Two More Days

Two more days and we will head home. We are hoping to see a very improved version of the home we left almost a week ago. The painters have been there in mass. They are supposed to have done 90% of the painting and almost all of the staining of the windows. The windows being an issue in themselves ... when they were sold to us, they failed to mention - oh by the way, it will be an extra $3,000 to have them stained. That was a bit of bad news mixed in with other cost over-runs that we should have expected. But you always go into a remodel hoping that you can stay in the budget. Anyway, the tile guy should be done in the bathroom and moving on down to the kitchen back splash, and the granite guy should be in the works somewhere. It should at least be in the beginning stages of "coming back."

It is always bitter-sweet leaving Portland. I hate to leave, but I'm happy to go to my own home. It is hard staying with your children in their homes. I always feel like I'm intruding. Which I am, of course. You want to be of help, but you really don't know what to do. It is their kitchen, their things, and their routine. No matter how hard you try, you are no longer a part of any of that. You are sort of superfluous. Now I can see the virtue of staying a four-day-maximum. My in-laws never stayed longer than four days. It was always the perfect length for a visit. Just long enough for a good visit, but not so long that I had to count the minutes. I was usually tired from all the meals, happy hours, and entertaining, while herding my children from activity to activity. Four days is good. I shall keep that in mind the next trip. (Of course if I lived here - I could just go home and it wouldn't be a problem!)

What I am NOT looking forward to is the drive. 10-11 hours in the same truck with my husband and Lucy, listening to his music, may do me in. I think I will slip my own music in, and may even consider a book on tape. Although after trying to listen to "Pillars of the Earth", all 34 cd's of it, neither one of us is particularly interested in a book on tape. Never did finish it. But we spent DAYS working at it on our drive from Minnesota to Nevada. Ugh - and that after I spent months reading it!

In other news, is anyone else unhappy that they are canceling Lipstick Jungle and Dirty Sexy Money? Are we going to be left with nothing but murder and mayhem on television? With the economy tanking, and all the other stuff we have to worry about - what exactly is wrong with a little escapism? Great shoes, jewelry, boy toys? Please, powers that be, leave us something to fantasize about!