I'm preparing for a holiday, with a last-minute snafu over some sandals, ordered from China, sent with tracking and then stolen from the back of the Royal Mail van on the day they were due to be delivered to me. I just got back from a trip to find a replacement pair.

It's good to have a break from work. My immediate boss has checked out, he really has no interest in anything the people below him are doing. He's a nice enough bloke, but it's so annoying when we find out from other people things their manager told them that we really ought to have been told by ours. Still, I'd rather have him like this than micro-managing everything.

I am at war with squirrels over their attempts to eat all my strawberries. Several layers of net have been deployed. I think by the time I get back from my trip the garden will be in full bloom. Then I'll find out what are weeds and what aren't.

Sunday night I had a reunion with several biker riding buddies. It was awesome. And I got drunker than I've been in ages. Now I'm trying to take in enough fluids and electrolytes to avoid tomorrow's hangover.

biker = bicycle, as a point of clarification.

This month has been really crazy so far.

-My niece graduated high school! And she is working a summer job! And she is driving the car!
-My grandmother (91) went from mostly doing ok to a hospital stay with a stage four cancer diagnosis to kidney failure and hospice, to passing away last week. We are sad, but glad that she was doing okay until the last three weeks, and so very grateful that she wasn't in a lot of pain.
-We packed and moved my grandmother's apartment this weekend, but still have a 2500 square foot house (with a basement) to go through.
-We are looking to buy a house - so we went house hunting this weekend and put in an offer, and we are waiting to hear back.
-We saw Hamilton at the Fox Theatre (with our niece) the evening that our niece graduated, and it was absolutely amazing.

Same old same old. After buying THE PERFECT FABRIC for a nice maroon raincoat, I found A SECOND PERFECT FABRIC, so I'm going to make two raincoats. No idea which one I'll keep for myself; maybe I'll keep them both; people won't remember the difference! :)

Just another summer of sewing, working, going to a singles event and getting nowhere, taking my mother shopping and listening to her whine about how awful her life is (it's way better than mine will ever be), repeat. My nephew is coming to visit, that should be nice. I should really be grateful for all the good things in my life (friends, music, hobbies, etc.), but the loneliness is making me crazy.

Ooh, needlegrrl.... we just bought a house. Terribly stressful, awfully fun and a lot of work.

Good luck with the house buying.

I'm transferring from the governance department to a line of business department next week. I'm looking forward to doing a different side of the current stuff but am irritated I won't be completely done with my current dept until the end of June. More amusingly I'm like #12 to leave the department in the past 6 or so months. Like rats fleeing a ship. Though in our defense, 2/3 of them were either being pushed out or on the list to be pushed out; the rest of us want new bullsh!t to get tired of.

In celebration of that and an upcoming milestone birthday, I had my ear pierced again -- 1 top (helix) and 2 mid ear (auricle). Boy did that hurt but they're cute. I just need to figure out how to keep myself from sleeping on that side as I toss and turn in my sleep and my current attempts with a traveler pillow are failing miserably.

Otherwise the children are growing like weeds and everyone is finally not sick. I visited our dr office more than I ever thought possible this winter.

needlegrrl, I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother, and thankful that it was brief.

Chronic fatigue and auto-immune inflammatory arthritis own me. Just so tired and lethargic. Fortunately, I have a deck and nice weather. The garden plants refuse to plant themselves, what's with that?

My dog loves to play the game where I throw the tennis ball off the deck, he runs and gets it. Whined, fussed, and threw the ball at me until I threw it for him. But the outside door is shut so he can't get outside to get the ball and he's all whiny. I *told* him, but he didn't listen.

Best news. I have a new grandson. Drove to see him at the hospital, he's perfect. Son is over the moon. Will go visit him at home in a few days. Babies are excellent.

Hurray for Baby theora!

Updates? Seems like the more things change etc.

I think since I was last here, a couple of my kids graduated from high school, both started university (one of them twice), my son started failing miserably at school so I've arranged for him to change to a trade-oriented private school, I got a promotion at work, my first grandchild was born, I bought a boat, I finally took a deep breath and jumped into the dating world and, after a few false starts, fell madly in love with a beautiful, wonderful woman. But she dumped me yesterday, so here I am back where I started.

So hey, I go away for a while and a party kicks up on MeCha and no one tells me.