Staycation For The Win!

In case you were wondering, the rest of my week went just as it started: everyone gone but Susie, few obligations, hardly any driving, unscheduled bliss. Oh, there was a meal to make for another family on Monday (great timing, since I didn't have to worry about cooking for my own that night), and I did drive to pick blueberries with friends on Tuesday (but that was voluntary).

The blueberry farm also featured (freshly shorn) alpacas

 Susie and I messed around in the kitchen minimally the rest of the week: She made some curry vegetable/tofu stir fry, and I set to work using up the blueberries we brought home, because there was nobody there to eat them.

Lemon blueberry bread

I had to give away one of these loaves, because - again - there was nobody home to eat all this. And yes, I could have simply baked one loaf, as the recipe called for. But, really, why go to all that effort for just one loaf? I cannot abide inefficient cooking.

That was about the extent of our culinary experiments, though. We indulged in a couple more pizzas (hey, we walked to get them), ate eggs and grilled cheese and cucumbers (not all at once). It was heaven. No, really, HEAVEN.

I took a short nap each afternoon without feeling guilty. Heaven.

I sat around and read one of the books I got for my birthday. Heaven.

I finally planted the flowers I bought at a local garden shop. Not quite heaven (because, hey, worms and bugs and such), but it felt good to get it done.

In short, I did stuff without feeling (as I usually do) that there were a zillion other things I needed to be doing at the exact same time. For this one blessed week, I could focus solely on what I was doing at the moment.

Heaven.

So Larry got back late last night, bearing gifts and probably new viruses from overseas (we hugged but didn't kiss, because I've learned my lesson). Among other things, he brought me this shirt:

Note to knitter friends: No, you may not have it.

I have no idea why it says "I am famous" on it. But, hey, it's a sheep, and that's good enough. We're into sheep around here. The stuffed kind, anyway. The real kind are probably too smelly, I would think...

Left Behind

Oh, last week was busy! What with my all-adult-things-I-hate day, followed by my birthday, and then helping Rachel get ready for Civil Air Patrol Encampment (she left Saturday), things were a bit crazy around here. So much so that, when I tripped over some suitcases in the living room Thursday evening, I said, "What are THOSE doing there?" and Larry said, "Those are mine." And I said, "Why?" And he said, "Remember? I'm going on a business trip Saturday morning."

Oh. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

So! Larry's gone, Rachel's gone, David's still in Texas, the 2 oldest plus Brian are in Israel, so that leaves...(turns slowly around, counts)...one child in the house with me. ONE.

This has never happened before. I mean, not since Theo was a baby and Anna wasn't born yet. Let's see, that was, hmmm, 25 years ago. A quarter of a century, to put it another way. Almost half my life.

People, this feels WEIRD. "There's no one here," Susie keeps saying.

We eat what we want. We do what we want. No one else's schedule to consider, no one else's food preferences to take into account. I feel as though I'm on vacation. For dinner last night, we walked (exercise!) to a local grocery store and picked up a (darn good) pizza for 10 dollars. It lasted for two nights. ONE PIZZA. Susie made a cute little salad for the two of us this evening. Is this how normal people live? Normal, meaning people who DON'T decide to have 6 kids?

Our adorable 2-person salad

Today I invited my knitting friends over for the afternoon. No one else to consult, and house was already clean because there's no one here. Is this why normal people find it so easy to entertain?

Oh, there are drawbacks to being the only ones here. Last night I had to chase down a daddy longlegs spider with the vacuum hose, while Susie shouted encouragement and I tried not to scream; some appliance in the house is giving out a periodic warning beep and neither of us can figure out what it is; and there aren't enough people here for me to use the 2 beautiful cooking pots Larry (somewhat trepidatiously but with Susie's approval) bought me for my birthday.

Shiny!

Really, I wanted them. Up to now, any time I cooked something too big for the 6-quart pot, I had to use a huge 16-quart one, which is too tall and too heavy for me to handle safely. So Larry bought me a nice 12-quart number with a colander insert (Hooray! no more risk of scalding myself while draining spaghetti!). He replaced the old 6-qt one, too - the one I bought 14 years ago that has a broken handle that keeps coming loose.

So that's 55 years for you - a couple of stainless steel pots makes a good birthday. There was some chocolate, too, of course, and a book or two. But mostly there was enjoyment of a day free of dental appointments, funerals, and board meetings. I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while - she treated me to gelato and we took a walk. I tried on clothes at Chico's (motto: Where All The Apple-Shaped Ladies Shop) but didn't buy anything. I let Larry take me out to dinner at Nando's. Best of all, I received a video call from my 3 overseas kids, all sitting on a porch swing thousands of miles away, laughing and talking and making this mom's heart sing.

Because, hey - it's my birthday, and I'll kvell if I want to. You would kvell, too...

Birthday Eve

Today saw me doing all the adult things I hate: Dentist appointment! Funeral! HOA board meeting! And the only thing that got me through (besides the fact that I had no choice on any of it) was the thought that, hey, tomorrow? Is my birthday!

Susie made me more flowers for the occasion:

With Pinterest-y corks, too! 

In just a couple of hours I turn 55 (a thought that, admittedly, feels pretty weird - I mean, didn't I just turn 50, like, last year?). Okay, now I wish I hadn't clicked on that last link. Apparently, when I turned 50, I was planning to do something special on my 55th - a bike trip with girlfriends and NO CAMPING, maybe. 55 seemed a really long way off then, and I was going to be free to do neat stuff and apparently in good enough shape for a week-long bicycling trip.

Where DOES a dream go when it dies, anyway? Huh?

So the future is here, apparently, and is not what I thought it would be. Also, I have nothing planned for tomorrow. NOTHING. Except maybe going to clothing stores all by myself (for once) so I can try to find clothes that fit (which, according to that same link, is the activity I planned for my 50th also) (because I'm still as boring as I was 5 years ago, apparently).

I told Susie my shopping plan, and she said, "That's an AWFUL idea for your birthday. You'll get all depressed when you can't find anything!"

Ignoring that, uh, vote of confidence concerning my ability to fit into clothes, I'll throw it out there - what would YOU do on your birthday?

All Washed Up

You know when is NOT a good time to realize that your minivan leaks? When you're taking that van through a car wash, that's when.

So, yeah, that happened. In retrospect, I should have paid more attention the past couple of weeks when I noticed a mildewy smell in the car. Gee, I thought, that smells just like when the cooler leaked during our camping trip! But there was no cooler in my car lately, so I chalked it up alternately to humidity and/or the AC system (and not the 8 straight days of rain we'd had) and went on my merry way.

I don't even know where to get this fixed. It must be a gasket, right? Do I take it to a body shop? Where IS a body shop?

Actually, I could use a body shop myself. I'm turning 55 next week, and boy do I look it. You know things are getting bad when you consider sleeping inverted to counteract the daylong effects of gravity on your face.

Is that just me? Oh, well.

I was 44 when I started this blog and I wish I could reach back through time to shake myself and yell, "Get up! Go exercise! Exercise more! Moisturize! Use sunscreen!" But no - I just sat here and blogged about kids and vomit and mice while letting time and sun do their damage. I've no one to blame but myself. I ignored all the obvious signs, just like I ignored the mildew smell in my car. So, yeah, there's a pattern here.

On the bright side...um, wait...I'm working on the bright side. It's around here somewhere.

Wrapped and ready!

Father's Day is this Sunday (as if you didn't know, what with all the heartwarming dad-related essays being passed around Facebook), and we've already gotten Larry a gift, several days early. I like to surprise myself with some unwonted efficiency sometimes, which results in crazy things happening like that. And keep in mind that just because that looks like Christmas wrapping doesn't mean it actually IS Christmas wrapping. (But it is.)

I can't tell you what's in there, though, in case Larry actually takes a look at this here blog of mine before Sunday. He hasn't in years, but you never know...

Almost too cute to be a filing cabinet

I also bought him a little rolling file cabinet (used - only $15!), but I didn't bother wrapping that. I'm hoping I can use it to store the contents of those 2 boxes Larry dumped in the newly pristine corner of our bedroom a couple of weeks ago. Then, if he tries to stick it back in that corner, I can just roll it away on its tiny cute wheels. Maybe I'll roll it into Brian's bedroom. Poor Brian - he's only been gone 6 days, and I'm already using his room to store our "give away" bin AND a box full of sheets (for our beach house vacation in August). So he probably wouldn't even notice an extra filing cabinet, right?

Abandoned

Monday was David's birthday. The BIG birthday, 21. He's in Texas for his internship, but that didn't keep Susie and me from celebrating.

In absentia birthday cake

We took a video of us lighting the candle and singing Happy Birthday and sent it to him. Then we ate all the blondies ourselves. It's the thought that counts, right?

Remember David? He used to be our tech guru around here, before Brian was old enough to care about such stuff. Larry and I were terrified when David departed for college, left alone as we were in a sea of technology we didn't understand. As it was, Brian stepped in to fill the gap and we've been happily coasting along on his know-how for the past 3 years.

But now Brian's left us, too. And, as if on cue, my computer has gone berserk. First the sound got stuck at 100%. That's LOUD, in case you were wondering. No matter which sound thing-y I used  - keyboard buttons, slider on the monitor, slider on the actual video - I couldn't get the volume to decrease. In a panic, I hit a bunch of buttons, then I hit mute and it shut up (the mute button hadn't worked previously). Now I can't get any sound at all.

I look around to see who will fill Brian's shoes and things don't look promising. Rachel couldn't care less (although she could probably figure these things out), and Susie refuses to even consider any tech beyond her beloved YouTube, filled as it is with ukulele lessons and crafting tutorials.

Hyacinths, courtesy of Susie and YouTube

There's no one to save me this time. I'll become the old person Brian has grown to dread - the one who shows up at Best Buy and peppers him and other sales staff with myriad tech questions, all accumulated since the last time their grown kids visited at Thanksgiving. Or maybe I'll end up having to beg random teenagers in the neighborhood to solve my computer problems.

Think I can bribe them with some paper flowers?