Monday Ketchup

Whew. That’s what I said yesterday when I finally had a chance to relax and catch up from the craziness of the last couple of weeks. For the first time in a week I cooked dinner, caught up on laundry and sat down to read a book. You could probably hear the sigh all the way to Milwaukee. Hello, Milwaukee? Can you verify that? Or are all you Wisconsin folks hibernating inside to avoid the heat, too? It has been hotter than Guam here, and I had to chuckle when I read the news stories the other day about record heat in Central Park. Ooh, news flash, now that it’s reached the Big Apple, the nation is officially hot. Some two weeks after the entire Midwest melted and oozed down the humid Mississippi River. Too funny. It’s been so hot here that I’m having trouble figuring out what to pack for our trip. The temperatures in London and Paris have been in the upper 60’s and low 70’s lately, and I’ve seriously forgotten what 70 degrees feels like. Do I need shorts or cotton pants? I don’t know since even the slightest amount of clothing on your skin feels like too much around these parts. All I can say is thank goodness I’m not pregnant or I’d be roasting in my sandals. Sister mercy, the hot flashes are bad enough this time of year.


Anyway, I suspect the next week will fly as we get ready for vacation and I play catch up on all the things I’ve gotten behind on recently. That’s a good thing and a bad thing. Bad because I feel like I have sixteen things to do between now and our trip “across the pond” and good because that just means it will get here quickly, and I’m so excited my toes tingle. Or maybe that’s just because I sat on them for a couple of hours today while writing stuff for work. You know, once you hit middle age, you’re never sure if a tingle is a byproduct of excitement or another body part trying to go south. Speaking of south, if my fanny sags any lower I’m going to have to fly to Birmingham to pick it up. But that’s another post. In light of the need to “catch up” I’m resorting to the dreaded bullet points to share all of the things floating around in my noggin today. Forgive me for phoning it in, but it is what it is. And that’s all that it is. Really. I got nothin’ else today. Whew.

-I bought a duel voltage blow dryer for the trip, but after hearing 1,672 horror stories about melted outlets I’m scared to plug it into a socket in Europe. Therefore, I will likely have wet hair for ten days. Can you say braid?

-Am I the only one who has a fear of booking stuff on the internet and then having those reservations become lost in the system somehow, no matter how many times you double check them? Is that referred to as OCD?

-I bought two new pair of walking shoes for the trip and am trying to break them in. They came from the “comfort aisle” at the shoe store, and I can’t believe I’ve gravitated into that realm. Next thing ya’ know I’ll be sporting Birkenstocks. Somebody stop me. Please. Stop me. Immediately.

-While making our itinerary for this trip I decided that you could literally spend weeks touring chapels in Europe. I thought we had a church on every corner in the south but we got nuthin’ on Europe.

-Amy Winehouse’s death makes me sad. Not because I’m a huge fan, although I do like her music. But because it’s likely one more person lost to addiction, and those of you who have fought that battle with a loved one and lost know how painful that is. I just hate the way addiction destroys lives and causes so many people so much pain.

-The tragedy in Norway? Crazy. Have we always had this much crazy in the world?

-I’ve been a horrible blogging buddy lately. I can’t seem to find the time to read and comment on the blogs I normally track. So sorry, folks. It’s either skip the blog reading or feed the family and well, those crazy folks want food every day. What’s up with that? Anyway, I hope to be back to visiting your blogs very soon.

-After taking two weeks off of running because of the heat and frankly, a lack of motivation, I got back on the wagon today. I also went back to some weight training. Boy, did those weights get heavier since the last time I picked them up. And my feet? Not really happy with the decision. My love/hate relationship with regular exercise is more on the hate side right now. I’d kind of like to break up with the treadmill, but then I’d have to break up with mistress cake and well, that’s just not gonna happen.

-And on a positive note, Hubby has poker night tonight, which means I’m in control of the TV remote. And let the people say amen.