Skipping Town

We leave for Cape May tomorrow! We are all so excited. Less exciting is the immense amount of cleaning and packing a week away requires. We're having a pet sitter stay at our house for the week, so we had to make the house livable. And I absolutely have to have a perfectly clean, de-cluttered house to return to. We do a major house clean before every trip.  Today was made more complicated by--you guessed it!--Nutmeg. Last night Greta told me she saw Nutmeg nibbling on the water supply line behind the toilet--something I'd read about in one of my bun groups but never thought Nutmeg would do. My mind full of visions of thousands of dollars of water damage from a mostly unsupervised Nutmeg this week, I went to Home Depot this morning to find a solution. I got a kind of jointed pipe thingy that Andrew was able to put over the supply line. Solved. Bun life! Greta had a "training" session this morning for her contact lenses. Sadly, she was not able to get them in during the...

Andrew made beef sandwiches tonight, the kind featured in the TV show The Bear, from a recipe I found in the LA Times. We're obsessed with this show, and even more obsessed with the sandwich, and this did not disappoint. All of us loved it. Andrew now goes around calling all of us "Chef."  I tried to get a little head start on beach packing today, just the clothes. I did all the laundry. The kids had piano lessons and tennis lessons. We went for a swim. Lucia got in a snit because I bought Greta a book for the beach, the same one Lucia is currently reading from the library, and Lucia said if she was unable to finish her library book then she should get to read Greta's book, even though that would mean Greta wouldn't have a book at the beach, etc etc. She ended up nearly finishing the book today as she rage-read, making the whole argument superfluous.  I'm working on a smaller amigurumi pig. These long spells of crocheting are going to come to an end soon. My g...

Lucia went to see the Barbie movie Friday night with her friends, and Greta and I went to see it on Saturday with some of my friends. The kids were underwhelmed; a lot of the jokes went over their heads. But me? I LOVED IT. I scream-laughed, I sobbed, I experienced a complicated mixture of laughing and sobbing. The ending nearly undid me. It was an overwhelming experience. I can't wait to see it again. I hadn't been to a movie in a movie theater since before Covid, and I'm so glad this was the movie I saw for my first time back. It's definitely a movie that needs to be experienced with a theater full of people. Brilliant.  Will I be buying a pair of pink Birkenstocks in the near future? Yes. Will I be bringing all of my old Barbies here for a show and tell? Also yes. THANK GOODNESS I never got rid of them. They were waiting for this moment. Pretty in Pink Barbie, Western Barbie, Malibu PJ, Derek from Barbie and the Rockers--I feel such affection for them.  This movie. I...

Summer keeps traipsing along. It's been a nice week--the kids had tennis lessons, we had dinner at the club with Mom and Dad (and the kids swam), there's been some reading, the girls and I are trying to learn how to play Wingspan. Today I edited my final application essay--I resigned from the freelance gig, since there's no way I can keep doing it once I start my new job. I liked the editing a lot, and edited around 70 essays. Maybe I'll take on some individual clients at some point. For now, though, one job will be enough. I went to the doctor yesterday morning to get my arm checked out. The good news is that my cellulitis is pretty much gone; the bad news is that my arm will take a while to recover, thanks to thrombophlebitis. There's no real treatment, just warm compresses and time. Sigh. I had to do more bloodwork to see if my wildly out of whack numbers had stabilized, and they have. Almost, but not quite, at the end of this saga. What We're Reading Margo: ...

Today was a very lazy summer day. The girls slept very late. I edited essays then went grocery shopping. I finally made the girls start their daily Khan Academy math.  Once all that was done, the kids went down to the basement and began the most exciting part of their jar closet project: decorating. They brought in a rug, lots of Squishmallows, graphic novels, and bean bags. I hung twinkle lights. Lucia printed a bunch of tiny photos of her and Greta, and they hung them all up, as well as a lot of memes and jokes related to Hunger Games and Divergent that they found on Pinterest and printed out. They signed their names on the wall.  It is, I have to say, a magical space. So magical, in fact, that tonight they decided to SLEEP in the jar closet. They dragged in couch cushions and sleeping bags and pillows. I'm not sure they're actually going to last the whole night, but they're excited to try. I'm really glad they did this project because you know how desperate we are in...

The big project underway this week has been the girls' transformation of the jar closet into a hideout. The jar closet is a Harry Potter-esque closet underneath the basement stairs--fairly spacious, but not tall enough to stand at full height. There are some rudimentary shelves in there, and it's where we store all our jars. To be clear: this is nothing more than a way station for items that should absolutely be in the recycling bin but are, instead, being saved (by me) for potential future use. This is what happens when you live in a very, very large old house. Every nook is assigned some use, and then filled.  So. The kids have wanted to claim this space for a while, and I'd promised them they could do it during the summer. This week they emptied all the jars out of the closet and then swept and cleaned it. Did we put the jars in the recycling? We did not. We simply boxed them up and put them into the walk-in safe, which is now a safe / jar closet. You might wonder, at th...

We drove home from NH on Sunday 7/9. It was a pretty easy drive, despite some heavy rain. I either drove or sat behind the driver so the seatbelt wouldn't touch my shoulder area, which was still hideously inflamed and sore. We were all happy to get home and turn on the AC. On Monday 7/10, I went to see an NP at my doctor's office. She diagnosed cellulitis and prescribed an antibiotic, telling me to go to the ER if it got any worse. Monday night, I had dinner with old friends, and Beth advised me to trace the infection so I could clearly see if it grew. Overnight, it did. But I was on antibiotics, so I gave it all day Tuesday to improve. It didn't. Wednesday 7/11, I woke up with more redness than ever, and it hurt to lift my arm. So I went to the ER, where I got some IV antibiotics. What a hideous day.  Thursday 7/12, I had a video call with my doctor, who prescribed still another antibiotic.  Today, Friday 7/13, I'm finally seeing improvement. I can only hope this is th...

Today was the great unwinding, when we have to undo all the things we do to make our time here what we want it to be. It was also a really beautiful day, so there were some last-time fun things to do, too. We spent the day packing up, cleaning, taking down the hammocks (that was actually yesterday), and cleaning out the fridge. We also gave Farrah a bath outside. I packed up all the beads from our friendship bracelet work and packed up all my amigurumi.  We spent a very long time down at the pond after lunch--the kids had an epic swimming afternoon, more time in the open water than on their floats. I truly can't believe they were so into the pond this year. I thought they'd stay on the dock and maybe their floats--but they were all in. They had so much fun. We hated to bring it to a close, but by 4:30 it was time to take down the rope and deflate all the inflatables. Greta really wanted one last visit to the lagoon, so we did that next. Both kids brought their rings and we had ...

The shingles are becoming more irritating by the day, even as the meds continue to do their work. It's just hard to have anything at all touching that skin. Even air from a fan irritates it. There is now a red double-halo instead of just a solid red halo. I know I'll wind up at the doctor next week at some point, but maybe things will improve once the weeklong prescriptions conclude. My stress level is not helping the healing process. I had a follow-up Zoom interview this morning, and just as I sat down to connect, I realized two things: the interviewer had not sent a Zoom link, and our handyman had just started some deafening weed-whacking at the back of the house, five feet from where I was sitting. Farrah was barking. It was chaos. ACTIVATE SHINGLE.  Then I got a message later in the day asking for a quick phone call from the same person, no hint of the subject matter. ACTIVATE SHINGLE. I have never manifested stress so physically before.  Anyhoo! There were nice parts of t...

Today was a blazingly hot day, but we had one objective: do our annual hike to the summit of Mt. Ascutney. I had some editing and two calls with China-based students in the morning, and we headed out after that. It was significantly cooler in the woods, and it was a lovely hike as always. Our plan to have ice cream from our favorite place for lunch was derailed when we found out the place is closed for the week, so we just went home and had ice cream from the freezer. Andrew had a call with a former colleague this afternoon, so the girls and I went down to the pond. They had so much fun and were even swimming in the pond, not just on their floats--screaming bloody murder the whole time. There have been no turtle sightings this summer, though their pond time was punctuated by occasional screams of "I FELT SOMETHING!!!!" A little while later, Andrew had an interview, and the girls read while I worked on an amigurumi wheel of brie. Then Andrew and the girls went for a cool, refr...

I woke up this morning in a lot, A LOT, of pain. Just excruciating. Andrew got to the pharmacy right when it opened to pick up my prescriptions. "We just got the order," the pharmacist said. "It'll be ready in about an hour." Andrew calmly stepped up to the counter. "No, it won't," he said. "It'll be ready now." Ha ha ha, just kidding. But he did explain that his wife was in severe pain and really really needed these meds, and walked out with them in twenty minutes. Today I've taken six Prednisone and three Valtrex and a handful or two of Tylenol (six). The pain has lessened, and the large red halo has shrunk. The shingle looks gruesome, but at least there's been a little improvement.  After a morning of editing and a video call with a student in China, we had lunch and then the girls and I went to the creek. Greta brought a tube and floated, and then swam, in the lagoon. I got some magical pictures of her looking like a water...

Though it threatened rain today, we made it to Plainfield for the annual Fourth of July parade and festivities. We started the day by checking out the cakes in the cake auction, but they were overshadowed by a new addition this year: someone had donated a crowd of ornate old china dolls, which were being sold for $5 each. They were, as you can imagine, ridiculously creepy. The girls immediately decided they each had to buy a haunted doll, so, after careful deliberation, they each chose one. Lucia chose a doll wearing a lacy wedding dress and veil. Greta chose a doll in a frilly pink dress, large hair bow, and an absolutely terrifying expression on her face.  The day took a macabre turn from there, as the girls carried their haunted dolls around, standing them behind us at the parade and seeking out cornfields to lead us into. After having some burgers at the firemen's BBQ after the parade, we drove home, passing a few cemeteries on the way. Of course the girls/dolls begged to stop ...

It rained all day, steadily and without pause. The girls spent a lot of time reading, I edited three essays then worked on an avocado toast amigurumi and began the various pieces of an amigurumi burrito, and Andrew read and did some interview prep. We all played Chinese checkers. Then the kids decided to go outside despite the rain. They walked up and down the street for a very long time, exploring.  When they came back in to ask if they could go down to the creek, which is violently rushing with rainwater, we said we'd go with them. This was met with disapproval, but it's just too wild a place to let them go alone. Rushing creekwater, slippery rocks, potential wildlife--too many variables. Farrah came too, unhappily.  It was actually fun to walk in the rain and then traipse through the wet, rainy woods. Of course both girls misjudged the creek depth and wound up with boots full of water. Greta was wearing the most outlandish outfit I've ever seen her in: pajamas, rainboots...