1. laundry!
2. call bank, credit card company
3. call neighbor about watering, packages while gone
3a. find spare house key for neighbor (gave to in-laws?)
4. Put hold on mail 6/19 - 7/2
5. cat to in-laws' house 6/18
6. check in online with Southwest on 6/18 at 12:20
7. transfer money to checking account
8. clean house (well, it was a good thought. . .)
9. return library books
10. JLA meeting, Tuesday 6:00
11. call JLA transfer
12. charge iPod, phone, camera batteries
13. Target for stuff needed for trip (toothpaste!)
14. pack
15. don't totally freak out before Friday**
**Not panicking; I will, however, get stressed and lose it at least once (usually directed at Paul because he's handy) in glorious fashion while preparing for a trip. Then I'm fine.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The Weekend
Saturday morning was the first official meeting for the 2008-09 Junior League Board, a half-day get-to-know-you get-together/meeting/retreat. I will be serving as the Placement Chair this year--overseeing members to make certain everyone meets the various requirements and meeting new transfers and assigning them to committees. I vacillate between thinking this is going to be super fantastic and wondering how the heck I got myself into this. I like the president but she's not the easiest person in the world to befriend. And it's not as if I'm wanting to be her best friend. I merely would like to have a non-awkward conversation with her. I've now been on a committee and the board with her and that non-awkward conversation has yet to happen (although we're getting closer). The mix of the other 14 women on the Board is interesting--from very gregarious to very reserved. This year will either be fantastic or it is going to suck rocks. I'll let you know in May.
Nattily attired, we headed out for the wedding yesterday afternoon. The wedding started at 5:30--Paul, who was still a wee bit reluctant about going since we didn't know anyone, wanted to leave as late as possible. We didn't leave until 4:15 to drive to Santa Fe which takes a good hour even going the 75 mph speed limit. Yeah, that might have been cutting it a bit close as we slipped in just before the grandmothers were seated. Surprisingly, someone else slunk in after us just ahead of the mothers. The wedding itself was lovely--flowers, music, dresses, etc. The priest performing the ceremony did such a nice job with it too. I don't know if he was a local clergy or a family friend but it seemed to be a personalized to them, with enough humor to keep it light but a reverence befitting the occasion. (Then again, he could do the exact same service for all couples and how many of would actually know).
After the ceremony, everyone walked from the church to the reception site following a mariachi band which also played during the cocktail hour where we tried to not look COMPLETELY anti-social. Thankfully, some family members took pity on the poor couple standing by themselves and chatted with us about the weather for a while. We were seated next to the only other people from ABQ at the wedding as well as some college friends. The man from ABQ is the same age as Paul's brother and attended the same middle school as Paul and Alan. During the reception, rather than the (in my opinion, highly annoying) glass-clinking to get the bride and groom to kiss, each table had to sing a song with the word "Love" in it. Our table opted for "You Lost that Loving Feeling" (Paul gamely went up with the rest of us but did a "Pips" routine with another man from the table rather than actually sing). Dinner was good, cake was good, introduced ourselves to the bride's and groom's fathers (mothers were out dancing), chatted with bride and groom and then headed towards home. We got caught in traffic coming from the monster truck rally at the casino between Santa Fe and ABQ so Paul started calling me "Darlene" the rest of the way home because he thought it sounded like the name of someone coming from a monster truck rally (no offense to anyone named Darlene who abhors monster trucks and all that nonsense).
This morning, we joined my in-laws at church for the make-your-own omelet bar at the church before services. It is also my father-in-law's birthday today so he got the combo birthday/Father's Day gift--a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys which he thought looked quite interesting and entertaining. I hope he does enjoy it. It's become one of my favorites to flip through in the library.
When we got home from church, rather than doing things I need to be doing in anticipation of our upcoming trip, we spent the better part of the afternoon periodically checking on this little guy in our backyard:
It's a wee bunny rabbit who spent time munching on the day lilies, hanging out in the shade of one of the planters, and napping in the sun on the little sliver of rocks next to our patio.
It's not totally visible in this picture but Hippity-Hop was taking a nice little nap here with his back legs are kicked out behind him. After a bit, he rested his head on his front paws and napped there for about an hour or so before heading off to parts unknown.
Laundry can wait. Wee bunnies are only wee for short time.
Nattily attired, we headed out for the wedding yesterday afternoon. The wedding started at 5:30--Paul, who was still a wee bit reluctant about going since we didn't know anyone, wanted to leave as late as possible. We didn't leave until 4:15 to drive to Santa Fe which takes a good hour even going the 75 mph speed limit. Yeah, that might have been cutting it a bit close as we slipped in just before the grandmothers were seated. Surprisingly, someone else slunk in after us just ahead of the mothers. The wedding itself was lovely--flowers, music, dresses, etc. The priest performing the ceremony did such a nice job with it too. I don't know if he was a local clergy or a family friend but it seemed to be a personalized to them, with enough humor to keep it light but a reverence befitting the occasion. (Then again, he could do the exact same service for all couples and how many of would actually know).
After the ceremony, everyone walked from the church to the reception site following a mariachi band which also played during the cocktail hour where we tried to not look COMPLETELY anti-social. Thankfully, some family members took pity on the poor couple standing by themselves and chatted with us about the weather for a while. We were seated next to the only other people from ABQ at the wedding as well as some college friends. The man from ABQ is the same age as Paul's brother and attended the same middle school as Paul and Alan. During the reception, rather than the (in my opinion, highly annoying) glass-clinking to get the bride and groom to kiss, each table had to sing a song with the word "Love" in it. Our table opted for "You Lost that Loving Feeling" (Paul gamely went up with the rest of us but did a "Pips" routine with another man from the table rather than actually sing). Dinner was good, cake was good, introduced ourselves to the bride's and groom's fathers (mothers were out dancing), chatted with bride and groom and then headed towards home. We got caught in traffic coming from the monster truck rally at the casino between Santa Fe and ABQ so Paul started calling me "Darlene" the rest of the way home because he thought it sounded like the name of someone coming from a monster truck rally (no offense to anyone named Darlene who abhors monster trucks and all that nonsense).
This morning, we joined my in-laws at church for the make-your-own omelet bar at the church before services. It is also my father-in-law's birthday today so he got the combo birthday/Father's Day gift--a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys which he thought looked quite interesting and entertaining. I hope he does enjoy it. It's become one of my favorites to flip through in the library.
When we got home from church, rather than doing things I need to be doing in anticipation of our upcoming trip, we spent the better part of the afternoon periodically checking on this little guy in our backyard:
It's a wee bunny rabbit who spent time munching on the day lilies, hanging out in the shade of one of the planters, and napping in the sun on the little sliver of rocks next to our patio.
It's not totally visible in this picture but Hippity-Hop was taking a nice little nap here with his back legs are kicked out behind him. After a bit, he rested his head on his front paws and napped there for about an hour or so before heading off to parts unknown.
Laundry can wait. Wee bunnies are only wee for short time.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Because if left to my own devices, I would have handled it with much less finesse
Our new neighbors/friends are getting married this upcoming Saturday. While we do seem to enjoy each other's company, I hadn't entertained the possibility of a wedding invitation as we've only known them since December. We gave them a little wedding gift (cookbook and candleholders) a few weeks ago when we saw them for dinner but that's just because we like them not because we were gunning for a slice of wedding cake.
Last week, we had a voicemail from Alison telling us that it was probably a tacky and totally informal but would we like to come to their wedding? Since we don't have plans for Saturday evening, we agreed that sure, we'd love to go. When I spoke with her to let her know, she said that she'd bring down an invitation with all the information over the weekend. As in the weekend that ended three days ago.
I remember the last week before the wedding and I'm sure theirs is compounded because while they live here, all their family and friends are coming into town (the wedding is in Santa Fe) so there is all that to coordinate as well. But when we hadn't seen an invitation as of yesterday, Paul and I were starting to get concerned that maybe we weren't really invited. Or that maybe they'd figured out that they didn't have room and didn't know how to tell us. Do we just show up in Santa Fe at the allotted time and hope they were serious? We'll only know the bride and groom at this fete so it's going to be a little awkward to begin with--just coming in and saying "Hey, y'all!" seems like it could be even more awkward. I didn't want to NOT show up since I'd managed to blather on about how touched we were to receive the invitation and how Paul is looking forward to cake and and and (I never know when to shut up when leaving a message). We thought that maybe we could just go to the ceremony and then cut out for a pizza but how many people would see us at the ceremony and then not at the reception and wonder who the two crazies were. But if we weren't supposed to be at the reception, it could be strange. When do we call? Should we call? Does it seem pushy to call? So this whole thing was throwing us for a loop as to how to behave. It had potential disaster written all over it.
Last night at dinner with Paul's parents, we raised this social question and my mother-in-law, bless her, was quick with the correct way to handle it. Call to confirm the time. Brilliant! THIS is why I need grown-ups in my life. Prior to this suggestion, I was just planning to blather on and on in the message as I've done in this post about how I didn't know if we were really invited and how we totally understand if they had changed their minds and wedding cake normally isn't that good to begin with no offense or anything.
Taking my MIL's advice, I left a nice concise message this afternoon--Hi, we were just needing to confirm the wedding time because we inadvertently deleted your earlier message with the information. (OK, not really but she doesn't need to know that.) I've got Summer School this afternoon but I'll be home around 6:00 (in case she wants to bring down the invitation) or you can leave a message on the home phone or my cell (she knows the numbers and I was so concise I didn't even leave these). I hope everything is going well and that no one is having trouble getting to town. Talk to you later! Bye!
But I have absolutely NO IDEA what we'll do if she doesn't call back. Full-blown panic and a poll of everyone I know as to what to do will probably occur.
Oh, and should we take a bigger, better gift now that (most likely) we'll be going to the ceremony/reception and having a meal? GAH! Yet another reason why Paul and I do better as quasi-hermits. . .
Update at 8:30: Promptly at 6:00, an invitation was delivered to our door. Alison was waiting for her mom to get into town with extra envelopes before she brought it down (she had mentioned last week that she didn't have any envelopes left I'll buy that reason). And we've decided against another wedding gift because we gave them our push mower that we used about a half-dozen times when we had real grass and has been sitting in our garage for the past five years since because I didn't know what else to do with it. We won't use it again as long as we live here so it was nice to be able to pass it along.
Last week, we had a voicemail from Alison telling us that it was probably a tacky and totally informal but would we like to come to their wedding? Since we don't have plans for Saturday evening, we agreed that sure, we'd love to go. When I spoke with her to let her know, she said that she'd bring down an invitation with all the information over the weekend. As in the weekend that ended three days ago.
I remember the last week before the wedding and I'm sure theirs is compounded because while they live here, all their family and friends are coming into town (the wedding is in Santa Fe) so there is all that to coordinate as well. But when we hadn't seen an invitation as of yesterday, Paul and I were starting to get concerned that maybe we weren't really invited. Or that maybe they'd figured out that they didn't have room and didn't know how to tell us. Do we just show up in Santa Fe at the allotted time and hope they were serious? We'll only know the bride and groom at this fete so it's going to be a little awkward to begin with--just coming in and saying "Hey, y'all!" seems like it could be even more awkward. I didn't want to NOT show up since I'd managed to blather on about how touched we were to receive the invitation and how Paul is looking forward to cake and and and (I never know when to shut up when leaving a message). We thought that maybe we could just go to the ceremony and then cut out for a pizza but how many people would see us at the ceremony and then not at the reception and wonder who the two crazies were. But if we weren't supposed to be at the reception, it could be strange. When do we call? Should we call? Does it seem pushy to call? So this whole thing was throwing us for a loop as to how to behave. It had potential disaster written all over it.
Last night at dinner with Paul's parents, we raised this social question and my mother-in-law, bless her, was quick with the correct way to handle it. Call to confirm the time. Brilliant! THIS is why I need grown-ups in my life. Prior to this suggestion, I was just planning to blather on and on in the message as I've done in this post about how I didn't know if we were really invited and how we totally understand if they had changed their minds and wedding cake normally isn't that good to begin with no offense or anything.
Taking my MIL's advice, I left a nice concise message this afternoon--Hi, we were just needing to confirm the wedding time because we inadvertently deleted your earlier message with the information. (OK, not really but she doesn't need to know that.) I've got Summer School this afternoon but I'll be home around 6:00 (in case she wants to bring down the invitation) or you can leave a message on the home phone or my cell (she knows the numbers and I was so concise I didn't even leave these). I hope everything is going well and that no one is having trouble getting to town. Talk to you later! Bye!
But I have absolutely NO IDEA what we'll do if she doesn't call back. Full-blown panic and a poll of everyone I know as to what to do will probably occur.
Oh, and should we take a bigger, better gift now that (most likely) we'll be going to the ceremony/reception and having a meal? GAH! Yet another reason why Paul and I do better as quasi-hermits. . .
Update at 8:30: Promptly at 6:00, an invitation was delivered to our door. Alison was waiting for her mom to get into town with extra envelopes before she brought it down (she had mentioned last week that she didn't have any envelopes left I'll buy that reason). And we've decided against another wedding gift because we gave them our push mower that we used about a half-dozen times when we had real grass and has been sitting in our garage for the past five years since because I didn't know what else to do with it. We won't use it again as long as we live here so it was nice to be able to pass it along.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Last week, I. . .
1. Antagonized my cat:
That is Jubjub unsuccessfully attempting to get into the second upstairs bedroom (a.k.a. The New Room). The guest room downstairs is a "cat-free zone" in deference to our houseguests with cat allergies and after the upstairs remodel, Paul and I starting keeping the door closed on the New Room as well. The upstairs was never as cool as the downstairs last summer with the new A/C so this summer, we wanted to open the door to increase air flow but still keep the cat out. So, we purchased two baby gates and put them up on the bedroom door. Jub stays out, upstairs cools off. (In the picture, Jub is sitting on some throw pillows that Paul had put along the bottom of the bottom gate in an attempt to thwart Jub's very persistent tries to get under the gate.)
2. Went to Texas where it was HOT. Triple-digit hot. And WINDY. But I enjoyed the short visit (Tues-Thur) with my grandparents in Amarillo and Sunray as well as Amy, Abigail, and Benjamin. I made this very quick visit because Summer School starts on Monday and I'll be tied up with that (minus our two-week vacation) until July 22. Hopefully I'll be able to make a longer visit at the end of July. And hopefully, it won't be 101 degrees when I'm there.
3. Drove home in a 45-55 mph headwind. But it wasn't a straight headwind--the wind was pretty much at the front quarter panel on the driver's side which we've discovered is the exact location needed with a strong wind to make the windshield wipers vibrate on the Subaru. Which they did. FOR FIVE HOURS. It was pretty much a solid high-pitch squeal for the first 30 minutes or so. After that, it was more intermittent--say every 30 seconds or so. Such driving conditions are one of the few times I really don't like my car. Oh, and when I got home, it was 68 degrees in ABQ.
4. Actually finished a honey-do project with Paul without arguing (much) and without spending an additional two (or more) hours on the project. We had to put stucco on some cracks on the back of our house under the living room windows. It's not that the cracks haven't been there for a while--my husband finally happened to notice and decide to do something. I'd mentioned it last summer but it fell on deaf ears--everything in it's own time. The back of our house faces west and our stucco has faded more than we realized over the past eight years. But we agreed that we could live with the end results (which is good because I'm not sure what we would do if it looked REALLY bad).
5. Started my first real knitting project. I'm currently working on a scarf for myself. I managed to successfully cast off my practice piece AND cast on the new project all by myself. My coworker had given me the basic instructions in April but at the end of the year, we didn't have a chance to sit down and work on my knitting. I bought the Klutz Knitting Book at the spring book fair--the instructions are very straight-forward and illlustrated. That is how I figured out the whole cast off/on thing again. I'm a quarter of the way finished and everyone in the family can probably expect a scarf in their stocking at Christmas. Now, family that just read that, remember to act surprised.
Summer school starts tomorrow. It's at my school so I agreed to to it and share the position with another librarian. I'm going to do afternoons next week except for Friday when I'll work all day. The next week, I'll only work Monday and Tuesday and we leave on Thursday for a little trip we're taking. After I get home, I'll work two weeks and the other librarian and I will split the remaining time. It shouldn't be too bad. At least that's what I'm telling myself.
That is Jubjub unsuccessfully attempting to get into the second upstairs bedroom (a.k.a. The New Room). The guest room downstairs is a "cat-free zone" in deference to our houseguests with cat allergies and after the upstairs remodel, Paul and I starting keeping the door closed on the New Room as well. The upstairs was never as cool as the downstairs last summer with the new A/C so this summer, we wanted to open the door to increase air flow but still keep the cat out. So, we purchased two baby gates and put them up on the bedroom door. Jub stays out, upstairs cools off. (In the picture, Jub is sitting on some throw pillows that Paul had put along the bottom of the bottom gate in an attempt to thwart Jub's very persistent tries to get under the gate.)2. Went to Texas where it was HOT. Triple-digit hot. And WINDY. But I enjoyed the short visit (Tues-Thur) with my grandparents in Amarillo and Sunray as well as Amy, Abigail, and Benjamin. I made this very quick visit because Summer School starts on Monday and I'll be tied up with that (minus our two-week vacation) until July 22. Hopefully I'll be able to make a longer visit at the end of July. And hopefully, it won't be 101 degrees when I'm there.
3. Drove home in a 45-55 mph headwind. But it wasn't a straight headwind--the wind was pretty much at the front quarter panel on the driver's side which we've discovered is the exact location needed with a strong wind to make the windshield wipers vibrate on the Subaru. Which they did. FOR FIVE HOURS. It was pretty much a solid high-pitch squeal for the first 30 minutes or so. After that, it was more intermittent--say every 30 seconds or so. Such driving conditions are one of the few times I really don't like my car. Oh, and when I got home, it was 68 degrees in ABQ.
4. Actually finished a honey-do project with Paul without arguing (much) and without spending an additional two (or more) hours on the project. We had to put stucco on some cracks on the back of our house under the living room windows. It's not that the cracks haven't been there for a while--my husband finally happened to notice and decide to do something. I'd mentioned it last summer but it fell on deaf ears--everything in it's own time. The back of our house faces west and our stucco has faded more than we realized over the past eight years. But we agreed that we could live with the end results (which is good because I'm not sure what we would do if it looked REALLY bad).
5. Started my first real knitting project. I'm currently working on a scarf for myself. I managed to successfully cast off my practice piece AND cast on the new project all by myself. My coworker had given me the basic instructions in April but at the end of the year, we didn't have a chance to sit down and work on my knitting. I bought the Klutz Knitting Book at the spring book fair--the instructions are very straight-forward and illlustrated. That is how I figured out the whole cast off/on thing again. I'm a quarter of the way finished and everyone in the family can probably expect a scarf in their stocking at Christmas. Now, family that just read that, remember to act surprised.
Summer school starts tomorrow. It's at my school so I agreed to to it and share the position with another librarian. I'm going to do afternoons next week except for Friday when I'll work all day. The next week, I'll only work Monday and Tuesday and we leave on Thursday for a little trip we're taking. After I get home, I'll work two weeks and the other librarian and I will split the remaining time. It shouldn't be too bad. At least that's what I'm telling myself.
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