handle my silliness without either berating me for it, nor being embarrassed by it...

What kind of silliness are we talkin' about here?

Well, like it or not, let me offer up some recent examples:

1) I don't remember what we were even talking about, but we were in the car on our way to Target together, and I had laughed about something in a really enthused and maniacal, semi-cackling manner. Having heard myself, I mused aloud how it was almost witch-like and kinda scary. So I tried it again and again, trying to hone a really good and hearty, witch-like laugh. Next thing I know, my honey-man is trying too, and we're both critiquing our efforts, and he's giving me coaching tips on how to improve my witch-laugh...

2) Friday night of last week, we were at RC Willey shopping for a new mattress for our bedroom. Heading first for the markdown room, I saw a full wall display of candles from Salt City Candle Co. (dah BEST! Salt City kicks both Party Lite and Yankee buttocks!)... I shrieked and literally ran for them - - not a sprint, but more like a gentle, but admittedly awkward run, much like a 2nd grader running outside for recess time. A bit over enthused, yes, but I was absolutely delighted to discover a local source for Salt City Candles [SIDE NOTE: Pomegranate is my FAVORITE scent of theirs!!!]. My honey-man did nothing but smile and follow after me, and he smelled every single candle I offered him until we were both green. [FINAL SALT CITY CANDLE CO. SIDE NOTE: No, we didn't buy one, even though my honey-man was willing and insistent. I gotta burn through what I already have first! Another thing: I've only ever bought one S.C.C.C. candle, but I've had 4 others given to me as gifts, and I adored each and every single one.]

3) Same place, same night, while were testing out mattresses: We laid on our backs, tummies and both sides, turning this way and that, going from one mattress model to another, and at one point, my honey-man insisted we had to try spooning to be sure that would be good too. We were hoping here and there, giggling and laughing together...

4) The next night, same place, we were again testing the mattress model we'd zeroed in on the night before: We were both so thrilled about our soon-to-be final purchase, it was as if we were on a sugar high. Some disco music and general 70's music was dominating the store's music programming at the time... While completing our order and the final payment details for our new mattress (to be delivered tomorrow!), either one of us or the both of us, would break out into dance moves and/or song without either one of us batting an eye at the other. I'm sure the sales lady thought we were both deranged.

5) That same night, driving out of the RC Willey parking lot, having bought ourselves a new bed, I announced that I would sure like a cupcake from The Cupcakery, "don't you think?" I spoke this request with a really squeaky voice, much like a munchkin with a lil' bit of scratch to it... We both thought it had sounded much like Gollum would sound if he were on some speed, maybe... So my honey-man began his own effort to chant/cough for "Cupcakes" in his best Gollum voice in the way Gollum chokes "Gollum." This lasted until we arrived at the Cupcakery, both of us going back and forth, quite amused with ourselves.

Of course, this is all just silly, nonsensical stuff, yes, but I consider each lil' silly moment a highlight, a part of my everyday living with this man I love so much.

Can't Sleep Without Mah Baybee

My honey-man left reallllly early yesterday morning for L.A., around 5 am - - I never woke up when he gave me my four (not one or two, but four!) goodbye kisses. I was totally out and he didn't actually want to wake me that early, he told me later. Anyhow, he had some L.A. bizziness to do, and the angel boy-O to see and bring back to Vegas with him. They both went out to dinner with Wendy (his former spouse, mommie to the angel boy-O) and her loving-man tonight, in honor of my honey-man's birthday this coming Sunday. I was uber bummed to miss out again on another L.A. visit. It's been hard to keep myself perky and well occupied.

However, they'll both be back here tomorrow night! BUHHT I can't wait! And I can't sleep either. I do have both of my fuzzy babies here, glued to my right side, both curled together like a yin-yang and fast asleep. I need to emulate their purrfect examples of sleepy-ness! Instead, I'm wide awake, despite any long-spent effort to relax and get some sleep, hence, I'm now blogging.

I think I experience a severe aversion to our bedroom when my honey-man ain't in it!

Sewing With Otis & Owen

Otis likes to be in the middle of it all, right in my lap watching every move...

Owen likes to watch too...

Not Quite 'Back for Good'

I've been feeling remarkably better these last couple days!!! [BACKGROUND INFO: I got sick last week and had to stay home alone this past holiday weekend (being home alone while sick was fine cuz I'm a TOTALLY anti-social grouch whenever I'm sick), while my honey-man went to L.A. in order to see his angel boy-O, who hasn't been to Vegas since January's M.L.K. Jr. holiday weekend, who had also gotten sick last week, requiring that we cancel his Vegas trip for that weekend, thus requiring the visit to L.A. (and I was totally upset all that weekend, that I didn't get to go to L.A. too, having gotten sick - - was way, way bummed!).]

Up until an hour ago (even though I had to sleep upright, propped again with pillows last night), I was thinkin' I was back for good! I'd had had such a good day, today - - until I began to sing along with some music I had playing... After two minutes or less, I found myself in the midst of a violent coughing attack. Silly goon. I imagine I'll now be in recovery for the rest of the night!

Not quite 'all good' just yet. But I do get to go home from work now... that is good!

"St. Anger" in Our Living Room

For a couple weeks now, my honey-man has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a particular DVD from our Netflix queue, and it's been totally cracking me up every time he has questioned when it'll finally come, not to mention the very first time he'd told me about it. When we got home last night around 10 pm, we even made a special trip to the mailbox to see if it had arrived and it had! Sooo, instead of going to bed, we watched it, ALL OF IT, unable to turn it off (even when he paused the dvd to use the bathroom, and I then pointed out that it was a quarter to midnight, to which he asked if we should stop - - and I said NO!).

So what was it?

Welll, um, until one in the morning, we watched the Metallica documentary, Some Kind of Monster. Yup. Metallica. Honestly, if one can get over the naughty language, we both were absolutely intrigued by all the psychosocial issues involved and the general psychological approach used in order to address the band's future and deal with their history as a band. I even teared-up a couple times. Yup. We really enjoyed it!

Most important, of course, we just had a lot of fun watching it together. That was the best part.

P.S. Both Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield have the freakin' cutest kids!?!

After-Work-Pre-Gym Vegas Sunsets

Over the last couple months, I've been making a renewed and concerted effort to re-establish my loooong ago habit of working out at the gym a minimum of 3 times a week. At first in January, I was going to the gym right after work (and it was only happening twice a week, at best), but now, having discovered I can make it to the gym at lunch time for a 50 minute workout, allowing me to head straight home once my workday is done, that's now the preferred approach. [SIDE NOTE: I must admit though, a mid-day sweaty workout is a challenge, going back to work afterwards, but it's a mighty convenient use of my lunch hour!] Before I'd established the go-at-lunch approach though, going to the gym after work did provide a most fabulous chance to really enjoy our Vegas sunsets... Here's a couple from last month:

Owen, Over Time

Each of these kitty pics, plus a few obvious pairings, were all at one time drafted for individual blog posts, yet never posted. Now combined together as one big post, here's some of what our lil' Owen has been up to over the past few months...

This one speaks for itself... typical kitty behavior.

For several weeks (cuz I left it lying on the floor, because...), Owen behaved as if this lil' baby clothes hanger would at any moment pounce and devour him! He'd be walking along by, all casual and smooth cat-like and he'd suddenly glance over and see it lying there, wherever he'd last left it, post-attack, and he'd rush backwards, away from it as if his very life depended upon it. Soon after this picture was taken, Owen opened a can of whoop-ass on that lil' hanger!

At my birthday party this year, my Grams and my aunt Radeane had surprised me with a fully-stitched baby quilt. It's actually the baby quilt from hell that my aunt and I had begun for me in the Summer of 2006. [SIDE NOTE: It was deemed 'the baby quilt from hell' because of all the curly-swirls to be hand-stitched around it's border.] Sometime before Halloween that year, we'd had to take it off the quilt rack, unfinished, to instead prioritize the stitching of 3 other baby quilts for babies actually about to be born into our family. Anyhow, I just need to finish the border now. Meanwhile, Owen has decided that it's his blankie, and wherever I've left it, he finds it and cuddles down for a kitty nap. I've placed it in the coat closet to keep him from it and found him on it; I've placed in a knotted, doubled set of plastic bags, which he tore open to crawl inside... And most recently, preparing to stow it away in some kitty-proof storage bin, I had to eventually wash it to remove the kitty hair, but before I'd determined a kitty-proof bin, I placed the blankie in our downstairs 'powder room' and shut the door.

As you can see... I opened the door and tah-dah!?! How the heck?

Owen also likes to claim all our laundry as his own private nest. We have lots of these kinds of pictures of him...

We bought a humidifier a couple weeks ago, and here's the plastic bag that the unit had been wrapped in when we'd opened the box...

It's almost a bit disturbing, isn't it?

oh yeah, and Owen has recently claimed the angel boy-O's super whatever-these-are-called things...

Taken by my honey-man from beneath our kitchen table: Owen on my lap during dinner.

This is Owen's new favorite pose when we find him on this landing of our stairs. Ya know, ya just need one leg down there, for um, balance? All these pics are from different occasions/days I've found him sitting like this...

And this lil' glass thing we have on our coffee table, filled with collected rocks? Since Owen was a kitten, he has loved to occasionally TRY to get some of the smaller rocks out with his paws, and it has never worked until the day this picture was taken. Moments after, for the first time ever, Owen successfully removed a small, white, very round piece of natural pumice stone. As it rolled off the coffee table to the carpet floor, Jen quickly scooped it up and placed it right back where it belongs - - It was a move that Owen missed entirely (I didn't want him chomping little his teeth on it), so he spent the next couple minutes looking around for his prize.

Fascinating Camo Technology

[Note: This post is several months old!] This tall, lovely 'pine tree' is located off Blue Diamond Rd. on our way out to Red Rock Canyon... Somewhere in my photo files, I know I have a picture I'd taken of 4 of 5 similar 'palm trees' seen from Interstate 210 in Cali...

And I found it! Here's the pic of the 'palm trees' I'd seen!

And a zoom-in shot of the same 5 cell phone towers...

My Own Monte Carlo View

The view of the Monte Carlo on fire, January 25th, as seen (using the zoom feature on my camera) from my office window!

The same office window's view, three mornings after the fire...