HELPED A FRIEND

Today I help you friend. My new friend needed some photographs taken for various reasons. I told them that I would help them out but that I was not a professional photographer. The person needed headshots so we took tons of pictures with different backgrounds, different clothes, inside, and outside. I would not say they look professionally done, but they look pretty darn good. 

What's up with done Miss Vivien Butterfly and I went to do a hike. I was all excited to hike out to this lighthouse but when I got there it said no dogs allowed on this part of the path. I turned around but some other people didn't and the ranger came and explains that they cannot bring their dogs. Instead we went on another hike that went through some very very old military installation. It was quite interesting actually and had great views. 

Until tomorrow...

BACK TO ACUPUNCTURE

After a long reprise I returned to acupuncture. I really enjoy acupuncture. I'm not quite sure if it actually helps my feet. But it certainly helps my mental health. 

When I go into acupuncture she first asks me where it's hurting. Different times it hurts a different places. Sometimes it's my feet. Sometimes it's my shoulder. Sometimes it's my back. It just depends. This time it was my feet. I had plenty of needles all over but definitely in my feet. 

If you ever thought of going acupuncture but you're scared, you don't even feel the needles because they're so thin. On a very rare occasion when she puts one in I get a pinch, she then takes the needle out and puts it somewhere else. 

Until tomorrow...

RETIREMENT

Since before my van trip, I realized I don't like my job anymore. It isn't interesting or fun. I know work isn't supposed to be fun but I think when most of us start a career it's fun in some way. At the end of your career, it may not be as fun but more of a drag. My heart has not been in my job anymore. 

So I've been thinking about how I can retire from this career and possibly move on to another career. I have a plan in the making but I'm not ready to unveil it yet. I need to get further along with this plan before I tell anyone. 

Until tomorrow...

DENTIST PART TWO

I went to get my crown installed. My dentist is so funny and she has a cockamamie dog that jumps onto me when I am reclined getting work done. 

I wish I had more to say other than I got my crown done. 

Until tomorrow...

ORENCIA DELVERY

Do you take a biologic that needs to stay cold? I do. Sometimes it is such a pain. I have to get delivery on a day I will be home all day. I need to keep it cold even when traveling. I have to take it out of the fridge one hour before hand.  (Once I didn't take it out in advance. As I was injecting it, I got so cold.) 

Then of course there is the disposal of the needle. I'm lucky where I live because I can get a sharps container right from the drug store. I know others aren't so lucky. 

It us an inconvenience but I can't imagine what my joints would look like without biologics. 

Until tomorrow...

CAMPING DAY 4

 Last night we slept in the tent. In the middle of the night there was some animal sort of whistling. I had to put Miss Vivien Butterfly under the sleeping bag to cover her ears. We got up early and had breakfast. Then we went on a hike to the river. Then we broke down the campsite. Miss Vivien Butterfly was sad to go. She was loving going after all the critters she could find. 

It was a fun trip. The way home, not so much. I tried to get electricity at four places: first at a country club where I could not download the app (the cellphone reception sucked) so no electricity, then a slow charger at a sheriff's building, then a site that only had Tesla, then I drove to a site where the road was closed and I could not get to the charger, then another charger at an airport that I could not get too. Finally, I found a fast charger at a Walmart. It was a bit stressful. 

We got home and unpacked before getting the bird from day care. 

Until tomorrow... 

CAMPING DAY 3

Last night we decided to not wait until the middle of the night to sleep in the car. Instead I moved my blow up mattress and sleeping bag into the back of my new car. The back seat folds down almost a completely flat and my mattress sleeping bag fit perfectly in that spot. Behind the second backseat the dog's bed fit perfectly. So we slept soundly and in the car. 

We had a lazy morning. When we finally got going we drove out to what was supposed to be a trailhead. I couldn't really find the trailhead and the place where I thought it was was completely packed with cars. So we changed our mind and we went instead to find somewhere to charge the car. This ended up being more difficult than intended. We went to two different places and each place was so difficult to find the charging station. In the second place we found a charger but it was a slow charger. So we thought we would walk around the little town while the car was charging a little bit. We were there for 45 minutes to an hour and the car hardly charged at all. 

When we got back to the campsite we went to the river again. Miss Vivien Butterfly decided to go in the water. She was so cute wading in the water. 

We're both a little tired after walking another 10,000 steps that day. So we took a little rest before making dinner. Tonight's dinner used the same beans, rice, plant crumbles to make stuffed pepper. It was super good. 

We had put all of our stuff back in the tent to sleep because all the children and dogs left. 

Until tomorrow...

CAMPING DAY 2

Last night we went to bed around 8:30 and thought the campground would get quiet. That was not the case. There were lots of dogs and lots of children and lots of noise. There was a little puppy across the road from us the barked incessantly. By around 1:30 in the morning it was too much so Miss Vivien and I went into the car and slept in the car. I slept in the driver's seat with the seat back put down and the dog slept in her travel seat. 

We woke up early and got ready. After breakfast we drove to a forest and State Park to hike. This state park allowed dogs on paved parts of the park. The paved parts basically mirrored the non-paved parts so we didn't miss much of anything. After 20,000 steps we went back to the campsite to have lunch. After a rest and lunch, we went back down to the river to walk around. 

I made a dinner of rice, black beans and plant based crumbles. I made the rice and rinse the black beans before I left home. I cooked the plant-based crumbles on my camp stove. Once the crumbles were cooked I added in the black beans and the rice. Then I add taco seasoning. I took my taco shells and held them over the flame of the stove to heat them up and cook them a little bit. Then I made tacos. They were super good. 

After dinner I took my Dandies vegan marshmallows and toast them over my camp stove. I forgot the graham crackers so I just put the marshmallow and chocolate in my mouth and made a partial s'mores. 

Until tomorrow...

CAMPING DAY 1

I woke up this morning and packed up for our trip camping. Unfortunately client called with a situation and I had to put the packing aside to handle it. Before we took off I had to take the bird over to the bird store to be boarded. My reservation got lost so I had to wait over a half an hour for them to clean out a bird cage so that Sunny would have somewhere to stay. In the end it turned out okay except that now I was leaving over a half an hour later than I anticipated and I would hit summer Friday traffic. 

We got the campsite around 2:00. It was a very uneventful drive down. The campsites wonderful the gentleman who owned It upgraded us to a nicer campsite. Miss Vivien butterfly and I unpacked everything, put up the tent and blew up the air mattress. We took a walk down to the river. By then it was time to bake dinner. I had brought vegan frozen bolognese and boiled some pasta. 

Until tomorrow...

PACKING DAY

 Packing day. I spent some of the day packing for my camping trip. I bought a tent and blowup mattress. I had to test them all because the first blow up mattress did not work. Excited to leave!

My friend and I worked on our projects today. I didn't get very far on my end but she is really getting things done. I am just stuck on my goals. 

Until tomorrow...