GT's vacation: a confessional and challenging MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Woo! I have to do laundry tomorrow, but I have somewhere to do it for free! Until the end of the week, anyway. And I get to play with the doggies while the laundry’s running since it’s the house behind my aunt’s shop. YAY!

rigs…sigh She’s always your kid. Don’t worry. She may not want to admit it for a few years, but she is!

Tomorrow it’s supposed to get to the upper 60s, a good 20 degree drop. I only wish it’d happened for Sunday, what with being outside for most of the afternoon. Oh well. I know the dogs are going to love it; the cooler (or even colder) it gets the happier they are.

62

I had a ham and cheese sammich for dindin. It’s rainin’ again. Maybe I need a beerverage.

63

The Renaissance Faire build is almost done. Huzzah!

Good thing too, since we open on the 6th! I think my guild mainly needs to get a roof on one hooch, and then some decorating. Other guilds have taken on far more elaborate projects - down the road from us, they’re building a pub de novo. Last year, I think there was nothing more than a dragon circle (smoking area) and kids’ play area in there. Knowing how most Faire buildings are built, I probably will not visit the pub.

We’re really looking forward to this year, and especially looking forward to the new and improved highway junction two miles down the road from the site. Backups were legendary and **miles ** long on a one-lane road. Last Sunday, the backup was seven miles long, and creeping along at about 10 mph. :eek: (We were going the other way and marvelling at how long it was.) On Thursday, a new flyover is opening that will whisk all of that traffic up and over, and should completely eliminate the backups. What is it about Renaissance Faires that they always seem to be located at the wrong end of one-lane highways and ugly traffic?

Other good news is that our truck is out of the truck hospital, and that the horrifyingly labor-intensive repair job was covered under warranty. Some central part of the air conditioning broke, and they had to remove the dashboard and steering column to get at it. As the work was so prolonged, we got a complimentary rental. Holy banjos, but a Nissan Altima is a tiny little thing! I felt like I was sitting on a skateboard when driving it.

Yay! It’s quit-o’clock. Time to go home and see if the Dinner Fairy got the hint and has dinner ready for us.

64

Yeah, she’ll realize this and love/appreciate you more. I did. :slight_smile:

Someone PLEEEEEEEEASE tell me why I thought it would be a good idea to stay out on a Monday night? My coworkers are insane.

On the bright side, cute Irish co-worker left a message on my Wall. He’s never written on anyone’s wall before. He lost his Facebook wall virginity with me! :smiley:

Hope you enjoy your vacation, gt! Trust me when I say productivity is overrated. (Actually, don’t trust me. :smack:)

65

The one here wasn’t, but this area’s so small that it was on the two-lane major road (yes, you read that right!) that leads to and from The Resort. There weren’t any major traffic snarls that I am aware of, and there’s no permanent buildings anyway, it’s held for one weekend a year, in a field that’s used for all sorts of outdoors events.

I went yesterday. It was fun. Somehow the silliness of the thing seemed more appropriate because it was on such a small scale. And it’s the kind of silliness I enjoy, so no insult intended!

66

Lessee now, seems like there’s lots to catch up on.

Nava, the road trip sounds marvelous. I’d love to go to Scotland sometime.

Once again, I am awed by your service, Bobbio.

Taters, don’t tell anyone about our Secret Slug Club. Cuz yanno…it’s a secret.

Wow, Mork! I got tired just reading about your weekend.

rigs, good point with the Day 1, Day 2, etc. making it feel like the vacation is shorter than it is. I’m going to try the approach we used in Chicago last year and just list the day of the week and the scheduled activity. I think I’ve got a main fun activity scheduled for pretty much every day. Tomorrow is thrift shop day. I’m going to scour some thrift and consignment stores for chairs for the dining room. They don’t have to match because everything’s going to get painted. There are quite a few stores in my neighborhood, but I’m also going to go to Goodwill and the Volunteers of America. Oddly, there’s a gourmet grocery store next to VOA. I’ll be stopping in there as well. After the thrift-shopping I’m going to go do a few things in the garden at church, then I’m meeting a friend to go to a wine-sampling dinner. Might get some painting done at home. Or might not. We’ll see. Also, there’s always room for more gardening. :smiley:

howye, I had Franklin Park on my list for Saturday, but it and the art museum might get pushed to Sunday because Saturday seems awfully full already. Oh, and rigs, the art museum and outdoor cafe/restaurant are happening on different days, I think. There’s what’s called the Art Hop Saturday night near my house and I plan to wander around and then sit down at one of the outdoor people-watching opportunities; still deciding where.

Today was garden marathon day. The weather was gorgeous, so I stayed out there till about 3:15. Then I went off to Barnes & Noble and skimmed through a few magazines and the only known Columbus guidebook, which is actually pretty good (it’s an Insider’s Guide). I’m gonna see if HalfPrice Books has it; if not, I’ll go back to B&N to pick it up. It has a lot of stuff packed into one volume and I can always add stuff in the margins. Only thing that bugged me was that it wasn’t very well proofread.

I took your advice and had an ice cream cone and a walk, Mahna. One scoop goat cheese with cherry compote and one scoop Madagascar chocolate. Incredibly yum. The goat cheese one tastes like cheesecake. The chocolate has very finely chopped chocolate, so there’s chocolate melting in your mouth the whole time. It’s my current favorite combination.

Guess I should curl up with a beerverage and a book and try to get sleepy. I’ve managed to get myself way off of my normal schedule and would really like to stay a bit closer so that it’s not so traumatic when I go back to work.

ETA: Haze: :smiley:

Also, forgot to wave hi at kai. I love your stories too. Hope the health stuff starts clearing up and the surgery goes so smoothly you don’t hate surgery anymore.

Hugs to all.

GT

67

I kept a blog for a while, and I can probably dig up the text if you want. Veuve_Cliquot is another good Doper to bug about this. Norinew, too.

Just ask me what you want to know, and I’ll be happy to [del]bore you with minute detail like I do with my fire adventures[/del]answer anything I can.

68

Daughter and I have bounced between having (oddly) a Facebook IM’ing session (she was upstairs, I was down here) and short convos where we profess our love for one another and look at one another fondly, and manic moments when we panic and stress about packing. It’s ok. I was sort of just shoved out of the house (not even shoved-I know no one stood upon the whatever of my leaving.* I was not missed–that I was told about, anyway). I know she’ll always be my baby etc, but it won’t be the same (it may be better)–it’s just the end of me “momming” in this way.

Yay for cute Irish dude and lost FB virginity!
GT--that sounds like fun. I like to prowl around thrift stores, too. You can find all manner of cool stuff. I am on a tight budget at present (for like the next decade), so no thrifting for me.
*cannot remember the quote. Is it Tennyson? Some lit person help me!

69

Stood not upon the order of his going, I think is the original quote. It’s used by Montgomery and Wodehouse; I dunno which was first.

Have ANOTHER workshop today, ugh. Last night my coworkers were quite drunk and one of them (our former faculty manager, who just got promoted) kept telling me I should just “do what makes me happy.” Thanks, boss.

70

It’s Jeans Week all week long! Of course, our OMP didn’t deign to tell us this until 7:15 this morning, when most of us were already on our way to work. Still, 3 days of jeans is nice. Even if it’s supposed to be 100F tomorrow.

Pie, I’d send my catering orders your way, but I don’t think I can afford the delivery fee. :frowning:

kai, every time I see this, I think of you. :smiley:

I’ve been reading horse blogs again. I miss horses a lot, even though I can never, ever ride again. I wonder if that applies to sidesaddle, too? I should have asked. Not that’s it’s easy to find a sidesaddle these days without a custom order, much less a horse broke to one. So I’m thinking about learning to drive instead. Voila! Time spent with horses. Of course, finding a place to learn to drive in Silicon Valley that’s not half a gas tank away is the challenge.

71

Ooh, Haze, a cute Irish guy? If you decide you don’t want him, send him to me! As long as he’s older than my brother!

72

Thrifting is one of those things I keep meaning to do. I’m hoping it’ll be a fun distraction from the usual.

I’m starting to get a little bit sleepy. Yay!!!

73

ome, dizzy,tired. Evil assistant will be smacked down tomorrow. The dinner fairy brought deli chicken and garlic bread from the markdown rack(I’m hungry but frugal.) The laundry fairy got eaten by Thrak.

{{{{{Pie}}}}}}I hope things pick up for you soon.

kai, fresh bear poop, and you kept going? The only place where I wouldn’t flee from fresh bear poop is the swampcave. I’d just flush again. :smiley:
: offers chocolate and foot rubs to Mmmmooooooommmmmmm!!! :

74

Another wasted day. I spent most of the day working on a really cute pair of fingerless mitts that look like they’ll do a wonderful job of helping keep my bad thumb warm until I finally get the surgery on it scheduled. (You have my sympathy, kai; we can commiserate together over hand surgery!) Of course, every time I pick a date, that’s one the doctor’s not operating. Grr. Anyway, I’m halfway through one mitt in a soft alpaca/wool/cashmere yarn. A quick and easy project. Alas, it’s not helping me get my work done, but I’ve enjoyed the knitting; otherwise, I’ve been working on a pair of uniform socks for Socks For Soldiers, which have to be knit on size 0 and 1 needles and take forever. But I’ve only got to finish off the toe decreases on the second sock and then I’ll have them done. I’ve heard size 0 and 1 needles referred to by group members as “toothpicks” and, when using double-pointed needles, as I prefer for socks, “the hedgehog.” Both quite accurate descriptions.

And poor Papa Tigs was just about to leave work when the computers and a bunch of other equipment went down in one of the ICUs. And since almost everyone else had left, he and an engineer went up and played tech, enough to get things up and running. But he didn’t get home until 14 hours after he left this morning. That strikes me as being a bit much!

Anyway, so that’s been my day. A day of working for 10 minutes then knitting for 20. Not what I call productive, at least of the $$ variety. I think I’m still getting over being sick; my energy level is only about 1/3 what it should be. I am really, really sick of being sick! Can someone please send me some energy? Pretty please?

75

When people ask me whether I want to have pets, I tell them I have two brothers :p. Imagine, if I get this much drama long distance, how would it be if I actually spent most of my time physically close!

The Proud Daddy, having been chastened re. not telling me about the decision to let his FiL die, is now suffering from a bout of actually informing me; they usually last a couple weeks but it’s better than nothing. So I can report that SiL talked with the Head Neprhologist (that’s Kidney Doc) at the local horsepistol and HN gave her several possible scenarios for the enlarged urether; HN agreed that further tests are needed and the one she would do first is the same one SiL would do first. We’re now waiting for the kidlet’s official doctor to give SiL official information, but SiL’s a lot calmer.

Motherly Striped Kitten, making mittens isn’t anything like a waste of time, say my always-cold hands.

Will upload pictures to show off Scotland, currently trying to convince Picasa to let me in. I made an account to share stuff with you guys but can’t remember the password, so I need another one.

76

Scottish Pics

77

Rigs, I can sympathize. Trust me though, they eventually come home, at least for a while… (granted, I’m basing this on a not-yet-16-YO highschooler who has few choices during the summer, but still – she’s taken to this “being home again” thing like a duck to water!)

**Haze **- what is this “Facebook Wall” of which you speak? :confused: I think I’m hopelessly out of touch. I don’t even know if facebook is more of a blogging community (a la LiveJournal) or more akin to OKCupid.
And just so nobody thinks I know what I’m talking about at all, I have a most-basic LJ which I haven’t updated in aeons, and I’ve never so much as looked at an online dating site…

I think I’m showing my age…

That said, everyone who has seen my pictures says I look like I could have been Irish… :wink:

{{{Pie}}} :frowning:

Ivory – yay on a good first day of classes!

GT – keep enjoying your vacation. :slight_smile:

**Nava **-- more {{{}}}‘s… and (re: one of the pics): how you doin’? :slight_smile:

78

Blurf.

Morning.

Stupid neighbours fighting outside at 3:30.

Need caffeine.

79

Morning all; up and caffeinating on what appears to be a very fine Tuesday morning - it’s 70 degrees F out there and might make 80 today, which is excellent for late August.

SpecialOne, Facebook is another site somewhat like myspace.com–a social networking site; it’s very popular with college-age kids, and younger. I’ve got a page but don’t really have any friends. LOL I have found a couple of my HS classmates on there, but probably only because their kids are on there.

I’m a bit late getting up this morning, so more later. Hugs appropriately and good wishes also. kai, always love to hear about Kodiak (although not wanting to have you meet up with any bears there! :eek: ); also thinking of you.

80

Unless it’s swampus, chaos one or one of their colleagues, of course.