Tired

Tired and sore this morning. I didn't sleep as well as I would have hoped, had some bad dreams.

Yesterday morning, in addition to the usual routine, I made some lemon squares to take to UUFA. We were a little late leaving the house. Ray may have been out walking longer than he should have. Then I noticed the shirt I was wearing had some kind of stain on it--a short-sleeved shirt! We drove through town and had to wait for the run/walk, which I hadn't even heard about. 

We went to Rocky's house, way out off of Belmont Road. Their drive is long and bumpy, so we parked our little car and walked in, carrying a ham. It was a beautiful morning. We met five other people there for brunch, which was tasty: two kinds of quiche, French toast, cantaloupe, banana bread, mimosas...and ham. We enjoyed talking to people and admiring their house, all windows on one side, looking out on the woods. The house is filled with interesting art, plants, and photographs. The most interesting thing of all was talking to Rocky. 

We went outside and he released a young squirrel that he rescued after it fell out of the nest. They have fed it and kept it in a cage for a couple weeks. He is very worried about its chances of survival. There are lots of owls and other predators. He also has a feral cat in a cage that he pats with a stick. It is all black with gold eyes and seems larger than a domestic cat. He has dogs that bark and chickens that lay reliably all winter long! And he has lots of blueberry bushes and a small greenhouse with some great-looking veggies--mostly lettuce. He also showed me the pond and told the story of how he bought the land it is on when someone else was going to. And he showed me his art studio and some wonderful work he has done. 

We left about 12:30, riding in Jane's jeep out to our car. We drove to the library, where Karen S. was my partner for a Scrabble tournament, raising money for literacy. We didn't do that well in the first game, losing to Aleta and her partner from the library. Their team was called the Bookies. We were the UUse guys. The second game we were much luckier, playing all our letters to make "potions," and getting a 50-point bonus. Karen and I were able to play together pretty well. She is much better at making lots of little words for high scores, but she makes up words and doesn't spell as well as I do. We were the second highest team, when the scores for both games were combined! Unfortunately, our opponent was a "serious" player, who has competed in other tournaments and memorized lists of words. He played 3 7-letter words and challenged us successfully, twice. "Da" is not in the Scrabble dictionary. I thought it was another word for Dad. Karen played "carne" without my having time to object and he challenged that one. I didn't even add up the score...We got bags of goodies, including coffee (which I don't drink) and coffee cake (which I prefer to make myself than buy in a store). However, it was nice to win something for a change. I hope we don't have to play against him again next year! The odds of us doing as well again are not that good. It was fun.

(This is when we would have gone to UUFA, if we hadn't been in the final round. Ray took the lemon squares for me, as well as Karen's appetizer.) 

Karen dropped me off at my office. I only had to work for a few hours, 5-8. Ray bought us a salad from Loco's and came and ate it with me. We met our target again for Friday, but yesterday was slower. I don't think we are negative yet, but might be soon. (sad face) We did have one person come in at 7, so it was worth staying open (not that I have a choice about the hours). The other thing (that really made my day) was figuring out how to fix a tax return for one of my clients. He is divorced but the IRS said he still had to repay a homebuyer credit for a house his ex-wife owns. It was challenging, but I felt really good when I was able to figure it out. He is sick and really needs the money. 

It was about 8:45 by the time we got home. We had to feed the dog, close the chicken coop, and bring in all the baby plants. My Dad had been there working on the garden (and eating his lunch), leaving a note and some dirty dishes. I ate a little frozen yogurt and banana, watched some TV and was in bed by 10.