I had some good times with friends this week and took some photos of flowers and a ruby practicing with my “macro” skills.

A community member had given me a rough cut ruby to celebrate our Ruby anniversary. I had some fun photographing it on Tuesday. I had picked up a rusty bottle cap walking home Monday and the colors in it made an interesting contrast to the ruby. I was feeling a bit rough and rusty myself that day, but my spirit was shining through just as the colors of the ruby did in the sunlight.

On Tuesday there was also a Tony Laidig Expert Media show that related more for people with SmartPhones than to me without one. There are many reasons I would like to have an iPhone, but need to make it work financially before I can make this upgrade. Just hope my “dumb” phone stays healthy for a little bit longer.

On Thursday, I got some good progress made on my “Sustainable Festival/Event” book that I would really like to have even a rough pdf version on a web site before I go to the Creative Conference in Salida next Wednesday.

I went to the Green Drinks in Old Colorado City and exchanged cards with a number of new people. Really tasty food too!

There was a Flood meeting at City Hall that started at 7pm, same time Green Drinks ended. I got there a little late, but I don’t think I missed much. Many people from a number of government organizations all had presentations. The best thing I heard was that the funding was in place for Phase 1 & Phase 2, plus they had funds to dredge the creek.

I went home and worked on preparing some photos for my hiking blog and actually did one post. Got more posts done over the weekend to almost catch up, as I am doing on this blog now.

Friday I got a meeting set-up for the Beer Garden on Monday, well, it took a few more emails over the weekend, but we did settle upon a time and place to finalize the contract.

A Commonwheel member artist sent some ideas for the  poster for the Art Festival. Art Festival committee members had chimed in on some things they liked, and some they would like to see differently. I got a bit obsessed with trying to make some changes using PhotoShop to one of the images and sent those ideas back out to the group.

I had to fast this night so I could have blood tests done in the morning at the 9Health Fair in Manitou Springs. Not really all that hard to do, just had to quit eating at 7pm so I could get blood drawn sometime after 8pm. Watched my “guilty pleasure” TV show, Survivor as I ate. Then did a bit more work on my book before going to sleep.

Saturday, my birthday, I got up, took a quick shower and “hiked” over Osage to the Congregational Community Church where the 9Health Fair was taking place. It was a bit difficult to do my morning routine without adding any Essential Oils to my body before getting dressed. But I remembered not to use them, which was good as I didn’t want to do anything to change my blood chemistry after fasting all night.

There was barely even a line for the the blood tests. So got to get that over with very quickly. And I ran into some friends I hadn’t seen in quite a long time. Also engaged in a conversation with a member of the Running Club as I waited for a test. He asked me for the URL of my hiking blog. Wouldn’t that be fun if he actually made some comments there?

There were numerous other “tests” to take and a dental “exam” available. Since it wasn’t very well attended, I did do a few more of the “tests” and learned that I need to do some more types of stretches and exercises to get my body into better shape.

And as I suspected, I really need to afford going to a dentist sooner than later. Wish my cash flow was a bit better to make that happen next month.  Will have to look at this after I return from the Creative Summit in Salida.

 My birthday was a strange day. I knew my roommate was working a 9am to 9pm shift, so I knew she wouldn’t be around to share a meal with that day. No one in my family wished me Happy Birthday. But Google+ did. Weird! Then a series of Facebook posts showed up from many friends. This continued into the next day.

A long time friend did call and ask if he could buy me dinner so we went to his favorite Ethiopian, Gluten Free restaurant, Uchenna. He is also my plumber and handy man that has been like a brother to me for many years. We got caught up talking about things not related to my house and its challenges. I really want to know more about the grain Teff that is used for the rolled “bread” that is served with many of the meals.

In my childhood, the day after my birthday was often the day to celebrate my birthday along with my Grandmother and my Uncle George, as that was their birthday date.

I woke to the smell of sage having been burned in the house before my roommate left to go tend some horses at a stable she volunteers at. She called me on her way to the horses and said she wanted to cook dinner for us and her boyfriend. I suggested we ask my plumber friend who she is also helping with some healing using herbs and she thought that to be a fine idea.

She came home with many plants for our garden as my birthday gifts. Delphiniums, an interesting vine, a Clematis and a raspberry bush in a planter because we both like raspberries.

I had bought some flowers on Friday when I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up my elastic and then to Home Depot where they were having a sale on plants.

We went out to the garden where I did some weeding and she turned some manure into one of the beds that I had cleared the day before so it could “cook” and be ready for planting late next month.

It was a cool day, which actually worked well for us working in the yard together.

We came in and she went to work in the kitchen. She got her boyfriend to bake an Angel Food cake from a mix in the pantry. He said it was rather complicated, but it came out beautifully.

As some of the food was placed on the table, she was goofing around with the plastic salad tongs making like a lobstr and they suddenly split apart and one flew towards and broke one of the wine glasses filled with wine and sending glass everywhere. That caused the salad her boyfriend had brought and the Deviled Eggs not be safe to eat. Luckily we had fresh spinach, Jicama and an Avocado to make a new salad.

And I was really grateful it wasn’t one of my hand blown or antique wine glasses that got destroyed.

It was pretty funny too. The look on her face was priceless. My laughing and smiling helped to keep the situation light-hearted. So dinner progressed without any other incident and the Angel Food cake with strawberries was the perfect cake for me with many childhood memories from when my Mom used to make them from scratch.

And then I have spent hours catching up with this blog and my hiking blog. Really past my bedtime now.