A Whole Lotta Stuff

Hey Y'all, it's been ages since I posted all over you (icky visual inserted here), and tonight I am shirking work, exercise, and the chance at an early night's sleep to blog about what has been happening. I am going to go in reverse order, telling you what happened today and going backwards from there. This is going to be so exciting! Oh, and I'm going to try to type it up in as short of a description as possible.

Today- Okay day, lots of talking and listening, late night at work.

Yesterday- The cats contemplated trying to get through the foot-wide opening left uncovered of our doorway at around seven feet off of the ground, at 10:30 at night. These cats are insane.

This past weekend- Andrew Bird, awesome, yet unfortunately sleepy (for me) show at The Pabst, professional massage, going to the gym and errands galore, including covering the windows with plastic, while the weather is still tolerable.

Last week- Still exhausted from the trip home, just tried to catch up at work, but was not as productive as I would have liked. Nothing really notable about the week, other than Arlo and I watched a buttload of tv because we had so much DVRed. Oh, and the battle between the cats and the humans in our house continued with the cats knocking over a pot of chili onto the kitchen floor. The next day, the humans responded by getting plywood and hardware. Ideally, I wouldn't have gone with three separate pieces, but with the wood coming only in __ x 2 dimensions, I did what I had to do.

Visit to Maryland- Prior to last week, Arlo and I visiting Maryland. After a harrowing flight... no really, it wasn't bad, we got right to sleep, b/c we got in so late. The next morning we were up with my mom to take her to work and do our first meeting with a caterer. That day we did three meetings, the next day one (should have been two, but we were all tasted out), and a visit to Fiore. We pretty much decided unanimously to go with Dean and Brown Catering, but have not signed a contract, why, because we haven't had time. The Baptism of Eleanor Blackford was lovely, and I got to stand up there with Bill and Amanda as they welcomed her into the Catholic church. All joking aside, it was very cool to be standing with them for such an important event, and to be in the same church as their wedding six years ago was pretty awesome. Other highlights of the trip included seeing my cousins, grandparents, brother and his family, sister-in-law, and the Holler family. I am bummed that I did not get to see friends and family that I missed, and, at present, I am not sure when I am going to be heading home for the next visit.

Visit with Wendy- The weekend before the Maryland visit was Wendy's visit to Milwaukee! She arrived on Friday (after I gave my notice of resignation at work, thank you very much!) and we headed up to Madison, where we stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking Lake Monona. After a yummy Mexican meal, we went to a German bar, where we had drinks and danced the polka. The next day, the best thrifting ever, along with shopping on State St. and going to the farmer's market. We drove back to Milwaukee and crashed for the night. The next day, Wendy was off. It was a whirlwind trip, but definitely awesome and just what I needed after a stressful couple of weeks. It was quality lady-time, with lots of talking and bonding.

Gays Mills Apple Festival- The weekend before that, we headed up to Gays Mills for their annual Apple Festival. It was a fun-filled weekend with a Fun Walk, pancake breakfast, craft fair, flea market and, of course, apples! We spent the weekend with Arlo's family, and on Sunday, celebrated his niece's and Mary's birthday. It was a great time, although both of us were fighting off an icky sicknesss. After that weekend, I actually felt so bad I stayed home from work for a day.

I honestly can't remember before that, but I know we were busy then, too. The upcoming weeks are less packed with stuff. My mom is visiting in mid-November, so I am excited about that. Then, in December, we are visiting my dad in Florida. More about that later.

Alright, y'alls, I'm off to bed. New dad or Japan resident, or sneak-attack Mom of a toddler, who will it be?!?!?