I started out to write about the beehive tin, which I used for collecting loose change and dollars to go into the Sydney’s Chicken Fund  – cause we all know how he has to eat special food.

It got really full and I looked at it and thought, “More! More money. Keep saving.” I mean Sydney was getting his roasts and chickens out of the regular grocery fund so why not make this a general saving tin?  But I wanted a different tin – a bigger one, the one I had just picked up at GoodWill that has a cow and sheep on it. I would show it but I forgot to take a picture. Maybe later.

I looked at all the horizontal surfaces in the cafe and thought it was getting more than crowded. So, little beehive tin, I am setting you in a box to be used for giving little treats to people. Like maybe some special honey for honey lovers? I have decided this is how I am going to pare down the stuff here without trashing it. Maybe I’ll write a short paragraph telling about the time the tin or other whatnot spent at The Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse.

Well, that’s why I had the camera out – to take pictures of the beehive and the cow/sheep tins. But I goofed up. Oh, well, I did find some surprise photos on the little red camera from my birthday time.

Here is the smiling Der Bingle in the dining room when we were getting ready to have cake.

Actually, this cake below.

Alison picks a beach theme because she knows how much I loved San Diego. I don’t know if she heard us talking or not, but it looks like The Green Flash in the picture. I think it is supposed to be the regular sun in the sky; it seems, though, that it’s saying, “Hi there, AmeliaJake, remember me, The Green Flash?”

Next we have a mugshot of Cameron. Prepare yourselves.

And here he is after I, your lovable, but not furry, AmeliaJake, nagged him to smile.

I think pictures of others are on another camera, maybe the blue one. Of course, no telling what else is on that one . . . Summer’s little candid shots, dontcha know.

Now I am going to go put some stuff on my face to help deal with the birthday years: Estee Lauder Perfectionist. Wrinkle lifting serum. Corrector for Lines/Wrinkles/Age Spots. Of course, they write it in French below the English so we old biddies can feel like bon vivants.

The temperatures are again 90 or 90+; it is hot. Inside we have colds complete with sniffles, coughs, sneezes, the dreaded sinus pressure, sore throats and body aches. I have fully accepted into  my life Alka-Seltzer Plus for colds – The Orange Zest flavor. In fact, when I went to the store, I bought two boxes. We gave some to Summer, but she is a dud; it made her feel better but she says it is too hard to drink down and won’t take any more. All the more for me . . . . evil laugh.

I can’t complain because I have been lucky this summer with illness, and even the hot, humid days helped me sweat out twinges of sinus and made water in the form of iced tea taste so great. A lot less cola, a lot more water.

Now, though, I do have the “thunk your head on your desk” type of head cold. The draining of mucous down the throat. You could have done without that last detail, right? The ache in the ear.

Yesterday, I was again sucked into the Syfy station marathon of Earth hitting objects – asteroids, comets, solar flares, meteors. Me and my TV and my blankie and my kleenex. Then, the super powers that lie dormant in me most of the time emerged and I squeezed myself into my cell phone (because it is so hard to find a phone booth anymore) and came out as “Super AmeliaJake.” I cleaned the kitchen, picked up stuff, made the dogs a really nice dinner and showered. This is not super stuff for most, but it is for me . . . my bar is set very low – at about dustbunny level on the floor.

And, by the way, our dustbunny population is exploding because Shane is shedding. Frankly, I don’t see how we could have a dog left. However, we do and I tried to vacuum him. It didn’t work so well. He tends to shed a lot when he gets near the vet, so maybe I should run him over to the parking lot and just let the hairs settle on the gravel. Or would that be cruel? Maybe if I went over with a mayonnaise jar and let the medicinal air fill it and then came back and opened it by his nose, we would have a controlled shedding effect?

Probably I should give this some thought.