A Time For Everything

...short lived though it was.

But by the time you're reading this, Sonshine will have come and gone. I was gonna post this last Monday, but random things conspired to make me forget. Oops. :0)

But spending five days with my beloved Sonshine was wonderful. He did let me know, in no uncertain terms, that Texas was, sadly for me, no longer a place he wished to live. I'd been holding on to hope that he'd eventually move "home." But home for him is now across the Sound from Seattle proper. Of course, him being there and the Brown Eyed Girl being in Colorado gives us good reason to visit two very gorgeous geographies.

Any who, time with Sonshine is always prized so we spent five days mostly talking, but we also did puzzles, played some games, and just generally hung out. We even took him out to eat for his "half" birthday.

* * * * *

On a sad note, my Dallas Stars just couldn't get through the Western Conference Final to the Stanley Cup Final. I have been soooo sad and disappointed for them. For me now, though, hockey season is over. I have had no desire to watch the Stanley Cup Final. (Nor listen to my podcasters break down what happened!) I just hope the Eastern Conference Champs, the Florida Panthers, win the Cup.

On a muuuuch sadder note, one of the NHL's favorite veteran players and hugely popular Dallas Star Joe Pavelski says he's retiring. My heart cracked a little when I heard the news. He's 39 now and that's considered old in hockey years. He'd defied the aging curve up until the last month or so of hockey, but it seemed to have finally caught up with him. I hoped he stays with us one more year playing in the bottom six, but that remains to be seen.

There were tears in the dressing room and tears across the Stars fan base at his loss. We're hoping that if he doesn't accept another one-year player contract, he takes a job in Dallas Stars management, consolation prize though it be for him.

* * * * *

And finally, Happy Birthday Dad!

Today would have been his seventy-seventh birthday.

Image courtesy depositphotos.com.

I finally got the confirmation that Sonshine can and will be coming for a visit. He'll be here the week of my birthday and, with any luck, the Stanley Cup Playoffs will have come and gone and I'll be dragging my boy to downtown Dallas for a parade. :0)

* * * * *

Speaking of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Round Two has come and gone since last we chatted. And the Stars are still playing hockey. WHOOO! They're currently in the middle of the Western Conference Final.

DD and I attended the watch party of Round 2, Game 6, where our boys in Victory Green had to win the game twice... and I know you're asking "What does that even mean, Jen?"

It means we scored in the first overtime but the goal was disallowed and we had to keep playing. We made it to second overtime and were able to score / win. (FYI, overtime in the playoffs is sudden death.)

And we bought tickets to Round 3, Game 2 while driving home that night, lol...

By the time you're reading this, we'll have attended that game, and we'll play Round 3, Game 3 the night this posts.

We're 1-1 in the series so far. :0) LETS GO STARS!!!

* * * * *

So DD and I saw Hamilton last week and I gotta say... Great performance by the cast. It wasn't Lin-Manuel Miranda and Company, but it was as good as could be expected. I got a magnet to remember the occasion by, and it's basically that star in the image above, just with the gold and the black reversed.

Now, for a performance in a fancy-schmancy opera house, there was an interesting array of modes of dress. From summer shorts & tee shirts to dressy dresses and sports coats and everything in between, everything was represented. And more power to y'all.

Having not previously attended a performance there, we picked seats we thought would be a good mix of affordable and that provided a good view of the stage. We didn't pick great--it's always a learning curve, isn't it? If I sat back comfortably in my seat, I was unable to see about 1/3 if the stage at an angle as we were seated along the left side of the opera house on the 4th level. Next time, we need to be more centrally located.

As a result I had to sit with a few contortions and it wasn't comfortable by any stretch. My back, which already has issues, was not a happy camper. Live and learn.

* * * * *

Okay, friends...that's all for this edition. Catch you in two weeks. Hope you're having a lovely Memorial Day Weekend.

So let's start with the Stars...it took seven nail-biting games against a tough opponent to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That was a week and a half ago.

Now they're playing an even tougher opponent in the Colorado Avalanche... The Avs had a week+ of rest. The Stars had none. There's always the conversation of "rest versus rust" when a team has significant time off between playoff rounds... 

Now I don't know which way the pundits are leaning as far as that question goes because I'm losing faith in the so called experts for a variety of reasons.

Anywho, my boys in Victory Green played Round One, Game Seven on a Sunday, played Round Two, Game One on the following Tuesday, which they promptly lost. *sigh* Then they won Round Two, Game Two (so a split at home!) Then they flew to Denver (the mile-high city, dontcha know) and curb-stomped the Avs in their own barn.

So we're three games deep and the Stars are leading the series 2-1.

* * * * *

[there should be a picture here, but I forgot to have someone take one--argh!]

In happier news, I got see my Brown-Eyed Girl and her soulmate this past weekend. Soulmate's niece graduated from TCU so on Friday, we were invited to dinner with soulmate's family. And it was treat to finally meet his mother and two sisters. Our kids have been together (with a short hiatus) for close to a decade at this point.

And this past Sunday/Mother's Day, they came and stayed overnight at the house before flying home today.

* * * * *

And in equally happy news, it looks as though Sonshine will be able to come for a visit after all. He's supposed to call me on his day off and we're going to book his flight.

It's a been a few years--I need a new picture of me and my sonshine. :0)

*

And that is that for this edition of Jen's blog. Have a great week! Catch you in two...

...into the future...

...or...

Life Returns to Normal

The road trip is in the rear view mirror.

My friend's visit came to an end.

Life returned to normal.

And now I have things I want to accomplish.

My desire to finish books has returned. It didn't come back in a rush because you long-time followers know that I wasn't sure it would come back at all or that I even cared if it did. But it has. The feeling have been simmering for a while and broke into a boil more recently, but being excited about my books and about writing and telling stories feels good.

My first project is a re-vamp of the first series, including new covers and some Amazon A+ Content graphics, for which I got an amazing deal from my cover artist.

The books were originally written in some weird second person, present tense which is prevalent in fan fiction but *not* in commercial fiction.

Why I did that, I have no idea, but I've been meaning to edit all those books into proper third person, past tense for years, but doing that until recently has been a tedious chore. The advent of AI platforms means I can make AI do the hard work. I still have to edit and tweak what it gets wrong (dialogue), but that's a much easier and less time-consuming endeavor.

I also want to finish book seven, which has been sitting un-done and un-touched for too many years, so I've been re-reading and percolating those heroes and that story, as well as brainstorm a plot and character ideas for books Eight and Nine. :0) I'm ambitious, aren't I?

* * * * *

Just a quick shout-out to my friend's visit because I haven't done that yet...

My friend Angela is a fellow writer and a fellow hockey fan, and we agreed that it would be fun to attend a hockey game together and, long story short, we made it happen.

She flew into Dallas to see her team play my team in my team's barn. Now, her team isn't so good right now and we both knew the chances of the Stars beating the Coyotes were high--which they did--but it was more about the experience. Surprisingly, she wasn't the only Coyotes fan in the crowd. We spotted a handful of them.

And we had fun, both visiting in general and watching hockey. Well, I enjoyed it. I shouldn't speak for her. ;0) She also got to meet a shared online friend that she'd never met before, so that was cool for her as well.

Here we are, post game:

* * * * *

So Q2 starts today, and I've been ruminating on what specific goals I want to work towards and accomplish over the course of the next three months. I also needed to update my Vision Board to keep those tasks / goals front and center.

So here are the things I'm working toward this quarter: a new cross stitch pattern for the online store; planting a Chinese wisteria in the bird feeder bed to a) provide shade for the birds / bird feeder and b) provide food for bees; read two non-fiction books (about money probably); get my eating habits back on track; and lose at least 5 pounds. I also want to finalize the converted text of the first two books I mentioned above.

* * * * *

I've also spent some time out in the yard -- HELLO SPRING -- cleaning out the squirrel buffet area of the yard. I churned up the old mulch and pulled the weeds. The weeds I tossed, but I relocated the funky mulch and dirt to a large low spot in my lawn (see that dark patch in the upper right edge of the image).

I also took down and tossed that white bench hanging off the tree at the top of the image. It was falling apart. I like it a lot, though, so I looked for another and happened to find them on sale at Hobby Lobby where I just so happened to have a gift card. I bought two since it was basically a two-for-one deal.

I'll buy some fresh mulch in a week or two, I'm thinking red this year for a pop of color, and fill in all the spaces around the rocks and fill up the bordered space to help my tree retain any moisture come the heat of summer.

* * * * *

And some good news--the Brown Eyed Girl and her soul mate *and* Sonshine are coming to visit. Sadly, not at the same time, but I'm not complaining. The Brown Eyed Girl will be in town over Mother's Day, and Sonshine will visit for my birthday. So YAY!

And that's about all I have to say for now.

Take care and see you in a couple of weeks.

National Sons Day & National Marching Band Day

is tomorrow--March 4th!

Celebrate your son on Saturday if you have one! Give him a call, send a text or an email...maybe FaceTime or Zoom...

Look at us there-- Look how chubby I was-- Look how young Sonshine was--

Another reason I chose that picture is because Saturday the 4th is also Marching Band Day.

And if you've been around these here parts for any length of time, you know that Sonshine was in the marching band at his high school.

Without further ado, let's celebrate two birds with one stone, er, post!

Love you, Bubba!

And you, dear reader, have a good weekend...

This Saturday marks the 27th birthday of my son ~ the one, the only... Sonshine.

He's living in the Seattle area still and doing well, according to himself. I wouldn't know otherwise with him being so far away as well as being social media averse. I have to take it on faith.

It's gonna mostly be pics in this post, so feel free to check out now.

Have a great weekend!

The above pics, while the most recent, are still a few years old... and below are just random selections from the blog over the years.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SONSHINE!!

 Remember this??

 My redneck gingerbread house and G.I. Snow? Over time, they became a little more elaborate than this basic version.

I really miss making the redneck gingerbread house, but it's more fun as a multi-person activity and, alas, my partner in gingerbre-- er... graham cracker crime...

 

Mark your calendar for tomorrow--March 4th. If you have a son, that is. :0) It's National Sons Day.

Sadly, I haven't seen my sonshine for a few years... BUT!

He's coming for a visit in a couple of weeks and I'm super excited.

The Brown-Eyed Girl is coming too, so I'll have all my babies here for a few days. I'm thrilled, to say the least, but back to the son in this post...

We could have been scrolling for quite some time with the sheer number of pictures I have shared of Sonshine over the years, but I'll narrow it to just a few. Of course, I'll be getting some new ones for my collection, which I'll definitely be sharing. :0)

That boy--I tell you. One of the few loves of my life. He's ornery and stubborn and prone to fish tales. He's a self-proclaimed *$$hole. But he's mine and I love him to the moon and back.

Can't wait to see him.

And you have a great week.

I've been meaning to post. I've been wanting to post.

But then I sit down to do so and my mind draws a blank. At least for a blog topic, because the reality is...I have a lot swirling around in my brain.

Christmas. Writing. Thanksgiving. 2022 in general. Planning for 2022. Writing. Hockey. Family.

And many combinations there-of. As well as things as mundane as what I'm making for dinner tonight and what our food plans are for the Thanksgiving weekend. Not to mention other personal things that you don't share on the Internet. :0)

Hope you're all well. Hope you're all prepped for Thanksgiving.

We're having lasagna, garlic bread and salad. I'm thinking I need to make pupcakes... we haven't had them for a while.

Sadly, I haven't see my Sonshine in a while, and it's going to be a while longer before I do.

The Brown-Eyed Girl and her Soulmate are staying in CO for the holidays, so it'll be a while before I see them too.

DD of course is my hockey partner in crime, and we spend plenty of time together. One of my favorite memories of time shared with her--that still happens and will probably continue to happen--is when we're in the car together (usually driving to or from a hockey game, but also road trips) and listening to music, and a song comes on that we both know and love or is just fun and we both start signing. Last week, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas cycled through my shuffled playlist, of off we went.

I treasure those times with this daughter. 

I'm thankful that I continue to have those times with this daughter who is very tender-hearted, but keeps that side of herself under wraps.

Have a great weekend. Catch you on Monday. I'll brainstorm some ideas and come up with a topic.

I missed yesterday, but maybe I was meant to, because twenty-five years ago today, the most beautiful being came into my life. I have loved this kid whole-heartedly and un-waveringly ever since.

He's far away from me right now and I won't get to see him for a while longer except via technology and I sure do miss him.

Happy birthday, Timothy Lynn--I love you to Pluto and back...