Mama Chicken has come and gone
Mom visited our happy home for a long weekend. She got in Wednesday evening after a harrowing and much-too-adventurous flight from Memphis to Dulles via Chicago. Her trip included a late flight out of Memphis, sitting on the tarmac at O'hare and watching her Chi-DC flight take off, and waiting at O'hare as her new Chi-DC flight kept getting delayed further and further into the afternoon. Poor Mom. She was exhausted when I greeted her at bag claim and was VERY happy to get to my house. We spent the evening doing a house tour and acquainting her with His Floppy Fluffiness Oreo. She was charmed by both.
On Thursday morning we dined on bananas and water before heading out to walk my three mile neighborhood loop. Mom did a fairly good job of keeping up and I tried not to get too far ahead of her on the hills. It was so much fun walking with a buddy instead of my ipod. I could get used to that. After a proper breakfast and showers, we hit the stores and shopped like, well, like we usually do when we're together. We bought clothes and shoes and paint for the bathroom and a firepit for the backyard and toiletries. I took her to the campus so she could see my cube and meet a few coworkers. We continued shopping until Hubbyfink got home from work. We picked him up and headed out for our Mexican feast at Don Pablo's. Because we'd shopped through lunch and had fairly empty stomachs, I got pretty drunk off my one Slender-rita. Mom blamed my sucking up the margarita through a straw. She sipped hers and was juuuust fine.
On Friday morning we dressed in some grubby, paint-stained clothes and set to work painting the full bath. Mom said, "Oh! This will take no time at all!" She didn't factor in the spackling, sanding, and priming with Killz. Six hours later, the bathroom looked great with its fresh coat of "Renoir Bisque" (a goldeny-peachy wheat/sand color) on the walls and crisp white on the trim, door, and mirror. Something happened to the light switch, though, and Hubbyfink replaced the dimmer switch with a standard switch so I could put CFLs above the mirror. I am in love with the wall color and with having lights that don't put out so much heat that I feel like I'm roasting when I put on my makeup. We got cleaned up and met psalite and pirategirleee for dinner at Amphora. Much fun (and food!) was had.
Saturday was Mom's last full day in town. We took another walk: this time to the trail and up through Hannah's neighborhood. It was a little too long a walk for Mom, but she hung in there and wouldn't let me race ahead to get the car and pick her up. What a champ! We breakfasted, cleaned up, and headed out for a little more shopping before catching a matinee of "The Adjustment Bureau". What a lovely movie. I was expecting something like "The Matrix" and got that plus a sweet love story. A little more shopping and we were ready for an evening at home. I tortured Mom with "Lake Mungo", an Australian ghost movie I really like but she found dreadful and dull. We stayed up late watching "Say Yes to the Dress".
Mom was up before us chickens on Sunday and managed to get all of her new purchases in her already overfull suitcase and the rolling duffel I lent her. I got her to Dulles over an hour before her flight's departure and she just barely made it to the gate because security took FOREVER. She got delayed in Chicago again thanks to terrible weather and eventually made it safely back to Memphis. We're sending her through Atlanta next time.
On Thursday morning we dined on bananas and water before heading out to walk my three mile neighborhood loop. Mom did a fairly good job of keeping up and I tried not to get too far ahead of her on the hills. It was so much fun walking with a buddy instead of my ipod. I could get used to that. After a proper breakfast and showers, we hit the stores and shopped like, well, like we usually do when we're together. We bought clothes and shoes and paint for the bathroom and a firepit for the backyard and toiletries. I took her to the campus so she could see my cube and meet a few coworkers. We continued shopping until Hubbyfink got home from work. We picked him up and headed out for our Mexican feast at Don Pablo's. Because we'd shopped through lunch and had fairly empty stomachs, I got pretty drunk off my one Slender-rita. Mom blamed my sucking up the margarita through a straw. She sipped hers and was juuuust fine.
On Friday morning we dressed in some grubby, paint-stained clothes and set to work painting the full bath. Mom said, "Oh! This will take no time at all!" She didn't factor in the spackling, sanding, and priming with Killz. Six hours later, the bathroom looked great with its fresh coat of "Renoir Bisque" (a goldeny-peachy wheat/sand color) on the walls and crisp white on the trim, door, and mirror. Something happened to the light switch, though, and Hubbyfink replaced the dimmer switch with a standard switch so I could put CFLs above the mirror. I am in love with the wall color and with having lights that don't put out so much heat that I feel like I'm roasting when I put on my makeup. We got cleaned up and met psalite and pirategirleee for dinner at Amphora. Much fun (and food!) was had.
Saturday was Mom's last full day in town. We took another walk: this time to the trail and up through Hannah's neighborhood. It was a little too long a walk for Mom, but she hung in there and wouldn't let me race ahead to get the car and pick her up. What a champ! We breakfasted, cleaned up, and headed out for a little more shopping before catching a matinee of "The Adjustment Bureau". What a lovely movie. I was expecting something like "The Matrix" and got that plus a sweet love story. A little more shopping and we were ready for an evening at home. I tortured Mom with "Lake Mungo", an Australian ghost movie I really like but she found dreadful and dull. We stayed up late watching "Say Yes to the Dress".
Mom was up before us chickens on Sunday and managed to get all of her new purchases in her already overfull suitcase and the rolling duffel I lent her. I got her to Dulles over an hour before her flight's departure and she just barely made it to the gate because security took FOREVER. She got delayed in Chicago again thanks to terrible weather and eventually made it safely back to Memphis. We're sending her through Atlanta next time.