GO LAKERS!!!

My husband is the biggest Laker's Fan!!!

In the early years of our marriage, during Laker's playoffs, he would pull a beach chair into the house and set it directly in front of the telly to watch his team.  He would yell and scream, and even let out an occasional curse (not like Greg if you know him) when his team was losing.   He would talk to them as if they were in the room.  Come unglued at the refs if there was a bad call!  I used to say I was certain that our neighbors must think he beat me!!!!   He has mellowed with age.  A little.  When he got home tonight, I had readied my front door mouse for the game, and put a flag in her hand.  I saw him pull up and he had a big smile on his face.  The first one I have seen in 3 weeks!  It was 3 weeks ago today that he was shot into a nerve by a nurse in Mexico!!!  He got home and went in to put his Laker's jersey on and I took his picture out front by the mouse.   This smile he is wearing has been absent for 3 weeks! 

This is a very special jersey.  It is signed by both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.    I sure hope they win tonight!!!
I love to browse antique shops and good thrift stores.  I found this chair recently, thinking it was the perfect size to paint and cut out the seat and use it in my garden for a planter filled with overflowing flowers and greenery.  I paid FIVE big dollars for it!!!  But when I got it home, washed it, and started to look at the workmanship of this chair, I fell in love with it.  I got my wood oil out, and gave it a good oiling and buffed it to a shine.  The cane seat is in perfect shape, and has undoubtedly been redone in recent years.  But this chair is a very old, and very unique piece of furniture that I decided would be criminal to cut the seat out of, paint and put in the elements!!!!   I wish I had taken a before picture.  But when I got to working on it, I fully intended it to be an outside garden element.

The chair is very small, with such interesting detail. I love the little apron front on it.

And the  little carved pieces in the back.

And the beautiful caned seat.

In most instances, I would so much rather have something that is old and gently weathered with character, than something brand new, with no story to tell.  I have many things that belonged to my family members before me.  My Dad's childhood oak kitchen table, that my parents later cut down to a coffee table, and this was the coffee table used in the home I grew up in.  Oh yes, Mom did get a beautiful new one, some years later, but I christened it by leaving an acetone soaked cottonball on the wood while painting my toenails!!!!  Boy, I got a tongue lashing for that one!!!  Sorry Mom!!  I do cherish my "things" that have a story.  So far, none of my kids seems to feel the same way. So who knows what will happen to all of my treasures one day.  I put the pretty chair in our guest bedroom.  The room that our son Drew had.  We are preparing to have company in a few weeks.  Kevin and Karen are friends of ours that we haven't seen in 24 years.  Kevin was Greg's best buddy in high school. They each served for the other in our weddings, as best man.  They had two little girls, just  a little younger than ours.  They moved away to Oregon, and we kept in touch for years, then somehow lost them.  I found Karen on facebook a few weeks ago.  In Arizona!!!!  I contacted her, we got back in touch, and they coming in a couple weeks to see us.  The point was....I am prettifying that room in preparation for them to come.
As if Greg's incapacitation is not enough, I have some kind of awful pulled muscle in my lower right backside. And freakishly, I am also having some nerve pain.  My entire right hip, and part of my thigh are numb, with stinging needles sensation, accompanied by a lovely ache!!!!  I have never in my life had numbness before.  Now...at the same time, and in almost the same location as Greg?  What kind of weirdness is this???  And who is going to take care of me??????   I am going to go ice.  Maybe you could put in a good word for the ailing Grovers!
GO LAKERS!!!