Home, sweet home!

It feels great to be back at my apartment after "roughing it" in Vermont. I admit it. I'm a princess. I like a long soak in the tub, smelling sweet, clean clothes, my grand piano, canopy bed, all the creature comforts. I love the cabin in Vermont too, but it sure feels good to be in my own four walls after our adventures.

Here in Minnesota, like most everywhere, we're having a beastly, dangerous heat wave. It got to be 101 degrees yesterday. My little VW did a good job getting us where it had to get us, but primarily we're happy to be inside in the blissfully cool air conditioning. I wish I knew some people without A/C, so I could invite them over. I did see some elderly gentlemen lingering at their dinners yesterday when A.J., Andy, and I went to Perkins' restaurant. We were cute: A.J. and Andy dined in one room while I dined in another, working on my proofreading and thus giving the guys their privacy. It worked out well.

Our hard-working guys: A.J. and Tom, in a bit of a before-and-after shot from their construction project Wednesday at the cabin in Vermont. It wasn't quite done when I took the second photo, but wow, they got such a lot of work done, and they worked so hard. Thanks, guys!!!!! It is great to have walls and a real ceiling in there now. This is the smaller of our two bedrooms at the cabin. It's really looking better!

Just a beautiful day here in Burlington, Vermont. A.J. and I posed at the top of the parking ramp in town...can you see Lake Champlain behind me? and the towers of two big churches behind A.J.?

We took the mother-and-son self-portrait down by the tracks, by the waterfront, just before going in for a quick dinner of steamers. Yum!

I loved today. (And I did all of the "camp laundry" this morning, thus completing my self-appointed chores and allowing me the rest of the day to be on vacation.)

A few photos from yesterday's visit to the Goddard plots at the cemetery in Vermont. Joanna was my mom, and Mary and Marvin were my grandparents who raised me. A.J. never knew Nana Mary in person, but he grew up with stories about her and the beautiful portrait of her which is now hanging in my living room. A.J. and Grampa Marvin were very close, and now that my son is almost a grown man, I see a lot of Goddard traits in him.

We also put flowers at the graves of Marvin's parents, Grace and Anthony, and Marvin's brothers Phil and Glendon and their wives Dorothy and Ruth Loucile. The cemetery is in a hilly part of the town, with lots of trees.

A sunny Friday in Vermont.

A.J. and I went on a little road trip, leaving our cabin at about noon, fortified with lots of cold liquids and a donut each from the local bakery. We spent our day visiting antique shops (there are so many!), art galleries, the cemetery where our Goddard relatives are buried, and then we cooled off at this little stream, under a covered bridge, near Underhill. We'd packed two fishing rods and some gear, so A.J. climbed down the bank and did some fishing. He said the water felt really cool against his legs.

I stayed up on the bridge and enjoyed the shade. Got quite a lot of color today, even though I do everything I can to keep out of the sun.

Later, we had lunch at a delicious pizza parlor (pizza and a "hoagie"), and in the evening we heard a concert at the downtown Borders books in Burlington, then drove home just after dusk.

It was a good day. We are here for only five more nights. Cousins Laurie and Tom arrive on Sunday, can't wait!

Polly with her new stuffed animal!
She sleeps with it, and carries it in her mouth, and so far has been content not to chew it apart. She's very cute, don't you think? (A.J. won the stuffed animal and gave it to me, but I made the mistake of letting Polly "meet" it!)

One of my favorite sunsets of the year, Newport, Oregon. Isn't it beautiful?

Being a
blonde, for an hour or two, is great fun!






Last night, I was proofreading a novel set in Amish country, having a hard time staying with the project, easily distracted, and sleepy. I decided to spice up my night by trying on one of my blond wigs and dressing in a rather Las Vegas manner. It was fun and rejuvenated my evening! (This is what it's like, working at home, you have to be creative to keep yourself motivated.)

I think of my mom when I play dress-up like this. She also loved to change her hair color. Her version of my wig play was this: She would go to the drugstore and spend a long time perusing the color-in-a-box hair color products. She loved the names: "Sunny Blond," "Vanilla Mist," "Frosted Copper"...eventually she'd settle in on one, purchase it, and then spend a week or so anticipating the fun of changing her hair color.

My favorite Mom memory in this vein is from when I was in high school. When I left in the morning one regular schoolday, my lovely, hip mom had frosted brown/blond hair. When I returned at 3:30, just in time for "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" (our favorite show!)? She had jet black, "Eskimo black" hair!

Bless her heart. She was an adventuress, and I'm my mother's daughter through and through.

Good night! Sleep tight!

(I love these flowers, and I love going to bed early after a good day. Don't you?)

Cindy and Phil ready to head further north...
and me and Cindy, "Bosom Buddies," saying 'bye for now...


Cindy and Phil brought their laundry to my place. I convinced Cyn to try on some of my wigs. We both think she looks very "I Love Lucy" 1950s in the auburn shag. Cute, huh?

Happy 4th of July from the KOA Campground in Rogers, Minnesota!

My dear friends Cindy and Phil and their dog Marcy have been traversing the country for almost a year in a "fifth wheel" vehicle and a truck, and they've finally stopped in Minnesota. We had a great day.

Tomorrow they'll get to see where I live, and we'll introduce our two dogs to each other. Cindy and I will play piano and flute together, shop a bit, and we'll all have dinner. I hope to give them a mini-tour on Thursday which will cover the Sculpture Garden, Mary Tyler Moore house, Uptown, Lakewood Cemetery, and "the Lakes".

I love having them here. They'll be home in Vermont in another couple of weeks.

Hope you are all well and safe tonight.

I can tell you now about my very impulsive act this week. The blog a few days ago posed the question, and I promised to share my answer once I was ready.

Earlier this week, I succumbed to impulse and made myself reservations to fly to Monterey this Sunday through Wednesday for a spontaneous trip and visit to my friend J. We'd been having a difficult time communicating long-distance and I thought, what better way to solve this than to be face-to-face?

It ended up exploding in my face, this impulsive act, because when presented with the prospect of me in his quadrant, he was not pleased and asked me not to do it.

I was able to cancel everything and instead we two have attempted to resolve our problems in less impulsive ways.

I'm a Virgo, and everyone knows that Virgos are born planning. We are just not very spontaneous creatures. So this was radical for me, and I think it was even what you would call "out of character"...but I did it. Of course, I didn't follow it through, but I did it!

I'm still waiting to hear some of your more impulsive acts.