*sigh* (posted by Lani)

Yeah, it's been forever since I blogged ... sue me! I've been busy, and when I haven't been busy I've been lazy, and I've started a half dozen posts and never finished them. *sigh* indeed. Anyway. I went to Florida to help Laurie move mid-February ... it really wasn't much warmer than Virginia, sad to say. But a lot of packing went on there, not to mention a lot of laughing and a lot of just enjoying being with Laurie and Alex and Mom and Dad. Laurie's new apartment is much bigger than her old apartment, and much newer, and has an additional bathroom, and has hookups for her washer and dryer which of course is all well, and good, but she's giving up so much ... how can that be, you ask? Well, she's giving up this view:

Yes, that is what she saw every day out her living room and bedroom windows. I don't know how she can let that go, space and bathrooms and convenient washing/drying of clothing notwithstanding. Her new view isn't BAD, mind you ... trees and all that ... but it sure isn't the bay.

Alex was so funny during the move. He watched us pack with some interest but no real involvement, until we reached his room. He was watching Dora the Explorer out in the living room when we started, and we'd gotten pretty far along when he wandered back in (we were moving at a good clip). He stopped at the door looking absolutely thunderstruck, and and said, "What are you doing with my STUFF?" "We're moving, Alex, remember?" Laurie said. "We're packing everything up so we can move it." Silence ... a tear ... a sob ... and then, "But ... but I LIKE my stuff!" As you can see, we weren't able to fully convince him that his "stuff" was going to reappear in the new house.


So, remember that trip I mentioned in my last post, way back when? The one where I was going all sorts of places including, well, Pittsburgh? Yeah. Me too. I spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh Valentine's week, actually, what with the freaking ICE STORM and the POWER OUTAGE AT THE HOTEL and the CANCELLED FLIGHTS and the STUCK IN PITTSBURGH and all that. *ahem* Anyway ... yeah. We got stuck in Pittsburgh. Fortunately my crew was great and despite being stuck in a hotel which, yes, had no power part of the time, we had a lot of laughs. We actually ended up getting home on time, despite losing an entire day of flying to the storm (I'm not going to mention all the cancelled flights, thankyouverymuch) (thank you, Dave and Tim, for getting us all home safely). Once I got home I spent a day unwinding and then whee, off again to Elmira, New York, where it was pretty damn cold (as in, wind chill of approx -20 when we left for the airport in the morning, brrr). That was about it for February's flying ... really a quiet month.

This month I've been trying to get my garden ready for spring, get my house ready for spring, and I've had one horrendously long three-day trip with overnights in Greensboro and Providence. One of my favorites ... such a pretty city, Providence is. Our day was destined to be long anyway, but it decided to snow in New York City on the last day of our trip -- and as I'm sure you're well aware, if a snowflake falls within 20 miles of LaGuardia, there are delays. We chalked up a 14-hour day, and when I arrived home I fell into bed and slept not only through the night but through most of the next day.

In other job news the company offered time off without pay during April, and I put in for 2 weeks and got it, so I'm going to be doing some traveling. Steve and I are hoping to spend a long weekend in New York for my birthday, I'm going to take another birthday trip towards the end of the month ... and you know, if I could find someone to zip over to somewhere in Europe with for a few days in there, just for the hell of it, I'd fit that in somehow as well ... hint, hint ...