Out, damned egg! Out I say!

Getting Back in the Groove

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Makes this old dog feel a lot better.

We're off to our real house for a night to attend an adoption support group meeting, the mister's mysterious ship party (something geeks do after working on a big project for years when their game is finally out and flying off the shelves), and get some quality time with our kitten.

Life on the river is flowing right along. We've had a more relaxing time. We found a fabulous yoga class that meets in a local community center. It feels so good to be this good to my body. I've really missed yoga but just haven't had the energy to be able to do those kind of things.

We've also spent a tremendous amount of time working on our adoption website. We've been working with an amazing woman who does great work. It's a good thing we've had this much time to concentrate on it because even with her doing all the heavy lifting it's taken huge chunks of our time. It's about 90% done today and should get finished tonight or tomorrow night. Then we'll add the statcounter, link to a few carefully-selected-by-our-consultant adoption sites, and wait for the phone to ring. We recently found out that our 800 number is a little too close to one of those cable companies. Perhaps we should just offer to start taking those credit card payments people are offering up?

I'm happy to share our site with anyone who'd like to see it. We're pleased as trash can punch as how it's looking but I'd love to get feedback on it. Just shoot me an email or leave yours in the comments. I'll likely be posting the link in my Facebook status as well for those of you that are on Facebook. And if you're on Facebook but we aren't friends, why the hell not? I need more people to send plants and save the rainforest.

I'm Rocking the River

I wanted my first post from my sabbatical lair to be about how life on the river was free and easy, that sabbatical was doing just what it was supposed to do and the mister and I were getting more and more relaxed each and every day.

We've been here for a little over a week. I can finally write at least some of that. Sabbatical has been far from stress-free so far but we still have high hopes. Or lowered expectations. Either works, right?

It started off amazingly well with a visit to the Emerald City. We got to spend quality time with Bebe, her big man and used-to-be-a-baby-but-is-now-definitely-a-toddler. It was so very good for our souls. I can just hear Eyelashes saying "Hi" over and over in his adorable voice and playing with the bubbles on my iphone. Then we were treated to an amazing dinner by the amazing Ms Scrambled Eggs and her mister. Yes she is as good a cook as you might imagine and yes you should all be very very VERY jealous. They are the perfect hosts and had to kick us out for fear we'd never leave. Then we had some good quality time with our friends, Initial Girl and Sandal Boy. It involved bridge, vintage wine, pedicures and much male bonding time over various video games. Perfect so far, right?

We did make it to the river ok and have been working on getting settled in. We now know the fastest route to the closest 24 hour emergency vet thanks to a butt crack of dawn fight between our two dogs. One has three staples in her cheek (just for another 5-7 days). The other has a long laceration on hers. Both make me cry just thinking about it. Sometimes I think we've come a long way, then we let our guard down and don't recognize signs of stress or structure situations enough and we all learn painful lessons. They're both over it already but the mister and I are still very sad that this kind of thing still happens.

Yesterday I think we all turned a corner. The mister and I had one of those perfect days. We slept in. Had a lazy breakfast. Biked to a famous Champagne winery just down the road on my spiffy new bike. Toured. Tasted. Picnicked. Biked back (in a pretty straight line). Made an amazing root vegetable braise from Local Flavors, our current favorite cookbook. Drank more wine. Watched Weeds. Does it get better than that?

Why, yes it does! Today has been even better. It's my birthday* which has recently been a time for sadness and reflection about what I don't have. Not today.

The mister cooked an amazing breakfast of chorizo scrambled eggs, croissants, coffee and mango mimosas. I'm looking at a rainbow of assorted roses. There was an appliance (R0kU) to aid and abet my on-demand tv/movie watching. Greetings from friends and family far and wide. A wii fit age that is actually lower than my chronological age. Time spent reading. Time spent watching the river flow by. No dog fights. And surprise plans that begin in about an hour.

Life is good. Really good. I'm really really happy and have so much to be grateful for this year.  When I blow out the candles on my birthday cake, I'll wish for the one thing we still seem to be missing but for today I'll be grateful for all that I have. I am truly lucky.

Today's blog title is brought to you in honor of another birthday boy. He is exactly one year younger than me, btw. Check out his new single, the amazing duet called You Don't Know Me which is almost as catchy as that painfully addictive Little Boxes from Weeds.