June 17-20, 2008

Tuesday the 17th was uneventful aside from me going to the library to pick up some books and DVD's. I watched "The Awful Truth" with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, and a cute family movie called "Grand Champion." George Strait and Juila Roberts both make cameo appearances and Julia's neice, Emma, is one of the stars. The mom was played by the same actress that played Layla in Big Daddy with Adam Sandler. It was a saccharine sweet tale of a little boy who raises a steer to win Grand Champion at a huge Texas competition. The "bad guys" were a rich family whose hired help did all the work, yet they took all the credit. When Buddy finds out his steer, Hokey, is going to be barbecued, after a man paid $750,000 for him, he steals Hokey back and sets off across the state to his home. A bounty is put on Buddy and Hokey by the rich father of Buddy's rival, and his hired man sets off to find them.

Of course they arrive home safely, and the gentleman who bought Hokey at auction, played by Bruce Willis, arrives by helicopter to tell Buddy that he can keep both Hokey and the money. Then he flies off into the wild blue yonder. The End

The Awful truth is a comedic story of a married couple who decide to divorce over a stupid arguement. Each sabotages the other's new relationship because they're still in love and they wind up together in the end. The movie was filmed in 1937, so it's in black and white.

At 10:00am on Wednesday, my sutures came out. Uncle Wes went to the appointment just in case my arm was too sore for me to drive home. Miracle of miracles! I can stitch! I can stitch! I didn't get alot done, but I was able to make some progress on Stars & Stripes by Little House Needleworks! I'm so relieved! This is only the second time I've stitched since June 5th!

I spent most of Thursday sleeping and running errands. I realized when I got them home that I'd already read two of the books I picked up from the library Tuesday, so I took them back, along with the one Uncle Wes picked up for me over the weekend. It was a compilation of four short novels. I'd already read the first story and got through the other three by Tuesday afternoon.

That was the nice thing about not being able to stitch for so long: I got alot of reading done and was able to watch a bunch of DVD's. Now that the sutures are out, I only read once I'm in bed. I've found that I don't sleep as well if I don't read for at least a few minutes before turning out the light and going to sleep.

I decided that I couldn't stand my hair being so long anymore and went to Bubbles Salon in Annapolis Mall to get it chopped off. I parked outside Lord & Taylor and walked through to the Mall itself because I wanted to stop at Sentiments Hallmark on my way to Bubbles. I had to pick up another pack of birthday cards for the birthday floss exchanges I'm in, as well as some special cards for other birthdays that are coming up. I got a new keychain that hooks over the side of my purse because my "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbon keychain broke last week. I was going to replace my "I love my Golden Retriever" keychain as well, but they no longer carry them. The girl behind the counter let me know that they were available at another Hallmark across town.

So here's the before and after pictures of my cut. She took 3-6" off the back, which I love! It's layered in the back and tapers forward with no layers on the sides. It's a little longer in the front than the back but that was done purposely. My main complaint in summer is that my hair sticks to the back of my neck, so that is no longer an issue!

I went to the Hallmark store across town and was able to find a I Love my Golden Retriever keychain. Since I was already in the shopping center, I popped in to Whole Foods and bought sushi for dinner. The sushi chef made me a Tokyo Roll, which is both salmon and tuna wrapped in seaweed and Rice with cucumber inside as well. On the outside is a layer of alternating tuna and salmon strips. It's my favorite and I only treat myself to it about once a month.

I did alot more stitching on Friday at dialysis and made great progress! I was able to get "Stars" done on the top, as well as 2 1/2 of the large white stars underneath it. I also finally finished all of the leaves on the big tree, so I was very pleased.

I went to the post office to mail several things, including CSE BFC Cards, my Heart of SNS2 square, and the last two weeks of NASCAR floss. I thought I'd already mailed the Heart project and was getting nervous that I didn't hear anything about it. I found it between the seat and console of my truck yesterday and I have to admit I was relieved!

I decided that it was too nice of an evening to waste sitting around the house, so Kasey and I went to City Dock ,had dinner at the end of Ego Alley, and enjoyed walking around Main Street. We popped in to the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre office and I signed up to be an usher for the July 10th show. Even though Ben isn't in any of this year's shows, I know ASGT still needs help cleaning up before and after the show and showing people to their seats. It also means I get to see the show for free, and I've never seen a bad one. Everyone is a volunteer, so they're always appreciative of more help.

People stopped us to admire and pet Kasey, and some kids came over to say "hi" while we were resting on a bench in the playground. Kasey adores children and both toddlers were very gentle with her. The mothers were a little afraid at first, until I told them I had a little neice that likes to reach in Kasey's mouth and hold on to her tongue.

Annapolis is a very dog-friendly town, with stores and restaurants along Main St. leaving out water bowls and buckets of dog biscuits for the canine clientele. Kasey had some canine admirers as well, but being the well-behaved girl she is, she walked right by without looking at them. It was funny to see! I took a bottle of water for her and I had lemonade tea and an Italian sub for me. Per our routine, Kasey got the last bite of the sub. We sat right on these steps behind the Alex Haley/Kunta Kinte Memorial.

We came home and she went out on the concrete of the front porch where it's nice and cool. She's tired out after all the walking we did up and down Main Street. I have to admit that goes for me too.