Headed for Chicago!

Steinvic and I are sitting here on the sofa, enjoying our first day of vacation. We went out for lunch and zipped around gathering a few odds and ends we'd need for our trip. In a little bit, we'll head up to our local (a good friend of ours is celebrating his last nights of work there) and meeting up with J for a few... nice way to kick off our adventure!

For those of you thinking, "Damn! These people take an awful lot of vacations!" it really isn't true. Really! It's just that we had a lot of things smooshed together between May and July and all of our travels have been centered around events. The conference in Vegas, our company provided condo the week after that in Ft. Walton, and now this trip to The Windy City.

We originally planned to go way back when U2 tickets went on sale...Steinvic is thinking November. We'd just gone to shows in Phoenix and Vegas in October and no sooner than we came home, they listed extra dates. Well, you have probably heard that Bono had emergency back surgery about a month ago, but by then, we'd already made hotel arrangements that couldn't be changed. Steinvic generously volunteered his anniversary points (they can trade these in for a variety of things in a catalog) he'd earned through work and paid for four nights at a great hotel right along the Magnificent Mile. So, we're going anyway!

We'll be taking in a Reds game, enjoying Taste of Chicago, and hopefully seeing some fireworks while we're there. A couple we know will also be in town, so we plan to see them, too. Other than that, we're just going to explore.

AND, we're taking the Mega Bus there! I'm kind of excited about that...I hope we have as great of an experience as some friends of ours have had.

I'll have my trusty computer with me, so I'll let you know how it's going... Until then, enjoy your independence!

Finally!

Here I am...I swear, I didn't mean to be gone that long.

Steinvic and I have been on a business trip. It was a conference for a work association we belong to. (If I haven't mentioned it before, we're both on the board and it's the group that was responsible for us meeting!)

So, we were traveling and I didn't have Internet access. Before that we were getting ready to travel and I barely had five minutes to do a darn thing! But you know what? It was all worth it. We're exhausted and spent, but the conference we put on for 16 of our colleagues was super awesome and fun.

Tonight, he is in Columbus for work, and I'm washing all our stuff from one trip in preparation for our next trip, which begins Saturday.

We are driving to Florida for a WHOLE WEEK of vacation in a darling condo right on the beach. We had the pleasure of going to the same place about 4 years ago and it was amazingly relaxing. This time, we are taking his son with us, (and his son's pal) and that makes this our first official family vacation.

I couldn't be more thrilled...I think it's going to be fantastically fun.

So, Vegas yesterday, Ohio today and tomorrow and Florida by Sunday. I feel so lucky to get to do all of these things!

If I'm honest though...I'm so tired right now, I just walked over to the phone in the kitchen to call my Grandma. (If you're new here, she passed away almost a year ago.) What a conversation that would have been, huh?! I have had the impulse to call her plenty of times, since we used to talk every night, but it's been months since I've actually walked to the phone with conviction, ready for a catch up. So, I know I'm wiped out. But, instead of crying about it (which is what I usually feel like doing), it made me smile. I've poured a glass of wine (didn't even remember that any was here!) and I'm catching up with you instead.

But anyway... I promise to post here more this week! It shouldn't be as big of a challenge...we plan on having a lot of time to do whatever we like. And we'll be doing it together.

I've missed you! And I'm back...

It's Inauguration Day!

Yes, I'm very excited about today for a number of reasons. That's as far as I'll go with politics here because...well...you know...politics, they get some people really fired up. I'm not trying to do that!

I bought paint this weekend and began the makeover on the kitchen/dining area. All I've finished so far is removing the top cabinets from one side, painting them and painting around them, but WOW - what a difference! I do have one question, though...how did anyone paint prior to painter's tape?

We braved temperatures below zero this weekend, and thankfully, our heat pump continues to trudge along, though the furnace man told me that it probably wouldn't last through the winter. I had to - suprise! - buy a furnace right before Christmas to the tune of $2500, which I know was a very fair price, but the wonderful repair guy - he really is a trustworthy person - told me that the heat pump was on her way out and I'd be buying one shortly. it's $2200. Since as you know that my goal is to pay cash for EVERYTHING in 2009, I'd like it to hold out a little bit longer...so far, so good.

Speaking of money, Steinvic researched airfare for a trip out West next month and I think he found a reasonable flight. Not for me...just for him. I haven't mentioned it here, but his cousin is very ill and doesn't have long to live. We hoped that both of us could go back to see him, but moneywise and airfarewise and timingwise, it didn't look good for me to be able to go, too. Still, I feel like it's really important that he go now, before it's too late. So, I think he's going to go the last week in February. I'm sad that I won't be there with him, but I know it will mean a lot for him to go and also to his aunts and uncles who are out there.

Just made the mistake of checking the local headlines. If you're not from the Cincinnati area, look a the quality of some of the individuals who live in this town! I mean, gaze upon this-waste-of-flesh-useless-piece-of-crap-who-is-taking-up-valuable-space-who-will-soon-find-out-just-how-bad-life-can-suck. If you read the comments, one reader said this guy was brought in for domestic in 2007 and got NOTHING. Totally amazing. Ah, justice...I hope that the scratches on his fat, pathetic face are from the woman he raped and that she got a few other hits in there, too.

This is why I hate reading the news...