Well, I'm back.
As I mentioned, latunda's grandmother passed on June 17. She and I went to CA for the funeral while M stayed at my mom's house. I am *so* glad I went with her, it was nearly a nightmare. I hate human vultures, and I found myself seeing what happened at my own grandmother's death several years ago. One side of the family willing to dredge up old grievances and perceived slights over stuff. Granted, a lot of the "stuff" was things that Grandma Jane had painted or sewn herself, and a lot of the grandkids had memories associated with some of the pieces, but one piece in particular was contentious because everyone thought it was valuable. I happen to know a few things about silver, and it was sad to see some people become totally uninterested once they found out it wasn't actually (monetarily) worth much. That and I didn't particularly enjoy hearing one of the kids at the reception after the service be asked "Why are you so stupid?" by an adult.
There were a few highlights to the trip though. First and foremost was getting to spend time with latunda without having to correct a child's behavior every 5 minutes. (M loves to play with Gimli. It's really cute until she starts strangling him with the play string) The memorial service was memorable because it was so awful- it was clear he hadn't done any prep, mis-read the story from latunda's mom, recited the 23rd Psalm 3 times, read the obituary from the newspaper practically word-for-word, and made absolutely no attempt to console the grieving family. The best part though was when he was reading through the obit and got to latunda's name "and her...sp...spouse..." as he read my name, which is obviously female. *snerk* He got in his little dig later though, reciting a "statistic" about how this country is going to hell because only 1 in 5 homes has a mother and a father in it. It was gratifying to see latunda's entire family try not to laugh at him. *snerk*
The other real highlight was just being there. For those of you who came to our wedding, you know what I'm talking about. Vineyards abound. The weather was practically perfect and it *rained.* I wasn't sure what to do with all that water falling from the sky, so the day after I went running!
I am serious about doing this 1/2 marathon in October, so I am *in training* until then. I did a 2 1/2 mile loop that included baby grapes and yearling calves. And quiet. I'd started out listening to my iPod but then remembered that rattlesnakes and large predatory cats tend to frequent the areas I was running in, so despite having mom's dog Sally with me I abandoned the iPod and just ran. It was awesome. I never really enjoyed running before, I guess because I'd never run cross country before. I can't swear off the treadmill though, as the times I get to run during the work week is on my lunch break when I go to the gym.
The trip home was eventful, but only at the end, after we'd landed in Albuquerque. We were waiting for the line out to clear when we saw a pilot do a walkaround of the port (left) wing. My first thought that it was a new pilot doing his inspection. It's standard procedure, at least for military aircraft. I didn't know there was an actual issue until we saw the covey of pilots conferring on the jetway about a bent flap on the wing.
Bent flap? Uhhh, hello, BROKEN PLANE?
Well, it's all good I guess. We got home to the wee one, who squealed when she saw us. That made *everything* better.
I'm taking all of next week off to do nothing but craft, as I am now even further behind *cue panic* but I dreamed of a way to do the billets on the sword.
There were a few highlights to the trip though. First and foremost was getting to spend time with latunda without having to correct a child's behavior every 5 minutes. (M loves to play with Gimli. It's really cute until she starts strangling him with the play string) The memorial service was memorable because it was so awful- it was clear he hadn't done any prep, mis-read the story from latunda's mom, recited the 23rd Psalm 3 times, read the obituary from the newspaper practically word-for-word, and made absolutely no attempt to console the grieving family. The best part though was when he was reading through the obit and got to latunda's name "and her...sp...spouse..." as he read my name, which is obviously female. *snerk* He got in his little dig later though, reciting a "statistic" about how this country is going to hell because only 1 in 5 homes has a mother and a father in it. It was gratifying to see latunda's entire family try not to laugh at him. *snerk*
The other real highlight was just being there. For those of you who came to our wedding, you know what I'm talking about. Vineyards abound. The weather was practically perfect and it *rained.* I wasn't sure what to do with all that water falling from the sky, so the day after I went running!
I am serious about doing this 1/2 marathon in October, so I am *in training* until then. I did a 2 1/2 mile loop that included baby grapes and yearling calves. And quiet. I'd started out listening to my iPod but then remembered that rattlesnakes and large predatory cats tend to frequent the areas I was running in, so despite having mom's dog Sally with me I abandoned the iPod and just ran. It was awesome. I never really enjoyed running before, I guess because I'd never run cross country before. I can't swear off the treadmill though, as the times I get to run during the work week is on my lunch break when I go to the gym.
The trip home was eventful, but only at the end, after we'd landed in Albuquerque. We were waiting for the line out to clear when we saw a pilot do a walkaround of the port (left) wing. My first thought that it was a new pilot doing his inspection. It's standard procedure, at least for military aircraft. I didn't know there was an actual issue until we saw the covey of pilots conferring on the jetway about a bent flap on the wing.
Bent flap? Uhhh, hello, BROKEN PLANE?
Well, it's all good I guess. We got home to the wee one, who squealed when she saw us. That made *everything* better.
I'm taking all of next week off to do nothing but craft, as I am now even further behind *cue panic* but I dreamed of a way to do the billets on the sword.