Happy Birthday, America

Homemade chili simmering on the stove.  J. is making fruit salad and guacamole.  An assortment of refreshing beverages getting slushy-like in the fridge.  We'll also have the fixing for hot dogs and chili dogs.  I showered around 1PM (lovely lazy morning in my nightgown!) and pulled on my swimsuit.

H. has been sleeping an incredible amount the past few days.  Yesterday, he slept until 4PM.  I was worried when I got home from not working at 1 (that's what I'm calling it - not working though I did work but it's not counting 'cuz I have so many carryover days, it's ridiculous.  It was a good, quick (not as quick as I'd hoped) day and I was home just after 1.  And immediately concerned that H. hadn't been seen or heard from.  J. checked on him - he rolled over to see J. and went back to sleep.  Even H. was surprised when he realized he'd slept all day long.  He's pretty nauseous this round so sleeping it off is the best way to manage that symptom.  He eats....and then loses what he ate (pretty often).  He's sure a trooper.  Never complains.  Just keeps doing what he needs to do and takes his meds as needed to keep the symptoms as managed as we can.

B. spent one night and a couple days in Santa Cruz fishing with friends.  Tonight, he's heading out to celebrate with friends.  It will be a quiet 4th of July except for the gazillion fireworks going off.  Fireworks have been going off nightly for a couple weeks so this should be interesting.  We aren't usually home this time of year (miss you, Playa del Carmen and Luna Encantada) so this will be the first 4th we've had at home in a few years.

I am officially OFF for all of next week and some parts of the following.  I have scheduled a two night stay in Jackson...but may head up on Sunday for the day and cancel the mid-week stay to save the expense of the hotel and meals.  I'm torn 'cuz I would enjoy the time by myself but then B. is home.  I was planning to head to Jackson the day he left but had to revise that to accommodate some of H.'s appointments the week of the 14th.  So now I'm just not sure what I'll do.  See how it goes.  Glad to have flexibility.

We're still working on emptying the compost bin.  My cousin S. asked a good question - 'cuz I referred to 'old' compost.  By definition, all compost is old - the older the better, in theory.  But we've got years and years of compost that didn't mulch well - it didn't break down.  Likely a lack of enough green and failure to keep it moist.  It's also a 'box' composter so it's not really possibly to easily 'move it around' as much as we should.  Probably should have invested in the kind you crank to turn the bin over and over.  We're hoping if we clean out all the 'old' stuff, we can do a better job adding green - and get our gardener to help by putting grass clippings in the bin, too.  All the juicing by products make excellent compost - so fingers crossed we can do a better job.

I'm binge watching Sherlock episodes like crazy.  Love Netflix.  Also looking forward to catching the new season of Orange is the New Black this week.

Beautiful week ahead and grateful to have the down time.