R & R

Mom is happily ensconced in her new condo.  Her new next door neighbor, Geyza (and his wife, Bonnie, who maintains a lower profile), is an energetic Austrian engineer.  He's a dapper dresser, always in a sport coat with tie and suspenders, smartly put out.  This has made my usually opinionated mom melt into movie star admiring mush.  She's all glowy about Geyza--Geyza hooked up my ice maker...Geyza said those blinds were cheap and told me to get rid of them...Geyza came over in his bathrobe and slippers to make sure Comcast took all the unnecessary parts they installed away, saving me $80 a month.  

Geyza and Bonnie remind me of the Higgenson's, lifelong friends who lived next door to us in Kansas City.  They are brimming with energy, have that European n'est pas, and get a great kick out of Mom.  We are SOOOOOOO lucky!

I really will take photos of the condo.  But Mom's still in the sorting stage.  What to go where, and one room at a time.  

Was anyone else pooped by the holidays?  I took an absolutely delicious nap yesterday afternoon.  Spent the whole afternoon from 3 to 6 reading and sleeping.  Then dinner out at Lucille's, and back to bed for another ten hours.  Just lovely!  I'm ready to shop or something today.  

Anyone looking for a laugh out loud wonderful crazy movie, try Saving Grace.  Even Geoff liked it so much he wants to see it again after we get a better sound system so he can get all the Cornish dialog.

For New Year's, I'm getting my stupid wisdom teeth out (tomorrow), so I'll have plenty of time to read any e-mails from anyone....  Enjoy the rest of the holidays!

  

Short Cuts to Christmas

Do you want to know why diamonds are a girls best friend?  Why diamond shaped cookies exist?  Because they're easy.  

I started the cookies this morning.  Target had some fantastico frozen gingerbread men that McKenzie popped into the oven a couple of days ago--and we've eaten all 18.  I said we should get more.  She said you could "taste the love" in our homemade ones.  But one look at the cookie cutters this morning and I thought "no way", the love can be diamond shaped.  Out with the pizza cutter, and slash slash slash--no waste at all!  Just spatula them on and spatula them off.

It smells delicious in here, and I'm already having a Diet Coke.  Hayley just came up the stairs and moaned, "You started baking without me?  You were supposed to wait and help me with all the cookies."  She has several recipes out...I'm stringing lights after this batch, thank you!  We're late on getting the tree too.  I was driving home yesterday and saw a 1/2 price tree sale at the Lucky Lure lot we always go to.  Turned out that only the "native Colorado" trees were 1/2 off.  We could chop one of those down.  In fact I'd been eyeing them for days in the woods.  I'm willing, but 3 in the family say they're too spindly.  So I called Hayley and asked if she wanted to help pick out the tree, she said go ahead, just don't get a skinny one, and I asked for $25 off on a Blue Spruce.  

Now I feel bad, because it's sooo cold out (8 degrees), and I didn't tip Steve, the "elf" because I was kinda burned out.  Steve knows who I am every year--it's embarrassing because I'm never sure if he's who he is.  He's the brother of the Denbow dad who lives down the street.  I should go back with 5 bucks today....

Penny, Mom's dog, is in caring, capable hands.  Wendy, at IMHS, took her in yesterday.  Penny will be housed in a foster home till she's adopted.  I made sure to tell Wendy about her cat obsession.  Lucky Penny is lucking out again.  The IMHS only had 2 adult dogs and 2 puppies to place, along with about 20 cats.  Wendy did the character analysis in the cat room.  Penny was shaking!!!!  Let's see, that would be like a cat being plunked down in a room crawling with mice, gerbils and hamsters, all wearing little red bows.

Ok, off to trim the tree and watch Hayley bake.  Mom's carpet's going in today, and then the condo is TA DA done!  She hasn't seen it since the stuff was torn out, keeping it a surprise for herself.  Move in day is Tuesday!

Also need to go through the linen closet where I've stashed gifts for the past couple of months.  I have forgotten what I got.  All I know is, the shopping isn't nearly done....

New York City a Smash Hit

Ah, the tree at Rockefeller Plaza...Macy's, MOMA, and Wicked.  Dinner at Virgil's BBQ, Carmine's, and John's Pizzeria.  It was a fun three days.  I can't believe I only took my camera out at MOMA (museum of modern art), but that's the case.  There were so many flashes going off at Rockefeller Center and such a crush of a crowd you'd have thought it was New Year's Eve!  The same for Times Square on a Sunday night.  Geoff and McKenzie rushed to the Gershwin Theater on Tuesday night for Wicked, and everyone on Broadway seemed to be hurrying to some performance!

Such a contrast between the city and here.  I took a walk with the dogs yesterday, half looking for a Christmas tree in the wild.  The air was so bracing and fresh, and the snow was falling...such peacefulness.  

Well, I'm afraid I understand why Penny's been returned three times.  We had her last night, and she got me up a few times during the night.  I thought she had to go outside, but she made a bee line for the cats.  She's absolutely obsessed with hunting them down.  At 5 am I put her on a leash and kept her by my side the rest of the morning.  Well, it's only 6:39 am, it just feels a little later.  She's going to the Intermountain Humane Society today.  It's a no kill place in Pine Junction, and they only have 3 dogs there at the moment.  Although they have about 20 cats.  Penny is going to enjoy that!!!

Shopping, but not for Christmas

So, the last two days I've set off to Walmart and Target early--as in 7 am, so I can drop McKenzie off at school on the way.  Think I'll do it again today, because it's now the mode of operation here and a day at home sounds boring!  I'm supposed to be Christmas shopping, but I take along my little paint sample card and start looking for stuff for the redecoration project of Andy's old room.  I'm on my third shot at curtains.  The free swinging rod did look dorky when I took a broader view after Cozumel.  So I trotted off to to Jo Ann's for more red tag sale fabric, this time in brown.  The sales clerk asked me what it was for, then said, "Oh, it looks like barbed wire!"  So I swung the barbed wire brown fabric over the support rods, and swept it up at the swinging drapery rods, to make a sort of top curtain.  That made the curtains (in different red tag fabrics that were more beigey prints, one of which McKenzie swore must be a shower curtain because she knows me too well) look odd.  So yesterday I bought $7 flat sheets at Walmart, where I should have gone first because they're the perfect faded chocolate, plain, no barbed wire.  And I could stay home this morning and iron them and clip them to the curtain rod rings, but now McKenzie's so used to being driven to school that I told her, "ok", because Starbucks mid morning and Qdoba at noon is beginning to be a darn good routine.

I also looked at chairs, returned a bathroom mirror, bought a mirror, two lamps, and a Target end table.  So progress really is being made.  However, I've only found books so far for under the Christmas tree.  And even though I'd find that satisfactory, nobody else will.  What to buy!  I haven't seen anything!!!

Gotta go, but tonight's the company dinner party and I said there'd be a door prize.  That was a stupid misprint, part of a fleeting enthusiasm.  Now, what to get for that?  Hayley, who's going with Mike, is pushing for a Best Buy gift card.  I told her she's exempt because she's part of the hosting family.  So she said she'll do the drawing, but she'd rig it, put "mike" on all the pieces of paper.  She's disappointed because Eddie can't attend in his Santa suit too.

Cozumel, the most relaxing spot

Yea!!!!  I just spied the snowplow from the corner of my eye!  Lance, our neighbor, is out and working on the drive.  That means the garbage truck can come in an hour.  Also, maybe I can do some Christmas shopping.  Just don't tell Mom, she'll want me to come down and help her pack.

Cozumel was melt-a-way relaxing.  G and I had the mellowest time!  Slept, ate incredibly good food at the resort, lounged, read, swam in the ocean aquarium with all the little fishies.  Bolstered us up with rest!!!!  Iguanas wander around, and little gheckos....  Shore birds screech, pelicans roost on light poles.  The Mayans who work at the resort are super friendly and joke around, smile a lot.  They're so short.  We've seen the extremes now--Amsterdam women like basketball players and Mayans in the garden--you think they're kneeling and weeding, but no, they're standing. 

If you ever want to go to Cozumel, we highly recommend the place we stayed.  In fact, we're booked for spring break there with the kids:  Presidente Intercontinental.  There was barely anyone there during this time.  Think we'll go back again in early December.  Hope March isn't overrun with kids!

Cozumel, here we come

Ok, I'm still without eyeliner, only cleaned one bathroom, and I've hung one set of curtains in Andy's old room.  The curtain rod is attached to the support pipe, so it's fluid movement, etc. -- which Geoff's only comment on was,  "That looks funny."

So!  Off to Cozumel in the a.m.!!!!!  The girls will hopefully survive here.  No 4 foot snow showers on the way....

It's time to go to bed and hope for the best.