This is where you make your lists and lose them.

I've got three days before I get on a plane. And then I'm away from home for over a week.

Tonight, I pack the box of ship-aheads - and pull out the beast from storage and begin putting it all together to be self-contained and out of suitcases. Oh, and pack an extra empty one because I know what I find when I go back there. There's a candle outlet store that is the BEST I've ever been inside, and the antique shopping doesn't get much better. Seriously, I've brought home Nippon porcelain every time, and that stuff is HARD to find anywhere else. Back there, it's just Gran's pretty teapot or somesuch. To me, it's something old, but very specific to a time and place - and just look at those landscapes. Um, nerd. Am I a collector? No, I'm a hoarder. 'Nuff said.

In other news, the WTF list continues to grow (no, you don't know all of it) and I've had to pull out the short list of who to call who won't be damaged when I start talking about some of it. It's not just who can handle the load - it's who can find the fracking humor in the whack of the last three weeks. Because first you get the list, and then you get me shaking my head and bibbling while I try to get my head around it.

Kid had an AWESOME weekend. Saturday was Torrance's City Maintenance Yard Open House. Yes, the place with all the landscaping equipment and where they fix all the big trucks...opened their doors and wanted us to come visit them. This is so my town, I can't tell you.

The fire department, the police department, the water people, the landscapers - everyone showed up. And then brought their friends, the power company, the recycling groups - and it would appear there is an informal car club amongst the city workers, so they all brought their cars to show off as well. And motorcycles. Everybody had swag - I think I have at least six different kinds of 'plant this, it'll grow something AWESOME' to find a spare patch of ground for. Pens. Wee trash trucks. Badges. Stickers. Live ladybugs for your yard.

The landscape people brought the baby goats to show everyone the newest green innovation for keeping brush to a manageable level. BABY GOAT PARTY. So cute.

It was then to Sis' house for birthday BBQ - where kid found his big cousin Alex who is the Best Thing Ever (this is my niece's boy, nearly 17, plays sports Big Time and moonlights as a coach to preschool soccer players), pool antics, cousin Pookie (who also thinks he's Great Fun), 14 going on 52 and starting high school in the fall and a huge adult to kid ratio in his favor. It was a good warm up to what we can expect on our trip - and he's doing much better these days with it. The Best Day Ever is not followed up by the Worst Day Ever, so we aren't seeing that anxiety going into really fun days anymore (thank God).

Sis also had tasty, tasty champagne and that was also good.

Sunday was church (which was interesting all on its own, our group is instituting gender non-specific language in a big way in all our materials, and this was the first Sunday of it), but then it also included catsonmars for the kid's haircut, lunch and nap - which was a nice change. This is something I want more of, and very glad I was to get it. It's just the schedules don't always mesh as well as they did yesterday - glad to get that time? Oh man.

Then Jim came home after getting the all-clear - Friday, we got word of another kidney stone, but how bad, no clue - he got his CT done at work, and read while he waited (hey, take x-rays for a living, get some useful perks). The all-clear is qualified by other things found on the CT which are going to need attention - but at least, we can travel knowing we won't be landing in an ER dealing with worse while we're gone.

I did mention a list. Right.

And this is Monday, right. Got to go - the lists are running ahead of me, and I have to catch up.

This is where you make your lists and lose them.

I've got three days before I get on a plane. And then I'm away from home for over a week.

Tonight, I pack the box of ship-aheads - and pull out the beast from storage and begin putting it all together to be self-contained and out of suitcases. Oh, and pack an extra empty one because I know what I find when I go back there. There's a candle outlet store that is the BEST I've ever been inside, and the antique shopping doesn't get much better. Seriously, I've brought home Nippon porcelain every time, and that stuff is HARD to find anywhere else. Back there, it's just Gran's pretty teapot or somesuch. To me, it's something old, but very specific to a time and place - and just look at those landscapes. Um, nerd. Am I a collector? No, I'm a hoarder. 'Nuff said.

In other news, the WTF list continues to grow (no, you don't know all of it) and I've had to pull out the short list of who to call who won't be damaged when I start talking about some of it. It's not just who can handle the load - it's who can find the fracking humor in the whack of the last three weeks. Because first you get the list, and then you get me shaking my head and bibbling while I try to get my head around it.

Kid had an AWESOME weekend. Saturday was Torrance's City Maintenance Yard Open House. Yes, the place with all the landscaping equipment and where they fix all the big trucks...opened their doors and wanted us to come visit them. This is so my town, I can't tell you.

The fire department, the police department, the water people, the landscapers - everyone showed up. And then brought their friends, the power company, the recycling groups - and it would appear there is an informal car club amongst the city workers, so they all brought their cars to show off as well. And motorcycles. Everybody had swag - I think I have at least six different kinds of 'plant this, it'll grow something AWESOME' to find a spare patch of ground for. Pens. Wee trash trucks. Badges. Stickers. Live ladybugs for your yard.

The landscape people brought the baby goats to show everyone the newest green innovation for keeping brush to a manageable level. BABY GOAT PARTY. So cute.

It was then to Sis' house for birthday BBQ - where kid found his big cousin Alex who is the Best Thing Ever (this is my niece's boy, nearly 17, plays sports Big Time and moonlights as a coach to preschool soccer players), pool antics, cousin Pookie (who also thinks he's Great Fun), 14 going on 52 and starting high school in the fall and a huge adult to kid ratio in his favor. It was a good warm up to what we can expect on our trip - and he's doing much better these days with it. The Best Day Ever is not followed up by the Worst Day Ever, so we aren't seeing that anxiety going into really fun days anymore (thank God).

Sis also had tasty, tasty champagne and that was also good.

Sunday was church (which was interesting all on its own, our group is instituting gender non-specific language in a big way in all our materials, and this was the first Sunday of it), but then it also included catsonmars for the kid's haircut, lunch and nap - which was a nice change. This is something I want more of, and very glad I was to get it. It's just the schedules don't always mesh as well as they did yesterday - glad to get that time? Oh man.

Then Jim came home after getting the all-clear - Friday, we got word of another kidney stone, but how bad, no clue - he got his CT done at work, and read while he waited (hey, take x-rays for a living, get some useful perks). The all-clear is qualified by other things found on the CT which are going to need attention - but at least, we can travel knowing we won't be landing in an ER dealing with worse while we're gone.

I did mention a list. Right.

And this is Monday, right. Got to go - the lists are running ahead of me, and I have to catch up.

This is where you make your lists and lose them.

I've got three days before I get on a plane. And then I'm away from home for over a week.

Tonight, I pack the box of ship-aheads - and pull out the beast from storage and begin putting it all together to be self-contained and out of suitcases. Oh, and pack an extra empty one because I know what I find when I go back there. There's a candle outlet store that is the BEST I've ever been inside, and the antique shopping doesn't get much better. Seriously, I've brought home Nippon porcelain every time, and that stuff is HARD to find anywhere else. Back there, it's just Gran's pretty teapot or somesuch. To me, it's something old, but very specific to a time and place - and just look at those landscapes. Um, nerd. Am I a collector? No, I'm a hoarder. 'Nuff said.

In other news, the WTF list continues to grow (no, you don't know all of it) and I've had to pull out the short list of who to call who won't be damaged when I start talking about some of it. It's not just who can handle the load - it's who can find the fracking humor in the whack of the last three weeks. Because first you get the list, and then you get me shaking my head and bibbling while I try to get my head around it.

Kid had an AWESOME weekend. Saturday was Torrance's City Maintenance Yard Open House. Yes, the place with all the landscaping equipment and where they fix all the big trucks...opened their doors and wanted us to come visit them. This is so my town, I can't tell you.

The fire department, the police department, the water people, the landscapers - everyone showed up. And then brought their friends, the power company, the recycling groups - and it would appear there is an informal car club amongst the city workers, so they all brought their cars to show off as well. And motorcycles. Everybody had swag - I think I have at least six different kinds of 'plant this, it'll grow something AWESOME' to find a spare patch of ground for. Pens. Wee trash trucks. Badges. Stickers. Live ladybugs for your yard.

The landscape people brought the baby goats to show everyone the newest green innovation for keeping brush to a manageable level. BABY GOAT PARTY. So cute.

It was then to Sis' house for birthday BBQ - where kid found his big cousin Alex who is the Best Thing Ever (this is my niece's boy, nearly 17, plays sports Big Time and moonlights as a coach to preschool soccer players), pool antics, cousin Pookie (who also thinks he's Great Fun), 14 going on 52 and starting high school in the fall and a huge adult to kid ratio in his favor. It was a good warm up to what we can expect on our trip - and he's doing much better these days with it. The Best Day Ever is not followed up by the Worst Day Ever, so we aren't seeing that anxiety going into really fun days anymore (thank God).

Sis also had tasty, tasty champagne and that was also good.

Sunday was church (which was interesting all on its own, our group is instituting gender non-specific language in a big way in all our materials, and this was the first Sunday of it), but then it also included catsonmars for the kid's haircut, lunch and nap - which was a nice change. This is something I want more of, and very glad I was to get it. It's just the schedules don't always mesh as well as they did yesterday - glad to get that time? Oh man.

Then Jim came home after getting the all-clear - Friday, we got word of another kidney stone, but how bad, no clue - he got his CT done at work, and read while he waited (hey, take x-rays for a living, get some useful perks). The all-clear is qualified by other things found on the CT which are going to need attention - but at least, we can travel knowing we won't be landing in an ER dealing with worse while we're gone.

I did mention a list. Right.

And this is Monday, right. Got to go - the lists are running ahead of me, and I have to catch up.