home again, home again...

so today . . . we are home. from las vegas. i am sooooo tired. and there is laundry... so much laundry...

i sort of blogged in my head today as we came home, but now i am just too tired to write it all down. instead, i am going to bed. usually i choose blogging over sleep, but not tonight. tonight sleep wins.

maybe tomorrow i will blog about today. or maybe i will write the wrap-up blog to our little adventure. because there were some things that happened that didn't make it into the other blogs--not because they weren't funny, but because they would have hijacked the purpose of the blog...

yes my blogs have a purpose!! i don't just sit down and ramble on about my day!!! i know that sometimes (like now :) ) it might seem like i do, but i don't. every day i leave stuff out that doesn't fit in. surprised to hear that, are you?? well, it is true.

although now i am rambling. that is what happens when i am so tired that the thought of walking up to get into bed is almost too much to contemplate.

almost...

a thanksgiving trip...

so today . . . we are in las vegas.

and i am not going to blog about my packing ordeal (you can thank me later,) or my school feast for 44 (which went surprisingly well.) i am instead going to blog about las vegas!

getting here was less trouble than i thought it would be. we were able to leave early in the afternoon, and while there were some traffic issues, most of the trip was fine. (i say this, having slept most of the way here...) it is a looooong desolate trip across the desert.

we didn't have any trouble finding las vegas. we just got on the freeway and drove until we ran into it. but finding our hotel was another matter. we have a gps, but sometimes it is a little hard to know exactly where she wants us to turn! and so we missed the first turn. she recalculated the route, and then we missed the next turn. let me just say, it doesn't take long to get away from the shimmer and shine of the strip and into the darkness... but we kept working at it and finally arrived at our hotel.

and then there was the parking.

i am not totally convinced that they have as many parking spaces as they have rooms. they have a lot of rooms. we are on the 33rd floor. but the parking structure only looks like it is 4 levels high! this seems like a problem to me. we ended up on the third level, and played parking lot shark until we found a spot. (of course, as always, diandra prayed for a spot. which turned out to be a good idea, because there were a lot of cars cruising for parking places...)

we decided to leave our stuff in the car until we got checked in. that turned out to be one of our better ideas today, because there was a LINE to check in--one of those zig-zaggy lines like at disneyland! when we had our room keys in hand, we went back out to retrieve our luggage.

did i mention how cold it is here?

yes, we were piling on coats and hats and scarves... and i was carrying my trusty polar fleece blanket. we entered the hotel from the parking structure and got in an elevator--only to discover that it didn't go where we wanted to go. i find this odd, but you can't just get into any elevator and go to any floor. so we got out and went to another elevator. a tiny one. a really tiny one. it was barely bigger than a large sized shower! and we had to use it, because for some strange reason the escalator was stopped. and we had luggage. so we got on--all three of us with our luggage. we filled up the space pretty well. and THEN a lady got on with a toddler-filled stroller and another small child. the doors closed, diandra pressed the right button. and nothing happened.

NOTHING HAPPENED! we were in a teeny tiny elevator with a woman and two small children, and we were not moving. diandra pressed the button again. "i don't think we are moving," she said. "are we stuck in here?" "no," i said, pressing the button repeatedly, "no, we aren't stuck."

i said this is a calm rational voice. but inside my head i was screaming, "WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!!! THERE IS NO AIR! I CAN'T MOVE! IT IS SOOOO HOT IN HERE! I HAVE TO GET MY COAT OFF! WHY IS THAT BABY LOOKING AT ME! WHAT IF WE CAN'T GET OUT! AAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

i continued to press the button. finally i felt a little movement. finally the doors opened and we were free! it took every ounce of self-control that i possess to let that mom and her two kids get off the elevator first. if those doors had started to close, i would have thrown diandra between them in a heartbeat! i love my daughter, but if it meant the difference between being in that elevator with the doors open or closed, i would have thrown her under the bus without a second thought! (sorry, diandra... i love you...)

after unpacking and eating, diandra and i were not yet ready to call it a night. rollie was. so we left him in the room with netflix and headed out. our plan was to go across the street to the venetian hotel and look at the shops. the problem with that plan was that we had to go outside. and we didn't have our coats. because we didn't know that was going to be our plan when we left the room...

so out we went. and did i mention how COLD it was?!?!?! and not only was it cold, but the wind was blowing like mad! my phone said the "real feel" temperature was 38 degrees! and we didn't have our coats on. we did have on sweaters, but it wasn't enough. and yet, we stopped and took pictures. outside. repeatedly. because that is what we do...we got into the venetian hotel and were suddenly glad that we didn't have coats. it was pretty warm inside. we hadn't gone far when we saw a sign with the shop hours on it. i thought everything here would be open all the time, but it isn't. the shops close at 11:00 p.m! this was news to us, and a little bit disappointing since we didn't venture out until 10:00. but it was enough time to take more pictures and get lost. that hotel is a labyrinth! a labyrinth with a river and gondolas running through it!yeah, i kind of love it :)

so, we are spending this thanksgiving in one of the most self-indulgent cities in the world. we are going to be surrounded by people spending a lot of money and probably making some bad choices. it is going to be interesting. but i can tell after today, it is also going to be a lot of fun!

because one of the things i am most thankful for is my family. this year we are all together, just the three of us. and we will be together in a way that we are not when we are at home. i am thankful for that opportunity, because my favorite people are the ones who are related to me! and i get to spend the next three days discovering new and interesting things with them.

"we may be small, but we are mighty!"

all alone...

so today . . . i am home alone. hehehe...

i took rollie to the airport after lunch. the traffic was light, and the trip was uneventful. i stopped at 7-11 on the way home and bought two brownies, two bananas, and two bags of chips. so far, i have eaten both bags of chips and one brownie. my plan is to eat a banana when i am done blogging, which will leave me a brownie and a banana for breakfast!

i may have to eat salad for lunch tomorrow...

rollie would never eat a brownie for breakfast. although, he did eat one of those 40 minute hard boiled eggs this morning. and he didn't die. but he did say they were kind of dry. he tried to warm one up for his breakfast, and he said it didn't get very warm. his explanation (and i am not sure i am buying it,) is that microwaves heat food by activating the moisture in the food, and apparently these eggs do not have enough moisture in them to get warm... i don't know what to say about that. i told him he didn't have to eat the eggs, but he said they weren't that bad.

there's a rousing appreciation for my efforts!

i got my computer back today, too. james, the computer wizard, finished working on my computer last night, so when i got home from the airport, i spent some serious time catching up on all my internet stuff. my old computer sort of bridged the gap, but it is SO SLOW!!!!!!! which i know is relative, but still...

and now i am sitting here at 11:30, all by myself for the next two and a half days! i'm going to eat a banana and maybe some ice cream. i'm going to set up the family room for the photo project i want to do while rollie and diandra are gone. i'm going to stay up late and THEN leave the tv on while i go to sleep. and tomorrow, i may take a break and go to a movie. all by myself...

...after i eat a salad, of course :)

san diego=fun!

so today . . . was our bonus day in san diego--a whole day to do whatever we wanted to do.

"what do you want to do?" rollie asked me. "i don't know," i said, "what do you want to do?"

you see, this is how our conversations go. it doesn't matter if we are discussing where to have dinner or what movie to see. it isn't that we don't have preferences, it is just that we are both so nice that we will agree to whatever the other of us wants. but knowing that, neither of us wants to impose our preferences on the other one . . .

"well," rollie said, "we don't have to go do anything if you don't want to. i would be happy just hanging around here and reading." reading is probably our favorite thing to do, so normally that would be a great suggestion. but we can read at home! we are in san diego today, and i thought we should go do something, i just didn't know what. it was not a lovely sunny, warm day--it was cloudy and damp--not the best weather for going out and doing anything! but after a little more discussion, we decided to brave the weather and go visit the u.s.s. midway. i put on as many layers of clothing as i could get on under my sweatshirt, and off we went.

i was driving, rollie was navigating. except he couldn't get the gps in his phone to find us. he turned it off and then back on again. he had me pull over and wait for it to catch up. he rolled down the window and stuck his phone out into the open air . . . meanwhile, i pulled out my old magellan and found the directions :) and off we went. again.

i am fascinated by aircraft carriers. i am amazed by their sheer size, by the fact that they are like small cities, and that airplanes can actually take off and land on a ship! so i was pretty excited. they gave us headphones and digital players with explanations of all the different parts of the ship and it's airplanes. for free! (of course, we did have to pay to get in. and to park. so maybe 'free' is overstating it a bit.) it made a huge difference in enjoying what we were seeing, to be able to listen to all that history.

i took a few pictures, and then my camera batteries died. that was it for me. i was pretty sure i was done having fun if i couldn't take any more pictures. we started through the labyrinth of passageways, and then i saw it--a store! "look," i said to rollie, "i will be able to buy batteries. what luck!" but when i reached the front of the store, i saw that i was still going to be batteryless for a while longer . . .
there were mannequins all over this ship! and it isn't that they looked so lifelike up close, but seeing them out of the corner of my eye, they kept tricking me. it happened again when we entered the mess hall. i saw the food line and thought, "yay! i was just thinking i would like something to eat . . . "(of course, my brain quickly corrected itself, but those pesky mannequins creeped me out all afternoon!)

soon we found the cafe (because what tourist attraction would be complete without serving seriously overpriced food?) and ate delicious mushroom cheeseburgers for lunch. actually, we ordered mushroom cheeseburgers for lunch, but they refused to make any modifications! so when we got them, we performed surgery--i gave rollie my mushrooms, tomatoes, and extra sauce, and then i added ranch dressing to mine, cut it in half, eliminated half of the bun, and stacked the burgers together. the result was sort of messy, but delicious!

after lunch we walked through the gift shop--because they put the cafe on the opposite side of the gift shop, so we had to walk through it to get to the food! and i seriously looked at souveniers, because you know how anything touristy and overpriced draws me . . . thankfully they had penny-munching machines, so i pressed a few pennies to satisfy my need to buy something, and then we moved on to the flight deck and all the airplanes!

this is where i lost rollie. i was going from plane to plane, in an orderly fashion, and obediently listening to the information about each one from my headphones. rollie was darting about, in seemingly random order, and he was TOUCHING THE PLANES!!! (we were sooo channelling each other--usually rollie is the methodical one and i am the totally random one.) when i tracked him down, he said he was only interested in the fighting planes, so that is what he was looking at. i kept waiting for one of the docents to smack him across the knuckles for playing with the aircraft, but apparently it was ok, because they completely ignored him.

my favorite part of the day was meeting tom casenza. he is a world war II veteran, and he was there talking with people today. and when i say talking, i mean TALKING! but he didn't talk much about his military service. he talked about his construction business, and about where to get the best italian food in san diego, and about dancing--that is when his eyes really lit up--when he was talking about dancing . . .before we left, rollie wanted to ride in the fighter plane simulator. it was a two person ride, so he said to me, "do you want to drive or shoot?" i wasn't sure i wanted to do either, after watching these things in action. it was a little pod on a swivelling arm, and it would roll and move according to what the driver did. i was watching the one ahead of us twirl and toss and go upside down and all around, and i was pretty sure driving was not what i wanted to do. but i was also pretty sure rollie was going to want to shoot something down. we decided he should drive, and i should shoot. and it was a wild and crazy ride! we flew upside down, we flew sideways, we did a nosedive, we flew straight up--and this was with rollie driving. can you imagine what would have happened if it had been me driving?!?!?! fortunately we survived, but it was a good thing they had us empty our pockets before we got in . . .

the museum closed at 5:00. by the time we left, the sun was shining. we put the top down on the car and headed back to our dorm room. it was just as we had left it :)yeah, i'll bet you can guess who sleeps where . . .

ah, college life . . .

so today . . . it occurred to me that perhaps i should blog . . .

i haven't blogged since sunday night. i meant to, but i have been kind of busy . . . sleeping. i didn't realize how tired i was until i ended up in a dorm room with no tv and nothing i had to do . . .

i brought plenty of stuff to keep me busy. i thought rollie would be tied up in meetings most of the time we were here, so i brought music to evaluate, photos to organize and sort, books to read, photoshop to learn, snacks to eat. i was ready!

after packing the trunk like a jigsaw puzzle, we drove to san diego with the top down on the car. the weather was beautiful--for about half an hour. then there were clouds. lots and lots of clouds. so we just turned the heat on and the music up and kept driving. actually the plan was for me to drive first (because it was fun!) stop for lunch, and then rollie would drive the rest of the way in. but i kept missing the exits with food--probably because i was driving in the far left lane. by the time we reached our destination, i was starving! we still didn't stop for food though, because we needed to get through registration for the conference. and when we registered, we found out that dinner was going to be served about an hour later. i wasn't sure i could survive another hour without food--i hadn't eaten since breakfast! but thankfully i found the campus snack store and snagged a bag of chips. i was so hungry, i noticed later that i had ripped open the bag from the bottom. luckily i scarfed them all down so quickly that the bag never left my hands . . .

we finally found our room, after sidetracking a couple of runners and blocking traffic while they gave us directions. we hauled all our stuff into our room (which has an ocean view--once you look past the parking lot and the dumpsters,) and went to dinner.

i LOVE eating college food. i loved it when i was in college (even though everyone else complained,) and i love it here. there are so many choices, and you can eat as much as you want. there are sandwiches and salad and cheeseburgers and pizza and ice cream at every meal! and also a variety of pastas and ethnic foods and a vegetarian dish too. and it all tastes good! of course, i eat a lot of fast food, so maybe my taste buds are somewhat torqued.

when we had eaten our fill of cheeseburgers and ice cream, we came back to our room. i logged onto the internet, caught up on facebook and thought about blogging, but my eyes were resistant to anything that required them to be open.

i was in bed by 9:00. and sleep was not far behind. i slept late the next morning, and was asleep last night by 10:00!

(i know my mother is probably the only one who cares about how much sleep i get--for the rest of you, that information was just a bonus :) )

as it turns out, rollie hasn't been quite as tied up as i thought he would be. and we have been spending some time with friends that we rarely get to see. so i haven't read one sentence in a book, looked at one file of photos, organized any music, or opened photoshop. it seems all i do is sleep and eat and hang out with my friends . . .

. . . just like being in college :)

pre-vacation craziness

so today . . . i am getting ready to leave town again.

yes, i just got back from visiting my parents in oregon, and now i am leaving again. but tomorrow, rollie and i head to san diego for a pastors' conference. it will be work for rollie, but fun for me. we are going to point loma nazarene university's campus--which just happens to be right on the pacific ocean!

i had heard about how beautiful the campus was, but until i actually saw it a few years ago when diandra began her freshman year of college, i really couldn't imagine it. diandra spent her first year there in a HUGE room with three other roommates. one whole wall of their room was made of glass, with a spectacular view of the pacific ocean. i wanted to stay there myself and send her home with rollie! honestly, i don't know how any of the students ever pass a class . . .

but i digress . . .

there is always a mad frenzy of house cleaning to be done before i can go anywhere overnight. i'm not sure why i am like this, but i have learned that i am not the only one. oddly, though, i have yet to meet a man who feels the need to do this. usually the man is packed and in bed at a reasonable time before leaving on vacation--at least rollie always is.

but not me. technically all my vacations begin the same way, with me working into the wee hours of the morning before i leave--dusting, mopping, vacuuming, and generally trying to make my house neat and clean for my return. (and also, in case my vacation kills me, i won't be embarrassed for people to have to come into my house after the memorial service.) so i am always up until well past midnight the night before i go anywhere.

thankfully, since i was just on vacation, and since my husband is the neatest person i know, there wasn't much to be done. but, of course, i managed to find things that suddenly had to be completed before i could go. like learning how to use photo shop . . .

at 10:00 tonight, with my packing still undone, laundry still going, and picking up to be done, i sat on the couch while diandra showed me how to use photo shop. (if by some chance, any of you reading this are photographers or clients of diandra ann photography, don't panic! i am not going to be editing your photos!! diandra is just helping me learn the program so i can work on some other projects . . . ) there she sat, clicking through different steps, and downloading photos, and layering, and tweaking . . . and i am thinking, "i will never remember all of this. in fact, who am i kidding?!? i will probably not remember any of this!!!" but i tried, because she is going to be at camp this week and i am going to be in san diego. we will be far, far apart.

yes, i am going to be in san diego, staying on the beautiful campus of pt. loma nazarene university. probably in a dorm room, which i am guessing is not going to have a tv. or a microwave. or a refrigerator. so i will have lots and lots of time to try to learn photo shop. when i am not reading or napping. or playing games on my phone. or organizing my computer files (i defragged it today, so now it is nice and neat--really, i'm not insane.)

or enjoying the beach :)

blogging may be sparse this week, because i can already hear the ocean calling my name . . .

but first, i need to get that last load of laundry out, and mop the tile floors, and scrub the bathrooms again, and maybe vacuum.

i know i said i wasn't insane, but the day before my vacations, i think i might be knocking on that door.

vacation: day 10

so today . . . was the end of our oregon vacation.

my dad bravely hoisted our luggage ("what is in these bags?!?! why do you bring so much stuff?!?!" clearly my dad does not understand the shoe and wardrobe needs of a certain girl . . . or the electronic needs of the other one,) into his trunk, and we headed for the airport. the drive was uneventful--ok, well there were a few close calls, but no bumpers bumped, and no wrong exits were taken, so i call that good. when we arrived, we headed for the parking structure.

to enter the parking structure, you are forced to drive up a circular ramp. my view from the back seat did not include the guard rail positioned for safety along the outer edge. so when my dad suddenly straightened out the car, i saw my life flash before my eyes, because it looked to me like we were headed over the edge!

thankfully we were just headed onto the third level to park.

we went in, checked our bags (yes, that cost us $20 each!) ate lunch, and made it through security, all without incident. we sat down to put ourselves back together after the ordeal the TSA likes to call 'reasonable' security measures, and diandra asked me if i had any lotion. i said i did, and handed her the bottle i had in my purse. i found this lotion when i was cleaning out some bathroom cabinets last week. it was in a small, cute bottle and smelled delicious, so i thought it would be good to take on our trip. now we were on our way home, and i hadn't used it yet. she put a little on her leg, and said, "mom, what is this? i can't rub it in!" i said, "it is just some lotion i found in the cabinet." i picked up the bottle and looked at it again. yep, made by nivea. they make hand lotion. she continued trying to rub it in. "mom, it isn't working. look. it is turning white and spreading around." hmmm. i didn't know what to tell her. i looked at the bottle for a third time. and then i saw it. uh oh.

"what?" diandra said. she reads me too well. because i was busy stuffing the offending "lotion" back into my purse and hoping the goo on her legs would soon magically disappear. "what, mom! what it is? it isn't lotion, is it?!?!" no, it wasn't lotion. it was body wash.

i have got to get those new glasses!

diandra just looked at me. i was laughing. she was laughing too, although hers had a little edge to it, like "ok, this might be funny if it was someone else, but my legs are covered in sticky, white goop!" i started rooting around in my purse. "do you want a tissue? would that help?" i asked. again, the look! in hindsight, offering a tissue probably wasn't the best idea. it would have probably just stuck to the body wash, and then her legs would have been covered in white goo and fuzzy pieces of tissue.

did i mention she was wearing shorts?

she finally made most of it disappear, and turned to me and said, "i am going into that store over there and buy some LOTION!" ok . . . of course, i followed her into the store . . .

there is something about stores in airports that is irresistible to me. i don't know what it is, but i have this compelling need to buy souveniers. or something! so while diandra was trying to find lotion, i was looking at t-shirts. yes, t-shirts that said 'portland' on them.

this is wrong for so many reasons. first of all, i grew up in portland. when i go there, i am going home. having a t-shirt that says 'portland' on it, would imply that it was some exotic destination for me. but the truth is, i don't go there to see the sights--i go there to see my mom and dad! secondly, i don't wear souvenier t-shirts. ever. because if my shirt has words and pictures on it, can i accessorize it with jewels? no. that would just be wrong. so i should probably buy a souvenier bracelet or earrings rather than a t-shirt. and thirdly, there was no place to try them on, so how would i know if they would even fit properly. but they were on sale for $8.88! how could i not buy one?!?

i managed to resist the siren song of oregon souveniers, diandra made her purchases, and we moved on. after a stop at the restrooms, where diandra tried somewhat unsuccessfully to remove the body wash (apparently it was not as easy as one might think it would be,) we got to our gate just in time to board the plane. "are we going to be on another small plane?" diandra asked (with a bit of a wary look in her eye--for some reason she was convinced the whole lotion/body wash thing was not an accident.) "yes," i said. "it is a bombardier--the same type of plane we were on before." "well, that sounds kind of mean," she said. i had no idea what she meant, but it was time to board . . .

alaska/horizon airplanes do not all look alike. we flew from long beach to seattle on the oregon state university plane. and we saw the university of oregon plane on the ground in seattle. they seem to like to decorate their aircraft in different and unique ways. as we walked toward our plane, on the nose it said 'bombardier' and had a number and a person's name. i'm sure there was some significance to it, but i didn't know what. and then diandra said, "oooohhh, bombardier!" "yes, that is what i said," i said. diandra replied, "i thought you said bomb-a-deer!"

ok, before you think that is a totally unreasonable thought, there is a lot of forest area in the pacific northwest, and a lot of deer. however, bombing them from passenger planes is still not an accepted way to bag one and put it in your freezer. at least, as far as i know . . .

as our plane took off from portland, headed for seattle (i know that is not the most direct way home, but alaska/horizon thinks everyone should spend some time in the seattle airport,) i heard the young woman sitting behind me ask a flight attendant for a blanket for her bird--yes, there was a bird in a box in the seat behind me. and apparently it was cold.

some days, my blog almost writes itself . . .

vacation: day 6

so today . . . i am freezing! like a popsicle!!

yes, it is the middle of summer. yes, i live in southern california. but today i am in oregon, and it is cold. even in the middle of summer.

when we come to oregon at christmas, we know it is going to be cold and probably wet. we pack all the sweaters we own. we look for the elusive snow boots. we hope our pathetic california coats will be adequate. we dig in boxes in the garage for stocking hats and mittens.

in other words, we plan for it.

but in the summer we are thinking shorts and tank tops and sandals. which is foolishness, i know, because the last two summers we have arrived with our warm weather apparel only to have to make a mad dash to old navy for jeans and a sweatshirt! (not that we mind, of course, it's just that i don't like being forced to shop.) so you would think i would learn...

apparently i don't.

this summer when i got ready to pack for our trip, i went online and checked the weather, again--even the extended forecast! i was ready! i was prepared!! the forecast said hot, hot, hot, followed by pretty warm--maybe a few clouds, but still warm. so i packed sundresses, tank tops, shorts, and sandals. as a concession to possibly cool nights, i threw in a light, thermal, long sleeved hoodie. when diandra asked what i was going to pack and i told her, she said, "you are only taking one pair of jeans?"

i'm pretty sure we have had this conversation before.

"yes," i said, "i am wearing my jeans on the plane, because the airports will probably be cool. but it is supposed to be sunny and warm the whole time we are there!"

"well, i'm taking two pairs of jeans," she replied, "just in case..."

it turned out to be a wise decision. the first two days we were here were almost unbearably hot. then there was a fairly pleasant day. and then oregon realized i was here and turned her chilly face toward me...

in self defense, i put my warm bathrobe (which i leave here for just such occasions) on at 4:00 this afternoon! i got out my polar fleece blanket, which i almost didn't bring (since it was supposed to be hot, hot, hot!) and i managed to weather the cold.

according to the news, it is supposed to get hot again. in a couple of days. about the time we leave.

next year i am bring three pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts!

of course, that is probably oregon's evil plan. next year every day will probably be in the 90's...

vacation: day 4

so today . . . we went to the antique show.

the antique show and i have a long history together. i've spent more days than i can remember out there trolling the aisles for hidden treasure, and today was no different.

well, actually, that isn't true. today was different. today i went looking for cheap treasures--and by cheap, i mean less than $5. today my dad didn't go with us. he is the negotiating king, but today we had to do our own negotiating. today i apparently wasn't the only one out there with a small wrist shopping for bracelets, because the tiny, sparkly bracelet i went back to get was gone . . . which is probably ok, because it cost more than $5. and today, instead of just shopping and enjoying being with my mom and my daughter, i spent some time listening to what was being said around me. the result is my TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS OVERHEARD AT THE ANTIQUE SHOW.

10-"it's not real old, but it's solid--there's no breaks or cracks in it."
9-"i know my daughter, and i know what she thinks!!"
8-"we are going to go up every stinkin' aisle and look at what i want and not what i don't!"
7-"i know you are bored with all of this..."
6-"what do you know about this picture?" and the reply, "it's old. it's very old!"
5-"i'm so proud of you! you bought something!" (aren't these words we would all love to hear...)
4-"i wish we had something old in our family..." and the response, "we do--we have grandma!"
3-"that's because i'm #4 on speed dial!"
2-"i just think you should know, if you buy that, i'm not going to keep it when you die!"

and the number one thing overheard at the antique show...
1-"i'm not going to buy this! it's been used!"

seriously? at the antique show? it's been used?!?! isn't that kind of the nature of antiques?? you know, old stuff? and yet, maybe the definition of old is somewhat relative...

diandra was looking for old cameras to display in her office. again. "ooo mom, what do you think about this one?" she asked. i turned around to see what she was holding."that's not an old camera," i said, "i had one of those when i was a kid!"

she just looked at me, raised her eyebrows, and smiled.

vacation: day 2

so today . . . i slept LATE! but that's ok, because i am on vacation!

i don't know where the day went. all i know is that it is 11:50 p.m. and my mom, diandra, and i are sitting at the dining room table playing clue. we are so tired. my eyes are puffy and dry. and yet, here we sit, playing clue.

clue is diandra's favorite game. but the problem with clue is that you cannot play it with just two people. so even though all i want to do is let my body fall into bed, i play clue. playing this game at this time of night is not working out too well. we can't remember whose turn it is. we haven't played in so long, that we have all forgotten our "system" for keeping track of who has which cards. we are not very good at cheating--which we will all do if given the opportunity. (except maybe for diandra, who had the perfect opportunity to cheat, and yet resisted. yes, she is the good child!) wrong answers were erroneously given. wrong assumptions were made. it was a hot mess! and when i say "hot," i mean hot, as it was over 100 degrees here today--and oregon houses typically do not have air conditioning . . .

still, there was a lot of laughing going on. confusion was labeled as cheating. cheating was disguised as confusion. certain words popped out of more than one mouth. diandra won both games, and my mom and i had ice cream, so everyone went to bed happy.

but we made a new rule--no more clue after 11:00 p.m. we need to try to have our fun earlier in the day so we can get some sleep!

vacation: day 1

so today . . . my vacation began, and i am soooo tired! too tired to blog, actually. but the computer was on, and i heard these words in my head, in this sort of low pitched, echo-y voice: "VACATION--DAY 1." so i guess i am going to be writing about my vacation . . .

but not tonight. i started to do it, but my eyes will not stay open another minute . . .

and another "absolute" falls . . .

so today . . . i think i love shania twain.

this worries me. i hate country music. really. a lot. it all sounds the same to me. and the twang just kills me! it makes me want to walk like a chicken. i can't explain it--it just does.

(yes, that is diandra holding a chicken! i thought this might be a good spot for a chicken picture, even though you can't see it walking. i guess you will have to imagine it!!)

and then two summers ago diandra and i took a road trip to portland to visit my parents. we took my new car, crammed every inch of trunk space full of stuff (well, it is kind of a small trunk, and we are girls so we had a lot of stuff,) and headed north on I-5. we talked, we laughed, we listened to my music--for the first twelve hours of the trip . . .

then we crossed the oregon border, and stopped at the talent, oregon wal-mart.

there is nothing special about this particular store. we actually pass several wal-marts on our way to portland, (not to mention that there is one just a couple of miles from our house,) but for some reason i always feel compelled to stop at this particular store. even if i don't need anything, i will usually stop. because you just never know . . .

(part of the appeal is probably the lack of sales tax. we have adjusted to the outrageous sales tax that we are forced to pay here in socal, but when you don't have to pay it, it is like everything is on sale! so we shop until we run out of money and feel perfectly justified in doing so, because we save so much money without the sales tax . . . yes, that is our story, and we are sticking to it!)

anyway, we went into walmart, and diandra bought a cd by a cute little blonde girl named taylor swift. and then she wanted to play it in the car. i don't live in a cave, so i knew this was country music--which i hate--so i wanted to say no. but i love my daughter, and she was in the midst of some pretty difficult circumstances. i wanted to see her smile, so i reluctantly said ok, we could listen to it. once.

and then a strange thing happened. i liked it. i really, really liked it. the words of the songs just seemed to resonate with both of us that summer, and before we reached portland (two days later, because we went to over to the coast first,) i was starting to sing along to some of the songs. even the ones that started out twangy.

we listened to that cd all the way to the oregon coast, all the way up the oregon coastline, back inland to portland, AND THEN all the way back down to LA!! yes, you read that right. we did not pull another cd out of a jewel case for the rest of the trip. we put the top down and sang at the top of our lungs. it was cathartic. for both of us. (i know i am not singing at the top of my lungs in this picture, but when we were singing, we weren't taking pictures. so this is the best i can do.)

i had to admit that even though i hated country music, i liked taylor swift. then i learned that i liked some rascal flatts and a little carrie underwood. and tonight, while watching american idol, i kind of think i might love shania twain. i'm not 100% certain yet though . . .

i am thinking maybe my debit card and i should wander over to itunes, listen to some shania, put a few songs in my shopping cart, and see what happens . . . ;)

need cold weather? just call me . . .

so today . . . is our last day of vacation in oregon. the weather has not been all that cooperative, but we have still had a good time just being together. and we only got rained on a couple of times!

sadly, i think i am weather cursed. when we started packing for this trip, i checked the weather forecast on my computer. it said there would be a couple of days of cloudy, possibly rainy weather, followed by 3 days of warm sunny weather, topped off by 3 more days of mostly sunny and cooler but still warmish weather.

ok. so i wore a pair of jeans and boots, and then packed shorts, tank tops, sundresses, sandals, and a couple of cardigan sweaters. remember, we were packing light! : ) i thought i was set--but diandra said, "you are only taking one pair of jeans?" diandra doesn't go anywhere without at least 3 pair of jeans! but i thought i would only need them the first couple of days, and jeans are heavy to pack, and we were packing light . . . so yes, one pair of jeans. i lived to regret that decision . . .

it was cloudy and cold every day we were here, except for one! the first two days i wore the tops and sweaters that i brought for the cool days. but then it was cold again. what is a girl to wear when all she has are shorts and tank tops and it is cold? well, she wears her jeans, again, with two of the tank tops (for body warmth at least) and one of the cardigans. and then when it is cold the next day too, she wears two different tank tops and the jeans, AGAIN, and the other cardigan. and this pattern continues all week . . .

one day diandra said to me, "man, mom, you are colorful today!" this was the day i had on the green tank top over the brown tank top with the bright pink sweater. it didn't exactly look bad, but it was kind of an unusual color combination. and had i been wearing my green and brown plaid shorts (and no pink cardigan) it would have been cute. but when you are on vacation, you have to wear what you have, even if the combination necessary to keep you from freezing looks a little odd.

every day after that, she looked at me and said, "very colorful, mom . . . " i think she was mocking me, but i was too cold to care. and yet, every day i thought that maybe the next day would be warm. i wrapped up in my polar fleece blanket underneath the covers at night, because i didn't want to turn the heat on in my room. i just knew that it was going to be hot the next day and i would be glad for the cool temperature downstairs. and every morning i woke up expecting sunshine . . . but the sun was nowhere to be seen.

when we were in orlando a couple of weeks ago, the same thing happened. it wasn't as cold, but every day was cloudy with short, unexpected bursts of rain. i had big plans for my week there. i was going to sit by the pool and read my book. i was going to walk around and take pictures of cool stuff. but it was risky to spend any time outside, because you never knew when the rain was going to fall.

we are going home tomorrow, and the weather forecast says sunny and 90 degrees! on the day that we leave. and so, the curse continues . . .

surprise? or ambush??

so today . . . i was ambushed. by my evil twin. and her partner in crime, who is the nicest person you will ever meet. i don't know how she was sucked into the vortex, but the plan would not have worked without her.

it all started innocently enough. my friend sherry saw that we were going to be visiting my parents and thought that she might come up to see us. she farms with us and thought this would be a chance to meet my mom--who also farms.

but then wendy (my evil twin) got wind of our plans. she thought that maybe she would like to come as well . . . sherry lives just over an hour from my parents, but wendy is about four and a half hours away! that is kind of a long trip for a one day visit! so, since she wasn't coming, wendy spent friday night being pesky while we were playing farmtown.

my friend wendy is one of my favorite people, but she has perfected the art of playful obnoxiousness--although sometimes she borders on the seriously obnoxious (hey--i said borders . . . ) we have more fun when we are "bickering." she is like the annoying sister i never had (and really didn't miss!) we have pranked each other and pranked others together. and today she pulled a prank on me, and i never saw it coming.

this morning my mom and dad and diandra and i got up early and headed for the antique show. this is a huge show that usually hosts about 1000 vendors. it is nearly impossible to get through the whole show in one day, but we always try. we saw so many cool things, but were somewhat limited in our purchases since our luggage was already pretty much packed solid. diandra was looking for vintage cameras and had excellent luck in finding some, although we may have to strap them to our bodies and try to convince the airline that they are fashion accessories in order to get them home.

once we moved inside, we could smell the food vendors. there is something about the aroma of hot dogs in the warmer that gets me salivating. it soon became clear that we needed lunch--no matter what time it said on our watches. plus our legs were ready for a rest. so i lurked in the eating area, cruising for chairs. i managed to snag three AND find an empty spot at a table. when we sat down to eat, i realized that i still hadn't heard from sherry. she had thought she would arrive close to 12:00 and it was later than that, but she had my phone number so i figured if there was a problem, she would call.

after lunch we moved into the second building. diandra found more cameras. mom found perfect chairs for her kitchen, only to be told that they had just been sold! she was sad. she was more than sad. diandra found a coral bead bracelet with a chicken on it--yes a chicken--that she just had to have. and a bracelet made out of pennies.

i found nothing. well, that's not completely true. i found several rocking chairs that i liked, but they would not fit in my suitcase. i found lots of beautiful crystal pieces--vases, candlesticks--but as lovely as they were, i have no place at home to put them. i found lots and lots of sparkly rhinestone jewelry (which is usually my default purchase,) but i already have so much that i didn't really see anything unique or different. and i was halfway through the third building.

i was halfway through the third building when my phone rang. it was sherry and she had finally arrived, so i went out to find her. we were both in the same courtyard, but i couldn't see her. i finally had to call her, and then we spotted each other. we headed inside, but she kept kind of looking around. she seemed a little uneasy, but i thought it was just that the show was maybe kind of overwhelming. and then, there she was--my evil twin!

wendy had decided at the last minute to make the trip. her daughter was coming part way up anyway, so she rode with her for the first three hours and then met sherry. i was so surprised! and pleased!! i had been excited to get to see one friend, and now i got to see two!

it seems as though usually when we come up north to visit, there are always people who want to see us. but they always seem to want us to come to them. and honestly, after travelling 1000 miles to get here, we are usually just too tired of travelling to make very many connections. so this was a rare and special treat--two friends who cared enough to make the trip to see us!we laughed. we talked. we shopped. we piled into the cars along with our purchases and headed back to my mom and dad's house, where they made a delicious dinner for us. we laughed some more. we talked some more. we farmed--yes we farmed, and it was so much fun to be able to actually TALK to each other rather than use the chat box to communicate.

we had started out to have fun today, and we did. and having two of my friends show up (one unexpectedly) just increased the fun!

thanks you guys! it was great!!

vacation = too tired to blog

so today . . . i am still on vacation and funny stuff is happening. we are laughing a lot. the problem is, i am so tired at night that it is hard for me to blog it. we have done a little bit of shopping. we went garage saling. we watched a movie. we went to the bread store. i signed up for twitter (@jewelielynn). we looked at new glasses for my mom. we ate sandwiches and barbeque chips and mini chocolate donuts (well, mostly i ate the donuts.) and we signed my mom up for a phone plan with unlimited text messaging and internet access. then we convinced her to buy the coolest phone ever! (and no, it isn't an iphone. puh-lease!! it is way cooler than that!) and then we signed her up for twitter. tomorrow we are going to the antique show, which has over 1000 vendors! we are going to be tired when we get home!! but i will try to save enough brain power to write a blog. diandra is coming too, so there may even be pictures . . .

vacations--don't you love 'em?!

next time, ask . . .

so today . . . i tried to dry my hair with a bathroom wall heater.

i thought i had done such a good job of packing "lightly" this time. i had limited the number of shoes i brought. i didn't bring a bulky bathrobe or slippers. i wore my boots and jacket onto the plane. i didn't even bring shampoo, because i knew my mom would have some! my goal was to get my suitcase zipped up without having to unzip the 3" extension--in case i needed that on the way home. (which i probably will, since i'm sure we will go shopping at some point. in fact, today i bought a dvd . . . ) i felt so proud when i managed to get that suitcase zipped up!

and then diandra said, "do you have room for these two books?" well, what's a mom to say? i was just glad she was bringing books along, so i shoved them in as well. "ta-da!" i thought. "i did it!!"

it felt so good not to have to wrestle a huge, heavy bag through the airport terminal. i just smiled when my dad did NOT say, "WHAT HAVE YOU GOT IN HERE?!?!?!" when he hefted my bag into his car trunk. and i could have carried it downstairs to my room all by myself, if he had let me. i was feeling pretty good . . .

. . . and then, this morning i took a shower.

when i take a shower at my mom's, i always spend a few minutes after i get out standing in front of the electric wall heater. you see, their downstairs bathroom doesn't have an exhaust fan--it has a heater. and when you get out of the shower, it feels sooooo warm and good.

i was enjoying the heat and combing out my wet hair, when it hit me--i did not bring my hair dryer. no wonder i was able to fit everything into my suitcase. no wonder i managed to cram diandra's books in. no wonder i didn't have to unzip the extension. i had left my hair dryer at home . . .

what to do, what to do . . . i do not have the easiest hair to work with and when it air dries, it is even more difficult. i was contemplating my predicament when i felt the warm air from the wall heater blow gently against my legs. hmmm, i thought. warm, blowing air-that's all a hair dryer is, really. so i sat on the furry bathroom rug, put my head close to the heater, and fluffed my hair.

it didn't really work. but at least it didn't catch on fire.

it had seemed like a good idea. i mean, i knew it wouldn't be as powerful as my 1800 watt hair dryer that i LEFT AT HOME, but it thought it would be better than nothing.

it wasn't.

so i got dressed, went upstairs, and told diandra i had left my hair dryer at home. i knew she hadn't brought one either, and so i braced myself for what i was sure was coming next.

"that's ok," she said. "i'll just use grams'."

what?!? "grams doesn't have a hair dryer," i said. my mom's hair is curly and a hair dryer would turn her into an instant frizz-ball.

"i have a hair dryer," she said. "i just don't use it very often."

ok. so i guess the next time i shower, i will be able to dry my hair without a fire extinguisher near by.

"i'm leeeeeavin' on a jet plane . . . "

so today . . . it is nearly midnight, and i am still up. i am still up, because tomorrow i am leaving for vacation. and if you read my blog the day i left for orlando, you know what that means . . .

actually, i was doing pretty well. i had a reasonable, doable list to complete today. if i got up kind of early. and if i stayed busy all day. and if i didn't do any farming (i lost 3 fields of pumpkins yesterday, so today i am in mourning . . . ) in fact, if i stayed off of facebook totally. and if i got my packing done early (while i still had a brain.) this was a lot of ifs, but i really thought i could do it.

the one thing i did not factor in, was attending a two and a half hour funeral today. it was a wonderful tribute to a man who had affected a lot of people during his 80 years, but it was somewhat longer than i had planned on. actually, quite a bit longer. and then rollie wanted to go out to lunch. and then i had a few errands to do. so i ended up trying to accomplish my whole day's list in just a few hours.

maybe impossible, but i was willing to give it a try. so i came home, changed my clothes and started packing.

i forgot to mention that diandra is going on this trip with me. when diandra and i travel, this is what usually happens--we start talking about the trip several days early. then we make a few trips to the store to get a stuff for the trip. (i got this idea from my friend lisa. several years ago, she and her husband were making a trip, i think to disneyland, and on the weekends leading up to the trip, they would do little things to get ready. the one that sticks in my mind is when they went to buy sunglasses--that's all, just sunglasses. but it built excitement for the trip, as well as getting them ready to go. so now, when i am going on a trip, i try to do the same thing.) but then we rarely start packing until 10:00 the night before. and then it takes us HOURS to get it done, because we are so tired by then, we can't make a decision about what to take and what to leave. so finally we just throw as much as we can fit into our suitcases and hope for the best. this results in very heavy suitcases, multiple suitcases, and nothing that goes with anything in any of the suitcases! it is a terrible system . . .

so this time, we decided we were going to pack before it got dark. we always pack at the same time, so we can help each other--maybe that is part of our problem . . . to begin, we sat down and had a snack. we just needed sustenance before tackling the packing. we discussed the weather in portland, and what we thought we might do while we were there, and how many pairs of shoes we thought we needed to take (diandra decided 2 and stuck with it--i ended up with 4.) then i decided i should fold laundry first, and diandra did nothing except pack her shoes--both pair. i finally got her moving in the right direction, but when i went to check on her, she was packing jewelry. "how can you pack jewelry?" i asked. "you don't even know what clothes you are taking yet."

she looked at me blankly and said, "i'm just taking it all." you see, even in the daylight our brains are not doing their jobs. we are seriously packing challenged!

we did get packed before dark. well, she did. i have all my stuff out, but the bag is not closed yet. we took a lot less than we usually do--we can even lift the bags ourselves! and i cleaned out the refrigerator, went to the store for cucumbers and nuts and raisins and tomatoes, and then cooked some chicken breasts for rollie (so he won't starve while we are gone.) i cleaned out the refrigerator, arranged his cucumbers, tomatoes, cooked chicken, and CHERRIES (his favorite) in the clean refrigerator. i did dishes. i VACUUMED!! yes people, i actually vacuumed. and now all i have left to do is finish this blog, clean the bathrooms, throw the rest of the stuff in my bags, and i am ready to go to bed! i had hoped to be done by midnight, but since it is now after midnight and i am still up, that is not going to happen.

by the time i am ready to go, i am really going to need this vacation . . .

a quick blog . . .

so today . . . my internet time is limited. i slept in. i am thinking of hitting the outlet mall this afternoon. and tonight i have to get packed up, because we leave orlando early in the morning. so this may be it.

yesterday i started a blog. it wasn't very good, because i didn't have much material to work with. i pretty much spent the day, again, eating and playing on the internet. but then before i could get back to my blog, my battery died.

my battery is amazing. it will last 6-8 hours, so i kind of expect it to just run all day. since my computer is muted, i didn't get any warning beeps. it just suddenly went into hibernation. i silently screamed NOOOOOO! but to no avail. it went off. and so, no blog yesterday.

today i am blogging first. although it isn't much of a blog, since i haven't really done anything yet except get up, shower, get dressed, and eat three mini chocolate donuts. but i am going to post this anyway, because at least it is something . . .

and if i decide in favor of rejecting the mall idea this afternoon, i may write again. however, if i decide against accepting the mall idea, this will be it for today.

(you see, this is the kind of confusing language i have been listening to for the last three days. it is amazing anyone knows what is going on . . . i sure don't!)

fun in orlando?!?

so today . . . i am realizing that we are only going to be here for a few more days, and i haven't done anything exciting.

the first few days were spent recovering from our trek across the country--really, we probably could have walked it with less frustration. although, my luggage still might not have made it past san francisco--it was kind of heavy . . .

then, once rollie started attending his meetings, i found myself mostly sleeping in, picking him up for lunch, taking a nap, picking him up for dinner, reading until bedtime, and eating chocolate donuts. yes, i was a slug! in my defense, i knew i was majorly sleep deprived, what with finishing up school, thinking about trimming milo's nails, and "cleaning" house before we left. so i knew i would be doing a lot of sleeping, but i'm in orlando! i should be doing something fun!

we have been to orlando before, so i have been to sea world, disney world, and epcot. i've been to gatorland and kennedy space center. i've seen the beach here, and it isn't worth a trip (at least the part i saw . . . ) and rollie is busy and can't come with me anyway, so i'm left with shopping.

now i love to shop, but in the summer i have to watch my pennies a little more carefully as i don't work--consequently, no paycheck. however there are two big outlet malls within a couple of miles and a really nice mall. so i feel obligated to go check them out . . .

however, i have been to wal-mart. three times! the first time was our first day here. we are not big on getting up in time to go out to eat breakfast. actually i am the one who doesn't want to get up early--rollie is always up early. and i love to eat breakfast food in a restaurant but seem to prefer doing it late at night . . . which never happens, because rollie is in bed by then. so, when we go on vacation, one of our first stops is always a grocery store to get breakfast food. this time it was a little more difficult, as our very expensive hotel room does not have a refrigerator or a microwave (or free internet, but you all know that!) so we got cereal, bananas, juice, chocolate covered donuts (those are for me,) and soda pop.

the soda pop isn't technically for breakfast, just in case you were wondering . . .

this lasted us for a few days, but i couldn't seem to stop eating those blasted chocolate covered donuts. you see, that is one of the foods that i just don't let myself have anymore, but when we were at walmart, they just materialized in our cart and i didn't want them to feel rejected, so . . .

and of course, bananas must be eaten in a timely manner or they get yukky. and the cereal was disappearing too. so it seemed another trip to walmart was necessary.

i turned on the gps and headed down the road. past sea world. i didn't really have anything else i needed to do, so when i got to walmart, i just kind of wandered around the store. i found a cute dress on sale for $9, so i added that to my collection of items and headed to the check out lines. they totalled up my sales, i gave them my money, picked up my bags, and headed home. i found a great parking spot in the parking garage, picked up my bags, and thought, "hmmm. these bags don't feel very heavy or bulky . . . " i looked inside, and there was my dress and the juice but no bananas or cereal.

i was not a happy camper. i cannot say how much i dislike those spinning plastic bag holders they use at walmart. this is not the first time i have left something on that rack. here is the problem--they have all these bags at their disposal in which to put your items, so they just put a couple of things in each bag, requiring you to carry several bags out. and it is just too easy to leave something.

so i called walmart, and after only two tries i got through to customer service. she said to just come back and they would work it out.

come back?!?! i didn't want to come back! it was hot. it was humid. there was traffic. of course i had no choice--i knew that as soon as i realized that all my items hadn't made it back with me. but i still didn't want to go.

so i didn't. i picked up my book, sat in my comfy room, and read. i knew i was going to have to go get that stuff, but i chose to live in denial for a while. time moved on. rollie came back and we decided not to go eat dinner--really, we have already eaten enough for 10 people, it seems. he was tired, and opted for a nap. so off to walmart i went. for the third time. i retrieved the cereal and bananas, and rewarded myself with dinner at chick-fil-a.

this is not exactly the type of shopping i had in mind when i was thinking about fun things to do in orlando.

. . . but tomorrow they are predicting a hurricane--that should be fun!

no sleep for the already tired . . .

so today . . . i am so tired, my ears are ringing. that is what happens to me when i am about to hit the wall.

the last few weeks have been very busy, and i have been staying up later than i usually do. but the last several days have been especially hectic. and i am getting ready to go out of town, so there is a lot to do . . .

i don't know why, but i always feel like my house has to be cleaned and orderly before i can leave town. it always looks best just before i am ready to leave for a week or two, but this is never accomplished without staying up most of the night before i leave.

here is what happens--about a week before i know i am going to be gone, i make a list of all the things i "need" to do before i leave. it is quite an extensive list, including everything from doing the laundry to cleaning out the garage. when i make this list, some part of my brain knows that there is no way i will be able to complete the whole list. and yet, apparently a part of my brain thinks that i will, because i write it all down . . . and then i think about the list and plan how to complete the list for the next 3 or 4 days. notice that nothing has actually been done yet, but mentally, i am working on it . . .

about four days before we go, i start talking about all the things i have to do. then i start moving things around a bit, looking for the suitcases, maybe even making a small stack of things i want to be sure to remember to take.

and then, the day before we leave, all you-know-what breaks loose. i start the laundry, i go do the errands, i start cleaning, but then decide i should really pack first. so i pull things out of the closet, but don't really know what i will need, so i add some more stuff. i clean a little bit more, maybe go eat something, and then come back to the packing. i try to identify all the power cords that keep my electronics running, because where i go, so go my electronics. and without those power cords, they are all just hunks of black and silver plastic. i decide i probably don't need 12 pairs of shoes for a 1 week trip, so i put one pair back. i scrub the shower. i think about vacuuming, but then decide that since the dogs will just be walking on the floors while we are gone anyway, maybe that task could wait until we get back. i go to target to get m&m's. target is closed by now, so i come home and pack some leftover chocolate eggs i found when cleaning out the kitchen cabinets--which needed to be done before i could leave town--because, you know, they don't really feed you on airplanes anymore . . .

(perhaps i should mention that by this point, rollie is packed and ready to go, and in bed asleep.)

i start putting things in the suitcase, and realize that i have way too much stuff to take. but what to leave, what to take, decisions, decisions. this is when my brain explodes . . . then i just throw it all in the suitcase, pray the zipper doesn't break, throw my list away, and sleep for 2 or 3 hours in the recliner in the living room. (i do this is so that i can sleep in my clothes and makeup--it buys me another half hour of sleep in the morning.)

tonight, i am nearing the point where my brain explodes. rollie is nestled all snug in his bed, while visions of being first in the security line at lax dance in his head. my clothes have been thrown into the suitcase. i have every confidence that it will either weigh too much, or i will have forgotten something vitally important to my well-being.

did i mention we are going to orlando for 10 days? and while i am expecting lovely warm days in which to lay by the pool with my book while rollie attends business meetings, the forecast is actually predicting 90+ degree temperatures and thunder and lightening storms for the next 7 days. so my actual experience has the potential to be very different from what i am picturing . . . and what in the heck do you wear in weather like that? all my shoes are either sandals or suede. if it rains, i will have to wear my new boots. with my dresses. in california that is acceptable attire--in fact, it is "cool," but in the rest of the world . . . ? i am not so sure . . .

(shhh--don't tell diandra i used this picture. she hasn't edited it yet, but i wanted you to see my new boots. and they are already packed, so i can't take a picture. besides, when she blogs the pics of our "photo shoot" this picture will look much cooler--if she uses it.)

it is now well after midnight. i have dishes waiting to be washed, laundry to be folded, and bathroom stuff and electronics left to be packed. and here i am, blogging. that is how much i love you guys . . . i plan to blog while i am gone, if i have internet access. but just in case the lightening storms take out the power, right after i emit the "scream heard 'round the world" i will pick up a pencil and paper and start making notes. because i know that you will be anxiously waiting for my next blog . . .