Martini Musings

  Merry Christmas and Happiest of New Years!!!   For those of you who have been wondering or worrying about me, I’m fine! I have been held captive by a damn Kidney Stone but I’m slowly getting back! Yes, friends, the kidney stone from hell, Pearl, made its appearance. Here is how it played out. I had my friends for work to the house for a happy hour. We were enjoying the evening, when suddenly, I got a stabbing pain on my side. I thought it was caused by the way I was sitting so I started shifting around in my seat. No change.   Then, I started to get this wave of nausea like never before. I kept taking sips of water (although my friends thought it was a cocktail!) and still, I thought I was going to lose it…literally! As they got up to leave, I felt myself swallowing over and over again, trying to keep from burping. As soon as the last guest, walked out the door, all hell broke lose for me. I don’t want to be graphic, but between the pain, the puke, and the fe...

  As always, I’m THANKFUL!!   T’was the night before Thanksgiving…Yes, it’s one of my favorite days! Food prep, gift wrapping, and preparing the December calendar! This is a great day!! Cue the brakes!   WHOA !!! It’s now Thanksgiving morning. Yesterday was a great day, it is one of my favorites, but damn, I nearly forgot it was blog day! I did indeed start the blog, but that’s as far as it went. So as I watch the annual parade, I’m finally getting this blog post out! Let’s talk about why I’m thankful this year…because there is indeed a lot! I turned 65 this year with a party bus and some awesome people! It was a real treat and I was showered with love!! I went to Nashville with Katie for our annual girl’s getaway and was tickled to travel on the Drag Queen party bus and I was awed by my first visit to the Grand Ole Opry house. Katie & I had good fun, eating drinking, sitting by the pool. It was a treat to get away for a few days! I survived some of th...

  It’s beginning to look like…Christmas!   Well, I guess I can be called an “influencer” this week! It seems that my Halloween tree-decorating inspired others to start decorating. To those that hate this, I apologize, but to others who are glad to get started, good for you!! All of you make me proud! After putting up the tree, it seems that others have decided that getting an early start isn’t so bad. If it makes you happy, brings you joy, why not? It’s a lot of work to decorate the whole house for the holidays. Why not take your time, especially if you are retired, and get it done. Don’t you think sitting by the fire over Thanksgiving weekend, looking at your tree, will feel good? As the weeks (a little over 6 weeks until Christmas) start to close in, our calendars fill up with a variety of things to do. Some things are fun traditions, some things are work requirements, some things are friend gift giving and of course for many, there is traveling. So, why not mark t...

  ‘Tis the Season…   I’m guessing most of you know what happened in my world yesterday. Of course, I saw precious pictures of my grandsons doing their trick-or-treating as the two pilots. I scrolled through Facebook looking at many of your grandchildren and even your creative selves. We had dinner, played our nightly dice game, and then after Joey & Steve left the house, it was time for me to get down to business. The bar tree needed to be setup. Yes, my friends, my bar-themed Christmas tree had to go up! And so it began…I tuned in my Alexa Christmas songs and went to work. I had prepared my night stand in my bedroom for the tree. Remember, my room is my space and when my tree goes up, I feel joy! The tree is just over two feet tall. When I ordered it, the tree was “pre-lit” and when I received it, it was pre-lit alright, with 50 lights. That just wouldn’t do, so I added another 100 and even then, I felt like it could have more. So after “fluffing” the tree a bit...

Boo Hoo!!   With Halloween knocking on our doors, I have recently found out that there are so many great, safe places for kids to do their trick-or-treating! I used to be in a neighborhood that had more kids than we could handle and buses/vans brought even more kids in, but we didn’t mind. It was festive, it was fun and candy was cheap! I’m not sure what is really expected on Halloween anymore because it seems activities happen all month long. Halloween used to be the only day to collect candy. But now, there’s so much more, and then, there’s not. Candy is ridiculously expensive too! Case in point…many schools have stopped the parties due to the abundance of allergies, “healthy food” efforts, stranger danger and those candies that pop up with unsafe materials/drugs in them. It’s been an effort for there to be a happy medium, outside of Halloween. After all, those costumes take a lot of time, energy, and money to just be used one night. With Covid, individually wrapped thi...

  So Much to Do…            So Little Time October is half over and my lists are growing! I have a lot of “goals” and right now, I’m not sure I will get through them. First off, some of you know that I basically cancelled October. By that I mean I have been homebound since returning from the wedding 11 days ago. This has been by choice while I am doing a chemo-cream treatment on my face, at home. Now, for some of you, this may be no big deal. However, it is supposed to really treat the “hot spots” or pre-cancerous spots on your face. In the process, you apply the cream like sunscreen on your face, but you need to avoid the sun and any heat. The process involves an ugly follow-up with blisters/peeling/burning/and more!! Sorry that there was no warning. I’m going to spare you with anymore of the details but suffice to say, I was not sure what to expect. Fortunately, for me, it has not been as bad as I anticipated…I learned fro...

  Just another weekend getaway…or was it?   Last Thursday, after work, I headed out for a wedding in Pittsburgh. Due to the timing of the wedding, I needed to get there by noon on Friday. I decided to treat myself to an overnight at a halfway point, just north of Columbus. I mean who wouldn’t enjoy a hotel room with a comfy bed and no interruptions? I had even decided to treat myself to a restaurant dinner…which is a big deal for me to eat alone in a restaurant. So, I left Portland (where I work) and headed north. I had beat the rush hour in Louisville and was expected to arrive at the hotel between 7-7:30pm. Promptly at 4:40pm, I came to a complete stop on I-71. I was just past exit #34. My GPS warned me of a 20 minute slow down, but nothing more. I looked at the GPS map and saw nothing but a red line all the way up on 71…not a good sign! So I put the car in park, and just started flipping through my phone…email, Facebook, and then my guilty pleasure game, Triple Tile...