Rock To Wind A String Around

We’re on our way home after 4 nights in Georgia, one in Tennessee and 6 in Florida.  Poor Kentucky felt left out, so we’ll stop in Lexington tonight and drive home tomorrow in time to turn the heat up before we leave for choir.

My initial plan was to arrive home late tonight, but the thought of a cold house with no food in it is wholly unappealing, so tomorrow it is.

Our trip to Florida was terrific–we were there to prepare for my grandmother’s surprise party (she  turns 90 on wednesday).  We had a great time, and she was well and truly surprised, which made every painful part of the drive worth (although first class plane tickets would make it all worth it too, but whatever…)

Here’s a picture of sweet Meklit, enjoying the Savannah sunshine on Valentine’s Day while simultaneously demonstrating the laborious nature of our journey.  AM is a multi-tasker extraordinaire!

The tots and I hit the  snowy road today–we left Cowtown  (with it’s 12-16″ of snow) and are hanging in Chattanooga tonight before meeting Albert in Hotlanta tomorrow.  The plan was to get up tomorrow, do something cool here (Ruby Falls, anyone) and then make the speedy 2 hour drive to Hotlanta tomorrow.  Except, Atlanta will be receiving 2-4″ of snow tomorrow.  Arrgh!  2-4″ isn’t much in most places, but it’s quite a bit for Atlanta to manage.  I can’t decide if I should leave for Atlanta early and hope to make it in before most of the snow, or do something fun and then regret it after while it takes 5 hours or more to drive 100 miles.

Please, please, please, no flurries in Florida–that would close the interstate.

Settled in at Ye Olde local Marriott, which may be the noisiest place on earth–too close to the road, with skinny little (me, eat pie?) walls that are no match for the toddlers next door.  First they were shrieking with glee, now with frustration, (and I imagine exhaustion since it’s after midnight), this night may put dreams of Ethiopian nights in my head–it wasn’t very quiet there either.

2 more days on the road–whee!

off like one, in hopes of finding treasure in the west.  I’ll try to update later in the day, if not, let’s consider this today’s NaBloPoMo, shall we…

a little sadness* in my otherwise lovely universe…

A million years ago, while I was still in college, I developed plantar fascitis.  Blame the cute little flats I wore all over campus, the sneakers with too many miles on them that I wore for frequent workouts, whatever.  Since then, it’s never quite gone away,  but it was manageable until about a year ago.  With daily workouts and a summer of flipflops compounding the problem, I limped into the orthopedist in August. After confirming the plantar fascitis and a sizable heel spur  He put me on a strict no flip-flop diet, I bought new Nikes, added orthotics to everything I wear, and have mourned the loss of the majority of my shoe wardrobe.

Albert, in a fit of extreme niceness, cashed in some AmEx points for a Zappos gc for me last week.  He thought I could begin rebuilding my shoe closet with some  new winter boots.  I shopped, and shopped, and called Zappos only to find that cute boot + removable insole do not = available at Zappos.  I know, this is a real cry me a river moment, but I do miss cute shoes, and the gift certificate is now being used for the kids, who also seem to need shoes every 5 minutes.

Still searching the world for a black wedge heel boot with a removable insole.  In case you know something I don’t…

* I know that my search for shoes knowing that most kids in Ethiopia have none is extremely shallow–I blame NaBloPoMo for my need to reveal.

The week always seems to loom a little large when Albert leaves on Monday morning.  Another headache, the end of season 3 of Mad Men,  a thwarted trip to the newly opened Benefit Brow Bar, and a 3 year old who is really really really in love with dotty diapers, and well, it’s time to remember the things I do appreciate today, including:

1.  the dvr—episodes of Ugly Betty watched on my own schedule–brilliant!

2.  my public library—tis true, tis true, our libraray is rated tops in the nation.  a huge collection, an easy reserve policy–it’s almost painless to pay the hefty fines we always seem to rack up.

3.  Christmas shopping–don’t hate me, but it’s nearly done.  a few things to pick up,  a little wrapping to finish, but really, 88% of the way there, I think.

4.  Glee–I didn’t think I could become a fan so quickly. I puffy heart love  you, Jane Lynch!

5.  books on CD–the long long long drive I have planned to Florida by way of DC is made almost bearable by Beezus and Ramona, Clementine, Encyclopedia Brown, and if I’m really lucky, Mr. Darcy

Lots of other things to be grateful for, and I’d elaborate if it wasn’t so close to the end of the day (shaking ineffectual fist at you, NaBloPoMo!)  Instead, I’ll remind you all of the joys of:

online shopping

OPI nail polish

evergreen scented soy candles

an incredibly beautiful fall (the prettiest in years, I think)

and Liberte’ yogurt

Looking at this list, tomorrow seems amazingly do-able once more.  Thanks gratitude for leading the way!

With a trip to Denver scheduled this weekend, followed by the Thanksgiving sojourn 2 days later, the last place I should be is the couch, but I’m here anyway, nestled beside my sweet husband, waiting for the final episode of this season’s Mad Men.

It’s been a busy weekend…Astrid Meklit’s grown up party was yesterday, and it was delightful.  Photographic proof of delight courtesy of AMY!

grownupparty1

and today we enjoyed the oh-so-grownup tradition of taking down screens and putting up storm windows (I can’t believe we’ve made it this far in life without enjoying this fine activity, but there you have it.  It was a new experience at 40)

in between, we did all of the other funness that makes a weekend tick–errands, laundry, and oh yeah, 2 daily blog posts.  I know I should go tackle something while I wait for Mad Men to start, but I’ll stay here and cuddle instead.  I think we’ve been responsible grownups for long enough this weekend.

floating through my head as I frantically:

a.  complete this round of the annual campaign for EOR

b.  do a little more marketing of ETSS’ Enkutatash event–we’re hoping to have 500+ guests (on September 19)

c.  pack for my trip to Denmark–we leave on Thursday morning

d.  ignore this blog completely in service to a, b & c

500 envelopes, 30 zillion press releases, and 75 dozen lists later, I’ll be blissfully happy to climb on a plane for 8 hours.  For now, I am fervently wishing that Albert would be home before Wednesday night to help me (a vain and unenlightened hope, I am afraid) and I wish too that I could find the EOR credit card to pay for our Kinko’s order.  I haven’t used it for ages because I stopped shipping things for the store, so I put it away for safe keeping, and it is now VERY safe, even from me.

Not a lot more to add, I’ll try to pop in once more before I leave for Copenhagen, and I plan to update from Europe too. Hope you all are well, kittens.  It feels like ages since we’ve talked!

The entryway bookcase before…

and after…

As you can see, I had to wrap the books in brown paper.   It all looks so clean and neat.  Of course, taking half the books out of  the case (not my plan, but wrapping

the books takes FOREVER) and adding some decorative  items probably helps, but at the end of all of the wrapping, I think it was worth it.  I’m soliciting opinions though–tell me what you think.

Look at my sweet baby!  She had 8 teeth a year ago.  Today, I noted that the reason for her recent spate of crabbiness was not lack of fresh air (as I feared) but the emergence of her last 4 baby molars.  Despite her incredible growth spurt over the past year, I just packed those pajamas away for cousin S–they still fit, although much differently now.  She’s only gained a pound since this picture was taken, but she’s grown several inches.

Not a single new interesting thing to say, so I rely on photo fillers from the way back machine.  Cheesy, but what are you gonna do?

I’ll plan a trip to Fiji for tomorrow so I can spare you drawn out paragraphs about changing the hardware on the kitchen cabinet.  It’s not for me mind you.  I just want you to have something fun to read