Skipping Town

Last week was beach week! First--it wasn't the same at all this year because Mom and Dad couldn't go with us. Logistically and healthfully impossible thanks to Dad's super-convenient and mobile picc line. But we couldn't be too sad since all of that is getting Dad back to full normalcy--worth it 100% to miss the beach. So this year it was me, Andrew, the girls, Molly, Luca--and JEREMY, our newly minted brother-in-law. This was his first full-week immersion in an Orlando vacation, and he came out the other side without any kind of running, fleeing, screaming, etc. His only true protest came when all of us, to a person, were sitting around the breakfast table reading books in complete silence. Welcome, Jeremy.  We stayed in the same rented house as last year, a cottage on Cape May Point. It's a perfect place, close to the beach, great layout, lots of space. This year we added a bike element to the week, which turned out to be a highlight. We saw a million dolphins, ve...

Today I planned to drive to Greensburg to have a nice morning of Gabe's shopping and then lunch with Mom and Dad. I'm glad we got to have some time together before our beach trip, since they can't come with us this year. It felt surprisingly normal to walk around Gabe's and then eat (inside!) at Panera.  Doesn't that sound like a nice way to spend the day? It was. Unfortunately, there's more to this story. I'd made an appointment at the Volvo service center in Greensburg to have a hitch put on the car, and also to check out a mysterious emissions light that's been on for a while. Mom and Dad planned to meet me there so we could shop and lunch while the car was being worked on. Alas, for reasons unclear to me, the Volvo place had NONE of the parts necessary to complete either of the repairs. I drove an unhitched, mysteriously lit car to Greensburg and I drove an unhitched, mysteriously lit car home several hours later. I prefer the first narrative. I'...

 Today was a day of life stuff, a lot of things that just added up to an entire day. First--I got Farrah a vet appointment this morning, and had to leave here there while she had x-rays and bloodwork done. Poor little thing. We were so so so worried. Happily, all of the tests were fine, and her vomiting seems to be nothing more than a stomach bug and slight fever. She got some medicine and some prescription canned food, which so far she has refused to eat. I tried to feed it to her on a teaspoon and she backed slowly, suspiciously, away.  That took up most of the morning. Then our bed was delivered--a Joybird bed I actually hadn't expected until August. Two guys had to build it in our bedroom, which took quite a bit of time. It looks so nice. Andrew doesn't seem to love the amethyst velvet I chose, but I think it's fantastic. He'll come around, I trust. The kids had camp, a good day for both of them. Lucia was in the water all day SUP'ing and kayaking. She came home...

An eventful day. The tree guy came this morning and took down the rest of our front-yard tree. I'm sad to have lost it, but we have plans to put in either a red bud or a weeping cherry. The guy cut all the wood and left it for Andrew, at his request. He's getting into the NH spirit early and will need an ax stat. Our couch, which we ordered in January, was finally delivered. One more piece of the puzzle of the Long Room. The kids had their first day of camp today--Lucia's doing an LL Bean "Lake Effects" camp, where she'll learn to stand-up paddleboard and kayak; Greta's doing a ukulele camp. Greta had a great day, and came home beaming. Lucia came home disappointed--because of lingering weather issues, they couldn't be out on the water today. Hopefully she'll get some paddling time tomorrow. Farrah is sick. She threw up several times today. I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow. Clearly she knows we're leaving for the beach soon and is startin...

 Fri. 6/11 Friday night we did two things we hadn't done in over a year--had a babysitter for L&G, and went out to dinner at a real-live restaurant with friends, in honor of Andrew's birthday. We sat outside and it was lovely. Then everyone came back here for drinks on the patio. Vaxxed life. And the sitter we had is the girl who's going to Farrah-sit while we're at the beach next week, which made me feel slightly better about the upcoming separation. Sat. 6/12 Andrew's birthday--we had Five Points pastries for breakfast, shopped at a new bookstore, went to the pool in the afternoon, then had dinner with Mom and Dad in Connellsville. Bud's pizza and toasted almond torte from Prantl's. I taught Lucia to make tassels early in the day and we both made a bunch.  Sun. 6/13 The kids read all morning then went swimming with friends in the afternoon. Tonight there was a huge rain/hail storm--craziness. A tree came down in our front yard. Water leaked in our fami...

The girls spent the morning immersed in their books, in their pj's, refusing to go outside. Eventually I did get them to take Farrah for a walk, and then they decided they wanted to go to the pool. We stayed for an hour before a rainstorm moved in. Later, they had their piano lessons. Lucia got a book about sign language out of the library this week, and she's been teaching herself some words and phrases. She's especially fond of a simple, subtle sign for no. "Lucia, could you please set the table?" I say, and when she doesn't respond and I look over at her, she's smiling and making the No sign. Hilarious. Greta caught on fairly quickly that this is a way to be quietly defiant, and they spent dinnertime tonight silently refusing to eat their spinach and fried tofu by making the signs for No and Never, smiling the whole time. It's pretty funny. (Andrew was less amused.)

 I got up early and went to Target. No one was there. I bought many bottles of sunscreen and other random things totalling over $200. How? I don't know. This is what I missed not going to Target during the past year.  It was very cloudy today and the kids seemed to need a pool break. They were immersed once again in paper crafting in the basement, cutting out paper dolls and paper foods. Greta made some pink lemonade; Lucia made some brownies; we went to the library; we had lunch. Later in the afternoon, they decided they DID want to go to the pool, so we went for a pleasant hour. Then we took Farrah for a walk. Halfway through the morning, a location scout knocked on our door, asking if he could look around and take pictures of some of the rooms for a possible shoot of a new MGM movie. Credentials verified, he came in and took pics of our extremely, extremely, extremely messy house. He mused that the kitchen cupboards weren't the right color; I invited him to renovate extensi...

It's summer! The girls' last day of school was on Friday, so this week marks our very first summer in Pittsburgh. We've never been out of school this early--in NJ it was end of June. So here we are, ready to enjoy our summer freedom in a new place. Last summer was so odd, without any of our usual outings or routines, and this summer is just as unfamiliar. This week we'll be starting to figure out what our summer days will look like. We joined a pool club here, and went to swim on Saturday and Sunday. We went to Connellsville on Sunday for lunch with Mom and Dad. This morning the kids had dentist appointments. Yesterday and today the girls and I spent part of the day at the pool by ourselves. When we got home, we read a couple of books together on the porch. Then the kids did some paper crafting in the basement while I washed dishes and folded laundry. Tonight we waited out a rainstorm then went to Rita's for custard and Italian ice. I put together the girls' Bon...