well now that i’ve finally finished my travel log for our vacation over a month ago, i can allow myself to resume regular rants again.  or something like that.  we’ll see how well i do.  my health has been conspiring against me for the last several weeks.  i didn’t get started on the travel log right away because i came back from vacation sick.  it’s been on and off since then.  culminating in the horrible-stomach-bug-of-thanksgiving-2009 and the sinus infection/headcold that has flourished this last week.  good grief.  i used to be a healthy person, didn’t i? i was joking with hubby that the thanksgiving incident was to be blamed on our four mile run that morning but now i’m really starting to wonder.  it seems i’ve had more flus, colds, infections this year than i have since working at the daycare center ten years ago.  the only difference is my increased activity.  perhaps running my body down is doing more harm than good.  such is life.   so a little catchup for the last month:

• hubby finally had surgery to remove the cyst from his neck.  we were relieved to have the growing mass excised and more relieved that there were no indications of cancer or nerve damage. 
• our condo hosted an “owner’s party” the night before the annual election.  i’m sure there was one last year too but we must have been out of town.  we had a good time with some of our neighbors and even won two door prizes:  a gift certificate to a salon for a shampoo/cut/style and a $25 gift certificate to a local winery.  it’s so nice to be a winner every so often.
• hubby is now officially on the board of the condo.  good thing?  we’ll see.
• work has become nothing more than an endless MONDAY.  i have nothing more to say about that.
• the thanksgiving diet gave me a reaffirmed appreciation for my in-laws.  they were so, so good to me in my time of need.  and it was nice to have a mommy while i was so sick.
• the thanksgiving diet, however, was very unwanted fodder for the rumor mill.  several times i had to say, between heaves, “yes, i am certain.”  my SIL actually called me all excited asking if i had news for her.  said i, “no news other than that your FIL has high hopes.”  she was mighty disappointed.
• it amazes me, knowing me and all, that i have become the type of  person to get up early on a weekend just to go and cheer on a bunch of runners in a race.  who am i?!
• we are having a nye party.  i’ve never thrown a party.  ever.  (okay, that’s not true, i threw a beautiful bridal shower for my friend last year but that was with a great deal of assistance from my very classy sissy)  you know what i mean.  so anyhow, i’m starting to get excited because it looks like it may actually be successful.  we’re already up to about fifteen attendees so that rocks.
• that is all for now.  perhaps i’ll be able to resume regular ranting now.

i really did make an effort to be more prepared for my travel log this time but <insert excuse here>.  so, as far as writing, i’m up to day 8 of 14, which really isn’t bad except for the fact that it’s exactly where i was when we got off the ship.  hubby used bioligical warfare on me, infecting me with the cold that he had for the entire vacation, so i’ve been feeling pretty lousy this week.  i know, it’s always excuses with me.  so now i’m trying to decide whether to finish writing or start on pix and get the first half of the trip posted before finishing the rest.  we’ll see.  i’d like to get it knocked out this weekend but i can’t make any promises.  saturday is the florida ironman and all of our friends will be working the event so, most likely, we will too.  we sure have missed everyone around here and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone at the bridge tonight (even though i’m still barely able to breath and my lungs hurt).  it truly is nice to be home and it’s been a beautiful week here.  we’ve had open-window weather all week and the backyard has been gorgeous. 

anyhow, as a show of good faith, i offer these three pix…

this is my favorite pic of hubby and me lately.  it’s from our last night on the cruise, taken by our new alaskan friends.

this was the sunset on our first night back home again.

this is the backyard today.  the tide is coming in some, this morning there were a lot more of those big sandbars.

we’re up and getting ready to head out on vacation.  for the first few days, we’ll be playing with my sissy and BIL.  i don’t think we’ve ever spent more than an evening of adult time with them so i’m looking forward to some fun!  while on the cruises i won’t have internet but i’ll do my best to post something in between.  no parties while i’m gone, kids!!!

cirrus has made her first pubic appearance at a wendy’s in tallahassee on our way to orlando.  yay for hot-spots!!!

i’m not sure why, but i have been doing a really lousy job of preparing and packing for our rapidly approaching travels.  doesn’t make sense since i’m so stinkin’ excited about vacation.  really, we are so badly in need of it.

i think part of the problem is that we’ve had some complications arise with our departure.  a month or two ago, we were told to hold the 10th open for our friends’ party.  in the last week, that has turned into the 11th.  for those playing along without a calendar, that’s sunday.  originally, it wouldn’t have mattered because we weren’t going to leave town until next weekend, when we are officially on vacation. however, a business trip for hubby has changed that. when we still thought the party was saturday, we were planning on having fun with our friends and then getting up sunday morning to drive down so that we could catch my dad on our way into town.  however, now that the party has moved, we either have to skip it or drive down very late sunday night, making monday a nasty work day.  we love our friends and really hate to miss this, especially since we missed the last big shindig due to our mt leconte hike.  so… we’re torn.  add to that the fact that my dad is bummed that he won’t see us this weekend and my cousin is bummed that we won’t be tortured with her this weekend… it’s all feeling a bit stressful. 

i have finally started making some progress though.  the laundry is all done (will probably need to do another tiny load after the run tonight).  i have gathered important documents such as our passports and the cruise docs.  i have downloaded all pix from the memory card and ensured that they are all backed up on a secondary drive.   i even cleaned out and organized my purse in preparation for moving back to my old purse, which cirrus will fit in comfortably.  still to do either now or by the end of next week:

• decide when we’re leaving
• figure out what we’re going to do with the plants to keep them from being completely dead when we get back
• gather all snorkel equipment and make sure it’s all clean and ready to use
• get packed for business and vacation
• pick and purchase excursions
• go to the library to look for audiobooks
• straighten up house and clear off balcony
• make hotel reservations for south florida
• figure out our travel arrangements for south florida
• get hubby’s help with meeting preparation
• benefit enrollment
• refill prescriptions

two weeks until vacation.  i can’t even express how ready i am for some quality time off.  it really has been a long year at work.  and only one week until we head south.  hubby’s got a business trip the week before our vacation so i’ll be hanging with my family and friends while he’s off slaving away. 

the downside to all of this?  i don’t do well with exercise when i’m away from home.  not that i do all that well here either.  but i really, really need to. 

so if anyone wants to encourage me to be active while i’m in orlando and on vacation… it would certainly be both needed and appreciated.

monday turned out to be a day of disappointments for both hubby and me. 

1. you’ll recall that on saturday, we got up at the crack of way-too-early to chase down surfboards.  the seller, who wasn’t even there for the meeting that he set, supposedly was unaware of some minor damage to each board but volunteered to fix them and bring them to us this week.  well after a couple calls to him monday, hubby finally got a hold of him.  he told hubby that he would make the repairs – but not the way they should be fixed – and they’d be ready in a couple weeks.  he also mentioned that if someone came along before then, he would go ahead and sell them.  hubby reminded him that that was not the arrangement that they had worked out saturday morning and  he turned around and informed hubby that he had a buyer that would pick them up friday as-is, cash in hand.  i was ticked off when hubby told me this.  he had been so daggum excited about getting those stupid surfboards and this jerk just decides to change the game.  unethical piece of junk!  hubby thought about it for a while and then sent him an email telling him how disappointed he was in the man’s behavior and that he was no longer interested in doing business with him.  my poor guy.  he really was so excited about those boards. 
2. while all of this was going on, i was on my way to the dentist to get my teeny, tiny filling fixed.  i arrived, got in the chair, had the dentist prod around in my mouth a few minutes, and then he says, “i can fix that for you, but not today.”  what?!  i had this appointment for a week.  it was a big fiasco because his office staff is apparently incompetent and had trouble scheduling the appointment.  clearly, he read the displeasure on my face because he started apologizing and said he was in the middle of a surgery next door and they just walked in and told him that he needed to do an exam on me.  i was ticked… not at him because i know that he doesn’t know anything about his scheduling… but i was ticked nonetheless.  he asked how hard it was for me to take time off work to which i replied that it wasn’t just about taking time off work.  this is MY time.  it takes me thirty minutes to drive out there.  so, his office cost me one hour of MY time in driving, plus two hours of wages.  he kept apologizing and told me that maybe he could see me after he finished his surgery.  could i stick around for an hour or so?  i told his staff that i would run some errands in town and to call me when his surgery was done so that if i was still nearby, i could come back and get my filling.  so i went shopping.  a lot.  retail therapy, i guess, after being so disappointed about hubby’s boards and my filling that i’ve been waiting to have fixed since it fell out shortly before my cleaning back in june.  which was a disappointment all it’s own because we showed up that day just to find that the dentist wasn’t even there.  he had left earlier in the day for vacation and his office staff never bothered to let us know that so that we could decide whether or not we wanted to reschedule.  anyhow, after about an hour of shopping and still no call from them (they never did), i decided that i really wasn’t in the mood to go back there.  and i’m increasingly thinking that it’s time to find a new dentist.  as far as i’m concerned, that was three strikes.  the shame about that is that we both really like our hygienists there. 
3. a new episode of weeds was on tonight but i didn’t get to watch it.  yep, showtime is still gone.  i’m pretty sure it’s gone for good and this makes me remarkably sad.  i am so disappointed that i won’t be able to watch dexter next month.  i know it’s stupid to get so down about tv.  i know this, but i genuinely enjoy tv.  i’m a junk!e.  i admit this and i won’t apologize for it.  and, dangit! i want my dexter!!!

seems like we’ve got an awful lot going on over the next few months.  here’s a sampling of some of our upcoming fun:

• hubby’s birthday is next weekend.  the plan was to have a casual gathering of all the usual suspects around here but we can’t seem to get things settled enough to really set plans.  very up in the air right now due to family stuff in ‘bama.  my guess is that we’ll end up there instead.
• hubby’s boss and another co-worker are supposed to be coming down for a working “retreat” the week after next.  it’ll be our first professional company.  technically, jt is a coworker and he’s come with his family several times, but since we practically lived with them when we first moved to ga and have been around all their kids since birth and babysat over weekends it’s hard to count him in that category.  anyhow, i don’t know that they’ll actually be staying in our home but i’m sure they’ll at least be in the building and, no matter what, it should make for some interesting times.
• the week after that, my cousin and CIL will be coming to visit.  i’m so psyched!  it was such fun last time they came up here.  although i guess i’m going to have to try harder to kill her with my kayak this time. 
• that same week we’ll also be having our first stranger house guests as an old friend of my cousin will be bringing her little boy to visit with my cousin for a couple days.  i’m a little anxious about this… not because i think she’ll be an axe murderer or anything… but just because it’s a bit odd to have strangers in my home.  which i’m sure is how my cousin felt when our friends sylvis and peach stayed with them on their recent visit.  although, in my defense, they had been plurk and scrabble buddies for almost a year so they at least virtually knew each other.
• the middle of september will be my ten year high school reunion.  i doubt i’ll bother with it.  after all, i didn’t bother to show up for my graduation, why show up ten years later to celebrate it?  actually, there are really only a couple of people i’d drive six hours to catch up with and they are both across country (and one will be seven months pregnant) so i doubt they’ll be bothering with it either.  i had a very small circle of true friends in high school and i keep up with most of them online or IRL anyhow. 
• toward the end of october, we’re taking two weeks of vacation for which we are both SO READY.  we’ll be doing two cruises, one little two nighter that we got for free for booking our cruises last year and one seven nighter.  we’ll be spending the in-between days playing tourists in south florida.
• originally, my cousin was supposed to be accompanying us on the two nighter but life got in the way of those plans.  instead, my sissy and BIL will be dumping the kids and joining us.  i’m very excited since we don’t get to spend much adult time with them.  not that i don’t absolutely adore my kids, because i totally do, but it’ll be a lot of fun to spend a few days with just us four adults.  here’s hoping this “free” cruise doesn’t suck.
• if my cousin has her halloween anniversary party, we’ll make it back just in time for it.  of course, after disembarking a cruise and driving back to orlando, i’m not sure how much fun we’ll be but that’s beside the point.  she’ll be happy if i just refrain from making her clean.  now costumes… that’s a whole different concern.  i’m so lousy at costume ideas and/or execution.  i absolutely loved my costume last year but i guess it would be pretty lame to wear it two years in a row. 
• we still haven’t decided on the holidays this year.  after losing both grandmothers last year, we had talked about swapping holidays this year – thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine – but we haven’t really discussed it since then.  not sure what we’ll be doing. 

this week i did next to nothing.  i blame hubby.  tuesday morning, he dragged me out of bed at 03:15 to take him to the airport at 04:00.  by the time i got back home, i just wanted to crawl into bed.  so i did.  and i tossed and turned until the alarm went off and was miserable the rest of the day.  the rest of the week, i really did try to get up at 06:00 but between not being able to sleep when hubby’s not here and not having him to pry me out of bed… it was a lost cause.  here’s my wholly unimpressive week of morning exercise:

that was us this weekend.  we met train, panda, and a few of their friends friday night for a wine tasting.  afterward, they came back to our place where we hung out, played mariokart, and conversed until a little after 01:00.  it’s a shame… i finally find someone my own age who i really enjoy hanging out with but it looks like they are going to be transferred soon.  such is life when all the new friends you’re making are military folk.  apparently, it takes us two days to recover from so much fun.  we did a whole lotta nothing yesterday and not much more than that today.  i’m good with it.  i’ll take a fun/relaxing weekend over a stressful week any day!

• how can it be bright and sunny and yet thundering and lightening like crazy?  not complaining, just curious about the science.  i love weather systems in my backyard!
• i hope the punk kid who i assume pulled a fire alarm in the building gets a butt-blistering.  thirteen straight minutes of blaring alarms coming from the four or five speakers in my home makes me want to bash my own head in with a door.  over and over and over at unreasonably high decibels for nearly a quarter of an hour:  “*siren**siren**siren*attention, attention.  an emergency has been reported in this building.  please cease operations and leave the building utilizing the nearest exit or emergency exit stairwell.  do not use elevators.  repeat, DO NOT use elevators.”  i think my head is going to asplode now.
• my body is rebelling against my efforts to train it to be active rediculously early in the morning.  it took several minutes and my hubby sitting on me to convince me to get out of bed this morning.  my eyes have been pure sandpaper ever since.
• i made spaghetti with chicken sauce last night instead of meat sauce.  it was actually quite good with the exception of being very watery for some reason.  perhaps because i put the chicken in the crockpot frozen?  next time i’ll try to take the time to thaw and drain the chicken before throwing it in the crockpot with the sauce.  i think hubby, the healthnut, appreciated the sauce with chicken much more than ground beef.  i aim to please.
• seriously, i cannot stress enough how much i am struggling with the awake today.

what can i say?  it’s been a quiet week. 

• wednesday night yoga has been cancelled until further notice which limits our social interaction and activity.
• the bridge run last night was… nothing to speak of.  i walked to the water table (just before the bridge), stood around and talked with mello’s son, and walked back with hubby and cargo after they had made their trip over the bridge.  hubby is still having pain with his kidney.  it makes me sad to see him still hurting and generally not feeling… right.  he barely ran his one lap over the bridge last night, walked back to the parking lot with me, and was so nauseated he just sat on a curb while i visited around for a few minutes.  we didn’t stick around long at all because he just wasn’t feeling well.  my poor boy. 
• more on that… hubby went back to the dr wednesday and they did another ct scan today.  they said his kidney and ureter look fine and they can’t figure out why he’s still hurting so they put him on more antibiotics and made him an appointment for two weeks from now when the specialist is back from vacation. 
• HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD-N-LAW!!!
• we’re supposed to be heading to wedowee after work today for FIL’s bday and a family reunion tomorrow.  everything is kind of up in the air right now because hubby might have to leave from there to visit a bank on monday and that is quite the logistical nightmare for us.  i should be packing but i just don’t know what’s happening.  for now, laundry is my excuse.  last load is in the dryer. 
• i’m getting increasingly bummed about my leg pain.  i truly don’t think it’s anything serious… just a nagging pain that a lesser sissy could grin-and-bear… but it prevents me from doing much of anything because it starts hurting to the point that i’m afraid of serious injury. 
• how am i supposed to train for that half-marathon in march if i keep injuring myself???
• more importantly, how am i going to lose all this friggin weight if i keep injuring myself???

• friday night i got a text from tat inviting us to dinner… a text that she sent while driving to the restaurant.  good thing we’re spur-of-the-moment people!  also good that the sushi house they were heading to was literally around the corner from us.  it turned out to be a birthday dinner for a friend of the group who is visiting from australia.  hubby and i split a teriyaki steak meal but i did try one of the sushi rolls that tat ordered. 
• saturday afternoon, i finally made use of my Christmas gift from hubby this past year.  sadly, i miscalculated early afternoon traffic and the few minutes that i was late were taken out of my hour of massage.  but the remainder of that hour… pure heaven.  i could easily make a habit out of that.
• saturday night we met back up with tat and the gang for mexican and then walked across the street to a bar where a band tat had heard of was playing.  we hung out until they gave in and then the two of us went to our favorite hangout for a bit longer.  we didn’t stay very late since the band that was playing was a bit of a dud.  such is life. 
• sunday… total and complete laziness.  at least on my part.  hubby spent the day feverishly working on his own project.  he’s a much more dedicated person than i am.

scooter and sunny came over tonight for a movie and popcorn.  it seems like we haven’t seen them in forever.  we talked for a few minutes and then went to pop in the dvd.  turned on the dvd player, it lit up, but refused to open.  we spent the next thirty minutes or so trying to extricate dr horrible’s sing-a-long blog from the dvd player.  it worked perfectly fine a few weeks ago when we forced sylvis and peach to experience all that is horrible.  now, no matter how many times we unplug it and turn it off and on, it is holding my precious dvd hostage.  since we did, however, have guests here, we had to improvise so we hooked my computer up to the tv so that we could watch a movie.  it was a great idea doing a movie night at home; much more social than going to the movies.  it’s so nice to be able to hang out with friends.  now how to take a hammer to the dvd player without damaging dr horrible…