My 3 weeks at home

I went home the day my kids got out of school here (took them with me), so that they could do French (Day) Camp and visit my family. (Note to Sadhbh, the youngest now says, "Bonjour Maman" VERY well.) What should have been a vacation of too much time on my hands and lots of books read turned into 3 weeks of fixing up the house that I rent out (I lived in it when I lived there). And my poor mom is still working on it, although she thinks that she'll be done tomorrow or Wednesday. We didn't work long days, so we didn't exhaust ourselves. We worked while the kids were at camp, so just 5 hours or so a day. But still . . . it was a bit tiring and it would have been nice to relax a little more.

We were supposed to come home via camping in Aspen to see one of dh's many cousins playing her cello there (in Aspen), but her grandfather (dh's uncle) died and so the week that dh was to be with us, he was in his hometown for the funeral. His poor cousin's flight was so late leaving the midwest after the funeral that she missed her connection to Aspen and was stuck in Denver, so my dad and I went to get her. Poor thing was with us for all of 7 hours maybe, but she was at the breaking point. I don't think she had it in her to make the airlines give her a hotel room. And since she was paying full fares for both herself and her cello (yes, her cello), they should have. But, she was better off with us. My family has so many guests that it didn't faze us one bit. The poor thing hadn't packed any night things, since she was going home and didn't need to take them there from Aspen. We had clean nightshirts and brand-new toothbrushes for her. As I said, my folks get people coming through every twice in a while.

I met Paisley and Phaedrus my first week home. I thought that my time would free up by my third week and I'd have time to see them again, but no. I also got together with Purpleiris/Francine for those of you who remember her. She's just recently changed jobs and moved (within the city). She might come back to eHQ, if only to review her books. And I had Dream and a couple of her family members over for lunch. That was very enjoyable. Seeing everyone was enjoyable. Books are just the springboard to get the conversation going . . .

My folks belong to a group that has foreign nationals into homes for dinner or whatever while said foreigners are in the city on official State Department business. Years ago, when I still lived up there, the organization even arranged for overnight (often all weekend) stays, but they must not have enough volunteers to do that anymore, so it's just dinner. Anyway, we had two librarians over for dinner on my last Monday night there. I think that they said there were 22 of them and they'd been to DC for a week, Denver for 4 or 5 days, and were going on to Anaheim. They all work for the US Embassy in their home countries. One of them is a mom and she was funny (and this is so universal, I think). She said that the first week, she LOVED having time to herself and not sharing her bed, but by the time they got to Denver, she'd been gone a week and she was missing her family. I so totally related! :) Love my dh and kids, but it is nice to have some alone time without chores staring you in the face. Anyway, after dinner we drove them into the mountains despite the fact that it was getting dark b/c one of them had never seen mountains. So, she saw mountains! And bison, too! It was cold, though. About 63F/17C without the wind chill factor. We dug winter coats out of the trunk for them, so they could get out of the car a bit and take pictures.

I also got together with "the old neighborhood." I grew up on a street where the families were pretty close and we still get together. Always b/c my mother plans it . . . which means it happens when my sister and/or I are home. And I managed to see one other friend.

But as for shopping or reading or getting some really intense workouts in? Didn't happen. I read 4 or 5 HMRs (will blog them soon) and one SR and listened to several audio books. But I'd planned on doing more reading with the eyes. It was actually okay working on the house. It kept my mom from getting on my nerves (we were too busy for her to do that) and it reminded me that I do know how to use tools. I would have liked to do a little shopping, though.

I don't so much mind that we didn't go camping, though. There's still snow in the mountains and the temps were still almost freezing at night. I'm out of practice for that kind of camping.

Better do more laundry and figure out what to grocery shop for. I'll get caught up on my blogs/reviews soon. Promise.

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