still at work....vacation begins in 4 hours. For the first time I have left Lee at home to pack the kids and the dogs and the boys while I have gone to work. It is hard to give up control but I am so glad not to be in charge of the packing this year!.

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It's been a long time

I had gotten so used to blogging nearly every day that I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic – I had forgotten about my beloved Teddy’s house blog! It seems that the end of school was so dramatic for us at Teddy’s house, with recitals and graduations and school plays and baseball baseball baseball that I had forgotten to keep my on-line thoughts updated. Well, I’m back. I am sure you are wondering what brought me back – it’s all bc of Grandma. Thanks G’ma! The boys are spending 2 nights and 2+ days with G’ma and G’pa.

What a treat for everyone – but mostly for me.

I won’t tell G’ma that Josh discovered the phone in the guest room and has been calling me every few hours to tell me that he is homesick but does not want to come home. I can completely agree with him! I miss him, but I do not want him to come home!
Normally Lee and I would be off to a hotel in Boston or a B&B in Vermont, however this weekend we find ourselves with no dog sitter and no gas money and the desire to hang out at our own house. We did a lot of bike riding and some running and napping and movie watching and out to dinner and trips to the bookstore. So it was a real weekend of doing what we wanted. And now I am ready to see my kids J

Saving gas

I rode my the company bike to work today!  I do not actually own a working bike and I did not win the free bike from my favorite  blog, crankyfitness.com.  However, for reasons still unknown to me, one of my partners here at work bought 2 bikes last summer (with the company cash).  I think he wanted a new bike and justified his purchase by buying some extras.  So, anyway I have adopted one of the bikes. After much consultation with Lee as to the route that I should take and also much packing and repacking of my backpack (it feels so heavy – and yet has nothing in it!) I rode the 4+ miles to work.  Ok, so not a very long distance.  In fact it took me barely 20 minutes.  I haven’t been this early to work in a years.  The hardest part was negotiating the traffic and the train tracks.  There are a few potentially fatal intersections between home and work, and even in a car they can be suicidal.  I tried to be smart and still look “cool”.. ie.. not ride the entire way on the sidewalk.  I wanted to be a real rider… hmm… except that my helmet is completely broken and sits on my head sideways…J  Now, I just need to get me and the bike home.

 

Sunday lunch on the boat

It is really hard to keep up with the save the environment talk when we have so much fun out on the boat. At the same moment that I disparaged anyone who would drive a Hummer, my husband mutters comments about our twin 150's, hmmm. It is hard to be a consumer loving American and still preach to my kids about turning out the lights and recycling. I am sure that there are many families that would make the choice not to own a powerboat, especially with the high gas prices. Is it enough that we are willing to forgo our "tear arounds"? These are basically Lee driving the boat really fast out around the islands off the North Shore while the kids hang out in the front of the boat and laugh into the wind at the high speeds.

We have some of our best days out on the boat. Would we really be able to give that up?

For example, yesterday during a lull in the fishing, while Lee was working on the fishing gear, Teddy complained to me that he was sooo bored. I agreed, that I was also kinda' bored. But then I reviewed the alternative with him - we could be home doing homework, laundry, dishes, fighting with your brother. Instead we were out here together - trapped with your family. Although I know that the boys are still young, I also know that they each increasingly want to call their friends and be away from me. The time when they won't spend the day on the boat with their parents is coming, so we are going to enjoy a little boredom together until then.

Why is it that I can start with this?

Why is that I can spend hundreds of dollars on cookbooks AND cooking magazines at the grocery store and still have nothing to cook?? I watch the food network nearly every night. I love cooking challenge shows - my favorites being Food network Challenge and Top Chef. I can sit on the couch for hours every night and page through pictures and post-it note recipes and discuss ingredients. I can surf the Internet for hours and email recipes home to myself and print out long discussions of how to prepare.

I have even gone so far as to plan menus and add ingredients to the shopping list. I can imagine the dinners that will be served to my family every night. I have occasionally convinced Lee to cook for us and agreed to do the planning and buying...

Except that if you know me for 5 minutes you know that I do not like to cook and then if you know me for 4 more minutes you know that I do not like to shop. Life at Teddy's house is best when I leave the grocery store to Lee. I get impatient at the store.. I had to spend that much money all at once, only to go home and feel like I didn't get what I really needed, or that there is still nothing for dinner.

One reason is that I am so cheap that I often don't buy all the stuff. For example, do you really need fish sauce to make Pad Thai? Do you really need expensive smelly cheese to make fettuccine? Because I think you can get by with stir fry and mozzarella.

hmm... so after all that energy and imagination on gourmet food... this is what Teddy gets for dinner tonight... scrambled eggs and toast... and he had to make it himself....

Teddy's Star Wars Recital