I Am Well Trained

Roy has been out of town since Wednesday afternoon.  He is investing in his photography skills at Feather Fest in Galveston.  He scored a great deal for his room at the Tremont and he has been investigating his next lens purchase. The past two days have been filled with field trips and classes.  So happy that he will be home this afternoon and will have a million pictures to download.  I've been keeping busy and yet have welcomed the quiet time to reflect on the week's disclosures, discoveries and duplicities.  So if you read the old blog on a regular basis you know what Wednesday held.  Thursday was Bible study, complete with a brunch day.  Afterwards I headed into Houston to see my therapist.  There was a little time to kill before the appointment, so I stopped in at Francesca's on Voss.  Found the perfect necklace and earrings to go with a new outfit and some fun junky stuff.  My appointment with Cheryl was tremendously helpful and so very encouraging.  Stopped at HEB to pick a few things on the way back and found myself happily ensconced at home for the rest of the evening. 

Friday morning, Dena came out to Rancho de Five.  We started out at Black Walnut Cafe for breakfast and being the mad planners we are, we also bought some dessert for later that evening.  Her choice, chocolate Italian Creme Cake and I picked coconut cream pie.  We stopped by the house so she could drop off her things and we headed over to old town Katy.  Our first destination, The Cottage Door.  They were having a tent sale and while neither one of us found anything in the tent, we were not disappointed by our purchases we made inside the store.  Actually, both of us found a couple of on sale things.  Then we went to K T Antiques to do a little perusal.  We both found a couple of things and we also partook of the free cookies.  Now you might be thinking that this day was all about eating, nay I say!  Excessories is just down the street and while I didn't find anything, Dena found two really cute items on the sale rack, dramatically reduced.  With all the shopping and walking, we decided we needed a mid//late afternoon snack.  We decided that Dekker's fit the bill.  The past few times I've eaten at Dekker's the thought that came to mind when leaving; Dekker's I am trying to like you.  The food is awesome but the service is downright slow and sometimes nonexistent.  This time it wasn't a disappointment.  We had the margarita flat bread and the half sized house salad.  Once we had refueled it was time to hit Gaby's.  Had a successful shopping trip there and just for good measure took a looksee at Mosaic, another store in Fulshear.  Dena and I had just enough time to drop off our purchases at home, freshen up and get to Lotus for our 6:00 pedicure appointments.  As usual, the pedi was awesome and so relaxing.  A little after 7:00 we were headed to Las Almedas to meet up with Peggy for dinner.  Dinner was so good and Dena and Peggy got the chef to prepare flautas, which aren't even on the menu.  We also had the mariachi band singing and playing much to our displeasure but much to the delight of the couple next to us.  The woman had had several drinks, so she is clapping along with the music and we just knew if she wasn't a bit tipsy, she would want them to move on just like we wanted them to.  We almost closed the place down.  We were telling funny stories and adventures.  Finally, once it was an all clear for Peggy to return home since Bill's tractor and truck were now unstuck from the ditch, we said our goodbyes and headed West.  Dena is our first over night guest.   We watched some Leno and passed on our well planned evening desserts.  Too much consumption of chips and salsa.  This morning, I was anxious to hear her opinion of the mattress in our guest room.  She gave it a two thumbs up.  Yahoo!  Otto's is what's for breakfast and a quick walk through the Farmer's Market.  She found more jewelry and I found organic, free range eggs.  All in all a good ending to her visit to the Rancho de Five. 

I had plans after dropping off the eggs to head over to Brookwood.  Sadly, I have killed a few more plants.  I paid some bills and realized that Buddy hadn't done her usual meet and greet at the door and hadn't sashayed into the study.  So I did what we always do to find Buddy, called her name, bounced a ping pong ball, opened the drawer that her favorite toy resides in, shook the treat bag and then searched through the closets, checked under the beds, not an easy thing for bad knee Nancy to do, and looked in all her usual hiding places.  Nothing...  I was starting to freak out and knew I needed to step away from the house.  You know how you desperate and unreasonable thoughts do a quick drive by in the brain?  Well, I called Dena just to check if Buddy had jumped into her suitcase...yea, I know...  When Dena returned my call, she didn't even make fun of me asking that.  We talked through our exit from the house and surely if Buddy had zipped out the door, we would have noticed.  I emailed Roy, you know to ruin his fun photography outing and kindly he responded that Buddy was probably asleep somewhere in the house.  She was probably punishing me for Dena sleeping in her 3:00 am nocturnal wanderings spot before Buddy returns back to our bed around 4:00 am and finishes the rest of her night sleeping on my arm.  Dena said Buddy did make a stop but didn't stay last night.  I decided to fill up the car and get a car wash.  I shouldn't have done anything mechanical in my state of emotion.  First, I could not punch in the correct code for the car wash.  Thankfully, no one was behind me.  Then I drove incorrectly into the car wash, the right side of the car was up on the boundary rails.  After backing up and moving forward a couple of times, the car wash could finally begin.   Surely when I returned home and turned off the alarm, Buddy would meet me at the back door like she does...no Buddy.  I made the search again and as I laid on the floor I began crying.  No it was more like wailing and yelling Buddy's not here!  I paced through the house crying and lamenting.  If I had wanted to, I could have gone all Biblical and rent my clothing, but dang, I have on the Baylor Women's Basketball championship t shirt, so I confined my grief to those horribly, deep sobs that only severe loss can provoke.  My final wailing point was the living room where I sat with my head lowered.  When I looked up, there was Buddy looking at me like I was crazy.  The prodigal cat had returned from her secret hiding place and of course my clumsy attempt to wrap her up in my arms only produced her quick disappearance into another room.  Buddy wasn't missing!  Praise the Lord!  About 15 minutes later I heard her meow, the one when she is looking for me and of course I responded to that first meow.  Yep, she has me trained really well.