When we made our back room a 4 season room 12 years ago, we’ve called it many things from a lounge with a bar, sun room, mud room/pantry.

It’s a mélange of sorts for sure. Today, we added one for thing into the mix, the laundry room.

Last night, I went down to the basement to get my last load out of the dryer. The clothes were still wet. Dammit.

It was flashing a code which I looked up. It said to unplug the dryer for a few minutes then plug it back in and press start.

It still flashed the same code. From what I read I knew the motherboard shit the bed. Our washer and dryer are 20 years old.

Before replacing the dryer we know how things work in the Irion household, the washer would go next.

It’s always something but instead of being upset, I looked at the situation as an upgrade like I did with the whole septic issue last year.

I had a chance to think about what I wanted since Marty was out on a rescue squad call.

He’s usually quick to say no to my ideas so I had to convince him of my plan.

I wanted to get a washer-dryer combo machine. They have large capacity units even though it’s just the two of us.

I didn’t want a new unit in our dungeon of a basement anymore. I hate going up and down three flights of stairs to do laundry.

When I am having a hard time breathing on certain days I can’t carry the laundry up and down the stairs. I have to rely on Marty.

Since my lung disease, I’ve had to adjust the way I do a lot of things in my life. Doing laundry is a big one.

At first, he said it wasn’t possible when he got home. I insisted he open his German mechanical brain.

I am an animated person so he asked me to show him not tell him where I wanted to fit a washer-dryer combo machine.

He could see my idea when I physically showed him. He said, “Oh, okay.” 😀

We never pay full price for anything. Marty is a master at finding things we need at a price we can afford.

The combo machine was $1000 off since it was on sale and “out of the box.” He immediately ordered it.

While he was in Saratoga picking up the machine this morning, I took away the baker’s rack which was basically a filler for a blank space between the loveseat and the pantry shelving.

It was loaded with shit to fill it up. Nothing really needed to be there. The washer dryer combo fits perfectly in that spot.

It’s low and sleek so it doesn’t look obtrusive in the room.

People in Europe have had these kinds of machines for years stuck in all kinds of places in their homes and apartments.

After production tomorrow, Marty will run the water and electricity to the new machine. The European design is ventless which is brilliant.

I’ll let you know how it works. I’m never thrilled to do laundry in the first place, this will make it a little better.

So that little back room that serves so many purposes now, calling it a multipurpose room would be wrong.

It’s still our back room which is perfect.

We had our friends over for supper on Saturday night. Supper? What she say?

We always have company over for dinner but this time we wanted to do something informal, not fussy, without a lot of mess and cleanup.

When I was growing up we had supper every night. That’s what it was called. We also had Sunday dinners.

I’ve never given it much thought until now. We had dinner when the boys were growing up. We still call it dinner.

The age-old question, “What do want for dinner?” Dinner, not supper. The answer is always, “I dunno.”

After we invited our friends on Friday night, Marty and I started brainstorming what I could make.

We both wanted something informal and easy. A meal that I could just pull out of my ass like a magic trick.

We decided on Thai red curry with chicken and veggies. I make variations of this dish all the time; sometimes even for lunch.

I have to say I make pretty good Thai food. Once I taught myself how, I mix up the curry paste, proteins, and vegetables.

The curry was served family-style with a big bowl of steamed jasmine rice.

My friend David leaned over to me when he tasted it and told me it was good.

His husband Arthur made the sound, “mmmmmm” when he likes something. Yay!

I knew it was good when Martin, a chef, ate two bowls of food. I was pretty happy about that since he doesn’t eat much.

I call it a supper because everyone came to eat a meal. The evening started at 6:30 and ended at 8:30 pm. An early night for everyone. Like supper.

It was great just sharing a meal with friends and having a chance to catch up. Like people did back in the day when people said supper.

Instead of worrying about shit all the time, I use my brain to think of this kind of stuff. 😂

Below is a link of my recipe for Thai red curry that I wrote for my cooking class.

Remember, you can use any protein and veggies. The recipe isn’t limited to what I wrote.

*** sorry the link didn’t open. I am not a techie. I’ll try to put up the recipe another way.

Frenchies are special little dogs that were bred for the elite to be lap dogs.

They fall deeply in love with their owners and cannot be left alone for more than 3-4 hours tops.

Frenchie owners have to be aware of this before their little scrunchy face comes home.

For us, we work in the production kitchen behind our home; 38 steps away.

We check in on Nelly on longer production days. She knows now when we say, “We’ll be right back” that we will be.

She used to have terrible separation anxiety and took it out on anything she could get her hands on.

She didn’t destroy furniture as Otto did, he ate our leather couch.

She would knock things over, chew up any paper, and two TV remotes which was our fault for leaving them where she could reach them

Another thing Frenchie owners have to do every day is grooming, or in Nelly’s case, her spa treatment.

I started this routine the morning after she was delivered to us so she would get used to it right away.

We couldn’t ever clean, brush, or clip Klaus or Otto’s nails. They would growl a scary growl that made us back off.

Frenchies can’t clean themselves so there is a lot of butt wiping. We say, “Let me check your hiney” and she stops on a dime for a wipe.

Female Frenchies need their female parts cleaned as part of their daily grooming routine. It’s no big deal.

Next, cleaning in between those adorable wrinkles on their faces and their ears are done everyday.

Longer spa days once a week including clipping her nails and smoothing them out with a grinder is no problem.

Nelly sleeps through the process and finds it relaxing. I find that relaxing too.

Finally, she gets a small amount of doggie coconut oil sprayed on her brush and I remove any loose fur.

She loves the brushing so much and likes to sniff the brush before we start.

Nelly joins Sam and me always smelling things we use. Laundry, lotions, shampoos, spices, food, new items, etc.

I always let her smell any new fruit or veggie she gets. She loves the smell of watermelon and the fruit itself. She recognizes it now.

I haven’t shared our special spa time together everyday with anyone, so today was the day.

She is the little love of our lives. We are very lucky we found her or she found her way to us almost a year ago this month.

58 trips around the sun. This is going to be my best year yet; I can feel it.

I’ve been working on releasing things that no longer serve me and removing blockages.

My niece Tabatha, pointed out that we had a vortex in our home. Vortexes are bad, it’s when two mirrors are facing each other.

Why kind of psychic medium am I?

As soon as my brother and Tabby left on Sunday afternoon, I removed the living room mirror. I left the one in our dining room.

It wasn’t my imagination, I felt a shift occur. I believe the vortex was blocking good luck, prosperity, and opportunities to come through our home.

The vortex was located two feet from the front door. I educated myself about the two mirror thing and was shocked I didn’t feel it.

Again, what kind of medium am I?

I guess it’s like reiki, it works on anything I touch or send remotely but I can’t feel it on myself.

This morning we made a trip to Saratoga to make spätzle deliveries and we found these two mugs at TJ Maxx which are perfect for tea.

They were waiting for me on my birthday for $5 each. A bargain! 🥳

This afternoon and evening I will be belly dancing with my friends and students. My leg is feeling great. Knock on wood.

I pulled a container of meatballs and sauce out of the freezer. We will make a little pasta when I get home.

Presto, one of my favorite birthday dinners as a child. Mmmmmmm! 🍝

Have a great day, guys! Thanks for letting me be me.

You never know what you will stumble upon when you go to the store for a tube of BenGay.

I found this adorable princess crown at our local DG for $1.

I hobbled over to the self-checkout, which I despise, and paid for my little treasure and topical hot cold shit for my right leg.

I pulled my right glute muscle in the first dance class of 2019. It hurt for months.

When the weather gets cold, it literally kicks my ass. The pain has been pretty steady for most of February.

After leaving DG I went to dance class. I moved my right leg a little too far out and Boom! It felt like an arrow in my leg. 🎯

Needless to say, I couldn’t put any weight down on that leg but managed with a lot of pain to do upper body strength training moves and teach classes.

I was pissy on my way home and was in agony. When I got home I quickly tried on Nelly’s little crown, my heart melted and it cheered me up.

This little princess has become our magical princess that turns frowns upside down, and makes us so happy and lovey-dovey.

She is such a cuddle bug but likes to play hard. She knows how to play Marty like a fiddle which is the cutest thing ever for me to watch.

She was in her glory this weekend and I was too since my brother Dan and my 16-year-old niece Tabatha came to visit.

We had a wonderful time getting to each other better with lots of one one-on-one time.

We only met for the first time at the end of 2019 just before Covid. We still have a lot to catch up on and this was our chance.

Noah and Aja came for dinner on Friday night. Dan and Noah had a lot of stuff to chat about. It made my heart so happy!

Just as they were packing up to leave today, Sam showed up after spending time in Lake George for the weekend.

It was great they could at least talk for a few minutes before they headed back to Jersey.

It was a weekend retreat for them and me. We had lots of laughs, lots of stories to tell, and a few tears and we talked about the good and bad things we got from our father.

Father. Sperm donor. He was never a dad to his 3 children and split when Dan was 6 months old.

He never knew about me which was absolutely the best thing for me and my biological mom.

I am headed to bed with little Miss Nelly now. I know I’ll fall asleep with a smile on my face and more love in my heart. ♥️

***Post done on my iPhone so excuse the errors.

Three words, butter swim biscuits. Yes, they are a thing and they are delicious.

I’ll be writing a post about them in a couple of days. In the meantime, be well and I’ll catch up with you soon. ☀️

Today is Marty’s birthday! I made his card for him this year.

It’s very simple since I am a just starting to learn how to draw, but I think I captured Nelly’s sweetness.

Happy Friday! 💖

Since I took art classes back in my school days, I’ve always wanted to take more. Life didn’t allow that until now.

I still always think I have to take any kind of classes in person. Why the hell I don’t think about online classes is beyond me.

My friend Arthur who lives next door has many of the same wants on our still to do lists.

One day he shared he was taking art lessons on line. I was like…oohhhh.

I think he is most interested in painting where I wanted to learn to draw and sketch. Perhaps eventually learning to paint as well.

Arthur gave me the name of the online teacher he uses and I checked him out. Then I found another art teacher from Vancouver.

Michael Markowsky created lessons during the initial lockdown during the pandemic.

The lesson are free but you can send him small donations which I plan to do.

I like his way of teaching and noticed many of the same methods to his teaching as mine in teaching belly dancing.

He makes noises and sound effects when he is demonstrating drawing shapes. I think of music and our dance moves as shapes as well.

Bottom line, I get this guy. Today, I attempted my first perspective drawing.

I have already seen where I mistakes and I need to get a small ruler to make the perspective lines straight.

Am I happy with what I have learned in the first three weeks of lessons? Fuck yeah.

I am a right-sided thinker and found drawing shapes and shading difficult.

I have to pause the video and practice a few times that day and the next before proceeding with the lesson.

One day, after an hour and a half of a lesson, my brain hurt the way it used to when during standardized testing as a student.

We were encouraged to draw one or two rooms in our homes before starting the next lesson. Our bedroom is next.

I have not learned how to add small details and circles or ovals yet.

When I walk into rooms now, my eyes search for the perspective point in the room and can draw the room in my head.

That’s progress my friends I am super stoked about. Yay!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday guys.