Cribbage...

Heather came over Wednesday to set me up for a couple of days, she is really busy this week but she always makes time to help me out, she is such a sweet lady.  She had some fresh cod that was just caught and man was the amazing. She made this great sauce for it and also made some chicken soup, sautéed spinach, sautéed eggplant, roasted potatoes and of course a couple of wraps to last me until Sunday or Monday.

On Friday my mom and I went to Claudius shop to get a haircut and a manicure, we were supposed to play cards on Saturday but my brother and his daughter were going to come down for the weekend so we decided to play cards on Sunday instead.

Heather came by on Friday and we decided to go shopping and get stuff to make ravioli and garlic bread.  I had raviolis in the freezer from Costco, spinach and mozzarella cheese, and Heather was going to make the sauce and the garlic bread and some green beans.  The sauce was some heavy cream, artichoke pesto and mushrooms... needless to say it was awesome.  She makes the best garlic bread too.  Stanley and Corinne arrived on Friday night but it was really late so we just all said hello and went to bed.

Whenever Stanley is here he makes breakfast.  There was some left over cream sauce from the night before so he made its own version of eggs Benedict with scrambled eggs and bacon and it was delicious.  Unfortunately I had made an appointment to interview Teresa on Saturday so we got a late start at the boardwalk, Carrie, the girl next door, and Corinne wanted to spend the day together.  The interview went really well and Teresa will start on Friday evening but by the time I finished interviewing it was almost 1 p.m.  Stanley, Corinne, Carrie and I headed for the boardwalk and had a great day.  We stopped to have dinner at a restaurant on the corner called The Ideal.  Corinne and I have been there once before and the waitress remember us, I think mostly because of Brodie.  She remembered Brodie because I told her that I always bring my Barcuum cleaner when I go out to eat to clean up after me, she thought that was hilarious.  I had clam chowder and calamari and it was pretty good.  I guess every Saturday they have karaoke and it was so much fun to listen to everybody sing, I wish we could have sat somewhere and watched it.

On Sunday we met Lee and Claudia, my aunt and uncle and Ellen at our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and then came back to my aunt's house to play cards.  About halfway through the games I started feeling really bad so we had to leave early.

Wheelchair accessible dentist...

I am really going to miss my cruise along the wharf today and tomorrow and I'm sure that Brodie will also. Brodie is up right now having a spa day with Tue Tue, they always come back so proud of themselves and I think it is so cute.

Tuesday after our long cruise around the beach I came home to rest for a while and then went to the movies with my aunt and my mom, we went to see My Best Friend's Girl.  I liked it, my aunt and I thought it was funny but my mom did not like it because no matter how good the movie is if there's bad language she just can't get past it, she didn't like the other movie Dane Cook was in, good luck Chuck, for the same reason.  Dean Cook reminds me of the character Hugh Laurie plays in the TV series House.

I found the wheelchair accessible dentist in this area this morning.  After the movie yesterday my aunt, my mom and I walked around the downtown office buildings looking at plants that will grow good in this area.  We came across a dentist's office and my aunt went up to the door but it was locked, as she turned around a lady came to the door and we asked her if she knew of any dentist offices that were wheelchair accessible and she said that she didn't but she would look into it.  She called me this morning and told me that there was one downtown, I will never get over how friendly and helpful EVERYBODY in Santa Cruz is.  I have an appointment next Tuesday.

We had a really nasty trees, five of them, at the end of the driveway.  They're called fruitless but they have these really nasty red plums that nobody could eat but they were squashed all over the concrete and they made a big mess.  My uncle Dick and my cousin Richard spent the last couple of days cutting them down and clearing them out and WOW what a difference it makes.  It brightens the whole driveway.  The fence behind it is really old and falling down, luckily I have a bunch of morning glories seeds that will eventually cover it up quite nicely.

There is the possibility that Stanley and Corinne are coming down on Friday evening and staying at night or two, I'm really excited about that.

Hurt baby seal...

Yesterday I had a really nice surprise.  Heather came over with some Mahi Mahi, I didn't expect to see her until Tuesday.  She made blackened Mahi Mahi and it was really good.  I have seen it on menus and cooking shows before but now I know how incredible it tastes.  She also made some squash... I can't remember what kind she said it was but it was delicious and some rice.  While she was at the store she got me some rice cream, I had never heard of it before but it was really good.  Low in calories, salt, no dairy... it may not sound like it but it was really good.  She also got me some rice creamer, both brands were Good Karma.

 I'm cutting all of my ties to San Jose so I need to find a new dentist here in Santa Cruz, one that can do ALL of the work that needs to be done in my chair.

It looked like there is a lot of good movies out so my goal this week it to go to the movie by myself, I get a little nervous because there is an elevator and I really don't like elevators and I especially don't like going into by myself but I'm going to do it.  If I print out the ticket on Fandango I can just tuck it in the side of my chair and get it out when I get there.

We were going to go through the lagoon and as I started over the boardwalk I smelled something really weird but really familiar.  As I got a little further I noticed that there with about 60 goats off to the side and then it dawned on me what the smell was, when I lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains we had goats.  I guess in Santa Cruz they use goats to clear out brush and grass, they do it during the summer to keep down the grass on the Hill across the street from where I live.  Out of curiosity I wanted to be what Brodie's reaction would be because she has never seen a goat before.  I really wasn't surprised that as we got closer they started to run and she started to bark and lunge at them so I decided we'd better turnaround and get to the wharf through the park.  While we were cruising the wharf I saw the sad thing ever.  A baby seal was on the lower deck and it had several huge gashes on the side.  There was a couple of people standing there watching and I heard one of them say that a veterinarian was on the way so itmade me feel a little better and I hope the gashes work because of something a stupid person did.  I wanted to stay around and watch but I didn't know how long it was going to take and it was getting really hot, I needed to get home and take off my sweater.  I think I will go back and make sure that everything is OK, just because it will make you feel better.

Just a really bad day...

I guess that every day can't be a really good day, today I'm having a really bad day and I think that everything is just closing in.  I tried to go for a walk a couple of times today but my heart just wasn't in it and all I wanted to do was get back home and sit in my room and lose myself in movies or playing games online at Pogo.

My morning caregiver starts school on Monday and is going to have to start leaving early.  Her four hours a day has already turned into six or seven and starting Monday she definitely have to leave after four hours, I don't know what's going to happen after that.  The girl that works in the afternoon seems to always have something going on and I think in the last two weeks she has only work about six hours.  My computer program, Multimedia Max, is not working.  I am not able to adjust the thermostat and I can only turn the light on/off sometimes.  Before I was always able to program new buttons and I cannot do that either.  I know it's just a bad day and everything always seems to work out and I know that this will also but right now it seems really defeating.

Trout

This morning we went for a walk with my aunt, her friend Susan, my mom and I.  Susan and her husband are longtime friends of my aunt and uncle.  Once a year they have about 40 people who meet and go camping for about a week and I have a really great time.  Susan's husband, I can't remember his name, was the best man for my uncle when he got married to my aunt 48 years ago, it has to be so cool to have friends from that long ago.

I went down to get Brodie's records from her veterinarian so I can take her to get groomed, unfortunately they don't groom dogs at her veterinarians.  After that I went down to Cedar Video to return the movie that I rented a couple of days ago.  Brodie and I cruised down to the wharf but we only went about halfway because it was kind of crowded and my chair was running out of juice because I forgot to charge it last night, it sure was beautiful though.

Heather came over and made some trout, some green beans, rice, a wrap and some tuna salad to hold me over for a couple of days, even though I shouldn't be I'm always amazed at how great everything Heather makes tastes.

Triple ginger cookies...

On Monday my uncle and aunt, Heather and my mother and I went to see Burn after Reading, it was a very funny movie but also very weird.  I'm glad that I saw it but I won't be seeing it again.  After the movie Heather and I went to Trader Joe's and I got some triple ginger ginger cookies.  Next week I want to go see The Women.

On Tuesday I went to San Jose to see Tony to get my SP tube change and to get a copy of my records so I can start going to the doctor here in Santa Cruz.  I had always intended to keep the doctors that I have but it's just too hard to get to San Jose that often.

On Wednesday my uncle, my aunt, Cassie and I went to Moss Landing to have some clam chowder at a place called Phils Fish market, man was that delicious.  I also had an artichoke stuffed with crap and shrimp.  My uncle was having a craving for red clam chowder so we decided to go, I'm glad that we did and I hope that we go back again.

I joined a video rental place and rented two movies, one was called Bonnieville with Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates and the other one was the movie Juno, I liked open them a lot.

Burn after reading...

Sunday was a nice relaxing stay at home, watching movies day.

Yesterday Brodie and I went for a really long cruise along the lagoon and down to the wharf, it was a lot more crowded than it usually is on the weekdays.  A lot of couples young and old, they must have taken a day off work knowing that it would be less crowded.  It was the man with his three children fishing off the side.  One of the boys, he looked like he was maybe four years old, decided that he wanted to take the fish off the hook so his father let him.  You could tell that he was afraid to touch it but I really wanted to do this when all of a sudden a bird came out of nowhere and try to grab the Fish, the little boy freaked out and jumped back and luckily the father caught the Fish again and wrestled it away from the bird.  As I was coming back down the wharf I looked over on the rail and I saw a Pelikan, I have never seen one that close so we sat there and stared at each other for a while.

Saturday on our way back from Claudia's we ran into Heather getting ready to go shopping.  She came over later that evening and made some cod, it was awesome, she also cooked sautéed spinach and this rice thing... I wish I could remember the name of it.  She made a veggie wrap at some tuna salad to hold me over until she could come back.

Yesterday she made some sausages with fennel, artichoke hearts, bell pepper, what looked like a little red onion but she called it something else and crushed tomatoes.  She also made my favorite roasted potatoes and she made some roasted eggplant, one of my new favorites.

Later on today we're going to see George Clooney and Brad Pitt's new movie Burn after Reading.  For sure Heather and I are going but I invited my mom and my aunt and uncle, we will see.