Chicken Blog

For the record: We've been out of town since last week. It was a working vacation, with the added challenge of going some place "new," and relaxing. (insert amused snicker.)

We are back, and we had fun, and Geoff did show up at the *summit,* and we did new things and we were in new places. Relaxing? Hmmm... a bit? Maybe not so relaxing, but that's asking a lot when traveling in an RV with four children. I missed blogging. I missed being able to record impressions, feelings, deep thoughts and other musings, and God help me, I have obviously become too lazy and dense to pick up a pencil and paper! So, now my head is swirling with half baked ideas and snippets and other brilliant reflections that I wanted to record for all time, but the insurmountable task of sorting it all, getting the kids to school, unpacking our conestoga wagon, doing huge loads of vile vacation laundry and trying to retrieve 1,000 photographs from the ailing computer... wait, what was my point... oh yes: I am in over my head.

For now, I will say: We LOVED seeing Dominic, Alison and Bill, and we LOVED being weekend water sports enthusiasts. We tube, therefore we are cool. We loved hiking in Big Trees State Park. Alex and I loved making a quick dash in to Gayle's Bakery, where we made off with the last olallieberry turnover. Mmmmm Gayle's. We loved waking up in the misty Monterey morning. I loved finding new subjects to point my camera at, which is why I ran out of memory... I can't wait for Geoff to figure out how to transfer the files, so I can start playing and sharing.

Okay. I got the kids to school, late, but fed. 2 points for me. Max did a lot of school work on the trip, but he is still tormented by what he missed. -3 points for me. Alex made it in time for the yearbook class photo. 2 points for me. He also suffered anxiety about what he missed and also expressed mild contempt for having to go back to school. -3 points for me. Tomorrow is some huge school Mother's Day extravaganza. 3 points for me, because I have never had the honor of a school/mom extravaganza. The boys are not enthused about the fanfare and orchestrated PDAs. -3 points for me. I had to promise Max that he would only have to move his lips during the singing part, and I would whisk him away when the time came for him to leave the stage, find me and dance with me in front of the entire school. We are shy people.

I have not forgotten my contest plans, and I see I have new messages from willing participants (?) I need to decide on a prize. Something decadent, yet classy, but not too classy, just sort of worthy of your interest and kind of whimsical, because I like whimsy. OKay, so get ready... this is going to be good.

I added a new link in my sidebar: Cream Puffs in Venice is Yummy. Seriously, even if I can't eat, or cook, like this, at least I can savor the images and words. So, if you think food and cooking can be art, poetry, and love, then buon appetito!