This was the beautiful sky the other evening as I was driving to Albany


The moon rising last night, during our 4 hour power outage. I probably would have missed it otherwise!


I had some PT done yesterday against my dr's advice. To my credit, I'm between a rock and a hard place, I'm not supposed to do anything until I'm seen by a specialist. Well I don't have an appointment yet because I have to wait for my referral to go through, but I do know that they are booked until September. September! I start school in September. I was up at 4:30 this morning because I couldn't sleep through the pain. I'm taking a ton of Advil and still pain and inflammation. Well the PT appointment totally aggravated my radial nerve. So painful and swollen today. My good elbow:


My bad elbow, as noted by the nerve bulging out.

A visual for you medical types out there.

Ew

So this house has tons of these skinny legged spiders that aren't scary, but they make these big tangly gross webs all over the place. I kill them when I see them, but there seems to be a never ending supply. Imagine my horror to find like 100 babies in my closet along with 3 adults. I created a massacre. The perfect thing when you are trying to wind down for bed. Ugh, well at least the next generation has been stunted.

Shiny New Five Dollar

As some of you know I don't wash my car very often. It's not high on my priority list. But today it was time for it's annual cleaning. But not only did I wash it, I got ALL the pitch off, AND I waxed it, all with just my right arm!! I never thought that pitch was going to come off, but apparently all you need is alcohol. It took a little rubbing, but not bad at all. I really should have taken a before and after. She looks beautiful, like 1600 bucks! I still need to clean out the inside. I think I'll wait until it's not 95 out any more. I got super fried, like 2.5 hours in the sun during peak hours with no sunscreen fried. Not very smart of me.


The succulents outside my door are blooming and they look wonderful. I love the stalk.



From the top of Bald Hill a few days ago.

Ooooh man my shoulders hurt already...bad Erin

New Place

Since the craiglist post is deleted, here are the pictures of my new place. It is small, but I think it's the right size for one person. Or so I say now before I try to get all the stuff I own in. The kitchen is big and wonderful, I hate having a tiny kitchen. The bedroom is decent sized, and the backyard is big, there is plenty of room for plants, although I'm missing the gardening season. I love all the nooks and crannies everywhere for trinkets. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of some of those salt and pepper shakers...
I'm excited for the change.
I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get my car fixed. It's going to be cheaper than getting a new car, plus then I would have to deal with selling, buying, the DMV, insurance, etc. And I know the history of this car, if I get something else, a new problem might pop up. Too bad $1600 could have been a vacation. Or a nice camera. There is something to be said for reliable transportation too I guess.

Stress

Today was somewhat stressful.
I woke up at 6 as I do in most mornings, in pain. My arm hurts constantly. Sometimes I get an hour here or there where I don't feel it. I'm getting anxious about what I'm going to do once I'm in school and I need my arm. I injured my radial nerve in February. I've been told it "can take a long time to get better". At this point I just try not to use it much, but I think I need to get a sling for it. I'm starting to get tingling in my thumb and finger. I really really hope it gets better sometime. I can't rock climb, play volleyball, hold the phone how I normally do, lift, reach, hold, keep my arm in one position for a long time, on and on and on.
So I found a place to live...it's pretty great: http://eugene.craigslist.org/apa/746780466.html
I have put a substantial amount of money down, but not heard from the guy. He called two of my references, and told them both I had the place. But he never told me. I'm comforted by the fact that we have a mutual friend, but it's still worrisome. And why is the craigslist ad still up? (Just a few minutes after I posted this, it was deleted. Yay! But still no call...) I left him a message to fax me a rental agreement if everything is good. That was this morning.
Today I also found out my car's transmission has a leak. $1200 to fix it. I get one more paycheck for the next 2 years, all the rest is coming from loans. Not the best news. There are a few other things that should be done as well. I may be getting a new car. Or something. Either way it's not budgeted for.
A good thing for today? Aaron's mom called me to let me know I could have all their raspberries for the next week. I got 8 cups and I'm going to make jam.

Apparently I'm good with a shotgun. Who knew.

I should have known a bbq at the Jones' would be anything but ordinary. I shot a shotgun for the first time and hit a clay pigeon on the second try. I hit another one not too many tries later as well. It's good to know if I ever need to kill a bird to survive, I can do it. The look on my face is hilarious by the way. So focused!


Toby found this awesome tiny praying mantis. So little and fast!

Blueberry Pizza

It's blueberry season! I went picking at Blueberry Meadows yesterday and made blueberry pizza for a bbq today. It's shortbread crust with a sweetened cream cheese layer, a layer of blueberry sauce and topped with fresh blueberries. Total Gallagher favorite.


Aaron, this is the cactus we gave your parents last year, so pretty and big! You can't see it, but the stamen is in the shape of a white star.


I found this June bug in an unlikely and unlucky place, right outside the door to the City Limits country store. I very rarely go in there, so I thought it was pretty fortuitous for this guy that I did. I moved him across the street to a field. I'm not sure he was doing so great anyway, his antennae are all folded up, and he didn't weigh very much.


Off to the bbq!