Wendy DeCora.com

I’m making a valiant attempt to catch up on some of my back-logged photos. Two weekends ago, I headed up to Milwaukee for a fun-filled weekend. My host for the weekend was the fabulous Harrison family; Sarah, Stacey, Lucas, & Charlie. I arrived on Saturday afternoon enjoyed just getting to chat with Sarah and Stacey about life and geeky things. Lucas and Charlie are active and fun. Also fun was their 50″ HDTV. ;)
Saturday night, Sarah and I enjoyed a really nice dinner at Devon. I had the scallops with lemon risotto. Yum!

After dinner, Stacey joined us and we went to see Wanted at this very cool theater/entertainment complex; iPic. It was the first time I saw a movie in a digital presentation. I was impressed and Wanted was high-energy, action-packed, ridiculous fun. Highly recommended if you like things blowing up and a movie that understands that its not high art and laughs at that fact with the audience.

On Sunday, we went out for breakfast at the Original Pancake House. It was worth the wait, they have bacon pancakes!! Tasty brilliance!

Sarah & Charlie while we waited for our seats:

Bacon Pancakes!

After breakfast, the kids and Sarah napped while Stacey and I played video games. I took my first stab at Guitar Hero and see what the hype is about, it is very addictive.

More pictures of food and the Harrison family are on Flickr.

After his nap, Charlie wasn’t feeling that well and Stacey was the Dad of the Year who took care of both boys so Sarah could with me to Summerfest to see Bonerama. We had a fun time and Sarah loved the Bones. I definitely have a new dancing partner! The music was a tad bit LOUD, so we didn’t stay too long after the Bones’ set and missed them sitting in with Galactic. But at least Stanton sat in with the Bones, so I got to see him do his thing.

A few pictures:

Craig and Greg:

Trombone Shorty sits in:

Mark and his cowbell:

Stanton Moore sits in for a couple of songs:

All Bonerama pictures over on Flickr.

No, not aliens. Diane and Lindsey came to visit a bit ago and since I’m suddenly a picture-posting machine, here are a couple of shots:

More photos over on Flickr.

I’ll be continually adding to the photo set of Mulder and Scully on Flickr. I added around twenty photos tonight.

The newest members of my family:

Mulder

Scully

They’ve been home for about an hour now and seem to be settling in OK. As you can see, my end table is already a popular destination. Mac always liked that spot too. There will be many more pictures forthcoming so you can see what the rest of their little furry bodies look like and how they size up to each other.

How I spent some more of my Sunday night…

and

You can have a similar, musically fabulous, experience this Saturday at 6pm in Iowa City. Come down to the Pentacrest to see Bonerama as part of the wonderful FREE Iowa City Jazz Fest!! You know I’ll be there. (Mentally, I already am.)

of how I spent part of my Sunday…

My Yahoo weather widget is a bit concerning when you note the time of day.

In my apartment I have this weird little extra space I call “The Nook.” I live on the second floor of a two story building and it is the area that is above the door/entryway to the stairs. Looking around at the other buildings in the area, all the others that are like mine are three stories. In those buildings that space is taken up by the stairwell for two flights, but since my building only has one flight, my apartment has a nook. It has a full size window (that doesn’t open), a heating/cooling vent, and some outlets. There isn’t a light built-in.

Since I moved in, the area was given over to MacGyver as her perch. I piled up some rubbermaid containers that held all my Christmas decorations and wrap, topped it with a big pillow and covered the whole thing neatly with a sheet. (Specifically my black toga sheet, for those HMB kids who remember that party.) There was also a bookcase in the space and I was keeping my various unhung poster and picture frames stashed against a wall. (I don’t necessarily need more living space than I currently have, I just need more walls.)

Anyway, this past weekend I went about decorating and making The Nook into a little escape for reading or knitting or possibly napping. I got the curtains and the light from IKEA and ordered the big bean bag chair online. It just came today, so now there are photos to share. Though the photos still don’t necessarily convey the space well. Its an odd place to photograph.

[click on any photo to go to Flickr if you want to see larger versions]

Entry to the nook

Inside the nook

Looking out of the nook

View from my seating inside the closed nook

One last apartment photo; this is just outside the nook. I finally got my Star Trek ornament collection cases and shelf back to my place and finally got everyone out of storage and back on display. I think it looks good. And there is still enough room for the three new ornaments coming out this year.

As for the rest of my life, I’m hanging in there. Some days are better than others.

If you didn’t know by now, I had my sweet baby fluff, MacGyver put to sleep on Thursday afternoon.

Her last afternoon at my apartment

I know its been almost a week now, but I’m realizing that I didn’t actually post here and put out the news and some people are out there still wondering. I told a few people on the phone, posted a twitter update, and posted a few lines at connick.com, but I just didn’t feel like writing it out. As though writing it here made it more real or something. *shrug*

It was her time and she went quickly and quietly while I held her in my arms. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I sat and sobbed and sobbed in the room at the vet. Then I drove her to Bussey one last time where my mom helped me bury her in our back yard, next to my other beloved pets that went before: Luv, Sunshine, Blizzard, Scamper, and Flutter (my parakeet, we buried him in a checkbox). My mom was such a great support through it all. She’d already dug the hole. That’s a good mom.

I then drove back to my place and just sat. I pretty much just sat around for the next four days. Had lunch with the Steele’s and Heather on Friday and that was good. But all I wanted to do was sit and knit and watch ‘The X-Files.’ I don’t know why I found that soothing, but I did. Actually, I still am.

Its actually harder to leave my apartment than to be in it because coming home to the place being empty is the worst part. I instinctively look for her the minute I get home, because that’s what I’ve done for the last eight years. Once I’m home and am over her not being there, I’m mostly ok.

I’m still sleeping on my side of my bed. I got the bigger bed like five or six years ago, but I’ve always just slept on the right side because the left side is Mac’s. I realized two nights ago that I’m still just sleeping on that side of the bed. I know I should move towards the middle, but I’m not there yet.

I realize that I’m lucky to have had her as long as I did, she didn’t quite make it to 20, but she was very close. And lucky that she was pretty darn healthy up until only about 6 months ago. I have so many great memories of her, all the way back to the day I picked her out of the box of kittens in Jackie and Don Vanderhorst’s garage in 1988.

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words and phone calls, cards, emails, etc. They mean more than you’ll ever know.

It’s 3:20AM and I’m still awake post ‘Indy 4.’ The movie was fun and I enjoyed it a lot. It was kind of ridiculous at points, but still a great way to revist one of the best movie characters ever. Harrison Ford beats up a lot of people and that never ceases to amuse. I drank some pop at the show which got out almost an hour and a half ago which I think is partly the reason I’m still pretty wide awake.

The other reason is that I think this may be the last night I spend with MacGyver. I brought her home after work with a vast assortment of medications and instructions for monitoring and she’s just fading. She won’t eat at all, she drank once and then threw up the water. It was so sad. She’s stumbling when she tries to walk and basically is just laying on the floor quietly. I feel like she’s telling me it may be her time. :( She sat on my lap for awhile and slept on her favorite chair. Now she’s just on the floor in front of my TV. I think she’s just worn out.

I’m going to stay up with her as long as I can with her tonight and then see if she’ll sleep on her pillow on my bed one last time. I’ll re-evaluate the situation in the morning but it might be time for her to go gently into that good night. I’ll never be ready, but I feel more at peace with it than I did two days ago.

Again, thanks for all the kind words and thoughts.