Didja Miss Me?

Ye Gods - when I last posted, it was just past halfway through the month. Now...it's month's end. YEESH!

What the heck have I been doing???

Well...as I let you know in my Thursday Thirteen on June 19th, I was off to California that day, to participate in all-day meetings on the 20th. The meetings, by the way, were awesome. Well worth the stress of a last minute trip that just happened to butt up to a personal trip.

I got home just after 1 AM on the 21st - Saturday. I headed to bed quickly and was back up at 4 AM to check in for our flight to Philadelphia (non-revvers have to check in 4 hours prior to flight time) and then showered to get myself awake. After dumping my bag from my CA trip and hurriedly repacking for PA, we were ready to go to the airport.

My husband had spent Friday working on the flooring project in our upstairs bedrooms, and I'm not sure who was more tired that Saturday morning - me, with two 3+ hour flights within the prior 36 hours, or him, with many hours spent on his knees, laying and nailing and such.

We arrived in PA and spent much of Saturday afternoon visiting with relatives, before getting to my mom's house in time for a late dinner that evening. The next few days - we actually extended our trip by a day - were spent packing things from her house to ship down to our own (thank God for FedEx and having a discount with them as an airline employee - we shipped 330 pounds o'stuff!) and working on home improvement projects for her around the house.

While up there, I got to spend time each day with my Dad at the nursing home. I usually went around mealtimes, so I could feed him, giving me up close and personal time and giving the aide a break. On the last day, he actually responded with one-word answers to direct questions - yes, no, maybe, etc. The day before, he responded to my husband several times with nods or by trying to reach for something from the table. It's not much, I guess, but it's better than nothing! Had we been able to stay two days longer, we would have been able to share his 75th birthday with him, but we had to head back to Texas. I tacked my card to him up next to his bed so he could hopefully see it and shared a treat of yogurt with him one night after dinner. On his actual birthday, Mom took him down a chocolate milkshake and called from her cell phone so he could at least hear my voice. It breaks my heart to see him in his current condition - a condition I know will last the rest of his life, however long that may be - but I was so glad to get to spend time with him while there.

We got back to our own home just after 9 AM on Thursday, June 26th and I banged through a quick shower before heading to may office, where the rest of my day was consumed by meetings. Mind you, I'd been up since 8 AM (eastern) the prior day! We'd spent all of Wednesday trying to solve a plumbing issue, and by the time we got done after midnight, there was only time to turn around and pack quickly before leaving for the airport just after 2 AM to make a 6 AM flight. (Philadelphia is 2 hours from my mom's house and we still had to return our rental.)

On Friday, I had another full day of work (passed my second review successfully on my major project - yay!!!) and then came home to change before heading back out to see the Philadelphia Phillies play the Texas Rangers. Yep - went by myself. I suspect no one would actually enjoy my company while I'm rooting on the Phils. They lost - boo - but it was a great game.

Yesterday was swiftly filled with several shopping trips for gifts, household stuff, and computer stuff, and then stops at one friend's pool party and another friend's baby shower.

And that brings us to today!

So now you know where I've been the past 11 days - how about you? Anything exciting going on in the blogosphere? Are you frustrated with me, yet, that I haven't actually announced my much-hurrahed BIG NEWS?

Never fear. I have a couple posts to get done this afternoon that'll help pay the bills and then...yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true...I will have my BIG NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT up for first thing tomorrow morning. It's actually partially pre-written already!

Stay tuned...