Obsessions

Months of planning are culminating into the mad dash towards the goal: getting to (and returning from) a week at the beach in one piece with my sanity intact.

Met with the lovely lady who's watching over the house for us this morning. Walked her through the pet routine, etc. Gave her a three page list of the pet routines, veterinary info, etc. Phone number of where we'll be and email addresses, too. Just in case. She's caring for a 13 year old feline and a ?? year old neurotic bird - anything could happen. I feel happy to have her watching over stuff 'cuz I know she will do a good job.

I am heading into Livermore for brunch with N. and her new baby - can't wait to cuddle him! Then running a couple (more) errands - heading home to start the packing. Leaving notes for the boys, who both promised they'd be up early this morning - and they're not. I even vacuumed outside their doors and didn't hesitate to bang the floorboards or their doors 'accidentally' - and still, they sleep. Oh well. They will awake to 'to do' lists carefully crafted and left for them on the kitchen table. You can sleep but you can't escape the pre-vacation lists! They will be done before we leave the house at 4:30AM on Saturday morning. Ugh. Just writing that is painful. Won't be a bit hard for me - I'm up early fairly often, including at 5AMish this morning on a 'vacation' day - but the boys? That's another story entirely. Will bribe them with McDonald's for breakfast so we can get on the road - it's a long drive to SFO from here.

I can't wait to try my new iPhone Starbucks app and pay with my phone! It's like the greatest thing EVER and I can't wait to see if it works!! (It won't work in Mexico, sadly - but oh well! We have cash for down there since my gold card means nothing to them)......

J. is off starting tomorrow - so they'll be an extra set of hands. We've got the bathroom scale in the garage to weigh our bags and are strategically adding things as we can. Peanut butter, coffee, snacks, coffee creamer, etc. are ready to be taken with us - hoping we have room. It makes that first evening/morning so much easier if we have that stuff on hand. The boys could live on peanut butter alone if they had to!

It's a beautiful day - warm but not miserably so. Hoping the huge heat stays away - but setting all the thermostats for 84 - J. suggested 89 but that's way too hot - if we arrive home to an upstairs that's 89, we won't be able to sleep up there....so we will plan for 84 and hope it helps. I'm also going to unplug anything we don't need to be plugged in - can openers, coffee makers, etc. Reminding everyone when they look at me like I'm nuts that every little thing draws power, even when it's not being used. So UNPLUG!!

I hope to unplug successfully myself.....sort of wishing we'd tried for 10 days 'cuz I know about the time I really start unwinding, it will be time to come home. I have projects planned for the two weeks I'm home - but wow, the time is already flying by. It's an age, thing, I think -

Adios. More from the beach, including pictures if I can figure out how to take them and download them from my iPhone.