On the Covid-19 front, there have not been any significant changes in Colorado. I’m grateful that the mask mandate is still in effect, and I hope that it will be extended beyond the initial thirty days. Whether or not they agree with the mandate, most people seem to be complying, and there is less aggression when we are in stores. People generally seem calm, which is a relief. Truly, life feels more or less normal.

One thing that has really bothered me is the spike in mask conspiracy theories. A new one that I read about involves a hashtag= “save our children,” and links the wearing of masks to a child sex trafficking and pedophilia. Really? It goes deeper, to a conspiracy that powerful people ( democratic politicians/Bill Gates/Celebrities like Tom Hanks) are in on it, somehow harvesting the power from children that is emitted when they are extremely fearful, including acts of cannibalism with children. How can anyone believe this crap???

It makes me even more angry that these conspiracies serve to undermine the vital importance of wearing masks and public safety. They also distract from more important issues like the BLM movement and the upcoming election. It’s maddening. Dan is tired of hearing me complain about it, and quite honestly, I’ve spent too much energy getting worked up over it, so I’m going to distancing myself from reading about the conspiracies. I’m optimistic that more people are level-headed and see through this nonsense.

This week was low-key and fairly normal. We ran errands and ate out a few times, including a “new-to-us” Vietnamese restaurant, where I tried Vietnamese-style iced coffee. It tastes similar to Thai iced coffee, but a little less sweet.

I don’t have a picture of it, but I made the most amazing fresh blueberry crumble. It was delicious, and I even made it with half the recommended sugar. It will happen again and soon.

Dan went golfing with a few of the guys in our neighborhood. I have to share pictures that he took of our local golf course. This is just a short distance from our house and it is gorgeous! It reminds me of Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas.

In most exciting news, Wednesday was my birthday. I worked, as usual, but Dan spoiled me rotten.

The big package was a Cornhole set, which I’ve been wanting for a few years. I’m surprisingly good at it! I also received several cool kitchen gadgets- many from my Amazon Wishlist, fuzzy socks, a cook book, another outdoor game where you throw a ball on a trampoline ( looks fun), a cleaning gadget ( I’m old, I like cleaning gadgets), a ceramic cotton ball holder shaped like a rabbit, and a box of rock candy, which I recently mentioned was a must-have purchase during childhood Disneyland trips. So many friends and family sent messages and I was much loved on my birthday.

Tom delighted in the box that one of my presents came in. It can be your birthday too Tom!

There is an extra-special treat for this coming weekend, which I will reveal next week. I’ve probably never been this spoiled on my birthday! :-)

Which brings me to some funny emotions that I’ve been having this week. My birthday is always a time when I miss my mom a bit more intensely than other times of the year, and last night, we were watching the fabulous new Anna Kendrick series “Love Life”- specifically an episode regarding Kendrick’s character Darby and her relationship with her mom. Even though my relationship with my mom was nothing like Darby’s, there were themes about simply needing your mom. It made me really, really sad and I couldn’t stop crying. I’m grateful to have a husband who loves me enough to make my birthday incredibly special, but I still miss and need my mom. It’s tough.

On the great news front, last night we had the announcement that Biden has picked Kamala Harris to run as his VP. I’m thrilled and optimistic.

I’m ending on a happy note with cute pictures of the cats. This week, Tom started a new behavior of stealing stuffed animals off of my bookshelf. Naturally, those animals have been moved to a safe, “Tom Free” zone, but it was very funny to catch him being a thief.

Slinky is living his best life by licking the leftovers from a bowl of whipped cream. He licked it completely clean.