dem bones, oh, woe

It's been a flat-out AWFUL string of months; I couldn't bear to post anything. Marty had knee surgery, and long story short, he contracted MRSA (aka "flesh-eating bacteria") and now he's in a wheelchair with NO KNEE. He has a "spacer" in his leg that keeps his leg straight (since there's nothing that can bend) while they're fighting to beat the infection. He's been so sick, and we still don't know what the outcome will be. It's a terrible time.

I'm coping with it as best I can, but I'm basically not handling it well, I know. I just go to work, try to stay focused, and keep praying. A lot.

survived the shilleleagh

OK, made it through parade day. Brock walked the parade with me, and damn if everyone doesn't love an Irish Wolfhound. He was so good. It was a fun event, but I was very glad when it was over. Rave reviews all round -- that helped.

It dawned on me that this was Brock's third St. Pat's parade in three states -- he marched in the Seattle parade when he was a pup, then in the San Francisco parade, and now twice in Denver. Love it.

superb silence in the snow

I'm still getting used to being a "denverite". The sudden surprise of waking up when it's snowed all night still really gets me. It's SO quiet when there's a blanket of snow, and it's so beautiful. I still am a terrible driver in the snow, though -- I hope I get the hang of it some day, but I have my doubts. I'm too much of a San Franciscan, and it never snows there!

Bought a new sectional sofa today. Hah. New to ME, that is! With cats, dogs, and kids the last thing I'd ever consider is buying brand new furniture. Maybe at some point down the road. Now, I'm all about the bargain -- and $40 for a big L-shaped denim sofa rocks, as far as I'm concerned.

and now, a flippin parade

Turns out that my job has me planning our major entry into a major Denver parade. Woo hoo! Chalk this up as one of those things I didn't think I'd have as part of my job description.

In a previous live, there was a stint where I met and worked with a string of what you'd call "colorful characters" -- a mafia lawyer, a Sioux money guy, a South African martinet with a Braveheart fixation, and two different burned-out daily newspaper newsroom editors. Sounds more like a bad film treatment, but it was reality.

Don't know exactly why this came to me right now -- maybe its because I've got other "personality types" to deal with right now.

Hell, it's fun. Let's go throw a parade.

Ginormous Fake Tree for Me!

Tooling along down the road, stumbled on a church rummage sale back in August. There, on the sidewalk, was a bent and splitting giant cardboard box containing a fake Christmas tree. Ten bucks. And HEAVY! We schlepped it into the back of the car, stuffed it in the garage, and pretty much forgot about it until now, when I dragged it out to set up for our obligatory holiday festivities. WOW!!!! This tree is a MONSTER tree. 14 feet tall! Since our living room is open to the second story, there's a lot of airspace to fill -- and that's why I bought the tree, because i figured to buy a real tree that height would be close to two hundred bucks, easily. And I'm cheap.

So now, we've got this fake tree that, when covered with oodles of ornaments, hundreds of lights, and miles of garlands, looks amazing.

And going forward, I'll probably always have a soft spot for it, because it was so damn cheap! What a STEAL for Christmas!

All You Gotta Do is Sing

Ayla and I sang in the Cherry Hills Community Church "Christmas at the Ranch" production this year, and it was really very fun. Certainly didn't feel anything like "church" from MY frame of reference -- Catholics don't refer to behind the altar as "backstage" -- but this is (as Marty puts it) a "Branson Extravaganza Church".

But it was so much fun! I love singing with Ayla.

Welcome to the machine

Fall is here, and we've seen snow again. Settling into a routine, which is good for everybody. Getting used to the environment, hard to believe it's been almost a year here. So far, the new job is good, new boss is good -- but it's rather like taking a job in Poland or Hong Kong -- there is so much to learn that's not on the surface and visible, and it's the subtle nuance that matters most...

My favorite thing to do is still to haul the pups to the Dog Park near home. Fargo's still as ball-crazy as ever, and Brock is... getting old. I know Irish Wolfhounds don't live all that long, but it will be horrible when he dies. But death is a reality, I know -- I just don't want to face it.

Sometimes when he gets up in the morning, I can tell how stiff and sore he is -- and he's, what, almost six? That's NOT that old! But he still turns heads when he's at the bark park, that's for sure!

Something I have in common with The Sopranos

This will probably end up being a trivia question, should I some day become famous enough to warrant trivia questions.

Q. What do Laura and The Sopranos have in common?
A. After Pussy was whacked, Carmela Soprano spied Pussy's widow standing in the supermarket, handing out sausage samples! Whoa. That was me!

I don't care -- when you are short of money and family to help out, you do whatever you need to do to take care of your kids, and that's what my Sausage Time was all about.

Shilling sausages

Money's tight, and freelance work has been tough to come by. So, thanks to a Craigslist post, I actually took on a job scheduling sausage samplers for a California-based sausage company. Mostly in Safeways and Costcos in the greater Denver area, though once I had to drive damn near to Pueblo (which is a LONG freakin way) to cover for someone who couldn't make their Safeway gig.

It's a bizarre job -- but it covers a chunk of the monthly expenses. I roll into Safeway or Costco, strap on my khaki apron, set up my little folding table with red-checkered tablecloth, lay out the crock pots and set in samples of Chicken Apple, Andouille, Jalapeno, or other types of sausages to heat up and start smelling yummy. Then I waylay shoppers-by with sausage samples.

When I worked at Carme, selling Mill Creek shampoos and Allercreme cosmetics, I remember hitting some of the American Academy of Dermatology annual conferences. The docs would all be "in sessions" while their wives (mostly male docs = mostly wives) would hit the trade show exhibits trolling for freebies. The Safeway shoppers are usually polite -- but the Costco foragers make the ridiculously greedy doctors' wives look like saints! Don't these people EAT before they go shopping? And can't they learn to control their damn kids?

Anyway, mostly I help to hire and schedule other folks -- but in truth, working the "store events" is actually kind of fun. Plus, it's certainly helping me to learn my way around the Greater Metropolitan Denver Area -- I know Castle Rock from Westminster or Evergreen now.

The things we do for love...

Still getting used to the differences between here and the West Coast. I'm sure I will at some point. But I imagine it will take a LONG time.

It's strange here, even after a year, foreign to my ocean-grounded sensibilities. The buildings are mostly new and beige (VERY beige) in the suburban enclave where we live. The people more slower. And they are so... very... NICE. I'm not used to that. I miss big trees, and redwood forests.

The Borg vendor gig ended -- I was hoping to squeeze a couple more months out of it, but that' the reality of their "internal processes".

So, I'm getting on with it. Plus, it's summer, it's lovely, and I'm overall pretty happy. And, thank GOD, Marty's doing SO much better, it's just about amazing. Thank god he has incredible healing capabilities. Not sure what's next, but I'm both job-hunting with a frenzy, plus trolling for freelance work as much as I can.

Stranger in a strange land.