Mirage

The Mirage is offering us two complimentary nights stay - and it's so tempting to think of escaping to Vegas for a few days.  But thst's so silly 'cuz this time next week, my love and I will be in London!  Then Paris and Rome.  A whirlwind trip for sure and we are jamming in as much as we can.

We (me and friends at work equally obsessed) are bemoaning the end of Season 4 of Downton Abbey.  At lunch earlier this week, they said 'go to Highclere Castle when you are there!' so when I got home that night, we looked into it.  J. was totally up for including it - but then sadly, it is sold out entirely until well after Easter.  Can't even see the grounds or the gift shop or anything - so bummer!  Next trip we'll have to try to reserve far enough in advance to see that 'cuz it would be fun.  Now we have to impatiently wait another 10 long months for Season 5 and we are all sad about that - love it so much!  One friend just started watching on Amazon Prime from the beginning and she's so hooked, she's now only watching one a week to stretch it out as long as possible.  I plan to start rewatching from the beginning myself when we get back from Europe.

I have my big reports done and will work over the next three work days and two weekend days to finalize things.  Most important task is to tidy my desk enough that wood is showing.  It's been good to have spent a little time each weekend culling - construction projects sure create a lot of paper and we are slowly but surely making sense of it all and getting it tidied up and filed (or stored) as needed.  I even tidied up my desk drawers a bit -

It is storming here pretty fiercely at the moment and we won't complain about it one little bit 'cuz we need the rain so, so desperately.  Though on a house note we are going to hire someone to come clean out the gutters post-storm 'cuz there are some corners where the water just pours out over the top.  Last weekend, I noticed doves near the gutters and they were picking out things for their nests - so we obviously need to clean some things out. We have quite a list of house things that need to be done - getting rid of the doves/pigeons under the solar panels and netting them so they can't get under there again is another top priority. Houses always have something that needs doing or fixing.

If you're interested in seeing the effect of the drought, Google 'Folsom Lake' and see the pictures of the water levels.  It's stunning.  So let it rain - though hope the fire areas in the south don't end up having huge mudslides.  Nature - she's really something.

I filed the taxes for the 'kids' last night so they will get their refunds pretty quickly.  I didn't spend any time on ours yet - I've started them and know the approximate amount of 'damage' due but I can't tackle finishing them until post-trip.

I'm trekking to the doctor today mainly as a precaution - hoping he will give me a round of antibiotics to take with me 'just in case'.  There's still something sinusy brewing in my head and I would hate for it to blow up into a sinus infection and ruin 10 days of being an American tourist.

This trip will be a trial run of traveling sans laptop.  I will have the iPad so I can post and email, etc. - but I'm not lugging the laptop to/from.  I'm a little nervous about it 'cuz I'm so used to having it 24/7 but it's too bulky and I just don't want to fret about it - we are moving around a lot this trip with lots of connections and trains and cars and cabs and planes and it's just one less thing to have to worry about.  So blog posts may be sparse during the trip but I will catch up when we're back.  I think we'll post pics and stuff on Facebook, though -

It's cold.  Glad it's Friday and I will wear jeans to work!  I don't do that often but it's nice on a cold, blustery day and I have no meetings!