Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Whatcha Readin' Wednesday -- Conspirator!

The Florida/graduation post will be coming soon, but I just wanted to tell y'all -- there's a new book in the Foreigner* series! I saw it on the shelf as I passed through Barnes and Noble for my regular Wednesday Mocha (iced this week!). I actually considered buying it, since Roger and I have a gift card we got for Easter, but instead I came home and logged in to our local library. I'm first on the waiting list for Conspirator!

*I must have been prescient.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Road Trip!

I am posting this quickly before we hop into our trusty van (well, trusty $2,600 later..) and head for Florida. We are very excited to see Maggie graduate, especially as she informed us yesterday that she is Valedictorian!! Which means that all her friends are kicked back doing nothing today, and she is writing a speech.

I would prefer to be writing a speech rather than sitting in the van for 24 hours over two days, but at least I get to fly home. We will be driving from north of Detroit almost to the southern tip of Florida. And no stays at Disney :-( Even if we were going to pass by there we would have no time to stop -- sorry, Jen -- because we are leaving about 8 hours behind our original schedule so that Tommy can take the AP calculus exam. Cheap college credit trumps not driving late into the night!

I hope to post again Sunday night or Monday, just to let you know how it all went (and maybe put up some pictures, if I can get a resident techie to help). Have a wonderful Mothers' Day!

Friday, May 01, 2009

Seven Quick Takes -- Plan Ahead Edition

1) I am actually typing at least some of this on Monday night. I am determined to post at least twice this week, so I'm taking advantage of the time I have right now.

2) The reason I need to do this is that the end of my week is guaranteed to be crazy. Six weeks or so I cooked lunch for 70-odd state band officials This weekend I need to feed some more officials BOTH Friday dinner and Saturday lunch. Fortunately there are only about 15 of them this time.

3) Even so, the food prep and transportation has just been complicated by our car situation. Three weeks ago we had three working cars. Then Katie's old crate (which was originally my mom's car) developed an oil leak, and we decided we didn't have the funds to fix it right now. Monday day we took my van to the shop for a checkup before driving it to Florida for Maggie's graduation on May 9th. Guess what? All those little things we've been putting off because they weren't urgent now ARE urgent. It's going to cost about half the blue-book value of the van (it's 11 years old), but we have no choice, because it's worth more to us rolling than we could get out of it. But it will be in the shop until Monday, so all transport will be in the one working car, a Saturn sedan. I have no idea how or even if I can do it all in one trip.

4) Speaking of trips,we are incredibly grateful to God that we had the van scheduled for its check when we did. Otherwise it would not be done in time to leave for Florida next Wednesday. We are also grateful for our terrific mechanics, who will have it done on time without saying "We told you so." A good independent repair shop is beyond price, and we have one! Thank you Doug and Glenn and Jeff.

5) One reason the van must be in tip-top shape for this trip is that Roger and I will only be in it for the southbound trip. We-- Roger and me, Katie, Tommy, and George (who got leave for this) -- are leaving Wednesday morning and driving just over 1400 miles in two days, with an overnight stop in Georgia. Arwen, Rosie, and their babies are flying down Friday morning. Baccalaureate is in the afternoon, with graduation itself and I think a dinner on Saturday. (With only forty in the graduating class, the dinner is for everybody.) Sunday morning Roger and I will join the "big girls" and grandbabies in flying back, while Maggie, George, Katie and Tommy go for the all-night straight-through road trip back with all Maggie's stuff. I am intensely glad I do not have to be part of this! And I am also glad that the van will have a better chance of doing it successfully.

6) Sunday morning is First Communion at our parish. This is a big weekend for the choir (Katie and I both sing in it) because for a number of years now both 9:30 AND 11:30 have been First Communion masses. It started accidentally, with a schedule conflict, but it works very well to split the class and all the accompanying family and friends into two groups. Only the Religious Ed staff and the choir have extra to do, and the church is much less overcrowded. And the choir has developed a tradition of having brunch in between, which is fun.

7) It either is or isn't spring here! It totally depends on which day, or sometimes which hour, it is. Last weekend temperatures were in the eighties, and quite a number of leaves and buds began to appear. Tuesday was in the forties. Today -- who knows??

More Quick Takes are here.