Vacation Week

Well, the end of vacation is near. After tomorrow, I will have to go back to work. Although it seems this week went by pretty fast, I feel refreshed and recharged and ready. It's been a busy week, too!

On Saturday, we tried to motivate ourselves to clean the rest of the house. We had been cleaning and clearing all week, trying to get the spare room looking more like a spare room, and finally putting order to Stefan's office. In the process, we discovered that the spare room gets more light than our bedroom, so we're going to change rooms - again! This will be our third bedroom move. Probably before next week is over, we will have officially set up camp in all of our bedrooms at some point.

On Sunday, we had a party/cook-out with some of our friends. It was blistering hot - like 58% humidity and a heat index of 103. Going outside would cause an instant sweat-fest. Cooking hamburgers after having a couple of margaritas is not a good idea. Unless you like them crispy and black through-and-through. But I thought I'd try anyhow, and subsequently, Stefan had to come out and turn off the grill. We have some scorch-marks on the back of the house from the flames I caused. Oops. I'm not allowed to grill anymore. Dave was a good sport and he ate one of my hamburgers anyway while Stefan grilled up a new batch.

Dave took Rhiannon in the pool for a little bit, and judging from the permanent grin on her face, she had a blast. Later, after Rhiannon had to go home, Stefan and I went in the pool. The water got up to 82 degrees - a record! and it didn't feel chilly anymore. I swam around for a bit after Stefan got out (too hard to resist swimming but the tattoo is not healed yet) while everyone sweated on the back deck and conversed. Later, after everyone left, Sam and Dave stopped back by for a bit and Stefan whipped up another batch of his margaritas.

Monday, Stefan was aching for some pedialyte. Perhaps the new margarita recipe is a little too strong? We finished cleaning up and then headed to the airport to pick up Aunt Helen, Uncle Mike and Inky. This is the first time I have encoutered the Bridge from Hell. A new bridge was built, I'll call it the Death Wish Bridge, and it has an on-ramp like a rollercoaster. And these teeny-tiny concrete guardrails with a speed limit of 60. You're so far up in the clouds, you can't even see the James River as you cross. How much to pay for this delightful thrill ride? $2.25 each way! But it was the quickest way to the airport.

Aunt Helen and Uncle Mike had a lovely visit. The dogs played and played. We talked, drank coffee, and smoked. Stefan got up with Cubby every morning (he instinctively knows when it's 7am and time to go out) and let me sleep in. What a sweetheart. We took more pictures of the dogs than of the humans, but come on, it's not everyday you get to see a 10 pound chihuahua taunting a 90 pound german shepherd. Perry would play this game where he would jump up and bite Inky's tail. This would start the game of chase, and Inky would go after Perry, while Perry bounced around like a ping-pong ball. Too funny. Cubby took a special liking to Uncle Mike, preferring to be held quietly on his lap, which is quite a feat for a 3 month old puppy.

We took Helen and Mike out to Brother's for dinner Monday night. While we didn't do a whole lot of special things, we mainly enjoyed each other's company.

Helen and Mike stayed until Thursday. When we got back from the airport, we didn't feel like doing much, so we just surfed the Internet, played computer games and watched Tivo shows. Friday finally found me beginning to relax. I don't think I know how to relax anymore. I read an entire book (The Bell Jar) and only after that, did I feel myself becoming refreshed. I generally read non-fiction, and yesterday, I just couldn't get into my next book all that well, so that's when I picked up The Bell Jar. It was perfect - just the right length for reading in a day, and entertaining enough to keep me reading.

This morning, I am sitting on the deck, watching the puppies play. It's Stefan's turn to sleep in. The pool is a wreck -we got some bad storms this week, and a lot of heavy branches fell down. The weather has cooled off dramatically, so I haven't felt inspired to get in and clean the pool. Oh, yeah, and I'm on vacation, anyways.