I Came Back!

I have been AWOL the last few days, as my loyal readers know. (And that is all three of you? :D) Anyway, here is an update on what's been happening.

First off, we went on another one of our road trips on Monday morning--so, of course, my Sunday was all about getting ready to go. While I very much appreciate the fact that K does ALL of the driving whenever we go anywhere, I still cannot understand why EVERYTHING else connected to a trip remains MY job. This includes packing, doing the laundry, cleaning up the house, garbage, feeding the cat, opening/closing the blinds, filling the humidifiers/emptying the dehumidifier, hotel reservations, etc, etc, etc. I guess it goes back to many, many, MANY years ago when the girls were young: I would get everything ready for us to leave right at the time he would come home from day shift. My life, it could be MUCH worse. :)

While I LOVE getting together with our friends and having dinner and visiting, every once in a while it is nice to have the time just for ourselves--and this is what happened this trip. Our friends had plans on Monday evening, so K and I had NO time problems and got all of our shopping done on Monday--with the exception of Sam's Club. We were able to have an early dinner at Outback--mmmmmmmm, Walkabout Soup--and get to sleep early that night. After breakfast on Tuesday morning, we did our Sam's shopping and headed home. I STILL can't figure out WHY it takes us so long to go through Sam's--it isn't as if we needed that much stuff this time--heck, we JUST were there a week and a half ago! But, we go through those doors and it's as if time speeds up or something--and before you know it, two hours have passed and you're rushing to get out of there!

We found a new place that will be a must-stop-at every time we are in Appleton: the Breadsmith. Oh, my gosh! As if I need another place to buy food! The stuff they have there is absolutely amazing! I loved the cranberry/orange scones and the chocolate chocolate chip muffins are to die for. We brought home the cranberry/orange bread and have been eating it toasted with butter on top. Mmmmmmmmm. There comes another five pounds onto this short, stubby body of mine.

So, anyway, we get home. You know how you can walk into a room and SOMETHING just doesn't feel right? You can't put your finger on it at first, but you just KNOW something is wrong? Well, that is exactly what it was like when I walked into the house. The first thing I do when I get home is to walk through all of the rooms to see if the cat hacked up a hairball while we were gone--gross, I know, but that is one of the joys of having a long-haired cat. As I was walking through the house, I was seeing white spots on the floor no bigger than about the size of a quarter. Well, this was something new and I was SURE the cat was dying of some horrid disease! Then I noticed a few of the spots on the recliner and sofa--and the mini-blinds were all whacko! About this time I realized it COULDN'T have been the cat because she just can't jump and reach the TOP of the windows--and it hit me, there had been/was a bird in the house. There was bird crap on the mini-blinds and window sills and all of the blinds looked as if the bird had tried going THROUGH them. So, the search was on. K went through the upstairs room, the basement, and the main floor--finally we found the culprit. There, in all it's nervousness, was a starling sitting on top of the books on the top shelf of the living room bookshelf. K opened the front door and after a few minutes, the bird flew out. Thank goodness.

I don't know what is going on with our house--it is as if we cut a hole in the wall and put up a sign saying 'Accommodations Here--ALL Wildlife Welcome.' This has been SUCH a strange year for us with wildlife getting into our house--and for the most part, we can't figure out HOW the damn stuff gets in! This bird just REALLY baffles me. Chipmunks, and even the raccoon, I understand, but a BIRD! Oh, well, I just hope it stops soon.