Home Stretch

It's amazing how one can really take the simple things in life for granted - like toilets or a sink. For example, for the last few weeks I've been working at our St Pete house in my home office while the contractors hammered, cut, grouted, drilled, and trimmed out just below me. While this hasn't been the best thing in the world, it has made things go a little faster when I am there to answer questions. It has been difficult, particularly when we've had no bathrooms, running water, or a kitchen. So I have to take a packed lunch everyday, bring enough water to drink, and use a porta potty (or hold it). I've seen our tile floors, cabinets, shower enclosure, counter tops, trim, and finally watched our toilets, sinks, and appliances go in. I about threw a parade when I could use a real toilet again! We're so close to done, but now we're waiting for a few things to finish in the kitchen and we had a hold up from the flooring folks which are working on refinishing the back half of the house now.

I have also come to really love my attic office - bright natural light, fun colors, and a bamboo shrouded window for a view. I can't wait for the cats to see it - I can imagine them creeping up the spiral stair case and peering over the edge to watch me work. They are a vital part of my work day and they help keep the stress level down, so it's been kind of a bummer not having them around for the past few weeks.

We're missing our Halloween move-in deadline, which stinks, but we should be in next weekend for sure. We are chomping at the bit to do so. This weekend we're hoping to meet our neighbors during a neighborhood block party and do some final shopping at IKEA for our closet system and storage.

So close... yet so far away!

Michigan

We headed to Michigan in mid-October to attend Jason and Rachel's wedding outside of Battle Creek, Michigan. It was the perfect time of year to go - the weather was refreshingly cool and the leaves were turning beautiful shades of red, gold, and glowing orange.

We flew into Detroit on Friday and rented a car to drive across the state to Marshall, MI where we were staying. It was a beautiful and uneventful 1.5 hour drive. Once we dropped our stuff in the hotel we headed into historic downtown Marshall for an early dinner because I was starving. We found a little "Mexican" place - but tellingly, there was not a single person of Mexican descent in the restaurant and there was gravy on the menu. Yeeeeaaah. So we ordered our food with a side of gravy, because "when in Rome"... right? Out came a giant steaming plate with some excellent guacamole, soupy beans, and tortillas fried and buttered. The gravy was brown and reminiscent of Thanksgiving, but it was spicy so it made for the most alluring combination. Wade folded in the towel early, but after practically licking my plate clean, I finally thought I'd have to be rolled out of there. It was definitely not Mexican food, but it was greasy and good and we're certain we have enough fat to survive the winter now. :) That night we met up with Jason and Rach for a drink after their rehearsal dinner. It was great to be able to steal a little one on one time with them, and hear that despite the fact they've been together 13 years, they were feeling wedding jitters, but in a good way.

On Saturday morning, Wade and I relished in something we hadn't done in months - we slept in, lounged in bed, and watched cooking shows on Food Network. It was lazy and it was glorious. We finally drug ourselves out of bed to wander downtown Marshall some more and we explored our first antique shops. Now that we're the owners of an antique house, we have a new appreciation for old things. It was like treasuring hunting as we picked through rooms and stacks of kitchen goods, decorations, and books. We found a few small things, then went to have lunch at a local diner. This time we discovered the beauty of grilled homemade cinnamon rolls (to die for!), and Wade discovered that in Michigan they use bacon as a garnish instead of parsley. Haha. After another greasy feast we headed back to clean up for the wedding.

The wedding was at an herb farm in the countryside - the trees were glowing in fall colors and the flowers were blooming in the chilly air. The ceremony location was in a beautiful little cove of flowers and trees under the shining sun and bright blue sky. The wedding began and I got one shot of Jason before... my camera promptly died and refused to take more pictures. (You are dead to me camera, dead!)

So I am embarrassingly short on a visual way to describe how dapper Jason looked and how radiant Rachel was. (You may remember that earlier this year Rach came to Sarasota to look for a dress and we found the perfect one for her) Rachel was glowing as she came down the aisle and when Wade whispered "Wow, you're right, she looks incredible in that dress" I started to cry. Don't know why, but I did - when did I become a wedding crier?! (Oh right, Marilyn's wedding in July.) It's been so much fun getting to know Jason and Rachel over the last 6 years and to see them finally get married was just wonderful. The ceremony went off without a hitch, the pastor gave a lovely sermon about how choosing to get married after 13 years of being together really says something about the institution of marriage and how love means continuing to say "yes". After the bride and groom sealed it with a kiss, we flowed into the reception area for drinks (including a fabulous hot toddy - did I mention it was cold out?!) and we got to talk to the pastor and meet more of Jason and Rachel's family. Before the reception I slipped into the back room to help Rach change out of her veil and put in the mother of pearl flower I wore at our wedding. The flower looked absolutely perfect in her hair amidst the garden setting and it was so special to be able to share it with her.

The bride and groom kicked off the reception by pulling out the stops on the dance floor to put on a show for the guests with a dance filled with dips and twists. We shared laughs with some of their friends from college and by the end of the night found ourselves swapping stories about the happy couple with their families. Everyone we met was warm and friendly and by the end of the evening we felt like family.

The next morning we headed to the inn the bride and groom were staying at for a farm fresh brunch. We were greeted by teeny weeny fuzzy kittens that made my heart melt. They had that general effect on everyone as we proceeded to pass them around and snuggle them. Breakfast was hearty and we enjoyed the cool air (with a sweater and thinking I should have worn a scarf) while we met more of the other guests and talked to the bride and groom. We eventually said good bye and headed back into town to see a few more shops and have lunch before heading back to Detroit. We arrived early, had some bad airport food and killed time until our flight. We finally made it home very late on Sunday night, and were greeted by the kids at the door. They clearly had a pampered weekend at home with their grandparents - which always makes it easier to travel knowing the kids are in good hands.

Congratulations Jason and Rachel! :)

Progress

So things are moving along, but given my travels in October, we actually had to throw in the towel and... hire the painters to finish the house. We had to wave the white flag of surrender when the plaster walls took two days longer to cure than they were supposed to leaving us no time to paint before I left for TX. And we needed to paint to get the rest of the work in the kitchen and bathrooms moving. In our defense, we did paint the den, dining room, fence, attic (walls and floor), guest bathroom, and we primed the master closet, laundry, and bathroom. But we didn't even touch our bedroom, breakfast nook, or kitchen. It was humiliating, but our contractors handled it with grace when they could see we were beaten, and nicely asked "Would you like me to call the painter?". "Uh, hell yes please" was our response. We were spent. So much for thinking we were handy enough to paint. Sigh. Check out our progress so far here on our Picasa site (the bottom half are the newer pictures).

We have also tried to mix in some fun and right after I returned from TX we went to St. Pete Oktoberfest with some friends for beer (cider for me) tasting. We went with Mark and Annette and eventually found Katie and Dustin too. We had fun drifting between the beer tasting tables with me getting extra cups for everyone, then everyone returning the favor for me when we got to the cider booth. :) At the end of the night we were pretty pooped and headed back to our house to grab the kids (we'd spent all day in town so we brought everyone - the cats freaked out but enjoyed burrowing in the boxes). We were tired, it was late, and we thought we were going to have softball practice the next day... and a thought occurred to us. Let's camp out in the house! So we did - we got out our camping gear and set up the dining room as our campsite (below Marley is checking to see if the bed meets his standards):

So it wasn't the best sleep we've ever had - 2am pee run to the porta potty (ick!) and cats stomping all over us. But, it was technically our first night in our house and it was really fun. :) Camping in the air conditioning is pretty sweet actually.

The next morning we high tailed it back to Anna Maria to prep the house for Mom and Larry's return from NC. We moved back into the guest bedroom and they moved back in. So we're a full house now, but the kids love having the extra attention, and it's made it a lot easier for us to leave the kids at home all day - especially while Carmel is undergoing chemotherapy. And it's always nice to have happy, supportive, loving people around - we need that right now as the house renovations are entering a brutal period of big decisions and flying by the seat of our pants on what is going to look good - cabinets for instance, what the heck do we know about cabinets!? But now we have live in moral support, so that's nice. :)

Galveston, TX

The first weekend of October we broke ground on the house - we put in a new fence and sidewalk which really gave Miss Magnolia a nice face lift. They both turned out beautifully thanks to our contractors so we were incredibly relieved and the house looks so much better. (Thanks to Katie and Dustin for being good sports and helping us paint said fence!)

After that weekend I packed up and headed to Galveston, TX for a work retreat. My co-worker, Michelle, and I flew together, so it was nice to have some company. It had been a while since we'd seen each other (now that we're working from home and not sharing an office anymore) that we also roomed together at the retreat. We had a lot of fun, but admittedly, as Florida beach snobs, we had a hard time getting into enjoying a retreat at a beachside location. After all, we had left warm, clear turquoise waters, glorious sunsets, and sugar white sand beaches. We had been warned by Wade that Galveston would not be what we expected of a Gulf beach (he was there in June for a meeting)... and he was right.

Exhibit A: When we got up early every morning for our work meetings, this was the sight in the distance:

Yes, that's right - those black spots are DOZENS of oil tankers just barely offshore waiting to get into the port of Houston. Um... yeah. We're used to flocks of pelicans and seagulls, not this view. If you look closely, you'll see about 14 tankers, and this was a zoomed in shot - we actually could see almost 50 in the distance - apparently there was a hold up in the port channel, but still, this was pretty shocking.

Exhibit B: When we all went to dinner on the last night at a waterfront seafood bar, this was the lovely sunset view of the water:

Yeah. That's an oil rig being worked on in the center - we were taking in the full view of a working port and it was again, pretty shocking. This definitely made Michelle and I grateful that Floridians have placed a higher value on the natural areas of the state as a basis for a tourism economy rather than letting our beautiful coast turn to this. The best way to describe Galveston was... industrial.

Enough of that, the meetings were good - it's always great to see friends. But, I have to admit, usually I'm a bit... dare I say.... bored at these meetings. The simplest way to explain - I LOVE seeing everyone and hearing what they're up to and getting to know my coworkers better, what I don't love is being the ONE person NOT working on the same subject as everyone else. And no, I am not exaggerating. All 49 of my coworkers focus on fisheries (recreational and commercial) and all contribute to a larger overarching goal. I work on creating standards for the trade in coral reef wildlife. This means lots and lots and lots... and lots of meetings where I listen to lots of presentations and discussions that don't really help me advance the thinking on my work. It gets old, but I like my co workers, so I keep myself going by waiting for the social parts. :) However, this time was a shade different - I was asked to talk for 10 minutes to tell a story about what I do - to 60 people including our VP. This... shall we say, had me crapping my pants. Where to start with a group of people who really don't have a fricken clue what I do (expect my closest coworkers of course)? So I went through a few versions of the story and practiced about a dozen times before giving it - it was pure story telling, no pictures or presentation, which is difficult, nowadays people expect something, but I was to go au natural. I told the story of a big meeting I lead for my work back in August with a senior staffer (ie decision maker) of the most powerful member of the U.S. Senate. I mixed in some humor and during the course of the story was actually able to teach people about my program. And... I got rave reviews. People listened and they actually came up afterwards to tell me they wanted to learn more and were excited about what I do, which was pretty exciting.

It was a quick trip, and I was happy to be home, but it felt a little more satisfying this time around to, even for a little bit, be swimming with the school, so to speak.