| leatherman's log |
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May 2007 |
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| Week One: |
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| Don't forget to check out the last update from April. |
While Spring was a little late in arriving last
month due to that last blast of snow, things are looking pretty good
for the month of May. Since I was stuck indoors a bunch last month,
I was able to work with one of my clients, and we finally got the
website online for the lady with the horses in Kentucky. (You can
check out her site at
http://www.suncrestfarms.com).
This month, I'm looking forward to painting some window signs for a
couple other clients. Of course, I'll have plenty of pictures from
that project.
I ought to have plenty of pictures too as we finish getting the pool cleaned and
filled up for some Summer fun.
Don't forget that
Pooltag2
is only about 89 days away!
The Pooltag site is still under some construction as I'm still
working on the schedule of the games that we'll be playing; but stop
by, check out the fun from last year, and see what's in the plans
for this year's event! |
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| If you don't mind, I'd
like to take one last chance to mention my domain
fund to you. If you
have enjoyed my blog through the years and would like to contribute
anything to helping me keep my domain, please send contributions of
ANY amount to: |
ReigningPages
1608 48th St. NW
Canton, Oh 44709 |
Thank you for ANY help that you can offer!
The cost isn't too much ($150), so even a few dollars will
bring me closer to the amount needed by May 15th. I'll make sure to keep
you posted on how things go by raising the meter (as you can see
from the pictures to the left and right), along with a big Thank You notice to
everyone that contributes!
(Checks and money orders can be made
out to either "ReigningPages" or "Michael Bivens") |
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Week Two: |
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Thank you for all your help,
reigningpages.com has been renewed for another year!
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| The weather has really
been great these last two weeks, so we've been doing a ton of small
projects outside. Using the bamboo that we cut down in front of the
house, we started a border around the pool. It looks like we'll need
to cut down some bamboo in the backyard to have enough to finish
along the entire pool border. |
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| Speaking of bamboo, it's
been growing and spreading throughout the yard this Spring, and
we've been doing our "bamboo walks" to rip out the new shoots and
runners winding their way in the dirt. |
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Sprouts of bamboo are
coming up everywhere! And fast!
Both of these pictures are of only one day's worth of growth!!
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| Everything is finally
growing up here as we're having wonderful weather this Spring. As
the trees are growing more and more leaves, the lilacs are beginning
to bloom. |
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We've had some problems
with the pool, and even though it's in the low eighties, we don't
have enough water to take a dip in yet. As we were first filling it
up, the liner got a big wrinkle on one side (in the bottom), and
pulled loose from the top on the other side. We had to stop filling
the pool at about the halfway mark, drain it, and start all over
again.
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| As the sump pump drained
the water from the pool out into the back part of the yard, the dogz
got to cool off just a bit as Jim sprayed them with the hose. Gabby
didn't want any part of it; but Joxer enjoyed trying to catch the
spray. He's been eyeing the pool and got up onto the deck once while
it was nearly empty. He was disappointed when I carried him back
down to the patio; but I promised to make it up to him as soon as
the pool is full again. |
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Sitting the camera on the
bottom of the pool,
Jim took this picture as the pool started to fill. |
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Using brick and buckets of water, we
held the liner in place as it refilled. Eventually, there was enough
water for Jim to float about and soak up some rays on his day off.
Look at him, living the high life.
MouseOver for a CloseUp |
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| Since it was going to take
a few days to get the pool filled up for the second time, we worked
on a few other projects around the yard. One project was to do some
permanent about our temporary solution for the dogs. Since I moved
in during the Winter, we only removed a small section of the patio
screen to give the dogz access to their fenced-in section of yard.
As a better solution, we removed the rest of the screen and lattice
from that section of patio and replaced it with a new screen door.
True, it means there is another door I have to take the dogz through
to get to the backyard (the backdoor and it's screen door, along
with the door between the garage and the patio); but it also means
no poop on the patio anymore, and that's worth all the trouble. |
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| The puppies want back
inside on the patio. |
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Jim put the final touches
on the screen door
matching the redwood stain on the inside,
and the gray paint on the outside. |
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| From inside and outside,
the door is a nice addition to the patio. |
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With the pool toy box,
solar heater panel, filter and pump off the patio now,
it looks like
we're ready to host some pool parties this Summer. |
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| Continuing with the
projects around the yard, I worked on a new flower bed out front. DO
got a great deal on a big bunch of pansies and sent a basket home
with me. Using a bunch of rocks I "recovered" out of the cosmos
flower bed and the mulch pile, I put a border around the base of the
dogwood and planted the flowers in front. |
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*MouseOver CloseUp |
Playing in the BIG Backyard
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| Even though the puppies
have their own yard to play in (off the patio), what they really
LOVE is playing out in the BIG backyard. Several times a day now, I
take the dogz out back Sometimes they just lie about the yard
watching me do my yard work, and other times we all run about
playing with the toys. |
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It's just amazing how much better Aries
has been doing since we moved in with Jim. He's gotten so good about
playing ball too. He does seem to have a fixation on blue handballs;
but at least now he'll let you take them from him to throw. He loves
chases the ball through the yard and jumps higher than any of the
other doggies. |
| With Joxer's eyesight
problem, we had to adapt to playing ball. When I toss the balls
around the yard, he loses track of them too soon. It's not much fun
watching my poor dog anxiously searching everywhere trying to find
the balls. Instead of using the small balls then, I've been teaching
Joxer to play soccer. As long as I only give the ball a light kick,
he stays right on top of the ball, and has a great time playing. |
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| When he's not playing with
the soccer play, Joxer usually can be found at the end of the blue
pull-toy. |
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MouseOver to Find the Ball
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Here's a cute movie of the kidz playing
outside. Watch closely, and you'll see Aries leaping to catch the
handball. Near the end of the clip, the balls actually bounces off
his out-stretched front legs, and bounces away from him.
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Aries has no problem tracking the ball
as it bounces across the yard
MouseOver to Find the Ball |
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MouseOver to Find the Ball |
Zeus shows us the GBS of
the month.
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| Gabby was never one for
playing with toys; but she still enjoys being outside. While her
brothers are all playing ball, Gabby hops around checking out every
inch of the yard, looking for the perfect place to lie on her back
and roll around. |
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Gabby always had a little
bit of a "bug eye" problem, but her one really bad eye bugs out
quite a bit now. If you've ever read the Harry Potter books, you'll
understand our new nickname for Gabby -
"Mad-eye Gabby"
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| MouseOver to Find the Ball |
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"I'm gonna get that ball!" |
We can always tell when
the kidz are getting tired of playing -
they take the balls and go lie down in the shade. |
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| Who's that peeking out from behind the
basement door, as we let the dogz back inside after playing? |
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| Why, it's Baba! She's just
a shy kitty; but she's always just lurking around the corner,
watching us and the doggies. Many times you can find her on one side
and Zeus on the other side of the gate that blocks the dogz out of
the kitchen. (Spaniels love garbage cans!
) |
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Since Mother's Day has just passed, I
should take a moment here to mention once again how lucky I am to
have not one, not two, but THREE Moms. Each one is near and dear to
my heart and I want them to know how much I think about them and
love them.
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| To my real Mom, Celia: Even though we are
separated by hundreds of miles, you are never far from my
thoughts. I so appreciate the childhood that you provided
for me, and the concern that you still have for me now that
I am older and so far away. |
| To my Mom-in-Law, Carolynn: You know how sorry I
am for the loss of your son. You had to have been a great
mother to have produced such a wonderful man. The memories
each of us holds of Randy gives us a special bond and keeps
you in my heart and mind always. |
| To my Ohio Mom, Joyce: We've had so much food and
so many good times together that I could never begin to
repay you for your love and kindness. Luckily, the only
payment you need is my love and friendship, which you've had
for many years and will have for many more to come. |
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my real Mom
Celia |
my Mom-in-law
Carolynn |
my Ohio Mom
Joyce |
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Week Three: |
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| I have just a few more
odds-n-ends to tell you about before I end this update. First the
weather has certainly been nice, but variable, this Spring. On Tues.,
I laid out by the pool for a while in 85 degree heat. Since it's
only been in the 70's prior to this day, the pool water was still
very cold. How do I know? Why, I was the FIRST person in the pool
this season!
However, it was a one day Summer
preview. After a thunder storm in the middle of the night, the high
the following day was only 58! Before another week passes, the temps
are supposed to go back up to the high 70's. That's okay. It really
was a bit early for anyone to be in the pool anyway. |
| Not long ago, a friend of ours (Rhonda)
gave me a starter for Amish Friendship Bread. Years ago, while Jodi
was rooming with me at 14th St., I made this kind of bread for
nearly a year. Along it really doesn't take too much attention or
time to make, you seem to always have a bag of the mix lying around
on the counter. Every 10 days, the dough is ready to bake. Adding
nuts and/or raisins makes it really yummy! |
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Don't forget about
Pooltag2!! The big event is just a little over two month away.
(check out the Pooltag website to find out exactly how many days) I do have a
request of all my readers that live close by - even if you're not
planning on building a float, or (heaven forbid!) planning on NOT
coming to Pooltag, could you please save me all your 2-liter plastic
bottles? Just save them up in a garbage bag and give me a call when
you need them picked up and out of your house.
Thanks! |
| Closing out the update, as we head
into the weekend, I'll leave you with the results from my latest
blood work. I went in thinking that my T-cells would probably stay
near the same; but actually thought the viral load might be up a
bit. I got good news though. Even though my T-cells went down from
311 to 264, the viral load went back down to "undetectable". WOOHOO!
And now I don't have to see the doc again until the end of August!
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Week Four: |
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| Well, you're lucky this update!
Instead of a ton of pictures of some crazy project or my flora (the
plants in the yard) and fauna (the dogz), I've only got this one
picture. The weather has been so absolutely gorgeous up here this
past week (hot, sunny, in the mid to upper 80's), that I've spent a
lot of time by the pool and in the pool. DO came by one afternoon
and helped me pump up most of the pool toys, floats and beach balls.
We played it smart and held several beach balls back for when these
get punctured further along in the pool season.
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| It's always a hard time of
the year for me right now. It seems ironic that with all the trees
growing, plants sprouting, flowers blooming, and swimming in the
pool, that there would be a dark cloud hanging above my head. Of all
the painful or hard things that have happened in my life . . . |
| getting kicked out of the Christian
college; leaving home moving into my first apartment; coming
out to my parents; moving away from Charlotte and my family;
closing down the pet store; living through the
aftermath of the house fire and robbery; recently leaving
behind the home that I shared with Randy; |
| having to have Apple and LBB put to sleep
at the same time; losing Hershey in 36 hrs. from an
auto-immune disease; losing Triumph within 2 days of
returning home from a NC trip; finally losing Sheagra after
19 years; |
| being hospitalized twice, leaving once on
my own to go home to either recover or die; dealing with the
emotional trauma of 10 years of doctors giving me only 2-3
months to live based on the numbers from my blood work;
taking 32 pills, tablets and/or capsules a day; taking
medicine that that was ethanol (that's gas!) based; taking
meds that made me have horrible nightmares and stagger into
the walls; puking daily from meds that were supposedly
making me well |
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. . . losing Randy was THE
worst thing to ever happen.  (my memorial page to Randy)
Time has, thankfully, dulled the pain and blunted the grief; but
they're still there - lurking, ready to pop into my head and heart
at some unexpected time. It's taken a long time for me to work
through the grief, along with dealing with my own version of the
illness, to get to where I am today, enjoying life.
So in that light, I'd like to tell you a couple HAPPY stories about
the good times that Randy and I had in our nearly decade long
relationship. |
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| I met Randy in Dec. of 1984 and moved
him into my life and apartment soon afterwards (Jan. 15, 1985). The
following Summer, we planned a vacation trip north to Ohio to see,
not only Randy's family and home; but to also visit the amusements
parks. Walking through Cedar Point, we eventually came upon a photo
shop in "Frontier Land". Randy (21) dressed as a "damned Yankee,
while I (23), of course, dressed up in "Rebel" grey for this
"vintage" photo.
It really had been "love at first sight" for me, as I distinctly
remember seeing him that first night at a club dancing to Prince's
"Baby, I'm a Star". Here we were just a few months later, deeply in
love and looking forward to life together. |
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Fast forward now to nearly 9 years later. It had been a year since I
tested HIV+ (Dec 92), and I had quit taking the AZT because of how
sick it made me, and of how sick Randy was by this time. The first
nine days of the month (Dec 93), Randy had been in the hospital,
being treated for thrush, receiving blood transfusions due to his
anemia, and very scared of the future. That's when he made me
promise not to ever let him die in the hospital - a promise I
gladly, but unwillingly, kept almost half a year later.
Damn! I said I was going to tell you happy stories, and here I am
typing again after a crying jag.
Sorry, even though you needed that context for the next picture,
keep in mind that we were still very much in love and as happy as we
could be at that time tackling a true life-or-death situation.
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In a way, Randy's hospital stay was a
good thing. Without having those treatments, he would never have
been well enough to go on the trip to Florida and Disney that we had
planned for just before Christmas. Oh, and what a great trip it was!
Randy was feeling a 1000 times better; the weather in Florida was
record-breaking warm (We even went swimming two days on our trip! We
had to buy bathing suits since we hadn't packed those for a
"Christmas" trip.
);
and all of the Magic Kingdom was decked out in spectacular Christmas
decorations. |
| Just as we had done on
that first amusement park trip, we stopped into one of the photo
shops for another souvenir of our time together. Slipping faux
Tuxedo jackets on and holding a fake menu, I (30) knelt while Randy
(29) sat for the photo. After the processing was completed, it
looked like Mickey, Minnie and Donald were helping to celebrate our
12 year anniversary. Although we took 9 rolls of pictures (This was
before digital cameras! The horror and shock of it all!
),
none could be developed (not even the one I really, really wanted of
ME and TIGGER!), so this ended up being the ONLY picture from our
trip. Even though things were tough right then, and our future was
looking very grim, we were more in love than ever and taking each
day one at a time and with one another.
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Week Five: |
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We planted some sunflowers last year out at the back of the yard;
but the squirrels ate the seeds.
So this year, we planted some more; but planted them closer to the
house. Right behind the pool, we had a leftover stump from a tree
that we cut down a few years ago. Using some of the rocks I had
gathered, I made a nice flower bed for the sunflowers.
The plants are the end of
their first week of growing and they seem to be growing almost as
fast as the bamboo.
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MouseOver this picture to see a CloseUp
of the irises that are starting to bloom in the backyard, just
behind the pool deck. I'm still not certain if any of the irises I
brought from my old house are going to grow in the bed in the front
yard. I'm wasn't expecting them to bloom this year; but I have even
seen any green shots coming out of the ground yet. |
| The peonies, at the far
end of the "dog yard", with some help from the ants, are bursting
open. |
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Our house, is a very,
very, very fine house.
With "four dogs" in the yard,
Life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy 'cause of you.
- apologies to Crosby, Stills and Nash |
| After a swim in the pool, Joxer came
back in and rolled all over the couch to get his scent back.
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| Of course, now that the pool is open,
it's time to get even more floats. I'm hoping to get another turtle
(I really like them but everyone keeps "killing" them) next week.
Until then, Jim picked up these new lemon and lime slices for the
pool. I don't know if we'll end up with an orange slice (the only
other color) but I wouldn't bet against it.
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| Formerly known as
"Decoration Day" (for putting flowers on the graves of veterans),
Memorial Day has really morphed in the "Start of Summer" holiday. DO
and Cliff decided to hold their first cookout; but ran into a
problem - their gas grill broke! Ah, but not to worry! Jim and I
have one and it was only a 14 minute trip to run home and retrieve
it. While DO was in the kitchen finishing up the potato salad and
skillet beans, Jim was busy grilling up hamburgers and hot dogs,
along with one of DO's best food items - Three Cheese Grilled
Potatoes. MMM, wrapped in foil, the potatoes are covered in a blend
of cheeses, onions, and crispy bacon bits. It's the bomb!
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| MouseOver this picture to
see Jim displaying the grill and yummy food cooking up. |
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| As I was sitting on the deck, watching
Jim grilling, I got a surprise visitor on my lap. MouseOver to see
who was giving me kisses!!
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My "Ohio Mom", Joyce (aka DO) is
looking good this Spring, and is ready to jump into our pool and
start playing ball. |
| All the family and quite a few friends
showed up for the cook out this weekend. Since, up until now, I
haven't had any good pictures of Sean, I made sure to get a good
picture of him smiling this time. Sean and his new girlfriend,
Aubrey, seemed to be having a great time as I snapped this picture.
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