Yes, I fell off the blog map for a while there. At the risk of sounding redundant because I've apologized for it multiple times over the last few years, I'm sorry. One of my goals for 2016 is to blog more. Another goal is to finally set up a real newsletter. But I digress. Happy New Year a day late. And since I didn't do my usual look back on New Year's Eve, I'll lump that in here, too. My goal for the last two years has been to find balance. Hey, it's a work in progress. I'll give myself a solid C+ and try to do better. Another goal for 2015 involved travel. I definitely fulfilled that one. I went to Williamsburg VA with Hubby (strictly vacation, no work) in March, Bethesda, MD in April/May, New Jersey in August, Colorado and New Mexico in September, and Raleigh NC and Nashville TN in October. And that's not counting the numerous Pennsylvania road trips I took. I loved every second of it. Except maybe the four-hour flight delay getting out of Ra...

Perhaps you can tell how good a vacation was by how often you had time to blog about it. In that case, I had a VERY good vacation. And I did. However, the fact of the matter is I was too busy to post because we were walking our feet off. Almost literally. We stayed at one of the Colonial Williamsburg hotels and chose to walk the measly few blocks to reach the historic district rather than drive. There’s a bus that loops around the town, but we didn’t choose to take it until it was too late. I had done something bad to my right foot and could barely hobble. (We won’t discuss how that gave me a really good excuse to buy four pairs of comfy shoes at the Easy Spirit Outlet Store.) Lame or not, I had a wonderful time. And took tons of pictures. The weather for the first half of our vacation was gorgeous. On our last day at Williamsburg, the skies turned gray and a light drizzle fell. It felt wonderful after the previous day’s ninety degrees and humid. We took the tours and enjoyed the sight...

There is a strange phenomenon that happens prior to a vacation. No, I’m not talking about my previously mentioned bout of homesickness before I even get out the door. I’m talking about the sudden push to totally exhaust myself with tasks that absolutely, positively MUST be completed before anyone gets to go anywhere. The house must be cleaned. Why? I haven’t a clue. My excuse is that hubby is going camping this weekend, which makes it the perfect opportunity to tidy things up and have them stay that way for more than ten minutes. But in fact, I always think I need to leave a clean house when I go away. Perhaps I mistakenly believe it will still be clean when I get home. Somehow, while this sounds good, it rarely happens. Skye continues to shed. The spiders continue to work on their condominiums in all the corners of the house. Dust bunnies continue to grow at an ungodly rate. Plus, when we come home, we’re going to dump suitcases and dirty laundry in the middle of the floor, so why bot...

Six days until we leave for Williamburg. I am soooo looking forward to this vacation. For me getting away usually comes in one of two forms: camping which includes the uncomfortable bed in our tag-along trailer and cooking and washing dishes. OR a hotel at some sort of writing or yoga event. Nice, but a working vacation is still work. So the idea of staying in a hotel, eating out, and just having fun has a lot of appeal at the moment. I know myself too well, though. I know that by this weekend I’ll be dealing with homesickness. I’ve written about that phenomenon here before: I get homesick BEFORE I leave home. Not so much WHILE I’m gone. But I dread leaving my kitty. When we had Sammie, I knew all about her separation anxiety and I suffered from it, too. Now I have Skye who came to me from a shelter after being abandoned and who has bonded to me as if with Superglue. I suspect she’s going to be traumatized by my absence. Never mind that I have arranged for my friend, Sara, to come and ...

My mom is holding her own at home. No more fainting spells. She just feels weak and tired and having a nasty head cold doesn’t help. I’m not sure if it was more an act of optimism or an act of desperation, but I started thinking seriously about a vacation this weekend. I’ve been whining that I’ve needed one for months now. It just didn’t appear to be in the cards. AGAIN. But then hubby reminded me that we have a week off in May and asked me what we were going to do with it. The brain shifted into dream mode. IF I could get away, where would I go? Tahiti comes to mind, but it’s really more fun to fantasize about things that might actually come to fruition. I thought, of course, about Presque Isle in Erie. I love Presque Isle, but in early May the weather could be questionable. I want to go south in the spring. North is for the summer when it’s a sauna around here. So I thought about Gettysburg. But that isn’t much further south than we already are. East, yes. South, not so much. Next, D...