Skipping Town

There's a lot going on, sports and kids' schoolwork and our work and our torn-up kitchen and travel planning for Spring Break. And Andrew left today for eight days, part weekend with college friends, the rest business trip to Peru. The girls and I remain here, basement dwellers, ready to shop for a week's worth of frozen prepared foods at Trader Joe's because cooking is just something I cannot do on top of everything else. Convenience foods will get us through. The kitchen is progressing. This week they put all the insulation in the walls. We selected our fireplace--more difficult than it may appear; there are a lot of options called "fyre features" (their spelling) with apps and automatic everything and glass beads instead of logs and I just cannot. I emailed Andrew a copy and pasted list of language from the brochure and typed, simply, "no" after each sentence. We did eventually find a suitable option (it does come with an app--inescapable--which w...

Saturday was a big day for Lucia: she got her driver's permit! She and Andrew went to the DMV first thing in the morning, and she passed her test. She has not yet had a chance to practice, but she has taken a big step forward.  While they did that, I took Greta to Steel City so she could participate in a fund-raising Erg-A-Thon. She erg'd the distance of a half marathon and was very pleased. (I spent the time reading at the Oakmont Bakery, then grocery shopping.) Lucia babysat on Saturday night, while Andrew watched sports and Greta and I watched Stranger Things.  Sunday, Greta and I went out early to check out the Carnegie Library book sale, which we'd never been to before. Though the long line out the door boded well, the sale turned out to be quite small. Andrew and I had brunch with the Clarks at Cafe Margaux. Later in the afternoon, Andrew, the kids, and I went thrifting at the Red, White, & Blue in Sewickley. We all got some fun things. It's a great thrift sto...

It was a long, busy, cold week. Greta is between winter and spring sports seasons, so it was a little bit of a juggle to figure out her 3pm pickup each day (luckily Andrew had lots of flexibility this week to get her). Lucia is between seasons too but is going to musical rehearsal every day and then running by herself afterward. Greta went to her first Science Bowl meet on Friday. Andrew somehow got a 24-hour stomach bug late this week, so we cranked up the air purifier, I grudgingly wore a mask around the house, and I slept in the attic. Having a battered immune system is such a hassle. However, knock on wood, I'm otherwise feeling completely fine, except for some minor swelling of my fingers (I checked with the nurse; nothing to be concerned about)--and finished the first cycle of meds on Friday. Now I have a week off (the four-week schedule is three weeks of pills and one week of no pills), and then the next cycle begins with another fulvestrant injection and a new round of kisq...

After the extreme busyness of Saturday, it was nice to head down to Connellsville for the day to celebrate Dad's birthday (which was yesterday). Mom made scrippelles (!!!), the most celebratory meal of all, as well as creme brulee for dessert. Dad got out his mini blowtorch and we all carmelized the sugar on our own creme brulees. Delicious and restorative.  Mom practiced piano with the kids; Mom, Lucia, Greta, and I played Sorry; Andrew went for a run; Andrew helped Dad fix a problem with their kitchen faucet. I dug around in my bedroom closet and found the box of journals I'd been looking for (after pushing aside my old violin shoulder rest and a stack of paper wrappers from our wedding invitations, because that's just how Connellsville is--you can't take a step without tripping over a relic of personal history).  Then Dad pulled out a box holding two of my sequined dresses from high school and the girls put them on--Lucia put on my junior-year prom dress, The Flame; ...

This weekend was an exceptionally busy sideshow.  Friday: 3:00 - 5:30: Lucia had musical rehearsal 3:00 - 10:30pm: Greta went to a friend's house directly after school for a birthday party 7:30 - 9:30: Margo and Andrew to a neighbor's party 10:30: Pickup Greta In the very constricted time slot I had to make dinner, I was almost done preparing linguini with clams when I asked Lucia to unload the dishwasher. The pasta was boiling in its pot; the clams were simmering in their pan. A one-cup Pyrex measuring cup was standing by to scoop up some pasta water when the time came. Lucia carried a (in retrospect, obviously too-heavy) stack of plates over to the cupboard, which is next to the stove. She somehow miscalculated where the shelf was (?) and dropped the entire stack straight down onto the measuring cup. None of the plates broke. The measuring cup, however, exploded into pieces that flew all over the stove, floor, and even onto the table. By "pieces," I mean "shard...

We are tired of living in the basement, shrouded in dust. But progress is being made every day. The old windows are out; new windows will be in by the end of the week. As usual, there is a new temporary wall to hold up the house while work is being done. I'm glad these construction guys know what they're doing.  I'm behind this week on blogging, for no reason other than the house is chaos, evenings are chaotic, and there's always a lil' piece of extra chaos each day to make things interesting.  For example, on Tuesday the cleaners came, at the exact moment a dumpster arrived and the street construction settled directly in front of our house for the day.  For example, last night Farrah managed to find, steal, and eat an entire chocolate bar Andrew had brought back from Germany. Fortunately, it was milk chocolate with a lot of peanuts, so she wasn't in too much danger. But there was a tense half hour of finding chocolate toxicity calculators online and using Googl...