Activites

I enjoyed breakfast with Bug this morning at the 'new' Country Waffles in Livermore - saved me about 10 minutes drive to go to the newer location closer to Tracy. It was great to see her - and I'm always so in awe of how gorgeous she is. It never matters what time of the morning - she looks incredible. It must be the 'still on her honeymoon' glow. We had a nice time visiting and catching up, talking about her job (where I used to work) and my job. Sharing office 'news' from both places. I still miss her. And I still think about working there again someday...but we'll see.

I went straight to my office after breakfast, though the 'tug' to head home was strong. But I knew if I did that, I'd stay home and I feel 'behind' (and am) so I worked for 1/2 day. Did make progress on several things and also brought work home for tomorrow afternoon and evening. There is much to be done and I'm realizing that even though a day on my calendar appears 'empty' and thus should result in 8+ straight hours to just plug away on things, that frequently doesn't happen. I had virtually all last week 'open' - for post-vacation catch up. And yet, I didn't get to any of the really BIG things that I absolutely must complete - Board meeting just around the corner. So I will be working as much as I can at home tomorrow and quite possibly evenings next week as well. Ugh. Oh well.

J. and B. are playing at church tomorrow - I was scheduled to work the coffee kart most of the morning but when I mentioned that we would probably have to just leave H. behind (since he'd have to be there at 8 and stay until noon when someone would be available to bring him home), the coffee cart scheduler said 'well, just come to help out after the 9:30 service and then you and H. can just attend the 11AM service together'. PERFECT. I'm really happy about that because it gives me two morning hours where I can work...and then the afternoon open.

I worked on taxes a bit today - as did J. We hope to actually file on time this year vs. doing the panicked 'sending in a check and filing an extension' which we've done the past couple years. The trust for his dad is pretty much 'done' - this should be the last year we have any income to report and that will make the process a bit easier. We do J's brothers taxes for him also - he's disabled and it's hard for him to enter a lot of information into the PC - so we help out with that. I really don't mind - though it always seems to sneak up on us. I realize that's ridiculous - April 15th comes the same date every year. But we always end up feeling 'rushed'. Still, we're close to being done and I think we'll make it. Hope so, anyway.

H. is done being 'grounded' (we call it 'restricted' - not sure why we chose that) so he's hardly been home today. He's been 'hanging out' with his friends - which usually means sitting on the curb outside their house talking. B. attended a 'wake-a-thon' last night - the goal was to stay up all night. They paid $20 to participate - the money went to a charity (not sure which but it was through the Key Club at Tracy High). So he PAID to try to stay awake all night. At 6:30 this morning, I thought I heard our front door open - and I went and checked and he had just crawled into his bed. He didn't quite make it until 8:30 - he was just too tired. I expected him to sleep all day - but J. said he woke up on his own around noon.

They both want to change their earrings as soon as possible. The variety of 'things' they can put in those holes is a bit intimidating - and we are definitely trying to limit their selection to just basic studs. Nothing designed to create 'huge' holes in their ears - which apparently is the style. We are absolutely refusing to allow anything like that. They'll thank us when they're in their 30s and have a regular job and NORMAL ears. If they end up being rock stars and freaky ear accessories are the norm, then they can make that happen on their own. When we don't have to watch the mutilation taking place before our eyes on a daily basis.

We have tabled the return trip to Hawaii for Thanksgiving and/or next year. It feels like the entire airline industry is in turmoil and we're not willing to risk buying tickets on any airline a year in advance. We'll just have to wait and see where we're at in the fall and or winter and see what we think is do-able. It is making me a bit sad to think that maybe that really WAS our last family trip to Hawaii. But hopefully, I'm wrong.

I've also kind of started shopping for a new car for myself. What I want is the Toyota Highlander Hybrid - but at $40K, that's a bit much. I mean, it really isn't - it's not that we can't do it if that's what I really want. But there's just something about spending that much $$ for a car. I'm having a really hard time doing it - and it bugs me. Because that's the car I'd really like. And I feel like I'm 'settling' for something else. So I may just decide to wait another 6-9 months and see. Try to save some more money for a larger down payment which will help keep the payments low. Heck, the auto inducstry's going to be hurting badly if the economy doesn't turn around - so maybe they'll be more 'deals' in a few months. I hope so.

Since J. helped me figure out how to upload pictures here, I'll try to do a post tomorrow with some Hawaii photos. We have a few that are really great -