CHUCK IN A BOX

54 more days until my much deserved and very needed vacation (not that I’m counting or anything).  I’m so looking forward to whole ritual of making lists (a habit I developed from my mom), getting everything all together and packed, loading up the car and arriving at Recess.  Heck even the drive is exciting to me – especially the moment you come around the bend on Rt. 158 at Point Harbor and see the Wright Memorial Bridge crossing the Currituck Sound – that’s when I know I’ve truly arrived!

This year should be interesting – we’re gonna have a house full:  Keith and I, Jeff and Maria (friends of ours from NY), Allie (Keith’s daughter) and I think a friend of her’s from college, my niece Amber – yay Plan B. (maybe her boyfriend Johnny – not sure about that one yet) and maybe even Ashley (Keith’s oldest) and her boyfriend.

I’m kinda bummed that Ian and his family won’t be able to make it (I was really looking forward to crabbing with him again) but, it sounds like they’ve got a number of other summer vacation plans so it all works out in the end.

I think I’ve talked mom into using Outer Beaches for next years vacation – this time dad is gonna pay – since it looks like they (Outer Beaches) are going to continue their ‘Vacation Lay-a-Way‘ program.  I have to say, that is one of the best marketing ideas – you just have the total rental broken down into 12 payments which are automatically applied to your bank account or credit card.  The old way of paying for vacation homes was about 50% down within 30 days of booking the house with the remaining 50% due 30 days prior to arrival.  They do not charge interest at all, nor do they charge some of those ridiculous fees that other agencies charge.

I’m looking forward to sharing my OBX passion with Jeff and Maria – I don’t think they’ve ever been to the Outer Banks before.  Hopefully they won’t be bored with a more laid back vacation destination and will enjoy themselves quite a bit.

One of the favorite parts of my day is early morning, be it weekday or weekend I’m usually up between 5 and 6 AM. Don’t get me wrong, there are a FEW days I’ll sleep in until 7 or 8 but those are the exception, certainly not the rule.

I especially like Spring, Summer and Fall mornings – getting the dogs out and fed then fixing my morning cup of coffee and sitting on the back deck listening to the morning’s music. It’s amazing just how loud the birds all are – it’s really interesting to hear all the different songs going at the same time. Then there’s the deep melody of the wind chimes coming into play; the whistle of the train in the distance; even the “white noise” of the traffic on I-85 seems to play into the morning melody.

It’s almost like listening to the world coming alive as the sun rises.

Family…Food…Friends…Fun – in no particular order at all, these are really things that make life worth living.  This was a GREAT Easter weekend and I had a blast.  Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt with some of the younger members of our family and extended family and Sunday we had Easter dinner with my best friend and his partner.

Saturday morning sort of had me worried – I mean it was supposed to be in the low 80′s and it didn’t get there fast enough – the day actually started out kinda cool and overcast but that changed just in time!  We had Ian and Nicky with Audrey; we had April and Shannon with Aden along with April’s mom and her new beau; and we had Isabella (Isa) and Antonio (Toni) all over for lunch and the hunting of pastel, plastic candy-filled eggs.  Apparently the warning I’d given the twins earlier about letting the little ones get a chance at the eggs must have fallen on deaf little ears.  We had to reign them in a couple of times so that Aden and Audrey could get some too.

The weather was great and we had a simple lunch of hot dogs, chips & hummus and beans – had to have something the dwarfs would eat!  Sadly, Audrey wasn’t feeling well – the poor thing was coughing up a lunch – so Ian and Nicky left a bit early to get the baby to the doctor.  Keith later told me Ian or Nicky had called to let us know that apparently Aud was having an asthma attack – egads but she was feeling a bit better.  After the rest of the folks left, the twins and I hung out until our 4:30 showing of How to Tame Your Dragon (in RealD 3D) – side note – it was a SUPER movie and I swear the 3D effects actually seemed better than those in Avatar.

Sunday we futzed around the house doing some gardening and cleaning of the pond and Keith did some cooking.  Ben and Tim came over after going to the annual Easter event, ‘Monument on Parade‘ and we had a nice dinner.  Keith made cauliflower and blue cheese soup, a delicious green bean/red onion/olive/hard boiled egg salad, leg of lamb roasted with fingerling potatoes and olives and for dessert a yummy Meyer lemon crepe cake that he found in the Easter edition of Martha Stewart Living.  Although I didn’t really eat my lamb (it’s just a me thing – I think the idea of a baby animal coupled with the musky smell/taste is just something I can’t hack) I did wolf down 2 bowls of the soup and ate everything else — yes, yes I put my NutriSystem on hold for the day but, I’ll be back to it tomorrow.  (Hell, I’m just proud I’ve gone from 232 down to 215 in about 2 months – YAY ME!)

Now, I’m winding down my day on the back deck with a glass of Barefoot Moscato (thank you Nicky for turning me on to this – I think I like it even better than my normal Chateau Morrisette ‘Our Dog Blue‘!!) and my laptop (yay home wi-fi) blogging about my fantastic weekend filled with family, friends, food and fun!!

Now, if only I knew of someone who was kind and trusting other than myself.  Hehehe – Happy April Fool’s Day everyone.  So far I’ve seen quite a few good ones, I especially like the ‘Google has changed it’s name to Topeka’ one and the office cube covered with dixie cups taped to the desk and walls – the ones all over the desk are filled with water….should make for an interesting clean up!!

Can’t really plan anything here for my hubby cause I know he’s an avid reader……

Probably going to see this on Saturday with my niece - whom I promised I would take when it opened but didn’t get to.  I’m all about the 3-D goodness (I loved seeing Avatar in 3-D) so I’m excited!  Not sure how it is going to be with a 7 year old though heh, never took a dwarf to a movie before.  Maybe we’ll see if Toni wants to hang with Isa and I, hey if I can stand 1 seven year old twin, why not have the other…..right?  I’m sure mom and Brandy won’t mind having the little darlings out of their hair for a couple of hours….who knows, maybe we’ll even do lunch before/after the movie!!  The weather is supposed to be beautiful on Saturday!

Need to check out Fandango and see where it is playing and when – Chuck hates, HATES waiting in line for his tickets and will gladly pay the additional convenience fee to make sure that I don’t have to wander through those maze things like some cow in a pen.

When certain household members with the last name McAllister process a Change of Address at the Post Office and they (Post Office) apparently ‘ass-u-me’ that this means anyone with the last name McAllister is moving and mail and packages don’t get delivered to where they should!  I want my two eBay packages NAO PLOX!

I guess it’s a good thing I checked on the delivery status of something that was supposed to be delivered on Monday and that Keith noticed his name was crossed out on the Pottery Barn catalog and pondered at not receiving any mail recently addressed to him….no telling how long this woulda gone on.

Way to Go!  USPS, I applaud you and you inability to read/process things correctly…..and you want what kind of rate increase next for your outstanding customer service?

• Yes, it would be nice to have another little miniature dachshund but then we’d REALLY need to get the kennel license.
• No matter what else I can count on in life, wearing a white dress shirt will guarantee that some item of my lunch gets spilled or splattered on it (really need to invest in those Shout wipe thingees).
• Petty people will always be petty people.
• Our elected officials worrying about making sure universities do NOT include sexual orientation in their EEO statements when we have much bigger things (i.e., budget shortfall, potential lay-offs, crappy roads, etc. etc.) is really stupid.
• Not all PhD’s lack common sense – just a really good number of them.
• You’re a PhD/MD really? WoW! Take a look around you, they’re a dime a dozen around this place.  Not impressed.

Just Say No!

I’m free of that bit of nonsense.  All friends removed, account deactivated….tah dah!  I figure if they are important enough to me, I’ll talk to them the old fashioned way….on the phone or in person….and….of course the not-so-old fashioned method of email – though I guess that would count as letter writing which WOULD be old fashioned.

Eh my parents and grandparents never needed social networking sites….why do I?  For all it’s members and features and what not, FB really was basically a MySpace for grown-ups…minus the tacky ‘Pimp MySpace’ layouts.  Now I don’t have to worry about drama, lame updates, or folks being critical of my posting style/substance.

Free at last, Free at last….Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last……

Well, we’re not quite that picturesque (we’re MUCH better dressed – though my fondness for plaid is certainly up there with Grandpa Walton’s and there aren’t that many of us) but, there is a certain je ne sais quoi about our arrangement to have our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter move in with us for a year.  We offered to let the kids move in to A) Be able to pay down some debt and get their credit cleaned up and B) Save some money during the year to hopefully have enough for a down payment on their first house.

We (Keith and I) weren’t really in a position to be able to stroke a check to make all their debt go away and, frankly, I don’t know if we would have done so if we were in a position to do it – sometimes life lessons have to be lived through in order to learn from them.  What we did have is a bit of extra room in the house so we were able to accommodate them moving in, it just took a bit of re-arranging things.

We turned the TV room into their bedroom (we brought the TV downstairs to the living room) and turned the spare bedroom into Audrey’s (the granddaughter) room.  It gave us an excuse to get rid of some of the furniture we were no longer fond of anyway hehehe.  So we’re a bit more ‘snug’ than we were with just the two of us and the dogs/cats but hey, we’re able to help them out and as an added bonus, we get to see the baby more – YAY!

I think the flip side is that everyone is having to make adjustments for the lifestyle they were previously accustomed to.  I guess everything is all about compromise and finding common ground and all that.

Oh what adventures I’m/we’re/you’re in store for oh vastness that is the internet!