Christmas Update

Well, I left for parts north on Saturday, Dec. 20th. The flight up was fairly uneventful. Well, once I was on a flight that was actually going to make it. Apparently, there was some delay with the flight to Atlanta, so they booked me through Baltimore instead. Otherwise, I would have been stuck in the ATL overnight. Which wouldn't have been a problem, there are people I could have dropped in on whom I haven't seen in a while, but then again, unexpected guests are not always the most welcome. Luckily, I had a pretty enterprising ticket agent working for me, so she found another flight which would get me into Ohio on time. Or at least the same day.

It was bitterly cold when I first arrived, and I am simply not built for cold and snow anymore. There's a REASON I moved to Florida, y'all, and it was pretty much so I wouldn't have to battle single-digit temps anymore. I HATE the cold, I'm not REALLY a fan of snow (even on Christmas), and I can DEFINITELY do without scraping ice off my car for several months of the year. But the week warmed up, and my parents' house is always 800 degrees, so I was pretty comfortable.

During the flight up there, I was finishing up the November/December issue of Bookmarks magazine and perusing a holiday-themed issue of Rachael Ray's magazine. Then I started in on The Eight. And I'm still reading it. It's long, like 600 pages. To be fair, this vacation was not the string of uninterrupted reading time I anticipated. I always forget how busy a trip home is. There's Christmas with my cousins, Christmas with the immediate family, dinners with my best friend, evenings watching movies with the fam, a football game, shopping with my sisters, dinners out with my parents and sisters, computer games, etc. Mostly, I read in the mornings over breakfast, before the day got going. And occasionally when I had some down time during the day. On the flight back, I was sick with a terrible cold, so I read a bit in the airport, but slept on the plane. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to finish the book soon, but I do have those 300 Google Reader entries to catch up on...

Sigh. There's always something else going on.

P.S. Hurrah for the Georgia Bulldogs, winners of the Capital One Bowl!!!!!!!!!!!

We're BAAAACK!

After delays in Atlanta, the Fiance' and I arrived back in our area LATE last night. I called off of work today, since I was only going to get a few hours of sleep, so now I'm using the rest of the day to get organized and ready to go back to work full-steam tomorrow. I have a review to post, of a book I finished over my vacation, in between all the wedding prep and visiting friends and family. I'll be back to post that soon. The wedding was really nice, and it was good to see everyone. There were people there that I haven't seen in years! I enjoyed my time at home, but, as always, I wish that it lasted longer.

Tripping

Tomorrow, the fiance' and I leave beautiful sunny South Florida (HA! Hurricane Central, is more like it!) for the not-so-tropical North. My sister is getting married this Saturday and I'm in the wedding...so I'll be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, hoping I didn't forget anything, hurrying Ricky along, trying to make it to the airport on time. I'm glad Hanna has taken a turn away from us, so our plane can make it out. Now if only Ike will hold off till we're safely back Monday night!

Departures

Well, my sisters left for parts north yesterday. I was sad to see them go. We had a great week of beaching it, eating at various restaurants, watching the Olympics, shopping at the bookstore (at The Fiance's suggestion, even!). We didn't really do anything too terribly exciting, but when I'm with my sisters, I don't really want to do anything but hang out. And we definitely accomplished that.

Speaking of the Olympics, I battled supreme fatigue last night to stay up and watch Michael Phelps win his record eighth gold medal at the Games in Beijing. Ricky and I were up off the couch, cheering Lezak on in the last leg of the relay, like a couple of huge dorks. But it was cool to see history being made.

Now that the house is quiet again, maybe I'll get a little more reading done. I need to finish: this month's Glamour, which was started at the beach and is a little waterlogged at the moment; a book belonging to a co-worker, who wants it back, while several other co-workers want to borrow it; my Bookmarks magazine, long abandoned in favor of a library book; and poor Jane Eyre, still stuck with the Riverses, which I put down to read the copy of Bookmarks, and haven't picked back up again. Sigh. I WILL finish all my books!

Vacation

I've been spending a lot of time at the beach with my sisters, and I have the lobster-shoulders to prove it. We're taking a break from swimming today in favor of indoor activities, which, hopefully, will not burn us. I've taken them to eat at one of my favorite places, and we've eaten at home a bit, too, since we're all poor. We've been watching the Olympics obsessively, when they're on, although I've been falling asleep much too early. In between all that, we've been having all the fun a flock of us generally have when we're in the same place. Ricky seems to fit right in...it's been a great week so far.

Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I think we're going to have brunch at our favorite diner today, and probably do dinner with a couple of my co-workers. Ricky's brother is supposed to come into town today, also, so maybe we'll have dinner with him tomorrow night. All this eating out is kind of hard on the wallet (and the waistline -- Weight Watchers is out the window this week), but it sure is fun.

More book news when I get a chance to get back to reading. It's been mostly magazines and the beach this week.

Things I Can't Wait For

This.

My sisters coming to visit in a month.

Going to Ohio for Nat's wedding in September.

News

I took my personal day today, since I received an e-mail last week stating that I would lose it if I didn't use it by the end of June. So it was nice to sleep in this morning and spend the early part of the day with Ricky. We just ran errands, but I like to hang out with him when I can.

Wednesday night, I made Paula Deen's She-Crab Soup recipe. Ricky hated it, as he is not a fish-lover. It was a bit fishy for me, even though I do like fish, but I ate my whole bowlful. There are plenty of leftovers, but I'm not sure I'll get through them. Even if the soup is good reheated, I'm not sure I can eat six more helpings before it goes bad, but I will sure try. I should take some of it for lunch at work next week. And it could be a lunch for me over the weekend.

Been dipping into book blogs and adding to my already ridiculously long reading list. I've spent so much time reading ABOUT books that I haven't kept up well with the one I'm actually reading right now, The Prince of Tides. It's not that the book isn't engaging, it's just that I'm obsessive-compulsive. And that I've been on vacation. And a million other things. Maybe I'll finish it this week.

Playing Catch-Up

Whew. The last couple of weeks have been busy. Between all of the book blogs I've been scouring, and my recent mini-vacation to Fort Myers to see my best friend, I've hardly had time to post.

Welcome to little Jonah Benjamin, the second beautiful son of my college roommate and her hubby!

I spent this past weekend in Fort Myers, drinking and relaxing and spending time with my best friend of 15 years (God, does that make me feel old!) It was nice to get away from the fiance' for a while, and have some time to myself to hang out with old friends. We spent a lot of time by the pool, ate at our favorite Greek restaurant on the beach, and did a pub crawl Saturday night. Quite a wonderful weekend!!!

I just wish I'd had more time for reading...