Another post? Already?

Ah-ha! A new update in less than a month! Will wonders never cease?

Brian’s brother James, his wife Alison and their 6 month old daughter Natasha came to visit for a week this past month. It was a busy visit, and life is interesting with a 6 month old. We got to look after Natasha while mom and dad went to the U2 concert in the city. She was a perfect angel on the train, even going to sleep for about the last half hour of the ride. Which was wonderful… until she woke up and realized that neither mom nor dad were there. Who are these strange people holding me? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa. But we survived and James and Alison had a great time at the concert. I know James has some photos up on his gallery , so you can check there. I love the one of Natasha in the back of the cab. Her face shows such personality. Brian’s family has been doing a lot of traveling. While James and Alison were here we got an email from Elizabeth and Morley that they’d made it home safely from Florida, and several emails from Brian’s mom who was on a trip to China. Sounds like she had a wonderful time and I’m sure we’ll see the photos next time we’re home.

The only travel plans for us are this August when we’ve rented a cottage in upstate New York (near Lake Placid) for a week. Becky is coming down to join us and I can’t wait. We have nothing specific planned but plan to do some hiking and canoeing and mostly just relaxing. Her life is even more stressful and busy than mine, so we all need it.

We’ve spent a lot of the time since J&A&N's visit recuperating. Between us we’ve had 5 virii and vertigo, so life has been interesting. I’m not allowed to drive on the highway because of the vertigo, so getting to the lab in Inwood (where I’ve been working a lot lately) has involved either a 2 hour train trip each way or Brian driving me. We’ve mostly been splitting it up and I’ll take the train in the morning and Brian’ll come pick me up at the end of the day, but with summer hours, it’s been making for VERY long days. I’m finding it very hard to fit the time in to do any exercise, and with the vertigo, I’m severely restricted in what I’m allowed to do, but I’m making it. Weigh-in is tonight, so we’ll see how I’m doing…

Speaking of summer hours, last Friday (June 3rd) was my first Friday off of the summer and I enjoyed it very much. We didn’t do anything energetic, just chores, necessary shopping and relaxing. We both could use some quiet time, so we’re making sure to take it. On Saturday we hosted gaming (as usual) and my table in the second slot ran long. No surprise as Derick was running the mod with no preparation, but I really realized how drained I am when I was getting tired and cranky and just wanted it to be done by 11pm. That used to be bedtime on a normal night! Now, however, with being on the train at 6:30, bedtime is getting much earlier. When I can. Sunday we took a simple quiet day to spend at home. We watched some DVD’s (thanks Paul, Farscape does rock!), caught up on some recorded TV and just generally lazed around. I did a lot of work on my stitching project (Noah’s sub) and you can see the update here . I don’t expect to have too many days I can simply devote to things like that so I make the most of them when I can. I also got several of my plants out into my ‘garden’ on the balcony. The tomatoes, Four O’Clocks (flowers) and catnip all made it outside into their final planters. My sweet peas have gone nuts! They’re taller than I am and are just starting to flower as of yesterday. I took a photo because I just couldn’t believe how tall they’re getting. For reference, the planters they are in are 2 feet wide… I’m hoping for a bumper crop, few things are as tasty as fresh peas from the garden. The heat yesterday was phenomenal. We’ve had highs in the low-mid 60’s for a couple of weeks now and then yesterday we shot up to 85! Phew! I’d planned to do a lot more in the garden, but it was just too hot in the direct sun and I was worried the plants wouldn’t handle it well, so I waited until twilight. It was still in the mid-high 70’s, but much more bearable. I don’t mind the hot days that much, but only when I’ve had a chance to get acclimated to them. Temperatures jumping 20 degrees make for a grumpy Heather. Thank heavens for air-conditioning!

Gotta run,
Heather