In Full Swing

Vacation countdown is now in the single-digits: 9 days until Vegas! I'll really have to hunker down one day this week and take inventory of what travel necessities we have, and what I'll need to run out and get. Don't even ask about packing...sigh. But I'm so ready to get away. It feels like Disney was so long ago already (in fact, on this date 8 months ago, we were in the Magic Kingdom! Crazy!).

I'll be home tomorrow, but it won't be for vacation--Hubby is having his wisdom teeth removed. It doesn't sound like a picnic, and I've never had it done, but I'm sure it's much better now than if he had it done even 10 years ago. He'll be home from work for a few days, but should be back in action by week's end. Which is good because we have fun weekend plans and then vacation! Gotta get those chompers ready!

Despite the heat wave, it has been an extraordinarily productive weekend! Yesterday we went to the Adventure Aquarium for the first time since their New Year's Eve gala, and they done so many improvements! They basically redid the whole upstairs section that previously housed the "Weird or Wonderful" section (where the piranhas were) and the tropical section by the alligator and pretty useless area that was good for family photos and little else. In addition to that, a few other permanent exhibits got refurbished, that big old crocodile (Mike) was given the heave-ho in favor of bringing back the former exhibit with lookdowns and ducks and all, but with the addition of some baby nurse sharks, and (to my utter delight!) a baby bonnethead! The main attraction, however, was Sharkfest 2012, with the star attraction being lots of facts and artifacts of megaladon. It again made use of a normally void area, the rotunda, where a life-size "bone structure" of a megaladon was set up and filled with fossils and pictures and other cool stuff. For pictures of this, take a look at my Facebook--in the "2012" album. Lots of goodies there.

Back at home, I had finally hung our two 11X14 wedding prints in nice frames we got from Kohl's. Yes, please enjoy the AARP commercial on the TV--I was too lazy to grab the remote and shut it off. Below, also enjoy the gallery wall I created in our hallway using more wedding photos and a mish-mosh of frames. Also, the big frame that looks empty is actually a document with my favorite conversation from When Harry Met Sally, which my mom typed up and framed for me.

This morning we set up the new printer we bought in anticipation of having to print boarding passes before any local facility (library) would be open, and also we simply needed one. Our previous model had gone on the fritz and refused to print in color long before the wedding, and then Hammy knocked it over and broke it. So we've been without a home printer for over a year. Now we have a nice little model that runs off the wireless so we didn't even have to tether it to John's desktop, and we were able to place it somewhere Hammy can't really send it to the floor.

We spent the very last of our wedding gift cards at Bed, Bath, and Beyond today and got a nice set of 16 "grown up" drinking glasses. Now we've chucked most of our old plastic cups in favor of the pretty new set. We've saved some plastics, of course, for when we're too lazy to handle breakable pieces, but it'll be nice t have guests and set out simple, elegant, and (matching!) drinkware. But how will we know whose is whose, you ask? My friend gave me these funny little suction cup glass markers a while ago, but now we can really get some use out of  them! One set are little monster-type guys, and the other set are little birdies (you can see the boxes in the pic, but didn't think to put them on the glasses in the pics).

Lastly, since I had to make room for all the new glasses, I took the opportunity to gut the kitchen cabinets and clean and re-organize them. I wound up flip-flopping the contents of so the new glasses can be housed together and without fear of getting knocked into/over by other shelf inhabitants. In doing so, I no longer had a use for the shelf divider in either of the two flip-flopped cabinets. But that inspired me further...much like beneath the sink, my spice cabinet has been in desperate life-saving need of a makeover since...well, since we moved in, dang it. So, voila! The shelf divider finally corralled the bottles of spices, etc., that had taken to falling out on my head every time I needed to grab one. Ahhhh.

I figure just when I get this place all organized and perfect, we'll buy a house and I'll have to start all over again. But with that comes the dream of having actual storage space and less need to do the ridiculous things you have to do while living in a small-but-charming (but still small) apartment.

And so, until next time...