I think I mentioned a while ago that hubs brought home a gecko in his luggage last time he came home from Hawaii. We named him Eddie and let him wander around the house to his heart's content. He was all over the place, we'd see him in the kitchen, bedroom closet, bathroom, everywhere. Then we'd not see him for a day or two and he'd show up again someplace completely different. Well, the other day he chose a bad spot to sit and chill and hubs accidentally stepped on him on his way out the door. I found his lifeless body about an hour later. So, there went our brief foray into having a roommate living with us.
In other exciting news, the Astros are doing pretty good in the playoffs. GO 'STROS!!! Hubs doesn't get my fascination with baseball, but will sit and watch the games with me like a trooper. What a great guy. He even puts up with me yelling at the screen in the vain attempt to make them hear me and accept my sage baseball advice or to change a really stupid call. My grandma used to do that with the Green Bay Packers so I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My other grandparents used to turn the Brewer game on the radio and sit out on their screen porch in the dark and quietly listen to the game, those are some of my greatest memories of them. So between the Packers hollering grandma and the nightly Brewers games in the dark on the other side of the family, I am truly a product of my environment. Last month I went to the Brewers home game when they were playing the Astros. I wore my Astros jersey and had a great time. Fortunately Wisconsin baseball fans aren't nasty to opposing teams fans, I've heard stories otherwise at other stadiums and other sports. But here things were great and at the end of the game I even got high-fives from the Brewers fans sitting in front of us at the end of the game (the Astros won it in extra innings). It was a great experience I was both proud to be an Astros fan, but also to be a Wisconsinite where people are so stinking nice.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Can I still call her my baby?
My baby, my youngest angel, my final attempt at creating the perfect child turned 21 years old today. That's pretty freaking crazy if you ask me. All my kids are full fledged, alcohol drinking able adults now. And if that's not enough to make me feel my mortality, another one of the kiddos got engaged this weekend. Yep, Angel #1 proposed to the woman of his dreams on Saturday and they're getting married next year. I wonder if this is how it's going to be, a wedding every year until they're all married off, then the grand babies will start coming. That's what happens when you have your kids all in a row like I did. So I've got plans to be in Miami in December of next year. :) The cool thing is that it was my idea to tour Villa Vizcaya last weekend, the kids liked it so much they went back this weekend and that's where he popped the question. So that's my contribution to the engagement, besides birthing the groom-to-be.
This weekend we went up to visit WE and his wife. We went out to dinner with our friends/daughter-in-laws parents on Friday and Saturday night both, which is always a good time. They're such great friends and I'm so glad that we're sort of shirt-tail related to each other through our kids. I feel so fortunate that not only do I love my son's choice for a wife, but I love her family as well. I don't know Angel #1's prospective mother-in-law real well yet, we've only met her a couple of times and her English is limited, but from what I DO know of her, she's an incredible women. #1's fiance and her twin sister were only 2 months old when their father was killed. Her mother raised those two little girls along with their 2 older brothers by herself, after moving to the US. Can you imagine moving to a foreign country, not knowing the language, with 4 little kids all by yourself? Not only that, she did an incredibly awesome job in the raising of those kids and they're all college educated adults with successful careers and good lives. How can you not admire someone like that. Plus, she already considers my little boy her son and it makes me feel good that even though he lives so far away, he's got family nearby who care about him. Everybody wins!
This weekend we went up to visit WE and his wife. We went out to dinner with our friends/daughter-in-laws parents on Friday and Saturday night both, which is always a good time. They're such great friends and I'm so glad that we're sort of shirt-tail related to each other through our kids. I feel so fortunate that not only do I love my son's choice for a wife, but I love her family as well. I don't know Angel #1's prospective mother-in-law real well yet, we've only met her a couple of times and her English is limited, but from what I DO know of her, she's an incredible women. #1's fiance and her twin sister were only 2 months old when their father was killed. Her mother raised those two little girls along with their 2 older brothers by herself, after moving to the US. Can you imagine moving to a foreign country, not knowing the language, with 4 little kids all by yourself? Not only that, she did an incredibly awesome job in the raising of those kids and they're all college educated adults with successful careers and good lives. How can you not admire someone like that. Plus, she already considers my little boy her son and it makes me feel good that even though he lives so far away, he's got family nearby who care about him. Everybody wins!
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Florida survived me
We had a wonderful weekend in Miami with my little boy and his girlfriend. On Friday we went out for Honduran food, she's originally from Honduras, so we had her order for us and it was delicious! We went for a loooong walk on Saturday. The kids live about a mile from the ocean, so we walked there, through Little Havana, the downtown area and then down to Brickell Key and walked around there, looking at the big yachts going by.
On Sunday we went and toured Villa Vizcaya, a beautiful mansion built about 100 years ago. It was falling into disrepair when the owners donated it to the county and it's slowly being repaired. The inside of the house is pretty much done and is beautiful. The gardens are huge and so much fun to wander around it. My favorite thing was the barge though. It's a big cement breakwater made to look like a ship. Back in the day it had palm trees and gazebos on it and it looked very elegant, today it looks more like a shipwreck, so still cool, but in a different way. If you're ever in Miami, I highly recommend taking a look.
So, now we're back home and settling back into life, until we head out again this weekend, this time to see WE and his wife. We haven't seen them since August, which is pretty sad since they're the kids we actually live closest to.
On Sunday we went and toured Villa Vizcaya, a beautiful mansion built about 100 years ago. It was falling into disrepair when the owners donated it to the county and it's slowly being repaired. The inside of the house is pretty much done and is beautiful. The gardens are huge and so much fun to wander around it. My favorite thing was the barge though. It's a big cement breakwater made to look like a ship. Back in the day it had palm trees and gazebos on it and it looked very elegant, today it looks more like a shipwreck, so still cool, but in a different way. If you're ever in Miami, I highly recommend taking a look.
So, now we're back home and settling back into life, until we head out again this weekend, this time to see WE and his wife. We haven't seen them since August, which is pretty sad since they're the kids we actually live closest to.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Off we go again
After a fairly uneventful week, we're on the road again. This time it's Miami to see Angel #1. I haven't been down there in about 2 years, so it'll be nice to see him in his native habitat. Though with my traveling track record, Florida will probably be hit with a hurricane. I've managed to get Harvey, Sandy and tropical storm Imelda already, so it's just a matter of time before I decimate the Sunshine State as well. In my defense, the volcanoes didn't blow until a month after I left Hawaii, so I can hardly be responsible for that. I'm only a hurricane magnet, other natural disasters are on their own.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
We had one of our typical Saturdays today. First we went to Franks Diner, a very old diner with great greasy food, a sassy staff and always a line and a crowd. It's a fun place to go, apparently it's the oldest continuously run dining car in America, though I'm not sure who exactly was keeping track. There's always a line to get in, so it's not one of those grab and go quickly stops, but the waiting in line if half the fun. We all celebrated Saturday with a diner-wide free tequila shot, which is I think rather unique in itself. I don't know of any other diner that does something like that, though I'm no diner expert by any means.
After Franks we walked to the Farmer's Market. We've got a pretty good sized farmers market and it's got so much good stuff, we love making it a regular stop. Things are starting to look a little scare there though, since the weather is starting to get chilly and vendors and shoppers alike are not quite so apt to sit around in the cold. There's only 2 more weeks of the outdoor market, then it moves inside. We stopped at the fudge place and they had $5 flop bags available. Those are bags of misshapen and corner pieces of fudge. You don't know what you're going to get, you just grab a bag and hope for the best. One of our offerings today was root beer fudge. It sounds wrong, and after tasting it, I assured myself that it IS wrong. gross, just gross. That's hard to believe of any kind of fudge, I know, but it's true. Take my word for it, don't try and see for yourself. There's my life advice for the day.
After Franks we walked to the Farmer's Market. We've got a pretty good sized farmers market and it's got so much good stuff, we love making it a regular stop. Things are starting to look a little scare there though, since the weather is starting to get chilly and vendors and shoppers alike are not quite so apt to sit around in the cold. There's only 2 more weeks of the outdoor market, then it moves inside. We stopped at the fudge place and they had $5 flop bags available. Those are bags of misshapen and corner pieces of fudge. You don't know what you're going to get, you just grab a bag and hope for the best. One of our offerings today was root beer fudge. It sounds wrong, and after tasting it, I assured myself that it IS wrong. gross, just gross. That's hard to believe of any kind of fudge, I know, but it's true. Take my word for it, don't try and see for yourself. There's my life advice for the day.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Settling back into normal.
It's been a pretty quiet week around here. Now that the school rush is over, work is pretty relaxed. I wouldn't like it like this all the time, because it would be a little boring, but after a month of craziness it's nice for us all to catch our breath a bit and get the store cleaned and up to snuff. We literally didn't have time to restock, straighten shelves or even sweep the floor, but today all those things got done. Plus, we're getting rid of textbooks that we didn't sell, and clearing off shelves and condensing them is a very satisfying feeling. We'll start stocking graduation stuff next month, check in return textbook in December, then start all over again in January with a new semester. The circle of university life.
It's starting to feel a bit like fall now. It was cold and rainy today and our main sales at work were rain ponchos, umbrellas, windbreakers and cold medicine. It's all downhill from here.
Hubs was working in Hawaii the beginning of the week and brought a gecko home in his suitcase. They run around wild down there and are as common in a house as a housefly. So, now we've got a gecko of our own running around in the kitchen. It's been hiding under the stove but comes out occasionally to see what's going on in the rest of the house. Oh well, at least it's not a dog.
It's starting to feel a bit like fall now. It was cold and rainy today and our main sales at work were rain ponchos, umbrellas, windbreakers and cold medicine. It's all downhill from here.
Hubs was working in Hawaii the beginning of the week and brought a gecko home in his suitcase. They run around wild down there and are as common in a house as a housefly. So, now we've got a gecko of our own running around in the kitchen. It's been hiding under the stove but comes out occasionally to see what's going on in the rest of the house. Oh well, at least it's not a dog.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Houston, we have a problem
I've been in Houston for the last 4 or 5 days. Not a good travel choice, as my good friend Tropical Storm Imelda reminded me, once I got there.
The airline did try to warn me, sending me emails telling me I may want to change my plans at no charge because of the storm, but the DOWNTON ABBEY MOVIE WAS OPENING ON THURSDAY!! Yes, I flew across the country in a tropical storm so I could go to the movies with my daughters. Stop judging me, it was a good movie and we've been looking forward to it for ages.
My flight on Thursday was only an hour delayed, so I thought things were going my way. We had a relatively smooth landing in Houston, I got off the plane the went to the passenger pick-up area to wait for my girls to come get me. That's when things went bad. My first clue things weren't right is when I went to the pick-up area and there were only about 8 cars sitting there, 2 of the police cars, and none of them were moving or even turned on. As a matter of fact, only 2 of them had people in them. If you've ever spent time in a post 9/11 airport, you know that this is NOT a thing. Turns out that after much texting and calling with the girls, that all the roads and from the airport were under water and the airport sent out a tweet telling people to not come pick up their passengers, that they had food and electricity and they'd be fine. They never actually told any of this to those of us sitting in the airport waiting for our rides, we had to find out through comparing notes with fellow stranded passengers and calls to our Houston contacts.
After waiting at a complete stand-still for an hour on the road to the airport, the girls gave up and managed to find a place to turn around and went back home to wait for further updates. 4 hours later there was a break in the storm and they found out through someone on Twitter (NOT the airport) that there was one lane open, so they jumped in the car and got their momma. YAY!! So 5 hours after I landed, I finally walked into the door and I was officially there. The drive back was apocalyptic. There were abandoned cars sitting all over the place, some tire deep in water. People were driving through ditches in an attempt to get out of parking lots and jumping the curbs to avoic roads that were under water. And, worst of all, all the theaters were closed, so we had to postpone the movie until Saturday night. 😲
Friday it was still raining, so I spent the day juicing limes. What? Doesn't everyone juice limes when they're on vacation visiting their kids? Someone had given the girls a huge case of limes and they were making the whole house smell funky. Since the girls were busy, I just juiced away, made a pitcher of limeade and a lime pie. So the citrus portion of our program was definitely covered.
Saturday we ran errands and did random stuff until it was movie time. But right before we left to go, the girls discovered an injured baby squirrel, wrapped him up, brought him in the house and named him Alfred. *sigh* It's like these critters know then they've got a couple of suckers around.
We went to the movie (AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!) and it was AWESOME. It was fun being in a theater with a bunch of people who also knew and loved all these characters and laughed at the inside jokes and snarky comments together.
Sunday we brought Alfred to the SPCA, then spent a ridiculous amount of time there so Angel #4 could pet all the cats. I had an uneventful flight home, got in about 10pm last night and here I am now. So, we're all caught up for the moment.
The airline did try to warn me, sending me emails telling me I may want to change my plans at no charge because of the storm, but the DOWNTON ABBEY MOVIE WAS OPENING ON THURSDAY!! Yes, I flew across the country in a tropical storm so I could go to the movies with my daughters. Stop judging me, it was a good movie and we've been looking forward to it for ages.
My flight on Thursday was only an hour delayed, so I thought things were going my way. We had a relatively smooth landing in Houston, I got off the plane the went to the passenger pick-up area to wait for my girls to come get me. That's when things went bad. My first clue things weren't right is when I went to the pick-up area and there were only about 8 cars sitting there, 2 of the police cars, and none of them were moving or even turned on. As a matter of fact, only 2 of them had people in them. If you've ever spent time in a post 9/11 airport, you know that this is NOT a thing. Turns out that after much texting and calling with the girls, that all the roads and from the airport were under water and the airport sent out a tweet telling people to not come pick up their passengers, that they had food and electricity and they'd be fine. They never actually told any of this to those of us sitting in the airport waiting for our rides, we had to find out through comparing notes with fellow stranded passengers and calls to our Houston contacts.
After waiting at a complete stand-still for an hour on the road to the airport, the girls gave up and managed to find a place to turn around and went back home to wait for further updates. 4 hours later there was a break in the storm and they found out through someone on Twitter (NOT the airport) that there was one lane open, so they jumped in the car and got their momma. YAY!! So 5 hours after I landed, I finally walked into the door and I was officially there. The drive back was apocalyptic. There were abandoned cars sitting all over the place, some tire deep in water. People were driving through ditches in an attempt to get out of parking lots and jumping the curbs to avoic roads that were under water. And, worst of all, all the theaters were closed, so we had to postpone the movie until Saturday night. 😲
Friday it was still raining, so I spent the day juicing limes. What? Doesn't everyone juice limes when they're on vacation visiting their kids? Someone had given the girls a huge case of limes and they were making the whole house smell funky. Since the girls were busy, I just juiced away, made a pitcher of limeade and a lime pie. So the citrus portion of our program was definitely covered.
Saturday we ran errands and did random stuff until it was movie time. But right before we left to go, the girls discovered an injured baby squirrel, wrapped him up, brought him in the house and named him Alfred. *sigh* It's like these critters know then they've got a couple of suckers around.
We went to the movie (AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!) and it was AWESOME. It was fun being in a theater with a bunch of people who also knew and loved all these characters and laughed at the inside jokes and snarky comments together.
Sunday we brought Alfred to the SPCA, then spent a ridiculous amount of time there so Angel #4 could pet all the cats. I had an uneventful flight home, got in about 10pm last night and here I am now. So, we're all caught up for the moment.
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