Oh, Tacoma

Yes, it's been almost six months. But so many friends and family have told me that they miss reading my blog. That warms my little heart. Do I have enough momentum to start this thing up again? We'll see.

It's always a little bizarre being back in my hometown, but it's been a good trip so far. I've spent time with friends and cousins that I had not seen in years. That is a good thing.

Lots of people asking about the wedding - and dropping hints one way or another as to whether they are planning on making the trip. That, too, is a good thing. I need to get a handle on how many guests we'll actually have before I can go much farther in the planning process (or, rather, prod my coordinator to go farther in the planning process).

That's about it for now. Not the most dramatic comeback post, huh.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Catching Up, Falling Down

If a tree falls in the middle of your front yard on a lazy Sunday morning, does it make a sound?

Why, yes. In fact, it does. An alarming sound, if you're laying on the couch in a post-sleep stupor.

Actually, what came down was not a tree per se, but merely a large limb formerly attached to this massive tree on the edge of our front yard. Fortunately it hit nothing but air on its way down; if our neighbors had parked in the very front part of their driveway, as they often do, their station wagon would have been toast.

So Drew and I spent the better part of our Sunday afternoon sweating it out in the thick July heat, moving pieces of logs and clippering and bundling up branches. Despite my enthusiasm for Drew to use the chainsaw I bought him lasts Christmas, some neighbors down the block beat him to it. (Which was probably a good thing - that guy knew what he was doing with that saw. We would have taken all day with it, I'm sure.)

I can't even imagine what a pain it would be to have a full tree come down. I am crossing my fingers!

Other than playing lumberjack, life has been pretty standard, really, around here. I just got back from a work conference in Vegas and managed to take some money out of the Hard Rock casino in the process. I've never been a huge gambler - okay, I've never been any kind of gambler, aside from the occasional pull on a quarter slot - but I must say it was rather fun. Blackjack and craps, they treated me well!

In just two weeks, we go down to the Bahamas to commence the Wedding Planning process. More details to come on that...

Rookie Chef Mistake

Note to self:

When roasting red peppers in the oven, do NOT assume it will be easier to clean up charred pepper juices by rinsing the glass baking dish immediately upon its removal from the oven. Now I have to clean up a sink full of broken glass. Which is way worse than charred pepper juices.

Argh.

Gratuitous Cat Photo

I am spending the early part of my Friday evening waiting for a work call. Bleh. So I decided to finally get around to copying all of the pictures from my digital camera onto my computer.

And you know what? I, apparently, spend ALOT of time in the kitchen, by myself, taking pictures of my cat. There were three separate "Emily in the kitchen" series of photos. And most of them are really bad, blurry pictures, which means I probably took them after a glass of wine or three.

But this one is actually pretty cute.


You know, it's a really good thing I am engaged now, because I would SO end up as a crazy old cat lady.

Coffeehouse Dreams

Today, I have stepped into the shoes of someone I have always secretly envied: The person working on a laptop at Starbucks.

To me, this person (and there is always at least one in every Starbucks at any given time) has it made. In my imagination, this person is writing her soon-to-be-bestselling novel, or studying for her philosophy exam, or running a successful home business. Conquering the world while sipping a four-dollar latte. It always seemed like quite the perfect life.

Well, I can now say from experience...it's not perfect, but it's not bad either.

The client site I am currently working at has a notoriously crappy internet connection. And since my role there largely involves collecting information from various operating units via email, that is sort of a problem. After days of harassing the company's tech help desk, I finally broke down, bought a T-Mobile HotSpot account, and set up shop at the Starbucks down the road.

And I am enjoying it. Starbucks, surprisingly, plays quite good music (so far today I've heard Calexico, Ben Harper and the entire KT Tunstall album, which is one of my current favorites). Plus, the lack of oversight is nice. Okay - I admit to some indulgent internet surfing this morning. But, hey, I'm getting my work done and the feeling of independence is refreshing.

The downside? That in order to access an electrical outlet, I am relegated to the hard wooden chairs in the back instead of cushy velvet ones up front. And let's just say that after a Venti black coffee, I am just a little bit overcaffinated.

Now only if I were penning a novel instead of consolidating cash flow statements. Life would be perfect.

So Tired

I have seriously had ENOUGH of the torturous LAX-CLE red eye. Last night I was fortunate enough to have an empty seat next to me (one of only two on the plane) and actually slept okay. But...ugh. It's just not worth it. Seriously, next time I am flying from the west coast, I must remind myself: there is absolutely nothing wrong with that afternoon flight. Sure, it'll mean one less evening with family/friends, but sleep is a good and necessary thing.

And salt in the wound: it is FREEZING COLD here in Ohio. There is actually a frost warning for tonight. Yuck.

Counting the hours until I can go home and go to bed....

Mouseguest

I don't know which suprises me more:

(1) That when I found the dead mouse on the bedroom floor this morning, I managed to transport it outside with a minimal level of freak-out; or

(2) That there is a real possibility that Emily caught and killed this mouse.

Now, I am not the type of girl who runs for the nearest chair and shrieks upon discovery of an unwanted rodent. But nor am I exactly what you would call "calm" or "cool-headed" in such situations. I have nothing against mice. I've shared many a campsite with a furry little friend or two, and it makes me giggle when I see them scurrying around our garden. But...in the house? In the bedroom? No. No, no, no. The fewer living things that share my bedroom the better. (Drew and Emily excepted, of course.)

(One additional confession. Normally upon discovery of something unpleasant in the house, I call it to Drew's attention and calmly demand its removal. This applies mostly to spiders. It would have applied to this morning's mouse corpse, but Drew is traveling for work this week. In Arizona. And yes, I called him at 4:30 AM his time to inform him of the situation.)

Okay, so how did a dead mouse end up smack in the middle of the bedroom floor? An unlikely place for a mouse to expire, it seems. Which means that...Emmy put it there. Perhaps this doesn't seem too incredulous; after all, Emily is a cat, and cats catch mice.

But here's the thing about Emmy. She is not exactly the Einstein of cats. In fact, I often wonder if she is a little bit special. Dear, sweet Emmy. This is a cat who once sprung backwards and smacked her head into a chair because the spider she was sniffing moved. In fact, she frequently smacks into walls, furniture, boxes and anything else in her flight path. After three years of chasing a the laser pointer's little red light, she still doesn't get it. Every so often, she springs up into the air and bolts from the room for no reason at all. Aborable, funny, good-natured...these are words to describe Emmy. Smart, graceful, stealthy...not so much.

So how does a cat who is afraid of her own shadow manage to catch, kill and transport a mouse? A mouse that is far bigger than the little bathroom spiders which make her tremble? I don't get it. Perhaps she didn't, and the mouse did end up there on its own.

Well, perhaps we will have a chance to find out. No one ever has just one mouse in their house. And that's a problem that I am simply too overwhelmed to think about right now.