I think I suffer from "ADD"....("Almost Done, Debby")..read on...

I'm home again, home again jiggity jog...Finally! It has been an amazingly full 6 months...All I have to say is: Whew!



The Grand Canal, Venice

Europe was *A*M*A*Z*I*N*G*! Venice is a truly magical place (and I WILL be going back!) and what can I say about the Greek Islands and being able to see the Parthenon from my hotel balcony in Athens... I loved Dubrovnik and Rovijn, Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro, and the ruins of Knossos in Greece and of Ephesus in Turkey: Wow! ...I have so many photos, so many ideas for art in all media...I hope to have things to show you in the next few months that will come from all that.




Oia, Santorini, Greece



The Parthenon, Athens
Dubrovnik, Croatia

Rovijn, Croatia

Rovijn, Croatia

Kotor, Montenegro (yes I climbed all 1500 steps to the ancient fortress)

Ephesus, Turkey

I had an, let's call it interesting, experience 3 days before I left my house in NY to come home for the week between NY and Europe to pack . I woke up on a Wednesday morning with Bell's Palsy. I thought I was having a stroke, my face was all droopy and I couldn't move it, or whistle, or blink, wink, smile on that side...not numbness, I just couldn't move my face, and my tongue felt like I had just come out of major dental procedures and my taste was really off with most foods, and I couldn't drink very well out of a wide glass or cup or with a straw and had to have a small spoon, (and, as I found out at lunch later that afternoon, no big sandwiches for me)...so weird. I had my sister take me to the emergency room at the nearby hospital right away because I was freaked out. They did various things to rule out stroke, CT scan, all that, and prescribed an anti-viral and prednisone, and eyedrops because I couldn't blink. So, here I am at 7 weeks out, tomorrow, and I am mostly healed, at least it seems so to look in the mirror or to anyone looking at me. But, I do still have some weakness on that side, my eye is not 100% and I still have trouble with the blinking (which is a pain let me tell you in single- or low double-digit humidity here in San Diego Co.), can't whistle yet, and my face is just a touch droopy on that side. But I am grateful, so very grateful!, that it wasn't a stroke and that everything is coming back in line in such a timely way. Some people have it so much more severely, and have problems for months or years, some don't come back from it completely at all. So I am counting my blessings...for sure... (but don't look for any close-up photos of me in Europe, I was really camera shy, even more than usual...)

Soooo, I'm in a real clear-it-out, get-rid-of-it, don't-need-it mode right now. I am determined to get rid of at least half, if not more, of what has accumulated in this house and our lives over the last 10 years, which is how long we've lived in this house come Dec.20 (DO*NOT*EVER*MOVE*NEAR*THE*HOLIDAYS*!). This week I have been working in my walk-in closet. Yesterday I got rid of at least 25 (I'm not kidding) pairs of shoes that have been crammed in various shoe bins, boxes, and dusty corners in there. What a freeing experience to carry that bag out to the garage to pull out for the Amvets truck that's coming on Friday. In my frenzy, I came across a bin with a small pile of quilts that are just about done (the "A.D.D." --Almost Done, Debby--of my title! ), except for a bit of quilting...I think I might have felt the bug...I mean, I felt excited to see them and excited that I could actually finish them very quickly and have some of the quilter's guilt lifted...I haven't felt like quilting in months and months, well, years really, and ever since I took up knitting and after I lost my mom, my quilting has been sporadic at best...I think when the pieces are done I will put them up on Etsy or EBay, at least some of them, and will only keep a couple...They are mostly small, and were class samples from when I was teaching, or some I did to scratch an itch I must have had at the time...Anyway, it was good to see some "old friends" and to be glad of the sighting...

It is still hotter here than it has any right to be in November. The humidity, or lack of it, is not fun. The poor dog and cat run when we want to pet them, they hate the shocks they get from the static electricity. Though, I have to say my sweet beagle girl won't let me out of her sight, she is so afraid I will be leaving again, off on another trip somewhere. It is nice to feel so loved...humans hardly ever do that for us in such a devoted way, do they...

It's good to be back, and I hope to post more now that I am, though I don't promise anything =-). I've been reading blogs, I love seeing what everyone has been up to. I'll be seein' ya around the blogosphere, kids!