A Very Rough Weekend and Day

I had big plans for this past weekend. I knew it would be a busy one and I knew I would be all alone. I was almost looking forward to a total weekend of “me” time to work on my craft projects, catch up on my life, and prepare for vacation. Karlo took off Saturday morning for Milan. The weather was nasty and I envisioned a whole day of being productive indoors, but it seemed I didn’t get nearly the things accomplished that I had planned. I got very distracted by trying to figure out how Karlo and I would communicate without the world phones that I bought (but can’t use), the nitty gritty details of packing, and caring for and worrying about Bentley.

My poor boy had taken a turn for the worse over the past few weeks. I can’t help but to think that it’s my fault for ever uttering the word “puppy” in his presence. Seems as though ever since I did Bentley hasn’t been himself. No sooner does Karlo leave for his trip and I swear things went even further downhill. Karlo insisted that Bentley was just sad because he saw the suitcase and saw me hugging Karlo at the door. But I knew it was worse than that. I stressed myself out all day on Saturday and finally called the vet on Sunday. There was no way I could leave him in this condition and enjoy a single day of our vacation. I got busy making a ramp to help him get in and out of the doggie door and patiently waited for the vet to call me back.

I was able to get an appointment first thing this morning and driving to Tolland today was the longest and most dreadful drive ever. I knew in the bottom of my stomach that it may be his last ride in the Jeep. I just felt that something was not right. After a complete rollercoaster of emotions all morning long, several trips to the bathroom, a packet of tissues, and several hundred calories lost due to shivering and shaking I finally got the bad news from the vet. My precious baby has bone cancer. Despite the fact that I already knew in my heart this was coming, the sadness that swept over me was nearly too much to bear. And to think I’m going through this alone, with Karlo thousands of miles away. All I can say is that the people at Tolland Veterinary are the most wonderful people on earth. They offered to keep and care for Bentley for the two weeks while we will be away . . . just so that Karlo and I can both properly say goodbye to him when we return. Coming home will be incredibly hard knowing what we need to do. I’m trying really hard to think good thoughts and celebrate the amazing life we gave him, but this has been one terrible day.

A Long Week

It's been a long week with not much free time to blog. Work has pretty much consumed our lives for the past four days. We left the office on Monday morning and checked into the Marriott in Hartford for our annual reseller meeting. From that moment on, all of our waking minutes were work and both the days and nights were very long. Of course I can't really complain too much because, besides taking photos of the event, I basically just sat around and socialized. I didn't have any of this kind of stress to deal with:


Karlo had it much harder than me. He had to give a presentation in front of over 200 people, as well, as teach for 10 straight hours (with an hour off for lunch) one of the days. While Karlo was busy teaching, I was hanging out and setting up our 'fun night.' This work included lounging on a couch and setting up our Wii systems for the upcoming party. I literally got paid to create little cartoon characters of our staff. Boy was that a fun job. Here's me on the Wii:

We also got to have an amazing dinner at the Society Room in downtown Hartford. I love this place:

The dinner was yummy, the drinks were free, there was music, dancing, and great company. But this was the best part:

All in all it was a fun week. But now we're back and the party is over. Karlo is busy packing for Italy and I will be following him shortly. There will likely be very little blogging going on next week, but I'll be sure to catch up as soon as I find Internet access.

And So It Begins

Life is about to go from crazy to crazier. We got back from a long weekend getaway this afternoon with just enough time to unpack, do laundry, and repack. Tomorrow starts our week-long work conference in lovely Hartford . . . immediately followed by two more weeks of travel to Europe. My head is spinning from the list of things I need to do before that trip.

And speaking of spinning heads, this weekend we went up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a little hiking and a lot of dancing. It was another ballroom event and you would think by all these dance events we attend that we would know how to dance by now. Sadly, we are still struggling. But this weekend has, once again, helped motivate us to be more diligent about practicing. As always, it was so inspiring to watch the folks that know what they are doing gliding across the floor. And talk about even further inspiration . . . I danced the Tango with a 89 year old man. Can you imagine? And he was good! Dancing seems to be the Fountain of Youth (along side yoga, that is). I think a combination of dancing and yoga is the secret to a long and healthy life. That alone has us more committed.

To see more pictures from the weekend, please click here.

Busy, Busy, Crazy, Crazy

That about sums up my life right now. I can't even believe all the stuff I got going on and I marvel at how I've spent the last several years of my life saying, "As soon as we get through _____ our lives will slow down." It seems as though as soon as we fill in that blank something new takes it place. I swear we will never catch up to our lives nor slow down.

Karlo's new job has him literally working around the clock and all the time he spends in front of his computer just frees me up for more time in front of mine. It's sick how much time we spend staring at a computer screen. I just finished building a big web site for a freelance client. I ran away from this job for several months and then finally agreed to do it . . . it the middle of the summer and under a time crunch. Stupid decision #1. After doing all that work it warmed me up for wanting to build a web site (or two) for myself. So I've been feverishly working on those (more to follow) and then made the stupidest decision of all. I volunteered to be the new webmaster for an art association that I'm a member of. What the heck was I thinking? Now they hound me every day and I don't even have time to read the emails, let alone do the work.

And speaking of work (my real job), that is crazy too. Next week is our annual conference, which means this is the crunch time preparing for it. And all I can do is think about packing, packing and more packing. You should see my bedroom. I have a pile of clothes that I need to pack for our upcoming weekend getaway this weekend, another pile of clothes for the conference next week, followed by yet another pile of clothes for our vacation. Each one of these trips is stacked immediately upon the other. Not even sure there's time to do laundry in between. I have To Do lists longer than my legs. Once again, I'm looking forward to a long flight to just sit still and do NOTHING!

Doggie Mayhem

This weekend went to the dogs. In addition to our own two hounds, we had Molly visiting for the weekend . . . and we had another special visitor. It's not everyday you get to 'test drive' the dog of your dreams. Remember last week when I explained how I spotted a unique dog and fell in love with him instantly? Well, that very dog came over for a visit. I thought I was the one that was going to be the one most excited to see him, but it was the rest of the pack that had all the fun . . .

What a handsome devil.

Molly was too cute. Had no trouble keeping up with the big dogs.

Peanut finally got a chance to show off her speed and agility.

This picture is perfect because it gives a size reference for the Doodleman. Bentley seemed to like him too, which is rare for him to like other males. Simon is just too darn irresistible.

I think Peanut fell in love too. She was on him like glue. What a cute couple.

But he's a lady's man and shared his time with the other hottie too.

Let's just say all the dogs slept very good Saturday night!

Sock Season Has Arrived

You know it's the end of summer when you're forced to wear socks to work for the first time. I must have stood in my closet for five minutes this morning debating what shoes to wear before I finally broke down and reached for a pair of socks and my leather clogs. This was the first non-sandal day in months and I can't tell if I'm depressed or excited. One thing is for sure, I just want the change to happen. I decided that I'm really bad at dressing during the Spring and Fall and I think it's the shoes that get me the most. It's so hard to leave the house in sandals when it's 40 degrees out - no matter how warm it's going to get later in the day. I find it very challenging to dress during these transition times. I'm good at Summer and Winter, when it's consistently warm or consistently cold. So now that I broke out my socks, bring it on. Let the cold come. It's time to do the closet switcher-roo, and once I do that, I crave my tall leather boots and turtlenecks.

Freeport Getaway

In honor of our anniversary Karlo and I took a little weekend get-away to Freeport, Maine. This was our first pleasure visit to Maine since losing our love for the great state. We used to travel to Maine quite often and savored every minute of it . . . until we became property owners and landlords. Then just hearing the word Maine, or god-forbid seeing the 207 area code on my phone, would send chills down my spine. I decided that I need to get over this aversion to the state that I once loved so much. And it didn’t take me long at all to fall back in love.

We spent two nights in Freeport. Freeport was usually our midway resting point so having it as our final destination was a nice treat. The 3.5 hours seemed so short! We stayed right down the road from downtown Freeport, where all the glorious outlet stores are, including LLBean’s flagship store. God I love Freeport.

After making our Plan B biking route (that didn’t include a ferry ride), we had to move on to Plan C due to the weather. Saturday was looking less than stellar and I didn’t want to get caught in any rain. So we took a nice hike along the shore in the morning and then spent the next several hours shopping. I can’t believe how patient Karlo was. I think he also had fun hunting for new clothes for himself. We both bought lots of new goodies and shopped until hunger finally forced us to quit. After a late lunch we walked around a big art show and I had a ball looking at all the photography. Since we were all shopped out and looking for something more to do we pre-rode our intended bike route and I’m so glad we did. We drove from LLBean to Lands End, which was the very end of the longest peninsula on Casco Bay. Although the scenery was beautiful, the roads were not good for biking. I was happy to have driven it in a car instead because I had my ‘real’ camera with me. We ended up making a completely new biking route for the next day . . . and it was awesome.

We headed out on our bikes first thing Sunday morning. The sun was shining and I was actually too hot. Who would have dreamed that I should have packed a short sleeve bike shirt? Oh well, a good problem to have. Our ride was perfect. We took a leisurely drive home and stopped at the old seaport town in Portland for some strolling of the cobblestone streets and lunch on the pier. This sounds a little better than it was because I was wearing my brand new Privo shoes and they hurt so bad I couldn’t enjoy the strolling and actually had to give up and let Karlo bring the car around. I’m so mad at those shoes I’m writing a nasty letter to Privo. But I did love Portland and never expected the city to be so nice. I’m completely rethinking our retirement as I simply cannot stand it if our future doesn’t include Maine.

Please click here if you would like to see more photos from our trip.