Tuesday, June 28, 2005

More "working" vacation

I'm here in Redwood City at my son's home. Danielle left for Hawaii this morning, and Robert returns from a business trip to the Dallas area, and he'll need to go to work the rest of the week. So I'll be here for Simone. She is enrolled in a sports day-camp at the local athletic club, and they swim and play different sports each day. She just loves it, but she's also pretty much exhausted by the time the day is over. I know she likes to stay after the day-camp itself, so I'll go and pick her up about 4 pm or so. The athletic club is near a shopping center, too, so if I need to pick up any items, that's easy to work in!

I think this afternoon we'll head over to Barnes and Noble. I know she loves that store and so do I. I want to get a couple of other books by Tracy Chevalier. I just finished The Lady and the Unicorn, so now I'll see what other titles of hers I can find. I know she is the author of The Girl with the Pearl Earring. And we'll see what other books in the first level of I Can Read books we can find.

My folks are visiting with the Coffeys in San Jose. Yesterday, they just went out for some sightseeing and shopping and then got in a walk. That's some doing -- lots of hills over there! Today Uncle Robert was there for lunch and a good visit. Tomorrow they will be golfing. And then on Friday, Annette is having a family get-together at her house for lunch and a swim. I will have to go by myself since Robert will be at work and Simone's day camp is going on a field trip.

Fun times!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Different kind of "working vacation"

I know that's an oxymoron!

This vacation was spent doing mostly pleasant things, such as being with family, playing games (Mexican Train is such a hoot!) with grandkids, shopping, eating out, etc. It was also spent house-hunting ... and SUCCEEDING right off the bat!

http://www.gehanhomes.com -- The Oxford model in the Houston/Auburn Lakes area.

Then, of course, there was all the paper-filling-out for various reasons, lists of the types of further paperwork the mortgage company wants, the preliminary walk-through with the builder's rep, the home inspection by my realtor's guy, measuring windows, mulling over ideas for the back yard, how to furnish the different rooms, and on and on.

The biggest quandry in my head right now is exactly HOW to make this move. Calling Bekins and giving them a delivery date is not a problem. Figuring out how to get Indy moved is my current thought-toss ... back and forth ...

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Vacation!

On the day when I collected final essays and portfolios from my students (May 23), I had information for them so that if they wanted their work back, they'd know where and when to get it. I do this both for them and for me -- this forces me to get those things graded and semester grades computed and posted within a week! Gotta have those deadlines to live up to!

As always, though, there are some who just cannot make it -- work schedules or whatever -- so they can call either my voice mail or the college itself to see about arranging a return. I've already done that for two students and will for at least one more, once I return from this little vacation of mine!

This vacation is being spent house- and child-sitting for my daughter and her husband (very enjoyable!) and then house-hunting for myself. After having spent LOTS of time looking through realtor.com, har.com, leldawill.com, and others, I am ending up buying the very first one I looked at -- the top of my priority list, as far as I could tell from the Internet views (Oxford model in Auburn Lakes). Now for the rest of the paperwork and then orchestrating the move itself. It should be fairly straightforward since almost everything I own is in storage already anyway, but there are always those lovely little things such as arranging for utilities, insurance, yard care, etc. It'll all get done, but it'll take time and some juggling!