Desert Magnolia

Happy New Year! My how the time has flown. First there was the week from some conjured Hell aka finals week, and then we were gone...to the Yucatan, where we were greeted by sun, sand, quiet, lovely people, and time together as a family. We spent a week being bored, by design. Decisions were easy, and usually involved either what to wear, if it was time to reapply sunscreen, if snorkeling was next or would a nap really be more the ticket... In short, it was Heaven on Earth, and we were absolutely charmed by the experience. The food, fresh, delicious, Yucatan style. Fish, avocado, fruit..and pico de gallo, and habanero sauce to spice things up. Fresh squeezed orange juice every morning. Mmmm...lots of fresh corn tortillas, which were completely and totally habit forming and absolutely yummy. Drinks were also very good, and Enrique liked to pour a particularly potent margarita for his American guests. Ahem. His guests appreciated his work. I am not usually a marg lover, but pu...

Not that any of you wouldn't have noticed that it's Friday, but it is. So we have that going for us. We also have overcast skies with a good chance of showers throughout the day, which is awe.some. We totally need this moisture, and even though a big cloudburst will be bad for the garage sale that GG and his mom decide to have at our house, it's worth it.  And, they'll stay cool, which is a bonus. On deck for this weekend: Run a few errands. Tidy up the house. Laundry. Work out, ideally twice. GG's dad and his wife over for dinner Saturday night. GG's mom, and requisite sisterinlaw and her fam, over for dinner on Sunday to celebrate mominlaw's bday. (But we're not sure that's going to happen yet due to a possible dance competition that will take two or more of sisinlaw's fam out of town. Not sure when we'll know for sure...) Dust off my manuscript, read it, then begin the finish. Which could take awhile, but I'm d...

So sisinlaw and fam are away at a dance competition, and we're watching their house. Which means we're swimming in their pool. Because they have no plants or animals. But they have a pool. Last night we headed over after work, sunscreen, towels, suits, picnic dinner, beer and wine (with plastic cups of course-glass by a pool is dangerous, after all), and the expectation that we'd enjoy a couple of  hours of sun, swimming, relaxation. But on our way over we noticed a darkening sky to the west, then to the east. Which made us comment that if those two cloud formations hooked up we'd be in trouble. They hooked up. And there was a scary, swirly cloud happening that actually triggered tornado sirens across the city. We ended up with a 45-minute gully washer that finally cleansed the air and cooled the very hot, very dry earth. The good news is hubby had just put on his life jacket, but we hadn't yet dropped the kayak into the pool so we could practice wet evacs. ...