Summer 2013, Day 64; Vacation, Day 10

We returned to Chicago today. Lori and her sister hung out in the morning, while I worked and got us ready for the trip home. We left mid-afternoon, stopped in Madison for dinner, and made it back to Chicago by 9 p.m. The boys were excited to be back, and we played one game of Ticket to Ride and let them stay up late to finish.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A joyful dinner

It's been a rough week -- we're having problems with Eldest's preschool, something hopefully I'll address in another post -- but we had a nice dinner tonight at Chili's, of all places. I want to relate two things that made it joyful: -- Eldest didn't eat a lot, but after two really antsy minutes, he settled down and was good the rest of the meal. I brought a train for him to play with, Salty (from Thomas the Tank Engine), who has a Scottish accent. I tried imitating the voice for him, but it sounded like the old sea captain on The Simpsons instead. After my bad impression, Eldest, as he played with the train, mimicked my bad Scottish accent, making his voice so gruff he had to cough a couple times. -- Littlest ate almost a whole plate of macaroni and cheese. I don't know where the skinny guy puts it. He tried to use his spoon, too, and did a good job with it for an 18-month-old. No complaints, no fussing, he just sat there and ate, and ate. As I said, it was...
Read more

The sabbatical sequel

Image
I'm lucky to work for a company that offers a one-month paid sabbatical for every five years of service. I hit my 10th anniversary in January, so I was eligible for another sabbatical ... and I didn't waste time in taking it. I went off the clock nearly five weeks ago (I got a few extra days thanks to a weekend and a couple vacation days I tacked on) and have tried hard to not think about work and, instead, concentrate on relaxing, recharging, and refocusing. I wasn't totally successful in not thinking about work, but I still would say, mission accomplished. The month didn't go as quickly as I feared it would. I'm not in a rush to resume work again in the morning, but it wasn't a blink-and-miss-it sabbatical. I'm not at the end here thinking, "What did I do the last month?" With the first Joe-batical, I got to a point in which I seemed just a little meandering . I got some stuff done around the house and some writing, but there were too many days t...
Read more

Summer 2017: Day 75, Vacation Day 7

Two days, two weddings. The boys stayed with Lori's parents at the hotel in Franklin, and we stayed again with Sara in Milwaukee. Sara, who rarely gets to cook for people, was ecstatic to make us breakfast. I walked to the nearby Pick 'n' Save -- the one that opened in 1994 when Lori and I were living on the east side -- to buy ingredients for homemade egg muffins. They were delicious and a good way to start the day that was bound to get busier. Mike's wedding was in Lake Villa, Ill., about 45 minutes from Milwaukee. The weather couldn't be better today after the chilly wedding Friday. The location was nice, and the sun was shining for the ceremony. I got to see all my high school friends for the first time since Tom's funeral last year, and we toasted to his memory before the pre-wedding responsibilities began. Mike kept entrusting me to mix him Jim Beam and lemonades, and I was concerned I wasn't making them strong enough. We took pictures and helped w...
Read more