Birthday Trip
We spent the weekend with the in-laws to celebrate our niece's birthday. One of the little ironies is that we drove a long way to do a bunch of stuff we could do at home--sit and watch television, go to the movies, go out to eat, go shopping. Somehow it is different when you are away--all the other pressures of daily chores aren't there.
We did do a few things we don't normally do, though. We took the tourist trolley around a town that looks like a movie set (that's what a number of foreign visitors say), and went to a happening at the local fair-trade psuedo-hippy coffee house.
We got in a little bit of antique shopping, too. We found a nice hall tree for sale the last time we visited, but I wasn't convinced about it, and I already had a plan. I haven't followed through on my plan, so we inquired about the price and got it at a vastly reduced cost. OK, we bought a tall piece of furniture, but we had the little car with us, so we had to consider options for how to get it home. After a little bit of clever arrangement and my sweetie having to ride a little closer to the dashboard than normal, the new-to-us vintage hall tree now stands in our foyer--it pretty much is perfect for the space it is in.
Somehow, a spate of nice Victorian-era properties appeared on the market wwhere we were visiting and made us reconsider our retirement and current living plans. A nice one that needed work was available just a couple of doors down from President Carter's place. That would be a bit unusual--having a former U.S. President as a neighbor. Luckily(?) we liked it, but didn't love it enough to uproot our entire lives. We seriously considered the possibilities, but realized that we are not ready...well, I'm not...and that it would take considerable expense to fix and update the property. The cost would put the house at pretty much what we would spend on one that was already in the condition we'd like for it to be.
Because we had extra stuff making the ride slightly less than comfortable, we took more rest breaks on the way home. I decided I wanted ice cream at one of the stops. Let me just say that my memories of Dairy Queen ice cream are not aligned with what I purchased. I think part of it was the big empty bucket of non-dairy filling that was sitting on the counter. Non-dairy filler. At a place called Dairy Queen?!? Epic fail. I am cured of wanting another taste of nostalgia....
Second point of irony: passing by a building with two occupants--a Quaker meeting hall and a boxing gym. O_.
As usual, we got rained on during the drive. We arrived home, worried that the crawlspace had been reflooded in our absence, but it appears that the rainstorms that washed out out the local botanical gardens dodged around our house. I'm not complaining.
No Cuddles For You Fu
Our kitties seemed a little more resentful than normal about our weekend absence. I guess it is because two weekends in a row, we were traveling, and it rained heavily with lots of scary noise while we were gone. Ælfgifu was camped out on top of the cabinets, and none of the other cats made an immediate appearance when we walked in. Someone (Ignatius) had not been very careful about the litter box after Magnus' check-in visit on Saturday, so much ado was made of that. But, we did get plush kitty endorphins at bedtime when Ignatius and Josie insisted on piling on top of us.
Not So Fast
My vision of getting the loft train room worked on evaporated. Work situations changed again (which is good), but I think it eliminated the possibility of getting the loft finished off this summer. Oh well. The yard regrading now takes precedence anyway. I guess I just need to give up on that fantasy of having a railroad layout. Meh.
In 2015, the Southeast Region of the NMRA will have a convention in the area, and it might have been cool to have my layout far enough along to have visitors come and see it. On the other hand, it might take that long to clean up the workshop area to make it presentable, much less acutally have a working layout.... :P
We did do a few things we don't normally do, though. We took the tourist trolley around a town that looks like a movie set (that's what a number of foreign visitors say), and went to a happening at the local fair-trade psuedo-hippy coffee house.
We got in a little bit of antique shopping, too. We found a nice hall tree for sale the last time we visited, but I wasn't convinced about it, and I already had a plan. I haven't followed through on my plan, so we inquired about the price and got it at a vastly reduced cost. OK, we bought a tall piece of furniture, but we had the little car with us, so we had to consider options for how to get it home. After a little bit of clever arrangement and my sweetie having to ride a little closer to the dashboard than normal, the new-to-us vintage hall tree now stands in our foyer--it pretty much is perfect for the space it is in.
Somehow, a spate of nice Victorian-era properties appeared on the market wwhere we were visiting and made us reconsider our retirement and current living plans. A nice one that needed work was available just a couple of doors down from President Carter's place. That would be a bit unusual--having a former U.S. President as a neighbor. Luckily(?) we liked it, but didn't love it enough to uproot our entire lives. We seriously considered the possibilities, but realized that we are not ready...well, I'm not...and that it would take considerable expense to fix and update the property. The cost would put the house at pretty much what we would spend on one that was already in the condition we'd like for it to be.
Because we had extra stuff making the ride slightly less than comfortable, we took more rest breaks on the way home. I decided I wanted ice cream at one of the stops. Let me just say that my memories of Dairy Queen ice cream are not aligned with what I purchased. I think part of it was the big empty bucket of non-dairy filling that was sitting on the counter. Non-dairy filler. At a place called Dairy Queen?!? Epic fail. I am cured of wanting another taste of nostalgia....
Second point of irony: passing by a building with two occupants--a Quaker meeting hall and a boxing gym. O_.
As usual, we got rained on during the drive. We arrived home, worried that the crawlspace had been reflooded in our absence, but it appears that the rainstorms that washed out out the local botanical gardens dodged around our house. I'm not complaining.
No Cuddles For You Fu
Our kitties seemed a little more resentful than normal about our weekend absence. I guess it is because two weekends in a row, we were traveling, and it rained heavily with lots of scary noise while we were gone. Ælfgifu was camped out on top of the cabinets, and none of the other cats made an immediate appearance when we walked in. Someone (Ignatius) had not been very careful about the litter box after Magnus' check-in visit on Saturday, so much ado was made of that. But, we did get plush kitty endorphins at bedtime when Ignatius and Josie insisted on piling on top of us.
Not So Fast
My vision of getting the loft train room worked on evaporated. Work situations changed again (which is good), but I think it eliminated the possibility of getting the loft finished off this summer. Oh well. The yard regrading now takes precedence anyway. I guess I just need to give up on that fantasy of having a railroad layout. Meh.
In 2015, the Southeast Region of the NMRA will have a convention in the area, and it might have been cool to have my layout far enough along to have visitors come and see it. On the other hand, it might take that long to clean up the workshop area to make it presentable, much less acutally have a working layout.... :P