Alone Time

After a pleasant family lunch at Red Robin and a little shopping (exchanging some jeans for H. and getting J. some new pants - the man needs new clothes badly and I am glad he bought some new slacks!) - I am home alone.  Chloe is concerned - and every little sound, she goes to the door of the office and 'stands guard'.  In full alert status, she watches and waits for anything happening. 

She may be on edge because I gathered up every single toy and all her bedding and put it all in the washer on super-duper hot, extra rinse.  The load will take awhile and the squeakers in her toys may not work too well after (and that's an ulterior motive I am happy to own) but they will be clean for at least a day.  Maybe two.  She got a few new toys for Christmas and those are not included in this load. 

J. and B. went to see "Lincoln" and H. went to hangout with friends.  I don't mind the quiet - I woke up in the middle of the night with migraine-like visual issues and the headache that I quelled this morning is building again.  I know it's 'cuz work is looming....that's what happens when you take two plus weeks off, think you will spend a couple hours a day working and 'catching up' and then don't.  

I am wearing my new Converse Lorax shoes....you can see them here:

Guess what? You can't see them 'cuz they aren't offered on the website anymore - making me even more excited that I finally bought them for myself.  They are really cute - I will try to take a pic and post it soon.

They are very cute but not all that comfortable - at least not for me.  Guess I just haven't broken in new shoes in a really long time - and I don't often wear canvas sneakers.  But these are cute!  My biggest complaint is that after doing some yard work (finishing up some stuff we started before we went to lunch), my feet are so incredibly cold that I can't warm them up.  I'm thinking about taking a hot shower to get some warmth into my tootsies. 

You can see the surface of my desk more than usual and that's a nice thing.  The culling of the file drawers created spaces to put things and that's really helping. 

One of our Christmas gifts to each other is a Hamilton Beach One Scoop coffee maker.  I love the concept of this machine - it uses regular ground coffee to brew a cup of coffee one at a time.  I can make myself a hot, fresh cup when I am up at 4:30AM and then J. can make himself one later that day.  Less coffee waste and less Nespresso capsules for me - because they are only increasing in price and I can live with fewer lattes each week.  The concept is excellent and once we figured out how to raise the cup platform so the splashing stopped a bit, we like it more.  It does brew hot, fresh coffee that tastes great - so I just moved our drip coffee maker out to the garage for now.  I guess J. thought I was buying the new pot to replace my Nespresso - which should have been obviously not the case considering they had a 'special' and I ordered a bunch of capsules that are in the garage!  No, I bought it to replace the drip...and liked the idea of not buying another 'pod' system like a Keurig.  Keurig's also make great, hot fresh coffee by the cup - but those pods aren't cheap either!. 

I plan to go in to my office for a bit tomorrow - I need to get some things 'staged' for the people who return back to work on Wednesday.

At this point, I have no idea if we are going to the airport to see B. off or not on Wednesday.  I'm not sure he wants us to go - he keeps saying things like 'I may not find out where you need to be in time for you to get there'...stuff like that.  It's hard for me to imagine that there aren't plans somewhere - I mean, they are flying on commercial flights so someone had to arrange that, right?  He will be picked up around 1:30PM on Tuesday - and then we will wait for further instructions. 

I plan to definitely not work Wednesday and am still debating re: Th & Fri.  The urge to not go in is very strong - and if I get things 'staged' tomorrow - stuff to keep others busy in my absence and get some stuff organized that I could work on at home Th/Fri, I am inclined to be off. 

I have been sleeping in until 8 or later most days - so getting up at 4:30AM that first day of work is going to be so, sooooo hard.  :-(