Free Hugs

Via City Mama.

Snowbound

It has been difficult to get back into the groove at work since we returned from Italy. Yesterday's weather didn't help. It was wet and threatening snow all day, then starting snowing hard on my drive home at about 4:30, and by 7pm last night, I knew I wasn't going anywhere for a couple of days.

So I'm sitting here at my makeshift desk (since unpacking and organizing my home office has been pretty far down the list of "new house priorities"), trying to get some work done so I can bill for my time today and not go broke. Joey is here with me, because Alex is out of town and I'm not yet ready to stay here alone. We're making soup to have for dinner later (Giada's lentil soup), and in a couple of hours I'm going to put some pork ribs in the oven to cook slowly for about three hours.

Tomorrow should be warmer, and the roads should be better. Joey will need to get back to school, and I need to go to work. I'm no good at working from home, I don't know how people do it. There are just too many things (couch! TV! Internet! dog! unpack! cook!) that distract me when I'm here with a whole day on my hands. It was all I could do this morning to change out of my pajamas - how's that for being motivated?

The picture today is from one of our glorious lunches at Anna's house in Italy. I think it only shows a couple of antipasti, plus some wine....there were probably another 5 or 6 courses waiting for us.

Buongiorno!

I'm back. We had a lovely time in Italy. There were so many wonderful days and sights and meals, it will take me months to share it all. In the meantime, the picture is from a day trip to Lago Maggiore. I like that the madonna is guarding the boats.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

I'm still here in Boulder, but my mind is already across the great wide ocean. I wouldn't normally quote John Denver, but the song is rolling around in my head like a soundtrack for this week. Work has been tedious these past few days, and so it is that much harder to concentrate on getting anything done. We leave Friday morning, and I'm mostly ready (except for packing and arranging transport to the airport).

I thought I'd tell you about Fern and little Jake. Fern is the little old lady that lives across the way from us (I could say "street", but there is no paved road anywhere near my house, so we like to pretend that it's just wide open space). We met her one day last week while we were out walking Ruby. I wish I had a picture of her, she has such a wonderful, weathered old face. Her wrinkles and creases are deeply defined, and I like to think of how many smiles and laughs it must have taken to carve them like that.

Fern lost her dog of 15 years earlier this year. I think she's a widow, she mentioned grandchildren but not her husband. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to lose her longtime canine companion, especially if he was the only companion she had left. The area where we live is very remote, and I can already tell how easy it is to isolate and become lonely.

A couple of months ago, Fern went down to the humane society and adopted a six-year-old beagle, named Jake. He's a fierce little thing, with a full gray muzzle. He's a barker, very protective of Fern and of his "yard" (couple of acres of land bordering on our road). As soon as Jake spotted Alex, Ruby and I walking on the road, he cranked up the volume on the barking, straining at his leash to get to us. Ruby is, of course, deaf as a post, so she didn't react to the barking at all, just the appearance of another dog (look! friend! playmate!). She walked right up to Jake, who was barking so hard he looked like he might fall over with the effort. It wasn't until Ruby was about a foot away that she realized something was wrong, it was either the vibration of his barking or the blasts of air to her face that caught her attention. She cocked her head at him, then leaned down a little further toward him......and he stopped. The tail started wagging, there was much sniffing of behinds, and no more barking. I felt comfortable kneeling down and offering him my hand, and he came over and let me pet him.

Fern says it was a good sign that Jake liked us, that he knows things about people. It's the first step in becoming part of our 'hood.

One of the Good Guys

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards Dies

It's a sad day. The world needs more women who are smart, funny, gracious, and unfraid to say what they think, and mean what they say.

The View From Up There

This is my boy, admiring our view.

I've been trying to keep a list of stuff to post, but it gets away from me. There is really too much going on as I prepare for our LONG VACATION(!). That's right, Alex and I are leaving on holiday next week, so blogging will be light for about three weeks (unless I feel the urge to post from some lovely little village in Italy, which I sincerely doubt).

In the meantime, here's a short list of stuff I might eventually tell you about:

trash on the sidewalk at work
coyotes in my driveway
Fern and little Jake

I'm out.

The "Vacation"

So, where to start? It's such a long and sad tale of woe.

My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last month. They're wonderful, lovely people, and I love them dearly. I spent every summer with them for the first 15 or so years of my life, and in the years since, I've visited them in Florida about once a year. For the past three years, they've come to Boulder in the summers and spent about 6 weeks with us.

This year, we wanted to do something special for their big anniversary. After much discussion between my mom, my sister and myself, we decided that renting a houseboat on Lake Powell for a few days was a good plan. It's pretty expensive, and a long drive from Boulder, but we agreed to split the costs and decided each kid could bring a friend so they a) wouldn't be bored and b) wouldn't pester us all day long.

My sister flew out from California, and we left for Lake Powell the next morning. We got to the marina at about 6pm, at which point the leasing office was closed - but they'd left us a note with our boat number and told us to have a good night and to check in for paperwork in the morning.

To make this already long story short, the boat had fucking mice. Aggressive, taunting mice that would sit on the counters at night and casually help themselves to our food. The leasing office told us there wasn't anything they could do - they're not allowed to kill them (it's a national park), and "mice are a fact of life in the desert." We decided to give it a try and set out for parts unknown in the big lake.

The second night with mice was even worse, and I got no sleep again. The next morning, I told my family that we needed to head back, because one more night without sleep was going to turn me into a complete raving lunatic. That's a bad thing. Plus, it's really not much of a vacation. Everyone agreed, we headed back, drove home that same day. One thing I will say for the leasing company, they refunded our entire rental fee. Pretty cool of them.

P.S. I didn't even go into the typhoon-like weather that hit the afternoon of our one-and-only day on the boat.

Worth Watching

Even Stevphen - Islam vs. Christianity

Overheard at Work

"I'm sorry, I can't make it that day. I have roller derby try-outs."

I'm Still Here

Exhausted, but still here.

I have blog fodder for days with stories of foiled vacations, aggressive mice, endless trips up and down a winding mountain road. As soon as I catch my breath and get more than 5 hours of sleep, I'll work on more posts. For now, here's a picture of my dog on her new deck.

Chez Kate (oh, and Alex, too)

We closed on our new home this morning. It was by far one of the smoothest, most pain-free exercises in a "process" that I've ever experienced. The paperwork was less than one inch thick (total!). Alex and I are now the proud owners of a bouncing baby mountain home.

The photo above doesn't do the place justice, but it's a hard house to photograph. This picture shows the front corner of the house, and I was standing in front of the garage when I took it. The side of the house faces the road, the back of the house faces the driveway, and the front of the house is looking out toward a lake and mountains and is surrounded by trees. Once I'm up there, I'll work on doing a better pictorial tour.

Winners!

Mare's softball team took first place at a tournament this weekend (woo hoo!), their second tournament in a row in which they took top honors. It's a great team, and most of the girls turned 13 this year, so next year they'll all move up together to the 14-and-unders. They played three games on Saturday, which is amazing because before and in between each game there was rain or threats of rain.

Late in the day, I went to the airport and picked up my grandparents, and as we drove back the 50 or so miles from the airport to Boulder, the skies opened and dumped the worst rain I think I've ever seen. My grandparents live in Florida, so they're used to bad weather - they were troopers while I drove white-knuckled back toward home.

Edit: That photo is from the last tournament they played (and in better weather). Those are the practice uniforms, the game uniforms are shiny purple - they look like short Lakers!

Training Me to Harass, Sexually

We have mandatory sexual harassment training this morning. We watched this clip from "South Park" to prepare.

Moving On

Thanks for the emails (and for the comment, Ali). I felt weird about posting something like that, especially since it's not my heartbreak, but it did shape my days and nights this week. I'm moving on now, I don't want to dwell there. I'm still paying regular visits to my friend, as are many in her life, and she's being well looked after.

No Good News

I haven't felt much like posting this week. My friend T. lost her infant son to SIDS a few days ago. His funeral was yesterday. He was a few days shy of four months old.

I don't really have anything to say, other than I can't begin to imagine my friend's grief. I've tried to just be there for her, because I can't think of anything else to do.

Anam Cara

We went to the wedding of some very good friends last night. It had lovely Irish touches, including large gulps of whiskey from a shared cup (the "loving cup" or "quaich"), and many humorous references to the bride's love of all things sci-fi. I think I had more fun at that wedding than perhaps any other, outside of my own. We also knew nearly every person there, which was rather nice and sort of unusual for me in my history of wedding-attendance.

Luckily for me, there was very good red wine, so I wasn't tempted by any of the strange concoctions that were being crafted behind the bar. Probably 20% of the bartenders in Boulder were at this wedding, so it was bound to get out of hand eventually. Alex and I left shortly after all of the groomsmen appeared dressed as Mr. Spock and serenaded the bride. It really was a fun, loving evening. I very much needed some sweetness and light.

On the whiteboard in the kitchen at work.

Happy Links

I've added a bunch of new links at the right - sites I had visited and liked enough to bookmark, have read periodically, etc. Mostly it's that I've just been too lazy to update my links. There is a lot of great and amusing writing out there, and one of my favorite things to do each day is just cruise around and check in with everyone. Now I just have to get better about leaving comments.

It might be time for another facelift for this here blog, but lord knows I have enough on my plate right now. Maybe that will be a good project for this fall, once I'm settled in a bit.

Golden Oldie

Hey, I have titles! Who knew? (Yeah, okay, I really should explore the Blogger toolbar more often).

I was looking through my archives this afternoon and came across a meme from last summer. I liked it, so here it is again, updated with today's answers:

1. What is your name? kathryn (or kate)
2. What color underwear are you wearing now? nude
3. What are you listening to right now? Radio Paradise
4. What are the last 2 digits of your phone number? 44
5. What was the last thing you ate? prosciutto-wrapped melon, and grilled shrimp
6. If you were a crayon what color would you be? purple
7. How is the weather right now? stormy
8. Who was the last person talked to on the phone? my nephew
9. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? it's the smile
10. Favorite Food? can i be honest??? fried chicken
11. Favorite Drink? water
12. Favorite Alcoholic drink? Heineken
13. Favorite place to shop? the internet
14. Hair Color? brown
15. Eye Color? brown
16. Do you wear contacts? nope
17. Top or bottom? top
18. Favorite Month? october
19. Favorite Fast Food? i don't really like fast food - but Qdoba rocks
20. Last Movie you Watched? "Clerks 2"
21. Favorite Day of the Year? some Saturday in the fall
22. Are you too shy to ask someone out? not at all
23. Summer or Winter? winter
24. Hugs or Kisses? both
25. Chocolate or vanilla? vanilla
26. What books are you reading? A Moveable Feast
27. What's on your mouse pad? i don't have one
28. Favorite Board Game? Scrabble
29. What did you do last night? shopping, followed by dinner and cocktails with my friend Joni
30. Who inspires you? Anne Lamott
31. Butter, Plain, or salted popcorn? butter AND salt
38. Favorite Flower? i'm not really a flower kind of girl
39. What do you say when you wake up in the A.M? get off me, ruby
40. Do you still talk to your best friend from middle school? didn't have one
41. What's on your desk? apple, tangerine, three bottles of Eldorado spring water, graph paper tablet, phone, Bobbi Brown Black Cherry lip tint, mechanical pencil, stolen hotel room door card that says "do not disturb the calm little center of my universe"
42. Rock Concert or Symphony? symphony
43. Play or Opera? play
44. Have you ever fired a gun? yes, and i hit stuff, too
45. Do you like to travel by plane? not especially
46. Right-handed or Left-handed? right
47. Smooth or Chunky Peanut Butter? chunky if by spoon, creamy for spreading on things
48. How many pillows do you sleep with? 2
49. City and State you were born in? winter park, fl
50. Ever hitchhiked? no

Just a quick update, for those of you following along at home:

We did buy a new house, and we're moving in on August 27. We decided to keep our house in Boulder, and we're in the process of trying to find tenants. The hunt for tenants is long and arduous, but we're hanging in there. We've had 6 families take a look, but nothing so far. I keep telling myself that it's because it's been available for so long, but it might be a tiny bit expensive. If we don't rent it by the end of this coming weekend, we're dropping the price.

I'm very excited about the new house. It's going to need a lot of work, most of which we'll do ourselves. We need to install a water softener for the well water, need to buy a new washer/dryer, and then once we're moved in we'll start a list of changes and try to prioritize them. Some are more urgent than others - there is a wall in the dining room that needs to get knocked down in order for us to fit our dining room table, so that will happen pretty quickly. There is only one bathroom, so putting a second one in will be a HUGE priority. There is some faux wood paneling that I'll be removing, which has to happen before we do new floors. There is yucky brown tile in the kitchen that needs to come down and be replaced, cabinets need to be cleaned up. I need your help here - the cabinets are okay, but BOR-RING. I'm tempted to sand them down a bit and then paint them white and put stainless steel hardware on them, which will then match the stainless steel appliances that we'll be putting in. Opinions?