A Cautionary Tale (posted by Ann)

Before I even get to the cautionary tale part, I sure hope you are enjoying your one day off. I know that you will do great, but it sure sounds stressful! No crocheting or knitting for you! Do you think the intensity will slack off as the weeks go by? By the way, where is all this training taking place? You did notice, didn't you, that the quit rate for the guys was 50% . . .

And you promised to tell me what it means to be domiciled in Philadelphia - I'm curious!

Charlotte sent me a letter, and in it she had a copy of this article , with "A cautionary tale?" written on it. I think we should be careful that this obsession of ours doesn't get too out of control!



I do have a finished object to show you. I fixed the blue sweater, and it is going in the mail tomorrow so here's the final shot. And here's the pile of pieces on the pink sweater. I'm getting there - notice the lovely button markers a.k.a. paper clips? I think I need some stitch markers, and I definitely have to buy buttons. I'm thinking flowers. I need to be moving along on this sweater, the baby is due in a week exactly.

I was thinking that we've had a relatively quiet week, then I had a little chuckle when I realized that for us a quiet week includes:

Don in Detroit all week
Me in Winston-Salem Monday through Wednesday
Housekeeper here with Steve Monday night through bad storms, power outages, a need for our battery operated sump pump, and a downed tree on our driveway that made us drive halfway across the neighbor's yard to get in and out all week
Work, work, and more work
Don driving from Detroit to meet me downtown Friday evening for a nice dinner
And a friend over for dinner last night

So I guess that's our definition of quiet, everything went mostly according to plan and it all worked. Don and I both will be in town for the next two weeks. Yes, you read that right, no travel for either of us for two weeks. I'll then make up for it by going outside London for a meeting the next Tuesday through Thursday, including dinner at a castle on Wednesday night, then somewhere else in the English countryside for more meetings Friday. I need to go see some people in Rotterdam, but of course (they're not my favorite people) they aren't available that week so I have to hang around over the weekend to see them on Monday. I was initially a bit pissed, but then I started thinking about a free weekend and realized I could ride on this and do this for the weekend. Too bad I'll be by myself, but I could think of worse things!

Last night we had Amanda and Cole over for dinner. Amanda was our housekeeper two years ago, and we were heartbroken when she decided to look for full time work. She set the bar for what a housekeeper should be, and we've kept in touch with her and her son, Cole. They were great company, and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with her. Cole is a very cute three year old, and just cracked me up by joining the dogs when we put them in their place before dinner. How cute is that picture? He's almost as cute as Alex.