all I ever wanted

Hello! Did I mention I was on vacation last week? Meaning that, since a big trip was not in the cards for us this year (though I so wanted to go to my cousin's wedding last weekend in Austria... sigh), I did something I've always wanted to do: I took a vacation at home.

Some highlights:

1. Iris, regarding her late-afternoon shadow: "I yook yike a grown-up on the ground. I walk on my hind yegs."

2. Going out to eat at brillobox while our neighbors, Timo and Liz, babysat. The next morning, Iris said to me, “I’m so proud of Timo!” I'm guessing he must have either pooped on the potty or eaten all his dinner.

2. Tim the Sewing Machine Repair Man paid a house call to my cantankerous old machine, and after several adjustments and a lint-rod-ectomy, wherein he removed a tiny part peculiar to Singers that had warped to the point of causing problems, the old girl is sewing smoothly again. Hooray! Planning new projects without fear!

3. Well, we did take a little trip, a mid-week overnight getaway up to Lake Erie, whose shores are more beachy than you might think. After getting over the fact that sand! was between her toes! aaaah! my persnickety child relished her first visit to “the beach:”



and ride in the kayak with her dad.




4. Whiling away naptime on the porch with Kat (that’s Aunt Kat to Iris – she has two aunts on J’s side, so just because I am an only child, why shouldn’t she have at least one on mine? Kat is like a sister to me), who was here for a long weekend, while Kat knit


and I made my first (lopsided) pom-pom under her tutelage and crafty companionship:

pom pom, originally uploaded by aoneko.

Today, back to the old grind, and it is getting old indeed. Re-entry is so hard.