Welcome to 31

Yesterday was my 31st birthday. Thirty-one feels much like thirty. Funny thing.

After supper at Boston Pizza (my order: crispy chicken pecan salad, without the pecans) with my mom, dad, stepmom and awesome couple-friends, we came back to the house for cake. My birthday cake was a strawberry shortcake cake made by a local supermarket bakery, SO good!

The day was hot and sunny and wonderful. For a midday adventure, HOTGI and I took a trip over to the curling rink where he is a member (honestly, I can't believe we were on the ice in August!!) and spent a little while throwing rocks. Everything he threw, I tried to copycat. I think I did okay and it felt great to have my feet on the ice. Even better was leaving the rink in shorts and sandals!

I want to offer great big thank-yous to all the wonderful people who sent me messages today wishing me well on my birthday. It means a great deal to read the kind words of people who care. I felt like a very special Beth.

HOTGI and I are still on vacation and the weather forecast couldn't be nicer so I look forward to logging some relaxation time in the backyard!

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I wish to sup upon a coconut

In April of 2009 I made my first trip to a tropical destination. He-of-the-good-ideas and I along with 3 other couples went on an all-inclusive vacation Cuba for a week (I call it our honeymoon since we didn’t take a big vacation after we were married the year before). I loved the heat most of all, but second to that, the experience of drinking the sweet milk of a coconut through a hole hacked into the top by a sweet Cuban man who spoke no English.  I remember standing in the middle of this sweet little clutch of buildings that made up the home of this quaint little family and reluctantly taking a sip of the nectar inside a freshly picked coconut, just handed to me. I figured I would be polite and take a taste, already bracing myself for what I imagined was a sweetness so foul. Then... hmmmmh. Well isn’t that lovely? The milk of a fresh coconut is indeed sweet, though not as I expected. It is fresh and light and simply delicious and oddly refreshing.

And on this chilly day that has followed so many other cold days, with thoughts of tropical vacations dancing through my mind and the memory of the delicate nectar of a fresh coconut on my tongue, I long to get away. It isn’t in the cards for us this year so instead I’ll put up the heat a little, close my eyes and dream of tropical sun on my skin.



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Happy First Monday of 2011

I guess it can be a happy Monday since I am not at work. He-of-the-good-ideas and I both head back to our offices tomorrow morning to sort through the piles of things that hopefully did not amass while we were on vacation last week.

In all the years I've worked, I have never had the time off between Christmas and New Years and I just have to say, it was absolutely amazing and entirely necessary! He-of-the-good-ideas takes this time off every year and this year I was fortunate to be off with him. With our time off together we've visited family and friends, lounged, watched stuff recorded on the DVR (best TV watching invention ever) and spent time playing with the dog. No schedules, no timelines, just simple relaxation. It has been perfect.

That being said, I am almost looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Almost. I am at the point where 7pm hits and I am bored beyond compare, well bored of sitting and watching TV. I have laundry to put away, Christmas decorations spread across my dining room table that need to be boxed and stored and general tidying that needs to be done, but damn it all... that is stuff I don't WANT to do! It will get done. Perhaps not speedily, but it will get done.

Right now I will sit and enjoy this last day of my Christmas break, cuddle my dog (who is slowly encroaching on the space where the laptop currently sits) and watch the rain falling outside. Yes rain... an hour's drive from here, friends of ours are getting ready to go out and play in the snow that is falling but since we are so much closer to the coast, we get rain. It will be another muddy-paws day!