We’re staying put for Christmas.

I’ll go out there for a couple days afterwards.  I can do Christmas or her birthday, but not both anymore.  (Lord knows I didn’t manage it with any grace or dignity up until now anyway.)  The stress isn’t even remotely worth it, and she’s to a point where she doesn’t know if we’re there, and on the off chance that ( Read more... )

Because what else do you do on America’s birthday but go run a 5k?  Hauled myself out of bed this morning and headed up to Potomac for what has become my favorite July 4th activity.  Below are all the gory details, pulled straight from my race report over at BT.  Hope you get a laugh out of it.

Total Time = 40m 38s
Overall Rank = 1081/1247
Age Group ( Read more... )

For those looking at your calendars, let me just reiterate what my mother used to say: “We don’t march to a different drummer, we have our our own whole brass band.”

The first year we went to PHX for Christmas was 2007, and we didn’t really make any other holiday plans - BAD idea, but we had no idea WTF we were doing, either.  After that, I decided ( Read more... )

Christmas out here is weird enough as it is. Christmas always seems to be something happening back on the East coast while we’re here trying to find somewhere to eat dinner. This year has been one for the books.

First, it’s 70 degrees. Don’t get me wrong - it’s GREAT. But we haven’t had weather this nice any other year we’ve been here, so it’s ( Read more... )

If this weather holds, this will be the nicest weather we’ve had out here at Christmas in 4 years. It’s in the 60s and sunny and a far cry from the 30 degrees with 40 mile an hour winds that we left in DC yesterday. Flight was fine, but for a 5 hour flight it felt like it was about 12 hours. Hotel is great, and breakfast this morning hit the ( Read more... )

And the next person I hear bemoaning it being “Singles Awareness Day” is gonna get slapped.  Wallowing in self pity over being single is Not Attractive.

Trust me, there are much worse things than being single on Valentine’s Day.  Being with someone who spends the entire day complaining that society forced them to buy you flowers ain’t that great.

( Read more... )

Though there has been a bit of Festivus action today, on the whole it’s gone better than I thought it would.  We did accidentally wake her up from a nap, which had her in a bit of a mood for the first half of the afternoon.  (She doesn’t nap on any kind of consistent schedule, so the only way we could guarantee not waking her would be to not show ( Read more... )

Either my grandmother will recognize I took some initiative to make Christmas dinner just as tradtional but 100x easier, or I have ruined Christmas.

I made an executive decision this year, and it was that we would NOT be going to JB’s for Christmas dinner.  It is a perfectly fine place, but it is the only place that is open on Christmas day in Sun ( Read more... )

I brought the laptop to the condo so we could avoid going to the bank.  I think we almost have my grandmother convinced that her checkbook is in fact up to date and perfect and matches the bank records and we don’t need to run that little hellish errand.  (She has quite the reputation at the bank, and it’s not a good one.  I am still surprised that ( Read more... )

And yet, my head cold rages on.

We made it.  Grandma is still grandma, if flakier and more frail.  Nothing unexpected - she’ll be 87 in a week and has never had a healthy habit in her life.  The fact that she is still alive is amazing, though I would have to say that one good fall with a broken bone, and she’d be toast.  In talking w/Sharyn it’s ( Read more... )