Our Work-Free Weekend

I'm sitting here in my office on a summer Sunday afternoon and that is just so wrong on so many levels. We weren't supposed to be talking about 'work' this weekend . . . and we're not . . . talking about it. Instead we're just plain working. But since it's not for our real jobs, it's OK. Karlo is downstairs playing with the router and I've been busy taking pictures of my latest jewelry for the new web site that I'm building. Part of me is wishing that it would start pouring soon so I can better justify being indoors in the middle of the day. sigh

But we did manage to spend all of yesterday out and about. We started the day with nice 35 mile bike ride. We took one 15 minute break and made it home in less than 2.5 hours. Not bad for a morning's work. And it's funny how I consider a 35 mile ride a short one, but when I stop and think that my father lives 38 miles away, I'm stunned that we nearly pedalled the equivalent of driving to my Dad's (which is a 45-50 minute car ride - mostly highway).

Because we earned our motorcycle ride for the day, we took a long one - well, longer than our bike ride, anyway. We drove the back roads up to Worcester. I tried to talk Karlo out of this destination, but he had his heart set on visiting another motorcycle shop - which is strange for somebody so in love with his own bike. When I went online to see what else we can do while in that city I found . . . are you ready for this? . . . a Museum of Sanitary Plumbing. I kid you not. There is such a place. If that is one of the city's highlights you can just imagine what a rockin' good time Worcester is. It was terrible.

We took a different scenic ride back home and this time we drove by an adorable barn with a big "Christmas in July" sign out front. I didn't have the heart to tell them that it was now August. We went in and browsed through all the fun Christmas decorations and we bought a cute ceramic acorn for our rustic tree.



I also took some time to shoot some of the pretty flowers outside. Definitely the highlight of the trip. More flower pictures will soon appear on my photo blog . . .

I've Been Quiet

I guess I've been pretty quiet this week. Not much to say for a couple different reasons, but mostly because our lives have been all work and not much else. Every spare minute that I've been in front of a computer I spent working on a new web site. It's amazing what a time suck that can be. And it seems like all of my not in front of a computer time has been spent talking about work.

I just realized I forgot to document the fact that Karlo recently accepted a new position at work. This deal has been perculating for a over a month and it's been a lot of deliberation leading up to the offer. So much to discuss . . . the pros, the cons, the workplace drama that it's caused. My goodness, it has been non-stop with the work talk. Karlo is now officially the "Multiaxis Product Manager" and can you imagine a better job for "Multiaxis Man" himself? I'm very proud of him and very excited for him as I know he's passionate about his work. But at the same time I reached my absolute limit on how much I can tolerate the work talk all day and all night. I'm not kidding. 99% of every conversation we've had over the past 2 weeks has been about work.

So as we drove out of the office driveway on Friday afternoon I made a small request that we leave work behind and not speak of it again until Monday. Karlo agreed, but I knew it couldn't be possible. For sure we would spend the weekend in dead silence. But I have to hand it to him. So far he's done an amazing job at shutting off his work switch and I couldn't be happier. We actually got back to life as usual since Friday afternoon.

I Forbid It

Since Karlo has decided to stop lusting after other motorcycles his love for his current bike has grown even stronger. So much so, in fact, that lately he's been eyeing and talking about trading in the VW Golf (some day) for the new Suzuki cross-over car. When Karlo first showed this car to me a month ago I thought it was cute. It had so much going for it, 4-door hatchback, sporty, AWD, little price tag. How could you go wrong? Karlo looked at this like a glorified motorcycle. And with my past history with Suzukis I could never say a bad word about them. Amazing vehicles and great, very reliable engines. I was all for it.

HOWEVER, I recently saw this advertisement for the car:

And now I forbid it. How dare they even THINK about comparing it to a MINI? Outrageous. I went from liking the car, thinking it was cute and wanting one to being utterly outraged by the ad. Check this out:



MINI owners everywhere are up in arms. OK, maybe I'm not really all that upset. It is sort of funny. Funny to compare a Suzuki to a BMW, that is. But truth be told, I'm only outraged because I think I should be. I still do like the Suzuki. And wouldn't the two look adorable parked next to each other in our garage? Maybe some day . . .

Another Job Lots Score

Do you remember when I blogged about my new favorite clothing catalog . . . the one that was designed especially for Paula? It was called Athleta and the catalog is filled with high tech, but seriously cute and over-priced clothing. Sort of like EMS for chicks. Well, I was at Job Lots this past weekend looking for egg noodles (oh, that reminds me of another story . . .) and I happened to walk past a rack of good looking capris. They seemed to be pulling me over with a force stronger than gravity. I walked over and, to my surprise and delight, the rack was filled with Athleta capris for $10. Such a bargain. I don't think there are any capris on the Athleta site for less than $60. I scooped up two pairs in my size and skipped out of the store with a huge grin on my face. I felt like I just won the lottery. I had my new capris and my egg noodles. Things were looking up.

Until later that night when I prepared the dinner that had been cooking in the Crock Pot all day. I made a huge batch of "Old World Chicken" to go over the egg noodles and the best part of this meal is that it feeds us for three days. So you can imagine how upset I was to find that Karlo decided to throw all the left-over egg noodles down the garbage disposal. What the Hell was he thinking? I've made this meal several times in the past and every time we enjoyed the left over for days. What would possess him, not only to even think about throwing them away, but to do so without even asking me. I wanted to choke him. So after cleaning up all the dishes from dinner, I ended up having to cook more noodles so that the left-over chicken could still be used as a no-work-involved meal. I don't think I'm sharing any with Karlo for the rest of this week. That should teach him.

Gawk Fest

We managed to squeak out a dry weekend, despite the promises of rain yesterday. And it was a good thing since we spent an awful lot of time on 2 wheels. On Saturday we drove to a motorcycle dealer in RI. Karlo has been itching to go and check out some new Moto Guzzis and since this dealership was so close to Newport we made a day of it. I wanted to get out to take pictures of “Words” for my photo blog and now that I think of it, the words “Moto Guzzi” would have made for some slick photos. Ooops. There went a missed opportunity.

So we gawked at the bikes for a while. Karlo sat on and admired the Moto Guzzi Stelvio while I drooled over the BMW 650 GS. Karlo walked away from the dealership more in love with his own bike (thank goodness – that saved a lot of money) and I walked away hating my own bike. Where is the justice there? Not only do I now think my bike is ugly, but I wasn’t too thrilled to hear that the part I needed was over $125.

From there we rode on to Newport, which will always hold a special place in my heart. I love Newport. We strolled around (in our very hot motorcycle boots) all afternoon, shopping in the cute shops and taking pictures of ‘words.’ We enjoyed a terrific lunch on the pier and then took a little spin around the parts of Newport that I’ve never seen before. We headed away from the hustle and bustle of downtown and rode along the shore on the East side of the city. Holy cow, talk about a gawk fest. The homes on the water were out of this world. I still can’t believe how beautiful they were. What do people do to make that much money? It’s crazy. But I really enjoyed admiring them all. Sorry, no pictures of the houses. I didn’t want to get arrested.

Depressing Night

This week is flying by without much documentation. When weeks start on Tuesdays they sure do go by faster. Not much excitement has been happening at home and the only thing worth documenting is rather depressing.

We spent a few hours last night helping our neighbor friends pack up their house. The reality is really setting in now. They are really leaving. I've known this for about a year now, but it's not any easier to say goodbye. I'm going to miss them so much. Robin and I have actually been working together for the past 6 months and I got so used to her cheerfulness brightening up my days.

And the kids . . .


I will really miss them. Not to mention how upset Bentley and Peanut would be if they knew what was happening. I just hate having to say goodbye. It stinks. I hate it when friends move away. I know that if moving wasn't involved we never would have met in the first place and they will soon be making a whole slew of new friends. But it still stinks for the ones left missing them at home. sniff sniff.

Finally Wrote My Book – Sort Of

OK, that was very misleading. I haven’t done diddley with my dream of writing a novel. I think I still have the two chapters I started a year ago. But in the meantime I did accomplish something that I always wanted to do. I turned my blog into a book; actually two books. I made one for the first year and another book for the second year. The first year is about 150 pages and last year’s book is over 250 pages. I guess I had a lot to say.

What a hoot it was to go back and read these ‘books.’ It’s amazing how much of my life I would have completely forgotten about had I not documented it. I got a lot of good laughs looking back on the past two years and printing the blog in book form was the greatest idea. I will treasure these books for the rest of my life.

And I can also really appreciate how pleasant my life is at this moment in time. Going back and reliving last Spring was shocking. I still can’t believe I lived through it. Wow. Really makes me appreciate every day of this leisurely summer. Thanks to the books I realized that this is our first year of really enjoying our new house. The first year was nothing but work on the house, and the second year was nothing but more work and stress writing Karlo’s book. This year is bliss in comparison. Finally, we get to enjoy ourselves for a change.