If my Dad were still alive, he’d be 76 years old in October of this year.  But my Dad lost his battle with cancer 16 years ago today.  My Mom and I were talking about it over the weekend when she was here.  We said that not only do we still miss him, but he’s missed.  My Dad had a way of making you feel like you were the only one in the room when you talked to him.  He was funny.  He always told us he was behind us 110%.  We were lucky that we had a Dad that truly cared about all the activities we did and participated by being our photographer.   This is one my my favorite pictures my Dad took of me – at the time I was embarrassed when he said “jump as high as you can!” but I love it now.  I was a freshman in high school in that pic – hence the giant 80s glasses – I got contacts sophomore year. Open-mouthed smile

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New readers can read about my 70th birthday tribute to my Dad.   The night my Dad died I remember seeing “people” in the corner of the room.  He’d been on hospice for just a little over a week. A hospital bed was brought into the living room for his comfort.  He was really out of it most of that week.  Not communicating very much – and Mom, did we still feed him through his feeding tube?  I have no idea anymore.  In any event, the “angels” as I like to think of them comforted me.  It was around 6:00 p.m. and my BIL had just gotten at my parents house after work.   We were all there – all the kids, their respective spouses, my Mom and all the grandkids.  He looked up, saw us all standing around his bed, smiled and then laid his head down and he was gone.

I’ve seen ghosts in my parents house before.  Once I was walking from the kitchen to the living room – my parents had a mirror on the wall and you could see the steps coming down from the second story.  I saw a woman walking down the steps in what I like to call “Little House on the Prairie” clothes.  Another time I was just about to fall asleep and completely felt someone sit down on the edge of my bed.  I thought it was my sister playing a joke on me, but when I reached for the light and turned it on, nothing was there.

Fast forward to this weekend when my Mom is over – she was just about to walk into our bathroom when she got startled and said that she saw a ghost cat run from the bathroom.  I’ve been sitting in the living room and have seen a man walk from our bathroom to Hannah’s room.  I was talking to Hannah about the ghosts yesterday when I met her for dinner, and she said she’s seen a man walk from the bathroom to our bedroom before from her room.  Spooky!  So, do you believe in ghosts?  Have you ever seen one?

It was tough getting up yesterday having had three days off and sleeping in a bit.  Luckily I had the last of my breakfast tacos to heat up – still so good and easy peasy.  I love how crispy they get in the toaster oven.

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I haven’t worn my fitbit since last Friday – what?!  I had every intention of getting back to my steps, but half way to work I realized I forgot to put it on.  So I took advantage of the outdoor pool at the gym.  All the kids are back to school so it was just me and the lifeguard.

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Well, it was just me and the lifeguard.  I saw something floating in the lane beside me the first few laps I did – I chalked it up to a leaf that had just fallen in the pool.  Nope.  It was a dead baby mouse!  I had the lifeguard scoop it out for me – icky.  I switched lanes to the farthest one away from where it was.  I ended up swimming 35 minutes without stopping (except a couple times to adjust my goggles – which Mom, I love the pair you got for me) and then listened to music for 10 minutes while I laid in the sun.  Nice.

Lunch was taco salad – a smaller version because I knew I was eating out with Hannah.  I had Romaine lettuce and cucumbers on the bottom, then 1/4 cup taco meat, 1/4 cup garbanzo beans and 1/4 cup Mexican rice, then topped with FF ranch and hot sauce, and a bit of crumbled cheese.

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I met Hannah up at Wok n Fire near my office.  I told her we could meet half way between her house and my work, but she had a taste for it.  Because of the sun, we kept having to move to get the right light – Tony said that it looks like I photoshopped Hannah’s head in the picture and wanted to know who I really was having dinner with – ha!

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If you sit anywhere in the bar area, you get half price appetizers and half price traditional rolls.  They also have $3 Sapporo beers, which I normally love, but Hannah doesn’t drink and I know me – one would lead to two and I needed to drive home.  So we split the potstickers, the fried calamari – I got the red Thai curry tofu dish with brown rice.

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I only ate half of my entrée, so I am having the second half for lunch today.  Just going to add a bit more veggies to it.  So good!   It was nice catching up with her in person.  We talk on the phone nearly on a daily basis and facetalk, but it’s not the same.

Hope you stop by tomorrow. . . . My Bizzy Kitchen turns SIX!  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging since 2008.  But I like to think of it as my living diary – how cool will it be for my future grandkids to be able to read about my life from the age of 40 to now 46?  My grandmas diary read like this:  “chilly day.  make chicken.  played bridge.”  That was it.  I need more details!

Alright, time to get my act together – I hope I get to read some good ghost stories!  And Dad, I know you are looking down on us, but I miss you every day.  I love you!