Can I call do-overs?

This week is desperately in need of a do-over.  It's not been one BIG bad thing but a series of news that's made it just a generally unpleasant week.  As Paul said last night, "I'm just one big begrudge because of it."

Sunday, Paul had to go to Tucson (OK, not horrible but he really didn't want to go).

Tuesday, we found out our friends are moving.

Wednesday, I learned that my step-grandmother died.  While it wasn't unexpected, it is still sad.  Family dynamics being what they are, I wasn't particularly close to her but she was always nice to me and I liked her.  The funeral is going to be tomorrow in Sunray.  I'm going to fly to Amarillo this evening.  It does seem like a waste of a free flight but it is just so much easier than driving solo.  Paul got home last night and leaves again next week for another trip, similar to what happened in January with his grandmother's funeral.  We discussed him going but agreed that it would be much easier if he just stayed home.  His wife's step-grandmother's funeral doesn't hold quite the sway that his grandmother's funeral does.

Thursday, I heard from one of my high school friends that another former classmate was diagnosed with lupus.  I don't know much about that disease but I know enough to know that it's bad and definitely not something you'd wish on your worst enemy (or even a former boyfriend as in this case).  He is just a few days younger than me and has two little ones (the oldest is five or so).

Today, I figured out that I made a dumb mistake and burned the motor out in the retractable screen in the library.  Hopefully a fixable mistake but something that easily could have been avoided if I'd taken two more seconds when I put it up yesterday.  And I know my flight is already at least 15 minutes delayed.  I'm trying to put a positive spin on that and concentrate on getting to spend a little longer with Paul (especially since his own flight was delayed about an hour last night which was an hour less that I got to see him).

Tomorrow is the funeral so that day is already shaping up to be crummy just because of what we have to do.

In the meantime, I've got some seriously high hopes for Sunday.

I thought this picture was both fitting of how this week has been and it makes me laugh.
It's one of the handicap toilets we saw in the UK.  I couldn't get a picture of the entire room but it had handles, rails, and bars of all kinds and that string is in case you've fallen and can't get up.  This was much more impressive (and warranting of a photo) than the two little bars people get in the U.S.

Well of course

Wanted: One couple between the ages of 25 and 40 who won't be leaving the ABQ area any time soon (if ever!) to become friends with another couple who are also stuck here. Must enjoy offbeat humor, general randomness, eating and be willing to tolerate a cantankerous cat when visiting our house. Love of baseball, Texas, and Wii a plus but not necessary. Children OK.

When I got home from work yesterday, I had a message from our friend/neighbor Alison that they had some news to share with us. I knew that meant one of three things--1. they're moving 2. she's pregnant, or (in a distant third) 3. they'd met someone who knows us. Knowing that they've been married less than a month and while things happen, I ruled out choice 2. Choice 3 was a long-shot not because we don't know people but because it's not something that warrants a phone call.

And that leaves option 1. They are indeed moving--to St. Louis in September. While they were on their honeymoon, Alison learned that she had received a promotion and Jeff was able to transfer to the St. Louis area as well.

Of course we don't begrudge them this move--it's great in many ways for them. It's a promotion and they'll be closer to their families in the Midwest. But darn it all if every single set of couple friends we've had in Albuquerque hasn't ended up moving after a bit. Seriously, if you live in the ABQ area and you want to move, befriend us as a couple (this offer doesn't apply to couple friends we have in which one or the other of us is better friends with someone within the couple). Even couples we've been introduced to by other couple friends have moved (one set to Pittsburgh of all places).

Seriously, is it us? OK, we know it isn't but it sometimes feels that way. (And it's not that we don't have friends. It's just nice to have friends that we know and do things with as a couple.)

Stuff and things and pictures

Paul left on Sunday for Tucson for a conference. Even though I took him to the airport, I'm such a dork that twice now, I have been pleased that Paul was home when I saw his car in the garage. I'll chalk it up to it being summer and apparently having lost my brain. What can I say but I miss the boy. Before our vacation, he thought he wouldn't have to go and was thrilled with the prospect of a week at work without interruptions since everyone else would be gone. He sounded so glum when he called last week to let me know he had to go and he sounded even more glum on the phone last night about being there. It is the first trip he's had to take for work since May but I think part of his resignation is caused by the fact that he is about to start traveling quite a bit again. Never fun for either of us. When he's gone so much for work, he doesn't want to travel for fun. In the meantime, I'm hanging out at home and would like to go some place, preferably with my husband. Because I like him pretty much OK.

In the meantime, I've got a week left of hanging out in the library for Summer School. At least it gives me something to do rather than sit at home pining for my husband. Yesterday, however, I got cranky. I know I'd been warned about my cranky nature but open defiance is just something the rankles me. I told a student (who was a student here a few years ago) to put out his cigarette. Not even two minutes later, I look outside and he's smoking again. And he was not on fire. I was so mad, I started shaking. If he hadn't kept trying to justify it (I didn't relight it, it just wasn't completely out. I was only taking one more drag. Miss, you've known me forever--I can't believe you're doing this), I might have been slightly less mad as I dragged his ass down to the Summer School office. I think the principal only kept him down there until I calmed down, which is fine. I'm not sure what punishment I was expecting since pretty much anything goes around here. I am now determined to remain in the safe confines of the library and not venture out much again lest I encounter more smokers or other ne'er-do-wells.

There are a few things I'd like to get done around the house before school starts back up in August. I've started a few of them since Paul's gone this week. I'll have two weeks between the end of summer school and the regular school year starting but part of that time, I think I'm going to visit grandparents. Paul has a trip that will be over a weekend so I think I'll go to Texas then. That should still leave plenty of time to do the deep cleaning and cleaning out I try to accomplish each summer. Our house is small and the walls start closing in as we accumulate more and more treasures.

Speaking of our trip, while we were abroad (hee!), I ate a couple of sandwiches with rocket on it. Because I'm clever enough to identify what foods I eat, I quickly determined that rocket was the green stuff on my sandwich but I couldn't place the flavor. Not unpleasant in my opinion and similar to something I'd eaten before. I asked a couple of people in England what it was and the only explanation I received was that it was a salad green. Um, thanks? When we got home, I headed to Trader Joe's for groceries and saw, ta-da!, rocket in a sack with the other salad greens. And it's arugula.  That's the flavor I know but couldn't place.  I bought a sack of it to spice up the salads I frequently eat for lunch and also tossed some imported Irish butter into the cart even though I know it was 10 days of Irish butter and beer that caused my vacation weight gain. (And I heart Trader Joe's even more now that I found these treasures.) Given that it's been cooler and rainy here since we got home and I found yummy butter, it's almost like we never left vacation.

And a few more pictures from the trip because I can. Here, we are at the Guinness Storehouse, which again I say wasn't that great and I saw on MSN's Travel Tips that it was one of the 15 Tourist Traps to Avoid. I think we would have avoided it had we known what the tour actually consisted of and that it wasn't an actual brewery tour. We probably would have gone to see the bog people exhibit at the Natural History Museum and the Yeats exhibit at the National Library, both of which are free. (The Changing of the Guards at Buckingham is also on the list but we expected the hordes of tourists there and at least it was free.) At Guinness, there was displays about each of the main ingredients used in making Guinness and water was represented with a big artificial waterfall.

I liked the signs in the UK the best. Even if you can't read it, you can get from the rather life-like figure that this is a tripping hazard.
Just in case you're wondering who that fellow is. . .
Thankfully, these were not part of the "authentic old Ireland experience."
I want a sign outside my library in Gaelic.

limericks inspired by Limerick

As I mentioned in my post about our time in Ireland, the tour guide had us come up with limericks to be read as we drove to Limerick. I don't know if she had thought of this before she heard Mom and me discussing it but I told Paul that I was taking credit even if she'd already thought of it because I think she bogarted my idea.

Now, I have never claimed to be a great writer of poetry or fiction (or even a great writer of blogs). I had a VERY generous creative writing professor while in college (it was a required class which is the only reason I even attempted it). I think she passed me only because my sentences were grammatically correct. Heaven knows it wasn't because I was a stellar writer. Throw in the fact that, as I always tell my students, I'm much funnier in my head and I present two limericks I wrote on the bus. I gave Paul author credit because even though he didn't really help, he was pretty patient as I repeatedly asked, "what rhymes with _____? What about this? Why won't you HELP ME?!?" (Oh, and these are edited to remove the name of the tour group which is why the first line isn't totally rhythmically correct.)

In Ireland while on a tour

We wandered from pub door to pub door

A few pints of bitter

Another--I'm no quitter

Bloody rubbish! Why am I on the floor?

In Ireland while on a tour

Uneven steps made walking a chore.

In Blarney, a slip

Did cause us to quip,

"Faulty tower! Don't mention the war!"

And if you are so inclined, here is the link to the book we created of our trip. It has more/different pictures than what I've shared here.

A couple more things

So of course we were enjoying listening to the accents of the "foreigners" in the UK and Ireland. More than once we would overheard people in our group repeating something said by Danny or Linda or the guides we had in Dublin and Edinburgh. I know I did it. What was funny was to hear them giggle about what we said. When we were on the Forth Bridge, Mom said something and used the word "appreciate" which is pronounced "uh-pree-she-ate" in our world. I'm not sure how it's said in England but it tickled Ann when she heard it and she repeated it several times. Maybe it was just the Texas twang that did the trick.

And boobie magazines are available for sale with all the other magazines and aren't hidden in plastic bags or behind the counter. Paul took a picture of one of the teenage boys in our group (who was such a good sport anyway) holding one of the magazines (we posed the picture). Later, Anthony found us to let us know that he'd seen someone getting on the ferry just buying the magazine like it was nothing.