Saturday ...

 It has been a frustrating week for me work-wise.  One of my crucial software programs is not working so I've spent several 10-hour days just hanging out ~ getting paid for it ~ but feeling extremely unproductive which gives my brain far too much time to think of negatives.

  I did get the dining room chairs finished, and tomorrow will work on the sofa.

  I wasn't really thrilled with how the white flour turned out in my cookbook bookends.  I may dump it all and get some dried beans or pasta.  I also am looking into some removable wallpaper to line the back wall of the pantry to add some color and pop in there.  The jars themselves date from the mid-1950s.  A friend is sending me some of her extra cookbooks and I'm excited to see what she sends.

  Picked up an ornament for my March decor.  I've ordered a large arc floor lamp to go in the corner over the dining room table and will move the party lights to another wall.  Still debating on getting an ornament tree ... or even a real tree branch that I can put in a floor pot and hang the party lights on.  

  In other less pleasant events this past week, my ex has violated the restraining order again ~ less than a month after getting a conviction for violating it last summer.  This time he had a friend of his reach out to me in an attempt to find out where I live.  It has added to my stress levels.  Police reports were filed in two states, and I'm looking into information on whether or not I will need to file an RO here that will not give him information on where I am.  I did let the local PD know that I have a weapon and am not afraid to use it.

  Mr. Charlie has a vet appointment on Tuesday which will most likely be followed by a dental cleaning and extraction at a later date, and possibly surgery about his now-growing bump on his side.  Likely a lipoma, but it has doubled in size in the past year.

  My truck is also getting a much-needed tune-up on Wednesday.  After the long drive down here, I want to be sure it stays reliable, and a belt has been squealing lately.  She's an oldie but is paid off.  So much for buying furniture and a washer and dryer with my tax refunds this year.

  You will also start to see at the top of the page links to past travels.  I'm working with UniWorld to get information from my Danube trip in 2008 since my scrapbooks were unfortunately left behind.  I found some old travel journals and am rebuilding what I can from them, and throwing in links to some sights I've been able to find.  

  I realized that this blog may be my only legacy if something ever happens to me, and may at some point schedule a "eulogy" to be posted when I'm no longer around to push the date out.   I don't regret deleting my other two blogs from the previous 10 years.  They included so much of my ex there wasn't much point in keeping them up when I removed all of the related posts.  Even posts that weren't specifically "about" him, I was able to recall the emotion behind the words and those were about him.  I wanted a fresh start.  In spite of him raising his ugly head into the "conversation" here, I think that a healthy part of my own healing is going to come from being able to address the yellow pig in the room and the resulting PTSD from the marriage.  But not today.