Less than one week ago I was in full vacation mode. It’s been five days since the return and the grind of work and every day life is back. No decompression for us, just jump right in. Maybe I should travel anti jet age, train and boat only. Just to slow things down. Maybe a five or six Day Atlantic crossing followed by a five day rail trip across the US. That would help with jet lag and settling back in to the usual. Is this likely? No. But I think it a great idea, as I think of most of my ideas.
Today is Emily’s first day with kids. So she is in a mood. Stay away from the claws and teeth. She had to get out early, she didn’t, I got yelled at. No, not a surprise. I am always left wondering what the hell I did. I still made her lunch, she forgot it. I will drop it off. Even with my new claw marks.
Morning normal as it can be with extra animals, people and a wife in a hurry. Emily gets to do everything first -shower, breakfast, coffee. Tradition.
Emily out by 745. We all relax. Marika realized all the souvenirs she bought are missing. One bag of trinkets. It was in the hallway, and after a thorough search, I think gone. Most likely scenario, Emily cleaned a couple days ago and prob threw them away. Marika is very upset and angry. Not much to do but scream and yell in spite of that not helping. I see a meltdown x 2 coming when they are both home tonight. Maybe I can go to a hotel?
Michael is getting ready to leave. Packing the car. Back to LA for some reason. He graduated and has no job. He could stay. But he and mom butt heads hard continually. He is headed home. With Kona. We will miss our granddog. The boy, a little less. Just kidding!
The house is really quieter now. Without Kona far less hair is dropped too. Roomba says thank you.
I got myself ready and off to work. I made a stop at the German Bakery, local coffee pastry place. Actually, the only place of any kind within three or four miles of the house. I wanted to try their cappuccino to see if I could get the Italy level from them. In a word, no. I have to keep looking I guess. Someone has to have European style coffee. I am really not satisfied now with what I have to put up with in this country.
Got to work at a reasonable hour. Had to, I have an appointment. With a Yelp referral. It’s funny, I get 2 to 3 Yelp referrals a day. This one is the first to respond or set an appointment. I think all the Yelpers are probably price checkers and expect a Costco price of some sort. I don’t know. But she is coming in this morning.
Other than that, no scheduled duties. I am still going through the mail, slowly, and paying the bills, slowly. I have some returns to do but all are incomplete. One I could finish actually, but that’s it. I will need to spend time reconciling several accounts as well. All the ones I couldn’t get too while away.
And, btw, I should mention that my Yelp appointment went well. Nice lady and it appears we can do business together. At least one tax return and maybe two if we incorporate her. Yay. Yelp works. Poorly.
I worked till 530 or so and headed home. Em called as I was leaving, and she is going to Sams. She wants to celebrate Marika’s new job with a nice dinner and has an idea with something they sell.
I got home about 630, Em not home. Marika was there. Emily arrived a few minutes later. Turns out the special dinner included 2.5lb Tomohawk rib eyes. That’s one for each of us. It looks like a Fred Flintstone Dino steak. Huge bone with huge chunk of beef attached. Ok.
I stated the BBQ. Turns out, I can’t fit the meat on the grill without partial stacking cuz they are just too big. I can get them cooked but my god they are gigantic.
We added broiled asparagus and sliced sweet potatoes. I opened a bottle of Pinot from Marika’s winery and we are off.
The dinner was filling, to say the least. I came close to eating my steak. No one else ate 20% of theirs. These things were massive. I know I keep saying that but they are shockingly large.
I had called our house sitter, Isabella, and asked her to drop by. I need to pay her. She showed up during dinner. I offered her some steak, we have lots. She demurred. No wine either. As always Bella has lots to talk about. She is very good at talking. We did have a nice visit and I gave her a large wad of cash for watching house and dogs and cats for a month and a half. No vacation is free. Bella left soon after.
We did not have dessert. None of us had room for anything else. I did have a small piece of watermelon. Hey, it has no substance.
Full and bloated, we all went to bed. Satisfied as it is.