Long Time No See!

Recent History
Well! It seems that the West Coast Wine Connoisseur and I have sort of taken a break from blogging. Life has taken me down all kinds of roads, and every time I think of updating my blog, there are so many subjects and so much to write, and so little time to write it. But here is a "digest" version of What I have Done in the last month:

Finally(!) got the bathroom and laundry room floors tiled, my closet ceiling scraped, retextured and the whole closet painted, got the girls' bathroom repainted and the ceiling in that bathroom retextured, the hallway ceiling is now scraped, retextured and re-lighted so that we can see while walking down the hallway, and with a dimmer switch, even, so that when we watch scary/deep/dark movies, the hallway lights won't disturb the, uh, "ambiance" of the evening. The laundry room and hallway have been painted, and while the painter didn't like my idea of color for the laundry room, when I get finished with decor-type items, it's going to be beautiful!

However, it makes me anxious to get "Phase III" started. That's the ceiling of the girls' bedroom and playroom to get scraped, the bedroom border paper changed, the rest of the hallway and family room re-floored, with what, I don't know, and that hallway, the family room, dining room and front room ceilings to be scraped and painted. Phase IV is the kitchen. That is a few years away because it will be a major change to the structure. Phase V is a lap pool with a hot tub/jacuzzi of some kind. That's after the kitchen, and includes the relandscaping of the whole back yard. Cha-chink! We have the money already for Phase II, and nearly enough for Phase III. Phases IV and V, well, we may have to win the lottery for those, but there is always hope that a money tree will sprout in the back yard before we dig up everything.

Today
Spent all day today at the hospital with my father. He has an eye infection that spread into his cheek and his sinuses, and after nearly seven hours sitting around waiting (he had been given IV antibiotics, had a cat scan, and had all his oil/water levels checked, er, bloodwork done) we were sent home with a new antibiotic for him to take for the next ten days. Facial cellulitis, it was called, and I guess because the eye infection wasn't treated quick enough, it spread and became this other infection. I got him some dinner, the new prescription filled, took him home, and came home myself. Reading this story makes my eyes begin to itch. I bought new containers of antibacterial wipes for my car and things my dad touched, just to attempt to keep it from my daughters and husband. However, now, as I type, I feel a sore throat coming, and my head is kind of spinning as if I'm getting a sinus infection of my own. When I have to spend any amount of time in a hospital, I usually become ill in some way, even when, as I did today, I wash my hands several times. I hope it's just a fatigue/stress thing and that I'll feel much better tomorrow morning.

The good thing about sitting at the hospital, was that I had brought just enough catalogs to nearly finish my list of Christmas shopping. If I get the orders in, I'll only have two or three other recipients for whom to find that "special gift." I went through about 10 catalogs and 1/2 of a Vanity Fair magazine (oohh, Johnny Depp was in it). Boy did I have a headache after that seven hours of "shopping!"

My family had gone to the local aquarium, and had a blast all day. The girls even got trick-or-treat bags filled with treats! That makes the third time I've missed an aquarium trip with the fam. BD2 pet a shark; she said it was soft and that she liked it.

Reno Air Races (September 17 - 20)
I was supposed to write about our Reno Air Races trip. Here is a synopsis: We drove all the way up to Reno on Thursday morning, getting into Reno at sometime around 9:pm. We had planned to get in earlier, and see the Bristlecone Pine Forest, near Lone Pine, California, but there was much to do before we left, and though I made every effort to leave at the specified planned time of 6: or 7: am, we didn't leave until around 10:am. DH was fairly upset with me and my perceived lack of organizational skills, and we had a fairly dismal trip all the way north to Reno, made worse when we realized it was too late to make it to the Ancient Forest. Oh well. I'll apologize one more time. I'm sorry, DH, that I was unable to get us all packed and out of the house by 6:am that morning.

Once we got to our room, had a good night's sleep (ok so sort of good) and breakfast, we were ready for zoom zoom! Got the car, drove to the races, and about 1/2 mile from the airfield, we stopped for water bottles ($.79 vs. $2.50 at the races). When I returned to the car, it would not start. No matter of coaxing, placating, whining, swearing, kicking or screaming would get that thing to start.

In and of itself, a dead battery isn't a big deal. When it happens at home, you call AAA, get it jumpstarted and drive it to the nearest Sears for a new one. In Stead, NV, there is not a Sears for quite a few miles, and it's the other side of Reno. Plus, we just finished spending nearly $4,000 in repairs so the car would be reliable for the trip. We were sure it was something more serious than just the battery.

DH is getting more and more frustrated, so instead of making one phone call to the AAA, I made two: one to the AAA, and one to a taxi service. I dipped into my "mad money" that I hide even from myself, and paid for the taxi to take DH and the girls on to the races. Don't try to find it, DH, there is no more.

They happily left, and when the AAA service truck arrived, we charged the battery, the car started right away, and I drove the 45 minute drive to Sears, to get a new battery. It was a good thing I keep my tires and battery receipts in the owner's manual, because I was able to prove the battery was still in warranty, and therefore got a free replacement battery. Of course, while I waited for the battery to be installed, checked, etc., I walked over to the mall across the parking lot and spent a little more "mad money." When all was finished with the car, I drove back to Stead and got to see some of the flyers doing their tricks from the car, plus got to my family just in time to see a race.

For the rest of the weekend, I helped out at a booth run by our friends, Mr. Air Race Guy and his Mrs. They are such good friends, and were trying to get their company to get a little more exposure, that working in the booth with them was a true joy. I actually turned out to be a good sales person, too. Even got some repeat business! Mrs. ARG couldn't believe that I had a good time. I did, though, and was happy to not have to climb to the top of the grandstand to watch the races. It was an added benefit to be in the tent of the booth, since the winds kicked up to around 50 mph, and were gusty. By being in the tent, we were somewhat protected from the bite of the wind. Even though the sun was nice and warm, the wind bit us with cold. We were pretty tired at the end of the day.

The races went well; our favorite plane, Rare Bear, won the last Gold Race. We thought another plane, Dago Red, had one, but (ain't this delicious) Dago Red evidently "cut a pylon" (means not quite going around the markers in the racecourse), and was disqualified. I for one, would have liked to see Rare Bear win it outright, but I'll take a win however it comes.

Sunday night, the races over, we all pitched in to tear down the exhibit of our friends' company. We had a great time, and were exhausted by the time we finished. Dinner with the gang, and to bed we all went. We tried to do something together after dinner, but not one of us could stay awake! We must be getting old. If I get the privilege of getting old with these fine people, then I will have a very, very good and fun life. Each person in this group has a very special place in my heart. We have had a lot of fun together. They are the reason I continue to scheme ways that I can attend the races. I love airplane noise, don't get me wrong. But it's the association with these folks (names to not be divulged here, but you all know who you are), that keeps me returning.

Monday morning, we began the trek homeward. It was much better coming home emotionally than it was going north. We stopped at the famous Schat's Bakery in Bishop for a little while, got some munchies and gifts, and drove all the way home, only stopping for gas and snacks.

We returned home, safe and happy that the car made it all the way home with no trouble and even good gas mileage. BD1 and BD2 returned to school the next day, and we attempted to get back to our normal schedule, whatever that is.

Here is the schedule of my daughters during the school week:
Mondays, both girls have dance lessons after BD1 gets out of school.
Tuesdays, BD2 has Tot Tumbling after her preschool class, and BD1 has Soccer practice.
Wednesdays, I try to get BD2 to Story Time at the local library, and BD1 has piano lessons.
Thursdays, BD1 has soccer practice
Fridays, BD1 has tennis.
Saturdays, BD1 has soccer games.

This all got changed just last week, and now we are trying to get a new, more functional schedule in place. BD2's dance teacher wants her to change from Mondays to Tuesdays (but then that would mean preschool, Tumbling and dance all in one day), and BD1's Tennis teacher wants to change BD1 to Thursdays. That would be fine, except our local soccer organization, changed us arbitrarily to Thursdays, only one day each week for practice. I hope the Tennis coach will allow us to change to Tuesdays, and then I can drop BD2 off at Dance, and then take BD1 to tennis, thereby giving me about 45 minutes of reading/sewing/alone time. Then, we'd have only BD1's dance class on Mondays, the preschool/tumbling/dance classes Tuesdays for BD2, and BD1's tennis lessons, Wednesdays would remain unchanged, Thursdays would, too, and Fridays would be nearly FREE!!! It would be nice to have one day during the week without children's extracurricular activities.

I think that's enough catch up posting for today. Next up: BD2's pronunciations