Inane Chatter

It’s Oscar Night, so I might as well talk about it, right?  But first, I have to see who’s nominated and find out if I even saw any of these movies.  Last year, I hadn’t seen a single Oscar-nominated movie by the time the awards rolled around.

Okay, I’ve checked.  Of movies that were either nominated for themselves or had an actor nominated, I’ve seen Avatar (liked it, but for a technical category, not Best Picture.  I mean, come on, it was a 3D remake of Ferngully: The Last Rainforest!), Julie & Julia, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  Soooo, none of the really good ones.

We’ll watch the beginning for Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but that’s about it.  I’ll check out the highlights online tomorrow.  We’re going to spend our evening finishing Batman Begins (we got too sleepy to finish it last night) with pizza (and maybe wine – classy, I know).

Oh, we caught up on Lost this morning over breakfast, so Mom, Dad, Mindy, call me tomorrow and we’ll chat.

Complete and utter failure.  Worst ponytail EVER.  I took the dogs for a short jog this afternoon, and for the first time in months, I put my hair into a normal ponytail instead of the double-decker thing I’ve been doing (which has been working just fine).  Because the ponytail wasn’t tight enough, it slid down the back of my head, freeing all the shorter hair in front to flop around in my face.  I couldn’t just tuck it behind my ears (over and over and over) like I usually would because I was wearing my ear grips to keep my wittle ears warm, so I didn’t have ears behind which to tuck the hair.  Behind which.

John has been in the driveway all morning replacing the rear brakes on the mustang.  It’s not supposed to be this hard.  That’s true of EVerything he does to this car.  Except when he replaced the drive belt a couple of weeks ago.  That one went pretty well.  He got the driver’s side done, but he’s having trouble compressing the piston back into the caliper on the passenger side.  I’ve been googling the problem, but he’s got the right tool and he seems to be doing all the right things.  He’s not ready to assume the caliper has seized yet, but if he can’t fit the new brake pad in, he may have to replace the caliper.  And that will mean he won’t be going to his cousin’s new baby’s christening.  Because it will take the rest of the weekend (bleeding brake lines, replacing parts, adding fluid, etc) and he won’t have a car to drive until it’s done.  So we’ll see.  But if he does go, he’ll leave for PA tonight to spend the evening with his family and then drive to Long Island with them Sunday morning for the christening.  He’ll stay with his parents in PA Sunday night and go to work from their house Monday morning.  So I won’t see him again until after work on Monday.  On the plus side, I’ll have Indian for dinner and watch movies he’s not interested in.  But that’s only fun for one night, not two.  Oh!  Speaking of movies, we watched 500 Days of Summer last night.  We both really liked it.  Joseph Gordan-Levitt was fantastic, and while we didn’t like Zooey Deschanel’s character as much, she was really good.  John couldn’t decide if he thought she was really attractive or not.  He said he wasn’t sure if he’d call her beautiful, or even pretty, but he wants to keep looking at her.  So at least he thinks she’s interesting.  I think she’s very pretty.  She’s got that blue eyes with dark hair thing I’ve always liked.  Like Liesl in The Sound of Music.    And I will watch the musical number (from 500 Days) at least three more times before I put the movie back in the mail.

Things I Like (in no particular order):

• Reading fiction, anywhere, anytime
• my dogs
• all dogs
• PUPPIES!
• And kittens
• And cats that actually like people
• chocolate
• milk chocolate
• white chocolate
• Paul Reiser
• Mad About You
• Saturday mornings
• sunny days (“sweeping the…”)
• summer days
• trees
• books (and their smell)
• big band music
• lists
• flowers
• BIG bathtubs
• showers with real water pressure
• manicured lawns
• manicured nails (my own, anyway – don’t much care for anyone else’s nails)
• clean sheets
• John’s clean, just-out-the-shower smell (much better than his just-came-back-from-a-long-run-sweaty smell)
• John (duh)
• everyone else I like (but won’t list here for fear I’ll leave someone I like off the list and that person (let’s call this person “H” for “hypothetical”)  will notice and be mad at me for leaving her (or him) off (even though it was an accident and I really do like H) and she will stop visiting my site, assuming  she was visiting and reading anyway, but if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t know I left her off and she wouldn’t get mad and stop reading, so I guess H was reading, which means, again, that I shouldn’t list anyone because I might leave someone off and she’ll get mad and stop reading)
• decorating with books
• my pretty new dining room table
• Ellen DeGeneres
• working from home
• that relaxed feeling as you drift off to sleep

Speaking of that last one, it’s getting close to my bedtime.  More accurately, it’s getting close to that time when I should be in bed reading.

The snow just stopped.  Maybe 15 minutes ago.  And the sun is out.  Our total is somewhere around 30 inches, maybe a little more in places.  Definitely more in the corners of our yard.  When we were shoveling this morning, the sidewalks (which were a little lower than the yard) had 24″ of snow.  We spent a couple of hours shoveling the driveway and part of the sidewalk, mostly to make sure we could get the car out if we really had to.  Tomorrow we’ll tackle what fell after we quit, the rest of the sidewalk, and we’ll try to dig John’s car out.  If he can swing it, I really think he should work from home on Monday.  The roads will be terrible.  We had a plow come through sometime last night, maybe early this morning, but none since then.  Our street has at least a foot of snow.  Snow snow-snow, snow-snow-snow.  I’m tired of it.  And it’s way too deep for the dogs.  The first thing we did today was clear a path on the deck, clear the deck stairs, and shovel out an area in the yard so they could get around.  They can blaze their own paths from there, although they really haven’t this time.  They’ve stayed under the deck overhang, where the snow isn’t as deep.  Mark asked for pictures (apparently, he needs proof – Hi, Mark!), so here they are.  Maybe it’ll all disappear overnight.  I’m ready for spring!

Snow depth on the bench around 9:30 last night:

Snow depth on the bench as of about 9:30 this morning (through the sliding glass door with snow on it):

Snow depth on the bench around 4:45 this afternoon:

The back corner of the yard yesterday afternoon (3-ish, I think):

The back corner of the yard around 4:45 today:

My flower bed, buried:

An evergreen in the neighbor’s yard, yesterday:

Same evergreen, after the snow stopped today:

Out the front door this morning:

The driveway, before shoveling:

John shoveling the driveway:

The house, after shoveling (and the buried mailbox):

The neighbors, also shoveling:

And Roxy, peeing in the clearing we shoveled for her:

You’re welcome. 

So yeah, we have lots of snow.  We came in from shoveling around 11:30 or so, showered, and then had breakfast even though it was after noon.  Hot chocolate (of course), cereal (Wegman’s version of Lucky Charms), and muffins.  And we watched a little TV.  Since then, I’ve been messing around on the internet, and John has been stealing cars and beating people up.  Seriously.  Oh, yeah, and we’re drinking champagne that’s been in the fridge since New Year’s.  It’s better aged. 

I’m on Day Two of trying to replace my allergy medicines with the generic version of Claritin.  It’s not going well.  In fact, I’m quitting that plan.  I picked up refills for both prescriptions on my way home from work today.  Yesterday was okay, but today I woke up really dry.  That went away by breakfast, and I spent the rest of the day sniffling and blowing my nose.  The sneezing started after lunch.  I feel fine if you don’t count the congestion and stuffy nose.  I mean, I’m not sick.  But I don’t want to just deal with this until the over-the-counter stuff kicks in or whatever.  Not right now.  I was overly aware of how much noise sniffling and blowing and sneezing makes when your office is a cubicle farm.  Unfortunately, I really do need to find something else that works.  On our new insurance, one of my allergy medicines went up $10 a month, and the other one went up $50.  I need to find an alternative to paying almost a hundred bucks a month just for allergy medicine.

In other news, my niece is brilliant!

I just met the family who contacted me about the piano.  They want it!  Piano adoption is complete.  It will go to its new home over the weekend, probably, after they figure out whose trailer they can borrow.  I met the mom, the dad, and the little girl who’s taking lessons.  I think she’s about 8 or 9.  Definitely between 7 and 10.  They’re very nice people and very appreciative.  The little girl was thrilled.  Once her dad coaxed her to the keys, she played (mostly messing around (chopsticks and that other thing we used to play all the time (not “Heart and Soul” – the other thing)) and making noise, but it was fun piano noise) the whole rest of the time they were here.  They measured (it’ll fit), and I offered to let them go through my piano music when they come back and take what they want (with the exception of a few things I want to hold on to, of course).  Family, if there’s any music you want me to hold on to for you, tell me before Saturday.  The little girl (the parents don’t play) has been practicing on a keyboard (not full-size), so this is working out perfectly for them.  And for me.  The piano is going to a good home where it will be put to good use.  And of course, I told them all about its history (including the cracked harp and the messed up finish).  I told them I checked with you guys before making this decision, and the mom asked me to pass on her thanks.  So, thanks, family, for letting me give our piano to a new family to love.

Am I getting too maudlin?

Here’s my thinking: I know I should write something, but I’m so tired.  We just watched Julie and Julia, which I watched last week with Mom and Dad and liked very much, and three of the four people in the room who hadn’t seen it already slept through the second half.  Not a good response.  But I love watching movies here.  The basement is set up like a theater, with a big screen and great recliners (SIX recliners!) (and I keep trying to spell it “reclinders”), and with the lights out, it’s really cool.

Exhaustion is setting in, though, and I’m ready to go home.  We’ve had lots of fun and lots of late nights in a row, and I just can’t keep that up for this many days in a row.  And I miss the dogs.  And my bed.  And the dogs.  Sometime tomorrow we’ll hit the road.  I hope the traffic won’t be too bad.

So our plans changed.  Instead of the mall and a movie, we drove to Long Island this afternoon to see John’s grandmother, Rose.  We hit some major traffic in NY (going over the bridge and beyond), but that was mostly rush hour.  Instead of three hours, it took us about four and a half.  But I had Molly and Emily in the car with me (John went with his parents), so we had a good time.  (Big sing-along.)  We had a good visit (2 to 3 hours) and ate a ton of Chinese food, and then we headed back home (after a stop at Dunkin Donuts).  This time I had Pat and Molly (Emily went with her dad, and Tom and John drove together – we picked up Tom at Rose’s place), so after we sang the entire Bing Crosby Christmas album, we sang the whole soundtrack to The Sound of Music.  The trip flew by and all of a sudden, we were home and it was midnight.  So Merry Christmas.  I’m going to bed.

Assuming, of course, that the snow doesn’t melt away today.  It’s Christmas Eve morning, and John and I are sitting at the kitchen counter in his parents’ house in PA.  John’s dad is sitting at the desk in the kitchen, and the three of us are ignoring each other in favor of our laptops.  John is working (let this be a lesson to you all: work sucks), and I just applied for two jobs (required for unemployment).  Emily and I went for a jog with Mabel this morning, John went for a jog by himself, Molly slept in, and Pat went to work at an absurdly early hour.  I was awake then, too, because I blocked her in last night and she had to wake us up so we could move the car.  She’s on her way home now.

We decided to use a pet-sitting service instead of the kennel this year.  We’re a little nervous about leaving the dogs loose in the house for so many days, but the sitters have five different ways of getting in touch with us, so we should find out pretty quickly if disaster strikes.

I’m just babbling now.  The plan for the day (since no one has any emergency shopping to do – a first!) is to go to the mall (outdoor mall) to soak up the Christmas ambience and then maybe go to a movie.  After breakfast, I hope, ’cause I’m getting hungry!

Well, the weather outside is chilly (not very frightful), but inside is nice and toasty, made more so by the Yuletide Fire DVD Mom got.

I had a very weird few moments at the Canadian Brass concert (where they played only a couple of Christmas songs) Saturday night.  They played Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which I know from their Greatest Hits album.  I listened to that album on repeat while reading The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through, by Stephen R. Donaldson, years and years ago, and ever since then, whenever I hear that album, I’m returned to that story.  That’s never happened to me with a live performance before, but it did Saturday night.  For the length of the song, scenes from the books were shuffling through my memory.  Strange.  But cool.

Then Jess and I stayed up to watch Love Actually and drink champagne.    Until 2am.

I wimped out on my run this morning.  I took Howdy with me, but I left my ear muffs and gloves behind.  We only made it three blocks before I decided I was too cold.  That was dumb, ’cause it’s going to be even colder tomorrow.  I won’t forget my ear muffs and gloves again, but I don’t know how much that’ll help.

I still have over three full weeks before I rejoin the working world, but I feel like I don’t have enough time.  (I know, stop whining (for any number of reasons).)  I’m just amazed at how quickly all this time filled up.  I’ll be visiting Mom and Dad all of next week, and then we’ll go to PA for Christmas sometime the week after that.  In between, I plan to spend a day or so with Jess in MD.  We’ll be back from PA for our anniversary (I think), and then New Year’s will be on top of us.  And I start the Monday after New Year’s.  So I have somewhere between 10 and 12 whole days with nothing planned in them.  Maybe 9 to 11.  And now that I’ve counted them out like that, it sounds like more free time than before.  It’s just when I look at it week by week that it looks super busy.  I certainly don’t want to NOT do any of the things I have planned.  And I’ll probably feel better about it when we know how many and which days John will have off from work.

Let’s see how long this post gets.  And to make it clear who I’m talking about, I will try to refer to my John has John VIII, his dad as John VII, and his grandfather as John VI.

Christmas Eve

Tom and Tania arrived just around 9pm, right on time.  Toni (John VII’s sister) sent lobsters as her Christmas present to John (VII) and Pat.  I’ve had lobster before, but I think it was just the tail. And I’ve had lobster meat before, of course.  I like lobster.  I’m saying all this because I’ve never had someone drop a whole lobster on my plate before.  I didn’t think it would be a big deal, though, since I’ve eaten crabs like that and I love crab legs.  Wait – I really should have seen this coming.  I don’t eat whole crabs anymore because I freaked myself out about it a long time ago.  My freshman year in college, on a retreat in Delaware with the Troubadours, we were eating crabs.  Someone had shown me how to get into the shell and pointed out what to eat and what not to eat.  By my third crab, I realized that I had probably eaten some of what I wasn’t supposed to eat, and I was no longer sure what was safe and what wasn’t.  So I got kind of grossed out and decided not to eat whole crabs anymore.  Anyway, I figured that since that episode was more than 11 years ago, and since I had plenty of veteran lobster eaters around me, I could handle whole lobsters.  I got up close and looked in the box and saw that they were, in fact, still alive, and I watched John (VII) drop them in the pot.  And then we watched the pots and heard the lobsters rattling around in there.  That was all kind of fascinating, and I’m pretty sure it did not contribute to me wussing out later.

Dinner was served, and all of a sudden my plate had a big lobster on it, looking up at me.  I had no problem pulling the claws off and apart (just like crab legs, right?), and I pulled the tail off just fine.  But then I looked inside the body of the lobster and I realized I just couldn’t dig around in there and sort out what to eat and what not to eat and not think about what exactly what it was.  I started to turn a little green, and Emily and Molly helped me give the body off to someone else.  I did finish the tail, but John (my John, wonderful husband that he is) got the meat out for me.  I just totally wussed out.   As a general rule, I’ve realized that I just can’t eat something that comes out to me whole.  My shrimp can’t have heads or legs, my crabs need to be legs or meat only, I know I don’t want my fish to come out whole, and I don’t think I could ever eat one after gutting it.  I don’t think that’s weird or too much to ask, so I’m pretty sure I can get through most of my life like this.  Without making a big deal of it.  I may have some issues in Asian countries (that’s where I developed my rules about shrimp and whole fish), but I’ll deal with them as they come up. 

Christmas Day

Christmas this year lost a lot of its urgency, thanks to Molly being almost 16.    She wasn’t even the first person up!  We all rolled downstairs in our pajamas a little after nine.  Everyone got tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, and we opened our stockings around the kitchen table. Among the other little odds and ends that show up in those, John got some tools (midget screwdrivers and stuff), I got a Starbucks gift card (Woo!), and Pat got a new hair dryer.    Yes, Emily stuck a hair dryer in her mother’s stocking.

We moved into the family room to open presents.  Having only spent Christmas with this family, I don’t know how it’s done anywhere else, but here, one present gets opened at a time.  There’s no particular order (we don’t go from youngest to oldest or anything like that), but each person opens a present while everyone else watches, and then it’s someone else’s turn.  It takes a really long time, but what else are we going to do on Christmas Day?  Besides, this way everyone can see what everyone else got, too.  I like it.  Rose (otherwise known as Grandma) was staying with the family for the week, and every time we handed her a present she’d say, “Oh, is this for me, too?  Really, you shouldn’t have.”  It was funny, genuine, and very grandmotherly.

Remember how John and I decided we weren’t going to buy anything big for each other?  Well, he didn’t listen.  In his defense, although he gave the present to me, it’s really for us, so it’s kind of like we bought ourselves a big present.  Kind of.    I forgive him, though, ’cause he bought me a electronic drumset!  SO cool.  We should have time (and room) to set it up this weekend.  I’m so excited! 

We finished opening presents sometime after noon, and we finally had breakfast around 12:30 (I think).  I don’t really remember how we spent the rest of that day.  I went for a short run around 3pm and we watched Stepbrothers that night, but the rest of the day?  Well, there was Christmas dinner, of course, that evening.  Pat made roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, and it was delicious, as usual. 

Stepbrothers, however, was not delicious.  It’s a Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly movie, so we went into it with certain expectations.  I really really really wish that Pat, Rose, and John VII hadn’t seen it.  I’m sure they feel the same way.    There are parts that became even more disturbing because they were watching, too.  I laughed a couple of times, but it was mostly stupid without being funny.  And I’m not sure we watched it on Christmas Day.  Could have been Friday night.  We watched Love Actually either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  Not sure which.  That, of course, was wonderful.

Friday

On Friday, Toni and Susan (John VII’s sisters) came to visit.  They brought John VI (Granddaddy, or as he signed his card to me, “The Old Man B”).  We exchanged a few gifts (Susan has been learning how to knit, and she made everyone winter hats!  They’re really cute and totally wearable.) and had lunch together.  Jim (Toni’s husband) couldn’t come because he had to stay home to take care of the new lab puppy (adorable!).  After they left and we all cleaned up, we took the opportunity to get out of the house (and help Pat) and headed to Wegman’s.  She needed some things for Saturday’s lunch/dinner with the Baches.

John (VIII), Emily, Molly, and I piled into our car and headed for the store.  We found everything on Pat’s list and bought that on her card (Emily had it), but then we decided to buy dinner on us.  Pat had been cooking nonstop since before we got there and she still had more to do, so we figured the least we could do is buy dinner for her.  Then no one has to cook and the clean-up is easy.  So we went to the pizza shop at Wegman’s and ordered three pizzas.  Their pizza is really pretty good.

Saturday

On Saturday, Bob and Barbara, Kristin and Tony (her husband), and Holly and Tim (her boyfriend) all came over.  More food, more visiting.  Holly had everyone in her family decked out in LaCoste gear (she works for the company).  Everyone seemed pretty happy and is doing fairly well.  I’m supposed to send Barbara the recipe for peppermint bark.  They were in the car for a few extra hours on the way home because of fog, and that’s all they had to eat.  Apparently they liked it, since she asked how to make more.    After we cleaned up from that visit, someone found video from John’s graduation, our wedding, our rehearsal dinner, and Vincent’s 80th birthday party.  So we watched those for a while and then we finally gave in to Molly’s pleas that we play Cranium with her.    We had three teams.  Officially, Molly and John (VIII) were on a team, Emily and John VII were another team, and Tom and I were the third team.  Unofficially, John VI was on Emily and John VII’s team until he got tired of it, Pat joined my team with Tom for a while, and Tania floated in the background and joined in occasionally.  It was a lot of fun (as usual), but we were doing really badly for a while!  (We being everyone except Emily and John VII, who kicked our butts and won the game.)

Sunday

Sunday was a little rushed, mostly because no one wanted to get out of bed.  We were all going out to breakfast, so John and I packed the car so we’d be able to hit the road from the diner.  This diner was about 15 miles east of the house, and it was really cool.  The waitress was hilariously grumpy.  We had a good breakfast, said our goodbyes, and started our drive home.  We were trying to get home with enough time to unload the car and then pick up the dogs (it was packed solid with stuff, and there was no way the dogs would fit).  We were cutting it kind of close, so John dropped me off at the kennel to get the dogs checked out.  He went home, threw everything into the house, and came back to get us.  Oh, besides the drumset, the other thing that took up all the room in the car was the box full of 8 folding chairs (and fancy covers) John (VII) and Pat bought us for Christmas!  It’s a great present.  Pat knew that everytime we host a holiday, we rent chairs so we have enough seats for everyone.  I hadn’t thought ahead to New Year’s yet, so this was a perfectly timed, perfectly practical gift.  I don’t have to ask our friends to bring chairs like I had to do for Thanksgiving. 

Anyway, we got home safe and sound.  And, since it was our anniversary (8 lovely years, thank you very much), we got sushi and DQ blizzards to go and ate in our living room while watching Mad About You episodes.  Thanks for the sushi, Mom and Dad!

We’re totally exhausted and looking forward to our next weekend.  At least work this week isn’t too taxing.  And thankfully, Roxy timed her seizure last night for 9:45, not 2am.  She always has a seizure within three days of coming home from the kennel.  I don’t know if it’s the stress (or lack of stress since she’s home now) or if maybe they’re not giving her the medicine correctly, but she’s had seizures after coming home from the kennel (any kennel) since she started having them in the first place.

Well.  I’m at almost 2000 words here, which is a bit ridiculous for one post.  But it’s all out of my system now.  It was a very good, very pleasant, very busy visit.  And now I need to rest.

John and I arrived at his parents’ house last night around 10, pretty tired, but happy to be there.  We decided not to stop for dinner on the way up, but fortunately, Pat had leftovers.    So we had a couple of slices of pizza.  Everyone gave up and headed for bed around 1am, but we stayed up with Emily for about another hour.  Then we collapsed.  I got up at nine this morning with every intention of running (I even got Emily out of bed to go with me), but then we realized it was pouring outside.  I don’t run in the pouring rain.    I told Emily (and Molly) that we can just postpone our run until tomorrow morning.  We can go before we open presents.  Molly thinks I’m kidding.

Anyway, we had a late breakfast and then ran some errands.  Got back from errands and had a late lunch (like 4 o’clock late).  Dinner tonight is lobster, but we’re trying to wait for Tom and Tania to get here.  They’re on the road from Connecticut, but with the rain and the traffic, it’s hard to say when they’ll actually arrive.  As long as they get here safe, it doesn’t really matter when.

Speaking of safe, Mom and Dad decided to stop for the night on their way back to AL since Dad is worn out from dodging skidding cars all over the highway.  Good call, Dad.  They’re in no hurry.

Anyway, I need to get back downstairs and  be social. 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Oh, that reminds me.  I lit Hanukkah candles tonight.    Pat bought me a menorah and Hanukkah candles when she went to the store today.  I had to look up the blessings online ’cause I couldn’t remember the first one.  The other two were still in my head.  It’s been a REALLY long time, though.  And I had an audience, which made me a bit self-conscious.

Okay, I have go help out so I can keep my status as model daughter-in-law. 

Mindy came home from the hospital today.  I talked to her this afternoon, and she’s doing okay.  Mom is taking care of her. 

John and I went to Annapolis today to hang out with Jess and Chuck.  We had a little bit of a hard time getting started this morning, though.  Last night we went to Joe and Megan’s house for a few hours after work.  We weren’t able to leave work early at all, so we rushed home to let the dogs out and try to run them around for a few minutes before abandoning them again.  (We made sure we put everything edible or valuable as far out of their reach as possible, since it’s days like this when they get destructive.)  We made it to Joe’s house around 7:30 or so.  It was a little bit crazy there, but good crazy.  After the boys went to bed, we sat around in their living room with a fire and talked until about midnight.  I pulled John away with the reminder that we were getting up early the next day to go to Annapolis.  He and Joe have plans to have lunch soon (and hopefully Megan (and the boys) and I get to come along…).  Anyway, we got home and got to bed around 1am.  Got up at seven.  No, the alarm went off the first time at seven.  For a second I thought the clock was wrong – I was WAY too tired for seven am and it was so dark outside!  But we snoozed for about half an hour and then got up.  Snoozing helped.  And I was wide awake and ready to go by the time we hit the road.  Starbucks helped.  Their croissants are really good. 

Jess told me where we should meet them when we got the Academy this morning, and she warned me that even with directions, it might be hard, since there ARE NO STREET SIGNS.  I figured that the only street signs that would be missing would be right at the very end, and I didn’t think it would be a big deal.  I was half-right.  We had street signs until the last two turns, and yes, the two that were missing were right at the end, right at the Academy.  But the Academy is a BIG place.  So we turned too soon, found ourselves across some body of water (not the Severn itself, but something attached to it), turned around at St. John’s College.  Got back on the road we were on, went a little further, didn’t turn on what would have been the right road (because it had no sign) and ended up across the Severn.  I was pretty sure that wasn’t right, so we turned around again.  This time I took that turn onto the right road, but went right by the hall we were supposed to park behind.  I got pointed in the right direction by the gate guard.  And Jess and Chuck showed up just as we were parking our car.  So our getting lost helped with the timing, but still.  Street signs are important!

We got an information-filled (and trivia-filled) tour of the Academy from Chuck.  It’s a very impressive-looking place.  I kinda wish we’d been able to see it filled with middies, but that’s my own fault for waiting until the holiday break to get out there.  We weren’t able to see the chapel (there was a wedding going on), but we wandered through parts of Dahlgren Hall and Bancroft Hall (which is HUGE!), and much of the grounds.  Some of the grounds.  Saw the mast from the USS Maine.  There’s all kinds of cool stuff just laying around.  John took some pictures, but I haven’t looked at them yet, so I don’t know what he got.  After our tour, we headed into downtown Annapolis for a little bit of wandering and some lunch.  I love that kind of historic downtown shopping district.  Fun to just window shop and people-watch.

After lunch, Jess and Chuck took us to the bookstore with the dragon in the children’s section.  I really like that kind of bookstore.  It’s basically in an old house, sort of shotgun style, with a step up to each room as you go further towards the back.  Not very big, but cozy and crammed full of books.  That’s basically what I want, although I think I want it on a slightly larger scale.

Oh!  On our way to lunch, we were walking by this hotel and Chuck muttered something about wanting us to go in and see their heating system.  We all looked at him like he was crazy.  We should know by now that he is, but he certainly steers us in the direction of some really interesting stuff.  This hotel apparently used to be heated by hypocaust (an underground heating system used by the Romans), but no one at the hotel knew it until they were doing some renovations.  So there’s a room off the lobby with a glass floor so visitors can look under their feet and see part of the ducts used to move the heated air around.  It was really cool.  But walking on the glass floor unnerved me and Jess a bit.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with Jess and Chuck (as usual – thanks, guys!) and can’t wait to see them again.

We were home before 3:30 this afternoon, and we’ve done very little since.  Actually, that’s not true.  We put up the tree and decorated it, and we’ve talked to almost every member of John’s family and helped them all with gift ideas.    So now I’m waiting for the pizza we ordered to arrive, and then we’ll watch a movie (maybe Dan in Real Life, maybe Brokeback Mountain – I know, I know.  Very different movies.).  Tomorrow, we have to finish our Christmas shopping.  At least we know what we’re looking for.  Mostly.

It’s a yucky misty day.  Not so bad at work, but outside is unpleasant.  Work is actually kinda…not fun, but not aggravating.  I’m busy (still testing), but the end is in sight.  A lot of people aren’t here today (not on our team, but in the rest of the office), so things are pretty quiet.  We just had a short staff meeting (the best kind) and everyone was fairly pleasant.  We all still have our senses of humor.

I went back to that cake and candy supplies store so I can make more peppermint bark.  I also got some milk chocolate, toffee pieces, and malted pieces.  That should be delicious.    I will play on Sunday.  The woman at the counter this time was very pleasant, not like her surly counterpart from my first visit.  (“Surly” is a good word.  I should use it more often.)

We’re heading to Joe’s place tonight to hang out with him and Megan, but it’s looking more and more likely that we won’t get out of here as early as we were hoping.  I was planning on staying until 5 or 5:30 anyway because of today’s deadline, but John had planned on getting out around 4 (we came in at 8 this morning) so he could go home and take care of the dogs before coming back to get me and head to Joe’s.  Unfortunately, he had a rather busy morning, so he may not be able to leave that early.  We’ll see.

The rumor yesterday evening was that Mindy might get to go home from the hospital today.  I have no idea if that came to pass or if it’s likely to, since I haven’t heard a peep from anyone in my family today.  I can only assume nothing bad has happened and that she’s not any worse.  Everyone is pretty quick to get in touch if there’s something I should be worried about.  (NOT a criticism.)  I think, in this case, no news is good news.

[Around noon.]

I feel like I got punched in the mouth.  Right side only.  The numbness has worn off and the ibuprofen has not yet kicked in.  Aside from that, it was another very pleasant trip to the dentist.  (Oxymoron, right?)  I think I will bake them cookies.  When I got there this morning, the front desk staff told me I was the Patient of the Month and gave me a bag full of goodies.  They gave me a travel mug, some Ghirardelli hot chocolate, some other chocolates, and some toothpaste.    If they hadn’t included the toothpaste, I would have thought they were just trying to give me cavities and make me come back.

I learned something today (while at the dentist).  They put adrenaline in the novocaine (or whatever they use now as the anesthetic).  Apparently, the numbing slows down your heartbeat, so they put a little adrenaline in there to keep that from happening.  Instead, your heart starts to race a little.  So I kept thinking I was reacting (belatedly) to my nervousness about getting that shot, but really it was just the adrenaline THEY added.  Totally weird.  Today I was so jittery I could feel my hands and arms shaking.  But only for a minute or two after the shot.  I do still dread the shot, but I don’t worry about the actual procedures anymore.  They’ve convinced me they’re not going to hurt me.

[At home this evening.]

My cookies failed.  I make darn good cookies, but something went awry tonight.  And I didn’t realize it until John came home and tried one.  I actually stayed out of the batter and away from the cooling cookies.  They’re not bad, but I can’t give them to people.  I have a cookie reputation to uphold.  They taste like something didn’t mix in very well.  Possibly the baking soda.  John says he’ll eat them.    So I’ll just have to try again sometime.  But this means I can’t bring cookies to the dentist office.  Is it bad form to bring them peppermint bark?  Hard, crunchy candy is supposed to be the worst thing for teeth, right?  I might do that anyway.  Because white chocolate and peppermint is hard to resist, even for dental hygienists. 

Mom is on her way to Louisville to help Mark take care of Mindy.  Actually, she may have landed by now.  Mindy is still in the hospital, but hopefully not for too much longer.  Dad said he talked to her this afternoon and she sounded much better.

I have resolved to do no more worrying.  (About Mindy in the hospital, anyway.  I make no such promises about anything else.)  She’s in good hands, she has pain medication, Mark is with her, she’ll be okay.  She’s staying there tonight and at least until she sees the doctor tomorrow.  Then they’ll decide when she can go home.  I hope she’s feeling better, I hope she’s not worried anymore.  I don’t want her to be scared.  The hard part is over.  Easy for me to say, I know.

Mindy’s surgery went fine.  She’s recovering.  But at third hand (Mark told Mom, Mom told me), she had a rough night.  What does that mean?  Probably pain.  I would expect some pain after surgery, but was this unexpected?  More pain than usual?  Different pain?  Is it related to the infection?  Mark hadn’t seen the doctor yet when Mom talked to him, so hopefully more information will be filtered down to me once that happens.  She’s still in the hospital, so whatever it is, she’s in the right place.  I just want to know if this is normal or not.  I want to know that the doctors know what it is and are working on it.

I don’t want her to be in pain, and I don’t want her to be scared.

Nothing happened today.  I have to post something without the crutch of actually having an event to write about.

How about this?  I am super excited about our day in Annapolis this weekend.  Hmm.  That doesn’t sound like me.  I mean, yes, I’m excited, but I don’t usually say I’m “super excited” about anything.    “I’m very much looking forward to it” sounds stilted.  But the sentiment is the same.  I get to hang out with Jess and Chuck for a few hours, go on a tour of the Naval Academy, see Annapolis all decked out for Christmas, and have yummy fish and chips.  Oh, and I get to see this mysterious bookstore with a dragon in it.  What could be better?

I’m hoping to have all holiday shopping (what little we’re doing) done by then.  John and I will probably try to go to the mall Thursday after work.  We only have a couple of things left to get.  I ordered as many things as possible online so I could avoid going to the mall.  I don’t mind the crowds, but parking is a pain.  And it drives John crazy.    He hates circling for a parking spot.

Well.  Mom just called.  Mindy is in the ER for an emergency appendectomy.  I started to get upset, but this is not a life-threatening surgical procedure.  She’s been there for a few hours already this evening (for tests), so at least she was in the right place when the doctors determined this was necessary.  Mom says the doctors promised Mark they’d be able to tell him something in less than an hour.  I’m not sure what that means, exactly.  Does it mean they’ll be done that quickly?  Or that they’ll know about how long it will take by then?  Or that they’ll know how long she’ll have to be in the hospital recovering?  I have no idea.  But when Mark calls Mom, Mom will call me.  So I will try not to worry.

In other news, if you haven’t seen Keeping the Faith (and you like romantic comedies), you should see it.  It’s actually funny, which is something you can’t say about many romantic comedies.  Ed Norton, Ben Stiller, Jenna Elfman.  Good movie.  That’s one I always watch if it’s on TV (I just caught the end), and I never feel sullied (to steal Chuck’s term) afterward.  It’s just a good movie.

Yeah, I can’t keep babbling about random things right now.  Mindy in the hospital, Mindy in surgery trumps everything else I can think of.  So I’m going to post this and fret offline.

[On a side note, the spell-checker suggest Elvina as a replacement for Elfman.  How is that more of a word than Elfman?]

I woke up today with a much sunnier outlook.  It’s Friday (woo!), the sun is trying to come out, I’ve been watching what I’ve been eating for the past two days and as a result, I have lost two of those pounds I gained back, Mom and Dad are on their way back to the States, and it’s the weekend!  It’s worth mentioning twice because I have a lot to do and will have time to do it this weekend.  I will finish shopping this weekend.  I will also get my earrings fixed.  John bought me these beautiful emerald and diamond earrings for my birthday this year, but the first time I tried to wear them, I found that one of the clasps won’t latch.  There’s nothing to keep that earring from falling out of my ear.  I want to wear them on Thursday (office holiday luncheon), so I need to get them fixed.

Hey, in case any of you were in doubt, Mom gives good advice.  Especially when one is overly emotional.  Mindy jumped right on the emotional crazy train with me and told me exactly what I wanted to hear (which is great for validation – thanks, Min!), but Mom told me what I should do.  And she was right.  So that’s what I did.  And now that the crazy train has pulled into the station (had enough of this metaphor?), I’m glad I listened to her.  Well, that was yesterday (and yesterday’s gone).  Today everything is sunshine and light.    That may be going a bit far.

John’s sleeping in this morning, so I need to take care of the dogs and get my butt to work.