Our Valentine's evening was nice and very low key. Since I'm still sick, I actually stayed home yesterday, but did manage a grocery run after a nap and some online work since the cupboards were bare. I had joked earlier in the week that grilled cheese, tomato soup and a movie in the basement would be an okay way to spend the evening, and as the week progressed it turned out to be just perfect for us. I fixed up our simple fare for dinner and we retreated to the basement to watch a favorite movie, What Women Want. I got Alan some chocolate chip cookies at the store and he brought home pink roses and lilies for me.

I figure since he got me the best piece of jewelry ever several Valentine's Days ago (engagement ring), he is set for quite some time.

I have canceled my Jamestown Training attendance plans for this weekend and plan to relax and recoup. And despite a nice long nap, I'm thinking bedtime is quickly approaching.

 Been back, and been sick. I blame the 11 hours on a plane or something. stupid sinuses. I think they are punishing me for ever leaving Hawaii. I certainly can't blame them.

I foolishly went to Unevent this weekend with

theblueleader

The rest of this week has been spent catching up at work and trying to sleep off this sickness. Lots of sleep. And yet not enough. And we got our first snow of the season today. I think we have about 3-4 inches on the ground here. It is very pretty, but instantly lowers drivers' IQ by 20 points, which gets a bit frustrating. 

Hawaii was a blast. I totally want to go back. I still have snorkeling, and hiking, and more stuff to do, including more relaxing and chilling on a beach or something.

First of all...
If it is gray and raining and dark and you have to use your windshield wipers, for the love of all that is holy, turn on your gorram headlights! This goes doubly so if your car is the color of the pavement! I am sick and tired of folks not turning on their headlights in the rain. Like driving in the DC area isn't challenging enough with the other knuckleheads on the road.

sigh.

So, to avoid it being a whole week between postings, I should update. My neck and back are still tentative. I've been to the chiropractor on Friday and again yesterday morning. I had acupuncture on Monday evening. I've had a massage on Saturday and a different style massage yesterday. I know, I need to let my nervous system settle down. I promised Wendy OTMH that I'd avoid any more bodywork until Monday, but I swear, all I wanna do is curl up in bed, dose myself with magic drugs and sleep the week away. I'm tired of having a sore neck and spasms in my back, especially since I don't remember doing anything special bad to it. Time to stretch.

This weekend is Holiday Faire. I'll be there. Got a laundry list of things to do/people to see/ things to buy. Now if I can just survive until then without either landing myself in jail from the road rage, or landing myself in the hospital, I'll be doing all right. ;)

Next Tuesday I depart for Hawaii. I can't wait. I've got sunrise on the crater on Maui scheduled, scuba for Friday, and I plan on doing a ton of relaxing. I've already got a request for chocolate covered macadamia nuts for the office to bring back. But I still need to pack, and figure out what to wear. At least the weather should be nice and warm, but I do need to pack layers for the flights and hiking at the higher elevations. It will be the first Thanksgiving I've spent away from Alan in many years. But, it's Hawaii, so I'll bring a picture. :)

And yes, I realized I've complained about my back and talked about non-back friendly activities all in the space of 5 minutes. That's how I roll.

As mentioned in my previous entry, I uploaded pictures this weekend, but am finally getting around to linking to them. Because I am just that lazy/busy/tired...

So, this weekend was a good time. We had a lovely lazy evening on Friday, watching a movie, eating pizza, and then Alan watched much of the Red Sox game, while I indulged in some What Not to Wear. Saturday was Dave and Kymber's wedding. Running on typical Thies-time, we strolled in right after the procession, but I think we managed to quietly slip in the back of the bride's side. She was naturally beautiful, he was wonderfully dashing, the ceremony was elegant, and the reception was full of friends, food and a little bit of booze. And, wow, was the cake tasty. What a great time, and it was nice to see folks in their fancy clothes. I even got a little DangerBaby time, which is always nice.

After the wedding, we invited some folks over to our place for more hanging out time. It started out low-key, but we sent Alan and Kirsten over to Wendy's place to steal some snacks and booze, and bring it back to our place for the gathering crowd. Eventually Val and Wendy brought over Iron Chef like dinner, made from the stock in Wendy's kitchen. Dinner was great, there was extra leftover wedding cake that made it into Wendy's truck, and then there was a present for Val. I couldn't resist the new ducal coronet I bought for Val. Sometimes you're never quite sure how a gift will be received, but he was so jazzed he wore it out the door at the end of the night. It was nice to have more relaxed hangout time with friends

Sunday, Mike and Kirsten got on the road after breakfast of french toast and turkey bacon. Alan did some massive pruning of our overgrown azaleas, the blue spruce, and the holly, and discussed what to do with the boxwoods encroaching on the path to the backyard. Then we went furniture shopping for a new bedroom set. I had done lots of online looking and hadn't found the right style that seemed us and useful without being too dark or too over the top. After shopping at Columbia Oak and Indoor Furniture, we finally found a set that sung to us, though we never would have predicted it, at Top Drawer. I get to pick it up in the big truck tomorrow/today after work. I've also been brainstorming and searching on ideas for upgrading the non-furniture accents of the room (waste basket, shoe storage, lighting, bedding, curtains, etc.) but need to have the furniture installed before moving forward with those. I have a great idea for a quilt, but know that I might not finish it for years (given my current project pace) so we'll see if current bedding will work or if there is something on sale that I like.

Next we need to find some antique pieces (chest of drawers and a nightstand) to go with the antique rope style bed frame in the Blue/Guest room, and then we'll need to seriously look into upgrading the bathrooms and patio. The joys of homeownership.

Anyway, we're mostly packed, after long afternoon naps, and will be ready to go in the morning. sigh.
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Our plans for Sapphire are to drive down Sat AM (early morning, like leave the house around 5am early) to make it to site to set-up our tent on the field and have it ready to go for the fighting and other activities the day brings. We'll be camping under our shade overnight and hanging out, and attending meetings on Sunday, and then pack up Sunday afternoon/evening for the trip home. Hopefully we can catch a movie and some relaxing on Monday. The days should be fun, if a bit warm. I haven't signed to work anywhere, and am actually looking forward to simply playing hostess under our shade. We'll have a good group of folks that I don't get to spend nearly enough time with.

Yesterday was a lovely day. Despite the fact that I slept terribly on Wed night, tossed and turned a bunch, I awoke refreshed and fine, put on a pretty dress and come into the office. After a day of meetings and projects, I get a message from Wendy that she had to cancel her appointment with Wendy OTMH, and would I want the time slot. So naturally I said YES! and called the Salvation Army to see how late they accept donations, called the salon to schedule the appointment, and took off a little early. My evening consisted of dropping off four bags of too-big clothes at the Sal Army, an hour long massage with Wendy OTMH (hadn't seen her since before Gulf Wars!), and then an hour of shopping at DSW for shoes. Okay, despite the hour I spent there, I left empty handed. Yes, no more new shoes. The only things that attracted my eye were the pale yellow chucks with daisies and ladybugs on them and since I don't wear my pink ones often enough, and I have NO yellow in my wardrobe, I decided to pass on them. I tried on, what felt like, the entire store's selection of shoes in my size, but nothing was tempting enough to come home with me. The lovely peep-toe leopard print low wedges from Nine West would have been wonderful, but the 8s were too tight and the 8.5s slid around on my feet. So sad. They were very cute. The pale pink ballet flats were also cute, but I could see them dirty in two shakes of a lambs tale, so left them there. As I did the pale pink Nine West purse, since really, I've already got at least 4 pink purses. Odd restraint, and yet it did feel good to at least check to make sure there weren't shoes out there that needed to come home with me. And I walked around the store a bunch, which was good for me. Does bending to try on shoes count as calisthenics? Afterward we had some adult chat time with the Olney's, I got to play with Speedwagon some and help put him to sleep, and then Akbar's Indian carry-out and home for a late dinner and lovely chat with my sweetie before collapsing in bed before midnight.

The pond irises are in full bloom. I took some pictures this morning to show the full impact of our Gyrth irises. We have several bulging pots and I'd wager they are so tall Tonwen could hide in the forest and so big that I could park Jabba the hut behind them and obscure him completely. We've also got some crazy growing sweet flag pond grasses, if anyone needs some of them. I have great and glorious (which means unlikely to actually execute) plans of harvesting the sweet flag in the late summer, and drying it for basket weaving. We shall see. I've also seen a cool picture of a basket of iris leaves that would be awesome to try. Any basket weavers who'd like some of the materials?

So, other than that, I've got my new Ann Taylor casual pants on, a more zen approach to the world, and a truck to pack once I get home tonight. I confess I kinda miss the days when Jason used to tell me that if I were more laid back I'd be in a coma.

See some of you folks at Sapphire.