I can tell by the way my brain is working today that this entry will be little more than a jumble of miscellaneous thoughts.  This latest round of respiratory disaster has made me more than a little bit stupid.  I think it's the lack of oxygen to my brain.  I've been really otherworldly and spacey and forgetful and disjointed.  Maybe it's the resurgence of menopause symptoms, which have a similar effect for me.  I've been slathering on the wild yam cream just in case.  Either way, I've been having this extreme run of ideas that are funny as all hell in my head but don't make any sense to other people once they come out of my mouth. 

I have no motivation to do anything. I usually take a good bit of pride in having my house look nice and getting a good bit done in a day.  For the last couple of weeks, I've had motivation to do about exactly nothing.

I still get done the things I absolutely need to do, although "need" becomes subjective depending on who is defining it.  For instance, Eric (that's the hubby for the few of you who don't know us) would define the kitchen as "needing" to be cleaned right now seein's as how I couldn't be bothered to clean it last night or today.  I made spiral ham last night, so yes, it's a goodly mess, but to me, the kitchen light "needs" to be turned off and I "need" to go upstairs and get into bed with a pillow over my head and my Korean mink blanket pulled up around my shoulders.  I'd be asleep before I finished exhaling the first deep relaxing breath. 

But no, duty calls and yes, the kitchen will get a bit of a scrubbing.  Since I got sick 2 weeks ago last Saturday morning, I just look at such tasks (like the 5 baskets of clean clothes waiting to be folded) and sigh heavily and think, "You've got to be kidding me." 

There.  I just put on my tiara (in my world, it's pronounced "tie-ara") and I feel a bit better.  There's not much in this world that a tiara and a really good bowel movement won't fix. 

I'm pretty well over being sick as of today, for the most part anyway.  I still hack and cough a good bit, but it's gotten down to a bout every hour or two instead of every 5 minutes or so.  I can breathe, although my lungs are still a bit fussy and don't like the really deep ones.  I suspect I will survive this one.

Which is good because one of my most favoritist nights of the month is this Friday:  BINGO NIGHT!  Good lord, we have just so much fun.

One thing I haven't been skimping on (although I wanted to) is working out with Andrea.  She's such a taskmaster (thank goodness).  Last week's workouts were grueling and I am surprised I didn't keel over dead just from the misery of it.  Today's was bad too and she forced me into doing the sculpting and strengthening crap when I was already trashed from the cardio.  I am so going to pay her back when I feel better.  I tell you, I was pouring sweat, my ears were ringing, my chest was aching and I could barely see by the time we were done.  I think I might have blacked out for a little while after she left.  I am nothing if not determined to keep up with the routine exercise and I'm just taking it one day at a time.

We went to the Kid Expo on Saturday in the rain.  I think of that kind of rain as "Founder's Day Rain" because it was coming down just like that when so many of you wonderful folks came up to play with us (despite the rain) back in November.

It wasn't nearly as fun this time.  Of course, we had to walk about a million miles from the parking lot to the happenings place and so we were drenched by the time we got in there.  There were definitely a lot of dedicated people working hard to make the event a success despite the weather.  Take a few hundred wet, sweaty little kids and jam them into a huge hanger with about a hundred hands-on project stations and you've got the Kid Expo. 

I think the teenagers I had with me had even more fun than Dylan and Nathan.  Eric stepped into the building and said that it smelled like kid in there.  He says there is a "kid smell" that is a mixture of kid sweat, kool-aid, vienna sausages and crackers and such.  They all seemed to have a good time, but we did get completely drenched.

Eric was disappointed that there were no giraffes at the petting farm.  (Doesn't "petting farm" sound remotely more obscene than "petting zoo" for some reason?  I have images of some scary Old MacDonald uncle or something)  Many people don't know that Eric has a "giraffe thing."  Ever since we moved up here, he's wanted a giraffe.  My friend, Sherry, said we should paint a wooden one and put it out in the woods and show it to him, telling him that he can't get too close to it or he'll scare it away.  The lady who ran the petting farm sadly informed him that they were fresh out of giraffes, so it was a bust for Eric.

He also wants koalas, but I suggested that they might be fair bait for the mountain lions.  He thought maybe if he got several, they could gang up on a mountain lion, but I don't think it would work out that way.

Plus we completely have no eucalyptus trees on our property.

The GFORCE board of directors was talking about how we need a permanent, portable BINGO sign to put up a few days before Bingo to remind people.  I started thinking that we should also have more accurate road signs to represent the curves in Bucks Bar/String Canyon/Grizzly Flat Road.

I submit for your approval:

This is how it looks now

This is how it should look.

My tiara got me thinking also about the Grizzly Flats Fourth of July parade and I imagine the Belles will need to make another appearances.  The Belles are our alter egos who have big red hair, tiaras, sequins and cat eye glasses.  They made their debut with the Christmas Parade as the Jingle Belles and I suspect the Liberty Belles are due for a showing (thank you Lynn).  I just love those Belles.  Although Tammy Marcia (and Delena, our WannaBelle) was my own partner in crime in December, my hope is to recruit more Belles to our float for Fourth of July so that we might have an entire queenly entourage... a court if you will... a dynasty even.

Grrr.  Here it is 8pm and those damned kitchen fairies I summoned an hour ago still aren't here, so I guess I am going to have to break my stride on not doing Jack Schitt and go sling a sponge around my little postage stamp culinary fun room. 

I can't even tell you how desperately I need a maid, especially when I am wearing my tiara.  (If you didn't read "tie-ara" in your head, then you aren't paying attention here)  If I also have to fold the clothes and mop the floors tonight, I might hang myself in the oven in despair.

As my mama would say, "I've got a bad case of the can't help its."

Hugs, y'all.

Be particular,